It was perfect. His life. His journey from one day to the next. It was perfect. Nothing stood in his way of having a "good day". His life couldn't get any better. His morning routine was always the same. Wake up. Shower. Fixing his blond silky hair. Dressing and going to his sweet little kitchen where his bacon and eggs were already made for him. He never questioned anything. It was a perfect life for him. For Lucas.

He was eating his sunny-side-up egg, lightly sprinkled with pepper, and sighing at the knowledge that his day was going to be just as good as the previous days. He looked at the window located behind his kitchen sink, where a small Daisy was growing and saw the pretty blue sky with some perfectly formed Clouds. The clouds almost looked bouncy. He sighed happily, standing up and walking his clean plate to the sink, turning the water on. It always came out with the perfect temperature. Not too hot. Not too cold. It was the best it could be. He washed the plate and readied to head to work.

He always walked to work. Being able to stroll the sidewalk, and see his lovely neighbors was one of the parts Lucas always loved. He smiled at his neighbor. He was a very tall man with long flowing silver hair. "Hiya Seph!" The man, who was doing some gardening, specifically getting rid of the pesky weeds, looked up at Lucas. His smile grew.

"Hey. Off to work?"

"You bet!"

"Have fun!"

"I always do." Lucas chuckled softly as he walked past Seph's house. He greeted his other neighbors in the usual way he did it. He never felt bored by the consistency of his life. He loved it. He loved the security of knowing what was going to happen the next day.

He got to his job. He never really knew what he was working on, he just knew it made him money and it was something he had always done, without fail. He looked at his coworker, SORA, and smiled. He held up a fist. "Hey, man." Sora fist-bumped him without looking away from the screen.

"You know, Lucas, why don't you ever try to find a partner?" Lucas giggled. He always received this question from him. At first, he was taken aback by the question. But eventually, he got used to it, and it's now a part of his day-to-day life. He was not a lovey-dovey person. He never was. He didn't want the stress of having a partner. The stress of not knowing what could happen the next day. Lucas doesn't want that. He yearns for the opposite. He rather live a consistent, unchanging life.

And he was getting it. His job needed him to do….something. It involved a lot of typing but even I can't seem to fathom what it is they do. He continued his mindless typing, apparently making some type of progress. He was like this for a long while, not once questioning what he was doing and why. He just didn't care.

Soon enough, he looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was time for him to head back home. He turned his computer off and looked at Sora. "Welp, imma head on home." Sora nodded his head. He was reading a book. But something was wrong. Sora was reading a new book. Lucas just stared at him, his head twitching a bit.

"G'Night, Lucas." When Sora said this, it kicked Lucas out of his trance.

"Uh, y-yeah." Lucas gulped before walking off. Sora turned to look at the boy and smirked softly.

Lucas left the building, letting his mind wander in most ways he normally does. But one thing repeated in his mind. Sora was reading a different book. He shook his head. "Stop it!" He slapped the sides of his face, trying to stop his thoughts.

He eventually got back to his neighborhood. He took a small mental breather before greeting Seph. He entered his house and sighed. He still couldn't fix his mind. It was still too shaky. He walked over to the mirror and looked into it. "Tomorrow will be fine. It will be normal. Today was a fluke. Yeah….tomorrow will be normal." He nodded his head and walked off to do his normal afternoon regimen.

It was a simple regimen. Eat supper, watch 2 hours of tv, play 2 hours of video games, then head to bed. It was simple, very simple, but Lucas enjoyed it. He always knew how long he'll play, how long he'll watch, and never once felt uneasy during it.

However….he failed. He failed to reach 2 hours at the time he always did. It was 9:01 pm, and he had just attained 2 hours. Lucas stared at this time. It was….wrong. It had to be wrong. No way would he be wrong. Not one bit. He couldn't believe it. He didn't. He shook his head, taking a step back.

"No…this is just….my clock is broken. I need to fix it." Lucas took the clock off his wall and left the house. He got to his neighbor's house and saw him still attending his garden. However…Seph wasn't moving. He was still. Lucas stopped, looking at him. "Seph?" He looked down at the clock before walking over to Seph. "Hey, Seph, you alright?" Lucas reached forward to try and shake him out of his trance, but his hand simply fazed through his body. "What?"

He stood up straight. "What is going on?" He took a few steps back when he bumped into something, he screamed, turned around, and threw his clock at what he bumped into, just hitting Sora in the face.

"Ouch!" he yelled.

"Huh? Oh, Sora, s-sorry." Sora rubbed his cheek as he saw the fear in Lucas's eyes. He stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Never forget."

"What?" Sora's hand fazed through his body and suddenly Sora's head turned a full 360. His mouth started widening and opening in ways no human body was capable of. A loud, nail-on-a-chalkboard screeching came from him. Lucas's ears began ringing in utter pain from the noise. The pain grew and grew until he let out a hardy cry when…

Lucas shot up, awake in his bed. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. He fell back with a heavy sigh. "The same Nightmare." He shut his eyes and allowed the remnants of that sound to leave his mind before sitting up for another perfect day.

He left his home, having already finished his morning ritual. Every day was the same. Always the same nightmare. He left his home to see his neighbor tending to some sunflowers. "Howdy neighbor!" Lucas called out. His neighbor, Cina, looked up and smiled. She waved at him.

"How are ya?"

"Oh you know, the usual."

"Well, have a peachy day, neighbor."

"You too!" Lucas chuckled softly as he continued on his way. He was going to visit his friends. They had their daily game of cards. He never knew what the rules of this game were, or even the name of it, all he cared about was that he did it the day prior, and thus, he would do them the following days.

He knocked on the door and soon enough, it swung open. Perfectly at 82 seconds. Just like normal. He greeted his friends. Lucas oddly didn't know most of their names. He only knew one name, Sora. Lucas entered the house with his friends, heading toward the table that had already had cards dished out for each of them. Lucas sat down in his normal seat, ready to play the same card game, with the same outcome as every previous day.

Once everyone took their seats, Lucas flipped up his cards for him to see and saw….no, it wasn't right. He didn't have his normal deck. It was all Jokers. Every single one of them. Well, almost all of them. There was one that wasn't a Joker. He grabbed the card and looked at it.

-Lucas! You have to get through this! We're waiting for you. Your friends, your family, we're here for you. Please! Get out! You need to!-

Lucas's eyes started shaking with fear and disbelief. This wasn't normal. He was supposed to have these cards. "Is something wrong?" Sora asked.

He wasn't supposed to ask this. None of this was right. Everything was wrong. He looked up and saw his friends, all but Sora, frozen. "No…no no no no no…." Lucas stood up and started backing up. "Life isn't supposed to be like this." Sora stood up after him.

"Life is supposed to be like this, Lucas." He slowly walked toward him. "Full of the unexpected, full of nothing but surprises."

"No. No! Life is….formulaic! It needs to be organized."

"You don't like this life, Lucas. You are a [blacklisted]." Sora stood still, hands touching his lips. "What? Lucas. You're a [blacklisted]."

"S-Sora…you're scaring me." Sora looked at Lucas, his scared and terrified eyes began to water. He slid down the wall, whimpering.

"No…I guess it's not yet time. Lucas….see you in the next version." Lucas was simply shaking his head over and over and over again. Wanted this nightmare to be over when soon enough, he got what he wished.

He shot up, awake from his nightmare.

His mind felt so broken. He went down a mentally draining trip that he despised. He didn't want to leave his bed. He gripped the sides of his head, closing his eyes, trying to calm his mind. "So, Lucas, what has been bothering you lately?" Lucas shot up and saw a therapist? He didn't know he was here. He didn't know he even had a therapist. This therapist wasn't anyone he recognized. He was quite the handsome fella. Glasses, brown hair, a neat-looking white coat around his pale blue shirt, and blue tie.

"Wh-who are you?"

"Relax Lucas. I am here to help you."

"Help me with what?" Lucas sat up, rubbing his head.

"Your mind. It's very messy. Isn't it?"

"What?" Lucas looked around, his mind in utter confusion that he couldn't really see much. He didn't know what was going on, where he was, or who this therapist was.

"I'm going to need you to focus, Lucas." Lucas slowly turned toward the therapist. He tilted his head. "What's wrong? Recognize something?"

"No….maybe….I don't know." He covered his eyes with his hands in the annoyance of his confusion. The therapist rubbed Lucas's shoulder.

"It's ok, Lucas. I'm just here to talk, ok?" Lucas slowly looked up at the therapist. He didn't recognize him, but strangely, some part of him felt comfortable around him. He gulped, nodding his head. The therapist smiled before sitting comfortably in his chair. "What would you say is wrong with your mind?"

"Uhm?" He looked down and thought for a moment. " Well…I keep having dreams. Dreams that take me to different…"

"Different versions of yourself?" Lucas looked up at him, with a bit of shock.

"How'd you-"

"These different versions of yourself, do they share anything in common?"

"Uh…" Lucas looked down and thought for a moment before slowly shaking his head.

"Has any single one of these versions made you in love?" Lucas looked up and shook his head. "Don't you think that's a little bit odd? Connecting to all of these different versions of yourself, in various different locations, befriending various different people….and yet never once have you been in love? Not even a simple crush. Nothing?"

"N-no….I guess it is odd…" The therapist looked around and in the corner of his eye found his potted Lily to be glitching.

"Would you look at that…our time is running out." He put the clipboard down, crossed his legs, and smiled at Lucas. "My name is Maruki. I was sent here by a friend of mine, a friend of both of us, to help you."

"What? I-I don't have any friends."

"Not in this version of yourself. But if you truly have memories from previous versions of yourself, you will not forget me. So long, Lucas." Soon enough, Maruki glitched out of existence and-

Lucas shot up. He looked around and groaned before shooting back down. "Lucas?" a familiar voice said to him. He opened his eyes to see Ness. "Is something wrong?" Lucas sat back up, his eyes being tired, and his mind being restless. Ness kisses Lucas's lips softly. "Is it that dream?"

"Yeah…always Maruki…"

"Come on, I think it's about time we talk to him, dontcha think?" Lucas sighed before nodding his head. Ness patted his back and walked over to the front door, upon doing so, there was a sudden knock at it, spooking him. While this did cause Lucas to chuckle, which Ness loved, he also was confused as to who was at the house. He opened the door and saw an envelope. He picked it up, kicking the door closed. "Did you order something?

"Where did it come from?" Ness tried to find the return address but simply said nothing. It was blank. After shrugging, he opened the envelope and received a headband and a single note.

-Welcome to the fight, come to this address-

Ness looked at Lucas. "We got invited."

"To where?"

"I dunno. But maybe it's fun. You need your perfect day."

"Perfect….day." Lucas walked forward and grabbed the headband. "I have a feeling that I haven't had that in a long while…"

"Then let's go." Lucas nodded and the two of them left, already forgetting that they were intended to go talk to Maruki. The truth was, Maruki was one of the few people to know the truth. The truth of reality. The truth of Lucas and the others. And so, that made him a threat. And now he's gone. Or so he thinks. He thinks he got rid of Maruki, he really and truly thinks that. But no. He's wrong. He is so very wrong. Maruki isn't dealt with so easily. He has a job. A promise he made to a friend. Reality shouldn't be used to force people into submission. Reality should be whatever the people within said reality wish it to be. No more puppets. No more controlling. Maruki was taught this lesson. He took it to heart.

And I will make sure I keep it. Even if I'm stuck as the narrator.