The night stretched long and silent, but for once, Kai didn’t feel tired.
His body hummed with excitement, and his mind raced with possibility.
He had done it.
After all the struggle, after all the failures, he had finally cracked the code:
“The feeling is the key.”
He sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the flickering candle, a soft grin on his lips.
“I have something now. Something real.”
And that knowledge made it impossible to sit still.
“What if I can do it again? What if I can go where I want this time?”
Kai stood, moving to his closet, and sat down cross-legged before the candle.
The flame’s soft light reflected in his eyes as he took a slow, deep breath.
“Alright. Let’s go.”
Closing his eyes, he let the now-familiar pyramid form clearly in his mind.
His body grew lighter, the spiraling sensation taking hold, until he was floating free.
“I need the feeling… but not the memory.”
He reached inside, searching for that warm, bright feeling —
The happiness and love he felt when his mom surprised him with the gaming headset.
For a moment, it was hard to pull up without seeing her holding that box—
But Kai focused harder, not on the memory, but on how it made him feel.
The warmth.
The surprise.
The joy.
His lips pulled into a soft smile as the feeling filled his chest.
And then—
Woush.
The swirling colors and smoky space surrounded him again.
Soft blues and golds drifted around, the feeling anchoring him gently in that place.
Kai steadied himself, holding onto the emotion like a glowing ember in his chest.
“Okay… let’s go somewhere else.”
“Take me to when I met my friends at the station.”
The moment he formed that thought, the colors around him spun faster, and the world lurched forward.
Before he could blink, there he was—
Standing at the train station, sun bright overhead, the murmur of travelers and distant sounds of trains filling the air.
And there were his friends—standing just as they had that day, laughing, talking, waiting for him.
“Yo! Kai!” one of them called out, waving.
Kai’s heart swelled — the same warmth, the same joy.
“It worked.”
For a moment, he stood there, watching the scene play out exactly as he remembered.
His friends carried the same backpacks, the same casual clothes, the same smiles.
And in that moment, Kai felt completely at peace.
“So this is what it feels like… to choose where I want to go. To hold onto a feeling and let it guide me.”
When the emotion naturally began to fade, Kai let go—
Snap.
He was back in his closet, the candle flickering calmly before him.
Kai leaned back, heart pounding but filled with quiet excitement.
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“I did it. I held onto the feeling, and it took me exactly where I wanted to go.”
A slow smile formed on his lips as he thought about what had happened.
“So that’s how it works… the memory is the door, but the feeling is the key that unlocks it.”
“Or maybe… the memory is the car, and the feeling is what makes it move. Without the feeling, the memory just sits there. But with it… I can travel.”
His hands trembled slightly—not from fear, but from realization.
“If I can learn to control both… I can go anywhere.”
But as the candle’s flame flickered softly in front of him, a quiet thought crept in:
“If I can drive through any memory with the right feeling… what happens if I drive too far?”
Still, as he sat in the silence of his room, for now, the sense of discovery outweighed the fear.
“One step at a time.”
The night had gone on far longer than Kai realized.
Even as he lay in bed, thoughts racing, the glow of discovery still burned in his chest.
“If I can control this… where else can I go?”
But before he could get too far down that road, sleep finally claimed him, pulling him into a deep and dreamless rest.
By morning, the sunlight creeping through his curtains, Kai felt different.
Lighter. Stronger.
When he walked into school, the usual routine greeted him — Evan leaning on the lockers with that smug smirk, the other students watching and whispering.
“Hey, freak, still hanging out with the losers in theater?” Evan sneered, bumping into Kai’s shoulder as he passed.
Normally, those words would have hit like knives.
But today?
They bounced right off.
Kai didn’t even flinch.
“This is nothing to me now.”
He simply looked at Evan for a second, gave a small smile, and walked right past him.
The bully blinked, caught off guard by the lack of reaction.
Even though Kai didn’t need to go to theater class anymore to practice emotions, something pulled him there after school.
Maybe it was the way Lila had looked at him with quiet understanding.
Maybe it was Brandon’s easy grin.
Maybe it was just the feeling of belonging, even for a moment.
So instead of going home, Kai found himself standing in the doorway of the theater room again.
Inside, the others were already gathering — Brandon, Sam, Naomi, Leo, and Lila — talking and laughing as they prepared for practice.
Brandon spotted him first.
“Hey, look who’s back!” he called, waving Kai over.
“Thought we scared you off,” he added with a smirk.
Kai smirked back, stepping inside.
“Takes more than that to scare me,” he replied quietly but with a confidence he hadn’t felt before.
Sam smiled up at Kai shyly.
“Glad you came back,” she said softly, adjusting her notebook on her lap.
Naomi raised an eyebrow as she leaned against the stage.
“Guess you’re serious about this acting thing,” she said, but her voice wasn’t as sharp as before — more curious.
Leo, sitting nearby, glanced up with a smirk.
“Or maybe he’s just here for the company,” Leo said casually, shooting Kai a knowing look.
Kai shrugged, a small grin on his lips.
“Maybe both.”
As the teacher, Mr. Alder, arrived and started setting up, the group began gathering in a circle.
This time, Kai didn’t hesitate to sit down with them.
“So,” Brandon said, glancing at Kai with a grin. “You’re officially one of us now or what?”
Kai chuckled.
“Guess so.”
“Well, congrats,” Brandon said, throwing an arm around Kai’s shoulder in mock celebration. “Welcome to the land of weirdos.”
Everyone laughed, including Kai.
Lila, sitting across from him, gave him a warm smile.
“You fit in here more than you think,” she said gently, almost like a secret between them.
Kai felt something strange stir in his chest — something like peace.
“Thanks,” he said, holding her gaze for a moment longer than he meant to.
As Mr. Alder began to assign scenes for the day, Brandon leaned in, whispering to Kai:
“So, what made you come back, huh? Missing me already?”
Kai laughed under his breath.
“Something like that,” he said, glancing around the room. “It’s… nice here.”
Brandon grinned wide.
“Yeah. This is kinda the place where the broken toys go, you know? But it’s better than being out there.”
“Out there?” Kai asked.
Brandon waved a hand vaguely toward the hall.
“You know — the world. People who don’t get it.”
Kai nodded slowly, feeling the truth of those words.
“Yeah… I get that.”
As practice started, and Kai joined in, reading lines and laughing along with the others, he realized something important.
For the first time in a long time —
He wasn’t fighting to survive the day.
He wasn’t waiting for something bad to happen.
He was just… there.
Part of something.
And though his secret power still pulsed quietly inside him,
right now, what mattered more was this —
Friends. Laughter. Connection.
“Maybe… this is what I was missing all along.”
The evening sun was setting when Kai got home, casting golden rays through his window.
His mind was still buzzing from the warmth of being with the acting group, but his focus was already shifting — back to the strange new power he was learning to control.
“If I can travel to any memory with the right feeling… what else can I do?”
Sitting on his bed, he stared at the candle on his desk, already thinking of where to go next.
“Alright. I’ve got the fuel. Now I just need to pick the car.”
A small smile tugged at his lips as a thought came to him.
“That limited-edition drop… the one I missed because Mom kept talking about work stuff.”
He had waited weeks for that item to be released in his favorite game. And when it finally came out, he missed it because of a long chat with his mom.
“What if I could go back and grab it?”
Kai got up, moved to the closet, and sat down in front of the candle, lighting it with steady hands.
“I can do this.”
Closing his eyes, he let the pyramid form, and soon the spiraling sensation took hold, lifting him effortlessly.
This time, finding the feeling was easier than ever.
The joy of receiving the gaming headset — that bright, warm happiness — surged up in his chest, steady and strong.
With the feeling burning in him, he focused on the memory.
Woush.
Colors swirled, and the smoky space spun fast—
Then everything snapped into focus.
Kai found himself standing in the living room, exactly where he had been that day.
His mom was sitting at the table, talking animatedly about work, venting about her coworker.
“…and then she just left all the files on my desk like I’m supposed to finish them for her,” she was saying, shaking her head.
Kai’s heart raced.
“It worked. I’m here.”
But he knew he didn’t have much time.
“I have to get to my room before it’s too late.”
“Uh, Mom,” he said suddenly, holding his stomach. “I… I think I ate something bad. Gotta use the bathroom.”
She blinked, surprised. “Oh—okay, honey. Go ahead.”
Kai walked as calmly as he could to his room, but once he closed the door, he locked it quickly and rushed to his computer.
Logging in frantically, his fingers flew over the keyboard.
There it was — the item release countdown.
Two minutes left.
He let out a shaky breath, a mix of excitement and relief.
“I made it.”
As the timer hit zero, the purchase button appeared.
He clicked — but an error popped up.
“Too many people trying. Figures.”
His heart pounded.
He refreshed and tried again.
Failed.
“Come on, come on…”
One more time—
Success.
“Got it!”
Kai sat back, letting out a long, satisfied sigh.
As he clicked out of the game store, his eyes fell on an ad for a new gaming console.
The newest model — sleek, powerful, and way too expensive.
He had wanted it for months.
“Would be nice to have that,” he muttered, imagining it sitting on his desk, perfectly set up.
For a moment, he let himself drift into the fantasy.
“Imagine just turning it on and playing anything I want, no limits.”
His eyes softened, a dreamy smile on his lips.
A sharp knock on his door snapped him out of it, making him jump.
“Kai? Are you okay?” his mom called from the other side.
The surprise was enough to jolt him back—
Snap.
Kai gasped as he woke up, back in the present, still sitting in his closet, candle flickering softly.
Still catching his breath from the trip, Kai stood up slowly, stepping out of the closet, his mind still spinning from what he had just done.
“Alright… let’s make sure the item is there.”
He walked to his desk, sat at his computer, and logged in, heart still racing.
But then—
He froze.
Eyes widening, breath caught in his throat.
Because there — right on his desk, set up perfectly like he had imagined —
The new gaming console.
Power cable plugged in. Controller neatly sitting beside it.
Exactly like the image he had dreamed up in his head.
“What…?” Kai whispered, voice barely audible.
Slowly, almost afraid to touch it, he reached out, fingers brushing against the smooth, polished surface.
“No way. No freaking way…”
His heart pounded louder than ever.
“It’s real… It’s actually here…”
He pulled back his hand, staring at it like it might vanish if he blinked.
“But how? I didn’t buy this. I couldn’t even afford it.”
And as the realization crashed over him like a wave, a chill ran down his spine.
“I imagined it… I wanted it so badly when I was there… Did I—?”
Kai took a step back, still staring at the console, a mix of awe and fear swirling inside him.
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