Upon reaching home, Aiden locked himself in his room. There were few messages on his phone, mainly from Wade and his mother but he ignored them for the time being and opened up his system.
'Connect.'
He wanted to know what type of skill it was. As he had gotten it by accidentally mixing both his acting and singing skills at the same time, he felt like it would be something special.
Anyway, every skill from his system was special.
[The ability to connect with a master from any profession that you have a good affinity with. It could only be used once a year.]
That was the description of the skill according to his system and it was also the first skill he had gotten that had come up with restrictions.
But if the skill was really like that, then the restrictions were understandable. Otherwise, it would be too overpowered.
'If I used it, maybe I would be able to complete 'Joker'.'
Aiden thought in his mind and took a deep breath.
A lot of things were going in his mind and his phone was continuously ringing but ignoring that, he muttered.
"Connect."
Rows of notifications immediately appeared in front of him.
[You have used the skill 'Connect'.]
[The only master you have a high affinity with is the master musician 'Agnas'. A connection is being made.]
[You would be experiencing the connection soon.]
[A connection has been made.]
[You are going to experience a whole life now.]
As soon as Aiden read through the notifications, the world around him started to shake. The walls in his room disappeared, the chair and his desk did too.
The next thing he knew was that he was in the middle of a concert. He wasn't the one performing but just a spectator.
It seemed to be the concert of a local band and people were cheering them on. With one look, they seem to look strange, wearing clothes that Aiden would only see in old movies.
'Wait… I feel like I'm suddenly very short.'
He thought as someone picked him up.
"Agnas, are you looking at it? They are cool, right?"
"Yeah, momma."
His mouth moved on its own and Aiden could just stare at the woman in front of him. She looked young.
"Do you want to be like them one day? You like music, right."
"I do. Music makes me happy. I would be like just those people one day. People would love me and we would have money. You would be happy then, right?"
"Yes I will be."
The woman gave the brightest smile Aiden had ever seen and the world changed again.
This time, he was in the bathroom. His body was shaking a bit and he felt anxious and nervous, like he would pass out at any moment.
He was repeatedly splashing water on his face. Someone barged through the door at that moment.
It was an old man.
"What are you doing here? People are waiting for you on the stage."
"I, I can't do it. Mr. Jefferson. I'm very nervous. I feel like I will pass out and my voice won't reach anyone."
"You can't think that, son. You need to perform. Let the music flow through you and everything would be fine. If you back out of this, everything is fucking doomed."
The old man shouted and the vision changed.
It keeps changing.
It was like Aiden was seeing a movie and although everything was too fast to make sense, he was feeling a plethora of emotions. At this point, he had already realised what was going on.
He was experiencing the life of Agnas. He was connected with him.
And he had to say.
It was a sad life. A life he won't even wish for his enemy.
Aiden experienced a scene when Agnas was crying in the bathroom because he lost his mom before doing a show with a smile. He became too big and his agent controlled every aspect of his music.
Even then, he smiled and performed.
His friends died, his relationships broke, his pet dog died. One thing that never died was loneliness in his heart and the smile on his face that he had mastered till that point.
One of the incidents Aiden experienced was something extremely painful. Agnas used to have a girl he loved but she got pregnant in high school and married someone else.
Years later, they met when Agnas was a star. She still treated him the same and he hoped to keep at least a friendship this time, having matured.
But the next day, a newspaper published a scandal about them.
The girl's husband was angered and left her, believing that scandal and she bashed Agnas, telling him that him being a star is a curse. Even when he was not at fault, he kept experiencing bad things.
It was like this was a sacrifice for achieving most of the materialistic things in life.
He kept blaming himself on every part of his life.
Finally, Aiden's vision changed for the final time.
'Where am I now?'
He thought and saw that it was a room. His vision was a bit blurry this time but he was holding a guitar. His hands moved on his own and played a tune.
Time seemed to stop for a moment as the tune resounded in the room.
''Joker'? Is this the time when Agnas made the song?'
He thought as Agnas played the tune for a while until he suddenly threw his guitar on a wall. It was so sudden that Aiden was shocked.
The guitar broke and Agnas stood up from the sofa and walked up to the big mirror on the side of the room.
The next words Agnas spoke froze Aiden.
"Hey, are you still alive inside of me?"
Aiden wondered if he knew that he was there.
"A part of me that genuinely smiles and enjoys music. Is it still alive?"
That calmed him down and Aiden gave all his attention to what was happening.
"I don't think so. Why do I feel so dead everytime I make music? I don't even know if I could smile anymore."
Saying that, Agnas smiled in front of the mirror but it was a distorted one. For the next five minutes, he kept practicing different types of smiles but none of them looked good. It was fake.
Agnas realised it himself and let out a small laugh.
"I guess I lost it. The ability to be happy…"
A tear dropped.
Aiden suddenly realised that Agnas was crying and for the first time in his life, he realised the price of stardom.
The next second, the mirror broke and the vision ended.
Aiden found himself back in his room. The walls, the chair, the desk… everything was back but Aiden was sweating.
His temperature seemed to have dropped and his back was drenched.
For a while, he found it hard to breathe.
Suddenly, a tear dropped.
He looked down on the carpet where the tear had dropped and then, touched his own face.
Aiden was crying.
***
"Where is Aiden? You know I don't like it. He's not been on the shooting for two days. We won't be able to finish in time if he's like this. I thought he was a very disciplined person."
Asano said as he tapped his leg repeatedly on the back seat of a car. There was annoyance on his face.
"I understand how you are feeling. I don't know what's going on with Aiden either. He's never been like this before. Wade, do you know anything?"
Omar looked at Wade who was driving. As Aiden was not responding to calls or anything, all of them were going to his house.
Wade had tried before but he had rejected him, saying that he was busy with something.
"I don't know. That's why I'm worried. I don't think anything major happened nor did he look weird. The suddenness of it makes me more worried."
Wade said, making the other two wonder what was really going on with Aiden.
He had never acted like that on the set and had a rule of not drinking during shooting as to not miss his schedule due to oversleeping.
That type of person was missing from the shooting for two days now.
"You sure nothing happened on the set?" Omar asked. He had not been on the set a lot.
"No, nothing happened. He was enjoying it and would talk a lot with younger actors."
"Yeah it's strange then."
Omar muttered and soon, the car stopped at Aiden's apartment. All of them got out and made their way up to the floor he used to live on.
"I have keys."
Wade said when they reached the apartment. He opened up the door and entered inside.
Taking a few steps, he saw that there were boxes of pizza besides the sink.
'At least he's eating.'
He thought, moving towards his room.
"Aiden, are you here?" Omar shouted up.
"He must be in his room. He said he's working on something."
Wade walked up to his bedroom and opened up the door. With a glance, his eyes landed on Aiden but he stopped his mouth from saying anything.
It was like he had seen something that shouldn't be disturbed.
Both Asano and Omar were the same.
In the room, Aiden was holding up his guitar. He wasn't playing anything but he looked so focused that no one wanted to disturb him.
Moreover, his eyes looked very different. Almost like he had seen every grief in this world.
'What happened to him?'
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