Beggining and end

It was unnaturally dark outside, as though the moon and street lamps didn't work. The light emitted from them was extremely dim, reducing visibility to a bare minimum. A lone boy was walking on a sidewalk, somewhat disturbed by the unusual state of his environment. Soon, a black figure emerged in his field of view, getting closer and closer with tremendous speed. The boy couldn't discern anything about the figure. It looked like a blur, most likely because of the darkness. Almost instantaneously, the figure passed him and he felt something hit his head.

Michael's eyes snapped open. He was covered in cold sweat, his heart was pounding hard and he felt an acute sense of aching all over his body.

'It was a nightmare. It was not real. It was not real.' He kept saying that to himself in order to calm down. He rarely had nightmares, and when he did, most times something bad was going to happen in the close future. Of course, he just passed those things as coincidences, as he wasn't really a superstitious person. Nightmares were just that; dreams,having no meaning and corellation to anything whatsoever.

Looking at the clock, Michael realised that he had to get ready for school.

'What a shitty way to start my day, huh? Well, it doesn't matter, I can't let a simple nightmare ruin my mood.'

At school, everything was as usual. His friend, Matthew, told him about a novel he was reading where the main character was some manipulator who treated everyone as pawns and didn't stop at anything to achieve his goals.

'Poor guy, he's still stuck in his emo phase' Michael thought with contempt, while outwardly looking interested about the novel and its main character.

"Now that I think about it, I really behave a little like the protagonist" Matthew said.

Michael looked at his face, thinking he was joking. To his dismay, his friend was completely serious, expecting some sort of reaction.

'What the hell am I supposed to tell him? "Oh my god, Matthew, you are so cool, I want to be more like you, please teach me how to become a sociopoath who doesn't feel any remorse nor emotions. You are seriously the best and my idol!" Michael thought, with a slight frown appearing on his face. While making sure it wasn't noticeable, he said:

"Damn, Matthew, if you say so. Keep in mind that it's still fiction, so don't go acting like the main character, or you will make a fool of yourself."

"Ha! You're just jealous of me because you can't influence people as good as me and you're trying to limit my learning. What a bad friend you are!" Matthew said sarcastically.

"Sure, sure, I should be begging you to teach me how to become more like you!"

They stopped the conversation, as the teacher has entered the class. After school was over, Michael had private lessons. He knew that he needed them, as he wasn't an academically gifted kid, and he didn't really complain, even though he basically studied the entire day. After the private lessons ended, he immediately went off, wanting to reach his house as soon as possible, as it was pretty late. It was already dark outside, and Michael had a bad feeling, although he couldn't quite figure out what it was. While on a sidewalk, he saw a person approaching.

'A slightly wobbling walk, a bottle in his hand and unfocused eyes. This person is definitely drunk. I should steer clear of him, but if I cross the street now I may attract his suspicion and make him follow me. Right now, my only choice is to ignore him if he tries anything.' Just as he thought that, Michael heard a voice:

"Hey kid got any money?"

Of course, Michael ignored him and quickened his pace. The surroundings were strangely familiar, resembling his nightmare.

"Huh? Are you ignoring me? You think you're better than me? HUH? FUCK YOU!"

Now that the man was behind him, Michael wanted to run. However, before he could do anything, he felt a sharp pain coming from his head. The drunkard most likely had smashed the glass bottle into his head. He feld his head throbbing severely and fell to the ground, unable to support himself. The man, now scared as he thought he killed a person, ran away, leaving Michael on the ground, bleeding excessively. Slowly but surely, Michael was losing consciousness, unable to do anything. His eyes were becoming more and more unfocused, and a white light began to seize his field of vision.

'Fuck, is this how i die? What a doglike death. I had so much time left, my whole life was ahead of me... Damn, what a stupid way to die...'

While thinking that, he lost consciousness and died.

Immediately after, a void surrounded Michael. He couldn't see, feel, hear, touch or smell anything. He was completely deprived of all his senses.

'Is this hell? Did I really end up in hell? Cause this sure doesn't look like heaven.'

Michael wasn't really a religious person, but he believed in the concept of god, heaven and hell, so he naturally assumed that he was in some sort of afterlife.

Suddenly, multiple deafening voices began to manifest in his head.

[POTENTIAL VESSEL DETECTED

CHECKING COMPATIBILITY

1%...

5%...

13%...

28%...

50%...

67%...

89%...

99%...

100%

COMPATIBLE VESSEL DETECTED

TYPE: 𝙊 𝙈 𝙀 𝙂 𝘼]

Michael couldn't understand anything.A sharp pain encompassed his head. It felt like it was about to explode. The voices all relayed the same message, simultaneously.

Some were robotic, some were distorted, high-pitched, low-pitched and some were simply alien, indescribable.Michael was overwhelmed, having no idea what was going on.

[ANALYSING VESSEL PERSONALITY

ABILITY CHOSEN

ABILITY OVERRIDDEN

𝙊 𝙈 𝙀 𝙂 𝘼 ABILITY CHOSEN

BEGINNING SYNCHRONIZATION IN 3... 2.... 1.... 0]

Michael lost consciousness yet again.