Vivid dreams... That's the term for a dream that feels like it's happening in real life. It is said that these types of dreams are caused by accumalating stress, but another reason for why these types of dream is happening can be terrifying for the many.

Haruki Mimasaka, a plainly ordinary teen. He is 18 years old this year, he can be described as what many would call a Neet. As of right now, he is experiencing a vivid dream that is far from what human described it to be, or is perhaps is it the other reason of why this dreams happen?

"Where am I?" He asked himself, looking confused at his surroundings. "Oh, could this perhaps be a dream?" 

As he continued on inspecting his surroundings, just one look at a certain place made him realize where he is. "Why am I dreaming about this place?"

In front of him was a shelter; specifically an adoption center. Haruki knew for a long time that he was an adopted child; that he was not the biological son of the Mimasaka family, but that didn't matter nor affected his daily life. For he knew that, even if not related by blood, his parents; the people who adopted him were his true parents.

He could only clenched his fist from what he was seeing, he does not understand why he felt agitated from staring at the place where he was left behind by his originaly parent. 

In his entire life, he never forgave them; he never understood why he was left behind, after all neither note nor a single memorabilia were left behind when his real parents left him. In his point of view, his so-called original parents never cared for him, not even a little.

After all, he was put on an adoption center he was still a baby.

"Eh, whatever..." He could only painfully accept on what his dream is gonna show him. A sigh of anticipation is what he can muster out of his mouth after accepting this dream.

"I'm sorry..."

"Who's that?"

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry Haruki..." The word sorry kept repeating on the voice he was hearing, from what he could tell the voice came from a woman he was not affiliated with.

Her voice was trembling with sorrow as she kept on repeating saying sorry to Haruki. He understood that the woman saying sorry was crying as she kept apologizing, but whoever this mysterious woman was Haruki doesn't understood the reason why she kept on apologizing to him.

"Who are you? And why are you apologizing?" After muttering those words, he found himself at the doorstep of the adoption center. There he see a woman wearing a veil holding a baby as she kept apologizing.

Seeing this finally made him realize who the mysterious woman was. "Could that baby be me..? Could this woman be my real mother..?"

The woman-- his mother, put him down inside a basket filled with cloth and plaved it just outside the door of the place. "I love you my child, I promise you we will meet again..." She wiped her tears with a handkerchief as she say those words to the baby Haruki.

Love? What is this woman talking about? If she truly loved me, then why did she left me?

"Are you finished dear?" A man whose voice is filled with symphaty and sorrow appeared suddenly behind his mother. "We need to leave now."

The man whose face was also covered touched the shoulder of Haruki's mother to ease her pain, seeing how the man interacted with his mother so far made Haruki understood that this mysterious who appeared suddenly was his real father.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"You've got to be kidding me... Even my real father is here? Just why the heck am I dreaming about this right now?" He could only mutter those word in pain as he kept on spectating his parents leaving him.

"Do it dear." His mother went behind his father, and looked away.

"Haruki, my son..." HIs father softly whispered as he touched the baby Haruki's cheeks. "We will meet again in the right circumstances, just wait for us to come for you." 

Haruki's father raised his hand above the baby Haruki, as he raised his hands it started to shine like a sun.

It was an unnatural sight to be seen, and the chill that Haruki felt is different from what has has felt in his entire life. As the light glew more brightly, Haruki was forced to close his eyes from the bright shining light.

"What the heck!" Haruki found himself waking up in his room after seeing that bright light, he was hyperventilating after he woke up and his body was filled with sweat. He touched his face as he tried to ease his breath, but he still couldn't stop due to the toll that bright light has caused him.

"That was just nothing but a dream, right..?" Though it felt real to him, he forced himself to think that it was just mere fiction created by his mind. After all, he never heard of a dream showing a person's past; specifically a baby's memory of what happened in the past. What's more, the unnatural light is what made him doubt if that dream was truly real.

That light was both natural and unnatural for him, he does jnot understood why it felt real but he knew that he could never answer why it felt real to him.

"I'm probably just stressed." That's the conclusion he could think of. Most dreams like the one he experienced are caused by stress, so his only conclusion is that the dream he has was nothing more than mere fiction.

A ringing sound suddenly came, he looked and saw it was just the notification of his phone. He grabbed it and looked at what the notification could be. "Oh shit! I'm late!"

After seeing the message of his friend, he immediately bolted out of his house without the thought of changing his clotees or even showering. For all he cares, those things for his hygiene is not of importance if he's about to get something more imprtant than those. "I can't believe I'm late! I have to run fast or else I wouldn't get that limited-edition Chloe figure!" 

It was a matter of life and death for him, that Chloe figure from his and his friends favorite gacha game was more important than everything for him right now. "Homura! Asahi! You better save me a spot or else I'll kill you both!" He screamed as he hastily ran to the street.

As he was running he was suddenly stopped when felt a chill on his body, it was an unnatural chill; the same kind of feeling when he had that dream. He stopped his feet from moving and he could only look at his surroundings anxiously.

What is this feeling?

The sound of the cars and people around him suddenly became silent, he looked at the pedestrian lane and saw a girl about the age of 7 walking slowly on the crosswalk, she like the people around her were slowly walking in Haruki's sight.

"What... Is... This..?"

He looked again the the young child and saw that a hooded man suddenly appeared beside her, he was looking at Haruki with a smile on his face and suddenly he pulled out a knife. 

Haruki felt a threathening aura from the hooded man, but what he found odd about the man is that he was not like the others with him. Like Haruki, he was moving naturally unlike the people around who was moving like a snail. 

The hooded man pointed his knife at the young child, as Haruki saw the man attempting on stabbing the innocent child he was taken aback by what the man was gonna do to a child. Adrenaline rushed at Haruki's body, and withouth noticing it his body sprinted toward the child with the intent of saving her. 

"Stop!" As Haruki bolted and screamed for the man to stop what he was gonna do, time suddenly went back to normal, but it didn't stop Haruki from attempting to save the child. 

What am I doing? Never in my life would I do something heroic like this... But that chill that I felt; that hostily I felt from the man made my body move on its own...

Haruki could only look at the child as he bolted toward her, he saw the sorrow in her eyes. Not because of the man, but because of something far deeper, and during this time Haruki finally understood why he wanted to save this unknown child.

I see... She is like me... She is filled with pain and sorrow that's incomprehensible to the people around her, but even so... even if life is cruel to her, even she despises her existence, I still want her to live in joy. Unlike me when my adoptive parents died.

Haruki got to the hooded man, as he tried to punced at the man his vision grew darker. In just a second, he couldn't comprehend what has happened to him, to the man, or to the child. All he saw after doing something heroic was nothing but darkness...