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

gone. His room was completely empty, the walls were now white instead of blue, and there was a different carpet on the floor which smelled new.
    He went to the window because he wanted to see the rainbow he thought would be there. But there wasn’t a rainbow.
    There’s supposed to be a rainbow.
    This wasn’t right.
    Nothing was.
    Luca couldn’t hear his mom or his dad, or his sister, Anna. He felt like he’d been in this feeling before, too. But the house was even emptier than it had been the last time. It felt like his family had moved away in the middle of the night and sold the house.
    Luca blinked, and wanted to cry. He hated that everything was different.
    He went to his window again and saw a sign in the front yard which read, “FOR SALE.”
    Oh my God, they did sell the house! They moved away without me!
    Luca ran to the kitchen, looking for the phone so he could call his Mom’s cell phone. He had to get a hold of her and tell her to come back. She forgot him. The phone was gone though. The kitchen was just as empty as every other room. He tensed as something flashed at the corner of his eyes. Luca expected to see his cat, Lucky, but Lucky wasn’t there. He saw a dog instead.
    And suddenly memories began to come forth.
    “Dog Vader!” Luca cried, happy to see his old friend.
    The dog sat on its haunches for several seconds before he opened his slobbery jaw and said, “I never liked that name, you know.” Dog Vader made a low rumbling growl to let Luca know he was only joking.
    “Do you still want me to call you Kick?”
    Dog Vader said, “It doesn’t matter what you call me, so long as you listen to what I say.” Dog Vader was using his Serious Voice. But Luca didn’t want to hear the Serious Voice, at least not inside his too-empty house. “Can we go outside?” Luca asked, then said, “Aren’t we supposed to get the bathtub car and follow the rainbow?”
    “There are no more rainbows, Luca,” Dog Vader shook his snout back and forth. “And there aren’t any rainbows like before.”
    Dog Vader went from his haunches to all fours, then trotted toward the front door where he waited for Luca to open it. They stepped into the bright light outside together. And just as Dog Vader said, there were no rainbows.
    “Where did they go?” Luca whispered, realizing that he didn’t feel the itchy burny anymore either. “Where’s my family?”
    “They were never here. On this world, they died two years ago. Everything you saw was a lie,” Dog Vader said. “But a necessary lie. A good one.” Dog Vader’s snout suddenly shortened and his shoulders started to grow as he lost all his fur. “A lie without cause is a lie without effect.” He went from all fours back to his haunches, until he was suddenly standing on two human feet.
    Dog Vader was no longer a dog. He was the tall Indian, towering over Luca, with a giant flowing headdress and a long plastic pipe.
    “You lied to yourself,” the Indian said.
    Luca slowly shook his head, trying to understand.
    “You have stolen from you , Luca. The YOU from the other Earth lost his mother and father, so he decided to steal yours. Then some part of you, maybe some parts of him, made you believe the lie when you arrived here. You saw things as you wanted to see them — as you needed to see them — in order to cope. I was here to help you find Will. I made the rainbows, and then led you to him.” The Indian looked down, then gently set his palm on the boy’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Luca” he said. “Don’t cry. There are ways to make everything right.”
    Luca wiped his right cheek, then swiped at the other one. “How?” he asked, looking up at the Indian.
    “You must go to Black Island. There is a vial in the moon in the bedroom of the boy who stole your life. In that vial is something which can either be very good or very bad. YOU have to open it, Luca. You do, before anyone else finds it.”
    “I can’t do that,” Luca shook his head. “I’m not strong, or brave. I know I look like an old man, but I’m only a boy inside.”
    “You aren’t only a boy,” the Indian said. “You never were. You are pure, Luca. Even when walking through the mind of another, you’ve never done so with dirty feet. And yes, you are brave, my boy, for it is only the courage to continue that counts, and you’ve never failed to set one foot firmly in front of the other no matter how scared you were. You are the only one who can balance the world