Chapter 2: Chapter 1: A World of Nightmares

Noah, if you ever see a nightmare, don't be scared; just come to me. I'll hold you in my arms, we can cuddle at night. There's no need to be scared, Mom will protect you, you're the most precious thing to me. Nightmares are nothing compared to Mom! Okay Noah? Sleep well, you need the rest, we'll have another long day tomorrow...

Ah, why did Mom lie to me all those years ago?

It was late in the afternoon. All of the other students had already left—of course they did, school ended three hours ago. Even the students who did extracurriculars had left as well, no one stays at school for three hours after the bell. 

It wasn't like I didn't want to leave, it was simply that I couldn't. Both of my parents died years ago. The police never told me why or how they died, all I knew was that one day, they didn't pick me up. I stood alone, in the cold winter breeze for almost five hours before I was finally approached by some police. "Your parents are dead," they simply told me.

Now, I was waiting for Miss Ellis to finish her work for the day. She was staying back late because she had a lot of tests to mark. It was exam season, all of the students and teachers were flooded with truckloads of work. 

Miss Ellis was the person who took me in after I was left all alone, stranded in the dark, scary, adult world.

I was sitting alone, leaning against my locker. The library had closed and all of the classrooms were locked. Miss Ellis had offered to let me stay in her office with her, but I wanted some time alone, so I decided to sit by my locker instead. I was locker 109, a locker tucked far away at the back of the hallway—the forgotten locker. 

It was a quiet afternoon, I was previously reading Ideal Human by H.Z, it was one of my favourite books, it was a nice escape from the harsh world that I resided in. Rin Takamiya, the main character of the novel, was a smart, cold and apathetic boy, I wondered if I was like that. I sometimes imagined myself as that, a cool boy who's suffered some trauma in his life. 

Ah, obviously not, trauma doesn't make you cool—I knew that first-hand.

I had put the book down though, I had just reached the end of a confusing section and my brain was still trying to wrap around what had just happened. Rin Takamiya would calculate far ahead of all of the other students, he would predict their movements and then manipulate them, reaching his own goals. It was beautiful, his plans came together like a perfect melody, every step slowly cornering his opponents before he would strike them down with his intelligence.

Ah, he was so cool.

It was almost 7:00 pm, I decided to start making my way over to Miss Ellis' office, she said that she would be done by then and then we'd go and get some dinner. We usually had either pizza or ramen, she didn't often go out for dinner but since she was so busy, she didn't have the energy to cook dinner tonight.

I slowly made my way up the steep white stairs to the second level of the school. I walked past eerily empty classrooms before finally arriving at Miss Ellis' office. It was very small, around the same size as a standard bathroom. There were a vast number of sheets of paper littered all around the place. Gently, I slid open the door.

"Oh, you're here, Noah."

"Yeah, I was just wondering if you were done yet."

"Almost! Just give me ten more minutes, okay?"

"Alright."

I decided to take a seat next to her and lifted Ideal Human to my eyes again. I was almost at the end of the volume—the next one wouldn't be out for a few more weeks. As the words flowed into my mind, I completely lost track of time. The bewitching prose and delightful story completely encapsulated my attention.

"—Noah."

"Huh."

"I'm done now; let's go get some dinner."

"Ah, okay."

She was packing up some of her belongings as I closed up my book. I check the time on my phone, 7:20 pm. It had been thirty minutes. 

I followed behind her as she carried a large bag of papers with her. We slowly made our way through the almost-silent hallway, filled with only the sound of our footsteps. We walked down the stairs and out the large glass double doors of the school. It was already quite dark outside, the sun had completely set and the entire area was illuminated by the moon and various street lights.

The cold nighttime wind brushed up against my skin. I started shaking as the sudden temperate change from the inside to the outside was rather abrupt. We hurried to her car and made our way inside.

"What do you want to have tonight?" She asked.

"Um, let's have ramen."

"I was craving that as well, alright, let's go!"

The heater in the car blasted as we slowly warmed up. She began driving out of the school car park onto the quiet road. Even though it was night, the city was still quite busy, there were people out for dinner, people out partying with their friends—in fact, the city felt more alive at night. After a few minutes, we arrived at the ramen place we frequented.

We took a seat near the window and a waiter brought a menu to us.

"Can we order?" The staff member was a little surprised by Miss Ellis' sudden request.

"Y-yeah, are you sure you don't need time to think?"

"We come here very often."

"Ah, I see, alright, what can I get for you?" The waiter pulled out his little notepad and clicked his pen.

"Just two tonkatsu ramen with no bamboo shoots please."

"Alright... just two tonkatsu ramen with no bamboo, anything else?" He quickly scribbled down our order.

"That's all thanks."

The waiter made his way back to the kitchen.

Miss Ellis turned her attention to me.

"So how was your day at school?" She asked me.

"It was alright, we had a science test."

"Ah, I'm sure that was easy for you."

"It wasn't too bad. I didn't get much time to revise since I had an english test yesterday, though."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be fine, anyways have you made any friends?"

"N-no... not yet."

"Come on Noah! You can't be by yourself all the time..."

"I-it's just that..."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to push you, you should go at your own pace. I'm sure you'll find some nice friends soon."

There was a brief moment of silence before I was distracted by the sound of stomping outside. I turned my head and saw a Shadow Hunter walking through the street. She was wearing a long white cape with a hood. She was quite a famous Shadow Hunter in our area. As she walked through, people turned and greeted her. 

"Oh, it's Celie; she's as popular as always." Miss Ellis remarked.

"Yeah."

It didn't look like she was getting ready to engage in combat. I guess she was just walking around the city like any other person.

After a few moments, the waiter returned with our food. 

"Here's your ramen."

"Thanks."

The familiar smell of the ramen filled my nostrils. I was getting quite hungry since I hadn't eaten since lunch. I quicked tucked into my meal and began slurping on the noodles. Miss Ellis followed behind shortly after.

In only a few minutes, the two of us finished our meals.

"Are you still hungry, Noah?"

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"No, I'm full now."

"Are you sure? You're at the age where you are growing quickly, don't hesitate to ask for more."

"Thanks, but I'm actually full."

"Well, that's good."

She got and paid for our meal before we made our way back outside. The car was parked only a few metres away, right by the sidewalk. We made our way inside and we began driving home.

We lived in a relatively small apartment. There were only five rooms in the entire house, two bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom and a tiny corner kitchen. The house was rather tidy however, Miss Ellis liked to always keep things clean and I made sure to clean up after myself whenever I could as well.

As we began making our way into the reception area of the apartment, Miss Ellis suddenly stopped.

"Ah! I just remember that I left a student's test at school, it was the one I needed to check as well... Noah, I'm going to go back, you go inside first okay?"

"Okay."

She handed me the keys as she hurried back to her car. A few moments later, she drove off back onto the road we came from. 

I guess I'd go inside.

Suddenly, I felt extremely tense, as if something was looking at me. I quickly turned my head and glanced around the area, in the distance, I saw something that looked like eyes. I jolted in fear as I began making my way into the apartment.

"—help..."

All of a sudden, in the distance, I heard a faint cry for help.

I looked around and noticed some movement in the distance.

Don't go over there, curiosity killed the cat.

"—help, someone..."

It was the voice again.

A few metres down the footpath, around the corner, there was a small park. That was where I thought the noise was coming from. 

I shouldn't go...

"—please..."

I couldn't help it. Someone was calling for help, I had to see what it was.

I began making my way towards the small park around the corner. The entire street was covered in darkness aside from the very slight light that was provided by a faulty streetlight. Through the dark footpath, I walked towards the cry.

As I looked around the playground equipment, on the ground, lying in the bark, was a young girl. There was blood dribbling on the ground as I saw an almost completely black creature standing beside her. It was a humanoid monster but aside from its shape, everything about it was distinctly unhuman. 

Holy shit.

It was a Nightmare.

I need... I need to call a Shadow Hunter.

I quickly pulled out my phone and began dialling, shit, shit, what was the number again? 04... 048573... shit what was it? I racked my brain as I tried to remember the number for our local Shadow Hunter. Sweat covered my hands as I frantically pressed the buttons on my phone, 048573... 2... 2... 5... um... wait I remember, 048573225, that was it! As soon as I pressed the call button, I felt a pain in my neck.

Huh? I can't breathe....

Air... I need air...

I noticed the pitch-black hands which were on my neck.

I struggled and kicked as much as I could but the monster seemed to be as solid as a rock, there was nothing I could do to it.

I realised that a red liquid began dripping out of my neck.

I was bleeding.

Ow.

It hurts.

I... I can't breathe.

I need... air.

I swung my arms frantically, trying to break out of its grasp. Suddenly, it let go of me.

Wait, what happened?

It seemed that it had changed its attention. It had gone back over to the girl who was struggling on the ground. It had one hand on her neck and one hand on her back. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw his jaws gradually approaching her.

Fuck. It was going to eat her.

What am I meant to do?

I can't fight that thing.

I looked down to try to locate my phone, however, in the commotion, it had disappeared in the bark which littered the ground. In this darkness, there was no way I was going to find it.

Fuck it.

I ran toward the pitch-black creature. 

With as much strength as I could muster, I raised my right leg and kicked it in the head as it bent down toward the girl.

Ow.

The pain travelled up my leg as I felt as if I had just kicked a brick wall.

It suddenly turned its attention to me again.

Shit.

Again, it grabbed my neck, it had overwhelming strength, there was no way I could break free. 

Ah, I can't breathe...

I scratched at its arms, for some reason, it seemed to be working. My fingernails began getting covered by some thick black liquid.

How... I couldn't even hurt it before...

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