Rrrr..Rrrr..Rrr, rang Greg’s iPod, as the alarm function activated, waking him up from his slumber. He began sighing, making no effort to move, except to press the top button on his device, setting it to snooze. He did this at least three times a morning, before getting up to start his day. It was a Wednesday, which was the middle of his work week. Usually it was then that he began hating the week until the weekend began.

While screaming out curse words in his head, getting out of bed, he prepared himself for work. It was the usual shower, prepare a quick breakfast, and getting the hell out of there before, he decided to stay a little longer and risk being late. The last part usually happened a lot. Before leaving he would check his Facebook. He never understood why he continued checked it. He never used it. To him, it just didn’t seem right to not check it. It just became a routine.

When he opened the social website, he browsed through the new feeds, to see if anything new happened. It was the usual people complaining about their lives, funny videos people would post, and messages/quotes users would come up with, just to sound smart but never lived by them. While Greg continued looking through the site, a message popped up on his messenger. The name of the one who sent him the message was literally “unknown”. “What the!?” he said, reacting to the sudden message from the unknown individual. It read “Please help!” which confused Greg for a moment. “What the hell is this? Did I just get hacked?” he wondered, thinking that he might have a virus infection on his computer.

He attempted to close his internet window, using his mouse, but couldn’t, because his computer froze, which worried him more. For this to happen to his computer, which he took good care of, worried him, and frustrated him at the same time. He decided to emergency shut down his computer, which required him to hold his power button for 5 seconds. As he pressed, and held his power button for over 5 seconds, the computer didn’t shut down. “Maybe I have to continue holding it down longer” he said, while continuing to hold down on the power button longer.

He looked at the screen, feeling very worried for his computer. He noticed that the unknown messenger, sent him another message. “Please help me!” said the message. The message was repeated three times and then the fourth then the fifth. Message kept repeating itself over and over. It was beginning to freak Greg out a lot. “Oh my god, sure, just shut down already!!!” he screamed in his head. The instant he finished the thought, the computer shut off. He was relieved to see it happen. After that, he took a quick glanced at the clock, noticing that he was running late. “Fuck!” he yelled, grabbing his keys, rushing out the door.

The instant he left, his computer booted back up, and displayed a message. It read “Thank You” then shut off.

----------------

James woke up to the sound of his alarm clock, ringing the sounds of an anime opening theme song of one of his favorite anime, Naruto. “God I love that theme,” he said rolling out of bed, catching himself before making a complete fall. He wore, Naruto pajamas with Sasuke art on one leg and Naruto art on the other, both performing poses. He didn’t wear a shirt, but wore a hidden leaf headband around his neck. The sun was bright today. The light shining through his window into his room, revealing anime posters, covering every inch of his walls.

James was a huge anime fan. He had goals of becoming an animator one day, but was never motivated in making the move to pursue it. He wasn’t a people person, which was one of his reasons for not aiming for his goal. He was very antisocial, so it was hard for him to find a job, because he was afraid to interact with the outside world. However, he did enjoy talking to people on the internet about anime. He even created his own website just for anime discussions. He would log in everyday, excited to speak about the episodes, he watched the other day, or argue about topics involving battles, romances, and things the author could’ve changed to make the anime better.

“James, come out of your room, and take out the trash!” yelled his mother. It was 1pm, and James was showing no signs of leaving his room anytime soon. “Leave me alone mom! I’m busy! I’ll do it later!” snapped James, feeling irritated about his mother yelling at him. Sometimes he hate reality, he hated his always angry mother, and he hated his own life, for being what it was. Sometimes he just wanted to get away. Run away from reality. Anime was his life. It was the only thing that kept him going throughout the days. If it wasn’t for anime, who knows what would become of him.

“Oh I have a message,” he said, noticing that he had a pop up on his website. He used his mouse to click on the message to read it. The message read “Please help me!”. Someone was asking him for help with something. Could it be about an anime that he/she didn’t understand? He was curious, so he replied, speaking the words, as he typed them. “Sure, I’ll help you if there’s anything I can do to be of service. What would you like me to help you with?” he finished, sending the message to the unknown member. He received a reply almost instantly afterwards. The message read “Thank you”. “Thank me for what?” he wondered, not bothering to send a message back to the unknown individual, who didn’t bother to tell him, his/her’s issue. “Must be a troll or something,” he thought, not liking the get involved with them. They were nothing but trouble.

Emily hadn't even gone to bed to warrant waking up in the morning. Her room was dark, the only light in the room being emitted from her dimly-lit computer screen. If it weren't for the clock in the bottom right of the screen, Emily wouldn't ever be able to keep track of what time or day it was.

Emily had spent all night browsing through the deep-web - she knew she shouldn't, but it just intrigued her; she never posted anything, but she always found herself scrolling through pages and pages built by the minds of the "messed up" people that actually had accounts.

A window popped up on her screen, much like the administrative prompt window one would use as a last resort when their computer was misbehaving. And then, text slowly began to appear on the black screen: Someone was writing in her command screen.

Help me.

Emily tried hard to close the window, scared that someone was hacking into her system, but the window wouldn't close. She checked her system folder, looking for anything out of the ordinary - but nothing had even been touched. The mystery person in her computer seemed innocent enough, what could come of writing to someone that had remoted themselves into her computer?

"A lot of things!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms over her face in frustration, "you've seen what kind of people lurk in here!"

Then again, they hadn't done anything to her so far... "Oh, what the hell," Emily said as she moved her mouse back to the unclosable screen.

What's wrong? What can I do to help?
Thank you.

The stranger said nothing more, and the window closed before Emily could press the stranger further.

---

Hannah awoke on her own, groaning as she buried her face against the arm of the life-sized teddybear that she slept with. She didn't know what time it was, but it was early enough that she couldn't hear any sign that anybody else in the house was stirring awake. Eventually, she rolled over, extending her arm and blindly felt for her phone that sat on her nightstand.

The brightness on her phone nearly blinded her tired eyes when she lit the screen up to check the time. Strangely enough, she had a notification that someone had texted her. "That's weird," she muttered as she sat up, unplugging her phone. No-one ever texted her - the only people who spoke to her used Facebook.

The young women unlocked her phone, curious to the text she received: It was an unknown number, and it simply read "help me." Hannah raised a brow at the message, hesitating for a minute as she wondered if she actually should bother responding. Maybe it was a wrong number? She didn't know exactly why she responded, perhaps her curiosity got the better of her:

Who is this?

Hannah didn't expect a reply, but to her shock, the reply was instantaneous.


Help with what?



Hannah hesitated again.

... This isn't going to get me into trouble, is it?


Hannah stared at her phone for a while, her eyes fixated on the message. Whoever was messaging her was awfully vague, but it did peak her curiosity. She was probably going to regret this later.

Fine, what do you need?


Hannah's phone glitched and reset itself, all traces of the mysterious messages erased from her own. Great, she thought to herself, I was talking to a glitch.

Greg finally made it home after a long day of work. For some reason, he was dragging his feet all day, which was why the day felt long. It was like all of his energy was being drained. He would have days like this at times, but today felt different, worse than the norm. When he reached his apartment, be barely had the energy to even leave his car. He even debated on falling asleep in it, but knew he had things to do before going to bed. “I’m I dying?” he asked himself, as he finally worked the nerve to exit his vehicle. When he opened his door, all thoughts of completing any type of tasks flew out the window, except for one, which was sleep.

He closed the door behind him, dropped his work gear, and dragged himself to his bed, flopping face-forward in it. “I have to take a shower” he said, but he was too tired. “I have to eat something” he said, but he was too tired. “I have to get ready for work tomorrow,” he said, but he was too tired. He couldn’t utter another word, before losing consciousness.

-----

“Brother...Brother...Brother!!!” said a person screaming from a distance. “What was that?” Greg asked himself. He could barely see anything, just slight flashes of visions. Every moment he got to see, he could see a little girl, running towards him. He noticed that he was on the ground, and couldn’t get up. “Brother!!!,” screamed the girl again, as she made it to him. “Brother? Who’s she calling brother?” he wondered, still unable to move. “What the hell, why can’t I move?” he asked himself, trying his hardest to move, but to no avail. When the girl reached him, he noticed that she was weeping heavily. It looked like she was crying for him, but why?

“R..Run Miki, they’ll catch you if you don’t,” said a voice that sounded like it came from him. “What the, I didn’t say that?” Greg said, feeling very freaked out right now. Was he dreaming? It had to be a dream. If so, how did he know he was dreaming? Most of the time, he would never recognize whether or not he was, when dreaming.

The girl grabbed him, lifting his upper body a little from the ground, hugging him weakly, while still crying her heart out to him. He could hear people in the distance. “Go now,” said the weak voice, that felt like it was coming from his mouth. The girl laid him back down to the ground gently, as he noticed that he was in a pool of blood. “Am I bleeding??” he wondered, not feeling the pain, but that didn’t matter, it seemed like the dream was finally over, because he began blacking out. Wha..t..the..hell?

--------

It was 4pm and James felt horrible. “What the heck is going on with me right now?” he wondered. He didn’t have the motivation to play video games, or watch anime, which was weird coming from him. He didn’t feel like doing anything. He didn’t know what was wrong with him today. Was he sick? For him to not even, feel motivated to watch anime, means that something was wrong. The only thing he thought about was going to sleep, which he didn’t waste time doing. “Hopefully tomorrow I can actually focus on watching anime,” He said, as he fell into slumberland.

"Would you like another, master?" a woman holding a bowl of berries asked as she began stroking Jin's long blonde hair. She was standing to the right of him as he sat on his golden throne, with a smile on his face. There was another woman, to his left, fanning him with a huge paper fan, using it's handle to move the fan up and down. "If you would be so kind," he answered, as he began laughing out loud. "Beep!" said the woman feeding him berries. "Beep?" asked Jin, confused by the sudden outburst. The woman dropped the bowl of berries, and proceeded, kicking Jin relentlessly. "What are you doing!?" screamed Jin, while trying to protect himself from the blows. "Beep beep beep beep!!!" yelled the woman, continuing her onslaught. "Why is this happening to-"

Jin woke up, with a familiar female face, stomping him, nonstop, and to the sound of his alarm clock sounding. The girl had long, black hair, that was tie in a, twin tail hair style, with slight tan skin. Her golden-yellow eyes seemed bright with fury as she continued stomping her childhood friend. "Get up already, you idiot!" yelled Makoto, frustrated. "You were suppose to be up an hour ago! Don't you remember Yamoto-sensei's request!?" she yelled, when noticing that he was awake, she stopped her abuse, then folded her arms, waiting for him to get out of bed. "Ok , I get it already" replied Jin sighing, sad that his dream had come to an end. He didn't like waking up early, but Makoto pushed him into doing Yamoto-sensei's favor. Even though Yamoto-sensei was a woman, he hated how lazy she was. She would always force her assignments on her students, no doubt the reasons for it was so that she could drink her nights away. "How is that woman not fired by now," Jin asked himself, rolling out of bed. He noticed another familiar female face peeking into his room.

"I tried to stop her, I promise," said the girl, in a low shy voice. Nana, was another one of his childhood friends. She was always the shy type, which made her a target for bullying as a kid. Makoto saved Nana from her bullies, when she moved to this city 8 years ago. Makoto was a huge tomboy when Jin and Nana first met her. At first, they thought she was a boy, because of her slight boyish features and attitude. Now she looks more girly than Nana, if you take away the brute strength. Nana had long silver hair, that went pass her shoulders, to the mid section of her back. She had sapphire blue eyes, pale skin, and always had a shy, innocent look on her face. Both Nana and Makoto had on a white and gold sailor school uniform. Makoto's skirt was folded a little, making it look shorter, while Nana's were, slightly pass her knees, with was the normal length. Jin smiled at Nana, reassuring her, that everything was fine. He could never get mad at her, or Makoto. They were always great friends to him.

Makoto noticed their silent communication, and puffed her cheeks. "It's not like I'm mad or anything. Just get up already," he said sighing. Jin stood to his feet, feeling more awake than he was just a while ago. He bowed to her sarcastically. "As you wish Hime-sama," he said jokingly. Makoto may not seem like it, but her family is very rich. Her father owned, a weapons trading company in another country, but because of the war, it became to dangerous, so they moved to Vera.

Twenty minutes later, Jin was prepared and ready to go. "If we're late for this, it's your fault, you know," said Makoto, still a little upset with him. "Ma..Makoto-chan," Nana timidly called out in a low voice, trying her hardest to calm the situation. Makoto glanced at her sighing. Jin began scratching his head, not knowing was to say. "We..Well haha..let's get going," said Jin trying to ease Makoto's temper, if not a little. "I just hope, they're more prepared than you were," she responded, walking off.

----------

Greg woke from his slumber to an almost blinding light. “Wow, why are my curtains open?” he wondered, closing his eyes and opening them slightly so his eyes can adjust to the sun’s piercing light. It was strange that, the sun hurt his eyes that much. It was like he’d been indoors for days. He rubbed his eyes as he began to see a little more clearer, but when his eyes cleared, he saw something very wrong. “I’m I still dreaming or something?” he asked himself, messaging his forehead. Panic began to rise, as he realized everything felt real, but looked very odd. He could feel his hand touching his face, he pinched himself just to make sure he could feel pain. There were too many problem going on at once.

To start off, his hands were pale white and strangely colored, in a way he could only describe as anime. Anyone who knew Greg, knew that he was African American. His skin color was now complete different from the norm. The next thing was that the room that he was in wasn’t his. It was very different. The room that he was in, had colors that seemed off. Greg was very familiar with the colors, because he's seen them many times. The colors looked like something from an anime, and at the same time, felt real. He tried his best not to freak out, but it was a challenge given the circumstances. He slowly looked around, while still in bed. At the moment, the bed was the only safe haven, and he didn’t want to risk leaving it.

He noticed a mirror hanging on the door of the room he was in. He didn’t want to, but he had to know. He slowly creep out of bed. He felt as though, if he made too much noise, something was going to jump out and hurt or kill him. At this point anything could happen. When he made it to the mirror he couldn’t believe what he saw. He knew he felt something around his shoulders, because he had semi long silver white hair and his eyes were a crimson red color. “Holy Shi-” “HOLY SHIT!!!” screamed someone, interrupting him. The scream sounded like, a girl. The scream came from outside of his room.