"Removed. Discarded. Memories forever lost to time. I will reclaim what I yearn to be mine."

Chapter 1 - Lost Soul

The electric buzz of the radio's static sharply pierces my ears. The old lady at the shopping till starts toying with the touchscreen of her iPhone, trying with all her might to operate it. I think I might've heard her swear lightly under her breath there. I definitely catch the "Daft wee thing," that quickly comes after it though.

The old lady eventually settles on a frequency. Radio Scotland. Bit of a dull choice there but, hey, at least it's not any of the pop stations. The weatherman's cheery voice echos throughout the store. I tune him out. I've already discovered first-hand what the weather's going to be like today.

I look out the store window. The clear blue sky and the scorching sun were both there to mock me. I fiddle with the zipper of my hoodie. It's just my luck. Wearing warm clothing on one of the hottest days in what feels like one of the wettest summers ever. That's like being prepared to go into the tundra and then suddenly being dropped in the Sahara. At least in here, I have the cool breeze of the shop's air conditioning to stop me from melting.

I let out a soft sigh. My left hand's stuffed in my hoodie pocket. All the spare change I clambered from the house pot is still there, along with my five year old flip phone. I keep the bundle firmly grasped in my hand as I flicker between the loaves of bread in the aisle. I grab the closest one to me, twisting and turning it from side to side.

Hm. No rips, no tears, no holes. I give the bread a light squeeze. Soft. So far so good. Expiration date? This coming Monday. I dawdle on it for a minute. It... seems to be okay.

Suddenly, my body starts shuddering. I can feel somebody's eyes trailing on me. My head snaps around. The old woman is looking at me. Her withering wrinkled eyes staring at me from across the counter. My body seizes up. W-why was she looking at me?

She's glaring at me. Of course. She's definitely glaring at me. I must have been taking too long with the bread. She thinks I'm a complete weirdo!

"Oy, son?" The woman calls out. "You alright?"

"U-uhhh..." My voice stutters. My mind is tripping over itself, trying desperately to grasp onto some sort of response.

"I-I-I'm fine. T-thank you."

I make sure my eyes don't reach hers. I take the loaf in hand, bow my head and walk right up to the counter. I give the woman a polite little smile and nothing more. No need to embarass myself any further. The radio continues to hum away. It's onto the news section now. Probably something about the civil war again. It's nothing I haven't heard on the television this week. It's not really surprising. No news is good news, afterall.

A loud beep goes straight through me.

"That'll be a pound eighty-nine, son. Would ya like a bag with that?" The aging woman's upbeat voice catches my attention.

"Y-yes, please." My voice jitters. Nodding, the woman goes straight to work. With my left hand still in its pocket, I scramble up change worth a pound ninety. Having extra coins around the house sure is helpful. The woman places the bag with the bread on the counter as I drop the coins into her hands. With a click of a button, the old lady swiftly deposits the money and scoops up the measly one pence change. She snaps off the receipt and offers them both to me.

"That's a penny. Tah much." I take them both and shove them into the bag. I bow my head slightly as I do.

"T-thank you." I repeat.

"...Body was found earlier this morning."

I look to the radio again. The reporter's voice was far less energetic than it was before. Always was when it came to these things. I bite my lip as he continues to talk.

"Mister Dunn, an eighteen year old college student, was found dead with several knife wounds to his chest. The body was found on Airbles road, near one of the local pubs in the area." I shiver slightly. Airbles road. That's Motherwell.

That's not too far from here...

"Bugger me. That poor lad was only out fer a drink." The woman shakes her head at the radio. "That's absolutely disgustin' of some people. Ye cannae even go out and enjoy yerself these days without some scumbag trying to take advantage of ye." I look to the old woman, venom clear in her voice. I don't have much else to add so, I hum in agreement. She leans on the counter, sighing loudly. "I'm telling ye, between the war, the terrorism, and these psychos, the world's becoming a very dangerous place."

...I nod to the old woman, mumbling a meek "Thank you," again before I turn around to leave.

Yeah. It's a dangerous place alright...

I take the same old route I always do. Quiet, peaceful and the least likely path for me to meet any of my classmates. Just how I like it.

I type away on my phone, albeit a little slowly. A few more characters here and... send.

'Got bread. Be home soon. P.S. What time will you be back from the pub tonight?' There. I slip the phone back into my pocket. I should hear back from her in a bit. She's pretty quick with these things...

I shake my head. She'll be fine. She's my big sister, afterall. I'm just being paranoid. Yeah. That's it.

I'm just... being paranoid.

I let out a dry groan. Bloody heat. I should've brought a bottle of water or someth-

Body lurching forward. Can't rebalance. I'm falling. Arms up. Protect face. Brace!

I hit the ground with a grunt. My arms flare up. I let out a shrill hiss as my mind registers the pain. Yet, the burning feeling in my arms quickly subsided. Quickly replaced with the feeling of a thousand needles being stabbed into my skin. My body wasn't boiling anymore. It was... cold. Freezing. Like...

Snow?

Bag still in hand, I stumble back up to my feet, each step causing a loud crunch underneath my shoes. There's no pavement anymore. Just a great white blanket of snow covering as far as I could see. Surrounding me were barren snow-coated trees. Standing crooked and lifeless. The icy wind blows through my bones. I have to huddle my body together. Even with my hoodie on, it simply wasn't warm enough to protect me from this kind of weather. Every single time I let out a breath, it comes out as a cool hollow mist. I look up to see...

The moon. The largest I've ever seen it. Glowing brightly against the night sky. There's no sun: no bright blue sky, no town. Nothing. Just... where in the hell am I?!

Phone. I still have my phone. I can still call for help. Wherever I am. I scramble into my pocket, grabbing hastily for my phone. I force the top open. It still says it's the afternoon. That's not even close to being right. I look to the signal bar.

The bar is empty.

There's... there's no signal.

There's no way for me to call home. No way for me to call for help. No way for me to even tell anybody that I'm even still alive. I'm stranded. Out here. In the middle of nowhere. Armed with nothing but a loaf of bread: a handful of spare coin, my own hoodie, and a phone that's practically useless!

My chest burns. My breathing is hoarse and sparse. My body's moving by itself. I can't think. I can't breath. I can't... I can't...

"No..." My knees fall beneath my weight. The bag falls to the ground with a light thump. My arms wrap themselves around my head. "No..." I repeat the word like a mantra. Over and over again. Like they had some kind of power to them. "No. No. No." This isn't real. None of this is real. It can't be real. It's not real. It's not real. It's not real! It's not real!

...Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. This isn't real. This isn't real at all. This is... this is all just a dream! Yeah! That must be it. I mean, look at where I am. Random forest I've never seen before. Going from one place to another out of nowhere. Moon bigger than it should be? This is totally just one of my dreams! It's just... really vivid! That's all. I must've fallen asleep a long time ago.

I start chuckling to myself. Everything's... fine! I'm okay! I push myself back onto my feet again. I'm wobbling a little but... I-I think I'm going to be alright! I grab my bag again, sliding my phone back into my left hoodie pocket. I put a hand up to my heart. I repeat the words again and again.

I'm okay. This is all just a dream. There's nothing wrong.

A growl makes my heart skip a beat. Swallowing down a ball of saliva, I turn my head to look. As soon as I do, my eyes meet a vicious pair of pure red. Prowling out in the distant trees was... some kind of monster. A beast with ghastly black fur with white bones adorning its face and body. It has claws that could cut a man to pieces and a maw that could far much worse.

I step back. I-I don't know why I stepped back. I-I mean, this is nothing. Right? I-It's all part of the dream! Yeah! I always die at these parts! W-what am I getting so worked up about? I let out another gasp. The monster wasn't alone.

Out from the cover of the trees is another beast. From there, another. More and more, viciously snapping their jaws. Nautious black drool dripping from their mouths. A full pack of them. Too many for me to count. My body is shaking. I shouldn't be shaking. They're... They're... They're...

"Get the hell away from me!" I throw the bag as hard as I can at them. As soon as I throw it, I run. I run as fast as I possibly can. Faster than that, even.

I dart through the trees, kicking up snow with each bound. I don't look behind me but I could feel their claws clamouring for my back. The feeling just makes me want to run even faster. I trip and I fall but my impulses force me to rebound every single time. I'm like a rabid animal, working purely on instinct. I'm drunk on adrenaline. I don't have the time nor the ability to think right now. Before I realize, I find myself running in the middle of open ground. No cover.

For just a second, I peek over my shoulder. They're there. Gaining quickly on me. The closest one launches itself at me, claw in the air. My body screams at me to dodge. With every ounce of strength in my body, I plant my feet into the ground. I press down hard.

I jump. It slashes at me. I land on the ground hard but I'm still breathing. I-I dodged it! I moved out of the way! I'm okay!

I try to push myself up but I don't budge. My body steadfastly denies me. What? B-but I'm fine! There's nothing wrong with me! I look down to my side and...

Oh. Oh no.

Blood begins to pour out of my side. After a couple of seconds, the pain finally reaches my mind. A scream rips out from my throat. The searing hot wound causes me to writhe against the snow. The pain is unimaginable. This isn't like anything I've ever felt before. It's excruciating! Something wet falls down my cheek. My hands dig into the snow as my body tries to crawl away from the monsters. Before I have the chance, they start to surround me. There's nowhere for me to go. I'm trapped.

This... this isn't a dream. This is a nightmare. A horrible, horrible nightmare. I just want to wake up already. I look up to see the wolf-like monster barring down on me. Tears still falling down my face, I let out a soft whimper. I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die. I...

"I just wanna go home."

The beast roars. It's claw aiming straight for my face. I force my eyes shut. I hear a slash. A gust of wind blows into my face. Slowly, I open my eyes to see...

Rose petals.

Lots of them, fluttering gracefully in the wind. Standing before me was the monster. It's arm had been cut clean off and a figure in a red cloak stands between us. Braced in their arms is some sort of scythe, fully clad in black and red. I blink once and the beast is already dead. Another slash from the scythe took its head clean off from its shoulders.

The pack howls fiercely The figure turns around and rushes towards me, grabbing me by my left arm. I offer no resistence, I don't have the strength to do so anyway. With ease, the figure picks me up. I gaze around at the wolves as they start charging at us. I blink again.

When they open again, the figure slides to a halt. I look back to see the monsters completely on the other side of the clearing. I don't know how they did it but the figure somehow managed that dodge every single one of them. I didn't even see it. Slowly, the figure settles me back down on the snow.

Softly, they whisper "I'll be right back."

"A-ah..." The words coming out of my mouth are garbled. I can do nothing else but watch as the figure walks toward the hoard. They... they're crazy! There are way too many of those things! They're going to get themselves killed!

Another blink and the figure disappears from sight. Another blink and one of the creatures is carved right in half. Just then, I hear a gunshot come from the ongoing fight. One of the wolves body caves in from some sort of blast. Did... did that come from the scythe? What the hell? My eyes try to follow the red cloak but they always end up falling behind. Another slice. Another kill. Another bullet. Another kill.

One by one, the monsters fall. Their attacks can't hit their mark. It's like they were swiping at thin air. More slices. More gunshots. More death. It's a hailstorm of blood, bullets and roses. This is... this is way beyond me. My eyelids are beginning to falter. I'm starting to fade away.

There's only one of them left. It takes a swing at the cloak. It makes a direct hit. I yelp with the sickening strike. Nobody could've survived that. I look to the figure's crumbled body when they... start to get back up. Th-they're still alive! How can they move after something like that?! Wh-what are they?!

It barely takes them longer than a second to carve the last wolf to pieces. Th-they did it. They killed every last one. It wasn't even close!

The figure's hood falls down. Turning around, I can finally see their face.

It's... a girl. She doesn't look that much younger than me, actually. A girl with some sort of gun-scythe saved my life. That's just... unbelievable. That's totally crazy! This can't be happening. I...

I can't hold on. The snow I'm laying on over the course of the fight had turned a deep bloody red. I feel... so tired.

My body starts to slump. I can't even feel the sheer coldness of the snow anymore. The girl runs up to me. I can barely keep my eyes open anymore. She says something but I can't hear a thing. I look at her face and as I drift off, my mind could only focus on one singular detail.

Silver... Eyes...

A/N: Updated 08/03/17 Well, here it is. The every day writer's public execution. A Self-Insert. Nobody's going to take me seriously after this is said and done. Still, I felt like I needed to give it a shot. Could be good. Could be bad. Could be downright awful. So, let's take it for a ride.

So, without giving too much away, I just want to clarify a few things involving the story.

1. There will be considerable changes throughout the story. Most of these will be due to the main character's lack of knowledge of the world. The story will deviate greatly from canon while still keeping its connection to the source material. There will be no railroading here. Change is the name of the game.

2. Through character development and the decisions made, characters and character relationships will differ somewhat from the original. Two characters who may not have been close in the original may become friends here and vice versa. Also, there won't be any five member teams and OC teams won't be introduced until later.

3. Besides ReNora, all pairings are currently undecided and some canon pairings may not surface in the story.

Updates may be a little slow due to a combination of real life and some hardcore perfectionism but I'll do my best to keep up some sort of pace.

This story was inspired by several different Self-Insert stories such as Gone2GroundEX's Asleep, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine, Lang Noi's Catch Your Breath and Vaengir's Iryo-nin Kasa. If you haven't already, go check their stories out. They're all really bloody good.

So what did you think of the chapter? Good? Bad? Made you hate humanity? Tell me in the reviews. Constructive criticism is encouraged.