1 Insomnia
'The Sun's already up huh?' I looked up from my phone the light of a sunrise peaking through my window. It's been days now and my sleep schedule had only worsened, I have been unable to sleep well, I feel no sense of fatigue for most of the day until some random point where it's as if every hour I stayed awake had caught up to me making pretty much pass out on the spot. However the thing is I only sleep for 2 hours even after how sleep deprived I am.
'I can't even force myself to sleep.'
I would be lying if I said I wasn't severely scared when the world I'm in can kill people for falling asleep. Yeah that's just how it is, a few decades ago this mysterious phenomenon had hit Humanity, the world had been recovering from Human nature when a sudden disease had spread making many people give reports of unnatural fatigue and once they fell asleep the things that woke up were not them that is the Nightmare Spell that devastated the Human race.
Now barely any part of the world is inhabited by humans, only 3 Continents out of the 7 are inhabited by Humans that were now called Quadrants, we have Antarctica, Asia and Africa the reason for the name Quadrants is because there's one other place that Humans inhabit, and it's Australia.
So 4 Continents are infested with Nightmare Creatures, which is what the monsters are called, plus with how little Humans occupied the Water and the Creatures being able to inhabit it like they're fish. We're surrounded in a losing battle.
Everywhere that Humans aren't, these monsters are, the other continents aren't even habitable for Humans anymore it's a wasteland with the oxygen being poisonous. Now I how I made it sound, and it isn't THAT bad to where we can't fight back, the Monsters have been become immune to conventional weaponry, but to our luck some people woke up from their Nightmares and weren't Monsters, these people fought off the Nightmare Creatures which allowed us to keep these 4 Quadrants.
The Nightmare Spell or just the Spell for short, came with both disaster and opportunity. So although it seems like I have the opposite of the Nightmare Spell I don't want to be too complacent in a world where sleeping can be fatal.
If you wondered what happens when you fall asleep, if it's random or not that you'll survive, it actually isn't random, you're tested instead. Your soul will be taken to another world of sorts where you'll be forced to fight terrors of unknown origins that will drive you mad as people commit atrocities against each other as a way to cope in some way.
Now you must see why I'm worried about my sleep schedule right? I'd rather never go to such a place.
"Although you do get superpowers when you enter, but from what Krystal said the abilities you get at the start are subpar, you're barely better than a normal human, so not worth it." I finally managed to garner enough motivation to drag myself out of my bed.
However the way I did it was quite slothful as I hanged over the side of my bed and dragged myself off, doing an involuntary flip that landed me on my back with a thump.
Now off of the bed I didn't feel like putting in the effort to get back up on the bed so I got up and entered the bathroom.
Once inside the bathroom I just leaned on the sink counter for a minute and stared at the face in the mirror.
He had messy black hair from having just woken up, unsightly bags under his eyes that showed his horrid sleep schedule then pared with his dark brown eyes that bordered on the line of being black he looked as gloomy as a shadow in the corner of a room when the sun's light shines through at noon.
However his gloominess was contrasted by the bright sky blue pajamas he wore and the same color sleeping cap.
"What a handsome guy." I smiled slightly at myself that which didn't come out how I had imagined, looking instead like I was giving a depressed smirk right before my electric chair was activated.
Having seen that same smile everyday I wasn't perturbed in anyway as I splashed water on my face, waking myself up completely, any fatigue I had wasn't going to return until hours later.
Finally awake I settled my morning necessities put on a black polo shirt with a tie and paired it with black jeans and some white sneakers before leaving my room into the hallway, sleek and expensive materials everywhere around me.
'I forget how rich they are sometimes.' Right now I lived with my childhood friends family and as could be seen, they're rich.
The reason for this arrangement? My parents had died in an explosion accident leaving me their inheritance that would allow me to live without work for my entire lifetime, however the worst part was I wasn't old enough to even claim it, so I was scheduled to be put in an orphanage while the orphanage takes my inheritance money.
However my childhood friend's parents couldn't allow me to go down such a depressing road and adopted me while also allowing me to keep my inheritance in the form of an allowance. So for the last 5 years I've lived here in great hospitality and company as they took care of me.
Wait, enough of that. What's that smell?
I sniffed the sweet air as it lured me downstairs and into the kitchen.
"You're finally awake Lemon." Krystal, my childhood friend's older sister turned around to me with a smile as she flipped a pancake with a spatula.
She had short black hair and dull but teasing grey eyes as she wore black shorts and a pink shirt that said something, but I could only see the few letters on the side, M, G and A because the most of it was covered by the apron she wore.
"Good morning." Lumian smiled at me as he was also seated at the dinning table on his phone.
Lumian is my childhood friend that I've known all my life since I was first taken out the womb, I'm not lying, we were born at the same time next to each other, we're more like twin brothers than friends.
Lumian had messy but stylish in a way black hair like his dad, but on his eyes he took more from his mother with his bright green eyes that radiated playfulness and a bright outlook on life.
Lumian like his demeanor suggested wore a laid back outfit of grey sweatpants and a hoodie, I didn't know what was under his hoodie but from the little of his shirt I could see under his sweater it was white.
"Good morning." I greeted back as I sat the table.
"Sleep any?" Krystal asked while giving us two plates of breakfast, pancakes with eggs and bacon.
"Nope, by the time I noticed it was already sunrise." I answered honestly as I slathered everything on my plate with syrup, even my eggs because it's just better that way.
"You took those sleeping pills right?" Krystal questioned with worry evident on her face as she took of her apron.
"Yeah of course." I nodded as I stuffed a pancake in my mouth. "I love sleep so why wouldn't I?" I spoke with my mouth full.
"Don't speak with your mouth full." Krystal said, serving herself a plate of breakfast as well and sitting across from me. However I hadn't fully been listening and just responded absentmindedly with a "Yes Ma'am" as I had been reading her shirt that I could finally fully see since her apron was off.
'Most Likely To: Get us all arrested, ain't that the truth.' The shirt she wore was completely true in every regard no matter how mature she sometimes acted.
Although I hadn't been listening to Krystal, I had still answered correctly and she nodded slightly in satisfaction at my 'obedience' as she scooped up a spoon of scrambled eggs and ate it.
We then just ate in a peaceful silence just the three of us, their parents weren't here since being 2 CEO's that shared authority for one of the biggest companies in the Northern Quadrant (Asia) didn't allow for much free time.
"Coffee?" Krystal offered.
"Nah/Nah." Both me and Lumian answered at the same time. I've never been a fan of coffee no matter what is put in it, and I completely didn't understand Krystal who drank straight black coffee and enjoyed it.
"Suit yourselves." Krystal shrugged as she drank her coffee as if it was the best thing ever.
After the nice breakfast I got up and cleaned our dishes.
"You didn't have to do that Y'know." Krystal appeared behind me as she leaned her head on my left shoulder.
"Just wanted to, I like to move." I responded nonchalantly, she did this a lot.
"Oh? I'd like to see you move in a few other ways then~." She immediately started sexually assaulting me as she held my waist.
"You're a pedophile." I continued washing the dishes while shaking off her hands.
"Nuh uh, you turned of age a week ago." Krystal protested as she took her head off my shoulder and sat on the counter behind her, watching me.
"And that makes it better?" I turned around to look at her, astonished that she said that.
"Why're you surprised she's always been a pedophile, at least she hasn't moved on her thoughts." Lumian's voice calmed me a bit as I remembered she had always been making sexual jokes(?) about my body with no shame.
"Yeah you're right." I nodded and brought my attention back on the dishes.
"Humph." Krystal pouted and crossed her arms.
"Krystal please act your age, although I see you trying to deny time it isn't working." I never turned while speaking.
"Rude!" Krystal jumped off the counter and left the house. I knew she didn't really care since that was just our usual banter, she most likely only left because she had something to do.
Finally done with the dishes I dried my hands off and headed for the door as well, I had survival lessons to attend that Krystal had suggested to me.
She had told me that the most important thing in a Nightmare wasn't how powerful you are but your survivability, no matter how powerful you are if you're stranded in the middle of nowhere and don't know how to scavenge for food, with nothing to eat you'll still starve to death.
How does she know all this about the Nightmare Spell? Might be your question, and it's an easy answer, she has already gone through the Nightmare Spell and even became a relatively known and powerful Awakened. Meaning she had beaten the Nightmare Spell 2 times!
Amazing right, it's one of the reasons I put up with her pedophilia, I understand that she's gone through a lot and survived a lot, and the fact that she's been a great person to me all these years helps too.
However it still kind of sucks for her since she's pulled into the Spell everytime she goes to sleep, but it's not hopeless since there are capitals built in the Spell allowing her to not actually have to fight monsters when she sleeps.
"I'm gone now Lumian." I waved goodbye to my brother who waved back as I reached for the doorknob.
"!?" I suddenly lost feeling in my legs.
"You alright bro? Why're you just standing there?" Lumian noticed my irregularity and voiced his concerns.
However I couldn't answer I had no strength to as a tsunami of drowsiness drowned me, bringing me to my knees.
'Now? Why…now? I should…still have…hours…before I'm tired.' My thoughts came out sluggish as I struggled to stay conscious. 'And…it shouldn't be…so…potent.' I finally noticed what was happening from this abnormality as my eyes widened.
"Lem-!" Lumian's words barely registered in my ears.
'The Nightmare Spell!' Was all I could think for I had fainted.
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"Captain! Captain! We've been hit hard we're taking on too much water!" I heard a voice screaming.
"Board it up as best you can we can't lose this cargo! We'll have to find a way to land on an island!" Another voice screamed as well, seeming to be responding to the first voice.
"Ugh, the hell?" I slowly got up off the wooden and uncomfortable floor, there were poorly placed nails sticking out of the wood poking me, and I was wet, it was like a heavy rain was pouring down on me.
Bang!
The sound of thunder startled me awake forcing me to open my eyes and take in my surroundings while constantly having to balance myself from the rocking back and forth of the ship.
'Wait ship!'
"Good you're awake mate! You took a nasty hit, now get to helping if you don't want to die!" A man who seemed to be in his 40s ordered me, raising his voice over the sound of the men running around frantically and the storm around us.
He had a rough and messy beard and a bald head. He wore clothes typically found from a man in the Medieval times as a pirate, he wore a pirate hat as well that he held to his head.
"Well!? You just gonna stand there!?" The man roared.
"Oh what the hell is happening!?"
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