The sunset was as red as the sand beneath his feet, stained by the blood of hundreds of enemies.
Now, after countless hours of battle, with the adrenaline finally draining from his body, he felt exhausted. Sore. Hopeless.
Without taking his eyes off the horizon, he tried to assess his wounds, but the numbness kept him from feeling anything beyond the cold air freezing the sweat on his face. The wind carried with it the rotten stench of freshly fought battles.
The only thing still keeping him focused—and on his feet—was the sight of an endless line of enemies advancing in the distance. The dreadful sound of marching footsteps echoed like the beat of a war drum.
They were not coming for him. Not exactly. They were coming for the crown resting upon his brother's head. They were coming for the city where he had grown up. For the friends and family waiting in fear for the outcome of a battle everyone already considered lost. They were also coming for the army he had commanded in defense of all of it. The army he had lost. The army whose last surviving soldier beneath that blood-red sky was him.
So yes. They were coming for him.
With great effort, he raised his sword, its edge worn down beyond recognition, and pointed it toward the endless horde.
"If this is to be my last day, I'll die knowing I was these bastards' worst nightmare".
A moment later, the marching footsteps became the repetitive ringtone of his cellphone. His bloodstained sword was suddenly just a long stick he'd found lying in the middle of the park.
Mica sighed when he saw who was calling and dragging him out of his fantasy.
"Yeah, Mom. I'm already heading back." His voice carried an unmistakable note of annoyance. "No, it's just that Alexander took forever to do his business..."
As though he had only just remembered what he was doing, he looked around the empty lot in search of his enormous, overweight, elderly Golden Retriever.
"Yeah, of course I bought the bread, Mom. Don't worry." A lie.
He spun around until he finally spotted the dog resting beneath a thin young tree supported by a broomstick that helped it grow straight.
Mica ended the call, patted his leg twice to summon his obedient—if rather lazy—pet, and jogged toward the bakery, hoping his mind would drift back to the epic scene he'd been planning for the story he'd spent the last few days working on.
"Micheleangelo Ferraro, we've been waiting nearly half an hour for you to get back so we can have dinner. It's always the same with you." his mother's complaint the moment he sat down at the table. "Every single afternoon, whenever it's your turn to walk Alexandro, you take forever."
In front of him sat a plate of pasta covered in red sauce. He hated having pasta for dinner.
"How many times do I have to tell you? 15-20 minutes top!"
"Mom, I got distracted, okay? Besides, it's good for Alexander. Look at him. He needs the exercise." He pointed accusingly at the pudgy dog enjoying half a loaf of bread in the corner of the dining room. "In fact, Jean should do the same. He walks him for, like, five minutes."
"Hey, leave me out of this," his brother replied. "If you're so worried about the dog getting exercise, maybe you should walk him every afternoon."
"And risk having our food go cold every night while we wait for bread?" his father joked and took a huge bite out of a sauce-soaked piece. "Speaking of which, son, the new episode of—"
"Lorenzo! Take this seriously! Your son's safety is at stake!"
"Honey, he just got a little distracted and—"
"And!? We've told him he can't be out after dark! You know this neighborhood isn't exactly the safest, and now even less so with all these disappearances."
"The disappearances have mostly happened on the other side of the city, Mom. Don't worry."
"How am I supposed to not worry? Didn't you see the news? Last week a boy from your school disappeared." She threw her hands into the air dramatically. "Good Lord. They should impose a curfew. Martial law. A state of emergency. This city is becoming impossible."
"James Howard?" Hugo asked the next morning after Mica brought it up while they walked to school together, just as they had every morning for the past ten years. "I think he was that blond guy who looked American. The one in Class 5-B."
"Doesn't ring a bell." Mica shrugged.
"Don't worry. Once we get to the bus stop you'll see his missing poster. You'll probably remember him."
"They already put up posters?"
"Yeah. I've passed, like, five or six on the way here."
"The police are finally getting serious about this, huh?"
"If by 'getting serious' you mean they figured out how to print posters, then sure." Hugo burst out laughing. The freckles covering his face stretched along with the dimples in his cheeks, somehow making him look even more ridiculous.
Hugo was Mica's oldest friend. Maybe the first real friend he had ever made. The funny redheaded clown anyone would enjoy spending time with, joking about video games, TV shows, and books. At least, that was how Mica saw him. The reality was that neither of them was popular enough for "anyone" to want to spend time with them.
"My mom's gone full paranoid too," Hugo continued, sounding more serious now. "Every night she prays and sprinkles holy water on me before I leave the house."
"You serious?"
"Completely. I keep telling her nothing's going to happen to me. Everything's happening across town." He paused. "Well... at least it was. Then James Howard disappeared."
"How long has this whole disappearance thing been going on now? Two months?"
"Three, I'd say. Three months and around twelve cases. Not a single person found. Know what this reminds me of?"
"No clue. Could be any of the weird stuff you're always watching."
"No, no. It reminds me of Persona 4." Mica laughed. "Oh! Right. Maybe we should watch TV at midnight and see if something interesting finally happens to us."
"My dude, can you imagine? What Persona do you think you'd have? I'd want Thanatos."
"Thanatos? You strike me as more of a Belphegor."
"Which one's that again? You know I forget the names. The giant guy with all the arms?"
"Morning, guys." Cat joined them just as Mica struggled not to laugh at Hugo's ignorance. "What's got you two talking?"
While Mica and Hugo were the kind of weird kids nobody wanted to hang around with, Catherine was the quiet, pretty girl who, whether people admitted it or not, attracted at least a little curiosity from almost everyone.
Cat was slender, with light green eyes and dark brown hair so deep it was nearly black, usually tied into a ponytail that reached halfway down her back. Yet her two most defining traits couldn't have been more opposite. The first was a cold gaze that seemed to tell anyone approaching her to stay away. The second was a beautiful, energetic smile reserved only for the people she genuinely liked.
Mica and Hugo happened to be among those lucky few.
"What Persona do you think you'd have?" Hugo asked without bothering to explain the conversation.
"Nope. I'm not getting dragged into your Persona nonsense again. You know I hate that franchise. If we're talking games, talk about Final Fantasy instead."
Mica had met Cat at a gaming convention where she had attended dressed as Rinoa, the co-protagonist of his favorite game of all time:
Final Fantasy VIII
. Finding out afterward that they were in the same class had been a shock.
"Okay, but we're talking about Persona," Hugo protested.
"Were talking," Cat corrected firmly, then she turned to Mica. "How's the new story going?"
"Honestly? Not very well." A faint blush appeared on his face. "This time I started with the ending. I thought maybe it'd make writing the rest easier." He sighed. "No luck. I'm completely stuck."
"My dude, you're always stuck," Hugo pointed out.
"And you're not helping, Hugo. At least he's trying to do something with his life."
"Hey, I study and get good grades. My mom says that's what I'm supposed to do, so that's what I do." He pointed at Mica. "Unlike certain people."
"School is boring." Mica immediately deflected the criticism. "It's not like I plan on spending the rest of my existence calculating hypotenuses and areas and stuff. You know I'm more interested in legends and fantasy and—"
"If that's what you want, then at least pay attention in literature class," Cat interrupted. "And maybe history while you're at it."
"Cat, you know Mica. All he really wants is to spend his days daydreaming and living in his own fantasy world," Hugo added, pretending to defend his friend.
"I know." Cat's expression softened. "Honestly, I'd probably love to be some kind of video game heroine too." She shrugged. "But—"
"But we live ordinary lives with absolutely no chance of anything happening that's worth putting into an epic novel." Mica recited the sentence as if he'd heard it countless times. "I know. And that's fine. I understand that my version of a legendary destiny is passing math, getting a job, and praying the final boss doesn't kill me." He paused dramatically. "Boredom."
His voice faded as his attention drifted elsewhere.
A new sheet of paper had been pinned to the announcement board at the bus stop. The same board that used to be covered in advertisements before the police began using it for missing-person notices.
"But right now, my mind is focused on the writing cont..." He squinted. "James Howard."
"Writing for James Howard? The what?" Cat frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"No, sorry. Never mind. Look." Mica pointed toward the board. "It's that. That's the missing kid from our school."
Cat's eyes widened.
"Someone from our school disappeared?"
"How do you never know about anything?" Hugo groaned.
"My parents don't watch the news." Cat crossed her arms. "So no, I didn't know." Then her expression grew serious. "But that's something I should know. Isn't this a big deal? Why hasn't the principal said anything?"
"It only happened on Friday," Hugo replied. "He'll probably announce something today."
And he did. Before classes began, the principal gathered the students for a special assembly. He explained that they were confident the incident had not occurred on school grounds. The last confirmed sighting of James had come from a security guard at his residential complex on the opposite side of the city. Still, students were advised not to wander around alone after school and to stay with at least one other person whenever possible. The sort of advice people always gave in movies and video games, according to Mica.
The rest of the day was completely normal. Mica slept through nearly two classes in a row after staying up far too late playing video games the night before. Cat scolded him more than the teachers did. And during the moments he actually stayed awake, he spent more time brainstorming stories and sketching character concepts than paying attention to the lessons.
A perfectly ordinary day. Or at least it remained ordinary until he left class to use the bathroom about an hour before the final bell.
Normally, he avoided using the school bathrooms whenever possible, especially during class. But a sudden urge had hit him out of nowhere. An urgent one. Almost unnaturally urgent.
What happened next was even stranger.
As he turned a corner in the hallway, he found a girl from another class standing directly in his path. As though she had been waiting for him. Her uniform was immaculate. Her auburn-brown hair was cut neatly at chin length and held in place by a simple, undecorated hair clip. Light brown eyes studied him with a serious, unreadable expression. Without saying a word, she extended a hand and offered him a folded letter.
Mica accepted it.
The moment he did, she turned around and walked away. By the time he unfolded the paper, she had already disappeared around the next intersection of hallways. The letter contained only a few lines.
Imagination is a powerful weapon, and yours is among the sharpest we have seen.
The Adventurers' Group has taken notice of your talent and wishes to invite you to join us.
We will be waiting.
The world needs us.
At the bottom of the page was an address.
A note from Feragon42
I think Alexander really like bread, but please, don't give you dog a whole loaf!
If you like this chapter as much as Alexander like bread, leave a comment, follow and fav the story! :D