Book 1: Invader

"I've seen your kind, time and time again.

Every fleeing man must be caught. Every secret must be unearthed.

Such is the conceit of the self-proclaimed seeker of truth.

But in the end, you lack the stomach.

For the agony you'll bring upon yourself..."

-Sir Vilhelm, Dark souls III

wendsday November 15th, 2012.

It’s amazing how much Can change in the span of a few weeks, the entire world can change in that span of time, a person's world can change in that span of time.

Clive Adkins was an engineering student, Studious and in love with the sciences and all things technical. He was just your typical research-obsessed introvert, he kept a few friends and for the most part, poured his time and energy into study and extracurriculars.

“Hey man what’s on your mind” The sudden weight on his shoulder and a sturdy calloused hand startled Clive, almost causing him to trip over himself.

The voice was a familiar one it belonged his childhood friend

“It’s about time I went back home to visit family” Clive replied

“oh to visit your old man, the one who lives in that creepy funeral parlor” Derric gave Clive a verbal jab.

“Hey we have a house and it's perfectly normal, dad is just… married to his work” Clive muttered in response.

The boy hazing Clive was a friend he had for as long as he could remember. Deric Verspeilt is your typical extroverted jock, and Clive's best friend. Their friendship was a strange one, Clive still remembered how Deric's mom practically forced them to be friends, at first it was rough but that woman was an absolute force of will. She just wouldn't take no for an answer.

At first, it was annoying, but eventually, Deric just grew on him. They helped one another plenty, Clive acted as a voice of reason and the brains helping him study, and at times reeling Derrick in before he did anything especially stupid. On the flipside, Deric handled all of those awkward social situations all while keeping him from being a total shut-in.

Deric was a headstrong person just like his mother, if he was the throttle, Clive was the brakes. “We still have football practice for the next few days, but I can come down for the annual hunting trip, just before thanksgiving”

Every year around the fall they took the trip down to the lake and hunted a turkey that was on derrick’s family property.

Clive’s father was not one to celebrate thanksgiving, he simply said that “we should always be giving thanks, a holiday is unnecessary” So of course, he would have it over at derrick's house with his family.

Deric spoke tearing clive away from his current thought “oh right is your sister coming”.

“I’ll bring Alley just Like I do every year” Clive replied before his expression shifted and he changed the subject. “How have the deer been,” He asked Deric,

who responded. “Why are you asking that, oh... your sister she's 14 now isn't she”.

Clive gave an affirming nod “it’s about that time, dad told me to do it since He doesn’t have the time, she’s already started fasting”. There was an awkward pause.

“I know it’s that time but isn’t keeping her from eating a bit cruel” Derrick replied.

Clive looked down, balling his fists as if recalling something painful, he firmed himself and spoke with a firm conviction. “she'll eat when the time comes,I- I can’t say I’m a fan either, but there is a reason for it,but it’s important in a way few can understand, It's a matter of life and death in its own way."

“that creed of yours right” Derric cut right to the heart of the matter. “I was even younger when we did it, it helped me move past what happened with mom” Clive sighed, while derrick gave his own unsolicited opinion

“I don’t think it's right”.

Clive threw his hands up in the air in response “you don’t have to, This is the way my family works, derrick, you don’t need to understand, you only need to respect it”

Clive saw the conversation wasn't going anywhere so he left. he went to the dorms and finished his preparations for the trip home. The drive there was normal, pleasant even. He pulled up to the driveway, got out of his car, and...

And then it happened. The blackout was followed by the horrible scene that would become the basis of his nightmares. It was like he had blinked to find his entire world crumbling came down. suddenly his father was dead, a pillar of his life and someone he could always rely on. Now he was nothing more than a smoldering corpse. His sister Alley appeared to be barely breathing, coughing weakly, she was barely hanging on. Clive ran up and pulled her as far away from the blaze.

The house he grew up in was in flames, a raging inferno. Clive couldn't scream, he couldn't even cry as his strength left him when he watched it unfold. Clive felt frustrated that he couldn't do anything but hope she could hold on. Clive's emotions were a mess, confusion, fear, frustration, and something else he couldn't put his finger on, felt a gripping in his chest like someone had put his heart in a vice.

Clive could only look on with an empty expression as the sound of sirens neared, and the ambulances and fire trucks came, he just stood there, completely frozen in shock and unable to act as the emergency services paraded past him. He just couldn't process what happened, or maybe he didn't want to. it was like everything was just, gone, just taken from him without warning, and he felt empty like his heart was gone. And then he felt IT

looking down on him coldly like some apathetic god, one that carried with it a feeling of crushing insignificance. it was like salt in the wound, the vicious mockery of a man in the process of losing everything. then all he felt was pain, pain, and anger, but it didn't last, what came after was an overwhelming sense of fear like he could be snuffed out at any moment, like a knat held between someone's fingers, insignificant and easily erased it was a fear that cowed clive and made him want to disappear.

Everything was a blur after that, the trip to the station, speaking to blurred faces with muted voices. Clive just wasn't there, despair had robbed him of any presence of mind. He remembered that for a time he was in a police station, arguments were tossed back and forth and a lot of panicked scurrying back and forth by people in uniform. Clive didn't really understand what was going on, he was put in a room, then a man in a suit came and he was shoved out of a room with an iron-barred door.

"get out of here before we lock you up" The voice was gruff, it came from a broad-shouldered, and strong-bodied police officer. Clive looked at the man with an empty gaze, it looked like his eyes had just glazed over. before the person behind a nearby desk shouted "Jesus Mark! the boy just lost his family, learn to read the room " noticing the awkward atmosphere Mark just responded with "oh" after noticing the angry glares coming from his co-workers "here are your keys, don't let us see you here again" reverting to his tough cop attitude unconsciously. "Mark" the other uniformed man spoke with a warning tone.

Clive remembered going somewhere, maybe to a bar, he wasn't sure. He vaguely remembered someone trying to stop him from getting into his car, and finally, the bottle in his hand. It was all too much, the despair, the anger, it made him want to rip his heart out. He couldn't take it. He needed to drown these feelings, it felt like if he didn't there would never be peace for him again. He remembered downing the contents of a bottle over and over again.

Then came another blackout.

Derrick POV

The room was a mess, with unkempt sheets emblazoned, with racecars and dinosaurs, scattered toys and a calendar on the wall by the door where several notches could be found on the frame. The calendar read “August 27th 1998” It was a young boy’s room downstairs a voice called out “Deric, Come down here sweety”

Deric had always been a bit of a momma’s boy, and a brat. His father was stiff, impersonal, and always at work, Deric never felt all that close to him, his mother on the other hand often spoiled him and lavished him with attention. “What is it mommy” the boy bounded down the stairs and jumped into his mother's arms, the woman let out a grunt and put him down, admonishing him briefly. “you’re getting far too big for that, I can’t pick you up anymore”, the boy whined a bit “buuuut mommy” the boy whined while stomping his feet.

“Hush now, there’s a boy down the street, he needs a friend,” The woman said as she pushed him out the door “why do I have to” Deric complained while facing his mother “because I said so” the woman put her hands on her hips, as if to make her point. “But he’s grumpy all the time, I don’t wanna” the boy whined again before his mother shushed him “now go outside and play, remember what I said, go make friends with him or no desert, come back before dark.” the woman closed the door, leaving Deric to go play outside.

Around an hour later Deric came back with a bruise on his face and a bit of blood on his shirt collar seeing this his mother was furious and concerned, mostly concerned. “DERIC EDWARD VERSPEILT, what happened”

“I-I tried to make friends with him but he didn’t wanna, and I wasn’t going to get ice cream unless-“ his mother cut him off a rare anger in her voice but also a hint of incredulity “SO YOU BEAT HIM UP?” the next thing Deric knew he found himself over his mother's lap and spanked within an inch of his life before his mother marched him over to the house down the road by the ear. The doorbell rang and a boy answered it.

“you-” the boy spoke before Deric’s mother cut the boy behind the door off. “my son has something to say to you, RIGHT DERIC” She spoke while tugging at her son's ear for emphasis “I’m sorry” it came out a little more than a mutter. The woman tugged at his ear harder this time, his voice coming out as a bit of a whine “I’m sorry” there was a pause before the woman gave his ear a tug “and what else”

“be my friend” Deric spoke again

“Okay, fine.” the boy behind the door with the busted lip answered, sounding a little annoyed. Just like that Deric met his best friend, as forced as the beginnings were.

Deric Reminisced briefly about the past. Every time he had a fight with Clive he couldn't help but remember how he got dragged by the ear that day. Glancing at his phone he read the date. “Thursday, November 16th 2012” Clive was supposed to leave last night but Deric decided that it wouldn’t hurt to check in before he left.

The two of them were polar opposites in just about every aspect, brain, and brawn, introverted and extroverted, the list goes on. Still, the two of them were like brothers, inseparable, two halves one whole.

When Deric opened the door with his spare Key he was surprised to find the state Clive was in, drunk as a skunk and tangled in sheets, he stunk like cheap liquor, Deric was taken aback. This wasn’t Like Clive in the slightest, the responsible almost prudish person Deric had practically grown up was nowhere to be seen. “Clive are you alright, what happened,” Deric asked cautiously before he noticed Clive’s vacant gaze. Deric had seen it before somewhere, but he couldn’t remember. “I, should go” Deric felt unnerved and out of touch, so, he ran. He couldn’t understand why he had but some intuition screamed that he needed to get as far away from Clive as possible.

Deric rushed home, and told his mother everything. "you haven't heard the news" she asked with a stark look on her face "what news" Derric replied before his mother butted in "Clive's father died last night, his sister is in the hospital" she said. Deric suddenly remembered where he had seen that look, the one clive had The realization sat heavily with him, like a lead weight settling in his gut. “this is really bad" he muttered before his mother stopped him from rushing back. "give him a few days, I would hate to see you two fight again" Her gaze was firm and Deric swallowed down the bitter feeling in his throat "alright, I understand".

Clive's POV-

Then after derrick left he remembered again, and he wanted to forget, picking up a half-filled bottle the cycle began again. What followed was another blur, and more time lost. The rattling of a bottle, The click of a lock, and finally, blackness again, and the days repeated.

then there was a day that was different. there was banging again, more frantic this time. The click of a lock and that familiar face again. "Deric” clive spoke sounding unsure of himself

“I heard what happened.”

There splitting headache, familiarity, and a sense of emptiness Clive just wanted to forget again if he could just...

Derric's face twisted in anger as he watched clive reach for a bottle

“do you know what happened! Do you even care” The voice shifts from incredulity to anger "It's almost been 10 days since it happened, look at your phone" Clive unconsciously checked, his phone read " Saturday, November 25th, 2012". Seeing the date the only word Clive could muster was "oh".

The moment of lucidity was brief what came was another blur, More pain, cold sweaty palms clutching the shoulders, the sound of Sloshing of liquid in a bottle, and finally a hot stinging sensation the face followed The sound of shattered glass. The acrid chemical smell of cheap liquor bordering on ethanol filled the room, and Derric was Forcefully tugging Clive like a limp body as he was dragged along toward their destination. "y-you hit me" Clive said, feeling a bit stunned “I can’t keep watching this, you’re coming with me” was all he said before sighing it was like a stone had dropped into his voice, heavy and unmoving as he spoke under his breath.

"Whatever happened to that creed of yours".

Deric's POV-

He couldn't wait any longer, the lack of information was killing him, what if Clive did something stupid, he couldn't let that happen, at the same time he felt guilty, guilty for disobeying his mother, and for leaving clive alone for so long. When he he saw the state of Clive's dorm he felt relieved, and, angry for all his talk about the family motto he was doing a pretty shitty job of honoring his fathers memory. it was a rush of emotions, and he hit him, his best friend, and immediately regretted it.

However, derrick had decided on his course of action long before he got here. He cleaned Clive up, dragged him back to his place and tried to get his friend back from whatever pit of despair he had fallen into.

Clives POV-

Another blur, without the alcohol the lucid moments got longer with time but are still fleeting, but he just didn't want to experience them, Clive wanted nothing more than to drink, to drown out the feelings, Deric was firm in his convictions, however, Clive was unable to get so much as a drop.

And then suddenly, it was like a rubber band snapping into place an ironclad sense of sobriety that was inescapable. Clive was forced into Lucidity by the sight of a familiar building, the Atkins funeral parlor for the honorably departed. Then he heard the familiar, somber, toll of an old ornery bell, one that resounded deeply it was the bell of the church partnered with the Adkins funeral home.

An entire week had passed since the fire, Clives felt tears streaming down his face as he steeled himself as he was forced to face it. his father was dead and It was time to attend his funeral.