What do you aspire to be?
Do you want to be an artist when you grow up? A celebrity? An engineer? A teacher?
Do you want to be on the down low, or do you want to be special?
Do you want to be humble, or do you want a legacy?
These are all questions people ask themselves when going through their teen years. People begin planning out their lives before they even start college.
Some will say that your life truly begins during or after your high school years.
That may be true for some people, but I have a different story to tell.
My life ended before it began.
This is the story of how my life ended, how the world ended, and how I saved the world.
Now, where should I start?
.
The sky is filled with dark gray smoke.
A roaring fire raged from the remains of a large building. In the midst of the utter destruction, spread out across the area, are small groups or individual people, lying injured or tending to the injured.
There are many more who are dead.
In front of the building, once the location of a parking lot, is a large pit. The unnatural valley contained a group of people located at the bottom of the bowl.
Those in the pit were involved in a standoff, split between two sides.
On one side, two hooded figures stood tall in the shadows, confident in their ability to finish what they have started.
On the other side, a group of three stood against the hooded figures. The three were covered in injuries and on the verge of collapse. A fourth person was lying behind the group, lifeless.
"HOW COULD YOU?!" shouted the center of the three as he battled his injuries to stay standing. Perhaps the most visible injury was to his left eye, which was closed with a stream of blood flowing from it.
"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!"
One of the hooded figures began to respond.
"This is the way it should be. This world needs to be controlled by one leader. The first step to securing the world was taking out you."
"If… you wanted to kill me… why… WHY DID YOU HAVE TO KILL OUR FRIENDS?!"
"My friends? No one here was ever my friend. You must be delusional."
"You… you must pay… they had nothing to do with this… I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF! I'M ENDING THIS!"
"That's big talk coming from the last remaining slasher. We came here with the mission to end your life, which will end that despicable bloodline once and for all. We had to use any means necessary, considering how stubborn you are."
The center collapsed, unable to hold his stance any longer. A small cylinder-like object, which he had been holding, fell onto the ground in front of him.
"How pathetic, you've reached your limit. I'm a hell of a lot stronger than you. Looks like the fun is coming to an end."
One of the others in the group of three turned to the center.
"Please… please… get up… you can't give up now… GET UP AND FIGHT!"
"I know, I was just taking a short break. It's ready."
The other hooded figure now spoke.
"Oh, he's not done? This is getting more interesting."
The hooded figure who had spoken first took a step back.
"Wait, it can't be? Don't tell me…"
"What's wrong, you're getting nervous now?"
"No, this is actually bad. This just got way more annoying."
The center slowly got up and grabbed the cylinder. With a bright flash, it turned into a large, red-colored, steel sword.
"You're finished. I'm ending this now. For everyone here that you killed, for everyone that you hurt, for the friends that you abandoned, and for her, YOUR STORY ENDS HERE!"
He opened his left eye. A bright flash erupted. Everything was quiet.
The world's last slasher was going to save the world.
.
"Hey, WAKE UP, KAL!!!"
Kal awoke to the sound of an energetic and persistent little sister.
"Why are you sweating so much? GROSS!"
He was groggy, just like he was supposed to be after getting a good night of sleep. But something bothered him. It felt as if he had just had a vivid, realistic dream. He attempted to remember what that dream was about, but it was fading in the distance.
As he tried to remember just one detail about that dream, the energetic and persistent little sister struck again.
"GET UP! The faster you get up, the faster we can leave!"
"Geez, Ino, can you at least let me stretch first?"
"You're gonna make us late, you lazy butt!"
"Woah, chill out with the insults. I'm getting up."
"Breakfast is ready, you two!" said Mom from around the corner, as Kal made my way out from under the covers.
Today was the day. Kal was finally getting to go on a summer vacation for the first time in years. The last time he went on vacation was when he was a little kid.
He was also excited about the end of the vacation, which would then lead to a new phase of life. 8th grade had just ended, which means the next stop was high school.
Kal completed his morning routine and finished his breakfast. During that entire time, he couldn't stop thinking about the dream.
The dream that felt so distant, but real.
The taxi arrived. The bags were packed. The ride went smoothly. The flight was on time.
The dream. Could it possibly be?
Kal looked up at the oversized flight board.
"Flight 2012, right? It's over there, we barely have to walk."
They waited for the flight. They boarded the flight. They took their seats. They sat just behind the exit row, on the right side of the plane. Kal had the window seat.
Did that dream… actually happen?
Kal was lost in his thoughts as the plane pushed back and taxied to the runway. He stared out the window as considered the possibilities of the meaning of the dream.
He came to three conclusions:
1) The dream was probably not a real event.
2) Even if it was real, he couldn't remember exactly what it was.
3) The shear amount of thought caused hunger to set it.
Kal continued to stare out the window as he thought about what he was going to order from the snack menu.
A flash of black.
Was there something under the wi-
An explosion.
For a second, everything was dark. The only sounds Kal could hear were screams.
Screams of the unknown, but screams that are familiar.
The landscape changed instantly, as if someone has flipped a light switch.
He was standing in the middle of the ruins of a building. Screams could be heard coming from all directions, almost as if they were apart of a chorus. People could be seen few and far between. Some were running. Some were hiding. Some were crying.
Some were gone.
He looked down. He saw her.
She was smiling.
She was gone.
He was crying. He clenched his fist. There was something in his hand.
He screamed.
Kal opened his eyes to chaos.
The plane had come to a stop, and people were scrambling to be the first out. Next to him, Ino was in a panicked meltdown, while Mom held her tight.
Kal rose from his seat and made his way to the window exit on the other side, where a middle-aged man cowered in his seat, unable to move. Kal opened the exit and motioned for Mom and Ino to make their way over.
Unfortunately, the stampede made its way first.
"MOM! INO!" shouted Kal as he was pushed out the exit.
"Get out of my way, man! I'm not gonna die here today!" said a passenger as he pushed past Kal and made his way down the wing.
No matter what the others did, he had one goal in mind: find his mother and sister.
Luckily, the crowd on the wing was starting to thin, so Kal began to claw his way back into the cabin.
There was a hand on his shoulder.
He turned around to find a person who was wearing a hood.
Only the bottom half of the person's face was visible. A smile was visible.
The smile of a ruthless demon.
There was a sudden force against Kal, and all he could see was the sky.
The sky faded to black.
Life was no more.
.
Kal was standing on a glass plane.
Above him, the sky shined a brilliant orange, as if the sun was rising. Large, white clouds that could be mistaken for sculptures dotted the sky.
Below the glass, there was a monstrous sea of energy. The energy appeared to take on a physical form that resembled a stormy ocean. Waves thrashed against the glass. The sea of energy seemed to want to break through consume everything in sight.
Kal attempted to walk, but couldn't move a muscle. He attempted to speak, but his voice didn't seem to work.
All he could do was watch. Watch and feel. Feel the fear. Fear of the energy.
The glass cracked.
Kal attempted to scream, but his voice still didn't work.
The glass formed a spider-web, and then dissolved into millions of pieces.
Kal couldn't move. Kal couldn't scream. All he could do was watch and fear as he fell into the sea.
The sea got darker as he drowned. Then, all of a sudden, the sea was gone.
An object appeared in front of Kal, suspended in mid-air. It was bright red in color. Light glinted off of the steel surface, despite the fact that there was no light source.
There was a sword in front of Kal. His body wanted nothing else but to grab it.
He overcame the force that had frozen his body and ran towards the sword.
He hovered his hand over the hilt, hesitating to grab it.
The sword was radiating pure energy.
Kal was afraid of the energy. It felt as if the sword was going to consume his soul.
There was another feeling. The feeling that would win against the fear and take over Kal.
It was excitement.
He grabbed the hilt.
Kal was suddenly met with an explosion of light.
Everything was once again no more.
.
Sounds surrounded him. Unfamiliar sounds.
"Get… He doesn't have… I'm sure of it… He has a pulse… Likely brain damage… You can't walk through… You have authorization from… He's in your hands now…"
The sounds faded away, and he was left to his dark landscape.
.
Kal woke up in the middle of a field.
He took a second to take in his surroundings, and then sat up.
Nothing felt injured, so why was he sure that he died? And why was he in the middle of a field?
Kal checked over himself. The only thing that stood out was that he was wearing a hospital shirt and shorts.
Kal got up from the ground. Although it felt like he hadn't stood in years, he was able to stand just fine.
Something was definitely off, even without considering his random location. Kal was sure that he had been hurt in some way, but now everything seemed to be fine. Also, the world seemed a bit too clear, like it was man-made.
How can the real world feel like it was man-made? Did something happen to the world before he woke up?
There is the sound of crunching grass behind him.
"Hi there, Kalevi. Welcome to my world."
Kal turned around. Standing in front of him was a tall, slender woman with shoulder-length, pitch black hair. Her left eye was covered with a bang.
"Life as you knew it is now over. From today, you'll begin your new life. You now have the power to save the world, or bend it to your will. And I'm going to teach you how to use it."
Kal thought of how to respond to what he just heard. He decided to stick to one of the more important questions.
"Um, who are you?"
.
SLASHER
Original Story by OneSevenEight
Episode: Prologue - Reborn
1: End