Be Holden

Chapter 1: The Past

Middle school was not easy. Your twin sister acclimated to the change with ease, but you were not mature like her. She went to a private musical school because she was accepted there, but you did not have her skills. You were not interested in learning about the bass guitar and singing in tune. Your interest was on someone that joined the soccer team at your school and used to be your pal in elementary school. Your elementary friend passed you by in the halls without looking at you for a while. Everybody seemed to avoid you or ignore you. At first, you were happy being alone and then the quiet space around you began to taunt you. You attempted to talk to others but the encounters were always brief and awkward. If that did not happen, then you were teased for trying to make friends with anyone in those tightly knit cliques in the school. You took some pills and hoped to not wake up the next morning. Instead, you woke up in the middle of the night. You looked at the window to see a figure standing before the streetlight shining through the window. It looked like how people described the Grim Reaper to look. It was as tall as the window and you blinked. Then he was gone. After that night, weeks seemed to pass and you had no worries. The one you admired looked at you on the stairwell, too. At the time, being alone was comfortable again so you began to avoid the elementary pal that you were fond of. Then the teachers began to complain about your grades reaching an irredeemable level to your parents. Your parents were yelling at you and everything seemed to be too much for you to handle. Why did they care about your grades and future? They did not care before.

You attempted to kill yourself again. You woke up and looked at the window. There was nothing there and then you looked at the closet. The black figure was standing before your closet. He was closer to your bed than he was the last time you attempted suicide. It began to make you wonder two questions: Has he been saving you from a peaceful end? Or, was he waiting to reap your soul? These questions did not be answered because in a blink he was gone. You focused and studied but you barely made it to high school. Your sister went to a high school specialized for artistically and musically inclined teens. Your parents were happy as usual about all of her accomplishments and you seemed to fade in the background. This was the life you were used to. You expected to blend into the background. You attracted the attention of a good amount of potential lovers with your growth spurt and things that brought your physical form closer to an adult one. You wanted to be alone but everyone did not want to give you that privilege. After being alone so long, the attention seemed to drown you and then your childhood friend confessed their attraction to you. All of those problems seem to fade and you only wanted to be around them. You told each other how much you cared for each other and tried to be around each other as much as possible. By twelfth grade year, jealousy ate its way through your relationship like acid. Your chilhood friend could no onger deal with people flirting with you. You had many admirers and you were not socially skilled enough to push them away without hurting their feelings. You did what you knew how to do after the breakup, which was stay alone and separated from everyone else. You tried to avoid crowds as much as possible. You did not go to any of your high school events that year and many people texted, called, and left voice messages on your phone asking you to be present at the events. They wanted you to be in different groups but it was social overload, to you. All you wanted was to be alone.

In two years, your grade school sweetheart became a spouse and a parent. The last time they talked to you, you found out they were working as an elementary school janitor. What were you doing? You were going to community college trying to figure out your career path. You assumed your sister settled with having some old, drug lord take care of her in some mansion far away from home. She ranaway and never gave updates on her life. She left a brief note for your parents on the kitchen counter shortly after graduation. It basically told all of you not to look for her. Your parents were worried and disappointed but that is when they remembered they had you. They supported you and took care of all your expenses. Then you got in an accident with an old classmate. You almost died. The truck flipped and your side of the vehicle took the most damage. That night you saw the figure at the foot of your bed. You blinked and it was gone. Then things started to get strange. A few people, you did not know that well came up to you at different times on the college campus attempting to grope or fondle you. They seemed desperate like they would not ever see you again. It became harder for you to wake up and one night you felt your left hand squeeze your throat before it just stopped. You could have stopped it but you were not motivated enough to do so. Another near death and things seemed to swiftly pull away from logical explanation. You remembered some of your dreams but they seemed garbled and highly unlikely to happen to you in this reality. One night you woke up in an open, white pod that looked like a casket. A tall shadow greeted you and you just blurted the first things that came to your mind. "So, it was you possessing those people." You said. He chuckled. "I must admit it was fun to mess with your life but do not worry your life froze after your third warning." He said.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that you and the others will fight for my attention and the ones I find the most interesting stay."

"I don't really have to fight people for you? I don't even know you."

"I know you and that is all that matters. Plus, I have already decided to keep you here. There is something about you that I cannot quite understand. It is intriguing."

"Why are you looking at the ceiling?"

"You have so many questions. Can I not look up for the sake of doing so?"