BY ALICE FONTANESI
STAFF WRITER
WARNING: This story contains some graphic content like blood in further chapters.
“🏳⬧♍♋❒ 💧♍□❒🞐♓□”
💧♒♋❒♓■♑ 🞐♋♓■ ♋■♎ ♎♏⬧🞐♋♓❒
❄♒♏ ⬧🔾♏●● □♐ ♌●□□♎ ♐●□♋⧫⬧ ⧫♒❒□◆♑♒ ⧫♒♏ ♋♓❒
👎♏⬧⧫❒◆♍⧫♓□■ □♐ ⬧□♍♓♏⧫⮹ ♓⬧ ⬥♒♋⧫ ⬥♏ ♌♋❒♏
👌♏♍♋◆⬧♏ □♐ ⧫♒♏ ♎♋🔾♋♑♏♎ ⬧□◆●⬧ ⧫♒♏⮹ ⬧♒♋❒♏
☞♋●●♏■ ♋■♑♏● ♌●□□♎ ♋■♎ ♑♋⬧□●♓■♏ ⬥♋⧫♏❒
❄♒♏ ❖♏❒⮹ ●♋⬧⧫ 🔾♏♋● ♌♏♐□❒♏ ⧫♒♏ ⬧♋🔾♏ ⬧●♋◆♑♒⧫♏❒
👎♋⮹ ♋♐⧫♏❒ ♎♋⮹ ⬥♒♏■ ⧫♒♏ ⬧◆■ ♑□♏⬧ ♎□⬥■
🖐⬧ ⬥♒♏■ 🖐 ♎♏♍♓♎♏ ⧫□ ⧫♋🙵♏ ♋ ⬥♋●🙵 ♋❒□◆■♎
☟♋■♋♒♋🙵♓ ♓⬧ ■□⧫ ⬥♒♋⧫ ♓⧫ ♓⬧📪
👌◆⧫ ⧫♒♏ ♎♏⬧🞐♏❒♋⧫♓□■ □♐ ♋ 🙵♓⬧⬧📪
✌ ⬧🔾♓●♏📪
🏳❒ ♎♏♋⧫♒ ♋❒♏ 🞐♋❒⧫ □♐ ⧫♒♏ ●♓⬧⧫
He walked back into his home after a long day of school. After only taking one step into his house he tripped over something. He looked back and saw that a spirit’s head was sticking out of the floor. He stood up and continued his business.
It had been about a year since he had started this routine. He just woke up as a school boy that lived in this cottage on the outskirts of a village. It could’ve been amnesia, but it felt as if he performed his daily life because of some kind of controlling force. He couldn’t recall anything about the past, but as time went on, he discovered a few things about his forgotten life. One of those things was that he didn’t have any family. He had one of those instincts that told him that he lived in the cottage, but no one else ever comes back to it during the day or the night. He once tried to recall his relatives, but the only results were a bad headache that kept him up all night. The house might’ve been home to some residents before him since there was a study that he didn’t have a use for, but that was mostly it.
He also had a strange “talent,” if you could call it a talent. He had the ability to see spirits 24/7. Despite it being abnormal, he didn’t find it that impressive. In his world, there are people called “familiar tamers.” They own an enchanted object (usually a piece of jewelry or wand) that can summon a spirit that is willing to aid them. Since spirits were already common in his world, then, being able to see them wasn’t so surprising. If he could see ghosts then maybe he would’ve been shocked. The difference between ghosts and spirits is that ghosts are created because of the demise of a person, are attached to a place, and can’t be seen unless they appear as an apparition. Spirits have magical abilities, don’t have to be born from the soul of a person, and have a somewhat physical form.
Still, he might’ve found his talent interesting if spirits weren’t so boring. They seemed to be just as oblivious to people as people were oblivious to them. He even found them a little annoying when he first met them. They kept wandering around his house and he felt like he had little to no privacy. But he couldn’t blame them since they didn’t seem to know he existed. It was possible that people also unknowingly invaded spirits’ homes on accident.
As the boring days went by he could only find one thing to satiate himself. Since he didn’t think he could hold a casual conversation with anyone and the homework he was assigned each night was too easy for him, he found himself in the garden at the back of his house a lot. There was a garden that only kept these scarlet flowers that seemed to never die. If he forgot to tend to them, they would be in perfect condition no matter what like they were a god in disguise. Despite their immortal aura, he liked to take care of them. He didn’t even remember his own name, so how was he supposed to introduce himself to anyone to start a conversation?
Whenever he had to tell someone his name he automatically said something, but it would slip his mind before he could recall what he said.
On a Monday morning during his junior year of school, another year had passed by. They had completed a huge essay that had taken everyone about a month to complete, and their teacher was impressed with everyone–so much so that she had decided to arrange a surprise field trip. They were going to spend the weekend at a camp called Camp Famos that was in the next city over. Their class was set to leave Friday afternoon and to come back on Monday morning the next week. He was given a permission slip, a medical form, a survey, a packing list, and a brochure for the camp. The survey was to arrange the groups for the class, so he just put random names of his classmates as his answer. He could’ve declined of course and stayed at home that weekend, but there was a small voice in his head that told him to get off his butt and do something with his life.