Really don't feel like putting anything here other than hello.
It had been an exhausting day at school, and like always, Hide didn't take any notes on english; he never did pay attention in english class. His excuse was always the same, 'Kaneki, I already speak, like, the bestest english in class!' Well, his excuses were always wrong- grammatically wrong. I knew that he wasn't even paying any attention to me while I was trying to explain to him the differences between 'there' and 'their', so I would have to remember to give him a quick lesson about that in the near future- lessons that would have to wait another day. "Are you ready, Kaneki?!" Hide shouted in excitement as he rushed passed me to toss his backpack against the side of our bunk bed in exchange for the larger hiking backpack he had already prepared.
"I'm pretty excited, yeah." I replied. "Though honestly, I still don't believe that we need to set up camp for this."
"I still say that homework thing is stupid! I mean, who gives homework out on the weekend?!" He complained.
"I'm pretty sure no one liked that idea in class, Hide."
"Whatever…" Hide groaned once more before sliding off the tan backpack to slump down onto the bottom bunk. "So uh… What did you say that we are researching again? Wasn't it like, flowers or plants?"
"Trying using 'we're' next time Hide." I instinctively corrected as I plugged in my phone into the charger I had underneath the desk that we shared. "I told the teacher and mom that we would be doing research on habituation in the woods." I replied solemnly while pulling out a drawer to search through its contents. "You didn't tell anyone else otherwise, right?"
"Nah man, I'm just texting mom and she asked us where we want to be dropped off for." He reassured before returning his attention back to the screen of his phone. "Oh, she said we can only stay there until three o'clock."
"Are you still bringing that enormous titan of a backpack with you?"
"Heck yeah, man! You never know what'll actually happen, you know?"
"Well Hide, we're going to find that out soon." I then smiled upon finding the note pad and pen stashed in the corner of the open drawer- holding it as if I were one of those medieval knights that were commonly depicted in shining armor.
"I know, but… Doesn't it seem like a lot of effort to do some stupid classwork though, Kaneki?"
"It probably is, Hide." I chuckled. "Even so, this goes beyond some elementary school project; we as a society have advanced beyond what was comprehensible back then. I mean really? Monsters? What's next, are they going to say that humans descended from skeletons?" I chuckled at my own sarcasm, while Hide gave a bored expression before turning back to stare back at his phone.
"Nerd." He muttered softly as he shook his head. "By the way, it's probably going to snow, so make sure to wear a coat or something, okay?" I turned my head to give him a quick a nod before making my way to the closet door. Placing my hand down, I paused as I held the doorknob which felt oddly cold- almost if I was touching ice. "Is everything okay, Kaneki?" Hide lazily called from across the room.
"I'm fine." I answered. "Hey uh… Did mom put on the air conditioning before she left?"
"It's just me, fellow sinner." A child's voice answered back. I took a step back as I felt a shiver travel through my entire being. The voice had a very malicious tone to it, despite being calm and having only spoken one sentence.
"Hide! Did you just…" My voice trailed off into an echo as I turned back to see that my entire room went dark. Not as in the lights were turned off, but rather I found myself surrounded in an empty black void. I should have been feeling my heart beating at such a nightmarish sight, but I only felt despair. I hesitantly placed my first two fingers over my carotid artery on my neck, and waited. "Am I… Am I dreaming?" I muttered to myself, to which upon realizing that was the most logical answer, I felt a rush of relief. "Oh… Okay, ummm… I guess I'll just wait until I'm awake up then…" I thought aloud.
"I can see why you'd think that." It was then I had realized that closet door was still in front of me. "Also, not to spoil anything for you, but if you plan on waiting here… Then it's going to be a while."
"Oh… You're still here." I sighed. "Well uh… It's been interesting talking to you… door?"
"My name's Chara." I paused for a moment as I tried to remember if I knew anyone by the name, or perhaps I read it somewhere, but to no avail.
"I can't say I've heard of you before, Chara."
"That's because this is the first time we're meeting, idiot."
"... Well, that was uncalled-"
"-This isn't a dream."
"... This still just seems like a dream." I persisted, to which more silence followed.
"I can prove this isn't a dream."
"How?"
"Open the door, so that you can see my face." Needless to say, that comment came to me as very cryptic and I suddenly became nervous at the thought of what Chara really looked like. "Come on, we'll get more acquainted and move on from there." They must have sensed my hesitation, as I still stood a foot away from the door. Still, I needed to know if I was in a dream or not, and there wasn't exactly a lot of other options I could sort out other than take a blind leap of fate with whoever was behind the door. I took a deep breath in as I turned the knob until a click was audible. As soon as the door was unlocked, they shoved opened the door. I stumbled back due to the force of the door, but when I leaned up to look, the door was gone. In the void, there stood only Chara and I. They looked around my age, still a child, and they wore upon their face an eerie grin with their cheeks colored a rosey pink. They took a moment to analyze me with their eyes for a few moments before taking a step closer to me. "Greetings, Kaneki; I'm so glad we can meet face to face." From underneath their sweater's sleeve, they flashed out a clean kitchen knife as they took another step forward. "As you might have guessed, being alone for so long is pretty boring. So now that I have you to play with, I'm sure we can come up with a few ideas to enjoy each other's company, don't you think?" The moment I begun to back away, Chara rushed forward and pinned me to the ground with one hand as they hovered over me- their knife a mere inch away from my neck. "Kaneki, you're being rude, and I don't really care much for people who are rude to me. So… Are you going to behave yourself now?" Seeing how struggling against someone who clearly was able to overpower me with ease seemed fruitless, I nodded quickly, to which they seemed to satisfied with. "Good… Hey, you're pretty smart for a kid too, right?" I didn't answer immediately, to which was my mistake. They didn't like that. Without hesitation, Chara grabbed raised the knife up before stabbing me in my arm. I didn't hurt, to my surprise, but I watched in horror as a white particles of dust emerged from the open wound. "Kaneki, what did I just say about being rude?"
"... I-I'm… I'm sorry... " I reluctantly apologized. "I… I'm academically above average, yes." I whispered.
"So you understand testing ideas, correct?"
"... Yes."
"Well, please humor me for a second, but allow me to suggest an idea I came up with awhile back ago." Chara paused for a moment to clear their throat before explaining to me their hypothesis. "I don't know how long I've been here, but I know how I got here, and how I got here was through a path of bloodshed. Long story short, I created this plane of nothing through the works of my own sins- a fitting hell if that seems like poetic justice, and I've been stuck here since. Now, according to someone I knew, he spoke a lot about a lot about different timelines and all sorts of different universes with all that science fiction-themed theories one would think to be untrue… It's not like you believe in many things yourself, from what I heard earlier." Chara chuckled to themselves before leaning in closer to my face. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, wouldn't you?" I remained silent as I tried to look away, but was forced to stare at them as they forcefully moved my chin to face them. "So… here's my dilemma: It turns out, I can't truly RESET this timeline without another human soul. That's where you come in, Kaneki…" Chara then leaned in even closer as I could see their blacken eyes beginning to redden. "Let me inside your soul, so that I can SAVE the both of us." I didn't know how to respond to that request at first. Did souls even exist? However, a sudden thought popped into my head.
"... What about Hide?" Chara backed away for a moment to think, before answering with a simple shrug. "He… He came with me; why isn't he here?"
"Well, I actually did hear someone else briefly before your door came into existence, and I really didn't get hear much, but it did sound like a conversation perhaps? I don't know, it was really hard to tell to be honest. So umm… No, I don't know, nor do I care right now."
"I do." I stated sternly. Upon hearing his, Chara's smile faded into an upset frown as they stared coldly at me.
"You rather stay in this hell with me forever then?" I shook my head.
"I never said that, I just want to know if Hide's okay." I begun to speak with more confidence I glared back into those red eyes. Chara stilled had me pinned down, but begun to tap their fingers against the side of my arm for a few minutes in silence.
"How about this, Kaneki…" Chara proposed as their smirk returned. "I'll help you find out more on your friend, Hide. But in return, you allow me inside your soul, from there, I'll be able to live through you and speak to and even through you. However, once you agree on doing this, you won't be the only one in control of your soul anymore. Think of it… as OUR soul from there on." With their proposition offered, Chara got off me to stand with their hand out in anticipation. "What do you say, partner? Together, we'll rewrite this timeline." Even then, I knew Chara's offer was vague, and from what they had said about how this plane came into existence, I had suspicion of what their true intentions might be. I would have been overwhelmed with the details about this, but I didn't care. All I had in mind was to find Hide.
"I won't let you hurt anyone, I hope you know that." I stated firmly, to which Chara chuckled at with a shrug. "I'm doing this to find Hide, nothing else."
"We'll see about that, Kaneki." With hesitation, I slowly reached for their hand before taking hold it. Upon grasping their hand, Chara stuck the knife they had through our closed grasp, to which I had to look away from. "See you REAL soon."