Chapter 10 - Entombed

I don’t wake up the same way I did before.

It’s different this time. Far quieter. Heavier.

There’s a presence, before there’s anything else.

A weight in my thoughts that isn’t mine.

You’re not… okay, it seems.

The thought reaches me in the darkness, my mind unable to determine who it is this time.

Who said that?

I yell back.

So loud. Easy. I’m someone who seems to share a similar predicament to you.

The response comes with something else.

Awareness of me in my entirety. It feels sharp, as if attention now scans my thoughts and feelings.

There is no hostility, just a sombre warmth to it.

Their next thought comes with a bitter edge.

You’re close.

Close to what?

My mind completes it without further prompting. Death.

Who are you?

A pause, but with it the barrier within whatever this connection collapses.

I sense their trust.

My name is Evander.

The name feels… real. Grounded in a way I didn’t expect. In a way, I needed.

It’s the name the officer attached to Caelan. I guess this is based on the suited man, Caelan’s Alter.

He follows up.

Why do I sense an awful amount of guilt?

That thought made me vulnerable.

I…The thought struggles to form. I didn’t do it.

I don’t even know why that’s the first thing I say.

But it matters to me to say that.

The reply is immediate. Certain.

I am sure you didn’t. Just as what is happening to you now isn’t your fault either.

Something in me loosens slightly at that.

I don’t understand. What is all this, Evander?

We will talk, but first. What is your name?

It’s Koan.

Nice to meet you, Koan. You make an awful racket in my head when you visit, so, with less yelling or screaming, tell me about yourself.

Why should…

Why should you? Well, Koan, I like to know who is moving around in my head.

Sorry… I… okay.

I know last time I spoke to someone I didn’t know, the result killed my only friend, but at this point, I had nothing to lose. Outside of this place, I could be dead already, for all I know. Given the blood I coughed up earlier, it is a high possibility.

So I tell him everything.

Or I try to.

It comes out in fragmented, broken thoughts, but he understands. It’s completely out of order, talking about my boss first, then my sickness.

I can feel it in the way his attention sharpens, as he holds the pieces together, I am yet to understand and can’t explain.

I mentioned the suited man, and his demeanour suddenly shifted.

That bastard Darcel came to you in person? What did he say to you?

There was so much anger in the thought, I felt it stoke my own.

I told him what I am telling you. I shouldn’t have, but he lulled me into a sense of safety.

He’s a lying piece of…

He sighs heavily, his body protesting the sudden outburst.

He is the one behind this whole mess.

The one who made the creatures who hunt me, off our work and the sickening individual who killed your boss, it seems.

I knew it.

How did he find out about you, Koan?

I suspect that after I fled from the hospital and was put in a room near a man who was his captive, I also share these dreams.

Evander chokes up, but asks me to tell him everything I saw.

I feel great sorrow at the mention of my time in Caelan and what was happening to him.

When I’m done, there’s a long silence.

Usually, I want to run from this dream world, but right now I don’t mind; it’s nice not to be alone.

Then, quietly.

I’m sorry.

The words catch me off guard.

For what?

For all of this, Koan.

There’s weight behind it. Regret. Something deeper than just the situation.

For bringing you into it. For being the reason you are becoming the frankly awful term known as a Possessed Vessel. I could blame Darcel, yet it was our failure to get away that led to you being chosen to take over.

He tells me about his escape. Caelan, Evander and Darcel’s mission to make guardians of the Alterworld, and Darcels betrayal and killing of their friends.

It sounded awful.

Though I’ll be honest at this point: getting the bizarre story of my chest a second time and hearing the reasons behind why it is all happening. I felt somewhat devoid of emotion. Just tired.

I could very well blame this individual I have unfortunately linked with, but, oddly, as I recounted everything, I realise I was going anywhere in life anyway.

This was just another step in a direction I was already heading; I’ll be it with far more horror than needed.

My anxiety, my depression, my loneliness were already hell and sure without the amount of horror elements I have experienced since this ordeal started, but oddly no less scary.

Are you okay? That was a lot, I know.

I reply, in a way that surprised me even. I was laughing.

Honestly, I just wish it hadn’t come with some golden-eyed, owl person melting my skull. I peed myself when that happened.

I was met with laughter as well, at first rough like laughter was unknown to Evander, but by the end of it, complete joy.

Ahh, I have heard of these golden-eyed entities, having no knack for arriving in a pleasant manner to their subjects. They are more of a guardian angel of the process of becoming a vessel, though it seems the one you encountered needed to speed up the process.

I remember Caelan telling me about the one he met when he was chosen. He was in the middle of riding home from university when he saw it. Said he went straight over the handlebars and into someone’s front yard shrub. To this day, he has a light scar on his chin from a branch. It was his arch-nemesis, he declared, even after I was created and we began our purpose in earnest.

I laughed at the recount. It was nice to know I was not alone in that experience.

We sat in that darkness together for a time I could not guess, but this time, unlike the other dreams, I was in no rush to leave. There was comfort in each other's presence and a moment for us both not to feel wary or beaten alone.

Eventually, Evander opened his eyes, showing he was in the room I remembered last seeing him in. He, at some point while I was not occupying his mind, had barricaded it, entombing himself in for his end.

I half wanted to just stay, too. Embrace this basement as my final resting place.

Haven’t I done enough fighting now?

Though I didn’t direct that thought at him, Evander senses it.

In a serious tone, he asks me:

Koan, would you be willing to embrace the Creation process and become a Vessel? Meaning taking over from Caelan and me?

I know it’s a lot to ask as you seem to be just at the beginning of your life, but should you succeed us, you will get a second chance at life.

Though I will admit, the first part will come with a great burden.

I feel his hand tightly holding the locket around his neck.

You will be hunted by the creatures you saw from our time in the park, but you will be safe once you enter the protection of the Circuitors. In exchange for that safety, you will need to deliver this hard drive around my neck.

I, Koan, am the hero in a monster horror movie. Never thought my life would become something like that.

But despite the grandeur of it all. It was hard to accept that this was my only option, and it was all preordained for me.

Who are the Circuitors I would need to get to?

To put it simply, they are a force in charge of protecting the two worlds from each other and the more sinister things. Example being Darcel and the awful darkness you likely saw with him.

They will keep you safe, Koan. Then you can have a new life.

We sit there again in silence. I have no answer for him now, but I sense I would have to make up my mind soon.

We are both dying, and this may well be the last time I ever meet Evander or visit this odd world.

In that silence, I notice he has fallen asleep, succumbing to the tiredness of being on the run and to his wounds.

With it, I slowly submerge into a deeper darkness, our link ending.

​Death has yet to take me, it seems.