It all began in a little diner known as Moe’s Cafe. The place had not been very successful over the years.
Two young adults, around their mid 20’s are sitting at a table. The food on their plates have gone almost untouched. The plain egg omelettes had turned cold and hard. Coke-a-Cola bottles littered the table like drunks at a bar. These two friends found themselves in another stupid argument. An argument that could put their entire friendship at risk… again.

“Baloney!” Yelled Craig.

“What?” responded the distraught and confused Eric.

“That’s completely ridiculous.”

“Oh right sorry, I’m so sorry that I have an opinion.”

“Well your opinion sucks.”

“You heard me. I prefer the prequels more. I thought they were an interesting take on the series. We got to see this whole new cast of characters and I for one thought they were more interesting.”

“Do you hear yourself right now?! What are you even saying?”

“Look I’m sorry I find the prequel characters more planned out then the normal team. I think that it’s better that the characters do other things than sit together in some junky spaceship acting like the damn space A-Team. Seriously, no one of that crew actually died. Han and Luke should have been shot like a hundred times during “A New Hope”. In the prequels, a normal member of the team is killed off and makes the story interesting. Like when Qui-Gon died.”

While this banter is going, an agitated man enters the eatery. As he walks through he glances at Craig and Eric. He looks at them with little care and proceeds forward.

“Okay, there is so much to pick apart from just that statement alone. BUT QUI GON?! Out of all of the characters you could have said and you chose Qui Gon! I would have still had more respect for you if you were to say when Padme died.”

“Hey! At least you get to see that Luke and Leia have an established mother. You know, something they DIDN’T put into the cheesy 80’s movies.”

“I swear, every time you open your mouth, you make me wan-”

Craig was interrupted from the sound of a gunshot. The sound banged through everyone’s ears. Craig and Eric jumped back in their chairs and looked in horror. The only people who weren’t affected by the gunshot louder than a booming speaker at a nightclub were the two (possibly unconscious) sleeping bums. The man at the bar was slumped over the bar counter, the back of his head now blown wide open. The man at the front door, bloodied nosed and steaming, collapsed to the floor with his smoking gun. Blanche at the bar then drops the glass of water, shards flying everywhere as she screams. Craig then shrieked in horror.

“Oh my god!”

“What the hell just happened!?” Cried Craig.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!” Screamed Eric.

Eric proceeded to jump through the window only half of his body making it through. He then scampered his legs over the wall and fell into the shards of glass below. Craig then later came through the front door, accompanied by another small chime. The two ran to Craig’s Honda, as they were getting into the car, 17 squad cars pulled up to the diner, all unloading four police officers each except for one squad car with only three. As Eric looked turned in his seat to look back at the catastrophe they just abandoned. He saw the diner engulfed in some form of black aura. The cops around them were sucked into a rift in space that had just consumed the diner. The land where the diner once stood now stands still. There is not one shred of proof that there was ever any form of life that walked on that patch of land. Eric’s face, a crumpled explosion of shock and horror. He couldn’t make heads or tails of what he had recently witnessed. Eric turned back in his seat to look at Craig. He then noticed that Craig, dressed in striped pajamas, had fallen asleep, a teddy bear clutched in his hand. Eric looked and realized that no one was driving the car anymore. In a blaze of fear, Eric grabbed the wheel and tried to keep the car going on the road. The car now exceeding the seven miles per hour speed limit almost 19 times over (about 133 mph).

Eric, still trying to maintain keeping the car on the road, noticed that the car began to veer off towards a 144 meter deep ravine. Eric, with all of his might tried and tried to hold on to the wheel, but alas, he couldn’t, considering his arm just snapped off like a piece of a sweet, sweet ,chocolate Kit Kat bar. The car, moving faster than the speed of sound flew right off the edge and into the ravine. Eric in a silent state of mind closed his eyes and accepted his imminent demise. Craig on the other hand was still drooling in his sleep. And in an instant…

            Nothing.

    I wake up from the shock of my dream. My heart is now pounding with adrenaline, my forehead, coated in sweat. I look to see that I am still in the diner. After that dream, Moe’s Cafe seems like paradise. This was up until I noticed that no one was in the diner. My best friend Craig, who sat across from me was now gone. There were no people in the diner, no food, no lights, just me. I get up to look out the window, the sky is pitch black, no moon nor sun. I look at my phone and see that it is about 5:00 a.m. The sky so dark, yet so bright in Moe’s shop, considering all of the lights in the shop were empty. Suddenly, a warm glowing light approaches, It’s so bright and beautiful. I drop to my knees when I see who come out of the light. My mother and father, two figures I haven’t seen since I was only four years old. My father, telling me how much he misses me, while my mother, with arms wide open awaits an embrace from me. As I look at them, my heart begins to burst with joy and wonder. As I get up to run to them, the light begins to dim. My parents, now astral images, spectres in the night, begin to flutter and fade away from my plane of existence. As I reach where my mother just stood, their image was gone. Now me, all alone in this diner, a pathetic wretch of existence. I begin to weep in a standing position. As I kick myself for thinking, just for once. to believe that I would find my parents, alive and well, waiting for me. Somewhere. In someplace.

The following takes place in Belleview Mental Rehabilitation Centre, in San Francisco, California. More specifically in the courtyard. It is a warm Summer’s day. The flowers in the garden are fresh and strong. The fountain is gently spewing water into the air, so calm and clean and pure. The small chirp from the two or three robins are the only sounds filling in the open air. Here we see a tall, messy haired man sitting on a bench, still as the Summer day. His eyes, un fidgeting, never blinking.

“Mr. Sanders?” yelled a man in a brown tweed coat.
   
    Eric, now awoken from his trance, blinks his eyes, and returns to the now true world. Away from all of his dreams and illusions.

    “Ah. I see that you have returned to the land of the living.” said Doctor Edmund Eliot.

    “I’m sorry sir, but I don’t know you. Where am I? Where’s Craig?”

    “You don’t remember do you?” Responded Eliot.

    Eric, now in a state of panic. Begins to worry, slight beads of sweat now slide down the temples of his head. Eric slight smile began to fade away. A stern look in his eyes begin to build up as he stares at Doctor Edmund.

    “This is some sort of joke isn’t it? Seriously where is he? Where is Craig?” Questioned Eric.

    Doctor Eliot fixed his glasses and took a slight breath.

    “Eric, do you know where we are?”

    “Not at all, the last place I remember being at was Moe’s Cafe with Craig”

“You’re in a safe place Eric. You have been living here since you were about Six or Seven. Your parents sent you here out of grief. You see when you were young, you and your brother Craig were playing home alone. You went into your parent’s room without them knowing. You two found a gun high up on your father’s dresser. High enough that he didn’t believe you could get to it. You two were crafty. You managed to knock the gun off of the dresser with some little trinkets in your father’s room. Once the gun fell down, you two began to play with it. Craig being the older brother took the gun and didn’t give you a turn. You, always being angry and upset when you two weren’t having fair turns with things, took the gun from him. It wasn’t easy, you two were hitting each other profusely, well, at least what we could tell from the records. You took the gun from him and shot him. You shot him straight through the right eye. When your parents found you two, they saw you talking to his body, pretending he was alive. Having arguments and what not, like brothers do. Like friends do. Your parents, stricken with grief, were advised to send you to this place. To try and help you. It hasn’t been easy. Every now and then you slip in and out of consciousness, to these catatonic states. Every time you come back, you forget about just about almost everything. We assume you keep thinking about Craig. You seem to try and try to work into your mind that you can bring him back. Somehow. I’m sorry, I’m so terribly sorry.”

Eric now in shock, looking around his environment, accepting where he has ended up in life.

“Come now Eric, let’s return you to your room. If you want later this week. If the nurses allow, I’ll take you to that little diner down the street.”