The park was empty, the air thick with snowflakes that landed on his dark hair, melting almost instantly. He stood frozen, hands shoved deep into his pockets. His mind kept looping back to the same thoughts—frantic, urgent, and uncomfortable.
'Don't I look really stupid right now? Standing here, like I have all the time in the world... i do quite honestly but that's beside the point. It looks like I'm... scared.'
His own words felt like a lie. He wasn't scared of anything. He wasn't scared of the cold or the empty swings or the distant, flickering streetlight. He wasn't even scared of, what he was about to do —because it wasn't just about him anymore. His family was gone, and he was left with nothing but the memories of people which were no more.
'That's not it either... is it? Ah well, the river lsn't far from here. Should I just jump?'
As Sean finally started to move towards the river. He remembered his father's last words.
'Atleast he died, can't have him cling to life after putting me through so much.'
His thoughts were distant and full of sorrow. He walked toward the river, his distant gaze settling on nothing.
When he finally arrived at the bridge which was build above the river with quite distance between the two, he walked towards the edge, his thoughts were reaching a dangerous conclusion.
"Since when did I have this much courage"
He mumbled.
'Since yesterday dammit!'
Well, Sean had killed his own father just a day before, so it was no wonder he felt a little more courageous to do such a cowardly thing.
'Farewell to the cold world. Even though I bet the water is colder.'
"1.....2---"
With that, Sean gulped and counted to 3 inwardly, only to jump at 2.
'Dang, I didn't think I would surprise my own self'
Even though Sean felt detached from the world. He was still trying to distract himself from giving up by joking around in his head. It unsurprisingly helped to no degree.
With a splash on the near frozen water, Sean started to drown. He struggled to swim upward towards the surface. It was no wonder since he couldn't swim. Was it fortunate or unfortunate?
'Maybe both'
Finally giving up after a few seconds, he drowned and got sucked by the flow of the river. Sean lost consciousness.
Sean didn't seem reluctant to end his life, as it was the only thing he could do to get rid of his restlessness. Even to himself, he felt unwanted.
Some hours later, Sean woke up. The water had almost dried as he felt a strange and unfamiliar sunlight wash over him.
'Weird. Is it summer in hell? Oh wait, hell is supposed to be hot.'
As he finally opened his eyes. He noticed he was in the middle of a grass field, surrounded by trees of unfamiliar colors which he had never seen. Bewildered he looked upward where he saw the sky.
'It....it's purple'
Indeed the sky was purple but what surprised him more was that the air about two meters above his head was cracked.
It took Sean a couple of seconds to understand what was happening. Finally coming to an understanding he looked at the ground where the grass which he had been laying on few seconds ago was dancing with wind.
'At least this regions grass is green. Even so, I never expected I would end up in Aliha because of an unidentified rift at that.'
He came to the realization of where he was as he studied the eerie environment around him. The other world....Aliha
Around 40 years ago, dimensional disturbances which looked similar to cracks on a mirror started to appear on ground, air and water. These dimensional disturbances which were later named as rifts led to an entirely different universe where the laws of physics were completely different when compared to our own universe.
Humanity's finest scientists determined that the rifts led to a singular planet which existed in another universe and named the planet Aliha. As for the reason of why such an event occurred, even those scientists didn't have an answer.
The peace was short lived as these rifts which brought many possibilities and opportunities also brought calamities. TThese calamities were creatures completely unlike anything that existed on Earth. When these monsters appeared through these rifts from Aliha while the study of the cracks was still being conducted. The world was turned upside down by the damage done to humanity caused by them.
When these monsters came to earth. Multiple Wars broke out as human firearms had no effect against them. Wars for resources and lands with no rifts connecting to regions put earth through a hazardous trial.
Around this time, some people started to notice subtle changes in their bodies. At first their senses sharpened, and soon enough, they gained superhuman abilities. These individuals were called Awakened and they ended the wars shortly as they were the counter attack humanity could offer against the otherworldly monsters.
The territories of humanity were completely reshaped by the Wars. And now Sean was standing on the planet which was completely illegal for humans who were not awakened.
'shit'
Sean had realized that there must have been a rift in the river where he tried to end his life. This was a very complicated situation as Sean had no way to survive as an unawakened human in Aliha as unhealthy creatures for humans roamed these lands.
'Meh, who cares, i was just looking for a place to die anyways, might as well explore the place. The purple sky indicates that its night in this region but its still weird that their is no moon here. Wasn't this planet supposed to have two moons or something. Well who cares.'
Sean had basic knowledge about the occurrence of rifts and how the ecosystem of the mystical world worked. He had not attended any school due to family reasons but he was homeschooled from a very young age. His knowledge would put scholars to shame as his schooling was very intense.
Sean was surrounded by a forest by all sides. The unfamiliar trees were at a decent distance from him as he could easily look at a part of the sky. But he could only look at a part of the sky as the trees which were surrounding him were giants who could easily put shame to earths largest mountains.
He felt a gentle and comfortable breeze and that made him notice how the temperature was perfect for a walk. The rift which he had come out of was strangely emitting an eerie light and gave him a sense of heat which was something never mentioned in his studies. He didn't put much thought into it and started to walk towards the direction of the closest tree.
When he was close enough to the giant tree, he noticed how the leaves were transparent and shaped just like how mapple leaves did except they were five to ten times bigger than them. The trunk however, had a beautiful color onyx with a hint of maroon.
'It seems I am in the colorless forest and these must be the Colorless Mapples'
Even though there were many unexplored places in Aliha. The colorless forest was well known among the awakened as it was ruled by monsters of unclassified ranks and contained trees which were huge enough that they would easily be visible from space if they were on earth. These trees were named Colorless mapples for their shape which could be compared to Pine trees on earth except the the leaves were also present in the branches of lower levels of the trunk. And Sean, having diverse knowledge in many fields of studies which included the studies of Aliha was well aware of his location. Unfortunately this regions data was extremely low and classified so he was not informed entirely about the colorless forest.
'N-No way'
Before he could be bewildered by the sheer size of the tree he noticed another unusual thing. His eyes flickered when he got closer to the Colorless Mapple as he saw an enormous punch mark on the tree's trunk. The trunk was huge, perhaps huge enough to fit a 4th of a football field in it when compared in breadth. The punch mark covered a huge area of the trunk. It was surprising to see the tree still standing after such an impact. Sean got closer and started to glide his hands over the trunk to feel the mark.
'There were markings of humans here.'
Sean was sure that this was a recent mark as it was close to the rift and for such a rift to be unnoticed by the awakened must mean that it had recently formed.
It seemed that the lonely trip wasn't lonely at all. It could get deadly though.
After studying the mark for a while, he started to walk around the tree and after reaching the other side, he looked back with his head empty. Looking ahead again he continued his walk into the forest. After a few minutes of walking, he began to notice more signs of life.
Sean was a paranoid person, though he never showed it outwardly. His head though, was in a turmoil.
'Why the heck is there charcoal here? Who was burning these suspicious trees!? Is that person fine in the head!? Scratch that, this looks like it was burned recently.'
After inspecting the remains of what seemed to be firewood. He ventured deeper into the forest.
Sean knew that If he went back through the rift, he wouldn't survive as it would send him to the river where he will freeze to death, but he also knew that the colorless forest which was a trial even for the high ranked Awakened. He a normal human, would not survive. So without giving it much thought he just ventured deeper.
' If I'm going to die either way, who cares?'
With this thought, he continued his lonely and unusual walk....
On his way Sean had witnessed many signs of life which consisted of both humans and monsters. He had come to the conclusion that his neighbor in this God forsaken place was alone and obviously seemed to be an Awakened.
'Did he/she punch that tree because they fell into the river. Something is off, why didn't they just go back. It would certainly not be for the river as the punch suggested whoever this person is quite strong. Something must have happened'
Sean considered the possibilities of what could have happened but he could never be sure as the situation was too strange.
After a few minutes of walking, he noticed not far from where he was standing, there was a tree sleeping on the ground and next to it some smaller pieces of wood were burning.
Sean gulped trying to comprehend the situation. It seemed that his neighbor was capable of cleanly cutting the huge piece of maroon trunk as the transparent leaves were beautifully littered on the ground.
'Must be a powerful awakened'
Sean thought as he walked to closer.
He arrived next to the sleeping tree which seemed to be positioned on the ground to block the other side.
He studied the scene with an unreadable expression when, suddenly, an elegant and beautiful voice called out from behind.
"Who are you?"
The voice continued, this time carrying the tone of surprise and, somewhat... hope.
"Wait, a human!?"