From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Everything was too real—

"Where am I?"

"What the hell is happening?"

Evan was shocked and frantically stood up, trying to figure out the situation.

However, Tommy didn't give him a chance, swinging the wooden stick in his hand to strike Evan's chin hard from below, so hard that Evan was flipped over.

Dizzy, bleeding.

Tommy still didn't let Evan go, continuing to punch and kick him.

Lanny took the opportunity to run over, trying to untie the burlap sack that was trapping Crockett.

But in fear, he couldn't untie it at all, and Lanny couldn't help but cry out.

"I can't untie it."

Tommy heard it, and like a messenger from hell, slowly turned to look over.

"Let go. Otherwise, I'll cut your mom's throat while she's sleeping."

Lanny froze, stood up, and cautiously backed away.

Even though Evan finally barely regained his senses amidst the earth-shattering dizziness, he grabbed Tommy's legs, trying to get Lanny to save Crockett.

But Tommy continued to kick Evan in the chest, breaking free from Evan's restraint, and stepped forward murderously, grabbing a burning torch from the fire.

"Listen, Evan, you better listen carefully."

"There are millions of women in the world, why did you have to pick my sister?"

Tommy directly stabbed the struggling burlap sack with the torch, his face twisted in anger.

"No!"

It was a cry from the depths of his soul, and Evan suddenly sat up straight, his hands flailing, trying to stop Tommy, but he found that he was grasping at air.

He was back, back to being twenty years old.

However, he was soaked in sweat, as if he had just been fished out of the water.

Evan didn't understand what was going on, even though the girl he was dating tonight kept saying that dreams are dreams, and sometimes dreams are so real that it's hard to tell the difference between reality and illusion; but Evan remained skeptical—

Those pains were so real, he still seemed to be able to clearly feel the pain in his head and sternum, dull and heavy, making it hard to breathe.

If it was a dream, would the pain be so real?

Evan decided to find out.

Seven years later, Evan returned to that small town and found Lanny.

Lanny... was even more introverted and silent, he never seemed to have recovered from the fear of those years.

So, when Evan asked Lanny if he still remembered what happened that afternoon, the afternoon Tommy killed Crockett, the always quiet Lanny seemed to be possessed by Tommy, showing a demonic side.

Word by word, Lanny said the words Evan had heard in his "dream" last night; it even escalated into violence, grabbing Evan's collar and pushing him against the wall, ferociously reenacting what Tommy had said and done that afternoon.

Evan didn't find the answer, but was even more confused.

After returning to school, Evan took out the dusty box that had been left under the bed and began to flip through the diary he had once kept.

He randomly picked out a book, and it turned out to be the day they stuffed the detonator into the mailbox. Along with those words, the memory of that afternoon returned to his mind.

Then, something magical happened—

Evan opened his eyes again, and he was indeed standing in the forest, standing across from the neighbor's house with Keller, Tommy, and Lanny, waiting for the detonator to explode.

What's going on?

Evan looked left and right, his head full of question marks, because he was too surprised, too shocked, and too confused. Even when the cigarette in his hand fell into the folds of his T-shirt, he didn't realize it at all, and was just trying to figure out:

Is this a dream? Is this what happened after he blanked out?

This time, Evan finally "saw" the process of the mailbox exploding that afternoon.

The detonator was late to explode, and there seemed to be some problems. Just as Tommy pushed Lanny forward and asked him to check it out, the neighbor's mistress drove back, and Tommy pulled Lanny back.

The mistress got out of the car and took the little baby out of the infant seat. Just as she was about to enter the house, she suddenly remembered that she hadn't picked up the mail.

So, she went back.

Evan only felt a burning scald, and only then did he realize that the cigarette butt had been in the folds of his clothes, burning through his T-shirt and scalding a wound on his belly.

However, Evan didn't have time to deal with the wound, because across the street in front—

The mistress holding the baby opened the mailbox.

Buzz.

Suddenly taking a breath of cold air, Evan woke up from the "dream" again, but his frantically beating heart couldn't calm down at all.

His stomach was churning.

Evan lay on the edge of the bed, vomiting violently, unable to describe whether he was afraid or anxious, and even vomited out all his bile.

He didn't understand.

Rolling over and lying back on the bed, Evan pulled up his clothes and looked down at his stomach—

A burn scar.

He was very sure and certain that this scar had not existed before.

But the point is, Evan didn't believe himself, or rather, he didn't believe his own memory.

But how should this be explained?

Evan tried to call Lanny again to confirm some details; however, he was rejected.

Obviously, after he visited Lanny yesterday, Lanny also fell into pain, and Lanny's parents tossed and turned for a long time, and they refused Evan to contact Lanny again.

After hanging up the phone, Evan thought of another way: his mother.

Evan specifically invited Andrea out for dinner and began to subtly inquire about his father's affairs.

From the fragmented information, it can be known that Evan's many symptoms were all inherited from Jason.

Back then, Jason also experienced memory loss; but Jason was a smart person with all A's, so Evan wondered if Jason had found a way to restore his memory.

Andrea hesitated, as if something had happened back then; however, she thought Jason might be crazy, because not long after that, Jason was admitted to a mental hospital, and she could never tell whether those so-called memories were real events or Jason's imagination.

So, she didn't want to mention it in front of Evan, and swallowed the words that were already on her lips.

Evan kept asking questions, and in order to appease her son, Andrea deliberately changed the subject, pulling Evan into a fortune teller's shop across from the restaurant.

At first, things were interesting, because Evan didn't believe it at all and kept running his mouth, and Andrea was amused and smiled; but things soon lost their fun.

"He has no soul."

"He shouldn't have come into this world at all."

The astrologer said.

This made Andrea's face change, and she left in anger, but Evan was confused and quickly chased after her.

From a distance, Evan noticed that his mother, who had already quit smoking, actually asked a stranger for a cigarette again, lit it, and began to puff smoke.

Evan couldn't understand. He didn't believe in astrology at all. He believed that they were just trying to scare customers into spending money to avoid disasters, so Andrea didn't need to ruin a whole day's good mood because of the astrologer's nonsense.

But he didn't expect Andrea to say a secret, a secret Evan never knew.