Nightmare system

"Arghhhhh."

Hearing their kid scream another time, Luke and Sera woke up, worried as always.

It has been a year since Granny Lei died in their house. Since that incident, everyone avoided Thomas's house. Granny Lei's granddaughter was always interested in the stories about ghosts. She heard about ghosts haunting one kid every few years and often met Luke. These clues were enough for her to understand who was the culprit behind her grandmother's death.

In the beginning, no one believed her, but a few neighbours remembered the event from a few years ago and started gossiping about the questions Luke asked when his son was born. When people heard another suspicious thing about Thomas's family, they took it seriously. This situation destroyed Luke's and Sera's social life. They started to make excuses, and slowly stopped talking with them. Who would like to enter a house in which there is a monster? No one! Talk with the devil's parents? What kind of people could give birth to a devil? Of course, only bad people!

Luke and Sera started to feel uncomfortable about this whole situation, and after listening to all these whispers for days, they both were suspicious about Thomas's identity. His state made everything worse. His behaviour was even scarier than before. His parents could see this change even more clearly when they compared the previous, full of energy Thomas, to the dull one that was with them now.

He was more and more lifeless as the days passed. Both parents had a hard time. It was difficult for them to accept that there was a monster always staying inside of their kid.

Three months before Thomas's sixth birthday, his father couldn't take it anymore.

He hanged himself.

Beside him, there was a patch of leather with words written on it. Thomas couldn't read yet, so he didn't know what his last words were.

Sera was outside doing laundry. When she came back and saw what happened to her husband, she immediately knelt and started crying with one hand on the floor to keep balance and the other one on her mouth to muffle her whines. She didn't want Thomas to see her in this state. She saw the note written by her husband, crawled to it, and started to read the words on it.

'Dear Sena,

I know that when you are reading this, I'm already dead. I want to say that I'm sorry. Leaving you with to bear the pain alone is the worst thing I could ever do, but please understand that I can't stop thinking about these rumours. What if our son is really a monster? Even now, when I'm writing it, these thoughts still fill my mind! I can't act anymore! The way I look at my own son is wrong, and I know it, but I can't help it! Please forgive me, my love for what I have done.

Luke'

This incident had a giant impact on Sera. She was rarely home, and her appearance changed drastically. Before Luke's death, she was a beautiful, young cheerful woman that always cared about her appearance. Now, she looked much older, regularly had eye bags under her eyes, and her hairs were messy.

Every time she was home, Thomas could smell the alcohol from her. This whole situation broke his heart. Since the time granny Lei helped him, he was always grateful for the new chance he got and cherished every moment, he loved his new parents and always behaved well. After granny's death, everything crumbled. His family spent less time with him, his father showed only fake smiles and now, he hanged himself. His mother started to drink. He was alone for at least half a day, giving him a lot of time to think about how bad he is.

'Haha, everyone thinks that there is a monster inside my head. I guess they are not far from the truth. If there wasn't one, how could I do the things that I did in my previous life?'

A few months ago, he was still thinking about the reason for granny Lei's death, but now, he had only his past in his head. The memories he tried to forget about for such a long time visited him more often than ever.

Another thing that haunted him recently was his transmigration.

'Would this family crumble like this if I wasn't here? But did I had a choice? I never wanted to be reincarnated!'

One day before his sixth birthday, he was laying in his bed and getting ready to experience the same scenes again when he suddenly heard a voice in his head.

"Welcome, you are chosen as a potential host for nightmare system. Do you want to take a test checking your compatibility with the system?"

"What's the use of his system? If my current problems won't disappear, then there is no way I can think about anything else!"

"Then, if I guarantee your current nightmares disappear, will you take the test?"

"You can do this? Then I accept!"

"Do you want to start the test now? There are-"

"Start already!"

"As you wish, potential host."

Thomas lost his consciousness and woke up in a somehow familiar jungle. It was already dark. The only thing he could hear was the rustle of bushes somewhere further away and noise made by bugs.

"What was I doing before? I can't remember a thing."

Thomas was warily walking on the familiar island on a paved way. More memories were resurfacing as he walked further away from the place where he woke up.

'So the plane crashed, and my family and I were the only survivors! Then where are they now?'

Questions started to appear in Thomas's head. He was confused by his current situation even more. His vision suddenly turned blurry, and he wanted to wipe his eyes, but when he saw his hands, he stumbled a few steps away in fright.

"Blood!"

While looking at his hands, another memory appeared in his mind. He and his family were hunting, and they couldn't find water so he couldn't wash it off. He let out a sigh of relief, finally knowing why there was blood on his hands.

After thirty seconds passed, Thomas saw charred plants appearing often. Curious, he decided to venture in their direction. As he was moving forward, parts made of metal started to appear, scattered all around.

'It seems that I'm getting closer to the wreck of the plane.'

Thomas's assumption was accurate. After moving forward in the dark, he saw a white hull charred at both ends. It was barely visible by now because it seemed like it was already past midnight.

'Did it took me so long to come here? When I woke up, it was getting darker, but now I barely see anything.'

He was confused by this change that he only noticed now. He was sure that only ten minutes passed since he regained his consciousness, but such a significant change couldn't occur so quickly.

'I guess I'm still a little dizzy. It seems that walking takes me longer than I thought.'

Thomas decided to check whether his family is hiding inside the plane, but the closer he was to it, the worse he felt. He was feeling like something unpleasant was about to happen, and at the same time, he suddenly got tired after he was inside.

His legs felt weak, and he held on the passenger seat beside him. It was surprisingly soft. He thought that it would be good to take it out and use it as a pillow or mattress. The pain in his back was unbearable. He wanted to check how big it was, but what he saw made him vomit as soon as he looked at what his hand was on.

What he was touching for the last few seconds was a corpse! A rotting one! The body was in such a bad state that Thomas couldn't even tell whether it was a man or a woman, and it wasn't complete, someone or something cut off parts of it.

He stumbled back and then quickly turned around and left the plane.

This situation was a traumatic encounter for him. He left in a hurry and thought about going to sleep. The next day has started, and Thomas was already fully awake, but he didn't remember going to sleep.

'Well, it happens sometimes.'

He thought that the reason he forgot the last few minutes before going to sleep was because of the encounter with the corpse. He had the urge to vomit even while only thinking about it.

Memories stopped to appear in his mind since the moment he reached the plane. It made him worried since he had no way to find where his family was. Yesterday, Thomas thought that as long as he waits a while, he will gain this precious information, but now, it seems that he needs to search for them himself.

'They can't be too far away.'

It was already dark when Thomas finally gave up. He searched for his mother and sister for a whole day. Even after searching for so long, there wasn't even a trace of them.

'Where are they? They couldn't just disappear like this. Something must have happened!'

Thomas was feeling tired, but he won't be able to fall asleep before knowing what happened to his family. He was now going through bushes, making a lot of noise. There weren't any animals here. The only thing he noticed were small bugs.

"Is it you, brother?"

Thomas heard a childish voice just as he was about to give up.