I woke up with a minor headache, probably from the intense situations I’d been in yesterday, I thought.

Walking downstairs, I noticed a letter on the kitchen cupboard. “Dear Ichiken, I won’t be home for the next few days because of a Business Trip. Please go to school, as I didn’t excuse you for the time being. Food is in the fridge. Love, Grandma.”. A couple of days without supervision? What more could a 15-year-old want?!

It’s just me and a big house and lots of video games. As if I’m going to school! I threw the letter inside the trash bin and grabbed something to eat. Just some regular Toast and Water, nothing too crazy.

While watching TV, I suddenly got a huge stomach ache. It was like someone stabbed me with a knife or ripped my organs out. I instantly ran to the toilet, throwing up what I had just eaten. I was sitting there for a good 3 minutes, nearly constantly vomiting. “Fuck man.. What did I eat?”, I stuttered, trying to get back on my feet and calling my grandma, but strangely, no one picked up.

“Weird, Grandma never declines a call from us, no matter what.”. I got the strength to stand up again and rushed into the living room, trying to look for the leftovers of what I had eaten. “Where the hell is it?!”

I screamed, trying my best to find it. I gave up after I turned the whole house upside down. The stomach ache got worse with every breath I took. Feeling like a knife was shoved down my throat. I ran outside, trying to bring people to call the ambulance for me since I was practically gasping for air at this point.

After a few minutes, someone finally called an ambulance and tried to calm me down, telling me everything would be fine. I couldn’t see clearly, so everything I saw was blurry. But I remember the man having brown, long hair and some kind of white tank top.

“His name is Ichiken Shuken. I don’t know exactly what happened to him, I just found him like that outside his house.”, “And are you some kind of relative? Like his brother or father?”, “No, I’m a friend of his..”. Those were the last words I heard before falling into a deep sleep.

“Wake up shithead. You’re not dead yet, are ya!?”, a rusty, old voice shouted. My eyes shot open as he slapped me across the face, “Wake up already I said!”, he screamed. It was a rather short, fat man.

He had long brown hair which was mostly unwashed. I could swear I saw some bugs in there.. He wore an old worn-out tank top and a pair of blue jeans. His mouth smelled like ass if I am being honest here.

I don’t know if he ever heard about a shower or a gym, ‘cause that guy definitely looks like he could need both.. “Why do ya stare at me like that? Looks like you smelt something real bad in here!”, he asked in the same rusty voice.

“Ah wait, I forgot, ya can’t talk back with that covering your mouth, aye?”, he said, ripping the duct tape off of my mouth. “Ouch! Asshole!”, I screamed in agony. “Alright. Let me explain before ya ask any questions, ‘cause I can’t stand some stupid questions.. I kidnapped ya from the hospital, in order to torture ya here or something. I didn’t plan this far ahead.. he just ordered me to do this, so I guess this ain’t my fault.”, he explained calmly.

“So why don’t we start with uh..”, he paused, looking for some sort of torture instrument, “Ah! This one’s good I think.”. He grabbed some sort of pliers, approaching me slowly. “This won’t hurt a bit, trust me”, he laughed.

I heard a phone ring in his pocket, hoping he would answer the call before trying to rip off any of my limbs. “Today’s ya lucky day I guess..”, he scuffed. “Put him on speaker at least..”, I added. “Fine with me..”, he answered.

“The fuck ya want K?”, “Don't you dare talk to me like that, understood? You’re forgetting your place again.”, a rather familiar voice replied. “Hey! I know that voice! Aren’t you that Kuzuma guy? You’re supposed to be dead!”, I shouted. “Why the fuck are you hearing me?! Did you put me on speaker Harald? You absolute Idiot!”, Kuzuma replied.

“Uh yeah.. I put ya on speaker. Why ya asking?”, Harald asked. “Then why the hell would you put me on speaker?!”, Kuzuma screamed. “‘Cause the little shithead asked me to put you on speaker, why else?”, “And why the fuck do you listen to a stupid child!?”, “Stop screaming at me all the time Kuzuma!”.

It kept going back and forth like that for a good minute. “You know what K? Fuck you!” Harald shouted. “Don’t you dare hang up on me! I swear I’ll cut off your d-”, he did in fact hang up mid-sentence.

He threw the phone away and looked back at me. “It’s all your fault! They’re gonna kill me just because of you! It’s all your damn fault!”, he suddenly didn’t have his weird rusty accent anymore. He was speaking fluently.. Something changed about him. “I-I just have to kill you, before they’ll find and kill me! Yeah! Great idea Harald! You’re so smart!”, he spoke to himself.

Something definitely changed. I can’t decide if it's good or bad just now. “If you’re so smart.. Then why did you try to tie up someone, who possesses fire powers, with a normal rope?” I asked, holding up the rope as I stood up from the chair. He looked at me, shocked. As if he saw a ghost or something.

His expression changed from surprised to angry and back to surprised. It looked like he wasn’t sure of what to feel at that moment. But I guess someone as stupid as him can’t feel anything.

“H-How did you do that?! Kuzuma said you can’t control your powers! That fucking liar!”, he screamed at me, rushing towards me. I dodged his punch, countering him by kicking him away. “Calm down dude. It’s not that serious..”, I mocked.

“You don’t understand you idiot! You don’t understand what you have done!”. He kept shouting and shouting. I don’t wanna end up like that guy for sure.. “This could be a good training session I guess..”, I thought to myself, entering a fighting stance.

I suddenly felt a hand touching my shoulder. “Long time no see, aye?”, a familiar voice announced. “K-Kuzuma?!”, I stuttered. “Look, Harald. We don’t need you anymore. So I was sent to.. you know. Kill you.”, Kuzuma explained. He slowly approached Harald, who was still trying to process his emotions one by one.

"H-How dare you! This gotta be a joke! Just because you’re the 2nd place in our group, doesn’t mean you get to kill everyone!”, Harald nervously shouted. Kuzuma kept approaching him, slowly unsheathing his sword.

Instead of cutting or slicing or killing him or whatever, he just walked past him. “Aren’t you gonna kill him?”, “I already did.”, he answered. Harald fell to his knees, now his hands to his now bleeding throat. He couldn’t speak properly, but reached his hand out to me and muffled “R..un..”.

He fell over and was pronounced dead on the spot. I was so focused on Harald that I didn’t realize Kuzuma was already gone. Where was he? Why did he kill Harald? Who is that “boss” he was talking about? I gotta stop asking myself all these questions.. I just left the warehouse and went home.

“Shit! I forgot about grandma!” I thought to myself when I arrived home. “Ichiken? Is that you?”, an old female voice asked. “Grandma?”, “Ooh, you’re alive Ichiken! Thank god you’re alive.. I can’t afford to lose you..”, she explained as she rushed towards me and hugged me tightly.

“But Grandma.. Where were you?” I hesitantly asked. “I was kidnapped by a man with long brown hair. He did for sure smell bad.. But then a handsome young man came and rescued me.”, she happily explained.

“Did that man have an eyepatch?!”, “Uhh, yes. He did have one. Why do you ask?”, she asked nervously. “I-I gotta go again!”, I shouted as I ran towards the warehouse again. As I turned around a corner, I ran into a man by accident. “Sorry! Not on purpose!”, I shouted as I kept running, not realizing who I just bumped into.

Suddenly, my whole body trembled. I couldn’t think nor stand straight anymore. Someone stabbed me in the back. With a Knife? Who was it? “Next time Ichiken. When you bump into someone, be a bit more kind, yeah?”, a voice whispered into my ear from behind.

I became dizzy and fell over. The sound of burning wood and the smell of burning bodies woke me up. I looked around and saw a house down the street burning. My house. Was this all just a dream?

“Anthony! You sick fuck!” I shouted as I ran towards the house. He was just standing there. In front of the burning house. Accompanied by a tall man with only one arm.

“God! It’s all your fault Ichiken! This is all your fucking fault!” my dad screamed as he ran out of the house, looking at me. I quickly woke up again, on the same spot where I was stabbed. The sound of burning wood and the smell of burning bodies directed me to my house again.

The same scenario repeated itself over and over again. A dozen times. A thousand times. I stopped counting after the 289th time. Once I woke up for the final time, I wandered towards someone on the street. “What.. time is it.” I hesitantly asked. “Uhm.. It’s 12:44 pm.”, he stuttered.

It’s not even been one damn minute. This entire dream thing. It happened in not even one minute. “You look pretty demolished, shithead..”, a familiar voice mocked. “Kuzu..ma.”, I pleaded as I turned around, facing him.

“Who.. was that guy. Tell me.”, I begged as I approached him. He punched me in the stomach, making me fall over. “Sleep tight. Ichiken. Don’t go where you’re not supposed to go..”, Kuzuma explained.

I woke up in my Grandma’s house in my bed. Was it all indeed just a dream? Or did he bring me back here? Why did he save me twice? He even saved my Grandma?! Why!? I went downstairs and grabbed something to eat, trying not to think about all the things that had just happened..

It was way too much for me.