Chapter 2 - The Short-Lived Revenge Of The 'Flower'

Ethan reached his home soon, which was a small two-storied house, and his mom was working from her home to earn money to still pay off the house loans. As for his education, Ethan entered the school with a scholarship, and so that was one less thing for his mother to worry about.

His mother used to work as a software developer in a decent company, but now she retired and started her freelancing work due to her health condition.

He rang the bell and made sure to straighten his clothes so that she wouldn't suspect anything even though the dirt smeared on his clothes were not things he could easily hide.

A few moments later, the door opened as a thin woman in her late forties with slightly sunken cheeks stood behind it with a smile, happy to see her son come home. She was Lena Frey, Ethan's mother. Even though her face looked a bit pale, she still had a graceful and kind look.

"Ethan, how was your—" However, just as she was about to usually ask him about his day, she spotted the faint red scratch on his forehead and asked with noticeable worry and concern in her voice, "Ethan, did you get hurt?? How did that happen?"

Ethan lowered his head and walked past her as he casually mumbled, "I just fell, mom. It's not a big deal."

Lena's brows pulled together, feeling that something was off as she called out, "Wait, Ethan. This is the second time you have been telling me the same thing. Why would you even fall like this a lot? Are you going through something?" She asked in a concerned tone.

"Don't ask too many questions, mom! Didn't I tell you I am fine?" Ethan raised his tone but then immediately regretted it as he saw his mother's shocked face.

He immediately took a deep breath and apologized, "I am sorry, mom, for shouting at you. I didn't mean to do that. I just feel tired and sleepy. Do you need me to do something before I go to your room? Should I get the pills you have to take?"

Lena pressed her lips together as she said, "No…I already took them for today. You should rest if you are feeling tired. Should I prepare you some soup, and how about letting me apply a bandaid on your injury?"

"No need for that, mom. I am good. I already have a bandaid in my room," He casually said as he waved his hand and was about to climb up the stairs when he noticed that the door to the basement under him was surprisingly open when usually it always remained locked. In fact, he had never seen his mother open it in years and also told him to not open it as well.

This made him ask, "Mom, did you forget to lock the door to the basement?"

Lena, who was thinking about how to make her son open up to her, became suddenly startled as she heard his question.

She immediately rushed towards the basement and quickly closed the door, much to the surprise of Ethan, who said, "Mom, slow down. Don't run like that."

Lena softly chuckled and said, "I was just worried that some insects would get into our living hall. You know how dusty and old the air is inside the basement."

"Alright. I will go take a bath before heading to Nolan's house," Ethan had seen the basement before once when his mom showed him the inside out of curiosity. But all he saw were junk from his old house littered around with dust and webs over them. The air was too dusty and creepy, and he didn't feel like going in there anymore.

After Ethan went upstairs, Lena stared at the door for a while before opening it again and going inside.

-

Ethan threw his bag towards the side as he slumped on the bed, feeling sore all over his body after taking those beatings.

But his eyes widened when he saw posters of his favorite fantasy girls from comics and novels revealed from an open drawer in his metal cupboard.

"Fuck! Did mom clean my room?" Ethan grimaced as he wished he could die right now just by thinking about how his mom would have felt seeing all these posters of beauties.

He loved reading fantasy novels and comics, and naturally, he couldn't help printing out the posters of his favorite characters. They were more like his dream girls, which he felt that he could only see in his dreams or certain women he had met in reality and still had hopeless crushes on them. But of course, he was relieved that she didn't discover his secret stash of fashion magazines with his favorite model on its cover, and that model was someone this entire town knew.

He quickly closed it back up and made sure to lock it, though he had no idea how his mom opened this without a key.

'Did she have a spare key? Damn!'

Still, his determination to get stronger made him get off the bed and start doing pushups on the floor, enduring the pain.

He had been taking pushups systematically to improve himself, but he knew even after doing all this, taking care of the bullies would still be a problem.

Today was 4th February 2022, and he hadn't forgotten about his training at a local martial arts class that he usually frequents for the past few years, especially since two of his favorite people lived there.

It was 4 PM, and the training was at 4:30 PM, so he decided to take a quick 15-minute nap before rushing over there since he felt as if his body could use a good rest. As he lied down his mind was again filled with discouraging thoughts of his college life and was inwardly lamenting to himself for his lousy fate.

However, unbeknownst to him, a small shining blood-red sphere of light with hundreds of tiny, thin feathery attachments was creeping up from under the bed and moving towards Ethan silently. It was so small that people wouldn't even notice unless they tried to observe it on purpose, and even then, some might mistake it for the feather of some bird or some strange tiny flower that was only as big as the nail of one's pinkie.

But this tiny 'flower' was not really a feather nor a flower, but a sentient being, and it had been observing Ethan for a while as it inwardly thought in its own language, *Hmph...how dare these humans lock me up like some pathetic bug. I even lost count of how many years I lost! It's time I finally took my revenge using this boy. How lucky I am…This boy's blood reeks with despair and hopelessness. What a weakling. It should be easy for me to take over his consciousness and then kill everyone, kuku...*

Still, it hid behind Ethan's clothes and waited for him to go to sleep just to make things easier.

Ethan didn't even bother to change his clothes or take a bath as he snoozed off on the bed. And right when he dozed off, the blood-red 'flower' that was hiding behind his collar finally came out silently, walking over his body with its tiny feather-like attachments.

*Tsk, this stupid human wasted enough of my time. This will be your final nap, human, hehe,* Thinking like this, it crawled over Ethan's face and towards one of his nostrils to invade his body and take over his brain.

"Hnn…" Ethan wrinkled his nose unconsciously as the 'flower' crawled inside his nose. But as it tried to crawl up his nose to reach his brain, Ethan wrinkled his nose as he suddenly sneezed.

"Achoo!"

*Noooo!!!* The 'flower' was taken by surprise when a flood of mucus suddenly flushed it down Ethan's food pipe as it went to his stomach, where it began to get digested!

*NOO!!! THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING!* It inwardly screamed as it struggled to get out of this dangerous acidic environment, and thinking that there was no other choice, it suddenly diffused itself into microscopic particles and attached itself to Ethan's cells, and made its way to Ethan's bloodstream since it was the source of nutrients it needed.

But it had no idea that by merging itself with Ethan's cells, his DNA was absorbing its essence as well and began to reconstruct itself.

*Not so fast, human!* Realizing that Ethan was subconsciously trying to absorb it, it decided to fight back as well.

And as this happened, Ethan began to have a strange dream where he felt as if his body was disintegrating into pieces and he was about to die.

He had no idea why this was happening or how but the fear of death made his heart race as he desperately tried to hold onto those pieces and make them join back together. All of this felt very real to him and not like a dream.

*Let go…You are worthless…a weakling…someone who is better off dead…* A voice that seemed to belong neither to a man nor woman boomed in Ethan's head, making him feel a splitting headache coupled with the feeling of his body slowly disintegrating.

"No..I am not…" Ethan gritted his teeth as he tried to hold onto pieces of himself from disintegrating away while wondering where this ominous voice was coming from. He felt that this was probably the cowardly side of his consciousness telling him to give up.

*You are a burden to your mother…a disgrace to her…She would be better off without you…"

"No!...My mother needs me…I will make her proud…"

*A loser like you?*

"Not anymore...I had enough of this filthy world!" Ethan thought as he remembered Ken and his friends while struggling to pull pieces of his body together. As his determination to become strong grew stronger, the more control he gained over his own body.

*No! You can't! Stop!!*

Thinking about his mother and the terrifying feeling of death made him realize that he had to remain alive to become strong enough and take care of all his problems. And with his newfound willpower, he somehow pulled together his body, preventing them from disintegration, and was able to relax finally.

*Why is this human's consciousness so strong?? Did I miscalculate? Impossible!* The 'flower' indignantly cried out as it sensed losing control over Ethan's cells.

Not long after, its consciousness went into oblivion while Ethan was still deep in sleep, having no idea that he just survived a close shave with death, all because of a sneeze and his desire to become strong.

However, his cells began to undergo subtle changes and seemed to reform themselves to a small degree, while his blood cells underwent the biggest change as they seemed to look slightly metallic.

And the moment this happened, the smartphone beside him began to levitate into the air, including his metal keys and pen, while the surrounding metal objects began to slightly shake on the spot they were resting on.

If somebody saw this, they would surely think that this was some exaggerated magic trick, including even Ethan.

The bloodied scratch on his temple also healed magically.

However, Ethan's eyes moved from within his eyelids before suddenly opening them with a gasp as if he escaped from a bad dream.

But his eyes widened when he saw his phone, keys, and pen levitating in the air around him!