1 Chapter 1 : Faceless People

/Birds chirp early in the morning, the melody of nature that you'll most likely love. Trees dance through the cold air, yet it's supposed to be summer. Sun passes through the curtain which was located just above– near the roof–, but rays still figure on how to hit me, especially my face. It's the reason why I hate summer morning so much. Well, morning in general as long as bright something light will hit my face directly./

/The door creaks, slowly, as I try to wake my half-conscious self groan in annoyance, because of the noise it was creating. Sucks. I want to sleep more/

/" Honey, you have to wake up soon before you miss the bus again" A sweet voice lingers through my ears as the warmth I felt from it just makes me want to sleep more. Just a little more. I yank up my soft blanket to my face, trying to lessen the light that the sun was creating. I hope the sun will be gone for a little while, but that won't do any good for any living organism, human or etc. Luckily I'm a cyborg. I don't need light, I just need gasoline and some human foods./

/ I groan in annoyance as I ignored the voice, letting myself fell from the seduction of sleepiness. The woman yanks my favorite blanket harshly, making me sat up as I tried to reach my warm and lovely blanket... yeah I might sound gay, but nothing can separate me from my baby blanket unless I'm fully awake, which I am currently not. "stop! give it back to me" I said sleepily as I try to reach my blanket with my eyes still closed. I've never been so tired since forever, maybe the chase made me so tired yesterday. And I flew yesterday, I think I used so much energy from flying./

/ "Wake up! You have to go to school before your d*d caught you, he'll drag you to school forcefully again if you don't" The woman says in a stern voice, her annoyance evident. She grips my wrist as she pulls me out of the bed, making me open my eyes to see who she is, but all I can see was a faceless lady, with dirty blonde hair. She wore a flower designed apron, her pink dress bright as the sun rays, from the half-open curtains, hits her dress from behind. She looks terrifying without a face while tilting her head like that as if asking me a question.

I jerk my wrist back, frightened of what I am seeing, as I clumsily made my way out of the house. I run down through the stairs as the blue pastel walls seem endless while I run down as frame after frames of faceless people plastered on the wall as it just made me scared even more.

"Where are you going?! Come back here" The faceless lady said as I continue to run away from her, pastel-colored walls seem endless as frame after frames of faceless people hangs through the walls. Finally, I reach the first floor as the end of the stair was actually connected to the kitchen area, as I stumble my way down to a hard wooden table, making me grunts in pain. "You should be careful s*n, running so early in the morning," a man says as I pant heavily, trying to reach my breath with my head's down while my sweats drip down to my chin.

I frowned, 'why do I have sweats?' I ask myself as I look up to see who it was but another faceless man in sleeves, crossed leg, as he reads a newspaper—at least he seems to be. There's an empty white cup on the table. He took it as he sips from it like something was actually in there and I just can't see it. He tilted his head to his right as he watched me, I think.

"what's wrong?" And that seems to push something in me as I begin to scream. Terrified of what I am seeing. I run my way out again but the more I got nearer to the door, the more it's moving away from me./

/ ' what's happening? / I ask myself as I sprint my way to the door like my life depends on it, the surrounding begun to change as it became bright yellowish while it grew hotter. When my fingers touch the knob, I immediately grab it as I swing it open. Finally, outside of the sweet home I knew, I run a few meters away from the house, once I am far enough, I heard a loud explosion from behind, making me look back. /

The sky was now dark as stars were seen through the cloudless sky. Stars I was so obsessed with, but I can't seem to mesmerize them as a huge fire surrounds the white wooden house. Flames was so hot as it eats every grass until it turns to ashes. A loud explosion was heard again making me flinch back as I stumble down to my bum. I felt my cheeks wet as my hand unconsciously wipe the hot water.

'why am I crying' I ask myself as I look confusingly to my hand. And then, what I saw startled me the most. Blood.

Blood covers my whole arm making me blink twice to be sure if it's just a shadow. It felt warm, new, as it trickles down to my arm. My white shirt also drenched with blood as my head hurts as if I was hit by something hard. I look at myself in horror as I scream and shout, desperate of taking the blood off of me. I look back up, only to see a bearded man in sleeves hugging protectively the lady, that wore an apron earlier, who's clinging to him, unconscious. But now, shockingly and terrifyingly, has faces. Even though they have faces now, I still can't catch a glimpse of their look. My tears fall heavily as it washes away some of the blood from my face. But I couldn't sob, it's just hot tears streaming down my face as I watch them from outside.

I hear myself shout for them to get away from the fire but they won't listen. The hot flame almost eats the house whole as they stay in the living room, the door was open but he doesn't make any effort to leave the house. So instead, he let the hellish flame eat them whole.

I shout and yell out for nothing until the flame was gone.

'it was my fault!' I accuse myself as I clench my head while I tried to stop my eyes from streaming out of hot tears.

*/yes it's your fault, you should have helped them/* a voice said, yet it sounded more like myself but sounded little cold and devilish. Tears continue to stream down my face as I started to sob, frustrated that I can't stop the tears from falling out. The voice starts to accuse me again as it became louder each sob I let out.

'fault...'

'your fault.'

'it's your FAULT!!'

————

Now my body felt light and relaxed yet it felt cold... very cold.

'Aid-' a voice said, I frown as I try to figure out who is calling my name.

'Aiden' a feminine voice repeated, though it still sounded like an echo, As the familiar feminine voice keeps calling out my name. My lungs felt heavy like I was drowning deep underwater. I gasp for air while I extended my arm, trying to reach the voice, yet I reach nothing.

"AIDEN!" Lady. Madeleine yells my name repeatedly, trying to wake me up from the horrible nightmare yet I knew to myself that I am already awake, just can't grasp the difference of the present from my feel-like-realistic nightmare.

"Aiden wake up!" she said desperately as she shakes my body, hardly. I slowly open my eyes. Sight blurry as my lids felt heavy. My throat felt rough as my lungs desperate for air. I felt like drowning again as I tried to breathe, yet I can't. Both my nose and mouth seem to malfunction as my lungs began to burn. Her eyes filled with panic as she looks at me. Her eyes search for something as she looks directly to my eyes again. She smiles faintly.

"Breathe Aiden, Breath" She instructs as I try to do what she says. But it just worsens. The panic feels me immediately since this is the first time, in forever, that I got a panic attack.

"Follow me, Aiden. Like old times" She said as she inhales. I followed her but mine feels shaky as I inhale while she exhales slowly. I mimic her, but mine come out rigid, but my lungs felt a lot better than earlier. We spent 30 minutes of breathing exercise as it stables soon after.

She gave me a glass of water as I took it with my hands shaking a little bit. I chug the water in one go as my throat was not as rough as earlier.

I clench the sheets under the blanket as my nightmare runs through my mind like a shortened movie.

A warm hand placed on my shoulder as it comfortingly grips my shoulder. "I suppose our little Aiden got a nightmare, " She said with a smile as chuckles escape through my parted lips.

"Please stop calling me 'little'. I am not a kid anymore Lady. Madeleine" I said with a small smile on my lips. She looks at me worriedly but didn't bother to ask me. Which I am really grateful for, Madeleine knows when to ask and when she's not. She's so observant and understanding that I wish everyone will have.

" Alright, if little Aiden says so, I guess he's ready to go for another patrol." She offers, I smile at her. Grateful. She sighs as she walks towards the door. "Luke wants you to be in the office at 11 AM. It sounds urgent but I suggest you go there when you feel a lot better ." She said. Her motherly side kicks in as she looks at me worriedly for the last time.

"I'm fine, " I said as I offered her a smile "Go to the dining room once you clean up your room, you didn't eat meal last night" She scolded with a stern look. "I will be there in five minutes" I assured her as she checks me for the last time before she completely closes the door, leaving me all alone in my room.

"Alarm, what time is it?" I ask the alarm clock beside me as it answers '9:30 in the morning ' in a computerized female voice. A sigh escaped through my lips again as I put the blanket aside. I stood up and stretch myself for a bit, cracking some joints in the process. I folded the blanket as I look around, planning on what to do first and what should I clean for the last.

Just seeing how messy my room was, I think I wouldn't be able to do it in just five minutes.

"Doggie put the dirty clothes in the basket," I said to my robot dog as it happily picks my dirty clothes from the floor as its tail wags wildly to the sides. My dog we're pretty similar to a human-formed robot but Doggie was so loyal to me and he's the only one I could trust in this modern world. Human-formed robots were like humans, just smarter. They were cunning and very manipulative, that's why the government destroyed them as soon as they knew what kind of robots they are.

/ITS YOUR FAULT/

I wince as my ears start ringing. I clutch my blonde hair tightly as my head starts to hurt from the ringing. After a minute, the ringing stops as I found myself sweating, which rarely happens to me. I gasp a mouthful of air as I exhale loudly before finishing my work as I went to the dining room soon after.

With a towel on my hand, I wipe my sweats on my forehead and neck as I made my way down the stairs.

"Aiden~" Abby sang my name as soon as she sees me. She clutches my jeans as soon as I arrive. I smile down at her and pick her up. She giggles in return as she starts kissing my right cheek while she clings to me. "Where's my chocolate, my candies, and my chocolate~!" She sings happily. I give her a lollipop, flavored chocolate, as he happily receives it. Jumping out of my arms as soon as she has the candy. She cheers as she dances. She removes the wrapper of the lollipop and throws it to the garbage can, as it burns automatically the plastic.

Madeleine glares at me as she finishes setting the table. "You shouldn't give her sweets!" she scolded me, but as usual, I shrug her off. I just love spoiling Abby. Her happiness is my happiness.

We take our seats as we began to pray for the food. As we eat silently, enjoying our food as my mind wanders unconsciously to my dream. Frowning at myself as I search for the meaning of my dream.

'What does it suppose to mean?'