*See the end of the Chapter for Author's Notes.
Prologue
If only his mind's eye became blind.
If only his screaming consciousness became mute.
If only his heart stopped aching, the mocking laughter in the back of his mind became silent and the salty flavor of tears left the corners of his lips and the tip of his nose disappeared.
Then he could find peace.
He knew he was such a wretched creature that peace was anathema to his existence. He knew that the word would not tolerate such a travesty.
There was nothing good he could offer to the world. His life was empty, his deeds meaningless.
But like any human, he selfishly desired such things as affection, validation and acknowledgment despite having nothing to offer in return.
He wished death would claim him with its icy hands. He wished he wasn't such a coward that taking his own life seemed daunting. He could stop the hurt and the pain inflicted on everyone who had the misfortune to associate with him.
So that's why he decided to shut himself away in the darkness and sleep.
Sleep was Death's sibling, after all. Even if his failings haunted him in his dreams, at least, they were just that, dreams. The people he hurt or inconvenienced with his existence would be free from him that way.
He was sorry he ever existed. He was sorry that he was a coward.
One, two, three... Three of those white pills at a time.
A gulp of water to help them go down.
The bottle of water was barely gone... His throat still felt dry, but he resisted the urge to down the bottle in one go.
He laid down on the cold, hard floor and stared at the cobwebbed ceiling only barely visible through the inky darkness.
It was late and he was already sleepy, so his eyes quickly became heavy. A small smile came to his lips as a sense of exhilaration filled his body.
He'll finally be free.
He was floating in a sea of nothingness.
His sight was filled with darkness.
His ears were filled with silence.
His nostrils smelled nothing.
His skin felt numb.
But there was a certain bliss in this oblivion.
But soon the world came into being. He was falling, or rather, drowning slowly. He didn't feel like he was suffocating as he fell deeper into what he assumed was the sea.
His eyes were focused upwards, towards a rippling sky and shimmering sun. Defying all logic, he didn't feel the crushing pressure of the water on his body, nor did his slightly gaping mouth become filled with water even though he could see small bubbles of air rising from it.
But dreams rarely followed any form of logic, did they?
Yes, he knew he was dreaming.
Lucid Dreaming: When one is fully aware of a dream while one dreams.
Usually, one does not realize that one is dreaming regardless of how bizarre the dream is. But lucid dreamers consciously experience the dreams and have some degree of control over it...
His mind repeated all the information he gathered from the internet and various books in the library as he floated deeper downwards. The world around him turned a deeper and darker blue as less light was able to penetrate the thick curtain of phantasmagorical water.
He noticed that two walls of stone were rising from either side of him and he breathed a sigh of relief. He had made it to the trench earlier than usual.
Like numerous times before this, he would slowly be engulfed by the darkness filled abyss before reemerging into a caricature of his bedroom.
And lo, there he was after a brief period of darkness, his feet suddenly on "solid ground" even though he felt only a very dull sensation of weight. He looked around, bored already. He wasn't able to influence this place at all, and all he could do was wait for him to wake up or...
He looked into the dream version of the mirror hanging in a corner of his room, horrified and transfixed at the creature staring back at him.
It grinned.
Kurosawa Ayumu startled awake with a great gasp. He started touching his face frantically while shuddering, small beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
He looked around his darkened room, his breathing becoming less erratic as the terror trickled away from him. With a deep breath, he got out of his bed and took a tentative step towards the mirror hanging in a corner beside a sizable bookshelf.
His reflection came into view. The usual figure of a noodly Japanese teenager with messy and wiry black hair and murky black eyes came stared back at him, with the only difference that his face was drained of all its color.
He exhaled, his heart still bouncing in his chest. He returned to his bed and sat on one corner, before cradling his head in his hands while resting his elbows on his thighs. His fingers became moist from the sweat that had formed on his brow, but he ignored it.
The sound of a sharp beeping noise penetrated the silence after a while, and Ayumu stared at the digital alarm clock for a few seconds before turning it off.
He looked at the new uniform hanging on the wall... A navy blazer with matching dress pants, a white dress shirt and a navy tie to complete the ensemble. The crest of his new high school, a single yellow thunderbolt sat proudly on the single chest pocket of the blazer and the tie.
He sighed, hoping that the dream was just a manifestation of anxiousness and not some portent.
But knowing his luck, he might as well say that the nightmare had jinxed his already assumed-but-probably-certain-to-be-unlucky three years of high school.
Author's Notes:
This story was adopted by me by request of "Fragments of Dreams". It was originally titled "Legend: Alter", but I decided after reading his (ridiculously long) notes that this title was more fitting. Note that I shall not be using the OCs submitted which I apologize for, but I'm not comfortable adding OCs to stories that do not add to the story or setting in any meaningful way. Also, after consulting with Fragments of Dreams, I've decided to take some liberties with this story to make it less convoluted (with his consent, of course). Please bear with me and I hope I can do this story justice, especially after reading his extensive notes on the plotline and the OC Kurosawa Ayumu.
I've also adopted Monochrome Days but don't expect any updates on that soon since I'm working on this and Another Fate (my own story) concurrently.
Finally, I apologize for writing these notes here instead of my profile, but since it has been empty for the longest of times, I doubted that most people would actually read it if I wrote it there...