Chapter 9: Luke’s True Mindscape
Luke started to run out of the classroom. Luke ran down the hallway but got stopped by a teacher. The teacher asked, "Where are you going, and do you have a pass?" But at this moment, the voices in Luke's head got worse. Luke's vision started to change, with everything distorting into the abyss. The teacher started to morph into an abyssal creature. Luke started to freak out and yelled, "Ahhhh, get away from me, you abomination!" All the students ran out into the hallway to see what was up. Luke saw all the students come out of the classes, but they were all different creatures from the abyss.
Everyone asked Luke, "What's wrong?" "Why did you scream?" But Luke, instead of answering them, yelled, "Get away from me!" Then push everyone away and run away from everyone. Luke ran out of school but didn't know where to go. Everything was starting to become distorted, looking like the abyss. Luke started to run around, trying to find a safe place to hide. After running all around the town, Luke settled down next to a ravine in the woods. Luke started to calm down now that he was all alone and could catch his breath. The voice was still in the back of his head, but Luke was trying his best to suppress it, even if just a small amount. Luke started to meditate in the woods, where, strangely, he felt the most calm now that he was all alone.
After a few hours of Luke meditating, he felt more calm, and the voice was the quietest it had been since it had started. Near the end of his meditation, Luke was dragged into his mindscape, but unlike the other times Luke had been here, this time Luke was confused about what was going on. Luke started to look around to find a way out of this place. After walking for what felt like ages, Luke found a boundary of some sort that was splitting the dark side and light side; he didn't know what this meant, but when he went to the light side, his mental state started to improve. After Luke stayed on the light side, he started to feel an attraction from the bottom of his soul to the dark side. Luke wanted to ignore this and try to escape through the light side. No matter how much Luke tried to ignore it, the call always forced him to walk towards it. Luke was in a daze while walking towards the call, not caring what he ran into. Luke ran for what felt like hours, but eventually, he ran into what was calling him. In front of Luke was a lake full of black, void-like water.
Luke tried to take a step into it, but Luke snapped out of his daze after he put one foot into the water. When Luke had his foot in the water, the voice in Luke's head started to pick back up, but this time Luke could hear what was being said: "Find the truth and remember." Luke had no idea what the voice was talking about. Luke felt like a force was pushing him out of this place.
Luke woke to still be in the woods, but the voice wasn't in his head anymore. Luke started to make his way back home from the woods after noticing it was night now. Luke was walking back into the woods and noticed that his vision seemed to be better in the dark now. "How weird," Luke thought, but Luke paid no mind to it as he walked back home. Once Luke made it out of the woods, he started his walk home. Luke made it back home after an hour. Once Luke was right outside his door, he tried to sneak back in so his parents wouldn't wake up and interrogate him. Luke attempted to quietly open the front door, but the door hinge creaked. Luke heard this sound and was scared his parents would wake up, but they didn't. Luke started to run up to his room. Once Luke made it to his room, he started to organize what happened today. Luke was so confused about what was going on. Why had he seen his classmates and teachers turn into monsters? What was that space he was dragged into? How could I get this to end? All these questions raced through Luke's mind. While thinking about these questions, Luke's mom, Gwen, checked up on Luke and asked, "What happened today at school, sweetie? Is everything alright?" Luke, who was still processing what happened today, gave a generic response of, "Yes, Mom, I'm ok." After his mom left, Luke lay down in bed and started to process what had happened to him today and what it all meant. Luke thought back to what the voice he had been hearing all this time said: "Find the truth and remember." Luke couldn't for the life of him figure out what this meant, or if it even meant anything, and he wasn't going crazy.
Luke decided that he was going to just fall asleep and forget all about everything for the time being. For the first time since Luke had gotten back, he got good sleep with nothing interrupting him. Luke did his usual routine of getting ready for school, even if he was planning to skip today to figure out everything. While getting ready, Luke heard Clyde yell at him, "LUKE YOU BETTER GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!" Luke rushed down after he heard that. Luke saw that Clyde looked enraged. Once Luke made it in front of him, he exploded, " LUKE WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY? ARE YOU ON ANY DRUGS?" These types of questions keep bombarding Luke, but Luke doesn't know what to say. Luke didn't want people to think he was crazy, at least not his parents. Luke figured out what to tell his dad, Clyde, and told him, "Dad I was just really tired yesterday; I hadn't slept in two days." After telling his dad that Clyde had let up on him for the time being, Luke had gotten ready already, so he went out to walk to school, but he went back to the woods. Luke went right next to the ravine, as he felt most calm there. Luke started to meditate again, hoping to get dragged into the same space…