Minggu, 18 Juni 2023

The Story of Jam

This story was written in collaboration with a Bottled friend, Sam Pham, 2020. This is published here as it is, as we abandoned this. No grammar editing etc. 

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Dark clouds fill the sky. A group of people stand next to a coffin. Natalie cries as the coffin lowers into the hole. A group of people fill up the hole and cover the coffin with dirt. That day, Natalie's father was buried. 

Natalie spends the rest of that day sitting alone in her room. Later she begins to mutter to herself. Her mind is blank. Her little brother peeks into her room and gets scared. 

"Mother! Mother! Natalie is going crazy!" He searches after their mothers. But he finds nobody. Any other members of the house is nowhere to be found. Trembling, he goes back to peek into Natalie's room.

Natalie turns her head and stares at her brother. Her brother falls back and runs. 

Ten years pass by. Natalie's brother, Jam, summons a dog. The dog sniffs around. The dog barks. Jam does hand signs and captures the ghost. He traps it in a bottle. 

Then he draws the ghost in the bottle on a canvas with oil paints. He sells the painting to a local art gallery. That's how he makes a living. But it's not a stable job because he doesn't see ghosts frequently. So he needs to find another source of income. He prefers if it fits his ability in supernatural things.

As he walks around the art gallery, he notices someone admiring his painting. Jam walks up to the stranger. The stranger looks at Jam. The stranger says, "Believe it or not, but ghost exist. I wish I could contact the artist because he can apparently see ghosts as well."

Jam hesitated for a second. Jam replied, "Why would you want to contact him for?" 

The stranger says, "Because I would like to hire him to catch more ghosts for me."

Jam says, "I'm the artist, Jam." 

The stranger shakes Jam's hand and says, "I'm Sebastian, your new boss." 

Jam asks more questions. "What would you want to do with the ghosts after you catch them?"

Sebastian says thoughtfully, "My dream is to make a ghosts zoo but normal people can't see ghosts. So it's a useless dream."

"And then?" Jam feels impatient.

"But I don't give up. I have found a formula so normal people can see ghosts. They drink the potion, enter the zoo, and can see the ghost behind bars for about 1 hour. Actually, I have developed the idea so it might be a safari park, where we build a ghost world and the visitors go in by riding a van and they can feed the ghosts as well."

"Awesome …" Jam is speechless for a while. "Well, let's do it then! When are we going to start?"

"I like your enthusiasm, young man. But there's one problem."

"What is that?" Again, Jam feels impatient.

"The problem is that ghosts can possess people. Thus, people may not want to go to this safari park," said Sebastian. 

"How come I didn't get possessed then?" asked Jam. 

"Your soul is stronger than most people," explained Sebastian. "This is why you can see them. Those who need the potion have weaker souls. And if the ghost takes over the host, it will devour the person's soul and become more powerful." 

Jam takes a deep breath. 

"What will we do then?" asked Jam. 

"That's something we need to think about … along the way. For now, let's just catch the ghosts!"

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Jam met up with Sebastian at a warehouse. 

"First, I need to teach you a few things." said Sebastian. "There are many kind of ghosts. And each one have levels of how strong they are." 

Sebastian pulled out a white board and wrote as he talked. 

"I'm sure you heard of ghost girls. They are usually the ones that pop up in elevators and in the middle of the night when you least expect it. Then there are ex ghosts. These are the annoying ones that hold a grudge on you just because you said Jill was hot. I can keep categorizing them, but there's no reason to. The point is to find out why they are still a ghost. Why won't they move on."

"I see. I never know that there is such categorization. When I see a ghost I just throw my bottle and gotta catch 'em all."

"Yes."

"And how can we find out why they are still a ghost?"

"That's something we need to think about … along the way."

"Okay."

"You have to get to know them. Talk to them. listen to their story and find out what is missing". 

"So I have to be friends with them?" 

"Kind of." 

"Of my gosh. What if someone can't see the ghost and sees me talking to myself?!" 

"Don't worry about that. Everyone talks to themselves." 

Jam hesitates but he doesn't say anything. He is impatient to start. But there seems to be a lot of other things that Sebastian needs to explain.

Jam worries he made the wrong choice of joining Sebastian. Was it too late for him to leave now? Jam decided to try to figure out the consequences by asking questions. Jam asked, "Has another else worked for you?" 

"No. That's why I hire you."

Now Jam really regrets his decision to join Sebastian. He thinks of ways to escape. But rather he pulls out a bottle from his bag, does hands signs, and, unexpectedly, Sebastian is sucked into the bottle.

"Whoa, it must be a very powerful ghost that I didn't know it in the first time."

"You'll regret it, Jam. You need me. There's a great evil coming." 

Jam regrets what he did. 

"What do you mean?" asked Jam. 

"There's something that's eating all the ghosts. That's why I wanted you to find out their problem and solve it so they can be free." 

"Can I believe you?" 

"Of course you can."

"No. I don't believe you."

Jam puts the bottle into his bag and goes home. At home, he paints the ghost--Sebastian--inside the bottle. He is unsure that this painting would be sold well. Sebastian is not an artistic kind of ghost. "Maybe I should just let him lead me to find the artistic kinds of ghosts then my paintings would be more artistic thus sold well and that means more money," thinks Jam.

"Hey, I will release you," says Jam to Sebastian, "in one condition."

"What condition is that?" 

"That you must show me where the ghosts hide." 

"So does that mean you'll work for me?" 

"No, you'll work for me." 

Sebastian stared at Jam. 

"Fine, it is a deal." 

.

Then they begin to hunt the ghosts. They start from a forest which Sebastian says is full of ghosts.

"Help me," cries a woman's voice. 

Jam looks around but cannot find the woman. 

"Help me," cries the woman again. 

"Where are you?" Jam asks. 

"Behind you!" yells the woman with a sinister voice. 

Jam screams hysterically but he stops as he recognizes the face. "Natalie?"

"GAAAHHH!!!" But Natalie doesn't seem to recognize him. Her face is rotten, full of maggots. 

Jam pulls out a bottle from his bag. The bottle sucks the Natalie's ghost. Afterwards, Jam looks into the bottle and he only sees a dark fog. "Enough for today," he thinks. He is curious whether the ghost inside the bottle has something to do about Natalie.

"Can't be Natalie… There's no way. She's not supposed to be here anymore."

Jam paces frantically around the room. 

"There's no way… Natalie is still alive. There's no way. She is too powerful to die." 

Jam observes the ghost in the bottle again. 

He sees Natalie's face and then it disappears. He thinks that he should ask Sebastian.

But he was hesitant because Sebastian may use it against him if he knew how his weakness. He realized he had to investigate secretly. 

He goes to his old house, to see Natalie.

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Natalie has become a hermit since their father's death. She speaks to no one but herself, mumbling quietly.

Jam wonders why he saw a ghost that looks like Natalie when she was still alive. Jam taps Natalie and asks, "Are you okay? It's been awhile." Natalie turns and looks at Jam. Jam could feel strong, dark aura coming from her. 

"I saw a ghost resembling your face in a forest," says Jam. "Maybe you know something."

Natalie doesn't say anything. Jam waits.

"All right, then," Jam steps back and sits still in a chair, staring at Natalie. He plans to spend some time there, in case Natalie would speak.

The room fills with black, purple fog. Jam nervously looks around. Jam panics and wakes up in his bed. He pats the sides of his bed searching for where he is at. He sits up and looks around. He sweats and breathes heavily. He wonders if it was just a dream. 

He gets up and changes his clothes. He should go seeing Natalie, at any cost. He doesn't forget to bring a bottle with Sebastian inside. Maybe Natalie would react if she sees Sebastian. He runs to his old house.

He makes it to his old house, but the house is gone. All he sees is an empty field of grass. He looks around. He was certain this was the spot. However, he could not find the house. 

He keeps walking around until he stumbles and falls into a hole. It's very long and dark. He can't see anything while falling. Suddenly he pops out of the end of the hole to another similar field of grass and sees his house.

Did Natalie do this? Was she so powerful that she can create dimensions? Jam hated this. He didn't want to admit it, but he was afraid of his sister. 

But he must go to find clarity. He walks into the house and looks for Natalie.

Jam travels through flashbacks of memories. It was too much for his head. Jam cries, "Please stop, Natalie." 

It doesn't stop. Jam grasps his hairs and screams out loud. His knees fall onto the grass and he rolls over. He keeps rolling until he falls again into the hole where he came. Now it's all darkness.

He stops falling. He sees Natalie floating down. 

Natalie says to Jam, "When you're ready for everything to end, come back and kill me. Until then, become strong enough to rule the world." 

Jam wakes up again from his bed. He feels confused. What did Natalie mean? 

He gets out of his bed then reaches for the bottle with Sebastian inside. He unplugs the bottle and lets the ghost out. He means to ask him about Natalie. He hopes to find an answer from Sebastian.

Sebastian clears his throat and tells Jam, "I did not know she was your sister. A couple of years ago, everything was peaceful in the ghost realm. The human realm and the ghost realm used to be separate. But one day, a girl somehow crossed over to the ghost realm. She was scared and crying. We would see her regularly. And we even became friends with her. But then we noticed ghosts started to go missing. Everyone blamed Natalie. Since then, no one saw her. Up until now at least. And she seemed to grow a lot more powerful. This is why I need your help actually. I need you to gather more ghost before Natalie keeps consuming their power. So I ask one last time. Will you help me, Jam?"

Jam thinks for a while and nods. He decides to go back to the forests which Sebastian says is full of ghosts. He brings a lot of bottles with him and also camping gears. He determines that he won't go back home until he saves all the ghosts, temporarily. And then, Sebastian says, he must fight Natalie and kill her.

"No way I would kill my sister!' shouts Jam.

"There's no other way …."

"There must be another way!" Jam insists. "I can't believe you!"

"You must believe me!"

Jam grunts and thinks to himself, "I should look for second advise. But to whom?"

"There's no second advise. There's no one else to whom you could talk about this matter," Sebastian can read Jam's mind.

Jam gasps. "You're dangerous."

"I am not. I am trying to save you and all the innocent ghosts."

"I can't believe you!"

Sebastian sighs. "Then what are you going to do?"

"I'll find another way. Another way to save not just all the ghosts, but my sister too." 

"There's no other way. You have to believe me. I tried."

"What do you mean you've tried?" 

"Forget what I said. Let's just go separate ways." 

Sebastian floats away. Jam stares. 

.

Jam starts to catch as many ghosts as he can.

Even so, Jam does not know what to do with them. Should be try to talk to them and convince them to team up on Natalie? He felt he should not do that since they will try to kill her. He had to think of a solution for everyone. 

He thinks so hard that he feels like forgetting all this matter. He abandons the bottles filled with ghosts and sleeps as much as possible because he is so stressed. He needs an outlet to pour down his negative energy. Since nothing serious has happened, and Sebastian never disturbs him any more, he finds at ease to come back to his old hobby: painting ghosts in the bottles. One ghost after another, he produces artworks and becomes a prolific painter. Sometimes he takes a break, and brings his paintings to the art gallery and sells them. Some paintings sell pretty well that he begins to gain some fortune. He moves to a better apartment, gets a girlfriend, and further his study in Fine Art. He is doing very good. Both Natalie and Sebastian are forgotten. Once in a while, he still goes to the forest to catch ghosts when he needs to find inspiration (and also to pay bills), and he doesn't find any obstacle there.

But Jam suddenly realizes that he is getting stronger. He notices that he can go through walls and float. But how he asks himself. What gave him this power? And how should he use it? 

He becomes a Superman. He also can fly and bend any metal object. He is getting afraid of his own power. 

He started to fly around town when suddenly he started to decline slowly. His flying powers fade. Does this mean his powers are not permanent? If so, how did he even obtain them?

He is so confused.

He decides to draw since drawing helps him think. He reaches for a bottle of ghost he captured earlier. He draws the ghost. He finishes painting the ghost. His body begins to levitate. 

....

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