I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse



"Two steps to the left, then four steps forward."

After hearing the ethereal voice next to him, Kairos followed those instructions. It was quite bad for his nerves, being unable to see anything in front of him. However, it seemed as though he hadn't been led astray yet.

"Three steps forward, then two steps backward."

The voice drifted right next to his ear, making him feel uncomfortable. However, he was more so confused about the instructions. What was the point of going three steps forward and two steps back?

After a few moments of hesitation, he heard the voice once more.

"I know it sounds strange, but just do it."

Kairos furrowed his brow but decided to follow along anyway. He took three steps forward, then turned around. When he tried to take a step once more, he felt his paw hit something.

After a moment of thought, he raised his paw, and it landed on a surface that was at a higher elevation. It was quite strange, but Kairos was able to figure out that it was a staircase. With that in mind, he went up two of the steps.

From there, he waited for his next instruction. However, it didn't come immediately.

Instead, she mumbled something faintly, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Why are there so many closed off areas?..."

Kairos naturally had no idea what she was talking about, but presumed that for whatever reason the area was more tricky compared to normal. As such, he decided to wait patiently.

After a few more moments, he heard the ethereal voice come from in front of him.

"Come over to me here. I want to try something."

Kairos followed after the voice, going on his four legs. It was only maybe five steps away, but just after the first two, he felt incredibly reluctant, stopping in place. It wasn't as though he saw something in his future vision or anything like that.

It was just...

A strange reluctance.

It wasn't a very strong feeling. Rather, it was one that was quite mild, that made him want to go back. It could be compared to a deflection as opposed to a parry.

Noticing this reluctance, the voice called out to him once more.

"Hm? Why aren't you coming over?"

Kairos' lips parted ever so slightly.

"I don't..."

He suddenly recalled that talking was pointless, and thus stood there in awkward silence for a good while. Once again, the voice called out.

"...If there's a reason you can't come forth, then take a step back and then take one forward."

Kairos remained in place. He thought about it, but frankly, there wasn't any reason for him to be like this. With that in mind, he took a step forward. Yet, when he did, a strange sense of lethargy came over him. It made him want to just lie down and sleep right there.

From the voice, Sara sounded confused but still wanted to be encouraging.

"I don't know what's holding you back, but I'm sure you can do it!"

Kairos' breathing got a little heavy. He tensed his body in order to shake off the lethargy and took another step forward. Yet, he was once more assaulted by an overwhelming sense of fatigue.

It got to the point that he felt dizzy, which was quite strange considering his current constitution meant his willpower was quite high. Kairos cursed under his breath. He could feel his will to go on completely sapped out from him.

In fact, if there was a monster that suddenly appeared, he doubted he would have the will to even fight back against it.

Once he came across that realization, several alarm bells blared in his head. He was essentially leaving himself vulnerable in such an uncertain place, which was obviously not something that would be good for him.

With grit teeth, he ignored how badly he wanted to just stop and forced himself to press forwards, until he was right next to where he heard the voice. It was at this point he suddenly felt pressure.

What was previously lethargy had become fear. For whatever reason, he had a strange sense of fear of the thing in front of him. This actually startled him somewhat. It wasn't as though he hadn't been afraid before in front of monsters, but he was still able to think relatively clearly despite the fact.

But now, his thoughts were clouded.

Nonetheless, he still had enough in him to hear what Sara was saying.

"Try to break the thing in front of you. It will probably work out."

If Kairos was in his right mind, he probably would've noticed the uncertainty in Sara's voice. However, he simply wanted to get out of this strange state. And that's how he ended up opening his mouth and forcefully ejecting the spear with all his strength.

An audible bang resounded, along with clear cracking noises. It sounded like he had broken through whatever was in front of him. But at the same time, he felt a strange sense of dizziness nearly overwhelm him.

However, he was still able to keep it in check. Once he gradually refocused on what was in front of him, some sort of white mist. For the first time, he saw something in this place. Granted, it wasn't all that much to look at, but for some reason, Kairos didn't really like how it looked.

The white mist went over to him. He felt the urge to run away, but remembered that he shouldn't make any reckless actions as he might run into some sort of trap. Thus, he let the white mist engulf him, along with a flash of light, and a few moments later...

He found himself back in his normal body. No, that wasn't right. He was in the body of his younger self.

Looking around, he found himself back in his home. Though it had been a while since he was there, he still recognized it immediately. On top of that, his father was at the door, while his mother was standing off to the side. One thing he noticed was that while he could look around, his actual head wasn't moving along with it.

His father called out with a smile.

"Then I'll be off. See you both soon!"

With that, he stepped out of the house and closed the door. It was then Kairos turned to look at his mother and spoke in a childish voice.

"Mom, where is Dad going?"

His mother had a small smile on her face as she looked back.

"To a hotel for a bit, like usual"

Kairos looked down at the ground and pouted.

"But why? Is there something wrong with the house?"

His mother let out a soft sigh.

"He isn't used to being around people, so he goes off to be by his lonesome from time to time. I'm going to go out and get a room next to him so I can visit him. Be a good boy and don't cause any trouble in the house, alright?"

Kairos looked at his mother and blinked a few times. His expression seemed to convey the disbelief and confusion that both of them were leaving. Just at the tip of his tongue were the words asking them to stay.

But instead, he gave a small nod.

"...Okay."

And without another word, his mother left, closing the door with a snap.

Kairos took a deep breath when he recalled this memory. The reason why this one felt significant to him was that this was the point where he would almost never see the faces of his parents. Before, even if they would go out from time to time, he would still see them most of the time.

But from then on, it was considered relatively frequent if he even saw them for half the days in a month.

Thankfully, he didn't have to go about earning money on his own to pay off the bills, but he was basically forced into going shopping, cooking, cleaning, and other things. Contrary to his expectations at the time, when his parents found out about him being independent, this only encouraged them to leave him by himself further.

It was only when his parents wanted to save up to buy a new house that they stopped doing it as much, but by then years had passed. In the end, Kairos was the one that did all of the house chores including cooking and laundry when they were back.

And despite the fact that they were back, they spent most of the time in their own rooms, only leaving to eat, go to the washroom, or go into each other's rooms.

It never truly felt like a burden at the time. But when Kairos revisited those memories, he couldn't help but feel it was unfair. As for how exactly it was unfair, he honestly wasn't sure.

But it just felt unfair.

It took him a while to even realize he was back, standing listlessly in the nothingness. The previous white mist seemed to have disappeared. He took a deep breath and shook his head, tossing those thoughts out of his mind.

"...What the fuck was that."

He tried to reach for his temples as though he was standing on two feet, but quickly realized he was actually on four, thus making it hard to do so.

At that point, he heard a hum come from beside him.

"It looks like I made a mistake. Maybe it's this one? Try breaking this down."

Kairos couldn't help but hesitate. He began to question what exactly this place was, causing him to recall random memories. Yet at the same time, he couldn't exactly do much else.

He couldn't communicate his intentions, and Sara was the only thing guiding him.

So he could only hope that Sara wasn't leading him down the wrong path.

Those thoughts circulated in his mind as he slowly walked over to Sara once more. There was a similar pressure pressing down on him as he got closer, but it was not as bad as the last one.

He then broke down the wall using the same strategy as before. Again, he felt strangely dizzy, like he was going to fall over at any moment. When his vision cleared, he noticed that there was a faint blue haze in front of him. It lethargically got closer to him, while he reached out to touch it.

Then a bright light flashed, and he was once more presented with a memory.

Except... there was something clearly wrong with this one.

Because this time, he found himself contained within the body of a different boy. It was one that had bright blue eyes and short yellow hair.