I woke up. I was sweating and crying. All my muscles were sore. I could still feel the shadow of that infernal dagger in my hand, a mere fraction of its weight and perpetual uneasying heat. My pillow was wet with my tears of agony. I rolled over and kept crying.

Over time, I calmed down and went to wash my bedding. I had sweat a lot and needed to wash them. I simply felt cleaner after washing my bedding and I needed every bit of cleanliness I could get after such an awful experience. I took a shower after starting my bedding. After all that it was around six. At least my mind can give me some sleep, instead of waking me at midnight.

I went down the stairs and had breakfast. I was no stranger to cooking, and had decided to make some pancakes. The recipe I had made enough for a small army so I had breakfast left for a few days. I ate in my simple t-shirt and shorts then decided to go get clothing on. I got my simple winter clothes on. I hate the winter to this day, but I always wore some jeans, a shirt, and a light jacket. I went to do my hair up and there he was. Turning to ash and holding up the dagger to me. I blinked and he was gone.

“Just another day in the life.” I muttered under my breath and went off to work where I saw the man three more times.

The first time I saw him at work was at about ten when I was putting another hood on another car in the assembly line, and the shiny chrome surface said “They all need you, Beatrice”. I shook it off and kept working. That hood was abnormally warm. I kept going and never skipped a beat. I listen to music and continue putting hoods on cars. If there is something I did wrong then the car inspectors will tell my boss, he will tell me, and I’ll fix it.

Next was about noon on my lunch break, I was heating up some of my pizza and in the microwave I watched as my pizza turned to ash and he was in the reflection with the dagger. I ignored him because it was a public area and when the microwave went off, I pulled out the pizza and ate it. It hurt when I took my first bite but it cooled. It was still enough to burn another person's mouth but it felt normal to me.

The last time I saw him was I was getting ready to drive home. Every number on the dials had been replaced with the dagger. That infernal creation just about got me a ticket for speeding before it turned back to numbers. I got home with no other incidents.

I walked in the door, watched some anime, yes I still watch anime, and made some chicken cordon bleu. I went to bed and had another dream, woke up, had some pancakes, got ready for work, realized I had no work that day, stupid saturday, and thought about the nothing I had to do today. Then I thought about my most recent dream. He told me the same line of bull shit with a little twist. This time he told me to find him in an unnatural place, I thought it meant really hot, but realized that it meant a desert in a place where it makes no sense for there to be a dessert.

So I did some researching. There was a desert in south east asia that was surrounded by rainforests. It was perfectly circular too. It seemed like a jackpot.

I realized that I had no money for traveling to nowhere in particular so I dropped it and watched more anime. My mind kept drifting, however. I called my friend. She’s a pilot. I thought. She can get me there for free.

No she cannot. She can get me a discount which is honestly more than I should have asked for. I could probably afford it now. I’d probably have to stop in japan for refueling but that's fine. I haven't used any paid time off since I got the job so I told my boss I couldn’t make it for a week or two. He said it was fine and that I needed some time off. He said I worked myself to hard but I ignored him. He doesn’t know.

I left for the airport. It wasn’t far so I walked. I said hi to Cassie, had some lunch with her. “Where are you planning on going?”

“Shanghai,” I said.

“That place is beautiful,” she lamented. “You’ll love it.”

I finished eating and I said goodbye and left to go catch my flight. The man was in the bathroom mirror. He looked disappointed. I held up my ticket and said “I’m going, you can stop harassing me now.” He smacked his head and pointed to my ticket. It lit on fire. I dropped it and let it burn. This was no illusion.

I looked at him again, incredulous of course. It seems that that’s the only way I look at him. He snapped his fingers and a small flame started in between them. It quickly turned into a plane ticket that was very similar to mine but had a different place on it. I had the wrong place. Of course. He couldn’t let me waste money. I tried the same thing. I snapped my fingers and. . . nothing. He slapped his face again and held up the dagger.

I can’t do the magic stuff without the dagger. I had fleeting thoughts of insanity but I reasoned that if I’m insane then there really is no going back at this point anyway. He pointed at the sink and a small fire started in there and was soon a plane ticket. Someone walked out of the stall behind me. She gave me a dirty look so I flipped her off and walked out.

I have no problems with being vulgar. I have no religion but I don’t smoke. I simply see no reason for it. It's simply the kind of person I am.

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

I called Cassie and told her I changed my mind and was going to go find someone in Nevada, which was true enough. I got on flight 934 and sat down. I was headed for Nevada. Just a few states over but too long for a car ride to be much cheaper. The lady next to me was nice but her kids were making me want to gouge my eyes out.

That was why I had no intention to have children. We talked for a good amount of time but I eventually got bored with her (no offence Kristy) and started listening to audio books. I find that they are good for helping you focus on something and make time flow faster. Not as fast as sleep though, which I also did. It actually wasn’t a long flight, I was just really restless, I couldn’t stay doing one thing for longer than five minutes. Except for sleep. I did that for almost an hour. I woke up and realized that my flight still had ten minutes left on it so I talked to Kristy again. She was going to Nevada because it’s cheaper than going to Utah and she lives in Utah. Good for her.

The plane landed without incident. I got off and went out. These last few memories are forever stuck in my mind. I was so innocent. I would give everything to be like that again.

I walked off the plane and looked at my phone. I hadn’t yet turned on my phone when words that seemed burned on to the screen said Go Forward in some sloppy handwriting I raised my eyebrows. The man replaced the words and indicated his hand and started writing in sparks on the screen. “Your handwriting sucks,” I told him. He flipped me off and I kind of felt good about it. I’m not the only vulgar one. The handwriting was back and I started following its directions. First I left the airport, as one does. Then I continually walked “forward” for three hours. Eventually I told the man to go screw himself and found a place that would give me a rental car. It took two hours and the man was pissed. Good. He tore me away from my life. I liked that life. Jerk.

I drove in the directions the man told me and we hadn’t even left the city yet. It was getting dark so I was understandably frustrated. “How much longer will I have to drive before I see it?” he shrugged. That jerk. He shrugged.

“Fine. If that’s what it takes then I’ll drive all night. I just want this all to be over.”

It was midnight by the time we actually left the city. “I can’t take it anymore! I am a human. I need sleep.” too bad we left the city because out here there will be no hotels to stay at. I holed up in the car and slept. For four hours.

Tap tap tap. “Go away. . .” tap tap tap. “Wha. . .” I looked left and there was a cop outside the window. “Oh shit.” tap ta- I started rolling down the window.

“Hello, hello. You need something officer?” I asked.

“Yes, in fact I do. Are you living in this car?”

“Just for tonight. I’m going somewhere and I didn’t have time to check in at a hotel.”

“That’s just fine, I just need you to move off the freeway. You can sit to the side of any other street. I just need you to get off of the freeway.”

“I am so sorry, officer. I was so tired I had no idea where I was. I’ll go immediately.”

“I think that’d be best.”

I rolled up the window and started driving. I was awake now so there was no point in going back to sleep. Get off of the freeway my phone read.“if you insist” I replied. I got off of the freeway and then he told me to get off of the road. I had not rented a vehicle that could go through that. Luckily another of that one rental place was a few miles down the road so I dropped it there and followed the directions on foot. I walked my few things I had till dark and slept in a tree one night, but the trees were getting more sparse. They were still abundant, shure, but they were starting to spread out more and more. Then one day, the trees suddenly cut off. I hadn’t noticed but they were gone now and I couldn’t see any nearby. I looked up an overhead view of where I was.

My breath caught. It looked like a massive battle between gods. Massive swaths of land taken out and turned into a permanent dessert. It looked like a battle scene in some anime I would have watched. I was horrified.

“You did this, didn’t you.”

Words appeared on the screen. Aurinko had no choice. I had gone insane. I had killed so many. I had to be taken to a world without life, this one, and I was eventually killed. I needed to be killed.

I had no words. Then I found them. “How can I trust you then.”

Because I am only the purest of my former self. I am not who I was. I feel great regret for what I did.

I didn’t believe him but I had to know I wasn’t insane. Plus, it looked like he was stuck on reflective surfaces and I could just not take the dagger.

I continued to walk the miles to the dagger. Nothing eventful happened after that. I walked and I walked.

Turn around.

“Okay” I turned around and around and continually looked for the dagger.

Go down

How ridiculous. I’m not digging around for it. “Melt the sand or something. I’m not going down there.”

I waited. It was growing warmer instead of cooler as the day progressed as it should have. It was growing really warm. I started to strip for hope of cooling off. It didn’t help. It kept getting warmer. I was in my underwear, lying on the sand, screaming like some junkie. I lied there. Nearly naked and screaming in pain.

“Fine! I’ll do what you want! Just stop!” The sand was wet where my head was because of my tears. “Where do I start.” I was putting my clothes back on. There was some sand on them, but I was about to dig in the sand, so I didn’t really care about that.

The tears in the sand (dibs on the new rock band name) suddenly evaporated instantly with a loud hissing sound.

So there. I finished putting my clothes on, got on my hands and knees and started digging. I kept going. I dug till my hands were rare and bleeding. I had only dug three feet which I felt should have been far enough but it wasn’t.

I heard a sizzling sound. Sizzle sizzle sizzle sizzle then it evolved into a cracking, I thought that that might mean I was getting closer. How wrong I was.

BANG!

That was definitely not a good sign. I climbed out of my six foot hole and looked around. I couldn’t see anything.

“Damn. That’s a really deep hole.”

I jumped and fell into my hole and landed on something extra hard. I felt around and there it was. The sun dagger.

“What’s going on down there.” a man asked, head popping just over the edge of the hole.

“Nothing.”I said as I hid the dagger behind my back.

“How has today been? Good?” he asked.

“Well, not really, it’s been kind of sucky, really.” I told him honestly

“Hm. Too bad. I really didn’t want you to die on a bad day. Oh well. I guess there is no helping it.” then he shot a blast of sound at me, I couldn’t hear it, but I knew. My head was about ready to explode and then I wasn’t there anymore. I was somewhere new.