Out of Place

The Illusionist

~ Flashback (Dio's World) ~

There was a fifteen-year-old boy in town. The first person to be born half-human and half-ancient (at least in this area) was a boy with a loving heart. All the other children looked up to him. But he never cracked under the pressure. In fact, he loved making them smile with his illusions and tricks. Cosmo. Some called him a street magician. He referred to himself as an illusionist. He was in a happy relationship with a girl just a few months younger than him, and overall life couldn't be better.

But... for the past few months, he kept getting the feeling that something was... off. Life was always uneventful, and that never bothered him before, but that feeling of safety had become so normal, that even when there was a small change in temperature, he could tell. 

Sometimes, this boy would feel things others couldn't. It wasn't quite like a vision. More like a... feeling. A feeling of discomfort. He'd get dreams. Dreams of a dark force, spreading through his home and erasing everything, leaving nothing but a white shell of what used to be. But each time he had this reoccurring dream, he would wake up and brush it off. After all, they're just dreams. They don't mean anything.

Well... he didn't think they'd mean anything... until he saw what looked to be a large black mass, forming and coming for his home. 

He was on his way to his girl's house, carrying a bag of food for her already struggling family when he saw it form at the edge of town when he saw it.

He wasn't the only one who was curious, as there had already been a group of ex-tribesmen there to inspect the incoming darkness. He tilted his head to the side as he walked up to them.  "What's going on?" He asked when one of the adults suddenly held their hand out in front of him to stop him from approaching any closer.

"We don't know," The adult admitted. The adult then took a step forward, reaching their hand out and touching the blackness, only to hiss and yank their hand back, holding it to their chest.

Everyone's eyes went wide as the person's hand seemed to... glitch? It was as if he was a computer file being corrupted and deleted. 

Cosmo jumped back in shock when the impending darkness suddenly began to move. It was big, circling around the perimeter of the town.

It looked like it had already gotten the rest of the world.

Cosmo stepped back in fear as he watched it eat away at a few of the adults, engulfing them. He listened to their screams of anguish, continuing to back away from the dark force, when he suddenly took off running, only one thought in his mind. 'I have to find my girl.'

He ran as fast as he could, dropping his bags and sprinting faster than he ever had. It was miraculous that his red tophat, (Which he always wore to match the whole 'illusionist' vibe he was going for,) didn't fall off. But before he made it to her, he saw the kid, Dio, heading for the woods, where the impending darkness was waiting to eat him away.

Cosmo paused, debating whether he should quickly save this kid, or ignore the child and rush to his girl. It was a hard decision and he didn't have the time to think. 

So, he went with his gut, arguing that it would be better to save the kid and then get to his girl. That way he could save more people, right? He still had time. 

He still had time.

"DIO!" Cosmo cried, sprinting to the kid as the nine-year-old child obliviously looked up at the darkening sky, obviously not comprehending what was going on. "KID!" The teenager cried, quickly kneeling down and grabbing Dio's shoulders. He was terrified and frantic, which wasn't common since he was usually so easygoing. Dio gave him a confused look, but he didn't seem worried. In fact, he seemed almost at ease upon seeing Cosmo. After all, like most of the kids, he looked up to him.