Sharing a silent look, Jason and Riley both reached forward and placed their palms on the glass-like globe, the surface feeling cool beneath their skin. Jason felt like he could detect a faint pulse of energy within the orb, as though something was pressing at the glass and searching for a way to escape. That thought was deeply unsettling given what they were about to do.
“Okay, what now?” Jason asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
“Now you begin,” Rex replied simply.
As he finished speaking, the room began to blur and shift. The stone blocks melted away, forming a gray mist that quickly spilled into the room and obscured their surroundings. The moisture thickened swiftly, forming eddies and swirls that flowed around them like water. The only thing that Jason could make out was Riley sitting across from him, her eyes wide and uncertain as she stared into the gray fog. He followed her gaze and felt like he could almost make out the silhouette of people standing around them. Yet, even, as he focused on each image, it melted away – leaving him with the impression that he had imagined it.
“Remember,” Rex said, his voice barely a whisper near Jason’s shoulder, “You have to let Riley in. And be careful. This will not be an easy memory to face.”
Before Jason could question him further, a mixture of voices whispered from the darkness around them, as though dozens of people stood nearby, their forms obscured by the vapor.
Challenge 3: A Trial of Trust has been initiated.
Good luck, challengers.
Chapter 45 - Sticky
The gray mists billowed and swirled around the pair, pulsating like a living thing. Dark phantoms kept appearing among the vapor, only to vanish the moment Jason tried to focus on them. Their whispered voices drifted through the fog, just a bit too faintly to make out what they were saying. He wasn’t certain how long they sat in the mists, but it felt like time seemed to lengthen and stretch the longer they stayed inside the gray vapor.
All at once, the fog began to recede, as though blown away by an invisible breeze. Jason and Riley found themselves sitting on two chairs outside of the entrance to a rather commonplace brick building. The table and crystal had vanished at some point during the transition and Jason soon discovered that their armor and weapons were also missing. The pair were now dressed in regular real-world attire.
It seemed that they wouldn’t be fighting anything here. Or, at least he hoped not, since they were now completely unarmed.
Jason took in their surroundings. A circle drive rested near the entrance to the building. The front lawn was cut an even length and trees dotted the area, their spindly branches missing their leaves. Otherwise, the area was devoid of cars or any signs of life. The sun was just beginning to crest the horizon, and the last rays of light drifted across the building’s brick façade. The waning sunlight highlighted the sign that hung across the front of the structure.
Fairchild Middle School.
“What is this place?” Riley asked, staring at their surrounding as she slowly pushed herself to her feet.
Jason followed her lead, rising from his chair. As they stood, the furniture disappeared into faint strands of gray smoke. A growing sense of unease settled in Jason’s stomach. It felt like he should recognize this place, a nagging sensation tickling at the edges of his thoughts. He could remember the building, although it felt different. Smaller and less foreign now.
“This… this is…,” he began and then froze.
He had been instinctively searching the front of the school, as though looking for something. A moment later, he found it. A young boy sat alone on a bench outside of the school, almost obscured by a tall shrub. He wore a thick coat and was focused on the book in his hand. His hair was shaggy and unkempt, and he wore a plain t-shirt and jeans. The boy was eerily – almost painfully – familiar.
“Is that you?” Riley asked him quietly. At some point, she had come to stand by Jason’s side. He had been too distracted to notice.
“Yes. At least, I think it is,” he murmured in reply. “This was my middle school.”
“You were a cute kid,” Riley added with a grin, nudging him slightly with her elbow.
Jason gave her a weak smile, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He didn’t look back on his middle school experience fondly, and he was beginning to suspect that he knew what they were about to witness. It seemed that the game never chose happy memories.
Riley seemed to pick up on his hesitation. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“I-I don’t…” he began but was cut off as the front door of the building opened suddenly.
The younger version of Jason jumped in alarm, startled by the abrupt movement. An older woman stepped out of the building, clutching at her sweater to stave off the stiff breeze and looked around quickly before her gaze trained on Jason. Her mouth pressed into a grim line as she caught sight of the boy.
“Still out here, Jason? Where are your parents? Classes ended hours ago,” she said.
Jason’s younger self couldn’t quite meet her gaze, closing his book slowly as his eyes stayed fixed on the ground. “I-I don’t know,” the boy said. “They must have gotten caught up at work.”
“Hmm,” the woman murmured, a flash of annoyance crossing her face before she schooled her expression into something slightly more compassionate. She let out a soft sigh. “Well, why don’t you come inside? It’s getting a little chilly out here.”
The boy nodded quickly and grabbed his bag before following the woman inside. Meanwhile, Riley glanced at Jason, her expression troubled.
“I guess we should follow,” Jason offered, although he had no desire to step inside the building. For some reason, the structure seemed to loom above him, and its vacant windows felt colder than the weather outside.
The pair stepped into the building. The doors opened into a large hallway that was cast in dim light; someone had already turned off most of the harsh fluorescent lights along the ceiling. A door led off to the left, containing what Jason could vaguely recall were the administrative offices. They could make out the murmur of voices inside. Riley entered, and Jason reluctantly followed her lead.
Jason’s younger self was sitting in a chair, the woman towering over him. “Now, just settle yourself here, and I’ll give your parents a call,” she offered before stepping into a nearby office and closing – but not completely shutting – the door.
The boy looked down at his book but didn’t open the cover. His expression was sad and tired, something that the older Jason could sympathize with. Only a few moments later, he and Riley could hear the older woman’s voice drift out of the office.
“Hello, Mrs. Reynolds. This is Jean Woods at Fairchild Middle School. It’s currently 6:13 PM and your son is still at the school. This is the third time this week that he has been left unattended. This isn’t a daycare. If this happens again, I’m afraid I’m going to have to speak with the principal directly, and we may need to escalate this matter.”
Ms. Woods let out another sigh. “Please give me a call back as soon as you can. Our number here is 512-568-2317.”
“Your parents didn’t even pick up?” Riley asked in shock, turning to look at Jason.
“They were busy. They were always busy,” Jason replied, his eyes trained on his younger self. The boy had heard Ms. Woods leave the voicemail. Instead of anger or sadness, his expression only seemed to harden with each word.
This probably wasn’t the same as witnessing your grandfather die. Jason knew that. This didn’t carry the underlying trauma of watching someone pass away in front of you. No. This was a different kind of pain, one that slowly wore against your mind and body like sand-blasted stone. It was the grueling realization – day in and day out – that you were not a priority. You weren’t important enough for even a phone call.
Ms. Woods quietly opened the office door and stood for a moment, watching the boy behind his back. Her expression was conflicted, bouncing between compassion and frustration. Now older, Jason could unders
tand what he saw there. She probably didn’t want to stick around the school building for hours waiting for this kid’s delinquent parents. Still, she had some empathy for the boy’s plight.
The older woman coughed slightly, catching the boy’s attention. He looked up, his face carrying only resignation. “They didn’t pick up,” Ms. Woods explained. She grimaced slightly. “And I have plans this evening, so I need to go. However, Mr. Harrison said he would be working late in the library. He just received a new shipment of textbooks this afternoon. Maybe you could stay there until your parents show up?”
“That’s fine,” Jason’s younger self replied.
The boy rose, grabbing his bag and stepping out into the hallway without another word. Jason was able to see the surprise and pain that flickered across Ms. Woods face, although he couldn’t be sure whether this part had really happened, or if Alfred had simply filled in this scene.
Jason and Riley followed the boy into the darkened hallway, and he slowly plodded further into the school, scuffing his shoes with each step. The school’s hallways were even darker than the entryway. Faint emergency lights illuminated the corridor, and metallic lockers loomed ominously on either side of the hall. It felt like the empty windows of the classrooms were staring at them as they passed. Everything seemed more menacing than Jason remembered. The hallway was also strangely unkept, the lockers showing signs of rust and the occasional cobweb dotting the ceiling.
As they walked, Riley glanced at Jason out of the corner of her eye. “I-I didn’t realize that your parents have always been like this.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Jason answered simply. Although, his lie was evident in the way his younger self hunched his shoulders and the boy’s white-knuckle grip on the strap of his backpack.
“You were just a kid,” Riley insisted. “They just left you here almost every day?”
“Their work was important,” Jason replied, not quite looking at her. “They’ve protected and saved countless other people. A few afternoons spent reading alone doesn’t seem that bad.”
Riley let out a soft huff of disagreement. “They could have taken care of their work and have also been there for you. Their careers shouldn’t have come at the expense of their own son.”
Jason didn’t have an answer for that. On some level, Riley was right. But what was the worst he had suffered? A few late nights spent alone in the school? Putting up with the school’s creepy librarian? Despite his attempt to justify it in his head, he felt a numb ache in the back of his mind. The truth was that they had still abandoned him. As that thought crossed his mind, Jason shoved it away. There was no sense complaining about it now.
A nagging part of his mind kept reminding him that this was only the tip of the iceberg. This was the same behavior that had resulted in his expulsion from Richmond. His parents had refused to listen to him when he tried to tell them how much he had hated the school. Or how they hadn’t bothered to come home when he was sitting in jail. Hell, they had even sided with Gloria over him – their own son.
Suddenly, Riley hesitated, putting a hand on Jason’s arm, interrupting his thoughts. “I’m not familiar with this school, but shouldn’t we have made it to the library by now? We’ve been walking for a while.”
Jason realized she was right. He glanced around in confusion, his mind trying feebly to summon the layout of a building he hadn’t entered in years. He didn’t recognize this hallway at all, but his younger self just kept plodding forward. Looking around, he noticed that the building had fallen into even greater disrepair. Locker doors now hung open and ajar, and spots of mold had appeared on the drywall. More disconcerting were the cobwebs. They were thicker and more common now, the strands weaving through the hallways and coating the ceiling.
“This isn’t right,” Jason murmured.
“You mean it isn’t normal for a school to look like this?” Riley replied dryly. “Yeah, I agree. Assuming we’re in your head, you’re taking the whole mental cobweb thing in a different and kind of creepy direction here.”
Under normal circumstances, Jason might have appreciated the joke, but he was growing worried. His younger self kept walking forward, seemingly unperturbed or unaware of the changes. This couldn’t have been a real memory, which meant that something else had to be going on here. What had Rex told him again? That this memory would be different? Different how?
The pair hurried to keep up with the boy. He had kept moving forward, putting some distance between them. As they caught up, they could see that the webs had grown so thick that they were beginning to slow their passage. Strands clung to their clothes and skin, but, oddly, the substance didn’t seem to affect the boy. He passed through the webs as though they weren’t there.
“Okay, this is getting really weird,” Riley said, scraping the sticky strands from her clothes. “Not to mention disgusting. Was your school infested by spiders or something?”
Jason’s eyes widened slightly. “It couldn’t be…” he murmured.
A skittering sound came from the ceiling tiles and the occasional side hallway where the passages stretching off into darkness. Jason had completely lost all sense of direction now, and he had no idea if they were close to the library. As he thought about the library, he remembered that the librarian, Mr. Harrison, had kept pets.
Riley grabbed Jason’s shoulder, forcing him to look at her. He saw concern filling her eyes. “You need to focus, Jason. You also need to level with me. Do you know what’s going on here?”
“I-I think I remember that the librarian kept tarantulas,” Jason replied, shaking his head. But the spiders hadn’t been large enough to coat a hallway. Besides, tarantulas didn’t spin webs to catch their prey. He could vaguely remember the librarian explaining that to him years ago.
“Tarantulas?” Riley asked in an incredulous voice. “This doesn’t seem like it could have been caused by a few pets. Your school seems to be crawling with spiders,” she grumbled as she reached for one of her daggers, only to have her hand grasp at air. Riley looked down at her waist in irritation as she realized that she wasn’t wearing her armor or weapons.
“I don’t know,” Jason finally replied. “I have no idea what’s going on here.”
The skittering noise was growing louder, and Jason suddenly realized he had lost sight of his younger self. “Wait, where did the boy go?” he said. The pair looked around nervously, but the kid was nowhere to be seen.
“Shit,” Riley muttered.
“Maybe he just kept going,” Jason said, charging forward. “We need to catch up.” They surged forward, swatting at the thickening webs as they tried to catch up with Jason’s younger self.
Only a few seconds later, Jason caught sight of the boy’s small form through the gray silk. “Geez, will you slow down,” he called out in frustration as he struggled with the sticky substance. He didn’t expect the boy to respond.
However, his younger self paused and glanced over his shoulder as though he had heard something. For a fraction of a second, he met Jason’s eyes, and Jason felt his stomach do a summersault. This was just a memory. Wasn’t it? The boy shouldn’t be able to see him.
Jason felt the strands clinging to his skin vibrate slightly. A scream pierced the air behind him, and he whirled to find Riley grappling with a massive spider, its body nearly eight feet long. The creature clung to the ceiling and grabbed at Riley with its hairy legs, tugging at the fabric of her shirt and keeping her restrained. As Jason looked on, he could see that the spider was simply holding her in place, quickly spinning silk around her feet and beginning to entrap her.
“Jason,” Riley screamed, her eyes wide as she looked at him, still trying to fight off the spider and ripping at the silk that was winding around her legs. It wasn’t nearly enough.
“Riley, hold on!” Jason shouted. He tried to squirm free of the webbing to help Riley, tearing frantically at the sticky substance, but that only served to entangle him further. Meanwhile, his younger self looked on impassively, seem
ingly unperturbed by the scene.
Jason struggled against, the webbing one final time, ripping through the threads as he fought to help Riley. He stretched out a hand, trying to grab hers as she reached toward him. Their hands were only inches away, and Jason strained with everything he had, but her body slowly began to disappear beneath the sticky silk.
Before he could grasp Riley’s hand, the spider swatted him away, one of its forelegs smashing into his chest and sending him flying across the hallway. The webbing barely slowed his momentum and his back slammed into a bank of lockers with the dull clang of metal. The wind rushed from his lungs, and his vision swam for a moment.
When he started to come back to his senses, Jason realized that a heavy silence now hung over the darkened hallway. He frantically searched for any sign of Riley, only to find that she was gone. All that remained were the thick webs that crisscrossed the hall. Even the skittering sound had vanished.
“What are you doing here?” a voice spoke from Jason’s side, causing him to jump in surprise, clutching at his chest.
He looked up to find his younger self hovering above him. The boy stared at him in confusion, unbothered by the webs. “The school is closed. I don’t think you’re supposed to be here,” the boy said again when Jason didn’t answer.
Jason’s mouth felt dry as he stared at his child-self, his thoughts wheeling in confusion. Was this real? Was this a memory? Or was it something more? How could he be talking to his younger self? And what had happened to Riley?
“You can see me?” he finally croaked out.
“Of course,” the boy replied, looking at Jason like he might be crazy. “Are you lost?”
“I-I guess you could say that,” Jason replied, trying to stay calm. If the boy was part of whatever the hell this was, maybe he could help him. “I’m actually looking for my friend. We got… separated. Do you have any idea where she could be?”
His younger self seemed to ponder this for a moment. “Ms. Woods said no one else is here besides Mr. Harrison. So maybe your friend is in the library?” the boy offered tentatively.
Awaken Online: Dominion Page 46