DAY 1- 9:24 AM.
Jason woke up with hesitation on April 22. The first thing he registered in his mind was that his eyes (and the surrounding area) were slightly wet. He had been crying in his sleep.
But why? He had no recollection of dreaming that night…it was like the video was a painkiller to the mind, impaling any subconscious thought in its sight.
11:15 AM
He got out of his bed, yawned, and started towards the kitchen. His parents were in Chicago, but that didn't mean he couldn't fend for himself every now and then.
Tired, he sluggishly made himself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the table. He plucked the spoon into his mouth, and immediately spat out the cereal. The spoon clattered on the linoleum floor. He got up and checked the expiration date on the milk. It was brand new.
"Must be labeled wrong…" he muttered to himself as he scooped the cereal into the trash.
When he was finished, he walked into the living room and switched on the TV. Static is what he got.
Jason flipped to the next channel, dismissing it as nothing.
Static.
He clicked the channel button repeatedly, only with the same results.
"The cable's out." He muttered.
Great. Just great.
2:00 PM
He walked into his room and slipped off his pajamas, grabbing whatever clothes he had lying around.
A clicking whirr caught his attention: his laptop, lying on a small table near his window, had turned on. A cursor on the screen flashed slowly.
Jason walked closer, curious about how his laptop could do such a thing.
Words exploded onto the screen, causing him to reel back.
SEA
WATER
WATER
ANGELS
ANGELS
ANGELS
WATER
WATER
Then the laptop shut off as if nothing had happened. Jason helped himself up and walked towards the plug: it was vacant from its socket.
Shaking his head, he exited his bedroom fully dressed and grabbed a key lying on the kitchen table. He was gonna take a walk.
You could say that the neighborhood Jason lived in was a good one. There were nice people, who did everyday things in their everyday houses. This didn't matter to Jason at all. What mattered to him was that there was leg room, a place to eat and sleep, and electrical outlets.
Jason started down the street and noticed it was cloudy. Which was weird, because there was supposed to be sunshine the entire week.
"Guess the weatherman was wrong." He thought.
As he turned the next corner, he realized something. There were neither cars nor people out. The April air was grimly silent; no birds were singing. The only animals out in the open were dogs. Lots and lots of dogs. All the dogs were barking at him; they could sense things others couldn't.
The air got colder. Jason took this as a sign and started jogging back home.
Jason felt strangely exhausted when he got home. He stumbled into his bedroom, clutched the bed sheets, and passed out on the floor.
He was in a forest…he was sure of that. The trees were white as snow, slightly blending in with the icy blue grass that grew beneath his feet.
He felt compelled to go farther. He broke into a run. He could see somebody in the clearing ahead. He reached out his hands and tried to scream, "Wait!" but his voice wasn't there.
The clearing was closer now. He could see the cloudy sunlight casting rays on the dew. He broke through the last bits of trees and saw what was before him. He tried to stop his feet, but they kept moving. He turned his head to see a young girl in a tattered and muddy white dress, her face covered in her long, greasy black hair. Her arms rose…and he was pushed off the cliff towards the ocean rocks below.
Jason woke with a start, covered in sweat. He forced himself to regulate his breathing, his heart pounding for release.
He wiped his forehead with his bed sheet and crawled quickly to his laptop. He plugged it in and started it up.
He went to Google and did a search. He couldn't be the only one experiencing this. A smattering of results came up, but only one piqued his interest. The site was RINGS Communities, and it had a forum.
He created an account under Gambit1138, made a topic, and began to write.