L'Appel du Vide

It was 22nd April near midnight when Karma Madarame took his routine nightly seat in front of his PC with his headphone on. Soon an hour passed by and he still sat in his dimly lit room, eyes glued to the bright screen of his computer as he played the game that was the source of his addiction, shooting down enemies like always. Engrossed in the action, his fingers moving deftly over the keyboard as he hid behind covers from the hail of bullets and launched counter-attacks with his team and despite their team lacking a member the result was a clear victory. Then after all that as always the conversation of his team moved to the chatroom.

Shadow_Walker: Holy Shit! We won by a hair.

Samurai_Manji: Could have gone a lot better if Egg54 was here.

Ninja_Assassin: Yeah, he hasn't logged in for the past few days. What's up with him?

PussySlayer69: Idk. Ask Sin Eater he is the one who knows him personally.

Karma looked at the screen and sighed. PussySlayer69 was right on that point, Ayumu aka Egg54 was one of the few within the little gaming circle he personally knew, they went to the same school after all. He cracked his neck and tapped his fingers on the keys and replied through the alias of Sin Eater.

Sin_Eater: Told y'all before. He has been in a bad mood lately.

PussySlayer69: Then you need to do something to cheer him up.

Sin_Eater: Do what exactly?

Karma typed that as steeled himself for a snarky comment.

PussySlayer69: Hire a hooker.

Sin_Eater: Seriously?

PussySlayer69: Getting laid improves the mood. That's basic.

Sin_Eater: I am not going to hire a hooker for him, alright. He said he just need to take some time off.

PussySlayer69: Believe me when I say blowjobs are an instant cure for bad mood and I know a particularly hot one who is good at giving them.

Sin_Eater: I am not hiring a hooker, that's final. Anybody else has a better idea?

Samurai_Manji: Yeah, but before that @PussSlayer69 How hot are we talking about?

Karma rolled his eyes seeing this and typed.

Sin_Eater: @Samurai_Manji Seriously?

Samurai_Manji: Hey man, just a curious question.

Then PussySlayer69 took his time then proceeded to reply.

PussySlayer69: I am talking red hair, hourglass figure, G-cup without being fat, as good as it gets, gentlemen.

Karma rolled his eyes then as he saw the whole conversation took a turn from that point on as time passed by. It turned from the game and how to improve a friend's mood to hookers and various other pointless subjects without any mention of Ayumu. Karma started feeling out of place and the tiredness of the night slowly crept deeper into him.

Ninja_Assasian: Alright guys, it's getting pretty late, I think I'm gonna call it a night.

Shadow_Walker: Same here.

Samurai_Manji: Yeah, me too. See you all tomorrow.

Ninja_Assassin: GM

Sin_Eater: Later guys.

Shadow_Walker has left.

Samurai_Manji has left.

Ninja_Assassin has left

As the night wore on and Karma stared blankly at the screen, eyes half-closed from sleepiness. He was alone in the chatroom now, no not alone, there was another guy who remained in the chatroom, with the alias of the Outsider, but that guy hardly ever talked with anyone, no one even knew what he sounds like, instead, he just lurked.

'He is just really Anti-Social I guess.' That's what Karma and the rest could make out about him.

Karma was the only one in the circle who had those rare interactions with him, all that the others knew about him was that he played like a pro, and was so good that their enemy teams often accused him of using an aimbot. He was about to get off the chair but then suddenly one of those rare messages from Outsider appeared on the screen.

Outsider: I have a question.

'That's sudden.' Karma thought. He was just about log off, the cursor was already on the exit waiting for that click. His hand moved back towards the alphabets as he decided to humour the other guy.

Sin_Eater: Ask away?

Karma typed and waited patiently for a bit as the question came.

Outsider: What do know of l'appel du vide?

Karma truly didn't know anything of it but the term looked to be French so he replied asking.

Sin_Eater: No, what's that? Something French?

Outsider: Yes, close enough. L'appel du vide more commonly known as the "call of the void." Tell me @Sin_Eater have you ever stood at the edge of a tall building without having any suicidal intentions but there is a burning desire in the back of your head telling you to jump?

This caught more of Karma's attention from his previous almost half-asleep state.

Sin_Eater: Yes, but it's not like I jumped.

Outsider: So you have felt it. That's the important thing, not that you act on it but that you have felt it. That intrusive thought telling you to just jump to your ultimate demise, to give in, that's I'appel du vide; the call of the void.

Sin_Eater: Sounds a bit morbid.

Outsider: It is. Imagine falling to your death again and again and again. Then the cycle eternally repeats itself.

Karma yawned as he typed.

Sin_Eater: Didn't get the last part.

Outsider: It's the cycle. What do you think would happen after entropy consumes the universe to its inevitable heat death? Of course, It will be reborn of course and the same thing that is happening now will repeat again. You see Death created Time to grow the things it would kill and you are reborn but into the same life that you have always been born into. When you can't remember your lives, you can't change your life, just repeating the endless repetition. Now, how many times do you have we had this conversation?

Karma wanted to give it some thought and a proper reply but sleepiness had crept in too deep within him by then.

Sin_Eater: Heavy stuff man, but I need to catch up on some sleep. GM.

With that Karma signed off from the chatroom before shutting down his computer. As he crawled into bed, the thoughts of the call of the void and the cyclical nature of life and death still lingered in his mind. But as exhaustion washed over him and he drifted off into a deep slumber.

The next day, It was the 23rd of April, the afternoon sun rose high in the sky over the town of Hanabe, and it was the day Karma witnessed death.

Karma shuffled out of the bustling high school, dodging groups of chatty students and teachers hurrying to meetings. The dismissal was always a chaotic affair, and he was eager to escape the noise and commotion. As he stepped out into the afternoon air, he reached into his pocket and retrieved his earphones. He plugged them in, and the sounds of his favourite band filled his ears. The music helped him forget about the boredom of school and the monotony of his daily routine.

Karma strolled down the familiar path, ignoring all the sounds outside his earphones, enjoying the freedom of not having to rush to his next class. He was lost in thought, contemplating what he would do with his free time that day when suddenly, something loud caught his full attention. A loud thump echoed through the air, followed by a sickening crunch, a sound too loud to ignore even when the earphones were on.

Karma looked down in front of him, and his heart skipped a beat as he saw a mangled body in a school uniform over a still-forming pool of blood as if red paint was spilled over the ground. Karma's body froze, unable to move as his mind turned blank, but his eyes widened. He saw limbs twisted at impossible angles, and closed eyes, the midsection of the body in school uniform folded in half, the face half buried in dirty, bloody and the image of the exposed half of the dead's face burned into his brain. The thoughts in his head were all blurry, bits of thoughts floated in his mind as pieces of a puzzle and all of this passed within a moment.

A nearby girl's scream then cut through the air and pulled Karma out of his muddled thoughts. A wave of commotion rose through the crowd, the puzzle pieces of his thoughts came together and the exposed half of the face became so closely familiar in his mind.

Karma's frozen expression broke away and he blurted in a low voice with disbelief, "Ayumu."

Panic gripped him, Karma could hear the sound of the crowd starting to gather around him, their murmurs of shock and confusion growing louder by the second.

"Oh my god, what happened?"

"Is he okay? Somebody call an ambulance!"

"Did he fall from the roof?"

Karma glanced up at the school building looming above them, and he felt a chill run down his spine. He could see students and teachers peering down from the windows, their faces twisted in horror and disbelief. A part of him inside of his mind accepted the death he saw, a part inside his mind refuse to believe it was Ayumu, wanting to believe that the face he saw was actually someone else, but his body stood there in shock.

As the chaos around him continued to swirl, Karma felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see a concerned-looking teacher peering at him through thick-rimmed glasses.

"Are you okay?" the teacher asked, his voice gentle. "Did you see what happened?"

Karma shook his head numbly, his mind still reeling from the shock of what he had witnessed.

"I don't know," he muttered.

"I just heard a noise and then he just..."

The teacher nodded sympathetically, his eyes filled with concern.

"Don't worry," he said. "We'll take care of everything. Just stay here for now."

Karma watched as the teacher pushed his way through the growing crowd, shouting orders and barking into his phone. Emergency services were already on the way as minutes ticked by. Karma still stood frozen in place, watching as the paramedics arrived and began to work on the body. He knew that there was nothing they could do, but he couldn't tear his eyes away. Eventually, a group of teachers ushered him away from the scene, leading all the surrounding students back into the safety of the school building. Karma stumbled back into the building, his mind was still numb with shock.

'How did this happen?'

He watched as the police arrived, surrounding the scene around the body separating the surrounding crowds. He watched as Ayumu's parents arrived soon after, and he watched as Ayumu's mother broke down, and cried not far away then part of him that want to believe that body was of Ayumu's died with it. A few of the policemen proceeded to ask a couple of questions from others for a while but they never reached all of them including Karma. That afternoon he came home late, and then immediately collapsed onto his bed.

Soon afternoon turned into evening, Karma still lay on the bed, he didn't change his clothes, didn't eat, didn't drink, didn't even cry at the sudden loss, just lay there on the empty bed with his buzzing phone and a strange empty hollow feeling within his chest.

'Why did he do it?' Karma thought. 'Ayumu was sad, but that's for some heavy reason. That's not enough to make him kill himself.'

The phone buzzed, sending vibrations throughout the surface of the bed.

'Was he more seriously depressed than appears to be and I just didn't notice?'

The phone buzzed again much to Karma's irritation.

'What if he didn't commit suicide? What if someone had pushed him off the roof?'

The phone buzzed again annoyingly, interrupting the trail of thoughts and Karma no longer ignored it, instead, he grabbed it to see who was calling him at this time. When he did he found it to be from an unknown number.

"Hello?" Karma said, his annoyance-filled voice echoing through the empty line. But there was no response.

'What's this?'

He checked his phone to see if the call had been disconnected, but it was still ongoing. He listened carefully, hoping to hear some sound on the other end, but there was nothing but silence.

'Seriously? Is it a wrong number or a telemarketer? At this time?'

As he was about to put his phone away, a message notification popped up on his screen. It was from an unknown number. The message contained a link to some website.

'Now what's this? Some kind of scamp or spam link?'

Karma hesitated for a moment before clicking on the link. He was redirected to a chatroom with a blank screen and white text. There were no messages and one participant participants in the room.

Karma's curiosity was piqued a bit, and then a message appeared with a familiar name.

Outsider: Welcome, Sin Eater.

Karma was taken aback by this. Thoughts ran through his head muddling with the thoughts of the incident just hours before as he tried to figure this current situation out. His fingers tapped alphabets on the screen hesitantly as he collected his thoughts, then when he tapped sent he saw the username Sin Eater appear beneath the Outsider.

Sin Eater: Wtf is this?

Outsider: Perhaps we will get to that later, but for now do you remember our last night's conversation?

Their conversation from last night slowly recollected inside Karma's mind, the call of the void, time and something that stood out was: Jumping off the edge of the building. Doubts were raised in his mind. He was talking to this guy about jumping off the edge of a building the night before then the next day Ayumu happens. What were the chances of that happening? Karma shook his head.

'It's all just a coincidence.' He said that himself but then he saw Outsider typing.

Outsider: Poor Egg54. Tragic, don't you think?

'That's Ayumu. How does he know?' Karma thought. Deep irrational doubts entered his mind followed by what he thought to be a more rational explanation. 'Maybe he goes to the same school or is from this town.'

That thought felt far more rational than the other doubts in his mind.

Outsider: Concerning that; do you remember my last question? When you can't remember your lives, you can't change your life, just repeating the endless repetition. Now, how many times do you have we had this conversation?

Karma gritted his teeth. 'Is this some kind of sick joke?' But ultimately decided to indulge him for one final time before he started asking questions.

Sin Eater: Countless times.

Outsider: Wrong.

'How the hell is the answer wrong?'

Before Karma could do anything else another message from Outsider appeared.

Outsider: This is the first time we ever had this conversation in this infinite repetition. This could very well be the only time you are free to truly make a choice.

Then suddenly a box appeared on the screen out of nowhere.

[ Would you like to go back 8 days past in time to change an event from coming to fruition?

(Yes) (No) ]

Frustrated, Karma went to look for an exit for the box instead not wanting to indulge Outsider in this joke anymore, but there wasn't one, then he went to press no but as he moved the cursor on the option, his conscience produced a bitter taste in his tongue at that.

'If you could go back in time and save your friend from dying, would you?' Essentially that was an option, so he pressed yes.

"What now?" Karma muttered. 'What is next?'

That moment a wave of energy rippled through Karma's body and mind, it was as though all time had stopped, all movements ceased and he felt his vision fading to black.

[ System Initializing ]