Takehiro and the Beastman: A Journey of Courage and Self-Discovery

The first thing I remember was a heavy dull pain in my head. I couldn’t open my eyes, but I could hear muffled voices talking rapidly.

“-as a stroke?”

“-No! He just fell over and started convulsing!”

Another voice spoke, “How long has he been like this?”. This voice sounded as if it belonged to an older man.

“-I don’t know! I think he might have tried to commit suicide! The police are on the way! You can tell them what happened when they get here!” This voice sounded younger and feminine. I assumed it must be the girl who found me collapsed on the ground.

I knew that I should move or say something to let them know I was alive, but everything felt so heavy; even my eyelids refused to lift. I felt myself being picked up, but couldn’t figure out where they were taking me. They kept talking amongst themselves, but they seemed more focused on getting me somewhere than anything else. My last thoughts before blacking out were that of confusion and worry as to what had happened to me.

When my eyes opened again, I was in a room with white walls and a white ceiling with fluorescent lights set into the corners of the room. There was a window directly across from me which was covered by some kind of black screen that let light through but blocked the view outside. At first, the light made me flinch and brought back the headache from before. However, after a moment of letting my eyes adjust, I realized that there was a dimmer switch for the lights placed next to the door close by. It looked like someone must have left it on maximum brightness before leaving for lunch or something because it didn't seem like anyone would want to sleep with their bedroom lights turned all the way up like that for any length of time.

The thought made me realize how exhausted I was, and before long, I drifted off into sleep again without even noticing it happening. When I woke up again, it was dark and quiet throughout the house. Looking at my cell phone, it read 1:00 AM in big bright neon red letters across the screen (it would have been blue except that it had been almost dead since yesterday). There was a slight breeze blowing through the window across from me and causing my curtains to flutter slightly against it's frame as well as causing some of the trees outside to rustle softly in response. An idea suddenly occurred to me; maybe if I went outside, I could find some answers as to what had happened earlier today. Getting up slowly out of bed, I walked over to my dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt then put them on without bothering to turn on any lights or wake up my parents downstairs who were snoring away peacefully in their room down at the end of the hallway (I'm not sure if they ever really did stop snoring after going to sleep). It wasn't until then that I realized how hungry I was again as well; maybe once this whole thing is over with and after eating some food at least once today, I'll go back home in the morning when its light out again before anyone wakes up...