Day 1

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I shot up, sitting in my bed. The blaring noise of an alarm overstimulated my senses. I was wide awake.

"Huh?" I looked at the digital clock across my room. It was 8:00 am. I groaned, and turned off the alarm on my phone. Apparently it'd been going off since 6:00 am. "How did I not wake up to that?" The light-toned noise should have awoken me.

It was terrifyingly cold in the room. I peeked past the blinds to my left and could see that it was snowing outside. The sidewalks and roads were covered with white, and the field across the street was filled with knee-high snow.

"Winter…" I remembered it was the middle of January, peak snowfall season in Pactolus District. Having the corner room in the manor meant having the biggest room, other than my parents' master bedroom. But having the corner room also meant having two windows on each outdoor side. The lack of insulation in both exposition of windows made it the coldest room in the winter, and the hottest room in the summer. Cold air was not afraid to penetrate the glass of my windows, but neither were the blistering sun rays in the summer.

"Whatever…" I got up and grabbed my face wash towel. I was going to start my day with a little freshening up.

I stood by the sink, bathing my face with lukewarm water and high-end facial products. As the son of an influential family in the district, I had to look my best at all times. If any of the lower-class citizens ever saw me with a single inch of acne, it'd ruin my reputation. It'd ruin my parents' reputation.

It'd ruin the Van Hattum family's reputation.

"Heh…" I scoffed at the thought as if it were going to ever happen. "I'm Venus Van Hattum, heir to CEO of the Hattum Enterprise. None of you imbeciles could ever be something as big as me…"

With my morning facial routine done, next was to have something nutritious to eat. "An apple," I was hoping.

Still in my white tank-top and sweatpants, I rounded the railings and made my way downstairs. I walked into the kitchen, expecting to see my mother cooking and my father drinking coffee, but it was none of that. Nothing but a single note left on the table, accompanied by a small bright orange.

"Tsk!" I picked up the orange. Its inconsistent ridges lining its bright and ugly rind disgusted my sight. It was nothing but a sour interior and a bitter outside—a fruit that embodied imperfection in my eyes. I picked it up, aimed for the garbage, and threw it out, aggressively. Oranges had always been my least favorite fruit.

"What was I thinking…?" I laughed slightly at myself for imagining an ideal morning breakfast scene with my parents. My mother doesn't even cook. And my dad? He drinks coffee at night, and sleeps during the day. The two of them are all about work, work, and work.

I sighed.

I picked the small note off the table, and read:

{ Your father and I will be tending to business priorities in Xavier District for the next month or so. We don't know exactly when we'll be back, but you can take care of yourself anyways. I've bought enough fruits to last you a daily breakfast for at least a month. But they only had oranges available at the store we shop at. It's okay though, you like oranges anyways, right? Eat healthy while we're gone.

Mother }

I immediately scrunched the piece of paper into my hands. Tightly and heavily, was it out of anger? I couldn't tell myself. Underneath it all, maybe it was the emotional strength of my determination to overtake my parents in the Hattum Enterprise.

"Whatever, imbeciles…" I don't remember when I gained this habit, but I've been muttering the insult of a word lately. Imbecile; a stupid and idiotic person. Someone not nearly as smart, nor as great as the person saying the insult. I could never have thought of my parents that way when I was younger, but ever since they've been leaving me on my own like this, I've grown more independent. I'm coming to realize my true potential, and with that, everyone around me are becoming these so-called imbeciles.

"But where is everyone?"

I couldn't remember what day of the week it was, so I couldn't really tell what priorities I had to tend to. With no sight of what to do, I decided to turn on my computer and play some video games. When life in the real world isn't going as perfectly as expected, I tune in to the potentially perfect world of a video game—a world where failure isn't permanent, but rather, beneficial. A world where you can simply restart and pick back up where you left off, and redo everything to make it perfect again. This was my coping mechanism.

Ding!

My phone was lit with a notification. "Who would be texting me at this time…? Mother?" I rolled my chair over to the desk across, and checked my phone. There was a single text message from a number I didn't recognize. If it wasn't labeled with a contact name, it meant I didn't know the person. I checked the message anyways.

1, 6, 1, 8, I typed in the password to unlock my phone. Revealing the message, an image was shown.

It was a picture of a raven.

"What the hell…?" I was confused. What sort of imbecile would go out of their way to send a random number a picture of a raven? I pitied their lack of mental capacity.

Ding!

Another notification, from the same number, suddenly interrupted my thought. I swiped down to see what had been sent this time, expecting another random picture of a bird. But no, it was a picture of the front of the manor.

"Wait… What?" I rushed to the front side of my room, which had a window facing out to the front of the manor. Pulling down the blinds, and looking towards the supposed spot from where the picture was taken, I saw something that stopped me in my tracks.

A figure stood there, dawning dark black clothing that contrasted the bright white snow, and a black mask that covered all but his eyes. He stared up at my window intently, and blinked.

Ding!

Confused, rather than scared, I rushed back over to my phone on the table and checked the new notification. It was now a third image sent by the same unknown number. Another picture of a raven.

"Why…?" I began to type a message to the number:

"Who is this?"

The reply was immediate.

"Your ruination."

Somewhat frustrated, I walked back to my window to stick a finger up to the guy. Who did he think he was making a threat to the son of the Van Hattum family? I peeked through the blinds, but to my surprise, he was now gone.

"Heh," I scoffed. "Just another jealous imbecile… You all wish you could be like me."

The realization seeped in that there were many people like this in the district and in the country. No matter how successful a man could get, people would always be willing to tug at your leg to bring you down.

"Must've just been a young kid. A new variation of ding-dong-ditch I suppose? Though I will say he was quite tall for a kid. The imbecile must've been around my height..."

I turned away from the window, scoffing even more at the oddity that just occurred. But something interrupted that giddiness.

TAP-TAP-TAP—!

Heavy footsteps quickly approached my direction from the other side of the room. As I turned to face what came towards me, a quick black blur with the face of a mask phased past me.

SHLRKK—!

I felt my neck slice open, and red began to spray everywhere. I painted the walls with my blood as I fell hard towards the floor, my vision hazing out as I bled out on the way down.

Death.