Chapter 1: Slowly, But Surely.

“I will cherish you 'n myself from eternity to infinity."

These words appeared in the young boy's mind as his body laid in an unconscious/conscious like state. These were the words that he wanted to tell someone specifically, but he couldn't assess his surroundings nor hear very well because of the fact of his consciousness slipping in and out, but he could hear one small faint sound of something...something that even he can remember while being under the spell of motionlessness that he put himself in. A crying girl who sat next to him was sniffling and cursing at the young boy under her breath. As the young boy heard the girl's sniffles but couldn't quite hear the curses she had said which was fine by him his consciousness had begun to drift further and further falling deeper and deeper into a state of unconsciousness. He wanted to tell the young girl sorry for everything, but ultimately he wanted to tell her those words that had popped up into his mind a second ago. In the end, the young boy had failed to do so on both ends for her and after that he went unconscious and slipped deep into a meaningful sleep. 

The young boy had jolted up from his slumber in a stupor form that could only be viewed as comedic in cartoon shows. The boy clenched his clothes, gasping for air, as he tried to grasp what had happened to him a moment ago, but in all honesty he couldn't remember anything. He was completely lost, and not because he wanted to be, he just couldn't remember anything. As his senses came to be he immediately looked around his surroundings ever so carefully and in return saw nine people and one dog. The young boy squinted his eyes and was confused as to why a dog was here, but he didn't question that thought any further. But there laid: six females, three males, and one dog laying in a slumber-like state. Was the boy in a slumber just like that a minute ago? he couldn't tell nor remember. As time went on like a clock that was irritating to the boy as he sat alone in the hard rooted looking cave that held an odd presence of nostalgia to him was about to be shattered by an unexpected force that had only a one-way entrance and exit. 

        ???:  "Yo yo, what is up Nar~a~ja?" 

     At the sound of those words the young boy froze up from his toes to his head at the sound of what could've been a person that was coming from the cave entrance. As the young boy named; Naraja, let this unknown name that even he wasn't aware of was being echoed along the walls as it was called a moment ago lingering with a hint of animosity behind it. As Naraja sat there in the simple fact of not knowing where the hell he is or who he is and who just called him by a name that sounds like that that could be his name. So, he sat there tense in fear and just having a simple fact of curiosity for whomever...or whatever could make an appearance at the cave entrance. The person that was approaching could be heard making their way to Naraja step by step, breath by breath and then Naraja saw...a person..or something that was completely black as endless as a void that you could find yourself getting lost in. The mysterious figure stopped in their tracks at the foot of the entrance...it...or whatever stood there completely covered from head to toe in just blackness. The mysterious figure tilted its head in confusion at Naraja's perplexing emotional face from the fear of making its entrance..or could it have been because of its appearance, neither Naraja nor the figure of blackness knew. All that they both knew was the overwhelming swell of feelings that took a multitude of emotions tied together with fear and hatred for both sides of the spectrums.

???: "Hellooo~ anybody home?"  

The mysterious figure of blackness crept up a smile onto its face and just waved at Naraja in a slow playful tone manner like. Naraja just stared at it with fear and putrid disgust that just wanted to make him puke, but Naraja was unable to throw-up because he had to know where he was and why did this thing know him. 

Naraja gulped down his saliva and managed to manifest his willpower to fight back his anxious fear of this unknown thing. He opened his mouth and said..

    Naraja: "Y-Yo."

The mysterious figure of blackness frowned at that type of reply and just shook his head in disappointment and groaned. Naraja tried his best to cover up his embarrassment of a reply by rubbing the back of his neck and chose his next choice of words carefully.

    Naraja: "W-Who are you? Who are these people? Where am I? What are you? Who am I?"

Naraja barrage the mysterious figure of blackness with questions that irritated it even more to the point it picked up its leg and stomped its foot down so quickly and effortlessly into the floor beneath itself that it ended up shaking the cave dwelling with such intensity and vibrations that made Naraja tense up again all in a span of a moment. After the intensity of vibrations and shaking subsided around Naraja he took a moment to process what the hell had happened, took a deep breath and swallowed the rest of his saliva that was resting itself patiently inside of his mouth. 

Naraja was just about to open his mouth to take control of the conversation again, but was unable too because the mysterious black figure swung its index finger in a slow carefree charismatic motion back n' forth and opened its mouth and said:

    ???: "Tsk tsk, patience is a virtue Na~r~aja. Buuuut, anywho to answer your greedy-ass buttload of questions. Hmmmm..  I cannot tell you about who I am, what I am, yourself, or these people and that dog that lay here today, and also this place of where you are is something that I cannot tell you as well. Sorry~." 

Naraja's face contorted from confusion then into anger from that answer of explanations while the mysterious figure of blackness finished off his process of answers that came with a hince of mockery that lingered in the air by counting them on its fingers one by one, and then sticking its tongue out at Naraja. Naraja just stared at the mysterious figure of blackness. He didn't know whether he wanted to get up from this cool stone makeshift bed and beat the hell out of the...monster? Or to just make it finally give him the answers that he is so desperately seeking right now. Either way Naraja had to play it safe.

    ???: "Anywaaaaaay~, I will be leaving behind something glorious for you Naraja annnd for them too~ ."

As the mysterious figure of blackness pointed at Naraja and the rest of the people that resided in the dwelling, it started walking over to the dog first. As it made its way over Naraja was starting to get a bad feeling about what could happen to the dog. Then, the next thing Naraja saw was something completely that could only be seen out of a horror movie. The mysterious figure of blackness had eradicated the dog's body that had once laid on the cool stone bed: Guts, blood, and intestines flew all about around the room as Naraja watched the first victim that he had failed to protect with his heart 'n soul had become a roadside art project on the stone bed. Next thing, Naraja knew he was getting up from his bed sprinting towards the mysterious figure of blackness to make him stop from doing what he was going to continue doing, but he didn't even know why he even got up from his stone bedding in the first place. Naraja just didn't want to see death..or in a hindsight way, more death. So, as Naraja made his way sprinting with each step in front of him as his feet hit the floor so effortlessly with impact sounding like bags of rice being dropped. He made his way towards and as he did, Naraja body did something reflexively that even he was unaware of being able to do. Naraja somehow succeeded in getting his right foot close enough to the face of the thing that had killed the dog a second ago, but the mysterious figure of blackness had seen through Naraja's last ditch effort and caught him by the foot that was inches away from its face. 

    The figure of blackness had exhaled a long and hard exasperated sigh and just peered at Naraja.

    ???: "Really? That was your plan. Alright, let me tell you something before I kill you and the rest of these worthless things here. You are to take on 7 trials and only 7 trials. How you complete them depends entirely on you. And I'm gonna be leaving you a little gift as well."

    After the mysterious figure of blackness completed its final statement that lingered with bitterness but also with excitement, it crushed Naraja's foot instantaneously. Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pan. That was all that coursed through Naraja's body. He wanted to grab his foot and somehow fix the damage that was done, but he couldn't do so because the mysterious figure of blackness still held onto Naraja's feeble broken foot as he screamed out in anguished pain. Then the figure of blackness let go of him and watched Naraja drop with a thud onto the floor writhing, curling, and cursing from the extreme pain that was once his right foot. The mysterious figure of blackness proceeded right over Naraja's body with each step that only sent anxiety straight through Naraja whilst feeling immense pain. Naraja gritted his teeth at the thought of having to fight back the pain of his crushed foot, but he didn't care nonetheless about the thought nor the pain so he mustered up his last remaining willpower to fight back the terrible pain and dragged his body across the ground and grabbed ahold of the leg that was covered head to toe in a mysterious complexion of darkness that Naraja couldn't even understand nor care to at this point. 

Naraja: "Finally caught up to y'a--y'a bastard, heh." 

Naraja tried to play off his anxiety and pain with a wry grin on his face, but that only pissed off the mysterious figure of blackness more and more. And with that it all happened in a span of a moment, the figure of blackness had Naraja suspended up midway in the air by holding him by the neck of his interesting intricate clothing. Next thing Naraja knew and felt was something hot and warm, but also felt like a piece of himself was missing as well. As Naraja peered down to see inches away from his face where this feeling was coming from he looked at his chest and saw that the mysterious figure of blackness had plunged right through him with its hand. 

Naraja: "--huh."       

Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain.Pain. Pain.Pain.Pain.Pain.Pain.....That was all that Naraja felt at this moment. He couldn't bear it anymore. The pain coursing through him at this very moment was strong enough to make him go straight into madness alone. From the pain alone he couldn't bear the intense pain, feelings, and thoughts all flourishing through him...he had to bear all of these alone. All alone...but he had to just for now.                                                                                                                                                           

      The mysterious figure of blackness started reemerging its hand away from Naraja's chest as red-crimson metallic blood dripped off of its hand and at the same time of the figure of blackness doing this Naraja started to form a puddle of blood around himself and the thing that had acted on its gut-wrenching traumatic act. And as Naraja collapsed to the ground full of pain, fear, and loneliness. That's all that Naraja could feel at this very moment. Was just that. The mysterious figure of blackness flicked its wrist to splatter and dissipate the blood that had remained on its hand, in a sense of a way to get the blood off.

???: "Pathetic. And oh yeah I've left you a little present along with that. I hope you like it. See ya next time and hopefully we can dance a little bit better after that embarrassing performance with your foot earlier as I beat your ass you worthless piece of shit~." And with a turn of its foot the mysterious figure of blackness had walked back to continue what it had set out to do the moment Naraja had woken up from his slumber in this strange world... The mysterious figure of blackness had begun to laugh in a maniacal sadistic sinister way that sent a rush of chills down Naraja's spine and all that he could do at this very moment was let this life fade away from him...he hated himself for not being able to rise. To stand up and stop that bastard from doing whatever he pleased. He wanted to fight, to protect, to stop that pain again…., to kill that bastard, but Naraja couldn't even accomplish any of that cause all he could do was watch as his efforts slip to meaninglessness.

Naraja: "G--Goddammit….." 

And with that all that Naraja could remember after was just darkness and a sense of self-aversion...

    

 End of Chapter 1: "Slowly, But Surely."