Eric awoke in the familiar shop smelling of iron, paper, and the old man's tea. Pushing himself up, Eric was surprised to see the bandages on his torso.
The old man sat in front of his table drinking a sip of coffee but Eric's temper flared when he saw what was inside of the cup.
"You old fart, you had me risk my life for those Umbral plants and you're just using them in a tea."
The old man didn't even look at the boy, his full attention on the cup of joy in his hands.
Throwing the pillow beneath him at the old man, Eric got up and stood upright before his heart jolted.
BA-BUMP!!!!! The noise encompassed Eric's hearing as well as touch. His body turned stiff as he felt negativity rising in him.
'Why should I care she left me.'
'Nobody loves me.'
'My parents are better off dead.'
'Maybe I should just end it.'
All of these thoughts spewing forth in his mind as though intent on filling up his entire focus. Body trembling, the old man took another sip before speaking.
Voice cool and detached the old man said, "You must think of yourself as special or maybe gifted to some degree. What you feel right now is the effect of one, that parasite eating parts of your soul and two, that demon's bloodline trying to take over your body."
Eric felt the room turn upside down, the old man's speech still audible but slower than it actually was. Taking his last slurp, Rudolph got up and grabbed an amber colored stone from his pocket.
Leisurely walking over to the kid who was having a crisis, he held the stone to his forehead.
"This is good faith as business partners, but I will be requiring interest." Pressing the stone against Eric's forehead a cross symbol shone in blinding light as a darkness spewed from his sternum.
Yet the cross's brilliance eclipsed the darkness by far. It burned into Eric's forehead where a high-pitched screech emitted. Eric's body fell face forward, yet the stone wasn't done. It then did the same right on his dantian.
"Magdy, I have some important instructions to give you regarding this boy."
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Eric awoke this time with a sense of immense weakness. Confused, Eric found himself lying in a pond of water, floating on a large leaf.
"Am, Am I dreaming?" Feeling lightheaded, Eric tried to lie back down on his oversized leaf. Breathing labored and vision flickering Eric closed his eyes.
"Ha ha ha ha, damn that old man. Wonder why I'm so weak right now? Forget it, let's catch some zzzz's." Both eye's closed, Eric drifted until he heard a water like noise getting louder and louder. Eyebrows scrunched; Eric's irritability rose.
"Shut the hell up, I'm trying to get some...." Standing up Eric witnessed the last few feet of water before it went completely down, no longer moving as a consistent horizontal.
"Waterfall?" And with that, the boy and his leaf plummeted down the unknown. Eric felt his mind playing tricks, the surroundings quiet.
"Mine, Mine,mine." A strange creature no lather than three feet tall and with stick like limbs. Its face akin to an ugly dog with sparse hair.
Eric looked at the animal dragging his body out of the water and onto the shore. Shivering from the cold, Eric watched as the ugly little thing brought him from the shore to the nearby hut.
Body aching and mind shaky, Eric was quiet. The very thought of talking or even moving was too much. Having been dragged into a strange area the little thing snifffed all over his body.
"Goof goof got gooo" It's voice sounding like a baby and old man at the same time. Touching all over the boy's body the creature grew excited before grabbing a brush and painting on his body.
Eric felt a burning pain anytime the dirty brush touched his body. A disgusting brownish purple sludge the ink drawn on his body. The creature licked its fingers time from time.
Pain ranging from burning, to throbbing, to a cutting pain sent stronger waves of weakness through his body. Strange sounds of screaming were coming from his body that made the boy feel delirious.
A couple of hours later, every inch of Eric's body was covered in paint. From afar it looked like someone threw the boy into a pit of ink.
Having a closer look, a writing was made on his body, with every few inches looking different from the other.
Done with it's writing the fur ball, slapped a paw on Eric's forehead. A disgusting screech erratically sounded. A snarl and a projection of a spider materialized.
The spider was slightly ethereal. A pure white with strong purple patterns. The head was sleek with circular patterns but the abdomen had a pattern depicting a boy with half of his body encased in spider web.
Seeing the small creature before it the spider released a shrill squeal. The ugly looking creature stared at the spider hungerly.
Clapping its two paw like hands together, the spider grew still until it couldn't move anymore. A purple rhombus formed on the base of Eric's skull.
"Goo, fooo, gof, gof!!" Seemingly satisfied with his work, the creature dragged Eric back to the water and threw him in.
Disappearing beneath the surface, the creature watched while eating a white and purple spider leg.