“Things are never what they seem”

-The Eldritch, the splitted soul and the red moon

Willaim opened his eyes to the sight of white ceilings and the smell of antiseptic. He could hear the bustle of busy doctors and patients passing by the room. He raised his hand to see a needle injected into it that connected him to the IV drip on his right side. He was currently tucked in a bed in a hospital room.

He saw that he was alone but soon heard the distinct sounds of his parent's voices approaching the door. Soon after three people entered the room.

The first one was an old doctor in a coat and stethoscope that was hanging on his neck, the second one was his brunette mother with brown tired eyes, and the third was his father with black messy hair and equally tired emerald eyes.

William used to wonder how come he had blue eyes when both of his parents didn’t. He was often joked by his parents that maybe he was adopted but they all laughed it up and just shrugged it off as something he inherited from his grandparents since his father had said that his mother also had blue eyes.

But he had always thought even when he was a small child that his eyes were a different shade from his grandmother’s. It looks like he was right that it didn’t come from the family after all.

When the three people that entered the room saw that he was awake they immediately rushed towards him. 

Tears were falling from his mother's eyes as she held him in her arms and started to nag at him with mixed sobs in her voice. His father didn't cry but relief and happiness at seeing him awake were clearly shown in his eyes, he also hugged him after her mother had finally let go of him.

It was then he was told that the reason he was in the hospital was that the old groundskeeper saw him stuck unconscious in a pit with a bleeding head on his nightly patrol of the cemetery. His mother told him that the poor old man was scared half to death and was also admitted to the hospital along with him after the ambulance had arrived.

William was shocked to know that he had basically never disappeared according to them. It was as if the whole week he had stayed on the Hollow Woods was nothing but a dream. But it was too realistic to be a dream he had insisted to himself.

Clearly seeing that he was shaken up, the doctor told his parents to let him have some time to calm down and settle his thoughts. Listening to the professional, his parents reluctantly agreed and left.

And William was alone again in his room left to question everything.

It had taken another week before his parents let him go back to class now relieved to know that he didn’t have any injuries aside from a concussion and cut to his scalp that was now healed.

When William walked back into class, he felt as if things had gone back before. No adventure to a magical land, no winged friend that he had lost, and no Eldritch that had tried to trap him into the Abyss.

William didn’t know if it was a long dream that was caused by his concussion or maybe it was real and the concept of time within the Hollow Woods was different from this realm. But what he knows is that he had learned from that place, he was happy with the memories he had and that he wouldn't be able to return again.

He saw some of his classmates greet him politely while the more confident ones tried to ask him about how he managed to get hurt at the cemetery.

If it was the old him then he would have curled up into himself and tried to avoid them but he knew that something should be changed.

So instead, he politely greeted his classmates and answered that he was only in an accident that involved a pit that wasn’t properly fixed. Some students were a little stunned by the way he acted.

But the attention didn’t last long and he was again alone by his side of the classroom. William wasn’t surprised and knew that if he wanted to make friends then it would take a lot of time and effort.

He sighed and looked out the window beside him and tried to listen to the teacher as she talked about something.

William was still a little shook and nostalgic about the Hollow Woods. He still couldn't move on about it and felt that if he closed his eyes long enough then he would be back in that forest that had an eternal night.

He was zoning off when he heard the teacher say something that made the whole class noisy.

“Okay students, we have a new student that has transferred here in the middle of the semester. Be nice and try not to crowd him got it”

William looked away from the window to stare at the door along with his classmates. Students transferring to their class were rare enough, much less in the middle of the semester. That means that the kid probably just moved into the neighborhood or had a problem at their last school.

He hoped it was the former as he watched the door open and a new student enter.

William was sure that he had never met the boy before but there was something familiar about him. He didn’t know what it was but his instincts were screaming at him that he should know the person in front of the class.

“Students, his name is Dante Cerneus. His family just moved in from New Hampshire, USA. Be nice to him and help him out in adjusting to our place”

The boy, Dante was very pale but he didn’t look like he was sick at all. He had silky black hair and equally black eyes. The clothes he wore looked a little formal for a kid his age with white long sleeve button-up shirts and black long pants. Even his shoes weren’t casual because the boy had opted for a pair of formal black shoes. With a leather bag slung on his back he smiled softly at the class.

William kept staring at the boy for some reason and suddenly the boy caught his eyes and stared at him too. Looking at those eyes he was reminded of a famous saying that he learned back at their literature class. 

‘If you long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back at you’

Then suddenly those black eyes turned red with slitted black pupils.

His whole body froze over and cold dread pooled in his stomach. Then the world around him seems to change.

The window where he was staring at earlier seems to reflect blue burning Will-o’-Wisps and the sounds of the splashes of water from the fountain outside seem to mix with the sound of a Ceto’s fins moving against the water.

The smell of earth that was always present in the Terrus domain waft in the air and a falling feather fell into his hands from the open window. A brown feather with stripes of black and white.

He looked around to see if anybody else noticed the change but all people within the classroom didn’t seem to notice anything wrong.

William saw Dante smile at his reaction and the boy’s shadow that was cast on the ground morphed into the form of the Eldritch in a long ancient cloak.

William felt his chest thundered and sweat dripped down his face. He didn't know if he felt fear or excitement or maybe even both. He didn't know if this was all real or if he was hallucinating anything. But soon he found a smile creeping up to his face and his sapphire eyes brightening up. Because maybe, this wasn’t the end of his journey after all.