memories or illusions?

"Welcome back, big brother" 

A soft voice sounded behind Ivan, he speculated that the voice belonged to a teenage girl but did not dare to be too certain considering what he had experienced before.

"Don't you want to turn around and see me, big brother?"

The voice said once more, a bit upset this time.

Ivan's heart felt cold when he heard this, now he was sure that whoever the owner of that voice might be, they were definitely not a young teenage girl. He felt mentally exhausted and stressed. Why was dying so stressful?

He had already given up on living when the mirror gate appeared at the playground but not only did he not die when the yellow mist swallowed him, he kept getting toyed with by…things that he could not explain.

First, he found himself in this vast clear sea that was originally calm and he could breathe in it without a problem, then he heard the voice of an old man but got frightened by the appearance of an old woman instead which caused him to pass out due to him being unable to handle the shock. When he woke up, he had witnessed the weird scene of an injured mother chasing after someone who stole her child. After which he experienced being a baby in a hall with a lot of other babies, that was where the man in a brown trench coat made him experience a world of pain.

Ivan's body jolted when he recalled his experience as a baby, the pain of having one's limbs snap was not pleasing at all. And the pain that he felt made him feel that it was impossible for everything he had experienced to be an illusion, everything felt just too realistic.

'Did I experience a different lifetime? Or…was I really hallucinating?'

"Was it because I startled you with the face of an old woman just then? Is that why Big Brother doesn't want to look at me? Fine, I'm sorry. It was a mask, now please look at me" 

Ivan's mind was pulled out from his thoughts by the voice once more, the owner of the voice sounded very desperate this time around.

'Oh, yeah. And there's this voice behind me too, let's see what it is' Ivan thought to himself as he moved himself around in the water. He had lost count of how many times he had been stunned that he did not care if he would be shocked by what was behind him.

Ivan turned around and his eyes widened in surprise when he finally saw what had been calling him big brother…it was actually a sixteen-year-old-looking girl!

Ivan was surprised that it was actually a young girl who was behind him and not some old monster waiting to scare the living daylight out of him.

In front of Ivan was a girl who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, she had large blue eyes that blinked cutely at Ivan. Her eyes looked so bright and pure as if she was ignorant of everything unholy but Ivan knew that it was fake, it was his gut feeling.

The girl had long black hair that was tied up into two ponytails that reached her back and wore a pretty blue dress.

She was standing right in front of Ivan inside the water too but a strange energy that Ivan could not see kept the water away from her, the energy created an invisible barrier around her that prevented the water from coming around a meter near her; unlike her, Ivan was completely soaked.

"Yay! Big brother finally looked at me, I'm so happy"

The girl clapped her hands together with a happy expression on her face while Ivan's face showed more confusion. But before he could ask why she kept calling him big brother the girl moved closer to him.

"I would really love to spend some time and chat with Big Brother but I don't have enough time right now, you can look for me in the future if you have any questions. Please remember my face or I'll be very upset with Big Brother.

For now, happy birthday!" The girl exclaimed excitedly as she pushed out her hands, sending a red orb of light flying toward Ivan.

Ivan had subconsciously tried to move out of the way thinking that the red orb was an attack but his expression froze when he saw what was within the red orb. There was a stack of blue cards inside the red orb and Ivan recognized those cards. After all, it was his ability in the strange dream that he had last night!

The red orb sailed slowly towards Ivan and entered his body without Ivan feeling anything, the girl smiled upon seeing this and winked at Ivan while waving her hands.

"Bye now, big brother. Remember to come look for me and happy birthday once more!" She said before disappearing into thin air.

Ivan had yet to recover from the subsequent change of events before the girl vanished, next was him slowly losing consciousness.

Ivan tried his best to stay awake but the cold sea suddenly became so warm and comfortable that he could not resist the urge to sleep, and so he slept off.

.....

Somewhere far away from the outskirts where Ivan lived, a middle-aged woman could be seen walking through a garden with colourful flowers, butterflies with weird wing patterns flew all over the place and gentle rays of sunlight bathed the garden in its radiance.

However, there was something odd about this garden, and that was the garden itself. If one looked up, the sky above the garden could be seen to be normal with a bright blue sky and a huge sun hanging above the sky but that was only above the garden.

Outside the garden, the sky was blood red and the world outside the garden was not as colourful in the slightest; one could easily smell the dangers just from looking outside the garden.

Vroooosh!!!

The air cracked like a mirror above the garden and a grey portal appeared. Two figures fell from the portal and landed in front of the middle-aged woman. One was a little girl with two ponytails while the other was a huge dog with yellow fur and pitch black eyes.

The two landed carefully in front of the middle-aged woman and avoided stepping on any of the flowers that were planted in the garden.

"Oh, hello mother! I'm back"

The young girl called out cheerfully to the middle-aged woman, the yellow dog wagged its tail and its tongue hung out of its mouth. It was just as happy as the little girl to see the middle-aged woman.

The face of the middle-aged woman shone a bright smile when she saw the two, she paused her steps while staring at the two gently.

"Did you find him?" She asked.

"Mm, I met my big brother. I think I scared him too hard though, he passed out for a bit" the little girl replied with a pout.

The middle-aged woman giggled softly upon hearing this.

"Silly child, it's normal that he passed out if you were the one who startled him. Your big brother has had it rough for a while now" the middle-aged woman said with a sigh and the little girl made a face like she understood what the woman was saying.

"Did you give him the thing I gave you though? The orb?" The middle-aged woman added after a brief pause.

"Yes yes! I gave it to him myself and told Big Brother to come find me in the future" The little girl nodded her head vigorously.

The middle-aged woman nodded, satisfied with her response.

"Good child, you both did well. Some pests came to steal from my garden, you two can have them as rewards" The middle-aged woman waved one hand at the entrance of the garden where six people in tattered clothes could be seen. They were all bound by strings of red energy and looked quite battered.

" Yay! You're the best, mother!" The little girl jumped up excitedly.

The six people who had been tortured by the middle-aged woman already almost fainted from fright when they saw the little girl transform into a terrifying-looking beast while the dog turned into a massive body of yellow mist before surging towards them.

The middle-aged woman just watched from a distance as the beast that the little girl had turned into and the yellow mist attacked the six people, screams of anguish filled the air, and blood splattered all over the place.

She looked for a couple more minutes before turning away and continued to tend to the flowers in her garden while murmuring something to herself.

"Be careful what you wish for, son".

...…

" Ivan!"

" Hey, Ivan! Wake up, how can you suddenly fall asleep?" 

Ivan faintly heard these words as his consciousness slowly returned to him, one last yell in his ears completely woke Ivan up from his daze.

His eyes flashed open with a jolt and he sprang up to his feet the next instant, he began to look around like someone in a strange place.

"I'm…back?" Ivan muttered to himself in confusion.