A man walks up the road of his village, his pale brown hands stuck in the pockets of his hoodie. Everyone he passes by seems to overlook him, as if he were invisible.

On his face, are scars on his left cheek, and bruises mark his rough brown skin. His eyes lack emotion, a deep black color threatening to never dissipate.

A brown pouch hangs from the waist of his dark blue pants, swinging as he walks, accompanied by a messenger bag resting against the back of his black hoodie.

Reaching his destination, he turns to his right, staring at the house on the hill in front of him, his jet black curls fluttering in the wind. It's a freshly built concrete house, unpainted.

He kicks the ground with his sneakers, bracing himself and walks towards the house.

There he meets a woman doing laundry by hand, she's about the same height as Jonah. Straight, jet black hair frames her face, and the sun highlights her fair brown skin.

Jonah edges towards her quietly, his heart racing. He stops behind her.

"Good afternoon," he says.

"Jesus!" The woman startles. "Oh Jonah! Long time no see, you had to frighten me like that?"

Jonah smiles.

"So Jonah, how's your mammy, nuh?"

"She... moved out recently for some reason. So it's just me here still."

"Oh... so you come to meet us, or you come to miss Caedi?"

"Well, all of you. I just felt like coming over."

The two stand in silence as the woman continues washing her clothes.

"Well, come inside, nuh. Make yourself at home. I'll call those girls to come and see you. Those boys chilling in the living room."

Without saying anything, Jonah walks inside. His eyes glaze over, remembering past memories.

"They kept the same layout as the old house."

Jonah stares at the room around him. In front of him is an opening leading to the other rooms of the house, a curtain draped in front of it.

To his right, against the wall, is a computer desk with a laptop on it. Next to the desk is an outlet with a tablet and three other phones resting on it.

On the opposite side of the desk is a couch, two boys sitting on it, both staring at a video playing on the laptop. Their attention turns to Jonah as soon as their brains realize he's there.

"Jonah, is that you?" the older brother says.

"Yeah," he simply replies.

The older brother gets up, runs to him, and hugs him, reaching roughly Jonah's waist.

"You look so different, you lost all your belly fat."

He pats Jonah's belly, smiling.

Jonah scoffs, a slight smile on his face.

"Hey, get off him boy. Hi Jonah."

A voice appears from the opening in front of Jonah. It's a fair-skinned girl with short, dark brown braids, colorful beads swinging off the ends. She's about shoulder height to Jonah, her eyes bright brown, and a tiny mole on the corner of her pink lips. She waves at Jonah.

"Hi Iah." Jonah smiles brightly.

Iah leaves as quickly as she came, disappearing behind the curtain.

Jonah looks down to see the younger brother grabbing his hand.

"Jonah, did you bring something for Caedi... and me too?"

Jonah's heart beats hard after hearing the name.

"Well, actually, I brought something for all of you."

"Is that so? Excuse me,"

The woman who was washing the laundry walks behind Jonah, who is still standing in front of the door. Jonah moves out of the way, and she rests a basket of clothes near the entrance to the other rooms.

"What do you have for me? Pass it." The woman holds out her hand.

"Let's wait for Caedi first. I have some snacks, and I got around to ordering some matcha powder so we can try together."

"Oh, that's nice. You want me to heat up some water?"

"Sure."

"Miss C, hurry up, you hear? I want what is mine."

She shouts so that everyone in the house can hear, seemingly not expecting an answer.

"She's probably bathing, you know, but she better hurry up. Jonah, take a seat, make yourself at home."

Jonah just smiles and hums to himself.

"Well, is you. You like to stand up. You not tall enough?"

From behind the curtain, a girl around five inches shorter than Iah peeks out. Her darker complexion contrasts with Iah's, and her long black hair flows wild and untamed down her back. Her lips radiate a firm, glossy dark pink, and her hazel eyes glisten brightly regardless of the time of day.

As soon as she sees Jonah, her heart thuds, and she retreats, running straight back to her room where her sister Iah was.

"Paccia, what is he doing here? I thought he didn't want to talk to me again."

The girl's room is simple, a bed at the center, a wardrobe and a countertop by the window. Clothes are scattered everywhere. Iah lies in the center of the bed.

"I dunno. Maybe he didn't mean it."

"It's been five years."

"Well, it doesn't matter, Caedi. You're going to have to face him, so brace yourself before mammy comes and drags you out. Did you see him, though? He's so much hotter now, isn't he?"

Caedi makes a sound of defeat and stomps on the ground. She takes a towel off the bed and heads out their door and to the bathroom.

After she finishes her bath, she combs and braids her hair in twos, then puts on her best casual dress. She peeks out of the curtain. It took her two hours to get ready. Her heart beats ever so slightly harder when thinking of going to meet Jonah.

"You're finally here~" Jonah sings as he turns around. "Come on, let me see you."

Caedi is startled by this and slowly appears from behind the curtain.

Jonah looks at her, his eyes turning brighter, changing from black to a light brown. Caedi is only wearing a plain and simple white dress, but Jonah is stunned regardless as he looks into her sparkling crystal eyes.

"I've been just dying to see you again... my lady."

Caedi blushes and directs her gaze away from him.

"It's nice to see you again too... Jonah."

"Here, are rice crackers still your favorite snack?"

He hands her a bowl of rice crackers, seemingly which he made himself. He then grabs a teapot off the desk and pours it into a yellow cup with a cat on it.

"I see you still remember my favorite cup," she says shyly.

"But of course, here's some tea. I finally got around to ordering some matcha powder."

She smiles and thanks Jonah. For some time more, they were all there in the living room, having a good time chatting and reliving past memories. At the end of it all, Jonah began to speak.

"My word, if only I had known things could've been like this, I would have come back here sooner." Jonah's smile comes to a rest as his eyes begin to darken again. "My parents wouldn't have had to move so far away."

"What do you mean?" the mother asks, "Where exactly did they move to?"

Jonah stays still for a while, not saying anything. Then he looks straight into her eyes.

"To heaven."

The mother is shocked and quickly rises to her feet.

"You mean they died, how!?"

Jonah's lips form into a smirk.

"I killed them~" he sings.

Everyone except the two younger brothers froze. Jonah's words echo in their minds. Jonah walks and stands directly in front of the door to the outside.

"If only I knew," he continues, "but it is too late now."

"Jonah, how could you? If this is a joke, it is not funny at all," the mother says.

"It's okay, I'll send you to meet them. Right about... now."

Jonah and the two sisters watch as their mother's eyes roll back, and she falls face first to the ground, the younger brothers following behind her.

Iah runs straight into the bedroom while Caedi watches in horror, eyes wide open as froth comes out of her mother and brother's mouths. Jonah stares at Caedi, smiling brightly. She begins to frantically mumble, struggling for words to say.

"What's happening? Why are you doing this, what the hell!?"

Jonah giggles and laughs at her question.

"Why!? You have no idea. I was already headed down this path. Little did you know that you were the only thing keeping me away from it!"

"Don't give me that shit; I have nothing to do with this!!!" She shouts as she stands up. "We only broke up because you were so clingy!"

"You're right, but... I love you so much, I'm so obsessed with you that I couldn't contain myself anymore! If I can't be with you the right way then... this is how I'll do it."

Caedi looks straight forward and starts running towards Jonah, ramming directly into him in a desperate attempt to escape, but Jonah grabs her by her hair.

"You thought, but I'm clearly much stronger than I used to be. Come here."

Jonah pulls her in close and caresses her face.

"My sweet darling, you'll be mine forever."

5 years ago, at about mid-day...

A chubby version of Jonah walks up a concrete road with almost nothing else but various farms populating the area. He is wearing a plain green t-shirt and red shorts.

Jonah sweats vigorously walking up this road. His curls are overgrown and messy. His face is dejected, filled with anger, grief, and frustration.

His mind is replaying a scene that just happened earlier that day. At Caedi's house, he faces her, his face as calm as ever.

"Caedi, why are you ignoring my texts? I don't expect you to respond immediately, but you read them and don't respond."

"Jonah, I think we should... take a break from each other," Caedi says plainly.

Jonah's heart threatens to drop at that moment.

"But why?" Jonah says, puzzled.

"I want to... focus on my studies, and I think you—" she cuts herself off. "Nevermind, uh, let's just see how we feel about each other afterwards, you know?"

Jonah was devastated. He desperately tried to salvage the situation.

"But you're my—"

Caedi cuts him off.

"Stop it!" She shouts, "stop with that 'you're my reason for living' bullshit! I can't handle it..." Caedi looks away from him.

At this moment, Jonah's eyes turn pitch black.

"Never speak to me again," he says coldly.

Caedi's eyes widen, and with a heavy heart, Jonah leaves. Jonah, who now feels he's been abandoned, tries to walk off his shattered heart.

"Now I'm alone again. From being broken once to being shattered into pieces."

The words of his mother ring in his ears, 'you don't need friends, just talk to God, he's your friend that's always with you.' At this thought, his anger intensifies.

"Maybe if God would speak back once in a while!" He grits his teeth, "You say that, but you're the same as me! Hurt by people, but I can't use religion to cope."

Jonah looks at a stone on the road and kicks it with all his might. It only flies a few inches away, and he hurts his toes but just grits his teeth and keeps walking.

"Why does existing have to be so hard?"

He thinks back on all his wrongdoings of the past, as if answering his question. To this, he feels not an ounce of guilt.

"I may not be a good person, but I'm by no means one of the worst out there."

His mind thinks back to his younger days. He goes through the same things as he does today, but he was happy. What changed?

"I hate people, but I need them. What do I do now?"

Just then, Jonah hears a strange wavy sound above him, then he hears someone shout from above.

"Oh no, the cargo!"

Jonah looks up to see what's happening but only sees a wooden box falling down from the sky... A wooden box? As soon as Jonah takes note of it, the wooden crate is making its way down towards the ground, he tries to get out of the way but ends up only going closer to where it was falling.

The box falls right in front of him and just barely misses him as it makes a loud thud on the ground.

"What's wrong with me?"

He sighs heavily, then looks up in the sky to confirm that there's nothing up there, then he looks around him to make sure no one was there to witness the box fall. He then turns back to the box.

"I've wished for something like this to happen for a long time. There better be something good in here."

Jonah tries his best to pry open the box with his fingers. He lifts with all his might but the lid doesn't budge. Seeing this, he takes a step back to think.

"I can't leave it here, or someone else will come to claim it. Hmm... it doesn't seem to have any nails holding it down."

Jonah pulls out a medium-sized knife from his pocket. He then uses it to slide into the seams of the box. He tries lifting the lid once again and this time it comes off. Jonah smiles.

"Looks like my paranoia finally paid off!"

He rummages through the box and pulls out a grey metal hoop with a keypad on it and something that looked like a gun but was weirdly blocky.

"What are these? Maybe they're instructions in here?"

Just then, a white car appears behind a distracted Jonah. It honks at him and the box blocking the road.

"Get out of the f**king road!" The driver shouts.

Jonah frowns at the man, thinking that the people in his village have always been deplorable. He looks at the gun-looking object and points it at the driver then pulls the trigger without hesitation.

A small beam shoots out from it and pierces through the windshield and hits the driver. For a moment nothing happens, and both Jonah and the driver watch each other in silence.

But suddenly the driver's face distorts, and he screams in pain. His skin begins to melt off his body, leaving only his skeleton behind. Jonah is slightly taken aback.

"Well... better get out of here as soon as possible."

He goes back looking for any sort of instruction manual. He pulls out a larger metal hoop with a heart in the middle. It didn't have a keypad on it.

"This is a collar, isn't it?"

He tries to pull the hoop open, and with the sound of a click, it does. He puts it around his neck. He observes his body.

"This box is full of them, so I figure it should do something useful."

Suddenly tons of information floods into Jonah's brain. The action gives him a severe headache which makes him drop to the ground, holding his head and rolling in pain.

After a few minutes, the pain stops. Jonah breathes heavily and at the same time processes the information given to him. A smirk grows on his face.

"With these, there are so many possibilities! I finally have the power I wanted. No more suffering, no more waiting for things to get better. Now I can shape the world with my own two hands, just the way I like it!"

Jonah starts laughing uncontrollably until it finally devolves into maniacal laughter. In that moment, his mind thinks up several plans to achieve his goals.

The maniacal laughter stops, and Jonah frowns once again. His mind floats to an image of Caedi.

"But without you... maybe I'll do that. It's one of your favorite types of stories, right? I guess it's finally time to lose all this weight. But before that, let's get this box out of here."

The next day with the collar on his neck, Jonah begins training vigorously every single day, his mind only focused on one goal.

Present day...

Jonah pulls out a silver collar from his bag. The collar was made with some sort of metal, and has a hole in the shape of a heart in the middle. With Caedi in his arms, he quickly clips it around her neck.

"Do you know what this is?" he teases. "It just so happens that fate helped me out. You'll never believe it."

Jonah reaches into his bag and pulls out another collar with a keypad attached, but this one is different. It's much taller and has a heart in the middle.

"Out of nowhere, out of the sky, this crate-clearly some military equipment-fell from the sky when I was out for a walk, nearly crushed me since I'm bad at predicting where things are going to fall."

Jonah clips the collar around his neck, and Caedi watched as his eyes glowed red for a second. He then pushed Caedi onto the couch.

"I found these collars inside with some blueprints and instructions, lots of instructions. When I found that they were basically master-servant collars, I was stunned."

Caedi's eyes widen. She starts pulling on the collar, attempting to release herself from it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. If the collar is removed without putting in the pin, you'll instantly die."

At his words, Caedi close her eyes and begin crying while holding onto the collar.

"Now, you sit right there. Don't try running away, or you will pay for it. The sleeping drug I gave Iah should have kicked in a good while ago."

Jonah walks into the girls' room. He finds Iah on the ground holding onto a jewelry box. He put the box in his bag and then picks her up.

Once he was back in the living room, he was surprised to see that Caedi was nowhere to be found.

"No matter, I just need to wait for your father to get home. In the meantime, I guess I'll wake you up for now."

Jonah rests Iah down and grabs a small bottle from his pouch. He puts the fluid into his mouth and edges closer to her until their lips lock. He slowly feeds it to her. As soon as he was done, he backed away.

After five minutes, Iah woke up. She was dazed at first but quickly remembered what transpired. Immediately, she attempts to get away from Jonah, but her back was literally against a wall.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. Unless you run away," Jonah says. "Your mother and brothers aren't dead, just under some drug called sleeping beauty. They'll awaken if I give them the antidote."

"Okay, where's Caedi?" Iah becomes more relaxed but still stays cautious.

"Ran away. I'll retrieve her afterward. I'm just waiting for something to happen. Look, I need you to work with me here; you know I'd never hurt you."

"Right...but what's the whole point of this?" She asks calmly.

"Hmm...There is no goal. Though if I have to give one, I guess I'd like to shape the world the way I want to. This island should be sufficient enough, though."

Jonah explained the collars and where he got them to Iah.

"So if you die, everyone who is wearing this dies too?"

"That's correct, and I'd like to get them on some important officials if you catch my drift."

"But this is so dangerous, Jonah. What if you die from a heart attack or something unpredictable like that?"

"Don't worry, I've taken precautions. At the very least, I won't let you and Caedi die."

"Well, why do you need us? Why couldn't you use some random people?"

Jonah pauses for a couple of seconds and chuckles to himself.

"It didn't have to be you. I wanted it to be you because I know you."

Before Iah could prod him further, there were sounds of sirens coming from outside.

"Let's go."

Iah reluctantly got up, and Jonah pulls her toward him, putting his arm firmly around her neck and reaching into his pouch. He pulls out a gold pistol and sticks it to her head.

"I thought you weren't going to hurt me!?" She screams.

Jonah stays silent and makes her walk outside the house and toward the road. There were four police cars waiting there and standing in front of them, seven policemen armed and ready.

One policeman in the middle is holding a megaphone and calling out to Jonah.

"Sir, we ask you please release the girl and come with us. We can get you the help that you need. There's no need to hurt any more people here today."

Jonah smirks and looks the officer dead in the eyes.

"That's a shame. I still have people on my to-kill list," he mocks.

"Sir, please step away from the girl."

"How about you listen to me for a bit. I'm still waiting on someone."

Jonah sits down slowly on the ground, crossing his legs, Iah sitting on them, gun still stuck to her head.

"Don't move." He told Iah.

He then reaches into his bag, pulling out one of the plain silver collars.

"Do you perhaps know what this is?" He directed to the officer.

The officer sighed.

"It seems to be a collar, sir," he says, annoyed.

"Not just any collar, but it's some military-grade device that is essentially a master-servant collar. Meaning if I die or it's attempted to be removed without the passcode, the person wearing it dies."

Silence broke among the officers as they slowly took in what Jonah said.

"Sir, this is no time for jokes. If you come back with us, I'm sure we can help you."

Jonah clips the collar around Iah's neck, and her eyes glow red for a second.

"Did you know if I give it a sample of my blood, she can share my bruises and my pain?"

The cops watch as Jonah pulls a knife from his bag. It had a green handle with finger grips and rope wrapped around it. Jonah takes the knife and slashes across his right cheek, letting blood drip from it.

He takes the blood and smudges it on the collar. Soon a mark the same as his appeared on Iah's face. The police officers are bewildered by this, but then suddenly Iah begins screaming, holding onto the side of her stomach.

Jonah reaches for the collar's keypad and entered the pin '41420,' and the collar detached. Iah breathes heavily, a few streams of tears falling down her face.

"Oops, looks like I forgot about the injury my father gave me when I killed my mother."

He lifts his shirt to show a fresh stab wound. With a grin and his head held high, he looked at the officer.

"O-okay, sir, what is it that you want? We're willing to negotiate."

"I want to leave, go to my cabin, that's about it. With them, of course. I didn't put on the collars for nothing. Oh, and while you're at it, send a doctor, preferably female, that I can put a collar on."

"I'm afraid we can't do that."

"And I'm afraid you don't have a choice unless you wanna kill many other people. Oh, and maybe you don't know, but these things came with blueprints..."

"What about the blueprints?" The officer started visibly sweating.

"I have people ready to release them to the public. If I don't leave here unharmed..."

"Alright, sir, we hear your request." The officer looked at the people beside him. "Drop your weapons; we're leaving."

"Hold on."

The officer stops in his tracks and looks back at Jonah. He was pointing at one of the police cars.

"The girl, I want her. Bring my darling to me."

"I-I am afraid we can't do that."

"She has a collar on, which means she belongs to me now."

Jonah could see that the policeman was conflicted, so he tries to persuade him even more.

"If she gets too far away from me...you don't know what could happen~"

The policeman grits his teeth.

"Give me a minute with her." He says and enters the car that Caedi was in.

Caedi sat there with a blank and terrified look on her face. She heard everything.

"I'm sorry. Caedi, was it? We really don't know the dangers of the collar, so until the higher-ups can discuss this, you're going to have to go with him."

Tears begin to stream down Caedi's eyes.

"Why is this happening to me? Why me!? I haven't done anything to deserve this."

The policeman places his hand on Caedi's shoulder.

"We will figure out a way to save you, but you have to stay strong," he grits his teeth once again, "No matter what he may do to you."

Caedi cries even louder. The officer let her cry it out. By the time she quieted down, the sun was already beginning to set.

She got out of the car and saw Jonah waiting for her. Jonah smiled and held out a hand to her. She walked toward him and reluctantly grabbed hold of his hand.

Jonah takes the lead, heading up the road leading toward the woods.