Yesterday's Gone: Season Three (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER)

most safe, comfortable, and, oddly enough, most loved.
    When he had to sleep in his bedroom, all alone, he felt like the impostor he was.
    “Time for bed,” Mom said, spoiling Luca’s hope.
    Luca rose from the couch, dejected, hoping to win some sympathy and be allowed to maybe sleep in the living room. Anna was already standing, and hugging their mom goodnight, resigned to her fate — and resigning Luca to his.
    Luca hugged his mom goodnight, but pushed his face into her harder than usual.
    “What’s wrong, honey?” she asked.
    “Just sad,” he said.
    “Sad? You can watch Return of the Jedi another night, maybe even tomorrow.” She patted him on the shoulders.
    Luca was going to tell her that it wasn’t The Incredibles that had made him sad, but decided not to. Because what could he say? That he was sad because he’d taken her real son’s place? That he left his family behind as monsters tore through his home world?
    Luca couldn’t even start to explain what he only sort of understood. So he said the only thing he could.
    “Thank you, Mom.”
    His mom hugged him harder before Luca trudged off to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth and went pee, then headed to his father’s office.
    His dad was tapping away at a thin aluminum keyboard, his eyes centered on the screen. It took him a moment to notice Luca. Once he did, Luca’s dad looked up, without smiling. He seemed more distracted than happy to see him. Luca figured he must be working on something extra special important.
    “Goodnight, Buddy,” his dad said, hugging him goodnight.
    “Goodnight, Dad,” Luca said, head down as he shuffled to his bedroom where his mom came inside to tuck him in a few minutes later.
    As his mom closed the door, the shadows returned.
    Outside his window, through the parted curtains, Luca could see the moon peering through the thousand-fingered trees, its soft glow twisting those fingers into scary shadows on Luca’s far wall.
    He turned from the window and then turned back, choosing to lie facing the window and its glow instead of the wall and its shadows. Luca closed his eyes and thought about his family — his real family, back on the world he’d abandoned.
    Luca had tried to return several times since October so that he could see how they were doing, but was only successful a few times. He hadn’t been able to control where he went, however. And each time he’d gone to the other world, he’d wound up with the other Luca. Only that Luca had changed. He was older. And the other Luca couldn’t see him. Nobody could see him — as if he were some kind of ghost.
    Luca’s only success was last month when he saw the other version of his new dad, Will. He was surprised the other Will had been able to see him, and didn’t know how long he would be able to do so, so he delivered his message so urgently that he wasn’t even sure Will understood what he was saying.
    Even if Will had understood, he was bleeding so much, he looked like he was just minutes from dying. If Will was dead, then he couldn’t have given the message to anyone. And if that were the case, then perhaps all hope was lost — for Luca and his world. Perhaps all hope was lost, anyway, though. Because Luca wasn’t even sure that the message would help. He was only giving that message because of the dream he’d had — the dream where people were looking for the vial Luca had hidden.
    Luca had tried to go back a few times after he saw Will, but nothing was working. Luca wasn’t sure why getting to the other world now was so much harder. He’d been able to do it so easily before October 15.
    But then something had happened.
    Perhaps it had to do with the thing that pulled the others to his world. It wasn’t the Darkness that he’d seen taking over his world. It was something else — a brightness that Luca felt more than saw.
    He closed his eyes and tried to go back, just as he had tried to do nearly every night since October.
    And then he was gone.

    **

    Luca was suddenly floating in darkness, salt water splashing his face and into his eyes and mouth as he struggled to keep his nose and mouth above the surface. Luca’s arms thrashed in the water as he struggled to see anything. But he couldn’t drink his surroundings without also drinking salt.
    Luca swallowed a mouthful of sea and went underwater.
    He panicked, then somehow managed to come back up, spitting out water as he paddled to stay above the churning waves.
    Where am I?
    Something