Dead End: Nightmare (1st year)

Chapter 01

By Capn'Darkami and LuMe

Special thanks to our editor / proofreader: Dragonjek

Yuki opened his eyes, his heart was pounding and his breath was short, "Oh my head… it hurts so much!"

He looked around the room; strangely, he didn't understand where he was or how he got there, "Where am I? How I got here anyway… actually…" he forced his head but nothing came.

His eyes adjusted to the dim-lit room and to his surprise it was completely bare, nothing but a mattress in the floor and a door in the far end of the room. The only source of light was pouring from a hole at the ceiling.

He tried to find anything that could help him in the darkness, but it was useless. His only hope was the door, "Well, there is no point standing here forever…" he walked to the other end of the room and opened the door.

He found himself in a dark hallway with a single spot of light emanating from the very end of it. Yuki felt fear into his core, his heart began to race and his forehead began to sweat, but he tried to be brave and walked towards the light slowly.

His steps echoed throughout the corridor as he made his way through the darkness.

Yuki reached the apparent end of the corridor; the light was too strong for him to bear with it. He put his arm into his eyes to protect them.

After a little while his eyes got used to the lightning, he removed his arm from his eyes and tried to understand where he was.

He noticed that it was some sort of dining hall, with a big rectangular table with several chairs, chandeliers in the ceiling, a big wooden door in the end of the room. The table had a series of plates and other dining utensils, which seemed to be made of silver, arranged in a neat organization. The table was covered with a red cloth with golden ornaments in its borders adding a delicate detail to it.

The shifting in his pockets as he walked betrayed the presence of an object; he reached with his hand and pulled out the cell phone he hadn't realized he was carrying. His face was bathed in the phone's light as he flipped it open. The clock read '0:30' and a name rested below it. The name was familiar in a way the boy couldn't express. "Amano Yukiteru? Who is this guy?" he wondered aloud, although he thought he already knew the answer. "Could it be… me?"

Suddenly, his vision began to blur, his head began to ache. He sat in the chair and with his free hand he pressed his forehead. The light in the room seemed to increase gradually and in the blink of an eye he found himself into something like a classroom, a piece of paper stood in the table where he was sitting by.

He took the paper into his hands and read:

"Name: Amano Yukiteru

Title: What I want to do in the future?"

"Where the hell am I?" He said, panting. Before he could say another word, he felt a hand touching his shoulder, he got up and turned to see who it was and saw the shadowy figure of a woman, but he couldn't see her face.

Yuki got confused and nervous while looking at the dark figure in front of him, when suddenly the shadow started to talk with a happy tone to him, "So, you don't know what you want to do in the future? Me neither…"

"Wait! Do you know me? What's happening? Why am I here?!" Said the boy frightened.

Before he could ask more questions, the shadow turned into an unidentifiable shape and charged directly towards him, he closed his eyes while he was enveloped in darkness.

When Yuki open his eyes again, he realized that the scenery went back to the one where he was earlier, "What?! How I got back here again?"

"What was that place? Seemed so familiar to me…" his thoughts started to race, that image wasn't making any sense to him.

"And that creepy shadow, the voice sounded very familiar too, but…" He forced his mind to the limit, trying to remember something, unsuccessfully. Still confused and hungry for answers, Yuki gave up of trying to remember and began to look around, looking for something that could be a hint of where he was.

"Ok, by the size of the dining hall and fancy things around, I suppose it's a mansion. But I'll only be sure when I get out of here and look outside."

He looked to the big wooden door and imagined that could be his way out.

He walked towards it and began to push, but it didn't budge. He stopped, seeing that was worthless and tried to think in another way to get out.

"Mhmm, looking closer, this wood seems very old and damaged, maybe if I get some boost…"

Then Yuki walked back to get enough speed to break through the door, and when he realized that was enough, he ran as fast as possible towards the door, hitting with full power and knocking the door open but he fell on the floor due to his speed.

"Ahh damn, that one hurt, I should have better positioned myself… at least I haven't broken any bones." He flexed his arm and shoulder to be sure that he went through the impact unharmed and got up once again.

He looked at the scenery and noticed that he was in a city, but all the places that he looked to were totally destroyed, the buildings, the houses and even the streets.

"What the…" he said dumbfounded.

He looked to sky and noticed that the sun seemed strangely redder than usual and a strong gust of wind was sweeping through.

He began to walk aimlessly throughout the worn out scenery. The wind began to get stronger; walking was getting difficult at each step he took.

"I must find somewhere to be safe." He glanced to all sides wondering if any of that destroyed houses would be of some use to him. He tried to go back to the mansion, but he realized he didn't know where it was.

"Damn it! Don't tell me that I'm lost!" he said to himself.

The wind was howling stronger with each second that passed.

Another sound besides the wind rang into the air, a strong buzzing noise come out from somewhere very close to him, actually, it was his cell phone. He took and opened it; the clock in the screen was marking 0:00 and it turned to a completely black with the words "DEAD END" written in it.

"Dead end? What this mean?" He asked himself.

The sky turned to a darker shade of red than it already was, the buildings seemed tainted with blood as the air smelled alike.

Yuki looked back to his cell phone and noticed that the clock had reset to 0:20.

"Crap! Why it is so dark all of a sudden? I can't see anything… wait…" he stopped his self-arguing due to something moving closer to him. He could see a pair of bright eyes moving between the buildings and houses, apparently moving closer to him.

He tried to follow the strange being but he ended loosing track of it. He turned in circles in fear of being caught off guard; Yuki could hear the sound of a heavy breathing coming closer, he found again the mysterious eyes but this time he couldn't see only the eyes, standing several meters from him, stood a tall white creature similar to a person but he had claws and his mouth was somewhat bigger than from a human and his teeth were bigger and sharper as well.

"What the hell is THIS?!"