Jolting awake, Noah finds himself enclosed within a tight space. He is standing upright, with walls pressing in on all sides.
It is dark with just a trickle of light seeping in through some slits. This is the inside of a school locker.
Noah is not a large person nor a small one. Being just above average in height and weight. Meaning this locker has to be quite a large one to contain him.
It takes some time for Noah to comprehend where he is. Fumbling his hands in the dark for a few moments longer, Noah finally manages to pull up on the latch from within and swing the locker door open.
What he sees is a dimly lit hallway, with lockers on the opposite wall, the same as the locker he is currently in.
Moving to take a step out of the locker, Noah is startled as the announcing voice once again speaks, but this time in an almost mechanical fashion.
“Now beginning the first trial. Lifeless, your task is to find a diary and deliver it to its rightful owner.”
Noah listened carefully to each and every word spoken by the announcing voice. Not because he wanted to, but because it was forced directly into his mind.
Even if he plugged his ears and distracted himself, he would have heard every word clearly. Forced to memorize and understand them all.
Pinching his shoulders to fit through the narrow locker entrance. Noah becomes aware of himself in his entirety.
From the simple polo shirt that adorns his upper body. To the cargo shorts, plain black socks and matching formal footwear. All of which fits him perfectly.
Noah takes only one look down at himself, not caring much about the odd clothing that he finds himself now wearing.
When in the colosseum before, he could not remember what he was wearing, if anything at all.
Stepping away from the locker Noah speaks his first words. “A diary?” He clears his throat, which is rough from disuse.
“Where would I find a diary?” Noah continues to himself while looking both left and right down the identical hallways. Each lined with the same lockers as far as he could see.
Which is not far, as the halls are only illuminated by small, dim lights that line the center of the ceiling with many gaps and spaces between them. Leaving room for large swaths of eerie, shadowy darkness.
As Noah begins to move across the hall, he is once again startled as a sharp voice sounds out from behind him. Turning quickly, Noah looks at the open locker he had just come out of.
A voice that speaks with a clattering sound can be heard from within the locker. “Oh, did I scare ya? My bad, my bad. I didn’t mean to. I am known as the Boon: Fangs (Tier 1).
“I am your starting boon, filled with additional liveliness and personality at another’s behest.”
“What?” Noah says more out of reflex than confusion, as the words coming from the locker were a bit strange.
“Well, I am your starting boon, didn’t ya hear? I am a gift from the independent, all powerful, Indomitable method. Also a bit tainted by the profundity of uh…” It says, seemingly unable to finish its sentence.
“So, anyways,” The Boon regains its composure, “Come on over here, and be quick about it. I won’t bite, at least not until you claim me.” The rather, lively, Boon clatters out.
“A boon?” Noah speaks slowly, while taking steps closer to the open locker out of curiosity. He was unable to see what manner of thing this ‘boon’ was.
“Well, well. Aren't you ever a slow one. I hate to rush you, but there is not enough time for a full explanation. So be content with this for now. There are boons and burdens. I am a boon, something good that will help you.”
Seeing Noah’s hesitance in his faltering steps and blank expression, the Boon decides to act.
“Now, since you didn’t come over here, I am forced to come over to you. Be grateful and remember, not all boons will be as special as me, in fact most won't even be like this at all. This is a big favor, so be thankful.”
As the boon was speaking, it came out from within the locker with a disturbing tippity tap noise, like a small wretched creature scurrying about.
Finally, from the dim lighting in the hallway, Noah caught sight of the thing, the Boon: Fangs (Tier 1) he had been speaking with this whole time.
It looks like a small set of denchers with sharp pointed teeth, some amongst them being longer. These are fangs.
It also has 6 pairs of thin insectoid-like legs carrying it as it scuttles its way towards Noah across the polished floor.
Looking curiously at the small scuttling creature. Noah remains still, while it rapidly moves closer to him while still speaking, its teeth opening and closing making a clattering noise.
“Open your mouth wide, or I will do it in your stead. Once I enter your mouth and get chewed to pieces, I will officially be claimed by you. Meaning you will obtain the Boon: Fangs (Tier 1). Don’t worry, it will only hurt a little.”
With those final words ringing off the clattering denchers, it leaps into the air with surprising speed, easily reaching Noah's head height. It latches onto his face right next to his mouth.
With a startled flinch, Noah’s head jerks back and away from the small creature. But it is too late as the mistake was already made.
The Boon: Fangs (Tier 1) is already latched onto him. It is now even prying his lips and teeth apart with surprising strength, squeezing itself into his opened mouth.
It has gone from the floor, to Noah’s face then to the inside of Noah’s mouth within a few seconds. Before Noah could even comprehend all of this, he has already bitten down and chewed on the creature within his mouth.
Coming to this realization, Noah attempts to open his mouth to pull the creature out.
Only to find that his entire jaw has gone numb and mind tearing aches have appeared in all of his teeth. From his front incisors to farthest back molars. There is an overwhelming pain.
The pain is so sudden and intense that Noah reels backwards, dropping to the ground while leaning his back against the lockers behind him.
Now sitting on the ground, Noah cloudily gazes at the open locker across from him for a few moments. What feels like a few seconds to him, is actually a few minutes.
As he dazedly sits there, simple knowledge is implanted into his mind. It is information about the Boon he has just obtained. It is a tier 1 boon, the lowest and weakest tier.
What it does is transform his teeth into sharper, stronger and more prominent teeth, some of them are even elongated and are fangs.
It was only a small bit of information, like instinctual knowledge a creature would have about its own fangs if it possessed them.
Finally moving his aching skull, Noah takes a glance to his left and sees a shadowy figure moving towards him down the hallway, letting out a rhythmic thumping noise.
Half obscured by the darkness formed from dim lighting, Noah could make out no features due to how far away it is, only knowing that its head brushes the ceiling and its swaying arms graze the lockers on either side of the hall.
It is massive and filled with oppressive darkness, swallowing the dim lighting around it.
Overpowering the now dulling ache in his mouth, Noah quickly gets to his feet and begins to unsteadily run down the hallway.
He moves in the opposite direction of the hulking shadowy figure. The consequential pains of the Boon: Fangs (Tier 1) jumping into his mouth are cast aside.
As the only thought in his mind now is to get away from that thing. It is an instinctual thought Noah has, to get away from that moving shadow.
Running down the hall some distance, Noah looks back to see that the Shadowy figure is far away, but still following.
Turning around, Noah continues moving forward. In front of him is a long and seemingly endless dimly lit hallway.
Noah eventually notices a change in the monotony ahead of him. There is an intersection with another hall, a branching path that would bring him out of sight of the shadow chasing him. Noah immediately speeds up, heading for the intersection.
By the time Noah reaches the hall and rounds the corner, he is breathing heavily, as the sudden sprint has taken its toll on him.
He slows down to a jog and observes this new hall, which is identical to the one he just came from.
Further ahead Noah spots another hallway intersection. But he also sees something else he has not yet seen, a classroom doorway.
Noah speeds up towards it. Believing the doorway to be better than running through the open halls where he could potentially run into more unexpected things.
Arriving at the doorway, Noah opens it and looks inside. Seeing a completely dark classroom filled with vacant desks.
Even the dim lighting of the hallway cannot illuminate the classroom, as it seems to be absorbed by the darkness within.
Not hesitating in the slightest, Noah enters the classroom and closes the door behind him. Grasping out into the dark, Noah reaches for the nearest desk.
Moving through touch, he enters farther into the room away from the door, until he finds a suitable spot to sit down and catch his breath.
Noah thinks about his recent escape from the shadowy figure, correctly believing it to be dangerous.
Changing his thoughts, Noah thinks about his current trial. Deciding to put all his mental efforts onto that instead of other things.
His current trial is to find a diary and deliver it to its owner. Noah has no good ideas on where he could potentially find a diary.
Contemplating to himself, Noah reaches the conclusion that the best course of action would be to start searching for a diary in the classroom he is currently in.
Having finished those simple thoughts and caught his breath, Noah stands up to begin searching. But he stops immediately when he notices vague shapes moving in the darkness of the room around him.
At first they appear incorporeal and hazy. Observing them closely, Noah tries to decipher what they are. They move around the classroom, sitting at the desks and performing vague actions.
After a period of observation, Noah is finally able to understand. They are the ghosts of students.
Noah continues to watch them, as they turn from their hazy incorporeal forms into more solid and clear images of students performing various school activities. Some are reading from textbooks, while others are goofing around and playing games.
Noah curiously approaches one of the ghosts near him. A young girl who is intently reading a book. He reaches down with his hand and attempts to grab the book.
Unsurprisingly, his hand passes right through it as the book and the students were never true solids. However, his careless action has another completely unexpected outcome.
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Across the classroom, all the ghost students stop what they are doing and turn to look at him, hostility present in their expressions.
Before Noah can even utter a word of regret, the first of the ghost students start to advance towards him aggressively.
Noah makes the split second decision to run towards the door of the classroom. Evidently, these are hostile ghosts that are going to attack him.
Tripping on many unseen obstacles, Noah fumbles his way towards the door.
Even as he flings open the door and runs out of the room, he can feel the ghosts swarming after him. They follow him, entering the hall and giving chase.
Running down the hall for a dozen seconds, Noah looks back to see only a few ghost students still chasing him. He makes the inference that the ghosts don’t go very far from their classroom of origin.
But he isn’t left with much time to think as he hears from ahead of him a rhythmic thumping noise. Something he heard from the previous shadowy figure he fled from.
Looking around Noah thinks about what he should do. Seeing the empty hall with nothing but lockers lining it, Noah cannot help but think back to where he was when he first woke up, inside a locker.
Moving towards the left wall, Noah begins prying at a latch. Quickly finding out that it is locked, as well as the ones beside it. He decides to foolishly keep trying them until one hopefully opens.
At any moment a shadow figure could appear in the hallway nearby, leaving him exposed in an empty hall. This would leave Noah with the only option of running away.
If he does that, there is also a possibility he could run into another shadowy figure, leaving him in an even worse situation.
Not thinking of the potential consequences of his actions, Noah focuses instead on prying at the latches of the lockers.
Feeling his heart beat faster with every locker that does not open, Noah's lips turn upward in a half smile. A great change from the static expression he has worn since he first woke up.
The exhilaration he feels while prying at the latches is the most intense thing he has felt so far. This is a feeling that Noah could possibly come to enjoy.
Then like water washing over him, the rush he feels reaches its pinnacle. As after prying at 23 lockers, the 24th one finally opens up.
Flinging the door open with excessive force, Noah crams himself inside. He is barely able to move his arms far enough to close the locker door, now in front of him.
Bringing the door up to the latch, Noah attempts to close it quietly. But that could never happen as the hinges on the door are very loud and let out creaking noises. Noah did not hear this when he initially flung open the door.
With one last tug to close the door a painfully loud clicking noise rings out as the door firmly latches shut.
Now pinched into the locker, Noah breathes slowly and attempts to calm the rapid beating of his heart. Which is resounding like a hammer in his ears.
Each heartbeat feels extraordinarily loud to him now that he is hiding in the locker. With each beat, his blood surges through his veins, rushing throughout his body. Making a large whooshing noise in his ears.
After a whole minute of waiting, while trying to steady himself, Noah finally realizes that the rhythmic thumping sound that was present in the hallway before, is gone.
Upon realizing this, Noah feels almost let down that no shadowy figure appeared. After a bit longer, Noah feels almost ashamed of himself for getting so agitated about a danger that never occurred.
Feeling upset and even distraught, Noah pulls up on the latch from within and pushes the door open.
Taking only a half hearted glance down the hall to either side. He sees nothing but a dim hallway both ways. This further cements his disappointment.
Noah begins to move through the dim hallway, continuing away from the direction he came from.
He eventually comes upon another intersection of hallways. When looking down the left hall he notices a doorway that looks different from the ghost filled classroom he entered before.
This door is even letting out a beam of light through a small window in the frame. Noah decides to head for the door, brazenly walking through the hall intersection, almost hoping that something interesting happens.
Peering into the small window through narrowed eyes, Noah sees a white room and can make out the vague figure of a person.
Without hesitating in the slightest, Noah reaches for the handle and swings the door open, making his way inside.
Noah squints from the sudden shift of a dim hall to a bright white room, after a few moments, Noah recognizes the place as a nurse’s office.
“Hello, do you need anything? We are a bit short staffed so I’m not sure I can offer you the best hospitality.” The adult woman, who is the nurse, says to Noah.
“No.” Noah answers immediately, then takes a short pause. “I’m looking for a diary,” He eventually says.
“Hmm, let me think.” The nurse crosses her arms and taps her chin. “Ah, you know, I might just have one. I’m not sure if it's the diary you are looking for, but do you still want to see it?”
“Sure.” Noah replies concisely. The Nurse seems unaware of his odd responses or just doesn't mind them.
Taking a few moments while rummaging on a cluttered countertop behind her, the nurse manages to find a small purple book and holds it up for Noah to see. It has a pink and purple flower pattern on it, obviously a girl’s diary.
“I believe her name was Natalie. She came in the other day with a dislocated finger from a nasty fall she took.” The Nurse’s eyes seem vacant and out of focus when talking about Natalie. “Poor little girl was crying her eyes out…”
Before the Nurse could say any more, Noah reaches out his hand while saying. “I will take it.”
“Oh, that seems fine.” She replies, knocked out of her vacant eyed state. “I believe she is part of the symphonic band.” The Nurse continues on, as if wanting to have a proper conversation. “She might even play the clarinet, if I remember correctly.”
Cutting her off again and denying any chance at further discussion, Noah says, “I am leaving now, to take this diary to her.” He immediately turns on his heels and walks towards the door.
But as he grabs the handle, it twists out of his grip as the door swings open, almost hitting him with how much force was used. Noah then hears an animated male voice speaking.
“Whew! I made it. Those guys were right on my heels. Luckily, this place is here.” That is when the man notices Noah within a few steps of himself and then looks at the rest of the Nurse’s office.
“Oh and it seems I am in the right place too, with others here as well.” When he spoke, there was an emphasis on the word ‘others’ as if indicating something about them.
‘Others’ which could only refer to Noah, giving away the man’s identity as a Lifeless that's also participating in the trials.
Speaking to Noah the man says, “I would wait before going out there. Well, unless you want to get caught, that's up to you.” Then facing the Nurse the man moves around Noah.
Noah was about to leave the office, but oddly decided to heed the man’s warning instead.
“Oh, dear Miss Nurse, I have something incredibly important for you! I was tasked to deliver it with all due haste.” The man speaks exaggeratedly while presenting a small medicine bottle.
“Ah! That is exactly what I need!” The Nurse cries out with equal amounts of flair as the man. “These will surely help with his illness. I cannot thank you enough, but there is really nothing I can give to repay you for this wondrous deed.”
The ‘him’ the Nurse spoke of was a man on a sick bed in the back of the room. Only after the Nurse mentioned him did Noah finally notice.
“Worry not madame, I act only to help all those in need! As I am the most charitable of saints, the most gracious of men, only needing the wellbeing of others as my thanks.”
The man said this with heavy sarcasm. Not meaning anything he said. However, this was all lost on the Nurse.
“Oh, what a wonderful man you are, caring about others' health so.”
“Indeed, I care a great deal.” The man says with a comically big grin. A smile that no one could take seriously, except the Nurse.
At this point in time, Noah couldn't stand listening to their banter and tuned them out. Instead, preferring to observe the purple and pink flower covered diary.
The diary was easier to obtain than he thought it would be. Flipping it open to a random page, Noah reads a few lines. Not caring in the slightest about things such as propriety and privacy.
He reads: ‘But the 3 kept goofing off, 30 minutes or more. Eventually, I got off it and let it fall, causing the 3 of them to fall as well, surely they cannot blame me, it was their attitudes…’
Noah stopped reading there, flipping to different pages to take a few more glances.
After reading this, Noah pinches the diary closed with a snap while saying to himself. “It's just nonsense.”
Nothing in the diary could help him deliver it to the supposed Natalie that owns it. That was Noah’s opinion based on the few pages he glanced at.
If he read further, he might actually have found something of use. But Noah’s current demeanor could not be bothered with reading more of the nonsensical diary.
Noah looks back to the Nurse and the flamboyant man. They appear to be finished with their discussion as the man is now turning to face Noah. Offering an amicable smile.
“So, how's it been going for you? This whole place seems a bit odd, right?” The man says while approaching.
With a straight face, Noah replies, “It's a maze.”
“No, no, that's not it. Well, it is a maze, but that isn't the odd part. It feels like everything isn't real, like there's no true direction to anything.”
“Like really, what are the odds the first lit up room I run into for cover, happens to be the very place I need to go? This isn’t how it usually goes, don’t you think?” The man says, quite accurately grasping the true nature of the school.
“Uh, well anyway, my name is Kaleb, what do you go by?” The man named Kaleb abruptly changes the subject as if realizing something about Noah. He reaches his hand out towards Noah for a friendly handshake.
“Noah,” Is his simple reply while blankly staring at Kaleb’s offered hand.
“Good, good.” Kaleb says while swiftly grabbing Noah’s hand and shaking it. “So it seems your start were those teeth, right? Pretty good I’d say.”
After firmly shaking Noah’s hand for a few seconds Kaleb lets go. “Uhh, unless you were created with those. Either way, they're good.” He says awkwardly as Noah didn’t react to his probing.
Deciding to make it more obvious, Kaleb continues. “All I got are these little things.” He says while holding up his hands as finger guns. “It's called Forceful finger, they pack quite a punch too.”
After a short pause, still with no response from Noah, Kaleb continues, “The quiet type eh? But that's fine. Acting like that will help you out since you’re fresh.”
“Just remember, don’t tell anyone about your boons or artifacts. That is a golden rule here. It will only ever hurt you more than keeping it a secret.”
Kaleb said all this like a knowledgeable senior, while also looking foolish as he had just completely contradicted himself with his earlier actions.
In fact, everything he had done so far portrayed him as a bit odd to Noah. What Noah didn’t know was that Kaleb was just acting like this for his own defense.
His current strategy when meeting other lifeless is to appear foolish and talkative. A way to make himself appear harmless.
Patting Noah on the shoulder, Kaleb steps around him and opens the Nurse’s office door, turning his head to say one last thing in a serious tone, completely the opposite to his earlier mannerisms.
“Don’t say no one warned you, the biggest threats are not the trials themselves. The real threats are those like you and me, other Lifeless. But unlike me, most won’t bother to help each other, they are only willing to cooperate for self gain.”
Finished saying that, Kaleb steps out of the doorway to the right and immediately starts running. Yelling out a “Yeehaw!” As he runs down the hall, his seriousness from moments earlier, gone.
Noah did not bother to think too much about the eccentricity of the man named Kaleb. Only one thing really stuck in his mind.
The words: “Others won’t be like me.” Noah was beginning to doubt that phrase as both the Boon: Fangs (Tier 1) and Kaleb had said it.
Glancing at the diary in his hand once again. Noah contemplates what led him to obtaining it, thinking it was relatively simple enough. Now all he has to do is bring this diary to Natalie.
Who supposedly is in a bandroom, or maybe that is just his misinterpretation of what the Nurse had said. But Noah did not put any extra thought into this. Instead, preferring to act rather than thinking.
Confirming that to himself, Noah had no doubts about what he was supposed to do. Which was to wander the halls until he eventually found the correct room.
Considering how things had gone so far, he shouldn’t face any major difficulties in finding it, only that it may take some time.
Stepping out into the hallway, Noah turns left and begins walking at a fast pace down the hall.
He does not feel threatened by the shadowy figures. If one does appear, he could always just run away or hide from them as they were, in his opinion, not that fast.
Noah’s thoughts begin to drift to other subjects as he walks. Thinking about the odd man named Kaleb.
Even thinking about how many other Lifeless, as they are called, that are roaming the halls like himself.
Noah does not care to run into another Lifeless, as his only lasting opinion of Kaleb was that he was probably a liar. Trying a method of gaining trust by telling him some advice.
There was an ingrained feeling of dislike for people within Noah’s mind. He just knew, for whatever reason, he couldn’t like or trust anyone.
Even if they are the kindest person to him, he believes he could never get over that feeling of disgust he has whenever anyone is too close or too friendly.
As he continues walking, his tongue runs along the now sharp points of his teeth. Many times before, Noah had caught his tongue following the edges of his new teeth.
They feel foreign and odd. But they also felt comforting, like he has always had them. In fact, he cannot even remember what his old teeth were like.
This leads Noah to thinking about the things called boons, how strange they are. The Boon: Fangs (Tier 1) that had spoken to him and even mentioned other things called burdens.
Thinking about all of this was complex, far too complicated for Noah to handle at the moment.
Instead, he simply shakes his head and continues walking down the hall. All he has to do is keep walking until he finds something related to his trial.
Emptying his mind of any useless thoughts, Noah lets his mind drift to nothingness. Aimlessly walking the halls, he exists in a peaceful state of bliss.
Not thinking about what turn he should take or what threats may lie ahead. He simply walks down the hall.
Just existing is enough to keep him content for now. The trial is enough to give him something to occupy his active thoughts.
The goal to complete his current trial is enough to keep him moving forward.
Otherwise, Noah might have just sat down and done nothing. Leaving him with thoughts he would rather avoid.
How long this avoidance will last, is unknown.