Shattered Boundaries - Arc 5

Arc 5 of End War Online: Shattered Boundaries.

Chapter 23
After the incident, all three of us, my mother, my father, and myself, were taken to the hospital. There, the police had visited us to get a full report on the incident. My mother had to answer their questions, as my father was in the ICU… I wouldn’t say a word.

The official police report pretty much summed up what happened in detail… the brutality of how my father and I killed the four men was brought under question, but my mother was quick to claim self-defense, and as far as the law was concerned, we were well within our right to defend ourselves and our home in any manner we saw fit.

But self-defense… I wasn’t sure that was entirely it… but I wasn’t in any mood to be thinking about anything at the moment…

The police report also stated that the men were specifically targeting me… the reason for this was traced to End War Online pretty quickly from the information on the cell phones of the men. Messages on the phones indicated that the attacks were premeditated with the express purpose of killing me… the reasons for this were states as unknown in the police report, and was simply filed as another incident of gamer rage… but I knew the reason. All the events revolving around me in the game… I should’ve known that someone in real life could’ve found out where I was and targeted me… after all there were probably people who blamed me for everything happening… I thought outside the game was safe… I should’ve known better…

Now my mother and I were waiting to hear if my father was going to make it… he was still being treated for his wounds in the ICU… it didn’t look good…

As for me… I felt dead inside… I felt empty and hopeless and alone… I felt like I might as well just die. I had my head wrapped in bandages as I sat outside my room on the bench, staring at my lap… I couldn’t think… there were a lot of things for me to be upset about right now but… I just felt… I just felt numb to everything…

I was probably sitting at this one bench for a while before I heard footsteps down the hall, accompanied by someone calling my name.

“Yamato?” I hear her say. It was Naoto’s voice… “Yamato!”

She rushed over to me upon noticing the bandages on my head, getting on her knees to be on level with me.

“Yamato, what happened?” She asked, worry in her voice.

I don’t answer her… I couldn’t find my voice.

“Yamato?” She puts her hand on my shoulder. “Yamato, talk to me. What happened?”

“I…” I barely breathe out. “I killed him…”

“What…?” Naoto asks. “Killed who?”

“They broke into our house…” I say. “Dad got shot… I… I can’t…”

“Yamato…” Naoto wrapped her arms around me and held me close. “Yamato, it’s okay… it’ll all be okay…”

I can’t help but hug her back… I needed her right now… at the moment I felt so weak it took effort just to breathe.

“Are you a friend of his?” I hear my mother ask as she came from down the hall.

Naoto looked up to her and nodded.

“Yeah…” She said. “What happened? I’ve never seen him like this…”

“There were men who broke into our home last night.” She explained. “Yamato and I were both subdued… his father came and… he killed three of them with his personal katana… but he was shot from behind by the last one. He tossed his katana towards Yamato and he… killed the last one.”

“Oh, no…” Naoto turned back to me in her arms. “Yamato? Yamato, come on, it’s okay… you did what you had to do.”

I only shook my head and closed my eyes tight as I dug my face into her shoulder, clutching onto her tightly… it was really the only thing I could bring myself to do.

My mother sat down next to me and put her hand on my shoulder. She didn’t say anything, though. She knew that nothing she could say would help right now. All I could do was just hang onto Naoto for dear life… I needed her right now more than anything.

“Oh, sweetheart…” Naoto said softly, combing through my hair gently. “It’ll be okay. You’re alright…”

“Ah, there you are.” I hear a voice say.

I turn away from Naoto and to the voice and see two men standing there… in fact, they were men I recognized…

“You remember us?” He asks.

“You’re from the EWO Team…” I say, letting go of Naoto and facing them.

“Shinji Nakajima and Kou Shinden.” Nakajima reintroduces himself and his partner. “When we got word of what happened we needed to speak with you.”

“Why?” I ask, collecting myself.

“As you know, the men who assaulted your family were targeting you specifically.” Nakajima says. “We’re just as surprised as you probably are… we never expected people outside the game would try to kill you.”

“No shit…” I mutter.

“Can we talk?” Shinden asks. “It’s important.”

I turn to Naoto and my mother before standing up off the bench and walking with the two men, down the hall and downstairs, leaving the hospital to speak outside. We walked over to a nearby bench and sat down to talk.

“Yamato.” Nakajima begins. “We’ve been keeping track of your progress in the game as much as we can. I believe you’re starting to home in on the AEP, which is good… but it looks like things are getting much more serious now.”

“You think?” I say. “What is this about, really?”

“People even in real life are now targeting you, Yamato.” Shinden says. “People can find out where you live… you got lucky this time, but this could easily happen again. We can’t afford for you to be in danger in the real world with what’s going on in the game… things are picking up and you’re still our best chance of fixing this.”

“I know that, dammit.” I say. “But what do you want me to do? I’m doing all I can in the damn game and now people are out to hurt me and my family in the real world too.”

“We know.” Nakajima says. “Which is why we suggest that you go into hiding.”

“Go into hiding… what the hell do you mean?”

“Somewhere outside the country, if possible.” Shinden added. “We think you and your family will be much safer that way.”

“Out of the country…?” I ask, standing up from the bench. “What the hell are you saying? It’s not like I can just pack up and leave the damn country!”

“All travel expenses will be paid for by us.” Nakajima said quickly. “We can also pay for a hotel for you to stay in for as long as you need, as well as all living expenses. Food, clothes, anything. Your only responsibility will be to keep playing the game to find the AEP.”

“I can’t!” I say. “My father is in the ICU because of what happened! I can’t just leave!”

“Yamato, I know it’s hard, but you don’t have many options, here.” Shinden tells me frankly. “Your parents will be safe. People won’t target them if you aren’t around.”

“But… moving out of the country…?” I say. “I… I don’t know where I’d go.”

“We’ll figure that out with your mother.” Nakajima says. “We just need to know if you’ll do as we say.”

“Why the hell should I?”

“If you don’t, you’ll still be in danger.” Nakajima says. “Your family will still be in danger. They’ll start targeting your friends to get to you. You’ve already seen the damage they can do, you can’t let them do anything else.”

I stay silent for a brief period, before scoffing and looking the other way.

“Listen, Yamato.” Nakajima closes his hands together. “I know this is hard on you, and I really wish there was some sort of alternative… but this really is the only option you have right now. For your safety and for the safety of everyone you care about, you need to cooperate with us.”

“I… I don’t know about this…” I say.

“Yamato, please.” Nakajima persists. “We don’t want-”

“I can’t leave Naoto.” I suddenly say, surprising myself when I said it.

The three of us stay silent for a few brief seconds.

“Naoto?” Nakajima asks. “Your girlfriend?”

“I… no.” I stammer. “I mean… we’re friends, but… I don’t…”

I turn away, trying to collect my thoughts… I began to wonder just what position I was in with Naoto… I wondered just how I felt about her… how she felt about me… I didn’t exactly understand. I started feeling things I’d never felt before. I didn’t want to leave her of course because I wanted to be there for her… but… was it really just that? I felt like I was naturally supposed to be there for her; like it was my duty to do so. It made me feel strange…

“Yamato.” Nakajima snapped me out of it, grabbing my attention again. “We need you to do this. If we lose you we don’t have a lot of hope for fixing this.”

“I still don’t understand why it has to be me…” I say. “Of all the people it had to be me. I never asked for any of this, you know! I never wanted to be involved in shit like this! Especially now since now my fucking family is involved!”

“Like it or not, you’re stuck in this situation.” Shinden spoke up. “In order to prevent any further harm to you and your family we need you to do this. Do you understand?”

“I understand, I just don’t fucking like it!” I snap, before shaking my head, calming myself down. I stay silent for a few quick seconds and sigh deeply. “Fine…”

“Great.” Nakajima smiled, standing up. “Don’t worry, Yamato. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“I doubt that…” I say, walking back down the street towards the hospital. Nakajima and Shinden followed closely behind.

---

Back at home, my mother was in the kitchen on the phone, while I sat in the living room absent-mindedly watching TV… it seemed so empty without dad there. I listened in on mom’s conversation in the kitchen. She was talking to Octavia’s mother, Violette Victoria, about my situation. As our mothers knew each other, and Octavia and I were childhood friends, my mother decided to give them a call to ask to take care of me at their place.

“Yes…” I hear my mother say from the kitchen. “Uh-huh… no, I… I don’t know how long it’ll be for… yes… oh, no, I’m okay… no really, I’m fine… you know Ishi, he’ll be fine. He’s always fine.”

I sigh, turning off the TV and leaning back on the couch.

“Yamato’s, well… he’s pretty shaken up…” My mother continued her conversation. “This whole situation hasn’t been easy on either of us, but it’s hit him especially deep… I’m sure she will. She’s a good friend to him… okay… well I’ll have him start packing up. He’ll be leaving tomorrow at around 10 am our time, so he should arrive at around… um… flight should take around 10 hours or so, so… around 1 pm your time, give or take. Yes… alright, Violette, thank you so much. Alright… bye.”

My mother hung up and walked into the living room.

“You should start getting packed, honey.” She said quietly. “You’ll be leaving early tomorrow.”

“Yeah…” I mutter underneath my breath, standing up slowly and soundlessly heading for my room.

---

It took me a bit to pack up three suitcases worth of stuff. My laptop and my RiftGear set was last, which had its own special metal suitcase, specifically designed to hold my entire gaming rig. I was leaving my bedsheets and pillows and blankets as well as a few other things that Octavia’s family would provide for me. I pack up my rig and fasten the case shut, before shoving everything into one corner of the room, ready to be carried out the door tomorrow morning. It was at that point that I heard a knock at the door, followed shortly by my mother calling me from the front of the house.

“Yamato!” She called. “You have a visitor!”

I headed out of my room and down the hall towards the front door. I see Naoto there, standing in the doorway. I walk up to her.

“What do you want?” I say coldly.

“Can we go for a walk?” She asks.

“Why?”

“Just… please?”

I sigh and lower my head, shrugging lightly.

“Sure, I guess…” I mutter. “Mom, I’m heading out.”

“Okay.” She says from the living room. “Be back soon, okay?”

“Yeah.”

I quickly snatch my house keys off the key rack next to the door and head out with Naoto, shutting the door behind me as I left.

---

Naoto and I walked downtown together silently. The streetlights lit our way as the cool night breeze passed through the town. It wasn’t unbearably cold, however, as the air itself was still warm, so there wasn’t any need to bundle up. We headed down to the river bank at the floodplain. It was down the street a ways from the shrine in town that led to the bridge I crossed to get to my school. I followed Naoto down the steps to the river bank. Gray and black stones were the ground we walked on as Naoto led me down to a particular spot down the way; a dock that led out to the water. It was a common fishing spot, though it was unoccupied at the moment. We both headed down towards the end of the dock. Once there, Naoto sat down with her legs over the edge, the tips of her toes just above the water’s surface. I didn’t sit down. I stared out at the river; the calm stream reflecting the moonlight. It was easy enough to see with the moon out this way; it provided more than enough light for us, even without the city lights.

“You know, my dad used to take us here.” Naoto told me. “The three of us… him, mom, and I… this was our special spot. We’d come down to the river bank at least once a week to play.”

I stay silent, putting my hands in my pockets and staring quietly out at the reflection of the moon in the water.

“I remember… we used to be so happy.” She continued in a melancholy tone. “I remember when dad used to love mom… and me… we were the perfect family at one point.”

“I see…” I say, looking down to her, also staring out at the waterfront.

She sighed deeply, looking down at her reflection in the water.

“I wonder what happened…” She muttered almost too quiet for me to hear. “I don’t remember very well… I was so young it seemed like one moment he was there, and the next… he was gone.”

I look back out to the river… in contrast to what I’d been through recently, everything here was so calm and serene… the world was oblivious to my struggles, and it didn’t really care. It was quieting, really… to think that my life didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. My actions were only recognized by very few… life would go on normally for most if I suddenly stopped living, and those people wouldn’t have even known I existed.

“I heard you were leaving.” Naoto said, catching my attention. “You’re going to escape the country to France, right?”

“Yeah.” I say. “Octavia’s family over there is taking me in… I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

She stays silent. I wondered what she was thinking…

“I promised your mother I’d take care of you.” I say suddenly, surprising her as she looked up to me. I keep looking out at the water.

“Did she ask you to?” She asked slowly.

“Yes.” I say. “But… it’s more complicated than that. It’s a promise I made to myself, too.”

I sigh and shake my head, trying to clear my thoughts as my mind began to get clouded up with foreign emotions that made me feel nauseous.

“I wish I could stay because of that… but I guess I really can’t after what happened. If I stayed my family would still be in danger. You’d probably be in danger too.”

“Are you really that worried about me…?” She asks, standing up to face me.

“Yes I am.” I say plainly.

I turn to look her in the eyes.

“I care about you, Naoto. I don’t know why… but I just do.”

Naoto looks downwards with a look of lament on her face before turning away from be to stare back at the water.

“I care about you too, Yamato…” She said quietly. “I don’t know if I should, but… I do. You’re the first person I’ve really been able to open up to…”

“What about your mother?”

Naoto shakes her head.

“Just you… I don’t know why I trust you as much as I do… but I do.” She starts to sniffle lightly. “And… it hurts… I can’t stand the thought of seeing you go.”

“I’ll still be around in the game, you know.” I say. “We’ll still see each other.”

“Right…” She turns away from me as she wipes her eyes with both her hands. “Right… we will…”

“I’ll be back home when this is all over.” I assure her, patting her shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

She then unexpectedly wheels around and wraps her arms around my chest, digging her face into my shoulder. I smile lightly and hold her by her waist. She sniffled lightly, but she wasn’t going to cry. She held me… affectionately.

“You’ll be careful, right?” She asks.

“Yeah.” I tell her, smiling down at her. “Always.”

“Okay…” She wiped her eyes, letting me go. “You better.”

“Of course.”

Naoto managed to put on a smile for me and chuckled.

“Who knew things would end up like this, huh?” She joked.

“Yeah…” I smile back. “Life is pretty strange, isn’t it?”

“Mhm.” She nods lightly.

I sigh and look up to the sky. The cool night breeze flowed softly down the river bank, and I breathe in the refreshing air… nights like this always managed to clear my thoughts… and I definitely needed that after everything that’s happened…

Being with Naoto here helped too…

“Anyway…” I say, after we had walked a ways. “I should probably get back home and get some sleep… got a long day tomorrow.”

“Oh… um, yeah…” Naoto stammered a little.

“See ya, then.” I say, turning around and walking back down the river bank towards home.

“Yamato?” I hear her call behind me.

I turn my head to look back to her.

“Hm?”

“Listen, I… um…” She looked down to her feet, fidgeting lightly. She seemed nervous about something…

“What is it?” I ask, rotating my whole body back to face her, putting a hand in my pocket.

“Erm…” She kicks the pebbles under her feet lightly and gyrates her body around for continuous movement… she was acting strange… I’d never seen her act out of her character before. She then shakes her head and regains her composure.

“You know what, nevermind.” She quickly says. “It’s… it’s not important… heh…”

“Hrm…” I shrug and dismiss her awkward behavior, turning back around and heading back home. I wave behind me as a final goodbye.

---

Morning came quicker than I would’ve liked. It took me a while to get to sleep due to being so anxious about leaving Japan, as well as the fact that my father was in the hospital… among other things… I only got around four hours before I was woken up by mom. It was a good thing I had already packed my things, so I was out the door pretty quickly. I decided to take my school uniform along with me, as it had come to be my style of clothing on account of me wearing it every school day. It just felt comfortable to me, and I guess I needed some sort of connection to home while I was on my way to France.

Mom took me to the airport. She had a hard time letting me go into the building when she dropped me off. She smothered me in hugs and kisses and told me she’d miss me over and over again, and to make sure that I called her every once in a while to check in. I eventually was able to escape from her and gave her a proper hug goodbye before heading into the airport. My ticket and other fees were already paid for by the EWO Team, as they had promised; as a matter of fact, I was able to skip all the lines. The security there was put on alert especially for me just in case some psychos had the idea to try to knife me in the back while I was boarding. My own personal guard escorted me through the usual baggage checks and all that with much more expedience and much less complications than if I had waited in all the lines. The suitcases which held my clothes and other items were stored in cargo, while I was allowed to bring my laptop and RiftGear with me into the plane, and I had also brought my headphones to hook up to my phone so I could listen to some music during the ten hour flight. I walked to my window seat, where I stored my belongings to my right side, up against the wall, sitting down in my seat and looking out the window. Lucky me I wasn’t put with a 500 lbs walrus of a man or a screaming baby, so I guess that was what quantified first class.

We weren’t delayed. The EWO Team really pulled out all the stops in order to get me out of the country, as we were the first plane to leave the tarmac, even though the schedule said otherwise. We pretty much left immediately after the last passenger boarded the plane. I half-expected to see a fighter escort flanking us on both sides after we had taken off, but I guess that would be unnecessary unless anyone with their own private air force had their sights on me. Either way, I felt much safer once we were off the ground, and I quickly decided I’d catch up on lost hours of sleep. I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. Might as well have been knocked out just by blinking.

---

The rest of my flight was pretty uneventful. I napped through most of it, and the rest was spent listening to music or on my laptop. Nowadays planes had their own reliable wifi so anyone could easily work on their computers or update their social network or whatever the fuck bullshit everyone on the planet except me did now.

I was already getting fucked over by the time change by the time I landed in Toulouse. It was only around noon here but I was as tired as midnight back in Japan. That’s one of the crappy things I remember about going to France… it’d take me a day or two to get adjusted to the time zone. I had been in town a few times before, but this time around it had been long enough for a lot of things to fade from memory, since it had been maybe 5 years or so since my last visit. However, I instantly recognized Octavia’s mother waving me over after I had exited the plane, partially because I recognized Violette when I saw her, and also partially because Octavia looked so much like her, save the fact that Octavia’s hair was black, while her mother was blonde.

“Yamato, it’s good to see you again!” Violette smiled. “You grew quite a bit! You’re taller than I am now!”

“Yeah, that’ll happen over a few years.” I say.

“Let me get a good look at you.” Violette held my cheeks in both her hands, and since I had luggage occupying both of mine I couldn’t do much to stop her.

“My, oh, my…” She smiled warmly. “You look so much like your father did at your age. Such a handsome young man.”

My face darkened at the mentioning of my father… so did hers.

“Oh… I’m sorry…” She said quickly, letting me go. “I heard about what happened… it must be hard…”

I could tell just by looking at her that she herself was more than a little shaken up about my father’s situation. They’ve been friends for a long time, after all. But even so, she put on a brave face for me to make me feel welcome in her country.

“Well, we should head home.” She said, her cheery expression returning to her face. “Come, now.”

I heave my luggage with me and follow Violette to her car; a luxury sedan that you didn’t see anywhere in Japan. It had a shining black finish and a dark coffee colored interior with wood varnish details. Fancy stuff. Didn’t surprise me, though, since the Victorias were probably the wealthiest family in Toulouse. I packed my belongings in the trunk and got into the passenger seat, and with that we headed off towards my new temporary residence.

“Octavia’s excited to see you again.” Violette said with a smile as we drove down the road. “Even if it’s under these circumstances, she was looking forward to another visit from you for a while now.”

“I see…” I mumble, looking out the window at the scenery.

Going down the road brought back memories for sure. It had been a few years but I still recognized most of what I saw. Most of the shops and buildings were still around, and I saw quite a few new places as well. Toulouse was always a pretty lively town, always full of energy. The people were always bustling and they always had an air of happiness and well-being to them. It was an interesting contrast to what I was feeling… I was emotionally distraught and exhausted from all that had happened and everyone else here was just going about their daily lives regardless…

It didn’t take long for us to reach our destination. The Victoria estate was a mansion located on the far side of town. When I say mansion I literally mean mansion; it was two stories plus some towers that gave it at most an extra two floors, and took up about as much space as a city block, between the estate itself and the land surrounding it. Not a bad place to hang out… though I wasn’t really into the excessive lifestyle that the Victorias were accustomed to.

We pulled into the driveway and parked. Before we got out, however, Violette turned to me.

“Listen, Yamato.” She says quietly. “I understand what you must be going through right now… but please try to make yourself at home. You’re family here, you know?”

“Yeah…” I mutter, stepping out of the car. I retrieved my luggage from the trunk and headed up the small white staircase and into the house. The front door itself was pretty fancy looking, with intricate stained glass designs. You can imagine how fancy the inside looked. Opening the door lead you into a grand foyer. White and black marble floors and a large beautiful staircase leading to the second floor. A large golden crystal chandelier hung up above, illuminating the entire room. Violette accompanied me shortly after I entered, shutting the door behind her. Two maids shuffled into the room.

“Welcome home, Miss Violette.” They said. “Welcome back, Master Yamato.”

Master Yamato… I’d never get used to being addressed as that. I was pretty much part of the family, as Violette had said, therefore the house maids were at my service as much as the head of the household, being Octavia’s father, Alphonse.

“Shall we take your things, sir?” One maid asked me.

“I’m fine.” I say. I didn’t feel comfortable with other people carrying my things for me. I didn’t like it.

“Yamato!” I hear a voice say.

I look over and see Octavia rush up and hug me tightly.

“It’s so good to see you again!”

“Yeah.” I say, unable to return her affection on account of me holding all my things.

“I made some lunch for you!” She said excitedly. “Are you hungry any?”

“Egh…” I shrug, letting my shoulders drop.

I was more exhausted than anything… I kinda needed a nap between the time change and everything that’s happened.

“Oh… I’m sorry, you must be exhausted.” She said. “Sorry… I had a great lunch prepared I didn’t figure that you’d probably be tired after…”

“I’m fine, Octavia.” I say. “I just want to get to my room.”

“I can take you there.” She says, before turning to the maids. “Can you put the lunch I made in the fridge? We’ll probably eat it later, once Yamato’s settled in.”

“Yes, Miss.” The maids said in unison before shuffling off towards what I assumed was the kitchen.

“Come on, Yamato.” She said, leading me up the stairs and to the right at the second floor landing.

Octavia leads me down the halls and finally to my room. She opens it up for me and lets me in, flicking the light on. The room was… might as well be the size of my entire house. It had the standards for a bedroom; a bed, a dresser, two nightstands, a closet… only they were all bigger and fancier than what I’ve seen. It also had a huge ass TV, probably a 70 inch, as well as my own god damn sofa and coffee table. It was basically the living room back home only with a bed and still more space. It was France, of course. It wasn’t like Japan where we were running out of room so we have to compress everything into the size of a sugar cube.

“Well, this is it.” Octavia said as I put my things on the ground next to my bed. “Anything I can get for you?”

“I’m fine, thanks.” I say, planting my hands on the nightstand and leaning forward, deep in thought and just generally tired out.

“Yamato?” Octavia stepped up behind me. “You alright?”

“Not really…” I respond after a brief moment of hesitation. “Everything’s pretty fucked right now…”

Octavia turns me around and wraps her arms around me in a comforting hug, which I tiredly return.

“It’ll be alright, Yamato.” She assures me. “I know you’re hurting after everything that’s happened… but I’m here for you, okay? If you need to talk to someone I’m always here.”

“Yeah… okay…” I say, resting my head on her shoulder, sighing deeply in my exhaustion.

“You should get some rest, though.” She told me, letting me go. “We can talk later.”

“Yeah…” I yawn and slip out of my jacket, tossing it onto the couch and sitting down onto the bed, unbuttoning my shirt with one hand.

Octavia watched as I did so, occasionally taking glances at my chest and trying to act like she was doing something else, but tired as I was she wasn’t making much of an effort.

“I know I’m hot, Octavia, but you don’t need to stare so much.” I say.

“Oh!” A flush of red came to her cheeks and she quickly looked away. “I’m sorry, that was indecent of me… I’ll leave you alone.”

She quickly skittered to the door, stopping at the threshold and looking back to me.

“Try to make yourself at home, alright, Yamato?” She smiled. “I’ll see you later.”

She quietly shut the door, leaving me alone in my new room. I take off my shirt and toss it towards my jacket, kicking off my shoes and putting them next to my nightstand. I wasn’t going to bother taking off my slacks, deciding to just not bother and get to sleep. I lazily roll into bed and grab the sheets along the way, bundling up and lying down on my side. I yawn sleepily and close my eyes, drifting off quickly.

---

My eyes open and dart every which way. I sit up and look around… it was dark… complete blackness wherever I looked. I sigh.

“This place again…?” I mutter as I stand up slowly, looking around.

I was getting pretty tired of ending up here in my dreams. It wasn’t a nightmare, for sure, but it wasn’t that comfortable either. The strange part is, I was completey lucid right now, but I couldn’t seem to get a grip on the dream itself. Instead, I start walking, figuring that was the only thing I could really do, as always. It didn’t really matter which way I went, as every direction would eventually lead to the same thing… whatever it was.

I began to hear voices around the time I figured I should.

“Indeed, your Fate is unknown, even to yourself…” I hear Erebus’s voice say. “But this may change. How you hold on, without falter, to the falsehoods of life. To gaze into Void is to see Nothing and all… Young Voidborne. Knowing this, do you still wish to sever that which gives you meaning? To shatter the boundaries that hold you to this world, and to become something more?”

“The falsehoods of life…” I ponder on the words, harder than before.

Holding onto the falsehoods of life… to sever that which gives me meaning… to shatter the boundaries that hold me to this world… to become something more…

I had no idea what any of these words meant… but even so they resonated with me, refusing to leave my head… they stung in a sense… as if they hit a nerve that I didn’t know I had. At this point in my life I was lost… I was confused… I didn’t know where I was going. But even so, I was still going forward… wherever it may lead me, I’d get there one way or another.

To be honest… I was scared. Terrified, even… people assaulted my family to get to me… I killed a man… it couldn’t get any better from here, could it…? No… it was only going to get worse from here on…

This wasn’t just a game… not anymore.