1 Dull then What!?

"Tik… tok… tik… tok", not the video-sharing social network but the scalding noises of the clock.

"Woah!", the constant buzz is annoying my ears. All I could do is stare at the windows, casually glancing at the whiteboard.

Looking like a good student, listening to the teacher, but is actually quite unfocused and the mind drifts along the clouds.

At times nodding, pretending to absorb the information like a sponge but even if the sponge absorbs the water, it still drips and the water evaporates.

In the end, the sponge gets dry and empty, like it never absorbed any water at all.

As the blaring sound of the bell fills the room, cheers engulfed my bare mind. Ahhh… one of my favorite parts of my monotonous routine, I shall go home… again.

Inserting the buds to plug my earholes, filling me up with melodies to brighten up my dull world. Walking down the hallways, seeing people smile and laugh, doing the things they like.

All that comes to my mind is "Sana all…", whispering my hopeful thoughts, wondering how am I living my life so wrong.

Walking, walking, all I see is the ground, I just kept on walking not minding everything that is around. All I want to do is go home and stop questioning myself again… and again… and again.

What in the world do I really want to do with my life? How the heck would I feel like I am actually alive. Am I really alive?

"Ouch…", I suddenly felt a sharp pain from my sides waking me up from my stupor, all I could see is the greyish skies. It seems like it's going to rain.

After a moment of flying along the skies, I get to see the hard ground with sparkling shards of broken glass… looking unusual aside from the shards, it looks stained by a dark color.

Oh… it's actually blood, but from whom? Wait… why am I lying on the floor? Ugh… why is everybody panicking?

Oh… is this what you feel when you're near deaths door? A bit painful… but numb and empty…

Is it just me or the darkening vision of mine suddenly becomes like a film, flashing the cycle of my everyday life… now I feel emptier than earlier… is my life really this bland? No accomplishments, no nothing.

"Heh… ", in the end, I could only chuckle at the joke entitled as my life. Ahhh… how great it would be to at least experience being reborn, reincarnated, or travel to another world. "Ha!", as if such fantasies could be real.

Dark… very dark… is this the after-life? Or am I in the underworld? Well no doubt, I maybe in the underworld, considering this is me we're talking about.

So, it seems like I'll spend my eternity eyes closed huh? staring at nothing. Nothing but black nothing.

"…", huh? What's that?

"Hnn…", it seems like there's something calling out.

"Hey", why does it feel like there's an earthquake…

"Hey! Are you alright?", shaking me up with an unfamiliar yet familiar melodic voice and a bright blinding light in front of my face. I got no choice but to voice out my complaints.

"Uhm… hey, could you put the light away? It's making me go blind", ugh my voice sound so hoarse.

I felt the person suddenly stop, seemed like she got petrified. I didn't know that there are others here in this 'place'.

So, this is what the after-life looks like huh? like a dark cave… I suddenly got reminded of Plato's Cave… heh, who knew?

"Shhh…", all the response I get is a shush, wow. Is communicating this hard? I'm so confused right now.

Okay… I'll try to get things clear. "Uhm, hey, do you know where in the world are we? Why is it so dark? Why did you suddenly became mute?", and again she just shushed me… why is she shushing me up? Why is the world shutting me out? What the fudge is wrong wi— okay stop, I'm being overdramatic.

"Hey, why do you keep on shushing me? Why—", she suddenly covered my nagging mouth, which made it kind of hard to breathe so I struggled a little.

*muffled noises* "Hrm shrm grr…", in human's terms it means 'WHAT THE FUDGE ARE YOU DOING? GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!'. I tried getting her hands off me then she whispered shout at me.

"Stop being so noisy and stay put will you!?", she growled at me and gave me the 'eyes'. Uhm mommy I'm scared…

"Growl…", hu hu hu is she becoming a monster? Wait… why does she look so scared and about to piss? I slowly look back at what she kept on staring at.

Oh dear… now it feels like I'm the one who's about to piss… now I get why she's acting like that. Fierce glowing eyes like that of a monster, glowing dimly with a touch of red, am I about to die again?

"Slowly follow after me, when I say run, we ought to run like our life depends on it, well our lives do depend on it", she instructed jokingly as I shiver like a scaredy-cat I am.

"1… 2…", then the creature followed by uttering a low growl.

"RUN!", she shouted panicking, running and dragging me by feet. Pants, pants, all I could hear is panting breathes and gruntles of the monster slowly catching up.

As I constantly look back and at the front, I slowly perceive the light from the outside, and as the light fills up the surroundings, I get to see the entirety of the monster.

Huge like the mighty bears, fierce like that of a hungry lion, seemingly like an overgrown cat.

Oh! It's a pre-historic saber-toothed tiger… aren't they already extinct? Wait… is it really that species? It looks like a mutant version of that specie, other than the long sharp fangs, it is actually bigger than the former thus add the fact that it has glowing red eyes.

Scared by its hideousness, I averted my gaze to my front and that's the first time I saw, the very definition of paradise.

If earlier, the surroundings was that of the underworld, then gosh… the surroundings now would be the mythical paradise we see in fantasy stories.

Luscious green fields with flying cherry blossoms, enchanted forests with mythical creatures, glistening water falls, wow… am I still on earth?

Urgh, after stopping so abruptly I felt that my arms might've been ripped apart by the one holding my arms, hooo such strong grip.

Due to being amazed by the environment, I forgot that we were actually running for our lives, looking back, I saw the mutant saber-toothed tiger with scary red glowing eyes staying at the mouth of the scary dark cave.

It seems like it won't chase us anymore, after glaring at us it slowly returned to the depths of the cave.

After letting the turn of events sink in, I turned back to the person gripping my arms.

"Can you please let go now? It kinda hurts…", I said meekly, then I saw her face… it looks familiar, feels like I've seen it somewhere.

White porcelain skin that every girl would be envious of, long silver hair with a streak of gold glistening under the sunny skies, straight-edged nose that makes me feel insecure, bright brownish eyes staring at my soul.

Wearing a white dress, she's such a beauty, like that of a celestial, but I never met someone like that so I don't get the familiarity I'm getting from her.

"What are you doing inside that dangerous cave? Didn't you know it's forbidden to go there?", she asked, making me stop staring at her visage. Now that she mentioned it, I don't know where I am so…

"Is this the after-life? Woah, it looks like the world you see in fantasies, such breath-taking sceneries… Where are we?", I asked curiously, looking like a lost-kid looking around, aside from her beauty, everything that is around me is so majestic.

"What!? What do you mean by after-life? We're at Terra de Libera, the land of the free, to be specific we're in the Forbidden Region, known as Paradiso.

It is forbidden to roam here without approval of the authorities. In order to preserve this wonderful scenery, his majesty, King Sovieshu, ordered to close this place for preservation", she explained like a patriot full of passion.

Wait… does this mean that I got transmigrated to another world!? Oh, if this place is a forbidden region then why is she here?