Cipher

One

Xander. I hear someone whisper, fierce yet low. Only I hear that name, because it is meant for me. Xander, the voice says into the quiet darkness, the sound echoing, bouncing off the nonexistent walls in this inky conundrum I'm lost in. 

I know that voice.

"Xander," the voice repeats. I wait, unable to move, unable to watch out for where the voice is coming from. I know that voice. I know it. My impossibly numb mind just cannot figure it out, every moment spent fearsomely quick. I feel as if time is sand spilling out of my fingers- I find myself unable to stop it from spilling away.

"You left me."

I turn, and the dark seems to carry a weight, pulling me under, making it harder and harder to breathe. Still, I turn, my blood running cold, every inch of me becoming numb by the minute, my heart beating violently against my ribs. The sound of water dripping echoes from somewhere afar. 

Drip. Drip. Drip.

"Xander."

I jump as my heart slams into my throat. I can feel a phantom breath hitting the back of my neck- cold, so cold. 

Hands shaking, I force myself to slowly turn around, force myself to listen. To watch.

A boy appears in front of me. His brown hair is tangled, standing every which way, his even darker eyes watching me, unblinking, the spark lost from them. His plaid shirt hangs limply off his bony shoulders, his trousers held up by a single length of yarn, fraying all around his waist. He is barefoot.

His lips are pouting, cracked and bleeding as he stands there watching me. "You left me," he repeats, a sad smile tilting his lips.

I want to reach out, I want to hold him to me, I want to never let him go. 

And yet, I can only watch, stuck in the thrall of this ebony world. The dark around us seems to have leeched out any sort of life right out of me.

The boy nods, his large eyes never blinking, not even once. He smiles again, that same soulless twitch at the corner of his mouth, until his teeth show, large gaps between his forefront teeth.

It used to whistle, I remember. A shiver runs up my spine.

I close my eyes, unable to watch anymore. My eyes hurt, my entire existence hurts.

"You left me."

Yes, yes I did.

"Open your eyes, Xander."

Breathing hard, I do. I open my eyes to find the boy inches from me.

The next moment, I watch as the skin below his eyes starts to split open on its own, slowly, precisely around the curve, until it looks like he's bleeding out tears. Despite it, his eyes remain unblinking, staring at me emotionless. The split moves until its rounded all around the boy's left eye. The blood flows out in a steady stream down his cheek.

There's a pause. I feel like all the oxygen has been sucked out of my lungs. The boy stands still as stone as his brown eye falls out of the socket, rolling down until it stops inches from my own bare feet.

"You killed me," he says. The blood is freely flowing down his chin onto his shirt, down, down until it begins dripping down the floor too. 

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The boy grins at me, the empty socket of his eye gushing with dark liquid. And I scream.

I jolt awake with myears ringing, breathing hard. It takes everything in me not to pass out as I gulp down the air greedily. My temples drum against my skull in a frantic beat, enough so that I groan against my pillow in frustration. I hug it closer, one arm beneath it, one arm over it. The movement causes the pale nondescript sheets beneath me to sigh.