New Normal: A MyStreet FanFic

Part 6.5

Aaron knew that there was something important he was missing out on.

First, it was the looks of his friends. They would look at him with pity and sorrow, as if he had lost something.

Then, it was Aphmau always starting conversations with him, only for her to walk away.

Lastly, it was those creepy red eyes. His vision suddenly became too clear, as if he never lost his eyesight at all. And he could see his mysterious huge purple scars.

Everything was a mystery to him, and he hated it. He knew now that the people with him had answers, but they just wouldn't tell him. And he didn't understand that.

As Aphmau and Melissa left the house, he couldn't help but feel bitter about it all. He felt like they cast him aside, and they only took care of him because he was hurting.

He was only here because he was hurting.

Anger swelled within him. Why couldn't they just tell him in person?

"I find it really scary that she's hiding a lot from me, honeycakes," Sylvana mumbled to Eric. They were behind him, speaking loudly as if he was never there. "There's still so much I don't understand from her."

Aaron heard a small smooch. "I understand, but we can't force her to tell us when she's not ready. It's like our relationship. It took us a lot of time before telling Aph and Katelyn."

"Right, but I want to help her. I want to be there for her, but she keeps avoiding me. Maybe she's. . .pushing me away. . ."

"We can only wait, sugar pie. We can only wait."

Aaron could only sigh as they slowly resumed their normal activities. She was right; Aph was hiding a lot of secrets. And he was right; he couldn't force her to tell him.

But he had gotten tired of waiting.

And why does he care so much about her anyway? Does he like her, or something?

He scratched his head. Strange. Strange, indeed. . .

-

He had remembered something important, and so that was how he ended up back in his bedroom. This time, he was at the small table beside his bed, opening a laptop.

Melissa had brought Aaron a laptop after her numerous PR stunts, much to her dismay. He had expressed his worries numerous times, because he couldn't use it properly but still insisted that he needed it. As a compromise, Melissa had kept the narrator feature on. Still, being blind made typing excessively slow. Luckily, over time, he slowly mastered the use of it.

How he wished that he has his red eyes on. I'm still looking for that on-and-off switch, he thought.

In the meantime, he would have to navigate through his blindness. He had gone through this several times as practice rounds. He had placed the game icon on the same spot on the laptop.

He clicked it and the game opened. He heard the iconic ping that brought back a fog of memories he couldn't decipher.

Then came the typing of account details. This was where he had stopped. For many days he racked his brain for some semblance of an answer, but it still escaped him. That was, until last night, when he suddenly remembered his username and password.

Talk about timing.

Aaron typed in the details and accessed the account. A variety of sound effects greeted him, but he couldn't recognize the visuals and their purposes anymore. All that mattered to him now was the friends list.

Shu had to be there somewhere. He remembered her loving this game. They had done everything in this game together.

And he wanted to do everything again in real life too.

So he clicked on numerous things, hoping that it was the friends list. After a while, his cursor hovered on an in-game name of someone else he didn't know now.

He made it scroll down and let the narrator mention every name on the friends list. But then it stopped on the name he was most familiar with.

Shu.

He hovered to the friend status.

Offline over 90 days ago.

He slammed the table in frustration. It must had been so loud, if it made someone open the door.

"Is everything okay in there, Aaron? Did you bump onto something?"

"No," he replied, trying not to sound dejected. "I'm fine. Everything's fine."

-

Later that night, he had another one of those dreams.

He was standing in a snowy place. There was nothing but white all around. Sometimes, it was a blizzard or rain, but this time, it was just gentle snow. It would always be the same expanse, but there would always be small changes in the background.

Aaron wandered idly, fiddling with his fingers as he walked.

This dream of a snowy wasteland somehow made Aaron more calm and relaxed.

And when he was relaxed, he began to think.

It made sense that Shu wasn't online for a long time. The game was already quite old, and dedicated players were few and far between.

But how was he going to find Shu now? He tried messaging her, but she didn't reply. It was probably just an old number now.

His ears picked up footsteps in the snow. He whirled around and saw the figure approaching him. They had a flowy cloak whose color matched the winter atmosphere.

This always bothered him. The only thing consistent in his dreams was that figure, approaching him.

But unlike before, the figure was now right beside him.

"You have sharp ears," she said, her voice soothing and kind. She brushed her hand on his void scars. "And so much hurt."

He snorted softly in response.

"You must be wondering who I am, but that's not important." She removed her cloak, revealing a face that weirdly looked like. . .Aphmau.

She smiled. "What's more important is who are you."

"Do you know?" he asked quietly.

"I do," she admitted. "But this you must find out on your own."

"Why?"

"It's not because we don't want to tell you. It's because your mind would be torn apart if we told you all at once. And believe me, that is not much better than unhealable scars."

His heart felt heavier when she confirmed these scars were unhealable.

She gently cupped Aaron's face. "But take heart, brave soldier. The war is already over. All you need to do is take the heavy steps home." She let go and turned away from him.

"Could you give me a clue? Something that would help me answer my questions?" he pleaded.

She turned back to him and smiled. "It's time for you to hit the books, as they would say. Read your fairy tales."

And with that, she walked away from him, and faded away into the curtain of snowfall.