He trudged slowly after his friends that were a few paces ahead of him.
…
"Guys….I have a weird feeling about this. I don't think we should go.." He mumbled, scratching the back of his head.
The three teenagers infront glanced back.
The boy in the middle had an evident look of frustration clearly plastered onto his face. His brown hair blew slightly in the soft night breeze, and he pushed the hair out of his face.
"Don't be a loser Kai. Your usually fine with these types of things." The boy grumbled, clearly not in the mood to care about Kai's worries.
Sighing, he didn't protest any further and ran to catch up with them.
The four walked together through the dimly lit street, talking about an array of different topics.
The nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen kept returning to Kai, and he tried to persuade the others again.
"Guys, I feel like we should've at least told someone where we are going. I've heard stories online about people getting hurt or dying in abandoned places."
A few beats of silence passed.
"Nah nothing bad is going to happen, but if it does then don't even worry Kai! I'll protect you like the awesome friend I am."
Another one of the boys, Morio, spoke up.
"Oh wow, that really eases my heart to know I have such a loyal friend looking out for me!" He spoke sarcastically, looking at Morio.
Morio's hair was blonde and it shone in the light of the streetlamps. Kai sighed enviously.
Kai had always been jealous of Morio's natural blonde hair, and had always wanted his hair to be blonde too, but his parents refused to let him bleach it.
Another pang of apprehension interrupted Kai's thoughts.
Why was he feeling so jittery…? Everything was fine. It wasn't his first time doing things like this…so why was he getting anxious over this time specifically?
Everything was fine! As usual, it was going to just be a fun hangout.
He tried to reassure himself, yet his heartbeat was still fast and he had goosebumps despite wearing a warm jacket.
He couldn't shake the foreboding feeling that consumed him.
The boys walked in silence for a while. It was clear that despite their carefree demeanour, they were slightly nervous too.
The streetlamps flickered, adding to the air of unease that was already present.
"Oh my…You four kids aren't heading to that abandoned house are you?" A croaky voice from behind made them jump.
They turned around and were faced by an older lady who was stood just a few yards away from them. She had gray hair, a wrinkled face, and looked extremely displeased.
"Well!? Are you going to that old building?" She crossed her arms, her face still sour.
Morio glanced around at the others, before clearing his throat.
"Uhh…yeah. We are actually. Only for a quick look though!" He reassured the woman.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. That's not a good idea. That place is old. You should avoid it."
Three of them looked at eachother, suppressing a laugh.
They all seemed to share the same thought: Your old, does that mean we should avoid you?
Kai didn't share their thoughts. Usually he would be all for exploring cool places and having fun, but today everything felt off to him.
The lady continued to speak.
"Places like that can be quite dangerous for reckless teenagers such as yourselves."
"Listen, Ma'am. No matter what you say - we are still going." The brown haired boy from before, Alex, said as he crossed his arms.
Alex was the one behind the group's antics, and was usually the guy that made fun of the others for not going along with his ideas.
"Maybe we should listen to the lady? It's really late, and I don't have a good feeling about this." Kai spoke and turned to face the others.
Alex rolled his eyes.
"Yes, listen to this sensible boy. You might be Intrigued by the rumours of the gold, but it isn't worth risking your safety!" The old woman said.
"Gold..?" The fourth boy in the group spoke. He was called Damian. He usually just went along with Alex's ideas.
"Yes…Gold." She paused, and silence filled the street.
Kai glanced at his friends, and saw that their eyes were wide and intrigued.
"I thought that was why you were going!" The old lady tilted her head, and her face scrunched up in confusion.
"No, we just wanted to explore it for fun…" Damien mumbled.
"There is gold? Im gonna find it!!" Alex smiled, and without waiting for the others, he spun around and began sprinting in the direction of the abandoned house.
Morio and Damian grinned and began to chase after him.
"No wai-…Aghh." Kai started half heartedly walking after them.
Had they not heard the part where the woman had called it a "rumour" or…?
"Hold on!" The elderly lady spoke from behind him once again.
Kai stopped in his tracks, turning around and facing the old lady who had unexpectedly called for him.
"Uhh. Yeah?"
"Listen. Don't follow those delinquents around, they might get you in trouble sometime soon. You seem like a well behaved young boy.." She paused.
"I would advise you to not go with them. Those types of people will end up in trouble later on in their lives. You should focus on your education..."
Kai stared at her, gritting his teeth. Was this old hag trying to tell him to ditch his friends!? No. He wasn't just some loser. And why was she suddenly lecturing him anyway!?
"Thanks for the advice but I should go with them. Have a nice night." He forced himself to speak politely, then turned back around to start sprinting after his friends.
The woman watched him go, a strange expression on her face.
He eventually caught up to his friends who had gone back to walking. He was panting and out of breath.
"Ah, so you decided to come after all! It's for the best..this idiot wouldn't stop whining about how boring it would be without you." Alex pointed to Morio, who nodded eagerly.
"I just couldn't bare to be without my bestest friend!"
Kai laughed as he approached them, and the group resumed walking.
"So we were just talking about the gold… do you reckon it's real?" Damian glanced towards Kai.
"Since rumours alwas have some truth to them.."
"Erm…I don't think its real." He shrugged. "Would be cool if it was though."
The rest of the group nodded in unison.
"I still wanna look for it though! Besides, you never know. We could get lucky." Morio added to the conversation, as the group begun to walk up a small hill which would eventually lead to the outskirts of the forest.
Kai and the others were getting closer to the house.
They continued to discuss the gold as they walked on the empty road and up towards the outskirts of the forest.
"Dude i'm so hyped!" Damian said as they got towards the top of the hill and the house came into view.
It was an ancient house that had been abandoned for a long time, and it's stone steps were littered with leaves and branches. It was made up of mostly bricks and both moss and ivy were growing up its walls.
It was practically untouched by the elements… Except for the fact that the door had rotten away, and the windows were shattered.
"Nothing is going to happen, just chill out." He thought to himself.
"Aaahhh. I KNOW we won't find any gold but it's still super fun!!" Morio was overexcited as usual, but still nervous.
The others nodded, though their high spirits had evaporated upon seeing the daunting house.
The wind suddenly picked up and it was as if it was ushering them towards the house…Or maybe Kai was reading too much into things.
The boys glanced at eachother in a nervous yet exhilarated mannor. Alex took the lead, as usual, and led them directly outside of the house.
They all went up the steps. None of them uttered a word. The only noise was the wind as it whooshed through the house, and the light crunching as they stepped on leaves.
Then the four of them stood at the top for a minute, then they entered the house and stood in the doorway.
The house made strange creaking sounds that made Kai's skin crawl.
"Okay guys. Don't just stand there being babies.." Alex muttered quietly, but it was probably more directed at himself than the other boys.
They continued to walk through the house and Kai felt slightly calmer.
"See? It's fine." He thought to himself.
His nose was filled with the smell of rotting leaves which had blown inside the house, and the stale scent of decaying furniture. It smelled disgusting.
The house itself was very dark and felt like a rabbit warren, and Kai almost collided into Damien who was right ahead of him.
"It's too dark, wait." Alex called as he paused to switch on his phone's torch and illuminate what was infront of him.
The house had multiple rooms, and had another floor above.
"Let's each explore one room each and see if we can find the gold."
The boys began to split off and explore the rooms individually.
"I'll go to the next floor." Kai called dubiously as he looked up at the staircase.
"Okayyyy!" Morio called back from inside of a room. "Call us if you find anything!"
He hesitated at first, placing one foot onto the first step and carefully adding more and more pressure. Eventually Kai stepped onto it with his full body and started to go up the stairs. He didn't want the floor to have rotten through and for himself to fall, so he was cautious.
Kai clambered up the stairs, careful not to be hasty and somehow fall through a step.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed his arm.
His heart dropped to his stomach and he got chills. He sighed irritably as a realisation dawned upon him.
"Ha Ha. You got me, congratulations." He spoke sarcastically, turning round and expecting it to be one of his friends.
..?
It wasn't one of his friends.
…There wasn't even anyone behind him!
Then, he looked down.
Kai's eyes widened in fear. He froze and terror consumed him.
The arm that grabbed him…it came from a portal inside of the wall.
The arm was reaching out and gripping onto him from within it.
He wanted to scream but another hand covered his mouth.
Suddenly he got pulled violently into the swirling portal, and…?
…
His hand twitched as he regained feeling in his body.
He was laying splayed out upon uncomfortable ground.
He had an awful headache, and he sat up slowly.
His eyes swam into focus and he was in the middle of a…dirt path?
"What happe-.." He broke off into a fit of coughing. His throat felt raw and dry, like he hadn't had a drink in days.
Once he had stopped coughing, he looked back up.
A forest was surrounding the pathway on both sides.
The usual sounds of a forest were strangely loud. Even just the rustling of the leaves.
Weirdly loud.
Why was it so noisy!?
Suddenly a large pang of pain hit him in the stomach, and he looked down at himself.
He was wearing a loose purple dress with long sleeves. The dress was tattered and torn, with dirt coating it.
Around the stomach area….the fabric was stained with both dried and fresh blood.. The the smell of iron hit him and he almost gagged.
"Why am I bleeding..?" He looked around.
"And…these aren't my clothes?" Thoughts whirled around his head.
He got up some courage and stumbled to his feet, the wound made him feel an indescribable amount of pain.
He clutched his stomach, looking down at it once more.
It felt like it had re-opened.
He stood there looking down, not knowing what to do.
Then, something odd caught his eye.
Long, tightly platted hair was layed down against his shoulder. The blonde hair stood out against the purple dress, complementing it perfectly.
Umm?
Blonde??
Long hair???
Then, he noticed another thing.
"The hell!? Why am I so tall!" He shouted as he stared at the ground which seemed to be…a lot further away?
"All these strange things…" Kai paused.
A dream..?
Wait…
"No…NO WAY!! It can't be.." He had read about similar scenarios like this!
Waking up in an unknown place…a new body….was this..?
He shook his head. It can't be. It wasn't possible.
But…
One word echoed through his mind. "Isekai." He had read one or two mangas under this genera.
Kai put his head in his hands.
…no way. Right? RIGHT!?!?
With a sigh, he let his arms drop to his sides. Looking around again, he noticed that there was a convenient puddle of water to the side of the path.
He approached it excruciatingly slowly. He was careful not to move his wound too much.
His footsteps sounded…loud. Again. These small noises were so potent.
He stopped in front of the puddle, squeezing his eyes shut.
"Just to make sure! I know it's not but…I have to make sure."
He peered into the shallow water.
A girl stared back at him.
A girl with long, pointed ears.
A girl with bright blonde hair.
'He' stumbled backwards. "Okay what the fuck."
A…girl…?
He looked back into the puddle, staring down at the reflection. The girl had small scratches on her face, and her lips were sore and cracking.
He felt his face, and the skin felt dry.
"Where is she!? We must find her…!" Faint voices could be heard in the distance.
The abnormally long and pointed ears twitched slightly at the sounds.
He wobbled forwards, attempting to walk towards the sounds.
"I have to get help!" Was his only thought.
Suddenly, a wave of pain, exhaustion and dehydration came over himz
He fell with a crash to the floor.
The voices gradually came closer.
Kai couldn't stay awake any longer, and closed his eyes.
Blood pooled onto the ground.