I quietly sat on my bed. I look out the window..my sight was blinded by neon lights. I look down on the road. All I see were cars driving with high speed—police cars chasing after them. Bright Red and Blue lights and sirens brings me headaches.

I got back up and closed the curtains making the room dim. I don't mind it being dark...all I want to focus on is the situation I got myself into.

A few days ago, I was minding my own business walking back inside my home after taking a smoke break. I didn't even get a chance to turn the knob due to someone hitting my back with a small stone. It didn't hurt, but it bothered me so much.

I looked behind me angrily to see who it was, it was a child. My anger quickly disappeared after finding out it was a kid...I mean, it's a kid. Kids are stupid, or at least the children in my city aren't raised really well.

I turn back to my door. The kid stopped me from entering my home by yelling, "Hey mister!". I turn to the kid just to see her smiling at me. "What is it?" I asked as I walk towards the child. I crouched down to her level to have a proper conversation.

"Your name is Blank, right?" I was shocked. How did this little girl that I have never seen before know my name? "Yes....how did you know?" "A Friend of yours told me to give you this." She pulled out a folded piece of paper.

I open the paper. I realized it was a letter. From who? I stood up as I read the letter.

“ To:: Blank.

You probably don't know who this is from, I'll tell you by the time you finish the letter. A little girl sent this to you, am I right? She's my sister so don't hurt her. I didn't want you to know who I am so I asked her to bring this to you instead.

Remember that time when you and I fought? Probably not...from what I know, you fought many people—but do you remember when we fought?

Oh yeah, you still don't know who I am. But that's not important right now. I still want that gold piece on that choker of yours...If you don't give it by Monday I'm going to come for you...I'm going to rip that choker off your neck, and take all of your money.

I'm an impatient guy...so hurry up and don't even think about trying to escape me. I know I left a scar on your stomach, and I will do it again.

-Clover ”

I was panicking. I wanted to give Clover's little sister the letter back, but she was gone. She ran away while I was reading. It made me so mad, yet so scared. I don't want to give him the gold, I *can't* give him the gold. It's the only piece of my family left...the only piece of my mother left.

((Ah, jeez..all I wanted was a smoke break, now I have to deal with this?!)) I yell at the back of my head. I shut the door behind me and let out a groan. I should be used to not knowing what to do, panicking, and being so confused...unfortunately, I'm not. Or at least not yet.

I sat on the nearest seat I could find. I grip on the letter tighter, I don't know if it's because of anger or fear. Something that popped up in my mind made it worse.

That little girl...she's Clover's sister, right? Did he seriously told her to just look for me? He's going to let her roam around this dangerous city all by herself?! Does she know the way back??

I click my tongue. Why am I worrying about her?

...Should I worry about her? Maybe she knows her way back...I've never met her before anyway, there might be many things I don't know about her..

I gently take my choker off. I stare at the piece of gold, resting on my palm.

"I don't want to loose you again..."

The letter was haunting me the whole day. I couldn't eat without thinking about the letter, I couldn't shower without thinking about the letter, I couldn't do anything without thinking about the letter!

I tried to take a nap. I still kept thinking about the letter, luckily I didn't dream about it. I fell asleep somewhere near 6:30 PM and woke up at 11:48 PM. It was dark, the curtains were closed and I can barely see. Before I couldn't even move, I heard some old man screaming.

I hurried my way to my window to see what's going on, it looks like a few children picked on him..they even stole what looks like his wallet and the liquor he was holding.

"Why do I live in such a place..." I rub the tiredness off my eyes. The man was still yelling and the children were laughing. They threw the bottle causing it to crack and break into tiny pieces. "I might move out...if I can. If I get a chance."

((But you can't.)) I overthink as stress takes over me, I can't deal with this. Anymore. I need a smoke break.

I walk to the front door while taking a cigarette. I got outside..the ground was wet. It looks like it rained again. I saw the neon lights flashing and changing color to color as I look at the ground. I light up the cigar.

I can see my cold breath slowly disappearing with the smoke. "About that letter..." What should I do? From what I know, I can't give him a fake piece of gold. I can't live a day without that choker too. Along with the gold comes great money...he wants the money, doesn't he?

He's a greedy guy. I'll have to deal with this until Monday...which isn't a lot of days. Should I run away? Should I just forget it and let him get away with it? Should I...

...Should I seek for help? I let out a small faint chuckle. Looking for help? Seriously? Do I know how long I've been living alone with no one to talk to? Did I forget how weak I am to even ask for HELP?

I'm going insane. Being alone for many years...could lead to awful things. Like intrusive thoughts, slowly going crazy because of being alone with no one but yourself..and it's worse when you can't understand who you are.

Despite me living 23 full years, I can't understand anything about myself. All I know is my name, my age,my birthdate, blah blah blah. Still not sure about my favorite color. The person who's reading this probably relates.

Why am I suddenly blabbering about myself? Selfish, isn't it? ((Ah Blank, who the hell are you talking to? You shouldn't continue talking to thin air, take a walk and calm yourself down.)) I quickly finish my cigar and threw it in the nearest trash bin. I saw my breath becoming one with the cold air as a sigh escapes my lips.

...----------------...

It was 11:55 PM. I got hungry, so I decided to head to the snack shop before walking around the city further more. What should I get? Pocky or Chips? Maybe some sweet tarts..sounds good enough.

"Good evening." The woman on the counter greeted me. In return, I gave her a warm small smile. I walk to the chips section to check if anything can catch my eye, nothing. Then I go to the snack section to see if there's any Pocky, still nothing. I go to the candy section and to my surprise, I found sweet tarts. looks like they have Sour Patches on stock, so I took a couple of those too.

I walk up to the counter to pay for the Sour Patches..as well as the Sweet tarts. Who doesn't love sweet tarts?

I ate one of the Sour Patches right after buying them.

"It's late." I whisper to myself. I look around. "I should go back home." "Actually, you should come with me instead." A voice quite too similar to mine said behind me. In an instant, I turn my head. It's...me?! No way that's me, they look like me, but different?

"What the...who the hell are you?!" I back off slowly trying to avoid this...guy. "Seriously..?" They sounded disappointed. Did they..expect me to know who they are? I tilt my head in confusion. "I'm you! Duh! I'm just from another timeline...another universe even."

((The heck?! Nonsense! Another timeline? A different universe?? This guy must be crazy.)) They grab my shoulder, pulling me to my previous position. "Let me know if I got into the right timeline. You're name is Blank, right? You call yourself Blank?" They asked me as their lifeless black eyes lock with mine. I hesitated to answer. "I-...yeah, you're right. What do you want?" I managed to calm myself down. "Right, I'm Coward." My face formed a look of disbelief. Coward? Seriously? Is he playing with me? "Don't look at me like that. I don't know my own name, people around me call me a coward, okay? I have no choice." "Uh..understandable..."

I'm still confused of why and how. What's he here for? "Again, what do you want?" He smirked. "I'm not telling you yet. Not until we get to where I want us to be." "Alright, just take me where you want me to go. I don't even care at this point. All I care about is that stupid-" "I know. Clover, yeah? Yeah, yeah, I know. That's not what I want to talk about right now, stay quiet until we get there." He said, dragging me by my wrist. "May I ask where we're going exactly..?" "Behind the local bar. Into a portal, to another universe."

((Is this some kind of Mosquito-man: No Way Home type of crap? What is this guy talking about?)) He started to walk faster, does the 'portal' have some sort of time limit? "Hey, slow down-" "No, the portal's gonna close in ten minutes." Ah, so the portal *does* have a time limit. Wonderful, definitely realistic and possible.

After a few minutes, we made it to the bar. Coward was still gripping on my wrist. He dragged me behind the bar, I can see a bright purple-ish pink-ish light. Is there really a portal..?

"Here we are." I tried to catch my breath after seeing a literal portal. It's real?? Is it an illusion? I can see the inside of someone's home inside the portal. Coward tugged my wrist. "C'mon, it's about to close." He ran in the portal, I followed. I was so confused yet amazed that I just walked through a portal. The portal brutally closed behind me as I brush the dust off my clothes. "Now that there's better lighting, take a good look at me." He told me while he walks back for me to see his full body.

I look at him up and down, head to toe. Let's see...he has pale-ish grey-ish hair, he has the same haircut as mine but a bit longer. He's wearing a black turtleneck sweater, along with a white shirt that I think was a bit too big for him. For the pants Coward was wearing black jeans, it has a few rips...I don't think they come with the jeans. He was also wearing boots. They were quite shiny...the laces were tied really well too. ((Huh. Weird, I feel like something's missing.)) I look back at Coward's neck. The choker...wasn't there?

"Hey, where's the choker?" I asked in a calm tone. "The choker? I- I don't..err..." He stuttered. Did he...lose it? Am I here so that he can get it back? No way! "It's uh...not on my neck, actually." "Then...why were you so hesitant to tell me?" "I thought you would find it weird. It's on my wrist." On his wrist? Why on the wrist? "I didn't want people to see it. I didn't want people to see the gold." "Understandable." "Are you finished?" "Yeah."

They walk up to me. "You know, I took a good look at ya' too while you were observing me." I don't know why, but I feel embarrassed. "I forgot what the choker looked like, to be honest, it looked really boring." "Well, that sure hurts."

He began to circle around me, looking at me up and down, head to toe. "Look at me." "Huh?" "I said look at me. You didn't examine my face, didn't you?" "Oh yeah.." They back away from me once again.

His eyes were black, by black I mean black, I'm sure that my eyes were dark brown. His skin was a bit paler than mine, and he has a few scars on his face. "Hey, what happened? You have scars on your face." "Oh, not just on my face. But if you want to know, it's normal. I fought with many people."

Of course.

"My voice is a bit raspy and deep, yeah?" "You're actually right about that. I just realized." "I'm so jealous of you. You're so pure, your face is scar-free, your voice is so clean, you're..." They groan loudly. "Forget it. You're- *We're* here for a different reason." Wonder what it is. "Alix!" Coward suddenly yelled. Alix? Who's that?

Suddenly, I saw someone walking toward us. He looks like me. Another one? Is he from another timeline? Universe? His skin was pale, His hair looks a bit like mine, but it's thicker and...fluffy? His eyes were light brown—he's wearing glasses with a small crack on the corner of it. For what he was wearing, he wore a simple white turtleneck sweater with a pale purple shirt extra sized shirt overlapping. He was wearing black jeans, the same as Coward. For the shoes, Alix was just wearing a normal pair of White sneakers.

"Huh. He's a normal guy, eh?" "He might *look* like a normal guy." That sentence scared me a bit. "You must be Blank." His voice is like mine, clean, not low..but not high, and calm. Alix then approached me. "Kiss me if I'm wrong, you've met someone called Clover, am I right?" "Right. What about it?" "Have you seen his face?" I pause for a moment.

"Now that you mention it, I don't think so." "Will you believe us when we tell you that Clover's another one of us from an alternative universe?" My eyes widened. Really? "So does that mean I fought with *myself*, and the other *me* wants *my* choker? *My* gold?!" "Exactly." Coward answered as he crosses his arms.

"We should talk somewhere else...somewhere we can sit." He took my wrist and softly lead me to what looks like an office, followed by Coward.

"Take a seat. Let's discuss why we're here."