1 The Cave
*bzz* *bzz* *bzz* *bzz* *bzz* …
The sound of an alarm going off could be heard as a man no older than 27 struggled to get out of bed with eyes devoid of the wonder and excitement they once held.
As the man walked past his unkempt apartment towards the kitchen to start heating something to eat for breakfast, he noticed that there was an envelope by his door, suddenly stopping everything he was doing to go and get it.
Knowing that it could have only been from his parents, seeing as they were the only other people to own his apartment key, the man seemed to have a slightly sorrowful look in his eyes as he walked towards the bathroom, envelope in hand, to get ready for the day.
After brushing his teeth, the man opened the letter, took a deep breath, and began reading it, quickly getting lost in the text and tuning out everything around him.
'Hey Kaeden, we know that you have been a little tight on money this month, so we wanted to send what we could to help… It's not much, but we hope that it could let you get by and buy something nice for once.
I know things have been pretty rough for you lately, but on the bright side, you only have a couple of months left before you can get your college degree and can finally get a better job, so look on the bright side.
Just remember to not let up on your studies just because the year is coming to an end, and never forget, no matter what happens, as long as you don't give up, your father and I will always be rooting for you.
Love, Mom'
Kaeden stood motionless, staring at the letter, suddenly cracking a slight smiling when he saw the $200 attached at the bottom, thinking, 'Must have done something great in my past life to get parents like them' followed by silence.
"What happened to me?" Kaeden murmured with tears falling onto the letter as he sat down in the corner of the bathroom.
He then began cursing himself in his mind for his younger self's naivety and stupidity, wondering what might have been had he managed to pop his self-built reality-blocking bubble before it was too late.
After eventually leaving his apartment, Kaeden went for a morning run around the nearby woods to try and set his thoughts in order seeing as it was one of the few activities he still partook in that allowed him to either take his mind off things or come to terms with them.
As he ran through the paved path in the woods, Kaeden felt a little bit of relief as the cold morning air crashed against him, and he continued to speed up with the hopes of being able to let everything out.
As Kaeden ran, he thought back to all of the promises he made as a kid to his parents after they moved to the US, claiming that once he got a good job after graduating from university, he would let them live with him and retire early.
Yet when the time came to put in some effort or hard work, Kaeden just pushed aside all the responsibility under the guise that he had all A's, willingly ignoring the fact that his school had almost no standards.
Instead, he focused on 'enjoying life,' spending almost all his time hanging around either exciting or funny people to satiate his boredom and curiosity.
In the end, although he wasn't able to make it to his dream college, he was still able to qualify for a pretty good one. Yet without gaining any grants or scholarships due to placing so low compared to his classmates by taking no extracurriculars, his parents had to take a pretty hefty loan to finance his studies.
Even worse, due to him being woefully unprepared for college, he just went to a ton of parties and got blackout drunk most of the time due to him being under the guise that he could get through college just as effortlessly as he did with high school.
Two years later, Kaeden realized that on top of his grades being barely passable, the career he picked was one he thoroughly detested causing doubts about the path he chose to begin constantly clouding his mind.
So when just three months afterward, he got into a relationship with some random girl he met at a party that constantly told him to pursue his dreams no matter how far-fetched they were, he was stupid enough to believe her.
Looking back on it, Kaeden couldn't believe he was ever foolish enough to choose to drop out, effectively throwing away all of the money his parents had given him and were living on a tight budget to pay off.
Kaeden even dared to beg them to help him raise funds to start his video-game company after he dropped out due to the bank loans he could get not being enough to support the insane plan he had in mind.
Yet his parents, despite knowing that they would have to sell the house they barely managed to pay off just a couple of years prior and move to a tiny apartment; for some reason, still agreed and gave Kaeden the money wishing him the best of luck in his venture.
The company was a bust, and Kaeden filed for bankruptcy less than half a year later after being dumped by his ex-girlfriend due to their relationship turning toxic thanks to lack of income and the fact that she hadn't dropped out, meaning she still had an out.
So, with his parents having no money to spend and being in a ton of debt loans he took while trying to save his company, Kaeden was forced to get a minimum wage job and go to community college.
That night after declaring bankruptcy Kaeden managed to contact his high school best friend and ask him for enough money to enroll in community college, which his friend obliged to, seeing as he had done well for himself and could spare some cash for an old friend.
When Kaeden compared the future he imagined for himself with his current tiny unkempt apartment, job at a McDonald's kitchen, and the fact that he still relied on outside income to survive, he couldn't help but feel he failed everyone that had ever held hope in him.
However, Kaeden couldn't wallow in his sorrows for long as he was forcefully broken out of his trance after he tripped on a rock sending him rolling down the side of the hill he was currently running on.
After coming back to his senses, Kaeden began desperately trying to hold onto anything that he could to slow himself down.
He wasn't able to do much though, and by the time he gained some level of control over his body, he had just crashed against what felt like a wall of plants, suddenly stopping after hitting his forehead against the edge of a wooden table.
Kaeden then stood motionless for a while, feeling some head pain and soon after having a slightly hard time balancing himself as he attempted to get up from the floor.
'Well, that's what I get for getting lost in my thoughts while running. However, on the bright side, apart from a mild concussion, I don't seem to have broken anything,' Kaeden thought while mentally laughing at his carelessness, not yet feeling the full force of the hit due to adrenaline.
Kaeden then proceeded to check his body for any injuries, sighing in relief when he realized that he only had some minor cuts here and there with a little bit of blood dripping down from where he hit his forehead.
As none of his injuries were spewing blood, Kaeden felt relieved to see that he was in no impending danger and so chose to examine the tiny cave he had stumbled in on.
The walls were covered with spray paint drawings, and the cave housed a small table, a bean bag, some magazines, and what appeared to be some worn-out art tools, so it was pretty clear to Kaeden that the cave seemed to be somebody's secret hideout or something along those lines.
Not wanting to leave a mess behind, Kaeden made sure to put the table back in its place and some magazines he had caused to fall off.
Just as he was going to leave, Kaeden noticed that a wooden floorboard previously hidden by some moss growing over the area broke when he rolled over it as he entered the cave revealing a leather-covered book underneath.
Immediately Kaeden assumed that it was probably just a diary that belonged to the person who hung out in the cave seeing as he could see the broken wooden tile with moss on top being removable.
However, as he flipped through the book without a care in the world, he saw that it all appeared to be encoded, making him smirk and wonder who it was that hung out in the cave seeing as they went through so much effort hiding the information in the book.
Nevertheless, Kaeden continued flipping through the book as he saw some interesting drawings and patterns every once in a while, Eventually reaching two pages that created the image of what appeared to be a stereotypical ritual formation.
Seeing this, Kaeden assumed that the cave probably belonged to some random witch/wizard wannabe, losing interest and closing the book.
However, just before the pages closed, a drop of blood from Kaeden's forehead fell into the book causing Kaeden to suddenly be forced onto the ground as though gravity had suddenly increased dramatically over only himself.
With his eyes wide open from shock, Kaeden saw not only the book suddenly disappear but also some of the graffiti lines on the walls begin to glow bright red, recreating the formation that Kaeden had previously seen.
Kaeden tried desperately to free himself, not even managing to move slightly and only tensing up his mussels in his failed escape attempts.
His attempts didn't last for long though, as the pressure increased making Kaeden suddenly feel like his entire body was about to be crushed under it before he lost consciousness.
