I returned home at last after a long time of playing and chatting with my new friends Neil, Decka, and Frank. Although I was actually getting comfortable playing with them and still wanted to continue our game, but unfortunately the three of them had to go home with the excuse that tomorrow they had to go to college.
At least I was right in guessing that they were older than me and college boys.
When I got home, my house was very dark. I guessed that Desmon hadn't returned yet, because usually even if there were no humans at home, my house still wouldn't be this dark because Desmon would turn on some lights in some rooms at least to give me a clue if he was home and maybe scare off any thieves who tried to break into an empty house.
Luckily the home assistant system or H.A.S was still working, so I could ask it to turn on all the lights automatically while I was still standing right in front of the door, inside the house.
After the lights came on with a blinding light, I asked the H.A.S to dim the light a little, after that I closed the door and locked it and intended to go straight to my room.
I knew my body was covered in sweat, even some of them were still wet. My clothes were also weathered and of course gave off a foul that disturbed anyone's sense of smell. But I didn't care about that, I was too tired and lack of spirit, at least I wasn't afraid of being scolded by my mom because she not here for a few days.
Maybe it was because my mother wasn't around, coupled with Desmon leaving, and made worse by Chloe who I had pinned my hopes on having a human friend who never came to keep her promise, I felt strange.
I don't know what exactly I'm feeling, but I'm getting bored with my old life, I'm not excited anymore, I'm thinking about strange things more often.
Arriving at my room after previously taking the time to go to the fridge to get some softdrinks and snacks, I immediately lay down on my bed in my smelly clothes with the softdrinks and snacks that I threw on the bed just like that.
I could feel the exhaustion, not just physical exhaustion but also mental and mind exhaustion.
The atmosphere of my room at that time was quite cozy, the dimly lit lights, the silence of the night, the cold air from the air conditioner, all contributed to making me close my eyes to fall asleep.
###
Pain in my legs continues to gnaw at me.
Exhausted, cold, and unbearably thirsty, I had been running for who knows how long, yet the light remained far away. I wanted to stop for a moment just to catch my breath, but I couldn't. They were still behind me.
The clamor of wild animals, scavenger birds, and people seemingly out to kill me continued to echo behind me.
Cold hands with sharp claws kept trying to touch my body.
I could only keep running with all my might to evade them. But what were they, actually? I couldn't answer or even think. There was only one thing I remembered, they had slashed my legs.
Pitch darkness enveloped my surroundings. I couldn't see anything around me at all, except for a beam of light in the distance.
Oddly, no matter how fast or long I ran, the beam of light didn't seem to enlarge to indicate that I was getting closer. It was as if I was running on a treadmill, going nowhere. Had I not been moving at all this whole time? I couldn't answer or even think. There was only one thing I remembered, when I realized I was in a running position.
Similarly, the foul odor was sharp and pierced my nose. How long had I been smelling that odor. It was so foul that it made my head spin and became overwhelmingly heavy. I had never in my life smelled anything so awful, even the scent of a landfill was far more pleasant than this foul odor.
Every time I ran, the foul odor would disappear, only to be replaced by another foul odor. I'd lost count of how many kinds of foul odor I'd smelled all this time. What kind of odor was this, really? And where were they from? I couldn't answer or even think. There was only one thing I believed, the odor never ended.
I couldn't take it anymore, I was very exhausted.
Had the monsters stopped? No, the beam of light was still far away, and the foul odor continued to deaden my sense of smell.
I only had two choices left, I thought. Death from exhaustion due to ceaseless running or death from being torn and slashed by those monsters because I stopped running.
The first choice might sound lighter, I thought. However, the second option doesn't wrong either. If I had to die then what was the point of choosing.
As my mind was confused by the two choices, I unconsciously stopped running but just walked, walking very slowly.
Slowly but surely, I felt comfortable with this cold.
Slowly but surely, I also didn't care anymore about the sound of my stomach that kept beeping demanding food to enter it.
Slowly but surely, my eyes that need light to see have now adapted to the darkness, I am able to see in the dark.
Slowly but surely, my head feels light and so does my body, the foul odor that previously made my head dizzy has also been felt normally for me as if I have often inhaled the smell.
Slowly but surely, the noisy sound is no longer heard until it reaches the absence of sound even including the sound of my heart which I can no longer hear, bringing me to calmness and peacefulness.
Slowly but surely, alone in here makes me feel a happiness, I don't know why.
Slowly but surely, I slowed my walk to a stop and stood still.
I could still clearly see the beam of light in front of me, but the light was too blinding for my eyes that had adapted to the darkness. It's like you've been trapped in an underground tunnel your whole life without seeing or getting any sunlight, and then suddenly you stare directly at the bright summer sun in the middle of the day, I'm pretty sure you'll go blind.
Do I have to go out of this place to the light spot ahead? I don't know what awaits me there, is it safety or danger? Was it behind that blinding light that I met the savior or were the monsters coming from that light.
Strangely enough, when I stayed motionless in this place, the place that previously terrified me, now became a place that gave me a sense of security and comfort. Should I leave this place?
I don't know, at least I don't have to make any decisions right now because I'm currently safe. Maybe I can stay still for a few minutes to take my energy back.
###
I don't know how long I've been staying in this place. I don't even know if I'm still standing or sitting, I can't feel it. Right now all I feel is my consciousness —if I'm still conscious. I can no longer feel my entire body, or barely.
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The beam of light that I had been looking at, grew smaller and smaller.
In the midst of the silence without any sound, I suddenly felt an echo. Although, I'm not sure when the echo existed, because at first I didn't feel it at all, then I barely felt it, then the longer I stayed the stronger the echo became.
I'm not sure if the echo is a voice or a sound. I couldn't tell if it was the voice of a human, animal, or monster, or if it was the sound of an item, a vehicle, or the air. When the light was almost invisible, as if the hole through which it broke into had been repaired, that's when I could clearly hear the echo.
The echo was a human voice, precisely a female voice or more precisely a girl's voice. The voice sounded like a girl shouting from a distance with an almost desperate feeling, I felt the vibration. "Go away!"
Go away? Why is she telling me to go? Or maybe I heard her wrong.
I was stay still trying to focus all my attention to listen to the echo even better, "Go away! Go away! Go!"
The echoing voice slowly became clear, it was no longer an echo, it had transformed into a shouting voice.
She was telling me to go, I knew it. From her voice it was clear it was her command and request for my safety, like in the movies when someone tells their loved ones to go save themselves during a disaster.
But the question is where? Where should I go?
Although the voice was clear to me, I couldn't figure out where it was coming from.
I was standing up, at least that was what was in my consciousness. I turned my eyes in all directions, but there was nothing to see.
I was panicking, obviously. I knew there was danger coming for me, and I had to go as the girl's voice told me to, but where.
My panic broke my concentration, I couldn't even breathe —or maybe I hadn't been breathing all along— and I couldn't feel my heartbeat —or maybe my heart hadn't been beating all along.
The panic inside me increased as the screaming grew louder.
As I looked around the pitch-black surroundings, my eyes was interrupted and fixated on that almost disappeared beam of light. Could it be that I needed to go to that beam of light?
Perhaps.
After deciding which direction I would go, I ran with all my might in that direction. But before long, the beam of light disappeared and now I was in total darkness.
###
I opened my eyes but all I could see was darkness. My room didn't feel as cold as before but that didn't mean it was hot.
I don't know how long I slept, but I know what woke me up. This time it wasn't Desmon or my mom, nor was it the alarm I set earlier, but the sound of thunder booming.
I don't know when it started raining, but it was raining so hard that it was accompanied by lightning strikes one after another without giving me enough time to fall asleep again.
The lightning that struck this time is usually referred to as "Brightning" by the people, I'm not sure the word is in the dictionary. If I'm not misunderstanding it because no one has explained it properly and I don't know its origin, but it's definitely a modification of the word lightning. Bright means shining with a lot of light, and it's match to describe the lightning strikes that take turns at night to illuminate the darkness of the night with their light.
Since I couldn't go back to sleep because of the brightning, I decided to lie down instead.
Brightning is actually very rare in my city, by rare I mean that it only happens once every few years and even then if you're lucky. This eventually led to born of an urban legend in my city.
"Brightning: The war between devil and angel" is one of the movie titles based on this urban legend. It tells the story of a war between the underworld inhabited by devils or ghosts against the upper world inhabited by angels.
Of course the story is made up, but Desmon has another opinion. According to him, humans use brightning to fight back against ghosts because the darkness of the night is attacked by the light of lightning, the silence of the night is attacked by the thunderous sound of lightning, the cold night air is attacked by the heat brought by lightning. Therefore, in the ghost world brightning is often avoided by ghosts, and this is strange to me, how can ghosts be afraid of something especially of humans, isn't it the job of ghosts to scare humans.
At first when Desmon told me this, I kind of agreed with the story. Sometimes humans are indeed more cruel and scarier than the ghosts themselves, in fact I often say how can humans be cruel but ghosts like Desmon are not. But I change my mind now, not all humans are cruel, for example Chloe and the three friends I just got today —or maybe yesterday if the day has changed.
If I think about it now, it seems that Desmon's story of urban legend brightning in the ghost world is almost like a form of fight of the life aura attacking the death aura. I mean obviously, darkness is defeated by light or silence is defeated by a thunderous sound.
Thinking about that, I couldn't help but think of Chloe. I missed her, longing for an explanation that would satisfy my curiosity. Maybe Chloe had her own explanation for the brightning, one that made a lot more sense than all the urban legends I'd heard.
But where was she? Why didn't she come? Had something happened to her?
In the middle of the darkness of the night that was constantly illuminated by the lightning in the sky, I who still wanted to lie down seemed to be forced to get up. I wanted to use bathroom.
I finally got up from my bed, while getting up, I felt a softdrink can roll into my hand. I forgot to drink it, and also ate the snack I brought.
After getting up from my bed, I immediately looked for the switch button to turn on the lights. I found it, and I pressed it, but the light didn't come on. Finally, I was forced to call H.A.S. and ask him to turn on the light, but the result was the same H.A.S. didn't work. There was only one explanation for this, a power outage.
The light provided by the brightning was enough to allow me to see my room, but I'm sure not the bathroom. My bathroom didn't have any windows or anything that could see out of the building, so obviously it wouldn't get any light.
Luckily, when I checked my smartphone, it was still on and I could use it as a flashlight.
Since I couldn't stand it, I rushed straight to the bathroom.
###
At first I just wanted to pee, but why is it that while I was peeing my stomach was churning as if it wanted to release all its contents. So I'd rather release it than hold it in while I'm in the toilet.
I looked at the time displayed on my smartphone screen, I realized that I had been in the bathroom for too long, but I didn't think it was that long and it was probably twice as long as usual. Did I throw out my entire stomach, from the feces to the organs?
As long as I was in the bathroom, I found no sign of the rain stopping. I could still clearly hear the army of water that descended from the sky attacking everything below. I could also hear the lightning striking each other every fraction of a second.
But when I turned off my smartphone to save its low battery power so that I could use it as a flashlight after I was done with my business, I started to feel strange.
The strangeness I was referring to came from the bathtub next to me that was covered by the curtain when I entered. Strangely, at this time my hand was toying with the curtain, but the curtain was no longer there.
I can confirm that there's no one in the bathroom. Because when I entered the bathroom, I had pointed my smartphone that functions as a flashlight at every corner of the bathroom, but I found no sign of a human being, including his shadow that should be visible when there is light directed at him.
If a ghost had moved the curtain, it was possible. But I couldn't sense the death aura, so I thought it was Desmon.
Indeed Desmon had pranked me when I was in the bathroom, not even once but many times although not often either. So I thought it could be Desmon.
So I turned on my smartphone again and used it to illuminate the bathtub which turned out to have an open curtain, but I didn't see anything either human or ghost. I also pointed my smartphone in all directions in the bathroom, but still I couldn't find anything.
If people in general will be scared if there are objects whose positions change but there are no humans around, then they will definitely think it's the work of ghosts, because they can't see ghosts. But what about me, I was obviously scared because my bathtub curtain suddenly opened and I couldn't see anything either, should I think it was a ghost too? Even though I can see ghosts. Or maybe I should think it's a phantom, but I can see phantoms too. Then who's doing it?
They say the best place and time for imagination is in the toilet when you're pooping. And that seemed to be proven, I wondered if there were other entities besides humans, ghosts, phantoms that I didn't know about. It's possible, but unproven.
Not long after I played around with my imagination and finished my business that I had meant to sped up. I came out of the bathroom.
When I opened the bathroom door that's when I had the answer to who opened the curtain. A translucent figure.
My smartphone was off, so I lost my light source. At the same time I also felt the cold, the silence, the foul odor, and the thirst and hunger. You'd guess that this was a very strong death aura, so strong in fact that I wasn't sure whether my smartphone had died because of its battery running out or was being affected by this death aura.
Because there was absolutely no light to help my eyes see, I was blind. Even so I could still feel the translucent figure, his position hadn't changed, he was still in front of me.
"Stay, don't move or you'll perish." His voice sounded faint in my ears, but his threat made me tremble.
I couldn't control my breathing or my heartbeat.
I just stay obeyed the figure's orders.
Not long after, the power came back on, getting rid of all the darkness and death aura I felt as well as the translucent figure in front of me. However...
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