Creepy. That was what I was thinking jogging across the abandoned warehouse. The outdated, brick red building stands near a long, slender road; on the other side is an empty grassy field.  Behind the warehouse is the dampen forest area.

Everything was covered in a grayish blanket of fog. My vision looks obscure. Looking at my dark green, soccer team jogging suit with the Oakston High Eagles logo attached to the right side of the jacket, I began to realize why I'm even near this area. Usually I do my afternoon jogs near my home or near my school, but not here.

  Not near the warehouse from what I heard is known as “The Creep House”.

I remember this area well back when I was eight. It was a memory I’m too afraid to recall. However, as I got older the memory got clouded. All I know it involved an activity I had with an old friend of mines. Something happened yet I do not even know how. Before I can ponder longer, I start to hear strange voices.  Voices that are like a booming sound like you are up close to a speaker box.

The voices are echoing louder and louder. Still jogging, I turn my head left to see some dark figure—hiding behind a few trees—shadowing me. Wonder what this is about, I ignore the figure and continue jogging. However, over a minute I turn my head, and the figure disappears. Thinking this is all over, I turn back around to see the figure running towards me. Not wanting to know why it is after me, I begin to run.

 As I run, I quickly turn my head back around to see the figure chasing after me. I increase my speed to see if I can outrun it. Running through the forest, I start to get lost. I stop running just to look around to see where I'm going. The fog continues to spread making the sight even worse. While I worry about finding a route back home, the mysterious figure that was after me just vanished. I’m just curious why it was after me in the first place.

 Then as I turn back, the figure appears out of nowhere and walks toward me. I want to run, but I could not move my legs because it feels like I’m paralyzed. As the figure walks and paces around me, I realize it looks exactly like me. However, unlike my dark brown hair, my medium skin, and my blue eyes, he looks completely different. He has black hair; his skin all covered in black vine line marks crossing everywhere in the body; and his eyes are pitch black. He is wearing a black sleeveless shirt and black pants.

 I cannot even stomach the fact I’m looking at myself, but darker. Before I can ponder what is going on, I hear him. His voice sounds much heavier and very evil-like.

 “It’s time for me to take over.”

 I wonder what he is talking about, and then he grabs hold of my neck. I try to release his hold, but his power is unbelievable. I do not know what is going on. I can sense something dark from him. What is he? Then without notice, he begins to strike at me. “It’s time.” He says.

Then just as I close my eyes to embrace the impact, I then hear someone yelling out my name.

“Caden!” The voice says.

 I open up my eyes to see I’m at my soccer field practicing. No forest. I look around glancing at my training uniform sitting on the metal bench then up at the sky to see the sun is clear. No fog. I then notice Eric Babin snapping his fingers at me and waving in front of my face.

   “You're okay man?” Eric asks worrying about me.

 I shake my head trying to let him know there is nothing to fear. “I’m okay!” I reply.

  “Good, Coach Hansen won’t like us if we slack around.” He says. “Come on!”

Eric and I are best of buddies since the first day of high school. His crew cut brown hair, his green eyes, and being 6’3 compare to me being at least 6’1.  We met during soccer tryouts when we were freshmen. He is the one person I can count on to spill me on everything about the game; the lingo; what’s happening with the coach; and other stuff.

Trying to forget what looked like a daydream, I begin to practice with the second team.

                                                                                        ***

Coach Hansen, the man who always wears an Eagles hat and fat sunglasses, whistles at us to stop practice. We then gathered around him kneeing down on one knee.

“Listen team, I have a major announcement. And not to make things complicated, Riley our starting striker is out for the season.”

Everyone starts gasping in shock and then talk amongst each other. I check with Eric to see if this true.

“Is Riley out?” I ask.

“I don’t know.” He replies.

“What happened to him, coach?” Another teammate asks.

Coach Hansen looks at him and then all of us, “The doc says he might have suffered a torn ACL.” He says.

I remain speechless among most of us, and then begin to realize immediately where the coach is about to announce next.

“Riley will be out, so the starting duties will go to our backup, Caden!” The coach says. “Are you ready to be a starter, Caden?”

I see myself a bit nervous, but while others are glancing at me with an obvious expectation that now everything this upcoming season is now in my hands literally. And as the coach asks that question, I have to respond in some sort of fashion.

“I think I am, coach.” I respond.

“Good! Alright, we are going to practice again tomorrow after school. Without nothing else, rest up; meeting dismissed.” He states as we do our traditional Oakston Eagle “Rise” chant. 

 We all stand up and head back to the locker room. Before I wonder about the monumental task of replacing one of the best starters of the soccer team, I turn to my left to see someone watching me. He has sandy brown hair and beady eyes; he just looks at me from the bleachers. I try to get his attention by waving, but he just sits there not giving me a reaction.

“Hey!” I shout at him.

Then I notice Eric is coming; as I turn back to the bleachers, the guy who was there just simply vanished. Confused not only with that daydream I had about me facing my dark self, and it was about to take over. I then notice that guy who was sitting in the bleachers. I never had seen him from school.

  Eric walks near me; “Hey, what happened…another daydream?”

 “No actually, this guy with the sandy brown hair was at the bleachers.”

“Who?” Eric views the bleachers and sees nothing there.

 He was there a minute ago. I guess the pressure of this being the fourth soccer practice, while I ponder about that daydream; and now I think I’m making up another person; plus me replacing Riley. Not feeling alright, I wave bye to Eric and head back to the locker room to get my stuff. Finally redressed, I walk to my blue-tint bicycle and head home.

While I'm riding the bike, I pass over three street corners; pressing hard on the pedal I increase the speed. The crazy daydream—about me facing my dark self—is still on my mind. Why is my other self covered in all those vine-like marks? Why his eyes are so pitch black? Then out of nowhere…

 An odious odor suddenly appears. It starts to smell like a month old trash.

What is that thing! I swiftly smell my armpits to think it could be me. I soon notice a black Doberman pinscher running by me. Maybe the dog is just a stray trying to chase after me. Then as I try to focus straight while thinking about that crazy daydream, I feel a huge thud from the back of my bicycle. I turn to see the bike’s back wheel is flattened.

I use my brake to stop. I get off to survey closer and the back wheel cover has a hole. Shucks! Now I got to repair this stupid wheel. This rarely happens. I look around the cemented sidewalk to see no cracks anywhere. Then I notice the Doberman.

What is so strange, the terrible smell I could have thought for an instant could be me is not. It’s coming from the dog, but how?

  And then to my surprise, I see the dog’s mouth. It has a piece of my back wheel tire. It cannot be. How that stupid mutt chewed a piece, yet I never felt a crunch-like sound. Then as I get close to the Doberman, I can smell the mysterious odor. It reeks more and more.

I try to get the piece of the tire from its mouth holding my nose from that awful smell. And then I notice something bizarre, the Doberman’s eyes turn completely pitch black.

 Stunned, I suddenly hear an odd voice in my mind.

 “Caden that is not a dog. Run! Run!”

 Heeding the unknown voice, I glance at the dog—or whatever that thing is, and I forgot my bike. I grab my sports bag and just run with my heart content that dog. Or what that dog could possibly do. It already ruin my bike, yet I half to go back sometime to get it back.

 Back home, I glaze over the sight of mom’s red suv already park in the driveway. I grab hold of my sports bag, run through the porch, and head inside.

About to close the door, I realize mom is here. “Hey mom!”

  “In the kitchen!” She says.

 I notice a navy box near mom’s purple hospital bag on top of the dinner table. I open it to see inside is a pair of Foo Fighters-theme white socks. Nice one, mother.

  I drop the socks back in the box and head to the kitchen. I walk in to see mom fixing stuffed tacos. Seeing her dark brunette hair blocking her face, I wonder what she is thinking.      “Hey mom!” I say.

 She looks at me and gives me that motherly smile she always does. “Hey sweetie.”

“Mom, those socks.” I say.

 “You like?” She wonders.

  “Mom, you know I don’t like celebrating my birthday. It was a week ago.” I say.

 “I just tried to make up for since I didn’t give you a gift. I felt so wrong.” She explains.

  “Well, thanks anyway.” I state.

 Before I head out, mom stops whatever she was doing and points at me to sit at the couch. I sit down to the couch where mom follows me and sits near me.

 “What’s wrong? You had a bad practice.”

  “No!”

  “What then. Tell me.”

 “Alright, I had this daydream I was jogging in the forest. And in the forest, I saw me or another person looking like me. He has these strange marks on him or me. He chokes me and says, ‘it’s time for me to take over.’ Then before he can do anything I woke up.” 

  “Do you know what it meant?” She asks me, but I cannot even give her a straight response because I have no idea what was that dream sequence about. Whatever it was, I felt this other me was part of me.

    “I wish I knew mom, but I can’t.”

    “Well, I’m not a psychologist, but I read something that dreams are images of your past life.”

 “You’re sure, because it felt so real.”

 “I wish I can tell you, but I think you half to find out yourself.” She says as she rises up and heads back to the stove to prepare the ground beef. “Don’t focus on it too long.”

 “There’s one more thing.”

  “What is it?”

“I seen this Doberman following me while I was heading home and then out of nowhere it attacked my bike causing my back tire to have a flat, and I had to leave there because I thought it might attack me.”

  “No, no, I understand. Are you going to get your bike later today?”

 “Yeah, before you head to work, you can bring me to grab my bike.”

“By then that dog probably left, just polish up for dinner okay.” She says.

  “I will.” I reply. I soon get up, grab my sports bag along with the socks, and walk to my room. As I walk through the hallway and then enter my room. I throw the sports bag and socks right next to a pile of dirty clothes I forgot to clean. But then I get confuse when I soon notice a dark brown, swade journal lying on my bed. I pick up the object and notice the initial “D” engraved on it. I never seen this before; where this belong to.  Is this another forgotten gift?

 Wondering if my mom knows anything about this, I cry out her name. “Mom, come here quick!” Less than a minute later, mom enters my room. “What is it Caden?”

 I show her the journal. “Was this your second gift?”

 She comes to inspect it closely, but appears to be confused like I was. “Sorry Caden, but I never seen that in my life.”

   “You’re sure?” I ask again.

  “I’m positive. Why?” She ponders.

 “Because this appears; I never had seen this in my life.”  I state.

  “Well, I can’t explain, maybe we can talk more about this later. Okay.” She says.

  “Okay.” I say.

She heads out as I then sit near the edge of my bed. I glance at the book, but thinking it maybe school-related. I place it inside my backpack and just try to think about it tomorrow. yet No warning, I notice a sharp pain in my eye. I rub my right eye to ponder what that was about.

                                                                                ***

I walked out of Geometry class into the hallway filled with my peers. I walk to my locker to start putting stuff in such as my English and Geometry books and then taking some out such as my Biology and History books. Just as I put the books in, I then notice the strange, suede book that perplexed me yesterday. I take it out to look at it. Trying to see what is really up with the “D”, I almost take a brief look inside until my locker door slams by itself.

I immediately close the book not even giving me a longer chance to see what is inside. Then I see it was my other friend, Liana Rayne, who shut the door. Liana with that wavy brunette hair, nice olive skin, and as well those dazzling hazel eyes. We had been friends since elementary school.

“What’s up?” I say.

“Heard you are going to be the starter.” Liana says.

“How did you…” I was going to say.

“… Hear about that?” She piggy backs what I just said.

“Yeah?” I question.

“Well, I heard it from one of my friends who is dating one of your teammates.” She states.

“Really.” I say.

“Yeah, really.” She acknowledges.

As we continue talking, we start walking down the hall. “So are you excited you’re going to be the starter?” She ponders.

“I don’t know.” I reply.

 “Come on, I know you can do it.” She says.

“I really don’t know if I’m truly ready.” I state

“Just be yourself.” She states.

 “How?  I am about to be a starting striker, something I thought I would get when I become a junior.” I question, yet there have been other strange things other than me being a starter.

“Well this is life. Life sometimes has a way to surprise your inner means.” She responds.

  “Your what?” I ponder.

 She starts giggling a bit. “My Grandma Vi keeps telling me this mind-ease wisdom.”

 I look at my black tinted watch on my wrist and seeing biology is about to start. “Hey, let’s talk about this later; we got Bio to go to.” She agrees.

In less than five minutes, we head inside the biology class where Mr. Cross is waiting for us and others entering as well.

                                                                                   ***

After Biology, Liana and I are able to get a quick bite from the snack machine. Then I notice my eyes start twitching. She looks at me acting strange. I try to stay calm, yet those eyes are mine are just continue to burn; like something caught on fire and struck both my eyes.

 “Caden, are you okay?”

  “Yeah I think.” I say as the pain continues. “Sorry Liana, but I have to go. See you tomorrow.”

“Sure?!”  She looks confused, but I immediately head out into the boys’ restroom. I look at myself with both my eyes twitching. Then suddenly I start to smell that terrible odor again. I quickly turn around to see if that weird Doberman-lookalike was there, but how can it be. Dogs and cats are restricted from the school only animals being experimented on during Biology. Then as the pain continues I bend to the center faucet handle turning it, so I can get water into my hands. I splash it over my face a few times. Believing it work, I turn the faucet off.

The pain stopped for now. Hoping it will not return, I grab my bag and proceed out of the restroom. I just want to live my “so-called” normal life. Hoping I do not run in with a black eyed dog or have another daydream that I can see myself as something evil.

                                                                                         ***

Heading out of school, I have to walk back home without my bike. As the wheel is getting repaired by my neighbor who has like a “chop shop” in his own garage, I got to go retro and walk from here to home in a thirty minute range; having the bike it could take me half of thirty minutes to get there.

  Walking, I suddenly run into the same sandy brown hair dude who I seen yesterday at practice. He looks despondent sort of wearing a dark grey jacket, red shirt, and black jeans. Who is this guy?

 “Hey!” I run towards him, “Who are you?”

  The guy is not even ushering one syllable from his mouth. Getting a bit frustrated that he just out of the blue want to look at me. I get a bit pushy and start pushing him.

 “Why can you just leave me alone!” I scream.

  “Because you’re not alone…Caden.” He calmly says with a smirk attitude.

 “How you know my name?” I ask.

“Your life is in danger.”  He says.

My life! “I’m serious dude, who are you?” I ask him again.

“Aris…my name is Aris.” He replies.

  “So Aris, why are you claiming my life in danger?”

 “Because, someone is after you.”

“Who?"

Just before he can answer, I start to notice a familiar smell. That horrible stench. It is back. I turn around and there is that dog.