Chapter 1: Things are not what they look like.

'This class is supposed to be fun' Teal thought, his chin was supported by his hand as he was gazing out the window.

'This headache again. Ugh.'

His eyes widened slightly at the view outside the window 'The sky... pink? That's new.'

Teal heard the bell and looked at the time in his watch.

'That's weird. The time isn't up yet.'

The students were awfully silent like they hadn't heard the bell. Unlike usual, they were not getting up to leave the class.

Just a moment later the school bell rang, leaving Teal stunned.

The confusion grew, but he just brushed it off, thinking that he was probably hearing things because of his poor sleep schedule.

The students got up and rushed out of the class, nearly crowding the exit. 

Teal was the last among the students to get up and leave.

As he got of out the class, he walked down the hallway, his hands in his pocket as his medium length black hair swayed with each step. He glared down from his tall frame at the students that were staring at him.

A few steps forward, he spotted a student with glasses, his friend Van, who was walking to the same direction he was walking to: the exit of the school.

Van had an uninterested look, a slight frown on his face, as he saw Teal approach, his face lightened up a bit.

Teal's expression turned to a bright smile, the complete opposite of his menacing expression from before.

"Hey Van!" He looked at Van, as he was waiting to meet him all day.

A slight frown appeared on Teal's face from the dull headache from earlier, but he kept his smile intact.

"Hey Teal..." He was happy but something kept bothering him.

They both walked out the exit together.

As they passed through the school gate, Teal had his hands draped over Van's shoulder.

"Don't you think it's been a while since we went to the cyber cafe?"

Teal spoke to Van as he had kept his silence all the way.

"I think we should go there sometimes. It feels like it's been forever since we played any game together," Van replied with his lips curved to a smile.

Teal tightened his grip around his neck laughing.

But the headache from earlier started growing more painful. The frown appeared again but more visible this time.

Van looked at Teal, who's frown looked like it deepened.

"Dude are you alright? you look like you are in pain."

Teal brushed him off, acting casual "Nah, It is nothing." but let out a small groan.

"I should be asking you, you look like you are bothered by something, did you get an A- on the test or something?"

Van got a chill from the sudden question "Its nothing..." 

He hesitated for a moment, but opened his mouth to speak "Actually its been some days that I couldn't sleep because of nightmares, I don't remember what happened in the nightmare when I wake up.."

Teal looked at Van, surprised "You experienced it nightmares too?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, It's the same for me... Its been quite some days of headaches and nightmares, where I wake up in the middle of the night... and its affecting my day. I sometimes hear some ringing in my ear... and today was kind of weird... I heard the bell before the time was up and i heard the bell afterwards... on top of it the sky being pink is making me feel nauseous"

The last sentence Teal spoke created confusion "Pink sky...? What pink sky ?"

Teal looks at him "The sky dude. Its kind of pink from the sunse—", His expression changed to that of pure shock, seeing the sky having normal color.

"B—but it was pink when I looked out the window earlier in the class!" He tried reasoning.

"Maybe you are getting sleep deprivation hallucinations. When you do not get enough sleep, your brain chemistry changes. Specifically, dopamine levels rise and the visual cortex malfunctions—causing the brain to misinterpret light and incorrectly perceive reality." Van started explaining, effortlessly giving textbook explanation.

"Yeah Yeah. Thank you Mr. know-it-all"

As he teased Van with a smile, Teal started experiencing a sharp pain in his head, so sharp it felt like he was being struck in the head with a sword, the headache from earlier growing more painful by the moment.

He slowly got on his knees, his hand on his head.

"Aaaughh!" 

Van watches him, panic taking his face. Looking at the face that was smiling a moment ago now screaming in agony.

"T—teal... w—what is happening...? Why are you screaming all of a sudden...? Hey!" his hands were trembling on Teal's shoulders. 

He looked around frantically for help, but the surroundings remained empty.

"IS SOMEONE HERE? PLEASE HELP!" 

Van was confused and clearly panicked by the situation unfolding before him.

Teal on the other hand, was on his knees groaning "Ugh. My head... it feels like it's about to explode..."

He screamed some more before finally stopping. But the stop was strange, like the silence before a storm. He blankly stared at the sky for a second, blinked twice as if he had given up and continued to scream louder than before.

"Aaaauggghh!"

Van watched the whole situation with mixed emotions: panic, worry and helplessness.

After screaming, Teal brought his arm forward clutching it with his other arm tightly. 

The arm he was clutching started feeling hot like it was on fire.

"Gaa! My—my arm!"

The skin in his forearm started melting.

What remained after the skin melted was not bones. 

It revealed something that he didn't imagine in his wildest dream, a metallic bone of the arm, covered in wires.