Alexis Calimbas ’28
Staff Writer
Author note: {Based on the song: Trust me Not by backseat vagabond; if you are interested <3 }
Rust clung like dried blood to the frame of the old swing set, rocking gently in a cold, restless wind. Weeds choked the cracked asphalt where two boys had once drawn chalk maps of imaginary kingdoms. The air was heavy with the smell of damp earth and rotting autumn leaves–a quiet, hollow monument to a childhood that ended the night Kaelen vanished. Now, as night fell, the shadows between the rusting iron bars didn’t just stretch; they seemed to bleed, pulsing with a faint, unnatural chill that made Gideon’s skin crawl.
Gideon stepped onto the cracked pavement, his boots crushing against loose gravel. He extended his right hand, letting raw aether1 shimmer over his skin like pale, violet light. The energy hummed softly, keeping the unnatural chill of the shadows at bay.
“I knew you’d come back here,” Gideon said, his voice steady despite the knot forming in his chest. “You always said this playground was the one place they couldn’t find us.”
From the darkest corner beneath the rusted slide, a silhouette detached itself from the gloom. Kaelen stepped into the dim streetlight. He looked taller, paler, and his eyes–once bright and full of laughter–were now cold, ringed with dark circles. A faint, dark mist clung to his fingers: phobokinesis2, already reacting to his presence.
“That was before they took me, Gideon,” Kelen said, his voie flat and devoid of warmth. “Before you let them.”
A sudden wave of unnatural dread washed over Gideon, making his pulse spike. Kaelen’s fear-shock hit him like a physical blow, conjuring quick flashes of memories Gideon had spent years trying to bury: the sound of a shattering window, the screech of tires, and the empty space where his best friend used to be.
Gideon’s aether flickered, but he forced himself to hold his ground, phasing his hand briefly through the cold air to dispel the linger of the shock mist.
“I never stopped looking for you,” Gideon murmured, taking a step forward. “Come back with me. We can fix this…”
Kaelen smeared, the shadows around him rising like jagged blades. “You can’t fix what was shattered years ago. If you want to stop what I’ve become, you’ll have to chase me into the dark.”
With a flick of Kaelen’s wrist, a blinding flash of dark shock energy erupted across the playground, forcing Gideon to shield his eyes. When the shadow cleared a heartbeat later, Kaelen was gone–leaving behind only a tail of black, mist-like footprints leading directly towards the heavy iron gates of the nearby facility.
The air inside the skybridge was clinical and freezing, smelling sharply of ozone and recycled oxygen. Transparent glass walls suspended the walkway hundreds of feet above the city, offering a panoramic view of the rain-slicked skyscrapers below. Sleek white panels lined the ceiling, but half of them flickered erratically, casting sharp, jittery shadows across the polished floor.
Gideon sprinted through the reinforced doors, his boots squeaking against the glass floor. Violet aether crackled over his arms, sending soft ripples through the air as he phased through a heavy security gate Kaelen had tried to slam shut.
At the center of the bridge stood Kaelen.
He didn’t run anymore. He just turned slowly, his dark mist coiling up the glass walls like creeping ivy. Under Kaelen’s influence, the transparent glass began to project distorted, terrifying images—visualizations of Gideon’s deepest fears manifested through phobokinesis. Images of a fractured sky, of drowning in absolute darkness, and worst of all, memories of the night Kaelen vanished, played across the glass panels like a nightmare projected on a screen.
“You shouldn’t have followed me here, Gideon,” Kaelen said, his voice echoing in the narrow space. The shadows around him spiked, pressing against the glass until fine cracks spider-webbed across the surface. “This facility built me to shatter heroes. And you bring a heart full of guilt into a room designed to make it bleed.”
Gideon gritted his teeth, feeling the icy grip of panic tugging at his mind. He focused on his power, letting the aether expand around him like a translucent shield to steady his pulse and push back the illusionary dread.
“I’m not leaving without you,” Gideon said, taking a heavy step forward through the mist. “I don’t care what they did to you here.”
“Then you’ll fall with the rest of it,” Kaelen whispered.
With a sharp motion, Kaelen unleashed a full wave of terror energy straight down the narrow corridor. The force of the mental assault shattered the cracked glass panels nearby, sending spiderwebs of fractures rushing toward the ceiling as the wind outside began to howl into the skybridge.
The wind howled through the shattered skybridge, cold rain whipping against Gideon’s face as the floor beneath them vibrated violently. Fine cracks spider-webbed across the glass deck under Kaelen’s sheer weight of panic, threatening to drop them into the endless grid of city lights below.
“Kaelen, stop!” Gideon shouted over the roar of the gale. He activated his aether, his entire form becoming translucent and glowing with a soft, ethereal violet. Leaving his physical mass behind, he stepped straight through the wall of black fear-mist, unbothered by the phantom sharp edges of Kaelen’s phobokinesis.
Kaelen’s eyes widened slightly as Gideon closed the distance in seconds. He backed up rapidly, his heels catching the edge of the broken frame where the glass had completely blown out into the storm.
“Don’t come any closer!” Kaelen snarled, his voice cracking with a sudden, raw vulnerability that sounded terrifyingly like the young boy Gideon used to know. “You think you can just phase through my head and fix what they broke? You don’t know what’s in here!”
“I don’t have to fix everything today,” Gideon said gently, extending a glowing, phased hand toward Kaelen’s chest. “I just need you to come back.”
Gideon’s hand passed through Kaelen’s physical chest, reaching directly for his soul—the one place phobokinesis couldn’t hide the truth. For a split second, the horrifying illusions vanished. Through the aether link, Gideon felt Kaelen’s overwhelming grief, his exhaustion, and the faint, lingering memory of a childhood promise made on a broken swing set.
Kaelen froze, staring into Gideon’s eyes as the warm, grounding energy swept through him. A single tear cut through the grime on his cheek.
For a fraction of a second, Gideon thought he had won.
Then Kaelen’s expression went completely cold.
“Trust me not, Gideon,” Kaelen whispered.
Before Gideon could react, Kaelen let himself fall backward, slipping straight off the shattered edge of the skybridge and plunging into the dark, rainy abyss below.
“No!” Gideon screamed. Without a second thought, he dove off the ledge after him.
Falling through the open air, Gideon pushed his power to its absolute limit, phasing through the rushing wind to close the gap. He grabbed Kaelen’s wrist mid-air, wrapping his arms around his former friend as they tumbled toward the city below.
Gideon flared his aether, preparing to catch them both against the gravity—but Kaelen grabbed Gideon’s face with both hands.
Kaelen’s eyes flared pure pitch-black. Instead of fighting to break free, he dumped the entirety of his phobokinetic power straight into Gideon’s open soul link—a blinding, absolute wave of primordial terror.
Gideon’s vision instantly went black, his control over the aether shattering into dust as the ground rushed up to meet them.
1 Gideon has the ability “aether manipulation,” which allows him to control aether, a theoretical fifth element that exists between matter and spirit which allows them to phase through objects, manipulate souls, and even create void like energy.
2 Kaelen’s ability of phobokinesis allows him to manipulate and amplify peoples fears.
TO BE CONTINUED
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