I awoke to find myself staring at a blinding light and shadows dancing all around me. I tried to move but found myself unable to, like I was strapped down to where I am at. The shadows continued to dance around me as they were chattering amongst each other as I was unable to make out what they were saying.
Suddenly, I felt something being jabbed into my side as I let out a cry of agony. Whatever they injected me with was causing exclusionary pain throughout my body as I could feel the unknown substance coursing within my veins. I let out a blood-curdling scream as they began injecting more needles into me, making me violently thrash around.
"Sustain him!" a voice called out as several of the shadows grabbed me, holding me down in place while the others continued to stick more needles into me, injecting more unknown substance into my veins. I let out another scream of agony as tears began to flow down my cheeks from the unbearable pain I was receiving.
The shadows kept sticking more needles into my sides, arms and legs until a final needle was stuck right into my heart. My heart started to beat rapidly as it felt like the injection was slowly melting my heart, making me scream out in pain again. "We're losing him!" one of the shadows desperately yelled out before another shadow got right into my face. "Stay with me, ya hear!" the shadow instructed me.
It didn't take long before my thrashing became less violent and I could feel my heart beginning to slow down. I stopped moving all at once as I couldn't feel my own heartbeat anymore. "He's gone, sir." one of the shadows spoke up before the shadow who had his face right into mine looked away from me.
"Dang it, another failure. Alright, dispose of him before he turns and let's bring in another." the shadow said before the straps that held me down came loose, but I still couldn't move any part of my body whatsoever. I was then suddenly lifted up off the table and guided towards who knows where before I was thrown into a darkened world where I began to go in and out of consciousness.
I awoke with a jolt, sweat dripping from my face and my heart beating on overload as I was breathing like I just ran a whole marathon without stopping. I frantically looked around only to find myself in my room. "Huh, it was that dream again..." I mumbled out as I slowly began the process of calming myself down.
I've been having that same dream for as long as I could remember and no matter how many times I have it, I still can't get over how real it felt. Every aspect of the dream felt so real, it was hard to comprehend if it actually was real or not.
As soon as I was able to calm myself down, I hopped out of bed and got dressed for the day. I quickly threw on my black winter hat to cover my over-spiky hair, a sleeveless Camo vest that had many pockets. blue baggy shorts and black combat boots. I then wrapped both of my palms and lower half of my arms with bandages, which I don't know why but it just feels right. I rubbed some crust from my brown eyes before looking outside at yet another beautiful fall day.
I continued to look out the window at my home, Hearts End, a small town stationed near the top of the mountain with a population of four hundred and fifty people. Hearts End only had a few points of interest to the town, but none of them were as interesting as the place where me and my friends usually go, a large field with a lake that leads to a cliff overlooking the savannah. Just being at that place felt like whatever happens, everything will be okay.
Suddenly, there was a knock at my door but before I could ask who it was, four figures barged into my room. I let out a sigh and shake my head as my friends all piled into my small room. Chad, Derrick, Adrian, and Emma were their names. Chad was the oldest out of all of us; me by three months and everybody else by two years. Chad was six inches taller than me as he had black curly hair, olive eyes and wore a dark green zip-up sweater, black jeans and red shoes.
Next to Chad was Adrian. Adrian was a whole foot shorter than me but despite his size, he was pretty strong, with blond spiky hair, sapphire eyes and wore a dark red long sleeve T-shirt under his open black with white outline vest, orange jeans and yellow shoes. Derrick was three inches shorter than me with black long hair, goldish eyes and wore a black headband around his head, a tan jacket with white fingerless gloves, teal shorts and white and red shoes.
Last but not least was Emma, the smallest and youngest of the group. Her shoulder length hair was blond with hints of pink within her hair, violet eyes and wore a pink with white sleeveless jacket, a pink knee-length skirt and white shoes. "Hey, are you alright Kirin? You look like a wreck." Chad pointed out before I shook myself to clear my subconscious from the dream.
"Oh, sorry." I said apologetic. "I'm okay. It's just that I had that dream again..." I softly said as they all looked at each other, knowing exactly what I was talking about. Ever since I told them about my dream, they kept reassuring me that it was just a dream but nowadays its just becoming meaningless.
"That dream again?" Derrick asked, crossing his arms. "There's something really going on inside your head."
"Oh thanks." I mocked back before we all had a little laugh about it, cheering me up a bit.
"Hey Kirin, you going to sign-up for the SwordPlay Tournament?" Emma asked as everybody looked at me with curious eyes, making me feel a bit nervous. "The SwordPlay Tournament? Gee, I don't know. I haven't practiced with WindBreaker in a while. What about you guys?" I asked, looking at Derrick, Chad and Adrian.
"Nah, I don't feel like it this year."
"Sorry, but Backstabber is broken."
"They wouldn't let me sign-up this time around."
Wow, what lame excuses those were, I thought to myself before the attention was back on me. "So how about it, Kirin? You going to sign-up?" Emma asked again before I let out a defeated sigh and nodding my head. The four let out a cheer and congratulated me on agreeing to be part of the SwordPlay Tournament.
"Alright, let's get you signed up." Chad said as everyone agreed and we all headed out of my house and into the streets of the town. We made our way to the town square where they were holding the tournament. The SwordPlay was a tournament that was held every year where one-on-one battles took place with wooden swords. The object of the tournament was to beat your opponent to the edge and throw them off into the mud pit below.
The winner of the tournament gets a mysterious prize which is different every year. Last year's prize was brand new wooden sword with neat designs and the year before that was a trip to somewhere. The losers were always given the same thing; a gratitude for participating and a better luck next year.
When we reached town square, some of the townspeople were hard at work building the stage for the tournament as others were busy putting up banners, posters, tents and various of other things. "The sign-up is right over there." Adrian said, pointing to a lone table where a single guy sat with a magazine in hand.
I let out a sigh and walked over to the table and looked down at the sign-up sheet. "Looking to sign up?" the guy asked, not looking up from his magazine. "Yeah, is this where you sign up?" I asked, making sure this is the right spot.
The guy looks up from his magazine to look sternly at me. "Nooooooo, this is where the soup kitchen starts." the guy answered sarcastically. Wow, he sounds like a nice guy, I thought before rolling my eyes and luckily signed my name right into the last slot. "Your lucky kid, you're the last one." the guy said, resuming to read his magazine again.
"Yeah, thanks for the notice." I said before leaving the guy alone and back to my friends. "Is it official?" Derrick asked with curiosity in his tone as I looked at him with bit of a smile. "Yep, its official. but I'm going to need to get in a few practices if I'm going to have any chances of winning." I said as my friends nodded at me.
"Alright, grab WindBreaker and meet us at our spot. Got it?" Chad asked but before I could answer him, they all walked away, leaving me to question what is going through their minds. But considering that their my friends, its anything but good.
By the time I grabbed WindBreaker and made it to the fields, the sun was beginning to dip and I found that I'm the only one here. "Where are you guys?" I questioned to myself as I looked around one more time, seeing nothing but the scenery. I let out a sigh and look at WindBreaker in my hand, deciding whether or not to practice. WindBreaker was not your ordinary wooden sword with two planks of wood nailed together. The whole sword was entirely made out of Rosewood, giving it a reddish look and can withstand mass amount of damage.
WindBreaker also had a guard for better grip on the sword as it looked a lot like a pirate sword than anything else. It felt awkward to hold WindBreaker in my hand after all this time with not practicing. Normally, I only used one-hand when I used it but the only time I use two-hands is when using certain attacks. I let out another sigh and began practicing with basic strikes before advancing to more harder combat moves.
I kept practicing my moves until the sun nearly touched the horizon. Huh, I guess I feel like I could do it now, I thought to myself, having a bit more confidence for the tournament. I looked around the area again to see if my friends are anywhere, but it seemed like I was still the only one here.
"Where are they?" I asked out loud, getting paranoid that my friends aren't here even though they said to meet them here hours ago. Scenarios began to play through my mind as they could be doing anything by now. What if they forgotten about me? Or one of them got seriously hurt while coming here? Or something bad happened at town that I missed?
My thoughts were then interrupted as soon as I heard rustling through the grass. I turned around and luckily blocked a surprise attack to find out it was Chad with Backstabber. "Wait, I thought Backstabber was broken?" I asked Chad as he gave me a smirk. "Well, I guess I lied, didn't I?" Chad said before pulling his sword away and went in for another attack.
I blocked his attack and pushed him away from me before going into sort of a fencing stance. Chad laughed a bit at my stance before rushing over to me and swung Backstabber. I ducked out of the way and swung my sword at him, only to come in contact with his. The majority of our battle was swinging our swords at each other and dodging each others attack until I was luckily able to get the upper hand.
Chad tries to attack me once more, but I block his attack and quickly sweep my sword from under him, making him loose balance and a grip on his sword. Chad lands with a heavy thud as I grab his sword from mid-air and point both of them at Chad. "I guess I win..." I mumbled to him with a smirk on my face.
Chad smiles and I help him up before he yells out, "Yeah, he's ready!" Confused at first, I tried to think of what he was doing before the rest of my friends appeared. "Wait, you've all been here this whole time?" I asked a little irritatedly as my friends nodded to me. "Yep, you were really great when you were practicing." Emma said excitedly.
"Really?" I asked confusedly.
"You sure were! Those moves were amazing! And the way you took down Chad? You'll defiantly win the tournament." Derrick said as everybody nodded in agreement. I looked at each of my friends individually before giving them a smile of how they've really helped me with everything. "Thank you... everybody." I said softly before Adrian came up to me and slapped me on the back.
"Now don't go all teary-eyes on us now. Save that when we're not here, okay?" Adrian said, making me laugh as I planted my hand on his shoulder and shook it. "Okay, I promise." I said before we all looked over the cliff and out at the horizon as the sun was nearly out of sight. We all sat on the edge of the cliff, silently watching the sun glide down.
"You know, I've always wandered what was beyond the savannah." Emma said, keeping her eyes on the horizon as the rest of us all looked at her in confusion. "I've been thinking, maybe we should all just go." Emma said before turning to us with a grin on her face.
"Go? You mean leave Hearts End?" I asked as Emma nodded her head and looked back out into the horizon once more. "Yeah! One of these days we should all go see others worlds and see new people. Who knows, maybe we'll find our own adventure or our own destiny." she said as I begun to think about what she is saying.
"Our own adventure..." I repeated to myself before I looked at Emma with a smile. "That actually sounds... promising." I said as everybody looked at me for a moment before Emma giggled and smiled right at me. "So, what do you all say? You in?" Emma asked before putting her hand in front of us.
"Count me in!" Derrick said, slapping his hand on top of Emma's.
"An adventure sounds just about right." Chad said before also throwing his hand in.
"I've always wanted to see new things!" Adrian said before putting his hand in as well.
Everybody looked at me as I thought about it one more time.
Our own adventure.
Our own destiny.
Just waiting for us out there.
"Yeah, your right." I finally said before sticking my hand in the pile before we all yelled out 'We promise!' and threw our hands into the air before we laughed and went back to looking out the horizon again. Just before the last of the sun's light was behind the horizon, Chad looked my way and smirked at me for a moment, giving me an unsettling feeling of what's going through his mind.
"Hey Kirin, how 'bout one more battle before we go home. You vs. me, Derrick and Adrian." Chad suggest with another smirk on his face which was starting to scare me. "What?! Are you nuts! I can't take all three of you on at the same time." I said, getting to my feet as they all looked at me in a bit of confusion.
"Oh come on Kirin, how bad could it be? Who knows, you might be good enough to beat us." Chad said as I began to think about it myself, rethinking of all the possibilities that could happen. Best case scenario: I could actually hold myself against three enemies at once. Worst case scenario: I'm going to get one heck of a beating.
"Alright, your on!" I said as Chad, Derrick and Adrian smiled and got up to retrieve their weapons before I walked towards the middle of the field with WindBreaker in hand. Derrick, Adrian and Chad stood opposite of me as they all held their wooden swords in defense. Here goes nothing, I thought before letting out a sigh and took my stance, readying myself for a difficult fight.
The wind blew through the field, carrying a bit of a cold breeze with that, making me shiver a bit. "Okay, are you ready?" Emma asked in a loud tone as she thrusted her arm up into the air. "On my mark!" she said as me, Derrick, Chad and Adrian stood still, waiting for Emma to call for the battle to start.
"GO!" Emma said before Chad, Derrick and Adrian rushed toward me, wooden swords ready. I firstly countered Derrick's attack before dodging Chad's and finally knocking my sword into Adrian, sending him to the ground. I swung my weapon at Derrick, but I only came in contact with his sword. Mine and Derrick's swords clash together a few times before he swept his foot from under me, making me fall to the ground.
I landed heavily onto the ground as air escaped me. As I was recovering to get air back into my body, Derrick got ready to slam his weapon into my chest. I quickly rolled out of the way and got to my feet before swinging my sword and coming in contact with Derrick's side, making him drop to his knees in pain.
I turned my attention to Chad who was watching me face Derrick before he took a stance. We both went at it but only to have our swords clash with one another. I tried to sweep kick him to the ground, but apparently he saw that coming and countered it. Chad brought up his sword and tried to slam it down on me.
Luckily I moved out of the way and put my boot onto his sword, preventing him from lifting up his sword. I swung WindBreaker into Chad's shoulder, making him let go of his sword and fall to the ground. I then turned my attention to Adrian who looks like he's finally recovered from my last attack. I rushed over to bring a final blow to him, but it looked like he wasn't finished yet.
Adrian blocked my attack before coming at me with his own. I countered each one of them, but his attacks were so fierce, it felt like WindBreaker could snap from one of his blows. I had to come up with something quick before Adrian finally got lucky or WindBreaker snaps in half just before I had an idea.
I allowed Adrian to get in a few more blows before I put my plan into action. As soon as Adrian slammed his weapon into mine, I managed to knock it out of his hand before ramming WindBreaker into his stomach, sending him back to the ground and clutching his stomach in pain. I finally turned my attention back to Chad who astonishingly recovered from my last attack.
"I guess I win." I said already throwing my arms in the air in victory. Chad chuckled a little before looking at me with his usual smirk. "Not quite." Chad mumbled out before I looked at him in confusion before he whistled. The next thing I know, I'm totally swept up from my feet as I flipped through the air before landing heavily onto my stomach.
I started to wheeze and cough for a few moment before lifting my head up to find three swords stuck right in my face. "It looks like we win." Derrick said before celebrating their victory. I scuffed at their surprise attack before a hand was shoved into my face and I look up to see Chad ready to help me up. I smiled a bit and took his hand as he helped me up from the ground and patted some of the dirt off me.
"You did good. Alright, get some rest, you've got a tournament to win." Chad said before we all packed up our stuff and made our way back to town.
I awoke to find myself in a field of some kind with the sun beating down on me. Huh, where am I? I asked myself looking around before spotting my friends all standing near the cliff, looking out towards the horizon. I got up and started running towards them but I soon realized that I was going nowhere. No matter how fast or how hard I ran, I kept moving away from my friends and further into the field. This must be a dream, I thought to myself.
I tried to yell to them but nothing came out of my voice as they disappeared from sight and day quickly turned into night as I was left stranded within an endless field and a dirt road that looked like it could go on forever. What is happening? I asked myself before I felt like I was being watched from behind.
I turned around to see who could be there only to find nobody there, but the feeling of being watched was still there. Suddenly, there was a rush of wind that blew so hard, it lifted me off the ground and sent me flying through the air. I tried to regain my balance in the air but found it impossible until the wind stopped and now I was free-falling sideways toward a sideways town.
I soon realized that I was free-falling towards Hearts End. I was falling a little too fast toward the ground but before I could brace myself for impact, I slammed into the ground back first. I didn't feel no pain as I slowly got to my feet and dusted myself off to see that the field was gone. I looked around my hometown to find that it was totally empty.
I continued looking around the empty town to see if I could find anybody still around. By the time I reached the town square, I caught sight of my friends huddled against a wall, surrounded by strange creatures. These creatures black and small, like two feet tall, bulb-like heads, two curved antennas sticking out of their heads, their arms were half their height with claws for fingers and their feet were completely flat with four claws on each foot.
The creatures looked at my terrified friends with unblinking, glowing yellow eyes. Emma looked past at the creatures and right at me before she started yelling something to me, but no sound came out from her lips. Without thinking, I rushed in between the creatures and my friends and was ready to use myself as a shield.
'Don't worry, we just need to find a way past these creatures.' is what I wanted to say to them, but no sound came outta me as well. I looked back to see if my friends were safe but found that there was nobody there no more. What?!I cried out just before one of the creatures decided to attack. I'm scratched on the cheek but I still felt no pain, but I backed up only to find myself against an edge.
I suddenly lost my balance and fell into the darkened abyss. I struggled to gain control in the air as my body began to feel stiff, almost feeling like a statue. I shut my eyes for a moment to kept myself from hyperventilating. I reopened my eyes to see that I'm no longer falling and instead, back in Hearts End.
But something felt different now, like something's off about the whole place. I looked around but saw nothing and decided to look around for the source of this feeling. As I looked around, I began to notice that the town looked gloomier, like someone or somebody sucked the life out of this town. I didn't feel safe here as I turned and started running for a way out of the town.
I kept running for some quite time, but found no way out of the town as they seemed to be blocked by invisible walls. I tried running further into town to see if there was another way out of here but I was stopped by a hooded figure. I looked around me to find more hooded figures surrounding me. There was thirteen hooded figures around me as no matter where I turned, they were there.
Before I could force my way out of their circle, darkness opened up below my feet as I was being dragged into it. I tried pulling myself out of the darkness but no matter how many times I pull, I'm sucked deeper into the darkness. Slowly my whole body is consumed into the darkness as I'm free floating through nothing but pitch black as whispers began to invade my brain.
There were so many whispers, like hundreds of people talking at once, it was hard to try to follow even one. I tried to cover my ears to block out the whispers, but they seem to be coming from my brain. Suddenly there was at least one whisper that I could understand as it kept repeating over and over until it was the only one that I could hear.
"The door is open."
