HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Tranquility

I laid down in the bed as Marine put out the lantern above, and I watched through the very, very dim lighting as she walked over to a chest in the corner of the room.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm getting a LightGem." She said.
And sure enough, when she opened the chest an orange glow filled the corner of the room, she reached in, grabbed something, and pulled out a decent sized glowing sapphire orange gem. She shut the lid of the chest, then opened the lantern, removed the candle inside, and replaced it with the glowing gem, providing a much dimmer, but more satisfying and sleep-friendly glow. She sniffled as she walked over to the bed, still torn up over the locket, but she slipped into the bed nonetheless, pressing her warm body against me as she snuggled up to me. I felt her rather delicate hands go around my shoulders as she pulled to me, and I pressed my head against her hair, taking in a rather pleasant scent with every breath. She was still shaking as I hugged her, but after a little bit of me holding her, her shivering died down, and she sat almost still, leaning against me. She fidgeted every now and then, but for the most part, her breathing returned to normal, and she stopped sniffling.
"You okay?" I whispered.
"I don't know." She said, burying her face in my shoulder. "I hate it when people see it."
I nodded, and she wrapped her arms tighter around me, hugging me around my top back and shoulders.
"I haven't let anyone see it besides you and Jansen." She said. "And the people in the prison in Wake, but that was because I couldn't control it."
She paused for a brief moment, and I felt her shuddering again.
"Hey, its okay." I said, trying to calm her back down. "You're safe, trust me."
As soon as I reassured her that she was safe, she calmed back down, and soon after that, I felt her slowly falling asleep as she went limp. I buried my head against her, trying to get comfortable, and soon after, I felt myself growing more and more tired by the second, aided by the soft rocking of the ship, the warm glow of the LightGem, and Marine's rhythmic breathing.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I breathed in, inhaling the dark, misty air that was all around me. As I looked around, I realized that I was in that same place, the same stone floor slightly covered with water. The water was cool against my boots as I waded through it, but suddenly, through the darkness, I saw a light, very, very far away, so I began to walk towards it, keeping a steady pace to not rush things. As my boots sloshed through the water, the silence around me was very, very slowly filling with sounds that, while familiar, I thought I would never hear again. The honking of cars, the rings of bicycle bells, the roar of subway stations, and hundreds, if not thousands of people talking both with each other and on their cellphones, all of the noises forming the sound of one, gigantic metropolis as I got closer and closer to the light. As I grew steadily closer, I began to squint, the light having grown far too bright for me to see clearly.
However, as I grew closer and closer, I began to make out shapes and colors in the light: a bright blue sky, distant skyscrapers, and highways and roads dotted with cars and people. When I looked out over everything, I realized that I was looking at Los Angelos, with the elegant skyline that looked over Beverly Hills and Glendale, stretching all the way over to Santa Monica and the beautiful beaches. I looked out over everything, leaning out of the hole in the middle of the void of darkness, but as I leaned out, I suddenly lost my balance, and I fell out of the hole, falling about sixty feet down into the streets of Los Angelos, in the newest section of the city, near my school. Strangely enough, even though I felt the impact of me hitting the ground, not a single bone broke, or a single bit of pain shot through me. I sat up in the middle of the street, surveying the world around me. I looked around at all of the newly built houses, a product of the Chinese Migration of 2023. Now, the population of Los Angelos had swelled a ton, and all of those people needed homes, which is where my neighborhood came from. I looked out over everything, at all of the restaurants and gas stations that were around me, and I got to the side of the street, not wanting to get hit by a car and killed again. I walked around the block, heading up to the school, and I passed by the construction site, looking at all of the workers that were still constructing the side of the school, but as I looked on, I noticed a small commotion from the side of the school. A bunch of the students were gathering near the auditorium, and it grabbed my attention as I ran over to the source of the commotion. When I got over, all of the students were filing into the auditorium, along with a bunch of teachers and staff, most of whom were watching over the students.
"Hey, what's going on?" I said to one of the teachers, whom I barely knew.
She didn't answer, didn't look in my direction, didn't do anything to regard my existence. I held my hand up to her, but still, she pretended like I didn't exist.
"Helloooo." I said, and I reached out to tap her on the shoulder.
However, right when my finger was supposed to tap her, it passed right through her, the edge of my finger glowing blue, as if I wasn't even real. I reached out again, this time about to punch her in the arm, but my fist passed right through her yet again. I kept my cool, not wanting to fly right off the rails with panic, so I took in a few deep breaths and tried to listen to their idling conversations to see if I could learn anything. Most of the people were just talking about boring school things, but I did spy the principle, Mr. Graves, talking to one of the assistant principles about something, so I headed over there, taking advantage of my ghosting ability to just eavesdrop on the conversation.
"...hit by a bus." I heard him say. "He ran through the construction site, landed in the side of the street, and got hit by a bus. He was dead on arrival to the hospital, and his mother is inside. Poor woman."
My mother. I felt my throat close up as the realization hit me like a truck. All this time, I hadn't thought about my mother once. I hadn't considered how my actions at the school had left my mother childless and devastated. Instantly, I passed through a line of students, heading into the auditorium, and I saw my mother, in the front row of seats, crying her eyes out as she was consoled by a teacher and another mom, probably a friend of my mother.
"MOM!!!" I yelled, but she didn't turn around.
At this point, my mind was so overwhelmed, I had completely forgotten that I didn't exist in their world as I ran up to my mother. She was still sobbing, and, like everybody else, she completely disregarded me, not showing any sign that she thought I might be here. I reached out to touch her shoulder, thinking that I could maybe get her attention, but the moment I touched her, the entire world went right back to that dark, misty abyss, but right before I could comprehend what just happened, I was launched backwards with tremendous force as my world filled with light and color once again.
"WHO ARE YOU???" A man's voice boomed through the light and color.
Before I could figure out who it was, I began to pass up images, but every single one of them looked so familiar, until I realized that they were my memories. One of the first ones I saw was my first day of preschool, being dropped off by my mother as I excitedly ran up to the gates of the school. In another memory, I saw one of the first Thanksgiving feasts that my mother had brought me to, where the entire family was laughing and having a good time as me and my older cousins played football out in the backyard of my grandfather's house.
"WHY ARE YOU HERE???" The voice boomed again, filling and echoing through the space.
In that moment, the voice sounded almost like the Storyteller, but it wasn't the rather gentle, yet godly voice of the Storyteller, but instead, this one was much more ancient, powerful, and aggressive. As I kept flying through the void of light and memories, I saw one that really stuck out to me, which was my mother and I when we took the trip up north to Canada as we stayed with a tribe of Eskimos, out in the wilderness up near the north, far from the reaches of civilization. It was one of the happiest memories of my life, but I flew by it, and soon, it was replaced by one of the worst memories of my entire life. I was in the back of a police car, having been caught shoplifting with my friends, and they had ratted me out in exchange for their freedom, since they hadn't technically stolen anything. Now, as I sat there, I looked out the window of the squad car, at my dejected and disappointed mother still talking with the police officers.
Again, I was yanked backwards away from the memory, thankfully sparing me of any more painful details, but suddenly, I was back in my world, on a rock in the middle of a dark, ashy sea. The air around me was hot and heavy, and it smelled like sulphur, which I knew meant volcanoes. More and more of the scraps of burning ash floated through the air, and when I looked over to my left, I saw that there was a massive volcanic island, having one short and fat volcano, and one tall and skinny volcano, both of which were spewing lava and churning fire, smoke, and ash into the night sky like giant pillars of Hell. But, on the side of the island, there sat a black, stone fortress with a rather large fleet of ships, all of them sitting in the front as if waiting to be loaded. As I stared more and more at the fortress, the hairs across my body began to stand up, and I sensed the danger that lurked in the fortress. I couldn't quite put my finger on what I thought the danger was, but I knew that it was ancient and powerful.
And I knew it was watching me.