Masquerade

Admonition

I kneeled and then rubbing at one of them. "I was a fool..." I left the puppies and headed to a river nearby. I sat at the riverbank and looked into the water. I saw myself; a 15 year old kid who doesn't deserve to live in this world.

The reflection suddenly started decaying. His skin wore off bit by bit, the eyes fell out and the hair turned grey. The river became pitch black.

"STOP DOING WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING, ZIM!!! IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO CHANGE!!!!!" he yelled at me. Surprisingly, I didn't even try to look away.

Something hit my head; a box. I looked in front, but no one was there. The river was back to normal. The only thing disturbing me was the fact that the reflection's eyes was still there, floating, and looking at me despite the river's current. I took the hand sized box and decided to ignore the river.

I sat a few feet away from the river. I unwrapped the box, which happens to be a Samsung Galaxy 7 box. I opened it and found a Nokia phone, C3-00, to be exact, and a pair of earphones. I plugged them in and put them in my ears. I then began searching for the songs.

Pretty much every song that I admire was in the phone. I chose the song that reminds me the most to her; We'll Meet Again.

As I was about to sing along the lyrics, Wade appeared in front of me.

"It's Wade! Back from the great war!" I said, sarcastically.

He gave me a gentle pat. "DIE, YOU BASTARD!!!!!!!"

"What?" I was confused...

The song became instrumental. And then stopped.

"What did you do, Wade?"

The song's volume suddenly rose up to the loudest it could that I felt pain all over my body. The songs in my phone suddenly changed randomly every second at the same volume. My eardrums hurt a lot. Really lot. Even some blood oozed out from my ears, yet it was still functional.

"Stop doing whatever you're doing. It's not too late to change..." he said the same thing, in a calmer voice this time. I don't know how... but I could still hear his voice even in that volume.

"SHUT UP!!!" I replied.

Wade suddenly got slammed by a table. At the same time, I fell to the ground. The songs were still on. That was the time I fell unconscious.

"Zim, wake up"

Somebody slapped my face gently. I opened my eyes. I could see Jean, smiling in relief.

"Thank God you're still......alive" ,she said to me.

I lifted my head. I was lying in a grass-filled hilly area.

"Jean!" someone shouted.

She squatted beside me. Rick, Vanness, Vince & Bryan, my FRIENDS, were running towards us. I stood up.

"Where am I?" I asked them, as they arrived.

"We're in the park, idiot!" Vince shouted at my ears.

"Help me up".

Vince helped me. I looked around. Park? What park? Park Jihyo? Fuck. Just forget her already!

"Tag! You're it!" Rick touched my shoulder.

All of them ran away from me. Not today, dorks!

I chased them with all my might, as if I was a guard dog. They screamed and then ran away faster and faster.... My legs couldn't take me anymore. I did nothing but just watching them running away...until they were no longer in my eyesight. I took out the chess pawn from my pocket and threw it to the ground. A tear dropped from my eye and wet the pawn.

Suddenly, I heard a vehicle coming from my left. I took a look. Apparently, it was a van, and..it was being driven crazily. I quickly got away from its path and I lost my balance. My eyes caught the driver's face. Guess what. It was the Devil... He smiled and threw me an envelope. I checked it out, and there was an... equation, written in a black ink.

U ASKED FOR IT KID!!!

5-(5-3)i/3+ {25(v x v)e} + (-17-17+u)

From,

"Zim!!!!!" a sound came from my front. Jean was running towards me.

She was closing into me and she wasn't slowing down. It means one thing...

BAM!!!

We both fell down. She was on top of me and we were facing each other. Even though she was breathing heavily, she could still smile. I wasn't. My mind was filled with questions.

Who was in the van?

Have I met him before?

Was that the one he calls the Devil?

Does he have anything to do with my dream?

What does the letter mean? U asked for it? Wait...

I looked at her. Her eyes were closed. Our lips were getting closer. I tried to look around. I saw the van, which has crashed into a tree. The tree was falling. Our lips met. The enormous tree trunk was just centimeters away from her body....

KID. OPEN YOUR EYES.
I did as the voice told me, and found out that I was in a place of absolute blankness. The place which seemed endlessly stretched widely was unexpectedly blank. Pure whiteness was the only feature that was there. The skies and the land were just...white.

Even more surprising, I myself was not at that place. I mean, I was there but my physical body wasn't. It was like a virtual reality to me.

A voice came through my ears.
I GAVE YOU ALL YOU WANTED. NOW IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GIVE ME WHAT I WANT.

"Who are you?"

DON'T PLAY GAMES WITH ME, KIDDO. THOSE TIMES ARE OVER!

"What games?"

ZIM. YOU HAD THEM. AND NOW IT'S MY TURN.

"What are you talking about?"

I heard the sound of fingers plucked. And the scenery suddenly turned into the park, the exact second the tree was falling to hit her head, the last second before I suddenly got into this... dimension. And time stopped at the exact second before the tree hit her head. I was seeing them from a bird's eyes view.

"Wait, does that mean... I'm dead?"

NO. BUT SHE IS.

"NO!!! YOU CAN'T JUST LET HER DIE!!!! DO SOMETHING!!!"

YOU ALREADY HAD YOUR PORTION. NOW IT'S TIME FOR MINE!

"Bring her back to life. Only then I'll give you whatever you demanded from me."

INNOCENT SOULS ARE THE BEST ONES. BRING ME SOME FIRST, KID. THAT'S THE WAY IT GOES.

"NEVER! YOU TOOK HER SOUL AND NOW YOU WANT ME TO FULFILL YOUR NEEDS?! FUCK OFF!"

THE FUNNY THING IS, YOU TOOK HER SOUL.