Takeo: A Fractured Heart (Wattys 2019)

Chapter 1: Premonitions

               "Hey! Give it back!" a kid yelled, chasing after another. Takeo looked on, an emotionless look on his face. He didn't understand how kids could stand to be so loud and obnoxious. He was sitting at a table reading a book, as he normally does with his nights. 

               Usually his nights are quiet, almost eerily so. This is mostly due to the fact that he lives on the streets of Traverse Town, as he has no home to go to. Oddly enough, he doesn't remember a lot of stuff before Traverse Town. He doesn't remember who his parents were, where he originally came from, he had just assumed he was born and raised in Traverse Town. In fact, a lot of people couldn't seem to remember where they came from. Some people stated that they came from different worlds, but Takeo never paid much attention to them, as that idea sounded ridiculous. 

               As of late, however, a lot of new people have been showing up, and he doesn't know where they are coming from. For the longest time, it was the same group of people every day, doing their same daily routine as always. It grew rather dull, so Takeo welcomed the others, but the other people who lived in Traverse Town didn't think the same way. They liked their quiet town the way it had been since they arrived. 

               It was late at night, and Takeo was in his normally alleyway, sitting in a group of boxes that had been assembled to look like some sort of bedding for him to sleep on. He was staring up in the sky, looking at all of the stars. He remembers hearing somebody say that each star was another world, and each world had people on it just like the people in Traverse Town. Though Takeo doubted that, it seemed like such a far fetched concept born from a children's book. In fact, he thought he remembered reading something like that before.

               While staring into the sky, Takeo noticed a strange occurrence. A star began to twinkle, then it vanished. "Weird," Takeo thought to himself, "I've never seen something like that before." He disregarded the thought of that being a world seemingly disappearing, and turned onto his side, and went to sleep.

               Takeo suddenly found himself in a crowd of people, all of them screaming and running away. They seemed like they were passing right through him, as if he weren't even there. He kept walking forward, trying to ask the people passing him what was going on, but no one could hear him, or even feel his touch as he tried to grab their arms. They all looked horrified, like they had just seen some kind of giant monster. 

               Was he still in Traverse Town? It looked like it, but it looked like it had been attacked and partly destroyed by something. Buildings were collapsed and burnt out, people were running for their lives, others were cowering in corners, hiding from whatever was loose in the town.

               Takeo finally made it past the giant crowd, and looked forward. He saw all of these tiny shadow creatures that seemed to be sinking in and out of the ground. He some other ones that looked as though they were wearing armor, and others that were very large and round. "What are these things?" Takeo wondered silently. They all seemed to turn and look at him at once, stopping him in his tracks. Takeo's breathing began to intensify, his heartbeat began to quicken. He didn't know what these things were, or why they were attacking his home. He had never seen anything like it before.

               Suddenly, a loud rumbling noise could be heard, and the ground started to shake. It made Takeo stumble, but he grabbed onto a nearby pole, ensuring that he did not fall. He looked up, and what he saw horrified him more than the other shadow creature that he had just seen. This one was massive, and it had a hole through it's chest. "Is that a heart shape in it's chest?" Takeo thought to himself while clutching to the pole.

               The creature stood taller than any building that Takeo had ever been inside of before. It had a hole in it's chest in the shape of a heart, and something that resembled hair on it's head. It looked down directly at Takeo, making him freeze with fear. The shadow creature raised it's fist in the air, and brought it down heavily towards Takeo. He shouted and help up his hands, but yet felt nothing hit him.

               Confused, Takeo look up, and saw that the giant creature was reeling backwards, almost falling. Takeo looked to his hands to see some sort of weapon in his hand. Was it a sword? No, it couldn't be, it doesn't look like one. In fact it looks more like a key than anything. Takeo wasn't sure how it got there, but he was glad that it did, otherwise he was afraid he would have been crushed.

               Takeo lifted the weapon and pointed it at the creature who was just now regaining it's balance. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he felt as though he could defeat this creature. Suddenly, the weapon disappeared out of Takeo's hand, leaving a bright light in it's wake. Takeo gasped, "Wait, what? Where did it go?" Takeo looked back up at the creature, who was standing idle. However the smaller shadow creatures, the ones that almost resembled bugs, were quickly moving towards him.

               They lunged off of the ground, through the air, and onto Takeo. He shouted for help, but to no avail. Nobody was coming to help him, and nobody could hear him. He wasn't even sure if he was actually making any noise at this point. After a short few seconds, everything went black and quiet, and Takeo succumbed to the force of the shadow creatures.