" Am I hallucinating?.. "

Chapter 1.

Rohan's ink pot lay spilt across his work, his pen splattered with with remains of jet-black ink that coated itself upon the pens surface. He clutched his hair angrily, as it falling in between his fingers. Rage seemed to possess his own mind. Nothing was working. No matter where he tried. He found inspiration nowhere. It was serious for him. His fans were screaming for more manga, yet every peice of information rohan tried to squeeze out for his gain, it fell apart. Leaving him alone, with nothing to serve to his fans besides disappointment on a silver platter. It made him frustrated, as the days seemed to shorten. His efforts for greatness slipping from grasp. He felt his sleep schedule deteriorate too. He couldn't make time for sleep at all. He spent his time convincing himself that if he stayed up a little longer, he could find the inspiration he needed for his masterpiece to be completed. But the ink always splashed, the pen always dropped and the anger always grew. He stood from his desk, pushing his chair back as he took a deep breath in.

" NOTHING gives me inspiration! It's all a failure! " He snapped. " If I don't do something, I'll fail! "

He spoke aloud. What he said was true. And it drained him. He stood, staring at the ground as he thought. How could the great mangaka, ROHAN KISHIBE, be struggling? It felt impossible, yet so foretold. He always had greatness, he was bound to fail sometimes. But he could never accept that. To him it wasn't possible. It could never be. He watched as the ink that spilled, soak itself into the paper. Permanently leaving itself onto his work. He scowled, pinching the bridge of his nose as it wrinkled.

" I, the great mangaka, will not stand for this! I have to find inspiration somehow, someway... "

He stood, thinking again as he put one hand on his chin and one across his chest. Letting himself and his mind be engulfed in his thoughts.

Suddenly, a knock came upon his door. His thoughts disappeared, as he collected himself back into the real world. More knocking followed. It was around 4pm, so it wasn't that unusual, but still strange. He walked over to his door, unlocking it slowly and turning the door knob. The door swung open to reveal Koichi. Followed by his two idiot friends, Josuke and okuyasu. Rohan sighed. He didn't mind koichi , but those two there bothered him more than it should've.

" H..hello m.mister Rohan. How are you? " koichi asked, his voice slightly nervous.

Rohan felt josuke stare at him, as he shot him a fierce glare in return. Okuyasu didn't seem to be focused, so he payed little to no attention to him.

" I was fine before you showed up. " He replied, his tone tired and extremely fed up.

Koichi laughed akwardly. But rohan didn't care about the awkwardness that lingered in the air. His mind was almost completely elsewhere. He felt his head spin, as his eyes flickered open and closed a few times. Koichi continued to speak, continuing after the awkward response Rohan had gave back to them.

" Well....w..we have been wondering if you are truly OK? We havent seen you around town in...quite a few days... "

That made rohan think. How many sleepless nights had he spent, caged away in his home? How long had it been since he interacted with anyone besides on the internet? His face seemed slightly shocked, his eyes widened partly and his mouth was somewhat open. One eyebrow up, one down. He must have not realised just how long he had been inside for. It felt quite bizarre.

" That doesn't matter. Now leave " He hissed as he went to shut his door. But before he could slam the door in those idiots faces, something strange caught his eye.

Behind the three, was a roughly 177cm tall figure. It, or 'he', stood directly inbetween josuke and okuyasu, and behind koichi. Meaning it was perfectly visible to the mangaka. He has silky red hair, with a longer strand down one side of his face. It brushed his cheek as ever so slightly. He wore a green japanese uniform, but it was not from morioh, as the uniform was different from the one josuke was wearing at that perticular moment. But it wasn't that that made Rohan feel intensely sick in the moment, it wasn't any of that which truly made him gasp. It was....something completely different. His eyes widened intensly as his pupils dilated with horror. Directly on the teenagers stomach was a hole. A bloody, gorey hole. The colour from his face drained as he saw the horror that revealed itself. The blood stained the surrounding uniform. The stomach part, aswell as the sleeves, were dripping with water. Was the blood dry? Was it fresh? Did this just happen or did it happen years ago. Rohan simply couldn't tell, he was just shocked.

Koichi was shocked at Rohan's sudden change of behavior and attitude. " Mr Rohan?" He asked, his voice hinted with concern.

Rohan couldn't speak, only slight mutters escaped his mouth. He gripped the door knob anxiously as he slammed the door shut. He couldn't stare any longer. He was disgusted. Horrified even. What had just happened. His breath was shaky as he leaned against his door. He let himself slide down the door until he sat fully with his back almost glued to it.

" How ungrateful " Rohan could hear josuke snap to the two as they began to leave. He took a few breaths as he let his mind calm down, and process what he just saw. " we were just coming to check up on him. No need to be a dick. " Josuke scoffed.

" I will never....unsee....that. " Rohan uttered, his voice half full of concern, and half of fear. Rohan wouldn't usually be grossed out by things like that, but it wasn't normal. It wouldn't be caused by something like a virus or a car crash. It was caused by another human. Or another being. And that was the grossest part to it.

He slowly stood himself, his brain trying to move his body without dragging itself away from the main subject, the dead thing that showed up behind those imbeciles.
He rushed his hand through his hair whilst he fully pushed himself off of his door. What had just happened to him? And why.....why did that thing have a gaping hole...in his stomach??? The more he dwelled on the subject, the more confused yet curious he became. He had gotten over the original shock for sure. That led him to wonder if it was a real ghost, like reimi, or it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Either way, it freaked him out. His breath was starting to slow down, slowly but surely, yet he couldn't get the image of the figure out of his head. He felt crazy, insane even. What was that....thing? He didn't didn't know anymore. He grabbed the door handle, locking the door quickly. It seemed to lock his nerves deeper then they previously were, providing him some comfort in a time like this.

Rohan had been doing things all day. Since the incident at roughly 4pm, he had cooked some food, cleaned the house and painted a tree. It was to keep his mind busy and distracted from the distorted image of the gore in his mind. Yet he refrained from eating too much whilst thinking about the figure.

He now sat at his desk. The clock on his wall chimed for exactly 8pm. He had a new fresh peice of paper, a new pot and a cleaned up pen. Though the pen still had stains on it, permanently marked by Rohan's previous anger and mistakes. He let out a harsh sigh, trying to find things to draw whilst pushing the mystery of the strange figure out his mind (the more he thought, the more he knew it must've been a teenager of some sorts) The drips of water hitting the ground from the wet sleeves on the uniform played like an unwanted symphony in his head. He stared at he paper, his eyes not breaking from its silk white surface.

" ALL I can think about is.....is that. " He muttered to himself as he tapped his pen on his forehead.

After a few more seconds, he came to a sudden conclusion. His brain was throwing things together to make an outcome that would leave him less destroyed by the days occurrence. It...it was perfect. The perfect inspiration for him. That little incident was going to lead to the perfect horror chapter in his manga!

Rohan let out a confident chuckle followed by a sly smirk. Finally, he had found the inspiration he needed to serve his fans fresh new material. He knew what to do now, and this was perfect. His sleepless nights were worth it, all of the anger, frustration and destructive emotions were worth it. As now, Rohan kishibe, could get back on track.

1550 words.
Chapter 1, completed.