1 The Mysterious Countdown
Summer of Year 2023
[ Living Room of Chronos's House ]
The inky darkness of the aged apartment clung to the air, heavy with the stench of mold and the muted sounds of dripping water.
Worn-out dusty curtains blocked out most of the afternoon light.
The walls were stained with years of neglect, and the musty smell of dampness hung heavy in the air.
The furniture was old and worn, the paint chipped and peeling.
Soon the sleeping prince of rags, opened up his eyes, as he groaned,
"I should just never wake up…"
He mumbled under the almost suffocating silence of his room.
Chronos was a savant born into an abusive family of bruises, broken bottles and empty needles
His photographic memory meant that -
Each blood drenched strand of hair...
Every crimson droplet...
Each convulsion of grief...
Was etched deeply into his consciousness.
His cruel upbringing meant that he was numb from pain but something was different this time.
Something… Unnatural.
[ 0 Hours: 59 Minutes : 32 Seconds ]
"Huh?!"
Chronos rubbed his eyes once, twice, many times. Yet, that … timer… remained floating in front of him.
"What in the world…?"
He reached out to grab it but to avail. The timer seemed imprinted in his vision…
"Have I finally completely lost my mind?"
Chronos questioned his sanity as he shook off the weight of sleep still clinging to his limbs.
Darting his eyes across his room, he recognized every nook and cranny of this cemetery of positivity.
This was, in fact his own room.
He scanned the pores of his hands, and patterns of his fingerprints. This was his body.
'But what is this countdown for?'
'Will there be danger?'
'Is this finally... the end?'
Chronos thought to himself with an unusual calmness as he blinked away the remnants of his dreams.
Although he suspected an impending death, he did not feel fear.
There was no panic, no longing for life, just a twisted anticipation amidst a peculiar serenity.
[ 0 Hours: 10 Minutes : 29 Seconds ]
All of a sudden, the sound of the front door crashing open shattered his peace. Chronos looked up to see a disheveled man.
He had a head of matted and greasy hair which curtained over a set of sunken bloodshot eyes.
He was mumbling unintelligibly under his breath as he paced forward.
His stained and torn clothes hung off a tall emaciated frame but he still had a threatening presence.
He moved with a certain lethargic menace, threatening the violence of one who had been pushed to the edge.
"TIME TT…TO PAY YOUR RENT… BOY!"
A rough gravelly roar echoed within the tiny decrepit apartment.
"And… what if I refuse?"
Chronos replied as he stood up, unfazed by the shadowy figure making his way toward him.
"Then as… as… your dad, I… I'll BEAT SOME DISCIPLINE INTO YOU!"
Without warning, the menacing zombie of a man lunged at Chronos, frenzied and uncoordinated.
Chronos met the attack head-on.
His movements fluid and precise.
Dodging, weaving and parrying every attack with concise and calculated movements.
Before Chronos's grandfather had disappeared that one day, he taught Chronos the ancient art of Tai Chi and left him a manual that became his saving grace.
Chronos found solace in the ancient martial art and practiced it tirelessly.
His evenings in the park as a Tai Chi instructor became the only way he could feed himself.
He cherished the regular evening dosages of warm smiles and caring voices.
Though no one ever brought it up, Chronos knew that the neighborhood Aunties and Grandmas had hired him as an instructor to put some money in his pocket.
After all, his father's reputation as a known drug addict and abuser was no secret in the neighborhood...
In a blur of motion, Chronos twisted the disheveled man's arm and pinned him on the rotting floor board.
He writhed and thrashed, his face contorted with pain and anger, but Chronos held him firmly in place.
"You fucking lost the right to call yourself my dad THE. DAY. YOU. KILLED. MOM!!"
Chronos roared, burying the man's face deeper into the creaking floor.
The blood boiling within his veins begging to snap the man's arm off.
Chronos seethed with anger.
Every horrific detail of every bruise, scar or tear, that painted the desolation that was his mother's marriage flooded his mind.
"NOOOOOO… Whyyy… WHYYYY… WhyyYYYY…!!!"
A vivid scene of a young boy letting out a gut-wrenching scream of agony as his body collapsed in the pool of blood flashed in Chronos's mind.
His mothers lifeless gaze staring emptily back at him.
A muffled enraged bellow snapped Chronos back to reality.
"LESST MEE GGO YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!! "
" What I would give to be one…"
Chronos retorted coldly as he pushed off from the maniacal man who called himself dad.
[ 0 Hours: 05 Minutes : 18 Seconds ]
'If these are really my last minutes…'
Chronos grabbed the dagger he had hid under his pillow.
The seconds started to slow down as Chronos inched toward his father,
A cacophony of screams and cries of both his deceased mother and his younger self flooded his mind from the deep corners of his memory.
'This is for... the unrepairable scars of my childhood'
'This is justice for our... pain'
'This... is retribution for mom...'
"DIE !!!"
Chronos's self-justifying thoughts mutated into a guttural roar as he yanked the dagger towards his father's throat.
*SLASH*
Chronos watched intently as the man who had tortured him his entire life stumbled backwards. His hands clutched at his throat as blood gushed between his fingers.
"Ugrrhh… Y..o…u…."
Shock and terror dilated his eyes.
As he fought for breath, a gurgling sound choked from his throat.
His movements became uncoordinated and jerky.
His body wracked with spasms as he collapsed to the ground.
The sound of his rasping breaths echoed through the silence, an eerie and disturbing reminder of the violence that had just taken place.
'Mom... maybe now... you can finally rest in peace...'
Chronos stood firm and inhaled a deep breath of the unsettling smell of iron that permeated from the pool of crimson ahead of him.
He could have turned away...
Instead, he etched every detail of his withering father into his consciousness, as if it were a tribute to his deceased mother.
He felt a strange sense of guilt.
Not guilt of taking a life, but guilt that he felt no regret or remorse.
Instead of feeling panicked or a heavy burden in his conscience, there was a chilling numbness within him that he didn't know how to feel about.
Then suddenly,
[ 0 Hours: 0 Minutes : 0 Seconds ]
Chronos clutched his chest...
His face contorted in pain as a sudden, sharp sensation gripped his body.
His breathing became labored...
Each breath coming in short, gasping bursts as he struggled to draw air into his lungs.
*THUD*
He collapsed to the ground.
Chronos's body shook violently, pain consuming him as an unbearable weight pressed down.
As his breathing slowed and his body grew still...
Chronos closed his eyes, his face settling into a peaceful expression.
[ What Happens After Death? ]
'An eternal darkness?'
'Reincarnation?'
'Heaven? Hell?'
These thoughts flashed across Chronos's mind as his vision blurred...
The excruciating pain slowly fading as his consciousness tore asunder.
Darkness ...
An eerily alien sensation, or lack thereof...
Having no physical construct to comprehend his surroundings, all that was left was nothingness and peace...
He couldn't grasp the concept of life, how he lived, why he died... Did it even matter anymore?
With whatever sentience he had left slowly falling into an eternal slumber, suddenly, two sigils lit up the void.
One was a crest with an hourglass of sorts.
It was emanating a white silvery hue, silent in its regality.
The other sigil was that of a diamond separated into four arrows pointing outward north, south, east and west.
This sigil had an ominous dark-purplish aura, overbearing in its claim on its surroundings.
These whitish-silver and purple lights coalesced into each other forming a core that became denser and denser.
The process of fusion was both graceful and intense.
The particles swirled and spun around one another, weaving a complex tapestry of light and energy.
The particles seemed to come alive as they merged with one another, creating new forms of energy that were both beautiful and powerful.
The synergy of the lights fueled the core's growing size and intensity...
It started to pulse and expand as if it were a living entity.
Finally, the fusion process reached its climax, the palpitating core seemed to have reached its full potential...
The brilliant light show was but a façade of the intensity of the fusion. A powerful shockwave rippled out the core, distorting the fabric of whatever space Chronos was in.
He had not the cognitive functions to understand what was going on...
But after a while he caught a glimpse of the two sigils, now combined -
The hourglass, adorned with four arrows branching out like cardinal directions, loomed over him, exuding an air of regal dominance.
It stood overbearing in its beauty, a testament to its mysterious force.
At the very moment at which they seemed to lock 'eyes', an explosion of a majestic blue consumed Chronos and what was left was...
Nothing...
*Beep* ... *Beep*... *Beep*…
