He's dead

Bruce woke up early today, it was a Monday morning after all and he didn't want to be late to work, as early as 5:30 he had already finished cleaning himself up and by 6:00 a.m. he made some waffles for breakfast with a side of English tea.

As usual, Bruce prepared to call Aiden who he believed would still be asleep at this time, "ring, ring," the phone rang a few times and there was an immediate reply.

"Hello Aiden you're awake by this time ha it looks like you're improving hahaha," Bruce said with a laugh, but the voice that came through from the other end didn't sound like Aiden.

"Hello, Mr. Bruce this is the south city police department are you a family member of Mr. Aiden Frostfall?" The voice asked sympathetically.

Hearing the voice at the other end Bruce suddenly had a bad feeling that stemmed from his guts but he answered anyway.

"No, no I'm not a family member but we're close friends please can I speak to Aiden?" Bruce asked, nervously wishing that Aiden hadn't gotten into trouble.

The voice at the other end was silent for a while before replying in a sober tone, "I'm sorry Mr. Bruce but I'll be direct, Aiden is dead." The voice said leaving a dramatic pause in the air as if allowing his words to sink in.

Before Bruce could process the voice continued, "he was involved in a nasty accident. Now please I know this might be a lot to take in but you have to be a man, be sure to inform the necessary people and come to the south city police's headquarters for details."

After saying that the voice at the other end immediately cut the call leaving Bruce who was about to eat breakfast alone in silence.

Bruce's hands trembled as his spoon fell from his hand "Ting," it made a sound as it hit the floor.

Bruce felt terrible and had completely lost his appetite, quickly picking up his phone Bruce called Mary.

***********

The south city police department was located downtown, it was a big building with up to three floors and had a formal feel to it.

Bruce had arrived here as early as 7:00 a.m. with Amanda and another person.

Inside this building, they sat in an office room with a police officer who explained everything to them.

"We couldn't find the full body and could only recover a dismembered arm. Moreover, the cause of the accident remains unknown. Our forensic investigators strongly believe that the truck driver isn't the cause of the accident." A police officer explained.

"Sob, Sob," Amanda burst into tears. "It's okay," Bruce comforted her, gently patting her back. "I'm here for you. We'll get through this together. Take your time, let it all out."

"But how are you sure he's dead? You can't be so sure, I mean I know people who have survived with a dismembered limb before," a person said.

The person who spoke was Jack, he was a colleague of Aiden's and they were also good friends."

"Yeah, you can't be so sure," Amanda replied in between sobs, her voice trembling as she clung to the smallest glimmer of hope.

Hearing Amanda's words the police officer said with a sad expression on his face, "We are professionals madam, and from all possible indications Aiden is a hundred percent dead, there is also the option to hire a search team but I don't recommend it."

"We'll do it, how much does it cost?" Bruce asked immediately.

"I'll put a call through but like I said sir you can stop wasting your efforts because Aiden is dead.

****************************

Aiden didn't seem dead nor did he feel dead, he opened his eyes, and images of what happened flashed like a chaotic slideshow in his mind.

His head felt blank as his brain took a minute to place the broken pieces together.

"Where am I," was the first thought that came to mind, but he quickly remembered something, and with much difficulty, he moved his left arm to feel his right arm.

Surprisingly he felt it, his right arm wasn't dismembered and was still connected to his body, "Haha, I'm going nuts," Aiden chuckled in his mind.

He felt heavy, as a strange force pushed him against the ground, "gravity?" Aiden thought as he tried to take in his surroundings but he couldn't see much.

It was dark, extremely dark and the ground felt hard and rocky.

Not only that it was hot, "is this, the afterlife?" Aiden muttered, but his mutter seemed more like a shout as his voice echoed into the chilling unknown.

As if reacting to his voice his surroundings lit up with a dim purple glow just enough for a human to see and yet dim enough to keep his surroundings creepy.

Aiden could barely move, and a heavy feeling of uncertainty lingered in his mind like a bad aftertaste.

After a while he regained some control over his body and could finally see his surroundings; he was in a dry and rocky cave, and the heat seemed to be coming from the floors.

Embedded on the rocky walls of this cave were glowing crystals that added a purple shade of beauty to the cave.

Aiden didn't understand what was going on, he just lay there enjoying the beauty of the cave, not that he had a choice, a few hours passed and Aiden could feel the pressure drastically reduce.

Standing up Aiden tried to explore as he moved with heavy steps, the cave was quite deep, and halfway through Aiden finally found something that wasn't rocks and glowing crystals it was a reading table and a chair, or at least it looked like one.

It wasn't a real reading table as it was made out of rocks as well, carved in a way that made it pleasing to the eye; and on this makeshift table, you could find a glowing purple crystal and an old book.

The origin of this crystal was easy to decipher as it was everywhere in the cave, but the book was an oddity.

Ignoring the reading table for now Aiden walked forward with great difficulty as even though the pressure had reduced it was still there.

After a few minutes of walking he seemed to have reached the end of the narrow cave, and what welcomed him was a large open space below him, it seemed to be an even larger cave with space equivalent to four soccer fields.

But what bothered him wasn't the size of the cave; instead, it was the sight before him.

Before him, Aiden saw statues filling up the entire cave, and considering the size of the cave a large amount of statues were required to fill it up.

"What is all this," Aiden muttered as he looked down at this open space, he didn't have the best eyesight but he could tell just by looking at it once that these statues looked exactly like him.

"Freaky," Aiden muttered as he turned back, stopping in front of the makeshift reading table his attention was now focused on the old book; a book meant information and could probably explain where he was.

Sitting down Aiden opened the book, he was half expecting the contents inside would be written in another language but he was in luck, the words inside were written in ancient English, ancient English wasn't that different from modern English so for Aiden it was readable.

[Entry 1: I can't believe it, the ancient texts were correct, I've finally become a candidate, one look and I can't tell the difference between this place and something naturally created, but I feel skeptical even though the gravity here is a little strong earth has a limitless amount of places like this, is this really hell or a clever mimicry of nature's design.]

Flipping to the next page Aiden continued reading.

[Entry 2: After half a day's worth of time I have finally adapted to the gravity of this place completely, I made a crude weapon out of rocks and decided to explore, I know all I have to do is summon my demon to feel safer but I'll use that as a last resort, after minutes of walking what I saw at the end of the cave was a large space, the cave was filled up with statues that looked exactly like me, I'm going to take a look.]

Reading to this point Aiden excitedly flipped to the next page, "Someone was here before me," he thought.

He needed to know what happened next, Aiden might have known better than trusting the words of a book randomly lying around, it could be a trap, but his mental state at this moment needed some form of assuredness."

[Entry 3: the statues seem harmless, I've explored every nook and cranny of this place and I didn't find anything harmful, except a small passageway at the back of the cave, I crawled through it and found out it was an exit and I finally found out how it looked outside, this is not earth, to anyone who is reading this book I have some advice for you, first don't take the book outside with you or you will lose it, second if you go outside and find any being that looks like a human child kill it before it cries if you're unable to kill it run as fast as your legs will carry you, I found out what the statues are used for and it's quite terrifying.]

Aiden tried to flip to the next page but the book didn't budge, after trying for a while Aiden gave up, it seemed like some strange power was keeping him from opening the book any further.

Aiden was silent for a while, he was able to gather some information but he still couldn't understand what was happening.

"I guess I have to go out and find out for myself," Aiden muttered.

But first, he would have to make some preparations picking up a random rock he wondered how he was supposed to turn it into a weapon.

With no idea what to do, he decided to use the rock as it was, walking toward the open space Aiden climbed down, looking at the statues in front of him Aiden couldn't help but feel unsettled, as the feeling of being watched overwhelmed him.

Aiden tried not to pay too much attention to the statues as he found them unsettling, they just looked way too similar to him, shuffling through the statues Aiden finally reached the back of the cave.

"There really is a small passage here," Aiden thought, at least he knew the book was accurate, gulping down on some saliva he got on all fours and crawled into the hole, "good thing I'm not that scared of tight spaces," Aiden tried to reassure himself.

The passage was quite long but after a few minutes of crawling, there was finally a change, the purple crystals on the walls were getting fewer and fewer until finally there were no more purple crystals embedded on the wall.

But Aiden didn't stop, albeit a little more carefully he still crawled forward and after a few minutes of crawling he could finally see the light up ahead.

***********************

Bruce felt sad, as his shoulders slumped, they had been at it since morning; he hired a search team to look for Aiden, or rather Aiden's body but the sun was already setting and there was no progress.

"I think we should call it a day Bruce," Jack said as he looked toward Amanda and some other friends who had joined the search, most of them looked exhausted and you could see Amanda leaning against a rock.

"Just look at them they're all tired," Jack said trying to convince Bruce to give up, after thinking for a while Bruce gritted his teeth suppressing the frustrating feeling that plagued him he yelled.

"OK GUYS LETS CALL IT A DAY!"

The search crew quickly gathered after hearing his voice and they did a simple roll call.

"Sorry we couldn't find your friend," a man said trying to counsel Bruce, "it's ok guys we can always try tomorrow," Bruce replied.

Saying this Bruce walked back uphill, lost in deep thoughts, "I need to have a drink," he thought.

As he approached the roadside he noticed two people standing beside a white minivan, getting closer Bruce finally recognized who it was.

"Mary, why are you so late?" Bruce asked as he continued speaking with a low tone, "I thought we agreed to meet at the police station?"

Mary didn't look too good, her face was pale and her eyes were red, it was evident she had been crying.

"I-I'm sorry I just didn't want to believe it, I can't believe he's really dead," she said, as Mary spoke her voice cracked towards the end sounding increasingly pitiful.

She was certainly trying her hardest not to cry, seeing Mary's current state Bruce couldn't bear to scold her anymore.

He wanted to console her but before he could someone had already wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her into his embrace, seeing this Bruce's attention was drawn to the person who did this.

It was a man who seemed to be in his early thirties he had blue eyes and white hair which was rare; Bruce couldn't tell if it was natural or dyed.

This white-haired man on the other hand looked towards Bruce with daggers in his eyes as though someone had just stolen a prized possession of his.

"My name is Von Vincent," he said brimming with hostility as he continued, "I'm the owner of the VV brand, one of the top clothing brands in the seventh shelter and I would appreciate it if you don't talk to my woman that way, so what if a person died?" He asked.

Before Bruce could reply Vincent said his next few words in a lower tone as if talking to himself, "All the searching in the world wouldn't bring him back."

Bruce was shocked, and a feeling of anger suddenly welled up inside of him, from Vincent's words he was able to put the broken pieces together.

Judging from how intimate they looked right now and the fact Mary hadn't refuted being called his woman both of them had something going on, "but how long has this been happening," Bruce thought.

Looking towards Mary who was still in Vincent's embrace Bruce said barely suppressing his anger.

"I didn't realize you were that type of woman," hearing this Vincent frowned, and a look of guilt flashed past Mary's eyes.

She avoided Bruce's gaze and muttered, "I wanted to tell him."

But Bruce didn't answer, the others had finished packing and had made it uphill.

Without another word, Bruce joined them feeling quite disappointed in Mary.

As he walked away he couldn't help but think that you never really knew a person until you knew them, who would have thought Mary of all people would cheat on Aiden?