*Pitter-Patter* *Pitter-Patter* *Thrum!*
Within the classroom, water crashing against the windows drowned out the sounds of pounding.
*Bam!* *BAM!* *BAM!*
The figure of a young man was repeatedly stomped on by a group of three students. He was curled up into a ball while holding on tightly to an old laptop.
*Cough!* *Cough!* *Cough!*
With his small frame and barely able to catch his breath, the young man continued to clutch the laptop in his arm, making sure not to let go.
Occasionally, his moderately long messy curly black hair swayed over his head, covering his black eyes that stared at the clock resting on the wall behind the students.
His nose was bleeding, his mouth and cheek had swollen, his body was in pain, but all he could think about was about the time.
A lanyard displaying his student ID card was attached to his uniform's collar. Rex Barrel was the name on his card.
*BAM!!!*
Within his red veined eyes, Rex glanced up at them in anger and pain with the fifth impact rattling his insides. Because he was deaf, he could only understand what they were saying through lipreading.
"Hey... Why are you making this harder for us?! No matter how deaf you are, you should be able to understand... Hand over the fucking laptop!" Shouted one of the students as he stomped Rex's head against the cold floor.
The one who did so had brown hair, was tall, muscular, and had piercings all across his ears and mouth. Ross Clinton was the name on his ID card.
"Haha, maybe you should try saying it in sign language so he understands?" The student to his left added. This one had a slightly smaller frame. He was clearly out of breath from all the stomping.
"He's good at reading lips, he knows what we're saying. Either way, once we have it, who would want to buy that piece of junk?' Asked the student to his right. Despite being the tallest, he was the thinnest of the three.
In spite of their threats and demands, Rex refused to budge. The beating he had been receiving seemed far less important to him than the time as he gazed at the clock.
*BAM!!!*
After one last stomp, Ross clicked his tongue and walked away.
"Fucking boring... You better bring the money tomorrow or we'll kill you." He glared as he left. Laughter swept across the faces of the two other students as they followed after him. "Fucking, deaf bastard." They cursed.
"..."
With his face bruised and swollen, Rex slowly sat up, shivering at the pain as he opened his laptop.
The computer screen hadn't cracked from all the hits, so he breathed a sigh of relief.
*Click!*
After pressing a button, the screen turned on, instantly displaying details about a book and a competition. Among the information shown were the title of the book, the synopsis, the genre, and the competition it would face.
'My first book... I just finished the first volume today... I wonder how it'll do on the competition...' He thought to himself.
He was referring to a writing competition that had just begun. A $250,000 cash prize was being offered for first place, and Rex was one of the many participants. A new author who would put his story to the test.
Excitedly, he moved the mouse arrow towards the [Publish.] button and clicked it. His lips curled and his cheeks reddened.
*Click!*
Immediately, a loading bar appeared on the following page.
[Publishing: 3%]
Watching as the bar filled up, Rex watched with excitement. A split second later, his excitement turned into dread.
*Flick!*
Suddenly, the screen went black. He swung his head towards the clock, his eyes widening.
The deadline was just a minute away. He grasped the laptop's sides and leaned closer as cold sweat streamed down his face.
'Don't fail me now, O-Oi! Just think of all the hard times we had! This is the last opportunity we will have until next year. Don't you dare-'
*Flick!*
When the screen flickered on again, Rex's eyes lit up; however, as soon as the red screen appeared, his smile faded.
[System Error.]
'No... No, no! At this rate I'll miss the deadline!'
[System Error.]
[The request could not be processed.]
*Flick!*
There were strange symbols appearing across the screen before it suddenly went dark. A glance at the clock showed that it was already 5 p.m. He was too late, it was past the deadline.
'...'
Taking a deep breath, he raised his fist in the air.
*Bang!*
And just like that, on the table, he slammed it.
-
-
-
*Vloom!* Vloom!*
[Westminster, Central London.] The robotic voice called out.
Waiting for the underground train to arrive at its stop, Rex sat quietly with his head hung. In order to conceal the bruises on his face, he had covered them with band-aids.
'Why do I feel like shit... It's not like I was going to win anything, anyways.' He thought to himself.
Within the darkness of the tunnel, he noticed his reflection on the train's lit up window.
At that moment, he began to recall unpleasant memories. It always happened when he took the transport. The memories disgusted him to the core.
He rubbed his throat and ears causing his hand to tremble. Rex was deaf and mute, but he had not always been that way... his hearing had been lost in an accident when he was a child and he hadn't spoken ever since.
'Besides, I have bigger things to worry about...'
-
Occasionally, beeping noises rippled across the room as blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate were displayed on the vital signs monitor.
His head hung low once again, this time staring at the hospital floor. In front of him, his hand grasped the hand of a patient lying on a bed.
She was a young, beautiful woman with long dark violet hair. Around her mouth was an oxygen mask connected to the machine beside her bed. She was Rex's guardian, the one who adopted him and the one he lost in the accident.
Her name was Lucia Barrel. In spite of being only 20, she took him in from the orphanage when he was 8 and raised him.
Her family and parents were gone, she didn't have anyone to help her, she was just like him. In their short time together, Rex had probably developed such a strong attachment to her because of this.
Rex's heart sank whenever he saw the state she was in as she had always been powerful in his eyes.
He remained seated with his head hung low and thus did not notice the nurse entering.
After watching him for a few seconds, she tapped him on the shoulder. A familiar face greeted him as Rex glanced back, curious who it was.
She wore a nurse's outfit with long brown hair tied back in a bun and hazel eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses. She was Lucia's nurse, Rachel Taylor.
A pissed off look crossed her face as she checked to make sure they were the only ones in the room. In response to Rex's attention, she breathed in deeply and exhaled.
"The director is discussing not caring for Lucia in the hospital anymore."
Suddenly, his heart sank.
-
-
-
"Huh? Who's this?" The old man asked his assistant beside him.
His short gray hair was balding in the middle, and he had a round stomach that almost stuck out from his suit. Such an unappealing man was the director and in front of him was Rex, hunched on all fours.
In front of him was a note which read.
Dark-haired assistant beside him leaned in and whispered something to the director.
His tongue clicked. "Oh, him." he said. "Send him home. There is absolutely no benefit to keeping that woman here now that the government is no longer funding her."
"He is sad now, but he will get over it... It's not like she's a blood relative of his-"
He was interrupted before he could finish by a shiver running down his spine. Turning slowly towards Rex, he found him staring wide-eyed at him expressionlessly with his cold dark eyes.
"W-what... Why's he staring at me like that? Didn't the report say he was deaf?' The director asked nervously.
'It's pointless...' Rex sighed.
"I'm not sure..." Her face was filled with concern as she replied, "according to the report, he should be...".
'It's simply no use...'
'All they care about is themselves and their money... This is how it has always been.' Rex mused.
"W-Well what are you waiting for? Even if he understood, he should have realized that the world is unfair by now. If you do not have money, you cannot stay. Get him out of here-'
*Step!*
Interrupting them, Rex suddenly got up and left on his own, stepping over the piece of paper. His eyes had a dark and hollow appearance.
The director sighed nervously in relief as he chuckled and said, "Finally, that waste of space is gone.".
-
*Step!* *Step!*
After a blurry journey back to Lucia's room, he sat beside her holding on tightly to her hand.
Shame, guilt, and despair. Instead of blaming the director, Rex blamed himself. It was due to his powerlessness and weakness that people could take advantage of him.
'The world isn't fair, huh...?' His mind drifted back to the director's words.
It was becoming more difficult for him to see, and his eyelids were becoming heavier suddenly.
'Yeah... You're right.. It's not... But honestly...'
*Thud!*
Rex suddenly collapsed onto the floor, his face growing redder as he began to burn up with a fever.
'People like you should all just die...'
'...Fuck this shitty world.'
In those last few thoughts, he lost consciousness.
Within seconds, a red glow emerged from the laptop's closed monitor.
[System error has been resolved.]
[System Error source X6cccaB]
One by one, strange symbols appeared on the laptop's screen. The intensity of it's light increased with every passing second.
[Error- Publish Completed.]
[System: Earth's connection to other worlds has been unlocked-]