Invitation
Tired eyes twitched open, but then were suddenly squinted. The sun's rays were blinding.
A hand was raised to shield against the morning brightness.
'Ah… dammit. Where am I?'
The blur in Nick's vision cleared, and a figure came into sight. Standing on his lower abdomen, was a… bird?
"What the!"
Immediately, Nick sprung up from the bed he laid and retreated, pressing his back against the wall.
In response to his frightened movements, the bird flew up to the ceiling, moving about the room before landing at the edge of the bed frame.
With a startled look, Nick briefly scanned the area, taking in the familiar sight.
A black wooden wardrobe stood opposite him, with the bathroom door at the right edge of the same wall. And beside him, to his right, was a wall opening, also positioned at the far left of the bathroom door, that led to the small dining area, kitchen area, and entrance door.
A sense of relief washed over Nick. He was back at his apartment.
Nick returned his attention to the intruder and stared intently, only recognizing how strange the bird was a few seconds later. The bird seemed to be a regular black crow, however, it possessed unique deep violet eyes.
'Do certain types of crow have purple eyes? How did it even get in?' Nick looked to his left and then cursed under his breath at the sight of the folded curtains and open window panes.
He just sighed and hesitantly kicked the air in an attempt to scare the strange crow away. However, the bird just stood there, staring back at him, unafraid.
Suddenly, the bird let out a sharp caw and flew, causing Nick to flinch and pick up a pillow in defense.
The strange bird ignored him and landed on the bedside cupboard, then pecked on the phone that lay beside a wet backpack.
"The window's still open. Leave!" Nick stayed far, shooing, kicking, and occasionally swinging the pillow at the strange, intruding bird.
The pitch-black, purple-eyed crow didn't flinch at his antics but looked up to him again, pecked on the phone, cawed once more, and finally flew out the open window.
Immediately, Nick went to shut the window and let out a sigh of relief. Then, looked at the bedside cupboard, confused.
'Just now, could that bird have been trying to communicate?'
Already dismissing the notion, Nick half-heartedly reached for the mobile phone on the cupboard and then inspected it. Surprisingly, it wasn't damaged from last night's ordeal, but the screen was wet.
He rubbed the screen on the bed to dry it, and calmly unlocked the device.
To his shock, he had received a message on the WiChat mobile app.
'An invite link?'
Nick cautiously tapped the message with a blank-name sender. The description of the link was very brief:
[Become the Top Idol, and you shall be granted your deepest desire.]
'Hmm…' Nick checked the profile of the sender, but it was completely blank and null. No profile picture, no bio, no username, no nothing.
"Is this some type of scam?" Nick muttered.
At first, he was unable to understand what was going on, but he thought a little and found the entire thing odd.
He kept his phone down and decided to change his cold, wet clothes first.
As Nick took them off, he paused, recalling the events of the night prior and wincing.
"Dammit. Why am I still alive?"
With a sour expression, he took off the rest of his clothes but his briefs and went over to the wardrobe.
Rummaging through it, he thought back to last night. Could it be that stranger who rescued him? But why? Because the stranger certainly made it clear that he wasn't going to stop Nick from jumping off the ledge. And thinking back, he was even the one who urged Nick to take the final leap when his mind was faltering!
More importantly though, if the stranger truly did save Nick, why was he back home instead of a hospital? This meant the stranger knew where Nick lived.
Nick's eyes widened. "He must've been stalking me long before then! No wonder he was in such a remote place too. He was following me…"
Despite being alive, Nick felt deeply annoyed about this turn of events. Things had finally been said and done, but now he was back here… living this sham of a life.
As Nick wore some fresh, warm clothes, he grumbled expletives at the stranger. Frustrated, he even slammed the wardrobe door shut.
Nick staggered back and flopped down at the edge of his bed. Despondent, he palmed his face.
He had given up everything, prepared meticulously, and even executed the plan perfectly, spending over $5,000 in total, only to still be… 'Sigh.'
In the end, because of some meddling hands, he didn't break out of this circus.
'Why couldn't he just mind his damn business?' Nick weakly asked himself. He didn't even have the zeal to get angry, he was just tired.
Nick thought back and recalled the moment the encompassing sea swallowed his body, the cold chill that pierced his soul, the sensation of the inability to breathe despite his lungs' frantic pumps, and the final moment when his mouth and nose took in astonishing amounts of the salty seawater. After that, he blacked out.
A miracle, it was, that he didn't wake up coughing. Speaking of which, he even felt oddly healthy and exuberant, not exactly how he imagined an individual who drowned would feel after they woke up—if they ever did.
The oppressive feeling of gradual suffocation, the asphyxiation, was the most harrowing part of the entire ordeal that repeatedly gnawed at his mind. He honestly didn't wish to ever experience that again.
He took a big gulp, then sighed, recalling something else about last night.
The stranger he conversed with—dressed in a gray overcoat on an elegant darker gray suit with black hair meticulously combed back—had his face weirdly obscured by the darkness. Right as Nick jumped, the stranger had uttered the same words that he previously made a joke about as the only way to break free.
In all seriousness, he had repeated, "Be reborn."
Worry and perplexion found their way to Nick's heart, with the evidence of their presence expressed on his face.
And now, there was this invite link, which might help explain everything as an elaborate attempt to scam him.
But it was all so weird.
So considering the series of odd events so far, including the strange purple-eyed crow, Nick decided to give this invite link the benefit of the doubt.
'That crow could just be very intelligent; it doesn't seem to be uncommon for crows specifically to be that way. But those purple eyes are definitely not normal,' he mused inwardly.
Nick decided to be vigilant and play it by ear. Therefore, he unhurriedly clicked on the invite link.
He was quickly redirected to a browser, and the webpage displayed a familiar message and more:
[What do you desire? Great riches and wealth? World-class fame and influence? Absolute authority and power? Or that which transcends them all?
Become the Top Idol, and you shall be granted your deepest desire.]
[Do you accept the invitation?]
[Yes] / [No]
Nick studied the single-page, simply designed website and breathed heavily. 'This… This can't be all true. There's no telling what they want in return for granting my desire, if they actually can. How does one even become the Top Idol? This invitation message is too vague, and it's not obvious what accepting the invite will do. That stalker knows where I live; if I accept, will he come for me?'
Nick remained staring at the message for over five minutes, contemplating and forming tangents in his thoughts, speculating on different possible outcomes.
However, he factored in the chance that this was the stranger's way of offering him help since the stranger already saved his life. The only problem was that he didn't understand what kind of help this was.
'Well, there's only one way to find out.' Nick moved his thumb to the left side of the screen, pondered for a few more seconds, and finally accepted the invite.
Immediately, the phone screen turned blank!
Nick's eyes widened.
Just when he thought he was being hacked, the screen came back on. However, it was no longer in the browser, nor was it in WiChat.
The screen displayed his app library, where he spotted a new application called "Top Idol."