Finding His Friends

[Aiden Finnegan]

Aiden’s eyes widened a fraction at the mention of ‘the sickness.’ The coma was still fresh in his memory… or rather waking up from it. He was not eager to wind up in a hospital, at least not for many more years to come. Those sterile surroundings and foreign faces hovering over your body; there was nothing in the world more uncomfortable than the hospital.

                “Wasn’t my coma enough? Geeze… You say you put the contact info on my desktop? Okay… okay… I’ll give him a call and my silence you shall have.” Aiden said warily to the strange, handsome man. There was a part of Aiden that didn’t want to believe any of this, but there had just been too many oddities in his life. Proof of that was how quickly he adapted to this very strange cyber meeting; at least he thought he adapted well to it.

                If nothing else came out of this, he would use it as inspiration for his new novel. There were still some holes in the plot that needed patching. He’d have to change a few names and terms, of course, but this whole afternoon really was like something torn right from his book. It was unnerving.

                “So… What were those shadow creatures? Just something from your imagination or… don’t tell me those were real… I can deal with fireballs and sickness and hyper-realistic simulations, but monsters?” Aiden felt his stomach drop before he heard the answer. Bile rose in the back of his throat as he thought of those horrifying eyes watching him, tracking him. What was more frightening was the fact that he didn’t even know what those monster things were. They were just a mass of shadows and eyes. The unknown was infinitely terrifying.

                “Yeah… I do think I’ll call your friend…”