SLEEPWALKER

A man and a boy were standing in front of a shop.....

"Good work Aiden. Like we promised, here's 5 gold coins for your trouble", the man says, handing a small bag with 5 gold coins inside. The man had a bald, egg-shaped head and a sphere-shaped tummy, making him look like he swallowed a ball, the size of a truck wheel. His neck is not visible anymore as it has given in to the sheer amount of fat that is contained in this individual. Simply put, the man was obese. It's a miracle how he's even standing.

"By the way, you should really get some sleep. You look like you smeared black paint under your eyes", the man says with a genuine look of concern on his face, looking at the dark circle under the boy's eyes.

"Oh this!, don't worry about it Mr Folen, I haven't slept for 3 years now, so I'm used to it", Aiden says.

"So you are one of those freaks huh.... Oh well, your job here is done. If I ever need a shop keeper again, I'll come looking for you"

"Please do. Thanks for hiring me", Aiden replies with a polite smile before making his way home.

While looking at the receding figure of the boy, Folen couldn't help but mutter, 'Such a good kid. I wish my son was like him. Oh God, why did you have to give me such a failure for a son'.

The man sighs and closes the shop before leaving.

.....

While on his way home, Aiden couldn't help but reminisce about the past. He had a brother, a twin brother to be exact. His name was Eiden. He died as an infant due to complications related to birth. Aiden and Eiden were born as cojoined twins. Unfortunately, one of them had to be sacrificed in order for the other to survive. If one of them wasn't sacrificed, they would both die. It just so happened that Eiden was the one that was sacrifced.

Even though it wasn't his fault, Aiden always blamed himself for the death of his twin brother.

Life waits for no one. You just have to grit your teeth and keep clinging on to it, and that's exactly what Aiden did. His life was pretty ordinary until he turned 12. That was when things started getting weird.

It all started with him waking up on the floor of his room but then gradually got worse. There was even a time where he found himself in the forest outside of his town where he lives. Yes, he was sleepwalking.

The scary part was that he looked perfectly awake when sleepwalking. His eyes were open and he could even speak. It was as if his body developed a mind of its own.

Thankfully, the body seemed to be acting on instinct so it didn't do anything that would ruin his life. It simply explored its surroundings, talking only when needed.

At some point, his parents noticed something wrong so they took him to a healer.

It turned out that the reason why his body was acting sentient was his enormous amount of lifeforce. According to the healer, even if you combine the lifeforce of everyone in the town, it still wouldn't hold a candle to his lifeforce.

Ever since then, Aiden never slept again. His lifeforce was more than enough to make up for it. Even if he had injuries, it would heal super fast. Hell, he could even stop eating food and he'll be fine, but he never does that because he likes eating food.

You may be wondering why the twins were in danger of dying when they were born if he had so much lifeforce.

Apparently, Eiden's death was what triggered the growth of Aiden's lifeforce. The hypothesis that the healer made was that Eiden was an even bigger monster than Aiden, that he was the one consuming all the life force and he was doing so at a faster rate than Aiden could replenish his lifeforce.

She(the healer is female) continued, saying that if Eiden was the one that was saved, he would have died shortly after.

But don't get things wrong. This is just a normal day in this world. There are countless children born with abnormalities. Aiden and Eiden just happened to be one of the countless cases of anomalies being discovered.

In fact, cases like these had been occuring for millenia, ever since 'The Paradise Project' went wrong, hundreds of thousands of years ago.