Jered's hand slid aimlessly along the stairs handrail as he walked up. The house was curtained by a flimsy veil of darkness, and sometimes he wondered whether it was a concurred decision of saving energy, or if they had an uncanny penchant for living like bats. His mother was still in the kitchen, he realized. Probably indulging herself in some form of self-hating introspection and leftover pastries. She had a sweet tooth, and as of that evening, an embittered heart.

It had never been easy, in a certain way. Not for him, for her, or Jasmine. He never lied to himself, but lies were what shaped his life. Pretending to be normal—when every little nightmare in his head hid behind a smile—was slowly eating away his patience. He hated it. That's why he sought some form of entertainment; it was the only medicine he knew that didn't involve pills. Drugs could get you high up, and then plunge you down way deeper than you were before. It was never a permanent solution, certainly not for a 16-year-old teenager.

Jered wanted something more in his life, something more substantial. Higher than any drug, better than every carnal pleasure.

Jane would probably choke him if she knew what kind of man her son was turning into. His father would have been more lenient, instead, but in no way less threatening. He'd take him out to meet some prostitutes and drug-addicted riffraff from the slums, and show him what life was ahead of his path. John never raised his voice at him, he never screamed, he never beat him. There was no need to, the cold truth would have hit harder than any of his slaps.

Then his parents would have started quarreling over how they had to educate their children.

He quietly closed the door of his room, "Fuck it." a faint throbbing in his head led him to the bathroom. His hands clutched the cold vitreous of the sink; his reflection staring back at him, for the second time that day. Wonderful. Jered opened the cabinet, eyeing the disarray of empty vials that were once stocked up to the brim with colorful pills of happiness.

Jered had promised himself that he wouldn't touch that stuff anymore, that it was all a shadow of his past, and anything related to that past had to stay there. But ghosts from the past never truly die. They cling to you, feeding off of you when you are at your lowest. And he was always at his lowest.

'Don't smile like that, son. I know. I've been there before... you'll end up cutting yourself with that dagger you hide.'

Sometimes he could hear his voice too.

"Ah, sorry, father. I forgot..." he huffed out a chuckle and smiled. His hand then lashed out and swatted the vials, barraging them all over the floor in a cacophony of cracks. His back slowly slumped down against the wall, and his eyes kicked off a staring contest with the immaculately white tiles of the floor, bewitched by something visible only to him.

The square-ish holograms were still floating close-by, constantly pulsing with an ethereal glow. Jered wetted his lips and gazed up. It was all supposed to be temporary entertainment for him, a passing vagary because he had nothing better to do.

[Reward: Mana Circuit]

[Would you like to open the reward right now? Y/N]

"Yeah yeah, open it..."

A bright light spawned to life, and he recoiled in surprise, almost hitting his head against the sink in the process. The miniature sun fluttered in circles around him, like a shy firefly too scared to approach. It pulsed with warmth, and it was only when the light started leaking a trail of sparkles all over his body that the shit hit the fan. There was a loud thump against his ribcage, followed right away by an ever-quickening and painful hammering. His heart was racing against an unknown enemy, and the aftermath was pouring out a liquid fire throughout his body.

Jered bit back a scream, and any attempts at standing up ended with him unceremoniously crashing back down. He thrashed around, his hands trying to hold onto anything to release the pain, to soothe his torment. The veins on his temple bulged out, his face reddened. It was as if there were a swarm of insects partying inside him, crawling over his insides with their tiny legs and disgusting appearances, tearing his muscles apart and eating his guts.

He felt nauseous, but he couldn't muster up the energy to puke.

It was at that point, when the black swirl of oblivion was tugging at his mind, that—

[Your Mana Circuit has been successfully forged.]

—the pain stopped, and his ebbing consciousness was thrown back inside its container. Jered coughed, dragging a hand across his lips to wipe away the saliva. His skin was clammy with sweat, his chest heaving violently. Not out of pain, but out of its memory. A wisp of something cool stirred inside him, like a refreshing breeze under the scorching hot sun of July. It was so pleasant that he didn't dare to move, at least that sensation vanished and left him feeling empty.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end.

The coldness of the floor settled in on his damp back, and he frowned at the jarring contrast between the temperatures. With his mind sobered up, he pushed himself back up—or at least, he tried to. He laid a hand on the wall for support, staggering a bit as he did so. It was then that he caught the whiff of something. He would have chalked it up to his sweat, or probably some weird tang wafting from his medicine cabinet or the washstand. It smelled way too odd for that. He couldn't even remotely pinpoint its source. It was not unpleasant... just peculiar, and strong.

He wrinkled his nose, and as quickly as it came, the weird scent was gone.

Jered blinked. Then, to make things more baffling, his Status Window popped up in front of him on its own. This time the originally blank spaces had been filled up with something. He would have passed it off as nothing to worry about, but the pain had been real. It was not a hallucination. Or maybe it was, and it was his brain's master plan all along to make him believe it was not. Then again, it might have been not, and he was making a paradox out of nothing but his needless paranoia.

[Name: Jered von Jacobs]

[Age: 16]

[Race: Human/? ]

[Class: - | Type: - ]

[Title: - ]

[Rank: Neophyte | Unlocked Veins: 1]

[Magic Density: 1]

[Mana Pool: 50]

[Soul: Mortal | Average]

[Sin: - ]

[Mandatory Quests: 1/4]

However, right before he could postulate more about the newly-altred status screen...

"Jered, you okay sweetie?" his mother's concerned voice tinkled out from behind the door.

Taking a couple of seconds to tone down his surprise, and wave the screens away, he answered calmly, "Yes mom, I just stumbled down, that's all." he scampered around, clustering the empty vials on the floor into a big pile, before throwing them in the bin.

"I see..." her tone was so soft he almost missed it, "Erm... have you talked with Jasmine today?"

He fixed his hair and splashed a bit of cold water on his face, "No. I've hardly talked to her lately. She's like a ghost, sometimes she's here, sometimes not. It all comes down to your luck." not the right words to say, he realized; nonetheless, on topics such as that, there was never the right thing to say. It was all a choice between which one hurt less. The lesser of two evils, so to speak.

"That is an accurate description." her giggle was so hollow it almost brought a grimace on his face. Almost. "Well, hopefully, I'll have some girl time with her tomorrow. Her birthday is approaching."

Jered let the silence hang for a while, "Yes, it is... isn't it?"

"Ah yes! My baby girl is slowly turning into a beautiful adult woman... I can already see the day she'll bring a fine young man home. Your father, unfortunately, won't be there to see that, so you'll have to put up your 'protective brother' mantle and be there for her."

"I'll try not to scare the poor soul too much."

Jane's giggles became more spirited, "You better not." her voice had restored some modicum of happiness. It was a topic that had many a mother dream fondly of the big altar. The white decorations. And their daughter professing the vows of eternal love. Jane was not any different. "And one day we'll see your marriage as well, of course... well, if God allows me, that is."

She was being a bit sappy, but Jered sympathized with her. She was trying her best.

"Of course mom." he assured, "I just don't know what to get her..."

"Anything that comes from your heart will be fine..."

Heart. He didn't have one.

With one last look at the mirror to confirm he had spruced himself up decently, he turned around and quietly opened the door. Jane was leaning on the wall, chewing on her bottom lip while staring through space. There was still some make-up left on her face, and her blonde hair was loosened into a half-bun. She smiled and faced him. It was just a slight tilt of her head, to anchor him within her sight and keep staring ahead at some distant memory.

"Anything will be fine, okay?" she reiterated.

Jered found himself nodding apathetically, "Okay."

"I want to throw her a surprise party, like in the movies!" she bent her head closer to him and whispered conspiratorially, "Don't tell her anything, okay?" she made a shushing gesture for emphasis.

"Duh..." he smiled, "I'll help you."

"Haha, fabulous!" she returned, "Hmm, I'm gonna hit the hay then... uh, you look a bit pale, are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm peachy." Jered chuckled, "Nothing broken, just a bruise that'll go away in a few days."

Jane regarded him with that mother-look that could see right through anything.

"I'm fine, don't worry." he insisted, "You look weary though, you should go to sleep."

Her face scrunched up a bit before she finally conceded, "Okay..." she stepped forward and enveloped him within her arms, her hand soothingly going up and down his back. It was more to soothe herself than him. He could see it in her eyes. "Good night, sweetie." she gave him a last gentle squeeze on the shoulder before trotting off.

"Good night."

Jered turned off the lights and hit the bed. The pale moonlight trickled in, allowing him to barely make out the outline of the furniture in his room. He stared at his phone, at the pic of his sister still on display.

Why couldn't things ever be normal for once? Maybe it was better this way...

He shook his head and closed his eyes. The information on his Status Window still bugged him, but that was a problem he'd deal with another time. It eventually took him hours before sleep blessed him with its magic. That was just another Friday for Jered von Jacobs, albeit one that would prove to be anything but.