Free The Reality Bug by D.J. MacHale Page A

instant, my dream theory came crashing down. There was no way I could have slept for one night and dreamed up the whole adventure, because I wasn’t the same guy anymore. No, the answer wasn’t as simple as that.
    It was then that a single word came to my mind. I didn’t know what it meant at first, but it definitely felt like it was the key to unlocking this mystery.
    The word was … Lifelight.
    No sooner did I remember that word, than I felt something on my wrist. I looked down and saw I was wearing a wide, silver bracelet with three buttons. It surprised me at first because it wasn’t there a second ago. But still, it seemed familiar. What was I told? If I needed to talk with someone, push the left button. Well, I couldn’t imagine a bigger need to speak with someone than right now, so I pressed the button on the far left. The button glowed white for a moment and gave off a soft, quick hum.
    â€œNot bad, Pendragon,” came a voice from the top of the stairs. “You put it together faster than most.”
    I spun around and looked up the stairs to see someone sitting on the top step. It was the one thing that was out of place in this house. Besides me, that is. She was a pretty girl with a blond ponytail, blue eyes, and yellow-tinted glasses. I stared at her for a few seconds, confused. It was like having an answer on the tip of your tongue, but you couldn’t quite get it out.
    â€œBreathe, Pendragon,” she said. “It’ll come back.”
    â€œAja … ,” I said.
    Aja smiled and clapped. “Very good. There’s always a little disorientation at first, especially if you’ve never jumped before.”
    I looked around the house. My house. It seemed so real, but it wasn’t. It was an illusion. An incredible, wonderful, heart-wrenching illusion. It was all coming back. I wasn’t home. I was lying in a dark tube in a giant pyramid on the territory of Veelox, and this was all happening in my head.
    â€œI know what you’re thinking,” Aja said. “You’ve seen a little of what Lifelight can do and you’re pretty impressed.” She walked down the stairs and came right up to me. “But you’ve just had a taste. The only limits to Lifelight are the limits you put on it yourself.” She touched her finger to my forehead. “It’s all up there, waiting to come out.”
    â€œThere’s more?” I asked.
    Aja laughed. “Pendragon, you’re just getting started.”

    I walked around my living room in a daze. Or should I say, I walked around the illusion of my living room. The dazed part was real, though. No illusion there. I ran my hand along the back of my couch and felt the soft, cotton fabric. I turned the switch on a table lamp, and the light came on. I picked up a frame that held a picture of me holding a newborn Shannon the day she came home from the hospital. Everything looked and felt totally normal, and real .
    â€œYou shouldn’t be surprised,” Aja said. “Everything is going to be right because it’s coming out of your head.”
    â€œBut I can feel things,” I said. “And I tasted bacon. How is that possible?”
    â€œYou know how it should taste, so that’s what it tasted like. Simple as that.”
    Simple as that? Who was she kidding? This was the furthest thing from simple I could imagine. I had about ten miles of questions. “What if I hurt myself?” I asked, my mind racing with possibilities. “Do I really get injured?”
    â€œNo. You’ll feel the pain if you get injured, and you’ll stay that way until the jump is complete, but you’re not really here. You’re in the Lifelight pyramid. Nothing physical happens to you; it’s all in your head.”
    â€œSo I can’t, like, die or anything?”
    â€œIf you die, the jump is over.”
    I looked at the silver wrist bracelet that had magically appeared when I