Prologue
Walking home from school, I had my phone out reading a Web novel called "Shadow Slave." It was basically about this guy from the outskirts who got infected by something called the Nightmare Spell. Now, you might be asking yourself "what the hell is the Nightmare Spell?" — and of course you would if you haven't read the novel.
In their world, during some dark age where everything had gone to shit and humanity was at its lowest point, the Nightmare Spell just... descended. This thing would infect everybody and anybody, didn't matter if you were a kid or an old person, male or female. It forced you to sleep and enter what they called the "First Nightmare" — basically a trial you had to complete. And if you didn't? You'd die, and your body would become a gateway for nightmare creatures to spill into the real world.
The thing is, the First Nightmare wasn't impossible to beat. It was actually oddly fair in its own perverted, twisted way, but still possible to survive. At first, humanity couldn't defend itself against the nightmare creatures because regular weapons were basically useless against them. But once people started clearing their First Nightmares, the Awakened emerged — humans who could fight these things using supernatural abilities called "Aspects."
These Aspects were actually part of your soul all along, not something the Spell gave you. The Spell just awakened dormant abilities that were already there. After the Awakened showed up, humanity could finally fight back, learning more about the Dream Realm and how everything worked. The rest is history.
The main character is this guy called Sunless — a poor kid from the outskirts who lost his parents when he was young. The guy had it rough, really rough. He had a little sister too, Rain, who he loved more than anything in the world. But he was just a kid himself, barely able to take care of himself, let alone a little girl. So he made one of the hardest decisions anyone could make — he gave her up for adoption so she could have the life he couldn't give her.
Years later, he actually managed to find where she was living with her new family. He saw her through a window, happy and healthy, playing with her adoptive parents. She was laughing. She was safe. She had everything he'd wanted her to have. And you know what he did? He turned around and walked away without ever letting her know he was there. He didn't want to mess up the good life she'd built, didn't want to drag her back into his world of poverty and struggle. That's the kind of person Sunless was — someone who'd sacrifice his own happiness for the people he cared about, even if it meant living with that hole in his heart forever.
Anyway, he gets infected with the Nightmare Spell and turns himself in to the government. Goes through his First Nightmare and completes it, though it wasn't easy — actually, it was pretty damn harrowing. Scratch that, it was very harrowing. But he pulls through and awakens a Divine-ranked Aspect, which is literally the highest rank you can get, plus a Flaw that makes it impossible for him to lie.
Flaws are these unique curses placed on Awakened as payment for gaining supernatural powers. They could be anything — some harmless, some fatal or crippling. But here's the thing: not all Flaws affect everyone the same way. Like, if a very honest person got a Flaw that forced them to only lie, it might not bother them much. But slap that on a pathological liar and suddenly it's not all sunshine and rainbows.
For Sunless, this was especially brutal because the guy lies as easily as he breathes. So a Flaw that might just annoy most people? For him it was crippling.
He also got a True Name, which should've been awesome since most of the strongest Awakened in the world have them. But for Sunny, it was more of a curse because his Innate Ability meant that if anyone said his True Name, he'd become their slave. Hence his Aspect name: "Shadow Slave," which gave him an affinity with shadows.
The story goes on to explain his entertaining but terrible journey as an Awakened. It was amazing — I'd gotten up to chapter 350 where they finally escaped the Forgotten Shore, though it wasn't exactly a happy chapter since Sunny ended up enslaved. But that's a story for another day, right?
I made my way across the intersection, heading to the corner store to grab an ice cream sandwich and a Sprite. Something I did every day — I was seriously addicted to ice cream. After paying for my stuff, I left the store and went to the edge of the sidewalk, waiting for the light to turn so I could cross.
That's when I saw her.
This little girl just rushed straight into the road. Now, that would've been bad but not terrible since the roads around here usually aren't that busy, and most drivers go slow enough to stop in time. But this time was different. There was this huge truck that had just finished restocking the supermarket down the block, and I don't know what the hell possessed that idiot driver to go so fast, but it looked like he had no intention of stopping.
Her mother screamed behind her: "ALYSSAAAAAAA!"
What happened next was something I never thought would happen to me. I rushed across the street, chasing after the little girl and jumping to push her out of the way at the last second.
Now look, I'm not some hero or someone with great moral standards. Actually, if you told me people were dying on the other side of the country, I'd feel bad about it, but if you asked me to actively protest or go out of my way to help them, I'd give you some pathetic excuse for why I can't and go on with my day acting like nothing happened. Some people would call me a terrible person, and to that I'd just shrug my shoulders.
So you might ask why I saved that little girl, and honestly? I don't know. My legs just moved on their own — I didn't even think it through.
After I pushed the girl out of the way, the truck slammed into me, breaking God knows what. I was honestly surprised I wasn't ground into paste. The only reason I wasn't completely flattened was because, to my surprise, the truck driver actually was trying to stop. The guy had been on his phone, not paying attention until the last second.
I cursed myself inwardly. Why the hell did I try to save someone else?
Don't get me wrong — I wasn't mad that I put someone over myself. That wasn't really the problem. Matter of fact, I'd rather not see a little girl in my current condition. I was more pissed about how worried my mother would be. She already had enough on her plate, and now she'd also be worrying about her son who was in critical condition and probably dying.
And my little brother too. Even though I found the kid to be a pain in the ass, I still loved him and didn't want him worrying about me like this.
Matter of fact, I didn't think I'd even be alive after this. My body was in terrible condition — everything hurt like hell. My arms and legs felt like an elephant had just stomped on them. If I could've curled up and cried, I would've, big time.
As my eyes slowly closed, a memory of my mother flashed through my mind — her saying, "I won't always be here for you."
I chuckled weakly. "Sorry, Mom. Looks like I'll be the one who isn't here anymore."
I paused and muttered in barely a whisper "I'm sorry"