St John's penitentiary, been my home for the last 20 or so years, and probably my last home. Although I'm not dead yet I can feel my passing coming closer ever so slightly every time I take a breath.

Being wheelchair bound isn't exactly what I wanted to happen when I got older but I couldn't help it, I always gotta have a guy roll me to the places I gotta get to, I can't travel on my own because rolling the wheels is impossible for me, whenever I try to hold a pencil it just flops out of my hand while it's shaking uncontrollably, most of the times I can't feed myself so I'm fed by other people.

”ayy yo, boss I gotcha food!”

A large bald man with tattoos on his head, every time he had to enter rooms he had to duck. Some guys around here call him thumb head but aside from his features he's a nice guy.

It was lunchtime and usually, guys would help me with feeding and getting me food, these guys started to follow me when I first arrived at the penitentiary, they apparently knew me from textbooks they read at school. Now there's always a large group of people hovering around me like worker bees and their hive. Didn't really ask for this but it's fine, this old geezer can't exactly be independent.

As lunch passes my group of worker bees escorts me back to my cell and leave to theirs. This cell block is quite small but I'm not complaining, I got very little time to spend on useless things like complaining.

For some reason, I’m feeling more tired than usual……..

Exhaustion takes over my body, my breathing becomes more sporadic. My body starts to drop down and my eyelids feel like they're being weighed down.

Is……..is this it………...is it finally time……To leave this planet?

My whole body felt like it gained another 300 pounds, my body starts to lean forward more and more and I can't control it.

To be honest, I'm happy that it's finally time, my stay has been overdue for several decades. I should've been shot dead inside a car a long time ago…..but here I am passing in a prison cell waiting for that moment and where I can meet up with old partners from the past once again.

Suddenly I fall to the front right on the floor, and it all turns black.

………………………………………………….

Footsteps, people conversing, kids laughing and playing outside, these things fill my ears and brings me back to the 30s and 40s in the bustling city streets………………….wait…………….. I'm supposed to be dead right? But how am I able to hear things as if I haven't died yet. And to be able to hear these things so clearly without any problems, pretty sure my hearing was rapidly deteriorating. Before I couldn't hear for shit………..but know I apparently can, weird.

“Hey! Hey! Wake up!”

Gradually I open my eyes and what appears in front of me is a man, not just any normal man but a man with one arm much larger than the other, it looked five times the size of his other arm. He had ripped holes in his shirt and pants and had cloth wrapped around his feet. His attire looked like nothing I’ve ever seen before, it was the same for the other people around me, inhumanly abnormalities and rags for clothing. Clearly, I’m not on earth.

“Um I’m not sure if you knew but some kid just stole all your stuff”

“Huh?”

The man points to the direction of a kid running, in his hands he was holding some clothes. I look down and all I see is my underwear and nothing else.

“Fuck! Thanks for telling me man, now I gotta get my fucking clothes back, see ya!”

I get up and start to dash at the direction of the fleeing brat, I ran like I was in the Olympics doing the 100-meter dash. Damn……..my body feels amazing! No pain anywhere and everything seems to work perfectly! I feel fucking young again!!! This new world might not be so bad after all! Aside from thieving little brats.

I caught up with the kid but there was still a bit of distance between the two of us.

“Ay yo, kid!!! Give me back my clothes!!!”

The brat ignored my loud yelling and the chase kept on. We were running along on this long street, it had buildings to the left and right. These buildings had cracked glass windows, large cracks in the stone, pieces of stone on the ground, and some houses had half open roofs. The area seems to be the slumps of whatever city this is.

A lot of people turned their head and stared at the half-naked guy running along the street. Fuck this is embarrassing, once I get this kid I’m gonna need to teach him a lesson for making me suffer through this!

The little brat takes a left and I follow him, where he bumps into two guys, one was all bones, and by all bones I mean he was a skeleton, not a single piece of flesh on the skeleton. The second guy was as big as an elephant, he’s got a giant eye on his chest and a large gaping pie hole and he had large arms as well as large hands, his hands were about the same size as my whole body. The people here really are……...how should I put this? Unique I guess.

“Hand those over kid!”

“No!!!”

Eyeball dude and the little brat were playing tug o war with my clothes, soon the eyeball dude let's go and socks the little brat across the head making him let go of my clothes. On further inspection, it looks like the clothes their fighting over was an old looking suit, one from back in the day, also a nice looking fedora and………. a golden BAR?!?! Never seen a BAR quite like that before! I gotta have it!

“Alright, boys! Finally, time for an old geezer to put you young people in your place!”

The three people listening gave me a confused look.

“Who’s the old geezer?” One of them said

“Me obviously! Look at me!”

“I think we got a nut job here……”

Nut job?............oh shit, I forgot I’m not old anymore and worse I’m half-naked, of course, they’d think that.

“Never mind, give me back my stuff!”

“Yah mean our stuff now!”

“You guys are really annoying, guess I’ll have to deal with you guys.”

Putting my fists up like a boxer and I’m ready for a brawl, I’ve been in many of these sorts of fights, some brawls I was outnumbered and some were at a large scale. It may have been a while but this old geezer still hasn’t lost his touch.

Inching forward the two hooligans just stand there, the hell are they doing? This is a brawl, isn’t it?

The two hooligans started to laugh mockingly.

“What are you gonna do huh?” said the skeleton

”well, I'm gonna show you what I'll do!”

Once I get into reach of the skeletons I throw a large haymaker landing right on the jaw bone making the skeletons head do a complete 360-degree spin.

The big eyeball dude charges at me slamming my body onto the stone wall, he restricted the movement of my arms and legs by grasping me.

Fuck, that hurts…….it doesn’t hurt that much, though it’d be more painful.

The eyeball monster repeatedly slams me into the wall.

Why is this wall so god damn strong?!?!? Just ducking break already!!!

With each slam to the wall small chips of stone would shed off, this wall was in no way shape or form gonna break anytime soon even if I prayed for it to break.

How am I supposed to get out of this?..................

A sudden idea appeared in my head.

“Hey, kid!!! Pick that golden thing, point the empty cylinder at the eye fucker and pull back on that little piece with your first finger!!!”

The panicking kid that for some reason didn’t flee the area for some reason starts to follow each step I said. The skeleton takes notice of this and starts to approach the little kid.

God, I fucking hope that BAR is loaded, please! Please! Please!

A large ring echoes across the area, a familiar sound, one that I used to hear a lot when I was younger. From the direction of the kid holding the gun a green bullet is shot out piercing the big-eyed cocksucker which makes him lose his grip freeing me from this prison.

The bullet went through the cocksuckers left shoulder, blood was pouring out. His wound looked like the Niagara Falls, a really red Niagara Falls.

“ARHGG!!!”

The big eyeball dude put pressure on his large wound as he got into a fetal position and passing out not long after. The skeleton who watched all of this happen got frightened and started to flee as fast as he could.

You scummy motherfucker, not even trying to help your fallen partner, only thinking about himself…...what a disgrace.

Looking back at the monster swimming in a pool of blood there seemed to be something peculiar happening. The wound shrunk bit by bit, in no time the wound should be completely gone if this process kept on.

The wound closing up was not a very…….pleasant sight. It didn't take long for the gunshot wound to fully heal, the little kid inches away ever so slightly trying to make his escape.

“Where do you think your going kid?”

The little kid froze in place.

I take back what is supposedly my clothes and put them on. It feels just like how I remember, The golden BAR had an arm strap which I put around my shoulder. This really brings me back, back to the 40s.

The eyeball guy finally regains his conscience back. He stands up albeit he looked like he was struggling with it. He stares at me for a couple of seconds and finally realizes what situation he's in.

“Alright, I’m gonna have you two explain to me where I am right now.”

“Alright…..I’ll tell you………for a price.”

I put the BAR up against the eyeball guys shoulder.

“Let me reiterate myself, would you please tell me about where I am.”

“Of-of course!”

Time to get some answers outta these guys.

“Alright! First question, what is this place?”

“This is the monster empire retsnom which is at the moment being occupied by the human empire.”

Monster empire, I can definitely see that.

“So what’s this human empire?”

“They're the largest and most powerful empire of all 5 continents, they destroy races, empires, and kingdoms. Their complete scum.

This is like some fantasy novel, though I’ve never read any of those in my life.

“You know where I can settle for the night and make some money?”

“Well, there’s a tavern if you keep walking down from here you’ll see a large carving of a bed. And I wouldn’t know about how to make any money.”

We were in the corner of the city. Poverty was still very prominent, every corner and every direction you would always see someone sleeping on the streets.

“Thanks for the information, you two can go now.”

Those two scram in the same direction, well time to get going.

I follow the direction I was told to go. Now the problem is how I’m gonna get my hands on Some money. Well, I guess there’s only one thing I can do once I get into the tavern.

After some time I stumble upon the large wooden sign with a bed carved on it. There were also two other large building next to the tavern. One had a carving of a tube and the other a sword.

Upon entering the tavern a strong aroma of alcohol crashes into my face, in the tavern, there were multiple wooden round tables with four wooden chairs to accompany them. There were stairs that lead up to what should be the rooms.

Young female waitresses served plates of food to the customers. Most of those customers were men, large men with multiple limbs. Some had wings, multiple eyes, and all sorts of weird features, the customers also varied in ages from what I can see. Each person had some kind of weapon, a sword, spear, bow, or an axe.

I walk up to a table, the table had two guys. The first guy wore pieces of plate armor all around his body, had a large warhammer and was very tall, it looked like he was around 8 feet. The man aside from him was 3 feet and also wore scraps of plate armor and had a club.

“Hey, do you know where I can earn some money?”

“You need money? Doesn’t look like it, you look rich.” Said the tall monster

“Can you just tell me where I can get a job?”

“Fine fine, if you hunt some magic vermin outside of the city and turn them in the building next door they’ll reward you with some copper mecililles.”

“What are mecililles?”

The two give me confused looks.

“You must not live here, do you? Mecililles are the currency in the retsnom empire, you got gold, silver, and copper.”

“And how do I get outside of the city?”

“Large wooden doors.”

“Thanks for telling me, I’ll get going.”

I leave the tavern.

Now I need to find large wooden doors. I look around and find an open large wooden door. How convenient that it’s right there.

There was an increase in the number of people with armor and weapons as I exited the city. Most were in groups of four and each person had hunted more than two what I believe is magic vermin.

One group was heading out since I have no idea where I can find the magic vermin I’ll just follow them.

The group consisted of two females and two males. They looked heavily armed. One of the females had a long staff with a beautiful topaz colored orb on the top.

As I follow this group I notice that they are walking towards a different route from all the other hunting groups. They must have a secret hunting spot.

Their path leads into a thick forest, the trees were absurdly tall and sunlight could barely seep through. As I followed the group deeper and deeper into the forest the ground started to rumble. It wasn’t strong enough to be an earthquake, it got louder and louder every second like something big was coming close.

One of the guys in the group I followed yelled out

“Everyone get ready!!!”

Some of the smaller trees started to fall down as something was coming closer.

Through the fallen down trees, something appears.

Something that made my heart sink.

What………...what in the hell is that?