Vol.1.C1 - Shattered Slumberland

Vol.1C.1. Shattered Slumberland

☆Home Sweet Home☆

As Ryker sped up his bike, an idea struck him.  

He glanced back at the group and called out, “Hey, how about we all crash at my place for a gaming session? You girls can join too, if you’re up for it. Only problem is, I’ve got just three PCs, so…”

Before he could finish, Yvette scoffed playfully and smacked him on his shoulders lightly. “ As if. You just want to kick us out, don't you?”

Ryker chuckled, swerving slightly to avoid her playful shove. “I’m just stating facts, Yvette!”

“Tch. Pain in the ass.” Yvette shook her head, though her amused smirk betrayed her annoyance.

The rest of the group laughed and agreed to the plan, their chatter filling the crisp evening air as they made their way to Ryker’s place.

By the time they arrived, the boys parked their bikes in the apartment complex lot, the roars of the engine punctuating the quiet. 

The cold breeze carried with it a sense of calm, the kind that made the city lights shimmer just a little brighter.

Inside the building, they got into the elevator, and Ryker pressed the button for the 19th floor.

Once they reached his door, Ryker fished out his keys and unlocked it. 

“I’m home, Auntie!” he called out, but his voice echoed in an empty space.

Frowning, he turned to his friends. “Looks like she’s still at work.” 

Shrugging it off, he pushed the door open and gestured inside. “Welcome to Case De Nantell!”

The apartment was small but cozy, with warm lighting and soft carpets that muffled their footsteps.

 Ryker handed out warm towels to his friends So they could warm themselves up from the evening chills. 

“Thanks,” Yvette said, wrapping the towel around her neck, “Guess you ain't totally useless.” She smirked.

Ryker grinned slyly, teasing her. “Don't push your luck.”

The boys wasted no time in setting up their trio of PCs, the monitors’ glow lighting their eager faces. 

Ryker’s place wasn’t fancy, but his setup was on a different, top tier level, complete with ergonomic chairs and all.

“ Fortnite first?” Tobias asked, cracking his knuckles.

“Obviously,” Ryker replied, already adjusting his headset.

The girls were gossiping and lingering on the couch, while some were scrolling on their phones or watching the boys’ antics.

As the gaming session went underway, Ryker was staring at his pc screen, blissfully unaware that something unimaginable was going to happen. 

He saw something strange that made his hair stand on end. 

It was a pair of naked Eyes. They were otherworldly. 

The blood red veins ran deep in their heart, branching out like tributaries of a river, pulsating a life of their own.

 Those eyes that floated across the screen had a drowning, piercing gaze deep into the gateway of his soul, like they were searching for something hidden. It was as if they wanted to communicate with him, tell him a signal. 

The pupils, that were as black as an empty, starless void, moved unnaturally towards his phone, with deliberate intent. 

They were trying to give him a command.

 Something was off.  

Whatever this presence was, it wasn't good. 

A cold chill ran down Ryker’s spine as he felt his breath caught in his throat. 

He could also Feel his pulse quickening as if those very soulless Eyes were draining the aura of the room.

The air in the room was thinning slowly, steadily. 

It was getting tougher and tougher for him to breathe.

 It was as if the atmosphere itself was getting consumed by those unnerving eyes. 

He hand moved on its own, as he finds the phone on the table beside him, dropping it slightly before picking it up.

 He got his phone, opened it, and started browsing for hints of the eyes on why would point it to his phone. And that's when he found it.

An app he definitely didn't recognize. And he was dead sure he didn't download either.

The icon was a crescent moon in a cryptic hieroglyphic that gleamed in bold silver:

Noctelure.

☆The Disaster Begins☆

Ryker was startled. Now it made sense why those eyes would move to his phone. 

He tried to ignore it, but the more he did, the more it bothered him. He glanced at the name of the app again, Noctelure. 

He did a quick search on the name, and what was more eerie that none of the search results matched the app name, nor the Playstore option showed up.

After a few seconds, he nudged Kaelan, who was next to his chair, “Hey, Kaelan, do you know about this app?”

But before Kaelan could say anything, his phone buzzed oddly, and he opened it thinking he'd got a notification. 

But that wasn't the case. It was far, far stranger. 

He tried opening his messaging app, but he couldn’t. 

Panicking, he tried opening other apps of all kinds, but he couldn’t. No matter how hard he tried. 

“What the hell….why can't I open any app?” He freaked out, tapping furiously on the phone.

 “Hey Ryker, check if it's happening with yours too!” He screamed in fear, thinking it was an Apple issue. But he knew Well that there should be nothing causing it.

Ryker checked his apps, and neither could he open any of them.

 “You're right, even I can't open my apps! Are we hacked?!” He screamed. Something was not right.

 Tobias was in deep thought. He tried opening apps on his classic Nokia, and he failed too. 

“I doubt it's a hack, hacks often don't involve the inability to open apps, this…..is something else.” He said, keeping his Nokia aside.

There were question marks on the other two's faces, as none of them understood what he said.

 It was always like that, no one would understand what Tobias would say in his tech jargon. 

Tobias was already looking for a solution on the PC, “We can't sit idle, we need to find an answer to this. I think there's something deeper about this.” He beseeched, determined as he kept pressing the keyboard. 

The sound of the keys echoing through the room. 

The keyboard keys felt heavier on his fingers than usual as he looked for information. 

While Tobias Looked for information, Ryker got a chilling notification all of a sudden. It was from the app - Noctelure. 

‘Sienna Nantell is missing. If you value her life, press the ‘Yes’ button.’ That was the notification.  

A chill ran down His spine, his eyes widened.

He stood still, on the spot, unable to move a single bit.

Sienna Nantell was his aunt that he lived with, and his only family member alive. 

Seeing her name on the app notification, his heart pounded against his ribcage like a bird trying to escape its cage for freedom.

 Each breath felt like dragging him into the ground, as droplets of sweat gathered on his skin, as a salty reminder of his predicament.

Tobias leaned in. “What Does it say?” 

“It's…It's…my aunt…” Ryker stammered, his throat dry. “She isn't home tonight…could it be?”

The room fell deathly silent. Kaelan stopped his usual antics, growing concerned as he heard them, his grin replaced by a frown.

Suddenly, the screen started flickering. Another notification popped up with a strange image. 

It was blurry at first, like a distorted dream. The notification said:

‘Do you want her back? Open the app.’

Ryker’s hands Shook violently as he held the phone tight. 

His brain was a chaotic whirlwind of emotions - fear, disbelief and maybe a small hint of hope. “This has to be fake…this has to be!” 

“No way…That's not possible..” Yvette whispered, “That's not possible…”

Tobias reached out to his shoulders to steady him. “Don't. Don't open it Ryker. We have no idea what we are dealing with.”

But the image flickered once again - this time the app played a strange, uneasy tapping sound that made them shiver. 

The sound was a faint, rhythmic tapping, like footsteps crunching through a path of leaves. 

The sound seemed to echo around the room, while it grew faster and faster in every passing planck second.

“Uh…guys…” Cassandra began, her voice barely audible. “Do you hear that…?”

Ryker’s gaze remained locked on the silver crescent Shaped icon on his phone. The app blinked again, the message changed one last time:

‘Time is running out.’

The air crackled with a nervous sparkle as everyone went silent for a moment. 

The rough scent of the old plywood in the room seemed to waver from the floor and the wooden furniture. The ticking sound of the grandfather's clock was fainting in the distance in the oddly silent room.

☆The Challenge of The Eye☆

 Ryker sat on the sofa, trying to open the Noctelure app, but as soon as he did, on the astronomical patterns on the ceiling, suddenly, he saw it. 

Something that made his skin crawl. 

Floating in the astronomical patterns of the wall, it was there - an eye. The eye seemed to breathe a life of its own. 

The red veins in the eyeballs were in twisted shapes, and it was as clear as day. 

The black pupil was staring at him unblinking, making Ryker’s hair rise sharply to the end of his skin.

He searched for his phone, tried to open the camera app but he failed; it Was acting up again, the Noctelure app. 

His breath was steady, and he rushed to open and quickly messed up the wooden cupboard of his bedroom, and grabbed his DSLR camera. 

He looked at the eyes through the screen of the camera, and he saw nothing. He paused. 

It was like his brain haywired and he took the camera again, and without looking clicked a photo of the Eye. 

When he looked at the results, that was what made his stomach churn like there was a storm raging inside him. He could see the Eyes.

Ryker`s heartbeat quickened, and he felt as if icy cold water flowed through his veins instead of blood. 

He felt like his own eyes were drying out of life. The more he stared, the more his eyes were drying. 

It was like the unblinking Eye wanted to absorb every cell in his body, living or not.

 The feelings of someone was grabbing his throat and thrashing it.

The air was thickening into him, as if a fog was creeping in, it was creating a hum that sent chills down his spine.

There were clouds - actual clouds that were creeping in on him, the warmth in the air was getting colder by each second.  

He could hear his pulse racing in his ears, a relentless reminder of the terror gripping him.

 He looked at his phone again, and there it was - the app icon blinked twice, like a winking eye.

He found himself backing away from his room, every nerve in his body urging retreat, as he quickly grabbed his camera, the one in which he took the photo of the Eyes on, and dashed out of the room to his living room with a sense of urgency.

As he reached his living room, he found his friends still reeled out by the app as he was, and flung on the sofa. 

His forehead was trickling of drops of sweat, which trickled till his lips, the salty taste being a lingering reminder of the fear and the adrenaline.

He swayed his hands on his head, to calm his nerves, but it wasn't helping. 

First his aunt, and now this eye. He had started to regret his decisions.

His instincts told him to show the eye to his friends; but would they believe him? Or will they call him crazy? 

Despite those doubts that lingered in the back of his mind, he still walked To the velvety sofa, and sat in the middle.

Ryker’s mind drifted back to the Eye and the chilling camera photo that he took of them, and in the end, he decided to show the photo.

 “Guys, I have something to show you.” He said, picking up his abandoned camera from his lap, and opened the briefly forgotten photo. 

“This is what I am Talking About, that crazy eye…” He murmured as he opened the photo and displayed it to his friends. 

“Can you guys see it or have I finally lost it?” Ryker chuckles dryly, as his friends see what’s wrong with the photo.

 And they could see it too - the horrendous eye that had red, sharp veins flowing In the sclera like rivers. 

Another vein Was attached to it, as if it was a part of a “human” that wasn't visible to the naked eyes. That picture alone sent shivers down their spines.

Tobias was the first one to get his voice together. “I admit you were right,” he sighed,”But what do we do now?” Noemi spoke up, “There must be a way. There's no way we can sit idle when this all is happening just because of a stupid app.”

 “Is there no way to stop it?” Cassandra added, as she took a glance at the rather hostile app on her phone, Noctelure. It was still there - watching their every move. 

Now that they were able to see the eye, it didn't feel right in the room. Something was wrong. Wrong. Horrendously wrong..