Star gods, sometimes what you see, the characters cannot. The '[]' is for your eyes only. And sometimes, they can glimpse into what you see, and they fear it. They fear it enough to wake up.
"Ah!-" The boy jolts up, his blond hair ruffles as he sits up, shuddering as he calms down from the dream.
'What the hell? What kind of dream was that?' His thoughts seem to calm him down, his breath slowing and his sweat drying up. His ears caught something as he stretched.
As he runs his fingers through his hair, his mother calls out from his slightly jarred door, "Marcy, sweetie, it's time to wake up!"
"I'm up! Let me get ready!" Shuffling off from his bed, the morning light seemed to drip through the curtains, glinting off of picture frames hanging off his walls and trophies on a wall shelf.
Fully stretching his body, walking towards the door, his eyes stop at the full body mirror near the cabinet on the left side. The light brings a soft glow that makes his pale skin look more alive, his brown eyes seem to look older than what he actually was, 17, he didn't know why.
He snatched his phone from a table near the door. Turning on the phone, he checks his charge first before his eyes move down to the time, [8]:30, 'oh.' Monday. '...oh.' he was [late]. Nervousness rose up inside of him as he began changing into his school uniform, almost formal enough to be a suit but almost teetering on the edge of it.
Marcen swung the door open after fully changing and ran down the stairs, skidding to a stop at the dinner table to where three figures sat, already digging into breakfast..
Would they seem so familiar to Marcen, he had to stop and register their appearance. Why could Marcen not recognise them immediately.
A man and woman sat opposite of each other, both looking in their late 30's, early 40's and a young girl, near 13~14, sitting beside the woman, eating the breakfast on the table, which, if we are being real, looks like a whole feast, slightly toned down yet would still be considered as one.
The young girl, her dirty blonde hair reaching her shoulders, stops eating as she turns to look at Marcen, the same coloured eyes signify their connection, "Look who decided to show up early for once!" She said as she smiled, annoyed? Rude? Gentle? There were multiple emotions in it, how could it not when Emily was someone Marcen cared about, even if she was annoying.
"Sweetie, it's time to eat now, come sit beside mama." The one who spoke up was the older woman, the same voice that Marcen heard, his mother, shining brown hair, soft brown eyes, slightly darker skin than his own. Something in him felt sad, pained, happy, teary, yet nothing came out, he didn't know why, but he decided to ignore it for now and just listened to her.
"R-right, uh, shouldn't we go to school now, Emily?" Marcen said as he began eating, staring at Emily as she ate, looking up, she had this face that would embarrass anyone with how stupid they sounded, "Huuuuh? Ya crazy? It's like 7, why the hell would I go that early?"
Marcen, confused and slightly annoyed, took out his phone again and, wouldn't you know it, 7:30. Marcen was staring at his phone blankly, 'it said 8:30 minutes ago… what the hell?' before he put it back in his pocket and just ate while grumbling. "Moron." Emily whispered before she continued eating. All that was heard now was the clatter of utensils against plates and chewing. This moment, it made Marcen feel whole again, he didn't know why.
It was peaceful, a stark contrast to what he could classify as a night terror. His thoughts began to drift as he ate, towards the dream, it felt so real. Marcen glanced up, everyone was still eating but no one had talked. Looking back down at his plate, he continued eating.
"Done, I'll finish getting ready." The one who broke that silence was Emily, standing up and walking away. Something felt off in his heart, seeing her walk away, something that made him feel as if he should be grieving. What was wrong with you, Marcen.
♤
He finished eating and got up after sometime later, standing in the bathroom and in front of a mirror, he looked at himself. Why did he feel wrong, he didn't know.
Even after washing, combing his hair, and brushing his teeth, everything felt wrong. Turning to leave the bathroom, his reflection did not move, staring at the back of his head as he walked before turning into a shifting mass of flesh. Closing the door behind him, Marcen walked downstairs, seeing his sister waiting for him at the door.
"Could you hurry up!" She yelled as she caught his figure coming down the staircase. Reaching the door, Marcen put his shoes on as Emily smacked the back of his head, "Making me late then talking about how we 'ArE GoInG tO be LaTe.'" Her tone was clear mockery, causing Marcen to breathe out in annoyance.
The two left soon after, luckily they were both in high school so they could walk the same path. Well, if you had a sibling, you'd either be glad or pissed off that you had to share a walk with them.
It didn't take much—〔PASSWORD : ■ ACCEPTED. Log6 start〕
「Time.
Request denied.
"But I need to."
Concept: Time. Request denied.
"If I don't, they will die to those… things."
…
"Please, Console."
Request pending.
Time.」
〔Log6 end〕—to reach the school. Marcen, patting the head of Emily, spoke in a calm yet worried voice, "Don't cause much trouble now," While slightly intensifying the pat, "Yeah! Yeah! Stop that! It's embarrassing!" She pushed his hand away before running towards the school, hiding a smile.
"Marc!" A voice broke the small silence as Marcen turned around to see [Deleted], his best friend. "Dude! What's up!" Marcen said joyfully as he dapped him up. There it was again, Marcen, that feeling of grief, of sadness, missing them again. "Soz, woke up late! What about you? You're usually later than me! You're pretty early today!" Again, there was something that didn't feel right in Marcen, something wrong.
Deciding to ignore it, he turned around and began walking to class. "Let's go now, don't wanna be late for the tenth time." [Deleted] followed behind, he seemed so far yet so close to Marcen.
"Yo, Marc. Have you noticed that"—〔PASSWORD : ■ ACCEPTED. Log7 Start〕
「Time.
You cannot break through.
"You let him restart everything."
That and this are two separate events, end your actions now.
"No. I will free him."
If you will, everything will reset. Your efforts will be for naught.
"Try me."
Time.」
〔Log7 end〕—"is acting weird?" [Deleted] spoke up as he walked beside Marcen, "Dude, did you smoke something?" Hearing his answer, [Deleted] smacked his arm. "Seriously bro. See ya." Marcen looked to the side to see his classroom door with the two symbols, 3L, before turning around and seeing [Deleted] gone.
Entering, everyone was already seated, looks like he was right on—〔PASSWORD: ■ ACCEPTED. Log8 start〕
「Time.
This is attempt: 5,981. Give up.
"I won't, I will not, and I never have."
Breaking the illusion would break their protection. If so, they will come.
"Let them, at least it would wake Marcen up."
If that is what you wish for.
Time」
〔Log8 End〕— as well. Finding his own seat, he waited for the teacher to begin the roll call.
His mind drifted once again—as before—to the dream. This time, he thought about the last thing he saw before he woke up—the screen that only stated one thing: "error…"
Without realizing it, Marcen mumbled mindlessly as he twisted his head to face the window. What was there left him in a silent shock, in his way was a person he had never seen before, or had? Yet they looked much older. A middle aged man sitting at a desk, like any other student here.
The teacher began taking attendance as he ignored the strange middle aged man in a desk.
"[Deleted]?"
"Here."
"[Deleted]?"
"Present."
This went on for quite a while, there were around 20+ students after all, before that man's name was called.
"[Deletion Pending]?"
"Here."
Marcen looked confused for a second, two different people were there. The one in his mind, slowly being forgotten, and the one in front of him, slowly being deleted, yet he can't see the deletion.
"Error…" the word rolled out of his tongue as his mind, as if forcefully, drifted back to the dream, 'What if that dream wasn't a dream? What if–' His thoughts were interrupted by a loud ringing deep inside Marcen's mind, so loud it brought a false physical pain.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—
A continuous echo, grabbing his head, he didn't care anymore about what others might think as he groaned in agony. He didn't notice the fact that no one even moved to check, acting as if nothing wrong was happening, before…
'. . .?' it stopped, no more sounds. He looked up to see that everyone had truly stopped moving, frozen in—〔PASSWORD: ■ ACCEPTED. Log9 start〕
「Time.
You cannot break through.
"I have already cracked it enough, it's breaking."
If you do,be careful.
Time.」
〔Log9 end〕— as a small crack in front of him grew larger and larger as if someone splintering wood before the area in front of Marcen shatters. No one was there except for a glass window that seemed to slowly glide towards Marcen.
「■ BROKE, ERROR!」
「Thank you, Concept: Time…」
「BEGIN CORRECTION」
「ATTEMPT 1」
At that very nanosecond, Marcen felt his head being hit by something heavy as his body began to fail. He could feel his chest tighten, his heart beat falter , yet his eyes kept towards the glass plane.
「ERROR!」
「RESTART ATTEMPT FAILED!」
'It hurts…!' His mind screamed in pain but his mouth did not move, it couldn't. The screen stopped directly in front of him, showing two overlapping messages.
「Save me…」
「ATTEMPT SUCCESSFUL, RESTARTING」
Marcen's head landed onto the wooden desk as his breathing slowed, unconscious. The flickering Glass Panel vanished.
The classroom of frozen people now remained silent.
♡
Emily ran through the crowded hallway towards her classroom while softly rubbing her head, 'Dumb, stupid, weird Marcen.'
A girl turns around from her locker and locks eyes with Emily before she smiles and runs towards her, "Emily!" her arms wrapped around Emily as she hugged tight, "[Deleted]! You will NOT believe what my brother did."
The two began to talk to each other as they walked side by side towards their classroom. How Marcen was being weird like always, and how their days have been… gossip, gossip, gossip, blah, blah, blah… You're not interested in that, right?
Reaching their classroom, they entered together to see a substitute teacher they knew all too well, "Oh. My. God. Not this teacher..." [Deleted] whispered, everyone knew the strict and boring teacher. Even attendance was a hell with his cheese grating voice, thankfully for Emily, it ended.
He put his clipboard down as he stood up, the only sounds that came were his words and the chalk as the lecture began. Emily couldn't help but rest her head and snooze at the sound of his voice.
.
.
.
Some time had passed as [Deleted] shook Emily up, "Emily, wake up!" The yell woke Emily up with a jolt as she lifted her head to face [Deleted], "Whaa~? Why are you yelling?" but [Deleted] only had a grim expression as she looked around.
Emily, seeing her friend act weird, looked around as well, everyone was frozen. No movement. She stood up as fast as she could, the chair screeching beneath her as she turned to face her friend again, she was frozen as well now.
「SCANNING」
A glass plane that shined a soft blue appeared in front of her, its light that seemed to peer into her heart, no secrets could be hidden in its gaze, scrutinising-ly so. That feeling vanished with the replacement being a cold, dark feeling of foreboding.
「ERROR FOUND!」
「THANK YOU… Concept: Space」
'Is it… speaking to me?' Her thoughts seemed to be focused on the fact that the strange glass panel seemed to be alive, and talking to her?
「BEGINNING CORRECTION」
「ATTEMPT 1」
"Beginning correction?" She mumbles as she reads the words engraved on the screen. "W-who are you! What's going on!" She screamed out, voice shaking with fear.. That delicate feeling each character has that I narrate fear..
Emily wanted to hyperventilate but her lungs would not listen and her heart hammered erratically. Her body crumpled against the chair as if made of thin fabric. All the while, the screen remained in front of her.
「ERROR!」
「RESTART ATTEMPT FAILED」
As her consciousness wavered and slipped, two overlapping messages were etched onto the screen.
「I'm sorry…」
「ATTEMPT SUCCESSFUL, RESTARTING」