Chapter 1: Unplanned Changes
"Rene, wake up and pay attention" the teacher said from across the room. The boy lifted his head from his desk and replied "Sorry sir… not enough sleep; won't happen again." Rene was a respectful and polite boy, and the teachers knew him very well. The teacher is well aware that he has never disrespected any teacher, nor has he caused any trouble in any matter. The teacher sighed and compassionately replied "Alright, don't let it happen again… make sure you get proper sleep next time."
Rene nodded and continued to focus. His mind slowly drifted as his classmates managed to get the teacher off topic, talking about current events, favorite movies, etc. 'I can't remember what dream I just had… I feel it had a meaning to it… a message…' He thought as he tried to recall his dream. Lately he had been feeling weird, and his dreams started predicting future events again. This was nothing new, since they happen around three to four times a month; however, they are happening more frequently now.
The predictions were nothing too big. They usually ranged from seeing a person he was about to meet, to finding out the location of an item he had lost. The biggest premonition displayed in his dream was the prediction of the birth of his aunt's twins which was very recent. For a period of time, his dreams went blank, and officially had no escape from life's ordeals. However, just recently; his dreams returned at the beginning of the school year, and with a familiar person in every single one.
Rene recently started a dream journal; he had found interest in lucid dreaming, and such. He saw it as a chance to escape life's ordeals and sheer boredom. He started this experiment when he stopped dreaming. His sleep would literally be just a blink, and then morning would arrive. Ironically, he suffered from insomnia as well, which made it slightly difficult to conduct experiments with the lucid dreaming techniques he learned off the internet.
However, these were not the only reasons he had started the dream journal. His dreams suddenly returned around the last three weeks of the summer. He had recently finished watching "Mirrai Nikki" or future diaries in English. It was a horror based anime in which twelve people were given diaries that predicted the future under certain categories, and had to use them to kill each other in order to become God. A character from that series started appearing in his dream constantly, and interacting with him in every one.
It was Yuno Gasai, the pink haired Yandere girl that stalked Yukiteru throughout the anime. He had become confused as to why she appeared in every dream, and interacted with him in such strange and friendly manners; sometimes even suggestive manners as well. At first, he thought it was a coincidence that she appeared in his dreams three times in a row and managed to recall all other dreams she's been in with him. It was until she visited him in his dreams more than ten times in a row, that he became curious as to what, or who she was.
He had gone through some changes in the summer. He had experienced something similar to clinical depression, though his psychiatrist and family would say otherwise, which added to his inner madness. For a while, he had begun to hate himself; almost every aspect of himself sickened him. Then he lost faith in humanity in general. He had held up so much anger, pain, and hatred within him for so long, and had no one to talk to about it.
He began to suffer for it when he started believing that it was his entire fault that he was imperfect, or below what people expected of him. Eventually in search of approval, he behaved himself in front of everyone, meeting their expectations in which weren't too high. However, he became very strict with himself, and verbally lashed out at himself whenever he had made a mistake; it didn't matter how small.
He eventually formed an alter-ego that eventually took a big part of his personality. He knew this all too well, and suspects that this is the problem, and why he is feeling the symptoms of clinical depression. This alter-ego was his dark side, and the part of him that hated his guts. However, in the midst of all this confusion and depression, Yuno appeared within his dreams. She had somewhat helped his self esteem since she treated him with utmost respect, almost like a very close friend, or something more.
He began to grow attached to her, but was also paranoid that it could be another trap set by his alter-ego, which would disappear and render him useless and broken again. He tried to stay distant emotion wise from her, and avoid developing an attachment to her in the dreams, but failed in every attempt. He had begun to develop a crush on her. However, at the peak of his depression, she disappeared, and proved his paranoia correct.
As she disappeared, so did his dreams. His dreams became blank, or became hard to recall. In few cases, he felt the unexplainable feeling that he missed something in the dream, or that the dream had an important message that he was supposed to understand. 'This dream was definitely one of them' he thought. The bell rung, signaling the end of the last school period.
He stood up and walked over to the soda machine to buy himself his most favorite beverage. He would do this every day, almost as if it was an important part of his day. He entered the dollar fifty into the machine, and a can of root-beer popped out. "Oh root-beer… how could I stay sane the whole day without you?" he said to himself jokingly as he prepared to open the can. As he placed his thumb on the metallic part that opens it, his vision blurred and time appeared to have slown down.
In his range of view, he could have sworn he saw Crowley's face. Crowley was the demon that took Satan's place in one of his favorite fandoms called "Supernatural" He stood across the hall staring at him with a smirk; a smirk he usually made when he had something up his sleeve. He looked exhausted however, as if he had quite an ordeal to arrive here. Rene dismissed it as a coincidental look alike, and thought that he was probably smiling at someone behind him.
Time began to regain regular speed, and he opened the can. The can erupted with root-beer, soaking him in the sugary drink. "Aw man! This was my favorite hoodie!" he said as he shrugged. He made his way towards the restroom, but felt that something was off. He felt as if he was supposed to be somewhere else right now, as if it was of extreme importance that he made his way out of school this instant.
He dismissed it as a ridiculous feeling, and continued to the men's restroom. He dried himself off and washed his hands. He soaked his face in water, and dried it off as well; and continued to look himself in the mirror. Rene had acceptably short dark brown hair, and usually had it spiked up towards the front. He had brown eyes, and his skin was white with a very light addition of tan, due to the many times he's visited the beach with his family; neglecting to put on sunscreen.
He sighed and looked at the mirror in disappointment. "Flunked a test, forgot two homeworks I stayed up late for, messed up my favorite hoodie, wasted a dollar fifty, and every time I look at the mirror I am reminded of how ugly I am. He never really was ugly, in fact he knew that many girls in his school have complimented his appearance behind his back, however he could not find it in himself to believe such words. He honestly thought they did it out of pity, and his self-hatred blinded him of his positive aspects and talents.
Yuno's visits have made his cruelty towards himself lighter, but still hurt him when she left. Rene sighed and walked out the restroom, making his way out of the school towards the route used to walk home. His way of negative thinking grew as he made his way out of the school gates. 'My life is meaningless… all I'll do is pay taxes, grow old, and be controlled by others… I'll never be anything special…' he thought as he approached the corner of the sidewalk.
His movement and thoughts came to a stop when he was welcomed by the sight of traffic and an ambulance inspecting a corpse. Before he could see the corpse himself, they placed a white cover over it. He noticed it was female and about his age. He observed from afar as her hand slipped out of the white cover. A sudden feeling of dread filled him.
He felt a tear escape his right eye, and became confused. 'Why am I crying? I don't know this girl… yet I feel… like she was supposed to be important…' he thought as he continued to observe the scene. He noticed a man in the scene standing over the cops observing the car that hit her. Something about him was odd. He gave off a feeling of security, peace, and his presence was soothing. The sun glare covered his face, preventing Rene from studying his appearance, but noticed a cream colored trench-coat.
He felt a slight headache as he recalled an image from his dream. The image displayed a grimy and rusted blue-ish gray wall with "this wasn't supposed to happen" painted on it in red. He says it under his breath as the image displayed in his mind for less than three seconds. "This wasn't supposed to happen…" he said under his breath. 'Strange' he thought.
He continued walking and felt the man in the trench-coat observe him from behind. As he walked home, he tried to decipher the meaning behind the image, and recall anything else before or after that image he saw in his dream. The farther he walked, the more strange feelings appeared. He felt an absence, as if something had been torn away from him. Something he should have had or done.
He felt empty and twice as worse as usual when the symptoms struck. Something was missing, and everything looked wrong. Something wasn't right, and he felt it more than anything; something was out of place. His mind drifted off to the girl's corpse. 'Looks like I wasn't the only one having a bad day, huh?…' he thought. Unexplainable sadness hit him at the thought of her corpse on the road.
'Again with these feelings? I don't know that girl… why do I feel like this then? It's not just mourning a random stranger's death. It feels like more than that… As if she had some sort of importance…' he thought as his emotions grew sad. 'Nonsense, you're making a fool out of yourself. Shut up and keep walking' he harshly thought, interrupting anymore thoughts on the topic for the rest of the walk home.
Upon arriving home, Rene effortlessly tossed his backpack onto his bed and slumped into his chair and activated his desktop. He logged onto steam, and noticed that Classy Cthulhu and Owlwhoisgamer, his best friends Josh and Johnnathan were online. He activated voice-chat and explained the strange events that occurred that day, but he mostly elaborated on the girl and Crowley. He didn't mention the message "this wasn't supposed to happen…" to them, since even Rene found it a little too weird.
After the whole story, Josh replied "Them feels…" and Johnnathan replied "You're probably not used to seeing actual corpses, I mean this is the first actual corpse you've seen right?" Rene started to agree with Johnnathan, this was the first actual corpse he's seen himself. The continued talking and joking around, when eventually Josh asked if anyone would like to play Team Fortress 2. Rene and Johnnathan agreed. As Rene launched the game, he began to feel cold and light headed.
Eventually his whole body felt unusually light. His vision began to blur and began to hear white noise. The white noise grew louder as the blur intensified, and a migraine kicked in. He thought he was the only one hearing it until he heard Josh and Johnnathan grunting in pain, complaining about the same sound he was hearing. Another image appeared in his head displaying the words "Everything has changed…" scribbled on the same wall that had "This wasn't supposed to happen" written on it. The white noise was deafening, and it eventually came to a sudden stop.
He heard something slam onto both Josh and Johnnathan's desks through their microphones. "Josh?... Johnnathan?... what… happened?..." Rene asked. There was no reply from neither of them. Rene's head and body felt extremely and unrealistically heavy. He tried fighting the urge to collapse, but to no avail. He lost all strength and control of his body and collapsed against his desk.
Rene slowly opens his eyes and is welcomed by the sight of a thick white fog, and ashes falling like snow. He stands and stumbles a few times, still trying to recover his balance. He finds himself in an alleyway with rusted walls and junk all over the floor. Behind him was a dead end with the words "You are all that is left" scratched in by what could've been a sharp rock.
As he walks out of the alleyway, he notices a rusty and mangled wheelchair with the wheel still rotating, making a loud creaking sound. The setting looked quite like the alleyway Harry took in the first Silent Hill game. 'If I start to hear sirens… I'm fucked…' Rene thought to himself. He followed the only path that wasn't either blocked by debris, or by dead end. He came across a wall that had more words scratched in.
"Hell will rise" were the words displayed on the wall. He acknowledged them and continued walking. He came across another wall with the words "Everything is wrong" scratched into it. He continued to walk slowly until he heard sirens go off. The fog turned black and shreds of burnt paper fall, replacing the ashes. He hears footsteps behind him and turns. He is welcomed by the sight of a darker version of himself with tentacles much similar to Slenderman coming out of his back. He was grimy, and covered in blood. His eyes glowed red, and the rest of his body was silhouetted.
He began walking towards Rene while shivering and twitching uncontrollably. Rene began to run. Rene panicked and ran to through the alley. Rusted fences began to appear, and some even blocked his path; forcing him to squeeze through the gaps. No matter how fast he ran, and how many obstacles he passed, his dark version seemed to follow at the same speed and distance, almost as if he phased through the fences.
Rene runs and makes a sharp left, only to come across a sort of altar and dead end. On the altar was a glowing red pendant. He ran up to observe it. The pendant consisted of a large red ruby, held tightly by a gold frame, and had a strange symbol eerily glowing in a fiery yellow color on its center. As he stared into the ruby, he saw the reflections of Josh, Johnnathan, and some other people he has never met before. He received another migraine and collapsed.
After what felt like several hours, he awoke again to find himself in a gray and messy room lit by one light bulb hanging on the ceiling by a string. The room had no windows, and he was on a dirty mattress. He got up and tried to recover his balance again. 'Now where am I?' he thought. He looked around and noticed another boy lying on a separate mattress. The boy wore a soul eater beanie, a casual gray t-shirt with a sweater on top. He wore blue jeans, and also had a Deadman Wonderland wristband, and had gray sports shoes.
The boy wore glasses, and looked very familiar. The boy awoke and looked at Rene groggily. "Rene?" the boy said. "Josh?" Rene replied.