"Stop."

At his command, suddenly my body stops in place.

"You can't go back, mortal."

I'm really starting to get pissed here.

"Yeah? And what are you going to do? Are you going to trap me in this dirty place? You gonna place some shackles on me so I don't escape?"

I almost screamed at the end, I've had a horrible day, and my patience is wearing thin.

"I'm afraid that you don't understand, mortal; you really can't go back home."

"Oh please, it's not like I'm in africa, I just need to get on plane and I can fuck off you dumb horror."

"You really don't know?"

It asks with curiosity, his dead tone gone.

"Don't know what?"

I huff.

"How troublesome. Did you ignore my master? No, impossible. Perhaps I sealed too many memories?"

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It starts mumbling with one hand on her hips while biting her nails with the other hand.

"Look Ben, your master, the magic ball only talked with me for a bit, and then he suddenly stayed still for like half an hour and then I was here."

I try to explain to it, to this thing, I'm starting to realize there must be some real miscommunication problem here.

"he stayed still? Are you lying to me mortal? Don't lie to me."

It looks at me dubiously.

"Yeah, he said something about my soul being damaged because of a data transfer, and then poof, I appeared here."

Now that I think about it, that seemed pretty serious, maybe that's why I was so unhinged before?

"Your soul was damaged? That would explain a lot of things..."

Yeah, I did a lot of crazy stuff in those months.

"Uh, yeah, there was something wrong with my soul, so that wasn't really me, you know? Uhhh could you please forget about the things I did in front of you? Now that I think about it, I'm getting really ashamed of myself, please forgive me."

Oh fuck, I can't believe I masturbated non-stop in front of it, ugh, what the hell Martin, why did I do that?

"Well, mortal, what I mean by that you can't go back to your home is that you really can't, you are currently in a different universe, mortal."

"What?"

Is he pulling my leg? Are you kidding me? I know I've done a lot of stupid things, but I'm not that stupid.

"Look, Ben, you just told me I'm in Manhattan, so stop bullshitting me, please. I'm not that stupid."

"Yes, you are in Manhattan, but this is a different Manhattan, mortal. You have a mission to accomplish, and this place was the one set for you to accomplish that mission. You don't exist in this universe, mortal; you died in your universe, remember?"

I...died, yes, I died.

"A different universe? Really? It's almost like you're asking me to believe in magic Ben?"

"Magic? Not quite, but is it more fantastic to think that you are in a different universe than to come back from the dead, mortal?"

he taps my forehead and suddenly I remember everything.

I try to deny it, but my mind is in chaos. I died, yes, I died? I'm dead? I can still taste my blood, how can I taste my blood if I'm dead? Oh fuck, it's all coming back to me. Oh my god, I'm dead, and now I'm in a different universe! I start hyperventilating and panicking; my eyes widen and suddenly I feel like I can't breathe. Why am I on my knees? I...i need to breathe.

In and out.

In and out.

Fuck that was horrifying, I felt my death.

"Not cool, Ben."

I say with gritted teeth.

"My name isn't Ben, mortal."

I close my eyes and bit back my retort.

In and out.

This conversations is going in circles and I need to know what the heck happened.

"Huff..."

I sit down on the floor.

"Sit down Ben, we need to talk."

Golden eyes just stare at me for a few moments. Ugh, those are eyes are disturbing.

"Okay, let's talk, mortal."