A Twist In Clockwork Fate

The alarm clock beeped continuously and as always, it was a nuisance for our protagonist; Luca Lounsbery, a 17-year old British-Asian male living in Ontario, Canada with his parents. He used to live in East Asia, but his father found a job oppurtunity which needed them to move over to the west side of the world, here in the North American continent.

He was a fine young man. Although he was rather short, he surely had that Asian charm to him; fair skin, scruffy raven-black hair, amber-coloured eyes, and a nice body build.

7:00 AM; July 10, 2018 - Saturday.

Waking up early was always something Luca became used to, but getting a rude awakening from his alarm clock wasn’t. He groaned as he kept flopping his arm around, trying to reach for his loud alarm clock.

After a few tries, he was victorious.

Luca slowly got up and gingerly rubbed his eyes. He yawned, slowly waking up to the sight of the sun shining and birds chirping.

As he got a grip of what was happening, he smiled as he was looking out of the window. He saw the usual birds that would be perched right outside his window. He scootched over near the window that was right next to his bed and opened up the window. “Morning guys,” He greeted the little birds.

The birds flapped around as they chirped happily upon noticing his usual appearance in the morning.

Some of the birds chirped louder to catch his attention, in which they were successful of doing so. They made him take notice of the lack of bird seeds that were in the little bowl Luca left out on the little ledge of the window for them.

“Oh, you’re out of food?” Luca asked. He let out another yawn. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you guys some more,” He assured the hungry birds. He threw off the blanket that were layed drape on him and ambled over to some wooden drawers near his desk.

Opening the top one, there was a half-empty pack of bird seeds. He took it out, closed the drawer, jumped back onto the bed and showed the birds the pack. The birds chirped louder in rejoice of seeing their favourite human bringing them food once more. Luca chuckled at the sight as he pulled over the empty little bowl. He poured in the remaining contents of what was left in the little pack and served the now full bowl to the happy birds.

He smiled warmly, entertained by the birds peeking around, eating the bird seeds he has just placed for them.

Afterwards, he finally closed the window again and let the birds be.

Luca went to perform his daily routine every morning; take a shower, put on some nice clothes, and start the day with whatever your mom cooks for breakfast.

It is now 7:53 AM, and Luca’s ready to start the day. He makes his way downstairs and spots his mother just finished making breakfast.

“Morning dear!” His mother greets. Luca smiles. “Morning mum,” He greets back. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Well, your dad was craving some nostalgia, so I tried making some homemade ramen!” She answered.

Luca smiled. “Nice!”

His mother giggles at Luca’s excited reaction as she hands him a bowl full of those good stuff. The ramen bowl looked so authentic, which Luca loved a lot. Despite it being years that he has been here in Canada, it’s never a bad thing to live through your old Asian life again - even if it means just getting a taste of some homemade ramen.

“Where’s Dad?” Luca asked as he took a sip of the noodles.

“Already off to work. You know how he is,” His mom answered with a bit of a chuckle. Luca couldn’t help but chuckle along.

“So, any plans today?” His mom asks. “Naw, not really.” Luca answers as he continues to slurp the noodles, enjoying every bit of the ramen.

“But that might change. I’ll go and see what Angelo is up to, and maybe the two of us will hang out later or something.” He adds, and yet as he said that, his phone let out a little ding noise, indicating that he has a notification.

As he continues on with eating his breakfast ramen, he cheeks his phone and notices that Angelo sent him a text message.

It said:

‘Hey Luca! U free? I found some mystery crap from my... sources... Yeah, anyway... So, uh, I thought we could go check it out or something. Maybe we can find something cool lol. It’s in the forest btw.’

Well, it looks like Luca is going to do something after all. He texts back, saying:

‘Yeah sure. I’m down for it. Just make sure to bring some snacks & supplies lmao’

He placed down his phone on the table, and said: “It looks like I’m hanging out with Angelo after all.”

Afterwards, he continued to finish up his ramen by taking the bowl and drinking all the soup. His mom glanced over to him. “Really? Where to?” She asked.

“In the forest, apparently.”

“The forest?!” HIs mom exclaims, suddenly.

“Relax mom, it’s gonna be fine. We’re gonna be really careful, plus Angelo’s gonna pack some supplies and I will too.”

Luca’s mom let’s out a rather hesitant sigh. “Fine,” She says. “Just promise that you’ll come home safe and sound with all your limbs and organs, strictly at 5 PM sharp. Understood?”

“Of course!” Luca chirps as he gets up, grabs his phone, and heads back up to his bedroom to prepare. “Thanks mom!”

Luca waited outside his house for Angelo to arrive and explain more about whatever adventurous quest he was on about. He had a backpack with him; filled up with a flashlight, some batteries, a power bank for his phone, headphones, a cutter, a pocket multi-tool, some rope, and some snacks. He also wore his favourite red hoodie along with a white blouse underneath.

A few moments later, a young man scampers up to Luca. Black skin, messy black hair, dark brown eyes, and a jacket that’s totally not Naruto’s Akatsuki-designed. And he most definitely didn’t have a more fuller backpack than Luca had. With the description aside, it’s none other than Luca’s best friend, Angelo Avalonne, another Asian immigrant.

“Hey Luca!” He greets him with a zealous grin. “Oh hey, Angelo!” Luca greets back, but beginning to frown at the sight of his heavy backpack. “What is this? A do or die mission? What’s with all the extra stuff??”

“Uh... Just some normal supplies, snacks, and other essential stuff...?” Angelo answered sheepishly as he shrugged with an awkward smile. “No biggie!”

Luca wasn’t sold on this. He raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms. He made Angelo turn around and the lad complied. Luca then rummaged through the contents of his backpack and noticed a lot of unessecary equipment.

Luca zipped up the backpack and faced Angelo with a rather deadpan expression. “Really?” He goes.

“Well you may never know when these things can come in handy!” Angelo retorts as he crossed his arms and pouted.

Luca just laughed it off, knowing that it would be useless to try and start a fight over something so small. “Fine, whatever.” He said. “Let’s just get going.”

Angelo rolled his eyes and lead the way.

“So, mind giving me some more info about this?” Luca asked.

Angelo immediately began beaming up when Luca asked more about what they were gonna be today. He was very excited, after all.

“Alright, so!” He starts. “According to my sources, there’s a rumor going around that there’s something lurking around in the forest. They said that the spirits of war heroes from centuries ago roam about among the trees!”

“And we should care about this, why?”

“Luca, dude... Are you my best friend or what? I’ve been binge-watching history documents to sleep every day, and you question why we should care about this?? We gotta try and find it!”

“But what if it isn’t actually true?”

“And what if it is?”

“Okay fine, you win.” Luca sighed in defeat.

Angelo let out a proud snicker as a response. And so, they continued to talk about the trip as they ventured out into the forest.

Deep into the woods, they ventured through the trees. Luca looked down at his modern digital watch to check the time and it was currently 10:40 AM. They still have a lot of time to explore around, it seems.

Luca scurried up to Angelo who was already scowering ahead. “So what are we looking for exactly?”

“Walking spirits, ghosts, supernatural... Just anything out of the ordinary,” Angelo shrugs and continues to scrutinize around the area.

“You go left, and I got right.” Angelo commanded as he handed Luca an actual walkie-talkie in case something happens. “Good luck!” Angelo pats Luca’s shoulder with a cheeky grin.

Luca watched the lad walk further away into the distance. “You too!”

Afterwards, he began heading through the separate direction.

Luca shoves the walkie-talkie in his jean pockets as he ambles around, looking from left to right - whistling a little tune; specifically, the melody of Boys Will Be Bugs from an iconic artist aliased as Cavetown. Luca is a fan of his, after all - and enjoys his music.

Plus the forest reminded him of said song.

A few moments later, something seemed to swing by Luca. It was too fast to take a proper look at it, but one thing’s for sure is that it made Luca flinch. He slowly took out the walkie-talkie and tried communicating with Angelo. “Uhhh... Gelo, I think I found something...?”

Within a second, Angelo replies back, saying: ”Really? What’d you find?"

Luca continued to walk further ahead, trying to find whatever it was. “I’m actually not sure, but something just wooshed past me and I’m sure it’s not just some random wild animal...”
"Alright, I’ll be there in a bit." Angelo replied.

And with that, Luca put down his walkie-talkie and continued to scower around the area even more. Scrutinizing wherever that thing has gone too. Suddenly, he was greeted by the appearance of some sort of colorful wisp. Luca gasped at it suddenly appearing in front of him. He quickly took out his phone and snapped a quick photo of it. But as he did, it suddenly disappeared into thin air. “What the hell...” He mutters under his breath.

He tucks his phone away into another pocket, and tried looking for it again. He may not know what it is, but at least he knows what it looks like. It looked to be star-shaped with a navy blue outline, with crimson red and white stripers of some sort.

After a short bit of more looking around, Luca found the star-shaped wisp again. He slowly approached it and reached out to it, but as he was about to prod it with a finger, it disappeared once again.

Yet with a turn of his gaze, he found the wisp again. Walking over to it, it disappears but appears back again in another direction. It’s like it’s leading Luca to somewhere, and so - the lad complied. But after a bit, the wisp suddenly disappeared for good. Luca was very baffled by this. He continued to scrutinize around, in hopes of finding it again. Although he was too caught up with the ambition of finding this mystical and mysterious object that he slipped over a muddy area, and hit his head hard on a rock as he fell backwards - causing him to black out.

Luca groaned as he flutters his eyes open. To start it off, his vision was a bit blurry but it cleared up once he fully gained consciousness. “What the... Where am I..?” He mutters under his breath as he gingerly gets up.

He glances around and notices that he isn’t in the forest anymore. There were wooden cottages and other small establishments made from old bricks and cobblestone.

Luca really was baffled now. He stood there for a moment, trying to take in all that has just happened. Logically, he would be screaming in terror right now, but he doesn’t want to attract any attention that could most likely make matters worse.

He took in a deep breath, and began scrutinizing his surroundings. “Alright Luca, what do you see?” He asks himself. “Well there’s old houses, old wells, old people, old horses, old carriages... Just... Old everything...”

Luca chuckled a little. “Hahah, I’m so gonna die here...”

But at least he still has all his stuff with him.

Luca looked down at his watch and noticed how the hands were gong mental; hastily spinning around in circles in two different directions. “Great.. Now my watch’s gone mad!” Luca groaned. “...Just bloody great!”

As he did so, he spotted a woman passing by with, what seemed to be, her son. He decided to walk over to them. “Pardon ma’am, but could you maybe help me out?” He asks politely. Yet the woman lets out a yelp, as she defensively hugs her son. “Oh dear, please don’t hurt us! We did nothing wrong, sir!” She cried out.

“I-I’m not going to hurt you!” Luca assured her. Yet his clothing and British accent that he got from his mother isn’t really helping him out in this current situation.

“You are a redcoat, are you not...?”