Josh absently stares at the message that appeared in front of him
*Pick? Go to the maze or tell her to fuck off? No, really what the fuck is this?*
Josh ignores the pain and opens his eyes. The message disappears as he opens them. His mother looking at him with concern
“Hun? Is everything okay sweetie? You look like you're in pain!”
*What? How could you tell? Mastering the poker face was one of the first things I learned in that profession. It should be flawless*
With no time to reply, the stabbing eye pain kept intensifying to a whole new level. Josh quickly closes his eyes. The message re-appearing in front of him.
[Make your choice, you selfish prick.]
[Go to the maze with your little sister]
[Or]
[Tell her to rightfully fuck off]
*Okay, you fucker. Looks like your a moron, cuz it was already decided that I was going with her to the maze*
When he thinks this out in his mind, the option to go with his sister gets brighter. The rest of the message fades away. As the message fades, so does the pain. Disappearing like it was never there in the first place.
*Fuck, what is going on right now? A lot of this is not making sense. This is supposed to be nothing more than me going down memory lane. Why am I seeing these messages? The better question is, what are these messages?*
As his thoughts intensify, he keeps inhaling the strong food smells that linger in the air, forcing his racing mind to calm down.
*At times like this, I will always be grateful to her for forcing me to master that calming skill*
After taking one more breath and clearing his mind, he realizes that he will probably not be getting any answers or conclusions at the current moment. He opens his eyes again, but instead of seeing his gaming system, his little sisters dark blue eyes are inches away from him again
“Boshie? Are you okay? You keep holding your eye. Did dirt get into them?”
When she mentioned that, Josh realized that he had been holding his head the whole time.
*Either the pain was so horrible that I couldn't control my actions, or, being back into my younger past self is causing me to act subconsciously.*
“Yeah, I’m okay Ellena. Thank you for asking me. That was very kind of you”
Once he calmly says that, not only Ellena, but the whole family stop what they were doing and looked at him with confusion
“Hey dad. Why is Joshie acting so weird right now?”
His younger brothers ask the question that everyone present is currently wondering themselves.
“That’s a good question. Hey, son, did you hit your head or something today? Slept on the wrong side perhaps?”
“Not that we are complaining sweetie. We prefer this side of you! We just want to make sure your okay”
His parents ask him with concern oozing out. But Josh couldn't understand. Why are they acting like this?
*Wow, thats fucking rude to ask. Why are they so confused? Am I acting differently? Of course I am. I’m 28 years old now. I would hope I changed. I don’t even remember how I act in public anymore. What makes you think I remember how I used to be when I was a child?*
“Yeah, I’m okay. Why do you all look so baffled? How am I acting differently?”
*Wait, why can’t I just tell them that this is all a dream? That I'm currently passing out because of blood loss?*
But before he could open his mouth, the unspeakable eye pain returned with a vengeance. Josh quickly closes his eyes, the weird messages appeared in the darkness
[Warning, informing the pass of future events will lead to a sudden and extremely painful death]
*What? What do you mean to inform the past? This is nothing more than a dream right? I’m just reliving my old memories…*
After reading the new message and thinking his questions out loud, the pain disappeared with a new messages over taking the previous one
[User will be able to have 3 questions answered when system levels up]
*Level up? The hell? There are levels now?*
With silence as his answer to his questions, he opens his eyes. He glances at his family that are still looking at him like he's a rare and extinct animal.
*Forget it, let's just take this as my last supper kind of thing. I’ll just enjoy this till either I wake up, die, or something else happens*
With coming to a satisfying conclusion for now, he looks at Ellena and Jared
“Well, let's go to this corn maze. I can’t remember the last time I had the chance to enjoy one. Are you coming too Jared?”
His parents looked at each other, speaking through their eyes. His father then seriously ask his wife
“Honeybee, am I dreaming right now? Did Josh finally see the light? Pinch me”
“As you wish my love”
His mother walks over to his father and pinches him on his cheek, after that she plants a light kiss on his lips
“Welp, I’m not dreaming! We are eating out tonight!”
His father then grabs hold of his wife, planting a deep kiss on her cheek.
“EWWW no one wants to see that! YUCK”
Ellena playfully yells out, grabbing Jared by his hand and dragging them towards the corn maze, leaving Josh and their parents behind. Josh watches them leave for a moment before looking towards his parents
“I'll keep an eye on them. Both of you enjoy your surprise date. After we are done with the maze, we will go inside that red barn over there. Based on how big the maze looks, I’ll say that it’ll take about 30 minutes to find the exit. Sounds good?”
“Sure…..Josh, I need to ask dude, What happened? Your never this…easy going”
His mother asks him sweetly, leaning in the chest of her husband. Enjoying the warmth it brings her. Both physically and mentally.
“I would say nothing but that's a lie”
He then stares at his father
“Guess I just saw the light?”
With a quiet laugh, Josh then follows his siblings, leaving his parents speechless behind him.
He watches his siblings hold hands and avoid all the strangers, giving them massive space as they jog past them. As he stares at them, the shadows of who….No….What they will become form around their tiny bodies.
Josh’s eyes gravitate towards Jared first. His short red hair, incredibly handsome face that makes every woman or girl blush when they see him. His blue eyes that always glimmer in the light that gives the impression that he is staring straight at your soul when he looks at you.
*Jared…Fuck man. Why did you join a fucking gang? That mark on your hand belongs to the tribals. What is with your fucking desguesting taste for children? They are the most innocent and loving creatures alive. I hate the fact that when I die, I’ll be meeting you in hell. I can’t believe you were choking a kid with no remorse. I had to fucking kill you man. God what have I done? Just what happened to you in the 5 years after I left the family?*
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
He tries his hardest, but he can’t stop a single tear from escaping his eyes. It disappeared as fast as it came. After taking a deep breath of the nearby food smells, he is able to fully get his emotions under control again. Next he looks at Ellena. Her long, gorgeous red hair that goes all the way to the bottom of her lower back. When he glances at her face as she turns to talk to Jared, he can see her thin eyelashes that drag people's vision to her deep ocean eyes. A petite nose with a hint of caramel skin tone. A face that will one day steal over 10 million people hearts and make her filthy rich
Ellena…You're so sweet and kind right now. A smile so bright, happy, and innocent. I didn’t sense any type of malice or superiority in your eyes. You are such a bitch in the future. Treating every male as a walking ATM machine. You used your looks to marry the rich then divorced them soon after. Perhaps the saying “absolute power absolutely corrupts” must have been true for beauty too. Or it could be that when treated as a queen, people start to act like one?*
A sigh escapes him when he thinks about the future. His thoughts then wander to his parents and the intense, jolly love they were not afraid to express to one another. His father's bright red hair and handsome face are an exact copy of Jared. The scar enhances his looks. His mothers long strawberry hair that also reaches her lower back. Her blue eyes are a shade lighter than Ellena. The mother and daughter duo could easily be on the cover of a fashion magazine.
*They look so happy and in love. I don’t remember the last time they openly expressed the massive amount of love they had for one another in public, or in front of us in general. I always recall the heavy and tired look in their eyes that they always carried*
Josh shakes his head slightly, washing away all the negative emotions that were building up once again. He then glances back at his younger siblings, giggling and pointing at each other as they poise in front of mirrors that are standing up against one of the many stalls nearby. Ellena looks over at Josh and waves
“Boshie Bishie look! Bear is so fat! And look at me, I’m so skinny! Hehehe”
“I’m not fat! Look, look, when we switch places I get skinny and you get fat!”
“Yeah? Well in this mirror I get tall!”
“Yeah? In this mirror I get small! Wait, that's a bad thing! I don’t wanna get smaller!”
Josh watches them go to the next pair of mirrors, laughing and enjoying themselves. He gets in front of a mirror and gets a good look at what he looks like. Brown hair that reaches the bottom of his ears. Hazel eyes that change from blue to green depending on how the light hits it. His extremely average facial features gives him no bonus points to the opposite sex either.
*Looks like even back then, It was apparent that I was different from the rest of my family. If there’s one thing I learned in this profession, the saying blood is thicker than water is complete bullshit. I almost can’t believe I let this be one of the driving factors that led to me leaving. But what hurt more was the non-caring eyes they all gave me in the end*
With another sigh, he shakes his head with more force then he would normally use
*What the fuck is going on with me right now? Why am I thinking so fucking negative? I thought I got over this shit a long time ago. Is the guilt of killing Jared affecting me that much? Or is it because I know that this is a memory and that we will never be this way ever again? Either way I need to get over this shit already. I should enjoy this moment*
With that, he walks behind his siblings and watches his physical features get distorted
“You know, that these mirrors show your future selves? To think that even though you two are identical twins, your future selves will end up so different?”
“Joshie?? That can’t be true!”
With horror taking over his face, Jared bolts away from the mirror, taking Ellena with him
“Boshie! There’s no way that's true! Is it?”
“You two are so gullible, haha, of course that's not true! The mirror reflects light. As it reflects off the mirror and into your eyes, it leads to these weird shapes. Look at these two mirrors, the subtle curves in it changes on how the light gets reflected”
Josh enjoys watching their reactions fluctuate between shock, betrayal, to interest.
*And this is why people will always have a weak spot for children. They wear their emotions on their sleeves and are not currupted from this fucking world*
After pulling their legs, they continue down to the corn maze. Both Ellena and Jared attention getting pulled in all directions as they passed all the stalls.
*This place is way more popular than I remember…I think. I don’t recall seeing all these stalls. Makes me wonder if I was subconsciously remembering all this, or if there really is something else going on. After all, things do seem a little too lifelike. The smells in the air. The feeling of the wind as it flows past me. I can feel all of this like I’m actually here. Perhaps I need to seriously think of those 3 questions I apparently have after the system levels up. I wonder how it levels up though. I can think of a lot of things that could possibly level it up. If this was an RPG kind of game, then it would need experience points. If I go by that logic, then I wonder how I acquire this experience.*
As his thoughts wonder, he never took his attention away from his siblings as they enjoy themselves. He watches them wander from stall to stall. Seeing their eyes glimmer with excitement. Ellena eyes glowed the most when she saw stuff animals, while Jared interest aliened with action figures, balls, and yo-yos.
*They are so easy to read and understand. Makes me wonder if they even know how to lie yet. Probably not, they are like 6 right now. Makes me almost wish they stay this way forever. While they are preoccupied, let's think of those 3 questions. Question 1 would have to be if this is real or not. Did I go to the past like it implied? If so then why? Another question would be how it levels up. Then I guess the last question would be how could I acquire more questions?*
As the siblings got closer to the maze entrance, they watched some of the workers hand out a paper and pencil to other children as they walked into the maze. Saying something and pointing to a massive booth that had every kind of toy you could imagine on it. After their speech, the workers would then look at some of the kids' arms/hands. Or the kids would hand something to the workers before receiving the paper and pencil.
Josh on other hand started to count all the cops and other guards nearby
*If I do a rough estimate, there are probably around 200 people here. Which means that there should only be 30 guards max. I haven't smelled or seen any kind of alcohol. So that number should be lower*
“Boshie, do you know what they are doing or talking about?”
With Ellena question bring his attention to the workers at the entrance, he focuses his sight on their lips, reading them and getting the general idea of what they were saying
“I can’t hear them but I can give an educated guess based on their movements and by reading their lips”
Jared then looks over at him with sparking eyes
“You can do that? Since when?”
“Who cares?! I’m more curious about what they are saying!”
“Oh yeah! Good point sis! What are they saying Joshie?”
“Well”
Josh squats down to their height and points at the massive toy booth
“It looks like you need to fill out that paper they are handing out. Once you do, you are able to get a prize from there”
Once he looks back at the twins, he see excitement glowing with intense light
“That means I can get a stuffed animal? NO WAY!”
“Stuff animal? I want that action figure!”
When the siblings went to the entrance of the maze, Josh starts to search his pant pockets, seeing what he has on hand
*I should have mentioned that you need money or some kind of stamp to get the paper and pencil. I should have some cash on me. I always did after all. I hope this habit formed when I was this young*
In one pocket he had his gaming system, in his back left pocket he has a wallet with 4 turtles in fighting poses on it
*Holy shit I had this when I was this young? I guess this really was my first ever wallet. Dad was right after all. Fuck I still have this on my nightstand even now. Those turtles were so badass when I was younger. To bad the media banned this cartoon for enforcing violence or some bull shit like that*
After fiddling around with it, Josh pulls out a single dollar and a few coins that were hidden in the zipper pocket.
*A dollar and 23 cents. This should be enough right? Money went a lot further during this time period*
After waiting for their turn for a few moments, it was their turn to enter the maze
“Good morning you three! My goodness you two are so adorable!”
The worker bends down and attempts to talk to the twins. But instead of talking, they held each other's hand with more force and subtly looked at Josh with slightly fear in their eyes.
*What the fuck is this? Why are they so scared all of a sudden?....Now that I think about it. They were giving strangers a wide berth as they walked past them. I thought they were just being considerate. Is there something more going on?*
With no hesitation, Josh walks in front of them, putting himself between them and the worker. After making sure they are safely behind him, he replies to the worker in a polite tone
“Sorry about that. They are not great with strangers. How much for the paper and pencil? And if so, could you tell me what we need to do to earn a reward from that toy stall?”
After realizing his mistake, the worker backs up with a slight apology
“I’m so sorry about that. Being wary of strangers is a good thing for them to know. It will cost you 50 cents for one paper and pencil. 1 dollar would get you two sets. What you need to do is find the 5 statues in the maze and write down the words that are written on them. Once you have them all, hand the paper over to a worker at the stall. They will look it over and if everything is filled out, you are allowed to grab one item”
Josh then hands over his dollar and gets two paper and pencils. After thanking the worker he gently guides the twins to the maze. Once they were far enough away, they bolted past Josh and went to the first interaction. Ellena looked back at him with her tongue sticking out’
“You meanie! You knew that we needed money!”
“Yeah! And instead of buying just one paper for yourself, you decided to bully us by buying two!”
*What the actual fuck are they talking about? I bought them for you two little shits*
“What are you talking about? I got them for you two?”
Shock and mistrust spreads on the twins as they listen to him
“You're lying! You would never spend your money on us!”
“Yeah! Unless the money belonged to mom and dad!”
*Huh? Why are they being like this?....I really wish I remember how I used to be at this point*
Once Josh saw just how much they distrusted him, he sighed and took the easy way out of this conversation
“Yep, Dad slipped me a few bucks just in case. When did you get so smart, Jared?”
Jared subconsciously puffs his chest out and replies
“I was always smart! You're the one who gets low grades!”
“What Bear said! You're the one who always gets grounded for bad grades!”
*Now that they mentioned it, I never did well in school, did I?*
With another sign, he walks up to them and forcefully hands them the paper and pencils. Once they grabbed it, he went left.
“C'mon midgets, we only have 25 minutes left of freedom before we need to meet mom and dad in the red barn”
“WHAAAAT? YOU TELL US NOW!!!”
Josh blocks his ears as Ellena yells this out at him with a horror expression. After confirming that he won't be losing his hearing today, he removes his hands and keeps walking with a laugh
“Yep, let's go! I know a trick that will allow us to see all parts of this railroad maze at a reasonable amount of time”