As I gazed out of the classroom window and observed the crows hunting around for prey, I couldn't help but remember the cold funeral that had taken place for my brother.
As he lay cold in the casket his peaceful smile seemed to be untouched by the vicissitudes of life. His eyes were closed shut and the cold wind seemed to caress his brown hair slowly. Yet all I could remember was the lifeless expression of his corpse from when I found it and the unmistakable shade of red on my hands.
They were a lot of suspicious and strange people at the funeral, maybe my family was just full of weirdos, after all there I was dressed in black and solemnly mourning a brother I could hardly remember and most likely killed.
If not for the lingering emotions left in my system I might not have even believed I had anything to do with these people.
The next day my parents left the country for some 'long-term' project, I have never heard from them ever since.
My memories never truly returned, a lot of information about myself and my surroundings did come, but it was all scattered in bits and pieces, like shattered remains of a multi-colored kaleidoscope.
Despite knowing those memories were mine, the person in them never felt like me.
I am not sure what the exact reason was but the repeated nightmares of me killing my brother over and over again in cold blood might have contributed somehow.
My twin sister Lily was heartbroken over the fact that she had lost both of her brothers. I was but a stranger wearing a familiar face. We have rarely talked to each other more than acknowledging the others' existence since then.
After a lot of snooping around, I found no leads from the police. One peculiar fact to note that my brother's corpse was missing a heart. They found no traces of that whatsoever, so I was automatically cleared of all suspicion.
I spent many days just visiting the graveyard and hanging out with the crows and feeding them.
I tried researching demonology to find a way to resurrect my brother but all rituals required precious materials belonging to creatures that clearly didn't exist.
It was stupid but everyone has their chuuni days. I even dyed my hair black to look more low-key.
At least I wasn't the only one, my sister changed hair colors every month, from blonde to green to pink she had tried them all. She had completely gone down the delinquent/punk route.
After some time I decided to investigate by myself.
I searched the dark web left and right to try to find out any information leaked about similar cases from the police station. Sure enough, I found something. There was something wrong with this city.
The number of mysterious deaths and disappearances per month was enormous. Way too high for a regular city. Yet neither did the population seem to drop, nor did the general public notice anything.
Since then I spent my time digging through the local underworld. No matter how many people I beat up or information brokers I interrogated I never found a lead. I only felt an increasing sense of suffocation that something was seriously wrong with the city.
Just last week, I finally managed to get a solid lead, one that was sure to either let me find the source of the anomalies or prove that I am just a delusional lunatic trying to find excuses to rid himself of the guilt of murdering his brother.
Suddenly the class got noisier and I felt someone sit beside me.
You see ... that was a big problem.
I am famous as the quiet kid that always sits in the corners.
It's been prophecized that before the end of the final year I would either end up killing myself or Shooting up the school. Either way, I was an infamous legend of City High School.
I know, ignorant plebians and their opinions....but this worked out for me. I didn't really interact with anyone in school, and thus had no social obligations to care about.
I just kept attending to keep appearances as a normal functioning member of society. After all, drawing attention to myself was the last thing I wanted.
I might come off as the easily bullied kind with low self-esteem, but if you were to ask any bully in town that ever crossed paths with me he would be kind enough to tell you that I am quite the opposite - a stuck-up brat who thinks that the rest of humanity wasn't worth interacting with.
Their words, not mine. I personally believe that humans are extremely interesting creatures. They are petty, ruled by their ambitions, easily swayed by emotions, and extremely impulsive. Observing humans at a distance is quite a fun activity just like watching the actions of the crows in the graveyard.
Observing at a close distance on the other hand is not fun at all.
I turned to look at my new neighbor. He had dirty silver hair and deep yellow pupils.
His jacket was tied around his waist, he was leaning back in his chair while spinning a fidget spinner. He was clearly a new face and had body language that literally screamed out - I am a delinquent, Don't mess with me.
Literally, it was like TROUBLE was written all over his face.
"Hey mate, I am the new transfer student, the name's Jimmy"
Like what in the flying fuck. That was an extremely unintimidating and anti-climatic name.
"Luke" I nodded my head non-committedly, clearly showing my intentions that I wasn't interested in any conversation.
Contrary to my expectations, he wasn't a dense idiot. He pulled out a book and started to read...
Seriously bro, what's with this contrasting vibe? One minute he looks like a thug, the next he is a nerd. Is he trying to pull off a gap moe effect?
Dang seriously what am I even thinking...
All in all, he seems like an interesting character, and with a tag like new transfer student, I am sure I was going to be seeing him do something big quite soon.
As the bell rang and I left the classroom lost in my thoughts, little did I know how right I had been and how I would somehow get involved in it?
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"There ain't no smoke without fire unless its actually a smog monster that sentient and out to get you" - A Legendary Drunkard
No matter how stupid that might seem, it is actually true to my life as well. There is no murder without a motive. Unfortunately for me, I am pretty sure I never had one ... unless the circumstances involved something that went past the accepted realm of 'normal'.
From the information I had gathered, the city was divided into the territories of various gangs and thugs. However, apart from some neutral zones, there were certain RED DANGER ZONES, in parts of the map. These zones were avoided by all thugs like a plague.
There was a big one In Uptown Midtown and Downtown respectively. The rest were scattered all over the place.
It was pretty obvious that the only reason for such activity is that these zones are the territory of someone or something else. The clearance level of my information wasn't enough to tell me the source of the danger, but it was something that even the local thugs feared.
The only information was that it had something to do with the 7 Great Urban legends of Rowkein city.
That list was nothing but bullshit, hell even I had somehow made it to the list as a part of a 'group of Underworld Smashers'. Who supposedly go about cleaning the streets of Downtown.
I didn't bother with the rest of the list after that.
All I did was go beat up some hoodlums to practice my combat skills and I somehow end up becoming an Urban Legend.
What bull!
Even if the legends were real it didn't matter.
I was prepared to even venture to the depths of hell once I wanted something, and I really wanted to know the truth of my brother's death.
So, having decided to start with investigating these danger zones, I proceeded towards the nearest one.
As I left the house, it was slowly approaching Dusk. My sister was still late and hadn't come back home yet...
I sighed and left.
She would often come back to the house late in the evening, while I would often leave the house in the middle of the night. None of us asked what the other was up to. We both had plenty of things to deal with on our own.
Even though she messes around like a delinquent at school and did god knows what after school, she seemed to be seriously studying for a scholarship or something. Even though our parents regularly sent money to us, we haven't been able to make any other form of contact with them.
Makes me wonder if the random bits of memory I recovered about them were fat pieces of lies or not.
I walked across town to the biggest red spot in Midtown. An abandoned ancient mansion.
I didn't know who or what this territory belonged too, but since there is no keep-out sign let's just hope they don't kill on sight.
Even if they did we will have to see who kills who first.
My bag was full of supplies for a weekend-long stakeout and various types to handle multiple types of situations.
After two years I was finally going to take a huge step towards finding the truth about this city.
and nothing was going to stop me.