Chapter 1: Prologue

1

Viatorem woke up from a weird dream, he found himself at his college dormitory, he's been sleeping on this place since he started college. Viatorem used to live with his parents in a small town, everyone knew each other and things were always the same back then. Nothing would change, and for Viatorem, life has to change or you're not living it to its fullest. So he decided that when he gets to college he'd choose the city as a place to have his final years of study. He didn't have that much money, he saved some of it from the part-time jobs he had but that was it. His parents were against the idea of him going away from the town, so he didn't have any financial support from them, but that didn't stop him. Viatorem wanted to change. His hair that once was black, was now red, Viatorem also changed his way of talking just so he would act as the citizens of his town just a bit less. He is a short person, his height is about 5.2 feet tall, with green eyes, and hair with enough size to reach his shoulders.

When Viatorem was about to leave his bed, he heard a noise that'd get louder each time the footsteps approached closer to his bedroom door.

-Wake up Vivi!It's the time for your disgusting breakfast yet again!

-Ohhh! I sure was loving to hear the birds singing this morning, I was about to finish my wake up ritual, until I started hearing your annoying voice, Ricardo.

-Your so-called "wake up ritual" usually is sleeping another 5 minutes, and I'm always getting late for school because of you, bro. I know you're confused about your life, but that's no reason to harm my school life!

Ricardo was one of Viatorem roommates, unlike Viatorem, Ricardo was a really tall guy with a well-built body, however, he was bald, not because he wanted, but he couldn't grow any hair. Ricardo used to be a delinquent with no dreams until his sister started to get ill, both his parents gave up on their jobs so they could always be on his sister's side. Since then, the delinquent Ricardo decided to become a medic himself, he'd study hard so he could always assist his sister, since family was the most important thing to him.

-You don't need to wait for me though.

-Yes I do. Because if I leave you here you won't go to school. God, first time I met you, your eyes were full of life and with so many objectives, how did you become so cold and empty, Viatorem?

Viatorem couldn't answer that, since he didn't know as well. He was really excited about everything when school started, but as his life kept going a lot of issues started popping up on his mind.

Issues that we will start to notice.

2

Viatorem left his bed and Ricardo handed him a piece of bread with some butter in it.

-Is this breakfast? - he asked with a disappointed look.

-Yes, we don't have time to do fancy breakfasts thanks to you, now hurry up, or I'll fart on your bed like the last time.

Unfortunately for Viatorem, Ricardo wasn't joking. Last week, when Viatorem overslept, Ricardo farted so bad on his bed that when he got to his apartment back from school, he noticed a bad smell coming from his bed. Viatorem had to change his bed since he couldn't sleep with that smell, not only that but he had to get a reason why his bed was in that state. When Viatorem knew that was Ricardos fault, he got mad at him a bit but he also was revealed that it wasn't one of Bebe pranks.

Viatorem got his backpack and left his room, Ricardo was waiting for him at their dormitory entrance, the college wasn't too far however they'd still take about fifteen minutes to get there, which was a lot for Viatorem, sometimes he'd ask his fellow friend if he could carry him, of course, he was always rejected but it was always worth a try for him.

Since Viatorem and Ricardo were studying different courses when they arrived to college they had to part aways to different classroom, that point Viatorems anxiety started to hit him up like a punching bag.

-Well...Viatorem - said Ricardo with a sad expression - this is where we leave each other, good luck bro!

Ricardo hugged him. Viatorem would never understand why Ricardo was so attached to him, he always felt like a burden to Ricardo, but he always stuck with him no matter what kind of behavior Viatorem would have. There was once a time that he decided to ask Ricardo why he was always hanging out with him, Ricardo only smiled and said:"Because you were the one who set up my fireworks.", Viatorem always tried to ask him what did that mean, but Ricardo just kept smiling and would always leave him like that, like he was embarrassed of saying it.

3

Viatorem got to his classroom, and the first person he saw, was Bebe.

-Hello Villager! Did you take a shower today? Or were the cows too harsh for you and they gave you an unescapable smell?

Everyone who was near her laughed. But as soon as she started to make fun of Viatorem, the class representative stood up from his chair and yelled at her:

-Bebe, I hope this is the last time you start messing around even before the class starts. If I see your unfunny speech and your smirky face around this classroom, things won't get funny for you.

Anger could be felt on the Class Representative words, so Bebe just started walking towards the classroom door.

-Where are you going Bebe? Do you think running from your mistakes feels like a good choice? - said the class Representative.

-I'm going to the toilet, after hearing so much shit I've to dispose of it somewhere, the class hasn't started yet so you've no reason to stop me - said Bebe while slamming the door.

The Class Representative sighed, and turned to Viatorem.

-I can't believe you used to date her Raph - said Viatorem giggling

-Haha, indeed. Viatorem, I'm so sorry that she discharges everything on you. - said Raph with sad-looking eyes.

-It's fine, part of this, it's me who to blame.

Viatorem sat down on his chair and started to prepare his study set up for his class.

-Don't be a fool, Viatorem. I changed because I wanted. - said Raph while heading towards his chair.

Bebe was probably one of the prettiest girls of his college, she had a long blonde hair and blue eyes, just like a princess from the fairytales the way she dresses was just like a princess as well, she was the same height as Viatorems and she was really slim. However, Bebe being such a perfect being was not true, since her grades were bad. Now Raph on the other hand, he wasn't a pretty person at all, his eyes were pure black, and his hair was always a mess, even though he would try so hard to fix his hair. He had burn marks on his face, how did he get those? No one knew besides Bebe, who used to date him. When they dated they were usually called:" The Beauty and the Beast", it was a mean name for a couple. But for Raph it was better than being called Clown Face.

4

The class had started twenty minute ago, and Viatorem was feeling bored, so he decided to check his phone for a bit, but as soon as he turned on his phone, he saw a lot of messages from his mom asking him to go back to his town, he let his phone fall onto the floor making a noise that everyone could hear. The teacher stopped talking and walked near Viatorem.

-Viatorem, you should..-but the teacher couldn't finish her speech because on the moment she saw Viatorem shaking and crying, the next thing she said was:

-Raph please, go with Viatorem to the nursery.

-Yes, Miss Maria.

Viatorem and Raph left the room together and started walking through the hallway.

-This is the first time that you don't stop the teacher from making you go to the nursery. Can I know why?

Viatorem did not reply.

Unanswered, Raph just kept walking.

-Hey, Viatorem. I've seen your grades aren't going that better, do you want me to study with you after the class is over?

Viatorem did not reply.

Unanswered, Raph just kept walking.

-Hey-

Viatorem stopped walking and turned to Raph.

-Say Raph, do you pity me? - said Viatorem without letting Raph talking back - If you do, I'm sorry you never helped me a bit from the start, if you think you owe me because I somehow helped you changing when I still was that shiny person I once was, you don't. You did this all by yourself. - then, Viatorem smiled and with sad-looking eyes and said - please I beg you...if you're my friend Raph, don't ever pity me, I might be falling, but I don't want you to give me a trampoline to stop me from hurting, I want to be myself from doing that.

Raph smiled, and they kept on walking.

5

After school was over, Viatorem was preparing to leave, until Ricardo touched on his shoulder:

-Hey bro! Wanna hang out today? I know you don't have part-time job today! So you can't escape from your pal!

Viatorem smiled to him, at that moment, he felt happy to feel Ricardo's spirit, after a tough day of college.

-So bro, let me tell you where we're heading today! I've to go to a old goods store since at my class we need to bring something related to medicine's story, I could've just brought a bibliography of some important doctor, but you know how your bro works, I want people to be surprised about what I'll bring to them!

-Sure! We can go there, however! - said Viatorem with a smirk on his face - you gotta treat me something at Johns Good Icecream!

Ricardo laughed and accepted his request, they started heading to the store which was close to their dormitories. When they arrived, the store's door was so old that Ricardo got scared to touch it since he was strong enough to destroy the door with only one punch, because of that, Viatorem was the one who opened it. As soon as they opened and got inside the store, there was silence and some footsteps going towards them.

-Welcome - said an old man wich had a very hoarse voice, a lot of warts on his face, shorter than Viatorem and his eyes had no iris, only white could be seen on his eyes.

-Good afternoon, - said Ricardo with a scared face - I've been looking for some old medicine-related instruments, and I was hoping that this store had something like that.

The old man smiled, and without saying anything he walked away, Ricardo started to follow him thinking that he'd get him to what he wanted. While Ricardo was busy looking for his materials, Viatorem started looking around the store, it sure was an old store, he didn't recognize any of this stuff and didn't know what they were for either. But at the end of the store's hallway, there was a face shaped mirror, which scared him but at the same time he was curious about the mirror, so he decided to approached it and started to touch the top of the mirror which made him even more creeped out since the material that was made of felt like it was made out of human's skin, but at some extend he thought it was cool too. At that moment, Viatorem felt like touching the middle of the mirror, as soon as he touched it, the mirror started to push him inside the mirror with such strength that he wasn't able to call for help.

6

-Thanks for coming, young one - said the old man with his creepy smile.

-Thank you for having a lot of things I wanted to bring for my class! People will be so surprised when I show all this cool stuff! - said Ricardo with a big smile on his face while he was preparing to carry a full sack of old medicine materials

-You're welcome, I was once a medic myself, always happy to know that my materials are going to the hands of the future generation of medics.

Ricardo was preparing to leave the store until he noticed that his buddy wasn't around the store.

-Excuse me, did you see my friend around? - said Ricardo while he turned to the old man

-Oh! You probably didn't notice, but while you were looking at the materials you needed, your friend said he wasn't feeling well, and he heading back to his place.

-Oh, I see thank you!

And then, Ricardo left.