6 Afraid of the unknown

 *****Somewhere Else *****

In a completely dark room hangs a television, and directly in front of the television is a one-sitter couch.

The television is on, and the light coming from it dimly lights up the room.

In the couch sits a silhouette of a person, its gender is unknown as it is only the back of the couch the camera focuses on.

The silhouette rests its chin on its fist while using the remote in its other hand to change the TV channel.

Once it gets to the news channel, it increases the volume.

The silhouette becomes blurry as the channel displayed on the TV becomes clearer.

A female newscaster in corporate attire reports her news.

[Newscaster:

Heading on to hot topics of the day, we have the incident at the train station:

A miracle happened at the train station located in S.D state when a young man of an estimated age of 17-19 years was in a life or death situation but then came his knight in shining armor.

As the boy was about to be crushed by a train, from nowhere, the hero of the day Darwin Markus Kicked him out of the way and saved him.

Although the kick might have hurt, it was nothing compared to the pain he would have felt if he had been crushed by a train in motion.

If he had a bad day, being saved by Darwin Markus should make the day his greatest.

Eyewitnesses say that Darwin Markus took the victim in as his disciple which he never does since he's usually in sacculation honing his skill, but we weren't able to confirm since Darwin dodged satisfying the curiosity of the mass.

The weird thing about this boy is that he was not willing to move out of the way and he was "SMILING In the face of death" 

This simple act of his makes the citizens wonder if he is "FEARLESS" or "Suicidal"

This incident has served as a lesson to...]

~haaa~

The silhouette pauses the news and sighs.

~Click~

The door clicks open as a muscular man enters the room

"Boss we caught him." The man said.

"Bring him in," The silhouette said.

"Ok, boss," The man said as he went out and came back with another man whose hands were tied behind his back. He throws the man inside the room.

"Urgh!" The man moans in pain as he gets to his keeps.

~huff, huff~ He struggles for air 

"Hello dear, how was your mission?" The silhouette said in a mocking tone.

"Boss, I...I can explain, I...I carried out my duties, it was all set and perfect, there was just a little interference boss" The tied man said.

"By 'Little interference' do you mean Darwin Markus?" The silhouette asked

"Y-yes boss, he's the one that ruined my plan" The man stammers

"Don't worry Tony, I understand, but what I can't understand is why you tried to escape after your mission failed" The silhouette said

"I...I wasn't escaping, I...I was just planning on uh.... momentarily looking for a place to stay and make another plan to take him out" The man said with a shaky voice.

"Oh? You're horrible at lying, do you know that?"

"I...Uh... umm" 

"Okay, let's say I'm dense enough to believe your obvious lie and let's forget about that. Now, Tony, do you know why you weren't beaten up when you were caught?" The silhouette asked

"Yes boss, it's because you're merciful boss," Tony said.

"Oh please, don't say the things even I don't believe" 

"You're only here in one piece because the mission's failure isn't entirely your fault and I have another mission which only you can do." 

The silhouette said.

"Th... thank you very much, boss" 

"Go meet Andrew to fill you in on your new mission, it'll start next week, make sure to use the time you have to make a foolproof preparation, OK?".

"Yes boss, I will, but what about the boy, are we going to leave him?" Tony asked.

"Don't bother yourself, I will do it myself, you can leave now"

"Yes boss, thank you very much" Tony appreciates and stands up to leave after the other man untied him.

As he reaches out for the doorknob, the silhouette calls back his attention.

"Oh, and also know that, if you mess this up, I'll make sure to kill your entire family, your father, mother, siblings..."

~Squeeze~ Tony squeezes the door knob in anger

"...as for your wife and daughter, I'll make sure you watch them get tortured to death." The silhouette threatened in a deadly and cold voice

"... Understood boss," Tony said before leaving

"Oh Gideon, you're indeed a child of 'Luck'I look forward to meeting you" The silhouette mutters to itself.

"James, go prepare the necessary things for our meeting" The silhouette orders

"Yes boss" He slightly bows and leaves the room

"I can't wait to meet you, dear, you'll serve as a sacrificial lamb for me to please 'HIM' and ascend in my ranking " The silhouette said and changed the TV station to a cartoon station 

************In Gideon's School***********

His class has already begun and the teacher is explaining to the class.

"Now class, in today's lesson we're going to focus on imaginative painting. 

That is; you'll have to draw what you imagine, it may or may not be in existence, but something you know you'll be able to explain.

Now then, who wants to give it a try" 

The teacher gave room for her students to participate after explaining to them, most of the students raised their hands and some were called out.

Meanwhile, Gideon seemed lost in thought as he stared blankly at the book on his desk while resting his chin on his fist

 *************Gideon's POV ************

Today's incident doesn't seem like a coincidence to me.

Let's go through everything again.

I read somewhere that fear does have a paralysis effect, but it does not stop someone's body from moving completely.

It will only make your reaction slow and shaky, but it doesn't completely freeze a person.

This means that the man who I bumped into earlier had done something to me and it seems that bumping into him was neither my fault nor was it a coincidence.

Bumping into someone, no matter how muscular the person may be, cannot push another person to a distance of even two meters, rather, the clash will make the victim fall.

I noticed that the man added force by bumping into me and pushing me to the train track, and on top of that, he was wearing a hoodie which made it hard for me to view his face properly.

His aggressive reaction to telling me to watch where I was going was to cover up his actions to seem normal, which I fell for.

If he had apologized, I would tried to look at his face, which he didn't want me to.

Also, the sting I felt on my lap was probably a paralysis drug he injected into me.

His actions were perfectly planned and foolproof, the only thing that went sour in his plan was the interference of the old man, which is favorable to me.

Now the question is; 'Who sent him and why does the person want me dead?'

As far as I can recall, the past two years of my life have been peaceful, I try avoiding as many people as I can and I'm sure the few people who I interacted with don't have a beef with me.

That means this must have something to do with my blank memory.

It's possible I annoyed someone or maybe it's a fight for hierarchy or something precious and I'm on the way.

Whoever is the puppet master of what's happening to me is smart and I'm sure it's the same person responsible for my memory loss, considering how careful his or her plan is.

If I had died, the news who have said it was a tragic death of a boy who fell on a rail track or they may even tag it "Suicidal".

The news didn't even say why or how I fell on the track, they just concluded that I tripped.

It's possible the person who's aiming for my life has a connection and can control the way information is leaked, in short, he's a person with authority.

Let's not also forget that there's a possibility of this being a planned operation, and the old man who saved me is the one who planned it.

But, I doubt that's the case because he gave me his card in front of the public and people now think I'm his disciple.

For a celebrity like him to have a disciple and his disciple go missing or is reported harmed, will tarnish his image and reputation this will want to make him protect me.

However, some crazy people don't care about reputation. I guess I'll have to find out when I go to the location he gives me, I'll also have to prepare in case of any danger.

If there's one thing I have learned today, it's that to survive, I'll have to catch up to the puppet master.

And I'll also have to work on getting rid of the "fear of death".

*Urgh...this is too much work and it's stressful, I'm not comfortable and it sucks because I choose my comfortability over anything else.*

Groaning in frustration, I scratched my hair. 

And here I was hoping that if I'm able to regain my memories I'll live a better and well-fulfilled life.

I could just give up on the memory stuff, but if I do that, it'll just end up spelling the end for me.

.***********Omniscient POV*******

The teacher catches Gideon scratching his head.

*Poor boy, must have been through a lot of pressure from too many questions from people. He needs to get his head off today's incident and I'll help him do that.* The teacher thought

"Oi, Gideon, come down here, take the brush, and draw something" The teacher ordered.

Gideon blinked a few times, before sluggishly standing up and lazily walking toward the paint board.

Reaching there he took a paintbrush and plunged it in black paint.

"Uh...What should I draw?" Gideon asked

"So you weren't listening? I get that today has been rough for you, but you need to focus in my class, your grades are low and you'll need to get them high enough before the tournament starts" The teacher said.

"Tournament?" Gideon asked with a confused expression

"They'll tell you that later, now you just need to focus and draw anything you imagine"

"Oh, ok," Gideon replies.

He stares intently at the whiteboard and starts doing his magic.

He is facing the class and once he is done, he is supposed to turn the paint board so the class and the teacher can see what he has drawn.

After about three minutes, he turned his painting board for the class to see what he had drawn, they were all silent for a moment before busting into laughter.

Gideon becomes confused as to why they are laughing at his hard work, he even has to stick out his tongue to one side of his mouth while being extremely careful.

He looks at his artwork and he is proud, no matter what the others say or do, he has done what he had worked hard for.

After two weeks of practice, he is finally able to draw a human with lines and a perfect circle as head, this human my dear, is genderless.

He is excited but on the contrary, the teacher is angry.

"Do you think we're here to joke? Maybe you hit your head somewhere, but I don't care, if you don't draw something more impressive, you're getting an automatic "F" in your next test."

". . ."

Gideon becomes speechless, he does not have a good imagination and now he is asked to give what he does not have.

*How isn't this impressive, I worked hard for this, you people should know how to appreciate talent more...Wait, how about that? Can I draw it?"

Gideon picks up a new brush dips it inside a red paint and starts drawing, this time his concentration is more serious.

"What's he gonna draw now? A girl?"

"Hahahahahahah!"

The class makes fun of him

After he finished, he refused to show

 it to the class as he seems lost in his artwork.

"If you're done show it to class Gideon!" the teacher said, but Gideon hesitated

"Why is he delaying, is he afraid of showing us his grandma, I thought he's nicknamed "Fearless"?"

"That's a good one!"

"hahaha"

The class mocks him again while laughter echoes across the hall.

Gideon then decides to show his drawing to them, and the whole laughter dies down immediately, as Gideon turns his drawing to them.

~ Utter Silence ~

A pin-drop silence envelopes the hall, as soon as they see his drawing.

It was as if they were in a graveyard, the immediate silence that followed could send a chill down someone's spine.

The horrific look on the student's faces makes it seem as if Gideon is showing them the most horrific thing in the whole world.

The teacher too is a victim as fear is written all over her face.

 "Fear of the unknown."

But in reality, what Gideon has shown to them is just... a symbol.

Yes 

A symbol that has constantly appeared in his dreams for two years now.

It's a unique symbol that is made up of two intertwined hearts with an infinity sign crossing it in the middle, It has a complicated design.

It gives off a fear-inducing pressure, to both the students and teacher.

The red paint Gideon used is already starting to roll down the symbol, making it look like thick blood used for drawing.

The symbol dimly glowed before dying down adding to its mystery.

+++++++++++++++++++

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+++++++++++++++++++++++ 

In this world, magic does not exist, the only thing that exists is martial arts, so why? 

Why would a plain drawing of a symbol glow?

It all doesn't make sense, it's against the rules of this world.

It is scary and mysterious.

*If magic does exist, then this is going to be "blood magic", am I safe?" That is what most students were thinking right at the moment.

A few minutes after Gideon took off the drawing and tore it, everything returned normal but not exactly normal, the students who seemed in high spirits were now too calm for comfort.

Gideon feels a sense of guilt but is also part of those who wondered

"What is that symbol?"

But his question was way more than just that, his question was:

"Why does such a mysterious symbol appear in my dreams? More importantly,

Who am I?"

 †**********************†

~Grunts~

"Ugh..."

I stretched my hands.

Today turned out to be a drag. The classes were too exhausting.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten what transpired in the art practical hall. 

They are now as lively as before, but that doesn't change my question

"What is that symbol?"

"It's the first thing that appears when I sleep and the voices the last, it seems like they are both working together, the symbol makes me uncomfortable and on edge, but the voices make me comfortable and calm, it sometimes makes me forget the symbol

"Who am I?" 

"Why do I have weird dreams? The voices, the symbol, are they somehow connected to my missing memory?"

The mysteries of my life are too much and I'll have to uncover them quickly or else I'll end up being the prey of a predator

Thank goodness I was asked to go without explaining, what would I have told them?

Shaking my head I decided to let the thoughts drown, I'll figure it all out once I figure out who I am first.

Putting my hand in my pocket while I walked I felt a paper in there and took it out to see.

Seeing an address, I wondered whose it was, but after some seconds, I remembered I owed the old man a favor.

"Maybe the old man will be able to know what my necklace is made of and tell me how it is related to me. Any information he gives me will be useful.

Let's see what he has to offer"

With that, I headed towards the address in the paper.