Chapter One: Class Reunion

"Bang" "Bang" "Bang"

Mom was cleaning invisible dust in the room while nagging and scolding.

Her voice was just loud enough for Henry, hiding in his bedroom, to hear, but not so loud that the neighbors could. Occasionally, it was mixed with the sound of her angrily slamming the broom or rag onto the floor or table:

"You're a grown man, and all you do is hole up in your room playing games every day."

"You never tidy your room, it's a mess like a pigsty. How could I have a son like you? You're just like your good-for-nothing father..."

"You're destined to accomplish nothing, rotting away in your room!"

"......"

Henry covered his ears in pain, his body trembling slightly.

He couldn't remember when this kind of life had started; he only felt a splitting headache, as if his brain was being cruelly shredded.

For the past four years, he had often experienced this splitting headache, accompanied by intense dizziness, making everything around him seem distorted and stretched.

Everything before his eyes seemed unreal, twisting and writhing like earthworms.

He could hear his own heart pounding like a drum, each beat separated by what felt like several minutes.

In this state, where the environment would become extremely unreal and distorted from time to time, he couldn't even concentrate. His thoughts were like shattered fragments of a mirror, reflecting strange and jumbled lights.

He tried to accept it and control himself, but clearly, his family could no longer accept it.

"Bzz bzz..."

Suddenly, his phone vibrated softly. The sound slightly eased Henry's symptoms, making him feel a bit more grounded in reality.

"Don't forget the class reunion, Minghe Hotel, private room on the second floor."

The message was from a high school classmate named William Carter.

Actually, Henry hadn't been in touch with his old classmates for a long time. In these four years, he had rarely even gone out, but upon seeing this message, he still decided to go.

Even though his panic-attack-like headache had just flared up, he wanted to go out—maybe because he'd been cooped up too long and wanted a temporary escape.

"Can't even stay at home properly, where are you running off to now?"

"Go, just go!"

"If you have the guts, die out there and never come back!"

"......"

When Henry grabbed a hoodie and headed out, his mother's curses suddenly grew louder, as if no matter what Henry did, he always managed to hit her anger point.

"Bang bang bang..."

She spoke while chopping some unknown meat on the cutting board with force, her eyes fixed fiercely on Henry, the knife in her hand slamming down as if she wished it could land on him the next moment.

Henry was frightened by that look, feeling a chill all over, and fled out the door.

Night had already fallen. There were no streetlights in the narrow alleyways. Henry had escaped the sound of his mother chopping meat, but he still felt as if something was watching him, as if some huge creature was staring at him relentlessly.

"Woof woof woof..."

The three vicious dogs in the neighbor's yard growled threateningly as he approached.

The iron chains around their necks were stretched taut, making the sound of metal under strain. Their dark red eyes stared at him, and drool dripped from between their snarling, interlaced teeth.

He walked close to the outer wall, but suddenly, a strange, distorted sound drifted down from above. Behind a window on the second floor, the old record player played a mournful tune.

An invisible tension made him walk faster and faster, but he was suddenly drawn by the harsh sound of a chainsaw. Through a dirty, foggy window, he saw a tall butcher holding a chainsaw, cutting something.

"Swish!"

The butcher and the thing being cut suddenly turned their heads at the same time and looked out the window at him.

Henry felt a surge of terror, stumbled backward, and broke into a run, only stopping to catch his breath under a streetlight after passing through the alley.

He looked up at the bustling street, a dizzying tide flooding his mind.

Brilliant neon lights spewed across the city sky like magma, and the blaring traffic roared past like packs of steel monsters.

Spotlights on the rooftops swept the night sky, as if trying to illuminate the whole darkness, but somehow never managed to light up the city's shadowy corners and sewage-filled alleys.

On the scattered newspapers on the ground, headlines reported at length that the serial killer who stole hearts was still at large, and that the girl gang who recently bombed a school had openly challenged the police department, and so on.

Black text on a white background, perfectly matching the city's character.

"Have I really not gone out for that long?"

Henry took a deep breath of the cold, damp, salty air, forcing himself to calm down.

He looked up at the city, feeling a strange unfamiliarity. He didn't know when it started, but the city had taken on a completely different character.