1 Chapter 1: The Computer

Present Day

Buzz—buzz—buzz—buzz—buzz! Bright red and deep blue sparks spontaneously etched the unsympathetic air by the valley—they dispersed in a flash. Leaves—branches from numerous rows of pinewood trees—and apple trees calmly blew in the harsh wind gusts. The lake's surface seldom but rhythmically rippled as the autumn leaves periodically fell from the forests, barren of animal life yet not dead. If you inhaled the air, it would smell like wet grass on an apple orchard. Trees fill the gaps between each of the three mountains. Then, like clockwork, the skies morph to glow a gorgeous azure with traces of pixels breaking through the serenity. Unlike this quite empty land, inside the red stone cave just across the lake from the forest: there is Oshose, a demon unlike many of his peers, sleeping on the hard granite floor. A red wool blanket crudely covered him. Stalagmites stick up from the bottom, and stalactites hang from the cave's ceiling. His mind wandered to dark places this day.

"How did things end up like this?" thought Oshose as he looked around the dark realm of his dream. What looked like scribbles floated all through the air. Much to his dismay, a shadowy figure emerged from the murky black fog. "We can't have you here anymore, Oshose," said the figure. "Isn't that right, everyone!?" they exclaimed. More shadows emerged from the darkness, chanting in unison with that one figure, "Kill the trash! KILL THE TRASH! KILL THE TRASH!!!"

"What do you want from me?! I can't control who gave birth to me!", Oshose yelled in his defense. His palms were sweaty from nervousness, his knees weak from fear, and his arms heavy from pressure. 'Wow, what's next? Mom's spaghetti? No.' One by one, the horde of shadowy figures started charging at Oshose. One of the shrouded faces became visible through the darkness. Bright yellow eyes glowed from the figure, illuminating its face for a moment. Oshose's stomach was about to drop from the inevitably brutal fate he was about to suffer. Then some mysterious scraggly voice shouted, "Wake the hell up, you trash." The voice sounded like it was echoing through time. Soft and bright, the veils coming off.

Oshose woke up screaming in a sweat. "Ugh, morning already?" he gasped with surprise as he noticed a light teasing the stone walls surrounding him.

Limestone-like tiny glass shards, the blinding white light reflected erratically off parts of the walls. He covered his eyes. There it was again. That scraggly voice tormented his ears once more. "What the hell was that sound?" stammered Oshose as he frantically darted his head around. He exhaled with resistance. "Oh well. Never mind," he conceded, confused.

He grabbed the brown pirate boots next to him and slipped them onto each foot. Walking down the long hallway of the cave, it felt like forever as water dripped from stalactites on the ceiling. The entrance of the cave was so close yet so far away.

Finally, Oshose approached the mouth of the cave, gazing outward to see a lake, forest, mountains, a layer of fog, and an obscured beyond. Extending both of his bat-like wings outward, he thrust both downward. Propelled into the air, the wind tickling his face.

"What is this place? Who am I? Why does this place seem so familiar?" he pondered as he looked at his surroundings from up high above the thin layer of clouds. The horizon seems to span for miles and miles.

Oshose flies down back through the layer of clouds. Chilly air blows in his face. The ground approaches exponentially fast. As he gets closer to the ground, he flies in front of the mountain and hovers above the lake.

"You were always such a little bitch. Weak!" a crackly voice seemingly yelled from an abyss.

"There it is again. Am I hearing voices?" babbled Oshose with increasing worry in his tone.

He starts to hyperventilate. Lungs get heavier by the second. "I've got to get out of here!" gasped Oshose as he began to run. Looking around hastily, he continued to fly off the handle, "Come on, there's got to be a way out of here somewhere!" The sun hung lower on the horizon than what he felt like a short while ago. He had been flying back toward the sky for seemingly many hours.

A few minutes later

"Where is it? Where is it?! Where IS IT?!!" snapped Oshose, as time slipped away from him in a few minutes. He flew over the vast forest area, trees below him zooming by. "This forest never ends, does it?!" wheezed Oshose as his breath grew weaker by the minute.

Exhausted, hungry, dead inside, and out of hope, he saw an ample rectangular-shaped light. "That's it. The edge now I can esca—" he stuttered, out of energy. The rectangle got closer. Closer! But then he realized he could not go any further. A glass barrier blocked him from proceeding. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, as the slight hope that glimmered in his long mundane existence had since faded to embers.

"How did this happen while I was a—sl—heep?" whaled Oshose as his voice broke. He whimpered in despair. "God dammit!!" Images of seven shadowy figures flashed in Oshose's mind, sending him into a blind panic. "Don't think I'm on your side just because I hate him," asserted a male voice with a sort of high but low and ranged pitch. Tears run down his cheeks. He agonizingly starts to sob—moan.

Oshose frantically clawed at the glass barrier—pathetically trying to break it, but to no avail. "W—why won't the glass f—ucking b—break?!" stuttered Oshose, sobbing through his vocal breaks.

Curling up into the fetal position, he continued to cry. Then almost out of nowhere, a surprise came in the form of an apple that materialized in Oshose's hand. He gazed down at the fruit in his palm. "D—did I do that?" he muttered.

What's this apple doing here?" wondered Oshose. His tears ceased for the moment, replacing his sorrow with existential disbelief. "I don't remember picking this up."

Meanwhile, a demon watches Oshose closely in a mysterious office, observing his every move and word via monitors. He sits in a dark room lit only by the subtle glow of computer monitors. "Hahaha, this is going to be a blast," laughed the man. A nametag is visible on his leather jacket that reads "Solrac, Prodigy of Greed."

"Well fuck it, it's free food," blurted Oshose joyfully. He got to his feet again and began to trek back through the forest. The oblivious demon munched on his apple with a confused look on his face. Like a zoo animal being fed, he finished the first apple. Soon after, a second apple appears in his hand like nothing happened. "Another apple? This can't be a coincidence. God, is this your doing?"

"God? Oh, no, no, no," chuckled Solrac. His position in the chair shifted from leaning his face in his left palm on the desk to leaning forward with his hands together. Akin to a cliché villain. "God isn't with us here," he laughed. His right eyebrow raised. "It seems like he hasn't fully remembered where he is," remarked Solrac with a confident voice.

Oshose began munching on the second apple with great speed. It is gone almost instantly. Another apple appears in his right hand, and he stuffs it in his mouth, inhaling it like a cartoon character. "Thank you, heavenly father!" said Oshose with a perky voice. "I will continue to have faith in you."

"Okay, I'm starting to think that he'll never remember. And it's getting tedious thinking he had a revelation and realizing it's a false alarm," said Solrac annoyed and bored. His right palm now holds up his face. "No, that's just how he's always been—" He smirks. "—A complete idiot."

Finally approaching the base of the left furthest mountain, he flies up, landing on top of the middle peak. "This looks like a good place to sit," said Oshose, taking a seat on the tiny summit of the mountain. As far as he can see, clouds are on the horizon. The sun shines its brightest as it starts to set. There is a bitter but welcoming quiet. He stares off with a blank expression of blind gratitude. "Well, that's cool. I have unlimited apples," he suggests. He leans back calmly. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all!"

"Man, he is so freaking dumb," said Solrac with a look of boredom.

Oshose starts to nod off as he eats his last apple. "Man, I'm tired," he yawned. He gets up and stretches. "Alright, time to go back to the cave." Oshose gets off to a running start, gliding down with extended wings. The warm wind blows in his face. He almost falls asleep a few times while in midair. He finally approaches the mouth of the cave, then he lands. "I'm going to get out of here," said Oshose dramatically.

"Oh? Is he starting to remember, perhaps?" sneered Solrac. "This is getting good."

"I really want to see the world and get to know this area better," said Oshose with a deadpan tone but a happy expression.

Solrac shrugs and shakes his head. "I honestly don't know what I expected to happen."

Oshose stretches once more and cracks his back. Walking into the cave, and down his bedroom's long, dank hallway. Hours pass, and the sun slowly sets on the horizon. Its reddish-orange light complemented the nimble edge of dark black, starless skies rising.

Oshose woke up, stretching with arms outstretched. "That was a good nap. I feel so rejuvenated!" he declared with extreme relief. The sunset crept through the cave halls, and the walls glistened a reddish-orange. He got up and started walking toward the cave entrance; the light grew more blinding as it got closer with each step. Looking down at the magnificently large lake seemed to draw back memories. The orange-red light reflected off the clear waters. The soil now felt slightly damp underneath his soles. Unbeknownst to Oshose, it was drizzling ever so slightly. "I think I'll go to the lake–" His innocent daydreaming was cut short. A sudden and violent mass of electrification materialized on the ground below him, just by his side of the lake's shore. A sword in a pedestal appears amid the electricity. Oshose stares at it for a few seconds. The strange red, blue, and yellow color of the electrification reflects off his cornea. Just as it starts to hurt to look directly at it, a woman with four horns, long hair, and bat-like wings appears in place of the sword and pedestal. "What is that? A woman?" muttered Oshose. "She looks familiar." Only able to look at her for a few seconds.

"Hahaha! What are you doing, Oshose?" mocked a woman's voice. "Trying to figure it out?" she said softly and seductively. "Don't bother with that," she said in the same tone but with a hint of condescension. She cackles as she laughs sinisterly with intense reverberation. Like she's in a large cathedral.

In a different locale, there is a silhouette of a woman. She chuckles. "All according to plan. Hehe," she thought.

The woman disappears in a flash of light, and the pedestal's sword reappears. "She's gone," muttered Oshose—shocked. "And what is that? A sword? I should go investigate–" The sword is gone. "Agh—gh—ah—ahhhhh!!!" he moans—writhing in pain. A mysterious feeling of electrocution fell over him, like a trickling tingle of pins and needles all over his body. "Wh—at is this feeling a—all over my body?!" he thought as he struggled to move. The feeling of a million needles stabbing him all over intensifies. Suddenly, the sword appears in his hand and with a sheath around his waist. "Is this sword mine now? What the hell?" gasped Oshose. In a flash, everything went black, and the silhouettes of four demons flash before him. The tall and skinny one smiling and standing in a smug pose. The one with the mohawk pointing and laughing. The hooded one just standing there with glowing light-blue eyes. And the last one holding a book, speaking some unknown tongue. "Who are they? I keep getting visions of them?" thought Oshose. "Who the fuck are they? I literally have no clue," he shouted with a flushed look.

He still sits in his chair, watching Oshose's every move on the monitors in front of him. Solrac looks back in his peripheral vision without fully turning his head. "Wow, he really forgot us?" chuckled Solrac. "I'm hurt," now sarcastically with a smug face. "Hey guys, Oshose doesn't remember us." He looks behind him. "Guys?" he said softly. While lightly shaking, sweat runs down his forehead. "Hey Ecniv, get a load this idiot!" he shouted. But to no response. "Ecniv?" now quieter. Solrac looks back at his monitors with increasing anxiousness. There is a sudden clack of a footstep. Solrac jerks his body backward in his chair to see what is behind him. So much so that he bumped his left knee on the armrest of his chair. There is a demon wearing a red vest underneath a long black hooded cloak. Long slightly curved horns on either side of his head. His bat-like wings closed and tucked underneath a black cloak. He wears below-the-knee button-up black leather boots. A stern look on his face and his glowing light-blue eyes that can stare into your soul. "Where is Ecniv?" asked Solrac with a slightly raised voice. "What did you do?!" now yelling. His eyes dilate with anger. The hooded demon lets out a huff that sounds like a wild beast (or the exhaust of a large truck). "Who are you really?" asked Solrac with a sound of extreme suspicion.

Back inside the computer, Oshose is laughing maniacally. He jumped off the edge of the cave mouth with his sword on his waist and flew away. "Hahahahahahah!!! No one can stop me! This land is mine!!!" yelled Oshose in a manic tone. He thinks he's in control, but he has another thing coming.