Chapter I

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  Koba sat in his room, the curtains and blanket over the window hiding him from the sunlight. He sat on his bed in darth vader sheets and a soft furry blanket, his laptop sitting on top of his criss crossed legs. He could hear manic giggling and a bit of foreign yelling coming from the room across from his which made him roll his eyes.
    It was his roommate and she was way off her nut. The woman was 31, no boyfriend, no future. She spent all of her time and money invested in 'spells' and other such witchcraft. Every time Koba had the misfortune of running into her, she'd ask him strange things like 'Could I have a clump of your hair?' or 'Do you always flush the toilet? I could use a sample.'
The woman was insane and gave Koba just another reason to stay locked inside his bedroom. He had no reason to leave, he took college classes online and made money by designing people websites and selling things over the internet for other people and taking a percentage of their profit.
He had a mini-fridge in his room, all of his chargers and electronics. The only thing he needed still was a microwave and a bathroom. Otherwise, he was set. Content with spending every day quietly in his room. He didn't find himself in need of company because frankly he found himself to be quite the conversationalist.

Koba put on the finishing touches on his newest website which was for a company selling vintage clothing internationally. He saved all his changes and went through to check for any flaws he had made. All the buttons went to the right places and all the colors were perfect. No spelling or grammatical errors. Good.

  He sent an email to his customer and would check his account for his money to be transferring over. Koba sighed and shut his laptop, crawling off his bed and moving to the fridge. He straightened up his back and listening to it let out satisfying cracks and pops then he slouched his posture again and reached into the fridge, finding an energy drink and closing the fridge again. He sat in his computer chair. The room was small, only about 14x7 feet. The room was almost always dark, with very little light leaking from the blinds and the blanket hung over the window.


"Are you lonely?" Koba asked himself after taking a sip from his energy drink.
"Mmmm....possibly. But doubtful. I think I'm happy here." He replied to himself.
"I don't sound very sure about that." He sipped his drink. "Which is odd for me. I'm always so sure of myself"
"No...no you're not. You're only sure of yourself when you're working either in school or making money." Koba admitted to himself.
"Well I guess that's all that really matters. As long as I am able to excel in school and work." he told himself.
His room mate hit the wall "Shut up I'm trying to get intimate with my boyfriend!"

In reality her boyfriend was a mannequin she had stolen from the clothes shop during the riot. She swears they met when she was looking for safety. It was obvious that she stole the mannequin from a retail store.
Koba sighed, shaking his head. "This woman I swear...." he whispered to himself before standing up and pulling on a large hoodie. He needed to go get more food and pencils.
Grabbing his wallet, he walked out.

Koba ran down the steps of the apartment building, hands in his pockets, hood up and his head hung. He kept his head and eyes down, ignoring the woman and child he passed.

His landlord had walked over just as he was about to escape out the door. . "Koba!" in his indian accent "I tell you that you need to pay on time. I can not help you no more." He said, feeling sorry for the young man.
Koba shook his head. "I'm leaving to get your check right now." he said, walking passed him without a glance his way.
"Thank you Koba! Jenine has already paid her half and she paid extra for her boyfriend staying !" He laughed "I tell you that she is very funny! Goes the mile for the jokes!"

The young man shook his head with a sigh and pushed out of the building into the bright sun. "This is Washington....what the hell is the sun doing here?" He muttered to himself. "Well it is spring so I suppose it's not too strange."
He saw few cars on the road. It was pretty slow day, no one was outside, it had just finished storming. The sun made the rain smell intensify. "It's a truly awful day out..." he said honestly.

Koba stopped at the bank since it was closer than the store. He went to the ATM and pulled out 275 for his half of the rent. He shoved it into his wallet and walked to the store.
He went inside and grabbed a few things in Trader Joe's. Grabbing several salads, pre made wraps and burritos, and a few snacks. Koba kept his head down as he made his way around the store, grabbing several bottles of different juices and waters. He went to the cashier and ignored the fact that most of the people were young, attractive environmentalists. Though he did note it, he refused to change how he acted in the least. He gave everything to the cashier to let her ring it up. The cashier sighed, it was a normal teenager who hated her job as everyone else did. She rang up his food before looking at him and seeing he was pretty cute with his dusty brown hair, hooded large eyes to compliment his baby face that made him look like a doll. He was a couple inches taller than herself and had a slim but decent build. She decided to slip him her number on her receipt and offered a change in attitude giving him a perky smile. "Thank you for coming. Please visit again soon!" She giggled. It made Koba cringe inside.
Koba gave her a short nod, taking his bag of food and heading out of the store, throwing away his receipt without looking at it.

Koba walked to his landlord's apartment and knocked lightly before pulling out his wallet and taking out the money.
The indian man opened the door his house spelling of protruly oil. "Hello! Glad to see you have come to make your payment Koba!" He said with a welcoming warm hug.
Koba tensed up, eyes wide. "What..." He cut himself off and swallowed hard. "Umm here's your rent." he said, pulling away from the sweaty man to hand him the cash.
"Thank you very much!" He said smiling happy that he could help Koba out but also that he is now actually able to feed his children.
With a short nod, he left with his bag of food up to his apartment.
Koba unlocked the door and walked inside, hoping that he didn't run into that foul woman. Much to his relief, he didn't and went straight to his room where he put the food away and began cleaning, organizing everything perfectly.
It didn't use to be like this, he used to go to highschool, was rather popular, spent most of his time studying or with friends since his parents were never home anyways. He had fun in highschool but something about moving out and graduating changed all that. Koba had moved from Nevada to Washington and he didn't know how to meet people other than school. When he first moved he spent the first two weeks in his room, unpacking and setting things up until he was happy but then he didn't want to leave. He enjoyed his solitude which he rarely had when he was a teenager. It gave him time to get to know and understand himself. So he switched his college classes to online classes and found different ways to make money online. It all went rather smoothly and he never felt the yearning for what he used to have as a social butterfly.

FLASH BACK*~

Koba knocked on the apartment door, reading his scribbled writing on the paper. He'd found a room for rent but hadn't met her yet. He wasn't picky of course. Koba didn't expect to stay at this place longer than a year so it didn't really matter what his roommate was like.
The door opened and a woman with black, curly hair stood there, eyeing him oddly. "Who are you?" she snapped harshly. Koba noticed she had strange symbols on her cheeks in black paint.
"Umm...I'm Koba Knight...your new room mate?" he said it as if it were a question, not sure if he had the right apartment.
"Oh right." She walked away from the door, leaving it open for Koba. "Your room is to the left down the hallways and mine is across from your's. The bathroom is next to my room. Keep the shower drain clean of hair please and don't eat my food. Especially if it's not labeled. Trust me I'm doing you a favor."
Koba nodded. "Okay well I'll go down and get my crap and start bringing it up."
She nodded and left to her room. The living room and kitchen seemed normal enough except the excessive amount of candles placed on every surface.
Koba nodded slightly and headed down stairs to get his things from his friend's car. They had road tripped up to washington as their last trip together for a long time.
At this time, Janice still had her job as a manager for a Macy's in town. She hadn't let her obsession with witchcraft consume her yet. It was only after Koba had moved in that she had begun to slip from sanity and normality. Not that it was really any of Koba's business what she did for money but Macy's management paid more than what she did now which was preform spells for people on the internet.

End of FLASHBACK*~ Koba had lost track of time and when he finally finished rearranging his room with his bed against the window, the desk sitting on the left wall with the mini-fridge sitting on top of it, his small dresser pushed into the closet and his tall lamp with the wood frame sat at the head of his bed, it was now pitch black in his room, the slivers of light no longer trying to snake through into the bedroom.
He sat down on his bed and opened his laptop, sitting criss cross, hunched over the computer with his back to the window. He was happy to see that the money from the last website he designed had gone through. Koba was unhappy to see he had an email from one of his old friends. He reluctantly opened it to see an invitation to the high school reunion. How odd. It had been only four years since he graduated. Of course he did graduate early so it would be five years for everyone else.
"Right then...." he sighed. "I don't have to go..."
"But I rightly should."
"I don't have to. Besides think of the hassle."
"Oh please, my parents will buy me a plane ticket, plan on seeing me but they won't and I'll just stay at their house."
"But then I'd have to call them." He said the words as if he were talking about a large spider that crawled out of the drain while he was in the shower. Koba even shivered.
"I could email them. That would be more convenient for them anyways."
With a nod in agreement with himself, he began composing two emails, one to his parents and one to RSVP for the reunion.
"I do not want to go." Koba muttered to himself as he closed the laptop, slid it under his bed and laid down.
He sighed as he wiggled out of his clothes and slid under the blankets. "But I should..."

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