Escape from Endless Dreams

Barely Awake

Joy and his wife are talking to a doctor about his illness. He has a tumor in the stomach and needs to be immediately removed. He is worried as he does not have the money to pay for the surgery. They come out of the doctor's room fully worried.

"Don't worry about the money. Please sit down and wait for me. I will try to arrange the money for the surgery. Lets get you admitted." His wife tells him as she leaves. 

He is sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, with tears in his eyes. Not knowing what will happen to him. He had lost his job because of his frequent absence and low productivity at his work place due to his sickness and barely managing his finances. He had to have the surgery immediately at all cost.

There was a lot of noise in the waiting room as a family of another patient is informed about the current situation. They were asked to move to a different hospital for an emergency surgery. His family burst into tears and crying a loud. They scramble to get their patient transferred to another hospital.

In the chaos, one of the family member left an expensive leather bag in the waiting room. Joy sees the bag and thinks he might find some money in it. He decides to steal the bag and runs to the parking lot of the hospital. When he opens the bag he finds cash. Enough cash to help him get his surgery. 

He feels relived and tears of joy flow out of his eyes. Someone taps him on his shoulder. He turns back in shock. There is a man standing behind him with a surgical knife wearing a patient gown.

"Don't you feel all of this is like a dream? You wanted money and someone leaves a bag full of cash?". the man asks. "I am not kidding. You are dreaming and you have to wake up now" the man adds. 

"Go away leave me alone" Joy says as he runs away from the spot. The man is smiling at him and does not follow. He runs to the street and finds a cab. When he enters the cab, the same man is the cab driver. "I am not a ghost" He says.

Joy is shocked. He gets out of the cab immediately. The man is standing out of the car. "Alright time up." The man says as he stabs Joy with the surgical knife. 

"Help! Help! He is killing me" Joy says as he wakes up in shock. He is touching his stomach and there is a scar. He is in the hospital ward recovering from his surgery. His wife, Jaya was by his side. She comforts him.

"Did someone stab me?" Joy asked. "No you had your tumor removed. Your surgery was successful. You need to take rest. Calm down. I will go get the doctor". Jaya says in her shaky voice as she runs towards the doctor's room. Joy realized he woke up from a bad dream.

Mysterious man 

The doctor comes and checks his vitals, everything is OK. "Thank God you woke up! You have been unconscious for 10days. We removed your tumor and the surgery was mostly successful but, due to some minor complications you slipped into a temporary coma. You will have some trouble walking but, you will get back to normal soon with physiotherapy. Try to walk as much as possible. You should remain with us for at least a week." The doctor says.

Joy and Jaya thank the doctor. Jaya feeds him a good solid meal. She explains what happened to him when he was unconscious. 

"I had gone to get the money to get you admitted. I sold all our gold jewelry and arranged the money. By the time I got back, the doctor's saw you fainted in the waiting room. They had already started the surgery. I didn't know what to do when they said you were in coma. They couldn't tell when you will wake up. I went through hell for the last 10days" Jaya said.

They take a walk as Jaya helps him. Joy talks to her about his bad dream. "I don't remember anything from before and it didn't feel like 10 days to me. All I remember was, i was stealing someone's bag and found some money. The next thing I know is I was being chased by a man in a hospital gown. He stabed me with a surgical knife. That's when I woke up" he said.

"Weird but, thanks to him you wokeup. I don't know what I would have done if you where still dreaming." Jaya said. They return to the bed. She helps him to lie down. "OK take rest please. I am going home and I will see you in the morning" Jaya said as she leaves the hospital.

Late in the night he wakesup unable to sleep he starts walking within the ward. There are a few patients awake. He noticed a man deep in sleep his face looked familier. He walks closer to the man with his eyes wide open. He was the man who stabbed him in his dream.

Joy stayed by the man's bed. Curiously looking at him. He had not slept the whole night. He was wondering how a person who he never met in life before could appear in his dream and have such an impact.

A caretaker arrives. "May I help you" he says. Joy responds "I want to know who he is". Caretaker is curious now. "He is Dr. Pratham. He was a psychiatrist. He is in coma for the last 3years. May I know why you asked?" He questions. "I have never met him before but, I saw him in my dreams yesturday. He stabbed me with a knife and I woke up here. I was in coma for 10days."

Caretaker jumps in Joy. "Yes, you did it. You did it. You are a genius Boss. I knew it" he says as he hugs his friend on the bed. "Thank you Sir. You are surprised I know but, I can explain what happened to you. I am on top of the world right now"

Joy is surprised. He didn't expect that reaction. "I'm sorry, my name is Dr. Aditya. I am his assistant. We were working on an experimental treatment to help people wakeup from coma. He ended up going into a deep state of meditation in the process but, he never woke up." 

Rescue Mission

Aditya interviews Joy, Jaya and the doctors who treated Joy to find out what happened to him before, during and after the treatment. He also enquires about his financial state and situation with his job. He offers to pay all of Joy's hospital expenditure.

Aditya now had the money that was granted for the project and in the absence of Dr. Pratham, He now has the authority to continue his quest to complete the research. He finds a suitable patient in Joy. He is a deep sleeper and has already connected with Pratham at a subconscious level. 

"Coma, is a state of prolonged unconsciousness where a person can't respond to external stimuli. We assume that the person is constantly dreaming, alive and lost in their own world while they lay lifeless in real life. Our research focus on telepathy and advanced hypnosis to connect with the patient at a subconscious level, Literally by getting into the patient's dream state and wake them up by ending their dream." says Aditya explaining about their experimental treatment. "This hospital has an unusual number of patient's waking up from coma since Pratham has moved in. We know something part of our experiment is working but, no one who has woken up from dream remember anything in this detail you are describing and that make you a special candidate" adds Aditya.

He offers a substantial amount of money to Joy to participate in his experiment to wake Pratham out of come. A Rescue attempt that has never been attempted. Anything could happen in this attempt and he has to willingly sign a self declaration. Joy signs the agreement, "I am broke. I am doing this for money but, I also have the confidence in the research since I have seen him." says Joy to everyone in the room.

"Now, I will be putting you to a state of deep sleep through hypnosis. We can still talk with each other while you are there. All you have to do is to provide a shock. Do something to Pratham which he would not anticipate. Are you ready?" Says Aditya after explaining the whole process to Joy. Joy agrees to proceed.

They begin the process with hypnosis. Joy slowly slips into a state of deep sleep. He is already dreaming. He is sitting in the waiting room among the usual chatter. His phone rings. Aditya is calling. Joy answers the phone. "Hello!"

"Listen carefully, you are still in a deep sleep but, we can still talk through his call. You have to hide from Pratham. If he sees you he may recognize you and this whole rescue mission will be compromised. Stay on the call and go find him." Says Aditya

Joy goes looking for Pratham. He walk through the hospital corridors, the parking lot and the outside of the hospital. He can't find him anywhere. He suddenly hears a scream and runs towards that direction. He finds someone murdered in the men's toilet. 

"I see someone's been murdered. There is blood everywhere" says Joy. "Don't worry, that guy just woke up like you from coma. Its definitely him keep looking" Replied Aditya.

All of a sudden Pratham's heart beat starts slowing down in real life. Doctors and nurses come running towards his bed and start treating him. "Something is wrong with Pratham here. Did you find him?" Says Aditya as he starts to panic.

Joys follows a trail of bloody footsteps which goes into an ICU. He find Pratham, holding his hands to the chest. He seems to be struggling with pain in the chest and slowly falls to the sleep. "I found him, he was holding his hands on his chest and struggling. Now he is sleeping on the bed almost lifeless. " Says Joy. 

Pratham's heart has stopped in real life, CPR has not worked. Doctors start preparing the defibrillator to give him a shock treatment. Aditya seize the moment and instructs Joy to give a shock treatment to Pratham. They shock Pratham together at the same in both places. Pratham wakes up from shock in real life. 

Joy is still in his dream state. He still sees Pratham there. He is not moving. He has no reaction the shock treatment. "Pratham is not responding. Now what?" asked Joy while Aditya and Pratham are watching him talk in real life sitting on a chair. 

"I don't think the defibrillator is working. Keep it on your chest and see." Says Aditya. "This is crazy but, I trust you" says Joys as he slowly gets the probes near his chest. A sudden electric shock jolts him. He falls down the chair that he was sitting on in real life. He is awake and out of his deep sleep state. He sees Pratham is awake as well. 

"Did I just do it?" asks Joy completely surprised. "Yes my friend. You did it. You are the first person in the entire world who managed to wakeup a patient from coma and lived to tell the tale" responds Pratham. Everyone is the room burst into tears and applauds Joy. 

"Thank you for saving me" says Joy holding Pratham hands in gratitude. "No, Thank you for saving me. I may be the one who worked and did the research on this but, you believed in it while the rest of the world forgot me. For that alone, I am going to name this treatment after you. Joy's Rescue. This is the gift I want to give you for saving me." says Pratham.

The End.