1 Life Can Feel Lucid Sometimes

Gunfire. The clanging and swinging of all different kinds of weapons. Bombs. Screaming. Disease and famine make men yearn for courage, honor, death all the same. It all feels as if hell came and descended upon Earth itself.

"It sure feels like you can change this for the better, right?" A familiar voice called out.

They couldn't see this person above them past their mouth due to the bandages that covered their own head. It all felt so familiar yet strange.

"Huh? I don't think I can end this battle by myself," he replied, confused.

"You have to. Didn't you tell me you had this all planned out? Your mistakes was what got us into this mess in the first place."

"I must have forgotten about it, sorry man."

"Ah, I think you're just blanking on it right now. You'll remember when you're healthy again. Meet me on the cliff near the riverbank when you are, alright?"

"Catch you then."

He woke up in a sudden jolt from his dream and stares at the wall while he ponders what his dream meant.

"Who was that? What the hell did I do? It all feels so strange but so familiar," He said to himself as he gets up. "I'm too lazy to make some big old plan for a conflict. If I'm gonna be fighting, I wanna make my way to fame through being great at fighting. It'd be awesome to see all those newspaper clippings around town with headlines like 'Rambone Lewis: hero in the battle of blah, blah, blah.'"

Rambone took a quick look at his clock in his small little hallway. It reads 9:43.

"Damn it, I overslept. Guess I 'oughta get ready fast." He aggravatedly thinks to himself.

He headed into his bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. It's really small for most people. Only a tiny shower, a sink, a mirror, and a toilet with not too much walking space. While it wasn't great, Rambone only got money from his mother every few months, who was too busy to ever come home, much to his dismay. Still, though, he was thankful for even having a bathroom. The bathroom was mostly white, with sparkling square tiles for a floor. Sure, it had the occasional gross nook and cranny that he couldn't hit with his cleaning supplies, but he liked it.

He first took a look at himself in his small bathroom mirror.

"Wow, I woke with bedhead this morning, but I suppose it works," Rambone murmured to himself, shrugging it off before brushing his teeth and washing his face. His hair was a dark black color and super scruffy, the way he usually preferred it be. He tended to scrub a hand through his hair to get it into such a style.

Next, Rambone went to the kitchen and quickly cooked up eggs and some toast. It's not his favorite breakfast food, but it's easy and cheap to make. Scrambled after a few minutes on the stove so that he got the right balance between hot and cold. The toast could barely be considered toast, as he only had it in the toaster for less than a minute. He preferred when the bread was "crunchy" as he would often call it and not "hard."

As he finished a bite of toast, he heard some distant sounds coming from far outside, but it's way too faint for him to even remotely make it out what it might be. All he figured is that they were loud.

"Geez, what's with it and these weird tourists making the weirdest noises? What's so good about the rural countryside, anyways? I'm not even a farmer," he said to himself through bites, taking the plate with him as he stood near a window next to the kitchen. He wanted to know who was making those odd noises.

"Whoever made that sound seems to have stopped now." He thought to himself as he opened back the curtains for the day, finally getting the answer to the quick confusion.

After promptly finishing breakfast, he went to his bedroom closet and changed into his favorite outfit. Not much to wear, so he decides to go on ahead and throw his favorite outfit for today. A blue V-neck tee, black and gray flannel, and jogger pants. It's not particularly great but he finds it comfortable and makes him stand out a bit. Especially with his gorgeous green eyes.

As he throws on his shoes and heads out, he hears some faint screaming in the distance from what sounds like his best friend.

"Sounds like she's gonna kill me for oversleeping." He stated, beginning to run over to her house (which is about half a mile away from his). The two of their houses lived in the middle of nowhere, where there was practically nothing else but open rural farmland.

As he's about to get there, he sees a strange figure running away towards the west, quickly look back and see him. They're wearing a black cloak with the hood on. Even with the hood not concealing what they looked like, but the dusk light wasn't enough to let Rambone catch a glimpse as to who they were. As the figure sees Rambone, they begin bolting away even faster than beforehand.

Sensing something is off, he notices the door to her house is creaked open and goes up to open the door and then sees a scene that'll forever be burned into his brain for the rest of his life and forever change his and her's lives.

Upon opening the door and stepping in, Rambone would see something no one would ever wish to see. A sight he immediately wanted to forget about upon looking at it.

It was the sight of his best friend, Luca, crying in the main part of the house with blood splattered on the floor and the walls. There's some blood on her white capri pants as she's crying, holding the cold, dead body of her older brother. Her short blonde hair tossed around as she repeatedly was shaking her head, clearly more than struggling to cope with the sudden death of her older brother. Rambone's anxious face and mood that merely worried over her chewing him out had turned into a look of pure shell-shocked horror.

"Luca... w-what the hell happened here!?" Rambone yelled out, demanding answers.

"Someone just killed Pat!" Luca screamed out through her tears, as she turned to look at him.

Rambone rushed over to comfort her loss and calm her down as they begin to try to comprehend the situation. He wiped her tears away.

"Did you just get home?" Rambone asked.

"Yes, I did. I went to the market to b-buy a new knife. It's on the counter over there," she pointed to the knife on the counter. "He was shot and I don't know how long ago. I couldn't dig the bullet out."

She then pointed to the spot in her older brother's chest, right in the heart. Her hand was shaking.

"It's okay, Luca. I think I just saw them leave."

"Di-did you!?"

"Yeah. They might be long gone right now though, but I think we can catch him. Let's go," Rambone told her as he went to grab the knife, stuffing it into in the backpack and closing it. He quickly flinged it onto his back, and then starts dragging her by the hand out the door.

"I haven't gotten to say goodbye yet!" She wailed, resisting his forceful dragging.

"No... I think you've g-gotten to say goodbye." Rambone stopped to say in a sad tone and choked up a little as he looks at the ground for a moment.

There's a brief silence among the two, as they were more than damaged by the loss and had no idea of what to do. They couldn't call for an emergency because neither of them had phones.

"... Okay," she said, still struggling to deal with the loss.

Rambone looked to the road westwards from the entrance to Luca's house which faces south. where he last saw the hooded figure run off. About a mile away, the path splits off into two.

"Hey, isn't the market down that path and then to the left?" Rambone asked her. "I'm bad with remembering directions."

"No, it's down there and to the right, not the left," Luca corrected him.

"Alright. Since the police station is near the market, let's head over there," he said, nodding his head. "Oh yeah, here's your backpack."

He handed her the backpack. It's somewhat smaller than it normally is for backpacks, but for its cheap price for what she got it at, it was one of the things she owned that she liked the most.

"T-thanks. This might be the start of a wild-ass ride, so just keep that in mind."

"Eh, it's just a visit to the police station. How bad could it be? The police will catch 'em for sure."

"Rambone... the police doesn't always catch people…"

"Don't be such a downer. They'll get caught, no need to sweat it."

"I suppose you're right."

"And we can just catch them ourselves if they don't. It's not so bad." She sighed and relaxes a bit.

"Let's run over to the police station, then." He responded, feeling more cheered up.