Rena, Agne, and I had no pity when Rocky barely managed to crawl his way into the adjacent corridor. He was beaten, battered, and bleeding all over, but I knew he would survive.

After all, Rocky could survive anything.

The howling from earlier had Rena, Agne, and me a bit concerned, but not even ten minutes later, Rocky’s yells sounded more monstrous than the beast he was fighting. Of course, Rocky had managed to battle the chasing Rat-Owl to a standstill.

As he crawled out of the sewer, Rocky kept complaining about the fact that he couldn’t kill the creature. It seemed to bother him more than our seeming betrayal. And as much as I would have liked to tease Rocky to death, there were other matters to pay attention to.

I noticed displaced dust on the ground, meaning someone or a group of someones had probably walked this path recently. This was not unexpected since the sewers were filled with weird things, but it still twisted my gut a bit.

Like a premonition just waiting to be materialized.

Still, we continued to walk, even if it probably meant our deaths because as much as we could survive, as Slum-Dwellers, we were always prepared to have short lives. The darkness of the sewers once again descended as we walked, but the lights grew brighter the closer we got to the bunker.

Like a gradual hope rekindling, and, of course, the lighting was designed to have this effect because I recognized long ago that people tended to be sacred of hope. At least, in the slums, we were scared of hoping for something better.

I led the way as best as I could, and soon, we were approaching the final corridors.

At this point, we started to avoid the traps I could remember, but the sinking feeling in my gut only got deeper and deeper, making me more nervous the closer we got to the bunker.

And that created some mistakes I wouldn’t have usually made.

I hopped when we should have slid.

I slid when we should have avoided the ground.

And I dashed forward when we should have taken a couple of steps back. Each incident led to the unveiling of a new trap, almost killing us every time… I made so many mistakes that Agne had to lead us forward.

So far, she had been the most useless person in our journey, but the small girl had an eye for traps. Of course, I was the one to suggest she take the reins, and as for how I knew she could do it… ironically, I didn’t know.

I just felt like she could do it. Agne’s innocent eyes concentrated on the ground, pointing out all the traps she could recognize. It was only after looking into her eyes for five minutes did my sense of self returned, reminding me that I was also a kid.

I was just a couple of years older than Agne.

But I could feel myself growing older by the second; maybe not physically, but definitely mentally. What determined who a person was?

Their memories.

Their existences.

The very thought of individuality.

I didn’t know, but I had a feeling I would soon find out because I could sense myself fading. Sweet winds that traveled from continent to continent, fading into obscurity without anyone ever noticing it was there.

That was ‘Omari’ in my own mind.

I was becoming larger, but less of myself… it was like darkness encroaching from behind as you ran towards the light. Only, I was making no progress. I was stuck in a perpetual state of being neither there nor here, and that somehow felt even nastier than being one or the other.

I expected the monstrous rage of madness to bombard my mind once more, but such a feeling never came. Even as I became less of myself, something more terrifying occurred.

I stopped caring bit by bit.

The events replayed in my mind like a curse, trying to warn me of something, but I couldn’t listen. How could anyone listen when they were talking to themselves? Shouldn’t I just know it?

Why in the world would I have to explain it to myself?

“Hey!” Rocky slapped me on the shoulder, and I bounded back instantly “You okay, man?” He inquired, holding a stick in his hand to hit me across the head if anything was amiss.

Leave it to Rocky to knock you out the moment he saw signs of otherworldly possessions. What I wonderful friend I had.

“I’m fine,” I groaned, nursing a receding headache. “Just a mad headache, and on the brink of insanity.”

“So, the usual?” Rocky questioned, poking me with the stick. “No demonic possession or anything. I don’t have to stake you in the heart or anything?”

I sighed and reminded Rocky of the rules. “If the eyes turn red then you stake me through the heart since that means vampire, but if I am going insane, a low to the head will do the job.”

“So many fucking rules,” Rocky complained. “How am I supposed to remember it all?”

“What the heck are you guys talking about?” Rena questioned, not liking the fact that we had excluded her from the conversation.

Excluding her from the conversation meant we were that much closer to abandoning her entirely, which we were, but there was no need for Rena to know that.

“It’s the rule we set to govern under what circumstances we would kill each other,” I explained, raising one hand to demonstrate my five fingers as I counted down the circumstances. “There are five scenarios where our friendship becomes a risk, so we plan to kill each other at that time.”

“What scenarios?” Rena questioned, clearly interested in the idea of me and Rocky killing each other.

Of course, she probably forgot she wouldn’t be able to stay alive without Rocky and me at her side. Alas, females are irrational creatures, so I explained anyway.

“It’s called PREVIEWS aka PRVWS with each letter standing for an unsurmountable threat we encountered in the slums,” Rocky explained, gloating when he saw I was shocked that he actually remembered. “If we ever become a Priest, Rat, Vampire, Werewolf, or Scientist; we have to kill each other… it’s the law of our brotherhood.”

“Don’t you guys betray each other every second?” Rena questioned.

Rocky shrugged “We betray each other a lot, but we never try to kill each other, because no matter what happens, that’s crossing a line.”

Rena sighed in exasperation, wondering why the male species were so complicated “You encountered those things in the slums?” she inquired, never having heard about vampires in the slums.

“It’s a metamorphosizes,” Rocky explained, displaying his sage wisdom.

“Metaphor,” I corrected Rocky, and he nodded. “That’s what I said.” He argued.

I sighed and explained in more detail so Rena could understand. “Priests are shit anywhere in the world… just look at Flaw… Rats mean those who sell out their friends for crumbs, if Rocky and I are going to betray each other, we promised it would be to get rich! Vampire means those who eat human flesh, cannibals in a sense… Werewolves are for the prostitutes who never shave their body hair; we made the mistake of almost sleeping with one of them and we learned our lesson… and finally, Scientists always kidnap kids from the slums to experiment on us, so naturally, we hate them.”

“That’s fucking brutal,” Rena grunted, wondering why she never encountered such things even though she lived in the slums.

“Because you were protected,” Rocky replied as if reading her thoughts. “Omari and I weren’t protected… so, I had to use him to get into the tight places.”

“I am pretty sure I used you as the watchdog,” I quickly corrected, but I was so eager to prove myself that I swayed unsteadily on my feet.

As much as I tried to hide it, I was beyond exhausted, fighting a battle with myself.

Rocky placed a hand on my shoulder once more. “You okay?” He questioned, a suspicious glint in his eyes.

Of course, he knew I wasn’t but still gave me the chance to deny it.

“Yeah… I am fine,” I murmured.

“You’re not fine,” Agne added, pointing out the final traps to Rena “You’re far from fine… I can feel it.”

Agne hadn’t spoken since we entered the sewers; she was too busy being scared, but after finally doing something useful, the small girl seemed to find her confidence once more.

“And what can you feel little girl?” I questioned, displeased that Agne would speak up against what I wanted everyone to believe.

For some reason, I found Agne endearing and somewhat disgusting. Or maybe it was the feeling of love that I found disgusting. Rocky pulled me along, and we passed through the corridor, finally leaving all the traps behind, and now, we were on our last legs.

A couple more obstacles and we would get to the bunker.

“This is it,” I stated, rushing forward with Rocky, Rena, and Agne following closely behind.

There was a small tunnel ahead, and I leaped inside it, crawling and crawling until a bit of light was visible from the other end.

“I am almost there,” I yelled, throwing myself out of the tunnel.