"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown"
- H. P. Lovecraft
***
Adam's world was aflame with annoyance and irritation, whose cause was none other than his 'dear' older brother/best friend, Daniel.
That guy was seriously intolerable; however, he'd been there with him through thick and thin, along with his other brother/best friend, Tim.
Those two morons were the only ones he was close to in the entire orphanage; this didn't mean he was on bad terms with others. He simply drew a line of cordiality with the others due to his soft-spoken and shy personality.
While the other kids were happy mingling with others, Adam simply enjoyed his quiet time and kept an eye on others.
From his childhood, his observational skills were exceptional, while his communication skills were practically in the gutter.
That was why he didn't have a rapport with the other kids, well... he didn't care too much about that as long as they left him alone.
Eventually, the annoyance dissipated and was replaced by a dull pain in his body; it hurt as if he were stuffed into a bag and someone had rolled it off a cliff.
It was a novel experience for him; he hadn't been stuffed anywhere before... or had he?
***
A muffled groan came from Adam's lips as he tried to stretch in the confined space of the closet.
Before clarity returned to his mind, he yawned and tiredly rubbed his eyelids while trying to straighten up.
Unfortunately, he smashed his forehead straight into the closet door.
"Damn... why is everything so dark?"
As his mind whirred to clarity thanks to his stinging forehead, he jolted awake. Every bit of his sleepiness was gone, leaving him alone and weary in the silence of the night.
"Haah... this isn't a nightmare.... ha..ha..."
He sighed and chuckled humorlessly at his predicament.
At least his humour was doing just fine even now. He knew that it was just a coping mechanism that whirred on due to the stressful circumstances since he had woken up in this godforsaken place.
But knowing something and actually realising something were completely different things. Welp... it wouldn't help him in his predicament whether he realised it or not.
Putting these useless thoughts to the back of his mind, Adam picked up his mobile and looked at the time.
It was currently three in the morning, and his mobile was at thirty percent.
'only three... it definitely felt more than that?'
Letting out a weary sigh, Adam tried to sit in a relaxed posture and pulled his bathrobes tighter.
'It's colder than earlier.'
It wasn't his imagination; it definitely felt colder than before.
After a few minutes of sitting in silence, Adam remembered Dan's antics when they went to the library a month ago.
"Never thought I'd miss that fuc*er, heh... what do you know, never say never, I guess."
Remembering his friends, he felt a little lonely all of a sudden.
"Haah... living in the past ain't gonna help me right now, I'll definitely get out of this place."
If someone saw Adam's face at this moment, it would feel like he was going to war... maybe he was going to war against this place. One thing was for sure: he would definitely wreck this place with sadistic glee.
Revelling in his destructive daydreams, Adam let out a wistful sigh.
A couple of minutes had passed since he got up. Adam looked at his mobile once again to see how much time remained till sunrise.
"Huh?... What the heck?... How is it still three?"
He rubbed his eyes again and tried looking again, but the time didn't budge even a second from earlier.
He froze.
There was an unsettling feeling creeping from the depths of his mind ever since he woke up he didn't know what caused it, but something was very...very wrong.
He had this feeling at the back of his mind ever since he woke up, but he couldn't put a finger on it, no matter what he did.
Then he remembered the scribbles on the parchment he'd read before sleeping.
'That's right!... where is that thing?'
As he struggled to find the piece of parchment in the confined space, he came to a startling realisation. It wasn't there.
His face clenched in nervousness as he couldn't find it.
"I definitely threw it right there. How can it just disappear?"
His brain was going haywire in panic, but just then, as he was busy panicking and shuffling, he heard a whisper that seemed to have crawled out from the very edges of hell itself.
'Why? Why did you leave us? How could you leave us?'
Adam's body stopped abruptly as if someone had dumped him into a block of ice.
His hair stood on end, and he strained not to make any noise to listen carefully.
'Why did you leave us here? Why didn't you stay with us?'
He broke out into a cold sweat after hearing the whispers. It sounded like a child was wailing while choking out these words in a shrill voice.
He didn't dare move even an inch from his position and stayed rigid as a mannequin.
Eventually, the whispers seemed to move away from his location, and he leaned his sweat-drenched back against the cabinet wall.
Still trembling, he wiped his sweaty palms and let out a turbid breath.
His gaze tiredly trailed up the closet in exhaustion.
What he saw made his heart leap into his throat. A pair of eyes on a hazy, dark silhouette was looking at him without any emotion.
He shivered, and a scream left his mouth involuntarily. Just then, the hazy figure above him gripped his throat in a flash and tightened its grasp as if to choke the life out of him.
Adam flailed his arms around in panic and tried getting this entity's arms off him, but his hands just passed through it.
A few seconds of desperate struggle later. Adam looked at the figure in terror and thought in his mind.
'Am I going to die again?... '
Adam's grunts began dying down as power seemed to leave his body in front of this creature's strength. His body went limp, and his eyes began dimming as if the light within them had been stuffed out.
Just as his vision blurred and the world spun, a blinding flash of pain jolted him awake.
He smacked his head into the closet wall, his breath coming out in chocked gasps as he coughed violently to let his throat open.
His tense body shivered once again as his pupils shook violently.
'What... what was that?'
His mind spun as he tried to think of what had just happened to him. Gradually, he uttered in a hoarse voice.
"That ... Was that a dream?"
As fleeting memories of the dream began dissolving into a blurry mess, he touched his throat and trembled once again.
There was a mark on his throat as if someone had tried strangling him.
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[A/N]
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