“Hey mommy,” Endri said sleepily while lounging in the bed. Can you tell me that story again?
“Ok,” his mom decided,” one more time.”
It started on a windy day. The skies blossomed with sun and the clouds twirled as if they were dancing, and in the city of West Vilcha, everyone in town was watching the birth of a sweet baby boy. It was midnight when it happened. The town was small, with just 3,000 to 4,000 people. Kreo was special though. His mom told everyone he was assured to be special; she even described a whole prophecy about it. Kreo couldn’t recall exactly what she said, but he could recall the “Ending the World” part. The part that he remembers was the day that he was born, the sky changed into an elaborate rainbow sprawling as far as the eye could see. In a way it was beautiful, but many found it strange. This “Event” started Kreos life on a path for the worst. His parents threw him out when he was only 2 months old because they found everything that surrounded him to be peculiar. People always seemed weirded out by Kreo. When he walked past, the townsfolk seemed spiteful and filled with resentment. He wished his mom would have never talked about the “prophecy”, so that he could feel normal, but you can’t control other people’s actions, right?
He moved to foster home after foster home in the town, but none worked. The parents were all so mean to Kreo. He liked one household though. It was a mom and a dad who could never have a child though the community of Kreos town was very strange. They had daily rituals in the town center. He didn’t know what for, but everyone told him they needed to do it. The ground heaved like it was breathing sometimes, and he would randomly hear screaming from the rituals. All the parents wouldn’t tell him anything not even his foster parents. Every night more and more people would disappear. The town’s population dwindled, and houses started feeling more and more abandoned. He tried to solve the mystery but not all mysteries could be solved. No one could explain his fosters parents’ disappearance, maybe they got taken to one of those “Rituals.” He had to move because of the population but he could sense that he would need to be back here one day.
Kreo only heard of his parents when he turned 10, people said his dad was a smoker and cigarettes would appear out of nowhere. His name was something along the lines of Fred, but he couldn’t remember. Fred seemed like he was a gentle soul always willing to help people out, although he always did it in the worst way. His dad was never there for his family, not even his own wife. Fred was an alcoholic; he always ran from his problems instead of trying to work on them. Alcohol was just more convenient than anything else. No one really knows where he went, maybe he found another way to let go of his problems forever or maybe he fixed himself. Both of his parents had drinking problems, his mom especially. His mom was never there either. She’d come home late and immediately start arguing with his dad. He could always see that she was shit-face drunk when she came home with a skimpy dress and her mascara ruined. Kreo felt his dad losing hope every time she came home. Weeping In his room alone. His dad at least tried to be there, but his mom wouldn’t, his mom hated the sight of him. She’d always be abusive but not physically. She would always say Kreo was a failure, and everyone thought that. Kreo couldn’t help but think he was to, every action he did seemed to be not enough for anyone, even if he tried his absolute best no one would congratulate him. The part that confused him about his mom was when she said he was some sort of messiah but shortly after she got into a car accident. She was seen at a bar only an hour before the accident, but I guess she couldn’t handle life anymore. Kreo was sent to multiple orphanages, and none really liked him, but they usually had to take him.
All the kids at the orphanage were strange. Though none of them had any idea of what Kreo was or his past so he finally got treated normally. It was fun, the kids played and included him. He still always felt empty, like there was a serpent always devouring his attention yearning for more. The adults would treat him fairly, and he had a nice record. He spent 2 years in the orphanage. Most of his friends were gone, and the new kids were annoying. Kreo was adopted on the 2-year mark by two loving people, a dad, and a mom who were traumatized by the death of their other son, Wyatt, who had died mysteriously a couple of years ago. Other than that, the family had a clean slate and ended up adopting him. Kreo had a strange feeling about them though with their twisted eyes and white dyed hair. The male was tall and had eyes that could gaze into the abyss. While the mom was short and scrawny with eyes as blue as the ocean’s waters. Kreo couldn’t say no just because he had a feeling, they were bad people. So, he just went along like nothing ever happened.
Their house was huge surrounded by the colors of fall blooming on the trees around it. The house was newly painted white and smelled so blissful that even the hot chocolate and cinnamon smell of Christmas morning would be beat. Kreo wondered what his newfound parents’ jobs were, but he never had the time to ask. The house was about 5 stories tall. The living room was on the first floor with the kitchen and the other four were filled with miscellaneous rooms for everything you need. It was in a nice neighborhood though the houses were far apart. The huge forest surrounding the house separated the house to about a fourth of a mile apart. Kreo loved exploring around, finding basements and secret passages. He especially liked the creek that was about a mile from the house. The flowing water soothed Kreo, and it interested him. His room was the very bottom one and it was already filled with games, a huge bed, and an elaborate TV and PC setup. Kreo loved this house but still had a feeling something was off with the parents. Whose son would just randomly disappear like that?
They treated him like a normal child, giving him the necessities to live like food, water and shelter, but nothing more than that. His parents would always say “The house has everything you need,” and they weren’t wrong but the more and more he asked to play Frisbee with his dad or cook with his mom they would say no. It got on his nerves. This would keep happening for another year or so until random things started appearing through the house like ducks made with gears, goats that were made from wood and would move normally around the house, random appearing spheres of light and a little dragon that would always break lightbulbs and put out candles. There would always be random stuff appearing around the house and blank pieces of paper sprawled across his room. Kreo’s parents weren’t worried; they saw all the possibilities this could bring for them. It was a miracle from heaven in their eyes. They knew what the kid could do when they first adopted him. How? Well, his biological mom knew very well, she feared Kreo. So, she told her sister to “Keep him safe.” Even if something happened to her. That car crash didn’t happen by accident, who knew her brakes were cut by her own blood relative? Kreo was still as clueless as a man walking through a maze. He was trapped in more ways than that labyrinth could ever hold. They still had to act like a normal family that cares for their fostered son, so they looked for help and found it.
The website was called “help for troubled teens.” This wound up being the worst time of his life. First, they did tests to see if he had any mental issues or high intelligence and of course, Kreo had both. They stuck Kreo in a glass room testing him repeatedly until fatigue set in. At this point, the dad started recognizing what their son could do. The mom already knew but she acted along. It seemed like he could manifest anything if he knew what the substance was made of. If he were to find a way around the limitations his power had, he could manifest ideas in people. Kreo could end up being able to create anything he wanted to but the only thing holding him back would be his creativity. Everyone was scared he’d use his power for evil so his parents lied and said that he was allergic to the sun, which he knew was false, but he thought his parents wouldn’t say it without a reason. The parents didn’t do it because people were scared, they did it so they could make money in private. At this point Kreo trusted his parents fully so he didn’t question them when they asked for gold and silver. He made it but every time he did, he felt heavier. His throat started becoming more clogged. Who knew the gold would be stuck being made in his body. He was still alive, and he could still move, his heart was fine and lungs. He didn’t mention it to his parents. They finally seemed happy of him.
People thought he was weird. On some special occasions, he had friends over, but they all seemed to not like him. They all seemed disgusted by him. They all thought he was lower in stature. I mean Kreo didn’t have many social skills. He didn’t talk to anyone but his parents, so he never knew how to communicate with anyone else. He showed a kid his power once and it spread like wildfire. They hated him for being different, so they pushed Kreo down just so he couldn’t get up again, but oh, did Kreo prove them wrong. The kids that went into that house never came out again. People said they heard bones shattering every night and horrible screaming. No one would do anything about it, though they would watch and stare from his parking lot. Kreo had to make his own friends. Ones that wouldn’t call him names and undermine what he could do.
There was Leo, his stuffed animal, who was alive and had a fully working brain, nervous system, and mouth. so, he could enjoy the incredible food that his grandma cooked and could talk to him if he felt lonely. Leo was always there for him. He would always laugh and play games with him. The teddy bear was more there for him than anyone else. The teddy bear seemed to love where he was, he even had his own room filled with little knickknacks and toys that toddlers loved.
Leo would always stay for dinner. His grandma and grandpa would always cook all kinds of food they loved. They stopped showing up after a bit, which was strange because they used to show up 4-3 times a week. Kreo tried to recreate them, but nothing can ever recreate the human body which made Kreo fascinated. In time he slowly got better but they all had some kind of deformity making Kreo think humans were just too perfect to create though the world thought of them the other way around, they do destroy everything they touch and recreate it in their own image after all.
He also had a nautilus shell he had gathered on the beach when he was allowed outside that would sing to him every night. Kreo would always hear whale noises when he listened to it. The sounds echoed throughout the room as if Kreo was sleeping in the vast ocean but there was something else Kreo could hear in the background. Kreo could never see it, but he knew that something else was out there just waiting for its next meal. The Nautilus shell would always try to mimic the human voice, especially his mom’s. Kreo once woke up to it eerily saying, “Help me,” mimicking his mom’s voice. He almost fell for it, but Kreo felt it wise not to stick his hand in the gaping hole of the nautilus shell, just like trying not to press a huge red button that says danger. It seemed to go away after he made the kids disappear, maybe the nautilus shell just needed to be fed.
The final ‘friend’ was interesting: it was a platinum clock that could tell him about his death or help him with moments when he made unwise decisions. It could also control time, but it was limited to an hour. Kreo tried to use it for over an hour, and it failed but when he came back his world seemed different, and the clock disappeared. Maybe the world Kreo is in is different, but he doesn’t remember anymore. Kreo doesn’t remember many of the interesting things he did after that. It all seems to have vanished out of existence. Kreo’s parents think he’s Psychotic, but Kreo remembers that he had that platinum clock, or he is just crazy. The clock was still on his mind ticking, so he tried to recreate it, but never could. It wouldn’t get off his mind, but time is a human-caused thing after all. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, that’s all Kreo knows. Kreo didn’t know much about the outside world. Only that the world would use him if he were to walk outside, but maybe that would be better than being stuck in this prison of a house.
Kreo wondered what was outside. The scenery interested him, especially the sky. The bright orange of sunsets and sunrises, the clouds swirling in a storm, it all seemed interesting to Kreo. Kreo wished he could see it, but he feared the unknown, unseen, and dark minds of others. The insufferable, unimaginable outcomes of the light of reason being snuffed out. That was what Kreo feared, but he never admitted it. He was always stuck somewhere even if it was in his own head. Kreo always seemed to have something wrong with him, but he did have Leo, even if his parents were never seen. He had never seen his parents much, maybe not at all, but when he slept, he imagined the world with him not having any powers and his parents raising him like a normal child.
Kreos house, rundown and abandoned, creaked as if it was groaning in pain, but Kreo never knew his parents left. All he had was his creations to make him happy and feel comforted. Though Kreo never knew he was stuck in this house all he knew was his imagination. The world Kreo lived in was different from the outside, he saw his parents every day and he was a normal kid going to school and having normal friends. Sometimes he’d wake up seeing the old wood and rotting furniture, but he didn’t want to see that. He wanted to go back to his mind where he was playing outside and seeing his parents every day. Kreo was still just a kid. Why would he want to even think that he was alone. Kreos mind always wondered why he saw the world so vividly, but he could never figure out why. His mind was going along the lines of reality and fiction. Kreo never knew it, or he was just hiding himself from the truth, but he was stuck in his imagination.
“The story changed from last time,” the mom whispered while hurriedly flipping through the pages trying to not wake her sleeping child.
Through the mom’s oceanic blue eyes, the book was writing itself as if someone or something was quickly trying to replace lost ideas. She reread the story repeatedly trying to find an answer, but there were no words to describe the scribbled writing being written on the paper in front of her eyes. Maybe there were but it happened so fast that she couldn’t think. Confusion overwhelmed her as the book vanished. Slowly the pages crumbled in her hands as if the book was being burnt by an unseen force.
The mom gazed upon the bed checking if her child was there. Her face appeared horrified as she picked up the blanket and saw nothing. The mom searched the whole house looking for him for years. The internet didn’t have answers and the mom tried to live with it. She tried to keep trying to find an answer, but everyone thought she was Deranged. No one had any memory of a kid named Endri, not even his own dad. The mom didn’t give up, she tried everything, but nothing worked. Maybe if she died, she could find the answers but every time she tried, she failed. She tried having more kids because maybe then that would replace the guilt but that didn’t work, and she just ended up mistreating all the new kids. She had three more after the event, The oldest one was named Fable and the other two she couldn’t remember. The thought of that night lingered till she ended up dying of old age at 90. Endri was never seen again but the book was only beginning its grand tale of the kid that could create anything.
