Martin opened his eyes to the shrieking sound of his alarm.

Once again, he was in his bed. He slammed down on his alarm snooze bar and looked around his bedroom, hoping to see signs that something was amiss, but no, everything was exactly the way it was two days ago.

It was also exactly the same way it was four days ago, and six days ago, and eight days ago.

Martin groaned, and idly wished for the world to stop repeating.

He'd see if it worked in two days.

Though it probably wouldn't.

But hey, he thought, a man can hope, right?

Of course, he had done that five times now, and the world showed no sign of listening to him.

Martin pressed his face into his palm as he contemplated how this had happened in the first place. He was a loner and a coward. He tended to look for the easiest way out. Like that time he persuaded himself out of asking his middle school crush out. Or that time he talked himself out of joining the track and field club, the one thing he actually liked doing. Or that time he convinced himself that he didn't want friends in the first place.

But then, in his sophomore year, he had looked back on his life and deemed it horrible.

So he decided to change. One step at a time, he told himself. First, he'd join the track and field club. Or maybe he should ask Emily out. It didn't really matter.

He just wanted to change.

So, after classes had ended about a month and a half ago, he waited by the entrance for Emily to come out of the school.

After a minute, he started to think a bit.

What if Emily rejected him?

What would he do then?

What should he say?

Thank you?

No, that's weird for a person who had just made a failed confession.

Cry?

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God no.

Run away?

That's pathetic.

"When Emily rejects me, what should I do?", he pondered aloud. "Haha, nice to talk to you too ...", no, that's off.

Why was he even confessing?

Did Emily have a boyfriend?

This was the kind of thing he could have found out easily, had he maintained social relationships.

Someone as pretty and charming as her would definitely have a boyfriend.

But what if she didn't?

No, she definitely did. She was one of the nicest people he had ever met. If anyone would have a significant other, it was her.

Why hadn't he seen it before?

God, now he felt like an idiot. He had wasted so much time over something that was never meant to be.

And he'd been loitering by the gates for a couple of minutes now. Almost everyone was gone. The front desk lady was giving him a lot of strange looks.

Even the patrolling security officer was giving him weird looks.

Oh.

He probably looked like a stalker.

Before he got arrested, he should leave.

Yeah, that was probably the best course of action.

He left the school.

He wandered the neighborhood around the school area, just moving for the sake of moving. He felt listless.

Before long, he found himself in the park, with withering flora surrounding him.

There was a small, forested piece of land he sometimes relaxed at. Not many people came by, which was a nice break for him. The normal him would have left after a couple of minutes to do homework.

Today, he didn't. He felt tired, and he really just didn't care anymore.

He ran away.

Again.

Even after telling himself he would change, he did the same thing he always did.

Damnit.

Why was it so hard to change?

He propped himself up against a tree, and sighed. He felt his eyes closing, and he fell asleep.

Vendra Torres!

In his dream, he could feel something ... wash over him. Suddenly, he was more aware. He turned his head to the side.

Astrogarth!

He froze. He was definitely dreaming. Those looked like glowing white chains ... flying at him? He relaxed as they shot at him, assured in his knowledge that this was a dream.

Lentes Morralius!

He turned his head to the side, and a observed a wall of earth rush towards him. It looked like a tsunami, but was made of dirt and pebbles. He frowned. He didn't want to be hit by that, it hurt. He sighed as he got up.

Or, at least, tried to.

Vendra Torres!

He started panicking when it became clear that he could not move in any way, as the chains and the dirt and that weird ray, seemingly coming back for another round, all flew at him. He was forced to watch, helpless, as the wall and the chains and the ray somehow all hit him at the same time, even though they were moving at different speeds. At that point, something changed inside him. He saw a light, and woke up.

Martin relaxed, seemingly back in the real world, until burning pain assaulted him from all sides.

No sound came out when he tried to scream.

His vision was tinged with red, and he could feel a general wetness on his clothing.

Something was burning. But it felt wrong. He'd been burned before, when he was a kid. But it didn't feel like his skin was shrieking in pain.

It felt like he was burning from the inside, not the outside.

His bones ached; his muscles howled.

Pain filled his entire body, as he attempted to scream again.

Suddenly, his vision swam, and he saw nothing but darkness.

BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP!

He nearly jumped out of his bed.

His bed?

Looking around, he saw that the room was exactly the same as it had been this morning.

A dream?