*BUZZ* *BUZZ* *BUZZ* 

The vibration of a cell phone sounds out in a dimly lit room. It had the job of an alarm clock, set to wake up the young man who is hopelessly trapped in his slumber.  

*RING* *RING* *RING* 

*BUZZ* *BUZZ* *BUZZ* 

Five minutes later, the vibrations cease, only to be accompanied by the loud echoing of a shitty ringtone, the annoying and generic kind you usually find as the default in a new phone. This goes on for at least a minute, but it would still seem the young man isn’t keen on waking up anytime soon. 

*RING* *RING* *RING* 

*BUZZ* *BUZZ* *BUZZ* 

Five minutes later, the noises start up again, this time, they sound significantly louder than before. They seem hell-bent on not letting him rest for a minute longer. 

“Uugh...” the groans of the young man sound out as he shifts his body slightly in the direction of pesky noises, turning off the alarm and simply returning to his sleep, all without even opening his eyes and impacting his precious sleep too heavily. 

*RING* *RING* *RING* 

*BUZZ* *BUZZ* *BUZZ* 

The alarm sounds out a few minutes later again and the impact seems a bit more successful this time.  

“Arggh, come on... just a little longer” the young man seemingly pleads as he turns off the alarm again. 

This situation continues for about 30 minutes or so before the young man finally opens his eyes. His gaze wanders around his room for a while, not really looking at anything in particular, his body still strewn about the bed, finding it difficult to even move a single muscle. 

“God, I hate Mondays I swear” he murmurs under his breath before finally getting out of bed. He stands up somewhat clumsily before slowly walking out of his room and heads to take a shower. 

No particular thoughts come to his mind during this process at all and he seems to just be moving on autopilot as he goes about his normal routine. When he comes out of the shower, still sleepy and drowsy, evident by the look in his eyes, he heads back into his room, stopping in front of the mirror to take a quick glance of himself. 

‘If there is a God or something out there, me and them have some issues to hash out, how can you gift such average ass looks to someone like me man, why you gotta be so stingy...’ he complains inwardly to himself as he scrutinises his body from head to toe. 

The face that stares back at him in the mirror is the average and forgettable face you see in the crowd but never take a second look at. There is nothing particularly bad or ugly about his face per se, it’s just there are no noteworthy features that stand out about it, neither good nor bad, just plain and ... average. The black hair, brown eyes combo that captivates some people, isn’t all that noteworthy in his case at all. 

‘Well, apart from my face, I got nothing else to complain about...but if I had at least a solid 7/10 face instead of this shitty 5, I would be turning heads wherever I go.’ he says quite smugly as he eyes the relatively good parts of himself. 

Even though it may seem a bit narcissistic to say that, the statement is true. A well-toned and chiselled body, standing at 185cm tall, broad shoulders, buff chest, a decent looking six pack...Of all the athletes in his high school, he has the fittest and best-looking build out of all of them even though he doesn’t take it as serious as the rest. 

“Heh, I'm above average in that department too,...Hahaha, I’m better than those ‘studs’ of the soccer team who act like high and mighty around campus but perform poorly during game time” he grins evilly, finally getting rid of the dead look in his eyes.  

He takes some time to admire the good parts of himself and lets his gaze wander around his room before bringing it to a halting stop. He is transfixed on the corner of his room where there lies something so inconspicuous and well hidden. 

‘Well, I guess getting the opportunity to perform even if done poorly, is much better than someone like me who doesn’t even get a shot on the bench, only watching on from the sidelines hiding my grievances with a lovely smile.’ he laments inwardly to himself as he moves closer to the small dust bin filled with an enormous amount of tissues and used up bottles of lotion. 

“While those fuckers are all getting laid during the weekend, what was I doing huh? Pretty sure even the ugliest of dudes would be content with their lives with getting to try out even a fraction of the shit in the videos and doujins I consumed in real life...Haha how depressing honestly.”  

His libido seems to be quite high...a bit too high for an 18-year-old honestly. The number of used tissues in that bin exceed 20, even though 3 days sounds like a lot of time, it’s a bit too much depending how you look at it. 

---------------------------- 

After getting dressed up and disposing of everything in that dust bin, the young man known as Alex heads into the kitchen for a light breakfast. He sees quite a stack of dirty dishes but chooses to just ignore it. 

‘I guess I will finally put that cleaning service Aaron gave me to good use later today and have them help with this, but for now should I go for Cereal or a full on English breakfast...’  

He quickly finds some clean dishes and a frying pan and starts making his food, he finishes after a while and sits down on the couch. “I’ve gotten used to it by now but damn, this house is a bit too quiet when I actually come and sit down here. I wonder if there’s anything interesting on the Tv this morning.” he says as he finds the remote and turns it on. 

“Good Morning dear viewers!!!!! and welcome to the 7am news...”  

“Shit, I have 30 minutes before school starts, better hurry up” 

He quickly munches down on his food as he starts listening to the pointless ramble on the news. ‘Heh, Dad would probably the only one paying attention to all this stuff right about now...I never really understood the fixation with the listening to the same old shit every morning, hearing them whine about how bad the economy is and how worse it’s actually getting, crying about a job that doesn’t even pay as much in proportion to the work you do, bills that cost a little bit more than they should and all that other bullshit that comes along with it.... I can’t even remember much at this point, it’s been what, a year or two by now since then.’  

He reminisces on the days he used to be spend with his parents before an unfortunate accident led to their demise. A common case of drunk driving, somebody clearly too sloshed out for their own good on a Friday night but still insisted on driving which led to them speeding and obviously losing control on the freeway, crashing straight into his parents who were coming home from an anniversary dinner.  

Both of them died on the spot but unfortunately the drunk driver survived, and he got off scott-free. It was some second-generation young master from a rich family, he bribed the officials working on the case and paid some hush money to his parent’s lawyer and the cops in charge of the case and it was done just like that, it’s unfortunate but that’s the reality. His parents were not poor by any means, they were even somewhat well-off but there is always someone better out there and Alex obviously didn’t know how to even go about getting the guy brought to justice, not that he ever really believed in something like that anyway. 

‘Heh, some Land of the Free this is, even when you know there’s people who can do whatever they want in the world, most just don’t really care about it as much and just live in their own little bubble, even I am part of such a mentality but it’s obviously infuriating when it happens to you and especially when it’s quite clear that there’s nothing you can do about it.’ he grumbles inwardly before sighing and finishing his meal. 

As he finishes brushing his teeth and is about to leave for school, something catches his attention...” It is with great concern, but we urge people to be a bit mindful of themselves when they are out of their homes and going about the city this next few days or weeks probably. There has been a sudden increase and growing panic around the city with a significant number of people experiencing sudden bouts of hysteria, sudden amnesia and paranoia of events that seem to have never happened, etc things of that nature...” the news announcer says quite grimly before Alex switches off the Tv. 

‘Isn’t that just cause this shitty country has a massive drug issue and they aren’t doing anything about it...’ he thinks to himself before leaving the house. 

-------------------------------------- 

*CHIME* 

As Alex strolls into his classroom and heads to his regular seat, the bell rings before he sits down, he sighs audibly and relaxes into his seat. 

“Haha, Trouble waking up again Alex??” a voice says behind him. He looks back and sees his best friend and classmate Aaron with his head on the desk, the bags under his eyes evident. 

“You’re certainly one to talk”  

“Hey, at least I was doing something this weekend, unlike a certain someone” 

“Bullshit, don’t try to act like you got laid, the world would freeze over if that happened.” 

“Is that jealousy I hear, I know I'm handsome and all but you’re not bad yourself my friend hahahaha, there’s a few girls here in class who I'm sure would love to get it on with you.” 

“Fuck you!”  

“Hahahaha...” Aaron laughs before his face becomes quite serious. 

“What??” Alex gets flustered by the sudden change of expression. 

“Alex, are you okay??” he asks  

“Yeah, what’s up?” 

“You sure?” 

“Yeah” 

“Then... are you really gay or you swing both ways or something???” he asks with the utmost seriousness. Alex would usually write this off as a joke but he seems to be a bit serious this time. 

“Uhhhh, what kind of stupid question is that?” Alex asks a bit unhappily 

“Well, you never seem to go after any girls so I was just wondering if they just aren’t your type and...I did find some questionable evidence on your browser last week you know...” he says but quietens down before finishing due to the teacher coming in. 

“ALRIGHT!!!! Simmer down, all of you” the teacher says as he walks in, carrying a box of papers he throws down on his desk. 

*BANG* 

“...” 

“...” the students shut up as they can see he isn’t in the mood for nonsense today. 

“Well due to some bullshit reasons, I got a lot of work on my plate today so i don’t wanna hear no nonsense, Sarah, get on with the rollcall and do it properly and as efficiently as possible, I know there’s technology for this but they want to be extra careful today so tick em off if they’re here, scratch em out if they aren’t.” 

“Language sir!” “Yes Sir, right on it” two starkly different voices sound out in the room 

“Fuck off Aaron, I got no time for jokes today.” 

“Hai hai” he says as he sinks into his chair and shuts up. 

“...Um I’ll start now everyone, please say something as I all out your name” the girl named Sarah timidly says before proceeding. 

“Alex!” 

“I’m here!” 

“Aaron!” 

“Yo!” 

People quickly get on with anything else to keep themselves busy while their names get called out. 

“So you were saying...Questionable evidence???What does that even mean” Alex whispers as he turns his body back to Aaron slightly. 

“Some questionable tags were in your history my friend.” 

“Maddie!” Sarah shouts out but no response comes... 

“Did we have a Maddie in our class” someone says. 

“I’m not sure”  

“Just scratch it Sarah, let those in the admin department worry about it.” the teacher says and goes back to what he was doing... 

“T-Tags?? Which tags are you talking about? Alex asks quite nervously. 

“Hmmm, I don’t know, something like Mind break or Bondage even the cursed N-word as well? Aaron says. 

“Tsk! Are you serious...that’s all?” Alex clicks his tongue before he says quite unhappily. 

“Well, when I went through a few, they were all describing the process in heavy detail even for doujins, from the female perspective at that, whats up with that, you fap while imagining that is you dude???”  

“That’s a baseless accusation and you know it, most of em are in the girl’s perspective anyway.” Alex retorts 

“Lucas!” 

“Amy!” Sarah again shouts out unfamiliar names to the rest of the class before continuing when no one answers back. 

‘Huh, why do they sound a bit familiar, they might be common names but it feels like I know them, ehh whatever.” Alex frowns inwardly before continuing to listen to Aaron who seems to have kept on rambling. 

“...excessive amount of this tag there you know.” 

“sorry, which one?”  

“Quit zoning out, I was saying, there was an excessive amount of...femboys in there and Futa’s too, with futas on said femboys as well. I didn’t know you had that kind of fetish my friend.” Aaron says quite smugly 

“TSK!! Dont talk like you don’t search up some horrendous shit as well, you lousy degen...” Alex says as he tries to deflect due his embarrassment from being caught out by his friend. 

“Hahaha I’m guilty as charged, own your degenerate fantasies my friend” Aaron laughs heartily. 

*SWOOSH* 

Alex’s head feels like it got hit by a truck after hearing that and he almost falls of his chair but quickly balances himself. 

“You okay there bud?” Aaron asks. 

“Yeah I’m fine, just feeling a little out of it”  

“Haha, you really drained yourself out if you’re feeling like that...”  

“ROSE!!!” 

*CRACKLE!!!!!* 

The name sounds out like thunder in Alex’s ears. 

“ARRGH” he clutches his head in hands as he falls over and he starts spasming out on the floor. 

“Alex!” Aaron shouts out as he rushes to help him. 

It’s too unfortunate that Alex can’t hear him as he can’t even make sense of his own thoughts. It seems as if the name of that person triggered something in his mind and he couldn’t handle it, now he is being troubled by an excruciating headache. 

“ARRGHH! IT HURTS!” he screams before falling unconscious on the floor. 

“Alex! Alex!” Aaron shouts out. 

“Stop screaming like a madman and send him to the infirmary for some help, Aaron and Luke help him up!”. 

“Yes Sir” they respond quickly and send him out 

-------------------------------------------- 

The day didn’t go all that well for Alex as he spent most of it in the infirmary sleeping. He woke up and he felt nothing amiss with himself except a sudden feeling of emptiness somewhere inside him, as if he is missing something. 

The nurse as well didn’t find anything wrong with him, no symptoms of anything wrong with him, so they just let him sleep there, and he slept all day at that only waking up a few minutes before the day ended. 

After the bell rang for the last time of the day, he quickly bid farewell to the nurse as he hurries to get home, Aaron left him a note telling him he will check up on him at home and if there is anything wrong, he should come over before anything bad happens. 

Alex now walks on the pavement on his way home clutching his head, in confusion about what happened, he doesn’t know what warranted such a reaction from him, he tries to remember something but he can’t pinpoint where he has heard that name before. 

‘I had been feeling this...deja vu while hearing the other names being called out but I didn’t feel much from them. Is this Rose someone important, I can’t remember being close to any woman apart from my mother and the acquaintances from school but I’ve never had the feeling to pursue any of them as if it didn’t feel right to me no matter how lustful I am and my mom is my mom obviously.’ he thinks to himself but he can’t make any connection. 

“Am I in some shitty drama or something, how can I have some random amnesia, if this is what I think it is or did someone temper with my memories...but this isn’t some cultivation story like cmon bro..” he grumbles as he comes close to the intersection and he checks the road before attempting to cross it. 

‘Maybe I should head home and sleep, I'll think about all this later’ he thinks to himself and just focuses on the way home. 

*HONK* *HONK* *HONK* 

As he still stews his thoughts, he for some inexplicable reason, he isn’t aware of his surroundings, he can’t seem to perceive the approaching vehicle. 

*HONK* *HONK* *HONK* 

*HONK* *HONK* *HONK* 

*HONK* *HONK* *HONK* 

 

“Huh” 

He finally seems to be able to see his surroundings but he is body in now right in front of the oncoming truck that is speeding unnecessarily. 

‘Oi Oi Oi, am I really about to die like some shitty Japanese protagonist. Haha this is just too funny even when it really isn’t.’ he thinks inwardly before trying to get out of the way but it is proven useless as the truck slams into him, sending his body flying across the road, smashing right into a street light. 

*Bang* 

His body slowly falls onto the floor, bones broken in numerous places, flesh torn off and even the bone is visible... even if he were to survive, his body would only be a cripple. 

‘Haha Mom, Dad, it seems like this shitty world is trying to take me out in a similar way as well, it seems like I failed living up to your expectations...I’m sorry... your son has disappointed you.”  

Those were his last thoughts as the darkness and the grip of death took him away.