Ch. 4 "I AM YOU AND YOU ARE ME"

A Monday morning, Rei and Ken were having their breakfast.

"Yo Nii-san I'm skipping the first week of class" 

"Huh why?"

"Nothing much, there's some things I have to do"

"Like what for example?"

Rei suddenly stood up and went back to his room not even finishing his breakfast.

"What are you up to now Rei?" 

Ken said while glancing at his brother who was walking back to his room.

Ken was about to leave their house to go to school, but he first went to his brother to check on him. He knocked multiple times at his brothers door, yet no one answered, he tried opening it but it was locked, he guessed that his brother might just be playing a computer game which he usually does.

As soon as Ken left the house and walked towards school he felt a presence that kept staring at him he would glance behind him but could not find anyone. As he reached the gates of Horizon Academy he saw a tall woman with a slim figure staring at their school, when he was about to pass her she suddenly uttered a word.

"How's your brother?" 

She asked, Ken stood still for a moment thinking if the woman was talking to him as he was about to turn around when the bell suddenly rang indicating that classes were about to start, so he swiftly walked towards the entrance. Before he could enter the building he took a quick glance behind him and saw the woman who resembles the same person that knocked on their door after their parents disappeared.

As the class progressed Ken was out of focus and was so bothered by the reappearance of that woman, that he did not notice his teacher calling him. As he was sitting beside the window he continued to stare at the gate where the woman was standing earlier thinking what was her reason of suddenly showing up after disappearing for years.

*Back at their house*

Soon after Ken left for school Rei also went out, he was walking towards a abandoned building south to their house. Waiting in  front of it was the same woman that Ken saw.

"So what do you want?" Rei said before following the woman inside the building.

"I simply came to check on the two of you" 

The conversation about the financial situation of the two brothers progressed, when Rei suddenly gave a weird reply to her question.

"Is the money were giving still sufficient for the two of you?" She asked.

"Their faster than expected" Rei uttered.

"Who?"

"Nothing"

"So Rei why meet at an abandoned facility like this? do you plan on doing something indecent with me?"

"Why would I bother do something that stupid?"

"Well you have been staring at my body for quite a while now? were you not?"

"Oh? so you noticed? simply looking at you, you didn't seem to age a bit after we met back then"

"You're quite an observer are you"

"Simply to say for someone not to age after 12 years is very unrealistic, even with the current technology this place has"

"So she was right? you are smart"

"She?? who is she "

"Nothing that concerns you as of now, but I think sooner or later you two will meet"

Their conversation was cut when she suddenly received a call, she then walked with Rei until they got out of the facility. Outside waiting for her was 2 armored vehicle's and one car. 

As she entered the car Rei suddenly felt a cold wind pass through his body and he suddenly felt weak, he then rushed back to their house and into his room. When he entered his room he suddenly felt a burning feeling inside of his chest as if it was on fire.

"AAAAHHHH!!" He screamed in pain for minutes until he fainted, he woke up to the same dark room sitting in the same chair that he had dreamt of a few days ago but this time he can see someone from a distance.

"Who are you?" Rei calmly asked the person who was walking towards him.

"I am you" He replied.

As the person grew closer, Rei was baffled to see who it was.

"W-who are you?" 

He asked him again but this time it did not respond, it just stood their staring back at Rei. A voice suddenly echoed around them.

"I am you and you are me" the voice answered.

"What sort of prank is this?"

"Just who the hell are you people"

Again it did not reply, at a distance Rei once again saw a pair of white eyes like he did before, but this time it was no longer huge, this time it had a black figure for a body. It walked closer to Rei and stood beside the copy of Rei, it touched its head and made it disappeared.

"are you a magician or something?" Rei asked 

It only had eyes, no teeth, no mouth, no nose, no ears, it looked at Rei in his eyes and leaned towards Rei's face and whispered.

"Who are you?"

Rei was speechless to the question it was as if he actually forgot who he was, the two individuals were just there staring at each others eyes.

As Rei was staring at the eyes of who was in front of him, he began to see images that suddenly got implanted to his brain creating new memories that Rei never did.

The being in front of him suddenly closed its eyes and asked the same question earlier.

"Who are you"

"I AM R-"

Rei tried to scream his name, but he suddenly lost the ability to speak, and bit by bit he started to forget who he was.

"I am you, and you are me" the thing said to him the same way he did earlier.

"I am you and you are me" Rei repeated it.

He felt like he was being sent to a trance, his vision was slowly going spiral and his body felt really light, with a sudden flash of light he was teleported to space. What he saw was truly horrifying.

Half of earth was indulged in flames, most of the water has evaporated and from his distance he saw a large dome were it is connected to smaller domes, and a swarm of black clouds approaching it.

"Wait? what is happening" He said. 

"This is the truth that you have no knowledge of" a voice said to him.

"What do you mean?"

"You shall all perish by my creation, for I am Zero the one within earth"

"What the hell do you mean? the one within earth?"

Rei was so confused on who he was talking to.

"I am you and you are me" the voice repeated once again.

"HUH?? YOU'RE NOT MAKING ANY FUCKING SENSE!!" Rei screamed.

"You will destroy this world and then recreate it once again, only for someone else to destroy it"

"What the fuck are you talking about?? This is so messed up"

"You shall know the truth of this world soon, for you are my Reincarnation"

Rei finally woke up, he was laying down at the floor of his room. He tried to stand up but lacked strength, when he pushed himself up from the floor he began to vomit blood.

"Huh? What is this? what is happening?"

He kept vomiting blood for a few minutes until it stopped, he felt a burning pain from all around his body, like he was being burnt alive. He screamed and screamed inside his room but everyone outside disregarded what they heard.

"What the is this..."

He finally lost consciousness and was now laying down half dead alone in his room.

*At Horizon Academy*

"Is Rei alright?"  

Ken was worried about how his brother acted earlier, it was new to him but he thought of it as a joke.

"Ken would you mind focusing in class and stop staring outside?" 

His teacher said to him.

"Ah sorry sir"

He apologized and looked at the board and the teacher who was explaining their lesson. But he was still worried about his brother.

His class went on as time passed he became more and more worried about Rei that he could no longer wait for the classes to end. After attending 7 out of 9 subjects Ken excused himself saying that he was not feeling well and asked to go home early, after getting the schools approval he then rushed back to their house.

Once he finally reached their house he noticed that the door was opened by a few inches, he opened it and walked slowly inside their house as it was all pitch black, he moved forward towards the stairs and up to his brothers room. As he was walking he passed a sticky water like substance, he then rushed towards his brother room and quickly opened the door but to his shock, he saw his brother sleeping peacefully with saliva dripping from his mouth. 

At the moment he suddenly felt relieved and went walked back to the stairs once again stepping on the sticky wet substance he stepped in earlier, he switched on the lights only to see it with a red color.

"Huh? what is this?"

"Ah it's came from me I'm sorry" 

A voice spoke out of nowhere.

"who are you?"

"Have you forgotten about me already Ken?"

"That voice, don't tell me? wait I thought she went to states after breaking up with me? why is she back here?"

"Why are you here Claire?"

"Hmm... I missed you I guess.. hihihi"

"You? Missing the guy you dumped? isn't that quite unbelievable?"

"Well it truly is, but wont you welcome me with some drink like before?"

"After entering here unannounced, you think I would still do that?"

"Well even if you go full on Ice King mode, I know deep inside you're a kind person"

"This bitch" Ken whispered.

"I heard that, but, I'll let it slide with some tea"

"Alright, but why is there bloo-"

"Don't worry about it I'll clean it"

She replied before shoving him to the stairs.

After a while they were now seating at the sofa opposite to each other while drinking tea.

"So why on earth are you here?"

"Well I was sent here by someone"

"Who sent you?"

"No comment hehe"

"I see, so your working for some agency are you now"

"Well we could say its something like that"

"So what's with the blood?"

"No one was here downstairs when I got here so I went to check on Rei, but upstairs was filled with blood from the floor to his room so I cleaned it out,l I guess some spot wasn't thoroughly cleaned"

"Blood? from Rei's room? do you have any idea what happened?"

"Nope not at all, I got her like half an hour before you, the blood was no longer fresh so I checked Rei"

"What did you find? doe she have a wound or anything?"

"Well, to be honest I am actually shocked that he has no wounds, when I checked on him he was sleeping while drooling like a child"

"Huh? so were did the blood come from?"

"Well I told you I have no idea, maybe you could ask him once he wakes up, also I have no place to stay here so would you mind if I sleep here just for tonight?"

"Huh? well if Rei would let you borrow a room upstairs you could sleep there"

Ken was about to take a sip on his tea when she replied, it surprised Ken that he  the tea glass and broke it.

"We can just sleep in your room"

"HUH? WHAT THE FUCK?" He replied fully surprised.

She laughed to his reaction, she walked towards him and kneeled down showing a bit of her chest while she picked up the broken glass.

"W-why are you wearing such revealing c-clothes?"

Ken said desperately trying to look away but still took a few glances.

"Oh? did you miss seeing my body so much? Ken?"

She said in a sexual voice before dropping the broken pieces she picked up, before sitting on Ken's lap she placed both her hands on the nape of his neck and then she whispered.

"We can do it if you want to you know"

"Do what exactly?"

A womans voice spoke, in front of them was a woman about an average height, Ken looked carefully on who it was and to his surprised it was his girlfriend.

"W-why are you here Amithy?"

"So your the new girlfriend?" Claire replied not even moving an inch from her position.

"I was worried about how you acted Ken so I followed you here, and who would've thought that you would do something this indecent even if you already have me" Amithy said

"She did this on her own, I had no intention of doing any of this" Ken explained.

"Then why would you allow your ex to sleep in your house"

"Huh? wait how long have you been here?"

As the three kept on arguing Rei suddenly woke up and felt thirsty so he went don't stairs only to see his brother sitting on a chair with his ex-girlfriend sitting on his lap and his current girlfriend arguing with them.

*Snap*

"This is about to become a very, very good meme" Rei said after taking a picture of the three.

Everyone turned silent to what he said and  just stared at him.

"Why are you staring at me like I'm a ghost or something?"

Rei looked around him to see if there was someone behind him, but it was only him there, he got confused to what was happening, he then felt a stingy feeling from his eye, as he tried to brush it off he felt a liquid substance coming from his eyes. He stared at his hand after wiping his eyes, he was tearing blood for no reason at all, Rei was shocked that he just stared at his hand and calmly sat down on the chair behind him.

"Calm down Rei, calm down alright" his brother said to him.

But Rei was unable to utter a word he just sat there staring at his hand that now has blood that came from his eyes. The three then rushed Rei to the hospital riding on Amithys car which was parked outside. As they reached the hospital Rei was brought to the emergency room and was checked by multiple doctors, yet none of them knew why he cried blood, it was something that never happened before and that Rei was the very first that they saw who experience such a thing.

The doctors did their best to stop the bleeding, yet none of what they did was efficient on stopping it, white towels turned red, the bed sheets also turned red and multiple buckets of watera turned red. The doctors were surprised that the blood inside Rei's body never dropped even though his eyes kept on crying blood. 

The doctors decided to confine Rei in the hospital with 3 nurses on his side for 24 hours to change the towels that are placed on his eyes. The doctors asked him multiple questions such as: "does it hurt?", "are you feeling weak?" and more, but Rei would only reply "No" it was as if he became numb that he felt nothing. 

The next morning the bleeding finally stopped which baffled the doctors, Rei was asked to stay for a few more days at the hospital and Ken was asked to go home to get some rest, go to school and visit his brother afterwards. Which both the brothers agreed to, Ken would visit his brother every before and after school, Claire stayed with Ken at their house but would sleep in Rei's room.

It went on for a week until one day..

"What do you mean he just disappeared? how could you let something like this happen?"

"Please calm down sir! We checked all the security cameras and the places near the hospital but its like he just vanished from his room! no one even saw him leave his room" 

The people explained to Ken on the situation, he knew that all the doctors and nurses took good care of Rei because he somewhat acquired something that got the everyone's interest there, he knew he shouldn't really blame them because he knew his brother has been acting different lately.

"Rei where have you gone to?"

[Chapter End]