|| WARNING: DANGER DETECTED IN THE VICINITY! ||
A white-colored screen suddenly appeared in front of me.
"What... what is this?" I murmured softly, my eyes wide open staring at the strange screen that had appeared out of nowhere.
"Hey, Aliff! What's wrong with you?" Naim, my best friend sitting across the table, looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"You look like you've just seen a ghost, are you okay?"
I glanced at Naim for a second, then back at the white screen.
Wait... can Naim not see it? Am I the only one who can see this screen? But... what does 'danger in the vicinity' mean?
The screen blinked, and new text appeared in a glaring red color.
|| IF YOU DO NOT ACT, SOMEONE WILL DIE. LOOK FOR SOMETHING THAT APPEARS ABNORMAL AROUND YOU. ||
Instinctively, my eyes began scanning the entire school canteen area. The tables were full of students having lunch, everything seemed normal. Until my eyes stopped on one male student.
He was walking stiffly, his movements unnatural, and even stranger... there was something on his neck. Some kind of purplish-red lines that looked like abnormally bulging veins, though not very clear from a distance.
What is that? A wound?
"Hey, Aliff!" Naim waved his hand in front of my face.
"What are you staring at so blankly? Your food will get cold."
I didn't answer. My instincts screamed that something was wrong with that student. Very wrong.
That student, I recognized him, his name was Amir, he was in the same class as me. His head turned with a jerky motion towards a female student who was eating alone in the corner of the canteen. Ana, my classmate.
Then, in an instant, Amir ran—no, it was more like leaping with an unnatural speed. His arms were raised, his nails which had somehow become sharp and elongated, ready to pounce on Ana from behind.
Without thinking, my body moved.
"ALIFF! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Naim shouted behind me.
I ran with all my might, past tables and other students, and just before Amir's hand touched Ana, my leg swung out and kicked his ribs hard.
CRASH!
Amir's body was thrown several meters, slamming against the canteen wall with a sound that instantly silenced everyone in the canteen.
"W–what...?! What happened?!" Ana turned around, clearly startled.
I didn't answer. My gaze was locked on Amir, who was slowly getting up from the floor. And what I saw convinced me that he was no longer human.
His skin, which was normal before, now appeared grayish with blackish-purple veins spreading all over his body. Both of his eyeballs glowed red, without a single trace of human consciousness left in them.
"Hey... doesn't he look like a zombie now?" one student exclaimed in a trembling voice.
Amir's movements became even more unnatural. He rose into a crawling position like an animal, his head tilted at an impossible angle for a normal human, and a low growl came from his mouth that made my hair stand on end.
"WHAT ARE YOU ALL WAITING FOR?! RUN FROM HERE! NOW!" I shouted as loud as I could.
The canteen, which had been silent, immediately turned into chaos. Students ran in all directions, screaming in panic, tables and chairs tumbled over in the commotion.
Amidst the chaos, Amir—or whatever had taken over his body—jumped high towards me. His speed was much faster than before. I dodged to the side, but not fast enough. His sharp claws grazed my cheek, leaving a stinging, warm wound.
"ALIFF!" Naim suddenly appeared from the side, swinging his school bag still full of thick textbooks and hitting Amir's head hard.
THWACK!
Amir was thrown back, but got up again almost instantly. Thick, black blood flowed from his head, but he seemed to feel no pain at all.
"Are you okay?!" Naim stood beside me.
"I'm fine," I answered while wiping the blood from my cheek. "He's not human..."
"Dammit... I know! But what should we do?!" Naim said.
Before I could answer, a piercing scream was heard from the corridor outside the canteen.
"KYAAAAAAA!!!"
"Naim," I said quickly, my eyes not leaving Amir who was preparing to attack again. "Go to the source of that sound. Check what's happening and help anyone there."
"Huh?! Are you crazy?! I'm not leaving you alone with this thing!"
"GO, I SAID!" My face looked so serious now that it made Naim look shocked to see it.
"But—"
"We'll meet again after this. Now GO!"
Naim looked at me with a gaze full of doubt, but finally he nodded and ran towards the corridor.
The moment I looked away to make sure Naim left, Amir was already leaping at me. This time I couldn't dodge completely, his claws slashed my cheek deeper, but I managed to counter with a hard punch to his left jaw.
CRACK!
His body was thrown back and crashed into the canteen's long table. The wooden table cracked, and several plates and glasses shattered and scattered.
But Amir got up immediately. With an increasingly unnatural movement, he lifted the entire long table, which weighed at least tens of kilograms, he lifted it with both hands and threw it at me.
"Damn!" I jumped to the side, the table hit the wall behind me and shattered to pieces.
Before I could catch my breath, Amir was already in front of me, his speed drastically increased. His fist hit my stomach with tremendous force.
THUD!
My body lifted off the floor, thrown out of the canteen area, tumbling several times on the corridor floor until I stopped under a large tree in the school garden.
"Ughh... guhh..." I coughed, my ribs felt cracked, I was short of breath, and my vision was slightly blurry.
Damn... he's getting stronger. Why?
I tried to get up, but my body felt heavy. Amir walked slowly towards me.
Just as I finally managed to half-stand, leaning against the tree, something strange happened.
The world around me... stopped.
No, not completely stopped. But everything moved very slowly.
And then, the voice appeared.
Not from outside. The voice came from inside my own head, deep, echoing, and it sounded like... myself.
"How long will you keep holding back like this?"
I flinched. "Who—"
"Come on, you already know the answer. He's no longer human. He's a monster. And the only way to stop him is to kill him. How long will you be afraid to get your hands dirty?"
"Shut up..." I murmured softly.
"You have power. You've always had power, but you keep denying it, restraining it, pretending to be a weak human. You KNOW what to do. So do it. NOW!"
"I... I can't—"
"You can't? Or you won't? What's the difference? The result is the same, you'll die here, or worse, others will die because of you!"
I bit my lip until it bled. The voice was right. Logically, he was no longer Amir. He was a monster that had to be stopped. But...
"Hahh... You're right..." I laughed bitterly. "He is a monster now... but... somehow I can't. Even after seeing him like this, I still can't easily kill. This... this is insane!"
Time returned to normal.
Amir was right in front of me, his transformed claw-hand raised high, ready to plunge into my head.
But my body moved on its own.
I wasn't the one controlling it. I could only feel it, as if something had taken over, pushed my consciousness to the back, and moved my body.
My hand caught Amir's wrist before his claw could touch me. Then, with a quick and brutal twisting motion, I—or whatever was controlling my body—twisted his arm until a –CRACK– the sound of breaking bone was heard.
"GRAAAAAHHH!" Amir roared in pain.
He tried to attack with his left hand, but my body dodged easily, my knee swung up and hit his chest hard.
THUD!
Amir's body lifted, and before he could fall, my elbow struck the back of his neck.
CRACK!
Amir fell face down. My body moved on top of him, sitting on his chest, and then...
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
My fists kept pounding his face. Over and over. Relentlessly. Thick black blood splattered everywhere. The bones of his face shattered. His glowing red eyes slowly dimmed.
Until finally, Amir moved no more.
"You see?" the voice whispered in my head again, this time with a satisfied tone. "Do you see now? You have power that other humans don't possess. You can do this easily. So why do you keep wasting it?"
"I don't care, you and I are different. So... shut up."
"Hahaha... how amusing. I wonder, how long will you keep pretending to be a human who refuses to kill?"
My eyes, which had been glowing red, slowly returned to their normal black.
I stood up and looked behind me.
"How long... have you been there?" I said, my black hair covering both my eyes.
"That... just now!" It was Ana behind me.
Ana stepped forward hesitantly.
"You... are you okay? And... you... you killed him?"
I glanced at Amir's body lying on the ground. His face was crushed, unrecognizable.
"I told you to run. Why are you still here?" I asked, ignoring her question. "And... where are the others?"
"They... they already ran. Some went home, some went to the police station... I just wanted to make sure you were okay..."
I let out a long sigh. "Come on. Let's find Naim."
Ana nodded slowly, but I could feel her gaze fixed on my back as we walked.
His eyes are back to normal... What was that, really?
▪️▪️▪️
We arrived at the corridor where the scream had been heard earlier. The sight that greeted us wasn't much different from before: destruction, blood, and Naim sitting slumped on the floor, panting heavily.
"Haahh... haahh... haahh..." Naim looked at me with a tired expression. "I... I almost died just now!"
In front of him lay the body of Mr. Haris, our math teacher, in a condition similar to Amir's. His skin was gray, with blackish-purple veins, and a sharp metal rod was stuck through his mouth, piercing through to the back of his skull.
"Seems like... you're okay," I said as I walked closer.
"Yeah, of course," Naim replied with a bitter laugh. "My hands are shaking like this..." He raised his trembling hands. "This... this is the first time I've killed someone... or whatever that was. So... you killed him too?"
"You could say that."
Naim looked at me with an unreadable expression. "Aliff... you look too calm for someone who just killed our classmate."
I didn't answer.
"Ana!" Two female students appeared from the end of the corridor—Lunar and Yui, Ana's close friends.
"Are you guys okay?!" Ana immediately ran towards them.
"We're fine! We were hiding in the girls' bathroom earlier," Lunar answered with a relieved breath. "But... what actually happened? Why suddenly—"
"Not the time for that!" Yui interrupted. "We need to get out of the school before—"
A loud growl came from the end of the corridor.
We all turned.
Two other teachers—Mrs. Siti and Mr. Rahman—appeared in the same condition.
"Hey, don't joke..." Naim stood up with difficulty, his face pale. "Do we have to fight both of them in my condition?"
The two monsters started running with high speed like wild animals.
"Seems like we're going to die!," I said calmly.
"Don't just give up like that, you idiot!" Naim stood beside me even though his body was trembling.
But before the monsters reached us—
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sound of gunshots echoed in the corridor. Three bullets pierced Mrs. Siti's head, stopping her run. She fell face down.
"QUICK, RUN OVER HERE!" someone shouted from behind us.
We turned and saw two police officers with long-barreled rifles running towards us.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Mr. Rahman, who was still running, was shot multiple times—chest, stomach, head—until his body finally collapsed and moved no more. Thick black blood pooled on the floor.
"So... are you five the only ones left in this school?" one of the policemen asked while lowering his weapon.
"Seems like it," Naim answered while trying to catch his breath. "The others ran away earlier. But... what actually happened, Sir? Why did our teachers become like that?"
The policeman shook his head. "We don't know either. We came here because of a report from one of the students saying there were 'strange people' at the school. At first we thought it was just a typical teenage problem, but..." He glanced at the monster corpses around. "This isn't something that can be ignored."
"None of you are seriously injured, right?" asked the other policeman while checking each of us.
"We're fine, Sir. Thank you for—" Naim stopped talking and turned to his side. "Aliff, you—"
The spot where I had been standing was now empty.
"Where did he go?!" Naim turned his head around in panic.
"I don't know... I didn't see when he left," Yui said while looking around. "Did he run into the forest?"
"He's really weird!" Lunar said, "If you want to leave, tell us first!"
Ana didn't say anything. She just stared towards the forest where footprints, still wet with blood, led into it.
▪️▪️▪️
I ran through the forest, jumping over roots and bushes, until I finally stopped under a large tree far from anyone's reach.
"Ueekkk—!" I vomited there.
Old memories suddenly resurfaced.
"YOU LUNATIC! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL MY CHILD?! HUH?! LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO HIM! HE'S STILL A CHILD! YOU MONSTER! MONSTER!"
"Haahh... haahh..." I sat leaning against the tree.
Then, the white screen appeared in front of me again.
"You..." I said through gritted teeth. "You know something about all this, don't you?"
The screen blinked, and new text appeared.
|| OF COURSE. WOULD YOU LIKE AN EXPLANATION? ||
"Tell me. Now."
|| VERY WELL. THE BEINGS ATTACKING YOUR WORLD ARE CALLED PARASITES. THEIR TRUE FORM IS VERY SMALL—RESEMBLING MICROSCOPIC SPIDERS. THEY ORIGINATE FROM ANOTHER WORLD—A WORLD WITHOUT SUNLIGHT, WHERE THEY BREED IN ABSOLUTE DARKNESS. ||
I frowned. "Another world? Then how did they get into this world?"
|| ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, A GREAT BATTLE OCCURRED BETWEEN TWO OF THE MOST POWERFUL ENTITIES, TEARING THE FABRIC OF REALITY. THAT BATTLE CREATED SMALL RIFTS BETWEEN WORLDS. THE PARASITES USED THOSE RIFTS TO CROSS OVER INTO THE WORLD THAT HAS SUNLIGHT. ||
"The world that has sunlight?"
|| BECAUSE THE SUNLIGHT IN THIS WORLD GIVES THEM ENERGY TO BECOME ACTIVE. AT NIGHT, THEY ARE INACTIVE—HIDING INSIDE TREES OR OTHER DARK PLACES. BUT DURING THE DAY, THEY SEEK HOSTS. THEIR MICROSCOPIC SIZE MEANS HUMANS ARE UNAWARE WHEN THEY EAT FOOD OR DRINK THAT HAS BEEN CONTAMINATED. AFTER ENTERING THE BODY, THEY SLOWLY TAKE OVER—MANIPULATING THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, ALTERING BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES, AND TRANSFORMING THE HOST INTO... WHAT YOU WITNESSED TODAY. ||
"Then... what is your actual purpose?"
|| TO HELP HUMANITY SURVIVE. THIS SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED TO GIVE POWER TO SELECTED INDIVIDUALS SO THEY CAN FIGHT THE PARASITES. ||
The screen blinked again, and two large buttons appeared in the center.
|| YES // NO ||
|| IF YOU CHOOSE 'YES', YOU WILL BECOME A PLAYER. IF YOU CHOOSE 'NO', THIS SYSTEM WILL DISAPPEAR AND YOU WILL NEVER SEE IT AGAIN. ||
My hand rose.
And without hesitation, I pressed NO.
The screen blinked once, twice, then slowly faded and disappeared completely.
"I don't care about all that," I murmured as I stood up and brushed the dust off my pants. "I'm not the right person for that. There must be someone else more deserving."
I walked deeper into the forest, taking a shortcut that led to my apartment.
"The world is like a game now, huh?" I laughed cynically.
"Whatever.It's not my business."