Yesterdays Gone: SEASON TWO (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER) (Yesterday's Gone)

he wasn’t back in the dungeon, but in a hallway. Light bled through cracks around a door at the end of the hall. Luca approached the bleed and found himself in a bedroom he’d never seen before, a room with gray walls and a tattered New York Jets poster on the wall. A boy, about his age, eight, was curled up in his bed, crying.
    “What’s wrong?” Luca asked.
    The boy yanked his covers aside, surprised to find someone in his room, “Who the hell are you?”
    The boy had dark hair and intense eyes. It took Luca a moment to recognize where he’d seen them before, but there was no mistaking the child.
    “Is your name Boricio?”
    “Who the hell’s asking? How did you get in here?” the kid asked, getting out of his bed and stepping toward Luca, fists balled and ready to strike.
    “Get out of my room, kid, or I’ll slit your fucking throat!” Boricio said, grabbing a box cutter from his nightstand and waving it at Luca.
    “You won’t do that,” Luca said.
    “Oh really, why not?”
    “Because now I see the real you. You’re not the Man in the Middle. You’re the Man with Broken Pieces.”
    Boricio turned his head sideways, recognition spreading across his face. “You’re that kid,” Boricio said, but in his adult voice, “You’re Luca.”
    Luca nodded.
    “Get outta my head!” Boricio screamed, throwing his fists back and leaning toward Luca, as if his scream alone would send Luca flying back into the door.
    “We need you to help us,” Luca said. “Please. You have to kill Brother Rei before he hurts anyone.”
    “Why the hell would I do that?” Boricio spoke, still an adult voice coming from the child’s body.
    “Because I know you’re good,” Luca said. “I can see it.”
    Boricio looked down, his hair falling in his face, and his head and shoulders convulsed as if he were crying.  
    “You couldn’t be more wrong, kid,” Boricio said, laughing as he looked up. He was now adult Boricio, eyes bright with rage.
    “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!”
    Fear flooded Luca’s body as Boricio took a swing with the box-cutter, and came inches from Luca’s face. Luca wasn’t sure how he knew, but some part of him did — if he were hurt in this place, he might never wake up.  
    Luca turned, opened the door, and fled into the darkness of another, longer, nightmarish hallway.
    Luca heard footsteps behind him as Boricio chased him fast into the blackness.
    Ahead, Luca saw a door slightly ajar, light coming from just beyond. He didn’t even stop, instead, threw his body into the door, then crashed through and found himself in his own bedroom. Footsteps grew faster and louder. Luca slammed the door and locked it, just as Boricio’s footsteps stopped sharply outside.
    “You think it’s funny to invade people’s heads? Do you, you little fuck?!” Boricio screamed from the other side of the door.
    “No, I was just trying to ask you to help us,” Luca whined.
    “Boricio don’t help anybody but Boricio. Ah, this is a nice house you’ve got here, kid.” Luca could feel the hallway outside his doorway changing into his house, even if he couldn’t see the change taking place.  
    Boricio was now in his head. Luca could feel him like an itch in the back of his brain. Now it was he who wanted Boricio out of his head .
    “Let’s see what you’ve got lurking in here, eh? Ah, is this your sister’s room? Ooh, lookee lookee a picture. She is a sweet little thing, ain’t she? How do you think she’d like it if old Uncle Boricio paid her a visit?”
    “Get out!” Luca screamed, trying to wake up and return to the dungeon. But the world he’d so easily crafted with Rebecca was now refusing to cooperate.
    “What’s that Nietzsche quote? ‘Be careful when you look into Boricio, because Boricio also looks into you.’” Boricio laughed.  
    Luca heard Boricio stomping around the house, slamming doors, seemingly searching for something which Luca couldn’t even guess at. Luca became certain that if Boricio wanted, he could use one of the doors to ravel back to Luca’s real house and even back through time, to kill Luca and his family.
    He had to get Boricio out of his house, and his head.
    “What secrets does little Luca hide in here?” Boricio said. The sound of glass crashed in the living room.  
    The walls of Luca’s room began to shake violently, like they might fall in on him, or fly away at any moment.
    “Show me your memories!!” Boricio screamed, his voice echoing in Luca’s head