"Let's do something else…" Axel exhaled.
He reached into his pocket, hands trembling, and pulled out his phone. His thumb hovered uncertainly before he unlocked the screen and opened his browser. After a second of hesitation, he opened a porn site because where the hell else would he even look for strangers?
He scrolled around randomly, tapping a few things, not even focusing on the videos. He wasn't watching. He wasn't even feeling anything close to arousal. His mind was too numb with dread.
And then the ads came.
Hot single moms in your area.
Hot women near you looking for love.
Find hot milfs around your area.
He stared at them.
"…Seriously?" he whispered.
It was stupid. It was sketchy. It was dangerous. It was probably illegal. But what choice did he have? The system had given him five hours to find someone, or die. He wasn't handsome enough to magically seduce someone on the street. He wasn't bold enough to try approaching strangers. And he definitely couldn't ask his girlfriend unless he wanted to be buried in pieces.
He took a deep breath, pulse pounding painfully.
"Choose… Hot women around your area," he muttered.
And he tapped the ad.
There was no going back now.
He navigated through the scam-looking pages, ignoring the weird pop-ups, desperately clicking 'close' on a dozen redirect attempts. After a few minutes stressful minutes filled with paranoia and regret he finally got what looked like a location.
A real location.
He stared at the screen, heart thudding.
"Time to do it…" he whispered to himself.
Risky? Extremely.
Stupid? Absolutely.
But he had no other way out.
After a moment of hesitation, he stood up and walked straight toward the washroom. Because even in the middle of this disaster, he had one clear thought:
He needed a shower.
At the very least, he needed to look clean, smell decent, and not show up looking like a panicked virgin covered in stress sweat. It was going to be his first time, after all. He was nervous. Trembling. Scared. And if he really had to go through with something this insane, he had to prepare himself for everything.
He closed the bathroom door behind him.
And the cold tiles echoed the sound of his trembling breath.
Slamming the door behind him.
Stripped in record time.
Turned the water scalding hot.
Stood under the spray and just… shook.
He scrubbed every inch of himself like he was trying to wash the whole day away. Soap. Shampoo twice. Even used the fancy body wash he saved for special occasions.
"This is not a special occasion," he muttered, scrubbing his arms raw. "This is a hostage situation with my own soul."
He stared at his reflection in the fogged mirror after.
Violet hair dripping.
Pale skin.
Eyes too wide, too scared.
He looked exactly like what he was: a terrified virgin about to sell his first time to save his life. He wrapped a towel around his waist and leaned on the sink, breathing hard.
"You can do this," he told his reflection. "You have to do this. It's just sex. People do it all the time. It's biology. It's fine. It's not romantic, it's not love, it's survival."
He swallowed.
"And tomorrow you'll figure out the other ninety-nine. One apocalypse at a time."
Somewhere in the back of his mind, tiny Eight year old Axel (the one who spent his entire inheritance to save a girl's smile) was crying.
And now Axel just whispered to the empty room,
"I'm sorry, Rebbica." Then he stood up, dropped the towel, and started getting dressed.
Black jeans.
The one nice shirt he owned.
A little cologne (the one Rebbica once said smelled good). He looked at himself in the mirror one last time.
Forced a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Happy first time," he said bitterly.
Axel grabbed his wallet and walked to the front door. He paused with his hand on the knob. For one second he thought about calling her anyway. Telling Rebbica everything
Hoping she might help him. But the image of her cold, murderous eyes flashed in his mind. He opened the door and stepped into the night.
After around ten minutes of walking half-drenched in nervous sweat despite having showered Axel finally reached the location shown on his phone. When he stepped onto the cracked pavement and looked up, he froze.
Desolation.
That was the only word that came to mind.
The place looked abandoned, like something out of a lo -budget horror movie. Broken walls. Rusted metal sheets barely clinging to their frames. A flickering streetlight buzzing above like it was struggling to stay alive. The cold night wind whistled through gaps in the broken windows, carrying a faint smell of rust and dust.
"…Is this really the right place?" Axel muttered under his breath.
He stared down at the phone screen again, praying the red marker would magically move somewhere else. Somewhere normal. Somewhere safe. Even a sleazy hotel would've been fine. A cheap motel. A sketchy apartment building. Anything.
But no the location pin sat stubbornly over this run down factory lot.
This… couldn't be right. Could it?
He rubbed his forehead, exhaling shakily. "I seriously thought it'd be a hotel… or at least a good-looking building. Something that makes sense. Not…" He gestured vaguely at the crumbling structure in front of him. "Not this."
The shadows stretched long across the cracked ground, and the air felt still too still.
But he forced himself to breathe.
It wasn't like he knew how these things worked. Illegal stuff, shady stuff maybe this really was the kind of place where such things happened. Maybe he was overthinking. Maybe he was just paranoid because everything was already going horribly wrong today.
Still, doubt kept whispering in his head.
He wasn't suspicious.
…Well, maybe a little.
But he kept walking anyway.
He had no other choice. He had already lost almost an hour time he didn't have. Showering, preparing himself, hesitating… all of it ate into his countdown.
Five hours had already become four (Yeah he took close to hour for shower)
He couldn't back out now.
His throat tightened as he stepped closer. "This is fine… it's fine… hopefully," he muttered to himself, trying to convince a fear that refused to be convinced.
Every footstep sounded too loud on the empty ground.
Finally, he reached the entrance a wide steel gate hanging slightly crooked, its surface covered in scratches and patches of rust. Axel swallowed, pushing a tremor down his spine.
He lifted his hand, grabbed the cold metal, and pulled.
The steel groaned loudly as it opened, like the building itself was warning him not to enter. A gust of stale, dusty air blew out, brushing past his face. He stepped inside.
His sneakers crunched softly on debris scattered across the floor. The interior was no better than the outside dim, empty, broken-down machinery collecting dust. The whole place looked dead.
"Yeah… definitely a run-down factory…" Axel whispered, confirming his suspicion with a grim, forced breath.
He took one cautious step forward.
Then another.
His heartbeat pounded in his ears, too loud, almost painful. The phone's screen lit up his hand, the glowing dot showing he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
He took a third step
And then
Pakkk!
A sharp, sickening crack exploded behind his head.
Axel's eyes widened in shock. The world spun violently. For a split-second, he didn't even feel pain just numb confusion, like his brain couldn't understand what had happened.
Then
Everything crashed into him at once.
A blinding pulse of agony tore through the back of his skull. His legs gave out instantly. His phone slipped from his fingers, hitting the concrete with a small clatter that sounded distant, muffled.
His vision blurred.
Black spots spread across his sight like ink.
"What…?" His voice came out as a tiny, broken whisper.
He didn't even get to turn around.
His knees hit the ground first.
Then his hands.
Then.. hardest his face.
BAAAM.
The impact echoed through the hollow factory, raw and brutal. His cheek scraped against rough concrete. A metallic tang flooded his mouth as he tasted blood.
His surroundings twisted. Darkened. Faded.
He tried to blink, but his eyelids felt unbearably heavy.
The darkness swallowed him faster than he could comprehend anything.
And Axel collapsed.. completely unconscious.
----