Ezra’s curse

*This story is underneath my folder titled “Ezra’s trip back”. It is based off a Halloween tale from my story “31 horrific Halloween tales” which is under my folder titled “31 Halloween tales”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=116005&start=1050. Enjoy and Happy New Fear!*

Introduction

Ezra Hutchins opened his eyes to another day of school. He was thirteen years old, but he didn’t feel thirteen. He felt older. Not only that, but he felt like he had already finished school.

Where were his parents? Ezra was the only one in his house, and when he went to sleep, he dreamt nothing.

Where was he?

Chapter One

As Ezra walked through the halls of school, his peers walking by without so much as a glance at him, he heard a fleeting voice in his mind, a fading sound, as though from the murkiness of a past dream:

“You never try hard enough. You’re slacking, your grades are going down. I just wish you’d be more focused.”

It hurt his heart a little, but not too much. Ezra could go on with his day just fine. It didn’t mean anything, it was just a ringing in his ear.

He turned the knob to his first class of the day, homeroom, except…

The school clipped into darkness, like one blinking their eyes in and out of the light.

Chapter Two

Ezra floated through a black, seemingly endless void, the ground invisible underneath him. He heard voices swarming around him, voices that tumbled together to speak nonsense.

“What’s going on?! Let me go! What’s happening?!” Ezra called out, heart panicking within. He couldn’t watch the lives of others go by while his swirled in a meaningless spiral.

“You happened!” A twinkling, slightly fading voice responded, like the voice of an ethereal creature.

He happened? What was that supposed to mean? What did he do, how could he be lost in such a mess?

As quickly as the darkness came, blinding light clashed through, a million times brighter than the sun. Ezra covered his eyes, the only thing he could do to protect himself in his predicament.

Chapter Three

“You never listened, so I took you. Trust me, it’s better for everyone in your life.” The voice said.

“Better? What do you mean? Who are you?” Ezra asked.

Why did the voice sound so angelic, so faerie-like? Why so cheerful, what did he do to deserve whatever was going with him?

“Come with me!” The voice exclaimed.

The darkness had shattered into glitter, pushing into him like a snake constricting its body, holding possession of prey.

Ezra screamed haggardly, blood spats falling from his lips, but even that was lost in the glitter.

Chapter Four

When the glitter disappeared, Ezra found himself in a living room, of which a little boy had his elbows propped up on a table, tears in his eyes. An open book lay on the table, scribbled with pencil markings. A woman sat next to the boy, an expression of annoyance on her mouth.

“Ezra, I don’t understand. Didn’t you learn this in school? Shouldn’t you know this? Don’t you ever pay attention? Aren’t you tired of receiving complaints from the teacher? Think, Ezra! Focus!” The woman yelled.

Ezra himself flinched, just as the boy did. Hearing her voice was bringing it back, seeing her disdain was letting it resurface.

“I don’t know! I don’t know the answer!” The boy-child Ezra-cried out.

“You should know! I’m not going to be here to help you all the time. You have to figure it out for yourself, that’s how you get on in this world.” Mom said, her voice rising higher and higher.

Child Ezra shook with sobs as she kept getting increasingly furious with his lack of knowledge in math.

Ezra himself rubbed his throat, a phantom pain of bawling lodged within.

Why did she have to get so upset at him?

Chapter Five

The glitter twisted and turned, pushing him further back..

To another time, where he was thirteen. Except, Ezra was thirteen in present day, right?

Either way, past Ezra waited on the front steps of his school for his Dad to come and pick him up. He was the only kid left, and still, he waited.

Next to past Ezra, an orb of blue light glowed. It glowed brighter…brighter…and brighter still…

Until it morphed into a woman, black hair framing her pale face gracefully, brown eyes glistening, light blue dress with blackened ends clinging to her like the dying petals of a flower that still retained its beauty somehow.

“What troubles you, my child?” The woman asked. Her tone was laced with kindness, but Ezra could sense an underlying horror within her musical voice.

Yet still, Past Ezra looked up at the woman, in awe of her existence, and hopeful for her help.

Chapter Six

“I’m just waiting for my Dad to pick me up. What…what are you?” Past Ezra asked, a million thoughts swimming through his mind.

Ezra remembered the feeling, he remembered the woman. She was like a goddess to him, a mythological fate of amazement. He was face-to-face with a mystical being, and that was monumental to his younger self.

“You may call me Adette, young one. And you?” Adette asked.

“Ezra!” Past Ezra replied happily.

Too excited was he to understand the risks. Ezra himself reached his hands out, attempting to break the fabric in his hand, but the glitter that was Adette’s true form pulled him away, for fate could not be changed.

Chapter Seven

Ezra was in the further part of the national park, the moon glimmering on a blackened sky. Past Ezra, no longer thirteen but twenty-two, stood with the physical Adette in the clearing, Adette looking down at him with a smile. Even though he was an adult, she still managed to be much taller than him.

“Take my hands, and I’ll get rid of those expectations.” Adette said.

Ezra reached out, trying to stop what happened, but Past Ezra already joined hands with her, and light burst around them in a vibrant jade-colored firework.

Chapter Eight

His Mom and Dad never stopped ragging Ezra about his grades.

Every day, “Do more!” “Study more!” “Focus more!”

But his mind would resurface to other things, and nothing would make sense.

Why couldn’t he just do what they said? It shouldn’t be that hard, right?

Yet it was. Yet he could never listen.

Adette promised to help him, and she did.

In her own sickened, terrible way, she did.

Chapter Nine

Ezra watched as his Past Self screamed, the dirt of the Earth surrounding him, green light drowning him, until a vision of his old high school overtook him, locking him away.

All of that time, and he thought that he was a failure. All of that time, and he was trapped in a state of “Am I good enough?” “Did I do enough?”

Ezra had to break his deal with Adette. He didn’t know how, but he’d find a way.

Somehow, he’d be free again.

Chapter Ten

“Adette, I want to get out. I want to go home. Take me, please. End this now.” Ezra pleaded.

A tinkle of laughter floated through the green expansion.

“I can’t take you home, you’re dead. Besides, you haven’t seen much of your life, there’s not much to end.” Adette’s voice said.

“But I want to leave!” Ezra cried out.

“Only you can end this vision.” Adette’s voice said softly.

But how? How could he “end it”? If thoughts of school came up in his mind, then they’d come.

They could go away, though. He just had to keep trying.

Chapter Eleven

The walls of school were closing in. The stench of pencils and pens was starting to overpower, and red marks on tests floated in Ezra’s vision.

His parents had big dreams for him to be something, and yet, the sleep bags were still present around his eyes, had been around for as long as he could remember.

“There’s more to life”, everyone said.

What else? What other option was there for him but to rot in silence, because he couldn’t succeed?

Ezra pushed through the image, breaking down the walls that had confined him so.

Chapter Twelve

From his childhood dreams, he dreamed of a mother with infinite love. One who would speak softly, and comfort him in times of darkness.

From Ezra’s mind, there rose a woman surrounded by green light, the color of growth, the color of life.

There, Adette came to be.

Ezra could see it all, clearly.

Chapter Thirteen

“Don’t you want to try harder? Don’t you want to be better?” Adette asked.

She wasn’t quite real, just repeating the words of his parents. Ezra pushed through the walls, ignoring the tears from his eyes.

“Don’t give up now!” Adette cried out.

No, he wasn’t giving up. He was getting exactly what he was searching for so long.

Chapter Fourteen

Paper after paper, work after work. The bags on his eyes from childhood seemed to grow, and still, Ezra reached out.

Failing…failing…failing…

Words swam in his mind and in his chest, but he did his best to put them down, all into the nothingness.

Chapter Fifteen

“I just don’t want you to end up like us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want you to achieve your dreams.”

Weren’t his parents happy to have him around? Didn’t they care?

Was Ezra a burden to them?

Chapter Sixteen

His parents, did they dream of a life without him? Wouldn’t it be better if his parents lived without him?

They’d have more money, more places to go to, more time for themselves.

And then, Ezra came along and ruined it all.

Chapter Seventeen

Perhaps to them, he ruined their lives. Perhaps to them, he was a burden.

Work, work, work.

But there was more to life than work. Ezra could see and feel it.

Freedom, so close, and yet, so far.

Chapter Eighteen

Oh, didn’t they ever want to give him a hug? Was there ever time?

“Look at you, just running away from your problems.” Adette’s voice said.

Parents gave their children so much work, without knowing what it would twist and contort the children to be.

Already, Ezra felt his hand clench a pencil so tightly he almost thought that it was real.

Chapter Nineteen

The sky, the grass. All was becoming closer. He could smell the fresh air, see the infinite blue sky.

Ezra just had to go further, further, further…

He could do it if he tried.

Chapter Twenty

There it was! Heaven, with its sprawling flowers and bright blue sky.

No longer did Ezra feel Adette, the entity from his own sorrows and sadness, lingering with him.

No longer did he feel the words of his parents weighing him down.

He was free, truly free.

Epilogue

Did Ezra miss his parents? No, not really. Did he miss their company? Of course. Their company was something to distract him from thoughts, something to keep him occupied.

But at least they were gone. At least they couldn’t bring him down anymore.

Ezra shared the field of flowers with many other souls that longed for it, that deserved it.

Adette no longer haunted him. Instead, the sweet scent of petals lingered in the air, giving him hope and joy.