*** Modern-time Gael’s POV ***

“So, what did you think of my story?” Brandon grins.

“It was great… it’s just, was that first part necessary? I thought you were only going to talk about the fighting part,”

Brandon looks at me blankly, “Well, umm I thought you’d, well, want to know more about who was with us and what they were like.” he says, embarrassed by his previous bravado.

“Well it’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting it,” I say, “The most surprising thing about your story is that you had the guts to fight those things with your bare hands,” I grimace.

Brandon raises a brow, “not the fact that I had a wife and was going to have a child or the fact that I have anger issues?” He asks.

I glance at him looking him up and down. “Your anger issues honestly explain a lot,” I refuse to further elaborate.

“What about my wife and kid?”I continue to keep my silence.

“Anyways,” I say shakily getting on my feet, “I think it’s about time I finish my run,”

Brandon gets up, “your right. By the way, since we took so long during the story you’ll only get a 5-minute break at the end of the 8th mile” Brandon says with a smile

I dart a look his way “Are you serious?” I ask, fear-stricken in my eyes. That was only half my previous break.“Yeah,” he nods

“No, you’re not. You're not actually serious right?”

“Very much serious” he confirms

“is it because I said the first part wasn’t necessary?” I ask,

“Are you stalling? Thats thre- ”

I hop up from my criss-cross position and immediately start running before Brandon can finish his sentence. “5-minutes right?” I shout, causing Brandon to laugh.

I never expected Brandon to be as petty as he is right now. I thought pettiness was exclusively for children. The more you know I guess. Doesn’t make me any less pissed off.

I was able to make it through the 8th mile relatively easily as I had my Anger at Brandon to fuel me.

“Good work, we’ll continue after 5 minutes,” Brandon smiles.

Fuck he was serious. Sadistic fuck.

“Can I have a 10-minute break for the final mile?” I ask

Brandon ponders it for a moment. “No,” he says simply, putting me in my pit of despair

Sadistic fuck

Fuck I gotta make this break worth it.

Umm, breathing, yes let me breathe harder and stronger maybe I'll get more stamina that way. I tried convincing myself that breathing would be useful.

I put myself in a criss-cross meditative position and start focusing on my breathing. Every time I breathe I try to fill my lungs with as much air as I can fit in there.

“What are you doing” Brandon raises a brow

“Breathing training”

“Uh-huh… So how's that going for you?”

“It’s surprisingly relaxing,” I say pleasantly surprised. Wait I can try and convince Brandon to try it as well, so I can relax longer. I internally grin.

“That's good for you I guess,” Brandon shrugs.

“You should try it too. You said you needed a new way to cope with stress. This could help,” I suggest slightly opening one eye to glance at Brandon.

Brandon squints at me suspiciously, “Alright wise guy your 3 minutes are up on with the run”

“WAIT YOU SAID 5 MINUTES!” I Protest.

“Nuh-uh, I said 3 minutes, now get running,” Brandon whistles.

“NO NO NO PLEASE YOU DIDN’T EVEN FINISH YOUR SENTENCE LAST TIME!” I plead.

“That’s cool, I don’t care” Brandon whistles.

Once I get superhuman strength Brandon will be the first person I dropkick. I promise myself, as I get up and start running.

Halfway through my run back I realized that I was just running back and forth from the tree to Brandon’s backyard and a random rock a mile out. Once I’m back I'm home free.

This realization made me skip the rest of the way back.

“Alright good work, I got some things to do right now, so check up on your sister for now,” Brandon waves as he walks towards his house.

I likewise start running towards my house. I was exhausted, but it’s been hours, Athena could be awake, and I needed to know if she was okay.

I reach the purple silk door of my house and move the silk to the side.

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I looked inside, but Athena was still dead asleep on the large bed.

Ah fuck, I collapse to the wood floor. I look up at the ceiling blank-faced.

Guess I’ll sleep. I close my eyes trying, but unable to fall to get comfortable on the cold wooden floor.

I glance at the fuckity fuck-you-up carpet by the bed.

It’s big enough for me to lay on it…

Fuck it, it’s comfortable.

I slowly sit down on the carpet and I instantly feel the carpet move away before it starts to slowly engross me again, as if something was trying to drag me down into the pits of hell. Despite the unnerving feeling it still felt quite nice, definitely much more comfortable than the cold wooden floor.

I slowly bring down the rest of my body onto the carpet. I could feel the ethereal carpet latch onto my back. It had sent shivers down my back. It felt almost as if when I would lay on the water, at the pool hoping that the water would be enough to keep me above the water.

I put down my head and I feel the carpet start to embrace my head. Somehow I felt as if this carpet might eat me while I slept… nah probably just my imagination.

I noticed that I wasn’t cold anymore. It seemed as if the carpet was covering me with something, but I couldn’t tell what. Whatever it was, it was keeping out the cold air.

How the hell did Brandon get so strong in just 2 years? He even got a legendary carpet in the process.

Whatever I'll get there eventually, I close my eyes and slowly drift off to sleep

“GAEL WAKE UP!” I hear Brandon yelling at me, causing my eyes to burst open.

Out of my left eye, I could see the bedside that Athena was sleeping on. However, out of my right eye, all I saw was whitespace. It was as if it was just a dimension of white sludge that was perpetually swirling about. I look down into white space and see my arm and half my body dangling about. Beyond that, into the depth of white space, there existed something. Something that existed within a dimension that held no existence. It was something far beyond my comprehension.

I couldn’t feel anything, my arms and my legs were simply ligaments that had been attached to the rest of my body. Even if they were to be pierced or sliced off I would feel nothing. In this world I am nothing. I feel nothing. I am nothing. I know nothing, but in that dimension, I know everything.

The previously unnerving feeling of the carpet was gone. All I felt was comfort, I just wanted to sleep.

“GAEL GET OUT OF THE CARPET!” I hear Brandon yelling

I pull out my left hand and start pushing against the floor forcing my upper body out.

Now that my head was out of the carpet my brain was into hyperdrive, and my heart had gone drumming in my chest.

HOLY FUCK WHAT WAS THAT? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

My legs had been fully engulfed in the carpet. It felt as if I was in the ocean while in a shark horror movie. It was just a recipe for disaster.

I use both my arms and all my might to holster myself up and out of the carpet and roll onto the floor.

“Are you okay?” Brandon asks

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? WHY IS MY CARPET TRYING TO FUCKING EAT ME?” I shout

“I told you, you shouldn’t have kept the carpet,” Brandon side-eyes Andre, who was by the door.

“Ok wait let's unwrap this before we start blaming people,” Andre rubs his eyes, “Kid. Why would you try to sleep on the fucking unnerving otherworldly blanket? What made you think that would be a good idea?”

“It was comfortable,” I say indignantly, causing Andre to look at me with a confuddled expression.

He was about to say something, but he made several facial expressions before he just covered his mouth with his hand thinking about something.

“Do you… Do you have the survival instincts of a deer?” He asks, “There is no way you thought that was a good idea, right?” He continues “That carpet should have given you an eerie sensation when you stepped on it, right?”

I nod

“Then why would you think sleeping on it would be a good idea?” Andre asks genuinely confused.

“I didn’t think it would be dangerous,” I state bashfully

Andre blankly looks at me

“What?” he states baffled, “So, the carpet gave you an eerie sensation, but you thought it wasn’t dangerous?”

“You're making me sound dumb,” I say

Andre scoffs, “Well I’m sorry bud, but you may be exactly how you sound”

“Well you know I’ve decided to trust a lot of things that gave me eerie feelings lately, such as, you for example, and a town full of monsters, and fucking satan, so thought “HEY MAYBE I CAN TRUST A FEW MORE THINGS!” So, I’m sorry I've tried to trust that my fucking furniture wouldn’t try to eat me,” I scowl

Andre breathes “Ugh, fine kid listen, if it’s not something you can communicate with, and it’s giving you a bad feeling, it’s probably dangerous,” Andre says as if it was obvious.

“I can’t communicate with Babban, Wuta, or Sirin,” I state matter-of-factly.

Andre just blankly looks at me and looks up to the sky “Kids are such a pain in the ass,” he sighs.

“Alright whatever, work on your survival instincts on your own time, Brandon asked me to help shape you up, so cmon squirt,” Andre says with a lack of enthusiasm as he heads out the door.

I get up and look back to see Athena still asleep in bed.

“Wait, hold on!” I shout, as I run out the door.

“First we need you to eat something,” he says, “we’ll keep your diet high protein high calorie; we’re essentially going to bulk you up”

“Uh-huh…”

“You would be a natural chicken predator if we would have based your diet in your previous world, but here’s a bit different…” Andre says with an ominous smile

“What am I going to eat?” I ask suspiciously

“Brandon hunted some earlier…” Andre remains vague

“Stop being so vague!”

“Don’t worry about it, if I told you you’d likely want to back out of your training program,” Andre covers his eerie grin

“If you don’t tell me I'm not going to go through with this” I attempt to make him break

“That's fine with me, we were doing a favor by giving you training in the first place.” Andre shrugs me off

Fuck

“Ok fine, fair enough. I promise I’ll do it regardless of what it is; getting stronger is not an optional thing for me, I have to get stronger.” I state with ambition

Andre looks at me with an evil grin. “Ok, I’ll have you keep that no matter how repulsed you are,” He says, making me regret my words slightly.

“I’ll give you a hint,” He starts cackling, “You saw Brandon hunting them.”

My brain goes blank; I’ve only seen Brandon kill anything once…

No, no fucking way…

My face distorts into a grimace, causing Andre to burst into a full-blown holler. Andre puts a hand on my shoulder “Well hope you like bugs buddy” Andre laughs walking off.

Fuck, Andre had practically just confirmed my fears.

I imagine having to eat the insects. The slimy texture, the feeling of it wiggling within my mouth as if it were still alive, the uncomfortable crunch, the feeling of it getting stuck in my throat not being able to go down nor come back up. The thought of it had made the bile start rising in my throat, I couldn’t help but gag at the thought of it.

The demons who had been passing by had started taking passing glances at me as if I were a weirdo.

I try to regain my composer by taking deep breaths. Ok so I’ve got to eat bugs, maybe it won’t be so bad… The image of it passed by my head, and I almost started gagging again.

I guess I just got to suck it up.