Echoes of the Abyss

Echoes of The Abyss: The Encounter (Part 1)

The day felt like any other. Jaden slowly opened his eyes as he woke up, and realising it was a Sunday, he groaned softly under the covers of his slightly worn-out blanket. Sunday meant that that he would be doing work all day, then when he was done, he would still have to go for a tennis session with his dad. Only after the tennis sessions was he truly free to do whatever he wanted by himself in his bedroom. Jaden got out of bed and had the same breakfast that he always would have. Two slices of warm toast and butter. It might not have been the tastiest, but it got the job done. Suddenly, the voice he dreaded every morning rang through the hallway. "Jaden, do one of the practice papers, now!" his dad's voice echoed in his mind, and it felt as if something was cutting deep into his body every time his dad yelled like that. He reluctantly rustled through the huge stack of practice papers, let out a disappointed sigh, and began doing his work. This is how every day would go, and he was sick of it. All he wanted was to enjoy his holidays with his friends all day, but because he failed one exam for his finals, they wouldn't give him a break. "I'm sure dad wouldn't mind if I just... checked my emails for five minutes..." Jaden muttered under his breath as he cautiously opened his laptop. He made sure to keep an eye out for the one he dreaded the most at the corner of his eye as he scrolled through his texts and emails. Most of them were scam emails, but one stood out to Jaden in particular. It wasn't a telemarketing ruse like the others, it read "Cwrqv, lrm'jj ulif aoxsvt vnlsd erljr qtaidy, U qoia bhq gbmaw 3 zczkz wlrmmqpg wawh avr gsm ytsoans xy gbxkosxn, nuw mtn vosy..." What it meant; he didn't know. He just shrugged it off as one of his friends trying to prank him. Though, he did have a sinking feeling that the message was much, much more than he thought. As if... someone was trying to communicate with him but somehow...

After a while of trying to think about what the message really meant, his dad walked out of his room and caught Jaden off guard as he picked up the practice paper Jaden was supposed to do with a crackling noise filling the room as he swiftly yet forcefully slammed it on his table. Jaden was shocked to his core, never anticipating the sudden snap. Jaden could feel the angry breaths of his dad on his body. The scolding was so severe that even with the door locked you could probably still make out every single word his dad was yelling at him. This went on for the next couple of minutes, with Jaden's heart beating faster every second. He wished that he was back in kindergarten, a simpler time when everything was much more carefree, and he could be with his best friend in kindergarten, Mieliala. He just called him Miel for short, though. Although Jaden can't remember exactly how Miel looked, they were still best friends. He would always be sad when Jaden was sad, mad when Jaden was mad, and was just like Jaden in lots of ways. He was always there with Jaden, and even though the other classmates seemed to ignore Miel, Jaden could see him. They would hang out all the time and were inseparable. Those times felt better. Even the tennis sessions were less stressful when he was younger. Smaller courts, bigger groups, lower expectations, everything felt so much better than it is in the present. He had so many fond memories of kindergarten, eating oranges every day for snack break, always comparing heights and celebrating when he was the tallest, going swimming with his friends in his free time, typing all his answers out in yellow as it was his favorite color and his teacher didn't mind, he even had his favorite kazoo which he would play while his friends danced around him. "What better days..." Jaden thought. His dad, after what felt like an eternity, left the room to leave Jaden to his work. The door was slammed shut, while Jaden still had a few tears on his cheeks. Why couldn't he turn back time and experience kindergarten one last time? This thought rang through his head more times than he could count. He started to get overwhelmed, and soon burst into tears as he sunk his head into his pillow.

Out of nowhere, when he looked up from his pillow, he saw something. His heart stopped as he stared at it. It was a figure that looked somewhat familiar to Jaden, except shrouded in black with glowing red eyes, standing at the end of his bed. The figure stared at Jaden with a smile on its face, as if waiting for Jaden to say something. Jaden sprang up from his bed and leaned against the wall, his heart racing. "W-what? What the hell are you? Why are you in my bedroom? S-stay back!" The smile on the figure's face turned into a frown, its eyes still shining red, this time with a hint of disappointment. "You don't remember me?" it said in a weird mix of low pitch and high pitches. "That's okay... I just wanted to pay you a visit, don't you see?" A look of confusion was on Jaden's face. The frown turned back into a smile. "Don't act dumb with me. We both know you're terrible at that. You're much different compared to when you were younger. Your grades have been going down, haven't they? You've started neglecting to do your homework, hiding results from your parents, lying to them daily, you used to be such a good kid... what happened, Jaden? What happened to you? You've been feeling empty, I know that much. You wish to go back... to how it used to be." Jaden was feeling anxious. "I-I don't know what you're talking about! Go away, you're scaring me!" The figure started cackling. "You think I'm going to go that easily? Foolish, like you've always been. Ever since day one you've been ignorant of everything around you. You used to be such a good friend to others and used to be such a happy person. Why have you changed? Why are you such a sad person now? Is it because you failed an exam? Is it because you constantly disappoint your father? Pathetic. Going back is impossible, Jaden. Stop trying to fight it." "No... I gave up those memories long ago... I don't know what you're talking about..." Jaden muttered under his breath. "Denial isn't going to help you, Jaden. You of all people should know that. Your parents are approaching, so you get a lucky break. But don't expect me not to come back, remember, you can't run forever..." Jaden rubbed his eyes, and when he opened them, the figure vanished as if it was never there. After he talked to his mom, who barged in without any warning, he went back to his laptop. He copied the text from the weird email he found earlier and put it in a google drive folder he made to put information that he didn't want but wanted to keep safe anyway just in case. "Hm... there we go." But then, he noticed something else in his google drive, something he didn't put there. It was text that read a weird string of numbers and dashes... He didn't know what to do with it and deleted it as a result. "Ugh... what just happened..."

tinyurl.com/jadenstrashfolder