One Shot Light Novel - Project Human Thirst

[AreYouShpongled]

Here is a light(short) novel I've written which I would like to share with the community.It's genre could be considered Thriller/Mystery/Psychological.

Have your say freely! Any feedback or criticism is appreciated.

 

                                                                                        Project Human Thirst

 

 

 

 

                                                                                               Chapter 1 (The encounter)

"Deliver the package there*" were the words of the unbeknown man on the phone.
Kei tried to get some sleep, but he couldn't.
A thought that couldn't fade away was nagging him.
What did those packages contain?
He attempted to reflect that, but it was unfruitful. His thoughts were chaotic and his imagination was somehow obscured by something he had difficulty in defining.

He had been doing that for a rather long time that is delivering packages to different locations. He had no idea what was the content of each package. Kei was simply a person who ran these errands.

It all started at the bar "Monsters". That afternoon Kei went to the bar to drink some beverages and let off steam. While quietly drinking his liquor, a strange woman approached him. 
At the first glance, Kei thought that the woman was incomparable beautiful and concurrently very subtle.
The woman sat at his table and immediately began talking.
"Hello there. I'm an officer of a NGO(Non-governmental organization) called F.A.(Fundamental Aid) and we are looking for people who would like to participate and contribute to our charity work while working for us".
"It is fast and easy money and there won't be a problem as long as you act as you are told".

Kei wasn't certain whether what that mysterious woman said was true or not. His mind started to function frantically in order to seize the situation.
Without further ado he asked;

"And what is this job about?"
"You will be receiving some packages and you will be getting specific information on where to deliver them by phone."
Easy and simple - thought Kei.

"The payment will be carried out on cash.500 euro for each delivery."
"Now that is a munificent amount of money for just a plain delivery!"
"Consider about it and if you are interested, come here in this bar this time of the day tomorrow."

Unconsciously, Kei looked at his watch: 28th of November, 6(h), 42(min), 12(sec) pm.
The woman stood up and left without saying anything else.

Kei was sitting there like a fool, staring at the empty seat of that mysterious woman, without being able to realize what had just happened.
He went back home.
He actually didn't care about that job, since he had a stable financial income from the state because of his mental "disability", if his problem could be accounted for a disability.

The thing that kept Kei occupied was the reason why that mysterious woman approached him in the first place and why she was so formal to him. Her formality reached an odd coolness. WHY? That was the only word that echoed in his head.
*Not specified
 

                                                                                                  Chapter 2 (The beginning)

The next day...
Ultimately, curiosity proved to be stronger than ignorance.
So Kei decided to meet that woman again.

While entering the bar, Kei found her sitting at the same table as yesterday. He was hoping that they could chat a little more today. He sat opposite her at the table.
"I'm willing to cooperate with you".
"Then let me inform you about the details".
"Once in every three days, a package will be sent to you. Within the next hour you will receive a phone call and you will be given directions on where you have to deliver it. I believe I don't have to mention that the packages must be delivered intact at all costs."

"Yes. I understand."
"What about the payment method?"

"After the delivery of each package we will meet here in order to receive your payment."
The woman got up.

"We will contact you within the next month" she said and left.

Once again Kei was breathless. He couldn't learn anything about this woman.
He quickly drank his beverage and went outside - leaving behind the bar with the name "Monsters."

 

                                                             Chapter 3 (Introduction)

Kei Mizuno was living in a peaceful neighborhood, in a suburb in the city of (undefined). He was 23 years old and particularly intelligent. Already from his childhood, he differed from the rest kids - not only because of his prematured developed mind, but also because of his peculiar personality.
He never played with his classmates at school.
Kei thought of their activities rubbishy and insignificant.
The only company he had was a girl from his class  - Anna - with whom he kept a rather odd friendship until now.

Kei was living all by himself, since he had lost his family (parents and a brother) in a horrible accident approximately 3 years ago.
He barely managed to survive the accident and was hospitalized for 1 month or so, according to what the doctors at the hospital told him, since his memory was really fuzzy from back then.
The tragic loss of his family left a blank space not only in his life but in his soul too.

Several times he woke up at night due to hazy and undefined nightmares. Pervasive images of his parents asking for his help were infiltrating his calm mind.
And rarely had the feeling that he was losing himself, that he was becoming someone else. At these times his consciousness abandoned him and he was losing the sense of time and place, his true self. That was a crisis he couldn't avert.

This situation occurred each time for a few seconds though.

 

 

                                                              Chapter 4(The contact)

Days were passing by and the mysterious woman hadn't called yet.
28 days had passed since their last meeting took place and Kei had almost forgotten about the incident. Until that day, when his phone rang.
Before picking up his phone, Kei looked at the time 
6:42:12pm

That must be a coincidence - he mumbled.
"Hello?"
Surprisingly there wasn't the woman that Kei expected to call but an unknown man.
"You will find a package outside your front door. Deliver it tomorrow at exactly 8pm at the address 'Paradise Path 28'. Ring the doorbell 3 times, leave the package outside the door and then get lost immediately."
"DO NOT OPEN THE PACKAGE."

Kei was about to ask something but the stranger had already hanged up.
Right away he opened the front door and truly found a black box. There wasn't an address or anything else. Except from a label with the following numbers:

13-15-14-19-20-5-18-19
Kei picked the box up and got inside. He sat on the couch in the living room and put it at the table in front of him.
His curiosity couldn't fade away, it was growing bigger and bigger.
He tried to figure out the reason behind these numbers. A password maybe ? A message?
He wrote down the digits on a notebook.

Mentally Kei was tired and his mind kind of lost after all that had happened. Thus he decided to give a thought about the numbers logic tomorrow with a clear and fresh head.

 

                                                            Chapter 5( The first delivery)

The next day Kei was nervous and in distress, that's why he woke up early.
He was trying to keep his mind occupied by doing stuff until the time for delivery arrives.
It was like time had stopped.

Kei got ready. He took the package and left the house. He knew where the certain address was, since it was next to his neighborhood.
He finally reached the street 'Paradise Path'.
The road was completely dark and somehow alienated. There wasn't anyone around.

There was total solitude.

For the first time, Kei experienced a feeling he wasn't aware of.
The creepy atmosphere created a sense of absolute loneliness and after that fear swamped him.

"Fear?" said Kei out loud.
"Fear for what? It is just a simple job."

He instantly suppressed that feeling.

The building with the address 28 appeared before him. It was a truly huge building covered in pure darkness. The only source of light was two lamps that faintly shined on the iron door.
He rang the doorbell three times, left the package in front of the door and started to go away.

-He wanted to know. He had to know -

Kei hid himself in an abandoned house across the mysterious building.
He waited to see if someone would appear to take the package.
Indeed, after five minutes a figure dressed in black appeared. He couldn't distinguish the face of that person, since he was wearing a hoodie.

"His build show that he is a male" thought Kei.

The stranger bended and took the black box.
He was about to head back inside but suddenly he turned his face and stared the corner where Kei had hid in.

Kei froze. He started to lose his sense.
"It is impossible to know that I'm here observing him."

The next thing that Kei could remember is being lying down. It was one of his crisis. For how long was he like that?
It took some minutes for Kei to pull himself together.
He couldn't stand this place anymore.

"I have to leave carefully."

Kei headed to the bar in order to meet with the woman and get paid.
He found her sitting at the bar chatting with the barman.
By the time the woman saw Kei entering the bar, she stopped talking and turned towards him.

Kei tried not to show his agitation and sat next to her.
"The package was delivered successfully."
"Here is your payment" said the woman and sprout a white envelope.
Kei opened it and found inside a paper money of five hundred euros.

"The next delivery will take place in three days from now. You will get informed with the details in the same way, by phone."

This time Kei left the bar first.
"Thank you and goodbye" he said.

During his heading to the exit door, Kei didn't notice the penetrating look that woman gave him.

 

 

                                                          Chapter 6(The second delivery)

Three days later, Kei found an exact same box outside his door. - black with a single label with the numbers; 13-15-14-19-20-5-18-19.
Within the next hour his phone rang.
It was the same man as the previous time.

"Deliver the package there* at 9 pm without any delay."

This time Kei had to travel to the other side of the town. He took the subway and after several stops he reached his destination.
Kei was standing in front of the backdoor of a bar, which was closed or rather not functioning anymore.
He took a look at the front side of the bar and saw in faded letters the word "Human".

"That is kind of a weird name for a bar."
He wondered if they had given him false information, but he concluded that this must have been the right place. 
Kei decided not to risk by observing sneakily the addressee. He left the package and immediately headed to the bar in order to get paid.

Kei and the woman didn't exchange any words at all. She simply gave him the envelope with the agreed money and left right away.

*Unspecified
 

 

                                                        Chapter 7( An answer)

Kei knew that the situation he was mixed up in was extremely strange and complicated.
He was very well aware of the fact that something suspicious was taking place behind all those deliveries and the people who consisted of the organization.
He had a feeling that he shouldn't get involved too deeply. However, he chose to deflect, at least superficialy. He would investigate by his own this mysterious organization which claimed to be a NGO.

Kei left the reception-delivery process of the black boxes to become a systematic routine for him. Of course he refrained from giving any sign of interest to the organization people other than the typical.
The only clue he had under his possession were those numbers on the boxes label.
He didn't have the slightest idea neither about the woman at the bar and about the man on the phone nor about what they could be hiding.
Kei took the notebook in which he had written down the numbers

13-15-14-19-20-5-18-19
He had been trying with mathematical methods for many hours to find out the meaning behind the numbers, but all his efforts were in vain. Every single result was a failure. He couldnft figure out the significance that these digits concealed.
He was unable to find a solution. He was at his witfs end.
Astonishingly an idea popped into his head.

"How didn't I think about it earlier? I must see through it from a different perspective, a more unpretentious one.
What if each number represents a letter?
That way the numbers could form a word or a phrase" he told himself.

Without further delay, Kei put the numbers in a vertical line and started to correspond each number with a letter.
"The thirteenth letter of the alphabet is M - and he continued in the same logic.
13=M
15=O
14=N
19=S
20=T
5=E
18=R
19=S
The word that it was forming; "Monsters".

Since Kei's mind was on a constant function for several hours he almost instantly found out the correlation.
"It's the neighboring bar!" he exclaimed.
"Hence there is a direct link with the certain bar called 'Monsters' and the organization."
"That's why the mysterious woman chose that place to appear before me and kept on meeting me there after each job!"

For the time being Kei was satisfied with his foundings but he knew that he had to find a way to investigate that bar.
"But..where do I start from?"
He thought of the barman who was working there and remembered that he saw him chatting with the mysterious woman.
"Maybe he is also a part of all this."
"Tomorrow I'm going to pay that bar a visit and see if I can go on a fishing expedition."

 

Chapter 8(Dilemma)

Another package had already been sent to him.
Kei laid down to his sofa to chill out for a bit, until the scheduled phonecall with the instructions arrives.
He drowsed.

After some time, which seemed to Kei insignificant, the phone rang.

"Get rid of the package without any delay, if you don't want any trouble" said the man briskly.
He hanged up on Kei.

Kei felt uneasy and started to worried.
What was that? What was the weird demeanor?
Why did he have to dispose of the black box all of a sudden?

Unpleasant and bizarre thoughts got into Kei's mind.
What was he going to do?
Follow what that unknown man said or not? 

 

Chapter 9(Reunion)

"Knock - knock "
Someone was at the door.
Abruptly, Kei snapped out of the intense state of mind he was sucked in.
He headed to the door haltingly.
"Who is it?"
"It's me! Anna! Open the door Kei!"
He opened the door and Anna rushed inside.
"Long time no see Kei! Ifm back from my trip to Japan. You can't imagine how awesome Tokyo was! Lots of people, many stores...
Kei was surprised from this sudden visit.
"I didnft expect you to come back so soon Anna."
She noticed that Kei wasn't looking very healthy.
"Why are you so pasty Kei? You seem to be sick or something!"
"Well a lot has happened since you left to visit your parents Anna. I have been involved in a very strange situation and it's a long story."

 "Then get straight to it! I came here to hear your news!"
Kei started relating his story concisely.
When he finished narrating, Anna was so fired up that she said;
"I bet you haven't opened any box yet to see the content. Come on hurry up and open it! I can't wait to see what's inside!"
"I guess you are right. It's high time I found out the stuff I have been delivering for the past months."

 

 

Chapter 10 (Anna)

 Anna was a very cute and cheerful girl. She was the only childhood friend Kei had. Their friendship wasn't developed like any other ordinary friendships.
To begin with, Anna was a popular girl at her school and everyone wanted to hang out with her.
She had a lot of friends but nobody was really close to her. She had chosen it to be that way.
When Kei started to attend classes at her school, Anna instantly took a liking to him. She must have seen something in him.
At first, Kei didn't show any kind of interest, but Anna was teasing him every single day at school and eventually they became friends and started to hang out.

Anna wasn't always chirpy and joyous.
At the age of 3 she became an orphan.

Afterwards, a children institution took her after for 1 year.
Thankfully, a very nice couple offered to look after her as their child. She grew up in a very humane and happy environment.
However, by the time she turned 18 years old her foster parents decided to go back to their country of origin, Japan.

Anna wanted to go to a university, thus she stayed here to study.

 

 

Chapter 11 (Real bond)

"Kei I'm going to help you discover what's going on with that organization."
They opened the black box.
Inside there was a syringe with a fluid substance, that they haven't seen before.

"What could this strange liquid be?" Anna said.
"I have no idea.
Wait! There is something else inside it!"

Kei picked a small piece of paper from the box.
"It's a note!"

"What does it say Kei?"

-The next target is K.M. - read Kei out loud.

"K.M. ? Who could that be?" said Anna anxiously.

"That's me Anna.  -Kei Mizuno - said Kei in a jiggly voice.

Anna tried to calm Kei down.
"Are you sure? It may be someone else. It doesn't have to mean you!"

But Kei didn't believe that. He was certain that this capital letters were referring to him.
He felt like he was losing his self again. Everything around him started to spin around.

"This is not the time for one of these stupid crisis. I have to surmount it", Kei thought.
Somehow he managed to overcome it.

"Kei try to get some sleep and relax. I'm going to make a little investigation regarding this organization on the Internet. I may be able to find something that you already missed."
"Anna I think that you should leave. You are better off without me. You don't have to meddle in this story."
"What are you saying Kei? If I don't provide help who would? Whatever you say, it will be futile. You can't convince me otherwise."
"Well, since you insist that much, OK. But promise me one thing. If and when something dangerous happens I want you to run away as fast as possible, hide yourself and try to forget about all this."
"Kei you already know I'm in love with you and I will always be by your side. So stop this nonsense about danger and let's focus on what should we do from now on."
"Then get ready Anna. Pick up your stuff. We are leaving this place immediately."

 

 

Chapter 12 (Bereavement)

Before leaving the house Kei took with him the syringe he found in the black box.
"Anna, give me one moment."
He went to his room and opened a drawer. He pulled out a handgun.
"I didnft think that there will come a day that I will need to use this", he told himself.

"Kei come on, we should go!"
"I'm going to wait for you outside."

 !BAM!

There was a shot.
Then, absolute silence.

Kei rushed downstairs while holding his gun.
The sight Kei faced was gruesome.

Anna's body was lying down in front of the door.
There was blood all over her body
She had been shot.

Kei put the gun down next to her inanimated body.
"NO! THIS CAN'T BE REAL" Kei screamed.
"FUCK! These bastards are going to pay with their blood."

An unknown voice sounded suddenly behind Kei.

"Hey brat, was that your girlfriend that I just killed?"

Kei turned his face slowly towards the man.
A tall man with a black suit was standing in front of him.
He was smiling.
"You think this is a game? You are next you low-life punk!"

Kei's vision started to alter. His mind turned blank. He could only see a faintly black standing figure and all around him dancing colors in a diffused flow.

"Shut your mouth you fucker! You are dead!"

Kei without hesitation burst into that man.
He didn't have any sense of reason right now. Nothing could bound him nor limit him. His mind and body were solely focused on one simple thing.
To kill that man.

The unknown man was caught in surprise.
He didn't expect Kei to attack him like that.

Kei drilled the man's leg with the syringe he had taken from the black box.
By the time the drug the syringe contained entered the man's body, his eyes turned white and he stopped breathing.
Without cessation Kei started hitting him in the face until there was nothing left but a thing that resembled a face.

The atmosphere was so intense even after everything was finished.
Kei fell down on all fours and threw up.

That day something non-human was born inside Kei...

 

 

Chapter 13 (Vengeance)

 Kei was devastated. The incident left him desolated. He couldn't believe that Anna was gone just like that.
It was his fault.

"Dammit. I shouldn't have let her get into that. If only I was down there with her I could have deterred what happened."
This thought had been causing him untold anguish.

"I guess there is no point in thinking of the past anymore. What's done is done. It is time that actions speak for themselves. It is time for revenge."

Kei had searched the dead man's body in order to find something that would point to the organization. The only thing he found though was a cellphone with no contacts in it.

The only option left for him was to pay a visit to the bar 'Monsters'.

Without wasting any more time, Kei headed to the bar.
It was around 10 pm.
The bar was empty. The only person in there was the barman, who was cleaning one of the tables.

"We are about to close. We aren't serving customers", said the barman.

"I'm not here to drink".

"Then what do you want?"

"I want information about the organization F.A (Fundamental Aid)", said Kei steeply.

In a blink of an eye the barman pulled out a gun from his cardigan.
But Kei was faster. He had anticipated that.
"Don't do anything stupid. All I want is information."

Oddly enough the barman was very calm.
"Boy you don't want to interfere with us. Get lost before you get hurt."

"You were the ones who pried into my life in the first place. Don't you dare take me lightly!"

"You are funny. I wish I could chat a little longer with you but this conversation ends here."

The barman aimed the gun at Kei.
BAM!
He was shot in the head.

Kei had fired. He felt good.
"That was for Anna" he thought.

He quickly searched the place for any clue about the organization, but he couldn't find anything related.

 

 

Chapter 14(The beast within)

Kei was determined. This situation wasn't suited for someone pusillanimous.

"Butcam I ready to enter a mindset of violence and homicidal acts? When I came to my senses after smashing that man's face and after I shot the other one in the head it felt strangely delightful.
"I felt like a monster!" he told himself.

Right away a quote came into Kei's mind;

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster himself." *

That is how Kei thought of the situation he was mixed in. He only then realized how severe things were.
An organization full of human-monsters who would do anything in order to achieve their goal, whatever that goal was. Their insatiable thirst wasn't affected by moral constraints. They were driven by a raw reasoning and a blunt self-interest.
 Apparently, the people of the organization didn't care at all about others. They see the rest people as enemies, as obstacles that must be eliminated.

-Monsters-
That word had been stucked into Kei's head.
He remembered a book** he had once read that defined the meaning of that word in a unique and profound way.

 

People say that monsters hide under the beds.
People say that monsters hide inside the shadows.
People say that monsters hide inside the darkness.
But when they searched for them, people didn't find the monsters there...so people said that monsters live in fairy tales.
People forgot, or chose to forget that monsters do exist. It's just that...Monsters never need to hide.
Monsters sleep peacefully on their beds.
Monsters live peacefully inside their houses.
Monsters walk straight in to the light.
Because the true monsters wait for you in the mirror.
The monsters are the people themselves."

 

Kei looked at the mirror.
A dark, abstract image of him appeared which was devilish smiling.
It was there for only a split second.

"Why are you wearing that stupid human suit?"

* That is a quote from F. Nietzsche
** The elaboration of the word Monsters has been taken from the Manga/Anime 'Monster' which has been written by Naoki Urasawa.

 

 

 

Bonus Chapter (Review)

Kei having witnessed and experienced many incidents, predominantly inflictive ones, started to change.
His mentality, his perspective and generally the way he behaved altered.
He went over a sweeping change.
A positive or a negative one? It doesn't matter.

Every person and occurrence in this book is allegorical.
Everything symbolizes something.

-Kei-
He symbolizes everyone from us. Me,you etc...
A series of choices made him what he became.
Every incident utterly affects our choices. However our choices are influenced too. Not only by the people around us but also by the circumstances themselves.

-Anna-
Symbolizes our beloved ones. Those who are important and special to us, but eventually go astray because of our own mistakes and bad decisions.

-The acts of murder that Kei commited-
Symbolize the acts we commit when we are in desperate situations and the fact that we are not able to think of their results.

-The man on the phone-
Symbolize the impersonal relationships.

-The woman at the bar-
Symbolizes the typical relationships between people. The people who come and go. Those who don't remain in our lives.

-The black boxes-
Symbolize the things we come in touch with in our daily life but we pass them by because we hesitate or we are afraid of facing them.

-The people of the organization and the organization itself-
Symbolize those people who don't sympathize with their fellow citizens but they only are interested in themselves. Those people who do everything to satisfy their rotten ego, without caring about the consequences that the people around them will have to face.
They symbolize those people who are thirsty for power and control over others. Those who will "kill" someone with the first opportunity they see in order to get away from a severe situation.

To sum up, this book is aiming to establish the humane weakness and strength, the humane will and disown, the importance of taking or not a decision, the human relationships, the complexity of human mind and the fact that a man's choices are never a slippery slope.

Additional author's notes :
NGO : This term isn't used by chance. I decided to use it as a 'coverage' of the organization because of the hypocrisy and deceit that many non-governmental organizations pose in certain cases. It is meant to show that NGOs aren't what they seem to be superficially.

There are some phrases in this one-shot Light Novel which have been taken from the movie Donnie Darko (2001) a personal favorite.

28:06:42:12.In the movie Donnie Darko these numbers refer to the oncoming end of the world. These specific numbers that appear throughout the story do have a meaning, however it is a metaphoric one.

In chapter 1 Kei looked at his watch and saw these numbers 28-06-42-12 right after he met the woman of the organization. The usage of these numbers in that certain point of time indicates the beginning of the end of the main protagonist world. They imply the beginning of the end of Kei's temperament, character and personality. By that time,Kei was destined to sink in a dark, delusional and psychotic state of mind.    

 

                                                          

 

The difference between the 2 images is meant to show the radical change that the main protagonist underwent.

NOTE
The image is inspired by the anime Ergo Proxy which has been produced by Manglobe.

 

END

AreYouShpongled - aka Darksoulmate

Edited March 12, 2017 by AreYouShpongled