"Ahahaha! Dan you fool!" A little girl aimed two water guns at a boy her age. "Prepare to die!"

"It's not over yet!" Dan yelled as he held up a water balloon over his head. "This isn't just my last water bomb, it's your doom!"

Dan stomped forward and with all his might he threw the water balloon, and spectacularly missed.

"Mercy please!" He threw his hands up in surrender. "This wasn't even fair! You said this was a water balloon fight!" He complained.

"All's fair in warfare fool." The girl said with a sinister grin. "Now tell me where Zeigel is and I'll consider sparing you."

"I don't know!"

"I know you two came here together, now tell me or perish!"

"I really don't know! He just disappeared after we arrived at your house!"

"So you're willing to die for your friend eh? Very well then." The girl's sinister grin widened.

"Hold it right there!" A voice called out from behind them. The two kids turned around and saw a boy their age with brown hair and a unique set of eyes pointing a hose at them.

"Zeigel, you came back!" Dan rejoiced.

"He's my kill, not yours!"

"Wait what?"

Zeigel turned on the hose and mercilessly sprayed the two kids while laughing manically.

"You cheater! Take this!" The girl fired back with her water guns.

"Hey! You're supposed to be dead!"

"Heroes never die!"

"I'm the hero here! You're the villain!"

"You're both villains." Dan muttered while crawling away from the two.

A sudden burst of water shot out the hose and pushed the girl to the ground.

"Hah! Had enough yet?" Zeigel asked. His mischievous grin disappeared when the girl didn't respond after ten seconds. "Amy?"

He turned off the hose and found that the girl had vanished without a trace.

"What are you talking about Zeigel?" A teenage Dan asked. "Amy's gone remember?"

"What? What do you mean? She was just..." Zeigel turned his head and found that Amy's house was now abandoned with police tape surrounding it.

"Oh right, I forgot." A sixteen year-old Zeigel replied.

"You never told me what happened that day. You were with her weren't you?" Dan asked.

"What happened that day was entirely her fault, that's all you need to know. Honestly, I never would've been friends with her had I known that she would drag me into all that. At least she was a good enough friend to not get me killed."

"Is that why you refuse to make any new friends?" Dan asked.

"It's because I was taught a valuable lesson. If you befriend people, there's a chance that they'll make their problems yours, and I'm not interested in dealing with another shit fest."

"And what makes you think that most people would put you through something like that again?"

"I'm not risking it Dan. I don't ever want to go through another incident like that ever again. Hell, I don't even want to risk dealing with the problems that comes with following that dream we once had. If you still want to create that company of yours, then you'll have to do it without me."

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

"I'll already be doing it without you. After all," Tears streamed down Dan's cheeks as he says with a grief-stricken voice, "Zeigel Etend is dead."

His words stunned Zeigel, confusing him as to why his friend would claim that he's dead even though he's right in front of him.

"What are you talking about? I'm right here Dan."

A portal opened up behind Zeigel and from within it a gold and blue chain shot out. It wrapped around Zeigel's arm as he looked at it in shock and horror.

Before he could even say anything, he was pulled into the mysterious portal, never to be seen again.

----------------------------------------

"GYAH!" Zeigel woke up, finding himself lying face down in the living room. He didn't know what time it was, but the pitch black darkness suggested that it was midnight.

"Man, you're a really weird dude." Said a dark figure that was squatting next to him. It took a bite of what looked like a cookie.

"Why are you still awake at this hour Saliza?" Zeigel asked while rubbing his eyes.

"Why are you still awake at this hour."

Despite the pitch black darkness, Saliza could tell that Zeigel was glaring at her.

"I just felt like getting a snack." She admitted.

"In the middle of the night?"

"At least I'm not crawling around like a creepy weirdo."

"I was crawling around the room?"

I've heard of sleepwalking, but why was I crawling? Ugh, what the hell is happening to me now?

"When I woke up, I saw you crawling to the living room, and when looked at me you went right back to sleep. I think your right eye was also glowing orange."

"My eye was glowing?" Zeigel asked in shock.

"Yeah, I think we should start calling you the creepy weirdo with super funky eyes." She laughed.

"Oh fuck you! I can't believe you came up with all that just to make fun of my eye! I bet you placed me there just to make that stupid joke!"

"But it's true! You really were crawling around the room with a glowing eye!"

"Sure I was." Zeigel said dryly. He climbed back into his bed and wrapped his blanket around himself. "Go to sleep already!"

A few minutes went by and Zeigel found himself unable to drift off to sleep. He tossed and turned while forcing his eyes shut, but he couldn't fall asleep no matter what position he was in.

When he opened his eyes, he found Saliza eating another cookie in front of him.

"Why are you still eating snacks? Go to sleep already!"

"You're not asleep either."

"Ugh, I can't sleep okay." Zeigel got up and rubbed his eyes.

Thankfully I'm finally getting a day off tomorrow so I don't have to worry around going on missions half asleep.

"Want a snack?" Saliza asked, offering her cookie.

"No."

"Wanna chat then?"

"Sure."

Saliza took a seat on Zeigel's bed and shoved the cookie into her mouth. She chewed it as quickly as she could and swallowed before asking, "Do you have any dreams?"

"I just had one, although it was more of nightmare."

And then I woke up and realized that I'm living that nightmare. Isn't my life just great?

"Not those dreams, I'm talking about the dreams you have for the future."

"Oh, those dreams huh," Zeigel sighed as he was once again reminded of how much harder it has gotten to achieve his ideal life.

"I'm going to be honest with you Saliza, I never wanted to become a vanguard."

"Does that mean you're-"

"I'm not quitting."

But god I wish I could.

"What I really wanted was to get a normal job with a good pay and live out the rest of my life in peace."

Saliza silently looked at him for a few seconds before asking, "And?"

"What do you mean 'and'? That's all there is to it."

"Seriously?" She asked in disbelief. "Isn't there anything else you wanna do? Like maybe start a family or work on some projects or something?"

Zeigel rolled his eyes at such ideas. "I don't need unnecessary problems in such a perfect life."

"But that life doesn't sound perfect at all. It just sounds sad and boring life."

"Hey, just because someone isn't a vanguard doesn't mean their life is sad and boring!" Zeigel snapped.

"I'm not calling your life that because there's nothing exciting going on. The way you described your ideal life makes it sound like your dream is to just...exist. it's as if you don't want a purpose in life."

And how would having a purpose benefit me? It'll just be problems after problems.

"I can do whatever I want with such a perfect life. I'll have no worries or stress or any problems to deal with. It'll be nothing but peace and quiet, but..." Zeigel sighed. "what's the point of even dreaming about it, it's not like I can even achieve it now that I'm a vanguard." He groaned.

"But why did you join the vanguards if all you wanted was a peaceful life?" Saliza asked. "Did you throw away that 'perfect' life of yours because you wanted to protect people? That's actually pretty noble of you."

"As if I would intentionally give up the life that I wanted for a hellish one."

I mean, what kind of an idiot would throw away something precious to them on purpose?

"Let's just say that circumstances forced me here." He sighed.

"Don't take this the wrong way but, I'm glad you joined the vanguards." Said Saliza. "You know, the biggest fear I had before joining the vanguards was that the people I met there would hate me and that I would be labeled a freak or a psycho again." There was a hint of sadness in her voice.

Light emitted from Saliza's palm, lighting up her face to show her warm smile.

"We may not have known each other for very long, but I'm glad that I get to continue calling you my friend."

Zeigel covered her palm and extinguished the light that exposed their faces. "I'm... I'm glad to hear that." he said in a weak voice.

"It's getting late, we should get some sleep." He thanked the darkness that hid his shame filled face as he spoke.

I'm so sorry Saliza. He thought to himself, not knowing that he was more of an idiot than he thought he was.