As I opened the door to my house, I let out an exhausted sigh as I set my heavy backpack against the wall of the living room. I then vaulted over the couch's back and landed onto its soft cushions to see if there was anything good on TV. Reaching for the remote sitting on the coffee table, I pressed the power button, and the screen flashed to life.

"…In world news, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are maintaining a heavily guarded perimeter around the site of last month's terrorist attack. The Japanese government has stated than an unidentified radical political group released a biological agent in the Tokyo subway, less than a kilometer from Orochi Tower. Although the area has been evacuated, there have been eyewitness reports of activity inside the perimeter, including ongoing fighting between Orochi security personnel and armed civilians. Authorities are denying these reports, and the military has barred anyone from approaching one hundred meters of the temporary perimeter…"

I sighed as I turned off the TV from the kitchen counter, leaving me alone with just my thoughts and the half-made sandwich in front of me. It had been about two weeks since the Tokyo Incident, as everyone called it, yet it didn't seem as if the investigation had made any progress. Just what was the police doing in there? Watching anime?

Well, there were more pressing concerns for me at the moment. Placing the last slice of bread on my turkey and cheese sandwich, I then took a bite out of it as I left the kitchen to grab my backpack and do my homework. About halfway up the stairs to my room, I thought I could hear something buzzing, but as I looked around, I didn't see any bee, nor did I hear any more of the buzzing. Shrugging my shoulders, I then continued the climb up to my room, but in the back of my mind, I thought I could still hear the buzzing.

In the darkness, I drifted aimlessly in the void as I heard something rasp in the back of my mind. The rasp then grew clearer, until I realized that there were multiple voices, and they only grew in clarity until I could clearly make out the words of the legion.

"You will see the end of days… You will see the dawning of a new age…"

I felt something wet drip onto my forehead, and I opened my eyes to see that raindrops were falling down onto my face. Strangely enough, the sky above me had no rainclouds - only stars. As I shifted my position slightly, I thought I could feel something hard digging into my back. I moved my hands to the ground I was lying down on, and I felt my fingers touch gravel and pebbles.

I groaned in exhaustion as I propped myself up onto my elbows and then got onto my feet. As I looked up from stretching out the kinks in my body, I thought I could hear the sounds of waves lapping against the gravel, and I looked up to see the black waters of the night ebb and flow against the pebbles of the beach. Above the horizon was a shattered moon, and asteroids swirled above me in the air. "Damn... I'm tripping serious balls here..."

"To be a monarch, or a beggar… To lose everything, or to become a god… To stand with us, or against us… The choice is yours… Remember this…"

I blinked once, and I recoiled in a shock as a boy suddenly appeared a few feet in front of me. He wasn't just any boy, though - in fact, he was a mirror image of myself. Like me, he was wearing a black jacket, along with dark gray jeans and black sneakers. He even had my slightly long, but neat black hair right, but what really unnerved me were the dark eyes that lacked the luster of life in them. Then he opened his mouth to speak in my voice.

"Be mindful of the voices. They will whisper in your sleep. You are with the chosen, but you must choose for yourself, for you are cursed with free will. It is not my place to intervene, but then again…" The corners of the other me's lips curled up into what could be considered a small smile as he spread his arms out wide. "This is all just a dream."

As he spoke, my eyes were inexorably drawn to his shoes, and its material began to flake off like burning pieces of paper. As each piece rose into the air, it metamorphosed into a buzzing bee, and the swarm grew bigger as more of his body burned away. "Make the right choices, and be mindful of the voices, for they corrupt."

Before I could ask him what the now-legless torso meant by that, the bees began to swarm around me. I felt my feet begin to leave the ground, and as I looked up from seeing that it was true, the other me was nowhere to be seen. I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my body, as if I had been stabbed through the back with a white-hot sword. As I opened my mouth to scream, the bees began to fly towards my mouth, and as the first one made its way down my throat…

I catapulted my head from the pillow, sitting upright on my bed as I clutched at my throat, coughing and gasping for breath. As my breathing calmed down, I looked around and took comfort in the familiar surroundings of my bedroom. I swallowed, and my throat felt raw as my spit traveled downwards. "All just a dream, Chase… It was all just a dream…"

I glanced at the clock to see that it was six in the morning - time to get ready for school. Getting out from under the covers, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, and I shivered slightly in the cold of the morning. As I reached for the black pullover draped over the bedpost, I thought my hand felt slightly warm, but I dismissed the feeling. Well, right up until the moment when my hoodie burst into flames as my fingertips brushed against the fabric.

I recoiled in shock as the flames enveloping my black hoodie glowed a bright blue atop the bedpost, but strangely, it didn't seem to be burning. I stared at the burning pullover in a mix of shock and awe before I regained my wits, and I hesitantly reached for the pullover, despite, you know, logic. The blue flames licked at my hand, but all I could feel was a glowing warmth, and no burning sensation, and as I grasped the cloth, the fire went out.

"Did… that just happen?" I wondered aloud as I pulled the hoodie over my head. It felt nice and warm on my body, as if it had just come back fresh from the ironing board. Dismissing the thought with a shake of my head, I got up to go to the bathroom.

As I gargled with mouthwash in the bathroom after brushing my teeth, I spat the minty green liquid out, and I saw something glisten in the sink.

A pair of delicate bee's wings.