Soledad Novel
It is a light novel written and illustrated by Jovan and Raquel.
This volume is based on the development of a game by the same authors, depicting an alternative route to the story.(Demo now available on itch.io, (Demo) Whispers from the Abyss: SOLEDAD)
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The persistent sound of the phone broke the silence of the early morning like a scream in the dark. Matlal, 25 years old, sat up with his heart hammering in his chest.
"Who's calling me at this hour?" he murmured with a long yawn, rubbing his eyes.
He got out of bed and answered his phone, still groggy.
"Hello, who's this?"
On the other end of the line, the broken voice of Ketzaly, his childhood friend, spoke with words heavy with tragedy.
"It's me, Ketzaly. Are you busy? Matlal…"
Her voice trembled as she delivered the devastating news.
"Your mother passed away. I'm so sorry."
The news hit like a sharp blow.
Matlal stood still, the phone in his hand, feeling the weight of the past crush him once again.
"What? How? Why? I don't understand," he murmured, barely aware that his lips were moving.
For a moment, he couldn't process what he had just heard.
"I don't know, Matlal. The Founder just told me the funeral is in a few hours."
"So I thought I'd call you."
"The Founder? A funeral already? I don't get it."
"The Founder dictates the rules of the town, Matlal. If you've forgotten, it doesn't matter. Just come. Now."
"I understand. Anyway, thanks, Ketzaly," were his last words before hanging up, as he sat lost in thought, searching for answers.
"I'm her only son, didn't they plan on telling me anything?"
"My mom always said that town was a nest of rotten secrets. She hated the people there. I don't get it... none of this makes sense."
Matlal sat at the edge of his bed, staring out the window fogged by the early morning chill. The dim light of a nearby streetlamp barely cut through the darkness of the room, casting shadows that seemed to take on a life of their own.
He then looked at the wall clock, whose ticking used to be comforting on stormy nights, but now it resonated ominously in the silence that filled the room.
"If I leave now, I'll get there at dawn... maybe then everything will make more sense."
He shut his eyes tightly, trying in vain to hold back the tears threatening to escape. Images of his childhood resurfaced with each memory, bringing both joys and pains that now seemed sharper than ever.
Determined not to waste any more time, he stood up and walked slowly through the house, going from room to room, clinging to the foolish hope of finding her there, as if her absence were just a bad dream from which he would soon wake.
Matlal stopped in front of an old mirror in the hallway, and for a moment, he lost himself in his blurry reflection. His messy dark hair falling over his forehead, and his dark brown eyes, sunken and weary, reflected the accumulated fatigue and pain of years. The look in his eyes seemed to conceal a sea of emotions he couldn't even articulate, not even to himself.
He felt lost and vulnerable, as if reality had crumbled around him, and he was incapable of piecing the fragments back together.
Matlal, clutching his head with a sharp pain, began walking almost instinctively, slowly making his way to his car. With each step, his strength faded, and he dropped the phone he had been holding.
Had he been in different circumstances, he would have quickly picked up the phone and examined it for any flaws, but in that moment, he didn't even pay attention to it, simply continuing to walk as if unaware.
The hallway he walked down seemed to stretch with each step, an endless tunnel pulling him toward the abyss. The walls seemed to close in, the air grew heavy, and the pain in his head throbbed like a war drum, threatening to break him into pieces.
This led him to remember the past, the days when he and his mother had arrived in the town of Tlatelchihualliel. He was only two years old when his life took an irreversible turn.
It was a remote place, strange and isolated from the bustle of big cities and even other towns. There, secrets seemed to sprout like deep roots at every corner, wrapping everything in an oppressive air.
It was in that environment where his childhood, marked by pain, planted the seeds of the traumas that would later shape the identities now sharing his mind.
These identities grew stronger when he left the town, hoping to find relief, but his life in that isolated and lonely environment only intensified his problems.
And as if that wasn't enough, the echo of familiar voices began to reverberate in his head, first as a murmur, then as an insistent chorus. They had been with him since he was a child, fragments of something broken he never managed to repair. And now, free from the medication that kept them dormant, they reclaimed space in his mind.
The medication that used to calm him had run out, and at that moment, he didn't have the time or energy to go find more.
Inside his fragmented mind, two identities with different personalities, along with his own, coexisted. As he sank deeper into his thoughts, the voices began to echo louder in his head, intensifying with every slow step he took down the hall.
"Leave it all behind! There's nothing for you there," hissed one voice, sharp and mocking.
"You have to go back, she needs you. Mat, you know you're doing this for her," replied another, deep and comforting.
Matlal closed his eyes, wishing both voices would shut up, but silence never came.
"Shut up..." he murmured, but the chorus in his head didn't relent.
Finally, he reached the door at the end of the hallway, a journey that seemed endless.
Each step had been a monumental effort, his legs heavy as lead and his mind a whirlwind of dark thoughts.
Suddenly, the pain stopped, and his eyes filled with tears, making it difficult to see.
The world around him seemed to dissolve, leaving him in absolute silence where he could only hear the voices in his mind.
With a trembling hand, he grasped the doorknob. He didn't expect comfort or answers behind the door, only more questions. Yet, he turned it.
The cold air wrapped around him like a foreboding whisper. Something awaited on the other side. Something that had been waiting for him since the moment he left the town.