How Did This Happen?

-Ben-

The more we sit here in the dark, the more things start to become clear to me. How did we all get into this? None of us are blameless. We had a hand in this in one way or another. Even I did. But, who started it? Who was the one who broke everything? I started to try and think back of everyone’s roles here.

Max was the one who started the fire in our old school in ’92. That ended up spreading us out all over Japan. Then we met up again years later. We met these angels and kids who claim they can soul travel. Weird shit happened and now we’re trapped in the apartment of the angels in the middle of a typhoon with no clue what time or day it is.

Wait, there are some things missing with that scenario. There’s no way it could be that easy. I’m missing some pieces here. I tried to work everything backwards. We are stuck in this apartment waiting for the storm to pass. Yes. It’s pitch black outside and all of the doors and windows are sealed shut. Baby Doll keeps acting weird and saying strange things. The other angels seem nervous and won’t say what’s going on. The end of that is confirmed. How did we end up here?

Before this, there was some strange shit that happened to us. For instance, those men in black cloaks that keep following the angels around. Said angels are always trying to run or hide from them. Yoshiko let it slip about the reason why.

“They are trying to take us back to Heaven,” she said last week. I gave her a confused look.

“Isn’t that what you have been trying to do in the beginning?” I asked. She trembled as she shook her head.

“No!” she shouted. “This is different.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. She wouldn’t say anything else. Yoshiko just shook her head and walked away. That’s not the only thing. Those boys have been seeing some of the spirits actively avoiding in ghost form. As if they are afraid of them or something. Don’t get me started on the weird visions we all have been having.

This wouldn’t have happened if we haven’t met. Russell met Natalia. Masayuki met Baby Doll. Max reached out to us through the internet. Gordon and Krista met up by chance. From there, the connection built up and tangled together. I closed my eyes and shook my head.

No, there’s something between that. I rubbed my forehead as I tried to think. For some reason, I feel like I have asked these questions before. I narrowed my eyes and looked around. Everyone either half-asleep or asleep. I looked down beside me and spotted Kele lying asleep. Lucky bastard, he can sleep so easily. That thought has crossed my mind many times. I lay down on the floor and looked up that blackened ceiling. My mind even began to wander back to the time when Kele and first met.

Then I froze.

What if I’m the cause of all of this? I had never thought about that before. Oh god… I removed my forehead as I started breathing heavily.

Oh crap! I shut my eyes as the pieces started flooding back to me as the shock from the past overwhelmed.

“Ben? Ben?”