Jaiden woke up abruptly, gasping for air as if he had just surfaced from a deep dive in the ocean.
His body was drenched in cold sweat — the aftermath of a dream that had started out pleasant but had grown increasingly bizarre as it went on.
'What the fuck was all that?' Jaiden thought, still trying to recover from what he had seen.
It wasn't because of the erotic dream he had. But something about the way the dream had become distorted was something that had never happened to him before, and it left a heavy feeling inside him.
He was panting heavily, his body struggling to remember how to breathe. Jaiden could feel stomach acid rising up his throat, but he held it back.
'Eh…' another voice could be heard in the room, besides Jaiden's own breathing.
That voice sounded surprised by Jaiden's sudden awakening.
That immediately caught his attention. His survival instincts snapped him out of the nightmare. He couldn't see clearly, but there was a shape in the dark. Someone was there.
"Who's there?!" Jaiden shouted, anger clear in his voice.
Only two people lived in the house. Jaiden and Emilia. No one else.
Jaiden couldn't see who it was in the shadow of the room, but he could tell that whoever it was, they were taller than the girl who lived with him.
But the only response he got was the sound of his bedroom door swinging open. Even in the darkness, Jaiden could make out the shadow of someone running out of his room.
Jaiden got up from his bed. Someone had broken into his house — they'd been in his room just moments ago, and now they were trying to escape.
Several lines had been crossed, and he wasn't about to let that person walk away freely.
He jumped out of bed and started running, following the sound of hurried footsteps.
When he stepped out of his room, everything was still dark, but he could still hear the sound of footsteps echoing down the hallway.
The direction the intruder was heading toward was...
"The entrance…" Jaiden muttered.
Jaiden could hear the sound of the front door being opened. His mind was now fully awake, and irritation surged through him. To him, someone breaking into his house wasn't just putting him in danger. He didn't care much about himself, but…
"Emilia?!"
"Brother…? What's with all the noise…?" the girl asked, stepping out of her room completely unaware of what was going on.
His sister was still in her pajamas, rubbing her eyes as if she had just woken up.
"Emilia, are you okay? Did someone hurt you?" Jaiden asked, agitated and worried about the girl's safety.
"Jay, what are you talking about? Did you have a nightmare or something?" the purple-haired girl asked, just before letting out a big yawn.
'I did have a nightmare, but there really is someone in our house,' Jaiden thought, though he couldn't bring these words to his voice.
It seemed the intruder hadn't done anything to her, but with the adrenaline rushing through him, Jaiden didn't have time to feel relieved.
Footsteps could be heard outside the house, and Jaiden was determined to confront whoever it was.
"Lock the house! No matter what happens, don't open the door until I'm back!" Jaiden ordered, then dashed toward the entrance.
"Jay…!" the girl shouted in a startled tone, but it was too late. Nothing could stop Jaiden now.
The boy had already stuck his head out of the house. He looked both ways, searching for where the person had fled.
On his right, he saw the figure turning the corner of the street, and without thinking twice, he followed.
"You're not getting away!" Jaiden shouted angrily. Someone who had broken into his house could very well have hurt Emilia. To him, that was more than a crime. It was something unforgivable.
And there was still another thing that bothered him. Jaiden couldn't quite explain it. Maybe it was his instinct speaking, but he could swear that she had some connection to the strange dream he had.
In his mind, these two things were reason enough for the chase he was undertaking.
Jaiden kept running through the night. Aside from him and the person he was chasing, there was no one else on the street.
The street he ran along was dimly lit, save for a few lamps on the posts here and there.
He followed the sound of the fugitive's footsteps, but there were too many paths branching off into the maze of alleys, and in that darkness, it was hard to tell which way to go.
After running for a while, Jaiden had lost the stranger's trail. Not a single sound—no sign of life anywhere.
It was just him now. The moon was hidden behind a thick cloud, and the only light came from the post above his head.
He could no longer hear the fugitive's steps and didn't know where to go in the labyrinth of backstreets under the night sky.
There were countless ways the person could've escaped from that spot, and part of him thought about giving up.
It was late, and Emilia was home alone.
Jaiden thought of her for a moment.
She must've been scared after what happened back at the house.
"What am I even doing out here at this hour?" the young man muttered to himself.
He had promised not to worry his sister, yet halfway through, he'd already broken that promise—all because of his impulses.
"Ah… ah…" Jaiden drew in a deep breath, trying to steady his mind for a moment.
Just as he was thinking about giving up, something moved in the corner of his vision—a shadow watching him from a distance, part of its body hidden behind a wall.
Still running on adrenaline, Jaiden sprinted toward the figure, which slipped into the narrow gap where it had been half-hidden.
'Wait, this place is…' Jaiden suddenly remembered where that alley led.
A few steps in, he caught sight of the dark silhouette standing just a few paces ahead.
There was no exit at the end of that alley. Jaiden had cornered the intruder. Now, he could get some answers.