9: Names

Diego Ballesteros

by Diego Ballesteros

Story

Astral projection, according to Archie, is extremely difficult and takes months of practice to achieve. He explained that to transport your soul to the astral realm, you must wake your mind without waking your body. Essentially, you must fall deeply asleep and then train your mind to wake up in the morning without waking your body up, similar to sleep paralysis. Once your mind is awake, one must imagine pulling on a rope above your body, hanging from the ceiling, to detach your soul and free it from your physical body. Once freed from physical limitations, you can explore the astral realm and go whenever and wherever you desire. I wanted to project to go back in time and talk to Kind one last time. I needed him to answer for his sins, and I also needed a hug.

However, I got stuck on the first step, that being falling asleep. I laid in bed, trying to drift off, but my heart was racing, and I was sweating. To distract myself, I sifted through my memories with Kind, trying to choose one to revisit, but nothing came to mind. Despite spending four years with him, I couldn’t think of a single memory involving him specifically. He had spent all of our years in silence, witnessing our lives, but no one really witnessed his.

On the verge of tears, my mind went back to a house party at the end of our first year at university. Still getting comfortable with our group, I didn’t talk much and spent most of my time smoking on the balcony or playing video games with Kind in silence. That night, Memory was cooking in the kitchen, blasting The Strokes. He was cooking bone marrow and wearing an apron, which I found sexy, so I made my way to the kitchen for a glass of water, hoping he’d talk to me. Though often detached from the group, everyone loved Memory, and whenever he spoke, everyone listened and laughed. He was cutting onions with a Japanese knife, and I noticed several lines of white powder beside him. Nervously, I joked about it being cocaine, but to my dismay, he confirmed it, snorted a line, and then coughed for seven minutes straight.

Archie would later explain to me that it was flour and that he did that whole act because he thought it was funny. I found that hilarious.

That’s when I fell in love with him.

Back in the real world, my eyes were closed, and my mouth was smiling fully. I felt warm and happy until several loud bangs and knocks on my door woke me up. They were frantic, and they scared the soul out of my body. I actually felt soulless. Trembling, I walked slowly to the door. Someone kept knocking harshly, blasting the door with more and more intensity each time. It was extremely loud and erratic.

When I finally reached up to the door handle and opened it, I found nobody on the other side. Confused, I poked my head out into the hallway.

At the far end of the hallway, I saw a creature, a monster, an entity, a beast. It was extremely tall; I couldn’t see anything past it. It had long legs and even longer arms. It was completely black, and I couldn’t figure out when did its body start and when did it end. It was as if it was blurry somehow. It didn’t have a face, and it wasn’t moving. The only thing I knew was that it was breathing, and even though it didn’t have any eyes, I knew it was looking straight at me.

© Diego Ballesteros 2024-07-18

Genres
Novels & Stories