My name is Enry. Most people call me Dame. I am what you may have called a bum, a person with no home, friends, or family. I had nothing at that point, but now, when I look back on it, I wish I could return to those days.

A place I call home

Enry: A ceiling as pale as the moon and a house that looks like a jail cell. I wake and feel this pain every day.

Enry stands and goes to freshen himself up and prepare for the day. Once Enery finishes, he goes outside to tackle another day.

Enry: What most would not know about me is I used to be in the army infantry. In fact, I had much war time and action. I saw and caused many of my brothers to be killed. Some days I wake asking why am I here? But eh, it's life, right?

"Enry walks to the store to buy something to eat, admiring the view of the city. But as he passed the tall buildings, a sudden wave of despair washed over him.

'Why am I even living?' he thought. 'I should just jump off one of these buildings. I have nothing anyway.'

A couple of hours later, Enry lays in his bed when an urge to go outside overcame him. As he left his house, he froze, feeling an overwhelming presence and a horrible sense of dread. Despite this, he shrugged it off and continued on his way.

Enry remarked to himself, 'The sky is as dark as a black hole tonight. But why is it so dark?'

As he passed an alleyway, he saw a woman being beaten but chose to ignore it and walked past. However, as he continued, a voice called out, 'Help! HELPPPP!' The woman screamed.

Enry hesitated, wanting to walk past, but he couldn't. He stopped and turned into the alley. A dark presence engulfed him as if the devil was right next to him, he stepped forward, a sense of dread washing over him. He wanted to run, but he couldn't move.

Memories of war flashed through Enry's mind, but the current moment seemed insignificant compared to his time in war. So, he forced himself to walk forward."     

As Enry took each step closer, the feeling of dread intensified, suffocating him in its grip. Time seemed to stretch endlessly as he approached, mentally preparing for a confrontation. Suddenly, one of the assailants pulled out a gun.

"There are four of them," Enry calculated swiftly. "If I can just disarm the gunman, maybe I have a chance."

As the skirmish loomed, Enry braced himself—but in an instant, a gunshot rang out, piercing his chest. Pain seared through him as he staggered, grappling with the abruptness of the attack.

"Why did I do this?" Enry's thoughts raced amidst the anguish. "Why did I intervene?"

His resolve faltered, but through the haze of pain, he found solace in the thought that at least the woman might be safe. However, his hopes shattered when the thugs abruptly shot her right before his eyes, leaving Enry and the woman's blood mingling in a cruel tableau.

Enry fought to breathe, his vision blurring, yet he saw the woman clearly  now —once his high school crush—struggling to cling to life. A flicker of surreal beauty struck him as he watched her cough up blood, its crimson hue stark against the alley's shadows.

"She's so beautiful," Enry thought, a bitter irony piercing through the chaos around him. Reality crashed back as he realized the depth of his loss.

In those fleeting moments, as he witnessed his only love's final breath, Enry was engulfed by a tumult of emotions—dread, agony, numbness, and an unexpected peace. 

As fatigue weighed heavy on him, Enry's eyelids drooped, only to be jerked awake by an unsettling sensation—a malevolent presence looming close. His eyes snapped open to behold a towering figure, over three meters tall, its silhouette melding with the shadows.

Enry's mind recoiled. "I must be imagining this," he reasoned, his voice a trembling whisper lost in the cold night air. But before he could blink, a searing pain pierced his chest like icy talons, jolting him into stark, agonizing awareness.

Reality snapped back into focus with brutal clarity. Dread coiled around his heart, squeezing it tight with every breath. The figure, cloaked in darkness yet radiating an otherworldly aura, spoke with a voice that reverberated in Enry's skull like thunder.

"What do you truly desire?" it intoned, each word laden with an ominous weight that echoed through the alleyway's desolate expanse. Enry's throat tightened, his pulse pounding in his ears as he struggled to comprehend the impossible scene unfolding before him.

The figure's presence felt suffocating, a palpable manifestation of fear and ancient malevolence. Enry's thoughts raced, his instincts urging him to flee, yet an inexplicable curiosity held him captive, rooted in place as if chained by unseen forces.

As he stared into the abyssal void of the figure's eyes, Enry felt a primal fear claw at his soul. Images flashed before him—visions of his deepest desires, twisted and contorted into grotesque shadows of their true forms.

Enry's breath hitched. Every fiber of his being screamed warnings of danger, yet an unsettling allure tugged at the edges of his consciousness. What lay beyond this encounter, he could not foresee, but the chilling realization dawned upon him—that here, in the heart of darkness, he stood on the precipice of a choice that would shape his fate forever.