Adam was passed out for almost an hour in the infirmary.

His weary sleep was wrought with nightmares he had never seen before, images of a past he had repressed, rage and fear and pain mingling to remind him of what he once was. He groaned, grumbled, spoke secrets untold, and whimpered. He did not scream. That scream had already escaped him like a screeching sinner’s soul slipping from the gates of Hell, leaving the entrance wide open for the rest of the beastly creatures within to escape.

But they didn’t. At least, not for now. For now, Adam slept, the only one to witness his heart-wrenching display of weakness being his former best friend, Chad Hendrix, who witnessed the scene with growing sorrow. To say he didn’t shed a tear for the misery of his friend would be a lie. At times, Chad would have been unable to do anything but hold Adams hand, hoping his closeness would bring some form of solace to his suffering friend. It did, but unbeknownst to Chad, this may have been the closest he had ever brushed with Death.

Had Adam not been having a nightmare of this kind, with phantoms of beasts long defeated and consumed, of jeering audiences and scoffing kings, he would definitely have reacted to the touch of a human in a more physical manner, especially if he had woken up at any time. But, nothing of that sort happened. When Chad held his hand, weeping for the pain of a man he considered his brother, Adam would calm down, his spasming ceasing and his whimpers quieting.

The attending nurse at that time could do nothing but observe the strange situation with apprehension and fear. Sure, she was trained to be able to deal with hysterical students and broken arms and choking and malaria and all of that, but nothing had ever prepared her for a situation like this. So, unable to help in any specific way, she took a break, believing Chad to have a hold on the situation. She did give Chad her number though so he could call her if the situation took a turn for the worse, and off she was.

About an hour after Chad had brought Adam into the infirmary (the rest of Adam’s friends had either prioritized being at the lesson or had simply not considered the man to be Adam at all. Chad knew otherwise), Adam slowly stirred awake. Chad was glad Adam hadn’t been startled awake, but he was still unhappy about the situation.

And who wouldn’t be? Here was his very best friend, a man he practically idolized, twisting in pain and agony, and he could do nothing but squeeze his hand and selfishly share his pain. He’d really been scared back there, when Adam said he didn’t remember him, but… Chad could recognize that smile anywhere. Sure, Henry didn’t seem too keen on believing this man to be Adam, but Chad was absolutely assured.

“Hrrgghh,” Adam groaned, his tired eyes slowly peeking awake. The first thing he noticed was the butch, square, cleft-chinned face of Chad, staring down at him with a combination of admiration and pity, both of which were completely unknown to the eldritch abomination that Adam was. “I-, you, where?...” Adam questioned, a bit startled at how hoarse his voice was. Chad smiled.

“We’re in the infirmary bro, you kinda passed out,” Chad explained helpfully. Adam squinted. “What’s an infirmary?...” Adam mumbled, his eyes wandering about the pristine, sterile room, with its plastic drapes and unused tools that smelled of alcohol. Adam wrinkled his nose and turned to Chad, who was looking at him with wide, curious eyes. “Umm, it’s a place where people who feel bad get help to not feel bad, I think?” Chad ummed and awed, proving why he was considered the most chad Chad at Pristine High.

“Right, but, can you tell me what I’m doing here?” Adam asked, sitting up in his bed without actually getting up. “Well, you passed out in the middle of class, so I carried you here! Sorry nobody else could come along, they were busy. You’ve been out for like, an hour, bro,” Chad explained, rubbing the back of his neck, sort of ashamed about the rest of the group. Just because Adam didn’t look like he did yesterday…!

Chad grumbled to himself, not really noticing the weird look Adam was giving him. “What’s the time, then?” Adam asked, his eyes following Chad’s movements as he brought up his phone to take a peek. “Oh, uhhhh… Brad sent me a message! He says Trainer George says there won’t be no training today, he says,” Chad informed, squinting as he brought the phone close like some sort of boomer. Adam opened his mouth to tell Chad he’d asked for the time, but what escaped instead was a little snicker. Nothing too big, just a little laugh, and yet, it brought out the most astonishing reaction in Chad, who immediately jerked his face up to look at Adam, his eyes filled with stars and his mouth wide and grinning.

Adam, already feeling a blush creeping onto his pale cheeks, was caught by surprise. “Wh-, what?...” he asked, smiling nervously as he turned to look at anything but Chad. “There it is! Heh, I knew it!” Chad exclaimed, his hands balling up into excited little trembling fists. Adam, still too confused to understand what was even going on, was unable to react in any constructive way, except to let his mouth hang open, no words even daring to try their luck at being correct.

“Oh! Um, well, bro, I… if I’m gonna be totally honest, you haven’t really been yourself these past couple of days. I mean, yeah, you’ve been around and stuff, but… you’ve been kinda out of it, I guess? I… haven’t seen you laugh in more than a week,” Chad confessed, traces of sorrow fluttering over his lips and flashing through his river-blue eyes.

Adam could not remember any such thing. Well, not that he could remember much of anything except the morning of his departure, but… he couldn’t imagine acting any strange before that? “I’m sorry, I can’t remember any of that, bro,” Adam answered, frowning a bit, but failing to notice his passive use of “bro”. Chad noticed, but in the sombre atmosphere of the infirmary, he could do nothing but smile sadly at it. “You really can’t remember much of anything, can you?” Chad stated rethorically. Adam nodded.

“It’s okay bro. I know it’s you, no matter what everybody else says, okay? You’re still a cool dude in my book,” Chad comforted, grinning brightly. And faced with a smile like that, Adam could do nothing but smile in turn, feeling his worries melt away like snowflakes in the spring. What did it matter to him whether his family and friends didn’t believe him or not? He was here! And that was all that mattered, right? Things would work out in the end, whether people believed him or not!

With a newfound hope and confidence, Adam practically jumped out of bed, standing tall over Chad’s ridiculously muscular form. “Yo! Hey! you cool dude? You’ve been asleep for like an hour, and, like, you really shouldn’t be moving too much so soon, right? I think?” Chad worried, standing up to try and convince Adam to sit down. But, despite Chad standing at an impressive 186 cm, it was still shorter than Adam. “No, I’m alright, I just… well, you never did tell me what the time was, but-,” “Brrrinnnggggg” the bell chimed, cutting off Adam to signal the beginning of the lunch break. Chad spun around to face the door, already drooling at the thought of eating. Taking the chance, Adam practically jumped over Chad, and before his new best friend could object, he was out the door, and by going with the flow of students (obviously making sure not to touch a single one of them) he eventually found himself in the cafeteria, or, atleast, what he assumed to be the cafeteria.

The students had at this time formed a pair of lines of equal length approaching two buffé looking bars where they shoveled way too much food onto their plates. Adam was lucky he was tall enough to make note of all these happenings. If he hadn’t, he might not have known how to act, after all.

Once he was standing by the bar himself, the lunch ladies were giving him dirty looks, but thankfully did not question him. Adam, for his part, was entirely unable to recognize any of the foods he was faced with. Some green, some red, some brown, all quite strange-looking, except for the slabs of meat, which he of course was quite familiar with due to his past couple of months with the Randomized Bunch. But, regretfully, he was unable to take the time to sniff and analyze all of the foods, as the people behind him were staring at him gluttonously, and there was nobody ahead of him, so, barely having enough time to even look at what he was grabbing, he stacked some things onto his plate, and quickly left for the actual cafeteria part, where hundreds of students were greedily shoving food down their teenaged mouthholes. It was a disgusting sight, but Adam relented.

However, he was now presented with yet another problem. Where to sit, and with whom. He could not recognize even one of the faces. Sure, he recognized the mousey girl from earlier that morning sitting alone by a window readon a book, but other than that… nope. Nobody. A bit humbled, Adam stumbled through the large space, his food growing colder with each step. But, eventually, at the very back, he finally noticed a familiar face!

“Pete!” Adam exclaimed with a smile as he almost skipped over to the now-choking loner weeb sitting completely alone. “I was almost assured I’d be sitting alone… hey, you alright?” Adam asked, only now noticing the fact that Pete seemed to be choking on something. Without missing a beat, Adam walked up behind Pete, and with a powerful slap on the back, the unidentified piece of greenery that had gotten lodged in Pete’s windpipe shot out, leaving his coughing and gagging. “J-, Jesus dude! You fuckin’ scared me!” Pete berated angrily as he grabbed the green choker and swallowed it down, this time thankfully not choking on it. Adam shrugged and sat down.

“Hey!! Hey hey hey hey hey, what are you doing?! You don’t sit with me bro, you sit with your buddies!” Pete shouted, but quickly brought it to a whisper once he noticed the odd gazes he got. “Look, you have your friends here, and then, we do our thing later? Oh, wait, you don’t fuckin’ remember, do you? Jesus…” Pete whispered, waving his hands at Adam in a “shoo-shoo” motion. Adam didn’t seem too convinced. “For one thing, I don’t exactly know who my ‘buddies’ are supposed to be, and, another thing? I, uh… don’t really have anyone else to sit with. Nobody really trusts me, except that Chad guy…” Adam mumbled, glancing off solemnly. Maybe he shouldn’t have left him behind out of excitement...

“Not like I believe you either, so why sit with me? You could just as easily sit with, y’know, nobody? Shouldn’t you be used to isolation? Actually, hold up, you still haven’t told me ANYTHING about what you did on that other world!” Pete rambled to the almost spaced-out Adam. “Lutum. It’s called Lutum,” Adam said, answering Pete’s unsaid question. “...Lutum? What sort of stupid fuckin’ name is that?” Pete asked with a snarl. “And ‘the Earth’ is any better?” Adam replied, unknowingly defending his “homeworld”. “Ooh, touché. Whatever. So, first things first, what exactly were you doing, like, when you transferred back here?” Pete asked, finally getting into the meat of things.

“...Alright, don’t laugh, but… I was getting chased by my maybe-former human comrades through what I used to consider my lair,” Adam explained, a bit embarrassed. “...Seriously? Dude, you build yourself up to be this super-powerful all-mighty God character, and you get chased around by humans? Big letdown bro,” Pete mocked, chuckling. Adam shook his head. “No, like, if they hadn’t been my comrades I wouldn’t have run at all! I’ve killed plenty of people stronger than that,” Adam casually bragged. “But the real motivating factor here was that I was weak from just having defeated two of my fellow Evil Gods,” Adam explained.

“...Fellow Evil Gods, huh?... So, like, were you actually Evil God Deities, or were just just considered like really strong bosses?” Pete asked. “Good question… we were really only inhuman monsters and all that, but we did have the strength to match our description. As far as I know, only I could turn entirely incorperal, but otherwise, all of us had qualities that easily warranted our titles. For example, Caïna, Evil Goddess of War and Regret, once defeated six royal armies from six different major powers all on her own,” Adam explained, not even feeling slightly guilty at having taken her life in cold blood.

“Whoa! There was a goddess!? Wait, if you were all like, inhuman monstrosities, how the Hell did you know she was a Goddess?...” Pete asked suspiciously. “She had tits,” Adam said courtly. “Oohh, nice. How do you know she ‘had’? She might still ‘have’, hehehe…” Pete said, cackling lewdly. “Well, I killed her myself, and I made sure to decapitate her, so there is no way she could have survived that. Thus the past tense,” Adam explained, not bothered at all by confessing to the murder of a colleague. “W-, what?... seriously?...” “Yes, seriously” “Dude, that’s… super un-manly!! Men are supposed to defend women, what’s wrong with you!?” Pete criticised harshly, his chest puffing out in manly pride. “One, she cleaved my head first, two, she wouldn’t have stayed down otherwise,” Adam justified.

Pete couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had been grooming Adam during all their years together, carefully imbuing him with the manliest of morals… and now, he found out that it had all been for nought! His beloved padawan had turned to the dark side! “Okay, okay, sure, whatever! But, if this Caïna chick became an Evil Goddess by killing like, a couple of armies, what the fuck did you do?” Pete asked. He really should have understood that some questions are best not to ask. A dark shadow fell over Adam’s face like a crow of guilt flying overhead. “That’s… not a story I’d like to tell,” Adam said, his eyes empty. Pete couldn’t help but allow a shiver to course through him.

This man, this creature before him… it was not a human. But, if Pete could stand to treat it as one for a while, it might resemble one, if only a little. “I-, uh… so, you… you’ve killed a lot of people, then?...” Pete asked cautiously, a mouse wondering if the cat ate meat. Adam’s eyes widened in surprise at the question, and he smiled anxiously. “Yes… but, don’t worry! I fully intend to live a human life here, and if I can avoid it, I’ll try my best not to harm anyone,” Adam spoke in the softest terms possible, but Pete didn’t seem too comforted by it.

“But even if I do find myself in a situation where I’ll have to fight, I promise not to harm any innocents. I’d shake your hand on it, as you humans like to do, you do that here, right? But... I don’t like being touched, so… sadly, you’ll have to just take my word for it,” Adam said, a fire burning in his eyes. Pete saw it, and Pete trusted it. So, why did he feel so uncertain?...

“Alright, okay, we’ll drop this, but… real question here. Was there magic? There had to be, right?...” Pete asked, almost too dejected to sound hopeful. “Well, yes, there was, but it was called Magick,” “Magic?” “Magick,” “Magic.” Adam shrugged his head. “Alright, lemme guess. You were a warrior or something? Come on, considering what you did yesterday, you could only be a tank or something,” Pete hypothesized, since Adam had hardly done anything remotely magical except float. “Uh, no, I was actually a sorcerer, and a good one at that. I pioneered many avenues of Magick, created many specific spells, and to this day, I remain undefeated in pure knowledge of Magick. At least, in terms of the last two or three hundred years. Before that... anyways. I can’t cast anything right now since I’m dangerously low on Magick, but still,” Adam explained, smiling a bit at his past accomplishments.

“So… how strong are you, like, just physically?” Pete asked, still pretty unable to believe that his athletic friend could be anything but a warrior. “Hmm, well, I never really tried my strength out, and I’m quite a lot stronger than I used to be, but suffice it to say I could easily destroy this town with only the strength in this human form,” Adam theorized with a smile. “However, my true strength does still lie in Magick, so don’t worry too much about it,” Adam said, hoping he hadn’t spooked Pete too much. But Pete was spooked, and that wouldn’t change too soon.

“Um… don’t do that. You won’t do that, right?... Like, destroying the town?... I got all my anime figurines here, and they cost a lot, so…” Pete said. “Oh, no. Of course not, not if I can help it,”Adam said as he stuffed his face with some of the food on his plate. And, finding it delicious and food-tasting, he was entirely unable to stop, leaving Pete to simply stare at him with a look that said “are you kidding?...” and nothing else. After a minute or so of silence, Pete started eating as well, carefully making sure not to choke. His back still throbbed with pain after the beating Adam had given it, and if he hit him again, he was sure he’d break something.

So, with lunch done, Adam and Pete parted ways, returning to their classes.

Adam, as the good boy he was, said nothing in class, simply listening to the teacher with mild disbelief, unable to comprehend anything. But, nobody bothered him, and he didn’t bother anyone, and at 15:00 he was released out into the wild.

But, as he stood there in the entrance of the school, he was met with an anxiously nagging thought.

“Where’s Jessica?...”