The Others Within - Awakening 1 Prologue - The Man

It was a beautiful, and sunny day. The wind had a cool breeze. Here, we follow the story of a girl named "Emily Cara Nilmenta Mingreto", or "Emilia" for short. She was born into the upper-cla.s.s, but left her family due to reasons she hates to remember. She is currently 18 years old, and works in a retirement home. "Well, time to follow my routine." She sighs. She checks up on the tenants, as usual. She then approaches the door of her favorite tenant. She knocks three times, and waits for a response. "Come in." A voice shouted. Emilia opens the door, to see the tenant sitting in the chair on the far left corner. "How are you today, Mrs. Thompson?" Emilia asked as she puts down the bag she was carrying. "Quite good. I just slept well." Mrs. Thompson replies with a cheerful smile. She then waves at Emilia to come near her. Emilia sits beside her on the bed. "I have a story to tell you. Do you mind sparing a few minutes of your time?" She asks. "Not at all, Mrs. Thompson" Emilia replied. "I used to live with my husband, Jamison. I.. didn't really like him that much. He used to throw things at me.." She says. "Excuse me?" Emilia stopped her. "Yeah. Gla.s.ses, books, everything." Suddenly, Emilia's mind went blank. Her terrible memories started coming back to her. She couldn't hear anything beside her thoughts.

"Dad, stop!"

"Emilia, are you okay?" Mrs. Thompson asked while waving at Emilia. "Huh? Uh.. yeah.." Emilia replies with a soft tone. "Uh.. I have to go now." She adds while tears fall down from her eyes. She runs out of the room, slamming the door. "Okay... I guess." Mrs. Thompson whispers to herself. She was confused on what Emilia just did.

Emilia runs into the back-alley, and breaks down in tears. Her terrible memories are slowly returning. She tries to think of "happy thoughts", just like her friends told her to do. Unfortunately, it had no effect. She could feel chills going through her spine. She then falls to the ground, still crying. She turns around, to see a vortex open in front of her. "Stand up, Miss Mingreto." She looks up, and sees a pale man looking down to her. "Is it that time to cry again, Miss Mingreto? I believe not." He says. "Who are you?" Emilia asks. "That question, isn't something of importance... for now. However, what is important is what will haunt you, in the coming days." The man says. He raises his hand, and snaps his fingers. A dark figure appears behind him. "Are you seeing this, Miss Mingreto?" The man asks. Emilia slowly backs away from the man, scared of what might happen to her. "This, ent.i.ty that is behind me, is what we call 'The Others'. It is a manifestation of the darkest feelings that hide within us. It seems you can see it, judging from your reaction alone." He says, while approaching Emilia. "Only other people that have 'The Others', can see other's 'Others'." He adds. "What do you want from me?" Emilia shouts. "I have a deal for you, Miss Mingreto, and this comes from the ones above. This deal, is something, that no one of us can possibly deny. Deny it, and well... Let's just say they'll have a little surprise for you.." The man replies, and kneels down to Emilia. He is waiting for Emilia to shake his hands. "Shake my hands, and that means you've accepted the deal. Otherwise, I'll take that as a no." The man says. They stared at each other in silence, for a while, but then Emilia slaps the man's hand away. "Do you honestly think that I am that gullible?" She shouts. The man stood up, and brushes his hands. "Fine then." He said. The glow disappeared from his eyes, and a vortex opens up behind him. "Prepare for consequences, Miss Mingreto." The man enters the vortex, and looked at Emilia one last time. The vortex then disappeared. Emilia tried to make some sense out of the events that just transpired. First, she experienced PTSD again. Second, she met a strange man. Lastly, she just got threatened. She decides to take a breather for a while to calm down. After a few minutes, everything became normal again. She looked at her now-broken watch, and saw that her shift is about to end. It seems as if time went faster while she was talking to the mysterious man. She decides to call it a day, and proceeds to go back home.

She comes in her home, where one of her friends live with her. She enters the living room to put her bag in the sofa. "How was your day?" Her friend asked. "Terrible.." Emilia sighs. "Oh, Emilia. Go get some rest, you deserve it." Her friend says as she pats her in the back. "Thanks, Jim." Emilia replies with a smile. She then walked up into her room, and jumps into the bed. She immediately begins to scream into the pillow, and cry. After a few more minutes, she fell asleep. However, it does not end here for her.

She opens her eyes, and looks around her. She is in the void. She blinks for a while, and sees a table and chair appear. The same vortex then appears again 3 feet from her. "We meet again, Miss Mingreto." The man says. "Why are you in my dream?" Emilia asks. "We need not discuss such meaningless topics, Miss Mingreto." The man replies while approaching the table. "Stop with the fancy words, I just want answers!" Emilia shouts at the man. He then stopped walking, and stares at Emilia with glowing eyes. "Miss Mingreto, would you please take a seat?" He says in a pa.s.sive-aggressive tone. Emilia obeys, without a question. "Now, Miss Mingreto. Let us have a little.. chat." The man says with a smile. He teleports right in front of Emilia, and sits down. "You see, these events that have occurred to you, were... inevitable, I suppose. These were all planned out since the day you left... them, Miss Mingreto." He adds. "The ones from above have made sure that you will encounter these events. You may ask, 'What is this person saying?'. You see, I'm trying to help you, escape these quote-on-quote 'inevitable' events." He says while pulling out a briefcase. "So, I will make you that offer again." He opens the briefcase, revealing a paper. "Take the paper, and I'll accept that as a yes, otherwise.. no." Emilia looks at the man, and saw that his eyes were glowing purple, and a suspicious grin was on his face. "Choose wisely, Miss Mingreto." the man says. However, this time, Emilia accepted the offer, and grabbed the paper. "Wise choice, Miss Mingreto. A very wise one." The man closes his briefcase. "We'll be seeing more of each other soon, Miss Mingreto." He adds, and opens up his vortex. He looks at Emilia one last time, and disappeared.