"See you in the morning…"Leo waved at Oliver as he reached his house. Now, Oliver was alone on the road—just a few meters from home. As he walked, the pressure on that same stretch of road he'd stood on earlier seemed to grow heavier. But he shook it off.
When he reached a three-way junction, something caught his eye.
He tried to focus on one path, but something rustling beneath a bush distracted him. While he stood there, a bit startled, something bounced out.
It was a rabbit.
Oliver burst out laughing—a brief release of the tension that had been building—but the relief didn't last.
The rabbit hopped onto a rock marked with a strange, carved symbol. Suddenly, something pierced the air.
At first, it sounded like a bell.
But when he turned to locate the source, the sound warped—twisting into the sharp cry of a child. The trees surrounding the area began to shake violently.
His eyes widened. Even the white rabbit turned and ran, diving into a hole beneath the carved rock. Oliver's legs began to tremble—preparing to flee.
Boom!
His feet pounded the ground like iron, sleeves flaring with the wind. He tore through the streets like a jet, barely conscious of his own speed.
"Huh… Huh… Huh…"Panting hard, he finally stopped in front of a black-painted wall. His breath poured from him in rapid bursts. His heart hammered in his chest.
Before opening the door, he turned for one last look.
Something stood there—at the very spot he'd been looking at. A massive, black figure. Even from the distance, it appeared as if it stood directly in front of him. Behind it were wings—not birdlike, but insectoid. Twisting, segmented.
His memory jolted.He had seen this figure before—one of the past lives shown in his dreams.
Without wasting another second, he rushed inside.Trying to silence his own thoughts, he whispered to himself:
I didn't see anything. Nothing was there. That was just a dream. Just a normal dream. That woman—what was her name again? I've even forgotten. Good."Where is that bastard? Where is he?!"
Just as he reached the main entrance, a crashing sound filled the air—followed by a deep, commanding voice.
He wanted to go inside immediately but hesitated, hand clinging to the door, waiting for the fury to fade.
Then—
Boom.
The slamming of a door.
Oliver slowly pushed his own open and slipped inside. He moved carefully, trying not to make a sound. But his steps weren't quiet enough.
"Hey, kid! Where do you think you're going?"The voice that met him was heavy—so powerful it wrapped around him like iron. It crushed his spirit, forcing Oliver to stumble backward.
"HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!"He pretended not to hear. But a violent crash erupted, shaking the very floor.All the doors in the house flung open.
"Malcolm! Why are you shouting?!"
Another voice boomed from somewhere deep inside. This one was five times heavier, five times more terrifying. The stairs rumbled beneath Oliver's feet.
Stomp.A foot hit the ground as though crushing a monster.
"Dad! Look at your godforsaken child. Sneaking in, thinking we wouldn't be awake when he came back."
Oliver lowered his head, fingers crossed like a silent plea to whatever presence had roared."Who do you think you are, that we should wait up for you? What the hell do you want from us?
What else should we do to fix you?! I'm sick—sick and tired—of your pathetic behavior! I curse the day I gave birth to you!"
Then—A sharp slap cracked across his cheek.
It landed so fast, he didn't see where it came from. His vision spun. The words around him blurred into butterflies, his ears ringing with a faint metallic chime.
He was already on his knees, tears slipping down his face.
"Tah… tah… tah…"
He sobbed. Footsteps approached.
But the pain in his skull was so intense, he couldn't lift his head. Even glimpsing the person's legs felt like lifting a tractor.
Pah!
Another blow—this time to his stomach. It knocked him onto his side.
The pain rushed through him like a serial killer at a beating trial. He could no longer tell dreams from reality.
Malcolm turned, went back to the table where he'd been sitting, and downed the contents of a small glass.
"Let's see how you escape next time. Why were you chosen to be my brother? I curse the god who made that decision."
The moment the words left his mouth, a triple thunderstrike echoed across the sky. Not one—but three parallel bolts.
Malcolm turned toward the window, smiled at the lightning, and walked upstairs.The house fell into silence.
Only the thunder remained.
Then, water began falling from the sky. In an instant, the entire outside ground began flooding; leftover rubbers floated above the water. After a while, Oliver stood up and walked to his room. As soon as he went inside, he threw himself on his wretched bed. He could still feel pain on his face and in his stomach, but he had nothing to do about it. So he slept.
Immediately after he fell asleep, the sky rumbled deep with cries. It filled the entire earth. In an instant, Malcolm became stunned upon hearing them. It wasn't the cries that stunned him—but the color the night blighted in.
But Oliver wasn't awakened, even after feeling something moving inside his body from his right shoulder. Still, he saw something while asleep—something that wasn't supposed to enter his dream.
A mechanical swirling door appeared before him. At first, it was small, but as he moved closer to it, it began to increase in size—until he reached it. As he got closer, it was no longer a door but a shiny, swirling circle, almost like the surface of a river in a cold color.
While standing right in front of it, he heard a noise coming from behind.
Buzz buzz buzz