'Where am I?'
Aiden thought as he found himself in a very dark space. As he blinked his eyes, the world changed to one of black and white.
He was not able to see anything concretely as his vision was blurry. It was like he was in some sort of foggy world.
A lot of voices were in his head but he was not able to hear them clearly. It was a sensation like his body was falling through a cliff continuously.
It was like he was in the middle of a nightmare.
There was no concept of time and he didn't know if he was alive or not. It was all a very strange and indescribable experience.
'Am I dreaming? I want to wake up but I can't seem to.'
Aiden thought and tried to remember the last thing in his memory but it felt very blurry and he was not able to focus.
The only thing he remembered was performing at the anime con and rushing towards a person. There was no memory after that and he felt like he was trapped somewhere.
Suddenly, the black and white world in front of him changed and he found himself in an apartment. It was his apartment that he still lived in.
But the scene in front of him was from months ago.
'This is the day I got my system.'
Somehow, he was seeing himself in the past, like his brain was replaying a memory. He saw himself trying to fix a bulb that was not working and get an electric shock out of nowhere, knocking him down.
When he had woken up, his system was in front of him.
That was what Aiden had remembered.
But the scene didn't end.
He noticed a golden light suddenly appearing out of nowhere as he was knocked down. The light hovered around his body for a minute before entering it.
Somehow, he knew that it was his system.
'Wait, I didn't get my system due to an electric shock.'
As soon as Aiden thought, his vision again changed but it was faster this time.
For the next five minutes, he saw the scenes of him over the next few months, worrying about his system and whether there were really superpowers in the world.
In those days, Aiden would think a lot of conspiracy theories and think that a black guy with an eye patch would soon appear out of nowhere and tell him that the world lives in is a lie and things like superhumans and wizards were real.
Then, X-Star came and he passed the auditions, getting better in his skills everyday. Got eliminated and then made his debut in his first movie.
All of it looked very special watching it from the sidelines.
It was like his memory was replaying every single thing that happened to him in the last year.
'When will it end?'
As soon as he thought that, he found himself back in the black and white world. The voices in his head returned and this time he was able to hear them clearly.
'You will never be able to do anything in Hollywood no matter what. You can't even get a lead role in theatre. They will laugh at you if you go to America.'
That was the voice of one of his friends who was against him going to America.
'Aiden, not everyone has the talent to become a star. You are good enough for a common person but you should not waste time in this and just get into a good college. Time runs out and before you know it, your friends will be driving in cars.'
That was the voice of his high school teacher.
'You are the worst actor I have seen in my life. Trust me, kid. Leave Hollywood and get a job as a waiter somewhere. That suits you very well.'
That was the voice of a director who had rejected him during his early days of struggle.
Aiden heard all those voices constantly ringing in his head and he wasn't able to help himself from shouting. After a long time, the voices finally stopped and he took deep breaths to calm himself down.
'Ah, fuck, where the hell am I? If it's a nightmare, I really want to wake up right now.'
He thought and it was then, he heard a familiar voice in front of him.
"Aiden."
Aiden raised his head to look at the person that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He was almost as tall as Aiden and had a bearded face with long, unkempt hair.
His vision was still blurry but he was able to make out a smile on the person's face.
"Don't forget your goal. Now go, you have slept enough."
Before Aiden was able to say anything, the man said before putting a hand on his shoulder. It was then that the world went blank.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in a hospital room.
*** ,c,om
"You were out for almost three days. Your injuries weren't a lot, so we were all very tense. The doctors said that you have hit your head hard and that might be the reason you have not gained consciousness but there was no major injury on your head when they checked."
Uncle Sam explained, looking at Aiden who was sitting on the bed. Wade was standing next to him, just staring at Aiden.
After he had woken up, a doctor had quickly checked up on him and found out that he looked completely fine.
His friends and family had rushed in quickly after knowing that he had woken up. The doctor had left after that, saying he would give them some time alone.
"How are you feeling now?" Jackson asked. Besides him, Emily and Cameron were also standing.
"A bit dizzy. But better. It's hard to move my shoulder."
Aiden glanced at his shoulder that was bandaged. It seems like he had been stabbed there while falling on the ground and had lost quite a bit of blood before he reached the hospital.
"The doctor said it would take some weeks before it got normal. You need to be in the hospital for a few days more."
Uncle Sam sighed with a light smile. He was happy that Aiden had finally woken up.
"Aiden, I'm sorry. It all happened because of me."
Suddenly, Emily walked towards him.
Aiden noticed that there were dark circles under her eyes, like she had not slept for some days.
After Aiden had rushed to the hospital, Emily had blamed herself as the black haired guy was originally trying to harm her. Aiden had protected her but had gotten injured himself.
"It's not your fault. My legs were already moving before I could think of anything and something worse would have happened if I had not tackled him."
"But what if you have…"
Emily didn't finish her sentence and he could see tears forming in her eyes. She was truly scared that she might have become the reason for someone's death.
"I'm still alive, right? Don't think a lot about it when I'm still fine." Aiden said and then suddenly remembered something. "What happened to the guy who tried to attack you? The black haired guy?"
It was Cameron who answered this time. There was a trace of anger and rage on his face when he thought about the black haired guy.
"His name is Rick Morbius and his injuries were far less than yours. He was already fine yesterday and police took him into custody. From what we got to know from them, he has a history of harming Skygram models who he follows. He was actually out on bail and there were already court cases against him. Looks like he's done for good this time."
Although Cameron didn't say it, Rick was getting a lot of hate online and people were already labelling him as a psychopath.
Even the police have said that he might have some mental problems and they will take help from a psychologist in this case.
"I'm just glad I'm alive"
Aiden muttered and for the next few minutes, they just talked about other things like how his mom was even thinking of coming to America and how they were constantly in the hospital for the last three days.
Wade even tried to punch Rick Morbius when he was brought to the hospital but he was quickly detained.
After a while, Aiden suddenly remembered about their schedule. Even after animecon, they had a couple of shows here and there. They were even increasing with time as 'Revolution' got more and more famous.
"The schedule got cancelled as I was in the hospital right?" Aiden asked, looking at his bandmates.
"Obviously, they did. And it doesn't look like we would be able to do any more shows as you would be in the hospital for a while."
"Yeah, it's kind of a pity as 'Revolution' is getting more and more popular everyday. Animeroll is being flooded with calls currently."
Hearing Emily's words, Aiden raised his eyebrows. Animeroll was flooded with calls? What does that mean?
"Why are they flooded with calls?"
A sense of realisation hit everyone's face as they realised that Aiden didn't know what was going on social media.
Jackson quickly tried to explain.
"Aiden, the video of our performance and you pushing Rick off the stage went viral. Most of the major news media covered it and that just made it spread more, so Revolution has already crossed 80 million views on MeTube. A lot of people are calling Animeroll to ask about your condition."
"What?"
Aiden made a shocked expression.
"Yeah, and we are number one on the music charts. We beat Imagine Giants' song 'Natural habits'."
As he heard that, he unconsciously opened up his system and was swarmed by notifications.
...
