Pre-Proxy Era

Jay Harkiss was a normal small-town boy for the most part. He was introverted, a bit narcissistic, and decently peculiar. He grew up in the small town of Meriburrow, and lived on his family's small farm. Jay was the odd one out when it came to people of Meriburrow. Everybody there seemed to look the same, and act the same. Jay however, was always labeled as a special snowflake for his constant delves into new and exciting topics of study. A few of these interesting topics include- Thanatology (The study of death), Hydrology (The study of snow & ice), and Cryptozoology (The study of Cryptids, or unknown animals). This wasn't the only peculiar thing about Jay, however. He was born with a rare syndrome characterized by permanent face paralysis  and inability to express emotion through facial movement. This syndrome is called Mobius Syndrome, and it is an extremely rare congenital neurological disorder. Because of this, he was bullied and called 'heartless', and 'cold' for not being able to express what he felt. his mother and father never really did much about Jay's condition, except give him extra love and support when he needed it. After you are born with it, there is sadly no going back. Jay loved his parents very much for supplying him with such niceties, however. At age 16, Jay hit a huge turning point in his life. Up until then, he was no more than a stable hand at home, and student at school. This however was the incident that made his decisions matter. He was walking through Meriburrow on his way to the repair shop to pick up some nuts and bolts for his father, when he noticed a new shop had sprung up. The name of the odd store was simply "Wizardry", and Out of pure curiosity, Jay decided to check it out. He stepped into the shop. It was dimly lit, and smelled sickeningly of lavender incense, and cigarette smoke. The smell made him flinch a bit, as well as nauseate him. Walking in a few steps, he pulled away a bead curtain to reveal a well decorated and pillowed room. The wall ornaments and other various decorations were shades of orange, purple, blue, and an occasional green or yellow. A girl looking to be in her late teens was sitting criscrossed in the middle of the room. Looking around, he took in what other features the room had to offer. With his regular blank, expressionless face, he panned his vision over to the girl. She sighed and got up slowly. She had long black hair, blue eyes, and 3 golden eyebrow piercings. She was wearing a purple velvet robe over a fancifully crafted silk and velvet dress, accompanied by some type of outfit-made leather corset. Her makeup was neatly done, but it was made asymmetrical by a small spider web drawn below her right eye with what looked to be eyeliner. When she got up, she walked over to Jay and stuck her arm out in a stabbing- like motion. "Hello- I'm Morganthe" she said, with gritted teeth- forcing a smile. Jay stuck out his hand and shook hands with Morganthe. "Hello, I'm Jay Harkiss." he said, staring blankly into Morganthe's eyes. she took her hand out of the handshake awkwardly and stepped back "So, what brings you here... Jay- Harkiss...?" she goes back to her position in the middle of the room from before. "No reason in particular, Morganthe. What's this shop all about?" "Oh, my wizardry shop..? Well- I sell... instruments." "Really..? What type of instruments?" "Anything your heart desires, Jay~" she stood up once again and walked farther back into the shop, signaling for Jay to follow. Jay followed Morganthe to the back of the store. There was another round of bead curtain, then a door. She unlocked the door and kept it open for Jay to enter. "Anything you see here, you can purchase." Morganthe placed one arm on her hip, and she used the other to motion to the walls filled with shelves upon shelves with boxes on them. Just then, a box from the left of Jay started to move. It shook in it's box until it eventually fell to the ground. Annoyed, Morganthe went over to the box and picked it up, and taking the lid off, it was revealed to be an old-fashioned Mandolin. Jay walked over and looked inside the box "Woah... a- Mandolin...?" "Why yes of course, Jay. This little stinker just fell of the she-" she was then cut off by Jay "How much for it?" he questioned, reaching into his pocket. "Oh no no no~ You don't need to pay in money~" Morganthe grinned. "Just say these words aloud, and it's yours~" she handed the box to Jay, and grabbed a spell book off of a nearby shelf. She quickly skimmed through it and turned to a page with gibberish- looking words scrawled on it. She pointed to a verse and brought the book over to Jay. "Say this, and it's yours, Jay~" she smiled eagerly at the boy, who was at this point very confused. "Okay..." He read over the verse, and tried saying it. "Agvrefinum Erkedrii Unukree Kerifinjia!" after saying the verse, Morganthe quickly shut the spellbook, put it down, and rushed Jay out of the front door with the Mandolin box in his hands. "THANKYOUFORSHOPPING, COMEAGAIN!" Then the door shut hard behind him. Jay looked at the box, opening it and moving around a few pieces of tissue paper. He took the Mandolin out and walked a few steps left to a small wooden bench and sat down. He placed the box to his side and examined the instrument. He lifted it into playing position and plucked a few strings. Each string he plucked seemed to make him dizzier and dizzier. Each time Jay looked up after a pluck, he would notice everything's color changing a little bit more as well. After around 10 plucks, everything was distorted. Something crept onto his face that he'd never felt before.. A mirror appeared in front of him suddenly, and he stared straight at his face. He was smiling... He was smiling a crooked smile that made him almost jump out of his skin. He was in awe- in fact he was in utter shock after feeling emotion in his face for the first time. Jay grabbed for his face to feel his lips curl- a motion they had never done before. At that very moment, he blinked. In the mirror was nothing more than his dull, freckled, uninviting face. In a fit of blind rage, Jay grabbed for the mirror in attempt to bring back a beautiful smile- but the mirror disappeared into a sea of people. Jay walked through the distorted world with his Mandolin in hand, looking desperately for the mirror. As he was walking, he heard a loud noise and turned around. In his view now, was a distorted lemonade-type stand. The banner read "Second chances" and was rustling in the nonexistent wind. Suddenly, the mirror appeared behind the stand. As soon as Jay saw it, his walking picked up pace. First a jog, then a run, then a sprint, then a full on chase. The Stand never seemed to get any closer as Jay ran towards it, but he never stopped moving. Jay blinked once again, and now he was running towards a tall, faceless figure that seemed to have come out of nowhere. The tall figure was holding the "Second chances" banner from earlier across his chest, even though it now sported a few rips and what looked to be dirt or blood stains. Jay tried stopping immediately, but instead crashed to the ground, hugging his Mandolin in his arms. He woke up back at home with his Mandolin sitting next to him. This of course, is when things started change for Jay. This sort of 'Pocket Dimension' created by the Mandolin was then frequented by Jay throughout the next year and a half. The faceless man seemed to be the only obstacle in the world, and at that he only showed up once in a while. He was always silently staring with his eyeless complexion. There was a lick of sympathy in every view of his somber stature, however. Jay couldn't help but empathize with the faceless creature- himself knowing how hard it was to express emotions, even with something as simple as not being able to move his face correctly. In the year and a half that had passed, Jay became less and less in sync with reality- as he put any free time he had to writing some type of field journal on the pocket dimension, or to keep researching his current interest at the time; Cryptozoology. It was nearing Jay's 18th birthday, a usually ceremonial celebration in the family. In the Harkiss family,  when a boy turns 18, he will be awarded "Adulthood" through a celebration of epic proportions. The only downside is that lately, the Harkiss' have been loosing a lot of money to constant house repair. A once rich family was now -it seemed- cursed by eternal economic debt. One day In particular that was quite strange, was from then on known as "Harkiss Day." Jay was out for a walk in town, wearing a cluttered outfit that featured many small pockets and satchels that he used to carry his notes and journals full of information. He was on a steady pace to the end of Meriburrow- to the very magic shop he had bought his Mandolin at in a previous year. He walked into the shop and pulled back the bead curtain vigorously, stomping into the room. "MORGANTHE, I COMMAND THEE TO REVEAL YOURSELF!" Jay yelled for Morganthe, as he pulled out the Mandolin and put it in playing position. Just as he did, Morganthe walked out of the back room hastily. She looked the same- as though she never aged. "You knew.. you knew all along you- YOU WITCH!" "Hmm?!! Why are you here!?" "THE... THE MIRROR..." "What- what mirror?! JAY?!" "YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT MIRROR!" "I don't ! Please, tell me! This is quite unfair..! I-" "SILENCE!" Jay put his Mandolin in one hand, and used the other to grab a book out of one of his satchels. He turned to what seemed to be a random page, and threw it at Morganthe. She bent over and picked the book up, looking at the page it was turned to. She gasped and her eyes widened, looking all over both pages. The pages were filled with images of mirrors with smiles, and scrawled words. There were also many drawings of tall figures with no faces. At this point, Jay was not mentally ready for the next few events. Out of confusion and anger, he plucked at the Instrument's strings- slowly distorting reality, until he was fully in the pocket dimension. Jay looked up, and where Morganthe once was, was now a huge woman's shadow, looking down on him. The shadow had a huge sword in hand, and swung rhythmically down at him. Jay stood up high, suddenly higher than the shadow- He took the Mandolin and brought it down on the shadow's head. It screamed in agony, and stained the ground in a dark, inky circle as the shadow disintegrated. He then shrunk back down, and walked out of the store. He felt strong, but somehow held back... Jay walked home, but every few steps, the world would turn a little bit less corrupted. The noise of static got louder and louder as he approached his house. He held his Mandolin like an axe, and walked into his house. A very unfamiliar paranoia hit him just then. The hairs on Jay's back stood up as he searched every room violently. Eventually, Jay got to the kitchen. Inside were two shadows like the ones before, but these two seemed to be scared. They shrieked and writhed in place as he approached. His mandolin was no longer in his hand- in place of it, was a huge kitchen knife. His hands shook as he saw what was happening. With his emotionless face, he went very close to the two shadows with the knife. His hands moved in uncanny ways, as he lowered the knife into the left shadow. After the first stab, the feeling became natural to him- and he couldn't stop. The static in the background grew louder and louder, while the world in front of him became clear once again. His clothing was slowly being ripped to shreds by the splitting of the dimensions. Jay felt dizzy, looking around and panicking. He dropped the knife, and on shaky knees, ran backwards out of the room. The two shadows in fact weren't shadows at all. They were Mr. and Mrs. Harkiss. Their carcasses were mutilated and sprawled across the kitchen. Blood filled small pools in the floor, where the ground dipped, and coated the room in a smell of regret. As usual, Jay could not feel pain or express emotion in his facial region, but now- he couldn't feel remorse either. He thought he was out of the pocket dimension, but instead- he slipped into a reality far from his own. Jay ran upstairs, almost falling. He got to his room, and in a panic, knocked most of his items onto the ground. He grabbed a plain, black lower face mask that had previously belonged to an older Halloween costume, from a drawer, and crashed through his abundant supply of science materials. His arms shaky, he grabbed a box labeled "Marine Biology", and pulled out a bag of shark teeth. He crouched at his desk and grabbed some super glue. He then glued the teeth to the mask and put it on quickly. After this- heaving, he grabbed a satchel and went to the top floor of the house. The top floor was barren, and usually used as storage, but there was a secret ladder to the roof that only Jay used. He ran in and climbed to the top of the house. When he got to the top, he saw the faceless man from before. He was holding the "Second chances" sign from before. That's when Jay realized what was happening. He ran and jumped head first into the banner, crashing through it and falling to the ground below. As his vision faded when he hit the floor, the last thing he heard was a whispering voice. "There aren't any second chances." Some say it was a lazy suicide, or a murder- Others say he snapped. No real motives were ever discovered for the case, however. Since the incident, the town became a tourist destination, and quite a bustling place. If you ever visit Meriburrow though, remember this- Don't follow the music. -----