Chapter 2: Mindful Madness

Maika looked towards his t.v that was playing in the background. “And that is why we always sign!” it was game like t.v show. Jake had probably no doubt heard it on the call.  Maika zoned out for a moment before turning off the t.v. His friend Janet texted him. 

[ You busy? ] He looked at her message. 

[ Ya no I was on a call with Jake ] The phone buzzed.

 [ Jake! That guys crazy. I can’t believe you hang out with him! ] Now Maika was friends with Jake sure, and yes Jake had been acting odd lately but crazy was not one of the things he felt of him.

 [ What do you mean? ] 

He paused flipping through the fancy amazon esc grimoire he had delivered and bought the other week. Janet sent another message. 

[ I mean I went to 6Flags with him, you know the theme park and he started picking up trash claiming that he “needed” it. Then he started spewing some bullshit about a “Game” and selling his soul and was just overall completely insane ] 

Maika read and then re-read the text a couple times. Jake had talked about this “game” thing before. He wondered. He could have sworn that Jake had a “don’t tell our friends about this” policy.

 [ Seriously? ] He texted her back. 

[ Yeah the dude’s physco. ] Maika closed his book. He debated whether or not to text Jake about this. Jake had seemed fine last time that they hung out. Over the weeks of talking about the game and his contract had he really gone completely mad? Regardless Maika wasn’t going to let it get to him. He put the grimoire down. He went to go make himself some coffee. His parents were screaming at each other again.

It seemed his entire family was in the living room. He overheard the t.v as he walked into the kitchen, narrowly avoiding his parent’s screaming. “And that is why it pays to read these things over before-”. He ignored it. He smelled his coffee as it brewed. He held it in his hands zoning out while his parents fighting echoed in the background. Soon he was immersed in his favorite daydreaming fantasy before his brother quickly snapped him out of it.

“Alona, Alona, Alona” Finally Maika snapped into reality. “Yeah?” 

“Stop zoning out. I have to run a few errands. I need you to take the dog out” his brother’s tone as usual and the norm was cold and uncaring. 

“Fine” Maika sighed. Maika hated being called Alona. It was a name that was dead to him. He changed it for a reason. He still kept a name associated with his heritage and culture and even former religion but it wasn’t going to be that one. Thankfully Jake and his family respected all aspects of his wishes. Maika wasn’t in the mood to deal with his family today. He walked back into the living room. His brother’s were watching t.v and it was dead silent outside of it. 

“The lion quickly stalks its prey when” once again Maika did his best to ignore it. He turned on skype and received a message instantly. 

[Dude I got so much to tell you! How soon can you come over?] Messages like this were routine for Jake to send to Maika. It was after all the nature of their relationship. This exact message must’ve been sent from Jake to Maika at least a dozen times. Maika was quick to leave despite his brother’s protesting and was ordering a lyft to Jake’s house instantly.

He arrived. It was getting late and he thought it best to talk with his friend about this whole 6flags thing. Sitting in Jake’s living room Maika questioned him. 

“Yeah um about that” Jake breathed. 

“I needed it” Maika was surprised that this actually did happen and Janet wasn’t just being a drama queen again. Janet was a compulsive liar. He wound’t be surprised if she had made up something to make Jake look bad.

 “See, we were at the park and there were a bunch of zombies and the trash had instructions on it for me to retreive on how to stay safe” Maika was confused. 

“Zombies?” 

“Uh ya. See there's an invasion happening right now.” Maybe Jake had lost it, Maika thought. “See I’ve been doing some spiritual investigations. And they're everywhere. Especially hollywood. They are also known as vampires. They are people who have to feed off of other’s energy in order to survive. Like their soul’s damaged and stuff so they take a bite out of you spiritually to feed themselves. They tend to flock towards theme parks in order to feed cus there's so much excitement there” 

Maika looked at his friend and his hyper explanation in disbelief.
“You don’t actually believe that do you?” 

“I mean yeah. I’ve noticed a lot of stuff lately. Ever since I sold my soul I keep seeing spirituality everywhere. There's so much we don’t know Maika. Like a lot we don’t know. Like you know five pointed stars? Why are they five pointed you know? Also what is it about mentions of falling in music? Like you know what I’m getting at. Like they’re each reaching a direction and stuff of the elements of whatever”. 

Maika looked at his friend with pity. 

“Jake you're not making much sense right now” Jake scoffed. 

“I’m making perfect sense. You just don’t understand me” 

“yeah clearly that’s the fuking issue” Maika gestured for emphasis.

 “You kinda sound fuking crazy” Maika said quieter and more stern. 

“No. I’m not. I’m making a bunch of references to shit you don’t understand” 

“Then explain it in a way I can understand it” Maika said monotone.

“I can’t…” Jake rolled his eyes “If you don’t understand these explanations you're not gonna understand it in more detail” Jake’s ego on magic was showing. Maika looked at his friend near manic and fully erratic with pity.

 “Okay so you’re saying that there's a bunch of spiritual vampires at theme parks and you were given trash to survive?” 

“well when you put it like that” Jake mumbled. 

“Yeah so you see why I think you're insane?” Jake got up from the table and started pacing. To be honest this wasn’t the best way a handle a delusion.

“Look dude if you don’t believe me, you don’t believe me I don’t care”. He let out a giant breath. “Didn’t you say” Maika was slow with his words. 

“That people who sell their souls lose their minds?” Jake looked at his friend.

 “I’m not crazy” 

“Why’d you even tell Janet about that anyways?”
“Well you weren’t available…” 

“Telling people you sold your soul isn’t normal. You can’t just do that” Maika looked down.

 “It’s taboo dude”

 “is it?” Jake pondered in a voice that mimicked a childs. 

Maika was dumbfounded by what he perceived to be Jake’s stupidity. 

“Yes. It is.” Jake stopped pacing. 

“Well regardless…” Jake quickly moved to the chairs and sat down with a plop. “I’ve been seeing connections everywhere lately. You ever notice how many songs talk about falling down, or even mention writing between the lines. Or mention their left hand, it’s incredible really. Magical left paths my good dude. I think you should wake up. It’d be really fun for both of us to be in on this. The directions of a star represent the weather!”

Jake’s words were quick and his tongue sore. He was speaking it seemed at 50 miles an hour. “Calm down and “awake”? Is this like the zombie thing?” Jake’s eyes darted around the room. “Uh no actually it’s a thing between the lines. It means to be aware of your spirituality and what’s happening in the spiritual world. To be able to see the connections around you”

 “uh-huh” 

“the demons told me about it”

 “Jake don’t take this the wrong way but I think you need to go the hospital…” Jake paused. “Why?” Maika wished he could show Jake a mirror.  Jake was moving around constantly. His voice kept fluctuating. His eyes were darting across the room in a panic. He was speaking almost non-understandably quickly.

“You really do seem crazy” Maika said and Jake’s mouth was quick to respond 

“Maybe we should just stop talking about this for a while. If I get bad I’ll go” 

“promise?” Maika asked concerned fearing his friend was already there. 

“Yeah. You have my word” Jake spoke. He blinked feverishly and tugged at his sleeves 

''Okay cool.” Maika said. That night the two boys slept over with Jake only falling into his insanity based rambles half of the time. Maika was a bit concerned but overall this became their normal. That night Jake dreamt. He was in a lake. He was chasing something in the water. He was swimming after it. It seemed to be some sort of glowing figure. He swam and swam until he felt a pull on his leg and then a hand. He blinked as he was pulled underneath the waves. He gasped for breath and he woke up. 

He sat up. He placed his hand to his face feeling the cold sweat among his brow.  He sighed and put his hand down. He winced. He turned on the bed. Maika was on the floor sleeping soundly. He got up and made himself some coffee reflecting on the blurry dream. A panicked voice rang “JAKE!” He turned around. Nothing. 

Nobody had called him. Nobody was there. He turned back around towards his coffee. He squinted hard then released and then he took a sip. He tried to wake up Maika. His friend just mumbled and turned over on his side. Curled up with his blanket. Jake grunted and sat back against the wall looking at his friend. The lights were off with only sunlight lighting the room. He pushed his head back against the wall. He banged it a few times. He looked down at his ripped skinny jeans and his untied shoes. He adjusted his tight binding elastic undershirt.

He looked towards his friend again. He sighed. He pushed his hands to the ground and forced himself up. He started pacing frantically and muttering to himself. “Jake!” Their was that stupid voice again. He turned around. Nothing. “It must be a ghost” he commented to himself, actually believing it to be a spirit. Eventually he sat back down and repeated sitting down, pacing a bit, sitting down, pacing a bit over and sitting down. Eventually he got on his phone and scrolled through tumblr. Finally, Maika woke up. Jake looked at him. “How you feeling?” Maika focused on his friend.

Jake didn't look up from his phone. “I'm fine” Maika got up and went over to their coffee machine. He put a cartridge in and it started pouring. It was a cureg. A fancy invention for mostly upper class families do the cost. You put in a capsule and out came an expensive copyrighted cartigurge that gave you exactly one cup of coffee.

“So…” Maika rubbed his eye. 

“What?” Jake looked up. 

“What was this about a game?” Jake sighed. His eyes met Maikas. 

“I think the world is gonna end.” Maika thought instantly that this was more nonsense. 

“Explain” 

“well” Jake pushed himself up off the ground he had been sitting on shoving his phone in his pocket. 

“There's a game. It determines the fate of our reality.” Maika raised a brow. 

“And…” Jake continued 

“I'm a player in it. There's tasks I’m meant to do. The spirits keep telling me I’m meant for something big and important and possibly bad though I’m not sure about that last bit” 

“Okay…” Maika said. 

“Anyways” he was quick to change the subject. 

“I gotta get home. I'll talk to you later.” 

“See ya.” Jake said returning to his phone. Without even calling the lyft Maika was out the door. Lyft was an app that was replacing taxi services. A virtual anti-union do it yourself driver sharing, call it on your phone car service that got you any place you needed to be, in exchange for a payment. Jake really had gone crazy Maika thought to himself. He debated for a moment whether or not to cut Jake off again. He decided he wouldn't take a break unless Jake got extremely horrendous.

Jake decided to go online. He booted up his computer. He had quite a few projects going on. Several stories he was writing, some digital art pieces he had yet to complete and a video game he was making. The video game was the most stress inducing. He could swear that it was cursed. He changed his mind and went for his guitar. He was writing himself a birthday song. His birthday was May 24th 1997. He knew his mother and sisters didn’t quite care about it. At least not in his mind. As dysfunctional as his family was they at least cared about him but he never saw it that way. He remembered his eldest sister not in the best light. A memory begun to play.

Jake was sitting on the couch. His eldest sister came in with a slam to the door. He looked at her. Her eyes were dilated. He pushed his long hair behind his ear. His sister met eyes with him. He tried to run but she punched him down and started punching him. She was screaming about something. He started crying and eventually he squirmed away. He ran to his room and locked the door. She started banging on it. He ran into his closet. He called his mom crying. His mother acted like it was nothing. She dismissed him and his sister finally stopped. 

He flashed back to present day. He hated his sister Emma. In his eyes she was evil. He felt his neck then his short hair and his flat chest. Disgust filled his stomach. He continued playing till his hands were sore. He stopped and then moved back to his computer as per his original plan. He logged online. He searched up videos of people who sold their soul. It was mostly pranks or joke click baited videos. Nothing special. Eventually he found a forum mentioned in a vid. “Become_a_human_god.forum.liv.org” it was a bunch of people all surrounding a black magic youtube channel. There was so much information. He felt overwhelmed. 

He ended up studying the website for several days. A few things became clear to him. 1 he hadn't sold his soul. He had made a pact with an unknown entity at a fast food joint. Hardly professional. 2 remembering his contract more thoroughly he wasn't going to become a slave to a demon. Rather he promised the demon himself, his essence, and his free will. 3. There was a hell and he was going to it. He shut the laptop in a huff. He turned on Pandora and music begun to instruct him.

He was to look for somebody. Find this person, then give them an instruction manual of sorts. Relay information that the spirits would give him to this individual. Well, that's weird. His phone begun to ring. It was his mother asking him to run errands. "Fine" he got up and went about it. Over the next couple months Jake would become increasingly incoherent. To the degree of babble and he would even start to speak in tongues.