With a quick tug of my hand from within my pocket, I produced my house keys only to watch in horror as they slipped out of my grasp to clatter uselessly to the ground.
I stared pitifully down at them, desperately sending mental pleas for them to levitate back into my hand. They ignored me.
Which god's wrath did I evoke to deserve this punishment?
I let out a weary sigh. "Today's just not my day."
Procuring my keys, I jammed it into the lock and unlocked the door, giving the handle a light downward tug as I pressed the door open.
My face was blasted by the heat of the apartment, and the fragrant smell of cat pee filled the air. It was good to be home.
The TV blared loudly into the living room as my dad sat on the edge of the couch, lifting up some 30 pound dumbbells. He had been working out consecutively almost every day for months; the effort was showing. He had some nice muscle development on his arms, making me a tad jealous when I compared them to my lanky arms. I didn't have any right to be jealous. He offered plenty of times to work out with me, but I always declined out of laziness, that and after a long day at work I didn't have any energy left to work out.
I shuffled my way to the fridge, and gazed longingly at the alcohol that resided within. Every fiber of my being begged for me to uncork a bottle and drink myself silly.
One more year, I chanted in my head, as I reached for the milk.
Pouring some into a glass, I took a quick swig of it, hoping it would give me the strength to carry on with life. Being a privileged white boy was difficult, almost to the point of being unbearable. Who would cruelly send their almost twenty year old son out in the world to do back breaking labor for four hours? Monsters I tell you!
"How was work?" I heard a familiar voice call out to me, breaking me from my mental struggles.
I glanced over in time to see my dad set his weights down on the ground, giving me his full, undivided attention.
I merely grumbled back in response, setting my glass down.
"That bad huh?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at me.
I flopped onto the couch beside him. "It wouldn't be so bad if my coworkers actually helped out instead of sitting around talking," I huffed, making a strangling gesture with my hands.
He frowned. "You could always order them to help you out."
"I could do that but I'm too…" I paused briefly, cupping a hand to my chin as I wracked my brain for what I wanted to say. Finally, I gave up and swiveled my head towards him. "What's the word?"
His eyes lightly sparking with amusement. "A pushover?" he offered with a toothy grin.
"I was gonna say submissive but that works too," I relented.
We sat in silence, merely enjoying each other's company while we watched mindless television.
After a brief silence he spoke up again. "Got any plans tonight?"
"Besides crawl into a corner and die?" I gave him a light shrug. "None."
He chuckled. "Well, just so you know, I already ate, so…no dinner plans tonight."
I pushed myself off the couch. "Sounds good," I said, giving him a quick thumbs-up as I made my way into my room, shutting the door behind me.
Grabbing my black 3DS from the top of my dresser, I removed Smash Bros from it and replaced it with my new Fire Emblem: Awakening cartridge. I needed to relax and unwind for a bit, so I decided to brush up on the game again. It had been a couple months since I last played the game and I hadn't even finished it yet, making it as far as Chapter 15 before putting the game down and loaning it to a friend. The bastard never did give it back.
I powered on the device and booted up the game. Swiftly, I moved past the title screen and created a new profile.
Starting from the beginning seemed like a good idea and would help jog my memory a bit on how to play again. I didn't have much of a choice in the matter either. I had accidentally wiped all the data on the 3DS, because I'm an idiot, removing all the progress I had made thus far in the game.
As I started customizing my male avatar to look like me, I thought back to when I was first introduced to the game series.
I had stumbled across a let's play of Fire Emblem: Fates from a Youtuber I liked, and after that I had fallen in love with the series, or at least the new ones. I was the lowest of the low, one of those new trash wannabe fans that had only played Fates and Awakening. Hell, I don't even think I could consider myself a true fan if I've never even beaten either game. Only finishing Birthright and Conquest, I never got around to finishing Revelations. That was at least better than my attempt at playing Awakening. This time I swore I would beat the game, or at least that was the lie I told myself.
I spent a few hours working my way through the tutorial, prologue, and a few of the other chapters before stopping after completing; 'The Mad King Gangrel'. Eventually my fingers started getting cramped and my eyes dry from the excessive amount of gaming.
Saving my progress, I shut down the 3DS.
I poured a few eye drops into my eyes to help relieve them, before pocketing the nearly full bottle. The struggle of having laser eye surgery was constantly having to pour those onto your eyes, but at least I could see without contacts or glasses now.
Removing my headphones from my computer's audio jack, I plugged them into my phone which I then removed from the charger. I checked the time and was surprised to see it was only 11:32 pm.
With a shrug, I grabbed my keys, deciding that it wasn't too late for me to go on my nightly walk.
Making my way to the living room, I picked up a water bottle, and adjusted my headphones.
My dad glanced up at me from his TV show. "Bit late for a walk," he noted, looking at the clock on the cable box.
"I need to clear my head and get some fresh air," I replied, spinning my keyring around my finger. "Plus, I need a break from electronics."
He nodded. "All right, just be careful," he said.
"I will," I promised, giving him a two-finger salute before closing the door behind me and locking it.
As I walked, I would occasionally glance around to make sure no one was following me or I'd give myself a wide berth to the passing cars. Call me 'paranoid', but I wanted to lower the chances of being killed, kidnapped, or raped by anyone. Not specifically in that order of course.
I kept a hand in my pocket, helping to give off the illusion that any possible muggers would think I had a weapon. Now that I thought about it, I should really have been carrying a pocket knife. Hell, why wasn't I already carrying one?
The wind seemed to be picking up, causing me to shiver at the cold night air. It was the middle of November, and I had forgotten to throw on a jacket before I left. Not only would the warmth have been nice, but the extra pocket space would have been super convenient.
After walking about half a mile, I reached my old neighborhood. For thirteen years, I had lived here, playing in the park with my friends or racing against them on my bike. All that time we spent together felt like it happened a life time ago. Now I only came back here to reminisce about the good old times and to see how much had changed since I'd been gone.
I became so lost in thought that I was startled when a notification sound went off on my phone, signaling that I had received a text message. Quickly, I paused my music and checked to see if it was anything important.
Dad had texted me saying, 'Happy Birthday', followed by a balloon, and cake emoji.
I smiled as I read the text, checking my phone's clock, the time now reading 12:36 am. I had somehow survived twenty years exactly to this day. I quickly fired a text back. 'Thanks.'
Starting my music back up, I only made it a few feet before my phone buzzed for a second time.
'I love you.'
I shook my head, and smiled again. As I was typing back to him, the street light above me turned off. I wasn't to surprise by this, it happened every once in a while to some of the lights but it was still incredibly annoying.
'Love you too.'
With my final text sent, the street light began to flicker back to life.
In a sudden shower of purple particles, a figure materialized into thin air. The figure straightened up near the end of the sidewalk I was on. Judging by the width of the tall figure's shoulders, this was the body of a man, completely covered in a black cloak with swirling purple markings emblazoned on it. A loose hood covered his head and obscured his features. The golden embroidery at the end of the cloak's sleeves seemed to glow magnificently in the moonlight. I was reminded of the cloak that Robin always wore in Awakening. It was a cool looking cloak but not something you would normally catch people wearing, especially this late at night. Maybe he was a cosplayer?
The figure looked around, appearing to take in the environment. "What a wretched world, full of pitiful creatures." His voice was cool, calm, and deadly. It chilled me to the bone. "I shall enjoy purging it."
I really hoped he was a cosplayer.
"Wh-who's there?" I backed away slowly.
He fixed his gaze on me. In the pitch black darkness, I saw eyes in the depths of his hood.
Frightening eyes.
Inhuman eyes.
Glowing red.
A shiver went through my body, goosebumps running along my arms as the burning eyes bore into me, making my hair stand on end.
"I've been waiting a long time for you," he said. "She hid you well."
I raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
He paused and looked up at the sky. I briefly wondered why he was doing that. It was only when he began to speak that I understood that the figure was talking to somebody else. "I praise your efforts, Naga. But, did you not understand? That all dreams must disappear when the dreamer wakes." With a tone of abject annoyance, the figure spat in a suppressed voice. "Therefore it was inevitable that I would reclaim my vessel."
Naga? Was he referring to the divine dragon?
I shook my head at the absurdity of it all. "You okay bud?"
With a sweeping gesture of his hand, shadowy wisps flowed from the sleeves of his cloak and spread across the sidewalk.
All right, definitely not a cosplayer.
"What the hell?" I exclaimed, back pedaling away from the expansive smoke.
The figure shook his head. "You have much to learn," he sneered. "And understand so little."
Well, I'm out.
"…Later!" I yelled, doing a quick whirl, sprinting in the opposite direction of the freak. But the shadowy wisps followed me and grabbed at my legs, pulling them out from underneath me, forcing me to the ground.
"I am your destiny and you are mine," he continued, as if I hadn't just tried running away. "Come, let us become one."
"Jesus Fucking Christ!" I groaned, the irony taste of blood in my mouth. "Sorry, I don't swing that way pal!"
Struggling to free myself, I kicked out at the cloudy wisp, but my feet merely slammed through them, like the intangible smoke that they were. "Let me go!" I cried out as I continued to fight with the wisps.
"Do not try to fight me." His voice taking on a sadistic nature as he sauntered towards me. "This was your destiny long before you were born."
The wisps dragged me across the concrete, pulling me closer to him. No matter how much I struggled and clawed at the ground, I couldn't get away. As I was brought next to the figure, the wisps began to dissipate back into the darkness.
"Go fuck yourself!" I yelled, throwing my water bottle, hoping it would provide me some form of respite.
Without even batting an eye, he swatted the water bottle away. "A meaningless effort."
I mentally curse, why do you forsake me water?
Getting back onto my feet, I took up a fighting stance. I was confident in my fighting form, having taken both Kung Fu and Karate classes for years. However, I had never been in a real fight, only ever getting some practice in during my sparring sessions. I really hoped today those skills finally proved useful.
Flying forward with a straight jab from my left hand, aimed for his face. He easily sidestepped it, and without even hesitating, slaps me across the face.
I blinked, completely taken aback at what had just happened.
Did this motherfucker just bitch slap me?
He cocked his head. A patronizing gesture to an outmatched opponent. "It seems you need to learn your place." His expression twisted into a bloodthirsty smirk. "Allow me to put you in it."
My eyes widened, NANI?!
In a blinding speed, the cloaked figure lunged at me, his right fist connecting with my stomach. An audible crack sounding as my ribs were broken, and blood spewed from my mouth onto his cloak.
I collapsed to my knees, my right arm gripping my side as labored breaths escaped me, tears blurring my vision.
He wiped the blood off of himself in disgust. "You dare defile my precious cloak!" he shouted, murderous intent radiating off of him.
If I wasn't sure before if I was going to die, I was now.
A deep breathe exuded from him, "You deserve death for your insult." Scorn emanated from his voice. "However, you still serve a purpose," he stated, before back handing me across the face once more.
Seriously, fuck this guy!
His resentment was barely reined in, but the flame of killing intent had already faded from his burning eyes. "Vessel, know the end of your eternal dream. I myself shall show you the harsh reality," he declared, as his fingertips touched my forehead. "Now awaken!"
A pulsating red light filled my vision. It was so bright I had to close my eyes. Pain shot through my head as images rapidly filled my mind. I heard screaming as I saw mangled bodies covered in blood, a dying world with a pitch black sky, a sea made of fire, and a crying girl with cobalt hair that I didn't recognize…It didn't take me long to realize that the screaming I heard was coming from me.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't move, I couldn't even feel my fingers. Swarmed by a torrent of agony, I could only focus entirely on keeping hold of my receding consciousness as my body writhed in pain. It felt like a cold hand was clutching my mind, trying to shatter it into a million pieces.
Soon the light faded away, and I coughed and vomited all the blood that I felt rising through my throat. Tears streamed down my face, mixing with the blood that had frothed at the edge of my mouth. It was as if the very life had just been sucked out of me, making me wonder if this person was actually my mother.
"… Haa…Haa…"
Raggedly exhaling the remains of my agony, I stared up at the figure.
"W-wha-" I choked out as I tried to breathe, my voice coming out hoarse and low as I attempted to speak.
"Why?" I gasped, uttering the one question that burned through my mind.
He crossed his arms, studying me for a long moment before finally responding, "Because I must become whole again."
I watched as the cloaked figure turned on his heels and calmly walked away. "But it seems my original form is still far too weak," he continued, putting his hand up, palm facing outward. The area around him distorted in a haze, in the next instant, a dark portal appeared in the empty space. "No matter, I've waited a long time for you. I can wait a bit longer."
The figure turned to me with his outstretched hand, and did a sweeping motion in my general direction. A black pit manifested beneath me, which seemed to seep and billow. I could feel it tugging at my legs, trying to pull me down into its murky depths. I desperately tried to break free of it, but I could feel my consciousness immediately begin to slip away from me.
He looked at me over his shoulder, disappearing into a dark portal as he did so. "By the time I see you next, make sure you are worthy." His voice carrying over to me into the fading wind.
I sank deeper into the black pit, the world around me becoming darker than the mantle that shrouds the blind. My eyelids began to lower as the darkness engulfed me, then it was all over.