Spirit of Hope

SPIRIT OF HOPE

Chapter 1: New Life

Two kids stand in a peaceful valley, where the tall grass reaches their hips and the sky shows a visible galaxy. The children, a boy, is wearing black, while the girl is wearing white. They seem to be around the age of 7 or 8. Their faces are familiar yet unrecognizable; it's like trying to remember someone from an old memory.

The soft spoken boy speaks up and says “Time has come for your story to begin, as we watch your story unfold, open your heart and let it guide you through hardships.”

“Your courage and selflessness will not go unnoticed, Your outcome has been decided,” The spot spoken girl says.

“seek forth for you have chosen you as a new guardian.” Little Boy said

“Your legacy will start soon. We wish you the utmost luck” Little Boy and Little Girl said.

A teenage boy wakes up from his dream covered in sweat. He slowly gets out of bed, wiping off the sweat.

“The same dream again.” He mutters, turning to look at his alarm clock.

CLOCK: 6:50 AM

“5 minutes early” He said, shaking his head.

He turns off his alarm clock and sits on his light green bed staring at his cozy room. His room room is a medium sized room, with walls painted a light tan. On his walls he has various posters of video games and anime. On the right of his bed is a small wooden night stand holding a lamp and his alarm clock. He slowly gets up, opening his window located next to his bed to let light in. Directly across from his window is a desk with a small monitor and gaming console. Accompanied with different comic books and studying materials.

He finally gets out of bed and gets dressed. He exits the room and makes his way down the long hallway and to his bathroom door which gets stuck. He frowns intensely and grunts as he struggles to open it. Finally he busts in and makes his way into the bathroom. The dim light reflects his light brown skin tone accompanied with his dark brown eyes. He begins picking at his short hair, his curls slowly springing back into place.

“I hate curly hair sometimes” He said in a whiny tone, picking at his disheveled hair

He freshens up and then makes his way down stairs, which arrives at the large living room with a medium sized tv on the wall with an L shaped beige sofa that is around a small light colored coffee that dominates the room. Underneath the tv is a cabinet that stores dvds and different games.

“Mom?” He calls out. He looks around and makes his way towards the kitchen, where he sees a note laying on the corner.

“Sorry Sohjin, I’m going on a business trip for a few days.

I miss you already sweetie,

Love Mom”

“She couldn’t have texted or called, '' He mutters, putting it down and making his way around the large gradient countertop and towards the silver fridge.

He turns on the TV and switches through the channels until a news channel catches his attention. It reads as follows, "Breaking News: SUBWAY ATTACKED EARLIER TODAY; BRIGADES SAVES LIVES.”

“Looks like I gotta take the long way.” Sohjin groaned.

He cooks food then grabs his bag and leaves out the front door for school.

Sohjin makes his way hastily to the school, which is about 42 minutes away. Halfway there Sohjin begins to hear a subtle ringing noise coming from an alleyway. Curious he slowly crept his way down the alley way. He nervously looked around and noticed nothing unusual. He kept looking but was unable to pinpoint the ringing noise. Sohjin shrugged it off and placed his hands on his backpack straps and went on with his day.

He finally makes it to school and goes through periods 1-4 and in each class notices the same ringing sound from earlier. Sohjin thought nothing of it and continued on.

During lunch, Sohjin puts his hands on the straps of his backpack looking for a place to eat.

“Ah man, all the good spots are taken.” He said, looking around at the filled tables. The large outdoor cafeteria buzzed with energy and the sound of people talking with their friends filled the area.

“Library it is.” Sohjin says, walking in the direction of the Library.

“Sophomore year blows, I didn't think I would spend the majority of this year ALONE. Even at ho-“ Sohjins train of thought is interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Well if it isn’t Sohjin Teca, been a while, it’s good to see you” His old friend called out.

Walking towards him, Hamza, around the same age as Sohjin, has a warm brown complex and a confident demeanor. He has long wavy hair that covers his ears. He wore a gray sleeve sweatshirt and yellow shorts and had a friendly smile. He walks up and reaches his hand out to greet him.

“Likewise.” Sohjin replied, dabbing him up. “What’ve you been up to?”

“Nothing much, Just the usual, y’know the family restaurant thing.” Hamza said

“Ahh I know how it feels, kinda. So how’s business?”

“Well...at first it was slow but we’ve certainly made a comeback after we won best local restaurant.” He smiled.

“Oh nice congrats.” Sohjin happily said.

Hamza thanked him and the two stood in silence for a moment. They looked around and waited for one another to talk.

Sooo..down to hang, after school?” Sohjin asked

“Nah sorry gotta have to decline, I got..Family work stuff” Hamza says

Sohjin looks away while rolling his eyes.

“Hey Hey look, maybe we can hang out, tomorrow” Hamza said

“I don’t know man I think I got ‘family work’”

“I’m free Saturday evening, Maybe we can even get Alex and Chase”

“Chase and Alex! You know for a fact they aren’t going to make it. Chase is in Chinya, he isn’t traveling 30 mins to Midnight City for us” Sohjin says laughing “And Alex is well. He's always busy with stuff.” Sohjin said

“I guess you're right, but it wouldn’t hurt to try,” Hamza says, slightly shrugging.

“Yeah, I guess you're right, you better not bail at the last minute for ‘family work’.” Sohjin says, with a teasing grin.

They both laugh, and Hamza feels his all black watch vibrating. He looks down at his watch and sees that it’s flashing red

“Damn..I gotta bounce, it was nice catching up.” Hamza said.

“Right now, but it’s lunch” Sohjin says look at the clock on his phone

“Yeah I know, I promised my friend something.” Hamza said, slowly turning around “DON'T FORGET ABOUT SATURDAY” he yelled out, running away from Sohjin

“I COULD SAY THE SAME FOR YOU” Sohjin yells back.

End of School, Sohjin walks home while looking at his phone and sees on the news that the Subway cleared up. He smiled and made his way.

On the subway train, Sohjin looked out the window, a blur of the city flashing by. Below the people traffic crawled through the streets and people hurried home, coming from work or schoolzz He looked at his reflection, his light brown eyes staring back at him. He notices a strange figure standing behind. The figure was a purple humanoid with a white scarf, checkered abs that went up to its chest where the rest of the arms and chest were covered by a white and gray tight cloak paired with a gray samurai skirt. Shocked, he quickly turns around, only to be met with nothing.

“The hell!” Sohjin yells, louder than he had meant to be. His outburst startles the people around him. They all stare at him with a confused look.

“Sorry guys sorry” He says in embarrassment; noticing an empty seat and he makes his way to the empty seat.

While making his way to the seat his head begins to throb in pain. The ringing sound becomes more pronounced, he sits down holding his head. Quickly the figure flashed across his mind, more clearer now.”

“Sohjin...We Shall meet soon. Your time will start soon”

He holds his head and groans in pain. The train gets louder, drowning out any and all sound.

As the pain slowly dies down, Sohjin pulls out his wired headphones and plays his music and closes his eyes.

He wakes up from his nap, it felt like hours, almost like eternity. He slowly opened his eyes, his body felt heavy and sore. Something wasn’t right. He sat up, his hands melted into the icy ground and realized he’s not in the subway or in a city, but rather in a city in ruins, surrounded by snow.

He hears a loud ringing noise coming from somewhere within the city. He walks around the area and explores, occasionally calling out for someone. He keeps walking until the ringing noise becomes deafening. He turns around to leave but a bright blue light creeps out from around an allyway, He steps in towards the alleyway and goes to investigate.

“HELLO” Sohjin shouts. “Anyone there?”

He slowly walks towards the bright blue light around the corner. He shakes with fear and drips with sweat.

“Shit…Why am I doing this?” He repeated to himself “COME ON, you got this” He says, as he turns around the corner, he is met with a blue butterfly flying around.

“Woah” he says, in amazement.

He inched his way forward, and reached out his hand to touch it. Before he could reach it. The butterfly reacts and flies around him creating a barrier preventing him from leaving. Wind slams against him, tears form in his eyes.

“THE HELL IS HAPPENING” He yells.

The butterfly flies in front of him and creates an orb, then evaporates into energy, combining itself with the orb. The strong gust of wind finally stops and Sohjin slowly stands up.

“Your story”

“Happiness”

“Touch it”

“Anger” “Reach out and touch it.”

“Tragedy”

“Rebirth”

“Reach out,” “Do it touch me.”

The orb continuously repeated these words in his ear. Sohjin feels a cold chill down his spine, he slowly reaches out shaking the closer he gets, sweat slowly falling down his cheek and his heart pounding. The orb whispers louder repeating the same words; chanting the same cryptic message. Sohjin, breathing heavily, finally touches the orb and a large gust of wind hits him violently.

The orb begins to suck in his arm and pieces of it reach out and climb his arm. His heart pounded wildly as his eyes widened in horror. He yanked his arm with all his strength, but the orbs tendrils continued crawling up his arm like a cold, creeping vine sucking him in.

“STOP…THIS…THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!” He stammered, desperation surged through him as he struggled with each pull.

The orb suddenly begins glowing and blinds him forcing him to shield his eyes. The orb then starts to hum and the humming and ringing become more persistent.

“Wha-” His words are cut off by an explosion and the force hits him like a bull and sends him flying and into the barrier. His body crumples to the ground and a large gust of wind blows on him.

Shielding himself from the wind, the orb rises in the air and breaks apart with the energy surrounding him and going into him. Across from him, he spots the figure from the subway train.

“Together, we are one.” it says slowly making its way towards Sohjin.

The figure reaches out towards him, Sohjin, unable to move, the figure pushes his forehead. Sohjin falls backwards and onto his bed. As he wakes up covered in sweat. Breathing heavily he quickly gets out of bed.

“What..Just…That had to be real!” He said, wiping the sweat off his face and reaching for his phone while shaking and his heart rate finally calming down.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

10:30 am

1 missed messages from Hamza.

2 missed messages from Mom

He puts his phone down and walks out of his room contemplating what happened. He makes his way to the bathroom. The door is once again stuck.

“Damn door. I thought I left you open” - Sohjin said, confused.

He puts his body in the door getting ready to bust it open. He takes a deep breath in and out.

“Please don't fight me today,” Sohjin said, annoyed.

He gets ready and closes his eyes. Unbenounced to him, electricity swarms around his body. Finally, Sohjin bursts through, doing an electrical dash through the door and into the counter. Sohjin groans in pain and gets up from the destroyed counter. He stumbles over and looks at the mess he made.

“Did I just?” Sohjin said looking at his hands “I have pow..? I HAVE POWERS!!” He squeaks.

His body begins to light up with electricity sparking off him. He laughs and accidentally dashes into his room. He gets up and tries to control his dash but ends up tripping out of his room down the hall by his stairs.

“THIS IS AWESOME!” He yells.

Sohjin gets up and dashes downstairs and dashes around the living room and kitchen. Suddenly he sees the same figure from earlier standing by the kitchen.

“The more you reject me, the less control you’ll have” The Figure staring Sohjin.

Sohjin’s head starts to hurt, his vision goes blurry and comes to an abrupt stop from a crushing pressure that causes him to accidentally hit the trash can and lose control, falling face first on the ground. He groans in pain, slowly sitting up holding his sides and face.

“That thing from yesterday. Wasn't it a dream? But how did I end up home?” Sohjin says “I have…to..Someone who could help me..Alex, ALEX could help me, he would know and..and he could figure out what’s going on, he’s always been good with tech and a little nerdy for superheroes .” - Sohjin says, standing up.

“Alright buddy, hope you're in the mood for company” Sohjin said, standing at his feet and sprinting up his stairs, static shocks him on his way up and into his room where he bursts into his dresser still getting shocked and rummages through old clothes.

He pulls out an all black outfit with white dots all around it. The outfit was comfortable and stylish. He then pulls out a white mask, skiing glasses and black gloves with red that highlighted the knuckles and palm.

“Listen Sohjin you need to trust me, allow me in.” The figure appearing behind him.

Sohjin turned with concern and met with nothing.

He then quickly puts the outfit on and hastily makes his way out the front door and runs towards Alex’s neighborhood.

“Don’t remember where his house is, but I do remember his neighborhood, I hope.” He thought.

As he’s running he looks down and realizes that his feet are conducting electricity. Streaks of a vibrant combination of green, blue, and fiery red trailing behind him. The air crackles with energy and the ground begins to hum with each step. His body feels weightless and overcharged, his movements become faster and faster, almost too fast to keep up. The world around him becomes a blur and his heart pounds as he struggles to maintain control.

He starts to stumble, his legs slowly start to give out, but instead of falling he surges forward and his body naturally performs an electrical dash, leaving a faint scorch mark where his feet once were. He comes to a stop and turns around looking at the streaks he made. Sohjin smiles uncontrollably and his body surges with energy, he then electrical dashes away and continues on his way.

Next time on Spirit Of Hope,

Chapter 2: New Threads