The Key to Immortality

Chapter 1

"Are you proud of me?" Ember asked Jaxon. Jaxon looked at xem, confused.

"Always, but what exactly are you referring to?" Jaxon replied, looking at his best friend. Ember held up xyr most recent psychology test. Jaxon's eyes widened.

"Wow, you actually passed." Xe nodded.

"Yep! Thanks to all of the studying we did, I was able to pass! I couldn't have done it without your help, though, so thank you." Jaxon smiled.

"Of course, anytime." Ember's smile turned into a smirk.

"You know what this means, right?" Ember asked. Jax sighed.

"It means I have to spend fifteen minutes in that old, quote-unquote 'haunted' asylum in the forest, right?" His friend nodded.

"That's right! And don't try to put it off, we're going after school today, there's no getting out of it." Jax rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," he said. "What time?"

"Whenever you're ready to go!" The bell rang, signaling the start of lunchtime. The two students walked to the dining hall and grabbed their food before they sat down at their usual table.

"Why do you want me to go to that stupid place anyway?"

"Because it's obviously haunted, why else?" xe replied.

"Why should I care if it's haunted? If anything, shouldn't we leave the so-called spirits alone? Let them rest in peace?"

"Okay, the real reason I want you to go there is because I need ideas for my story. I was hoping I could find inspiration there," Ember admitted.

"Then why aren't you going in there? Why me?"

"You are the one that lost the bet, Jax, not me." Jax sighed. They could tell this conversation wasn't going anywhere, so they changed the topic.

"How are the weirdos in your psych class? Are they still bothering you?" His tone was firm and it was clear that he would do something about the situation had it not changed. Ember shook xyr head.

"Nope! They shut up when they realized that I wasn't going to let them cheat off me for the test. I mean, you yelling at them may have had something to do with it, but I doubt it." Xe smiled playfully. Xyr smile was contagious, and Jaxon couldn't help but smile as well. He always smiled when they were together. It didn't matter how shitty his day had been, Ember never failed to make him smile. It's something he loved about xem. Not in a romantic way or anything, just platonically. He was snapped out of his thoughts when said person waved xyr hand in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to Jax? Are you there?" Jaxon's eyes focused back on their friend.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Just got lost in thought, I guess." He looked down at his food.

By the time the final bell rang, Jaxon had completely forgotten about the upcoming visit to the asylum. He only remembered when he saw Ember standing in front of the door to his dorm room.

"What are you doing here, Em?" he asked.

"Did you seriously forget? I'm making sure you don't chicken out, duh."

"Why would I chicken out?" He opened the door and entered his room. "I have nothing to be scared of." Ember smirked, following him inside and shutting the door behind xem.

"Are you sure you're not scared of the ghosts? You seemed awfully reluctant during lunch," xe teased. Jaxon scoffed.

"Don't be silly, ghosts aren't real."

"Oh yeah? Prove it!"

"Prove to me that they are real," Jax retorted. Ember sighed.

"Touche," xe conceded.

"We can head out whenever you want, just let me get changed first." Xe nodded and left the room, standing just outside the door. Jaxon turned to his small closet and took out a more comfortable set of clothes before changing into them. He checked himself in the mirror and left his room. Ember turned to him.

"Ready?" xe asked.

"Ready," he answered.

The journey to the forest is a short one. The whole way there, Jaxon listened to Ember ramble about the history of the asylum. He liked it when xe rambled about things xe were passionate about. He enjoyed hearing xem talk, xyr voice was calming to him. When they arrived at the asylum, he took a moment to take in its appearance. The building was clearly very old. It was crumbling in many places and was overgrown with ivy that nobody had bothered to get rid of. The structure looked sound enough, but the cracks in the walls and the caved-in roof made him uneasy.

"Are you sure this is safe?" he asked his friend. Ember shrugged.

"It doesn't look that dangerous, I'm sure you'll be fine." Jaxon sighed at his friend's carefree attitude. He wasn't mad, that's just the way xe were. Ember takes out xyr phone and pulls up a timer. "It's time," xe said, trying to sound ominous. Jaxon stifled a laugh, walking up to the front door of the asylum.

"Tell me when."

"Time starts whenever you get inside." Jaxon took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The first thing he noticed was the amount of dust. It covered everything—the walls, the floor, the counters, everything. There was dust everywhere. The second thing he noticed was the fact that it looked like the asylum had been closed suddenly. There were still gurneys in the hallways, filing cabinets against the walls, and papers strewn about on the floor. It was as if everything had come to an abrupt stop. He started looking around, wandering further into the building. The first room he entered seemed to be an office of some kind. Maybe this was the warden's office? There were filing cabinets against the walls and old papers on the desk. Jax decided that this room was boring and moved on to the next one.

A few rooms later, Jaxon found a patient room. Glass crunched underneath his boot as he entered the room. There was a wooden bed in the corner of the room and a small bookcase against the wall. The object that caught his eye, though, was a journal. An old, leather book sitting perfectly in the center of the room. He felt drawn to it, so he knelt down and picked it up. The moment his fingers brushed the leather, a wave of emotions crashed over him. Fear, anger, sadness—they overwhelmed him. He didn't know where these emotions came from and he froze, still kneeling in front of the book. It was as if he was in a trance. He didn't know how much time had passed until he heard Ember's voice calling out to him.

"Jax? Jax?? Jax?! Where are you?" Hearing xyr voice freed him from his trance and he was able to respond.

"I-In here!" Xyr footsteps drew closer until xe were standing in the doorway of the room, staring at him with concern in xyr eyes.

"Are you okay? You've been in here for an hour. It's getting dark." He looked over his shoulder at xem.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry I made you worry," he said, picking up the book and standing up. Xyr face softened and xe took his hand.

"Come on, let's go back to the dorms." Jaxon nodded and followed them out of the building, walking back towards the dorms.