Soul Wars
~~{ WSA 2025 ENTRY }~~
Ahriman wants nothing more than a normal, peaceful life. He has no interest in friends, ambitions, or anything beyond avoiding trouble. He understands how his world works, the position he holds within it, and the best way to navigate it—all for the sake of securing a life free from problems and worries. To achieve that, he lies, fakes emotions, agrees easily, and does whatever it takes to slip past conflict unnoticed.
But fate has other plans.
One night, he wakes up paralyzed on a riverbank, the cold air biting at his skin. He can’t remember how he got there. Panic grips him as he struggles to move, to think, to make sense of his situation. Then, from the shadows, a robed figure approaches. Ahriman calls out, desperate for help—but the figure ignores him. Instead, the man mutters something incomprehensible, a language that twists and warps in Ahriman’s ears. Before he can process what’s happening, the world plunges into darkness.
The next thing he knows, he’s waking up in a hospital. They tell him he was in an accident. They tell him he’s fine. But he isn’t. Something feels wrong. Ever since that night, strange phenomena haunt his life. His dreams become too vivid—grotesque visions filled with nightmarish, otherworldly creatures. And yet, for reasons he can’t explain, they never attack him.
Worse still, no matter how long he sleeps, exhaustion clings to him like a curse. It’s as if his body refuses to rest, as if something is gnawing away at him from the inside. The relentless cycle of sleepless nights and haunting dreams begins unraveling the fragile normalcy he’s spent his life protecting.
And then, in one of those dreams, he meets her.
A woman unlike anything else lurking in his nightmares. She doesn’t just unsettle him—she shatters him. With nothing more than her presence, she strips away the illusion he’s clung to for so long, leaving him bare before a truth he never wanted to face.
His past.
His mind.
His very existence.
Nothing is what he thought it was. And now, there is no going back.
