Today was just like any other day. I found myself going to work like I always do, dressed in my suit.

"Stupid dress code and their uncomfortable clothing..." I muttered to myself.

I looked up at the skyscraper I worked in. Security was comparatively an easy job, but that didn’t make it any more fun. I sighed and put on my shades and earpiece before leaning against the glass walls of the building.

“Anders, reporting in.” I said into the comms.

“Acknowledged.” I heard the familiar reply from HQ. “Today will be a particularly special day, the boss has a special guest over. Your job will be to escort them to meeting room 13.”

Tch. Not a single day where I can just stand guard for once. “Affirmative. Description on our guest?”

I heard the sound of paper being shuffled around through the comms. “He will be wearing... eccentric clothes, and a VIP wristband. Your contact is around 70 years old of age.” I heard some more papers shuffling. “He’s supposed to arrive in two hours.”

Allright, just stand here looking tough for two hours, then greet an eccentric old man. Just another day at the office.

“Copy, over and out.”

I cracked my knuckles, mostly just for fun before getting off the glass wall and standing at attention outside the main doors of the building.

I was just about to check in for lunch when I heard a loud metal clang behind me. I turned around and saw a person dressed in... Well, eccentric clothes. At first, I thought HQ was just being lazy, but there's really no other way to describe him. He looked like he was straight out of a western movie.

"Hello! I have an appointment with a Mr... Eric?" He showed me his wrist. VIP armband.

I nodded at Him, before opening the door to the skyscraper. "Welcome to MSII." I spoke.

He nodded his thanks at me and tried entering the door. He had some trouble, because he was towing a massive metal tube-looking device with him.

After he got through the door, I closed it behind us and walked behind the man. Multiple people inside the building looked at us with confused looks, but I only flashed my badge, making all of them go back to their work.

It wasn’t the first time my sector had to deal with weird people.

We stepped into the elevator, which was big enough so that it wasn’t cramped even with the VIP’s metal tube thing inside with us too. I pressed button 13 on the panel, and the elevator began descending into the earth.

Oh, you thought we were going to go upward? No, the Skyscraper on top is only a cover story. The real magic happens underneath the ground.

Before long, the elevator let out a ding, and we stepped out into the foyer. I took a deep breath, not because it smelled good, but because it was a familiar smell. Josh made sure this place never smelled a lick better than a compost heap, mostly to discourage visitors from entering our level.

I was curious about what the guest was bringing into the room, but my contract stated I could not speak to them unless it was absolutely necessary.

I greeted Josh, who was busy writing on some papers. He looked up at me, before chuckling and going back to his work. “Just another day at the office, Ey Anders?”

“Aye.” I let out a little laugh before walking further down the hallway.

“Stop here.” I said, pointing toward the door labeled #13.

The old man stopped right outside the door and sat the tube down on the ground.

I opened the door and stepped into the room. Unsurprisingly, Eric was sitting there, ready to greet his guest.

“Hello. please sit down.” Eric said. “Anders, you too.”

Eh? Why did he invite me to the meeting?

Since Eric was my boss, I didn’t have much room to argue. I sat down besides the old man in an office chair. They were very comfortable.

“So, you brought the time machine?” Eric asked.

… What?

“Yes, it's right outside.” The old man exclaimed. “I’m guessing this beefy feller is our... test subject for the day?”

Huh?

This was all going way too quickly for me to follow. Time machine? Test subject?

“Excellent. Set up the machine, and I'll see to it our... Test subject is prepared.” Eric slightly leant forward in his chair as the old man exited the room.

“Anders, this man is giving us a one-time opportunity. 5 million dollars for you to just stand inside his weird metal tube machine.” Eric facepalmed. “That old fool really thinks he’s made an ACTUAL time machine! Can you believe it??” He burst out laughing.

…

“5 million dollars, you say?”

Before long, I found myself standing inside the metal tube the old man had made, the so-called time-machine. Eric told me I ‘had this’ before buggering off to the elevators again. I sure as hell didn’t have this, but oh well.

“Now, just stand still for me, okay?” The old man said. “If my predictions are correct, you should be transported to... Another time. An earlier point in time, to be precise."

I was still a little perplexed at the whole situation, and only nodded at the man. He sounded so confident that I was starting to worry this machine might actually work.

“Just stand still, and nothing will go wrong.” He told me. “Oh right, while you’re there, can you look for two guys? Their names are David and Jesse.”

“Uh, sure I guess.” I was too taken aback by the whole situation to answer anything more concise.

“Okay, that’s about it! Have fun!” The old man said, before closing the hatch of the tube. He gave me a thumbs-up, before going outside of what I could see through the glass hatch.

I was so confused, and a little afraid. Would it actually work? A bead of sweat rolled down my forehead and I took a deep breath. No no, the old man was probably delusional. It wouldn’t do anything, and I could just step out in a moment or two. Yeah that’s right, it doesn’t work.

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I grew a little smile. That’s right, it’s just a piece of junk! A bead of sweat hit the floor of the machine.

Suddenly, the whole tube began shaking. What the hell?

I tried to walk toward the hatch, but the shaking made it almost impossible to move at all. I tried to remain standing, but eventually I fell. I didn’t hit the floor as I'd expected to though, and I found myself... Passing through it.

Once I was underneath the floor of the tube, all I saw was red. It was neon red everywhere I looked. Panic began to set in, and I clenched the sides of my head. No no no! I’m actually being transported back in time!

My panic quickly turned to fear, as an incredible force launched me down the tube. If I wasn’t wearing shades, I wouldn’t be able to keep my eyes open from the wind speeds.

Not more than a minute later, I found myself hitting the floor violently. I had the wind knocked out of me, and I laid on the floor in silence.

“Oh, what’s this? A mortal?” I heard a menacing voice coming from behind me.

“I’ll enjoy torturing you, puny human.” It said, before I felt a hand wrap around my leg.

I panicked, trying to fight its grasp. It was no use, as whatever was holding me was much stronger than I was.

“The demon is loose! Everyone cast the spell now!”

I heard another voice yell out from in front of me somewhere.

The menacing voice from earlier screeched out an ear-shattering scream before letting go of my leg.

I quickly turned around to look at my assailant.

It looked like a human, but completely covered in red flames and their body made up of pitch-black.

“Damn you wizard!” The monster screamed out, before once again pouncing on top of me. Its touch was hot, almost as if it burned my flesh where it touched. I yelled out in pain.

“Shut up! I’m saving both our lives!” the monster said, before pressing its face into mine.

“No! It’s going to perform a demon bind on that civilian! Someone kill them!”

I could barely see a pair of feet walking over toward me through the corner of my eye. The fiery person had begun sinking into my body, and it hurt like all hell.

Next thing I know, I had a knife slit across my neck.

I expected it to hurt like hell, but it didn’t.

Do something, anything! The voice of the monster shouted out, now coming from inside my mind.

I was suddenly lifted off the floor with an immense force, almost looking like Genos from one punch man.

I turned around and found myself facing three men.

“Civilian! Stand down!”

I touched my neck, trying to find the slit that should be there. Nothing.

I smirked a little.

“Now, I don’t take too kindly to having my neck slit open.” My voice now sounded like that of the monster’s. I looked down at my hands, and saw they were now aflame with the same red flames the monster was covered in earlier.

I rushed over to the man closest to me, grabbing him by the neck. I let out an insane grin, before snapping it like a twig.

I dropped his lifeless body to the floor. The other two men in the cave looked at me in sheer disbelief, before I rushed over to the two, giving them the same treatment. They let out a wheeze as they passed on.

You have a natural killer instinct, kid. I like that in a host.

I’d sat down on the cave floor. What. The. Hell. Just. Happened.

I looked down at my hands, which had now returned to normal. This... This must be a nightmare. Surely this is all just a bad dream, and I'll wake up any moment now.

I bit my finger.

It didn’t even hurt.

Sorry to tell ya, kid. You just killed three men in cold blood, and you’re now possessed by a demon. Sucks to suck!

‘Who the fuck are you anyway?’ I asked the voice in my head.

Oh, me? I’m only the third most powerful demon in hell. Name’s Luca.

‘Okay... Luca. Do you mind telling me what the FUCK just happened?’

Well, you kind of interrupted an unholy summoning ceremony. Somehow, all my followers turned to ash and then you appeared out of thin air. The rest after that? Well, I'm sure you remember. Unfortunately, since you interrupted the ceremony, our souls are now bound together. I had no other option than to pick you as my host. Annoyingly, we can’t separate now either, because that stupid mage slit your throat before the demon bind was complete. This means that your body will revert to that state if I ever leave your body. He took a brief pause. And the ritual is permanent. We'll just have to get used to each other’s company from now on.

That didn’t clear up anything, if anything I have even MORE questions now. Like, what the hell? Do demons exist? Where am I? Better yet, when am I???

Okayy then, calm down. You want me to explain EVERYTHING? Sure, I'll explain EVERYTHING.

The demon calling itself Luca had told me about this world I now found myself in. Apparently, it’s the year ‘900 after the party pooper was born’. I’m guessing that means after Christ.

Additionally, this world is filled with various beings we in 2023 would consider to be fairy tales and supernaturals, like for example demons.

‘Well, that cleared up some things.’ I got off the cave floor and looked around.

I can’t believe I killed three people without even batting an eye...

That’s it, just use your natural strength like that.

Luca had asked me to begin practicing hitting trees to mimic combat. Thanks to my training as a security guard, I had most of the fundamentals down. Using your weight to fuel your punches is effective when you’re as tall as I am. (Quick note: Anders is 193cm tall.)

I’d made a huge dent into a tree using mostly my natural muscles to do the hard work.

You should attempt infusing more demonic energy into the attacks now.

I mentally nodded at his words, before winding my arm back. I put on a lot of brass knuckles, before throwing my arm forward at the tree.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then red energy began flowing into the cracks of the wood, and the tree was suddenly not there anymore.

I looked around me and didn’t see anything. What the hell just-

My thoughts were interrupted as the tree I'd punched suddenly smashed into the top of my head.

Once again, I was shocked by the lack of pain from this event.

I looked down at the ground beside me. The wood was neatly split in two, with splinters laying around-about everywhere around me.

Well, that definitely needs some work.

I moved my hands up to my head and brushed off the splinters. ‘You could say that.’

I continued practicing all day. In the middle of training, Luca’s voice spoke out in my head. Hey Anders, the sun’s down. We should find a place to sleep for the night.

‘Well, I don’t even know where we are. Care to guide me?’

Sure, check out this neat trick I have.

My vision suddenly went pitch black. ‘What the hell? Did you just turn me blind?’

My pleas were quickly answered when my vision was restored again, but this time everything was gray-scale safe for a single path in the forest floor.

I call this pathfinding vision. The path leads you toward the nearest large collection of living things, which often turns out to be a town.

It didn’t take much imagination to figure out why demons needed to know where large collections of living things were. Luca told me he required a blood sacrifice to not go on a rampage, at least once a month but more often is better.

‘What exactly does this... Rampage entail?’ I asked Luca.

Death. A lot of death.

Okay, don’t forget to feed Luca, I guess.

I’d followed the trail Luca revealed to me for a good hour before I finally reached what looked like a town in the distance. I was starting to feel a little tired, but I took reconcile in the fact a bed was right around the corner.

Luca took the opportunity to reset my vision to full colors again, to my relief.

I looked at the closed city gates. ‘Well shit, how are we going to get in here?’

Watch and learn.

Luca manifested one of his legs on the outside of my body.

Actually, I kind of lied when I told you I can’t leave your body. The only part of me I have to keep inside you at all times is my neck.

He kicked off the ground, launching us into the air.

‘Holy shit!’

Luca manifested two arms and shot hellfire out behind us propelling us forward like a rocket.

I braced for impact, and landed ironman style on the cobblestone road of the city.

‘Yep, that sure works.’

I looked around town for a while. There were just endless rows of the same houses over and over. It almost reminded me of 2023 in a way, with its endless skyscrapers.

After walking for a while, I came across an inn. It was obvious that it was an inn, because it was vastly different in shape than its identical neighbors.

I opened the door to the establishment and was greeted by its innkeeper. “Looking for a room, I presume?”

I nodded hello and walked over to him. “Would it be okay with you if I didn’t pay immediately? I’m flat broke right now.”

The man scuffed a little before putting on his inviting smile again. “I don’t sell rooms for free buddy. You’re free to sleep down here though, I suppose.”

I looked at the wooden benches of the Inn. I was so tired it didn’t matter to me if they had been covered in nails. “Thank you... I didn’t catch your name?”

The man smiled at me. “Name’s Billy.” He stretched out his hand for me to shake.

“Anders.” I took his hand.

“Well, goodnight then, Anders.”

I nodded and walked over to one of the benches. If anyone saw me like this, I guess they’d think I passed out from drinking or whatever. It didn’t matter to me.

The last thing I heard before I fell asleep was Luca’s voice.

Hunger.