In the apartment, the smell of alcohol permeated the place, empty bottles rolling across the floor, and on the sofa a young man sprawled out with a bottle in his hand, long messy hair completely covering his face.
His name was Alexander. His life had fallen apart a long time ago, when he was sixteen, and he had carried it inside himself all this time, the deep pain that gnawed at him every minute and second. He had kept up appearances as if he had overcome all of that, but it wasn't so. He never did.
Now he was twenty-five years old, with a wife and a daughter. He had no job, no friends, and the only reason he had not committed suicide was because his mother would not allow it. She had told him clearly that day, that he should never take his own life and should live happily and freely on earth.
But how could he do that when the most important person in his life and the only reason for him to stay in this world was dying and would not let him accompany her?
He tried to be happy in her name. He found a wife, had a daughter, but he fell into a bad habit. He began to drink. Sometimes he vented his frustration on his wife, throwing insults at her, despising himself for not being able to keep his mother in this world any longer.
Glugh.
A long gulp came from his throat along with the burning sensation of the alcohol. He did not seem to react and tossed the bottle aside, his face staring at the walls with an empty gaze.
"Tsk…"
In the room next door, a little girl hid behind her mother.
"Mom… is Dad angry again?" the sweet voice of the girl whispered while she looked at the figure of her father lying on the sofa through the small gap in the door.
The woman hugged the girl.
"Don't look… everything will be fine." The mother's voice trembled a little as she pulled her daughter back toward the bed and cradled her against herself.
…..
Alexander, who heard the faint click of the door, felt a tear slide down from his eyes. Why had things become like this? He knew that both of them were afraid of him, HIS OWN DAUGHTER WAS TERRIFIED OF HIM. And that fact alone made more tears slide down his cheeks, sticking his hair closer to his face.
He had been very cowardly, very weak. His mother would beat him to death if she saw him in the state he was in now and what he had done. Making your own blood fear you, just that alone would drive her to make him bleed.
He closed his eyes in frustration and clenched his teeth. He did not understand what was happening to him. He had never been someone who would do something like that to his own blood, but perhaps that day had changed everything.
His mother lay in a hospital bed, and all the "relatives" were around her with worried faces but doing nothing really.
He remained in his chaotic thoughts of guilt and pain until sleep made everything in his mind disappear, leaving nothing but endless darkness and no thoughts.
...….
In the middle of an apparently limitless darkness, Alexander opened his eyes. His hands went to his face, realizing that his usual long and disorganized hair no longer blocked his view. And since he could not see anything beyond his own figure, which seemed the same, he noticed that his hair was now short.
"Am I conscious in a dream?" he wondered about this new experience. He also realized that he could think more clearly than ever before. It was as if before he had been in a fog that limited his thoughts and actions.
Suddenly, a purple flash fell from somewhere in front of him. With the lightning came a beautiful woman, tall, slightly shorter than him, he measured 1.95 meters. Long black hair flowed down her back and shoulders, purple eyes that looked at everything as if it were insignificant, and full lips with a faint pink shine. Her figure was so perfect that it would make every woman in the world fall in love and feel envy, and she wore a dress that held her body as if it would never let her go, her breasts emphasized by the fabric.
"What."
Alexander was startled and took two involuntary steps forward. The extraordinary arrival of this woman surprised him, but what surprised him most was recognizing her. His eyes immediately became moist, his heart accelerated to a heart-attack pace, and his hands trembled.
"And me, Mom."
Alexander waited. His previous reasoning that this was a dream was completely forgotten, and he did not give it a second thought, all his attention fixed on the woman before him. This was, indeed, his mother, his world, his guide, and everything.
The woman looked at him, and her previously disdainful gaze changed to a more tender and gentle one. She extended both arms forward while taking a step, only one step away from reaching him.
"My baby."
That was all Alexander needed to break. He threw himself at his mother, hugging her and bursting into tears. Mythara hugged her son and let him vent in her embrace. Several tears also slid down her delicate face. She had seen and felt her son's pain since her departure, the agony that gnawed at him, but she had never been able to help him. She had tried everything, and only today had she broken the barrier that prevented her from meeting her son again.
"It's okay, baby, calm down. I can't stay here long. I wanted you to know that I'm always with you. Even if you can't see me, I see you and I feel you. Soon we will meet again, and this time it will be forever. But sweetheart, you have to become strong enough. Some signals will be sent into the world, don't ignore them and do everything you can, alright? Also protect my granddaughter. Don't be so hard on her anymore. I taught you better than this." She spoke vaguely, but he still nodded at her words.
"I know, Mom. Family comes first. But those pieces of shit…" Alexander could not help cursing his relatives who only watched while his mother died in a hospital bed, and he clenched his fists, completely forgetting to understand why his mother had mentioned that signals would soon appear in the world and what those signals were.
"Don't worry, sweetheart. They really are not our family. They were just people I met at some point and we always stayed together. It was a friendship that lasted years. Without the education I gave you, don't worry about them. Now you, you have to put your life in order, okay? I can't bear to see you like this, hurting yourself over something you had no control over. I have to go now, but we will see each other again soon. Until then, take good care of yourself, my boy."
"Mom, I… I don't want you to leave again." Alexander clung to her even more as his mother's body slowly became translucent.
"We'll be fine, you and I. Just wait a little for Mom, alright?" Mythara gently kissed her son on the cheek and smiled softly as she disappeared completely.
When she did, Alexander remained standing in the complete darkness. An undefined amount of time passed in that position, hugging nothing, until he finally withdrew his arms.
"I will wait for you, Mother. I promise." Those were his last words before the world changed.
...
Opening his eyelids, Alexander observed the darkness of the night slowly fading due to the faint light of the sky being illuminated. It was approximately 5:40 a.m.; soon it would be completely dawn. He placed a hand over his chest, feeling the agonizing pain that used to gnaw at him disappear. It was as if everything that had happened in that dream had been real and all the previous pain had become a distant memory of the past.
A sigh escaped him, feeling lighter than ever before in his life. Infinite clarity filled his mind, soul, and body, with a total lightness within himself. He looked through the large windows of his apartment, the city still shining from top to bottom.
There was a lot to fix in his life, and now he had the clarity to do it.
..
Suddenly, a blue screen materialized in front of him, and an undefined voice was transmitted directly into his brain.
[System Activated]
User welcome: Alexander Nokami.
First option activated automatically.
24-hour expenditure: During the next 24 hours… every cent you spend will be multiplied.
(Start) (Postpone) (Change)