//------------------------------// // Other Side of the Story // Story: Starlight's Shattered Glass // by jrock117 //------------------------------// Mondays. He had always heard people complain about them but never understood why, to him, Mondays allowed him to relax. Well, that's not true, technically he started his relaxation on Sundays, but his first day off of the week was Monday, so it didn't really matter. Besides, he had plans today anyways. His phone played the ever familiar ringtone he had grown more than accustomed too, the Phoenix Wright theme from a fighting game. It didn't even play the full tune before he picked it up and answered. "Yellow." He spoke. "Blue," came from the other end, "so, Jason, when are we doing this?" "As soon as you guys get ready." He paused. "And I guess as soon as this Game Grumps episode is over." "Which episode is it?" "Grumps Dream Course, so you already know which of the two is pissed off." "Yeah, just hurry up, will ya? My Xbox is fucking up again, so I'm bored." "I'll hurry up when Arin stops being pissed." He argued. "You here that guys? Looks like we're waiting a few more hours!" "Ok, jeez," Jason spoke, "I just turned off my Xbox, let me get my deck and I'll be there in ten minutes." "Bout fuckin' time." "And you, sir, need to watch your profanity. I want my life rated E10+, not T." "And you need to get your ass over here, pronto. See ya in ten." And with a boop sound, his friend hung up. Jason sighed. "Ok, where did I last put my cards?" He asked no one in particular. After searching the dark living room for a bit, he found what he wanted; a deck of Yugioh trading cards in purple sleeves. "Alright, do I have everything now? Wallet? Check. Wide ass phone? Check. Jacket? That's a no, but today's pretty nice. I just realised I'm talking out loud..." He stopped speaking. Thank God no one's here today, or I would be seen as a weirdo. Ok, deck? Check. Umm... What else do I nee- OH! I need my headphones. And what else? Still thinking, he looked around the shadowed room for anything else he might need. Nothing came to mind, so, he opened the front door to greet the day. Jason was, what you might call, a young and stout man. He was around five foot eight and was growing a slightly reddish-brown stubble, contrasting his green eyes. His brown hair was cut fairly short. He sported a grey T-shirt with red text asking if whatever 'bro' in the room were mad. Black jeans, grey shoes, and a red/black shoulder bag was the rest of his attire. The home he lived in was relatively dinky, it used to be a mobile home at one point, but it was turned into a permanent home. It had a wooden attachment that acted like a front porch. He and his friends had dubbed it, the 'Tin Can'. "Let's see," He took out his phone and went to his Spotify app, "NSP? Nah. Bo Burnham? That will just play random comedians. Agh, screw it, let's play some Rush. I'm in a Canadian mood anyways." With a tap, and a minute and a half wait, his Rush radio started to play, starting off with Blue Oyster Cult. "God damn it." He started off for his friend's house. ---~~--- Nine minutes later, and not a single Rush song had played, he had made it to his friend's abode. A brown house with two floors and a basement, it put his own home to shame with how inviting it looked. A red truck was parked in front. Knocking on the door three times, it opened to reveal a young man of the lanky sort, six foot two with long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. He wore a plain black shirt and blue sweat pants, along with a pair of grey shoes with orange laces. "Y'know, Dan, I don't care how many times I say this. Your eyes are creepy as hell." "I know Jason." "Like, it feels like your eyes are made of ice, they just look like Hell had frozen over." "Yep. Ya gonna come in or not?" Dan had opened the door a wider margin and stood to the side, inviting Jason in. "Ah, fine." Jason relented and walked passed his lanky pal, noticing the lack of people in the yellow carpeted living room. "Taking an educated guess, I'm gonna assume the guys are in the basement?" "Yep, everything's set up, so we just to get them and get out." Jason took a hesitant look outside a window, red truck in full view. "We taking the truck?" "Nah," Dan lead Jason down a set of wooden stairs, they creaked with every step, into a concrete basement, "my parents are still trying to find a new exhaust pipe after the last one blew. We're not allowed to even touch the truck, let alone drive it." "So, we're walking then?" Jason asked with hope. "Yep." Dan opened a door to the right of the stairs, opening to a white painted room with a striped carpet, each stripe alternating red and orange. Four others were in the room. "Sup Gypsy!" A skinny man around an inch taller than Jason immediately stood up, he was wearing a black leather jacket, a blue South Pole shirt, and baggy jeans. With the grin of an animal, he high-fived Jason, the two then brugged (what this group of people have so colloquially named the bro hug). "Not much, sup with you, Jackal?" Jason spoke with a sharp grin of his own, making his friend's face fall just a tad. "Be careful," his friend pointed to his own teeth, "this Jackal can bite." "Nice to see you're taking the nickname in stride now. So, Jakob, you got your cybers on you?" Jason asked Jackal/Jakob. "You bet. You got your magicians?" Jakob asked, but before Jason could respond, a young, mocha-skinned man with glasses stood up and crushed the other two in a hug, causing Jakob to grunt in discomfort. "Gah, damn it, Mark!" Mark was the tallest out of the boys, six foot four. He had his auburn hair in a short buzzcut. His apparel was made up of a white A-shirt, a red zip-up hoody, blue shorts, and white sneakers. "You guys know I can't resist a good bro moment." Mark said. "Yuh huh." Jakob responded as Mark let the two go. "Anyways, Jason, you brought your cards?" "Yeah, got my magicians with me in my right pocket." "Sweet, maybe if this doesn't work, the trip won't be an entire waste." "I heard that, Jakob." Dan said. "Look dude, all I'm saying is that I really doubt this is going to work." Jakob said, putting his hands up in defense. "Hey," Jason called to Dan, "Where are Ty and Davis? You said all the guys were down here." "Oh, those two." Dan pointed I out the door, "Davis is using the can right now, and I'm pretty sure Ty is asleep on the couch." "No, I'm just resting my eyes." A voice spoke up, presumably Ty. "Tell Jason he shouldn't have kept us waiting." "Well that's not a nice thing to say." Replied Jason, "Considering it was my money that's allowing us to do this in the first place." "Yeah," Ty gave a reply of his own, "well fuck you I'm garlic bread." "Ty, don't make me defenestrate you." The flush of a toilet broke Jason's train of thought, and not three seconds later, a sixth person walked into the room, wearing a black 'Sleeping With Sirens' shirt, black jeans, and black shoes. He also had snake-bite lip rings and dark brown hair. "Did someone mention throwing other people through windows?" Davis joked. "There's Davis," said Ty, "thought you flushed yourself down to the toilet for a sec." Davis' face fell for a brief second. "That only happened one time and you know it." "Whatever, dude," Dan said, "listen up everyone, now that we're all ready, let's get going." He turned and went out the door, "C'mon everyone, hussle it up." As everyone stood to follow him, Davis went to help Ty off the couch. The two were practically twins, in both face and body. Ty had blonde hair, a faded green shirt, green jacket, cargo shorts, and faded green sandles. The group headed outside of the house, where Dan was rummaging around. "I'm afraid to ask," Jason said, "but why are you looking in a bush?" "Because, this." Dan pulled out a wide, tanned, carrying case, three feet long and three feet wide, only being a few inches thick. It had wheels on the side and a pull-out handle. "I had to order this thing from a guy who makes custom carrying cases in Canada, nothing short of a condensed bomb can blow this apart. Which is a good thing, since what we need is inside of it." "Is this what most of my money went into?" Jason asked. "The whole reason we're able to do this is because I was the only one willing to pay." Dan nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. Unlike Diddle Kid, this thing cost a pretty penny." He stood to his full height, pulling the handle up with him, and slid it over to Mark. "Mark, you take it." "Wait, what? Why me?" "You have the most steady hands. Alright everyone, let's move it." Dan walked passed the group and down the street. "It should only take forty minutes to get there." And so they followed him with Jason situating himself in the back. "Hey, Jason?" Ty asked. "Yeah?" "Whose baby is that?" Ty pointed to an empty baby carriage, a smirk on his face. Jason did his worst Asian accent. "Two Wongs no make white!" "Not my baby!" Davis followed suit. "Out window!" Ty finished. ---~~--- "This building looks dank," Davis said, "and I don't mean 'dank' as in cool, I mean 'dank' as in 'this place looks like it should be torn down." Dan had lead the group to an old storage building. The outer brick wall was deteriorating and the windows had seen much better days, spray-painted names and swears covered a good sixty-eight percent of the wall they we're currently near. There were even spray-painted Bible verses, imagine that. It had been abandoned for a few years by this point, so it was scheduled for demolition in a few weeks. "So, is there a safe way in, or...?" Ty let his question sit in the air. "Yeah," Dan said, "You all see that window up there?" Dan pointed to said window, two floors above them. It was broken, and as the glass had sat outside the wall, it was broken outwards. "Don't tell me we have to climb the whole building just to get in through a sharp ass window." Mark spoke with some disdain in his tone. "Nope." Dan smirked, "There's a huge door on the other side, I just wanted to fuck with you guys." Dan started off and walked around the corner, the others not far behind. "Here." Dan gestured to a large metal door. It was once painted a heavy orange, but the age of the building showed as the thick paint had been chipped away, leaving a rusted green in its wake. Dan grasped the handle, "Anyone wanna help me with this?" Davis and Jason got up next to him, gripping the handle, which felt like touching one now those popcorn cielings. In a silent agreement, they pulled as hard as they could, causing the door to open slowly. The aged hinges let out a pained screech as the door moved, inch by painful inch. After a few short seconds, their ears felt relief in the silence that followed. "Y'know what," Jakob said, "I will be happy, for as long as I live, if I don't have to hear that again." "Well, sucks for you," Dan replied, "we have to shut this door when we leave." "Damn it!" Dan went in first, followed immediately by Jason and the rest. The age of the building showed itself in more than just looks and feel now. The stench that permeated the large, one room floor had similarities to- "It reeks like a corpse got butt-fucked by a skunk and gave birth to a shit baby." Jakob said. Yes, yes it did. "Why are we doing this here?" Davis asked. "Actually," Jason responded, "I have the answer to that. This place is "haunted"," He said while air quoting the word 'haunted'. "They're just rumors, and two people actually have died here, but it's the closest we got." Dan had stopped in the center of the large room and instructed the others to sit in a circle after Mark handed him the case. With a click, the case opened, and he pulled out a pitch black pane of glass, which, when placed on its side, is two feet tall and three feet wide. "Swear to God," Mark said, "if the Devil jumps outta that, I'm gonna book it outta here." "Meh," Ty responded, "I'll just run at him, if I'm gonna die, might as well take the fastest route." "Now," Dan called to attention, "who here still thinks this won't work? Raise your hands." Quite literally, everyone, including Dan, raised their hands. "Well, it'll still be fun, regardless." "The only reason I'm here is because it was my paycheck that made this possible." Jason said. "Yes, you've said it a dozen times by now, we know." Dan lamented. He pulled a matchbook from a back pocket. "Did everyone bring a match?" The group rummaged around their person's and brought out a matchbook, each. All, except for Jason, who was still patting himself, trying to find at least one. "You gotta be shitting me." "Uhh... Um..." Jason tried thinking for an excuse, anything that could aid him in this situation, but shrugged as nothing came to mind. "Sorry, I guess I wasn't as ready as I thought." Everyone turned to Mark, whom had ripped half of his matchbook off and gave it Jason. "We've wasted enough of everyone's time as is, let's just open this portal to Hell." "You know you could've just gave me one match, right?" "Yes, but I don't use these all that much, just take the twelve matches and deal with it." "Alright," Jason shrugged. Together, they all took one match, and with a strike, they were lit. Dan raised his first and recited his line. "With pride, the Devil fell to his own devices, the black abyss of Hell, imprisoning him and his legion." He then blew out the match, and placed it vertically infront of him, off of the glass. "With wrath, that prison shall break." Davis blew his match out and did the same as Dan, "With greed, all shall be taken." Jakob followed suit, "With sloth, all shall lie." Mark, "With lust, all shall be perversed." Ty, "With envy, all shall struggle." Finally, Jason, "With gluttony, all shall be consumed." They each took one more match, lit them, and placed them on the glass, each match lying horizontal to the person that placed it. The fires of each match burned, and they burned, and they burned, the group sat, waiting, with bated breath. Seconds ticked by. "Huh," Dan said, "the instructions from Reddit were pretty clear that something should've happened by now." "Hey, Dan?" Jason asked. "Yeah?" "This is a painted mirror, right? Not just some black glass?" "Yup." "Did you use heat resistant paint or something?" "Actually, after I bought the mirror with your money, I only had enough left over for some spray paint." "Isn't that flammable?" FWOOM "HOLY SHIT!!!" They all yelled in unison as they stumbled back away from the roaring pillar of fire that shot from the mirror, burning and blackening the aged stone ceiling. The sunlight that had been streaming in through the windows paled in comparison to the bright orange flicker the room had taken. Just as suddenly as it started, it ended, the fire snuffing out in the blink of an eye, leaving a plain looking mirror on the ground. No smoke, no heat, only the dark room and the echoed breaths of the terrified boys. Once again, they all sat, waiting for something to come next. A red hand? A face? Nothing came. Nothing had been revealed. Just six scared boys in a dank room in an abandoned storage building with a once black mirror. Jason laid on his back, letting out a loud sigh. "Jesus fuck, my heart is beating a mile per second guys." The group nodded as they slowly picked themselves up, trepidation and adrenaline running through their veins. Dan spoke up. "Hey, Jason, you want a mirror?" ---~~--- A few hours had passed. Jason, Jakob, and Davis had played Yugioh during this time, with Jakob achieving the largest win streak. Ty played on a PSP with Dan while Mark texted with his young men's choir group. The time came for them to leave, Jason putting the mirror in it's case and taking taking it with him. They all had somewhere to be, so rather than going to Dan's place again, they just decided to split from the building. After a few 'see ya later's, Jason left for his home, the Tin Can. ---~~--- "Where the hell do I put you?" Jason asked the mirror in his hands. He sat on the bottom bunk in his room in the back of the Tin Can, the carpet had once been a full pink, but now resembled a a brown. He turned to his left, seeing his built-in wooden dresser. He had never really used it, aside from storing sheets and blankets. The dresser stuck out from the wall, with the top acting like a shelf for, well, whatever to be honest. On the wall the dresser jutted out from, he had a few posters lined up, one being a gift he got for pre-ordering Naruto Storm 4, the other two were group photos of AC/DC and Man With A Mission. Hmm..., he thought, I guess I can just move the posters to somewhere else. They're pretty worn anyway. Thumbtacks were removed, and the posters had been replaced with the mirror, but something was... Wrong. The mirror didn't fill as much space as he thought it would. With the two feet the mirror had vertically, there was an inch between it and the shelf above, and horizontally, the was an entire six inches between it and, what would otherwise be, the perpendicular wall. Jason looked on with irritation. "Screw it," He said, throwing his hands up, "I'll just get some styrofoam tomorrow and fill in the space." He sat down on his bed, head in his hands. He couldn't shake this feeling of dissatisfaction. Maybe he did think something would happen, or rather, hoped that something would happen. Just one second later, his played that tune again, and he answered. "Yellow." He said. "Blue." Dan's voice called. "Hey, you up for a game of XenoVerse 2?" "Sure, that sounds great right about now." "Awesome, I'm gonna get the guys in a group call." "Shit dude, you really want that three v three to happen, don't ya?" "I have been waiting, for five freaking months, for everyone to get an Xbox and get XenoVerse 2. Not that we all do, there is no reason for any of us not to finally do this." "You are way too determined for this not to work, I'm guessing?" "Yep." "Alright, let me get to my Xbox first." ---~~--- "FUCK!" Jason yelled as he gently placed his controller down onto his soft pull-out couch. His living room, now lit up thanks to a tall lamp he had turned on, was nothing much to look at. The windows were all covered with thick blankets, so as to keep the evening light out, not that it mattered since it was now the middle of the night. If you were to stand in the center of the room, looking South, to your left would be a couch and in front of you would be another couch. Both were three seaters, but only the left turned into a bed. To your right would be the television set and entertainment center. Flat screen on top, with a WiFi router and internet modem right next it, an Xbox One sitting in a vented glass case. A shelf in the center held all sorts of things; cards, random sheets of paper, cords, a clothes hanger, a single Lego. The bottom of the shelf had four playable games, and an unused three-cooker that had been bought at Christmas. The front door was on the same side, just to the right of the entertainment center. "Dude," Dan's voice yelled from his phone, which was now on speaker, "you weren't kidding when you said you couldn't use the giant ball attacks." "I told you so." Jason said. "For some ungodly reason, I just can't use attacks like Spirit Bomb or Death Ball..." Jason paused, "Wow..." "What?" "I just... I just realised how uncreative of a name Death Ball is. Like, it's just a ball of death, that's all it has going for it." "It took you this long to figure that out?" Dan scoffed. "Shut up-" Jason cut himself off when he heard, what sounded like, something heavy falling in his room, with two loud thumps in succession. He stood up. "What the hell was that?"