The man ran with all his might.
His whole body was a mess, bleeding from wounds that looked like they were made by claws.
His foot slipped and he fell. His face hit something, and when he looked up, a face with a locked expression of terror was in front of him.
"Aah!"
He screamed and scrambled back. His hand touched something soft.
He looked back at his right hand.
It was a woman's chest, but the woman's face was nowhere to be seen. Only half of her torn body was there.
Goosebumps appeared all over his body.
He felt terror—unexplainable terror.
Then, from somewhere in the shadows of the dark place where no direction could be seen,
He heard a soul-rattling scream.
Like something very wrong was crying aloud—truly loud.
He put his bloody hands on his ears, trying his best to stop them from bursting.
But the sound ignored all his defenses, and he started bleeding not just from his ears but from his nose and eyes as well.
In front of him, the shadow started to take a shape.
A very wrong shape.
It was nothing like he had ever seen before.
And before he could make sense of it, the shadow moved with a speed that shouldn't have been possible for anything. Before he knew it, his whole body was torn apart from his belly.
The body gasped awake. His body was so wet it looked like he had taken a bath in his bed.
Not again…
With heavy breathing, he muttered:
My name is Daren Freeman. Second son of House Freeman.
He continued saying that until his heart stopped beating like a speeding train.
This was a normal occurrence for him.
Whenever he slept, he always had terrible dreams since childhood.
And whenever he awakened, he forgot what he had been dreaming about. His parents had shown him to the best doctors in the whole kingdom, but no one could ever figure out what was wrong with him.
So he could only try to console himself by saying his name out loud—which often worked.
-----
-----
(Daren Freeman POV)
By the time I finally got a hold of myself, the sun was already high in the sky.
Another sleepless night.
If it continues like this, I swear I'll lose my mind.
Just what is wrong with me? Why am I constantly having these nightmares?
Don't tell me… what Mio said was right.
Am I really cursed?
I stopped thinking about it. My head was already hurting, and pushing it further only made it worse.
I stood up from my bed and started to freshen up.
10 minutes later.
I was living in an apartment near my school. I didn't pay for it since my family owned the building.
I ate the food prepared by Miss Suzen, the maid assigned to me personally by my mother.
Today was the last day of middle school, and I couldn't be happier.
Finally, I was free from that cursed place.
Just one last exam, and then I'd transfer to a school near my family's main residence in Crown City.
I was one step away from leaving my apartment when I heard Miss Suzen calling me.
"Young Master Daren, wait a second."
Miss Suzen was thirty-seven years old and a very capable maid.
What I really liked about her was that she didn't talk much. I couldn't have asked for more.
"Young Miss Alina called yesterday," she said. "It was late at night and you had already gone to sleep. She didn't want to wake you, so she left a message for you."
I didn't use a phone. I never liked them for some reason. That's why, whenever someone from my family wanted to talk to me, they called Miss Suzen.
Whatever my elder sister wanted to say, I already knew it wouldn't be anything good for me.
And I had a bad feeling about this.
"What is it?" I asked.
Miss Suzen took out her phone and played the recording.
"Daren, your birthday is next month, and soon you will turn fifteen years old. You understand what that means, don't you?"
Ah… it was even worse than I thought.
"After your examination, come home the next day. And for just once in your life, take something seriously."
The recording ended just like that.
So typical of my sister.
---
---
I was sitting inside my classroom, staring outside at the courtyard.
The last exam was mathematics. As much as I don't like bragging, I'm nothing short of a genius.
So I didn't find exams like this even slightly hard, and I never bothered working too hard for them.
The teacher entered the room and started distributing the exam papers.
I could feel the room grow heavy with tension. Most students were nervous.
Mathematics wasn't an easy subject, after all.
I read through the question paper once and then started solving.
Click. Click.
My pen didn't stop until I had finished the paper.
Flip. Flip.
Fifty-nine minutes later, I had completed a three-hour-long exam in just under one hour.
I looked around. Yeah, I wasn't going anywhere until the time was up.
I might as well sleep for a while.
---
---
I was standing in front of a gigantic gate. Black in color.
Its surface was covered with markings I couldn't recognize, shapes that shifted when I tried to focus on them.
In the middle of the gate was… something.
A shape I almost knew, but couldn't remember.
The harder I looked, the more familiar it felt, and yet the memory slipped away.
The gate was intoxicating.
I wanted to touch it.
I wanted to know what was behind it.
It felt like it was calling to me—no, pleading with me.
I took a step forward.
I want to touch it.
Just once.
Let me touch it.
I need to touch it.
No
I must touch me it.
Before I knew it, I was standing just one arm's length away from the gate.
I reached out, hand trembling, to lay my fingers on its surface—
But before I could, soft hands covered my eyes.
A feminine voice, whispered into my ear.
"It's not time yet. Go back."
I jolted awake.
Cold sweat ran down my neck. My heart hammered against my ribs.
Ah… shit. Not again.