Hello Fantasy, meet Reality(Darcy)

[darcyneumann]

"Easier said than done," she said. Going through these memories was like living through them all over again. The emotions were fresh and raw, and it took thick skin not to feel anything in the situations they'd seen, even if this time it wasn't really real.

Sure enough, taking that mere step struck up another memory. This time it was one of hers; she could tell because she recognised the clinical, bustling foyer they were now standing in; it was the hospital on... New Earth, where she worked. It was supposed to be one of the best facilities in the Universe, if she recalled correctly.
The doors burst open and two paramedics powered through them, a hover stretcher between them. "What have we got?" Darcy asked, immediately stepping forward to grab the computerised chart from the paramedic on the left. "Casey Friedlander, thirteen years old. Car accident, severe trauma to the head, possible internal bleeding."
"Have the next of kin been contacted?" she asked, looking at the poor girl on the stretched in critical condition. "Both parents were in the car with her, no other guardians were specified."
"All right, let's get her in for a full body scan right now, I want the theatre free if we find anything. Make sure to keep her off the morphine, it says here that her mother was allergic, we don't want to take any risks."
"Yes ma'am."

[hugodouglass]

Hugo witnessed Darcy's haste to the stretcher, knowing that the same compulsive behavior that had gripped him in his own "memory flash" was now putting a stranglehold on her. It was something that HAD to be done and not trifled with. But then again, how does the presence of Hugo in Darcy's memory affect her recounting of this incident? Will it change their perceptions of their own memories forever?

And who's to say that these WERE there memories in the first place?
No...can't think like that.
Move it.

Hugo, instead of following Darcy and the others down the corridor, stared at what looked like an emergency exit at the end of the hall. He strode towards it and pressed his hand on the door, expecting the usual noises that come from tripping an emergency exit.

Nothing.

He pressed the door again with a bit more force.

His hand went through the door. Hugo smiled widely, withdrawing his hand from the now shimmering door. He knew that there was some kind of weakness to this thing. Hugo then tried to put his leg through the door...

Didn't work.

He tried again.

Nothing.

He slammed the door with his hand in frustration, realizing that somehow the program that was simulating their memories might have had a lapse...Could he create a lapse? He turned around to see two nurses staring at him with a quizzical look.
"Sir, are you in the right wing?" Hugo walked up to one of the nurses and grabbed her arm forcefully...

She gasped slightly and pulled her arm back.

Oh they were good.

[darcyneumann]

As the girl was wheeled away, Darcy handed over the chart to someone else and quickly looked back to see where Hugo had got to; he was nowhere to be seen.
"Damn it," she muttered, watching the paramedics and Casey, someone who she felt very close to, disppear around the corner. Should she go after them?
No, this was just a memory, it didn't matter what she did here, all of this stuff had already happened, it was in the past, like a dream. She loved Casey, and wanted to see her live, but she also wanted to get out of this place.

Turning on her heel, she hurried back towards the foyer, looking around for Hugo. "Where did you go?" she muttered.
A sudden movement caught her eye and she saw Hugo clutching onto a woman's arm. She immediately pulled it away.

"Hugo," she said, quickly jogging over, "what are you doing?"

[hugodouglass]

"Testing a theory. You see, if this is what we think it is, then they don't exist." He looked at the nurses, who were now slowly backing away from Hugo as if he were carrying the bubonic plague. At least they would leave him alone. Hopefully.
"And if they don't exist, then we can get out of this memory, Darcy! We can move on and find out what's really going on!" He stubbornly went back to the emergency door and put his hand against the door.

And it shimmered again.

"See? There's a gap in the programming, there's gotta be. Which means we can slip through the cracks and get back to reality." He extended his hand outward, indicating that he was ready to leave.

But was she?

[darcyneumann]

Darcy nodded slowly. She understood everything he had just said only... Casey. The longer she stayed here, the more her brain unravelled to do with her... daughter. Her adopted daughter. That's who Casey was. She'd saved the young girl's life then taken her in. She loved her more than anything.
But, this wasn't real. She had to keep telling herself that. The real Casey was waiting somewhere for her.

"Let's go," she agreed. As soon as her hand began to move, the memory fell away, leaving them standing right next to the door.
There it was, the door to all the answers.

Now, how would they get through?

"Open it?"

[hugodouglass]

"Is it that simple?" Hugo walked to the door and, in a very Hugo-esque moment, decided that the best course of action would be to knock on the door. Of course, nothing happened...but only for a few seconds. A few hissing sounds could be heard as the door's locking mechanisms became free, the sheet of metal that served as the guardian between the pair of amnesiacs and their memory restoration sliding away, revealing...

A white room. This room, however, was not as bare as the hallway that preceded it. There were a few chairs scattered around the edge of the room, lined around what looked like a gigantic hole. Hugo walked towards the center of the room, peering down into the hole, blackness staring back up at him.

This had to lead SOMEWHERE relevant.
Somewhere.

"This look familiar at all?" Hugo felt something oddly familiar, like he had been here once before. This was...something important. But what was the importance?!

[darcyneumann]

"No," Darcy said, "not at all." Approaching the hole cautiously, looking over the edge. There wasn't anything down there, as far as she could see, just darkness. It was eerie. But maybe that was the point, to deter people from trying to go down.

"Do you think..." she hesitated, "this is the way out? Down there?" It was either that, or it led to somewhere else... or death.

She supposed there was only one way to find out, but were they brave enough to risk everything on the off-chance that it really was the way out? That this whole thing, them remembering, wasn't some sort of trick to get rid of them?

Tentatively, she peered further over the edge.

She was ready.

Offering a hand to Hugo, she said, "are you coming?"

[hugodouglass]

He smirked, saying:
"You're my kinda woman." He took her hand and jumped.

Blackness