Chapter 1: The spear
The sky is on fire.
There he couldn't feel the heat, but the orange flickers in the broken clouds above felt like a last warning from the universe.
He lay on his back, breath hitching, eyes half-closed. Trees leaned in from all sides. Their shadows crept like black fingers, and he could swear they whispered. Blood soaked the forest floor beneath him, mixing with the rain that had started to fall gently through the canopy. The only thing keeping him from rising was the cold metal spear driven straight through his chest.
He blinked slowly.
Every breath dragged knives across his ribs. Every second was a choice: fight or fade.
And here still, he lived.
- Mercy...
Oh, mercy...
Is there such a thing in this cursed world? Or is mercy just another lie told by the strong to keep the rest of us crawling forward?
Funny...
How life gives you just enough to believe
A warm bed in the orphanage, cheap meals that still tasted like home, fake smiles that held back real pain... then rips it all away when your heart starts beating too loud with hope.
Fate.
You blood bastard.
Why now?
When I finally started to see a path, when I finally thought... just maybe... I could give them more than hunger and candles...
You wait till then to drive a spear through my chest?
I still had things to say.
I still had people to hold.
You couldn't let me give the kids a future. You couldn't let me repay Mother Esther for loving me like I was her own. You couldn't let me even try to live without shame.
No.... no, no, no..
You had to wait until I tasted the dream
You had to let it settle for moment...
Just to then spit in my mouth as I bit into it.
You think I'll die here?
In this damned forest, alone, gutted like some dog on the side of the road?
I'm not some tragic story for the world to forget.
I'm not some "what if" whispered over graves.
I will hold on you smug face.
I will hold on.
For every face I left behind. For every meal I promised them. For every scar on my back that taught me how to stand even when broken.
I'll hold on till this cursed world chokes on the fact that I survived.
I will not die here.
Not like this.
Not yet.
"Ohh mercy, this isn't...it i say." Kevin whispered to himself. His voice was hoarse, almost gone. "Of course I wouldn't die in the woods. Impaled. Broke. Alone... Not even a little bit of dramatic."
His teeth gritted. His jaw clenched until it ached. But his hands couldn't move. Not yet. The pain wasn't just physical... it was crawling through his mind, gnawing at his thoughts like rats.
"No," he muttered. "No.... not like this. I didn't suffer this long to die like some broken deer in the dirt. I didn't get this far just to go out quietly."
Kevin's thoughts boiled.
He saw flashes. Faces. His younger siblings back at the orphanage. His foster mom's laugh. That stupid leaky roof he swore he would fix when he got his first paycheck. His friends who believed he was already something more. His sworn brother Lamar...
He hadn't even gotten the money. He was supposed to get the scholarship. He was supposed to fix everything.
"I still owe them..."
The spear shifted inside him, a lightning bolt of pain that arced through his body.
He growled.
"Move, damn it. MOVE."
His fingers twitched.
His right hand clenched dirt.
The wind whispered.
Something rustled in the nearby bushes.
Kevin's eyes flicked toward it, heart pounding despite the blood loss. He clenched his teeth harder. If it was an animal, so be it. If it was death... he wasn't ready. Not yet.
The rustling grew louder. He turned his head slowly.
Something stepped through the bush... steps growing louder. And closer.
When it finally seemed to show its appearance.
Everything went black.
Suddenly...
There was warmth. Not the choking heat of fire, but something softer. Flickering. A campfire.
Kevin groaned, stirring. His chest still throbbed with pain, but he was no longer pinned.
A bandage wrapped tightly around his torso.
He sat up slowly, gasping.
"You really are stubborn," came a voice. Male. Slightly slurred. Cheerful.
Kevin blinked toward the fire. A man sat cross legged on the other side, swigging from a wooden bottle. He looked like he belonged in a back alley somewhere: dirty robes, silver hair that was more chaotic than styled, and a beard that screamed I gave up on grooming years ago. But his eyes glimmered sliver, deep, unreadable cut through the haze.
"I was about to leave you for the wolves," the man said. "But you were making these weird angry faces in your sleep. Thought it might be fun to see if you lived."
Kevin scowled.
"Who... are you?"
"Mikaeru kid... And you are the worst survivor I've ever seen."
Kevin tried to stand, but Mikaeru lazily pointed a stick at him and pushed his shoulder down.
"Don't stand up... You lost a lot of blood. You pull those stitches, and I'm not redoing them. Took me an hour to stop the bleeding."
Kevin looked around. The fire crackled. The forest around them looked... wrong. He noticed it for the first time. Trees twisted upward like spirals. The stars blinked like they were watching.
"Where are we?" Kevin asked.
"Still Earth... For now."
"For now?"
Mikaeru smiled.
Kevin felt a chill. That smile didn't match his tone.
"You need to rest anyway. We'll talk later. We're safe here, mostly."
Kevin leaned back slowly, head pounding.
He didn't trust this man. Not with that weird dirty robe. Not with those eyes. But he was alive.
And for now, that was enough.
They walked the next day.
Kevin was stiff, but moving.
Mikaeru moved with a swagger that seemed too easy, too practiced. The forest felt... heavier. Trees shifted. Shadows crept. The sun never rose fully.
Kevin was breathing harder than he liked. But he kept pushing.
"You sure there's a road this way?" Kevin asked.
"Define road," Mikaeru said.
Kevin rolled his eyes.
"Oh my god..."
They finally reached a clearing, and there... standing crooked and half-covered in moss was a rusted billboard.
Kevin brushed off the vines.. with a Stick
It was a missing persons report. A list of survivors from a crash.
His name wasn't under survivors.
Kevin stared.
He was listed as "presumed dead."
His fists trembled.
"This... this is wrong. They think I'm gone."
"I mean you are anyway ," Mikaeru said quietly chuckled half drunk.
Kevin turned.
"What?..."
"You died. Or almost did. Doesn't matter anymore. Since we both fucked end of the day. As you can't go back home."
Kevin's heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"No. You're insane. I'm going home."
He stumbled away. He found a gas station. He kicked open the door.
It was empty. Dusty..
On the counter there was a.
A single broken screen flickered. No phone signal. No reception.
"I said I'm not dead! I'm not!"
His voice echoed.
Mikaeru stood by the doorway.
"No one's around kiddo, seems like they left for the holiday or something."
Kevin shook his head, eyes wild. His legs buckled.
The walls began to twist.
The floor fell away.
The lights flickered, and darkness bled in through the cracks of reality.
He collapsed, writhing.
" wait wait, What's... happening to me?!"
"Ohh kid damn its... shit , i didn't expect for it to start happening. " Mikaeru said in little panicking voice.
"Shit ,shit, shit... your body is already responding to the laws. Is your soul... started shifting perhaps , maybe."
A drowsy Kevin saw spirals and heard sound from a far.
"Im I high?..." said in a high pitched voice.
"What is high kid... no, no we not high we down." Mikaeru said
"I didn't ask for this shit!"
"No one ever does... i think , i hope, okay i do not know"
Kevin then shouted ," Fix this man."
" Okay ,okay, okay... ahem, ah. I will try something, promise me you will go straight to the light and P.s don't drown."
" Don't what?"
Darkness.
Again ,but this time nothing was around other than me.
He floated.
In nothing ness. Him alone.
"Mikaeru?"
As he floated in pitch blacked space. He felt something touching him.
A hand.
"Ohh god no ,no, no..." as he shoved the hand away from him.
Slowly another came and another.
An another, an another until fear striked his mind.
Hearing voices, screams and agony.
Regret crawled over his skin like insects.
He remembered every failure. Every time he let someone down. Every time he swore he'd change and didn't.
He began to sink.
Hands... black, clawed, cold... grabbed at his ankles.
"Let go!"
More hands.
They whispered things.
You were always nothing.
You never saved them.
You will drown.
Kevin thrashed.
"GET OFF ME!"
He punched. He kicked. He screamed louder than the void itself.
"I WON'T DIE LIKE THIS!"
Something shone above.
A single light.
He reached.
He swam upward, tearing through the hands.
He broke the surface.
Kevin gasped.
Air.
He lay on warm marble. The air was different.
Bright. Sharp. Almost... holy.
He opened his eyes.
Mikaeru stood before him. Still in his ragged robes. But now radiant.
Golden eyes glowing.
His voice was calm.
"Welcome to Tengoku. The realm of the divine kiddo."
"Had fun in the abyss right."
Kevin blinked.
Then cursed.
"Fuck no."
And Mikaeru, of course, laughed.