Chapter Three: The Other Side

Asher sat atop a chair placed right in the middle of his room staring out the window, the silver hues from the moonlight illuminated the room giving the otherwise dreary room a soft glow. The window was the only source of light in the dark room. As he sat he folded his arms and stared straight at the window and suddenly, the moon started emitting a soft gold light becoming even brighter than before.

Asher unhurriedly stood and walked to his window closing it and drawing the blinds shut. It had started and he wasn’t about to witness any other anomaly. He walked back to the chair and sat, waiting for something.

It started, a sound, a very odd and terrifying sound. A low vibrational hum that travelled through the ground and shook him to his core, his arms gripped the armrest of the chair and he gritted his teeth, the sound was unsettling and very much so. He grabbed his head and winced as the low hum shifted to disturbing whispers and screeches that left him worn out. Then it stopped. It went quiet, like it never existed.

Asher collapsed into his chair, the sheer exhaustion evident by the beads of sweat decorating his forehead and neck. His heart was still racing from the fear that had gripped him, you would think he’d be used to it by now. He wasn’t, who would get used to paranormal logic defying things that happen to you and only you? He had no answer to that.

This—whatever it was, defied logic, the rules of the normal world could not describe the supernatural activities that had been taking place. He couldn’t even tell anyone, they would probably recommend a therapist and a brain check-up too. He chuckled dryly. This whole thing was a joke, he was fighting alone against who-knows what? Did those things even knew he existed? Or that he was aware of their existence? Why was he fighting again? Oh right. He remembered something that had been buried in his memory for awhile. He’d fight till death and he had no plans of dying just yet.

He was dragged out of his thought by a large thump, his head snapped up to the window, his eyes widened in shock and he gulped. He carefully stood and backed away from his chair to his bed, he climbed in carefully and wrapped himself up with his blanket. He could hear his heart beating so fast and almost swore it would jump out of his body, he tried desperately to calm himself, taking huge gulps of breath in an effort to steady his racing heart. He heard a few more thumps before it went completely silent. He held his breath for about ten seconds before finally releasing it when he realised those things were gone.

He laid in bed wondering how his life ended up like this and when everything went wrong, he groaned and turned resolving to just sleep off his worries as usual.

The sunlight managed to illuminate the room even through the blinds and Asher groaned as he woke up, he stared up at his ceiling making mental notes of what he had to do today. He started reaching for his bedside table to grab his phone, the time was 7:13 am currently.

“Well, at least I’m not late today.” he said dropping the phone back on the table and getting out of his bed. He pulled his shirt off, it was drenched in sweat. “Ugh.”

He pulled of his pants next and walked into his bathroom, turned on the shower, put the water to cold and stood under the shower for five minutes without moving as if to wash away the events of the past night. After pondering for a while he finally washed up and got out of the shower. He dried up as fast as he could and threw on the first set of clothes his hands touched; a black sweatshirt and grey sweatpants.

He walked out of his room, down the stairs with a towel still in hand drying off his wet hair. He threw the towel towards a couch and grabbed his keys from the bowl he usually kept them and walked out his door.

He put a hand into his pocket and walked towards the park near his house, this was basically a daily routine for him, he’d wake up bright and early, take a walk and observe if anything had been changed or manipulated. Those things had started to affect his world, it started small, he’d see specks of coloured lights floating in the air and no, they weren’t fireflies, now he could see an otherworldly thing right in the middle of town. The worst part was that he was the only one who seemed to be able to notice them, he knew that because he once saw someone walk right through one of them once.

“Ahhh…” he let out a sigh, he hadn’t built up enough courage to investigate and find out if the things were tangible to him yet. He refused to take any chances. Not today.

He paused and looked up to the sky. He used his left arm to shild his eyes, the sun was awfully bright, he thought. For a split second the sun turned red and he ducked for cover. Nothing happened, he thought maybe he had had imagined it but he truly knew that he saw a red sun, after a while he got up and coughed embarrassed and looked around hoping no one had seen him throw himself to the ground. Blood rushed to his ears when he realized that he could’ve made a complete fool out of himself had there been an audience nearby.

He rushed off to his house, the embarrassment clearing up the thoughts about the red sun from his head. Once he got back in, he used his key and made sure to turn the knob just to be sure it actually locked, when he was certain it was locked he threw off his hoodie and headed to the kitchen shirtless. He made a bowl of cereal and crunched on it while he scrolled through his search history, it had been a series of paranormal related things the past few weeks, he was scrolling through this site he had been visiting frequently when he saw something that made the spoon clatter to the floor.

THE RED SUN PHENOMENA written in bold red crimson, he clicked on it and his phone blacked out. He started pressing the power button multiple times but it refused to come on. “Shit, don’t tell me I just blacked out my phone over this.” he put his head on the counter and groaned, “Just when I think life can’t get even more fucked up it does.”

Ding! A notification from his phone popped up and he moved his head cautiously to look at his phone, it was on but it wasn’t on the website, it was on the home screen and a pop-up notification indicating a text from his mum showed up, it read “will be home soon honey. Love you.’ with a heart emoji after. Asher stared at the phone in shock and he laughed.

“I actually need to stop being so surprised about these things.” he grabbed his phone and went to check the site for what he had seen. Nothing. It was like it never existed. He shook his head and finished his cereal.