Chapter 1: Acceptance

*Clank*. The heavy metal weight dropped and echoed on the worn, wooden floor, throwing a few splinters into the air and making the ground shake a little. Sean let out an exhausted sigh and wiped his glistening brow with the back of his hand.

The boy wore a navy blue shirt with a pair of tattered beige jeans, held up by a leather belt that had clearly seen some better days. He hauled himself up from his creaky leather chair and trudged his way towards the large, misty window.

Small droplets of rain tapped the cracked glass to his bedroom window to a steady rhythm. Sullen clouds loomed above, shrouding the town in misery. Sean's attention was turned towards the stray ghoul that was sneaking around in the neighbour's garden.

He thought to himself, 'That's already the 3rd one this week...'

It's pale skin was torn and soaked in both blood and rain, though the blood seemed to belong to the creature and not a human judging by many gashes covering its body.

The sound of running and yelling could just be made out down the street through the deafening pattering of the rain. This seemed to startle the ghoul and it took of, racing in to the alleyway at the side of the neighbour's house.

Many men and women dressed in black swarmed the street below Sean's house, they were clearly hunting for the wounded creature. These were the Z's, they're the same as the ghouls, they did once die and have risen from the dead to once again walk amongst the living, however, these have kept their humanity.

After doing a quick check of the area, the Z's left in pursuit of the ghoul. Sean stood unfazed by the commotion that just occurred outside, he soon decided to sit at his small but cluttered desk which sat right below the window of his room.

His desk was covered in old, empty water bottles and weights that now felt too light to use. A small yet quite chunky brown envelope lay in the center of the desk with the area surrounding it. Sean carefully opened the seal on the envelope and spilled out the contents to see what was inside.

Money now covered his desk with a letter that was also inside, however, Sean didn't have to read it to know what it was. It was money from his parents will. The money was originally meant for his aunt, but due to feeling sorry for him being left nothing she sent him half of her inheritance.

It was a car accident 3 weeks ago, Sean's Fathers car was hit by a speeding truck whilst they were parked at the side of the road. This didn't sadden Sean however, he never liked his parents and nor did they like him, as proven by his inheritance.

The only issue was that he was now left alone. The months rent had been paid before the deaths of his parents but after that he could only afford one more month. Getting a job was out of the question, school was never an option for Sean, he was always left locked up in the house and forgotten, hence the paleness of his skin.

That's how he found his love for the online world, there he was accepted and not shunned away. He managed to find his Dad's old computer and hid it in his room, nobody but him went in there anyway so there was no chance that his dad would find out.

It wasn't too long after the theft that he mistakably found his way in to the world of Reddit, a cursed and godforsaken app. Around 2 years ago he also became a mod, which Sean was overjoyed about. Day in, day out, all he did was weightlift and Reddit, though he never got bored of it.

Sean turned his gaze to the old fashioned clock that hung from the wall, it read 7:04 PM. He reached for the money on his desk and grasped a note before stashing it away in his pocket. He slowly made his way out his small room, down the creaking stairs and to the rickety door that was the entrance to his house.

The door took some minor brute force but it managed to burst open and slam against the table that was beside it. Sean stepped out the door before closing it behind him.

'I won't lock it, it's too stiff for someone to open anyway,'

The rain had settled down now and slowly but surely, the sky began to clear up. The top of the sunset could now just be seen from atop the grey overcast.

The streets were peaceful today, if you ignore the blood in the neighbours garden. Despite the nice scenery, Sean was looking to the concrete path below him, deep in thought.

'What am I gunna do after next month?, Will I be able to last?, What about Reddit?'

however, his thought would soon be broken. Something could be heard crashing around in the bushes beside Sean and the ghoul from before came launching out, doing whatever it could just to get a meal.

The beast slashed at an oblivious Sean, leaving a tearing mark across his old shirt. It let out a corrupt cackling laughter whilst scraping its long nails on the concrete path.

Sean turned to face the creature which was still howling with laughter, which soon halted. Looking at Sean, there was no blood at all, the only wound was a small graze, small to the point that it wouldn't even bleed.

The creature looked in both confusion and awe, it was obvious that he was human, but how was he human? Before the ghoul could even think to react, Sean had chopped it on the top of its head with his hand.

"Abs of steel, the youtube tutorials really worked,"

The ghoul had been knocked clean out and had collapsed to the flood from the immense power behind the chop. Sean looked down at his shirt, the loss of his shirt hurt more than the loss of his parents.

*Clap, Clap, Clap.* Sean turned to see who was there behind him, not expecting anyone to have witnessed the event.

"Well done! You did a good job hiding that you were a Z!"

The tall, dark man dressed in the same black uniform as the Z's slowly approached Sean.

"N-no, I'm human."