I lay sprawled on my bed, my chest rising and falling unevenly, my eyes twitching beneath my lids, my brows furrowing as the nightmare pulled me deeper.
I was there again, small, fragile, no more than four years old. Shadows of tall men loomed over me, their voices sharp and cold.
"Hand over the boy," one of them barked at the woman clutching me. "With us, he'll be safe and so will our people. Keeping him here will only bring ruin."
"No!" she cried, her arms tightening around me as if her grip alone could keep me in her world. Tears streamed down her face as she pleaded. "Please, leave my son with me! I promise he's not a threat!"
I reached for her desperately, screaming through sobs. "Mama!" as my tiny fingers clawed the air, but one of the men yanked me away.
"Making chaos won't help," said another man with striking white-bluish hair, his voice cold but steady. He held her back as she thrashed against him, begging in sobs. "Calm down. We need to be patient if we ever want to see him again."
"Please!" she choked out, her voice cracking under the weight of despair. But her cries went unanswered. The men turned their backs and walked away, dragging me with them into a dark car that stood across the road.
The memory shattered like glass.
---
I jolted awake, eyes snapping open, my whole body drenched in sweat, my chest heaving as I struggled to catch my breath. For a moment, I couldn't move.
The sunlight was already spilling through the window. Morning had come, but the nightmare still clung to me like a shadow.
'It happened again. Another dream of my childhood. This is why I hate sleeping, every time I close my eyes I'm dragged back there.'
I shifted my gaze to the ceiling half expecting something to be there and I was shocked by what I saw.
---
Just outside someone stepped off the cracked asphalt onto the dirt path.
"Outside the city." A woman's voice muttered.
Ahead of her stood an isolated house at the edge of the woods. "Where the buildings vanish and even the air forgets how to stay warm. This is where he chose to live?"
She paused for a moment, letting the breeze brush across her face.
---
In that isolated house, I sat on my bed, eyes locked on the ceiling. Something crawled across it slowly and deliberately as if gravity had lost meaning. Its pale limbs twitched the wrong way, bending as though they lacked joints entirely. It sniffed along the ceiling's edge as if searching for something long forgotten in the cracks.
I sighed as I sat on the edge of the bed. "How many times have I told you not to crawl on the ceiling, Van?"
Van twisted his head upside down to look at me, his voice coming out slow and curious.
"Something smells incredibly good up here. What do you hide in these cracks?"
'Yeah, he's clearly talking about my scent. One day he will eat me whole.'
"Nothing for you. Just get down already."
Van didn't argue, just twisted backward, slipped through the open window and disappeared like a smear of shadow in the wind.
As long as Van didn't talk too much or eat anything alive, I let him be. He was one of the lurking ghosts but now claims to be a spirit.
But for a ghost to evolve into a spirit, it's to bond with a human, feed on their emotions and spiritual flesh which later corrupts the human's soul making them a demon.
He and I have known each other for six years, three of which we have spent living under the same roof. The fact that I am still human proves that he's just a ghost clinging to the idea of being a spirit.
I reached toward the envelope on my bedside table. On top of it were bold serif letterings: Wilson Castales Academy. Under it was the department, also bold: Exo-hunter.
I let out a breath, becoming an Exo-hunter hunter was never my choice but the academy refused to ever let me into the dungeons.
Just as my thoughts spiraled farther, a voice outside cut through the moment.
"Fiel!" Sharp and clear, but the caller didn't wait and called again, "Ashenhive, are you in there?"
I rose and moved toward the door, but just as I stepped into the corridor, I collided with an eerie figure or rather, the figure walked straight through me like I was made of air. My skin crawled, cold mist sliding through my chest like breathless fog. For a moment I just stood frozen.
Long black hair veiled the figure's face and body, scorched skin peeking through like ash-stained parchment. The figure moved in a hurry, like someone racing to save a burning breakfast.
I turned, half expecting the corridor to be empty, but the figure looked back mid-step.
"Sorry," it whispered, then vanished into the wall.
I stood still for a moment, the hallway too quiet, the floor beneath me lighter than it should be.
Van poked his head out of the ceiling, appearing from nowhere as usual. "Did Nellie scare you again?"
"Stop saying 'again' she's just not good at communication."
These two are my housemates, Nellie who looks to be twenty years old and Vanarion who I call Van, has the appearance of a fifteen-year-old with red hair.
Nellie too is a ghost although I barely know much about her.
She never talks much but she has a good personality and she does most of the cooking, but she creeps me out.
---
I finally opened the front door, and there she was. A woman who appeared to be in her late thirties stood a few steps away from the porch. She was Ms. Claire Blackthorn, a scientist at the Castalis invention lab.
She stood with one hand on her hip, red hair tied back neatly, tinted glasses low on her nose. Gloves and boots matching her lab coat which flew open in the breeze. She wore a smirk that made her look like she owned not just my house but the entire dirt around it.
"Ms. Clare," I muttered stepping outside, "how many times have I told you not to call me by my surname?"
She tilted her head, pretending to think. "Are you planning to disown it?"
I said nothing. The wind behind her tugged at her coat lazily. Then she raised her arm and pointed toward the woods just behind my house. "Are you ready?"
I looked over where she had pointed. "You mean right now?"
Ms. Claire shrugged, her gaze fixed on my hair. "Yeah, I just need two."
'Just two, is she for real.'
"But you already have thousands of those."
"Yeah, but they don't sum up to the total I need. And I'm taking them to the city tomorrow."
I shut the door behind me and began walking toward the woods as she followed behind. I couldn't say no, this was my job and she was my boss.
"And how do you plan on transport them? Your driver's still on leave, isn't he?"
She exhaled sharply, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'll ask the lab for a transporter, I don't really have a choice."
But there was something she wasn't ready to let slip. She held my arm stopping me mid-step, then came closer and fixed her gaze on my hair.
"Didn't you shower last night. You do know blue strands can't hide anything?" As she brushed off some dirt from my hair.
'That is no question to ask a grown man.'
We entered the woods and it accepted us with its usual silence. Leaves whispered underfoot, and the smell of pine mixed with something metallic lingered in the air. Ms. Claire walked a few steps behind brushing a low-hanging branch aside.
"Now that I remember, you're going back to the city today, right?"
The question startled me but not due to how she phrased it, but the truth that lay behind it. I had no idea what awaited in the city.
"Yeah, finally they accepted my application to enroll at Wilson Castales Academy."
"Which department, Hunters or Exo-hunters?"
"Exo-hunters."
Silence fell for a moment as if she too was questioning their reason behind that choice.
She began talking about how my parents fought tooth and nail to see this day come. Yeah, as if I even knew who they were. All I know is that they exist in the city.
Silence fell again, even the woods seemed to eavesdrop on our conversation.
She spoke up again, asking if everything was going to be fine before she answered the question herself.
"You will be perfectly fine." As a smile curled on her lips. "You're not different or what others say, you're special. And I am sure just like me your parents are proud to call you their son."
I kept walking, pretending it all flew away in different directions.
Ms. Claire always tried to fill the gap my parents couldn't. She didn't do it out of obligation; she did it because she wanted to. It wasn't enough, but I appreciated that she did.
She and I weren't always this close. The first time I met her was thirteen months ago, when she showed up at my door asking if I was the demon everyone whispered about. I nearly slammed the door in her face until she made the proposal that led us here.
And now I get her the Essencia Crystals and she pays me monthly.
---
We finally stepped into a clearing and immediately the air shifted. Before us stood a massive gate carved from age-stained stone. It looked like it had never opened yet it always waited.
I asked Ms. Claire to stay a few steps back, my eyes never leaving it.
She gave a small smile. "You didn't need to ask."
I hovered between knocking and busting it open but none of them was really an option
'Why are dungeon gates always so tall? Someone should come and open it. I didn't come here to marvel at walls, I came here on business, and every second counts'
When it suddenly cracked open, and before me a figure came into view. He stood in the opening breathing slow, towering and furred.
A bull-like figure walking upright, his face shaped like a bull and horns curved backward like a crown. His arms and legs ended in paws and claws, wearing nothing but shorts while his tail flicked behind him.
His eyes scanned the woods as his finger poked into his nose, twisting idly as if such a grotesque gesture was perfectly normal.
'Exactly what kind of creature are you, Lamo. A cow, a cat, a bull? I'm sure he's a goat because I've never seen a goat before.
He turned his gaze down and noticed me standing close to his stomach, as if I was staring at something interesting there.
"Uh, it's you again," he grunted.
I didn't wait for greetings. With a familiar grin, I moved without warning, my leg swinging up in a clean arc, slicing through the damp air with a round kick aimed at his neck. "I just need two this time," I muttered.
He blocked the kick with his thick arm which was a smart move, but my fist followed before his eyes could track it cracking against his cheek like thunder. His body lifted from the ground and slammed into the stone floor inside, rolling over with a groan until he hit a stone carving.
"Are these beings lightweight or are my fists just heavier?' as I glanced at my hand.
He sat up, blood trickling from his nose and staggered upright. With a furious roar he charged with clenched fists only to stop on the call of his name.
"Lamo!"
A calm voice came from inside just before the strike could land. "How many times have I told you to let the kid take what he wants?"
Lamo's body froze mid-step, his breath still burning with heat. "But he came at me first, Clam!"
"Do you want him to destroy this place again?" the voice asked, unfazed.
Then Clam stepped out of the shadows.
He looked human but too tall to be one, too still to be living. His skin was a rotten purple like something left in the dark for too long. His robes were black and heavy, layered with sleeves that hung like forgotten chains, his yellow eyes glowing and they have never stopped since I met him.
These were two of my dungeon buddies, if 'buddies' really fit. But I am always crushing them.
He walked toward me, hand slipping into a sleeve and pulled out three Essencia Crystals, each one smooth pulsing faintly with a light that beat like a living heart. He placed them in my palm without a word.
Then quietly he spoke up. "Fiel, how about you stop crushing everyone every time you come here?"
I turned and walked off. "That's on them."
After a few steps, I called back without turning, "Tell Boss Zomoa that I said hi."
Behind me, his voice floated through the open gate, slower and heavier. "Ever since he challenged you he's never woken up."
'That's odd, they were just a few punches and he's still unconscious?'
I just kept walking, although his words lingered longer than they should have. Boss Zomoa was Clam's dungeon boss and for the first time in history he decided to challenge me, and now he was still unconscious
I handed the three Essencia Crystals to Ms. Claire.
"You really like crushing those guys. Soon, you'll clear the whole dungeon," she teased, crossing her arms with a sly grin.
"It's just buddies sparring," I said with a small shrug, trying not to sound defensive.
"I gave your cinder puffs to Van."
'I thought she had forgotten to bring them.'
For a moment I imagined Van puffing them all to himself.
"You are not afraid of him? I asked.
She smiled as if sending the same question to me. "Come on, I am a scientist. Do you really think I believe in ghosts and spirits? Besides, your friends are my friends."
I glanced off to the side pretending to adjust my jacket. "I'm gonna wander off for a bit." avoiding her gaze.
She didn't ask why or where. She just nodded, tucked the Crystals into her coat and headed down the path toward the main road. That was one thing I liked about Ms. Claire, she didn't chase questions she didn't want the answers to.