I really shouldn't be here.

I can tell myself that I'm trying to help. That I'm trying to look out for her, that I'm doing what any colleague would do if they thought someone they knew, someone they worked and laughed with could be hurt walking home.

Except that wasn't true. She wasn't just another person that I'd worked with. I knew her. In a way that few other people could claim to know her. 

She'd be angry if she caught him foll-, walking behind her.

She'd probably never notice, she was far too preoccupied with walking quickly and staying in the orange streetlights area of influence to notice him.

It had started with the smallest thing. I'd overheard somebody say something to her at lunch about her area not being that safe, and offering to walk home with her.

It was barely even a conscious decision, I'd managed to convince myself that I just happened to leave at the same time as her, that I was taking a different route to normal. But even I couldn't delude myself about what this was any longer. I was following my ex-girlfriend home.

I stopped walking. This was stupid. What was I even trying to do right now? She'd made it clear that we weren't going to see each other any longer. And even if I did go up to her right now, she'd probably just hit me for following her after work, and maybe even report me. That's what I'd do.

This was stupid. I should just go home. I turned to leave, looking back at her one last time before I left. What I saw made me stop in my tracks, frozen to the spot.

I could see a large shadow, rushing towards her. It surrounded her until she was barely visible to me. Her feet left the ground briefly as she kicked off the ground, I jolted as I made to move, before realising what this was.

She was hugging someone. Was that a guy?

Wait. They weren't hugging any more, her face very clearly flushed red.

They hadn't even broken up that long ago. For fuck's sake! Jesus! Was this why she didn't want to see him anymore? She'd told him she 'wanted to work on herself'. That lying bitch.

That lying bitch!

I wasn't a violent person. I really wasn't. I tried to actively avoid getting into fights. But this, this made me want to go over there, and do ... something! I really wasn't a violent person, I'd probably just yell at her, from a distance, that guy looks huge.

I hung back, staying out of sight as the person walked her home, I could hear her laughter, so loud it hurt my ears, even with all that distance. I was seriously beginning to hate this guy. They parted ways just outside her house, but not before an agonizingly long kiss goodbye.

He hung around watching her get inside, leaving me with a problem. If I wanted to argue with her I'd have to wait for him to leave, but she probably wouldn't let him in after hearing that it was he who wanted to get inside. I decided I could just follow her new guy, maybe even get some dirt on him, maybe enough to... I shook my head to clear my thoughts, there was no point in fantasising about finding information like that.

Better to just focus on the guy. He seemed to be almost constantly covered in shadows, even under a light. Maybe he was dark-skinned or something.

I waited with teeth gritted, before following the guy further onwards as he walked quickly with long strides, now that she'd gone home, causing me to move faster to keep up.

He only stopped once, in a bright streetlight, and even there I couldn't get a good look at the guy. He stopped with his head cocked to the side as if stretching or something. He quickly continued onwards though.

He stopped once again in front of a blank brick wall. He just stood there, draped in shadows, like he was waiting for something.

I blinked.

He'd vanished.

And where before there was previously a blank wall, there was now a door in the wall.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I blinked a few more times. Maybe I was just getting tired, It was exhausting, after all, following people around like this all night. I felt like I would have noticed a door that looked like THAT though.

It was all dark wood. The handle, one of those ball-shaped ones. Really impractical to open, but they just looked so fancy that they always won me over in the end. It was a little tall, maybe even three meters? Who even needs a door that tall anyway? It had carvings with nature with open valleys and towering trees as well as some strange animals etched in all at the bottom. But at the top, it was all constellations, stars, and planets that littered the thing, the carvings were so lifelike they almost seemed to move as I got closer. It was beautiful. 

I had my hand on the doorknob before I knew what hit me.

What was I doing again? Oh yeah, and the memory came back, along with the shame, the hurt. This wasn't really about her, not anymore. The feeling that I wasn't good enough. That I wasn't as good as this other guy. I hated that feeling. That feeling that had hounded me all my life, Inadequacy.

And with that thought, I twisted the handle and practically fell through the doorway as it swung open much more quickly than I was expecting.

I had a white-knuckle grip on the handle. The weight of the floor swung me like a ragdoll to the floor.

My knees hit the floor sending a bolt of pain all through the length of my body. I caught myself on the blinding white floor with my hands. Wait, blinding white?

I looked up in confusion, meeting the eyes of a man, that jawline ... that's the guy I was following.

Bright, glowing red eyes stared back at me with a dull look, in contrast to his words and face. His clothing seemed to be all white, like a robe or something, but it matched his skin and hair. He looked down at me with a half-smile on his face. 

"Well, that's interesting."

I looked around in shock at the blindingly white surroundings, noting with rising alarm that I couldn't move anything below my neck, I was frozen in a hunched over position. 

"I was really hoping that you weren't going to follow me in here..." He seemed genuinely frustrated with me for some reason, but then I realised what his words meant, that he knew that I was following him, and the curiosity was replaced with my anger and then fear.

I also found that I couldn't speak which seemed strange. I couldn't move and I couldn't speak. Was I drugged or something? Was that why I could barely move? It was just so frustrating as I was forced to listen to this thief spew drivel.

"Hush now boy, that's quite a rude thing to say, especially to someone who holds such power over your life."

What the hell was this albino motherfucker talking about? And did he just call me boy? He wasn't that old ... was he? No, he was clearly just really into roleplaying, as shown by the ridiculously bright room. Was he somehow threatening me? 

He'd taken away the one good thing in my life, and now he was telling me to shut up? Fuck him!

My mouth seemed fixed in place but there was a little give when I tried to move, like pushing a heavy door, and I twisted my mouth desperately, wanting to scream at this asshole. 

The man sighed and got up off of his gleaming white ... chair, I think it was a chair. He took a couple of steps towards me and squatted down so he was at eye level. There was something seriously off with this guy.

"It seems like you really don't understand the position that you're in." I felt a blinding pain in my scalp as he grabbed hold of my hair pulling me closer to him.

"You came into my home with the intention to kill. By heavenly law that gives me the right to kill you, torture you to death, and anything in-between really. Now normally, I'd just throw an annoying mortal like you into another dimension, preferably one with mind-eating horrors or something similarly fun but while I'm known as a peaceful god, you came after my woman with seeds of hatred in your heart, and that's something I don't let off with a mild punishment like having your body used as meat puppet by a parasite."

This guy's words didn't make any sense. Did he really just refer to himself as a god? How fucking self-delusional was this asshole? Good god, she had terrible taste in men.

But this guy did seem a little pissed off that I'd just barged into his weird looking home with no warning or without asking for information. I tried to open my mouth to try and explain that I had no intention of hurting the guy, I just wanted to talk to him, but the man's face twisted into a sneer as I tried to open my mouth, and he clenched his fist.

I felt that pressure on my face increase, to the point where I started seeing stars. It made me forget all about moving as I just tried not to cry from the pain, after a few seconds the pain went away, which the guy followed up with a stern look like he was telling off a misbehaving child.

"It also just so happens that I'm looking for someone to test something out for me. It will be painful, and horrifying, as well as unpleasant, terrifying at times I hope, and maybe if you're lucky, even exciting. But hopefully, it'll mostly just be very painful, although that would be disappointing."

I was getting a little freaked out now, no one even knew I was here, this guy had hit me with some kind of paralyzing drug, and now he was talking about doing very painful things to me. I felt my thighs get uncomfortably wet as something cold ran down them. 

"My name is Leon. Yes I know, it is quite unfortunate that we share the same name. It'll just get confusing so I'm giving you a new name." I felt anger bubbling up inside me at the fucking arrogance of this guy. He just waved his hand around like he was wafting away a bad smell.

"Now, Now, don't get so annoyed. People would gladly kill for the honor of giving me a name, you should be grateful. From now on, your name will be ... George." God, this guy was such a fucking cunt. That was the name of her dog. 

He was calling me his bitch, wasn't he? I really didn't like the look on his face, and what with calling me his bitch and telling me he was going to do painful things to me ... I really wanted to leave right about now.

"I'll give you more instructions once you get there, and settle in a bit, but for now just try and stay alive. And if anyone tries to kill you, just say you're a priest of Leon." He said that last part with a smirk, he was clearly messing with me.

With no warning, he swung his leg forwards and kicked me backward, sending me flying through the doorway I'd come in through.

My last thought as white light rushed in to fill my vision was 'That door really is beautiful'.