Dead Zone is property of USA Network, Pillar2, The Segan Company, and Lions Gate.

I had this posted a few years back, but took it down. I just recently found it on my hard drive and decided to repost it.

Johnny Smith hauled a dusty cardboard box up the stairs from the basement. He had found the box by accident when he was looking for one of his missing tool sets. The box was sealed tight with duct tape, which made him suspicious of what was in it. He walked into the living room and put the box on the coffee table and started pulling at the tape. After peeling most of it off, he tried to pry the lid off, but it refused to separate itself from the box. Johnny sighed and picked the box up and turned it upside down and started shaking it.

The lid suddenly shook loose from the box and spilled its contents all over the table. Johnny set the box down and sat on the couch. The box had hundreds of photographs in it and now, they were spread all over the table. He sighed and started looking at the photos one by one. He had only looked at a few before he realized what all of the pictures were.

“Oh my god,” he whispered.

All of the pictures were of his once-fiancée Sarah or of the two of them together.

Looking at the photos was extremely tough for Johnny…he thought that he was over Sarah by now, but it only brought back memories of what he lost in his accident. It also brought back memories of recent events that had to do with him and Sarah…things that tore him up inside.

“You’ve made a life for yourself, Sarah…and I love you. The greatest gift I can give you is your freedom.”

“Johnny, we’ve been friends all our lives…and that’s not gonna change.”

“It has to.”

That was difficult for both him and Sarah. It was the first time that Sarah had seen him not in a comatose-state in 6 years. That was also the time when he learned about her marriage to Walt Bannerman and about his son, Johnny Bannerman. Johnny had hidden his depression from everyone…he had lost his mom and in a sense, he had also lost Sarah.

“We still share each others’ lives, but she has a husband, a family…while I’ve got memories and visions. And if they seem more real to me than my actual life, it’s because I wish they were.”

Johnny had said that to Dana Bright on their “date” a while back. He had never realized until that moment how lonely he actually felt. Sure, Dana and Bruce were always around, but Johnny wanted Sarah. He knew Sarah longer than all his friends combined. It was almost like the two of them were bound together by some invisible tether; never to forget each other.

Johnny sighed as he scooped all the pictures back into the box before re-taping it shut. He thought about burning the box, but decided against it. Sure, he was trying hard to forget about his relationship with Sarah so they could both move on, but he knew in his heart that someday he would need those photographs again.