Memento (boyxboy)

2 weeks earlier

Adrian stepped out of the shower, his hand grabbing a towel and drying his body, school started for him in thirty minutes, so his actions were rushed as he paced the room, getting ready.

He quickly brushed his teeth, pulling his clothes onto his body as he stumbled around, trying hard not to lose his balance as he pulled down his shirt while also trying to put on his socks.

And just when he was ready to leave, his body swayed as he rushed towards the door, causing him to crash into the cabinet beside him, his amulet falling from the shelf to the ground.

“Crap!” Adrian cursed as he bent down to retrieve the pendant, collecting it from the floor and analysing it, searching for cracks or scratches, but to his relief and surprise the amulet was in perfect condition.

Adrian smiled, believing he’d gotten lucky and attached the pendent around his neck, it hung against his shirt as he walked out of his bedroom, ready to leave for school.

But as he left the room, he didn’t notice the pendant shining with life around his neck, the light faded quickly, and by the time Adrian reached the bottom step of the stairs, the glow had gone, restored to its usual appearance.

Now

Adrian

“Their screams at night fill my head Too late to act, their souls lay dead

The blood too potent, yet water clean I prayed that it was all a dream

Night falls fast, howls fill my room Hinting towards a certain doom

Don’t come much closer, the noise is real The pain in which I really feel

My heart beats fast, clock ticking slow Nothing remains, it’s time to go

Run my love and don’t look back My breathing wavers, sight turning black

The malice whispers fill your ears Your face now wet, from your own tears

Your time has come, don’t be alarmed I’ll keep him safe, he won’t be harmed

I don’t regret the decisions made As my vision blurs and my memories fade

You’re safe for now, my soul, my love I’ll watch you grow from up above

But please don’t cry because I’m gone My love for you will always live on

Don’t hate me for decisions made This is for you, the price is paid

Spoken, were, the words not true Little did I know, I just sold my soul to you.”

The class fell silent, the reaction being one of which I wanted. I needed to know, these thoughts have been filling my mind lately, filling my dreams, and I have no idea what they mean.

I didn’t wait any longer, no one expected something so sinister from me. Sighing quietly, I slinked my way back to my seat at the back of the classroom, thankful for the seat by the window.

My gaze drifted outside, following the lonely, dark paths of the rain drops that raced down my window.

The clearing of a throat was loud and obnoxious, I guess it took them longer than expected to get over just how dark my writing had gotten.

I’m so going to regret this if people start thinking I’m depressed. I’m not depressed, I’m confused. I’m being haunted by something, but I don’t know what it is.

“Well, Adrian. That sure was...interesting. Thank you,” the teacher awkwardly stuttered out, but I wasn’t paying attention to her, my eyes had drifted to the boy sitting at the other end of the room from me.

He was staring at me; interestingly enough, but I couldn’t read him. He just seemed neutral.

Weird...it was almost like he understood, like he knew why that was the poem I wrote, but that made no sense.

It took way too long to think of a poem to write once the teacher had assigned us with the work.

Usually, I’m pretty good at creating words and piecing them together so they sound good, but this time I found myself sitting at my desk at home, staring aimlessly at the paper in front of me, the pen sitting carelessly in my hand as my head remained blank.

It went like this for a couple of days until one night I was startled awake at 3am by a dream.

I didn’t remember what it was about but the emotions that ran through my body were incredible, I wished I could remember, but the harder you try to remember a dream, the more about it you forget.

I made my way over to my desk, feeling full of energy but completely out of it. I picked up my pen that lay casually on the desk and gazed down at the paper in front of me.

My pen hit the blank page and the words flowed naturally; I didn’t even have to try. Ten minutes later and my poem was complete, I sat in my computer chair, staring at the page, the emotions from before had died down and I was now left feeling confused.

The boy sat staring at me, and before I even knew what was happening, I felt heat rush to my cheeks.

I turned my head quickly to hide my burning face from his burning eyes, but not quite quick enough to miss the shocked look that took place on his face.

Why was I so embarrassed? That was another thing, lately I don’t understand my emotions, it’s like they’re all over the place, almost like my body and mind are craving something for us to be content again, but why is it only recently I feel so lonely?

I groaned silently to myself, turning my gaze back out the window and avoiding the penetrating stare of the boy that sat on the other side of the classroom. Why am I so confused?

~

“Hey man, are you feeling alright?” My friend Jake asked as we walked the hallways to our next class.

“Yeah, of course,” I responded with a smile, but that was far from the truth, I wasn’t alright, and what made it worse was the fact that I had no idea why I was feeling like this.

“It’s just that poem you wrote seemed kind of dark.” I shrugged off his remark, using the excuse of wanting to try something different, he dropped it after that, his usual dumb smile returning to his face as we kept walking.

I felt something bump my shoulder, jolting me slightly to the side as tingles filled my body, making me shiver. Looking with wide eyes in front of me, I saw the boy from earlier.

He didn’t look back, nor apologise for bumping into me, he just kept walking. I continued to stare at his back in confusion but quickly shrugged it off, deciding to ignore it for the time being and instead, just made my way to class.

The rest of the day passed achingly slow, and I was eager to just get out of this place already. I’d just finished gym and was standing in the locker rooms, getting dressed.

“You coming to the party this weekend, man?” Jake asked from beside me as he closed his locker.

“I don’t know, depends on if I can get out of the house,” I responded as I pulled my shirt on and threw my backpack over my shoulder.

Jake and I were the last ones left in the locker room, everybody else having already left to go home. I shut my locker as an overwhelming sense of sickness took over my body.

“Coming?” Jake asked, as he headed to the doors.

“You go ahead, I want to speak to coach,” I lied. He simply nodded and left the room, leaving me alone as I rushed to the bathrooms and spilled the contents of my stomach into the bowl.

I leant back against the cubicle, felling dizzy, my head throbbing and for the life of me, I couldn’t stop shaking.

What is happening to me?

I sat there for a few minutes with my eyes closed before flushing the toilet and attempting to get to my feet. It took a few tries, but I finally managed to support myself enough to stand.

Slowly making my way out of the stall, I moved towards the sinks, leaning my weight on the counter as I stared at myself in the mirror; I looked awful.

I must be coming down with something, it was the only reason I could think of that made sense.

My exhausted stare quickly turned to one of amazement. A loud gasp escaped my lips as I watched my eyes turn from their normal green to a bright, vibrant silver.

“Are you okay?” I jumped out of my skin at the sudden voice and turned around quickly. Now, staring at the boy in front of me with wide eyes, while I stood there clinging to the counter behind me for support.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He smiled softly as he approached and for a reason, I can’t even begin to explain, a calm sensation washed over me.

I was quickly knocked out of the trance I didn’t even realise I was in, when I remembered what had happened mere seconds ago. I quickly turned back to the mirror, only to see my normal green eyes staring back at me.

“I’m...fine,” I finally responded, as the thought occurred to me that I may possibly be going crazy.

The boy behind me didn’t say anything else after that, just watched me as I mentally screamed at myself in the mirror.

“What is happening to me?” I mumbled under my breath but apparently, I wasn’t as quiet as I thought, because soon came a response.

“I don’t know, Adrian.”

“How do you know my name?” I watched him through the mirror, but his expression never changed.

“Everybody knows your name.” He shrugged, his eyes never leaving me.

“What’s your name?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me, but to my surprise, I watched as he visibly flinched and his eyes filled with pain. What the...

“Zach...” He spoke quietly, his eyes lining with tears.

“A-are you okay?” I approached him cautiously, coming to stand in front of him.

The overwhelming sense to hug him filled me but I pushed it back, not wanting to scare him. Instead, my fingers found the bottom of his chin, and I slowly lifted his head up, so his eyes met mine.

A single tear fell, caressing his cheek as his eyes came to settle on mine. I watched in amazement as Zach’s eyes changed from light brown to the same shade mine took earlier, a bright, vibrant silver.

Something was certainly going on here and the boy stood in front of me knew what that something was, but I didn’t ask.

I tenderly brushed the stray tear away with my thumb, a gentle smile coming to sit on my face.

“Please don’t cry,” I whispered. His eyes flickered back to normal at my words and he took a step back out of my grasp. I pushed down the sting of rejection it caused and watched him cautiously.

“I’m sorry, I have to go.” Before I could even think of stopping him, he was out of the bathroom and probably on his way out of the school.

I didn’t run after him, instead I turned back toward the mirror. Bright silver eyes, even more vibrant than before, stared back at me.

~

“ADRIAANNN!!”

Piercing screams filled my ears, a voice full of pain but I couldn’t see, couldn’t move, and couldn’t make out where the voice was coming from.

“ADRIAANNN!!”

Screams again, and again, gradually getting louder until all that was left was a whisper.

“Adrian, my love,” a voice whimpered, falling to his knees before me. I tried to respond, tried to move, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t.

“Baby, please!” The voice cried beside me, I wanted nothing more than to comfort him, to tell him I was okay, but all I could do was lay there, the cold of the ground pressed up against my back as I listened to his pleas. I was useless, because of me, the one I love must suffer.

*Bang, Bang, Bang*

“Adrian, dinner’s ready!” My auntie’s voice drifted through the door as I sat up in my bed, rubbing my eyes.

“Coming!” I must have fallen asleep doing my homework, books and sheets of paper lay carelessly on the floor from where they had fallen from the bed.

I sighed heavily to myself, I’d had many dreams recently, all forgotten as soon as my eyes fully opened, but this time-this dream-I remember clearly.

My love? Why did his voice sound so...familiar?

“Evening Aunt June, Evening uncle Bobby.”

“Good evening, Adrian, how was school?” My uncle spoke, cutting off my aunt’s greeting.

“Good, got to blow stuff up in science.”

“Ha, sounds like a blast.” I forced myself to laugh at the dumb pun as I secretly rolled my eyes.

“Heh, yeah it was. So...um...it’s cool with you guys if I go to Jake’s party this weekend, right?” Both pairs of eyes were instantly on me.

My aunt and uncle have never liked Jake and I still to this day, don’t understand why, he’s a cool guy, a bit of an airhead, but he’s my friend.

“Now, you know we don’t like you going to those teenage parties.” My uncle’s face was emotionless as he spoke, his eyes boring into mine.

“Uncle Bobby, I’m a teenager and they’re my friends, plus it’s not like I’m underage, I’m 18,” I defended myself, surprised by the sudden anger that coursed through my veins.

Two pairs of shocked eyes were trained on me, and I was soon staring back in confusion.

“What?” I asked cautiously. They quickly regained themselves, Aunty turned back towards the stove, refusing to look at me, and my uncle cleared his throat beside me, gaining my attention.

“How are you feeling, Adrian?” He asked me as he masked all his emotions.

“Uh fine, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Well, I was feeling a bit ill earlier but I’m sure it was nothing.” I avoided telling the full truth, hoping he’d give up, but I was wrong.

“Adrian, tell me,” My uncle demanded, his face serious, and I couldn’t help but sigh aloud.

Since everything that happened with my parents, I was always honest with them about this kind of stuff, so I don’t know why I was so hesitant now.

“I don’t know, this sudden sickening feeling hit me at the end of school. I ran to the bathroom and was sick, I felt so dizzy and was hit with the worst headache. It only lasted a couple of minutes, but it really shook me up, and I’ve been having...dreams.” I hesitantly told my uncle the truth, seeing no other way out of this now.

“Dreams?” He asked, curiously.

“Yeah, but I never remember them. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night with all these emotions flowing through me. I know it’s from the dreams, but I can never remember what the dreams were about, well... except for the one I just had.”

“Go on...” he urged.

“I must have fallen asleep while doing my homework and was woken up when auntie knocked on the door. I don’t understand it, it probably doesn’t even mean anything but...there was a boy.”

“A boy?”

“He was calling my name, well more like screaming it, but there was just so much pain in his voice. I was in darkness so I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t even move, until eventually the voice got nearer, reducing to a mere whisper. He-he called me...” My eyes burned, pain was coursing through me at the thought of his voice, at hearing...

“Adrian!” My uncle snapped me back out of my thoughts and that’s when I realised that tears were streaming down my cheeks, I quickly wiped them away in horror and embarrassment.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand what’s happening to me.” My auntie’s eyes were full of sadness as she looked at me, before she joined us at the table, setting down steaming plates of food in front of each of us, but I had no appetite.

“It’s okay, Adrian. Take a breath, I shouldn’t have pushed you, I’m sorry.” I could hear the guilt in my uncle’s voice as he spoke, but this wasn’t his fault.

The table remained quiet as they began to eat, but all I could do was stare at the food in front of me.

My love.