Shadow of Death (SOD)

Chapter 7

Tring—!

A notification chimed, and Asher’s eyes fluttered open.

For barely a second.

Then he squeezed them shut again, too tired to surrender himself to the morning just yet.

The chime sounded again.

This time, it seemed louder than the first.

With a sleepy grumble, Asher began searching blindly across his bed for the source of the sound. He already suspected what it was.

His phone.

His fingers eventually brushed against it.

He dragged it toward himself and slowly cracked one eye open.

A message notification from Rick.

Asher yawned loudly and groaned before rolling onto his back. He brought the phone closer to his face and rubbed his eyes, trying to chase away the last traces of sleep.

He opened the message.

{Hey bro. Tried reaching your phone last night but for some weird reason, it wasn’t going through.}

Another message followed immediately.

{I hope it wasn’t that something actually happened to you and it wasn’t that you forgot to update me whether you have gotten there safely because I will kill you.}

A knife emoji followed the message.

Asher gulped.

"Actually... my phone ran out of charge even before we got here. Hence I left it to charge while busy unpacking and getting things ready. By the time I was done, I fell asleep without knowing."

He clicked send.

A quiet sigh escaped him as he dropped the phone beside him and finally forced himself out of bed.

He headed into the bathroom and did his business.

Thirty minutes later, he stepped out.

After quickly dressing himself, Asher snatched his phone from the bed.

Then he paused.

The memories of the previous night suddenly came rushing back.

The window.

The darkness.

That twisted face.

Those hollow eyes.

That horrible smile.

A chill crawled down his spine.

Slowly, Asher turned his head toward the window.

He stared at it.

One second.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Nothing.

He finally shook his head with a wry smile.

"Man... Rick has affected me. Now I begin imagining things."

With that, he turned around and walked out of the room, slipping his phone into his pocket.

....

Asher hurried down the stairs.

Before he could reach the bottom, he heard his mother mumbling a curse from the kitchen.

He immediately hurried in and stopped at the entrance.

"Is everything okay, Mum?"

Clara paused what she was doing and lifted her head.

"Oh. You are awake. That’s good. Uhm... I need you to run an errand for me."

Asher raised a brow.

"Errand? I don’t even know my way around this place."

"Oh, come on. Just ask around." Clara clicked her tongue before rushing forward and placing a list in his hands.

"Your father and brother have both gone out, so I couldn’t ask them. And Jesse is too young to wander around. Anyway, this is the list of some groceries I need."

Asher lowered his gaze to the list.

He scanned it for a few seconds before releasing a resigned sigh.

Clara squeezed a few dollars into his hands.

"Hurry up." She shouted as she turned back to continue what she was doing.

Asher shrugged.

There was clearly no arguing his way out of this.

He turned around and walked out of the kitchen, then out of the house.

Asher stepped down from the porch and glanced around.

A few of the neighbours were already leaving their houses, heading off to begin their various activities.

His gaze shifted to the left.

There was the neighbour whose lights had been on the previous night.

Someone was outside mowing the lawn.

Asher narrowed his eyes slightly.

He couldn’t see the person’s face properly because of the wooden fence separating their properties.

From the little gaps in the fence, though, he could see that the neighbour was actually a woman.

Asher couldn’t get a proper look at her face from where he stood, but he didn’t think much of it. There was no reason to stare at a stranger mowing her lawn.

Shrugging, he walked towards their small gate, opened it, and left.

The lawnmower stopped abruptly.

The woman turned her head and stared back at Asher’s house for a few seconds.

Then, without saying a word, she turned back towards her lawn.

....

After asking around like a lost puppy, the boy finally found the supermarket closest to them.

He let out a small sigh of relief when he spotted the building.

At least he wouldn’t have to wander around the unfamiliar streets any longer.

Striding inside, he grabbed a trolley from the side and rolled it from section to section while picking up the items his mother had listed.

The supermarket wasn’t particularly crowded, but there were enough shoppers moving between the aisles to keep the place from feeling empty.

Asher could see a few of them walking around lazily.

Dragging their feet as though even moving from one section to another required an unreasonable amount of effort.

Asher noticed this with a confused look.

If it had been just one person, he probably wouldn’t have thought much of it.

People got tired.

People had bad days.

It wasn’t exactly unusual.

But almost everyone in the supermarket seemed to be moving the same way.

Their shoulders sagged, their movements were sluggish, and their expressions were dull.

It was as though none of them had gotten proper rest in years.

The strange thing was that Asher had noticed the same thing while asking people for directions to the supermarket.

The bags beneath their eyes had been impossible to miss.

Some were faint.

Others were so profound that the people carrying them looked almost sick.

Asher didn’t know what was going on, and the more he noticed it, the more uncomfortable he became.

Still, he had groceries to buy.

He couldn’t exactly return home empty-handed simply because the people in Vespers looked exhausted.

With a quiet sigh, he pushed the strange observations to the back of his mind and continued with his shopping.

After picking up every item his mother had requested, he rolled the trolley towards the counter to have everything scanned.

Unfortunately, there was a line at the counter, so he had to wait for several minutes.

While waiting, he pulled out his phone and continued replying to Rick’s message.

{So? How is the place so far?}

"Well, it looks okay aside from the fact that the people here look tired for some reason. Anyway, Dad said we will be going to my new university to get me fully registered tomorrow."

— Next!

Asher lifted his head at the call.

He shoved his phone into his pocket and rolled the trolley towards the counter.

One by one, the cashier scanned his items.

Asher casually watched the process until the man finally finished.

The cashier lifted his head to name the price.

But the moment Asher got a proper look at his face, he unconsciously took half a step back.

His brows knitted in confusion.

The young man’s face looked almost lifeless.

His eyes were bloodshot, with dark bags hanging beneath them as though he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep in decades.

Asher stared at him for a second longer than he intended.

— That will be seventy bucks.

Asher blinked and quickly recovered.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the hundred-dollar bill his mother had given him.

The cashier stared at the money for a few seconds before taking it.

He processed the payment and began packing the groceries into a shopping bag.

Then, almost casually, he asked:

— Should I get you some pills?

Asher’s brows knitted.

He shook his head rigorously.

"Of course not. I don’t do that."

He stared at the cashier for another second.

’Is this even legal here?’

The cashier paused.

His eyes slowly moved over Asher’s face, lingering particularly on his eyes.

For some reason, the man’s expression changed slightly.

Then he shook his head.

— You are new here?

Asher nodded.

"Yeah. The family moved in yesterday."

— Oh. I see.

The cashier handed the shopping bag over to him and forced a faint smile.

— Thanks for shopping with us. Do come again.

Asher nodded.

He snatched the bag from the man’s hands, collected his change, and began walking away.

Yet even after Asher had left the counter, the cashier’s eyes remained fixed on his retreating back.

The line had already moved forward, and another customer was waiting for his attention.

Still, the man lingered for a few seconds.

His expression carried something that Asher couldn’t see.

Something that looked almost like pity.

’Poor boy.’

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