Connor

Clouds rolled over the blue sky as the sun bathed the world in its light. A young man laid on a patch of broken concrete on the side of a neighborhood. He would have laid on the grass but he just didn't want to get his clothes dirty, coming out here every day certainly helped him relax at least. 

Connor felt that he didn't really have an excuse to be so stressed anyways. He came from a very well off background, he was always provided for and truly he was grateful for that. But his family really didn't seem to fit well with him, his mother and father were overly religious at least in his eyes.

Having to hear about an old book and praising a being Connor had never even met or talked too had grated on his nerves since he was a kid. Everything always seemed to be a "sign of god" or in the most annoying cases his parents would be talking about the end times, which to say the least was not very fun to hear as a child. he had learned not to voice his disgruntlement at their ideas though. After the first couple punishments his parents gave, to supposedly set him straight. 

Despite that though he knew that his parents still loved him, they just had a twisted sense of the world due to religion. 

"I should just stop thinking about all that before i ruin my mood again." With that said mainly to himself he stood up grabbed the jacket he was laying on with his feet and then tossed it in the air and caught it with his hand and laughed. He then stretched his body and started his walk his way back home.

When viewed from the outside Connor was a decently attractive person standing at around 5'10 with blonde hair and green eyes, Though the dark rims under them betrayed the fact that he had a habit of insomnia and no matter how much he rested those dark rims didn't seem to go away.

The sounds of the wind rustling against the trees was soothing to his ears. In a pond nearby a gaggle of geese swam around being general menaces to animals and humans in their vicinity, Connor was smart enough to steer clear of them though. He could still remember when he got attacked by a small gang of those wretched things when he was 6.

That wouldn't be the only embarrassing event from his childhood years though. One year he was particularly obsessed with hippos, he learned all sorts of things about them and he tried to make a model of one using a milk jug and some googly eyes with paint. Unfortunately the paint became darker than expected while drying under the sun and well... it was rather brown.

His parents still joked about that one to this day over 9 years later. 

'Making a shit colored hippo jug probably wasn't the best idea anyways'. With that on the mind Connor managed to walk home while thinking of a small hippo in a top hat doing a dance. 

Connors home was a pristine white house even putting the other homes in the area to shame, that was saying a lot seeing as he lived in a gated community. It was three stories tall, had a perfectly mowed lawn and even had a large pool in the back. It was bordering on the size of a small mansion and while his family probably could afford something bigger, they didn't want to go so over the top with things. 

As he approached the smile on his on his face dwindled into a neutral expression. He took a deep breathe before opening the door and walking through the living room until his mother spotted him.

"Oh Connor you're finally back? The food should be done in a couple hours if you're hungry, oh and don't forget to do your homework today i don't want to see your grades slipping again." His mother was a very attractive lady despite the signs of age creeping up on her. Both of them looked very similar though besides the height difference.

"Ok mom thank you. When's dad getting home today by the way?" Connor only asked since his father was usually taking a nap in his chair by this hour and he was curious. 

"He had to stay overtime today because the holidays are coming soon." Connors father had a highly ranked position at a retail chain after all.

"Oh yeah! I always forget when black Friday is coming."

"You forget a lot of things son."

...

And with that Connor remembered why he didn't like having conversations with his parents and walked up to his room to start on some homework. 

English and math were at least preferable to a conversation like that.

'Not by much though with the way miss Janice assigns us essays every other week. I understand the sentiment of preparing us for higher education and all that but i just know that some of these additional assignments have to be made from pure malice.'

Math however was never really the hardest thing for Connor. He usually just had to get the basics into his head pretty well before he got into the advanced problems and he would be fine. 

Neither were his favorite subject though. Science always had a good place in his heart due to the interactivity the subject provided along with the varied fields of information he could sink himself into. He wasn't great at the most specific details but he had a knee deep knowledge in pretty much any facet of science you could think of. Astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry were just a few that he loved the most, it was really just fun for him to learn.

Around 2 hours latter he was finally done with his essay and the math problem sheet he had taken home and placed them into his bag. He thought about the food downstairs along with his mother and he debated to himself whether it was worth it. 

'I mean I'm not really that hungry i guess? Yeah I'm good, ill just take a shower and then try to fall asleep.'

For a while more though he just sat at his desk silently. Not thinking of anything in particular but just experiencing the passage of time and the world around him. 

'I don't hate my parents, they just make me feel... uncomfortable. Like being around them makes me act as a fake person, like all those expectations and disappointments are being piled on top of me until i can feel the pressure. i don't hate my parents, but i hate being around them.'

When Connor got into the shower later he hadn't turned the water on but for some strange reason his face was still wet. And later as he got into the soft and warm embrace of his bed covers his tired mind decided to let him rest instead of making him toss and turn through the night.

Dreams were a thing Connor never really had. Whether it was due to a difference in his brain or the fact that he forgot his dreams even before he woke up, he rarely if ever had them. But tonight his mind was hazy and for a long time all he saw was darkness, yet in that darkness there was the occasional speck of bright dust.

As time moved on he began to see clearer and clearer until he saw deep black onyx chains pulling on some of the specks of dust. Some chains were connected with the dust and some were snaking their way closer and closer. Wading their way through the darkness aimlessly until they finally latched on to something.

Connor seemed to feel something and he looked down at himself and there was a speck of dust on his chest with its own chain attached. Slowly dragging him and the speck of dust in a particular direction. Connor felt like something about this was wrong, his mind wasn't fully there though of course so he simply tried to grab onto the chain. He pulled back against the chain and it worked, and once he became still again the chain had stopped pulling.

Yet as he thought everything had become normal the chain lit up, runes covering its base shone with searing blinding light and his body along with the speck of dust were violently yanked into the direction of the chain at unknown speeds. Looking away from the chain Connor saw endless specks of dust fly past like stars in the sky, he was going faster and faster until everything became a blur of light. 

And then he stopped and there was no motion.

There were no thoughts.

There was nothing around him.

And as his eyes went back down to the chain connected to his chest he saw that it was back to its usual color. His eyes wandered following the chain to its end and there he saw it.

The Obelisk