Somewhere in the state of Massachusetts, there lies a small town known as Tranquil Hill. It’s a moderately small Town, with a large forest nearby. This is where Leon Finn and his Family are currently moving to. Leon is an average looking teenage boy, who’s very introverted and shy. He’s very nervous about moving to a new Town, as he’s lived in their Home City for his entire life. It wasn’t really friends he was worried about, since he never had any friends to begin with, it was more just the feeling of moving to a new, almost foreign area that made him extremely nervous. While he was deep in thought, he suddenly realized that they had arrived at their new house. It was strange, due to it seeming as if less than a minute had passed since they were outside of the Town. It felt like an impossibly short amount of time passed when he was distracted for just a moment. He ignored his suspicions, believing he was just simply lost in thought, and grabbed his bag, bringing it into the house. The inside looked pretty old, covered in a bit of dust, and some old furniture. Leon sighed a bit and headed upstairs, to his new room...which was in the attic. Wonderful. He unpacked his stuff, including his laptop, his PC and Monitor, as well as his books. He loves Books, since they’re fun to read, and easy to understand. Luckily there was a bookshelf in the attic for him to use! He pulls the bookshelf over to his desk and starts to set up his book when he notices something. Back where the Bookshelf originally was, there’s a Book laying on the ground. It was behind the shelf before he moved it. He walked over and picked up the book. It’s quite large, feeling like a large Tome. On the front it reads, “Black Box”. He shrugged and walked over to his bed, opening the book. The inside was...strange, to say the least. It was written in english, but there were several Words and Phrases that used English letters, however they made words he’d never seen before. Words that made no sense. There were several that had too many Consonants to make a logical sound, some that had all Vowels, and some which had strange Symbols he’s never seen before, although they did resemble some letters. What was far more strange was that the Book had some illustrations on a few pages, but some were...simply indescribable. Some had vaguely human shapes, but others simply didn’t make sense.
“What a weird book…” He said to himself. “Maybe it’s meant to be Science Fiction.”
He closed the book and sat it on his desk, next to his Monitor. He then got up and started to clean up his ‘room’, cleaning up the dust and cobwebs. After a few minutes, he felt oddly lightheaded, so he laid down on his bed to relax for a while. After a second, he fell asleep, a very deep sleep. He opened his eyes, and all around him was blackness. He could feel his bed beneath him, but there was nothing there. He couldn’t move at all, not even move his neck, or his eyes. All around him was pitch black darkness, not a thing in sight. Something landed on his face. Then again. And again. It felt like Rain, but the drops were black. Every time a drop landed on him, a black spot appeared. Within seconds he was covered in pure blackness, unable to breathe or hear, or even feel the drops fall onto him. It felt as if the inky black void was slowly suffocating him, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak or scream. Suddenly, a bright blue light flashed him in the face, as if barreling into his eyes. As his vision returned, he realized that he was in his bed, in his attic room…nothing had changed at all. Despite at least a couple minutes having passed before he fell asleep, when he checked his clock, he saw that no time had passed from when he first laid down. It was 2:13 PM, just as it had been when he read that book, and sat on his bed. He felt his body all over, with no signs of those black spots. Seemed to just be a dream. Something hit his window, and caused him to flinch and gasp. Upon realizing it was just a few drops of rain, he calmed down, but still felt…uneasy. The rain always bothered him, and he’d never go outside if it so much as looked like it was going to rain. He looked out the window, shaking a little.
“It’s just rain…just…just water…” He quietly said to himself. “I-it…it won’t hurt you, Leon…”
As he stared out the window, he calmed slightly. He slowly opened the window, and started to reach out, but as he was about to feel one of the raindrops touch his hand, he felt a chill, and recoiled. His eyes darted around, as if his brain believed that there was…something out there. After a moment, his eyes fixated on a tree in the yard. Specifically, on something that was hiding behind it. He only saw it for a brief moment, but that was all it took to ingrain its shape and appearance into his mind forever. It looked like a humanoid creature made of black, tar-like slime, with a melting face. A blue light shone through its eyes and mouth, which seemed unaffected by its melting body, aside from its mouth, which looked like dripping gaps in the head shape, as if holes had opened in the black mass, and formed into a shape resembling a wide grin. It had long tendrils protruding from its head, like large leeches covered in thorns, writhing around in the rain. Its body looked like black goo and fluid coalesced into a vaguely humanoid shape. It crawled over to a sewer lid in the middle of the street, and, without effort, moved the cast iron lid aside, and opened up an entrance into the sewers below. It looked back at Leon, and grinned widely, before slinking into the sewer, vanishing from sight, as if it had never even been there. Leon fell back onto his bed, breathing heavily. He quickly shot up and shut his window. If he wasn’t afraid of the Rain, he was now. He looked back at the clock on his monitor. Not a second had passed.
“...Am…am I going insane?” He questioned, briefly.
He was snapped out of his trance-like state by a knock on his door. It then opened, and his Father, Jack Finn, leaned in.
“Hey, kiddo. I’m almost done with dinner.” Jack said. “It’ll be ready in about 10 minutes.”
Leon, still shaken, looked at his clock. 15 minutes had passed. What’s going on? Was he truly losing it?
“Hey, sport? You feeling okay?” Jack asked, snapping Leon back into reality.
“Huh? No. I mean…I’m okay…” Leon stammered out. “Just…I think I had a weird dream…I’m kind of disoriented…”
“Oh, I see…” Jack said. “Well, if you don’t get to feeling better, let me know…I can drive you down to the doctor if needed.”
With that, Jack closed the door, and went back downstairs to finish cooking dinner. Leon sat on his bed, and stared at his clock. After a minute passed, the clock changed by a minute. 2:29 PM. He questioned if he was simply hallucinating from that creepy nightmare. As he stared at his monitor, his eyes slowly drifted over towards the Black Box book that he had read earlier. He hesitated for a moment, but slowly reached over and picked it up. He opened it, and briefly skimmed through it, seeing if what he saw was in it. He felt compelled to. Despite his efforts, he didn't see anything that looked like it. He shrugged, and set the book down. He then went downstairs to enjoy the Dinner his father made. First day in a new town, and he already feels like he’s gone mad…
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