Proofread by: wannabeproofreader and daylius

-a few hours before-

In every school, throughout the world, there exist three types of students. What? You did not know? Fine I will tell you. First type are the offenders, and naturally there exist victims of these offenders and finally bystanders. Ah, now you get it. The offenders are those who like to bully other students, what people call delinquents and the kind. The victims are what you have already guessed, the one’s being bullied. As for bystanders, they are in the majority. People who refuse to take part or join any one of the side in fear of their safety. Now you might be wondering why I am explaining all of this here. Well it is because I belong to one of these so called types too, specifically “the victim”.

From the time I was 15 years old, my body changes were off the charts. Not that I grew into a monster of extreme proportions or anything, but my hair color changed for no apparent reason. My normally jet black hair began to shed it blackness and transformed into something that one only gets by dying, blue. You heard it, blue like the very ocean we all love. Unlike the ocean my blue hair was not loved much. And this blue hair has got me into troubles that are way off the margin.

So as I was saying, the victim, me is now currently under assault by a group of three in the backyards of my school. With my back to the school wall and blood flowing out from my nose, I had already gotten a good amount of beatings. My uniform was torn here and there, my face covered with bruises and yet I refused to succumb. The three boys were on their limit too, they were panting heavily. So was I, my struggle to break free from their claws had caused me to run out of stamina. Even so I had managed to land a few hits on them against the hundreds of hits I got.

“You persistent bast*rd, I am going to break you apart” their leader shouted with a coiled fist.

“Yeah yeah. Three people ganging up on a weakling like me and you still say such retarded lines. Pathetic” my pride caused me to lash out, such a stupid pride. I spat out the blood that was accumulating in my mouth and then glared the leader and smirked.

The three of them snapped and approached me for another round. I was too tired to defend myself and was now lying in wait for the painful doom.

“That is enough! To beat down a boy like this. Are you even humans? You three meet me at my office.”

With the remaining strength in my body I looked at the person who just spoke and I saw a female in a black dress with an ID hanging in between her large chest approaching us fast. My senses failed to recognize the woman’s face and I slowly lost consciousness.

The next time when my eyes opened, all I saw was a white ceiling and a spinning fan. To my right and left were white curtains. I felt the softness of the bed on my back and I understood that I was once again in the school infirmary. My right hand involuntarily moved to my right to pat the head which was always there every time I was admitted to the infirmary. But this time, there was no head. A burning sensation developed inside my heart. Well after all she was and is my first love. Naoki was not there, with her wet and teary eyes and cute face to scold me like always.

Even though the pain inside my heart was warning me of something, of a danger or may be a great evil I paid it no heed. Had I listened to my heart and looked for her maybe I would not have lost her forever.

---***---

-present-

I was running, through the empty streets of my town with no destination whatsoever. With a face sullen with bruises and tears flowing from my eyes I screamed my lungs out. The pain would not subside, the burning would not fade. Whatever I did, I could not forget those moments. They played in my mind like a loop.

Naoki’s lifeless body and the blood spurting from her wounds. My body became numb at the visuals in my mind. Dropping to my knee I buried my face into my eyes and cried once again.

“It’s all your fault, you damn black door. If you never existed, if you never existed” my sad heart was now being occupied by rage, pure rage. Rage at the thing that had taken away my very important thing, my very reason for existence, my first love.

Getting up on my feet I rushed forward, to the huge black door that lay in the middle of the town. My rage was clouding my senses and my intellect. In minutes I was at the vicinity of the door. There were fences set up around the door guarded by the military themselves. Tents were set up around the door for the military and scientists to reside. From the day the door materialized throughout the world, scientists have tried to crack the mysteries of the door. The same was going on at that particular door in my town too.

Men in military uniform carrying guns were keeping watch, prohibiting entry to the town’s people thereby protecting them too. Men in white uniforms were running here and there with weird equipment and stuffs which I had not seen before. Not minding them I rushed forward, to the black door, to destroy it with my hands. I screamed and lunged forward alerting the men around.

The alerted men rushed towards me. Some stayed, pointing their guns at me while some rushed at me to stop me. And yet I ran forward, my hate filled eyes still glaring at the huge door which seemed to smile at me viciously. My eyes did not see the men around me, my ears did not hear their warnings, and my body did not feel their restraining arms. With all my might I strode forward dragging whatever was trying to stop me.

I walked forward a few steps when I could no longer move my body. It was as if hundreds of chains were binding me to the ground. I struggled, screamed, cried till my body gave up.

The restraints did not go away, I lumped down to the ground with dead eyes. The rage subsided and my will to live was dropping too. It was then I heard someone talking. My ears picked up fragments of the person’s voice.

“Boy……….spirit……..door….inside….” when I heard those fragments, my body began to move once again, it was like my body was being re-energized.

“What did you just say? What about the inside of the door? Tell me you basta*rd” I shouted.

“What a lively child. Martin bring him in, let us see what he has got. Oh and put him to sleep” the man spoke to someone in a military uniform beside him. The military man nodded and then approached me.

“I am sorry boy” saying so he buried his knee into my abdomen. The impact was so high that the sheer pain made me fall to the ground, my consciousness fading away.

“Naoki” I called out to the emptiness in my heart.

---***---

“Ho! Waking up already” was the first thing my brain registered when I was waking up. The pain in my abdomen was still rampaging throughout my body preventing me from getting up. My eyes slowly opened up to the world and I saw the face of the man before looking directly into his eyes. For some reason I did not lose my nerve, there was a strange calmness that I did not understand.

“We drugged you so that you won’t berserk like before” the man who seemed like he was too old said while he was wearing a white overcoat.

“Let me introduce myself. My name is Richard Burn, you can call me Burn. I am the head researcher of this research squad and the leader of the group. Nice to meet you

boy”

I kept silent and stared at the old man, recollecting what happened before and why I was in such a situation. The first thing that struck me was Naoki’s body. The recollection caused me to almost throw up. Somehow I managed to resist my body and then I looked at the old man feebly, trying to distract my mind from the loss of a precious person.

“You have spirit boy. To rush into a military area and to even call the head researcher a basta*rd. Ha! It is so good to be young.”

I again remained silent, not knowing what to say to the old man. I looked up at the ceiling of the tent I was in. my eyes were blurry with the tears that were building up.

‘Naoki’ I thought to myself.

“Do you want to go inside?”

‘What did he just say, inside? Inside of what?’ Even though my brain knew what he was talking about, my heart refused to heed. I again looked at the man and asked,

“Inside of what?”

“Inside that huge black door boy”

My eyes widened! My body stiffened. Power surged throughout my body. The calmness of the drugs could no longer keep me chained. Gathering all my strength I shouted,

“I want to go! Please let me go. Please” shouting I approached the man with my hands shaped into fists.

“Calm down boy. That is why you are still here. Welcome to the Abyss boy”

---***---

“Sir Burn! Why did you promise the boy something like that? Why send him in when the best of the world were not even allowed to?” asked a man in military uniform.

“Aron, which of these do you think is the stronger emotion?”

“Pardon?”

“Let me finish Aron. The desire to become famous by exploring the door or the desire to

exact revenge on the door?”

“Revenge on a door? That is unrealistic sir. I am afraid I cannot understand”

“Sigh! Aron, for the boy, the door is something that took away a precious thing, like

parents or may be lover or friends. What so ever it may be, he has lost something to it.

How? We still do not know. There are many mysteries to the door. Rather than saying it is unrealistic think of it as the drive to live. So what do you think?”

“Desire for revenge will be stronger”

“Correct. Those so called best in the world only desire more money or more recognition.

They do not care the least about the research”

“Then is it not the same for this boy too. He seems to not care about us either”

“Correct again, but his desire and will are stronger than the rest. He will do fine. The previous ones we sent were failures. This time we must succeed. Are the preparations ready?”

“Yes Sir, everything has been prepared just as you asked”

“Good” Burn replied while his mind was in turmoil. ‘Boy, do not die’

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