Leon was in his room, sprawled on the bed, reading manga with headphones on. He was too consumed by the book to notice anything else until he was interrupted.
Knocks on his door sounded.
"Come in." he said in an annoyed tone.
The door opened.
A girl with short brown hair entered the room. She looked around noticing the mess and sighed.
"Leonar, it's time for the ceremony, all....orphans must attend."
Leon clicked his tongue
"I will be there soon, Mira."
The girl seemed to flinch as she heard her name, as though it felt unnatural coming from his mouth. Her eyes narrowed, showing a hint of sadness — she nodded and left.
Leon was annoyed, he didn't want to attend some pity party. Events like these were always organized for orphans like him by other rich tycoons who wanted to better their image.
There was no downside to attending such events, other than the fact that you will show up on camera for the whole world to see, although you usually got something good, like free money or free accessories.
He had been someone with a difficult personality, moving from orphanage to orphanage because of his unlikeable behavior. But throughout all that, he had managed to make a life for himself by working multiple part-time jobs and saving up money.
Now he lived with the landlord, Mira, who tried to look after him and even gave a considerably low rent price.
He closed his manga and sighed.
'Screw this'
He smiled faintly, as he went up to his window — he climbed down skillfully and began walking away.
Not wanting to bother about silly events, he was humming a tune and thinking about the next manga he'd read, and the next shift he had to take at his workplace.
He usually went to his favorite shop to buy milk chocolate. In the past, things like those was a luxury, so he had never lost the love for chocolate. Buying it, he continued walking while savoring every bite.
A small smile appeared on his face as he could feel the warmth in his tongue — it was always the expensive chocolates that melted in your mouth too easily, but he still liked that feel.
Suddenly, he heard glass break, and gunshots ring out.
Leon froze, his thoughts raced.
'Gunshots? What's happening?'
Suddenly, near the corner, he saw a man with a black mask covering everything on his face except his eyes and mouth, running towards him and two police officers in blue chasing him.
Leon didn't move, he saw the man running right towards him with a gun in his hand. He was frozen with fear as the bar of chocolate slipped from his hand.
The man saw Leon, and smiled madly. He immediately grabbed Leon by the neck and stood behind him.
Pointing his gun at Leon, he shouted:
"MOVE, AND THE KID DIES!"
Leon's breathing grew uneven, his body shivered uncontrollably. Never in his life had he been so close to death. His face frowned as he looked at the officers, as though he was begging for them to help him.
Using his arms to grab the man's own arm that was coiled around his neck, he struggled uselessly, as his strength was simply not enough. His struggles were then paused as he felt the cold metal pressing against his temples.
The police officer on the right raised his gun.
"Release the boy, Tefa!"
Tefa laughed, "Throw your guns toward me."
The officer hesitated for a while before shooting Tefa in the shoulder.
"AGH!"
The masked man screamed in agony.
Tefa immediately pulled the trigger at Leon's head.
BANG!
Everything fell silent.
The bar of chocolate continued to melt as there was a sound of a body collapsing to the ground.
Leon's lifeless eyes were fixed at the melting bar of chocolate.
Something warm spread beside him as blood poured out of his head.
The two colors mixed as the world slowly grew dark.
***
Darkness.
Leon couldn't see.
'Did I... die?'
Leon's thoughts were messy. He was not expecting to die.
Death always seemed so distant to him. He was never one to cling on to life — and so he was surviving, rather than living.
Even on the streets, hunger took time to kill you, thirst was slow and painful. He never thought death could be so instant, just a movement of a finger and suddenly he's gone.
Before Leon could form any other thoughts, he opened his eyes again.
Except he was not in the same place he had died anymore, he looked around to find garbage everywhere.
Leon's eyes widened, the horrible smell permeated his nose. He could feel something rushing from his throat as he opened his mouth and vomited.
'Where am I?'
Leon stopped throwing up and looked around, he saw various houses, all looking like they were built with trash from the junkyard. The houses looked weak, and they felt like a push away from collapsing.
People were sleeping on streets, looking skinny and malnourished.
'Is this...hell?'
Leon looked around and began walking away, he didn't know where he was.
The place reeked, everywhere he could see, garbage swallowed the entire place.
Leon felt tired, his eyes felt heavy. He felt as though he was carrying tens of kilos of weight, while he was simply walking.
'So...sleepy.'
But he couldn't just sleep in an unknown place. Leon was observing everywhere as he quickened his pace.
A kid was eating off the floor in one place. A man was naked and slept facing up, without a sliver of shame.
Leon was revolted at the sight. Even when he was homeless, he had never seen sights so horrible, situations so bad.
His tiredness simply grew, as though he had not slept in days. If he closed his eyes, he would immediately fall asleep.
Eventually, after running around, he exited what he thought to be the slums. Entering a rather busy street, everyone that looked at Leon showed a disgusted face or avoided his gaze entirely.
The place felt similar, but also distinctively different. Leon tensed up, he couldn't recognize the streets. He just ran around, hoping to find something familiar, he wanted to approach some of the people walking but decided not to because of the looks they gave him.
He finally calmed down after moving around confused. He noticed his body. It looked frail and malnourished. He only wore a couple of rags as clothes. He thought he had returned to the times when he was on the streets.
'Did I.....go back in time?'
As much as that sounded ridiculous, Leon who was always drowning in fiction and novels, always wished for stuff like that. Except it seemed unlikely because he couldn't recognize the place he was in. Perhaps he was in a different country?
The place looked less like a city and more like a fortress for war. Every single building was reinforced with metal plating, it looked like it could withstand a hurricane without a single crack on it.
The air smelled of concrete, antiseptic, and cheap food, and everyone he passed moved with quiet urgency, heads down, as if the city itself was watching him.
He noticed armored vehicles pass by, except none of them looked like the ones in his town, they all had reinforced armor, as if every single vehicle was a military grade one. None of them had the stylish logo of companies, they all looked dull and lifeless.
But the thing that was most unnatural to Leon were the signs everywhere. Every one or two blocks he passed, he saw the signs that read:
"CARRIERS OF THE NIGHTMARE SPELL MUST SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY"
While others read:
"FOURTH SPECIAL DIRECTIVE IN EFFECT"
Nightmare Spell carriers must surrender immediately"
Leon was confused at first, he couldn't recall what the nightmare spell was. He thought it was a special type of gun or drug, now popular in the market.
'The fourth directive?'
Even that was unknown to him, he had never heard of such a thing.
Still moving around the streets, mentally mapping it in his head, Leon struggled to walk around. Eventually, he stumbled and bumped into someone on the way.
Looking up, he saw a large man. His shoulders were broad as he looked down at Leon.
"Watch it, kid."
He immediately left as the people around him slowly murmured, but he could hear some of them.
"That boy just bumped into an Awakened, what rotten luck."
"Why are these outskirts rats everywhere these days?"
Then it snapped. He remembered reading these exact same words in a novel before...
'Shadow Slave, Nightmare Spell...'
The novel he had read, Shadow Slave, had the nightmare spell which forced mundane humans into trials.
Leon froze as it dawned onto him. The armored buildings and vehicles, the uncanny behavior of the people as though they were afraid of a sudden terror attack, except they weren't afraid of a terror attack, but the sudden opening of a nightmare gate.
Leon's sleepy eyes were widening in horror.
Had he been sent into the novel?
'No, it cant be, it must be some kind of smart ad or propaganda to promote the novel. Maybe it got an anime adaptation?'
Leon was tired of running around and sat on a bench nearby. Leon rubbed his eyes, he whispered under his breath.
"Where even am I?"
He heard the sipping of coffee beside him. Leon looked towards the source of the noise.
He saw a frail looking young man with pale skin and dark circles under his eyes. The young man was cradling a cup of coffee and sipping on it while grimacing as he took each sip.
Leon looked up from where he was sitting, and saw a police station where men dressed in dark navy uniforms entered and left the building.
'No...'
Leon turned back towards the young man forcing a smile and spoke:
"Hey...um...may I know your name?"
The young man turned toward Leon, raising an eyebrow. He stayed silent for a moment before speaking in a low tone.
"Sunless."
***