#mod dav

Elvaid didn’t understand the sad looks he got when he talked about talking to mom. She was there, just quiet and stayed either in the garden or her room. He also got pitying looks when he talked about Olivia, his sister. She always hung out with him, and he talked to her even if the other kids ignored her during recess. He liked to think he had a happy childhood, ignoring all the fights every night, his gramps’ addictions, and being taken to see one therapist after another despite his insistence that he was fine and nothing was wrong. Apparently his mother and sister’s death took a big toll on him, in children it was normal to mimic and play pretend through situations that caused trauma and stress, and that’s what they told his father was happening as Elvaid happily chatted with Olivia in the waiting room.

He was eight when it got worse. He had to move out of his childhood home and change schools in the middle of the year. Alana and Olivia followed him, of course, and that he was thankful for. What he wasn’t thankful for was the other people in the house that they were now living in. There was a mean old man who’d walk the halls and never say a word, just look at Elvaid when he passed and it was terrifying to him, though that could probably be because his eyes were gouged out. There was also a young woman who seemed friendly enough, always singing some old song by a different window each night. Elvaid could remember trying to say hi to her when she sung at his window, only for her to vanish before him in an instant. The next night she was back and Elvaid waited for her to start the conversation. It happened at the end of the melody, that she turned her head to look at the little boy sitting on the bed.

“You see me?”

“Should I not?” Elvaid replied, tilting his head as his child brain was running around.

“Many people don’t see me.” She replied, adjusting how she was sitting on the window to now face him.

“Well then they’re missing out, you’re beautiful.”

She seemed taken aback by that, flickering in the moonlight. “Thank you. Say, could you do something for me?”

“I can try.” Elvaid nods and she smiled gently at that.

“I need you to find a letter for me, it should be in the basement.”

Elvaid wasn’t allowed in the basement, it was filled to the brim with things that the previous family left behind and his dad claimed he’d go through it but never did. He found himself nodding anyways, wanting to keep the smile on the lady’s face.

She vanished but her singing could be heard through the house for the rest of the night. In the morning, Elvaid had school. He wiggled in his chair, glancing at the door where some adult was standing. No one else seemed to notice the adult and around the fourth or fifth time he looked over the old woman locked eyes with him. He quickly tore his attention form her and tried to pin his attention somewhere else suddenly feeling cold. He found it hard to breathe and when he looked back to where the old woman was standing he found her right beside him and he screamed, falling off his chair.

“Elvaid!” The teacher scolded as some classmates started laughing, he turned away from the board to look at the boy in the back row, on the floor. Elvaid hardly paid attention, finding it harder and harder to breathe with the figure looming over him. He didn’t understand how no one else saw her, she was right there! He registered the teacher sighing and walking over as tears filled his eyes. It honestly felt like he was drowning and soon all he could hear was his heart beat in his ears as he started to cough. He wasn’t quite sure what happened afterwards but he recalled sitting in the office getting lectured about how it was unacceptable to hit the teacher and interrupt class like that. Elvaid remained in the office for the rest of the period and Olivia was there with him staying quiet.

“She’s bad.” Olivia commented after a few minutes of silence, “like, really bad.”

Elvaid shook his head in response.

“Mom says you shouldn’t be with her.”

Elvaid sunk further in the chair.

“Mom also says you should stay out of the basement.”

Elvaid shook his head again.

“Elvaid…” Olivia sighed, standing up from her chair and walking over to him, “please?”

Elvaid just looked away, crossing his arms. It was silent for a few more minutes and when he glanced back Olivia was gone. He could still feel her, of course, could almost always feel either her or mom’s presence even if he wasn’t able to see them. He huffed as if to make a point to the both of them in the silence of the office.

He was sent back to class after recess, some students huffed and coughed before bursting out into laughter as he walked by and he kept his head down for the rest of the day. He felt the lady again but refused to look at her despite the chill reappearing.

He went home still cold, refusing to talk when his gramps picked him up from school and dropped him home. As soon as he got through the door the chill seemed to vanish, replaced with the memory of last night when he said he’d try to get a letter for the nice lady. Glancing at his gramps, he watched the older man walk off deeper into the house and away from the basement door. He could see the tall eye-less man staring at him from the top of the stares, but when Elvaid went to look he started walking away, head still facing Elvaid. He didn’t like that.

He quickly tore his attention away, heading to the basement door and quietly opened it with a soft creak. He could hear hushed voices in the basement, but elected to ignore it. The voices disappeared once he started down the steep steps, but he felt a lot more people in the basement. His child brain couldn’t understand so he tried to ignore it as well. As soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs he wanted to leave immediately as his gut twisted. It will be quick, he tried to convince himself. He started as quiet as he could, glancing across ever surface to no avail before opening drawers and boxes to look for it. He got quicker and more frantic the longer he was in the basement and he didn’t quite understand why until he realized he no longer felt Olivia or mom with him, and the voices returned with their quiet murmuring as he felt crowded despite being in a room devoid of life. The voices got louder the longer Elvaid was in the basement, he couldn’t make out any words in the jumble of voices but he felt as if the space around him was closing in and getting more and more filled. He rushed back to the stairs, tripping over a box that spilled a bunch of letters across the floor. One seemed to stand out- glow almost- and he grabbed that one before running up the stairs and closing the door. He was holding his breath at this point as he rushed up to his room, closing the door and crawling under the blankets of his bed. He held the letter close and sighed, letting himself breathe again. He hid the letter under his pillow before he slowly got out from the blankets.

The night came far too slowly for him, though when it did and he heard the singing he pulled out the letter from under his pillow and waited for the lady to appear. He wasn’t waiting that long for she quickly appeared, eyes on the letter in his hands.

“Open it.”

He quickly did as instructed, opening the old envelope and quickly unfolding the letter inside and handed it to her. She started to read it silently, smiling as tears brimmed her eyes. She looked back at the kid, already fading away.

“Thank you.”

She didn’t reappear after that, having moved on. Elvaid now heard the voices in the basement at night instead of her singing, and found it harder and harder to sleep even after he sealed the letter again and threw it down the basement stairs. Olivia and Mom reappeared a few days later. The eyeless man still walked the halls, sometimes following Elvaid now instead of just walking by. He found himself not sleeping at night as the voices got clearer and louder, they woke him up constantly screaming in pain and agony, in sadness and anger. He stayed up until his mom appeared, and stayed with him, singing, rubbing his back until he fell asleep again and woke up in the morning.

He moved again when he was 15, after getting a proper diagnosis from a psychiatrist and getting on medication. It didn’t help much, but he figured the medication wasn’t normally administered to people who saw a lot of things others didn’t see. It was called an overactive imagination when he was kid, which turned into hallucinations as he got older, until he just stopped talking about them. Ghosts, spirits, his world was filled with a lot more colour than the general public. People had these glows about them, filled with colours and ever shifting in brightness. Objects had those glows as well sometimes. He saw spirits tailing people, going about their day as if trapped in the past, watching others as if they were in the present. He saw spirits push things over, mess things up. He saw spirits watching over others, making sure harm rarely came their way. He saw Olivia and Alana still. He heard what the spirits were saying, maybe not understanding it always but he heard it. Sometimes they just wanted help moving on, and Elvaid felt compelled to help in anyway he could. Others just wanted to hurt him, or possess him. He hated those spirits, but he had a hard enough time distinguishing differences between the spirits who wanted help and those who wanted to hurt. He relied a lot on Olivia and Alana in those instances, Olivia would just chase any and all spirits away and Alana on the other hand understood the differences almost immediately.

He ended up getting a service dog. His name was Roadkill and he was a Doberman. Elvaid loved him. Roadkill was trained to stop Elvaid’s nervous behaviours that hurt himself- such as scratching his neck- and to help calm Elvaid down before he got too worked up over one thing or another. Roadkill was an angel in Elvaid’s eyes, especially when the nightmares hit him in the night once they settled into his new room.

Sure, the house didn’t have the eyeless guy, nor any ghosts but the entire house just felt off to Elvaid. Maybe it was because everything was so quiet all the time, that everyone had really dull colours around them? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t want to dwell on it. He figured he could get used to it, it was a new place with new people and no reputation had followed him here. His years there were nice, eerie and slowly filling with more and more ghosts, but nice.

He could easily recall downloading a game and booting it up a year later when he was 16, some online multiplayer RPG type of game, it was called Zaeyina or something. Some of his school friends were playing it and he wanted to see what all the fuss was about. What he didn’t expect is making friends on the game who were in different time zones. Voice chats were kinda weird for him, considering it was normally late at night or early in the morning (though those times really blurred together for him) when he talked with anyone. He vividly remembered messing around and running away from enemies before kill stealing this one girl’s monster and it turned out they were in the same guild. They did a lot of PVP (or as Elvaid called it ‘hide and kill’ because most of the time he’d run and hide somewhere as he tried to remember the keys for attacks) over stupid things as if it settled the score or whatever. They ended up voice chatting after the guild made a group chat on Discord and sent the invite to all the members.

Elvaid remembered sitting in the group chat as Olivia watched over his shoulder, making comments on what people were saying as he remained quiet. It was late, he wasn’t all that talkative as everyone was practically vibrating with energy. It was then when he kill stole again just for the fun of it did he hear a frustrated yell from the voice chat.

“AUGH THAT PRICK!” a blue icon lit up with the green ring, and he couldn’t help but bubble with laughter at that as some others in the chat laughed at her anger as well.

“Sharing is caring, love.” Elvaid chuckled into his microphone, his voice sounding tired.

“WHAT THE FUCK- DON’T CALL ME LOVE!”

“You have an accent?” Another voice commented, albeit much quieter than both of them.

“You have the accent here. You can’t see but I’m sticking out my tongue.” Elvaid replied, smiling. He typed ‘:p’ into the chat as if to show.

“FIGHT ME YOU BITCH!”

“…nah.” Elvaid hummed, making sure his little avatar ran away from the angry girl.

The chat quickly switched topics in a few minutes or so, and Elvaid lapsed back into silence as he decided to hide somewhere. It didn’t take long for her avatar to find his and he really couldn’t not send the message considering he where he was hiding.

‘I can’t believe I’m back in the closet already :<’

He could hear some laughter on the voice chat and he felt proud of himself as he stifled a yawn.

“Damnit, it’s already 12?!” A voice exclaimed with a huff causing a few the also be just as confused and others to chuckle quietly.

“Yikes, it feels like 6.”

Elvaid made a mental note that most of the people seemed to be 5 hours behind him. He scribbled it on a nearby piece of paper and had a small moment of thankfulness that it was the weekend considering it was the first time he looked at the clock in a long while- and by a long while I mean since 9pm.

'Think there’s a reward for staying logged in for 24 hours because I’m willing to take one for the team’ Elvaid typed.

“Don’t you dare!”

‘I have elected to ignore the British person’

“Git!”

‘He’s bullying me and it’s really sad :((((((((((’

“I am not!”

“Let him do it bruh,” a different voice spoke up, “I wanna see what happens.”

'Glad I have someone’s support here’ Elvaid smiled as he typed that, 'I am just a little creacher, I cannot change this’

The chat continued how one would expect it until everyone logged off because they were tired, it was their ‘bedtime,’ or they were falling asleep already. Elvaid stayed online though, not feeling all that tired as he glanced back at Olivia with a smile.

“I like them,” she hummed, “better than the idiots here that you hang out with. They’re basically chads.”

“They’re… not chads.” Elvaid defended quietly as he left the vc.

“They act that way.”

“…you win this time.” Elvaid sighed, sitting up and stretching as he paused the game. He glanced at the right side of Discord, seeing the green circles go to either grey or red. He yawned as he shook his head, closing his laptop as he snatched his phone and went downstairs. 8am, he figured it would be good if he ate something.

Around a year and a bit later, Elvaid opens Discord during lunch, letting his friends ignore him in the riveting conversation they were having about wrestling. Note the sarcasm.

'Rise And Mother fuckin’ Shine Angelfish :D’ He sent in the dms, 'it’s Like 5 in the Morning!!!! for you!!!!!!!!!! so you’re Not up But stiiiiiiiillllllllllllllllllllllllllll, good morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

As expected, no reply. It was early for her.

'I hope you have!!!!!!!!!!! A Fucking Legendary day! Kick someone’s ass for me!!! I’ll swim across the ocean to help you out!!!!!!!!!!!!’

He left it at that, turning off his phone and instead trying to listen to what his friends were saying. He found it hard to keep up. A ghost sitting next to one of them caught his eye though; a boy no older than 10, dripping wet and crying beside the guy across from him. Elvaid figured the spirit was harmless- the spirit was a child for crying out loud!- yet the only memories he had of spirits associated with water brought him back to the time he felt like he was drowning with the old lady standing over him.

His breath started to quicken.

He could remember feeling helpless, overwhelmed. The scarily real feeling of water slowly filling up his lungs, feeling as if he was trapped in a small box. The fear that coursed through his veins before he blacked out-

“Hey, dude, you alright?” One of his friends asked, gently grabbing his upper arm to get his attention. He could feel Roadkill pushing against his leg.

“Ori- Orion!”

Right, of course Orion would ignore me. He was mad at me. It was understandable, it really was. He had all the reason to hate me, I wasn’t going to deny, but fuck could he actually listen when it mattered? No. What did I expect? He’s only 15, still basically a toddler (even if I’m only 2 years older) that likes to play adult. He’s my best friend- was. Was my best friend. I don’t think he’d like to be referred to as my best friend anymore considering the circumstances. I glanced back at the monster that was aiming, it was too far away for me to distract it and it’s aim was set on Orion. Could I push Orion out of the way? Was I strong enough? Probably not, but it was an arrow. An arrow. Arrows can’t go through people the way bullets do… I guess it wouldn’t be that bad. Liars should die anyways, lie is quite literally in my name. So I pick up my pace, trying to ignore the anxiety tugging on the back of my brain and how quiet things were. I hated it.

“Orion!” I call again, hoping this time he turned around but  it was all in vain as he kept stomping off. Alright, yeah, guess I’m doing this or whatever. A small surge of panic definitely helped me get a bit faster, and as I extended my arm out to attempt to push Orion out of the way I could quite clearly hear the arrow being fired and shooting through the air. I could hear it break through my skin with a disgusting noise, my pitiful intake of breath as I bit my tongue to stop any noise from escaping me, how the arrowhead ended up going straight through me, and Orion’s quick change in breathing pattern as he turned around.

“O-Ori-“

My legs buckle under me and I quickly slam into the ground, pain setting fire to my nerves as I gasp for breath. I thought I’d be alright with dying, it never seemed like a big deal. We just got some people back from death, my friend was a daughter of Thanatos, it just seemed normal that I’d be fine when I died. I was scared, it hurt so much as my ears started ringing loudly. I couldn’t hear what was going on, I was quite sure I didn’t want to. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping I could just ignore everything that was happening and ignore the tears that were rolling down my cheeks. I open my eyes only to see Orion looking worried, why was he worried? He didn’t get shot, he was fine. He was saying something I couldn’t hear as I struggled to hold onto his arm. Why was I doing that? I don’t think I’m making any sense.

“I-I- I’m- I’m so-orry-“

And then I screamed. I hated the way I sounded, I hated the feeling of pain when Orion pulled out the arrow. I hated feeling the soft warmth of blood blossom across my side and back, and how I was struggling to breath more as my lungs started to fill and I ended up coughing. I bet I looked like a pitiful mess. Whatever, I guess I won’t be bothersome anymore.

“Or- Ori- a-are y- oka-ay?” I choke out, squeezing his arm in an attempt to hang on just a little bit longer. He gives me a confused look which I decided to just assume was a ‘Yes’. My grip weakened as I started to feel cold and light-headed. I also assumed everyone else was faring alright, the single monster was well out-numbered and only somewhat hidden. I didn’t know if there was more than one or not, but I liked to think there was only one. It made dying a bit easier.

Right, dying. At that muddled thought I started to panic to the point where I was getting dizzy. I close my eyes, feeling tired. It wasn’t that I wasn’t tired to begin with, but now it felt like something I couldn’t ignore. It kinda felt like I was falling, I feel like if I was falling it would have been an easier accepted death than bleeding out. There’s not a lot you can do once you start to fall but wait to hit the ground; bleeding out seemed to be slower and colder. My hands felt numb and I was sure that I had let go at that point as my ears finally stopped ringing but I still wasn’t hearing anything. It was too quiet. It was getting harder and harder to think and my eyes refused to open. I was sure that I stopped trying to breathe somewhere in the past few seconds but I couldn’t be sure. I could feel my throat fill with a warm iron taste and I hated it. I hated it so much. What was worse was the fact that that sensation was the last one I felt.