Act I

Chapter II

2nd Millennia of Pera Dunamis, Continent of North America - 24th of July

“It’s hot as balls out here.” Under the burning, my body is open season from the sun’s unforgiving rays. I paddle water onto the air mattress to stay cool, but it hardly helps. “Whoever’s idea this was is getting a foot up their ass.”

“Shut up and keep paddling, Leon. It was your idea to bring an air mattress to a camping trip.” My older brother Trent glares at me with contempt as I hold my hands up, feigning innocence.

“Hey, I just didn’t want to lie on the ground in a sleeping bag. That’s super uncomfortable. Camping is not my thing. You know this, Trent.” Truthfully, I wanted to pull this prank on Trent alone. Yet our friends back at the campground thought it would be funny to pull the air mattress onto the water with the both of us while we were sleeping.

“Whatever. I’m hungry. Look at them! Enjoying the view.” Not too far, we see our friends at the campground. Perched on folding chairs with food cooking on the grill. One of them graciously waves, then flashes us with the glow of his pale bare bum. “I’m gonna eat one of them.”

We eventually get close enough to shore that Trent hops off the makeshift raft that it pulls from under me. My face plunges into the cold shallow water and promptly resurfaces to sit as I hear bellows of adult children chasing each other. The sight reminded me of a TV show of cat and mouse. I couldn’t help but laugh so much that it brought a tear to my eye. I appreciate how light-hearted our days are as I sit in the water, spacing out towards the clear blue sky.

Out of nowhere, a splash of water slaps me in the face. “About time you guys get here, you’re late for breakfast.” Serena stood above me to block the sun. Her feisty and confident smile was the centerpiece of dirty-blonde hair that dangles in the zephyr. Each time she looked at me with those green eyes, it feels like she stares into my soul. Serena is so drop dead gorgeous. “C’mon, eat before Trent stuffs your portion in his face. You know he’s merciless when he’s hungry.”

She turns back to the campfire. An hourglass figure wading through water in a two-piece bikini skirt sure made watching her leave worthwhile.

“Leon! Come get your hot-tempered brother!” Aiden held Trent in a headlock. The man’s struggle to keep the hungry ogre at bay was quite the spectacle. Trying to restrain a raging bull is nearly impossible. Trent squirms as he kicks the sand up, attempting to loosen Aiden’s grip around his neck. He slips just enough to sink his teeth into Aiden’s forearm.

Aiden squeals in a mixture of pain and laughter. “Ahh, staahp!” In an effort to escape Trent’s teeth, he slips and eats a face full of grainy sand. Trent then grabs his ankles and drags him towards the water. “Trent, no! Leon! Caden! Guys!” He looks desperately at the rest of us as we continue to chortle at the two. He looks to us with begging eyes, then gives up as if he accepts his fate. Trent tosses him into the cold water and Aiden splats onto the surface like throwing a sticky hand toy at a wall.

Trent stands there with his chin high, tall and proud of his actions. “Did he just blow smoke out of his nose?” Serena jokes as Aiden jumps out of the water, gasping for air in a dramatic fashion.

“You’re reading too much manga again.” Caden pokes while perched on one of the camping chairs as he reads a manga book himself.

“You’re one to talk.” Serena looks over Caden’s shoulders in order to scan the contents of his reading material. “Slime?! Ogre ninjas?! What are you reading?” Caden immediately got defensive and the two bicker like the brother and sister that they are.

“Hey Leooon! I’m taking your food, alright?” Trent shouts as he stuffs his face with bacon, eggs, and hash-browns. My stomach rumbles, protesting the lack of sharing.

“Oh, no you don’t!” I jolt out of the water with the mental preparation of fighting my older brother for my ration.

Our mornings are typically lively like this, minus the whole out in the desert wilderness. We’re about to graduate high school together and set out to build our own lives. Who knows when we will have another chance to come together like this? Our ragtag group of misfits is the best thing in my life so far.

Trent is the oldest out of all of our group. He’s actually my half brother, but he’s always taken care of me for as long as I could remember. Already established with a high-paying job to support the both of us, we live in comfort. My mother had passed giving birth to me. He doesn’t know where he is, and our father had died out in war during his service. I only have a few memories of dad before he deployed. Trent and I share a strong bond with each other. I look up to him, almost to a fault.

Trent works as a construction project manager after a handful of years working for a local company. Having to carry heavy materials and complete back-breaking tasks, he has a huge stocky build on that six-foot frame of his. It’s amusing because he has a buzz cut. He would often be mistaken for military servicemen. So sometimes restaurants would provide him with the discount. A nice perk.

Serena and Caden were also siblings. Twins, matter of fact. They couldn’t be more of polar opposites, though. Caden is a reserved and quiet-type while Serena is a captivating and attention-grabbing individual wherever she went. They always bicker over the smallest of things. Despite that, they have similar interests and thus do the same thing. For example, the brother-sister duo play on their respective division one volleyball team and, funnily enough, held the same position as libero. Short and fast is what they are.

The peculiar oddball of the group is Aiden. The practical joker and undeniably the heart of the group. He’s always the one coming up with ideas for all of us to hang out. I think it’s because he’s an only child with parents who were always stuck in their careers growing up. Aiden likely wanted companions. Luckily, he could always use his parents’ money to fund our memory-filled adventures, as most of his ideas were rather pricey. Money can just about buy everything, unless you have a baby face sitting atop lankiness. Trent is usually the one to be the adult face to get anywhere for us.

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Our party is pretty tight-knit considering we all go to high school together and grew up in the same area. I often wish that our futures will be light-hearted as our childhood together.

After breakfast, our daily routines, and a bit more bickering, we pack up all our belongings as this is the last day of our trip. The bright sun soon becomes covered with clouds. So much so that it sprinkles a bit. It’s odd as it wasn’t the wet season for this region. Usually around March and April-ish. Then again, I chock this up to bi-polar weather we’re all used to.

We all load up into the rental boat and head towards the nearby marina where we parked our vehicle. The weather quickly worsens as tiny sprinkles turned into heavy drops of rain. The sky darkens and plays a symphony of thunderous tunes.

Our helmsman, Trent, and his trusty guide, Aiden, chuckle to themselves. “Hey guys, wouldn’t it be funny if it started hailing, then a hurricane would appear? Or maybe a whirlpool that sucks us into a different dimension?” Aiden teases as he makes light of the bad weather.

“If a whirlpool sucks us into somewhere with clear skies, that would be great. I’m not fond of rain.” Caden retorts. Fortunately, Aiden rented a luxury double decker pontoon so the upper deck gives us cover from the rain.

“Ooo, Cade. If it did suck us into another world, we would be in one of those manga things, right?” Serena excitedly prompts towards Caden’s books. She has a much greater sense of adventure and imagination than any of us. Whenever Aiden would come up with an idea, Serena can always make it more interesting.

“You mean an isekai? Yeah, unlike you, I know that’s simply a fantasy.” Caden scoffs at her suggestion with slight annoyance. Serena pouts and smacks him upside the back of his head. “Ow, what was that for?” Continuing to pout, she crosses her arms and turns away from him.

Eventually we arrive at the Marina to dock our rental. The sky appears furious. The rain was so heavy that we could only see a few feet in front of us. Faraway lightning strikes occasionally gave us more vision with the light that dissipates as fast as it came. It’s surely a bizarre afternoon.

We swiftly transfer all our gear, then load ourselves onto Trent’s monster of a fully custom truck. Big six figures are required to own a luxurious off-road vehicle like that. Essentially, it’s a tank on wheels. Considering how the weather shows no signs of improvement, that would be the type of ride we would need to make it through. We zoom off into the desert on a lonely road.

After a few miles, I notice that something is off. “Trent, is it me, or is it hailing?” I ask as golf-ball sized chunks of frozen rain pepper the top of the truck. Aside from big brother, we all look at each other in epic confusion. We gawk at the unusual sight through our windows.

“Isn’t this supposed to be Vegas? Since when does Vegas get hail?!” Caden adds on. Pessimism sets in effortlessly for him. “What in the world is happening?” He screeches as a larger piece of hail hits his window, startling him.

Serena glimmers with excitement as she squirms in her seat next to Caden. “This is so awesome! I feel like we’re in another world! We never get weather like this!”

Caden disregards her comment. Then, light shines through his spectacles as he buries his face into the laptop he brought. Clearly, he wants to blatantly disregard what’s going on around him.

As we continued to travel through the road, vision becomes more difficult as time passed. Trent did a good job of keeping us out of ditches and steering away from drop-offs of cliffs. Thankfully, we get onto a lengthy, straight, and narrow dirt road. With many vehicles using this unofficial stretch of land, the path was pretty smoothed out, thus making our ride calmer.

Until.

I capture the sight of a huge vortex of light and rain swirling at a rapid pace only a few hundred feet in front of us. I look at Trent, voicing my concern, but he looks like he was seeing a ghost. We both take a quick look at a silhouette forming at the center of the mysterious occurrence. Yet, in mere seconds, we close the gap of a few hundred feet. When the truck screams a loud and solid thud, Trent slams on the brakes and makes us jolt forward into our seatbelts.

“Oh, please tell me we hit a deer.” Caden whines in pure paranoia. It’s clear that he’s not enjoying any of this.

“Caden, it’s a desert. Chill the heck out.” I retort to his shaking spirit, gesturing a thumbs-up to his anxious eyes from the front seat. “You don’t always have to be the first one to piss their pants, y’know?” He murmurs a chuckle, a sign of reassurance and relief. After taking care of our nervous Nixon here, I glimpse at Trent exiting the vehicle. I follow him and hop out of the lifted truck.

The hail regresses back into droplets as though it could see that we’re outside. Unexpectedly, I notice a thick grass beneath my shoes. The ground crunches with each step I take around the truck, only to find Trent several yards away, staring down into a body. Trent’s skin turns as pale as can be. I could only imagine what his brain is going through.

The body lies inert on a bed of thick grass, the rain quickly comes to a halt as rays of light break through the clouded sky. After a moment, I glance at the others behind me who came out as well.

“What’s with all this grass?” Aiden probes as he and the others make their way to the scene. He then halts in his track only to confirm that we are not hallucinating. “That is definitely not a deer.” He chuckles anxiously.

Caden gasps like a little girl who just had her sand castle crushed. Serena, on the other hand, seems to be fascinated. “Is that was dead people look like?” As she points down at the giant pink elephant in the room. Aiden and I giggle at her genuineness despite how serious the situation is.

Caden quickly retreats into the truck to avoid what’s happening. “Trent, are you ok?” I ask worryingly, as the sky clears for a bright sun to glisten off the body on the ground. As the light reveals more of the individual, I note the awkward attire. “What’s he wearing?” As it lay on its stomach, I noticed it’s wearing a suit of armor embellished with diadems, coronets, and circlets.

Without warning, my eyes wreathe in immense pain, causing me to drop to my knees. Clutching my closed eyes, I wail in tremendous agony. The back of my pupils felt like someone set them ablaze. “Leon!” Serena and Aiden cry out as Serena slides down by my side. My eyes gape upon bloody palms.

“You’re bleeding!” Serena clings to me, squeezing tightly. I look back to Trent, only to see him floating above the ground with his hands wrapped around nothing.

I question my sanity as a hooded figure shimmers in front of Trent like a mirage coming into focus. At first translucent and ghost-like, then slowly solidifying. The surrounding air rippled from head to toe, revealing an assassin-type figure in a gray leather getup. He held Trent’s throat with one hand, lifting him above the ground a couple of feet.

The atmosphere chills me to the bone despite the beating sun’s relentless heat. My skin feels so cold that the blood on my hands crystalizes. The unbearable pain in my eyes persists.

This has to be a bad dream.

My perception of time felt slow as I see Aiden fall to the ground with his eyes thunderstruck. His head lands and rolls atop the grass below my face, leaving a small trail of blood. His lifeless body spurting like a fountain falls in the opposite direction. I realize now that I wasn’t having a just any bad dream.

This is a living nightmare.