VoidHeart

Chapter 1

August 28th

Good Morning citizens of Heartspring and rise and shine everyone. Today, you are listening to the Heartspring (name of channel) with your host (Name of the reporter). The day is shaping to be a great one, and I have what the doctor ordered.

Lost Heart syndrome.

A syndrome that numbs an individual's ability to feel any positive emotions. It reduces the victim to a living vegetable, a zombie full of apathy, depression, and a lack of self-worth. We request those suffering from debilitating levels of apathy to seek a therapist or personal guidance immediately. Psychologists are yet to find a cause but recommend expressing more affection towards loved ones as a safety precaution. So, if you're thinking about breaking up with your lover or getting into any fights, you better hold your horses. I'm not sure I have the 'heart' for this. Ha-ha.

Other than that; have a nice day!

Yikes. I shouldn't be listening to such scary news right now. Sitting on a train all alone in a new town didn't do much to make me feel safe. Especially since I just moved here. Heartspring, California. Mom and Dad have a lot of work back in San Francisco, so I will live with my Chacha from now on. I love them but it's great I don't have to hear "Alia get a life. Alia stops being a drama queen." Anymore. The last thing they said before leaving was I don't pay enough attention to the world, so I've started listening to the radio on my phone. The announcer was such a creep. He said it in a creepy monotone which didn't change regardless of the story. Enjoy saying "Three hundred people died in a fire" and "Happy new year" in the same way. Weren't there any happy news? So, I looked outside and got a sneak peek at what my life would be.

The scenery was beautiful, already a great positive.

I saw the glass as half full. New school, new friends, experiences. Might even find "The One" if I'm lucky. To think I can go out and be with this nature. You don't see beauty like this in big cities. Nobody owned that hills, it was beautiful and peaceful. These kinds of places are meaningful to people because they are natural, and people can be there alone, away from their everyday life. I wanted to go there with my new friends or to dream with my eyes open admiring the blue sky or the clouds. To go there to lie down on the grass, listen to the wind, kiss the flowers and watch the leaves moving. It was hard to go up the hill to get there, but I wanted to see it every day. To see how the color of the leaves changed and to feel the softness of the grass. I would have loved to see it more but the whole scenery whooshed in seconds. Sure, it was a small town but there's still lots I can do here. What's with all the hate?

You have now reached Heartspring. The next train will go in five minutes.

The train stopped. Great! Grabbed my stuff and head out ready for a new adventure. "Hello, Heartspring. I'm Alia."

Then the world darkened. And not in the normal sense.

This wasn't the train station anymore. More like a twisted fun-house mirror version of it. I don't know why but it heightened my senses; making my surroundings feel vivid and surreal. The platform now looks like a murder scene before the crime. Floors dirty and grey like they haven't been clean in years. A crumpled ball of paper in mid-air flight to nowhere, still. The color was gone from this world. Like living through a camera filter. The people gone, the second-hand clock wasn't ticking, and I had no phone reception. I held my hand out to feel for the movement of air but there it was none. Everything went from bright and happy to sad and dull. I didn't like it, not one bit. It was lonely over here; I wished I had something to keep me company.

I should have been careful of what I wished for. My wish came through but the problem: It was a monster.

The only way to describe the monster was a complete absence of light. A ghost? A demon? The monster in my closet? It had a humanoid body structure, a pile of something given life. Its yellow beady eyes glowing like a lantern. It wasn't blackness; it was nothing at all. He cast no shadow, made no noise, and gave off no odor. There was an inherent creepiness to it, what you feel when an insect lands on your purse. Arms and legs thin as noodles with its sides outlined by a strange dark line. Its feet and hands pointed and lacking any digits, with two black bands around them. The thing was a sick joke. Somebody used black cotton to create the scariest toy, she could make for a Build-A- Scare workshop. It would be cute as a plushie.