As I steadily made my way back home, with the assistance of Aika, we chatted a bit, making idle small talk. However, the topic of Mao Nakamura came up. We couldn’t agree on one problem in particular, that being, what we would do with her. She did say that she had no reason to hurt us, that if she were to turn tail and run, or turn us in, that she would only be hurting herself.

“I don’t think we can trust her.” She said, with sharpness in her eyes. Sharp enough that it could cut me right open. One slice was all it would take. The sturdiness in her voice made it all too clear how little trust she had in Nakamura. In a situation like this, I couldn’t help but sympathize with her distrust. For whatever reason, I felt like she had a justification for why she wouldn’t trust her. I don’t know anything about what she went through, why this ‘Jacob Barron’ is so important to find, nothing.

To me, though, Mao Nakamura is just someone who got tangled up in all of this mess. Her wanting to be a police officer, to her now being a part of a government conspiracy. Agreeing with one single party would be unfair to the opposite party. I wanted to side with both of them, but I know that indecisiveness won’t get me anywhere.

“In my opinion, I trust her, Aika, I do. From what she’s told us, it looks like even herself didn’t want anything more to do with them.” Aika looked at me, her sharp eyelashes piercing down at me.

“Oh, really?” Her tone became much more lowered, her mannerisms that of someone who just got told off by a teacher in grade school, or that of someone who was deeply insulted. I didn’t make eye contact with her, waiting it out until that terrifying gaze melted away and she was back to her normal self.

“I-I… I know this entire premise may seem suspicious; I do…”

“Then why do you indulge her, then? Why indulge someone who will backstab us?”

“Look, here’s my opinion. If they wanted to take us both out, they would’ve done so already, right? You’ve been off their radar for years now, right? You told me that some time ago, I can’t remember when, but I remember you saying that.”

“What? I never told you tha- well, never mind… but, you’re right… for about four decades, if I remember correctly…”

“And it wouldn’t be hard for them to capture you, right?”

“Yes, it would be incredibly easy if they had my location.”

“That’s why I think we should trust her, if nothing else, we should at least let her talk.” I don’t know if this would help, but I don’t want to see her life crumble away, she seemed like a genuinely good person, and if she can help us get to him, then that’s just even better.

“Fine… but,” I could see this coming from a mile away, the catch that would decide her fate.

“At the first sign of insubordination, she dies. End of story.” I knew the conditions before she even stated them, her way to solve any problem was usually the quickest, the little squeeze of a trigger.

“Is that how you always solve your problems, huh? What even counts as ‘insubordination’ anyway?”

“If I think she’s conspiring against me, then I suppose that would be a nice prerequisite to any bullet holes I would like to see punctured through her.”

“You…” I desperately wanted to finish my sentence, but her words had a grasp on my heart as if it were being choked out. Escalating this any further might reveal an Aika I would never want to meet.

“Are we done, yet?”

“I-… guess.”

“Then if we’d all had our say, then I suppose we now open the door.” We had arrived at my house, I tried to pull out my key from my blazer pocket, awkwardly reaching in, I got it out and inserted it into the keyhole.

“Make yourself at home, then.”

As I turned the hole with the key, the door opened. Stepping inside, I took off my shoes, Aika following afterward. Aika pondered around my house like a cat who had made its way into someone else’s house by accident, to say this exact same situation was any different would be a lie, only Aika was not a cat, but pertained the curiosity of one. Making her way around the house, doing loops starting counter clockwise, she circled the building, looking at every subtle detail of the kitchen, to the living room, passing the toilets, and eventually making her way back to the hall. Even though she was moving in rapid paces, one thing, in particular, grabbed her attention enough where she came to a complete stop. A painting hung up on the wall, it was of me as a baby. She stared at it intently.

“Is… this you?” She asked in a tone filled with curiosity.

“Yes, baby pictures, not the number one thing I’d like hung up in the hallway.” She kept staring, although it did make me a bit uncomfortable, someone whom I’ve only known for a short period of time, looking into something so personal.

“And who is this?” She pointed at the female in the picture that was next to me holding my hand.

“Oh her, she was my aunt.”

“Was?”

“She died shortly after I turned two, I don’t really remember anything about her, the only memory I have of her was in this very photo.”

“You remember that far back?” Aika exclaimed in stunned shock and awe.

“Nothing further back than that, though. Even then, that was the only memory I have from when I was two, after that, I can't remember anything up until I was six years old. ” She was silent for a good minute. I was gonna ask her what she wanted to do next but the way she was lost in thought, transfixed on the image, I couldn’t pull her out.

The way she looked at the image, was not one of someone admiring a piece of art, for obvious reasons, nor was it a look of relaxation, where the viewer felt contempt staring at the image, no. The way she stared at it, no, examined it, was one of pure intent.

“I-, well…” I hesitated for a moment, trying to break her out of her trance.

“Aika?”

“Oh, yes, sorry about that.”

“What was the problem?”

“I guess you could say I was intrigued by your aunt. You say the only memory of her was in this image? Meaning you could remember back from when you were two?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” It even baffles me, how I have such short term memory, but the one thing I can remember before I was six was this very moment in particular, that being when my aunt and I was staying over at my grandma and grandpa’s house for the winter.

“I see.”

“I still haven’t asked you though, Aika, besides telling my mom about what happened here, didn’t you say you wanted to talk to me about something over the phone?”

“You are very right, Hayashida. There is. I suppose now would be a good time to talk about it, if you will.” We went upstairs into my room, I had cleaned it up a few days ago, not to any sort of good standards, but to my standards, which are pretty low at that, but it was at an acceptable standard for our guest to not want to call the police on me straight after entering my room, after mistaking it for a slaves cage.

“Here we are, don’t step on any of the wires on the floor.” I gave her a forewarning.

I sat down on my chair and placed the crutches against the desk, waiting for Aika to tell me what she had wanted to over the phone.

“If I can, I would like to make this as short as possible. When all of this is over, I was going to tell you about what our next course of action would be, the next phase of our operation…” She said in such a serious tone as if we were in some sort of military position and we were carrying out our next mission.

“You may have questions, questions about how you might meet your father.”

“Oh right, you never mentioned how we would get to him, is he with that Jacob Barron guy?”

“No, not technically, you see… your father is dead.” Hearing that made me less enthusiastic, to say the least.

“Then, what’s the point? Are we going to his grave or something…?”

“No, but I see there is no easier roundabout way of telling you this, so, I’ll tell you exactly what we’re doing and you will have to accept it wholeheartedly. Yuuki, we will be travelling to the past.”

“Woh, woh, woh… you mean like Back To The Future? What the hell are you talking about, have y’ got a screw loose or something? I get you’re some sort of immortal being, but even for you, this is insane. Where’d you get the power to time travel, anyway?”

“It’s not exactly my power we will be using, we will be borrowing somebody else’s.” I don’t know what scares me more, the fact that we’re supposed to rely on this mysterious person Aika’s just now brought up, or the fact that somebody else in this vast universe, debatably holds an even greater power than Aika does.

“How are we supposed to trust this person, anyway?”

“This person is one of my mutual acquaintances, I suppose that would be a fitting term.”

“Mutual? Acquaintance? If I had to guess, I’d assume it was someone who was like Aika, someone who also was an anomaly within this world.”

Maybe I was being too presumptuous. I tugged at my collar; the sun was setting yet the heat seemed to increase in temperature. I wish it was the sun, I really do. But the truth is, that was just my sweat, the sweat accumulated by that short discussion I had with Aika.

“Time travel, huh…? I didn’t even think it was possible.”

“It wasn’t for a long time in the universe, time wasn’t even a concept before humans invented it. Everything happened in a bubble, with things changing, trying to explain that concept to a human is impossible, because trying to imagine anything besides what you perceive is impossible, but then at one point in time, a God or God's ruled a new order, the invention of time.”

“Aika, what… are you, exactly? No seriously… how do you know all of this… and God's?”

“What am I, indeed. I assume you have a few questions, then?”

“Nope.”

“R-really?”

“If I asked any questions, we would be here for too long, although…” Something I desperately wanted to know about Aika was, “What are you, exactly?”

“The remnants of Satan’s daughter, the Anti-Christ, I suppose one might call me, although I was left to die on earth. He clearly wasn’t happy, as he wanted a male vessel.”

“I’m not quite sure how I am supposed to react to that, in all honesty.”

“Don’t worry, I have no intention of causing you bodily harm, if that is a concern of yours.”

“That’s wasn’t even in my top ten concerns after hearing that…”

Aika, sitting on the bed across from me, raised her finger to her forehead, a faint outline, so faint in fact, that even looking up close, you couldn’t get a clear view of it, but as she grabbed my hand up to her forehead, she told me to point out my index finger, she guided me across her forehead. I could feel something, the faintest outline of the number six was formed.

“When I said I was the anti-Christ, I wasn’t exactly lying, but the key word here is was. That title was taken at birth. All that remains is this. When you asked who I was, I was serious, I couldn’t tell you who I actually am, because I don’t know what I am anymore. I don’t know if I am human, or demon, or both.” She grasped both my hands within her palm.

“What do you think I am, Yuuki?” She stared at me with eyes that were looking for answers.

“To me… you’re no different from any person I’ve ever met... well at least on the surface. ”

“Only difference is you seem to have immortality and a cool set of wings if I do say so myself.” I joked in some strange way trying to comfort her. Her eyes glistened for a moment, I couldn’t tell if that was the answer she was looking for, but in that moment, I only saw the Aika that was in front of me, not some demonic creature or something as terrifying as the anti-Christ, no. Only her.

Hours passed, Aika laid still on my bed, I was sat by my desk, flipping my pen up and down into the air, trying to catch it as it made its way back to the ground. This boredom couldn’t last another minute, it was getting late, it had already passed 10 o’clock but mom still wasn’t home.

Another minute went by, yet another minute I spent looking up at my ceiling, slowly drifting in and out of consciousness. Tick, tock, went the clock, another minute passed. “When is she gonna get back, already… this awkwardness… please, I can’t bare it anymore…”

“Aika, listen, if you’ve still got that computer at your house, we can probably get it looked at by someone in Akihabara, if you want…” No response to my question, better yet, no movement was shown on her at this time.

“Oi, Aika! You awake? I think we might be able to get the computer’s password cracked.” I heard a slight yawn coming from the bed, a slow awakening of a very tired Aika Yamaguchi was placed before my very eyes, completely wrecked to the skin, eyes half-open, bags drooping down from her eyelids, messy hair dangled down in complete disarray, Aika having slept. She knows she can’t reveal herself to my mom like this, right?

“Fix yourself, my mom will be home any minute.”

“Yeah…” a monotone, half-baked acknowledgement of my request was spoken uncourteously through her mouth. She blew out the piece of hair she had stuck in her mouth whilst asleep, pressing her hand against her forehead shortly before saying “headache…” in the most sheepish way possible.

“Right…” On instinct I got up from the chair, well… at the best of my abilities in my current state, and headed out my room. “I’ll be back in a sec, I’ll go get some medicine.” I was still getting used to going up and down stairs, but I was making steady progress.

What surprised me was the fact that she was able to receive headaches. But more importantly, how she experienced them, I don’t know if headaches for someone like her might be absolutely nothing or like a million migraines all at once. I rushed downstairs and into the kitchen where we stored all the medical supplies. I just grabbed anything I could, some headache medicine and a glass of water. Before I could return upstairs, I heard the front doorknob turn, “It’s probably mom…”

“I’m back.” Earlier than last time, I suppose. Her usual calm demeanour was clouded with this new part of my mother I had rarely seen. My mother was a calm, level-headed person, one you could always rely on in messy situations, but seeing her like this made me feel uneasy. I wanted to approach her and ask her what was wrong, but before I got the chance to, she sat at the dining table, her hand against her face in a rather solemn position. She was not still though, her hands were trembling as she placed her palm against her face, her legs were spiritic, jumping up and down like a jackhammer.

“A-…” I tried to get a word out, but failed… of course I did… guess I’ll try again

“A-are you feeling alright.” It was the least I could do, I could easily let her sit there whilst I went back upstairs, but that wouldn’t sit right in my stomach.

“Yuuki… yes, yes, don’t worry about me.”

“Well… I just wanted to tell you that we have a guest.”

“A-… guest?”

“Yeah, well, you see – she’s one of my friends from school.”

“Oh, a friend, that’s okay, what’s her name?”

“Aika Yamaguchi.” I noticed that mom hadn’t noticed these crutches I was balancing on. With her head still down, looking like she had taken a thrashing beating to the ground, worn out and exhausted. Springing the fact on her that I wouldn’t be able to walk for some time right now wouldn’t be right of me, it looks like she’s been through a lot today, guess I’ll wait for things to settle down when she’s in a good mood.

“I’ll just be heading upstairs right now…” My dejected response and my incapability to comfort my mom in a time like this made me more angry at myself. Going up the stairs, I thought to myself about all of the possibilities, all the things I could’ve said, could’ve done to cheer her up, to makes things right, but I bitched out, cowardly limping up the stairs. If I really cared about what was happening with my mother, I would’ve done something about it, but I didn’t. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been close with her for a long time and we’ve just grown apart, one might call that “growing up” but to me it just seems like an excuse, an excuse to not act.

I opened the door, revealing a certain person scattered on my bed, completely messing up all of my covers, my pillows, and my sheets. But that was the least of my concerns.

“Sit up for a sec.” I instructed Aika, she sloppily rose from the sheets, groggily speaking incoherently,

“Yuuki, that you… there?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” I had the water and medicine in hand, ready to go, I was about to drop it inside of the glass, before Aika suddenly reached out to me, tugging at my sleeve.

“I can’t…”

“Can’t what… exactly?”

“I can't swallow them ‘pills’ you people put in your mouths... it’s frankly disgusting how people can swallow them things whole…” Is she serious right now…?

“Well how else are you supposed to eat it?!”

“You could crush it up.” I have never come across such a stubborn person in my entire life…

“Guess I have no choice…” I took the medicine and tried to crush it in my hand.

“Huh? Huh? W-what’s going on here…huh?” I tried to crush it in my hand but… to no avail. Aika looked on in disappointment and embarrassment.

“N-no, don’t… why are you looking at me with such a pitiful face…? Do you know how hard it is to crush something so tiny in your hand nevertheless?!” No… this measly little tic-tac shaped pill won’t defeat me, I… will… PREVAIL!

Seconds turned into minutes, no luck. I was probably doing more harm than good here, Aika’s headache looked like it was getting worse. In sheer defeat, I handed it over to Aika, who then promptly managed to crush it with ease, putting all of my effort to shame. I lowered my head in comedic shame, grasping onto any pride I had left.

“I don’t know about you, but that wasn’t so hard, y’know?”

“I-it’s only because I tried so hard to crush it that it broke so easily…” That’s right! My effort didn’t go to waste!

“I don’t think that’s how it works, though.” Please… let me have this one!

“I heard the door open downstairs, is your mother back yet?”

“Oh yeah, she just came in about five minutes ago.”

“Then… how do you want to go about telling her?”

“I think… we shouldn’t tell her right now…”

“W-… why not? Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet.”

“It ain't like that! It’s just… well, she seems like she’s in a rough spot at the minute…”

“Rough spot…?” She asked curiously.

“Yeah, like if I were to tell her all of this at once, she might snap, that kind of rough spot.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“It might be work… I don’t know what’s going on in her life, I don’t ask and she doesn’t tell…”

“Maybe… you should.”

“I know… I should, but…”

“But you’re afraid of her response?”

“It’s not that… I… I don’t know why I don’t ask. Maybe it’s because it’s hard for me to ask.”

“What should we do then? We must ask at some point or another.”

“I know that…” At that point, I heard a knock at the door.

“Yuuki, I’m coming in, is that alright with you and your friend?”

“Eh…? Oh sure, yeah… come on in.” The door handle turned, instead of her dilapidated state from before, she aired an aura of calm and collectedness, the antithesis of how she was when she first came in through the front door. Her head that was held so low was now held so high. She looked over at Aika, that motherly intent in her eyes.

“Nice to meet you, I am Yuuki’s mother, Ainu Yamaguchi, thank you for getting along so well with my son.” She said with the most pleasant smile, she must’ve been putting it on for Aika, she didn’t want her to see her like this.

“It’s nice to meet you, and it’s no problem at all.”

“So then, Yuuki, mind explaining why you’re in such a decrepit state?”

“Oh- I was just… I fell down the stairs.” Way to put it bluntly, idiot! What about our plan? Why did I have to go on run my stupid fucking mouth once again…

“Yuuki… how is it whenever you recover from any injury, you end up getting a new one? Only a month ago, you had that accident near the post office!”

“Accident…?” Aika enquired.

“A motorcyclist ran a red light whilst he was crossing the road. Yuuki being Yuuki, his instinct wasn’t to get out of the way, but instead be right in the motorcyclist's blind idiocy… I didn’t know who the bigger idiot was!” Aika stifled a giggle, probably at the thought of me being runover… damnit…

“It wasn’t that bad of an injury though, but just bad enough that he didn’t have to go to school, the poor thing! Anyway… it looks like you might have to stay off… as far as injuries go, this looks like a pretty bad one…” My faith has returned! Thank you, almighty one! No school… this dreamy silky feeling I have… could this be… heaven…?

Aika had a sort of relieved look on her face, it seemed like an ordinary school life didn’t suit her that well, now she doesn’t have to go to school either. It seemed like I didn’t put on a good poker face tough, as mom looked at me when my eyes were filled with glee after being told I don’t have to go to school.

The dark covered the entire area, Aika had said that had to get going. Nearly, almost there, out the door, when my mom stopped her and said, “Are you sure you’ll be able to make it home tonight? If you’d like, you could stay the night and have some dinner with us.” Smiling politely back at my mother, Aika signalled that she was… you know, “Oh, e- don’t worry about me… ha-ha…”

But of course, my mother was persistent, how could you say no to that smile? The smile that loured Aika back into our humble abode.

We sat, awkwardly in the living room, legs wrapped in the kotatsu, as mom cooked some sort of delicious meal. And I won’t lie – it smelt absolutely gorgeous, possibly the best of my mother’s works, but our taste buds would be the final decider. Hopes were high for this meal, Aika in particular looked like she couldn’t wait for whatever she was preparing.

“S-say, Yuuki… how long do you suppose we will wait for the feast?” She echoed every few minutes.

“H-h-…how long now…?” “H-h-…how long now…?” Was my mother’s cooking seriously this good though? It was enough to get Aika riled up, I didn’t even know what she was cooking, but by the smell, it smelt like – no, definitely was curry, that scent I could never forget.

“Almost ready!” It was almost time… yes… my mother’s best dish… curry!

The scent wafted into me and Aika’s noses, it was like we were being lifted off the ground by the steam radiating from the curry itself. Three plates were set on the table.

“Thanks for the meal!” Digging in straight awa-… holy shit… she’s just going right in for it, isn’t she…?

No time to waste, I guess you could say that was her moto, as within a few minutes, nothing remained on the plate. Scattered bits of rice were all that remained on her face. Wiping it off then eating it, she didn’t leave a single survivor, no mercy for mom’s home cooking!

It was getting extremely late, just past 12, nothing to me, but we had a guest round so it was rude to keep her up. We packed everything away, me and Aika helping out to do the dishes, despite the fact that I was still on crutches, my mom figured that it would be ‘good rehabilitation’ to try and stand on my own two feet again, despite the fact I was as useful as a washboard…

“Well… you certainly enjoyed that… I suppose that you’d want to eat it again, right?” Aika cleared her throat, explaining that, yes, it was indeed very enjoyable.

“Look, you can’t act all mature like after that display you put on.”

“Well anyway, it’s best if we hurry up with the dishes, otherwise mom’s gonna give me a scolding…” We finished up washing. We were getting left behind by the hours, so we decided to get some sleep. Aika borrowed some of my mother’s pyjamas. Me being me, I was gracious enough to let her sleep on my bed, whilst I slept on the floor. If you’re feeling sorry for me, which I’m sure you’re not… don’t be. Sleeping is no challenge for me, I have been able to sit through alarms in some of the most uncomfortable positions known to humanity. When my eyes close, the only thing that awaits me is a night of deep sleep.

I looked over to Aika, “Already asleep, I guess.” I guess you could say that’s what food does to you, either that or she is just as talented as me at sleeping. Either way, it was getting late, thinking definitely wasn’t getting me anywhere.

Five minutes later…

“Huh…? Still not asleep? Well then… I’ll just have to sleep faster!”

Fifteen minutes later…

“Okay seriously, what’s going on.”

Thirty minutes later…

“Somethings wrong! Somethings definitely wrong! Come on… think you idiot! Wait… don’t think, that’s exactly why you can’t get any sleep, idiot! But why… why can’t I get to sleep…? I have never, in my 15 years, been unable to fall asleep, so why…” I looked over at Aika.

“Iiiii think I understand now…”

“That damn Aika… first she takes my bed, now she takes my sleep! Fine, have it your way…”

I grabbed my crutches and approached the door, turning the handle. “This is risky, I haven’t gotten even halfway through turning the handle, any sudden creaks could jeopardise this entire operation!”

The creaks in the floor, the handle turn, the fucking wind created by the motion of moving my leg, everything I had accounted for, except for one thing…

“Why wont the damn door open?!” I don’t remember installing OUTSIDE LOCKS on my door, I only had them on the inside, so this conundrum I was in could only lead to one solution…

“That women…” She must have somehow brute forced the door shut from the outside!

Shameful defeat, I wallowed back into my blanket, tears streaming down my face. Such a cruel mistress.

It may have been two… no—three o’clock before I managed to fall asleep, constant shuffles and turns I made throughout the night didn’t wake Aika, however, I’ve seen how she sleeps, and if that girl wanted to, she could sleep through an earthquake. Despite getting little sleep, I woke up early at 7:00, only four hours of sleep under my belt.

“My… head, it hurts…” An agony that felt all too familiar, the pain however, wouldn’t last long. With a hearty yawn, I slowly arose from the ground, I instinctually tried to stand up, failing at it miserably.

“Oh yeah, that’s right… all that happened, and that means-…” I shot my fists in the air in pure euphoria. “No school! No school! No school!” I chanted in my mind.

I looked over at Aika, an oddly familiar scene, she slept sound asleep, not a word, not a peep. A soft, muffled snore was the only thing audible, “I’m not sure if I should wake her or not…”

Not too long after though, the silence was broken by the sound of Aika shuffling from her position, her eyes flinched, attempting to open her eyelids, her hair fell down as she rose from the bed, with little strands of hair standing up on their own as if it were magic.

“Oh, good morning.” She said with a slobbish tone.

“You don’t look too great there, Yuuki, are you sure you haven’t stuffed your head inside of a washing machine this morning?”

“You’re one to talk…” Wait… washing machine?

I looked over to the mirror, what reflected was a me I too was also familiar with, the morning bedhead I would always wake up to, completely stuck up, along with the dripping sweat I felt pour down my face, made it look like, as Aika put it, ‘I had stuffed my head inside of a washing machine.’ I grunted at my washed-up appearance. I didn’t have the energy to beat myself up over it, either. So I just stared, and kept staring at the reflection that was presented to me, hypnotized by the way the light from the window reflected onto the side of my face, and I wondered to myself, just who was that-that stared back at me?

Another wasted moment has come to pass. Aika had left for school. (For some reason.)

“Oh yeah… she did say something about ‘keeping the status quo’ with all of her pears at school.”

From my perspective, I would’ve taken the opportunity and ran with it, any excuse not to go to school is good in my opinion, maybe a family member's funeral, or a fever, anything that would pass as an excuse I’d take wholeheartedly. But today, for some reason, I felt like I wanted to go, maybe because there’s truly nothing you can do besides sit inside your room all day, the computer that I have, alongside my TV, the two forms of entertainment that I can use. Today for some reason, I don’t even have any energy to use. Sitting at my desk is a hassle, using my hands to move some plastic mouse over a table, then clicking the mouse, using some buttons on a keyboard to type, just a lazier version of writing, having the bright screen blind my eyes, no thank you… and then turning on the TV, flicking through the channels, deciding what to watch, and if the thing you want to watch isn’t on, well too bad, hassle.

Before me and mom saw Aika off, my mom being the sweetheart she is had already prepared a lunch for her to take. We saw her off, waved our goodbye’s, and closed the door behind us. I don’t know whether she was going to school or not, but if she did, I hope she gets to know more people, I hope she can make friends with people there, form meaningful connections that will last a lifetime. It was idealistic thinking, knowing this would never come to be, and never can, but I still believe she has the ability to. No matter how much shit happened to her in her life, I believe she can look forward to the future, I think, I hope.

With mom gone, I was left with only my thoughts, so I thought a little…

“Ugh… this is a pain… when’s Aika gonna come back?”

I threw myself to the bed, “Ugh… why…” I took out some manga.

“Hmm, yes… interesting… interesti- wait- this is fucking boring!” I was far from reading any of the text or looking at any of the images, blankly skimming through everything. I didn’t even remember the title, and I did look at it! This patheticness can’t last any longer… lounging around… I thought because of all that’s happened… that I wouldn’t go back to this routine… but here I am, stuck in my room, rotting away, time passing by without me.

“I won’t do that.” I picked up my crutches, headed out the door into a brightly scorched morning. The area I lived in was far from being densely populated, no exaggeration, only a small row of houses, facing the houses was a large cornfield, with a path cutting into the fields separated by the hedges, making way for vehicles, this path lead to the school, along this path, if you looked to your right, you might remember a certain farm, a farm that once had all kind of animals, now all dead on their sides, the cow carcasses still not fully dissolved into the land, the chicken's feathers still scattered about the land, one can only say it was the work of the neighbourhood cat, the sheep skinned alive, their fur no more. The worms fed off them for food. A fly would come along to desecrate on their unsightly grave every now and then. And over in the distance, stud a girl. A girl who was surrounded by birds, ravens to be precise, I know they’re ravens even from this distance. What was odd though… was that not a single raven would dare approach that girl, they formed a circle, an oddly coordinated circle.

“She just moved.”

The birds were not spooked, instead, they adapted to her movement, following her, forming the exact same circle as she guided them into the barn.

So familiar yet so distant, déjà vu? It was like when you recall a moment in time, but you can’t remember whether it was real or just a dream.

In dazed confusion, I steadily trampled over the bushes, my legs getting trapped within the branches. With only one leg working, this further exacerbated things, but with luck, I somehow managed to reach the other side, I was on the field now, and in my dazed confusion, I saw all of the birds scatter outwards, no girl remained, only the scattered flock of ravens that now engulfed the entire field itself.

I made my way through the mud and the waste, the faecal matter that was left behind by the cows, their stomachs ripped open, either from decomposition or… something else… as I approached the barn, the stench of rotting corpses had only gotten worse, but an even stronger, muskier scent, however, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I reached the barn door, closed off as it was, it wasn’t locked. I slid open the barn doors with careful and methodical sensitivity, ensuring myself it was safe to enter. As the doors opened, small bright streams of sunlight caressed a ground that had not been touched in god knows how many years, however, the stench only grew, even more powerful, my mind immediately rushed to the worst-case scenario…

But before I could even see what was inside, I woke up.

“Of course it was a dream… how would I have been able to climb over them hedges with crutches on?!”

Dreams are like that though, what seems like completely normal in a dream, once you wake up from it, you realize just how preposterous it really is. I sat laying down on the couch, I woke up dazed from exhaustion. It looked like I was about to read a book before I passed out, as one was sitting there on my lap.

The title read:

101 Cooking Recipes.