Freedom

Inside a dome floored with short grass, a bright gray bodily form resembling a youth in his teen wakes up from his sleep. "Was that a dream? Wait....where the HELL Am I?" the man stood up, looking around him.

The dome is lit from the outside with alternating colors of the spectrum. "That was definitely not a dream. The colors outside are similar to the light that surrounded me. But all I remember from the dream is me waking up with a terrible headache and that woman shouting. She called me the lost one….lost. I really am lost. Everything in my head is not mine, but others'. And thinking about those memories only gives me a headache."

In the center of the dome floor is what seems to be a dimensional portal. Not knowing what it is, the man hesitated to get near it. "Nothing seems of significance other than that thing.", he said after he tried to dig beneath the layer of grass only to find a surface similar to the walls of the dome.

Finding nothing else, he retained his focus on the dimensional portal. The more he looked at it, the more it felt familiar to him. "A portal.", he muttered.

The man decided to wait. 1hour, 2hour, 3hours. The more he waited, the dimmer the portal gets, and a pressure started to weigh on him. Having no choice, he decided to enter the portal. "whatever destination it might be, I hope freedom is what on the other side."

After entering the portal, he lost his bodily form and became a translucent sphere—his pure soul forms. Floating in a fixed bath, he can see flying black cubes. Any cube that hits the path gets eviscerated immediately.

When he reached the end of the bath, he saw a huge light gate. He tried to go through it but was repelled by a powerful force. He tried again, the same result. He looked behind him to find that the path was cut. "What a damnable luck. Why can't I go through?" he said before looking for another way.

"Other souls?" he noticed another part of the gate, where a vast number of souls are going in and out.

The man suddenly had an urge to approach them. When he got closer, they started to run away. "They are feeling from me? Why?" he sped up and reached a soul. When the distance was close, an attracting force pulled the soul towards him. When they made contact, the man's soul disappeared, while the other soul remained; seemingly, nothing happened to it.

The man found himself in a dark place, "did…did I return?" he said in a hopeless tone. "No, wait, that is…". The dark place suddenly switched to a scene of a youth about 17 of age, releasing his last breaths. All he was thinking about was, "Family, huh. I have no memory of mine. All memories I have is of other people's families. Some love theirs, some hate them, but for me, they are all the same, strangers.", the man had a long sigh.

The youth finally passed away. Immediately after, the man's soul was sucked into the body. Gaining control of the body, the man felt conflicted. "Well, I hope the youth didn't die because of me.", he thought with giving a thought to the idea of controlling someone else's body. It felt normal to him.

He tried to stand up, only to fall on his face. "I'm tired…" he said before blacking out.

About one day later…...

"A light red sky?", was the first thought that came to the youth after waking up.

He was in a forest near a village farm. The youth checked his immediate surrounding, and what he found was an empty pouch. "Is this the youth's…or rather mine? Was it empty before? Will, I'm taking it anyway."

"So much happened to me back-to-back. I don't who am I; I experienced unnatural…events?", the youth paused for a second. "And it seems my thoughts are not coordinating. A lot of conflicts in the way I think or respond to events. And…", While the youth was in deep thought. Two kids around the age of 13 approached him.

"Who in the damnation of Shamir dares to infiltrate the territory of Master Adin?"

One of the kids tried to sound like one of the village elders, while the other gave him a thumbs up. The youth stared at them, surprised by his first interaction with someone face to face, at least as long as he remembers. He kept looking at them before realizing their puzzling expression. 'They already think I'm weird. Well, it is best to be friendly before knowing the situation' the youth thought.

"My name is...Mirad", he paused for a second and pondered about his new name. A mishmash of the last two names he heard from the kid, or it may seem like it at first, but in fact, he had a sudden impression it's a common name here. Indeed, the kid calling himself Master Adin responded as if to confirm his thoughts.

"What a dull name. I thought you would be called something like the poisonous serpent Master, instead of this name I heard a thousand times. Say, I haven't seen you around here before. Where did you come from?" he asked curiously.

'I guess Mirad is my name from now on,' The youth thought. He then answers with a fabricated story, "I'm actually from here. I came to this village to look for my long-lost parents; I have been traveling from village to village for almost 3 years."

'Master Adin' suddenly lost interest in the conversation. He even seems to become in a depressed mood, lowering his head. The other kid gave him a concerned look before looking at Mirad, saying, "Sorry, but entering the village at this time is not possible.

Mirad did not get an answer from the children for a while. The child named Adin seems to be in a bad mood, tilting his head down, looking at the ground. The other child gave him a concerned look, then looked at Mirad and frowned, thinking of something. He said, "Sorry, but entering the village at this time is not possible for non-residents. Still, I can show you some of the houses of farmers like us outside the village."

'closed village? The situation here seems tense. Better be careful', as Mirad was about to thank the boy, a teenage girl about 16 years old yelled with worry while hurriedly reaching them.

"Kouri, Adin, who are you talking to? What happened?"

"Hahaha, you worry too much, sis Mona. We found 'Mr.' Mirad an hour ago under a tree drooling while in a deep sleep. He can't be a bad guy", Adin said, seemingly in a good mood again.

Mona still had a worried expression; she said: "Mister, I don't know why you are here, but the situation in the village is not good. Adults, especially in the outskirts, were tasked to report any stranger or suspicious activity."

While she said that, she brought up a blue cylindrical object and was ready to throw it.

"This is an immortal item that will alert everyone in the village. please let the kids come over to me and back off a few hundred steps".

Adin ran toward Mona and snatched the object, fascinated by it. Not caring about what she said. "Hey you," she said angrily. The kid named Kouri gave an embarrassed smile, looking like the reasonable one in this punch.

'what's the matter with this girl? Isn't she a little bit overcautious?' thought Mirad. The word "Family" passed his thought when he saw this scene. Also, When he heard the term "immortal" from the girl, a rush of familiar feelings came to him. He decided to ignore it for now, to not get distracted and to avoid headaches.

"Sorry for scaring you, little miss; I'm just a traveler with nowhere to stay. Can you tell me why the village is closed? I just arrived here today.", he said.

The girl named Mona seemed quite surprised, "You don't know why? Are kidding me? Did you come from outside this county?" she asked a question after another.

Kouri, who was a little suspicious before, said, "Mister, I don't see why would you lie about not knowing something this common. It's impossible to not know that even if you came from another county.", the three started to doubt his intentions.