Earl-

“I know you are curious as to what the projects are and who The End may be, so let me explain.”

I restrained myself and sat on the pitch dark ground.

“Where should I start?”

What are you really? Why are you here?

“I have already told you who I am. I am, in your time, an ancient nightmare.”

And why are you here in my- er- mind?

“Telling you won’t be enough to explain. I’ll just have to show you.”

What are you talking abo-

Suddenly, I was flashed in a familiar blinding light, and only after I regained my vision did I find myself standing behind a very familiar man in a dark void just like the one I was in.

Is that Earl?!

It was, indeed, Earl, and he stood in a circle of 6 other people surrounding something. It was too blurry for me to make out.

“You will wreak destruction on this wicked world, and only then can I ____.” said the blurry man, his last words being unintelligible.

What did he say?

“Earl!” I shouted, but no one seemed to pay me any mind. It was as if I was a ghost.

Suddenly, a tree sprouted from the man, and it’s roots enveloped everyone in the circle. Everyone, but Earl.

The roots seemed to rot if they came anywhere near Earl.

“Join me.” the man, who was now a head on a tree, hissed.

“Never.” Earl hissed back, swiping his hand and disappearing from the scene.

“AGH!” I grunted, as something sharp pierced my chest, making me fall to my knees reaching for my heart.

My hands looked different, they looked older.

Ahead of me, a light showed upon a brown lake.

I cautiously crawled to the lake that emitted sounds of unintelligible voices, slithering into my ears.

What is this?

I had finally reached the lake and looked upon it.

My face!?

My body transfigured from a young kid into a middle-aged Earl.

Once again, I looked back at my hands, scanning my palms as if I would find anything there.

“Mama-” cried in an immature voice from the lake.

“Whyyy?” a wicked voice seeped into my ears.

Then, something came out from the waters, splashing my face with what was once water, but now a dark red substance that stained onto my cheeks.

A hand?

What looked like an infant hand reaching out of the lake, I reached out towards it until another hand came from the waters and grabbed my wrist.

Two hands… three hands… five hands… a thousand hands reached out of the waters. And with every new hand emerging from the waters came another sharp voice with their deafening cries and shrieks.

I tried to yell “let me go,” but I couldn’t. My mouth was welded together. With more hands grabbing onto me and pulling me into the lake, I finally gave in.

I fell into the crowded lake, being reeled downwards deeper and deeper away from the light.

‘You were not supposed to see this much!’ a voice shouted, finally, a familiar voice. It was Earl, and his humanoid aura picked me up by my collar and threw me upwards, out of the waters and back into my bedroom where I sat upwards. My heart drummed against my ribs, and I was practically gasping for air as if I had actually been drowning.

Celie, as if she’d been knocked out herself last night, had half of her body hanging off the bed as her snores filled the room.

I rolled my eyes and threw my pillow at her face.

She didn’t wake up.

I got up and tickled her armpits in hopes to wake up. Unfortunately, I received another hard blow to my forehead as Celie instinctively dug her fist into my face.

“What the hell?!” she moaned, waking up with a distressed face.

You’re the one panicking? Jeez…

I sighed and left the room only to realize that I wasn’t wearing a shirt as the man behind the counter gazed at my well-built body.

Embarrassed, I ran back to the room and returned with a shirt on. To get rid of the awkward silence of the empty tavern being well lit by rays of fresh sunlight through the windows, I asked the man for his name.

“Just call me Ax. Everyone calls me Ax.”

“Why do they call you Ax?”

“You don’t wanna know, kid.”

I was visibly confused but I didn’t dig into it further.

Celie came downstairs with her messy hair and drowsy face, wiping her face on her sleeves.

Ax slid two cups of water to our ends of the counter in which we both finished in one gulp.

“Thinking of taking up any new missions today?” Ax asked, cleaning the dirty dishes from the night before.

“Probably not. We’ll start up again in the next few days, though.”

“Ah- ya’ know- there’s not only combative missions…”

“Hm?” Celie and I gave Ax a curious eyebrow which, in return, he gave a soft chuckle.

“Over there,” he pointed at a different pinboard next to a window. “Those are simple jobs like cleaning some streets or watching over some little kids.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about this before?” Celie asked, clenching her fist beneath the counter.

“Dunno’. I just hate kids. Thought the sooner you left the better.”

I couldn’t blame him though. After all, I absolutely despised kids for the exact reason as his.

I scanned through the board, all of them having little rewards like 2 copper coins for easy little tasks like finding lost pets.

“Let’s do this mission!” She pointed at one paper

[FIND MY BABY WHISKERS AND RETURN IT TO…]

“I like cats! Let's go find one!” Celie insisted, shaking me from my shoulders.

I, however, wasn’t very fond of this idea as I was allergic to cats. But something would very quickly change my decision.

“6 copper coins for finding a cat?” Written on the bottom of the page had the reward at 6 copper coins.

“So… Can we take this mission?” If Celie had a tail, it would be ferociously wagging along with her antsy, swaying waist.

“Of course!” I unpinned the paper and stuffed it into my torn pocket.

How hard could this be?

I kept scanning through the pet’s description and comparing it to every cat we encountered, but none of them matched the description of a black and gray striped cat with red eyes and a fluffy, stubby tail.

Although I was growing increasingly bored, Celie enjoyed every moment of petting and playing with all the cats.

“Achoo!” I sneezed after Celie held a cat to my face, begging for me to pet it. I waved it away from my face as it scratched its way out of Celie’s arms.

Maybe it would’ve been better to just pet the cat because not only did I receive allergies but I also received a hard blow to my gut from Celie.

“For fuck’s sake, stop hitting me!”

Celie rolled her eyes and turned around, marching down our unorganized path.

Just as I was about to give up and throw the paper away, a cat rubbed against my leg. I looked down to find the cat that fit every description given on the paper. I called for Celie, who was looking through a window of new swords, and she sprinted towards me with an eager face. The cat ran away in fear, but thankfully it stopped at the entrance of an alleyway.

It looked as if it were waiting for me to follow it.

“Celie, I’ve found the cat!” I pointed at the cat.

“Let’s catch it!”

“Wait- I think it’s trying to bring us somewhere.”

“It’s just a cat…” For the first time, Celie looked at me as if I were going crazy.

“In this world… anything could happen.”

Celie sighed and followed behind me as we carefully approached the cat so as to not frighten it.

I called its name to make sure it was the right cat, and it glanced back at us before continuing down this endless alleyway.

This cat has to be it…

“Hupp!” a squeaky voice came from a corner in the alleyway, the same corner in which the cat turned.

The more we came closer to this corner, the more we could see what was ahead of it- a young, sweaty, shirtless boy with a short sword. He was quite plump, but tall.

The moment he had spotted the cat was when he stopped swinging his sword back and forth.

“Stubby! There you are!” The boy picked up Mr. Whiskers- or- er- Stubby and spun around before coming to an immediate halt and dropping the cat when he saw us.

“Uh- hi?” I gave an awkward wave at the boy who practically ignored me and was primarily staring at Celie with burning eyes.

“Erm… who’re you?”

“Johnathon Harper. Who are you?”

“I’m Alari-”

“Not you! I’m asking that beautiful lady next to you!”

Oh boy…

Celie, who looked completely disinterested, ignored his question and his fat smile from his round face.

“Looks like you found yourself a lover, Celie.” I teased her, expecting a punch that never actually came.

She crossed her arms and wouldn’t look at me. All I could tell was that her face was turning red.

“Indeed so! I can show you many things around here, my lady! You would look quite fine along my side!” the boy preached, showing his arms to the sky as if he were about to hug it.

Another new character… a strange character at that… I wonder where this is going to go.

Maybe it was fate that bound us to meet because I found it quite unusual for a cat to lead humans somewhere to find another person full of character, whether favorable character or not.