Chapter Zero - Prologue

There once was a young, happy girl from a happy family. Her father kept the city safe with the police, and her mother made sure the bad guys didn’t escape their consequences in court. Born a strong baby and with two role models in her life, she strived to be just like her parents, but her father said his line of work was too dangerous, and her mother said her line of work was too stressful. As the years passed, her body grew weaker and soon, she spent more time at the hospital than her own home.

There once was a young, sad girl from a once happy family. She excelled at nearly every subject and was friends with everyone in her class, yet by her third year, she started skipping classes regularly and spending more time at the hospital. Halfway through, she met a transfer student that had returned and joined her class. A boy with bright blue eyes, full of life, who had brought some happiness back into her life. Every day, he’d show up at her hospital room and they’d spend hours upon hours talking about what they had learned in class, their favourite shows and games, until the boy’s mother came to pick him up after her work. Together with her new friend, she was happy once more, yet one day, he stopped visiting and her parents wouldn’t tell her why. The walls of the hospital had grown cold again and the sadness in her heart grew stronger. She had become but a vessel of despair, and one day, she, too, disappeared.

Six years went by and, on the day the girl would turn fifteen, a boy with clouded blue eyes turned off the alarm with a groan. He was two months into his new school year, yet he had no motivation to continue going. The once optimistic boy was now a pessimist guy that avoided everything and everyone. He turned off his alarm clock, covering himself up and turning to his left. The window of the attic was letting the sun hit his face, so he turned to the right. The door was already open, so the five dogs entered the room. The boy had been living at his aunt’s house for the past few years and he felt his mother had forsaken him. Life grew dull for the boy, his aunt was home all day, yet locked up in her room due to a past injury on her gym career, so he had to take care of her dogs and the house for her, otherwise they’d be dead. All of them, house included. With a loud sigh, he stood up and walked to the bathroom, taking a quick bath, getting dressed, preparing breakfast for both and brushing his teeth before walking out. The route was simple but a bit long. On foot, it took him almost ten minutes to get there, but he didn’t mind it. The walk helped him mentally prepare for another day of classes. As he crossed road after road, he began noticing the streets were empty. No store was open, no curtain was pulled up, it wasn’t a holiday, nor was it a weekend day. He called out, but no one would answer, besides a soft, eerie giggle that echoed through the streets as he continued walking to his school. The giggling grew louder and louder until he stopped and, in the middle of the street, stood a white-haired girl. He called out to the girl but she wouldn’t answer, she just kept giggling. He walked towards the girl, but no matter how much he walked, he wasn’t getting closer. Shaking his head, he decided to go to school. But no matter how much he walked towards school, he always ended up in the same street as the girl. A loud honk caught his attention and as he turned around, his last memory was of an incoming vehicle.

He awoke with a loud gasp, sitting up and looking around frantically. His eyes kept darting around the place and he couldn’t remember ever being in a room like this, which sent his heartbeat to the sky. His breathing was quick yet felt shallow, as if no matter how much air he took in, none would reach his lungs, and he gripped the shirt he was wearing with one hand and the bedsheets with the other. The room looked smaller than it was and his vision was growing blurry, the boy unsure if it was tears or the panic. Cutting straight through everything, the sound of an alarm clock rang over everything and he looked to his right, spotting the bright blue object that ground him to reality. Was this reality, though? Could it be another dream, another prank by his subconscious having turned against him? He tapped the blaring device once, then a second time and a third. Despite being turned off, the alarm kept ringing in his ears for a while longer, time he took to look around properly. A wardrobe pressed against the blue wall to the left of the door and a desk to the right, with some books and pencils, a chair with a pair of pants draped over it and a shirt on top. On the wall next to the desk was an open window that let the brisk morning breeze in. He rubbed his temple and got up from the bed, checking the desk as he put his clothes on. His hair was still wet from the shower and his mouth still tasted the mint from the toothpaste. Cars driving by and people walking and talking on the street brought another nail down on the coffin that was reality and as he put his pants on, he noticed a folded paper sticking out of his right pocket.

Try to stay calm and understand that this reality is as real as yours. The only difference between them is that here, you were never born.

He blinked, processing the first sentence he read. He could feel his heart pumping blood that traveled through his whole body and his ears started ringing once more. He tried shaking his head to make it stop, but it continued and he looked back at the paper.

This world needs you as much as you need it. I can’t tell you more than this, but please, try to live a calm and peaceful life here. You may come to hate me, but I had no other choice, please understand I’ve done this to protect you.

He unfolded the bottom third of the letter and a smaller paper fell to the ground. He took it and noticed the paper was folded into a little bag. Unfolding this new paper as well, he saw a small ring with the same blue color as most of everything in that room.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”, he asked and looked back at the letter.

Keep this with you, even if just in your pocket. I will always be watching over you, no matter what.

The letter ended abruptly with no signature, the back of the paper was clean and the boy gripped it in his hand, but a strange feeling in his chest kept him from ripping it apart. He folded it back and opened one of the drawers of the desk, putting it inside and closing it, before checking the rest of his pockets. The front left was empty, the front right had something strange inside and the back right pocket had what felt like a small mound, which he assumed to be his wallet. Guessing correctly, he opened it to find an ID card he didn’t remember having before.

“This address.”, he checked the card. “It’s close to the school? What the hell am I doing here?”

He continued analyzing the card. His name was correct, his height was as well and his birthdate was scratched over. Behind it was a set of numbers that matched what he remembered and on top, where the names of his parents would be, was instead scratched over. He looked at what else the wallet had and saw it was mostly empty, safe for a few bills and a small, blue candy wrapped in plastic. The lack of his bank card made him laugh as his mind constructed what he believed had happened.

“I see how it is. I got knocked out by someone, who then dragged me to a stranger’s house, stole my things and left a dumb note in hopes I’d be stupid enough to believe it.”

The room was completely silent and the boy looked around, checking under the bed, in the drawers of the bedside table, inside the wardrobe and the other drawers at his desk, but he couldn’t find anything that resembled a camera. He sighed before looking once more, hoping to find something, anything, that meant he was right, but there was nothing. He sat on the end of his bed and hunched forward, holding his head in his hands. Nothing made sense anymore and he felt out of breath. On the wall behind him, his shadow had begun growing larger with several hands slowly moving close to him. Several tears dropped on his pants, blurring his vision and the panic had settled in once more. The shadows that creeped closer to him didn’t look out of place and the ringing in his ears had returned for a third time. The shadows surrounded him, having come off of the walls and ground and shaping themselves into a large dome that was nearly closing.

“One new message.”