Adrastos

Chapter 9

Mason jerked upright, he was at home in his bed. Were the trip and everything that followed just a dream? He got out of bed, pacing back and forth, "I'm tired of being weak, the one that suffers from messed up nightmares, why me huh, why, me?" he yelled.

A knock on the glass stopped his movement. At first, he thought it was the window until he heard another knock come from the mirror. His reflection smiled eerily back at him, slowly cocking its head to the side, its hair longer and more untidy with a face paler than his own.

Mason punched the mirror out of impulse, but his reflection caught his fist, stepping into his room like the mirror was liquid. " What you want from me?" Mason scoffed as he ripped his hand from evil him.

"Nothing, just want you to know the truth," his reflection hissed.

"What truth?"Mason inquired, failing to keep the quiver out of his voice as he rubbed his hand, shit his reflection had a strong grip.

"The truth about your past that your mind is trying to block out," he cajoled.

"My past? "Mason said in disbelief. What was his reflection talking about?

"Look," evil Mason pointed at his forehead.

"It was the scar I had since birth from a surgery to save me," Mason explained.

" Not entirely true." 

"Why should I believe you?" Mason argued.

"Oh, don't, but you'd believe your memory, will you not? " he coaxed.

Before Mason could ask how, he dropped into a black hole until his back hit into a soft bed, much smaller than his own. The room was blue with a spider man painted in front of him. Steve was rushing him to grab his things, they were moving out. The night was old. The room looked so familiar yet strange. A small single bed spiderman bed sheets, and a toy train moving along tracks. His dad was younger than what Mason remembered no grey hair or beard. Steve was impatient, so he dragged Mason, "where are we going?" Mason drawled, his voice soft and sweet like honey, child-like.

They were moving in a rush as if there was a natural disaster heading their way. Steve quickly shoved all his belongings into a bag, throwing them next to Mason's seat.

Mason climbed into the car, something wasn't right. He glanced at the mirror, seeing himself in the reflection. He was 10 years old, his forehead scar-free. None of this made sense.

Steve jumps into the driver seat and hoots impatiently. A woman with short brown hair and a maroon dress left the house in a hurry. She jumped into the car after running back and forth as if she was forgetting something, "it's going to be okay, Mason," she reassured, kissing his forehead, warmness filled him. He instinctively knew that she was his mom.

"press it!" she urged Steve. Without further due, Steve stepped on the gas a bit too harshly, causing the car to skid a little on the takeoff.

"What's wrong, Molly. I thought we were safe here— how could they find us so soon?" Steve asked concerned.

"I'm not sure, but they did," she answered. "I had a dream about it. They coming to kill us all. Tonight," Molly added, her voice began to break.

"Shhh," Steve said, pointing to Mason, who was scared out of his mind. He thought his dad said that his mom died when he was born.

Molly turned around her seat, staring at Mason with her grey eyes. He could have sworn, her eyes changed from greyish to emerald. Once their eyes locked, he couldn't look away, he tried, but it was impossible. That was until Steve played a song and all of a sudden, they were having a blast, dancing to Keith Sweat. Seated beside him was evil him, holding a finger on his dark lips, "shhh," he smirked at Mason as he blew a kiss towards his parents, causing the illusion to fade away.

He then turned back time to when Molly looked away from Mason, continuing her conversation with Steve. "It's done he can't hear us," she said quietly.

"Good," Steve chirped, "So now, what did you see in the dream?"

"They sent assassins to kill us while we were sleeping. Everyone was dead before they got to me, " Molly informed, her voice hoarse, tears falling uncontrollably, "all I ever wanted was... a life for Mason, not this."

"It's going to be okay. We'll move somewhere in New York, get new identities. We'll be normal or act like it."

"I hope it'll work out like... "

An SUV came at full speed smashing into them. Mason saw a white light forcing his eyes shut.

His eyes shot open with pain, just in time to see the car spin. Tires screeched as it lost balance, capsizing. Mason was glued to the ground, blood covered his face and eyes. He needed to get up and save his parents but failed to do so. Mason's evil self walked slowly and gave him a hand. He stood up and found his younger self still on the ground, face bloodied, legs bruised, and unconscious.

Evil Mason then reminded Mason of his parents and pointed to the car, showing Molly who was struggling to get out. The doors of the SUV opened slowly. Mason stared, searching for answers. Evil him smiled back before revealing two guys who jumped out of the SUV, throwing gasoline around the car and lighting it with his parents in it. Mason watched his parents burn in agony.

"No, stop it, save them," Mason begged, but no one came. He begged evil him to save them.

He screamed for it to stop. He couldn't watch, so he shut his eyes but couldn't shut the sounds of his parents' screams. He woke up yelling at the top of his lungs with his back on his bed.

Mason never goes to sleep but keeps waking up. He glanced at Steve, who sat next to him waiting for him to calm down, but that just made things worse. He jumped to a far corner of his room, "Who are you? " Mason asked, demanding answers.

" I'm your dad. What are you talking about? " he answered. Whatever or whoever this guy was needed to get an Oscar for the surprised look he had on his face. Steve slowly walked towards Mason.

"No! You and mom were killed," Mason scoffed, but his voice fell soft when he said, mom.

Steve stopped dead in his tracks, "oh, you remembered," he said with a ghost of a smile, "how unfortunate."

"Who are you, " Mason repeated softly. 'oh, you remembered' repeated in the back of his mind. His dad just died in front of him, no years ago, but he forgot. That means what he just witnessed was true. He never even had the chance to say goodbye or at least an I love you.

"Honestly, I'm no one," Steve admits, bringing Mason out of his head.

"What you talking about?"

"I only exist because of you," Steve explained.

"You're not making sense," Mason murmured, his head was spinning. Too much was going on too fast. His mind could barely keep up.

" I can't... I don't have much time," Steve said, falling to his knees. Mason rushed to give him support, but Steve fell through his hands, slowly fading away. Was this a dream?

"Bye Mason, it was an honour serving you," Steve said his words sounded a bit rushed.

Mason was now holding air. Tears dropped into his hands. He lost his father twice in one day.

A black shadow appeared behind him, placing his shadow hand on Mason's shoulder in an act to console him, but Mason jerked forward, back to the furthest corner, a good couple feet away from the stranger.

The black shadow morphed into evil Mason, with an evil smile. "You again! Who are you? "Mason asked, feeling like he asked that about 50 times today.

" Epiales," he said proudly as he morphed back to black smoke. He had a hood made of smoke over his head, smoke in and out with irises red as the Devils.

"Apple-less? A feel less? " Mason blurted out, holding back a laugh.

" Epiales, E, p, i, a, l, e, s. "

" You actually spelled it out, great. Okay. Hi er, Epiales," Mason drawled, "did you or Freddy kill those people?"

" Freddy? Freddy is just a fictional character that Wes Craven created for a movie, a movie that you've watched, " he corrected, "oh, and yes. I killed those people."