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In the wintertime, the orange-tinged sky seems to come around way faster than any other time of year. Said orange tinge just so happens to hide itself behind the tall yet barren line of trees in the distance standing above the vast field with the spectating housing in a rectangle, same shape as the field itself. On the pathway to the side, a minor event was about to take place on the quiet evening home.

“There seems to be three immature students in front of me, the sign of immaturity: one of them is inside a stolen shopping trolley, one of them has a vape on hand and the other one is giving me a look which reeks of cheap ulterior motives,” thought a male student wearing a darkish brown fluffy coat over his school uniform along with wearing a dark brown old-fashioned hat with it's back being checkered.

He started to walk faster, no matter how much pain it was to put on his feet, he wanted to be rid of such immaturity as soon as possible. He was a short distance now in front of the three students, however he could hear them snickering and whispering behind him for some reason. He instinctively turned his head to the side to get a tiny view of them in the corner of his eye, for good reason. After a short time of just hearing the three behind him snickering the same old tune, he decided to walk up a nearby muddy slope before hearing an ugly sound behind him. “What a £$*%&” and “Oi! Coward!” were what he heard once he climbed that slope, before he then flipped all of them off.

“So, they were indeed gonna ram me with that god forsaken cart, not that I’m all that surprised” was what the student in the coat thought to himself before sitting down on a damp and mossy nearby bench. Said student, to many around him, people called him Mr. Stress (Although just a nickname). While he sat to think to himself, suddenly he felt a headache coming on, and then…

“Wah! What are you! When did you sit down here!” wailed a voice that sounded like a younger girl to Stress’s side. Stress suddenly thought he’d accidently sat down next to a young girl and with no hesitation shot his head to the other side of the bench, even though he could’ve sworn it was just him and the three immature students in this field.

There did indeed sit someone next to him, however calling this thing a normal girl wouldn’t be all that correct, not completely incorrect yet still very much not normal. “Ok ok, so it has some blue robe like top with a beige band around the abdomen, isn’t wearing anything on its two toed feet, it’s carrying a plastic water bottle in its purple stained fingertips with its thorn shaped nails and it has a large purple urchin looking hat with… an… eye in it…?

Stress immediately shot right off the bench faster than the girl could, nearly making his hat fly off his head. However, the surrounding field had somehow transformed itself into something unrecognisable by comparison: a fairground. He stood there for a second in shock and wonder however the girl spoke up from behind him while he was in this state.

“I swear! If you try a-anything… I-I will use… my hydrokinesis if I must, I have plenty of water in my sabre s-so please… don’t come closer!” the girl cried while holding her water bottle in front of her like a sword hilt, the water shaking inside reflecting the panic in her voice.

Stress was indeed stressing at this moment thinking, “Wait, she said hydrokinesis? Hydro as in water… kinesis as in… wait this situation is too bizarre for a lie like that, so she can control water?!”

The anxiety was starting to set in and Stress tried to speak with the girl saying “So you’re a water magician? Do you mind if yo-“ before Stress could say any more the girl shouted “This is kinesis, not magic! I’m not a magician, I’m a hydrokinetic wielder and I’ll prove it!”

After taking some steps back, panicked, Stress looked dead ahead to see that same housing, lining of trees and even the same, orange-tinged sky. “I have a feeling this IS what people would call getting sucked into another world or such, but this place looks fundamentally the same so that can’t be true can it? I know a way to confirm it. I just gotta escape this water magician then it should be like a two-to-three-minute walk, if I run, maybe only a minute. I need that reassurance!”

“Huh? Y-yeah please do run away! You don’t wanna see what I can do… T-trust me on that!” were the words the girl shouted Stress’s way as he ran along the path, onto the muddy patch of grass and onto the pavement. The steps he made felt louder than they should before then the sharp stomach aches started up, it was excruciating, but the reassurance would’ve dissipated such pain instantly. However, he noticed that the housing looked discoloured. The greenery was larger and more suspicious looking. The road was more busy than usual. Took a right, then crossing the road to the left. Then finally he saw the familiar sight he wanted to see, despite its slight unfamiliarity.

Despite being stood there right in front of a house like a statue, Stress was thinking “That is my house, isn’t it? Hold on, since when did it have this much piping around it, and where are the two bushes in front of it? This is my house though; it’s the same shape and size and most details are the exact same so…” before then being interrupted by a voice piping up behind him.

He had thought at that moment that there no absolutely no way that that water girl had followed him and wasn’t done supposedly threatening him, however he was pleasantly surprised to find a figure about Stress’s height in a postman’s uniform behind him who said with their head down at a relatively large package in their hands, “By any chance are you Ruben Scarlet, the owner of this address?”

Stress quickly snatched the package from the postman’s hand to read its label, he could’ve sworn he’d heard them wrong; it must’ve been the wrong address, right? Low and behold, the address on the package for a person called Ruben Scarlet was his exact address. He looked up with signs of weakness and worry on his face and turned to the postman figure and handed the package back to them and said “I think you may have the wrong address, sir” before being interrupted by them saying “It’s Ma’am. Also, I refuse to believe this address is wrong, I read it over at least six times and there is no way they printed this wrong.”

"They did not print that wrong I assure you ma’am. That is my package.” said an old man’s voice behind Stress as he creaked his head towards said voice. Behind Stress stood a large black pillar right up to his face, it’s eyes that induce frostbite yet burn into his soul, then said eyes slowly thinning themselves to strings of bloody red. On the wider picture, his sharp build really does fit the long tails of his maroon suit and comically tall top hat.

The postwoman then spoke to the tall man saying, “So are you Ruben Scarlet, the owner of this address and package?” He replied in a masked cheery tone saying, “That is correct, my full name is Ruben Coalut Scarlet, and that must be the new sewing tools I bought for my son, oh he’ll be happy to see that it finally arrived.”

Ruben turned to Stress slowly and said to the postwoman “In case you were going to ask about it, no, I do not know who this guy is.” The postwoman darted her eyes to Stress’s and said with a stern voice, “Was it your intention to intercept this package, sir?” Stress quickly said “No. I had no intention to intercept this man’s package, however, I live there, and he definitely doesn’t.”

“Sorry sir, but you appear to be delusional. This house behind you, on government record, is the residence of the Scarlet family, specifically Ruben Scarlet and his son Rudy Scarlet. If the owner of this address Ruben Scarlet doesn’t know you in the slightest, you definitely do not have any form of affiliation with this property.” was what the postwoman said to Stress, those words cutting incredibly deep into his integrity.

“Delusion?” said Ruben in a deep, dark voice towards Stress. The sound of a holster hit Stress’s ears and he looked over to the postwoman’s waist. Her arm was positioned as if she were in a western standoff, ready to fire. Stress was suddenly frightened and instinctively charged at the postwoman, attempting to disarm her. However, the pistol was already pointed into his forehead…

“Gota.”

Stress felt as if a rain droplet had dripped onto his forehead, before collapsing onto the hard concrete.

“Nice hydrokinetics you have their young lady, that pistol conduit too, it’s very… eccentric, to say the least.” remarked Ruben to the postwoman, however she then quietly turned, Stress in custody, and said “Watch your tone when talking to an officer of the law. Also, I will be questioning this guy. I want to make sure he is not related to that thing.” before she got out her brightly coloured phone with her brightly coloured phone case and made a call. The person on the other end spoke first.

“What is it, Officer Manta?”

“I have one under delusion, I will be at the office soon.”

…

Stress woke up. A green hue shone into his pupils, and onto his tied hands behind the chair he was tied to. Those shrunken pupils dotted around the room until they locked onto the familiar figure in front of him, staring him down like an x-ray.

“If you can speak then speak, because we aren’t wasting time here as you could be dangerou-”

“Can I please ask you a question, if you’ll let me?”

“Ok so you can speak at least.”

“I don’t see why I wouldn’t if you didn’t do anything to my throat.”

It was then that Stress just remembered that the officer had indeed shot him in the forehead, or at least he thought he did but he felt no pain in that area so he was mostly calm. That was when he remembered that nothing he’s seen so far has made any sense in reality, for example: the cyclops urchin girl, the postwoman being an undercover cop, the freakish proportions of that inhumane old man, and then getting supposedly shot. It just didn’t make any sense at all; he couldn’t process such information. Then he started to lose his mind thinking about it.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH, WHAT IS GOING ON!” Stress screamed out of his shaky mouth, causing the officer to shoot up and out her chair and point her gun straight at him. That silenced him.

“Speak. That is an order. We need answers.”

He couldn’t bring himself to utter a word, he had lost all senses.

The officer sighed before proposing an idea to Stress. “Do you need some time out?” which then prompted the stressed-out Stress to look up at her and nod, surprised by her sudden considerate question.

The officer then got a notification from her phone so she looked at it before letting Stress out. The officer’s eyes shrunk into tiny blue dots after looking at it. The phone dropped to the ground, the corner of the screen protector getting chipped, landing screen side up next to Stress. The phone was displaying a text message from someone he obviously didn’t recognise which read…

“Pitch Black is in the building. glad to have known you Manta Raze.”

The officer was laying down on the floor, arms wide out and crooked. Tears ran down her face, smearing the blue marks under her eyes. She stood up and took her gun into both of her hands, and ran at Stress, hitting him in the side of the head and knocking him onto the floor. She then said in a waning voice before repeatedly slamming the butt of the gun into Stress’s face.

“I did nothing, not a single important thing in my life, and YOU are what ended it. I NEVER DESERVED THIS ENDING, SO PLEASE JUST DROP DEAD! I BEG OF YOU! I DID NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL IN MY LIFE! SO LET ME DIE A MURDERER AT THE VERY LEAST! I HATE YOU!”

She was hitting the ground. Stress just sat and watched. He hadn’t been hit once. Then the room went black.

HELLO STRESS.

Stress felt as if he had heard those words just now, but they weren’t vocal. It was more like they just appeared inside of Stress’s head out of nowhere. Not only that, but Stress also wasn’t aware of the sea of darkness in front of him, staring down at him.

“I AM PITCH BLACK.”

Stress couldn’t speak, nor find the officer anywhere.

“THAT OFFICER IS NOT DEAD. SHE DOESN’T KNOW ENOUGH TO WARRANT SUCH A PENALTY.”

Stress couldn’t feel the slightest relieved in the moment, it was all a blurry vision, a dark one.

“YOU ARE HUMAN. YOU ARE CAPABLE. YOU CAN HELP. YOU CAN DEFEAT THEM. YOU CAN RETRIEVE THEM.

He didn’t understand. Being human is a rare occurrence to that thing? The questions could reach the triple digits at this rate.

“YOU AREN’T READY. YOU MUST BE READY IN ORDER TO RETRIEVE.”

How confusing, he thought to himself. He could pass out any minute now. How would he get “ready” for whatever that thing wanted from him.

“THE URCHIN. FIND HER. SHE NEEDS YOUR GUIDANCE.”

The urchin? The urchin. That urchin? But why, what, where? Those were more thoughts that floated around in his melted brain.

“YOU SAT TOGETHER. THAT BENCH. THE GATEWAY LIES THERE.”

Stress couldn’t be bothered to ask any more questions to this thing. His brain was fried. However, he was able to retain most of the information the thing had supposedly been putting into his head, especially since it was already in his head.

“I WONDER SOMETHING HOWEVER.”

The thing’s head reared closer. Then, a click was heard, followed by the sound of a lit fuse.

“WHAT MAKES YOU TICK?”

Stress felt a tingling feeling on his head. Stress then exploded into a million pieces.

Episode 1 – Delusional: END                                 By: PuzzlePig