n

n

nKairos took several deep breaths one after another. Although they were shaky, they were done with composure. This was something he had learned to do after each session of pain endurance.

nThe stress built up in his mind gradually left, allowing his thoughts to flow more freely.

nKairos began sweating because of the heat that had built up in the room. Considering it was the middle of fall, there should’ve been cold air outside. However, after being painfully warned several times, he knew better than to try that.

nKairos massaged his temple with the tip of his index finger.

n“The sunlight is unbelievably scary to me… Either I’ve developed a strange phobia, or my ability is somehow warning me about the threat of it.”

nSuddenly, he narrowed his eyes.

n“…My parents should be driving home soon.”

nKairos quickly pulled out his phone and went into the contacts section. He only had four people available. These four had the labels, ‘Mom’, ‘Dad’, ‘Nicole’, and ‘Edward’. He tapped on Mom first, quickly sending a text message.

n‘AVOID THE SUNLIGHT’

nThen, he went to Dad and typed the same thing. Immediately afterwards, he called his dad. Several rings rang out and the wait made him anxious. And eventually, he heard the start of his dad’s voicemail.

nKairos furrowed his brows and decisively ended the call.

nAfter cursing under his breath, he called his mother. However, she also did not pick up. Although Kairos had an urge to try again, he figured that it probably wouldn’t work out.

nInstead, he sent a text message to Nicole.

n‘Stay away from the windows and the outside.’

nThe reason this was more formal was because he knew Nicole might’ve thought it was a joke if he put it in all caps. Using a period and proper capitalization should make her realize it was more serious.

nKairos then exited out and tapped onto ‘Edward’. However, he clearly had less enthusiasm compared to last time. Upon opening this section up, there were a series of friendly texts. However, it suddenly stopped at a message Kairos sent.

n‘Don’t worry about it’

nAnd that message was sent over four years ago.

nKairos visibly hesitated on whether he should warn him. After a few seconds, he decided to type a message.

nYet, seconds before he could, his phone began to vibrate and let out the default ringtone. For a moment, Kairos hoped it might be one of his parents, but the caller was Nicole.

nNonetheless, he wasted no time in picking up.

n“Hey.”

nA teasing voice came from the phone.

n“What are you doing, creeping around my house? If you regret declining my offer to come over you can just tell me!”

nKairos shut his eyes.

n“No.”

nNicole paused. After a few seconds, she spoke in a very soft voice.

n“Is there some sketchy person moving around my house?”

nKairos took a deep breath.

n“No. Just stay away from the windows and anywhere else that sunlight can peek through.”

nNicole let out an exasperated sigh.

n“This isn’t some strange joke, right?”

nKairos narrowed his eyes.

n“No. Just know that it’s dangerous outside right now.”

nNicole seemed to be getting a little anxious.

n“What is the danger? Wait, my parents are home, should I get them away as well?”

nKairos pressed his lips together.

n“I’m not entirely sure. You should definitely get your parents to get away from the sun as well, just tell them that a person with a gun is outside. They probably won’t listen to you otherwise.”

nNicole let out a soft sigh.

n“Ok, I’m trusting you on this.”

nKairos stood up from the bed and rolled his eyes.

n“You don’t have to trust me.”

nWith that, he hung up.

nRemembering that he dropped the knife earlier, he picked that up and headed over to the kitchen. It was for the simple reason that the heat was quickly ramping up.

nUpon reaching the sink, he set down the knife and turned on the tap all the way, as cold as it could get.

nKairos put his hands in the water, immediately feeling a strong sense of relief. He splashed some on his face, but instead of the cold feeling, he had visions.

nSeveral scenes flashed by one after another.

nPeople writhing in pain.

nHumanoid monsters with bright red skin and overly large teeth.

nAnd even himself, standing under the light of the red sun…

nTransforming into a monster.

nKairos abruptly snapped back to reality and let out a loud gasp. His breathing was heavy, but gradually calmed down. A few drops of water fell down from his face, falling onto the floor.

nA feeling of dread came over him. Those visions told him that the heat wasn’t going to be his greatest concern.

nKairos felt that this sudden shift from normal life was far too sudden, but he had no plans of dawdling around. Countless thoughts flashed by his mind at once.

nHis first priority for survival should be food and water that is easy to carry. He had his school bag, which should be pretty useful for that sake. There was plenty of food he could carry in his bag.

nThe second priority was a weapon. Though Kairos didn’t know what those monsters were, it didn’t take a genius to realize they were hostile.

nHe looked at the kitchen knife next to him, then frowned.

n“Damn. Why don’t I have something like a baseball bat? If only I was a sports kid.”

nHis biggest concern was the lack of reach. Although a knife was sharp, to actually stab one’s foe, they would have to get very close. On the other hand, a baseball bat not only had reach, but could be used by a novice easily.

nKairos narrowed his eyes.

n“Wait… I know a sports kid.”

nKairos pulled out his phone once more and instantly dialed Nicole. He began rushing over to the living room, where he left his backpack. The curtains weren’t fully covered on a faraway window and let a sliver of blood red light in.

nNot only did it look scary, but his body seemed to have an instinctual fear of it from the way his skin crawled.

nKairos grit his teeth and grabbed his bag despite the discomfort that light brought. At that moment, Nicole picked up.

n“What’s wrong?”

nKairos was panting and running with his backpack in tow.

n“If you can avoid the sunlight, get your bag and fill it with food and water that will last for at least a few days. Preferably things like bread, rice, or any other high calorie food.”

nNicole seemed concerned.

n“Is something wrong? You sound like you’re running for your life.”

nKairos clicked his tongue.

n“Never mind that! Just do what I said and make sure you have every single one of your baseball bats, especially the metal ones!”

nNicole was silent, but for only a second.

n“Ok.”

nWith that, Kairos hung up. He opened up the zippers of his backpack and poured out the contents, letting his textbook and binders crash down onto the floor. After getting rid of his school supplies, he opened up the fridge and started to stuff things inside it.

nLuckily, there were two full bags of bread, which he promptly stuffed inside. They should be enough to last him a few days. All the other stuff were things like vegetables and eggs. Unfortunately, he didn’t have anything like beef jerky or canned foods. After clicking his tongue, he tore open the plastic covering a large set of water bottles.

nThough Kairos thought that the concept of water bottles was stupid, as it was just filtered tap water that was laced with a tiny bit of plastic. However, he could only thank his parents for not listening to him now, given the situation.

nKairos was able to fit ten whole water bottles inside by stuffing his bag to the very brim. Although he wanted more food, he just counted on Nicole to do that.

nAs he began thinking about his next steps, a muffled scream came from outside. It was a bloodcurdling scream, one of a person in immense pain. From what Kairos could tell, it shouldn’t be too far from his house.

nHe inferred that the person screaming was transforming into a monster from his visions, thus didn’t even entertain the thought of helping them. After picking up the knife and slinging the backpack on his shoulder, he then wanted to go to his room.

nThe second floor should be at least relatively safer in Kairos’ mind.

nOn his way there, he was forced to pass by the entrance corridor of his home.

nAnd right as Kairos did so, his phone began to vibrate madly, letting out blaring alarm sounds. Since he saw it happen one second before, he was able to cover the phone by placing his arm on his leg.

nUnfortunately, it was still extremely loud.

nA loud screech came from outside of his house along with a series of thumping footsteps. Kairos saw the door burst open, revealing the monster and the strong red light. On top of that, he saw his body immediately begin mutating once the red light touched it.

nHowever, that was what he saw with his future vision.

nKairos threw himself to the side, getting out of the way from the corridor. In less than a breath’s time, a loud bang resounded. The door to his house broke down completely and the shrill cry of the monster filled the air.

nKairos held his breath and began walking to his room, trying to stay as quiet as possible. His eyes were trained on the corridor behind him. He was watching out for when it would come around the corner.

nKairos saw the monster abruptly grab onto the corner, showing its creepy fingers, and peek its head out. Cold sweat immediately formed on his back as shot ducked into a different corridor, hoping that it wouldn’t seem him.

nUnfortunately, his backpack let out a few jingles from the metal straps it had on. The monster immediately let out a cry before charging in Kairos’ direction.

nIn response, Kairos began running down this corridor, not caring about the sound he made. However, it was a dead end. After all, his house wasn’t a maze he could just run through.

nKnowing that this would come down to a fight, he took his backpack off and tossed it to the side, not wanting it to weigh him down.

nKairos then turned around and raised his knife. He couldn’t help but narrow his eyes as he got a better look at the monster.

nThe immediate thing that jumped out to him was the bright red bulging veins across their skin. They seemed like they could burst at any moment. As for the skin color itself, it had a fairly red pigment, as though the monster got sunburned.

nThe eyes had glazed over to just become a pale yellow eye without any pupils. As for the mouth, it looked like it was forcefully stretched larger along with sharper and longer teeth sticking out. It was not too different from a wolf’s, other than being bigger.

nThe monster had hands, but they were tensed up into the shape of claws. Long black nails extended from the fingertips, each essentially a small knife of their own.

nBut what was most disconcerting for Kairos was not any of that.

nInstead, it was the ripped shirt and pants.

nAlthough they were ruined now, it wasn’t hard to tell that they were a cute light pink shirt and soft blue jeans.

nThe reason why it bothered Kairos so much is because it showed that this monster in front of him used to be a human. And was human only a few moments ago.

nHowever, he was still going to kill it.

nThe tears in the monster’s clothes showed that it had grown quite a bit from its original size. It was just barely taller than Kairos himself.

nThat was why the monster was quite intimidating as it charged towards him.

nKairos slowly breathed out.

nAnd took off his glasses.

n