Kazumi awoke in a cold sweat. He rolled over to face his window; a thin beam of sunlight struck his eye from the small opening in his drapes. Kazumi squinted and he sat up slowly. He looked around his room, feeling lost for a moment, unsure of his surroundings.

"I've had some pretty surreal dreams before but that was somethin' else." Kazumi thought to himself.

Kazumi was a lean, 17-year-old; He had messy brown hair that went down just past his ears. He had sharp facial features with almond-shaped eyes that were a cold silver, yet somehow still warm. He had broad shoulders with a cut frame, yet somehow still an unimposing presence. He was smart and kindhearted, even with not being very sociable outside of school.

He stood up slowly and glanced over at his clock. 12:00 was flashing on the digital screen. He walked over to the desk and picked up his phone. It was almost 8 am. Kazumi darted towards his dresser and pulled out the first half-decent t-shirt he could find and threw it on. He fumbled opening the other drawer and grabbed the jeans sitting on his chair.

"If I'm late my old man is gonna kill me, much less Mr. Clark." He said to himself in a panic.

Kazumi ran downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed the bread out of the cabinet. He looked past the toaster to his parents eating at the dining room table they had.

His dad glanced up casually. "Góðan daginn, aren't you in quite the rush," He chuckled, "got somewhere to be?" His dad asked.

Kazumi paused and stared for a second. "...I have to be at school in fifteen minutes?" Kazumi replied sheepishly.

"Oh didn't you hear?" His mother chirped, "they had to close down the schools today because of that nasty wind from last night, did you not hear it?" She asked.

"What wind?" He asked, puzzled. "I slept through the night, although I did notice my clock got reset."

His mom snickered, "Well since when are you a sound sleeper?"

Kazumi stood confused for a moment, then thought back to his dream. He had already forgotten most of it, mere fragments of it remained. All he remembered was staring at himself from the foot of his bed. Then looking out the window to nothingness. There wasn't much beyond that, except for the feeling of existential dread that accompanied the mere thought of the dream.

He shook himself out of his daze and looked back to his mom. "Guess I just got lucky this time around." He chuckled awkwardly.

Kazumi turned and went to walk back to his room. He looked down at his phone and read the alert about the wind. He opened his phone and checked the school bulletin. As he walked upstairs and put his hand on the railing. For a split second, he felt something cold and metallic against his hand as a cold air crawled up his back to the back of his neck. He whipped around and fell back onto the stairs. There was nothing. Kazumi sat there, wide-eyed for a moment, then looked around the stairwell and saw nothing. He slowly got to his feet and looked up. He saw a small crack in the corner of the ceiling. Dragging his hand across it, he felt a small, cool, draft coming from the other end of the crack. He slowly turned his ear to the crack and listened in silence. His eyes widened from fear as he listened, but he shook himself as he backed away from the wall.

"Stop imagining things," he thought, scolding himself, "it's probably just the ventilation."

He walked back downstairs after properly dressing himself. He breezed past the crack in the wall, doing his best to ignore it. He had elected that going out would be his best option to shaking this paranoia that his dream had left him with. He paused in the doorway and listened to his parents talking.

"Ya know, what if we pulled him out of school for a week, went and visited your folks in Japan?" He heard his dad say.

"Jakob," started his mom, "we can't just pull him out of school on a whim, the semester doesn't end until March plus he has midterms in a few weeks; I don't want to risk him falling behind." She said.

"Sayo, ástin mín, his grades are nearly top of his class," His dad remarked, "I'm not saying he doesn't have to try or is a guaranteed valedictorian but he's a good kid, we should give him a break; he loves visiting the family and I think he's earned it."

"You really are persuasive aren't you darling," his mom mused, "fine we'll get a flight for Friday and stay the week, lord knows I've been asking for a break from work for a few weeks anyway." She chuckled.

Kazumi grinned to himself in the hallway; He had a soft spot for visiting his extended family, and he wouldn't miss too much as long as he had his friends keep him up to date on lessons. He stepped out from behind the doorway and walked through the kitchen. He grabbed his jacket off of the coat rack and slung it on.

"Going somewhere, sweetie?" His mom asked.

"Yea I'm just gonna bike into the Commons if that's alright." He replied from over his shoulder.

"Have fun," his dad replied, "be careful thought, wind probably knocked over somethin' or other into the road so keep an eye out." He said carefully.

"Have fun on your day off hun, make sure to be back for dinner!" His mom chimed as he opened the front door.

Cheerfully, he replied, "Wouldn't miss it for the world mom, I'd be kicking myself if I did."

He walked out the front door and down the stairs. He grabbed his phone to message his school friends. He didn't normally hang out with them outside of school, but he thought he'd try it on for size to see how it'd be. He messaged four of his friends to meet him at the Commons then hopped on his bike and began down the road.

There was trash lining the road and sidewalks from trash bins that the wind had blown over. He glanced around to see if there was anyone he could stop and help clean up along the way. He stopped at the crosswalk and saw an elderly woman on the other side carrying a large package. He rode across and kicked the stand of his bike out and rested it on the grass by a bench.

"Could I help you with that miss?" He asked politely.

"Oh that's very sweet of you, are you sure it wouldn't be too much trouble?" She asked with her aged froggy voice. "My car is the one parked right there on the other side of the street." She continued, pointing at a maroon car parked next to the sidewalk.

He gently picked up the box out of her hands and walked over to the car. He heard the trunk latch pop as the elderly woman got into her car. He shifted the box into the crook of his right elbow and lifted open the trunk, carefully placing the box inside, then shutting it. He walked around past the front of the car and smiled back at the lady who grinned at him in gratitude. He waved at the lady and jogged back over to his bike. He continued to bike down the street glancing around periodically.

That sense of dread washed over Kazumi yet again. The air around his head felt as heavy as smoke and he could hear his heartbeat in his ears; he could feel it in nearly every part of his body, from his arms to his feet. He pulled off to the grass and propped up his bike to catch a breather. He looked at his phone and read a text from his mother. It read >Please remember to close the door on your way out, love you xoxo<. He sat and stared at the message for a moment. He swore he had shut the door on the way out; he assumed he hadn't shut it all the way and it was blown open by the wind.

"KAZUMI!" a voice shouted.

Kazumi looked up from his phone and glanced around. He saw his friend, Kris walking up behind him. He grinned and turned to face him. Kris was a somewhat skinny boy with green eyes and curly blonde hair that went down to the base of his jawline. He wasn't the smartest kid Kazumi knew but did know his way around boats like the back of his hand.

"Lucky us for a day off huh." Chuckled Kazumi.

"Lucky me that you finally wanna go somewhere outside of school," Kris jabbed, "I've been wanting to hang out with you but you never joined us when we were going out." He continued.

"Well I'm here now aren't I?" Replied Kazumi sarcastically. "Let's get moving, the others are probably already there."

Kris replied jokingly, "Or at the very least Belle, she's always fashionably early, and believe me she makes sure you know it."

They walked up the sidewalk to the opening to the commons and walked through. They continued across the bridge and back onto the path until they reached the gazebo at the center of the Commons. They walked up the gazebo steps and saw Belle leaning back over the railing; staring up at the grey cloudy sky.

Belle had long, straight black hair that went down to her shoulders. She was short but had a presence that made her seem much taller than she was. She had large brown eyes and a soft look about her, in stark contrast to her personality.

She glanced down and beamed as she saw the two approaching. "Took you two long enough." She said snarkily. "Where are the other two?" She asked.

"They should be on their way," Kris replied, "I'm getting a little hungry though so I say we tell them to meet us for food." He continued.

Belle replied giddily, "Heh, no argument from me." She turned to Kazumi, "And look who finally decided to join us for once." She said as she playfully punched his shoulder.

Kazumi nervously scratched the back of his head, "well I thought I'd try somethin' knew with the day off." He replied in a sheepish laugh.

The three of them walked off the gazebo towards the other entrance to the Commons. They walked out of the gate onto the sidewalk and continued on towards the diner. Kris pulled out his phone and messaged the other two to meet them at the diner. They walked through the door of the diner and sat down at a table in the corner near the bay windows. They were mildly surprised by how quiet the diner was. There were only a handful of people. One group of college kids, a man in a large trench coat sitting by himself sipping a cup of coffee, and a couple at the table next to them.

They looked around and Belle grabbed one of the menus off of the table. She quickly dove into the menu, reading every detail of every item on the list. Kris and Kazumi looked at each other and silently chuckled. Just then Eric and Danielle walked into the diner and walked over to their table.

"Alrighty now that we're all here, let's order I'm starved." Belle said giddily.

"Hey hey let us take a look at what to get first geez." Replied Eric.

They all looked at the menu for a minute, with Belle fidgeting impatiently with the table cloth. Kazumi looked up and grabbed one of the napkins. He pulled out a pen from his pocket and wrote down his order.

"Let's write our orders down on here and then I can go up and order." He suggested.

"Fine by me." Eric said as Kazumi passed him the napkin.

They all wrote down their orders and Belle passed Kazumi back the napkin. He stood up and walked silently over to the bar and lightly knocked on it. A man stepped out from the kitchen door and gave Kazumi a warm smile.

"How can I help you young man?" The man asked kindly.

Kazumi replied, "My friends and I wrote down our orders on this napkin we just stopped here for lunch."

"Well that's a clever way of getting out of having to remember them all," the man chuckled, "I can't count the number of times I got nominated to order for me and my group and in three steps I'd have forgotten everything.

Kazumi smirked, he enjoyed the warm attitude of, who he could only assume was, the owner. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet and grabbed his credit card.

He looked up and went to hand the man his card. "Here's my ca-". He choked on his words as that feeling washed over him yet again, stronger than ever. He looked around and everything was moving like a liquid and he was entirely alone. Nothing had color, just shades of white or black, and the air currents were visible to him. He tried to walk but he couldn't move his legs.

He looked up and saw the gaping maw of some hideous monstrosity hanging open. Its teeth were hooks and long black tentacles reached from the abyss that was its mouth. It stretched slowly down until his head was fully engulfed. in the jaws of the creature. He heard the roaring sound of wind pick up in his ears, getting louder and louder, all he could see was black...

*SNAP*

Kazumi's eyes shot open, he gasped and shot upright. He stopped himself just in time to avoid headbutting Belle. He stared at her, inches away from her face with wide, panicked eyes.

"Woah hey thanks for not busting my nose there," Belle said jokingly, "You ok? Ya kinda' just looked up and dropped, thought you were dead for a second." She finished.

The others helped him to his feet and patted the dust off of his back. He looked around and saw they were alone now, aside from the owner. He walked back over to their table and sat down. He glanced around and finally noticed the food sitting in front of him.

They ate lunch together with an air of caution floating around Kazumi. He seemed to be hyper-attentive of everything around him now, every little sound made him twitch. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

*Thump...Thump Thump...Thump Thump*

He opened his eyes. Those weren't his heartbeats, it was coming from somewhere else. He looked over at Belle, then Kris, then Eric, and Danielle. It was them, he was hearing their heartbeats. He sat stunned for a moment then closed his eyes again.

He shot up out of his seat and ran for the door. He stopped on the sidewalk and darted his head around. He closed his eyes one more time to try to follow the cries he had heard moments before. He turned on the tip of his shoe and darted to his right. He shot down the sidewalk and pitched around the corner. He continued down the sidewalk until he stopped short at the entrance to an alleyway. He looked and saw three men standing over a frail-looking woman. One held her purse and was tearing through it, another held her arms behind her back, and the third held a baseball bat over his shoulder.

"Hey boys!" The third man shouted, "Looks like we got a rat sticking his nose where it don't belong, the hell you think you're doin kid!"

Kazumi looked down and in one swift motion, reached down and grabbed a brick and threw it with inhuman speed.

The man holding the lady didn't even have the chance to turn his head before the brick struck the back of his head. His body went rigid for a moment then fell limply to the ground, releasing the woman from his grasp. The woman began to scramble to her feet to run for the exit of the alleyway. The man with the baseball bat lunged at her but before he could bring the bat down Kazumi had cleared the length of the alley in a second. Kazumi held the neck of the bat rigidly in his right hand and pulled back his left into a fist.

"Alright enough of you ya brat." The first man said hoarsely as he lunged at Kazumi.

Kazumi ducked out of the way, then span on his heel, kicking up behind him striking the man in the jaw with his heel. Kazumi came to his senses for a moment. He had never learned how to fight, not to say he didn't know how to throw a punch or hold his own in a fight but he had never trained himself to that level.

His time to think was short-lived as the cold steel of the baseball bat struck him square in his back. Kazumi wretched backward then recoiled over. But just as soon as the pain hit it faded. He slid back and grappled the man with the bat, locking his arms around the man and slamming him to the ground with enough force to crack the cement. Kazumi was enamored with his inexplicable strength. He turned to face the first man who was shakily getting to his feet. Kazumi wound up a punch and swung, but it felt different; His swing was slower. The man caught his fist and grinned.

"Aw what happened Hercules," The man sneered, "no more super strength for you freak."

The man grabbed Kazumi by his shirt and threw him into the side of the dumpster. He walked up to Kazumi who lay, trying to catch his breath. He pulled back his leg and kicked him as hard as he could. Kazumi hacked as the air was forced from his lungs. He was gasping now, looking around for something to defend himself with.

*WHAM*

Another kick struck Kazumi in the stomach, now everything began to fade. He rolled lamely, reaching for a glass bottle, it was close, but not close enough.

The sound of metal on a hard object rang and the man dropped limply to the ground. Kazumi looked up to see Kris, with the baseball bat angled down at his side, looking both proud and concerned, with Eric kneeling down beside him.

"What is with you and getting laid out on the ground today?" Eric said, patronizing.

"Well guess I got to thank you for keeping me from getting my head stomped in." Kazumi croaked.

"Yeah well, next time don't play hero to a group of guys who look like they bench press your bodyweight eh?" Scolded Kris.

The two helped Kazumi to his feet and they walked slowly out of the alleyway. The woman stood, talking with the two girls about what had happened.

The woman turned to Kazumi. "I can't thank you enough," she said gratefully, "If there's anything I can do, anything at all; the police are on their way so I'm sure they'll sort out the situation. I wouldn't want to keep you waiting so you should go home and get yourself cleaned up." The woman continued.

"Danielle and I will stay here and give our testimonies to the police; should be enough." Eric inferred. "You two get him on his way home alright?"

"You got it boss." Replied Kris.

The two each slung one of Kazumi's arms around their shoulders and began to walk. Kazumi stumbled from time to time, still struggling to catch his breath. What could have come over him to give him such inhuman strength and reflexes. He stumbled over to his bike as they approached it.

"You sure you can make it home alright?" Kris asked, "took a hell of a beating back there."

"Don't worry about me, feeling better already." Kazumi replied.

Except what he found odd, was it was true; the soreness in his stomach and chest had already seemed to be close to fading. He couldn't dwell on it much however, he had to be getting home. It was already getting late and he'd be walking through the door late enough as it was. He kicked out the stand from under his bike and began to pedal off.

"HEY KAZUMI," he heard Belle shout from behind him, "IF YOU DON'T SHOW UP NEXT TIME I"M DRAGGING YOU OUT OF YOUR ROOM MYSELF."

Kazumi grinned and shouted back over his shoulder, "WELL WE'LL JUST HAVE TO SEE HOW THAT GOES THEN." He replied sarcastically.

He continued to bike down the street, the sun was setting now. He whipped his head to his right, he felt like he was being watched. It was as if someone had been staring intently at him, studying his every move. He focused back on the road, of every odd sense he had gotten today he felt this one would be easier to shake; nevertheless, he still kept a note of it in the back of his mind.

He turned the corner to his street and looked up at the door to his house. It was open.

He felt his heart drop into his stomach. The entry room was pitch black, all of the lights in the house seemed to be off. He kicked out the stand for his bike and leaned it against the curb and slowly approached the doorway. The air from the house felt cold and stale. He reached in and flicked the light switch off then back on. The lights remained off. He stepped slowly inside, peering around the darkness, only illuminated by small beams from the sunset coming in through the windows. He could smell his mom's cooking as he walked further into the house.

He called out to her, "mom," He whispered sharply, "dad?"

He peered over to the stove, which was very faintly illuminated by the window that faced the harbor outside. The pot that was on the stove was tipped over and spilled all over the counter. He swiftly moved towards the counter and looked over the side of it. His eyes widened at what he saw.

His heart hammered in his ears, he was frozen as he stood over the bloody, mangled body of his mother. He stared, shaking now, unable to move, but he knew he had to. He looked around for his dad. He slowly began to move, almost in a trance, glancing around at every corner, he needed to find some clue of where his dad was, if he was still alive.