The Earth After Rebirth

As they stood in front of the Sphinx, others kept their distance to Kiro. Hiro stood closer, he didn't doubt his answer, but he was ready with his shield anyway. Ready to protect his friend should anything go wrong.

When the riddle changed however, it froze the atmosphere. He stood there, with baited breath. He was ready to die.

Kiro however gave an answer, luckily the Sphinx cackled and mocked them, while sliding to the side to let them in.

He sighed feeling the air push his lung, he heisted taking a step forward, he didn't trust his legs to carry him inside.

"Careful of what you're afraid of."

Is the last thing Hiro heard, which rang throughout his mind, before he was zapped into a very familiar house. He looked around, it was the same old house with a terrible smell but it felt like home to him.

When he saw his father sitting opposite him at the dinner table, his young body couldn't comprehend the complex emotions he was feeling, so he just wailed.

His parents quickly attended to him, asking him all sorts of questions. He cried so much while holding onto his father, speaking was impossible. Even though his mind didn't know this was a game, his subconscious did.

There was just a warm feeling his father's embrace exuded that made him feel vulnerable. His dog, Max, couldn't stop wagging her tail. He had forgotten that he had a dog, in real life it had to be put down because of rabies.

Every single day he'd stand outside, waiting for his father to come home. Waiting under a crescent moon playing fetch with Max. When his father did come back, he'd spend every waking moment with him. They'd do all sorts of things, building bird houses, dog houses to sell.

As the time went by the simple houses turned into actual robots that could do a bit of chores, but they were limited because they couldn't very well waste money on parts. Hiro loved buildings things with his father. He admired his father, he wanted to be just like him.

Just like that, days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months into years. Hiro's subconscious had forgotten that this wasn't reality, though the fear that he'll lose his father didn't quite leave him.

When he turned 16 the feeling got worse and worse. He couldn't ignore it, he couldn't shake it. It interrupted his thoughts unannounced, it didn't even have the etiquette of knocking first.

"Dad, you aren't gonna leave, are you?"

"Where do you reckon I'll go?"

"I don't know, disappear?"

"I won't. I have a family which I love very much. I've worked hard to get you into that school, just focus on that and make me proud."

"Please be careful."

His father looked at him warily, Hiro could do nothing but smile sheepishly.

On the 3rd day of that week after their conversation his father never came home. Everyone in the Misaki household was devastated, they had reported to the officials but it was all in vain. Reports from the poor were never taken seriously.

Hiro started to lose parts of himself. He became more quiet and reserved around the house. He wasn't the bright, curious child anymore. He lost his passion for building and only did it out of obligation, he didn't want to disappoint his father.

After a month of no news. His mother and sister's attitudes changed. The cold air around them didn't make them feel like living human beings. While his little brother was nowhere to be seen.

They had also started changing the way they cooked, meat in this house was often well done, but lately, Hiro noticed blood still oozing as if it was freshly slaughtered.

Finally on the fourth day, he grew tired of eating almost raw meat.

"Mum, why aren't you cooking the meat well?" He demanded.

"Stop complaining and eat your food, you made your father leave and now I have to work very hard to keep you nourished." His mother shot back, her voice not quite hers anymore.

"But, you haven't gone to work since father disappeared. Then where..." It suddenly dawned on him, he hadn't seen Max or his brother all these months.

He hadn't heard her bark either. He suddenly felt nauseated.

"Isao he—Max—mum, don't tell me, you..." He didn't get to finish the sentence when his stomach contents were emptied on the floor.

His mother got up, held him by the head and shoved him down on the floor that was full of vomit.

"You're gonna eat it all. You'll lick it off the floor if you have to." Her voice had grown husky. It didn't sound like anything that was living.

He could, by the corner of his eye, see his sister crouching on the table eating something raw. He knew then that he had to escape, somehow.

He didn't want to but he had to, "I'm sorry mum." He muttered, then elbowed his mum square on the face.

He wasted no time as he ran to his parents' room. He knew his father kept a gun hidden in there.

He bolted the door behind him. The thing on the other side was already banging at the door, maybe if the house wasn't so tattered it wouldn't seem like the thing was about to break the door off it's hinges.

Hiro found the gun and stopped dead on his tracks, the banging faded into the background, suddenly it didn't seem so important anymore. He could just end it right here.

He took off the safety, put the gun in his mouth with his eyes closed shut. Tears could be seen on his face. He contemplated ending it right there. He didn't want to suffer anymore, he didn't want to live in a world without his family.

'You're stronger than you think.' He heard a familiar voice in his head. The voice was enough to delay him from pulling the trigger, at the same time the thing had broken through the door. Hiro had no time to think, he dove out of the window and sprinted out of there.

For the first time in his life, he was glad he was poor, the fall from the window didn't hurt him at all. As the house was a single storey building.

The creature didn't follow him, it was as though it was bound to that house. As he left his familiar neighbourhood, Hiro vowed to look for his father first.

He was 17 and still investigating the whereabouts of his father, Misaki Jin. There were zero clues, it was as if Jin had disappeared off the face of the earth. Maybe somewhere out there, somebody snapped him out of existence it couldn't be known.

Hiro slept from back alley to back alley, he didn't have enough money to rent a house. So he had no choice. He didn't look any different from homeless people now. You'd smell him before you saw him.

One cold night, he had started a fire and tried to keep warm. When suddenly, something resembling a portal gate opened, it didn't look like those gates that took you to fantasy worlds.

This gate was dark and red not in colour but in feeling, the energy it let out wasn't one of happiness and excitement. It exuded despair and calamity, the feeling was ominous. Which is why Hiro took a step back, and then several more.

A figure stepped out, looked at him and scoffed. "You're supposed to be my son? Pathetic." The voice came out cold and thunderous.

"D-dad?" Hiro could barely mask the many emotions in his voice.

"You're a disappointment. Get out of my face."

"But, I spent all this time, looking for you." Hiro was taken aback, he couldn't understand what was happening.

"You're the reason I left, you weak, pathetic weasel. You're no son of mine." The man said, stepping out of the shadows and into the light.

Their eyes met, Hiro saw that, there exists nothing in those pearly eyes. They were dead, this was not his father regardless of this thing wearing his father's skin.

"You're not my father." Hiro said in a shaky voice, he was smiling but he was crying.

He slowly took out the gun and pointed it at the man who won't claim him as his son, the man wearing his father's skin.

"You? Shoot me?" The laughter that came after those words, almost caused Hiro to drop to his knees.

They became Jell-O but he stilled himself, he strengthened his resolve. He couldn't explain how pure evil the laughter sounded. 'This thing couldn't possibly be human can it?'

"Dad, if you can hear me in there. I'm sorry I couldn't save you in time. I tried."

Then, 3, 4, 8, 10 shots reverberated throughout the alley. He never let go of the trigger, fearing that his finger would freeze after the first shot. The gun had a total of 10 rounds. He fired them all at the thing.

The thing in front of him, formed into black smoke with a face. It turned to him and zoomed straight for him, he ran in zigzag frantically. Hoping against all hope he could beat it, but it was smoke, it was carried by the very wind that casually brushed his skin one minute and toppled mountains in another.

The black smoke went through him, and at that exact moment, he was enveloped in bright whiteness.