CHAPTER 0: Prologue

In the midst of darkness, I didn’t prevail. Emptiness reaped inside my broken mind, trapping it inside of a cage full of uncertain solitude. The fogging of my vision that was once full of colors now gleams black and white. I’m a lost, hopeless being. A menace to society… Should I even consider myself sane at this point? I doubt so, but as I live on, as I go forward in time, nothing will change the outcome of my new profound objective in life. And that is—

Well, that should be told some other time. The consequences of my actions have affected everything around me, though, no matter what they were, whether it was taking one’s life, tormenting a poor bastard… My reactions to it all remained the same. Nothing. No expression. Not a flinch, let alone a single twitch. Absolutely… Nothing.

The sun gleamed yellow in Flint, Michigan, where the skies were crystal clear. It was a beautiful day in a city that was usually drenched in gray. In a deserted park covered in the remnants of Flint’s roaring chrimes, a gentleman with long brown hair stood near a bench and smoked a cigarette, staring at the empty streets. He didn’t seem to mind being alone. To him, it was a familiar feeling—loneliness, desolation, with no soul in sight.

Fortunately another random gentleman in his early thirties appeared, walking by, minding his own business. He felt tired and stressed after a long day, so he decided to sit on the bench the other fellow stood next to. Sitting down and letting out a deep sigh, he pulled a cigarette out. He looked up at the gentleman beside and felt the urge to start a conversation.

“Hey, how are you doing, man? Nice day we’re having… for once, especially in this god forsaken city.” He lit his cancer stick and inhaled his first breath of death.

The gentleman next to him smoked the last of his cigarette, tossed it aside, and placed a hand on his hip. “Yeah… it’s dashing, isn’t it?” His voice sounded bored and deep, yet there was a pinch of emptiness in it.

Sitting with an arm resting on a knee, the man continued smoking his cigarette. “I would say so.” The man blew out a huge cloud of smoke, letting out a tired groan as the cloud of smoke dispersed. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s someone like you doing here at this broken park? You know it’s a hotspot for activity, right?”

“Yeah,” he replied with his deep broken tone.

The man sitting on the bench gazed up at the stranger. From his observation, the stranger was quite tall and young. “You seem bothered. Would you want me to just shut up?”

The young man gazed at the sky, staring at it with empty eyes drenched in sadness. “You don’t have to worry. I’m just minding my own business, as usual.”

“Hmm. Okay then.” The man gazed up too as he tossed away his cigarette. After a while, he asked, “Whatcha doing here brother? You seem like you’re lost in a trance or something?”

The young man stood there and lowered his hand off his hip then continued staring, but he didn’t reply. Then that moment turned to a drag for a full minute. The man sitting on the bench felt a bit uncomfortable experiencing the eeriness of silence, so he thought it was best to just get up and leave, but then the young stranger responded. Not with words but with movement. His chest puffed out. It seemed like he was taking in a breath, and a long one at that. He held it in for a couple of seconds until he finally exhaled, softly and calmly. He nodded and slowly blinked.

Finally coming out of his trance, he responded. “I’m just… reflecting about something. Something about my past. Sorry for being so quiet. I just can’t help but be lost in my own train of thought on this glorious day. But to answer your question furthermore, I’m also here to hopefully find someone from that past.”

His brows slightly raised, then he looked to the side briefly feeling similar about his situation but opposite. “Oh, okay. It’s fine, but shoot man, you seem kinda… how would I put it… dead? Sorry if that sounds rude, but there’s no energy in your voice. You alright?”

The young stranger exhales while still gazing at the sky. “I’m fine… just fine.”

The man sensed the young stranger’s saddened aura pulsing off of him. But now he was starting to regret asking him what was usually seen as a normal question. So he brought out a calm smile to hopefully brighten the stranger’s mood. “If you’re here reflecting on your past you’ve most likely experienced many tragedies in your life, haven’t ya?”

The young stranger briefly glimpsed at the man. “Funny you say that sir, but I’m still rather young… Very, I should say.”

The man looked back to the young stranger with a curved brow. “How old are ya then? From what I can tell, you’re roughly in your late twenties.”

The young man mildly chuckled. “I’m still a teenager, sir.”

“Wow!” the man replied, looking rather shocked.

Assumption came into his mind, though he felt that this guy was hiding his real age but didn’t want to say so. He thought the stranger had just told a lie.

The man chuckled. “You sure do look rather mature for your age… Funnily enough you remind me of someone.”

The man looked at the street view before him. His smile faded and he sighed deeply, as he thought about his past.

The abnormally old looking teenager looked to his side and stared at the man sitting on the bench. He felt a little intrigued about the random reminder the man had brought up, although his eyes were squinting.

Another brief silence came about between the two, but this time the man broke it by taking in air, blowing it out, and licking his lips. “Speaking of the past, you think I can join in on your reflection? All this talking is bringing back memories of my own past, a past I’ve moved on from… hopefully to never return.”

His eyes squinted as he crossed his arms. The teenager’s body language showed that he was all ears from how his eyes were locked onto him, seeming permanent at the moment. The temptation of hearing the man’s past not only made him eager to hear it, but it also brought about a sign of suspicion.

“Go on, tell it. I’m interested in your past, sir,” he said in a monotone voice.

“My… the way you responded makes it seem like you really do—”

“Go on… and… tell it.” This time there was aggression in his voice and a glint appeared within the young man’s eyes. Even when he put some anger in his voice, it didn’t seem to bother the man all that much.

The old man smiled. “That’s the spirit.”

The teenager stood there eager to listen carefully to the gentleman’s past, but one could only assume why he was so intrigued about the old man’s past.

“Whatever your past, it certainly might be similar to my own if you’re reflecting on it… but my past was nothing but manipulation, lust, and worse of all… pain.” The man collapsed his hands together, lowering his head and rested his arms on his knees. “A past in which I describe pain as betrayal. I’ve killed people, cheated, but I think the worst pain of all was betraying the one’s I actually cared about… especially this one group with a little boy, whom I called a brother.”

The teenager’s gaze was still upon the man, as he lowered his arms, seeming to relax all of a sudden.

“Everyday I remind myself why I’ve done such a thing, for God as my witness, why did I do that to such good people? Yet at the same time… they were a bunch of criminals. I was one as well, so one day I had it. On a bloody day I decided you know what? I’m tired of this life, but most of all… I’m tired of all of you.”

“What did you do?” the young teenager asked.

The man raised his head and arm, leaning a hand on his head in shame. “I turned my back on them and killed the one closest to that boy. Ultimately, I left him to die because I was so tired of such a horrible lifestyle.” He sighed while raising both hands to the top of his head, placing them there. “And he was such a good boy too, a boy filled with such care, a great mindset, and his devotion to protect the one person he cared about… And I was weak enough to abandon him after killing someone close just to escape that domain of violence.”

The teenager gazed out at the sky once more, then closed his eyes and went quiet again.

After a brief pause of silence the man asked, “You praying?”

“Yes… I just wanted to thank God for allowing me to hear your story,” the teenager said in a more enlightened tone.

“Is that so? What makes you say that?”

“You see, as you said in your story, although you’ve made mistakes in your past, you managed to move on and better not only yourself… but your life as well by leaving that past.” He opened his eyes and looked back at the man in a slow creepy manner with glinted eyes. “One question that does come to mind is have you ever thought about the past potentially ever coming back in some type of action? Perhaps in your dreams? As a mention just like this, or in worse cases, come back and seek a conclusion to your selfish actions?”

The man gasped. His eyes quivered and he felt rather shocked hearing such powerful words coming at him. “I-I… don’t know.”

“You know what I did as I closed my eyes, prayed to God, and reflected on my past?”

“What?” he said with concern laced in his voice.

He briefly gazed at the sky then back to the man. “I thought to myself, if I close my eyes and can’t feel the sun’s rays trying to sneak its way into the creeks of my eyelids, then darkness would forever be my field of view. The fact that not a single glimpse of light couldn’t be seen, nor could I feel the heavens from above, is a reflection of my future outcomes.”

A single tear filled with regret and guilt trickled down the old man’s face. “Is that so? So if I do the same… will I see the outcome of my future?”

The teenager slightly chuckled with an empty grin. “Of course, try it yourself. Pray with me, my new friend.”

“Alright,” he said and turned to the sky.

“Close your eyes now, and gaze upon the blue clear sky without a single cloud in sight.”

The man closed his eyes and brought out a soft smile while reflecting on his past. His mind flooded with old memories, haunting ones at that. He could see the past calling to him from the screams of the child who he was friends with, alongside his companion.

“What do you see?” the teenager asked.

“M-my past… slowly coming back to me.”

“Can you hear it? Can you see it? Is it reminding you of your horrid regrets, the guilt you’ve stored away for all these years and moving on to better yourself? To not give a single care in the world for what happened to the people you’ve betrayed?”

Tears slipped past the dam. He slightly gasped. “Yes… yes I can. His screams, the bullets, the woman whom I’ve played… All of it is returning. It hurts… It hurts so bad.”

The teenager’s grin faded and he became serious, knitting his brows and clenching his fists. “Now think about it, what are you afraid of most? What feeling haven’t I described that you’re so afraid of saying?”

The man made sad gasping sounds as more tears leaked through his eyelids. “I’m… I’m afraid… afraid of the past, the past coming to—”

“You’re afraid to feel the past, correct?”

“Yes…”

The teenager gazed at the man more intensely. The glint in his eyes grew and clenched his fists further. “Then… keep praying. Pray harder so God can forgive you for your sins. Can you feel the sun? Can you sense the light trying its best to break your eyelids and slip light into your brightened future.”

“Yes… yes I can. The heat… its rays are trying to make me open them. I can feel God trying to make me open my eyes and look into my blessed future.”

The teenager reached for something in his jacket and left his hand there. “What… Do you mean by that? What is God trying to do to you, or what is he trying to… tell you?” The glint in his eyes grew even sharper. They were wretched and showed rage.

“I-I think God’s trying to tell me that my sins are forgiven!”

The teenager grinned and started pulling out his hand from inside his jacket. And when he did, a silver gun was in the grip of his hand glistened in the sun’s rays. He kept his intense stare on the man, pulled the hammer back on it, and slowly walked in front of him.

The man was lost in his own train of thoughts and started thinking about the past potentially striking back at him, so he began praying to God to watch over him, to protect him, but most of all don’t allow that past to come bite him in a horrific manner. As he collapsed his hands and continued praying, the teenager with the gun stepped in front of the man. When he blocked out the sun’s rays, the man gasped and got scared.

He reached out to what would’ve been the sky was now the teenager standing before him. “Th-The light…?! It’s-it’s gone… Wh-why? What does this mean, young one? Would… Could this mean?” His last words and the scared tone in his voice brought amusement to the teenager.

The grin on his face faded as he slowly raised the gun. “Most likely, a cloud has appeared, blocking you from progressing further to your brightened future. So in my meaning I mentioned earlier, what could this mean? What could that cloud blocking you from going further mean to you?”

He aimed the gun directly at the man’s face without his knowledge because his eyes were still shut.

The man cried through his closed eyelids. “It-it means the past, the past I’m so afraid of might potentially… potentially… come… back… to—”

With the gun aimed at the man’s face, the teenager started applying pressure on the trigger. “To haunt your dreams, interrupt your life. Your mind constantly clouded over the thought of it to finally come back to bite you. In the end, and ultimately, seek a conclusion to your selfish… actions.”

A final pause of silence came between them. The man lowered his arms with his eyes still leaking. He gave into his emotions and started crying quietly. As he cried, the teenager’s face still did not express a single ounce of emotion, yet that glint in his eyes was still there. After another couple seconds of silence an ominous wind blew by. As it started to intensify, dead leaves blew past them. The teenager squeezed the trigger, killing him in cold blood.