My Perfect World

"Shit!"

I scream a loud sound as I attempt to teleport to the black flame. Unfortunately, when trying, I manage to teleport somewhere else. "Damn it! Where am I?" I look across, not seeing the black flame anywhere. "My teleportation was working just fine, before. It must not be the monster that's affecting my powers. It's gotta be something else.

"Hey!" Hearing someone above, I look up. A woman in all white, with white hair, and even pure white eyes. She looks familiar... I've seen her before. I can tell she doesn't recognize me. Suddenly, a giant blast of ice and snow, hail and frost tears down from the sky, creating an avalanche of snow & ice. "AAAAGH!?" I scream in pain, writhing in agony. The frostbite hits nearly immediately, in my hands which no longer have very much feeling. "What the hell is wrong with you!" I scream as I teleport through the ice & snow.

'That's it! That's where I recognize her!' I can also start to see the gears in her head turning as well. 'I've fought her before!'

-Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest-

Kyle & Shelby were surrounded by all sides, nothing could stop these people from killing them. These people. From birth, children would sing about them. The seas turned red from the time when they first appeared in the world, and even the strongest warriors in history pale in comparison to the amount of power these people hold.

Chaotic Demons!

They were chaotic demons!

Not like J, who was kind & caring, and respectful of all forms of life, these guys were glorified sociopaths with a desire to commit horrific atrocities. The things these people have done were written in the history books as being especially cruel & ruthless, psychotic and monsterous.

These guys felt no delusion about how monsterous they were. Shelby didn't notice, but Kyle noticed immediately. "Hey, how's it going?" One of the Chaotic Demons asked. He had bright red hair & his entire body was covered in a bright red flame. "Hello, im the Arsonist. Chaotic Demon."

He had an oddly suave sense of talking, and for a strange reason, put a sense of peace and tranqility on Kyle & Shelby. "All we want is that orb on your necklace, boy. We won't hurt you if you do as I say." Shelby started to retort, but the Kyle instantly stopped her. "That guy's dangerous. I can see it in his eyes. Even if we give him my necklace, he'll kill me anyway."

"What is that orb anyway? Why dies everyone want it?" Shelby asked, fearful of the situation. "I don't know! Some guy just gave it to me! I didn't think it was important! More importantly, that guy in the front. I can see it in his eyes, he's a psycho with no emotion, no sense of guilt. No remorse."

The flaming man smiled, and started laughing with a charismatic tone. "Well, I didn't think it would work. You're pretty smart, kid! You hit it right on the head." He was never going to spare them. The flaming man had remembered a time when he was young. He always liked the color of fire. Bright, warm, beautiful. It filled him with a sense of comfort & warmth in an otherwise cold world. When he was a child, he had a rough time, as his mother would burn cigarettes into his arms. She was a drunk who did nothing but hurt her child. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the worst mistake of her life. Looking even further back, the man remembered finding a stray cat on the side of the road. Playing with the lighter he stole from his mothers car, he realized that he had power. Feeling the weight of the small lighter in his hand, he felt true power, true freedom for the first time in his life. And so, as a boy with nothing to believe in, he chose to chase that feeling, the only feeling that made him feel safe from his mother. On that night, he set that cat on fire, it burning like melted plastic, its screams & cries being drowned out by immense flames, and the crackling sound of firewood. Inside of the boys eyes, he felt safe for the first time, feeling the true embrace of a parent from the fire surrounding him.

Later on, in his adolescense, the young kid had grown. His love for fire became an addiction, and he burned his mother alive. He had desperately wanted to feel a connection, so the flames gave him a reason to continue on. It had long passed the point of normalcy, and developed into something unsightly and horrific. Much like a serial killer, he was using the flames as a trophy. He had burned down everything in his path, and by coincidence, gained the power to burn everything in his path, as a chaotic demon. At the last junction of his life, he became a wanted criminal, a fugitive arsonist known for his terrifying hobby. The only thing that could give him solace were the bright red fires he created. This was the man standing before Kyle and Shelby.

"Well, looks like its time for you to die."

-Meanwhile, at the part of the forest where J and the woman are-

I tried to dodge the giant blasts of snow and ice, but unfortunately, it was far faster than my reaction time. "Who are you? What do you want!?" I ask, managing to escape the harshest wall of ice. "Us? We're trying to get a specific artifact. We know your friend has it." She says, with a psychopathic smile. "You see, you might be a good person, but us Chaotic Demons aren't restricted by morals or ideals. My name, as a Chaotic Demon, is the Cold Hearted!"

This cements it. She doesn't recognize me. If she had, she would take me a lot more seriously. To be fair, its been years since we last fought, so I wouldn't expect her to remember, but is she really that clueless? No. Even before, when I last met her, she'd always been like that. Uncaring of the things around her. She'll remember, but it'll probably take her a while to connect the dots. I've got to escape from here & get to Kyle. "If you're trying to use your powers, they won't work very well!" She says "You see, we're in the Forest of Hopes & Dreams! In it, your powers only work if you truly feel it in your heart!"

"Forest of Hopes & Dreams? What a tacky name. I'll give it a better one. The forest of the Free Hearts!" I shout out loud.

"Heh." She laughs dryly. "Funny, but you see, this forest is like Purgatory, its the line between life and death. Travellers that enter this forest may even see ghosts from time to time. Ghosts? Almost immediately, my mind flashes back to the old man. I knew it was strange! He vanished into thin air! "Ghosts are real, I didn't know that!" I shout, trying to dodge her ice attacks.

"Not only are they real, but in this forest, its one of the only places where both angels and demons can reign supreme!" She shouts

"Reign supreme? If my powers only work when im having fun, then it doesn't sound like it. What kinda chaotic demons and graceful angels are you talking about!?"

She gives a small laugh before saying something incredibly vague & offputting. "I'm not talking about people like us."

As she says that, a giant wall of ice crashes into me, pushing my back, my hand covered in ice crystals. "AAAAUGHDJWB" I scream an unintelligable scream as my entire body winces from the cold pain.

"Ah, that didn't kill you? Try this on for size." As she says that, she creates a giant spear, made of ice. The spear becomes even larger, and larger, and even larger than that, dwarfing the size of the sky. Suddenly, the giant spear comes crashing down, aiming directly at me. Barely teleporting away, the spear barely touches me before escaping. Looking at my shirt, I realize a small cut has formed on my stomach after struggling to escape. "I am here to distract you from your friends, if that's what you're asking." She says, in a confident tone.

But she's shocked, when my face curves up into a giant smile. "Well, I love the effort, but I see the black flame in the distance now, so im gonna leave you here. It'll take a while, get comfy!" I smile, immediately teleporting away.

As I look at my surroundings after having teleported, I realize that, this time, I teleported to the right place this time. The Cold Hearted can't follow me, the black flame has already disappeared entirely the moment I teleported to it. Shocked, I look in the distance. Kyle and Shelby! They're all by themselves, surrounded by enemies. It must be the allies of that chaotic demon. And who's that I see. It's the Arsonist! He's known for his ruthless murder spree all across New America. Luckily, I'm pretty confident I can beat him. "Haaah. This is complicated." I say, out loud. This guy is certainly more trouble than he's worth. If I mess with a guy like that, I'll certainly have to deal with a lot of shit. Fuck it! What's the worst that can happen? Death?

Not a big deal!

I instantly teleport over to Kyle and Shelby.

Yes! "It worked!" I shout in a giant smile. The arsonist looks at me with a puzzled expression. "I thought the Cold Hearted was set to distract you. Looks like she failed. Well, you are the Freedom Junkie, so I shouldn't be surprised."

I look to the ground as I see a defeated Shelby. Knocked out, but not dead. "J! They want to steal my necklace! They're gonna kill us! What do we do!?" Kyle shouts in fear.

"Stop." I say, very calmly. "I'm here now, you're safe. Don't worry & leave it all to me."

"Ha! You'll beat me? That's funny!" The arsonist laughs with a smug tone. "Yes." I casually tell him. "Sure, try i-" he says, but not before I teleport right into him, ready to grab his heart.

"Nice try.", I hear his voice. "What!?" I scream, as a giant blast of fire rips through my arm, right where I tried to kill him. Damn it! This fucker burned straight through my arm. "What are you!?" I shout, feeling fear once again.

To this, he smiles, his eyes shining with a strange yet captivating expression. "I'm fire. I am the concept of fire. Have you ever tried to strike fire? It's an intangible force of nature that you can't reason with. Touch it, and it will burn you to a crisp."

Looking at my arm once again, the burn is bad. It'll definitely heal, but the scar won't be pretty. "Great!" I shout in anger. "Now, with a scar like this, the ladies will never love me!"

To that, he laughs with his signature laugh, being ever so charismatic. "Don't worry. The scar you have now pales in comparison to the scars you'll have in a few minutes. And the scars after that will put the fear of God into anyone that sees your grotesque body. And in 5 minutes, you won't have any scars."

"Oh, and why is that?" I say, busting out a fat grin. "Because... you won't even have bones. I'll burn them to the ground."

As I slowly start to think, I realize something. At first, I thought that this guy was the reason I saw those black flames before, but now that I think about it, it makes no sense. These flames are bright red. The flames I saw before were strikingly black. They were so black, in fact, that it was difficult not to notice them in pure darkness. They were a level darker. It definitely wasn't this guy. There might be someone else with the power to control black flames somewhere in this forest. They might've been signaling to me to go save Kyle and Shelby. Unfortunately, if they were doing that, i'm assuming they had poor intentions. They definitely want us to fight, and I don't think these Chaotic Demons realize that yet. This means that I have the advantage! I have information that they don't!

The other 2 Chaotic Demons right next to the Arsonist start laughing and making fun of me. "The Freedom Junkie. Seems he's nothing special after all! What a loser!" I can ignore them. They don't seem to want to get involved in this battle, its likely that they would avoid fighting just in case something goes wrong.

It's rare for Chaotic Demons to team up, since they're all so self-absorbed. This seems like a flimsey alliance at best, and I know exactly how to get under these guys' skin.

"Wow, I get you do what your boss tells you, huh?" I say, acting clueless. Will they take the bait? They both look at each other, and then look at me. "Boss?" The woman on the right laughs at me. "I have fucking superpowers! He's not my boss!" Yes! All of a sudden, a disgusting smell permeates my mouth. What the fuck!? Does this lady even take showers!? Why the hell does she smell like literal garbage?

I almost gag, but still try to play the part despite the sickening stench that wafts into my nostrils. "Yeah, don't kill the messenger. It just seems like this guy's doing all the work. Are you sure?"

"Of course i'm sure! I'm stronger than this fool!"

Gotcha!

"Stronger? But he's the arsonist. Not even I can beat him, you saw how it went down."

Yes! I might be able to break them down!

"Stop." The third one says from the trees. "Are you retarded? He's trying to get us to fight each other." God damn it! I half-expected this plan to fail, but I really thought it was gonna work for a second there. This third one is smart. I gotta watch out for him.

What do I do? I've got to fight 3 Chaotic Demons at the same time, one of which is literally untouchable. Not to mention that there's a 4th one somewhere in this forest right now, and she's on her way to find me. She could be there any minute now.

For a second, just a split second, it crosses my mind to leave Kyle & Shelby, and just teleport away. But that won't solve any of my problems. I still can't escape from this forest anyway, even if I were to leave them behind. Even so, I'd rather stick around here and protect them. My mind flashes back to the beast. It was a girl. She's probably on their side. But on the off-chance she isn't, I could teleport to her, wake her up, and then fight them, 2 on 3. It wouldn't be fair, but I'd actually have a chance of winning.

"Hey, I killed your friend!" I shout out, trying to confirm if the beast turned girl was his ally. "You did? I figured you did." The arsonist laughs

That's not enough information! Is this asshole being vague on purpose...

"Yeah, her transformation was pretty scary." I say. To that, he gives a confused expression. "She can transform? What, she turn herself into a fuckin' snowman?"

Hiding my excitement, I slowly start to put the pieces together.

That girl that I defeated. She wasn't a part of their group. She was probably just an unaffiliated party. It didn't seem like she was too conscious while we were fighting. And to think, I almost killed her. If I actually did kill her, just thinking she was a random monster, I would've regretted it for the rest of my life. Now, I definitely don't want to wake her up now & convince her to my side just yet. It would have to be the last resort, if im guaranteed to die.

Why?

Because plenty of things can go wrong. Either she goes crazy again & turns back into a monster, she doesn't have any control of her powers, which is very likely, or she sees that we're outnumbered and joins the enemy instead. I have to try fighting these guys alone before I risk it all by trying to wake up a wild card.

Instantly, I teleport for an attack. I can't continue thinking! I've got to fight, and do it to win! Before im fully able to teleport, the guy in the back puts out his hand. Is he telling me to stop? Maybe we can compromise.

No. My animal instinct instantly screams at me to run!

From out of his hand, a giant blast of red light shoots out!

"Lasers!? This guy can shoot fucking lasers!!" I shout, gushing over how cool it is. As I teleport away from the large blast, a giant raging sea of bright red fire comes crashing down on me. Instantly, I teleport into the poorly smelling woman on the right. I'm gonna kill her right here!

I did it! I teleport directly into her.

Wait? Something's not right! From where she is, she starts decomposing. What the fuck? Is she a dead body? Is she a fucking zombie. "Is that why you smell so bad?" I ask, mockingly, while smiling.

"Nope." She says shyly, while looking away. Looking closer, I realize she's right. She's not decomposing. Her body's made of wood? No! It's porcelain. Small chips of porcelain start coming off of her body. It's like she's a doll, or some kind of weird stop-motion animation.

I see! The porcelain is like an armor that covers her real body. Suddenly, im shot on both sides by both lasers and flames. The flames rise even higher, dwarfing the entire forest. Now, the forest that was pure blackness has been illuminated by a giant blaze of light.

Then, as I try to flee, i'm instantly hit by a small laser. The things shocks me to my core. It ripped right through my toe! My pinky toe has been entirely ripped off of my body, as I teleport away!

Is this it? Is this how I die!?

To the thought, my smile grows even heavier, all 4 conscious people in the forest look at my horrific face illuminated by flames in the forest. "WHAT!?" The arsonist shouts in abject terror & fear. Clearly, he didn't expect me to enjoy this. Even he's filled with fear, at the prospect that someone as crazy as me exists.

I stare directly into their souls, as Kyle looks me directly in the eyes and sees the dark abyss.

The eyes of an adrenaline junkie!