Intermission One-Shot Chapter - The Waves of the Deep Mind

BTS One-Shot

The Waves of the Deep Mind

*Zeth walks through a foggy forest. He keeps walking through the forest without an end in sight. He has an aimless look on his face. He never stops to look at anything and just keeps walking through the endless trees and fog. He soon hears someone’s voice*

Voice: Hi, Zeth.

*Zeth’s eyes open wide and he snaps out of his sad, aimless expression. He sees Don. Don smiles and waves at him which brings a smile to Zeth’s face*

Don: Come on, Zeth! Let’s go!

*Zeth starts running toward Don, but as he does, Don’s whole body starts to crack and then blows away in the wind as many pieces of dust until nothing is left of his body. Zeth looks shocked and saddened. He returns to his aimless expression and then keeps walking through the trees and fog*

***

*Zeth then finds himself waking up from a nap on a couch. He sits up and rubs his forehead. Kurt is in the room*

Kurt: You’re awake.

Zeth: Where am I?

Kurt: You came to my room to hang out and fell asleep on the couch. Did your nap make you forget?

*Zeth stands up*

Zeth: I guess I’m not feeling the greatest right now…

*Zeth starts walking toward the exit of Kurt’s room*

Kurt: Are you okay?

*Zeth trips and stumbles before catching his balance again on the way out*

Zeth: I- I’m fine…

*Zeth exits the room as Kurt has a concerned look on his face*

***

Narrator: The timing of this chapter is shortly after Zeth and Sasha got back from Mars.

*Zeth walks outside in Heaven and puts his right hand against the wall of a building while rubbing his forehead with his left hand*

Zeth: 100,000 years… 100,000 years… That’s too long.

*As Zeth continues walking around in bad shape, he is observed from a distance by Kurt, Sasha, Emily, and Joe*

Kurt: See? He looks awful right now.

Joe: Maybe he just had a nightmare or something.

Kurt: No nightmare is going to make him look this miserable.

Sasha: Could it be…?

Emily: What is it? Do you have an idea?

Sasha: Yeah, I believe I do.

*Zeth continues moving and he looks tired and miserable. As he moves, even the bright and sunny day in Heaven starts to look like the foggy forest to him. The angels of Heaven start to look like creepy monstrous silhouettes to him. He once again sees Don in the distance and Don once again calls out to him*

Don: Come on over here, Zeth!

*Zeth gives a weak smile and starts to awkwardly walk over to Don before fully tripping and landing forward on the ground. He looks up and sees Don starting to disintegrate again. He just lies there face down and starts to cry. He continues to lie there, not getting up before one of the creepy monstrous silhouettes approaches him. It looks down at him*

Silhouette: We need to talk.

*Zeth looks up at it and doesn’t know what it’s talking about*

Zeth: Are… are you here to take me to purgatory?

*Zeth’s eyes close and he falls asleep*

***

*Zeth wakes up in Heaven’s hospital and he has a scanning device on his head. He looks around the room and an angel doctor, Harmona, Sasha, Kurt, Joe, and Emily are all in the room*

Zeth: What’s going on?

Harmona: Your behavior today, and honestly for the past few days, has been concerning. We’ve had you hooked up to monitor your brain activity as it’s when you wake up from sleep that these episodes happen.

*Sasha has a serious expression on her face*

Sasha: It’s Don, isn’t it? You haven’t mentally healed from his death.

*Zeth looks sad and looks down at the floor*

Zeth: Yes… I still hurt. I still believe that time heals all wounds but there are still times when his death still haunts me.

Harmona: It really is PTSD.

*The angel doctor looks at Zeth*

Male Angel Doctor: In order for me to best know how you can be helped, I need to know what aspect of his death is eating away at you the most. Do you know what that is?

*Zeth looks down at the floor in thought and then finally responds*

Zeth: The time…

Doctor: Time?

Zeth: Subconsciously, I have a hard time coming to terms with 100,000 years needing to pass before I can see Don again. Recently, I have been having nightmares about it. I see him and try to reach him but then he disintegrates and there is nothing left. This same nightmare has repeated in my sleep recently.

*The doctor looks at Harmona*

Doctor: From what I know, it’s been nearly 9 full years since Don’s death. It’s not usual for a divine being to linger on that aspect of another divine being’s death this long after the death.

Harmona: This must be a nature versus nurture thing. Zeth is a divine being by birth but was raised as a mortal.

Doctor: But even so, he is 14,097 years old. He should have become used to long periods of time.

Harmona: Not necessarily. He did complain about it taking 6 months to even get to Mars. He may consciously be used to it but not subconsciously used to it.

Doctor: This problem has no easy cure. He would need to experience something that sets his subconscious mind at peace.

*Harmona looks like she is thinking*

Harmona: I have an idea. Zeth, come with me.

Emily: Do you want the rest of us to come too?

Harmona: No, I don’t think that will be necessary.

*The doctor takes the device off of Zeth’s head and then both Zeth and Harmona leave the room*

Sasha: I know you will pull through this, Zeth.

***

*Zeth and Harmona enter Heaven’s library. They go to one of the shelves and Harmona starts looking for a book*

Zeth: The cure is a book?

Harmona: It’s not just any book. It’s one I read a lot since when I thought I lost my mom at the age of 34. It might bring your subconscious to peace.

*Harmona keeps looking and soon finds it*

Harmona: Aha! Found it!

*Harmona pulls the book off the shelf and hands it to Zeth. Zeth looks at the cover. The book is titled “The Waves of the Deep Mind”*

Zeth: “The Waves of the Deep Mind”? Is it a psychology book?

Harmona: I suppose you could say that. Have a seat and lose your mind in this book.

*Zeth sits down on a comfortable chair in the room and opens the book and starts reading it. He reads silently. One part he starts reading out loud*

Zeth: “Take a breath and let your mind be calm. Bring all your thoughts into one place. You rest your body, mind, and soul on a ship out on the ocean.”

*Zeth closes his eyes and pictures himself on a ship out in the middle of the ocean with nothing else in sight. Zeth looks more relaxed now. He opens his eyes back up and continues to read the book*

*Zeth reads more from the book but this time in his thoughts*

Zeth: (Thinking) “Time itself is forever flowing. There is no need to stress about the distance of time. Focusing on upcoming delights that are about to happen is more important. Even if they are not as exciting as something far off, you will not be so focused on such things and, before you know it, that far-off delight will be up next. Live life naturally. Time will proceed. It will not recede.”

*Zeth is on the ship in his mind and sees Don standing on the water. Zeth smiles*

Zeth: See you in the future, Don. I won’t let this consume me any longer.

*Zeth turns around and starts walking away from the edge of the ship. The smiling Don simply fades away instead of disintegrating*

*Zeth continues to sit in the chair and read the book*

***

Narrator: Many hours pass and it is now late at night.

*Zeth finishes reading the book and looks up at the clock*

Zeth: Woah! Was I really reading it for the entire afternoon and evening!?

*Zeth puts the book back on the shelf and leaves the library*

***

*Zeth goes outside and looks up at the night sky in silence. Suddenly, Harmona shows up and looks up at the night sky with him*

Harmona: Seeing you like this… I take it you have finished reading the book?

Zeth: Yes.

Harmona: And what did you get out of it?

Zeth: Being able to see Don again is far off… but the passage of time is like a wave. Don’t fight it or dwell on it. Focus on what’s right in front of me, not what’s far down the line. 100,000 years doesn’t mean I will never see him again. It just means there’s a bit of a wait and I have other happy things that will happen sooner that I need to enjoy.

*Harmona looks at Zeth and smiles*

Harmona: That’s the right way to look at it and that perspective helped me overcome the loss of my mother.

*Zeth looks at Harmona*

Zeth: I will live my life to the best that I can.

*Zeth and Harmona look up at the sky*

Zeth: And when 100,000 years pass… See you then, Don.

BTS One-Shot END

One-Shot Completed: July 9th, 2021