The rest of my morning on the job went by surprisingly fast, and a lot more comfortably. There was usually only one small thing to repair in each apartment, and the residents didn’t try to hit on me, at least not as forcefully as the first one. I was getting through things quickly enough, and I was certain I’d finish in time to make it to the casino before nine. I would’ve been happier about it, but…

“Hey, can you fix my dishwasher? It’s got chunks of melted plastic from my… toys in it. Again.”

[Skill Level Up! Tinker lv 4 -> 5]

“My countertop chipped off when my husband dropped me onto it when we were doing- yeah, can you just glue it back on or something?”

[Skill Level Up! Tinker lv 5 -> 6]

“You would not believe what happened to my microwave!”

[Skill Level Up! Tinker lv 6 -> 7]

Every time the notification chimed in my head, I felt a small dopamine rush that was quickly overridden by sheer disgust at the implication of each level up. Hiroi wasn’t wrong about how crazy this Ultarian Festival week was. In just one morning, I’d made more progress in the [Tinker] Skill than I had all of last week! But the cost…

I was wearing a thick pair of heavy duty gloves. I’d put them on after the second level up, but I felt the sheer ick factor of being indirectly involved in so many other peoples’ sex lives practically seeped through the tough rubber barrier. Not to say that there weren’t actual substances that might’ve done just that.

So much so that after servicing the last apartment, I made a beeline back to my own place, just so I could take another shower. I unlocked the door and charged in, tossing my gloves into the trash can and jumping straight into the shower.

The alarm clock in my room read 8:30 as I came in. That left me with thirty minutes to clean up and drive over, so I didn’t even bother to fully close the bathroom door, let alone lock it, as I threw off my clothes and jumped into the torrent of hot, cleansing water.

Even if I was only in there for five minutes, I used up a good quarter of a fresh bar of soap as I forcefully lathered it against my arms. My frantic scrubbing was able to remove the lathered layer and leave me feeling squeaky clean by the end of it, at least enough that I felt confident going out in public.

So it was quite a surprise that when I put on my clothes and stepped out to my apartment, I already had an audience.

“Uh, hello there, sir!” meekly exclaimed a young man.

He had on a white button up shirt and tan khakis, while on his neck was a bright red tie with orange and yellow diagonal stripes across it and purple flowers dotting the fabric. His head was a bushy mess of curly black hair that rested on a pasty looking face that held a shy expression. His left hand held a book with an embroidered quill, while his right was slowly waving to me.

“You, uh… left your front door open, and I wanted to say hello!”

I couldn’t remember if I’d locked or closed the front door.

“I was hoping you would like to hear the holy word of Ultarian! This is his festival week, after all!”

I couldn’t come up with a proper response, at least not immediately. Several things were going through my mind which left it a sudden jumble. The rush of needing to get to Goldshanks’ casino if I didn’t want to be late, the shock of knowing that this stranger came into my home while I was in the shower, and who- who was he?

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Obviously he was some kind of door to door missionary or something, trying to spread the not-so holy word. But something about it seemed odd. Beyond him barging into my home.

“Now’s not a good time, and I need to get going, so get out of my house,” I said while walking towards him with furrowed brows. I trusted my gut, and it wanted this guy out of here as soon as possible.

“I’m sure you’d love to hear the Good Word!” he replied. While he still looked just as meek, he didn’t seem to react to my utter refusal at all.

“Seriously, I’m late, and why would you enter my place without an invitation? I don’t even know you!”

“Taking Ultarian into your heart will bring you every joy you could ever dream of!” the pasty faced man continued. I could’ve sworn that he looked a little taller than a second ago, by about an inch or two. He was standing straight.

“Ultarian’s brought me nothing but misery since I got here, so if you don’t mind, get the fuck out of my-” I reached my hand to grab his shoulder, but as soon as I was within a foot of him, his right hand flew and grabbed my wrist.

“I see you are a lost child of our Lord.” The look of meekness had dropped from his face, and it instead held a dead expression. His eyes were empty, and mouth curved into the barest of a frown, the kind you’d find on a corpse.

I tried to wrestle out of the young man’s grip, but even putting all of my weight into my arm wasn’t enough to make him budge. I even used my other hand to budge at it, and when that didn’t work, I curled it into a fist and struck at his stomach.

He took it unblinking, and continued to stand there like a stone statue. It wasn’t natural.

“Uh, please leave. You’re not welcome here. Begone, begone, begone!” My greatest fears borne from when I first arrived in this world finally became manifest, just when I’d forgotten about them. I threw everything I knew about the supernatural at the wall in some hail mary attempt at getting this… thing to leave. Remind it that it wasn’t welcome, as if it was some kind of vampire that needed an invitation. Tell it to get lost three times in a row, like it were some kind of fey or fairy. I read you had to tell them something three times to make it really stick.

“You’ve been unruly, and not just with the words you keep to yourself,” he said, continuing to stand there with those same dead eyes. “But you shared your blasphemy at His holy site, at his church. Your punishment will be for that.”

“Punishment? Who are you?! I-”

His left hand slammed the book into my chest and sent me flying backwards. I didn’t even feel the impact as I hit the bathroom door, ripping it off its hinges and tumbling to the ground.

When I finally came to, I could barely walk. It took me a solid minute to get myself off the ground and everything around me looked terrible. The bathroom door was smashed and the white tiles were covered in wood chips. The shower’s tub and toilet were thankfully intact, and so was my skin from any splinters.

That wasn’t to say my body was in one piece. Even though I had no broken bones, my chest ached with a terrible pain that I knew would purple into a nasty bruise. A few of my ribs felt sprained enough that it hurt whenever I walked.

And when I walked into my bedroom, I saw the worst sight of all. The time was 9:10.

My hair was a mess, my clothes were slightly torn, and I could barely move. And I was already late.

I let out a slow exhale. It was unsteady, mixed in with a wheeze, and towards the end, a sob.

This was the second time I’d experienced the supernatural, yet it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened in my life. Where all of my best efforts fell through because of one event, that might not have even been my fault.

I knew it wouldn’t be the last.

So now that it had happened again, there were only two things I could do. The first choice was to give up. With bleary eyes, I shuffled over to my bedroom and sat down on the bed.

I faced towards my dresser and took out a spare change of clothes. With a series of slow, painful movements, I slowly took off what I was wearing and put on the new set. Every motion was excruciating, but I fought through it. I had the opportunity of a lifetime, and even as it began to slip through my fingers, I wasn’t going to let it fall all the way through. As long as there was the tiniest sliver still in my palm…

Finally fully dressed, I made my way outside and headed towards my car. But not without first making sure I locked the front door and poured a line of salt across it.