When I got out of the room, I felt a sharp decline in temperature; the air was so cold every breath I exhaled kept forming small clouds.

As I got out of the room, I was suddenly hit by a freezing wave of air; foreign images passed through my mind—a candlelit room, bloody bandages, cold feet, and no, a warm day at the park—no, cold again? A blonde beauty is smiling and kissing me on the lips.

What is this? What are those…Whose are those memories?

I had to pause for a moment, as the sharp pain afflicting my head was growing stronger with each passing second.

Dammit!

I remember clearly, when I was covered from head to toe with bandages, Elena sneaking into my bed, enjoying the heated room and pressing her extremely cold feet against my legs… Back then it was winter, but then… At the park… I remember the heat… But who was that blonde girl? I had never seen someone with that kind of hair…

All of those conflicting memories made me feel dizzy; my legs were still asleep, so when I tried to walk away, I ended up tripping, tumbling over, and falling against the wall of the hallway on the second floor, barely avoiding the stairs.

That was close, holy… My legs are still numb… What the hell happened? My head’s a mess.

I noticed a few changes had been done to the house. Every sharp corner was padded, the stairs had been tuned into a ramp, and a warm and comfy rug was now covering the floor.

As I carried my tray of food downstairs, I saw Elena dressed in a school uniform, putting on her shoes, ready to leave the house.

Is this a dream? What's going on? Is she going to school? Now? Already? Don't we have a couple of months of time before school starts?

“See you later! You too, Luke!” She cheerfully left the house with a smile on her face; her eyes, on the other hand, were telling another story; they were cold and soulless, empty of any emotion.

They were gone before I could even say goodbye" back to them. I wanted to wish them luck and maybe chat a little. It stung the fact that they didn't bother to look back.

What a shame, and here I wanted to enjoy my breakfast in company.

I walked towards the kitchen and sat by myself, looking at the window, enjoying my chocolate-flavored breakfast while looking at all of the kids in the neighborhood come out of their houses to go to school.

It’s already time to go to school; I wonder how my father and mother are doing. This place must be pretty far if they still haven’t been able to reach me.

I took one of the bananas lying on the kitchen table and rapidly tossed it away once I realized it was tasteless.

What a boring day. What will I do without Elena here? What do I usually do here?

While I was squeezing my brain in hopes of finding the answer to all of my confusion and foggy memories, something broke through the roof of the building, landing right before me.

“There you are, you little shit! Took a while, but I’ve finally found you!”

The one talking was a blonde man wearing a white sweater and dark sweatpants; his long, straight hair flowed down his shoulder up to his waist, and he had purple glowing eyes.

I recognized him immediately; he was Julian Staffen, a subordinate of my family. The oldest son. And my biggest bully.

What are you doing here? Did Mom send you here? If so, why are you so rude? Don't you know a word of mine can end you?

“Why did you break the ceiling? Was it really necessary?” I asked him as I finished eating my breakfast.

Finally! Now I can finally leave; thank God they finally came to pick me up, but why did my mother send you? She knows I hate your guts.

He began to walk towards me; he was limping, clearly still injured by a recent fight; he was bleeding from an injury on the side of his head.

“I don’t care; I’m in a hurry, and I have other shit to do. You should be grateful that I—” Before he could finish his sentence, a massive robot broke past the wall of the house and tackled him, dragging him away from me.

“B-03-09 Surrender yourself now or suffer the consequences!” The robot spoke as he slammed his head on the cement road, cracking it open.

What the hell? What was that? An armored enforcer? Why is he here?

His body inflated like a balloon, pushing the large enforcer away. Then it exploded, making the same sound as a plastic balloon, splattering blood and guts all over the place.

"Is this the reason you were so bold with me earlier? You think some mere enforcers are enough to stop me? Do you really think you can trust the words of that liar? Whatever, it doesn't really matter; at the end of the day, they can't do much to me anyway." His reflections appearing on the glass windows said to me.

What are you talking about?

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

He appeared once again behind me, his body completely restored. Putting his arm around my neck. His cold hand touching my neck made a chill run down my spine; something about that situation was abnormal, too abnormal even for a guy like him.

Get off of me, you piece of—

"How about we go for a little ride, for old—" His body suddenly caught on fire.

Naturally, I distanced myself from the flames as his body was pulled back towards the large, extremely armored cop.

Fuck, I need to get out of here, and as quickly as possible!

The large being covered in the futuristic metal armor pulled Julian away from me, and then when he tried to flee from his flames, the large cop tackled him and dragged him away propelled by the flames coming out of its large forearms and his back.

"Oh no, how am I going to deal with this?" Julian's voice seemed playfully sarcastic.

I was confused; so many things were happening all at once. Elena's father was nowhere to be seen; not too much time had passed; Elena was most likely still nearby while all that hell was slowly unfolding, and I couldn't understand why the cops were against Julian.

Stop it! Get out of my head.

"Aww, poor little Lucy, is this level of telepathy too hard to handle for you?" He whispered in both my ears, his malicious laugh echoing in the background. It brought unpleasant memories.

What do you want from me?

“Aigo! Poor me! I don’t have that many numbers with me; how am I going to deal with an army of enforcers? Just kidding, this is going to be a walk in the park for someone like me.” Julian sounded strangely excited about this situation. As the army of enforcers was opening fire against him, he kept shifting places, toying with them.

"It would be a shame if you missed the action, wouldn't it? I've made some preparations for you." As he was battling a swarm of incoming officers flying down from the skies, he used one of his powers to stop my body in place.

W-w-what? What the hell are you doing? Do you have any idea—

"Guys? Are you ready or not? I'm more than ready to wreck this city! Have you secured an escape route?" He proudly shouted to his subordinates that were probably lurking around.

He summoned a toy gun and shot himself with it, inflating his body and pushing away the many mechanical cops that were out to get him.

When he returned to normal, a number of new items appeared on his body: a small plastic gun, a white coat, glasses with blue lenses, golden earrings, and a collection of daggers stored in a strange belt made out of eyes.

The massive enforcer, on the other hand, was taller than any man I had ever seen, with giant hands even bigger than his head; his body was full of sharp edges. All of those edges were stained in Julian's blood now; at the same time, gears near his elbows were spinning, emitting some steam out of the back of his hand and heels.

“Commencing execution!” The enforcer shouted as the steam emitted from his arm and back turned into flames.

“You wish!” Julian responded.

I couldn’t understand what was going on, but as the two fearsome beings clashed with one another, an invisible hand reached out to me and began to carry me out of the building.

Oh, no, no, no, NO! Get up! Get away from this; if you get lost, it'll be over! You need to run away!

I didn't have time to guess the whys and hows; I knew that Julian wasn't here to save me, and that was all I really needed to know.

“No! Leave me alone.” I gathered all my courage to shake off the invisible hand, and then the hand grabbed me by the neck and carried me away more violently than it was doing before.

I was dragged away outside the building before it collapsed and was thrown into Elena’s father’s car. When the invisible hand slammed the door of the car closed, I felt my heart starting to race. I immediately tried to open the door and flee, but the hand quickly locked the door.

“How mean of you! Are you planning on abandoning me again? Or don’t tell me you already forgot about me.” Julian Staffen whispered to me.

He was sitting right beside me. He appeared all of a sudden with his arm wrapped around my neck.

Ack! Stop! Please! I can't—breathe…too…

My heart stopped pounding; it was the second time he showcased that ability of his, and now that he was sitting next to me, I couldn't even breathe. I was stuck silently praying for him to disappear in the same way he appeared before us.

“Did you have fun these past few months? Were you able to sleep soundly at night knowing that your powers killed half the population of Litua?” He whispered in my ear with a spiteful tone, smiling as always with that devilish grin on him all the while he was pinching my cheeks.

“W-w-what are you talking about?” I didn't know what he was talking about.

"Me? Litua? What's—No, I didn't, I… I couldn't have… That wasn't my fault… I didn't." Strange images were slowly resurfacing; I couldn't tell which of those memories were real or not, nor could I tell if they were mine or not anymore.

In the meantime, something pulled Julian away from me, breaking the roof of the car. As soon as he was out, the car sped away into the distance.

I felt as if someone had just stabbed my heart. I was trying to recollect what happened the past few months, but I was only met with a headache so strong and sharp it made me curl up into a ball. All I could remember was mountains of corpses, rivers of blood, and the maniacal laugh of a demon haunting my dreams.

I was starting to hyperventilate; the more I was thinking about those memories, the more my head hurt.

It was all… my fault… No, no! I—I didn't—

As we were starting to catch some speed, another car crashed into ours, making us crash against a building.

No, this is not how I want to die, please! mom Where are you? I'm scared!

Out of the car a bunch of scary-looking men appeared; they were tattooed from head to toe, wearing simple clothing, coming straight towards me. I couldn't move my body; I think I had an arm broken or something. I was probably still under the effect of Julian's ability.

As they ripped the other door of the car away.

No, no, no, no! I don't want this.

I desperately tried over and over again to open the door next to me but failed miserably at each attempt and ultimately began to try to punch a hole through the window in desperation.

Fuck! Why isn't it opening!? Dammit! Damn!

Those mobster-looking guys were then killed by a bunch of sharp cards that cut through their throats like sharp blades; the gurgly sounds they made on their deathbed were imprinted in my mind.

No, please, stop; I can't! I never wanted any of this to happen. I'm sorry! I'm sorry; I promise I'll never do it again! Whatever it is that you want, I'll do it, so stop it, please.

“Not enough; this is just the start! I'll turn this whole city into your personal hell! Witness!” Julian’s voice and laughs echoed through the city. Out of his body, bloody strings began to appear, covering the entire city and forming a dome, erasing anything they touched, and once the dome was complete, the city itself vanished, turning into a desert.

He was punched back into the ground; he and the large cop were evenly matched when it came to physical strength.

I was curled into a ball, desperately covering my ears, hoping to ignore the world around me, hoping for the worst to pass.

Elena's father then undid his power, revealing he was the owner of the invisible hand; before I could utter a word, he picked me up and began to carry me away to a safer location while the enforcers were trying to deal with the rogue being known as Julian Staffen.

“Are you okay?” He asked me as he threw away a couple more cards into the distance behind him.

“I-I-I don’t know!” I answered while looking around in search of Elena.

Oh no, please be safe, please.