As I lay in bed in ice cold silence, I then hear a stranger's voice calling out to me.
"Johnny," a voice calls out. Opening my eyes and finding myself alone in my room, looking over to my desk and looking at the digital clock.
"3:45 in the morning, and yet I am still being harassed by these damn spirits," I say to myself. Turning my back towards the digital clock and staring outside my window.
"God, sometimes I just wish you could be understanding," I say alone in my room. Sighing in irritation, I turn my back towards the window, closing my eyes and falling back asleep.
"Johnny," someone calls out to me. Opening my eyes, I was blinded by the harsh light of a new day that cut through my bedroom window.
"Let's get up John, so we can pass through another day," I say to myself as I get up, walking over to the closet, and getting dressed quickly, and as I walk out of my room, going downstairs and entering the kitchen as I see that I am alone and as well as another damn note. Walking over to the note. Something made my heart squish the blood out in fright. There were pieces of flesh on it. Looking everywhere in my surroundings, yet there is no one here in plain sight.
"Mom!" I shout out but there is not a pin drop of sound anywhere that my ears can reach.
"Read what she wanted to tell you, dear John, it will be okay for you to know the truth," says a familiar voice. Turning around, I then see where the familiar voice came from; Ghost himself.
"Where the Hell is my Mom? What did you do to my Mom, Ghost!" I demanded him to tell me. If he hurt Mom, I will do whatever it takes to fight against him, even if it means becoming a stronger monster than him.
"Dear Johnathon Haven Stone, have you ever thought about what your nightmares mean? These nightmares will come to you, but even when you remember your past, it will far much too late as you will be all alone and six feet under," says Ghost. After these years of being in the dark, what the Hell is he trying to tell me?
"What is your motive Ghost?" I ask in fear. Ghost just gives me a frown, but his eyes...they held an unstable emotion as if he had a soul that had an unlimited amount of anger in them.
"You sure are so much like someone I have known for a long, long time," Ghost says then vanishes. Who is he even talking about? Sighing loudly, I pick up the note and flicked the pieces of flesh off of it and began to read the letter:
"Dear John,
As you read this letter, you have already been told that you have a past with Ghost, but there is more to your past with him that he did not mention, you are the—"
"John, wake your ass up so we can eat dinner!" Mom screams from outside my bedroom door.
"Coming!" I answer as I get out of bed and walk out and walking downstairs seeing a new man in Mom's life.
"Great…" I mumble underneath my breath. Mom, who was standing next to him flashed a fiery glare at me just because I am annoyed with her boyfriend.
"Let's get ready for dinner, I ordered the usual John, egg drop soup," says Mom as we walk into the kitchen and began eating as this is another night of watching Mom having a new guy at the house, Andrew who just happens to be a stripper at some disgusting nightclub. Man do I regret remembering who and what this guy is.
"This is just utter bullshit with these guys, where the Hell does Mom find them at?" I say in thought to myself as I then start to think about how Mom just does not even give a shit that I need a Mom, not a landlord for a room, bathroom and a kitchen to share with.
"John, are you going to stay this way, just leave and stop blowing us off," Mom says. Looking up, I see Andrew looking down as he was eating dinner as he is been just distancing himself from this whole load of crap that creates a gaping hole between me and Mom.
"I am just stressed out about school, sorry," I say, which is true but there is more about the stress that I am going through besides school...I just hate the thought of bringing it up because it is just not worth the pain of other people knowing about it.
"I will leave if you want, it does not even matter since I am never welcome to spend time with a real family," I say then standing up without cleaning up.
"You can do this by yourself, since you seem to make fun of me for cleaning the house for you after you make a shit invested mess here," I say to her. Looking at me, she does not say a word then gets up and starts cleaning up with Andrew's help. Turning around and walking on my way to my bedroom. As I walk upstairs and get to my room, the air began to chill all around me, and nothing made sense.
"Hey John. what is wrong?" Andrew asks. Turning around I look at him and then shaking my head.
"Nothing is wrong, I just started to get a headache, I have meds for it in my bathroom, can you let my Mom know that I am going to do the paperwork for school since I know she hates doing it," I say to Andrew. Andrew nods then we both found ourselves looking at Mom walking in and sighs.
"I will do the paperwork, I know about your grades and frankly I would rather see you finishing school since your grades are amazing with the way you study twenty-four seven," says Mom as she smiles small. Something that I cannot tell if she meant it or not.
"I will give them to you after Andrew leaves so you have free time for it," I say then turning around and went upstairs and walking into my room then grabbing my paperwork. Waiting for Mom to come up to get them. Looking at Mom come up I walk over and handed the papers over to her.
"When I finish high school, I plan on looking into what career I could get into," I say.
"Fine, I do not care I just want this shit over and done with," says Mom then turns around and leaves me here alone. Walking back in my room I then close the door I walk over and sit down at my desk.
"I hope that I have a decent first day of school tomorrow," I say to myself as I then lean back in my computer chair. Getting up and lying down in bed.
"God, I wish that you would just stop torturing me, give me hope, or something," I say then closing my eyes and darkness then taking over.
Opening my eyes without a nightmare causing me to wake up in fright was a shocker. Getting up and walking to my closet, I find myself grabbing a dark gray t-shirt and a pair of denim blue jeans and placing it on my desk.
"John," a voice calls out in a whispered tone of voice. Turning around, I see an orb of white light.
"Who are you?" I ask. The orb of white light then transforms into a young woman. Her beauty was beyond all of creation. No one could compare to her. One thing that got my eyes fixated on was her eyes: A dazzling topaz blue.
"I am simply what you need, as well as what you most desire in this life," The young woman says. Tilting my head in confusion, what do I need?
"I do not understand, can you explain?" I ask. The young woman smiles and walks in front of me, kisses me on the forehead and takes a look into my eyes.
"I am Hope, John, I am the one thing that you need to save your life," Hope says then begins to fade away.
"Wait! How do I know that I can trust you? Why are you coming to me at this point of my life?" I ask. The young woman smiles.
"Your future will come to you in due time, I shall see you again one day," Hope says then vanishes.
Blinking my eyes a few times, all I can think of was who Hope really is. Getting up and wanting to do something that I had never done before.
Staring at the bathroom mirror, I start to introduce myself as if I were talking to a stranger.
"Hello dear stranger, my name is Johnathon Haven Stone, but to all of the people that surround me, they call me the spawn of the Devil and a nobody, it is just something that I grew up within these eighteen years of my life," I say in front of the mirror, I sigh loudly and then turning the light back off, then through the apparition of the spirits that I have lived with, then getting back to my bed and sitting down at the end of it to stare out the window.
As I stare up at the full moon and the light that was shining down and into my room, it shows a more visual view of the ghost's that keep on roaming all around my room, well what me and my oldest Brother, Joseph had shared back before he moved out. When he and my other Brother Chris had moved away to become priests, he gave me his things like posters with our favorite bands on it, Nickelback was one of them. Smiling at remembering about him makes my heart full of joy.
"Such a pity that I have to take your life fast," a voice says in the crowd of ghosts that are talking to one another. As I sit at the end of the bed, I groan just by listening to this bullshit. Getting up, I walk back into my bathroom. I take a long look at who I really am. My snow-white hair, my pale skin tone, and my blood red eyes. Then to top all off, my ability to see things that linger from here and the other side. In short, yes, I am a psychic medium. God, you really know how to show your love for the people that you and the Goddess created.
"John, whatever God is planning out your life, let us all just hope you can make at least one friend in this life before dying." I say to myself then looking over my desk and I see that it is already 3:25 in the morning.
"Well John, let's get more sleep." I say to myself. Going back to bed, I crawl into the covers I then passing off.
"Wake up John, you are going to be late for your first day of school!" says Mom. Getting up and going into my closet I finally start to get ready for the first day of Hell and what could be what this mysterious girl "Hope." is planning for my future.
Walking downstairs, I see Mom on the phone speaking in Romanian to only the heavens would know what the subject she is talking to them on the phone about.
"I will see you after work, Mom," I say to her, wishing for her to tell me to have a great first day at school. Walking outside and jumping into the truck, I drive on my way to Hel--I mean school. Who the Hell cares at this point...?
Driving on my way to school, I feel a new day is approaching, do not even ask why as it is just probably the calming breeze that's flying and circling all around me coming into the truck from the open window. As I keep driving, I see a sign that says "Let us find a cure for heart disease, let us fight for hope," Now that I think about it, who had hope for my future to be bright? Maybe it is better not to think of my future.
As I park my truck in the parking lot, I jump out and the first thing I can think is to Race into building quickly so I do not have to deal with Randy and the others to kick me around with their words. As I soon as I got inside, all of a sudden, I start to feel someone breathing against the back of my neck, the breath was hot and sticky, causing my shirt to get stuck from the beads of sweat, what the Hell is going on here? I stop at a halt and I began listening to the sounds of my peers and unknown spirits walking all around me.
"Just forget about this John, let us just get on our way to the first class of the day before we end up being late," I say to myself in thought as I then began to walk to class again.
Listening to Mr. Daniels lecture about what is going to happen for this year of Chemistry in our last year of high school, all I can think of was getting better sleep since the spirits from the other side are constantly following me and trying to annoy me twenty-four seven. As I keep trying my best to stay awake, I end up dozing off in the end.
"Van Helsing," someone says from afar. I open my eyes and I find myself alone in Mr. Daniels classroom, and not a single sound was coming from any direction and too far for my ear to reach. Looking at the chalkboard, it was just notes that Mr. Daniels was putting up for the first thing that we will be studying for the last year here. Standing up, I keep hearing the same name that spirits keep on calling me.
"Who's there?" I ask alone in the room. But then silly me starts to think.
"John, for Heaven's sake, there's no one here," I say to myself.
"You are not alone, nor silly John. Just follow the sound of my voice and you will know who I truly am," the voice says. Looking around I finally give in.
"I might as well follow the voice of the ghost of mystery," I say in defeat. Walking out of the classroom and following the voice that brings me to a room that I never saw in the school before. Locking my fingers around the doorknob, as I open it and what I saw was--
"John, wake up," Mr. Daniels says. Opening my eyes, I find myself sitting in chemistry class with everyone looking and laughing at me in the hushed tones of their voices. Looking up at Mr. Daniels, I wipe the crap out of my eyes.
"Sorry," I say to Mr. Daniels. Mr. Daniels then shook his head then went back to the chalkboard to continue the lecture about what is to be in our class.
Sleeping is something that I am lacking in. Whenever I close my eyes and start relaxing, that is when—
"John, open your eyes!" Mom says screaming. Opening my eyes in an instant, I see a masked stranger staring at me and within my eyes as we were both being surrounded by a ring of fire. This feels like something that I have been through once before, but who is this man, what does he want, and why is he after me?
"Who are you?" I ask him. His laughter was cool, calm, and collective. Looking at me with cold, jet black eyes. He growls at me with words that slid towards me like a serpent ready to catch me as its prey.
"My identity will be revealed once more and for the final time, when we meet within your living nightmare," he says then points his index finger passed me. Turning around, I see my reflection with blood on me from head to toe. The sight of blood begins to freeze my heart with pure fright. Tears roll down my cheeks as I knew where the blood is going to come from.
"You will be the death of those who love you and who you love as well," he says as it then becomes silent. Out of nowhere, I feel an arm wrap around my torso and my eyes catching the sight of a scythe appearing from behind me and close enough to cut into my throat. The blade was so close, my heart beating faster and faster.
"Ugh, I cannot breathe!" I cry out. As I take another look at my reflection, it is as if there was not any reflection at all for me to see again. There is nobody here. Just me and this stranger who might as well be the ultimate demise of my life. His breath was causing sweat beads and the sweat became ice cold, I need to break free!
"Please, let me go!" I scream out as I was begging for him to stop. The howling that was coming from his voice was coming in and thundering right into my ears. I know what he is going to do, and I do not have any amount of strength to stop it from happening!
"Unfortunately, I have my wish that I want to come true in the future, it is something that is what is most precious to you," he says growling.
"I want to take the lives of your friends, family and loved ones, as well as taking the life of one other person,"
"And what is that?" I ask him as I was whimpering.
"That my dear child is your life, your life is going to be mine, do not forget this message," The masked stranger says as I feel the painful cut across my throat, I scream out in pain and all I can do is cry in fright and agony.
"Your life is mine, Johnathon Haven Stone!" the masked stranger shrieks then let us go of me as I fall onto the floor and began bleeding heavily from my throat.
"God, angels, anyone, please save me!" as I plead out in the open and in a much, more empty room.
"You are going to die, and no God and not even the devil will be able to save you from me!" as I hear those words, I then hear a voice that helped me from afar--.
"Damn it, John, get the Hell up so you can make it to school on time!" Mom yells out. Opening my eyes, I feel like I have just been through some serious Déjà vu. Getting up and getting dressed quickly, this will be my final year before deciding on whether or not going to college will be a smart move.
Driving into the parking lot of the school building, I parked the truck and I run as quick as possible straight into the building and zoning out spirits and other entities from the other side. Before reaching to my first class, I was stopped by Mr. Forbes. AKA, the principal, and the Father of one of my bullies; Randy Forbes.
"Well Hello there, John, I am still glad to see that you are still active as part of the school," Mr. Forbes says with a hidden agenda behind his dark green eyes. He knows that I do not get along with Randy. Maybe he is just trying to be kind about it since he did not mention Randy up in this conversation.
"Hey, Mr. Forbes," I say as I tried to not say something stupid. Mr. Forbes gave a bit of a chuckle and pats me on the shoulder and his expression then turns serious.
"John, I have to be honest here and it is just something that I have been meaning to tell you," Mr. Forbes says but then we hear Mr. Stevenson call out my name, he then patted me on the shoulder and smiles.
"If you need me, I will be here whenever you need hope," Mr. Forbes says but then says something that caught my ears attention.
"But John, all I can say for your future of this time and age in the here and now, be careful on who you involve yourself with, some things are a lot more sinister than what you might imagine," Mr. Forbes says then walks away. Whatever he is trying to talk about, I guess I will try to take his word for it...
Walking into English class was a nightmare for the day, as Mr. Stevenson was looking at my direction and giving a pissed off look on his face, it is either me just walking into his classroom or Randy might be hanging out with him and must owe Mr. Stevenson pot. Everything that should be illegal is often considered the "Normal" theme for Los Angeles' high school. Well at least for what I have been raised to live as a human on planet earth.
Sitting down, Mr. Stevenson had then started tapping his gray colored loafers from behind his desk as he waited for everyone to sit down at their desks.
"Okay students, for your first and final assignment aside from the other schoolwork that I will give to you, you are all required to write about who you really are," Mr. Stevenson says. Randy, the asshole of the year then raises his hand.
"Mr. Stevenson, can we write about other things too? Like how we deal with issues that we have in our lives?" Randy asks as he then glances over by my direction. Mr. Stevenson just takes a long deep breath, I can tell—no we all can figure out on how he feels.
"If you wish to add that into your assignment, yes you can, but just do not add too much to your paper Mr. Forbes," Mr. Stevenson says.
Looking around my surrounding areas as I have been doing my best into ignoring Mom and some idiot college psychology professor at Los Angeles university that she drank at a bar with.
"John, can you pay any attention to the head of the Psychology department? Frank may get you into college, if that is something that you are able to do," Mom says as she taps her fingers against the dinner table.
"Sorry, I just have something on my mind," I say to Mom then turning to Frank.
"Frank, I have absolutely no clue as to know what I want as a career, all I want though currently is to look and be normal like my peers," I say to Frank. Frank just shakes his head.
"You look fine John, I will give you some space on what career you want to go into, but when you are ready call me, my number is on this card," says Frank as he pulls out a card and passes it over to me. Looking at him, I smile.
"Thanks," I say as I then get up and got myself cleaned up then looking at Mom.
"I have to get started on my paper that Mr. Stevenson gave to us that we need to hand by the end of the year," I say to Mom.
"Okay, just start being social for once," Mom says.
"Will do," I say back then leaving the kitchen and walking upstairs and walking into my room, closing the door and then I sit down at my desk and pulling out my assignment sheet and reading it quickly.
"So, I guess this is it then, eh John?" I say to myself as I chuckle in a soft tone. Getting my laptop out in the open, I finally started with a straightforward intro.
"Hello there, my name is Johnathon Haven Stone, and this is starting back from eighteen years ago, I was born with traits that people say are unspeakable, I was born as an albino and the power to see and speak to the entities from the other side, because of these past eighteen years of my life, I have been isolated by most of my family and my high school for what God had given me right when I was first born--"
"John!" somebody shrieks out in annoyance. Opening my eyes and sitting up in panic. I then realized that I was in the middle of writing my paper for English class for Mr. Stevenson and now figuring out that it was just a dream. Eh, at least I am trying to be open and honest about it by the end of my final year of high school. As I lay in my bed with what my older Brother, Joseph had owned which was a Star Wars comforter set, I began to stare up at the ceiling. The worst part about the ceiling though was that I started noticing seeing blood dripping down and falling roughly against my face. Getting out of bed, I took a long look on the ceiling. It was as if there was not any blood there.
"Huh, I wonder how many more sick things that Ghost can send to me, whenever I try to sleep and whenever I try to stay awake," I say to myself, but then it hits me and all I know is that my nightmares with priests, and demons of the darkness had to have come somehow and yet the reason is still unclear to me. But the one person that I know that does not show much interest in helping me and protecting me is here: God.
"Why God? Why are you torturing me with this bullshit?" I ask quietly. Looking up I start to wonder about living in a different world, like with people that have the same issues and we can all bring happiness into each other's lives.
"Phht! Like that dream is ever going to happen," I say to myself. As I lay in bed in silence, I then hear a voice from close by.
"Leave your life to me and I will make sure you lose it," a voice calls out. Sitting up, I can see no one but the average groups of people that keep on coming here every night. But then, that masked man appears out of nowhere.
"I will be ripping you from existence John, no one will be able to save you from me in this life that you were re-born into!" the masked man screams.
Opening my eyes in fright and jumping out of my bed, I can tell that the spirits were looking at me with fear. I guess that in the end of this whole thing happening, that they are most likely scared of what is happening too. Now I am really starting to wonder why these dreams keep on happening and coming to me every damn night. Are they visions or are they messages of what is chasing after me?
Sitting at the kitchen table and listening to Mom getting off the phone after speaking in Romanian with Mr. Forbes, my high school principal. Mom seems distant, like there was something on her mind. Mom then shakes her head and then looks at me.
"John, your principal is coming over with your classmate Randy for dinner tonight, so get your ass ready after work," Mom says as she grabs a bottle of orange cream soda from the fridge, damn this is a shocker since it is not alcohol. Mom just turns around and gives me the evil eye and then goes back doing the normal thing, picking up the phone and ordering Chinese food for me, herself, Mr. Forbes, and Randy. That son of a bitch Randy is probably going to bring pot or something else over here.
Eating dinner with Randy, my high school principal and Mom was extremely awkward and painful as they are talking about how my grades are and how even though I have great grades, they just do not believe that I will ever have a chance of stepping foot into a college building in my future after high school ends.
"So John, I heard that your world history teacher was recommending for you to go into honors classes with your grades being so amazing, but I just do not think it is going to be a good idea," Mr. Forbes explains. After finishing the last bit of my dinner, I stand up and then throwing out my empty container that I had my egg drop soup in.
"I have to get started on studying for my chemistry pop quiz right now, I will see you in class tomorrow Randy," I say then rushing out of the kitchen and into my room as quick as I could.
After finishing with studying for my pop quiz, I then lean back in my chair and I feel the tears falling down my cheeks, it feels heavy as concrete.
"Just ignore these pricks John, that's the only smart move that you can make at the moment, just ignore it," I say to myself as I wipe the tears from my red eyes and got up, walked to my bed then laid down and closed my eyes.
"Let us just take a breather John, things will be okay soon, well at least it will be somewhat okay,"
"John!" a stranger screams out loud. Opening my eyes, this is making me lose more and more of the hours of sleep and the sanity that I need.
"Cannot you guys just zip it for once?" I say snapping at the spirits who have been walking all around my room on a constant basis.
"John, we are meant to protect you, just understand that we will be here for you till the very end," says one of the spirits that just happens to look like Randy but the nice version of him.
"Okay, so why was that masked man coming after me then? And why did you not try to save me at that moment?" I ask. They just look at me in silence.
"Well then I guess that it answered my question of my miserable night," I say then lying back down again and turning my back towards them and then passing out once again.
Waking up and realizing that it is 6:45 in the morning. Rushing out of bed and taking a quick shower then heading downstairs only to find Mom drinking a bottle of rum.
"If you are wondering why I did not wake your sorry ass up, it is because it is a Saturday dumbass," Mom says then leaves the kitchen and leaving me alone. Walking to the table and sitting by the coffee maker.
"Might as well study more so I can get another good grade on my Chemistry pop quiz," I say to myself.