In the end, I was free before even 9 pm. I had hours to kill and questions to ponder, so I decided to explore the nightlife of Cipetel. A culturally less significant time, but not any less relevant due to the geographical location of Cipetel.

Located as a transit city between the great deserts of Suriasna and the most wealthy dukedom of the empire, it had a high influx of merchants and foreign influence.

Hence the reason for so many different types of people and fashion and the myriad hotels around the city. But this also implied the existence of great food!

Being the boiling pot of flavors from different parts of the empire; tribes living in the deserts and often merchants outside the empire would bring a multitude of flavors to this place.

‘Good thing I didn’t have dinner tonight.’ I thanked my luck as I walked around the cathedral getting a good look at the area. And I realised, every building facing the cathedral is a hotel or inn. Chairs and tables under retractable awnings on the footpath for people to enjoy their food.

Candlelights and yellow street lights lit the area as young couples frolicked around the area, older ones dined hand in hand. The fountain in front of the cathedral was a necessary spot as kids played around and life blossomed in the whole area.

The city had a peace to it despite the noises of the public. It was the kind that soothed your being as you relaxed, as well as the one that reminded you of your partner or the lack of one. It makes you feel lonely.

And I felt indescribably lonely right now. Alone in space, I also felt alone in the crowd. The noises went silent as my appetite suddenly retracted.

I didn’t wanna be among so many people, so I retraced my steps and went back to the restaurant I had emerged from, entering the washroom, I waited for it to be empty as I opened the door to my cubicle and suddenly I was back in the cave.

Gazing at the flight of stairs leading me along a well-lit path, I instead felt how dark the bottom looked like. Like a monster waiting for me at the bottom, it devoured even the light.

I felt happy, more than happy to be devoured in the instant too as I walked towards it. I walked and walked for so long but the monster never came. I got faster, skipping steps as I chased the monster.

Why? Why!? Why won’t it come to me!!?

I ran after it, my steps faster and faster as I accelerated. I felt an intense adrenaline rush as my legs felt lighter and my senses heightened. There seemed to be someone beside me and I wondered if it was death.

The monster still didn’t show himself!

And then it happened. I felt the pain before I registered it. A jab at my ankle and then I felt a piercing pain on my head. My chest and then back. The pain increased and a metallic taste filled my mouth as my vision darkened.

I was conscious through it all. My limbs felt tangled, hurting so very much; my throat was broken, blood choking me; ribs piercing something within me, and my head felt light and stupid.

I couldn’t think at all, my vision was darkening and the only thing I realized was that I had stopped rolling. My vision a tiny point of light, I smiled a broken smile, blood washed around my face.

‘The monster finally came.’

- - - - * - - - -

My first thought after gaining consciousness was how everything hurts. Every part of me felt broken in some way or breaking more and more. A sharp pain in my chest and a striking difficulty in breathing warned me against moving. The back hurt so much I couldn’t think straight.

My throat hurts and is warm and I coughed. My head still felt light and I found it hard to open my eyes. I felt drunk and any attempt at lifting my hands sent me off balance. Only now did I realize I was seated with the wall behind me when my shoulder hit the ground and sent a piercing pain through my lungs and arms.

Through passing visions and blurry images, I finally opened my eyes to look at the cave around me. It was the same with shelves upon shelves of stuff, just with tons and tons of blood on the floor.

For a moment I wondered how am I gonna explain that, and then realized how was I even alive?

With a solid will and sore arms, I finally managed to regain my earlier seat and look at myself properly. My clothes were in taters with blood soaking them. Although I expected more blood, but perhaps that’s a trick of the brain.

My legs looked straight, and so did my arms, but I felt no sensation to the two walking sticks of mine. I tried to lift them and I realized I couldn’t. They just felt numb and useless. My chest had scratch marks all over it and looked flaky in places.

Then I recalled what I had done and realized I really fucked up this time. Really really fucked up.

‘I didn’t think I’d be the first one to kill myself.’ I sighed as I gazed at my useless legs. What was I even supposed to do now?

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

‘Even if I miraculously gain powers all of a sudden, I’d never be able to last long.’ I sighed again as all I felt was plain helplessness and despair.

It was a moment of weakness and my past self had taken control, dooming the very both of us.

I lifted my left arm, and in the cracked watch of mine, saw the time “11:09 pm”. There was still an hour for the steward to return and I have no idea how to face him.

‘I guess things like that shouldn’t matter when I’m so close to dea- wait, why am I not dead already?’ I suddenly realized, now that I felt less fucked in my head.

I remembered my fall, a blurry but vivid state of my body at the last moments assured me I would never wake up again. Then why am I still alive?

I remember feeling my limbs tangled and broken, so why are they straight? My breath quickened and it instantly sent a jolt of pain as the broken rib pricked my lungs.

But a memory flashed through my head at that instant. It was one I had almost forgotten about. Just three days ago when I came into this world.

The scene in the mirror as parts of my body swiftly healed on their own. Could it be? I wondered but I needed conclusive proof.

I looked in the small puddle of blood beneath me, and my reflection with a heavy mix of red, orange, and yellow greeted me. Even through the blood, they dazzled like in a mirror.

[Broken Rib: Severe, Recovering], [Broken Rib: Sub Optimal, Recovering].

[Cranial Fracture (Depressed): Critical, Recovering], [Cranial Fracture (Diastatic): Sub Optimal, Recovering]; as I touched my head, I felt the warm red blood soak it.

Multiple levels of strains, and sprains, and bruises, and minor fractures throughout the body in light orange. Torn, stretch, and contused lacerations ranging from deep to superficial ran through my skin.

And finally the brightest of them all, the two on my back shining the most colorful of red.

[Spinal cord injury (L1-L5): Highly Severe, Recovering], [Spinal cord injury (S1-S5): Highly Severe, Recovering].

The cause of my paralysis, and yet they were healing.

I exhaled a sigh of relief as my back slumped against the wall and despite my aching body telling me not to, I felt tears in my eyes as I sat there thanking whatever god helped me through this.

Eventually, I ran out of tears and my body demanded I stop putting so much pressure on it. So I sat there quietly as I closed my eyes, trying to get some rest. Sleep was easy to come due to all that blood loss.

Within the next half an hour, I found myself slipping in and out of consciousness. A tenuous sleep, only made worse by the grogginess and itching all over my body. Sometime in the 30 minutes, I felt a feeling return to my legs.

The piercing pain in my lungs weakened and I finally had a deep breath. My head stopped ache and so did my back in that period. My arms also felt much better.

When I finally woke up around the 50s, I realized I could finally walk. I still felt like a shit, but I guess it’s not that bad now. The blood loss made things worse as I felt weak in my legs when I tried to stand up.

But I felt much much better. I expected a harsher consequence of so much blood loss, but when I checked my clothes, I realized they were clean of any blood traces. Still in tatters and dusty, but clean of blood.

Shocked, I looked at the pool of blood and realized it had decreased by more than half.

‘Can blood evaporate so quickly?’ I wondered but I knew it was a no. So does that mean all that blood was back in me?

Something about blood mixed with dirt in my veins disgusted me, but I didn’t dwell on that for longer.

Cause this… this was a game changer and I need to keep it a secret as long as I can!

The fact I could recover from such gruesome wounds and live to walk again, not to mention even remove all traces of my wounds (except the torn clothes), meant I was a walking human guinea pig.

The thought of being stuck on a table with evil doctors operating on me without face masks and anaesthesia, cutting me open to see my heart work set my mind working at high speed.

‘Okay, so the steward must be arriving in 5-6 minutes. I can’t let him see it, so it’d be wiser to meet him in the middle. As for the blood, it’d be gone within a few hours anyway.

‘And I should quickly change dammit! These clothes need to be hidden.’ I got to work and quickly undressed, even with a sore body and limping legs. Finding my clothes in one of the bags, I took them out and quickly dressed up.

I hid the tattered clothes behind the shelves for the spiders as I washed my face in the washroom and noticing the many blues and lack of reds relieved me. My body has mostly yellow's now, so that was good. Great even.

With merely a minute remaining to 12, I started walking. Taking steps as fast as I could, I tried to get as far as I could from the scene of ‘crime’.

However, a thought did trouble me through my limp. How did I even get better?

‘It doesn’t look like ordinary regeneration. A god’s blessing? Illusion? It feels more like reversal of time. A localized time reverse? Only on the body? Sounds fancy.’ I jumped between ideas as time passed and finally, after a few minutes, I met the steward.

Craning my neck to look behind me, I found the scene out of sight and sighed internally. ‘Close call.’

“Are you okay sir?” He asked, but he didn’t come forward to help.

“Ah yes, I just strained my ankle a little while descending. I’ve had some rest and am feeling much better.” I lied.

“I hope your visit was fruitful?” He asked as we started walking again.

“It was all right. I did what you asked me to.” I assured him.

“That’s good. That’s good.” He said.

The rest of the journey was arduous and I ended up requiring his help climbing through the stairs and with my significantly weakened body, it took us almost an hour to get back to the surface.

Reaching the manor, I nodded at him and promptly left for my room. The guards outside of my room gone, I quickly slipped inside and threw my clothes off.

With just a boxer on my body, I snuggled into my bed and with the blanket over my head, finally fell into the sweet-sweet space of a dreamless void.

- - - - * - - - -