~PROLOGUE~
The moon was still young and thus it looked like a sickle that was hung high above the dark night sky.
There was also no sign of stars at all that could be seen above the pitch-black sky and the cold night draft only made it seemed more as though an impending rain was about to come.
Mikael, who was wearing nothing but a plain white shirt and pair of slippers walked aimlessly in the dark as he did not know where exactly to go and why he was even on that particular place, to begin with.
After a short while, the rain already started to pour and the cold made Mikael shivered uncontrollably.
He started to run looking for cover but then, amidst the constant pattering of the raindrops as it hit the ground, he heard a scream.
"Help! Someone, please help me!"
The boy sounded so terrified and to his surprise, the voice sounded so young.
It was a child!
"Where are you? Tell me where you are? I'll come and find you.."
Mikael shouted back as he also started to pick up his pace.
Eager to found the boy as quickly as possible before the assailant could even find the other party first before him.
But the heavy rain made the road ahead slippery and it was now covered with mud, which as a result made it harder for Mikael to navigate in the dark. Especially so since he could hardly see past his nose.
To his frustration, both his legs and arms also seemed to greatly fail him specifically that night and he found himself stumbling on his track more often than usual
Yet Mikael never stopped there, he continued to claw his way trying to regain his footing, and this act of his left deep gorges on the ground as his feet slid on the mud and he clawed his way through it.
But then out of the blue, Mikael suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder from behind.
The other party shoved him to the ground without prior notice and ride him from his back.
And as if that was not yet enough, the other party also pushed his face onto the dirt.
"Let me go! Who are you?! Why are you doing this to me???"
Mikael tried his best to wrestle free from his assailant's restraint but to no avail.
For some reason, he had gone weak. So what he did instead was he tried to turn and looked behind him to see who was attacking him.
He swore that he could already almost see the man's face, but as if with some working of mystical fate, the other party appeared to be shrouded by thick mist.
The man was talking and was speaking so close to his face that Mikael could already feel the other party's hot breath blowing on his right cheek.
Yet weird enough his ear could not even pick a single word from what the other party was saying.
The man's voice sounded so gibberish and his words were incoherent
And then there he felt it.
First was a blunt force coming from his right and hitting him squarely to his head. Probably from some big rock, and then followed by the sharp and cold stabbing sensation on his gut.
"Help! Someone, please help me!"
Mikael shouted repeatedly like a broken record, but the more he spoke, the more he realized that his voice was no longer his.
It was a small, a child's voice.
"HELP!!!"
Mikael bolted straight up to his bed, catching his breath and drenched with cold sweat.
He shook his head to clear his mind and waited for his labored breathing to return to normal.
"Another nightmare..."
He muttered under his breath as he slowly untangled his legs from the blanket.
Mikael waited for his eyes to get accustomed to the dark first before he felt in the darkness and slowly made his way towards his bathroom.
He switched the light on and checked himself in the mirror.
"You think that you will get used to this by now, but you are not and you will never be. No one will ever get used to this kind of thing."
He talked to himself before he splashed cold water on his face
~~~End of Prologue~~~