NOTE: Now's the time to go back and reread the story. Please do before reading this. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this cause and thank you for staying. Have a great day/night and take care! :)

I wasn’t even paying attention to the show playing on TV when mom arrived that night. After my little meet up with Andrei, I hurriedly went home and locked myself in my room to rest. It wasn’t particularly a bad day, but everything that happened had exhausted me. You ran from the coffee shop to your street. You ran like the freaking idiot you are Frank. What do you think?

Once I was in the safety of my room, I assessed everything that happened that day, which was mostly just replaying the encounter with the pretty man in my mind. I knew I should’ve just shaken away the thoughts of him but something like that definitely bothered me. There was something about him that sparked my curiosity. I kept telling myself that I probably wouldn’t see him again but somehow, there was a little part of me that wanted to know him.

Then there was Andrei. The cute guy who was the first person to ever interest in me. I didn’t know if he purposely talked to me or he was just passing by and saw me in the playground. Either way, I was happy for that incident. Talking to him made me feel at ease. It’s like meeting someone for the first time but knowing they’ll be your friend.

Or I could be wrong. Maybe I was just a pathetic-looking kid and he was just kind enough to say hi.

I busied myself with a book to try and unwind a little, and pushed away the thoughts of the two guys from my mind.

I let myself be lazy for the remainder of that day. I read a book, ate junk food, listened to some music, and watched TV. When mom arrived, I was sprawled on the couch in front of the TV, my mind somewhere else.

“Frankie, are you okay?” my mom asked. She looked pretty in her office clothes. When she told me that she got a job as a secretary at an office in town, I was immensely proud of her. She had everything covered.

“Yeah mama, just a little tired but I’m okay,” I said as I sat on the couch. I must’ve looked like a mess, with my clothes disheveled and eyeliner smudged.

She sat down beside me and I watched her as she rummaged inside her bag. After a few seconds, she pulled something from her bag and held it to my face. It was a little box and judging from the picture in it, it was definitely a phone.

“Whoa mama, what’s this for?” I asked. She handed it to me and crouched down to remove her heels. I held the box and inspected it.

“Open it. It’s for you. It’s about time you have another phone baby. You need it,” she answered.
I opened the box and inside there was a brand new phone. I held the black sleek thing to my eyes and smiled. Just from the looks of it, I knew it was an expensive phone.
“Thanks mama! This is rad!” I said as I launched myself at her and hugged her. She giggled at my obviously childish reaction and pat my hair.

“You need it baby. I need to contact you when you’re all alone here. Just be responsible and do your chores here, okay?” she said. I nodded my head and hugged her again.
After a pizza dinner with my mom, I went to my room and fiddled with my new phone. To be honest, during that time, all I was thinking about was my old phone that my mom gave me for my fourteenth birthday. I loved that phone because it was one of the few pricey things that I owned before. But of course it’s gone now. During one of my father’s assaults, he took it from me and threw it against the wall. I watched it fall to pieces like falling debris of my then broken life.

Once I was done with it, I went to bed and lied down to read. I kept distracting myself because I wanted to read the book I bought earlier that day. I thought of where could it have been. Was it still in the store? What if the pretty guy took it?
That made me feel uneasy. I wanted to have that book back. I couldn’t afford to buy another one and if mom had known, I’m sure she’d be mad. I tried to focus on the book I was reading, all the while willing myself to tire out and fall asleep. Sleep was kind that night and it came as soon as I closed my eyes.

I was locked in a room where all the walls were black with just a single dim light bulb to provide light. There was no door and no hint of other colors as I was wearing an all-black outfit. I tried everything to get out of that room but to no avail. Panic was slowly building up on me and I tried hard to calm myself down. “Think a way out of this Frank. There is a way out of this if you’re smart enough,” I told myself.

I paced around the room, feeling for a hidden latch or switch to escape the room. Everywhere was just smooth black walls. I was so afraid to be locked in there forever that I started screaming. All I heard was my voice bouncing back and echoing inside the room. Every effort was hopeless so I sat on the floor and pulled my knees up to my chest and cried. The room was filled with my sobs and I kept crying. What the hell was this place?

After a few moments, I heard a voice. At first it was just a murmur, a silent call from the other side. I stood up and reached out to the voice, my feet automatically walking towards the direction the voice was coming from. Somewhere across the room, on the other side of the wall, the unintelligible murmurs were replaced with an actual word.

“Frank,” the voice said. It was just a single word that spoke my name and I instantly felt warm all over. The voice shunned away my fears.

“Frank, you’re safe. You’ll be safe, I promise,” the voice continued.

I stopped reaching out and waited. The voice was approaching me, its promise of my safety being repeated over and over.
Suddenly, there was a muffled explosion. Like the wall was blown off by a miniature bomb. I crouched down as debris fell all over the black room. When I pulled myself up to sit, there was a huge hole in the wall. I frantically stood up and ran towards the hole hoping to see who owned the voice, but there was nothing. Not even a shadow of anyone or anything who blew up the wall. All there was left was a hallway with the same light bulb hanging from the ceiling to provide illumination of the black pathway.

I started to panic again, running through the hallway blindly. Suddenly, at what seemed to be the end of the hallway, a ghostly figure appeared. At first it looked like smoke slowly taking the form of a man, but it soon changed to a solid form. I tried to adjust my eyes to see who it was.
“I told you I’ll keep you safe right?” the voice was back. It was he who had shattered the wall, the man who owned the voice. It was him, the man that promised my safety, standing at the end of the hallway waiting for me to come over. I didn’t know how his voice had reached me when he was so far away. I ran towards him; my vision was getting blurry. I forced myself to run faster but my feet could only take so much.

I was close to him when all the walls around us started to collapse on each other. Everything was falling down around me as the walls started closing in on me. I ran faster, all the walls were falling apart but his image remained solid. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light and I stumbled down. I tried to stand up again but was stunned when the white figure picked me up. Another blaze of light and I was blind. The last thing I saw before the whole place fell was a flash of red hair as the dark consumed everything in its path.
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Notes

So yeah, I reuploaded all the chapters. Again, please reread! :)

thank you everyone. Take care :)

--xoJenn