In the next moment, I found myself standing on a black platform, surrounded by mirrors of different shapes and sizes put into the form of a dome, all the mirrors showing me my own reflection.

I only got to look around for a short time before Calvin appeared out of thin air and took my attention off of the mirrors.

"Great, you're not dead," Calvin said monotonously after seeing me. "Now, what is this place?

"Hmm." I pondered a little and then threw my dagger at one of the mirrors.

The semi-large, octagon-shaped mirror shattered into hundreds of pieces, revealing a black back round before the shards returned to their places and the mirror unshattered itself as if time had been turned back.

"Weird as usual," I noted as my dagger appeared back in my hand.

"I guess this is one of those ruins that targets your mind," Calvin said.

"I think physical threats are still a possibility. How do you feel about fighting a clone of yourself?"

"Probably would be pretty tough considering how strong I am. You should have an easier time, though."

I raised my brows and looked at the grinning Calvin with tired eyes. "You're aware of how idiotic what you just said is, right?"

"So, do you wanna just sit down for a while and see what happens?" Calvin simply brushed over his earlier remark and changed the subject.

"No, let's take the initiative and do some experiments."

"Sounds like a bad idea."

"It may be one, but sitting here and starving doesn't sound any better. Besides, what are the risks of doing a little experimentation?"

"Dunno. Death, probably. But whatever, let's do it."

"Yeah. Let's start by moving a little," I said, leading the way.

I had planned to go up to the mirror and maybe take a peek outside the dome, but it only took us a few steps to realize the dome was moving with us.

"You should head in that direction, and I'll go in the opposite direction," I said, wanting to find out who the dome was following.

"Are you sure we should separate?"

"If the ruin wanted us separated, we would probably already be separated. The portal sent us to the same place, after all."

"Now that I think about it, can the door even send participants in different directions? I said it was possible earlier, but now that I think about it, I haven't been transported separately from my group members even once, so maybe the transportation location is set."

"Oh, you're right. Still, regrouping shouldn't be too hard when we can break these mirrors with relative ease."

Calvin sighed. "Fine."

We then began walking in opposite directions, and this time the dome didn't move at all, allowing us to get close to the mirrors.

"What now?" Calvin asked from the other side of the dome.

"Break the mirrors and take a peek outside. I think they might be trying to restrict our vision."

"Couldn't we just have done that by throwing our weapons at the mirrors from the middle?"

"Yeah. But the closer you are, the more you see."

Calvin made a gesture that signaled his mind being blown before he summoned his weapon and swung at the mirrors, as did I.

However, there was nothing but darkness behind the mirrors. I sighed, disappointed, and turned around, only to discover that the dome had shrunk twofold and Calvin was no longer within my sight.

'Damn,' I cursed in my mind as I darted towards where Calvin was, in the hopes that the dome would grow large again if we got within a certain distance of each other.

Then a bewitching feminine voice entered my mind, as if someone had whispered directly into my ear. "Dream."

Instantly, my body went limp, and I collapsed. I tried my hardest to keep my eyes open, but it was impossible.

Maybe if Calvin had been here, he could have slapped me or something to snap me out of it, but my idea had gotten us separated.

'It's no good,' I thought right before I lost the ability to resist any longer and my eyes went shut.

***

"Happy birthday to you... Happy birthday to you."

I opened my weary eyes and looked around. 'What's going on?'

There was a middle-aged couple right beside my bed, singing with warm smiles as they flailed their arms in a satirically grandiose manner.

"Mom? Dad?"

"It's your day, Akir. Better get up before the oatmeal gets cold."

"Oatmeal for breakfast on my birthday?" I asked, not at all taken aback by the situation.

"I told him to get you some cereal, but he wouldn't listen," my mother added from the side, putting all the blame on my father.

"Quit your complaining," my father said with a roll of his eyes. "Those sugary cereals will ruin Akir's teeth. How's he going to get a girlfriend then, huh? You want our bloodline to end here?"

"That's a bit dramatic, don't you think?" I said, getting out of bed and ushering my parents out so that I could get dressed.

"I'm dropping you off to school today, so don't take too long," my father said as he closed the door.

***

The school building felt weirdly foreign, but I knew exactly where to go.

"Hey, Akir, happy birthday, man!" a brown-eyed guy with loose clothes greeted me as I walked into the classroom.

The greeting was followed by multiple others, all of them genuinely enthusiastic in tone. I smiled and greeted them all back, adding a thank you here and there.

Then the teacher walked in, and I stumbled onto my seat in the middle of the class.

"Hey, Akir," a ginger-haired girl sitting next to me said with a low voice and smiled a little. "Happy birthday."

I looked at her and smiled amusedly. "Ah, thanks."

"Attention!" the teacher in front of the class yelled, having set up his computer.

We all quieted down and turned to the teacher. The lesson began, and everyone took out their textbooks, me included. Things were as usual. However, something didn't feel right.

There was an itch. My foot shook, and my heel kept hitting the ground at a rapid pace. The sound wasn't loud at first, but it got louder with each second that passed, but no one seemed to notice. Sweat dripped from my forehead. There was an itch. My heart... My soul... Everything was itching.

'Let me out!' A furious scream entered my mind and shook me up.

"Haaah," I exhaled, and everything came to a dead stop. The itch disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.

'I must've just forgotten something,' I thought and started paying attention to the teacher.

***

"So, how are things with you and Eva? Told your parents about her yet?" Kevin asked as he fixed his loose clothes a little before taking a sip out of his soda can.

"Not yet. I'm not sure if it's gonna work out, and telling my parents all of it to fall apart straight after wouldn't be very optimal," I answered.

"Come on. What could go wrong? You worried she's gonna dump you once she realizes you're leagues below her?"

"Man, shut up before I throw you off the roof."

"Afraid you're gonna wake up, and she's gonna be like, "Eww, I didn't realize how ugly you were, but now that I've got my glasses on, I think you're the most clapped human being ever to exist. Your friend Kevin on the other hand..." hmm, now that I think about it, that is possib—" Kevin was almost done when I decided I had had enough and reached for his soda can in order to throw it off the roof. "No, not my soda!" he yelled in desperation as he took a firm hold of the open soda can and started running, spilling the soda all over the place.

Seeing as his soda was already all over the place, I didn't feel the need to give chase and let the matter be. Suddenly, I reached behind me to grab the railing on the roof out of instinct, as I felt dizzy out of nowhere.

"Hey, you good?" Kevin said with genuine concern in his voice and ran over to hold me so that I wouldn't fall over the railing by accident.

"Yeah, I just got a little lightheaded for some reason," I answered after a quick recovery.

"You should probably drink something."

"Yeah, and get off of the roof."

***

When I made it back home, the table was already set with cake and other delicacies.

"Didn't you tell me that eating sugary cereal once a year would destroy my teeth just this morning?" I asked my father with an amused expression as I sat down.

"Hmpf, this is different."

"And why is that?"

"Well..."

"Hey, now. Don't talk to your father like that," my mother said, intervening in the one-sided battle of words.

"I'm just joking," I said with a wave of my hand. "You know that, right, dad?"

Instead of responding, my father murmured something in his own fatherly language and went to cut a piece of the cake with the regular knife we were using as the cake knife, but was stopped by my mother.

"It's time for the birthday speech," my mother said, clapping her hands together with a cheerful smile.

I don't know why she always insisted on a "birthday speech". I guess it was kind of cool to hear how I had grown just from how I talked.

Usually, I didn't have anything to say, though. It was all just a boring recap of the year, but now I had an announcement to make.

"Ehm," I cleared my throat and gathered my courage, still a bit unsure but decided to do it anyway, "I got a girlfriend."

My mother's eyes went wide, and my father just raised his brows a little, which signaled that they were both feeling about the same emotions right now.

"I've had one for quite a while now, but I didn't know when to tell you. She has red hair, and she's smart... and really cute."

"That's wonderful!" my mother yelled, hopping out of her chair.

"You're telling me that I've been worrying for no reason all this time?" my father said grumpily and shook his head before going to cut the cake but noticing the cake knife was gone.

My mother then ran around the table and came to hug me. I smiled and spread my arms wide as I prepared to embrace her. Then I started sweating again. The itch came back.

'Don't put your guard down,' a calm but dark voice entered my mind.

Then, just as I was about to wrap my arms around her, my hands moved faster than they had ever before and tightly grabbed the handle of the cake knife that was aimed at my chest.

I looked down at the knife and then back at my mother, whose eyes were completely black, as if she were possessed by a demon.

However, mine probably didn't look much more human than hers as I took the blade out of her hands and slit her throat before turning to face the other one and thrust the knife into his head before he could even prepare an attack.

Soon after, the surroundings started to melt away, and I looked down at my hands, grimacing, before finding myself lying on the black platform.