Persona: Dark Side of the SoulChapter 0: The Beginning
"Don't try to be somebody you're not because it doesn't work."
-Ben Quayle
It was a cold, quiet December evening in the small town of Swedville in upstate New York. The virgin snow piled high as some of the cars still parked in the drive-ways. This wasn't really a concern, as nearly half the townspeople walked or found another form of commute instead of digging out their automobiles. However, one car was now being dug out, the owner of which was looking for his son.
Mr. Hank Valkryin was looking for his 11-year old son Harry, who was probably out playing in the snow with his friends. However, at the given time of the night, it was unlawful for children under 17 to be out this late, so the red-bearded, gruff looking man put on his snow-shoes, and set out to find his only child.
For about an hour or two, he walked around the frozen fields, calling out to his only child. At first, he was rather calm, if a bit annoyed, but as minutes turned into hours, that calm attitude turned into panic. He eventually began running around the area, even with the freezing wind and still falling snow, to find his son.
Unbeknownst to him, his son Harry, and his friends, were out on the frozen Lake Sticks. This small gang included Leon, a young man who was known to be rather adventurous, Ophelia, who always seemed to want to follow Harry around, Oliver, who was known to actually study and read more than actually go outside, and Amanda, who was probably the most energetic and friendly of the group. Harry himself had coaxed them into exploring the area to find the rare "frozen Lake Monster," a beast said to only appear during the harsh winter months, for some odd reason.
This little excursion from a bunch of eleven year olds, however, turned out to be a horrible, horrible idea. Leon had already fallen through the ice once, and was shivering just to stay warm. Ophelia had actually lost a shoe somewhere in the snow, and has frostbite along her ankle and foot, and Harry was… still perfectly OK with all of this. "C'mon guys, it's nothing a little hot chocolate won't fix, am I right?" He said, trying to coax his friends into moving along with their little adventure.
Sadly, his attempts to do so were met with… less than desired results. Leon was the first to object; "Harry, be real man. I'm freezing my f'in brains out, Ophelia is missing a shoe, we're all sick and tired of trying to find this monster- Will you just let us go home already goddamn you!" He shouted, and Harry put his hand to his chin for a moment, and spoke up, "Nope! No can do, not until we find this monster."
Just when Amanda was about to tell him off herself, something rustled in the bushes adjacent to the edge of the lake, causing everyone to direct their gaze there. Suddenly, it began to rustle again, this time something actually took a step out from there. "C-c'mon out you monster! I'm not afraid of you!" Harry said, raising his fists to the "beast." Before he could give the appropriate command for his comrades to charge, however, it turned out to be Leon's elder sister, Ramona. "There you guys are!" She said, bundled up in a scarf and overcoat, her dyed-purple hair keeping the snow out of her eyes. "Do you know how long we've all been looking for you? Harry, your dad is worried sick! And Leon, you know you're not supposed to be out this late!" She said in a scolding tone.
"Ramona, just… just stop. You're trying to control me now that dad's working another job, and let's face it; it just isn't working." He said snidely, almost like he was issuing his elder sister a challenge. "Look, whatever. You're the one's who're gonna get beat later on for makin' everyone worried sick like this, ya hear me? Now c'mon-"She said, and another rustle was heard, coming from the bushes where she'd emerged from. Ophelia piped up, "U-um, Ramona… Were you followed?" She squeaked as she hid behind Harry, and Ramona shook her head no. Her first instinct was to get in front of the children, but that didn't matter- Something big was getting ready to attack. Before she could even say "run," something big and black leapt out from those bushes with the urge to kill. Whatever it was, the creature had a blue mask, two black arms seemed to almost be like a pile of sludge moving along the ground. However, it soon grew two more arms, two to stand up on, and two to draw out swords.
Before anyone could do anything, and it looked like the beast was getting ready to charge at Harry, they heard a cry break the silence of the night- "Morpheus!" The voice said, and it seemed to come out of nowhere. However, something DID appear- a young man garbed in a beautiful white and black gown, which seemed to depict the night sky, and a shield. "Ziodyne!" The voice cried out again, and lightning struck the beast that was attempting to do harm unto the children. However, as the beast was ready to charge again, the voice issued another order to the dream god- "Torrent Shot!" He said, and the being summoned the stars from his outfit, and flung them at the monster at rapid speed, ultimately defeating it. It evaporated into a black mist, and the mask behind seemed to melt as if it itself were made out of snow.
Just as mysteriously as the figure had appeared, it left again, and the voice that seemed to command the being was nowhere to be seen or heard from. Hell, even as Ramona looked around, she couldn't find any tracks in the snow besides her own, and the little group's. "W-whatever the HELL that thing was, you're lucky that… guy showed up!"
"…Morpheus, 'mona." Leon said. "He's the Greek god of dreams-"He said rather calmly, before he was interrupted. "I KNOW THAT YOU LITTLE BRAT! I STUDIED MYTHOLOGY TOO!" She said, and grabbed him rather forcefully by the arm. "Honestly, you kids are gonna be the death of us yet! Why can't you be like Oliver, or Ophelia! No, it's always you, Harry, and Amanda always stirring shit up. When I was your age…" She began to ramble on, as the group followed behind her and Leon. Eventually, they made it back into town unscathed by anymore mysterious monster attacked. The children were picked up and received rather warmly by their parents. Various "I was so worried about you!" and "You had us worried sick" were thrown around left and right in an attempt to get the five young people to realize how much trouble they'd stirred up. Ophelia and Oliver seemed remorseful, but Leon, Amanda, and Harry all seemed rather pleased with themselves, having found the monster.
"You should have seen it, mom!" Harry said to his mother, who was holding him tight. "Some guy named Mor-" He was about to say, before Leon punched him in the shoulder. He dragged his friend aside, along with the others as the adults talked among themselves. "We can NEVER talk about any of this. Ever. They will think we are INSANE if we tell them about Morpheus and that beast. Do I make myself clear?" Leon said very demandingly.
They decided soon after they'd swear to secrecy about it that night, never to speak of the monster again… However, the next day in school…
During a recess break, while all the other children were running around in the snow, Harry and Oliver went up to ask their teacher, Ms. Etaceh something. "Mr. Etaceh, who's Morpheus?" Harry asked, Oliver being too shy to ask their teacher a simple question. "…Oh! You mean the Greek god of Dreams! Oooh, you boys are into Greek mythology! Hold on, I'll get you my book." She said, went inside for two minutes, and came back with a book geared towards 5th and 6th graders on the subject. "Bring it back to me at the end of the school day, OK?" She said, and shooed them off to make a phone-call. They brought the book under the monkey bars where Leon, Amanda and Ophelia awaited their return. "He's a greek god or something… Hey, maybe we can grow up to be like that!"
He said, but Amanda cut him off, "Don't be stupid Harry. There's no such things as these guys being real… We can pretend to be like them… Liiiiiike…" She said, and read through the book. "You'd be Jason, and Ophelia could be Medea~" She said playfully, and Ophelia blushed.
"A-amanda, I'll tell Ms. Etaceh-" Ophelia piped up before she was cut off by Amanda as well. "Oh relax. It's just a joke Ophy… Besides, I wanna be Echo. She looks pretty." Harry replied with a snicker, "Yeah, but she died following that dude Narcissus around. Sucks to be you!" He said before he began to laugh. "Plus, if you're Echo, I wanna know what Leon would be!" He said as he turned to the tallest member of their group. "Tch, that's easy. I'd be some big scary badass dude that no one messes with." He said as he cracked his knuckles. "…Hmm, Leon, you'd be Phobetor, the personification/god of Nightmares. Cool enough for you?" She said, and Leon agreed with a loud "Hell yeah!"
Finally, it was Oliver's turn. "…You know what Olly, you tell us a lot of stuff, even if it gets us in trouble… You'd be… Prometheus!" Amanda said with a giggle. "Hopefully you don't get chained up to any big rock, right?" She said, but was met with a glare by Oliver. "You would give me something stupid like that. Whatever, I don't care." He said, crossing his arms and pouting a bit. "You gave everyone else something cool, you witch." He muttered, and the group burst out into an argument, save for Ophelia. "U-um… excuse me…" She tried to interject, but everyone else was just shouting too loud. And Leon was about to punch Harry in the face, Oliver and Amanda were having their own shouting match… "GUYS!" She shouted, and everyone stopped. "Thank you. Can we just get back to playing kickball?" She said calmly, and the rest of the group nodded. They delivered the book back to their teacher, and decided it was about time they got back to playing kickball, like normal 5th and 6th graders.
Fast forward 7 years…
The year is now 2014. As far as the sleepy little town of Svedton (renamed by town vote) is concerned, all is right with the world. It's a beautiful New Years Day, which happens to fall on a Wednesday, when the true purpose of those events seven years ago finally have come to light once more.
Harry Valkryn now stood in at 5'9, and has the same shaggy red hair as his father. Unfortunately, due to his Irish ancestry, he also has freckles on his face; it had earned him the nicknamed "McValkryn," poking fun at his roots. He awoke to find his phone filled with inbox messages of "Happy New Year!" Nowadays, he was Mr. Sociable, and had expanded his social circle far, while still keeping the same four people he loved to talk to very close.
Ophelia Malruso was waiting for text replies back from everyone. She was two inches shorter than Harry, and had long, black hair which covered a gorgeous face. While she wasn't as well endowed as many of the girls in her class, she considered it a gift, mostly because she liked to avoid the spotlight as much as possible, and anything above a C-cup would definitely put her there. She decided to get ready for the day and left her phone on the bed, just as her phone buzzed and a text from Harry appeared, saying "Happy New Year beautiful."
Amanda Hexin, meanwhile, awoke in the worst way possible- next to another man. A gentleman she hardly knew, and what made things worse was WHERE she woke up- under the covers in the back of his pick-up truck. Thankfully it was an electric blanket but still, she wasn't even in her underwear. She pushed her dark red hair out of her face and stood up out of the truck, stretching out and quickly putting her outfit from the previous night- a miniskirt, stockings, a jacket with a tank top, and heels- back on before anyone noticed, and quickly ran home… but not before sending a "Happy New Year" text to Oliver.
Oliver, however, had the least eventful night out of all of them. He had spent the night playing Mortal Kombat and studying for an upcoming honors test that had been scheduled the day his class returned from winter break. He received Amanda's text, and replied to it. After doing so, he went to go hop in the shower, mostly to wash off his pale skin and dirty blonde hair, but not before sending a text message to the now infamous Leon Crowley.
Mr. Crowley had awoken to a harem of women about the same age as himself, all clinging to him as he slept. He pushes his dyed silver hair out of his face and managed to get out of the bed he was in without awakening them. Thankfully, it was just a hotel room, and not his house. He stood up and got dressed quickly, nearly hitting his head on the ceiling as he did so. He went down to the main office, paid off the expenses (and breakfast for the ladies), and took off in a Mustang convertible, the only thing left to him by his father only 6 years ago. While at a red-light, he read Oliver's text and threw his phone in the backseat, and decided that he was going to help his friends make this year the best year ever.