'Fuck you, Negan'
A young man was sitting on the front porch of his parents' house. Despite his noticeable eye bags and sunburned arms, he appeared very healthy. His hand was clutching a dream catcher, which his uncle had handed him a few minutes prior.
'Why do my parents force me to entertain his racist tirades about Native Americans?'
He looked down at the dream catcher in his palm. The pattern was much more geometrical than usual, but overall looked the same as all the others his uncle had given him in the past.
'I know I shouldn't let it bother me because he's schizophrenic, but how can someone be so much of a hypocrite to hate a whole race while claiming their creations are a gift from God!'
He shook his head. The young man still loved his Uncle Negan, but ever since he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he felt as if the burden of taking care of him was pushed onto him more than anyone. Both his parents were working, and his older sister was away at college. As the unemployed high schooler he was, the young man had to take care of his uncle, granted his mother's siblings would come from out of town to help from time to time.
The young man stood up. Autumn had just begun, letting gusts of wind sweep across the porch and front yard. His shoulder-length blonde hair kept blowing in his face from the wind today, and it was annoying him. He moved it back and styled it as a bun, revealing two hazel colored eyes, a noticeable long scar across his cheek caused by a razor in a shaving accident. He liked showing the scar cause he thought it made him look badass.
Suddenly, he felt the ground slightly shake as he stood there. The boy had always been sensitive to vibrations since he was little, but it was incredibly cheap to say he was observant.
A voice then came from inside the house.
"Nolan, when are you going to start that damn college essay?!"
'Shit! I forgot to do that a week ago!'
"Coming, Mom!"
Nolan walked inside and remembered his uncle's words about the dream catcher.
"I know you haven't had much luck with the last few ones, but I guarantee that with this dream catcher, you'll wake up to a good day tomorrow!"
"Sure," Nolan had said, as he walked away with Uncle Negan's gift. Although his condition had made Negan uncharacteristically and unusually racist, he still wanted to do what he thought would help his family. This made Nolan feel guilty for his animosity towards Negan, compounded by his guilt for being upset with Negan's mental illness, but he did not feel his opinions were invalid either.
Nolan stepped into his house and pleaded with his mom before going to his room.
He walked into his room and stopped to take off his jacket. His bedroom was very decorated, mostly related to his hobbies of volleyball and sculpting. He was a decently good volleyball player, at least enough to be a starter for his high school team. But he wasn't the greatest either. Still, there were several volleyball and academic-related trophies and medals he was proud of.
Nolan stopped to look at the wall where his medals sat. He scoffed.
"Season's already over."
Nolan walked over to his bed and placed the dream catcher on the small hanging rack attached to the side of his bed next to his other 8 dream catchers. He then walked over to the laptop and tried to brainstorm for his college essay.
'How am I supposed to write about perseverance or overcoming adversity or some shit when I've never had any struggle?'
To an extent, Nolan's thoughts were true. He grew up in a well-off family, with parents who gave him attention, and an older sister with whom he had a decent relationship. Furthermore, he was not even close to being socially inept and had plenty of friends. The only major loss he had experienced was the death of his grandma from a stroke when he was 8.
This had affected him greatly because he felt his life was mundane and boring, despite having a life many would kill for. Often, Nolan was left with a deep feeling of longing for something to occur, like suddenly getting superpowers to make his life more interesting. But he also felt shame for taking his life for granted and hoping for something more. Bluntly, he had always wanted to make a difference in the world, but felt as if his well-off circumstances prevented him from having an experience to make him into something significant.
To say the least, Nolan was a very privileged child.
'Screw it, I'll figure out something tomorrow. I have this whole week off from school cause of hurricane relief efforts. Maybe I should see if Sean wants to play 8 Days to Die…'
***
Several hours later, Nolan was dead tired from staring at a screen for so long and stood up from his desk. His back hurt from leaning over so much, so he did some stretching to help relieve the soreness. He had eaten dinner and showered earlier, so there wasn't much he had left to do tonight. Nolan went to his bed and stared at the dream catcher for a few seconds before shaking his head and getting into bed.
Nolan also had a nightly ritual of trying to meditate and gather ki in his abdomen, hoping ki actually exists. He started doing this two years ago after his phase of reading Wuxia manhwa, usually only trying for 3 minutes. Of course, nothing happened, but Nolan felt like it was worth trying anyway, in case it one day started to magically exist. He had never told anyone about this, because he knew how childish it was. Still, he continued to practice it as unattainable as it was.
Nolan still felt more empty than usual, probably due to the stress of taking care of his uncle. As his feelings of longing had become great again, Nolan did something unusual. He prayed.
"Dear God, whatever God or gods exist, or if there is a God. I come to you to ask if I can have superpowers. I promise I can do so good if I have superpowers."
Nolan stopped for a moment, considering how much of a child he sounded like for being 17 years old. But he continued anyway, cause he never knew if there could be an answer. Besides, he considered himself to be morally righteous enough to be given that chance.
"I know I have been given so much, but I can help so many people. Please."
Nolan ended his farce of a prayer and realized how stupid and childish he felt once again. He often had maladaptive daydreams, intensely trying to fill his void of boredom stemming from his undiagnosed ADHD. This was the first time, however, he had tried calling a higher power.
'Dude, why do I keep doing this shit? I'd probably sound so slow if other people heard me.'
He smacked himself in the head a few times to regain his common sense. Then he shaped his hand to make the ok sign and concentrated on it. That was a technique he saw online, which he thought might help him lucid dream, so at least he could get superpowers in his dreams to help cure his insatiable boredom.
Nolan slowly lost concentration on his fingers and drifted to sleep.
***
Nolan woke up to a loud ringing in his ears. In fact, it wasn't just ringing. It felt as if his ears were being pierced with hundreds of white hot needles at the same time. He screamed in agony.
"What the fuck kind of tinnitus is this!?!?"
Nolan's father heard the screams and ran into the room. A large man appeared at the door, taller than Nolan and much more muscular. He had the same long hair as Nolan, but his hair was brown.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!?"
"I don't know, Dad! My ears are ringing like they're about to burst!"
"I'm gonna call 911."
"Hold on!"
Nolan grabbed his arm
"It's calming down. It's not an emergency."
Nolan's dad stared at him, then proceeded to call 911.
"I don't care how it is now; if it was that bad, you're going to the hospital."
"No, no, no, please, please, I was just crying wolf. It was just a lucid nightmare. I promise."
Nolan's father stared at him for a few more seconds before hugging him and walking away.
"Don't scare me like that again."
Once he walked out, Nolan's pain had mostly gone, and he focused on his father's footsteps. Surprisingly, he could hear him walk all the way back to his parents' room and close the door. It felt like he could hear every little sound being made in the house. Nolan was always sensitive to vibrations, but it felt like he could hear everything.
After marveling in his newfound hearing, he looked up at what he had been ignoring since he woke up. Before him appeared to be a holographic screen with words and characters written in English.
Nolan trembled. He was stunned. Although he loosely believed in a God, nothing prepared him to understand faith. This is what he had wanted. This is what he had been hoping for in his whole mundane life.
He read the words that appeared on the holographic screen.
[First Disaster: Dog Eat Dog World]
[23:58:07 remaining until disaster]