Chapter Text
Avery felt.. off. He had since New Years, three months ago. That night, alone in his bedroom, something had happened. Something that, no matter how hard Avery tried to remember, he couldn't. It was as if a hole was in his brain, emptiness where there should be something, anything.
Avery sat in the dining room, eating his cereal, zoning out. It seemed like he was always zoning out, these days.
This was his second to last year of high school before he graduated. Avery dreaded the conversation he had had so many times within the past year - "What do you want to do with your life?" Avery couldn't think of his future, not with this thing inside of him missing.
His parents had noticed it, too. Avery had drifted apart from them, spending more and more time in his room, watching those stupid Minecraft ARGs that he couldn't even decipher.
They had tried to talk to him, of course. But Avery couldn't tell them what was wrong; he didn't even know what was wrong. He just missed... Something. Felt as if he had failed, but couldn't describe what he had failed.
He brushed his overgrown, dark brown hair out of his eyes as he pulled out his phone to watch Youtube. Another ARG. He felt stupid for watching them when he was always dumber than the protagonist, but they felt weirdly comforting, in a way. As if he could escape into another world entirely.
"Avery!" His mother called from across the house. He heard it, but didn't hear it. He continued watching until a hand yanked his phone away from him.
"Avery, did you hear me? I told you to take out the trash before you leave." Avery's mother's voice wasn't mean, just concerned and a bit disappointed. "What's this, Minecraft? Oh, you used to love that game!"
Avery sighed and put down the spoon in his hands. He hadn't played Minecraft in three months, but his mom wouldn't let it go. "Sorry, mom, I'll do it," he said, standing and taking his phone back.
After taking out the trash, he went to get ready for school. Avery stared at himself in the mirror. His skin had always been tan, but it was lighter recently, he hasn't spent much time outside. His hair was grown past his ears. His eyes had bags in them, and he looked older, in a way. Not a good way. Avery quickly freshened up and left for school.
As a junior, Avery had a ton of work to do, even towards the end of the school year. He had never been the biggest fan of school, but his parents had high expectations for him. So, he went.
The route Avery takes to school is somewhat comforting. His old Chevy took him around the curves of a mountain, passing by a large lake.
He tightened his grip on the wheel as he felt his conscience slipping.
He got to town, and by now, his mind was fully blank, as if he were somewhere else entirely. His head felt fuzzy and glitchy. He saw weird, distorted pictures he couldn't make out.
This wasn't exactly new for Avery. The visions had started a month ago, happening every so often. Nothing he tried would get rid of them - sleeping more, sleeping less, drinking an extreme amount of energy drinks.
His ears started ringing. He could almost make out what he was looking at, it looked almost like...
Just then, a large truck swerved around Avery, missing his car by a hair. He quickly snapped out of it and realized he was in the middle of an intersection.
“SHIT!” He quickly sped off, heart pounding. Shit, that's never happened while I was driving. I might be fucked.
Avery pulled into the parking lot of the school, backed into a parking spot, and finally breathed. Maybe he should tell someone about the visions. Or.. he could just hope it didn't happen again.
Yep, that sounds better.
He made his way to his first class of the day, English. He had always been a fan of the class, but recently it seemed more agonizingly slow than fun.
"Yoo, Avery my man, what's up?" Avery jumped as he felt a hand slap his back. He realized it was Liam.
His old (and only) friend was tall, blonde and popular. He had rich parents he was going to work for after getting his college tuition paid for in full. He had a girlfriend and a good relationship with everyone around him. He had his whole life figured out. Avery didn't want to admit it, but he was a bit jealous. Recently, Avery had been distant, but Liam didn't seem to mind.
"Hey Liam. Not much, just going to English. You?"
"Man, what am I not doing?" Liam laughed. "I've got Geometry which you know I can't do. After school, I've gotta get my girlfriend stuff for her birthday, then I've got to go to some party my parents are throwing."
"Sorry about that. Well, hey, I've gotta go, but-" Liam grabbed Avery's shoulder and shook him.
"Hey, you should come! You haven't gone to a party in forever, dude. There's gonna be a bunch of chicks, I bet we could find one for you!"
Avery felt woozy at the mere mention of a party. "Sorry man, but uhh, not today. I'll see you at lunch, though." Avery left a very confused and disappointed Liam at the door to Mr. Attridge's classroom, and sat down. This was going to be a long day.
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It was, indeed, a long day. Avery sat through class after class, staring at the clock, willing the hands to move faster.
Avery finally stepped into his last class of the day, Economics. He opened his laptop, and for the second time that day, his mind started to slip away.
His vision began to blur. The teacher started the class, but he couldn't hear what she was saying. Avery tried desperately to focus on the screen in front of him, but it was no use. His ears started to ring, at first quietly, then louder and louder.
The colors in the room started to shift into bizarre images Avery could only dream of - a never ending library, a beautiful yet abandoned city, fields of red grass with strange houses. The visions shifted from one to the next as if he were fading in and out of consciousness. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see huge floating eyeballs staring at him, watching his every move, tracking him. Avery tried to run, to hide, but no matter what he did, they were always there.
Avery's heart pounded, and his head hurt so bad it felt like his skull was cracking open.
He was terrified.
He felt something touching him, trying to wake him up, and Avery tried to latch onto it. It didn't work, and he was only sucked further in.
The vision got worse. The ground underneath him disappeared, and he fell for what felt like minutes, until he was brought to a strangely familiar place.
The land underneath his feet was hard to make out, and all around him was darkness. As Avery looked around, scared out of his mind, he saw a giant eye staring at him.
"It's not too late, Avery," a voice spoke, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. "Come to me, Avery, and we shall become one."
Avery's head shot up, and he was in the middle of the classroom, the teacher standing over him while his classmates stared. His throat ached, as if he had been screaming.
"Avery, are you alright? What was that?" The teacher asked, her voice concerned and terrified at the same time.
"What- I- sorry, miss," Avery stuttered out, and quickly stood up and left. His eyes stung, and his head still pounded.
What the hell was that? Avery sat down against a locker, trying to wrap his head around what he had just seen. It seemed so familiar, somehow, and real. as if he could reach out and touch it.
No. That wasn't real. It was just some sort of, I don't know, day dream that got too vivid. Avery decided he was done with school for the day and checked himself out.
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Avery's mom had been a little confused when he arrived home an hour early, but he made up some lousy excuse she seemed to buy.
Avery lay on his bed, thinking. Maybe what I saw was.. a trauma response? To growing up? Or maybe the lunch lady poisoned the chicken.
Or maybe...
He'd much rather go with the second option than the small, terrifying theory growing in his mind, so he chalked it up to food poison-induced hallucinations.
That night, when he finally drifted to sleep, he had a very strange dream.
The dream was so vivid, it was as if he were really there. There were strange, distorted colors and images, the feeling of falling but never landing was constant. Avery wandered through strange lands with seemingly no end to them. It was like the vision he had before, but not as scary, just… ominous. He felt no eyes on him, just an urge to move.
Then, Avery saw him.
He couldn't really tell who it was. The man was tall, and wore some sort of armor. Avery wasn't sure of his name or voice, but he felt a strange sense of warmth and familiarity radiating off of the stranger. Avery moved as quickly as he could towards the man, as if being compelled.
As Avery was just close enough to almost make him out, he felt a hand on his chest push him backwards, and he fell.
Avery woke up with a sudden gasp. He was drenched in cold sweat, and he had chills along his spine. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, thinking.
The dream felt oddly... familiar. In a way which felt real and tangible, but also lost in his memory.
Avery thought long and hard about the dream, before finally deciding to go back to sleep after getting nowhere. This will make more sense in the morning.
As he tried to fall back asleep, his mind drifted to the man in his dream. He couldn't remember how he looked or sounded, but he remembered the pure admiration he felt towards him. He wanted to see him again.
Avery finally drifted to sleep with a smile on his face.
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The next night, Avery once again had the same dream. The same weird shapes and colors, the same fear, the same never-ending lands.
And once again, he felt the strange compulsion to go towards the man. He did, and was once again pushed away before he could talk to him. Or see him. Or do literally anything important.
Okay, so Avery was a little frustrated. This was the closest he had been to figuring out his problems, and yet he was so far.
Avery spent the whole of the next day of classes wondering what the dream could've been about. Obviously, it had something to do with the gap in his memory on New Years. Avery was dense, but he wasn't that dense. He just had to figure out what exactly happened that day, and what it had to do with that man.
The next night, he had the same dream. And the next night. And the next. This continued for a whole month, with Avery not being able to decipher a single detail. The visions continued happening, more and more frequently, and more and more vividly.
Avery laid on his bed, staring at his roof, plagued with thousands of thoughts swirling around his mind.
I'm tired of this. A whole month of these stupid dreams, and I can't even figure out who that guy is?
Avery decided he was done. Done with the mysteries, done with the blacking out for minutes at a time, and done with these dreams. He would find out who that man was, whether the universe, or whoever else, wanted him to or not.