Shadows Within

An alarm began ringing out. My phone was playing the middle chorus to one of my favorite songs; however, I had no idea where it was. I rushed back into my room to turn it off. The sound was coming from inside my nightstand, but I never put my phone in the nightstand. I ripped open the drawer and found nothing. The music continued playing from deeper in the drawer. I don’t remember my nightstand drawer being this long. I reached in farther and finally grabbed my phone and silenced the alarm. That was weird.

The time on my phone read 8:57 a.m., but I remember setting it for 8:30 a.m., and my alarm had definitely not gone off for thirty minutes. I looked through my alarms and saw that I only had one set. What the hell is going on?

I tried to ignore what had been happening until I remembered what today was all about. “Ah, hell, I’m going to be late!” I exclaimed as I threw on clothes and dashed down the staircase. Before I could make it to the bottom step, my mom appeared in front of me.

“Where do you think you’re going in such a rush, Ryan?” she asked me while crossing her arms.

“Um, I’m going to see the guys. They’re down at the football fields, and I completely overslept.” Did I really oversleep?

“Did you take your medicine?”

“Medicine? Uh, no, sorry, Mom.”

“Go take it. You’re not going anywhere until you do.” Her eyes pierced into my soul.

I sulked my way upstairs to look for a pill bottle with my name on it. The hallway felt longer than usual. At least in my mind it was longer than normal. I counted my steps from the top of the stairs to my door. Thirty-seven. It was usually twenty-nine. It felt like I was losing my mind, but that’s what my medicine would be helping if it worked. I got to my door, and when I reached out for the door handle, my vision went black for a split second.

“Ryan! Ryan! Quit daydreaming and go take your medicine!” My mom threw a broken eggshell at me from in front of the stove.

“Oh, huh?” I’m downstairs again?

“Are you dreaming about her again? Honestly, Ryan, you’re hopeless.” She sighed.

“I guess I need to go upstairs and take my medicine then, don’t I?”

“Are you actually taking the initiative for once?”

I sighed and sat up from the stool at the mini island bar in the kitchen. I didn’t bother to question what I was doing there. I made my way to the stairs. They felt longer than what I remembered them being. The curve was wider, and my room seemed farther away. I shook my head. This was just an effect of missing a dose. I got to my room and started searching. Dresser drawers, empty. Shorts pocket, empty. Dirty clothes pile, really? There would be no reason for them to be in there. Then it came to me. I put them in my bag in case I went over to one of the guys' houses and needed them later. Bag pocket? Check. That’s exactly where they were. With the pill bottle in one hand, I grabbed my water bottle off the nightstand with the other. I proceeded to remove the caps off both and dropped one pill into my hand. The pill looked weird. It was red and shaped like an oval. It was supposed to be blue and circular.

“Mom! Did my medication change?” I called out to her. There was a silence from downstairs, so I called out to her again.

“Ryan! Have you taken your medicine yet?” Mom called out to me.

“I did, Mom, but...” I could not finish my reply to her. I felt euphoric, like a dream, like existence had faded from my body. I felt like I was asleep, but my eyes were still open. I could still see my room and everything in it. Then the world crashed down on top of me, layering me in darkness, dragging me back into the void that I knew so well. Then there was nothing. Time decayed before my eyes. Darkness turned gray. It turned old yellow, and then brown. The darkness turned a blinding white, and I found myself lying on the floor, unable to move.

“You weren’t gone long,” a mysterious, yet familiar voice called out to me. My sight was still blinded, but I could see the silhouette of a man form into my vision. “As I suspected. You were not strong enough to keep yourself from coming back here. You let your thoughts consume you, and the words I say control you.”

“Why me?” I asked, struggling to make my voice work.

“Your Soul, of course.” I could see the figure still holding the Soul Eater.

“What is this place?”

“My home. The one that you have become so familiar with. You’ve been here long enough to call it your home as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“Yes, the one with the weakness needs to have all his answers as well. Nonetheless, it will be fun deciding the best outcome for you, or even if you are of worth to me. When you’re here, I shall test you to see if you are truly worthy. Good luck, Ryan. Until we meet again.”

The figure disappeared, leaving a void of darkness around me once again. I grew sleepy and closed my eyes, giving in.

“I hope you remember that I am always in your head.” The whisper of the man’s voice echoed within my mind.

The soft, early morning rays of sunlight peered through the partially opened blinds and struck me in the face, evaporating the darkness from around me, leaving me perplexed by the nightmare I just experienced. Sweat poured down my face as I awakened under the covers fully clothed as if I were ready to leave for school. Everything happened so quickly that I did not fully grasp what had been said or what had happened. The darkness, the figure, and the voices in my head. Was it all really just another nightmare?

“Ryan! You have guests! Take your medicine and come down,” Mom called from the kitchen.

Guests? Austin and Max! That’s right, we have plans today! I rushed over to my dresser so I would not forget my medicine.

“Wait, where is it?!”

I scrambled and tossed everything around in my top drawer, searching and heaving my belongings to the floor, but it was nowhere to be found.

“Mom! Do you know where my medicine went?”

“I can’t hear you, honey, come down here.”

I groaned before I rushed downstairs only to find her cooking breakfast. Country-style omelets and home-style oatmeal with brown sugar. She was using fancy china as if we had company over.

“Mom? When did you start making breakfast?” I asked hesitantly.

“I told you, you have guests. Honestly, Ryan, do you ever listen to me?”

I sighed and walked over to the island mini bar and pulled out a stool to sit. I couldn’t remember my mom telling me I have guests. Someone walked up behind me and gave my back a nice whack. I jumped up off the stool and turned around instantly. Austin was hovering over me with a slight grin on his face.

“What was that about?” I growled.

“Why are you so hostile? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?”

I pulled my arm back to punch Austin in the gut before my mom stopped me.

“Ryan, breakfast is ready.”

Austin grabbed my plate from her hands before settling into my spot at the mini island bar. He stuffed his face full of omelet and oatmeal before I even had the chance to grab a new plate from my mom.

“I hope it was good.” Asshole.

I sat down at the dining room table far away from the island mini bar and ate my own food. Lost in thought, I tried to remember the amount of dreams, nightmares, I have had in the last year since we moved. As my mind wandered, a dark figure appeared before me at the opposite end of the dining table.

“Find me, Ryan,” it spoke to me through gritted teeth before disappearing.

I quickly shook my head and shot up from the table causing my plate to fall off the table. Omelet and oatmeal scattered all over the floor. My mom quickly rushed over to the dining table to check on me.

“What happened?! Are you okay?” She frantically began cleaning up the mess on the floor.

“I’m okay, there was a spider that suddenly started crawling up my arm and it startled me.”

“Be more careful next time. I want you to be okay, but these are also grandma’s best dishes. We need to make sure not to damage them.”

“I will, I’m sorry.”

“Good, now I’m not making you any more breakfast. If you get hungry later it will be your responsibility.”

“On that note, we need to leave ASAP, Ryan. My little brother’s football game starts in fifteen minutes, and it’s a ten minute walk there. Are you ready to go now?” Austin asked me.

“Yeah, I suppose I am now.”

“Great. Let’s go.”

Austin opened the door and waited for me to walk out.

“Have fun, and don’t forget to tell me how the game went,” Mom said as I was about to walk out.

“I won’t forget. I’ll be back later tonight.”

“Love you, Ryan. Be safe.”

I let the door shut behind me.