Chapter 4
"Uugh...", Pascal groaned as he scratched the back of his head.
He looked around him and immediately got struck by confusion.
He had woken up on a field of grass near a house. The house looked similar to the one he lived in, but it gradually looked different the closer he looked at it.
The house he had gotten used to had three levels of floors, while the one in front of him looked like it only had two.
There was a massive gap between their decorations too. His house had splendid and unique carvings etched along its exterior, while this one did not. Both were wooden houses, so this was important.
Its paintwork was almost the same as Pascal's house, albeit his was more polished. It was painted with multiple shades of grey, light and dark, and it blended well together.
The house still stood in the middle of a forest clearing but the clearing where his house stood was much more wider.
Pascal sighed and massaged his temples with his two fingers.
"What the hell...", Pascal said.
If he remembered correctly, He blacked out after he passed through their front door.
That is what he thinks happened anyway.
Pascal stood up and decided to wander around. he considered it a great course of action for now.
"This house looks awfully familiar to ours... Why am I even here?", He asked to himself, His eyebrows furrowed and with a confused tone.
He took a walk around the premises and found a lot of interesting things.
A cluster of tree stumps with a few of them in the process of being dug out.
A mutated rabbit with an abnormal amount of blood leaking and staining its fur.
A pile of mossy and unused bricks stacked together to make a vague construct of a castle.
"Eugh... Who the heck would be stupid enough to leave a bleeding mutant alone?", Said Pascal.
Mutants a group of creatures that somehow developed their own individual quirks and are usually dangerous to be approached by anyone unarmed or incapable.
Mutants such as these rabbits are required to have their carcass immediately taken care of. This is because individuals from their hive have the ability to sense another member's death, and will have the tendency to retaliate. The scent of exposed blood and innards can aid them effectively.
"Is this supposed to be some kind of bait? I hope not.", Pascal said as he confirmed whether it was a part of a badly made trap or not.
He ignored his other findings and just went away instead.
Since he already explored what he could and did not feel the need to do so any longer, He decided to enter the house.
He was unsure if there was anyone inside the house so he refused to go inside uninvited, not just because it was rude.
"Excuse me! Is anyone there?", He said.
He knocked on its front door, but he received no answers.
"No one? Well, Pardon me Plea- ..."
As he entered the house's front door, His vision suddenly started spinning and he fell down on all fours.
Pascal groaned as he struggled to balance his arms into the ground. His mind panicked and was bit with a potent venom of confusion.
His brain felt like it had slime and oil poured all over it, His head felt an intense pain. If this went on for more than an hour, he would surely go insane.
'What?! How is this happening!?"', Pascal yelled in his mind.
His surroundings shifted and rearranged themselves like an autonomous jigzaw puzzle, A pile of broken glass obeying the orders of a clever architect.
What he thought was the interior of a awfully familiar house, turned into an Autumn colored forest.
The warm colored leaves shook and fell as they were blown off by the wind.
The ground was littered with leaves and bugs hiding under those leaves.
His body shuddered and shivered slightly. Since he was still in the state of being nauseous, He could only rely on his thick jacket.
The wind was cold, but Pascal felt that they could get even colder if more days passed by.
"Uugh...", Pascal groaned.
"Why does this always happen to me...?", He said as he stood up steadly and leaned back on a tree.
"What kind of dream is this?", He said.
Due to what happened earlier, He was able to piece together that what was currently happening was just a dream. Atleast a different kind of dream.
A house's hallway usually doesn't just turn into a forest after all.
He sighed deeply, but his ears suddenly perked up and heard a familiar voice.
"Hey, Mom. Can I talk to you about something?", The voice said.
Pascal looked behind the tree he was leaning on and saw the source of the voice.
'Is that me...?", He thought.
The source of the voice was revealed to be a young boy that looked like a younger version of Pascal. He had seen dozens of old pictures of him and it looked exactly like that boy.
The boy sat on a wide bench overlooking the whole forest in a high hill.
'Could this be a memory? I'm having a flashback in a dream..?", Pascal yelled in his mind.
"Hm? What's up?", Said a feminine voice.
Pascal noticed a beautiful woman that sat next to the boy and figured out she was the one that the younger version of him was talking to.
The woman had glossy scarlet hair and had lilac colored eyes.
'Wait, I've never seen this woman before, Who is this?', He thought.
"You see... M-my-",
"Ah! Let me guess- is it a crush? That's to be expected, you're in your puberty after all!", The woman as she cut off the young boy's words.
The young boy widened his eyes and a red blush formed along his cheeks.
"What!? No! That's not it!", The boy yelled.
"It about my powers...", The boy said in a weak tone.
"Oh. Sure, go ahead.", The woman said as she sat straight and placed all her attention on the boy.
'I don't remember any of this. This isn't even a memory of mine, is it?', He thought.
What Pascal thought was a forgotten memory was revealed to be something else.
"I got into a fight yesterday... In school. We were fighting far away, so I'm sure a teacher didn't see it.", The boy said.
Woman leaned over to the boy and gazed into his eyes.
"What are you trying to say? Are you guilty? Are you anxious because someone will tell on you?", Asked the woman.
The boy grasped his fabric of his pants, and his lips transitioned into a frown.
"It's not that. I forgot to tell you I had powers now.", Said the young boy.
The woman looked like she wanted to say something, but kept her mouth shut instead.
"I had a fight with one of the guys from the other classes and won. His friends abandoned him and they said that I was a better leader than he was.", The boy stated with a tiny droplets in his cheeks.
"It felt great. I beat him and I won his friends over, but I feel bad now. Is that good..?", Said the boy.
The woman smiled at the boy and pulled him into her chest. She pulled him into a warm embrace.
"I think you already know it by now, but fighting isn't good.", Said the woman, The mother.
The young boy nodded and more droplets fell down his cheeks.
"Your new friends can you tell me more about them?", Requested the Mother.
"They're bad. They always make me angry, and I want them to stop...", Said the boy.
"How are you going to stop them? By being friends with them? That's no good.", Said the mother.
"You need good friends. If you keep being friends with them, Then you're just going to end up being the same as they are.", Added the mother.
"What do you mean?", asked the boy.
"You secretly want to stay with them don't you? You want to feel needed and powerful, right? I know that feeling.", Said the mother.
A relationship that only exists because one needs the other, and the other wants the one. A relationship similar to that of a boss and an employee with no deep relation to each other.
The boy wanted to retort, but he couldn't. His mother was right.
"That's why you need good friends. You don't need to feel needed or powerful with them. You'll forget all about it when you're when you're with a bunch of good friends.", Said the mother, Tightening her hug on the boy.
A relationship based on treating each other equally. It is something that the boy's mother wants him to have.
Pascal, who heard all of this, could only understand it slightly, but not completely.
He instantly felt the same restlessness and guilt that he felt in the funeral resurface once again.
"How about you try talking to that guy you beat up, I know his name. It's Drusus isn't it? I'll forgive you for not telling me you had powers if you do as I say~", The mother said.
