Miko was always a lonely kid, and he was always strong enough to stay lonely.
His whole existence was made up of unnecessary habits, repeated every day for no good reason. He went to school every day without any parents telling him to do so, while at the same time never doing anything. He was just an empty shell of what was never there in the first place, making him some sort of ghost, with no real form except the fundamentals of his nature.
He never showed emotions at all, making it hard to know if he actually felt anything. Since he was a ghost, it probably went right through him.
His world revolved around nothing, his existence meant nothing, except death to those who tried to bring it meaning, good or bad, and there were many that tried. Bad people, who tried to take him, died instantly on contact, and those who tried to help, also were eliminated. Although, it was hard to differentiate between who was and wasn’t a threat.
By that time, he’d become a grim reaper to some, or a statue of worship for others. No one truly knew how to treat such a character, so they never did.
Loneliness only brought more loneliness, further skewing the views of others. He slowly became a legend, where every other fact was paired with one of fiction, like polish to the statue.
When Reese first saw that statue, it was tiny, but as it grew in size he realized how hollow it truly was, and when he decided to tear it down, it was too strong. He walked around the corner and towards the woman.
Miko was walking home at a fast pace, almost as if he’d die if he weren’t there on time. Each step felt like an eternity, yet tiny and unfulfilling. When he heard a strange noise above him, he sped up, though it felt like he was even slower.
In a bright flash of light, Reese descended from the sky, his fire forming the shape of wings, burning into his soul.
“What will you do?” spoke his voice, questioning the reason for his existence.
“Nothing,” he replied, hoping to be uninvolved.
“Unacceptable,” the voice echoed.
The flames began to get brighter, the red and orange turning to pure white. Soon, the white light enveloped him, and he became adrift in the empty blankness. The figure had vanished, yet his words echoed in this hollow space. Once the voices stopped, the light rapidly collapsed into a single point and Miko was once again left in the darkness. His bloodshot eyes, not adjusted to the dark, made him fumble around as he continued his journey home.
Miko couldn’t sleep that night. His brain, overloaded with information, caused his body to shake violently, with enough force to shatter the glass windows and snap the bed frame. The speed of his convulsions created enough friction to set the bed on fire, setting the whole room ablaze. He cried in agony, clutching his head and writhing from the pain. It felt as if someone had cut open his skull and ripped out pieces of his brain until it was hollow. Every sound could be heard, yet the fire was deafening.
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Reese decided to put his mission on hold for the time being, after all, the pieces still needed to fall into place. No matter, he had been neglecting his duties as a hero for far too long, 2.54 days to be exact. By that time the paperwork had piled up, so he pulled an all-nighter to complete it.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
23 times he was interrupted by a call for help, which consequently added more papers to the stack. In one case he was called to catch two thieves who had just broken into a restaurant at 2:00 am. When he arrived, the thieves were attempting to make an exit. To trap them, he created a column of fire around each of them. But the fire quickly spread to the rest of the room, and soon the entire place had burned down, along with the thieves. Even though he prevented a serious tragedy, one of them even had a gun, most were not appreciative and thus the paperwork doubled.
Lots of people burned alive that night, good and bad, but mostly both.
Finally, he got a call for help with an unstoppable fire south of North Street. So Reese headed west to try and spot the burning house. However, when he arrived, he realized that the burning house belonged to Miko.
Reese instantly put out the fire and brought Miko out of the wreckage. The paramedics quickly brought out a stretcher and whisked Miko away before Reese had a chance to talk to him again.
Once again, Reese was reminded of Miko’s great power which made him wonder if trying to reign in a beast was a safe choice. However, the danger was irrelevant as it was a task that must be done, as a hero.
Throughout the night, Miko writhed in immeasurable torment of mind and body. Each individual cell in his body was vaporizing and reappearing in a never-ending cycle, sending an unimaginable amount of pain through his nerves.
One may wonder in this situation if Miko existed at all. Not because his body was constantly replacing itself with a new copy, raising doubts about his originality and uniqueness, but instead due to the fact that, at an atomic time scale, his body existed and did not exist in equal proportions.
Like that famously tortured cat in a box who may or may not have been poisoned with dangerous radioactive elements, probably causing mass concern within the animal rights community. Though in that case, the box was closed for its surprise factor.
However, in Miko’s case, the box had been opened an uncountable number of times, though not truly an infinite number due to the nature of the universe.
One would expect this to have profound effects on Miko, but it should be obvious that no thought could be produced while in that state. That means no life-altering nightmare which placed all of his life experiences into context, and no dream of great pleasure which creates a morally-shifting experience. Instead, there was only pain and just lots of that.
He was slowly loaded onto an ambulance and driven to the hospital, and in the meanwhile, the paramedics had a look at his condition. At first glance, he appeared to be in good health, however, he constantly oozed blood on the stretcher he was placed on, and the hand of anyone who touched him would also be similarly doused in blood.
In the background, good music could be heard. Great music in fact, and it may have been good enough to make one forget about the shit that was happening.
But these particular paramedics were honest and hard-working, so they did their job and admitted him to the hospital. However, all the doctors were completely baffled as to the nature of his ailment, and therefore could not give any satisfactory treatment.
This was fine with Miko since he was used to people not understanding him. He was constantly reminded that people could not help him, not before, not now, and not later.
Then he realized he was not supposed to be conscious and promptly shut the fuck up. While the group of doctors scrambled around Miko’s corpse with confusion, Reese barged in and ushered in a sense of peace to the frustrated bunch. Reese placed his hand on Miko’s head and closed his eyes, and the next moment, the pain stopped.
But that wasn’t evident to anyone, because there was never any outward sign of pain, and although one could make the observation that his body stopped oozing out blood, the room was sufficiently blood-soaked to the point where determining that would be near impossible.
Of course, Reese took care of that and burned away all the blood in the room, making sure not to burn away the blood inside people. He may not have been 100% accurate, but he believed his actions were sufficient.
Miko was able to wake up the next morning and headed back to his house to take a rest after his traumatic experience. However, when he arrived he found his house in ruins. Regardless of this minor inconvenience, Miko was able to sleep after recreating his house and his bed. But he couldn’t sleep well due to the crappy mattress that he created to sleep on.