Arc 2 Chapter 7- Questions

“AHHHH DAMMIT!”

Kyosuke was standing in front of the bathroom door, he hadn’t yet taken that faithful shower that ended his life sadly before.

-What the hell just happened, that thing happened again, I died and came back! I felt this strange inversion feeling and then I ended up dying just like back at the tavern.

“Shit, what the hell was that thing?”

Kyosuke was confused about what happened to him and how it happened to him, the inversion of colors seemed to him that represented a point in time that was going to lead to his death, it could be five seconds or five minutes, anywhere in that time it seemed Kyosuke’s life could be taken from him.

“Let’s see, it put me after Ken left but before I went to shower. I’m no genius but it seems like that’s the point in time where this thing activated.”

Kyosuke tried keeping his cool but the sweat formatting on his head showed his true feelings. He was terrified, he was holding his stomach that whole time. Kyosuke didn’t even know why he was trying to act cool, no one was around to see him, he was only lying to himself if he didn’t think it hurt, his mind still feels the pain that his body doesn’t, his arms still feel detached from his body.

When Kyosuke died from being frozen to death it was almost like him simply getting cold and falling asleep, and when he died from getting his head cut off, it was so instant that he didn’t even feel it, but getting eaten alive was just cruel.

Quietly trembling, Kyosuke looked around the room, searching for any clues on a secret door.

“Last time I remember, it showed up when I was slowly dying, maybe it has something to do with the perception of death? Why was that thing down there?”

Kyoukse had so many questions on his mind, the door was no longer there but Kyosuke still wanted to know what’s going on. His mind couldn’t get off of the fact that he’s dying, it’s not like when he went to those parallel versions of his world, those to him were nothing but dreams of an old home, nothing more.

“That door, it’s nowhere, I can’t find it, there’s no way this is possible?! It was here, I’m not crazy!”

He screamed throughout the house, he wanted to find the door so bad, he was shaking with anticipation, tears formed on his face, and sweat dripped down his face as he looked behind him to face the bathroom door. Kyosuke wasn’t the brightest person in the world but he knew what needed to be done, he needed to fully understand this power, maybe it was all just a dream, nothing more.

Kyosuke walked slowly over to the door, opening it up to reveal a normal bathroom, except, not normal. It was the same bathroom as before but even that wasn’t the same, the room was completely rearranged, it wasn’t the bathroom he originally came to know. Kyosuke must have not noticed it since he was so tired from training all day.

“The shower is on the left side of the room instead of the right, and the toilet is now next to the sink. How the hell did this happen and how come I didn’t notice it before?!”

The more Kyosuke engaged in what was happening, the more questions he had. He surveyed the bathroom before turning on the shower.

The shower was completely normal, other than the fact it was on the wrong side of the room, Kyosuke watched the water, no sound except it trickling down. Something about the water seemed off when he looked real hard at it, it seemed to be thicker than normal, more like saliva than water.

“What the hell? This is just gross, was I showering in this? I really need to pay more attention when I’m tired, this is just disturbing.”

Kyosuke put his finger in the water and took it out, sure enough, it was like some sort of slime on his finger, he played with it on his fingers before taking a whiff. It smelled exactly like mucus from a dog after it drank a ton of water and decided that your lap was a good place to rest its head.

-God I’m gonna hate this.

Reluctantly, Kyosuke stuck the finger in his mouth, and as soon as he did it, he felt some sort of pain in his chest, no blood this time, but a slight annoyance like heartburn.

Kyosuke thought to himself.

-I must have drunk some while I was in the shower, I probably had my mouth open and got some in my mouth.

Kyosuke turned the shower off and checked the sink, again it was gross and slimy, it was the same deal with the toilet too. Kyosuke started to get nervous and he went out of the bathroom to check for anything else suspicious, first, he looked over to the living room, the couch was the same in every way except it was one cushion too short.

“Again, what in the hell? This is supposed to be three cushions, not two!”

Kyosuke started to check everything, the smallest details would be wrong, some things stayed the same like simple knowledge of where anyone would put a fireplace or a kitchen, but the things in those places were all wrong, everything was wrong in this house.

The air around Kyosuke was the same, it wasn’t like before where it got thin and hard to breathe. Kyosuke started to wonder.

“I wonder if I just leave the house, I’ll be able to go find Ken.”

Kyosuke opened the door to the house and looked outside. Kyosuke’s eyes filled with terror as he stepped out into the fog, he wasn’t in the same forest as he was before, instead he saw an incline downhill, spanning for what must have been miles upon miles.

“There’s no way! Ken just left not even ten minutes ago, there’s just no way!”

Thoughts raced through Kyosuke’s head as he wondered how he got into this situation. Ken left-right as Kyosuke went into the shower so he had no clue how as soon as he left, this happened. Maybe a glitch in the matrix, Kyosuke fell into some sort of pocket dimension when he went through that door without looking, he had seen a scary story with that same concept and in this world, anything could happen.

Kyosuke stepped back inside, he closed the curtains and turned on all the lights in the house. Darkness started to protrude down onto the cabin, slowly day turned into night and Kyosuke wasn’t ready for what was to come.

“Alright think, THINK! THAT DOOR! It has to be a way out of this hell hole right? Maybe if I can open it I’ll figure out what’s going on... The only problem is I can’t get there while I’m dying, I need to make sure I get there with the most amount of sanity I can muster.”

The only thing that came to Kyosuke’s mind was the water in the bathroom, something about it allowed Kyosuke to see that door, the door to a further reality, one not even real. Kyosuke knew it was either he stayed and waited to die or drink as much water as he could to not only see that door but just enough to not die.

Kyosuke hadn’t thought about what would happen if he drank too much, would he simply die from a heart attack, or would he just get eaten again? After getting the courage to drink, he walked up to the bathroom door and thought to himself.

-Once I get that stuff in my mouth, there’s no going back, I either keep dying, or I kill that son a bitch.

The door opened, the bathroom was set that same way it was last time, still out of order and not quite right, it was almost disturbing how indifferent it was but different nonetheless. Kyosuke looked for any more signs, anything else that would help him, he quickly remembered something he had forgotten about since he hasn’t been able to use it for a while.

Kyosuke ran out of the bathroom with happiness.

“MY SWORD! OH, HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT YOU?!”

The embarrassment Kyosuke would face if anyone saw him rubbing his cheek against the sword Edwin had given him before dying. During the fight with Suke, it had been knocked out of sight when Kyosuke got knocked down.

“Alright, this should help me a little bit with that thing downstairs, I haven’t got to hit anything with it yet so I sure hope it’s sharp!”

Kyosuke took a deep breath, his heart was pumping blood to the rest of his body like no tomorrow, thumping left and right, it was like he was running a marathon except instead of a marathon, it’s more like killing a monster. The correlation of the two didn’t matter to Kyosuke, what mattered more was what would happen after he killed the monster.

-Even if I kill the monster, will I still be stuck here? Or by any chance would I be set free from this little prison, it had to be some sort of illusion since it’s clearly not our cabin.

Kyosuke withdrew the sword from his sheathe, he finally got a good look at it, it was a light silver blade with the god’s alphabet strewn across the blade, Kyosuke couldn’t read it but he hoped that it was some sort of protection if he hit the enemy maybe it would help Kyosuke in the battle.

Not only did Kyosuke have to be careful when drinking too much of that water, but he also had to make sure he didn’t get too angry. No longer did Kyosuke have the scarf that Edwin gave him, it was long since destroyed after the battle with suke. Kyosuke was wearing more comfortable clothing now, an almost replica of his track jacket and pants, he didn’t any longer have to worry about his scarf falling off him, instead of how he was going to keep control.

“The good thing is if I can outmaneuver the bastard and hit him every time, I should be able to get past him easily without getting angry… Dammit, why does this power gotta be such a pain.”

Kyosuke looked over at the bathroom, slowly walking over to it expecting the worst, again nothing had changed. The shower turned on and Kyosuke braced himself for his hardest challenge yet, cupping his hands, Kyosuke started to drink. The water was slimy and the smell was putrid, slowly gulping down the slime, Kyosuke felt his heart start to ache.

“Shit, that should be enough!”

Bloodshot from Kyosuke’s mouth, not as much as last time, but still enough to make him cringe, he wasn’t losing as much blood so he leveled his head and opened the bathroom door, he looked across the way, he stared at the door, his fate.

The world had done nothing for Kyosuke yet, he was terrified to do anything, he didn’t want to die again, after feeling the animal rip and tear at him, he truly understands hell. Hell was a void of sorts, it wasn’t him dying over and over, you see, hell was the absence of god. Kyosuke had truly understood the hell he was living through, the aching of his body as he was torn apart again and again.

-The house looks more different than ever! How did I not notice any of this?! It looks like some sort of Mucus is coming out of the ceiling and the floor is all wet and slimy, I must be dying, I have to be dying!

Kyosuke touched the floor, it was soft, not like a normal hardwood floor, it felt like some sort of body part, like a piece of the mouth. Grossed out, Kyosuke got up and wiped his hand on his jacket, he slowly walked towards the door, making sure he truly wanted to go through this. Kyosuke took a deep breath and opened it, he couldn’t see anything down there except for darkness. Kyosuke screamed out as he realized that he didn’t pass out the last time he opened the door, he slipped, he had slipped on the floor.

Catching himself, Kyosuke hung onto the railing for his life. Even the railing tried to throw him off as it too was slippery.

“AHH SHIIIIT, I’M NOT GOING DOWN THIS EASILY!”

Kyosuke grabbed the sword from his side holster and stabbed it into one of the stairs. When he did this, the house shifted slightly, like it felt the pain of the sword entering it. Kyosuke slowly made his way down to the bottom step before using Sentora to sense the area around him. Almost like clockwork, he noticed the strange anomaly coming from the corner of the basement, a slight growl from the creature and Kyosuke knew it was time to fight. Kyosuke took the sword out from the mushy floor and drew it to his side.

“Come on dick head! Let’s settle this once and for all!”