Happy Life (2)

Luck strolled down the familiar streets of his neighborhood, the warm rays of the afternoon sun casting long shadows across the pavement. It was a peaceful scene, one that filled him with a sense of comfort and belonging.

As he approached his house, a voice called out to him from across the street. "Hey there, Luck!" a neighbor called, waving enthusiastically.

Luck returned the wave with a smile, but as he did, a sudden wave of uncertainty washed over him. Luck... why was he named Luck? It was a strange name, he realized, one that stood out among the more common monikers of his classmates.

'Weird, I feel like I've thought of this before.' A fleeting sense of déjà vu briefly swept over him, leaving him momentarily perplexed. Shaking off the strange sensation, he entered his home.

"Mom, I'm home," Luck called out as he kicked off his shoes and made his way to the kitchen.

His mother looked up from her dinner preparations, her face alight with warmth. "Welcome home, sweetheart. How was your day?"

Luck shrugged off her question, intending to head to the fridge, but a strange hesitation held him back. Why did he feel reluctant as if he was tired of going there...again...Standing near the kitchen, his mind felt oddly blank.

Noticing his unusual stillness, his mother raised an eyebrow. "Is something on your mind, dear?"

Silent and motionless, Luck grappled with a whirlwind of chaotic thoughts swirling within him.

Concerned, his mother approached. "Are you okay?"

As she reached out to check his forehead for a fever, Luck instinctively stepped back, sweat glistening on his brow.

"Yeah, mom, just a stomach ache. I'll join you for dinner soon," he muttered, hastily retreating upstairs and closing the bathroom door behind him.

Sitting against the shower wall, Luck could barely muster the words to express his realization.

"I-I remember now..."

***

"What do I do, What do I do?"

In this world, everything seemed counterfeit except for him; they appeared alive, but beneath their façades, they all wore masks. Ironically, it wasn't so different from the real world.

As Luck sat there in the bathroom, grappling with the sudden flood of memories and the unsettling encounter the day before, he couldn't shake off the feeling of dread that crept over him like a shadow. Every sound seemed amplified, magnifying his sense of unease.

Luck was ripped out of his thoughts by a loud sharp knock on the door. "Luck, open up! I need your help in the garage!" his father's voice called out , sounding strained and distant, as if coming from another realm.

Heart pounding in his chest, Luck hesitated, his hand trembling as he reached for the doorknob. 

Summoning his courage, Luck slowly turned the handle and opened the door, bracing himself for whatever horror might lie beyond. To his shock and horror, standing before him was not his father as he knew him, but a grotesque caricature, with twisted features contorted into a fiendish grin that sent shivers down Luck's spine.

"You've been a bad boy Luck, and a punishment is due," the figure hissed, its voice a chilling whisper that seemed to reverberate through the very core of Luck's being. With a cold, clammy hand, it seized Luck by the hair, yanking him out of the bathroom with a strength that belied its grotesque appearance.

Luck struggled against the grip, his heart pounding in his chest as he desperately tried to break free. But the figure's grasp was unyielding, dragging him down the stairs into the dimly lit living room below.

There, amidst the eerie silence that hung heavy in the air, Luck's mother awaited, her tear-streaked face a mask of sorrow and despair. "We could have lived here forever, just us, happily," she whispered, her voice trembling with emotion. She wept loudly, with each tear drop as heavy as anchors. Overtime the crying got worse, more inhumane, sounding less and less like a cry of a person and more like a cry from the depths of hell.

But then, in a sudden and jarring shift, her tears transformed into hysterical laughter, a cacophony of madness that filled the room with its chilling resonance. "You damn idiot! YOU HAD EVERYTHING YOU WANTED AND YOU STILL FOUGHT AGAINST IT!" she shrieked, her words echoing off the walls in a haunting refrain.

"You and you're madness shattered the peace of this land, this land that has been tailored to your existence! This so called "trial" was your gateway to a paradise, but your warped twisted thoughts have left nothing but ruin in their wake. You are not welcomed anymore, for the havoc you've brought, consequences will follow."

Luck's mind raced with terror as he grappled with the surreal nightmare unfolding before him. He scrambled to his feet, his heart pounding in his chest as he desperately sought an escape from the nightmarish scene.

With adrenaline coursing through his veins, Luck darted towards the kitchen, his hands trembling as he fumbled for a knife. But before he could grasp hold of the blade, a powerful force seized him by the ankle, wrenching him backward with brutal force.

Thrown against the nearby wall, Luck felt the impact reverberate through his body as pain shot through his limbs. The wall cracked and splintered upon his collision, forming a jagged web of fractures across its surface.

Dazed and disoriented, Luck struggled to regain his footing, his senses overwhelmed by the chaos unfolding around him. The grotesque figures loomed menacingly in the dimly lit room, their twisted forms casting eerie shadows against the walls.

As he surveyed his surroundings with wild eyes, Luck's mind raced with frantic thoughts, searching for any means of escape from the realm that had ensnared him. His gaze fell upon the shattered remnants of the wall, its fractured surface offering a glimpse of freedom beyond.

Summoning his courage, Luck lunged towards the breach in the wall, his heart pounding in his chest as he propelled himself through the jagged opening. He burst into the darkness beyond, his senses reeling from the sudden onslaught of stimuli.

But as Luck emerged into the unknown expanse that lay beyond, he realized with a sinking sense of dread that his trials were far from over. The world outside was a twisted and surreal landscape, its contours warped and distorted by unseen forces.

A howl of wind blew and snow poured like rain from the sky. Luck turned back and instead of being greeted by a wall all he saw was a land being assaulted by snow, there was no civilization in the distance that his eyes could see, only a mere cottage in the not so far distance.