For Dominic Savage, that was quite a normal morning of a rather special day. The rays of the morning sun made him open his eyes just a few long seconds before the alarm started to play on his phone.

  Never gonna give you up

  Never gonna let you down

  Never gonna run around and desert you. . .

  Dom instantly felt all sleepiness leaving him and turned the song off with utmost dexterity. Thankfully, he’d left the phone on the nightstand right next to his bed.

  Derek was damn right when he said that the easiest way to wake up early in the morning is to set an annoying song as your alarm. . . Dom thought with a wry smile. Though, honestly, I would have managed on my own today.

  Considering how important this day—May 27, 2012—was to Dom, it was rather surprising that he’d fallen asleep yesterday just fine and had been sleeping like a baby. Perhaps his sub-consciousness had been preparing him for the upcoming mental challenge. No, that wasn’t about the finals—they were already behind him. That wasn’t about the graduation ceremony, either—that would be held in a few days. That was something way more personal… Something he had been leaving for later again and again for many years already.

  Today is the day! Dom told himself as he leapt out from the bed, full of energy and ready for action. He washed his face in the bathroom and took a quick—half a minute or so—cold shower to energize himself even further. That was a new habit he had been trying to add to his daily life for two weeks already, but so far he wasn’t satisfied with his progress.

  Dom passed the room where Alfred—his younger brother—was still soundly asleep, and reached the stairway that led to the first floor of the house. There, a dark silhouette jumped on him from the shadows, giving him barely enough time to react and prepare himself for the impact.

  “My gosh, Shadow, are you what, a ninja?” Dom smiled as he took a step backwards to stabilize himself and hugged the dog that was already happily barking and waving his tail.

  An almost pitch black Husky, Shadow was a four-year-old good boy who favored Dominic over any other family member. That was hardly surprising, though, considering their shared past and the circumstances of their first meeting.

  “Since when are you such a morning bird, bro?!” a surprised voice sounded from the nearby room. “And can you calm Shadow down? I’m trying to sleep here, you know? ”

  “Sorry, Freddy, but it’s already 7 AM, you know?” Dom replied as he patted his dog on the head. “It’s when you normally rise for school.”

  “I don’t give a damn about school, I already earned my summer break,” Alfred complained before adding in a louder voice, “and it’s Sunday, for God’s sake!”

  “Didn’t you know that the early bird gets the worm, Freddy?” Dom asked seriously.

  “You can get all the worms you need, Nico, but I’d rather get my sleep!” Alfred declared, and then there was no more sound from his room.

  Dom shrugged and walked down the stairs with Shadow in toll. His younger brother was going through a rebellious stage, or at least that was how he explained it to himself, despite being older by a mere two years. In general, the brothers had always been getting along well enough, but recently it was more and more common for them to find some silly reason to bicker with each other. And, perhaps without noticing it himself, it had been Dominic who was usually the first to start teasing his little brother, usually by calling him Freddy, which Alfred didn’t particularly like. As for the reason… it probably was the fact that the younger of the two brothers had been the first to get himself a girlfriend.

  Even before Dom reached the kitchen on the first floor, he had already smelled the smell of freshly cooked scrambled eggs. Shadow followed him, wagging his tail in anticipation.

  “Good morning,” said as he entered the combination of a kitchen and a dinner room. His parents were already awake, not surprisingly.

  “Hey, son,” his dad replied as he added cheese and some veggies to the eggs in the skillet. A pudgy man with thick arms and abundant beard, Adam Savage looked rather funny in his pink apron. It didn’t change the fact that was an unexpectedly good cook for a car mechanic.

  “Morning.” His mom nodded without looking at him, her eyes glued to the screen of her laptop. A tall tanned woman in glasses, Sarah Savage was busily typing on her keyboard even while sitting at the dinner table and waiting for her breakfast. Some would think that being a freelance copywriter would make her have a lot of free time, and they wouldn’t be wrong. Except, she had a tendency to have an inspiration to write at most unexpected times and when she did, it was hard to make her interested in anything else.

  “Woof-woof!” Shadow barked as he ran circles around Adam, who was standing at the stove.

  The man turned off the burner and then proceeded to fill the dog bowl with pet food. Sometimes, Dom was the one to feed his dog, but most of the time it was the father of the family who took that role.

  Dom sat down at the table opposite of his mom, and took his smartphone out to check out if he had any new notifications. While Adam was setting the table, his son frowned as he read the latest news from his feed.

  “They caught him,” Dom said in a flat tone.

  “Caught who?” Sarah gave him a brief glance. Adam, on another hand, placed a plate with food before his son.

  “The Slasher,” Dom clarified. “His fourth victim, survived and helped to identify the bastard.”

  Their little town had been in quite of turmoil for the last couple of months, that with three corpses of young women being found, all killed in the same disturbing manner. And now, with him apprehended, peace was supposed to return to Cloudswille.

  “Oh yeah?!” Adam set the last plate—his own—and joined his wife and son at the table. “Did they reveal who’s this piece of trash?!”

  “No name was given, no.” Dom shook his head. “But it’s said that the perpetrator is just nineteen. I can’t believe that someone barely older than me could be capable of… that.”

  “Let’s hope that he’ll get a life sentence,” Sarah said as she reluctantly put away her laptop and faced her plate of scrambled eggs. “This kind of monster has no walk among other people.”

  “Well, a life sentence isn’t the worst thing that could’ve happened to him,” Adam said. “He’s lucky that he didn’t try to attack my dear wifey… Otherwise, bam!”—he punched the air above the table with a hook—”And she would leave him in such a state that being dead would be a mercy!”

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  Dom could only smile wryly at his dad’s peculiar joke, while his mom just rolled her eyes at her husband. The man had a strange, sometimes dark sense of humor and, for better or worse, his sons loved to copy him from time to time… Also, he wasn’t completely off-point—as a former professional MMA fighter, Sarah was definitely someone who could give a fight even to an armed opponent, especially if they expected no resistance altogether.

  Dom half-expected that his younger brother would join them at some point, but the boy didn’t show up, not even when the rest of the family—including Shadow—finished their breakfast.

  Could it be that he sneaked out of the house last night to have fun with Elise? Dom thought as he washed dishes. Did losing his V-card make him smug? The boy probably thinks it’s such a big deal, huh.

  After being done with the dishes, Dom changed into his sportswear and called Shadow to him.

  “Dad, Mom, I’m going to walk Shadow,” Dom said as he prepared to leave. “Will have a short run, while I’m at it.”

  “See you soon, son!” Adam’s voice sounded from the living room. The man had already turned on the TV and was looking for something interesting to watch.

  “Don’t overexert yourself, deary,” Sarah said from the kitchen. She had resumed her typing as soon as she had finished her breakfast.

  It was rather warm outside and the morning sunlight was gently illuminating the half-empty streets of the town. Cloudswille had a population of barely fifty thousand people, and most of them followed Alfred’s example at Sundays and were still soundly asleep.

  “Let’s see if you can keep my pace, Shadow,” Dom said, knowing perfectly well that his dog could easily outrun him if he wanted. The man and the dog ran at a decent pace, passing over the few passersby, saying hello to some of them.

  It was a year since Dom started his regular morning runs. In the beginning, it was Derek who had prompted him to start running together, but in the end his friend had given up after a couple of months and Dom had stuck to this new habit as he could combine it with walking his dog. Nowadays, it was more like “running his dog”, though. There was another person who had been regularly joining him in those trips, though, and he just received a message from them. He slowed down a little to check his phone.

  Leah: Ohayou, Dom ;)

  Running at his current pace didn’t really put any burden on Dom, so when his heart started to beat faster after reading the text, he couldn’t just put the blame on the exercise. Of course, it wasn’t because he didn’t know the Japanese version of “good morning”, either.

  Dom: Hey, Sleepyhead. You’re late today.

  He was already close to their usual meeting spot—a small lake fifteen minutes away from his house—but it was only now that she contacted him. It was unusual for Leah Snow, his childhood friend, to be late, even if only for a few minutes. She was extremely punctual and he couldn’t even remember her being ever late for the class.

  Leah: Sorry, for some reason I just couldn’t fall asleep, thinking about our meeting today at noon… I know, silly me :) It’s not like we’re having a date or something… Though, it definitely will be the first time for us to go to the cinema with just two of us.

  A part of Dom was glad to hear that, as it could mean that she treated him as a man. But another part was telling him that Leah had always been a bit shy at the strangest of times. Usually, she was acting like a social butterfly, completely hiding her true nature as a nerdy girl who was into anime and video games.

  Dom: Maybe, but it’s not like we don’t meet each other tet-a-tet more than once per week, right? Just like we’ll do now.

  Of course, Dom couldn’t just acknowledge that he was no less anxious than her. In fact, he had way more reasons to be worried. After all… he really treated it as a date.

  Leah: It’s not the same! Plus, it’s not just the two of us, don’t forget our good boy Shadow :P BTW, it’s written tête-à-tête

  Dom: Nerd :) And how the heck did you write it like that on smartphone?

  Leah: I have my secrets :P Anyway, I’m already out! Will be there in five minutes, can you wait for me pretty please?

  Dom: Nah, I’m leaving without you, glasses.

  She had changed her glasses for lens a few years ago, but she still wore them from time to time. It was actually nostalgic and refreshing for him to see her like that, but it wasn’t like he could just ask her to wear them for their “not a date” today.

  Leah: Meanie :( Sometimes you’re such a baka!

  Dom cringed a bit at the Japanese, which Leah loved to randomly add in her messages. Thankfully, she hadn’t done anything like that when talking to people in school… Secretly, he found it kind of cute, though.

  Dom: Just joking. You have five minutes.

  Leah: Sir, yes, sir!

  “Woof!” Shadow’s bark stopped Dom just before he could step on the steep slope that inclined directly to the lake. If he was a second too late, it wouldn’t be surprising for him to end up way wetter than he had bargained for.

  “Oh well, it was close.” Dom took a deep breath and then kneeled before his dog to stroke him behind his ear. “Thanks, doggo. You really saved my ass from embarrassment just now. I doubt that I’d find the courage to confess to Leah after she saw me screw up so thoroughly first thing in the morning.”

  Yes, that was what made that day so special for Dom. He had the thing for his popular but nerdy childhood friend for seven years already. As soon as he had hit puberty, she had become the main target of his affection. Alas, but their friendship was so deeply bound, that even a small chance of breaking it apart had been stopping him from risking making a move on her, let alone confessing his real feelings.

  Pretty much everyone who knew them both had been telling Dom that he and Leah were a match made in heaven, but perhaps he wasn’t as courageous as he had always thought. It was way scarier than picking a fight with school bullies or running away from wild dogs. But now that there was a possibility for them to go their separate paths, he had no luxury of keeping everything to himself. It was today or never.

  His phone vibrated again. Dom expected a new message from Leah, but when it turned up that Derek wrote him, instead. And it was something rather outrageous.

  Derek: Hey, Dom, are you awake?! Oh yeah, of course you are. Still running with your dog and Leah, huh? Lucky bastard… I mean, lucky to have such a cool dog, yeah! You’ve probably heard it already from the news, but if you didn’t—they caught the Slasher. Here’s the most shocking part, though… I know who the fuck that piece of shit is. In fact, you know him as well. Yes, the culprit is someone who graduated from our school… And I swear to god, you won’t believe this, I would never have believed this either if I didn’t know for sure from a reliable source (spoiler: my cop daddy). I’m still shocked that it was this guy, but there’s definitely no mistake… Are you ready for that? Just don’t tell anyone I told you, okay?! Promise me!

  Dom couldn’t help but start sweating. He had already suspected that there was a possibility that the killer was someone who had graduated from their school—there weren’t that many of them in the city to begin with. But knowing it for a fact and learning that he had actually known the monster capable of killing people in cold blood… That was different. That could mean that the bastard behind the murders also contacted Leah. And Dom didn’t know that many guys a year older than him—mostly former classmates of Leah’s sister, Piper. Which didn’t mean anything good. He couldn’t help but hug his dog, who gave him a worried look.

  Dom: Spill it, Derek. My lips are sealed.

  Dom was waiting for his bosom friend to reply and for Leah to arrive, but neither was destined to happen, for that was when the world went to Hell. Almost literally.

  Dom had thought that this was possibly the most important day of his life, and he hadn’t been wrong. Except, it was the most important day in the lives of every being on Earth.

  Before Derek could send his reply or Leah reach their meeting spot, the bright morning sky rapidly changed its color from blue to crimson red. As for the sun, it changed in an even more disturbing way. At first, it turned violet, but as if that wasn’t enough of a change, its form changed as sunlight gathered in a waterfall of what could be only described as hair…

  What the actual… Seeing the world around him transforming into something incomprehensible, Dom could only watch in shock as “the Sun” turned her head towards him, her violet hair billowed in the middle of the crimson heaven. What they had seen before was just the back of a giant head. A peerless feminine face of unmatched beauty deigned Dom and the entirety of Earth a mischievous glance.

  “Let me welcome you to the Multiverse of Chaos, my little lambs!” Her charming voice filled with both with innocence of a pure maiden and maturity of an experienced woman shook everyone who heard it to the core. “My name is Insadelta and from now on, you belong to me! Let’s have a lot of fun together, shall we?!”

  Each person on the planet had been left wide awake by the angelic voice and could see a text message at the corner of their eye.

  Initializing the Chaos System.

  That was the start of a nightmare…

  Just like that, everything Dom and anyone else had ever planned became irrelevant. His confession. His hope to become a veterinarian. All had become irrelevant by a whim of something way beyond his control or comprehension.

  …where only the fittest would have a chance to survive.