Imagination is a monster.

A tap on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" said Soran as she welcomed herself inside, sheltered from the rain.

She attempts to embrace Max into her arms, a feeling of discomfort and brewing anger was prevalent on his face.

"W-why are you here? It's raining, how'd you get here?!" disappointed and seeking to run from her again, the boy could only take one step back, nearly falling from the office chair inside.

"Mother told me to go out for a while, she'll chat with me on the phone… " Soran's frown creased her face, her money had run dry from trying to insert more cellular data into her phone.

"Go. Wait somewhere else." Max was too preoccupied to let her stay, never erasing from his mind what she had offered to do, a sick and vile way to solve their dying relationship through sexual means.

He pushes her off his shoulder, and Soran just narrowly avoids falling. She was heartbroken by his demeanor, yet Max mercilessly pointed her to get out.

Soran has no cellular data left, never knowing when her mother will message. She borrows Max's umbrella to cover for the rain, knowing she'll never bring it back and it'll be another reason to see him. Max knew it from the start, his idea to ignore her once she starts asking to meet up is already in check.

Max notices that Soran had crossed the street to the nearby store. The absurdity of slamming the metallic door down to close the shop and keep her out was growing in the back of his mind. The intrusive thoughts of knowing how quiet life would be again, even just for another three hours. Max grabs the loose rope and pulls down the store gates.

Soran overheard the gate slamming to the metal notches, noticing her stuff is outside the store. Max was kind enough to put it under the overhang. She crosses back to the store, hesitating whether she should knock on the metal gate or try to unlock the padlock underneath. It was getting cold, the rain was seeping into her clothes.

"Let me in! It's raining here, I will tell them at school what you did and I will go with Yasu instead. I swear I will leave you behind tomorrow."

"You know what, you were never worth the time, I wish I had more options than to stay with you!"

Max covered his ears as Soran yelled outside, ridden with jealousy and disappointment, he silenced his thoughts. The feeling of betrayal and dishonesty was boiling in his blood, however, he had recorded everything she said.

To his mind, he now had the ability to expose her, a ploy to finally keep her away from him. He grinned at the idea of finally knowing her true intent.

He could not explain how he felt, satisfaction? Disappointment? The guilt of knowing what he's about to do may ruin her reputation.

The triumphant roars of knowing he's right despite being the manipulative controlling person he always is, deceiving her, giving her a reason to do terrible things.

To him, it was only an equation, their entire relationship was a calculated risk to put her at shame. No, he loved her, no he loved her attention. The tender arms of her brushing against his hair, laying on her lap was a pillow from heaven. Yet the burning image of her felt like hell.

Unexpectedly for him, he began to feel a prickling feeling in his chest. An urge to cough, a painful urge to cough. As if needles were puncturing his alveoli, he coughs, and coughs.

He begins to cough blood.

The boy's vision begins to darken, he looks down at his hand to see the specs of blood. He knew his time was ever so closer yet he could not get himself to tell his mother. He could not get himself to take his phone and tell her. He could only look at his hand, knowing his final hours are inching closer and closer to the present.

Max fell into the bed, ridden with anxiety and confusion on what he has to do. He felt the stinging sensation deep within, unable to comprehend what had gone wrong inside his body.

He slept it off, hoping maybe when he'd wake once more, it'd be over. His heart was racing against the clock yet he still tried to silence the thought of leaving his mother behind.

The fatigue, the worry, the memories of his own father's demise. The feeling of helplessness knowing where everything was headed to, he could not shrug off the worry. Yet that same worry turned into exhaustion, into a relentless feeling of needing to get some shut eye. Squeamish and hungry, he cried himself to sleep till eventually he gave out.

Yet the ocean was not done with him yet, he opened his eyes to see halls upon halls extending over each other. Water was rising from an unknown source, the walls stretched on beyond its visibility. They spun around, the clock's ticking by, as the gears turned, the quartz had exaggerated size and movement, slurry a dancing pile of metallic toothed circles.

He could not think, only look and stare blankly at what was happening around him. Yet everything went silent.

The hall's became opaque, the routes closed, only one direction, forwards. Behind him was an empty wall, his steps echoed endlessly as if someone else was in the hall with him. Yet it was empty. Instead of walking, he sat down to stare at the never ending hall. He just looked, uninterested in finding out what the end of the hallway was.

Knock. Knock.

Yet a new visitor had disturbed him from slumber, the loud metal gates banging at the sound of lunchtime and friends. The voice that kept screaming in such a familiar calming tone. Could it be? Soran again? No, it's a man, a voice that he hears every day regardless of what the occasion was, he'd either be there or he'd be gone for a week.

"Hey, Max! I have food! Opeeeen up buddy!" the familiar voice was that from a man in a black turtleneck, it was Dairue, the most reliable person he'd known from the start of his high school life.

"Heh?... I didn't know you were in this hallway Dair-" he opened his eyes, to find out it was none other than reality itself.

"Dairue???" gleefully, an enthusiastic tone rarely akin to Max, was suddenly how he spoke towards his loyal friend.

"Yeah, I have soup and boiled dumplings, also they were selling this monstrosity called boiled sushi. Wanna try~?"

"That sounds disgusting…" An awful face as all the aromas of what one could only say, a curse, boiled sushi was a curse.

"Trust...We love trusting.. We love trust! Don't you know we love trusting???" Dairue, still persistent on pushing him to try at least a single piece.

Max opened the gate to discover it was still raining outside, the wall of water was being cut off by a gutter nearby. The hot soup that Dairue has bought, made up for his unpleasant morning revelation.

Max immediately dug in the disposable food tray and devoured everything he could. Drowning the rice in flavorful soup as the sushi simmered in his mouth.

Flavors, the saltiness and consistency of the rice slowly absorbing the soup. The heat of the meal, his impression of boiled sushi was slowly resting by. It was far from the "shitty" taste he had in mind, it melted in his mouth as the seaweed slowly introduced itself to his taste buds. The boy was satisfied with everything his friend had bought

"Am glad I thought of being here, I was knocking at your house and no one said anything." Dairue remarked.

"How'd you even get past the rain?" Max questioned how one would even bother swimming past the rain, just to give away free food.

"Kenji drove me here, I actually can't go here alone, I don't know the way from my place." the train rides from his home town were questionable, some would stop at a certain station, some would divert into another. Dairue could not keep up with how many directional errors there were, with commuting through the rails.

"This is some good shit.... Best thing you've bought in awhile, where'd you find this?" Max finally admitted his defeat, boiling sushi was not the worst thing in the world, almost like dumplings with packed rice to go with fish.

"It was in downtown where there were more modernized shops. Told you we loved trusting, bozo."

Dairue went out to light a cigarette, their discussion went prolonged, Max felt a sense of comfort knowing someone was still there looking after him. Remembering his presence even when he's not supposed to be seen. Slowly, he forgot about what had happened until Dairue began exhaling the smoke he had so deeply inhaled in his lungs.

"I think you're killing me with that." An assumption was made towards his friend's smoking addiction.

"Pfftt, you mean I am killing myself? On god…" Dairue quickly followed with an equally harrowing reply, knowing they're both likely to die from first and secondhand smoking.

"Ever heard of second hand smoking?" questioning his thought process, trying to give a tiny sense of reasoning to prevent him from lighting another pack.

"Is that when you have two cigarettes instead of one? Nah of course i have… " to throw it off with humor, Dairue was teasing the boy with his attempt at being witty for once.

Max refused to elaborate on why and let Dairue do his own business unbothered. They told stories till the night and played random games they came up with. They both knew how things were about to go soon and were trying to enjoy the last bit of fun they could have without needing a computer.

Max eventually demonstrated a spectacular display of imaginative visions.

"Look at my hand and imagine there are scales everywhere in my arm." pointing directly at his forearm.

"I see, and-?" Dairue felt uninterested in his act, a cheap stage play with nothing more than the imagination to guide the eyes.

"Watch the head and the horns tilt as the sound I make enters your ears. Close your eyes and think clearly of nothing more than how you're in a field of grass, the reptilian giant, approaching you."

Patiently giving an illusion, almost unnatural to envision for a close minded person.

"I can see, a dragon?-" as he stuck his eyes into his head and looked within instead of out.

"Yeah, when you use your mind to see things instead of your eyes, thiiiings- become more open! The senses enhance, no longer relying on your puny little eyes to try and visualize something that doesn't truly exist. Your ears are still capable, they hear without the need to see, use the useless skill wisely, Dairue."

Eventually, their discussions reached dusk, as the crawling sun exchanged places with the moon's slow ascend. The moon aligned closely with the "Tetsu kabe", the iron wall of turrets that protects the central cities connected to Tokyo, from nuclear intervention and severe infiltration through air strikes and other means of destructive power.

The Iron Wall's defense system towered over most of the buildings, the far lying powerlines could not even compare to its size even from a distance. The street aligned with the Tetsu kabe's lower ground height. A red car was approaching from the horizon, a car that was familiar to Dairue. It was his business partner speeding on the empty road.

The red car came to a stop in front of the shop. The well-dressed man inside hollered to Dairue, telling him to get ready and bring his lowly friend. Unexpectedly, Max denies his promise to come with them during that day, as something was occurring between the border that Dairue and his team had established over a provincial territory.

"You said you were coming with us? Right?.. " Dairue questioned as he looked towards Max.

"Yeah but I have something to do right now…" expressing his own unwillingness.

"Look, come on man, it's here, excuses excuses… Sigh.." nodding at Kenji's red car.

"I'll do it next time." promising an empty sentence, for Dairue was too stubborn to accept.

The well-dressed man told Dairue to hop in as Max has made up his mind not to go with them over their little escapade to the countryside. The Man, blonde with long hair wearing sunglasses at night, saluted Max and hurriedly said goodbye. The car which was red, with scratches on the side had sped off to the distance as the rain poured down on its roof.