Still in shock from what he saw in his dream, Tohito slowly opened his eyes. His body was heavy and numb, as if something had been pulled out of him and filled with emptiness. He stared at the ceiling, Akane's voice taunting from the kitchen echoing in his ears, but his mind was still caught up in that strange and torturous dream.
Akane: "Tohito, were you still dreaming of your shadows? You always sleep like a dead man!"
When Tohito got up, the cold and unstable feeling of his sleep had not left him yet. He shook his head and went to the kitchen.
Tohito: "No. I don't remember anything. Just a strange feeling, as if I missed something important."
"What's important? What's important in our lives? Night bread? Or maybe this stray cat stealing food from my plate?", Akane laughed at him as she chopped the vegetables.
Tohito slowly sat down by the window.He looked outside, at the gray sky and thick fog that always surrounded the village. Although nothing seemed out of the ordinary, the small and trembling shadows he saw in the corner of his eye reminded him of something from his dream; Shadows that seemed to be still alive and waiting.
"Akane. Have you ever wondered why it's never light in here? Why is it always so dark?" he muttered.
Akane looked at him in surprise, "What are you talking about? It's always been this way, Tohito. It's the same here. A small, lost village that no one cares about."
Tohito sighed and put his hand to his forehead. Something inside him was bothering him like a broken piece of the puzzle of his existence. He could not forget his dream. that woman goddess of love A kiss that took away the sense of life from him and then, a harsh voice that humiliated him and demanded a new beginning.At that moment, a trembling shadow in the corner of the room caught his attention. His eyes narrowed and he stared intently. The shadows were moving, but this time there was something or someone in them.
Tohito got up helplessly.
Akane: "Tohito? What happened? Why are you acting so weird?"
Ignoring his sister's question, Tohito moved towards the shadows. He reached out to one of them, and in a brief moment, a cold sensation hit his hand. The shadows suddenly twisted together and formed; A face that was neither completely human nor completely inhuman.
The face said in a deep and contemptuous voice:
"Feeling empty? How interesting. You still haven't figured out who you are, Guardian?"
"You. Who are you?", Tohito whispered in a shaky voice.
"I am what you escaped from your sleep," the figure replied with a loud laugh that shook the room. And let me tell you this, Tohito. Your escape is useless.After all, your fate is tied to the shadows."
"Tohito. What's going on?", Akane said shakily, now staring fearfully at her brother and the changed atmosphere of the room.
"I don't know, Akane. But I feel like something is coming back. Something that maybe shouldn't be coming back," Tohito replied without looking at his sister as the voices of the shadows grew louder and heavier in his ears.
The shadows swirled around the room faster and suddenly, the world went black for Tohito. All he could hear was the sound of his heart beating in the darkness.
"Go right this time," said the voice.
Tohito realized that he was no longer looking at the wall, he was looking at an empty space.
He turned his head slowly, nothing was there, it was like a void.
Tohito patted it dry, felt a cold hand on his shoulder.
"Let's make a deal"