"Drip, drip, drip"

Blood continues splattering on the wooden floor. Every second feels like an eternity as he feels his energy draining from his body. He raised his chin, only to see his ghastly pale face in the broken mirror. Blood teardrops continue running from his eye socket, as his eyeballs are nowhere to be seen. He watched his lips opens as they mutter the words.

"You are dying."

As his body crumbles into dust.

Chapter 1: The Dream

"Kah! Hah, hah, hah!"

Kyle struggled to breathe as he raised his upper body, waking up from his usual nightmare. He looked around the room, making sure that he ain't anywhere but on the floor. He then began punching his sore hips as he does not want his stinging eyelids to close for another 3 hours.

"Hah, hah, hah."

Sweat covered his whole body as he kept punching both of his hips until it became violet from the violence.

"Fuck! This stupid nightmare again..."

He muttered under his breath as he began his daily routine, hard workout at 2 AM...

Time passed by as the sun peeks from the big building in front of Kyle's house indicating it's exactly 5:35 AM. As he saw the light passing through the white curtains he stopped his thirteenth curl-up set and dragged his body to the bathroom. 20 minutes later he emerged wearing only a black boxer, as his six-pack abs and well-toned muscles can be seen under the sunlight. He then walked to the corner of the room, picked his black jeans and pink t-shirt with the "Badger Patties" logo into it, and began wearing them as he prepared for the new day ahead of him.

----------

"Hello, mister! I would like to buy 2 snake fries, 4 badger burgers, and a set of alligator's milk tea! And can you please deliver it personally at my table?"

A young woman around 18-21 yrs. Old said as she handed a yellow credit card while putting a 3$ tip in the tip glass.

"Thank you very much for ordering ma'am! Please wait for 15 minutes as I deliver your order."

The handsome cashier smiled at the woman in front of her.

"Yay! Thanks umm... Kyle!"

She said as she glanced at the name card at the bottom of Kyle's chest.

Kyle nodded as he handed her credit card back. As the woman leaves the next customer walked to the front, unsurprisingly it's another female customer and the conversation developed almost like the last one, as the tip glass becomes closer to becoming full again.

"Damn, the new guy sure is popular ain't he?"

"Boy, just with his looks alone he can get accepted to any model agency. Man, I'm jealous."

2 guys wearing the same pink t-shirt as Kyle, was talking at the far left corner of the counter. One has bob-cut hair while the other has a clean cut.

"Man, if I have half his looks alone I'll have someone to bang every night at the b-"

"Back to work you two!"

The bob-cut hair guy couldn't finish his sentence as the chef in charge shouted at the two of them. They then immediately go back to their work, sometimes glancing in Kyle's direction, to be specific the line of girls waiting for their turn at the counter...

--------

Time passed by just like that as the clock hits 7 PM and everyone was prepared to leave as the shop will be closed an hour early every Thursday. The employees exited one by one but the chef asks Kyle to stay over. 

"Here's your pay today Kyle."

The chef handed a blue paper to Kyle as he tapped the young man's shoulder. Kyle tapped his index finger at the back of the 3 inches long and 1-inch wide blue paper also called "Blue Tip" as a series of numbers shimmered at its glossy surface.

[A 187$ - P 1079•••••••••]

("A" stands for amount, "P" stands for pin)

"Mr. Robert, isn't this 37 dollars more than yesterday?"

Kyle asked although he already knew the reason.

"It's no problem kid, to be honest, I did profit more from you. You're like the shop's mascot now as we have twice the usual number of customers unlike last week before you joined us. I'm even considering giving you a separate fee as the shop's mascot hahaha. Keep it up kid, I'll promise you that as we keep having more consumers your pay will also keep increasing."

Mr. Robert said as he laughed, you can witness his belly jiggling along with it.

"Thanks, Mr. Robert, I appreciate it."

Kyle said as he walks to the exit of the shop.

Mr. Robert kept looking at the open door with the thought.

'What a weird fucking kid.'

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

Kyle kept walking at the pedestrian for a few minutes until he saw a seat at the side devoid of people. He sat while taking out a cigarette box from his pocket. 

'Marlboro black, this thing never gets old.' Kyle thought.

He watched New York City's nightlife as hundreds of people pass in front of him, everyone is busy doing their things. He then looked at the huge screen at the top of the enormous building called "Nokia". An ad for a show called "Universal Mystery" began playing.

"In this era, we are living in, humans are constantly evolving."

A slow motion of a Shaolin monk punching a thick tree branch came playing, the branch broke even before his fist made contact with it. The crowd surrounding him clapped.

"We haven't even discovered 3% of what our planet is."

A huge snake 3 meters long and an arm thick flashed in the screen as it skimmed rapidly in a flowing river against its current. A tree bearing 4 different fruits flashed on the screen together with a selfie of the actor in the documentary.

"Join us together as we unveil the mysteries mankind has never seen before."

A video of a boy levitating a spoon 4 centimeters from the air showed up on the screen. He maintained it for 3 seconds until it falls with a clacking sound on the wooden table, 'Woah!' a female actor cheered as the whole crew filming it goes crazy.

"Universal Mystery - 3 days more - 06/21/2058"

The ad finished as an advertisement of new transparent glasses came into view.

"What a show-off."

He heard a soft voice muttering those words, he then saw a girl sitting at the rightmost corner of the long chair, a good distance beside him. She looked a little like she just turned 18 with short green hair, short height around 5'3, not that chubby cheeks, and long eyelashes, the most unique part about her is her green-colored pupils sometimes gleaming from the flamboyant display of color of the street, turning into emerald hue. She's wearing a panda hoodie coupled with a blue short skirt and has an eyearphone (earphone with a wire connected to the glasses as projectors) while playing something on her phone. A game about killing zombies using his hands that turns into a chainsaw.

'Who would play something boring like that?'

Then he noticed something at the corner of his eyes.

"Hey kid, care to lend me your lighter?"

Kyle asked as he looked into the girl.

"Not until you talk more respectfully mister."

She paused her game then looked into Kyle's eyes. 

"I'm 24 this year and if I'm not mistaken you're around 21, which means I'm older than you hence don't call me girl or I'll beat that pretty face of yours until your mother won't be able to recognize you anymore."

She said with a glint of hate in her eyes.

But Kyle just looked straight into her without any emotion. They stayed like that for a couple of seconds until he speaks.

"Hey kid, care to lend me your light-"

The girl punched her but he moved his head slightly to the right. Some of the people walking were surprised, as they looked at the both of them strangely. Everyone knows how strict the government has been in the likes of street violence since the making of the accident a couple of years ago.

Kyle looked at his half-charred Marlboro, he used the insane friction of this girl's punch as a combustion to light his cigarette.

"Hey thanks, kid. Call me Mr. Kyle Larkin as I just turned 27 a couple of months ago." He smiled as he tapped the girls forehead.