The room was dark save for two twin beams of light that made it through the blackout curtains that hung over the two windows; which moved slightly from the breeze through both since they were open wide to keep the room from being too hot. A box fan stood in the corner, on high to give a bit of background white noise to make the occupant sleep easier: the mixture of the breeze and the general hum blocking out the rest of the world. The room was fairly neat despite what most claimed about men being messy; a desk in the corner piled neatly with papers, various writing utensils, and books that hadn’t been put back on the nearby wall-length book shelf that took up the space of an entire wall from floor to ceiling. A dresser was on the adjoining wall made of the same rich wood the matching queen sized bed and two end tables (which had an alarm clock, a lamp, a bottle of water, and assortment of books on top of) were made out of; with intricate Celtic like designs carved into the front. A dark blue carpet covered most of the wooden floorboards and matched the forest dark blue color of the walls on which the silhouette of a forest seen was painted in blue. A wicker basket was tucked off in one of the corners closest to the dresser filled halfway with dirty clothing. Tucked into another corner by the wall length book shelves were two comfy over stuffed chairs, dark blue to match the carpet, with a table lamp in between them for light for reading. The only messy thing about the room at the moment was the bed.

Among the messy blankets and sheets, the mountain of pillows, and a giant stuffed lion (no real explanation being provided behind that), laid a small male form not much taller than six feet; who was sleeping quietly and fairly still on his stomach; his left arm up underneath of his head, and his right curled up to his chest, his left leg out straight while the right was bent toward his stomach. his long blond hair which had long ago come loose of the ponytail he had pulled it into before falling asleep was a disaster; strands of it laying across his freckled cheeks, running the risk of tickling his nose and waking his up. For now though the small female was dead asleep, completely oblivious to the mess of his bed, the way and position in which he was sleeping, and the fact that his hair was about to tickle his nose – no, what was on the forefront of his mind was the horrific nightmare he was locked in.

Subconsciously Kayn was in hell; In his dream Kayn had found himself wondering down the strange path again: the same one that was made out of some kind black sand with little tiny diamonds littered throughout it. He still had little to no idea of where this path had come from, or of what it was made of, but he was determined as he had been the night before to find out. He could only remember meeting a frog – strange he could remember another dream while being in a dream – the day before before everything had done dark. This frog had said something to him, something he currently couldn’t remember, and all he knew was that he wanted to find out what it was. Well, that and figure out where this damned path led to.

So with quite a bit of impatience Kayn wandered down the path with quite a bit less grace and carefulness than he had the day before. He wasn’t worried today about walking off a cliff, or bumping into someone, or finding some strange man with a sack that had a hole in it as he had been previously. No, all he wanted to do today was find that damn talking frog and make it explain what all of this meant: and perhaps see if the diamonds he was stepping on were honestly worth anything. Talk about a get rich quick scheme if they were. Hell, even though the diamonds were so tiny he could still gather up enough to make him rich, his cousin rich, hell the whole damn country could be rich and there would probably still be some laying around for others to come find and collect.

Some of the things Kayn was seeing as he hurriedly walked were quite familiar: the bushes whose branches he had bent when walking past, the flower that looked half eaten from the day before as if a deer had been nibbling on it when it was suddenly spooked off, even the way the path went from being very wide and then becoming more and more slim as it went. He could even remember how, upon realizing how slim the path was getting, he had assumed that the hole in the bag the man might have been carrying (or was it the horse drawn carriage that was dropping this black gold) that it was beginning to run out of whatever this black substance with the tiny little diamonds in it were. However, it didn’t seem as if this path had come from a bag or off of the back of a wagon as he had presumed the day before (no wagon wheels, duh!) but rather that it was created some other kind of way and was simply here. It was one of many questions Kayn would ask the frog when he saw him – if he did that is. Would the frog have just hung around all of this time? He doubted any normal creature would, but then again the frog could talk and therefore wasn’t normal. No, he had to believe that the frog would be exactly where he had left it, exactly sitting on the path so that it would be easy to find and he wouldn’t have to search all over the damned place for some tiny weirdly colored thing.

“Look to seek him no further.”

The voice came out of nowhere and had an odd accent to it. Kayn stopped immediately, feeling the ground crumble a bit beneath his sudden fighting stance he had taken: diamonds were not a solid foundation on which to fight. Immediately Kayn slipped a kunai out of his weapons pouch and peered around, scanning the area immediately surrounding him for any kind of trouble. “Who the hell is it? Are you the frog?”

“Look to seek him no further!”

Annnnnd time to get annoyed. He had asked a question and he wanted an answer. Why the hell couldn’t people just be simple with this? Why did everyone have to play hardball? If you were asked a question you should answer it, it was as simple as that. “Are you the frog?”

“LOOK TO SEEK HIM NO FURTHER!”

God. Damn. It. “Listen here, I’ll do what I want… unless you want to elaborate on things I’mma just continue along on my way.”, Kayn would respond before, with a under the breath growl, he sheathed his kunai roughly back into his pouch, turned, and continued on. Of course, he didn’t get more than a half dozen feet before ”LOOK TO SEEK HIM NO FURTHER!”. Kayn jumped nearly out of his skin and he felt his heart rate accelerate in his chest. This. Mother. ****.

“Listen here you son of a bitch! Either tell me why the hell I shouldn’t find this frog or stop acting like a damn dick. Alright?”

“The frog is no good. The frog is a lie, he will lead you down a path of darkness.”

“It’s a frog….”

“It is not merely just a frog. Just like I am not merely just a disembodied voice. Seek him no further.”

“…...” Kayn didn’t know exactly what to believe. He at least could see the frog (in all of its colorful glory) but this voice… he had no idea where it was coming from. It could be anything: a ghost, some other creature perhaps jealous of the frog, even his own twisted imagination. The frog was real though. He would go find the frog. So, instead of responding to what could likely be his own twisted imagination, Kayn just continued on down the black path with the little diamonds in it. He picked up his step, moving faster, yet not quite at a run. As he went he heard the voice no further, and began to pass by more things that looked familiar from the day before: he was getting close. After another turn in the path Kayn came to a stop: this was where he had been standing the day before when he had found the frog. This was the spot. This was it. “Frog?”

Silence met his question and as Kayn peered through the fog beginning to roll in he saw nothing. At least at first. After a few hesitant steps forward Kayn began to see a darkened shape in the fog ahead of him. At first it looked like a frog, and he had almost called out to it, but as he watched it began to grow and take on another shape all together. From a harmless frog into what appeared to be a fairly tall and lanky human being with fingers that were a tad too long (and very creepy and pointed). Kayn hesitated, thinking about what to do and how to respond: part of him even went so far as to think about turning back and heeding the disembodied voices warning.

“Hello there, Kayn Yusuke.” Too late. Can someone say busted?

Kayn gulped, opened his mouth to respond, and found that no words would come out. Instead, his mouth just kind of moved while no noise or sound came out.

“What’s wrong, Kayn? It’s impolite not to respond… and running will get you nowhere.” ****, that was exactly what Kayn had been really seriously contemplating doing just then and there. How had this /thing/ known that though? “The same way I know everything Kayn. I know every thought, every feeling, every aspiration that you have.”

“Liar!”

“Now, now Kayn. That’s not very nice. You don’t even know who I am.”

“Who are you then?”

“Why my dear boy, I’m you.”

“…..” Come again? How could this be him, when he was him? This was some serious attempt at mind ****, but he wasn’t going to give in that easily. Instead, after gathering up as much courage as he could muster Kayn found himself marching straight toward this darkened shape in the fog: he hoped if he got close enough he’d be able to see really who it is.

“That’s not such a good idea, Kayn.”

“Why are you afraid I’ll find out who you really are?”

“No, dear boy. I’m worried you won’t like finding out who /you/ really are.”, the voice responded back, darkly. Kayn didn’t stop, he couldn’t. He had to know who this was. He refused to allow any kind of doubt or hesitation to worm its way into his mind this time around: he kept pressing forward. A few more feet though and he had his answer: this was him. A much older him. Yet, something was wrong. He looked… off. He looked bad. There was an aura of darkness coming off of this older Kayn in waves and it turned his stomach to even be near. “I told you you wouldn’t like it.”

“But… how?”

“This is you if you follow a path of darkness. All of the riches in the world will mean nothing. You will become a shell of your former self. Your relationships, your family, they will all becoming nothing more than pawns to you: and you will play them dear boy. You will play them all….”

“I’m not evil.” Not yet.

“No, you are still pure. But, beware the path you walk. Beware those who will lead you differently than you should go. If you are not careful then here is where you’ll end up.”  

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