“Kel? ” knocking is heard through the room “are you awake?”


    The sun blares between the gaps in my curtains, I raise my hand over my eyes. I sigh, sitting up.


    “Yeah! Just…” I swing my legs over to the side of the bed. “gimme a minute”


    Lowering my head to look down at my legs. I sit there for a few moments to gather my thoughts. My results for schooling should be coming in today. My father can be a bit- he expects a lot.


    “Are you sure you don''t need help? With your-”


    “No”


    I hush her, not wanting her to look at me, with her pity… I hate it so much, these damn legs. I can''t do anything.


    I move my feet to touch the floor, slowly moving my weight to my legs. Reaching over to the side of my bed, grabbing ahold of the wooden framing.


    Hearing the handle shake, The door opens slightly. A woman with white and styled hair staring through the crack.


    “Don''t open the door, I''m fine- just wait a while”


    She watches as I stumble my way down to my wardrobe, making sure not to trip on the books littering the floor. She closes the door, leaving me to my attempt.


    I slide the wardrobe door open, grabbing the first things my hands can reach, a white shirt with frills on the collar and cuffs.


    I then lean back against the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor, I put on black pants and shoes.


    Once I''m done I immediately head to the door, holding myself on the handle as I open it.


    I was greeted with a hug by the person who was waiting for me, Anne, she''s here to… well- look after me, I can''t phrase it any other way.


    “Morning, did you sleep well?”


    “Of course, give me my walking stick”


    She hands me a rough, wooden walking stick, it''s a bit- a lot larger than an ordinary one, I always prefered the ones I can lean on nicely.


    “I don''t know why you insist on not keeping it by your bedside?”


    Because It''s shameful, simple as that. I''m not even old enough to drink, yet I''m spending my days struggling to even walk. Needing someone to get paid to take care of me, looking at me like I''m some pitiful creature- I''m… I''m not one.


    “I- don''t feel like it”


    I reply, not willing to give such an answer. I start walking down the long corridor, the carpet in the middle made specifically for me, to stop my walking stick from making too much noise. It had always angered my father, it was far too ‘noisy to allow others to think’ as he would put it.


    “Oh? Do you not like this one? ah! How about we go shopping for a new one? I''m sure your father wouldn''t mind”


    “Haha- maybe, I''m fine for now, Thank you for the offer”


    Walking down the hall, light comes from the giant gold framed windows, golden pots and clocks decorated the corridor. It was very repetitive, yet if it shined brightly enough, anything would look good… that was my father''s logic at least.


    “I got my results today, right?” I look over to Anne for an answer.


    “That''s… correct”


    I take schooling here, since my health problems would always prevent me from going out. I never enjoyed school, it was just so… dull, no spark of interest. Just a way for me to get a job, to make money, to feed myself.


    Dread seeps into me, even if I don''t take school as something so important, my father certainly did, to him, it was the only thing someone must focus their younger life on. I take a moment to keep walking forward, my destination- my fathers office.


    “Do you think you did well?”


    Another question to make up for the silence, Anne really wasn''t good with people who didn''t talk a lot was she?


    “I didn''t fail”


    I say confidently, I had studied at the very least. Not enough to get flying colors, just enough so that I wouldn''t fail. I couldn''t bring myself to spend so many hours studying, focusing on something so dull.


    Standing in front of my fathers office door, I give it a gentle knock.


    “Come in, Anne- you stay outside”


    He already realized who it was, so I opened the door.


    There sitting in the end of the room, was my fathers desk, with him sitting in a large leather chair. Papers cover his desk, books that should be on the shelves on the sides of the room are strewn across the floor.


    His blond hair is a mess, beard unkempt, bags under his eyes. He is resting his chin on top of both the back of his hands. His grey eyes looked right past mine, it looked like he already knew the direction this conversation was going to go.


    “Sit, Now”


    I rush over to grab a seat, sitting down and looking around. Unable to look at him directly.


    “Do you have anything to say about yourself?”


    “I- Did I pass?-”


    He slams his hand on the desk, the papers flying around. In his hand were the results of the exam I took a few week prior, the scoring resulted with 70%


    “You should be ashamed of yourself! You have all this time to tend to your studies! And yet you score as well as someone who sleeps through their classes! Back when I was in school I scored full marks!”


    My face contorts a bit in fear, My voice catching in my throat.


    “Look at me when I talk to you!”


    I slowly raise my head, his eyes are fierce. I still can''t say anything.


    After a while of staring, my father just hits the table again. Realizing I won''t speak up, as usual.


    “You spend all this time in your stupid books, reading for pleasure without a thought of your future. You must know you can''t live that kind of life, it''s nothing but fiction! Your mother should never have encouraged you-”


    He stops himself


    “Just get out- do better next time”


    He looks defeated, sighing as he slouched back onto his chair, looking down at the ring on his finger.


    “okay”


    I say getting back up to leave, managing to hear his murmur.


    “Even though I know you won''t”


    …


    I exit the room, Anne stands at the entrance. No way she didn''t hear any of that.


    “Don''t talk, I''m going back to my room, I have something I need to do. Go do something else”


    There was at least something I could look forward to today. Something quite exciting actually! However- I couldn''t be interrupted, so Anne had to go.


    Anne moves her lips, attempting to say something. However she closes them again, giving me a nod and turning away.


    I slowly drag myself back down the corridor, my gaze not leaving the floor. Glued to the carpet, the only material I''ve walked on for my entire life.


    Wiggling the handle of my room, I enter, dropping my walking stick outside with a loud bang. I couldn''t have that thing in my room, I hated looking at it.


    I drag myself to my own desk, the window showing the back of the palace. A massive tree line stretching as far as the eye could see.


    I look down at the book in the middle of the desk, the book is open about halfway through. With a blurry picture of black smoke, taller than a tree, words describing the importance of this ‘smoke’ followed on the other pages.


    It tells of a story of a creature, one formed from the collective obsession of the world many years ago.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    The being on this page was known as ‘Agony’. It was born more than a few thousand years ago. It was a story that involved the entire world, a story no child would not know about, one that no parent would be able to overcome the fear that comes from this tale.


    On the day agony was born, warriors of Loraza, our world, were fighting against a storm from across the seas. I never could find records of what they were battling against. I do wonder why they never recorded what they were fighting…


    I flip the page.


    Something that must be known is that every one hundred days a ‘storm’ rushes from the endless ocean and onto the land of Loraza. This could be creatures invading the land to murder anything that breathed, or a plague that if infected by, made the infected lose all of their senses, conscious with no feeling, driving them to insanity.


    When Loraza was in their one-thousandth year of this conflict, they had for the very first time had to deal with two storms at the same time.


    The parents who were separated from their children cried as the second storm came, all the hope of seeing their children again came to an end.


    While the ones who fought this storm, all lost hope for themselves, to live a life they had wished for, or just to make it back home to their loved ones.


    All this fueled the helplessness of the people, the kings who had sent them to fight this war had not spoken a word to satisfy the peoples questions. This had led them to despair, the effort against a storm would most certainly be the nail in the coffin for the people of this world.


    In this moment of collective Agony, the world had wished for one thing, for the conflict to end, for the storms to disappear.


    I turned the page, the birth writing of Agony was written down. This text represented the birth of an ‘end’, it was the words that rang through every single person''s mind the day Agony was born.


    It reads as follows.


    As the second storm approaches the world would come to silence, listening to the skies over their head.


    The soldiers that had left their families for this conflict, those who suffered loss and questioned their own worth.


    Parents pondered the future of their children, fearing a bloody end for them. They grew restless as their children grew older, the future looming over them as they slept.


    Children no longer danced nor played, the hope having been stolen from their eyes, when they gazed across the horizon, they felt nothing but fear of one day something would move across it.


    The people look inside themselves, the pain they carry in their hearts greeting them as they do.


    Let us wish then! All together!


    To take it ALL away!


    For


    Our


    Agony


    To


    Disappear!


    *boomf*


    The book closes, the story ending abruptly with no continuation in sight.


    Whenever I try to find anything to connect to the rest of the story I hit a brick wall of some sort. No one talks about this sort of thing, it''s considered more of a fairytale than anything.


    Maybe it is nothing more than that after all?


    Just a fairytale…


    But it''s not! I would have thought the same thing if it weren''t for me finding a lead!


    I open the drawer on the side of my desk. Once it opens I move my hand under it, a small clicking sound follows. Back to inside the drawer, a small compartment opens. Inside is a very worn down book along with a rusty key connecting by string to a hole in the corner of the book.


    What is it exactly? Well-


    When my mother was alive she was very distant about what she used to do in her past. She''d tell me and my sister, Miranda, that we didn''t need to know, since all that mattered was me and her.


    That was all it took for Mira to not question it, she really loved our mother after all. So just telling her how important she was to my mother was enough- me however, that''s a different story. I had always noticed how her face darkened a bit when she was asked what she used to do or how she met my father, she would dodge the question.


    I was suspicious of course, but what could I do about it? Well when I was 14, my mother contracted an illness. She didn''t… last long after that. My father wouldn''t allow me nor my sister to visit her face to face, as the illness was supposedly very easy to contract, so we had no choice but to talk through the door, unable to see her. My sister was terrible at accepting it, she''d try to sneak her way in, having to be constantly stopped by either my father or the people who work in the palace.


    I had… trouble talking to her in her last moments. Hearing her deteriorate in front of me really- was really tough, how she started hearing worse and how she started to take so long to talk, it was unbearable.


    One night I came to visit her. When I went to knock on the door, I heard her muffled voice. She was saying sorry, I could also hear her crying.


    It was then I had decided to open the door- only a bit of course. So I could at least see her, the person who had taken care of me and encouraged my dreams, even if my father had told her to stop.


    Through the crack of the door, It wasn''t so dark, the moon casting a light into the room. My mother was leaning against the back of the framing of her bed, clutching at something. It was an old and tattered book, its pages barely holding themselves to the cover.


    Something was wrong


    Not the obvious distress my mother was in. I was looking at the book she was holding onto. It was drawing me in, my surroundings held still, it was as if the book and I were the only things in that room.


    Then my mother noticed me. I quickly tried to close the door, but I was too startled to hold myself balanced. I tumble forward, opening the door, clearly showing my mother who was spying.


    “I-I''m sorry- I- didn''t mean-”


    “Kel…”


    She wipes the tears from her face, trying to keep herself composed in front of her son.


    “Come here, I''d like to talk to you face to face… for the last time”


    I stand up hesitantly, shuffling myself to the side of her bed, sitting next to her. She looks terrible, her eyes sinking into her skull, lips cracking and her arms barely have any muscle. Her hair had turned white- It was pitch black the last time I saw her.


    I- I can''t do this.


    I try to stand, however she places one of her hands onto mine. Giving me a small smile… maybe I''ll listen- after all this might be the last chance I get to talk to her like this.


    “Kel… You have such an adventurous spirit. You remind me of myself when I was younger”


    Her face looks pained as she continues to speak.


    “You must stop… I know this world has many things that seem like it couldn''t exist in reality- many of which I had told you myself… which I have come to regret”


    “You- regret it?”


    It wasn''t something I really wanted to hear from her. It- it really hurt. She rubs her hand against mine.


    “I''m sorry Kel- I really did love telling you all those stories. But there is also a lot I haven''t told you- so please… don''t go searching for anything like in the stories I told you- please live a normal life, You have such passion, I know you can use it to become an incredible man”


    “I wish I could see you and Miranda grow up”


    My body stiffened, her words cut deep. Even as she had been bedridden for months, from some mysterious disease her and my father wouldn''t say anything about. I held hope that she''d get through it- not because of some logical reason, it''s just… I couldn''t see her dying- I- I really- just couldn''t see her dying.


    “Some things are not meant to be seen”


    Her eyes closed- for the last time. Her life had come to an end. Those were the last words she said to me.


    I had never screamed like that before. I went to shake her awake, with no response. I couldn''t think of anything other than how I could wake her up. She wasn''t going to wake up.


    At that moment, I felt my heart stop. The feeling of loss vanished, only to be replaced by a longing. It was the book, the one that laid on my mothers lap. It called to me and I responded, grabbing it.


    *Thump* *Thump*


    Running coming from the corridor, it sounds like the footsteps of my father. I hide the book under my shirt, right before he makes his way into the room.


    “What happened- No!”


    He quickly goes to her side, checking her pulse. His face turned pale. His arms shook, his voice leaking from her throat in a jumbled mess of words. Then he turns to me.


    “Go to your room- I!- I''ll deal with this. Don''t- don''t tell Mira yet”


    Back then- at that moment I was strangely calm, for having been told to leave my mothers side right after she died. My father tells me this every now and then. I can''t help but agree. I do know why that is though, it''s the book.


    I rub the rough cover, before flipping it open. I see nothing but ink staining each and every word inside, sometimes a page was nothing but pitch black. I was incredibly frustrated the first time I had opened it, leaving it inside my desk. It still called me, however, even as I slept there was a strange force calling me back to it, I wasn''t able to do anything about it considering how I couldn''t read what was contained inside.


    Until I found my first book talking about ‘Agony’. When I read that word in the context of that creature, I felt an insatiable urge to go back to read the book I had… stolen from my mother. I''m sorry, I know full well what you told me and yet I''m still trying to search for answers.


    Now on one of the pages of that book, one that was covered completely with ink. The ink moved off of the page, sinking between the pages in another part of the book. What I saw in this now clear page was unbelievable- it was a map. At first it wouldn''t seem that impressive, if it wasn''t for the fact that Loraza wasn''t the only land mass on the page, it was one of 7 land masses. All forming a roughly shaped ring, with an utterly massive body of water in the middle of this ring.


    Loraza was located in the north west, its border having the same shape as the two surrounding lands, it was obvious that they used to be connected by land, now having been disconnected by a body of water between their borders.


    How the hell was Loraza- I had been taught my whole life that the entire world was Loraza, with only the ocean preventing it from taking up every corner of the world… If this is true, why would they hide it?


    Creek


    “Ah!”


    I had never moved my arms so quickly in my life, practically slamming the book back into my drawer. I then try to turn to see who it is as nonchalantly as I can manage. It was Anne.


    “Anne? What are you doing here? I''m a little busy-”


    “I''ll have you know, we both know you''ve been slacking in your studies. It''s almost time for me to head back home, so I came to remind you before you forget”


    Not a good time! Ugh- whatever, there''s always tomorrow.


    “Thank you, I''ll start with that. Have a good day”


    She returns a gesture before closing the door.


    Hmm- oh well, I''ll just research this some more tomorrow. There''s always tomorrow… tomorrow? Wait, isn''t that when Mira gets back from the academy she has been staying at? Well! well! That''s awesome, can''t wait to hear about how she''s been. She''s always been so energetic, she definitely has some cool stories to share.


    Heh heh! I really can''t wait! Ah- I''ve gotta find something to talk about- let me see… where was that one story again?


    I go to rummage through the books on the floor, my goal of studying becoming second


    Thought.


    There''s always tomorrow, right?