Chapter 15
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Alex blearily cracks open his eyes and then immediately pops them wide open. Lying on his side on a bench he could see a street with a line of houses at the edge of the park he was in and this park was one he was very familiar with. It was the park near his house he would walk around whenever life had stressed him out.
"Am I finally home? Did that old man finally give in?" The elation within Alex was starting to build up in the cool damp dawn. The sun had yet to rise and the mist was still shrouding the far distance while the grass was still wet with dew.
"Or was everything a dream I had?" He looks around for any liquor bottles before frowning. "But everything was so realistic and painful. The people were so lifelike as if they were real too. All those things... I was... My imagination is not that good."
Alex sat all the way up as anxiety starts replacing his elation. "Then again, dreams often seem real to us while we dream them even if it starts to make no sense when we're waking up."
[Could I really be back?]
Shivering at how cold he felt, Alex gets up from the bench and thoroughly shakes off the water vapor that had settled on him. The atmosphere is serene and not a sound from the city life can be heard, not even the sound of a passing car disturbed this moment of silence.
[Wait.] Alex realizes that he can't even hear the birds which are usually obnoxiously noisy in the morning, at least the ones in the tree next to his bedroom window usually are.
"Pay attention!"
He was just looking around trying to find signs of life when the old man yells into his ear from right next to him, Scaring the crap out of Alex and making him let out a little yell of his own. As he whirls around to face the mean old man, he subconsciously takes a step back upon noticing that all the space around the old man is a white void. Confused Alex asks "Are you just messing with me or are you really sending me home? If..."
Alex stopped talking when he saw the old man starting to rummage around in the same kind of stomach pouch the red monsters had. Before Alex could recover from this surprise the old man had pulled out a shock stick just like the ones used to cook his body medium well and with a malicious gleam in his eye, the old man stabs Alex in the belly with it.
The shock of this sudden action was so surprising to Alex that he felt none of the excruciating pain in his belly button and for a moment all was motionless and all noise vanished. Even the crackling of the shock stick cooking his flesh was absent and all color and shapes faded out into the blank white void of the old man's abode before Alex started getting a massive headache. As Alex begins to fall over, he jolts awake.
A strong taste of Raspberry jam was the first thing Alex took note of as he recovered his senses. The pain throughout his body wasn't noticed until he moved to turn over onto his side and with some despair, he realized this meant he was probably still in that pink body. He felt a strange buzzing helmet firmly secured to his head. This helmet is probably the source of a massive headache that was making Alex want to throw up and pass out again. He desperately pries the device off his head and tosses it away. After a moment of being perplexed by the machine's design and what it was doing on him, his eyes start to wander around taking in his new surroundings.
*Ahem*
As Alex was turning his head to look behind him someone cleared their throat and made him jump in surprise again!
"You woke up pretty fast."
Quickly looking over at the source of the voice, Alex saw it was another pink monster confined in a jail cell just like he was.
Before Alex could fully understand what was going on, his neighbor continued, "That machine scans your memory while you sleep. They seem to use it as an interrogation tool but it usually takes much longer before someone that has it on to wake up from it. Yet you woke up even before your nose started bleeding. How did you do it?"
Alex looked back at the machine again and scooted a bit further away from it, getting closer to his new friend. There didn't seem to be anyone else nearby but being confined in a jail cell naturally made Alex want to be quiet. With soft squeaking footsteps, he walked up to the bars separating their two cells before speaking.
"What's going on? Where are we?" Alex asked.
"We, are in a godforsaken prison on a godforsaken demon's world."
Hearing how the pink monster in front of him was acting completely different from the other locals gave Alex's sanity a shred of hope.
"You're a normal person? Are you like me?"
"Normal person?" Alex's new buddy gave him an odd look upon being described as a normal person but a moment later this new buddy's eyes lit up and he excitedly began asking questions of his own.
"So you're not one of the pink demons either then? Who are you? Do you recognize God Harmel? I'm general Chris. What detachment are you from?"
Alex could only stare back with more confusion than he had a moment ago from when he woke up.
"God Harmel?.. No I'm not from any army. I'm just me, Alex. This one d*mned old man sent me here." Alex replied trying to clear his mind and organize his thoughts.
"D*mned old man?" The other pinkun looked at Alex with a thoughtful expression and a look of possible understanding formed in his eyes. "Hey grab that device and bring it over here for a moment."
Looking back at that h*ll machine of shiny metal and pink plastic, Alex was hesitant to even go near it.
"Quickly! Before anybody comes to take it now that you're awake!" The pinkun urged.
Alex was alarmed at the thought of those big red monsters chasing after him again and shakily walked over, his feet emitting squeaks with every step, to bring the machine to his new buddy.
"Here. What are you going to do with it?"
The pinkun grabbed it up and studied the three buttons along the top of it for a moment. "I think they toggled this one here." He said as he pressed the button on his right.
A video projection without sound flashed onto the floor and nearby wall and started playing before the pinkun adjusted the device to project the video onto the floor between him and Alex. What was being shown was the dream Alex was just having and near the end, the other pinkun gasped in surprise when he saw the old man.
Looking up at Alex with an excited look on his face, he asked, "He sent you here? Does he know that I'm in trouble? What did he say?"
Alex only gave him a blank stare in return and with growing trepidation, the pinkun asked, "When are we getting out? He did send you to save me right?"
It was then that Alex realized his new buddy was talking about the old man and obviously must have been sent here by him too. "You know this old man? So his name is Harmel?"
"Harmel?.. No Harmel is the god that sent me here with his army, the old man is the one that reincarnated me to Harmel's world. Are you saying that you're not here to rescue me?" The pinkun asks with obvious disappointment.
Alex shook his head. "This is the first time I'm hearing about any of this. But we both Know the old man! Are you from Earth too?"
Hearing the name of his home planet, the pinkun was shocked and tears started forming in his over-sized eyes. "Yeah, I'm from Earth... but... could you be that guy that was bitten in half by a giant snake?" He asked with some melancholy.
Alex's big pinkun eyes widened in sudden realization. "You're that rude guy that was laughing at me! How the h*ll...!?"
*Ssshhhh* The rude guy pinkun shushed Alex. "Don't be too loud or you'll bring the interrogators over... and I said my name was Chris not rude guy."
Just then another prisoner could be heard yelling further down the hall, "The cake is a lie! It's really a pie! Mwuahahahaha!"
Alex looks in the direction of the new voice with a confounded expression and Chris explains, "That's just another prisoner. The guards refer to him as the prophet. He's usually quiet but others being noisy sets him off. The guards usually pay him no mind but I've seen them stop and listen to his words a few times when they were dealing with me and some of the others. Anyway, what are you doing here? If the old man didn't send you for me, why are you here?"
Alex was looking around at all the other cells. "Others? All these other cells are empty."
"They used to be full. Now stop ignoring me and.."
"The old man has been sending me to lots of places and he sends me somewhere else when I die."
Chris was taken aback for a moment. "How many times have you died?"
"I'm not sure and I'd rather not try to remember all of it... But how did you get here?"
Chris tosses the machine and sits down on his pinkun butt with a poof noise. "The old man reincarnated me with a system as the champion of the God Harmel. I was told about the demons they were constantly fighting and given the choice of worshiping Harmel as my God and leading the new crusade against the demons or rotting in jail. I chose to lead the crusade as Harmel's champion so I could become a hero when I returned. They gave me a really nice sword and some armor and after training me for a bit they said I was ready. The Army I was to lead was massive." Chris relates his tale with a fleeting smile.
"I almost fell on my a*s when I first stood in front of them. Each one of my men had the steeled look of a veteran in their eyes. There on the podium, I was formally given command after receiving Harmel's protection. I figured out later that I was really sent through a portal with that army just as a distraction to lure out the demon God so that God Harmel could attack her when she wasn't looking. I don't think we're even on the same planet. My system hasn't been working right ever since the battle."
"System? What's a system?"
"You don't know what a system is? Ah, I guess you weren't given one before. A system is... How should I explain it? A system is something like an A.I. that gives you an advantage over others. Mine gave me the ability to analyze those in close proximity to me and made it easier to use my battle techniques and skills. None of the other soldiers could match my strength!"
Puckering his lips in confusion, Alex asks, "Then how did they beat you and why are you a pink demon like the rest of us?"
"There were just too many of them. I had an army of veterans while they were an endless horde of pink demons. Just the squeaking alone was enough to drive half my men insane. The rest of us died, drowning in an ocean of the demons' blood."
"You died by drowning in raspberry jelly?" Alex couldn't help but ask while holding in his laugh. "Not even my first death was as stupid as that sounds."
"If you'd been there, you wouldn't be laughing now." Chris answered moodily with a far off look. "Were you talking about your first death on Earth just now? How did you first die?"
Alex looked to the side before saying, "I'd rather not say."
"Come on, we're both from Earth. Tell you what, I'll tell you how I died if you tell me how you died."
Sighing, Alex says, "Fine but you go first."
"Alright, let me think for a moment. You know about the Mafia and stuff right? I was working for one of the bosses in Asia. I was busy with a girl and didn't show up when a big meeting was called so they dragged me in to answer to the boss. I foolishly told them that my phone was broken but the boss pulled out his cell right there and called it. Let's just say the boss wasn't happy with the ringtone I had set for his personal number. I have a feeling my body was made into hot dogs or something not long after that. Alright, let's hear how you died."
Alex took a moment to reflect on the story he just heard before simply saying, "A blood clot got into my brain while I slept."
"Is that all? That's not even as bad as getting eaten by that snake."
A couple of moments of silence passed before Alex asked, "What happened to your God? Do you think Harmel will save us?"
Chris frowns at Alex before asking, "You're not here just to get me to talk are you?"
"I'm still confused by all that is going on." Alex answered with a blank look. "How long have I been in here?" Worry started to gnaw at his heart as he thought about being stuck on this world forever.
"What does it matter how long you've been here for? It's not like we can get out." Chris harrumphed.
"My eye my eyes! They see not but lies!" The prophet yelled from down the hallway.
Chris quickly stood back up looking down the hall. "The prophet only says that when he senses the guards coming soon." Looking back at Alex, "Listen, every time the guards come recently, they've been taking a pair of prisoners with them and none of them have returned. You and I are the only ones in here other than the prophet and he was here before I first got here so its probably our turn next. I don't want to go without a fight so help me break out of here."
"What should we do?" Alex asks.
Chris points up, "You see the ceiling? It looks thin to be transparent enough to let in light and I think we can break it if we can just get close enough. None of the other prisoners that were next to my cell had their wits about them before you so I couldn't get any help. You look slightly smaller than me so step on my hands and then stand on my shoulder and see if you can reach up high enough."
It takes Alex a few tries before he gets it right and just as Chris had thought, the ceiling was close enough to bang on with his hand.
*Thump thump thump*
Unfortunately, his soft mitten fist wasn't doing any damage so Alex looks around and tries to loosen the prison bars next to him with no luck. With nothing else he could think to do, Alex started licking the ceiling trying to eat his way out.
"Hey! What the h*ll are you doing? Get down and let me try if you're just going to play around." Chris says in exasperation.
Climbing on Alex and holding onto the bars Chris starts banging on the ceiling too but does no visible damage. At this moment a door in the distance opens and a series of squeaking footsteps can be heard approaching. Chris starts going berserk trying to loosen the bars before he also starts licking the ceiling.
The guards turn the corner and see this, "Hey! Stop what you are doing!"
Chris jumps back down and lands with a loud squeak, "We have no choice, we're going to have to fight our way out."
Alex just nods his head in agreement as the guards open the cell doors and rush in with their electric sticks out and ready. Chris does a flipping forward kick but doesn't even get the guard to stumble which makes Chris fall flat on his back on the floor before getting stabbed with the shock stick and is subdued.
Seeing this and having been shocked to h*ll before, Alex puts up his hands in surrender as the prophet down the hall yells, "A square, a shape. Triangle has three sides. A circle is a line!"
All the guards stop and look at one another. "Oh, that was profound!"
Dragging Chris along the guards lead Alex down the hallway. As they passed his cell, the prophet smiles at Alex and says, "Have fun!"
After they pass by, Alex asks the guards, "Is he always so crazy?"
At this, the guard next to him slaps Alex across the back of the head and says, "Don't disrespect the prophet. He may be held in the re-education love center but it's for his own good. Not like the rest of you ungrateful rebels."
Alex is lead down the hallway and out of the prison.
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Alex blearily cracks open his eyes and then immediately pops them wide open. Lying on his side on a bench he could see a street with a line of houses at the edge of the park he was in and this park was one he was very familiar with. It was the park near his house he would walk around whenever life had stressed him out.
"Am I finally home? Did that old man finally give in?" The elation within Alex was starting to build up in the cool damp dawn. The sun had yet to rise and the mist was still shrouding the far distance while the grass was still wet with dew.
"Or was everything a dream I had?" He looks around for any liquor bottles before frowning. "But everything was so realistic and painful. The people were so lifelike as if they were real too. All those things... I was... My imagination is not that good."
Alex sat all the way up as anxiety starts replacing his elation. "Then again, dreams often seem real to us while we dream them even if it starts to make no sense when we're waking up."
[Could I really be back?]
Shivering at how cold he felt, Alex gets up from the bench and thoroughly shakes off the water vapor that had settled on him. The atmosphere is serene and not a sound from the city life can be heard, not even the sound of a passing car disturbed this moment of silence.
[Wait.] Alex realizes that he can't even hear the birds which are usually obnoxiously noisy in the morning, at least the ones in the tree next to his bedroom window usually are.
"Pay attention!"
He was just looking around trying to find signs of life when the old man yells into his ear from right next to him, Scaring the crap out of Alex and making him let out a little yell of his own. As he whirls around to face the mean old man, he subconsciously takes a step back upon noticing that all the space around the old man is a white void. Confused Alex asks "Are you just messing with me or are you really sending me home? If..."
Alex stopped talking when he saw the old man starting to rummage around in the same kind of stomach pouch the red monsters had. Before Alex could recover from this surprise the old man had pulled out a shock stick just like the ones used to cook his body medium well and with a malicious gleam in his eye, the old man stabs Alex in the belly with it.
The shock of this sudden action was so surprising to Alex that he felt none of the excruciating pain in his belly button and for a moment all was motionless and all noise vanished. Even the crackling of the shock stick cooking his flesh was absent and all color and shapes faded out into the blank white void of the old man's abode before Alex started getting a massive headache. As Alex begins to fall over, he jolts awake.
A strong taste of Raspberry jam was the first thing Alex took note of as he recovered his senses. The pain throughout his body wasn't noticed until he moved to turn over onto his side and with some despair, he realized this meant he was probably still in that pink body. He felt a strange buzzing helmet firmly secured to his head. This helmet is probably the source of a massive headache that was making Alex want to throw up and pass out again. He desperately pries the device off his head and tosses it away. After a moment of being perplexed by the machine's design and what it was doing on him, his eyes start to wander around taking in his new surroundings.
*Ahem*
As Alex was turning his head to look behind him someone cleared their throat and made him jump in surprise again!
"You woke up pretty fast."
Quickly looking over at the source of the voice, Alex saw it was another pink monster confined in a jail cell just like he was.
Before Alex could fully understand what was going on, his neighbor continued, "That machine scans your memory while you sleep. They seem to use it as an interrogation tool but it usually takes much longer before someone that has it on to wake up from it. Yet you woke up even before your nose started bleeding. How did you do it?"
Alex looked back at the machine again and scooted a bit further away from it, getting closer to his new friend. There didn't seem to be anyone else nearby but being confined in a jail cell naturally made Alex want to be quiet. With soft squeaking footsteps, he walked up to the bars separating their two cells before speaking.
"What's going on? Where are we?" Alex asked.
"We, are in a godforsaken prison on a godforsaken demon's world."
Hearing how the pink monster in front of him was acting completely different from the other locals gave Alex's sanity a shred of hope.
"You're a normal person? Are you like me?"
"Normal person?" Alex's new buddy gave him an odd look upon being described as a normal person but a moment later this new buddy's eyes lit up and he excitedly began asking questions of his own.
"So you're not one of the pink demons either then? Who are you? Do you recognize God Harmel? I'm general Chris. What detachment are you from?"
Alex could only stare back with more confusion than he had a moment ago from when he woke up.
"God Harmel?.. No I'm not from any army. I'm just me, Alex. This one d*mned old man sent me here." Alex replied trying to clear his mind and organize his thoughts.
"D*mned old man?" The other pinkun looked at Alex with a thoughtful expression and a look of possible understanding formed in his eyes. "Hey grab that device and bring it over here for a moment."
Looking back at that h*ll machine of shiny metal and pink plastic, Alex was hesitant to even go near it.
"Quickly! Before anybody comes to take it now that you're awake!" The pinkun urged.
Alex was alarmed at the thought of those big red monsters chasing after him again and shakily walked over, his feet emitting squeaks with every step, to bring the machine to his new buddy.
"Here. What are you going to do with it?"
The pinkun grabbed it up and studied the three buttons along the top of it for a moment. "I think they toggled this one here." He said as he pressed the button on his right.
A video projection without sound flashed onto the floor and nearby wall and started playing before the pinkun adjusted the device to project the video onto the floor between him and Alex. What was being shown was the dream Alex was just having and near the end, the other pinkun gasped in surprise when he saw the old man.
Looking up at Alex with an excited look on his face, he asked, "He sent you here? Does he know that I'm in trouble? What did he say?"
Alex only gave him a blank stare in return and with growing trepidation, the pinkun asked, "When are we getting out? He did send you to save me right?"
It was then that Alex realized his new buddy was talking about the old man and obviously must have been sent here by him too. "You know this old man? So his name is Harmel?"
"Harmel?.. No Harmel is the god that sent me here with his army, the old man is the one that reincarnated me to Harmel's world. Are you saying that you're not here to rescue me?" The pinkun asks with obvious disappointment.
Alex shook his head. "This is the first time I'm hearing about any of this. But we both Know the old man! Are you from Earth too?"
Hearing the name of his home planet, the pinkun was shocked and tears started forming in his over-sized eyes. "Yeah, I'm from Earth... but... could you be that guy that was bitten in half by a giant snake?" He asked with some melancholy.
Alex's big pinkun eyes widened in sudden realization. "You're that rude guy that was laughing at me! How the h*ll...!?"
*Ssshhhh* The rude guy pinkun shushed Alex. "Don't be too loud or you'll bring the interrogators over... and I said my name was Chris not rude guy."
Just then another prisoner could be heard yelling further down the hall, "The cake is a lie! It's really a pie! Mwuahahahaha!"
Alex looks in the direction of the new voice with a confounded expression and Chris explains, "That's just another prisoner. The guards refer to him as the prophet. He's usually quiet but others being noisy sets him off. The guards usually pay him no mind but I've seen them stop and listen to his words a few times when they were dealing with me and some of the others. Anyway, what are you doing here? If the old man didn't send you for me, why are you here?"
Alex was looking around at all the other cells. "Others? All these other cells are empty."
"They used to be full. Now stop ignoring me and.."
"The old man has been sending me to lots of places and he sends me somewhere else when I die."
Chris was taken aback for a moment. "How many times have you died?"
"I'm not sure and I'd rather not try to remember all of it... But how did you get here?"
Chris tosses the machine and sits down on his pinkun butt with a poof noise. "The old man reincarnated me with a system as the champion of the God Harmel. I was told about the demons they were constantly fighting and given the choice of worshiping Harmel as my God and leading the new crusade against the demons or rotting in jail. I chose to lead the crusade as Harmel's champion so I could become a hero when I returned. They gave me a really nice sword and some armor and after training me for a bit they said I was ready. The Army I was to lead was massive." Chris relates his tale with a fleeting smile.
"I almost fell on my a*s when I first stood in front of them. Each one of my men had the steeled look of a veteran in their eyes. There on the podium, I was formally given command after receiving Harmel's protection. I figured out later that I was really sent through a portal with that army just as a distraction to lure out the demon God so that God Harmel could attack her when she wasn't looking. I don't think we're even on the same planet. My system hasn't been working right ever since the battle."
"System? What's a system?"
"You don't know what a system is? Ah, I guess you weren't given one before. A system is... How should I explain it? A system is something like an A.I. that gives you an advantage over others. Mine gave me the ability to analyze those in close proximity to me and made it easier to use my battle techniques and skills. None of the other soldiers could match my strength!"
Puckering his lips in confusion, Alex asks, "Then how did they beat you and why are you a pink demon like the rest of us?"
"There were just too many of them. I had an army of veterans while they were an endless horde of pink demons. Just the squeaking alone was enough to drive half my men insane. The rest of us died, drowning in an ocean of the demons' blood."
"You died by drowning in raspberry jelly?" Alex couldn't help but ask while holding in his laugh. "Not even my first death was as stupid as that sounds."
"If you'd been there, you wouldn't be laughing now." Chris answered moodily with a far off look. "Were you talking about your first death on Earth just now? How did you first die?"
Alex looked to the side before saying, "I'd rather not say."
"Come on, we're both from Earth. Tell you what, I'll tell you how I died if you tell me how you died."
Sighing, Alex says, "Fine but you go first."
"Alright, let me think for a moment. You know about the Mafia and stuff right? I was working for one of the bosses in Asia. I was busy with a girl and didn't show up when a big meeting was called so they dragged me in to answer to the boss. I foolishly told them that my phone was broken but the boss pulled out his cell right there and called it. Let's just say the boss wasn't happy with the ringtone I had set for his personal number. I have a feeling my body was made into hot dogs or something not long after that. Alright, let's hear how you died."
Alex took a moment to reflect on the story he just heard before simply saying, "A blood clot got into my brain while I slept."
"Is that all? That's not even as bad as getting eaten by that snake."
A couple of moments of silence passed before Alex asked, "What happened to your God? Do you think Harmel will save us?"
Chris frowns at Alex before asking, "You're not here just to get me to talk are you?"
"I'm still confused by all that is going on." Alex answered with a blank look. "How long have I been in here?" Worry started to gnaw at his heart as he thought about being stuck on this world forever.
"What does it matter how long you've been here for? It's not like we can get out." Chris harrumphed.
"My eye my eyes! They see not but lies!" The prophet yelled from down the hallway.
Chris quickly stood back up looking down the hall. "The prophet only says that when he senses the guards coming soon." Looking back at Alex, "Listen, every time the guards come recently, they've been taking a pair of prisoners with them and none of them have returned. You and I are the only ones in here other than the prophet and he was here before I first got here so its probably our turn next. I don't want to go without a fight so help me break out of here."
"What should we do?" Alex asks.
Chris points up, "You see the ceiling? It looks thin to be transparent enough to let in light and I think we can break it if we can just get close enough. None of the other prisoners that were next to my cell had their wits about them before you so I couldn't get any help. You look slightly smaller than me so step on my hands and then stand on my shoulder and see if you can reach up high enough."
It takes Alex a few tries before he gets it right and just as Chris had thought, the ceiling was close enough to bang on with his hand.
*Thump thump thump*
Unfortunately, his soft mitten fist wasn't doing any damage so Alex looks around and tries to loosen the prison bars next to him with no luck. With nothing else he could think to do, Alex started licking the ceiling trying to eat his way out.
"Hey! What the h*ll are you doing? Get down and let me try if you're just going to play around." Chris says in exasperation.
Climbing on Alex and holding onto the bars Chris starts banging on the ceiling too but does no visible damage. At this moment a door in the distance opens and a series of squeaking footsteps can be heard approaching. Chris starts going berserk trying to loosen the bars before he also starts licking the ceiling.
The guards turn the corner and see this, "Hey! Stop what you are doing!"
Chris jumps back down and lands with a loud squeak, "We have no choice, we're going to have to fight our way out."
Alex just nods his head in agreement as the guards open the cell doors and rush in with their electric sticks out and ready. Chris does a flipping forward kick but doesn't even get the guard to stumble which makes Chris fall flat on his back on the floor before getting stabbed with the shock stick and is subdued.
Seeing this and having been shocked to h*ll before, Alex puts up his hands in surrender as the prophet down the hall yells, "A square, a shape. Triangle has three sides. A circle is a line!"
All the guards stop and look at one another. "Oh, that was profound!"
Dragging Chris along the guards lead Alex down the hallway. As they passed his cell, the prophet smiles at Alex and says, "Have fun!"
After they pass by, Alex asks the guards, "Is he always so crazy?"
At this, the guard next to him slaps Alex across the back of the head and says, "Don't disrespect the prophet. He may be held in the re-education love center but it's for his own good. Not like the rest of you ungrateful rebels."
Alex is lead down the hallway and out of the prison.
Alex blearily cracks open his eyes and then immediately pops them wide open. Lying on his side on a bench he could see a street with a line of houses at the edge of the park he was in and this park was one he was very familiar with. It was the park near his house he would walk around whenever life had stressed him out."Am I finally home? Did that old man finally give in?" The elation within Alex was starting to build up in the cool damp dawn. The sun had yet to rise and the mist was still shrouding the far distance while the grass was still wet with dew."Or was everything a dream I had?" He looks around for any liquor bottles before frowning. "But everything was so realistic and painful. The people were so lifelike as if they were real too. All those things... I was... My imagination is not that good."Alex sat all the way up as anxiety starts replacing his elation. "Then again, dreams often seem real to us while we dream them even if it starts to make no sense when we're waking up."Could I really be back?Shivering at how cold he felt, Alex gets up from the bench and thoroughly shakes off the water vapor that had settled on him. The atmosphere is serene and not a sound from the city life can be heard, not even the sound of a passing car disturbed this moment of silence.Wait. Alex realizes that he can't even hear the birds which are usually obnoxiously noisy in the morning, at least the ones in the tree next to his bedroom window usually are."Pay attention!"He was just looking around trying to find signs of life when the old man yells into his ear from right next to him, Scaring the crap out of Alex and making him let out a little yell of his own. As he whirls around to face the mean old man, he subconsciously takes a step back upon noticing that all the space around the old man is a white void. Confused Alex asks "Are you just messing with me or are you really sending me home? If..."Alex stopped talking when he saw the old man starting to rummage around in the same kind of stomach pouch the red monsters had. Before Alex could recover from this surprise the old man had pulled out a shock stick just like the ones used to cook his body medium well and with a malicious gleam in his eye, the old man stabs Alex in the belly with it.The shock of this sudden action was so surprising to Alex that he felt none of the excruciating pain in his belly button and for a moment all was motionless and all noise vanished. Even the crackling of the shock stick cooking his flesh was absent and all color and shapes faded out into the blank white void of the old man's abode before Alex started getting a massive headache. As Alex begins to fall over, he jolts awake.A strong taste of Raspberry jam was the first thing Alex took note of as he recovered his senses. The pain throughout his body wasn't noticed until he moved to turn over onto his side and with some despair, he realized this meant he was probably still in that pink body. He felt a strange buzzing helmet firmly secured to his head. This helmet is probably the source of a massive headache that was making Alex want to throw up and pass out again. He desperately pries the device off his head and tosses it away. After a moment of being perplexed by the machine's design and what it was doing on him, his eyes start to wander around taking in his new surroundings.*Ahem*As Alex was turning his head to look behind him someone cleared their throat and made him jump in surprise again!"You woke up pretty fast."Quickly looking over at the source of the voice, Alex saw it was another pink monster confined in a jail cell just like he was.Before Alex could fully understand what was going on, his neighbor continued, "That machine scans your memory while you sleep. They seem to use it as an interrogation tool but it usually takes much longer before someone that has it on to wake up from it. Yet you woke up even before your nose started bleeding. How did you do it?"Alex looked back at the machine again and scooted a bit further away from it, getting closer to his new friend. There didn't seem to be anyone else nearby but being confined in a jail cell naturally made Alex want to be quiet. With soft squeaking footsteps, he walked up to the bars separating their two cells before speaking."What's going on? Where are we?" Alex asked."We, are in a godforsaken prison on a godforsaken demon's world."Hearing how the pink monster in front of him was acting completely different from the other locals gave Alex's sanity a shred of hope."You're a normal person? Are you like me?""Normal person?" Alex's new buddy gave him an odd look upon being described as a normal person but a moment later this new buddy's eyes lit up and he excitedly began asking questions of his own."So you're not one of the pink demons either then? Who are you? Do you recognize God Harmel? I'm general Chris. What detachment are you from?"Alex could only stare back with more confusion than he had a moment ago from when he woke up."God Harmel?.. No I'm not from any army. I'm just me, Alex. This one d*mned old man sent me here." Alex replied trying to clear his mind and organize his thoughts."D*mned old man?" The other pinkun looked at Alex with a thoughtful expression and a look of possible understanding formed in his eyes. "Hey grab that device and bring it over here for a moment."Looking back at that h*ll machine of shiny metal and pink plastic, Alex was hesitant to even go near it."Quickly! Before anybody comes to take it now that you're awake!" The pinkun urged.Alex was alarmed at the thought of those big red monsters chasing after him again and shakily walked over, his feet emitting squeaks with every step, to bring the machine to his new buddy."Here. What are you going to do with it?"The pinkun grabbed it up and studied the three buttons along the top of it for a moment. "I think they toggled this one here." He said as he pressed the button on his right.A video projection without sound flashed onto the floor and nearby wall and started playing before the pinkun adjusted the device to project the video onto the floor between him and Alex. What was being shown was the dream Alex was just having and near the end, the other pinkun gasped in surprise when he saw the old man.Looking up at Alex with an excited look on his face, he asked, "He sent you here? Does he know that I'm in trouble? What did he say?"Alex only gave him a blank stare in return and with growing trepidation, the pinkun asked, "When are we getting out? He did send you to save me right?"It was then that Alex realized his new buddy was talking about the old man and obviously must have been sent here by him too. "You know this old man? So his name is Harmel?""Harmel?.. No Harmel is the god that sent me here with his army, the old man is the one that reincarnated me to Harmel's world. Are you saying that you're not here to rescue me?" The pinkun asks with obvious disappointment.Alex shook his head. "This is the first time I'm hearing about any of this. But we both Know the old man! Are you from Earth too?"Hearing the name of his home planet, the pinkun was shocked and tears started forming in his over-sized eyes. "Yeah, I'm from Earth... but... could you be that guy that was bitten in half by a giant snake?" He asked with some melancholy.Alex's big pinkun eyes widened in sudden realization. "You're that rude guy that was laughing at me! How the h*ll...!?"*Ssshhhh* The rude guy pinkun shushed Alex. "Don't be too loud or you'll bring the interrogators over... and I said my name was Chris not rude guy."Just then another prisoner could be heard yelling further down the hall, "The cake is a lie! It's really a pie! Mwuahahahaha!"Alex looks in the direction of the new voice with a confounded expression and Chris explains, "That's just another prisoner. The guards refer to him as the prophet. He's usually quiet but others being noisy sets him off. The guards usually pay him no mind but I've seen them stop and listen to his words a few times when they were dealing with me and some of the others. Anyway, what are you doing here? If the old man didn't send you for me, why are you here?"Alex was looking around at all the other cells. "Others? All these other cells are empty.""They used to be full. Now stop ignoring me and..""The old man has been sending me to lots of places and he sends me somewhere else when I die."Chris was taken aback for a moment. "How many times have you died?""I'm not sure and I'd rather not try to remember all of it... But how did you get here?"Chris tosses the machine and sits down on his pinkun butt with a poof noise. "The old man reincarnated me with a system as the champion of the God Harmel. I was told about the demons they were constantly fighting and given the choice of worshiping Harmel as my God and leading the new crusade against the demons or rotting in jail. I chose to lead the crusade as Harmel's champion so I could become a hero when I returned. They gave me a really nice sword and some armor and after training me for a bit they said I was ready. The Army I was to lead was massive." Chris relates his tale with a fleeting smile."I almost fell on my a*s when I first stood in front of them. Each one of my men had the steeled look of a veteran in their eyes. There on the podium, I was formally given command after receiving Harmel's protection. I figured out later that I was really sent through a portal with that army just as a distraction to lure out the demon God so that God Harmel could attack her when she wasn't looking. I don't think we're even on the same planet. My system hasn't been working right ever since the battle.""System? What's a system?""You don't know what a system is? Ah, I guess you weren't given one before. A system is... How should I explain it? A system is something like an A.I. that gives you an advantage over others. Mine gave me the ability to analyze those in close proximity to me and made it easier to use my battle techniques and skills. None of the other soldiers could match my strength!"Puckering his lips in confusion, Alex asks, "Then how did they beat you and why are you a pink demon like the rest of us?""There were just too many of them. I had an army of veterans while they were an endless horde of pink demons. Just the squeaking alone was enough to drive half my men insane. The rest of us died, drowning in an ocean of the demons' blood.""You died by drowning in raspberry jelly?" Alex couldn't help but ask while holding in his laugh. "Not even my first death was as stupid as that sounds.""If you'd been there, you wouldn't be laughing now." Chris answered moodily with a far off look. "Were you talking about your first death on Earth just now? How did you first die?"Alex looked to the side before saying, "I'd rather not say.""Come on, we're both from Earth. Tell you what, I'll tell you how I died if you tell me how you died."Sighing, Alex says, "Fine but you go first.""Alright, let me think for a moment. You know about the Mafia and stuff right? I was working for one of the bosses in Asia. I was busy with a girl and didn't show up when a big meeting was called so they dragged me in to answer to the boss. I foolishly told them that my phone was broken but the boss pulled out his cell right there and called it. Let's just say the boss wasn't happy with the ringtone I had set for his personal number. I have a feeling my body was made into hot dogs or something not long after that. Alright, let's hear how you died."Alex took a moment to reflect on the story he just heard before simply saying, "A blood clot got into my brain while I slept.""Is that all? That's not even as bad as getting eaten by that snake."A couple of moments of silence passed before Alex asked, "What happened to your God? Do you think Harmel will save us?"Chris frowns at Alex before asking, "You're not here just to get me to talk are you?""I'm still confused by all that is going on." Alex answered with a blank look. "How long have I been in here?" Worry started to gnaw at his heart as he thought about being stuck on this world forever."What does it matter how long you've been here for? It's not like we can get out." Chris harrumphed."My eye my eyes! They see not but lies!" The prophet yelled from down the hallway.Chris quickly stood back up looking down the hall. "The prophet only says that when he senses the guards coming soon." Looking back at Alex, "Listen, every time the guards come recently, they've been taking a pair of prisoners with them and none of them have returned. You and I are the only ones in here other than the prophet and he was here before I first got here so its probably our turn next. I don't want to go without a fight so help me break out of here.""What should we do?" Alex asks.Chris points up, "You see the ceiling? It looks thin to be transparent enough to let in light and I think we can break it if we can just get close enough. None of the other prisoners that were next to my cell had their wits about them before you so I couldn't get any help. You look slightly smaller than me so step on my hands and then stand on my shoulder and see if you can reach up high enough."It takes Alex a few tries before he gets it right and just as Chris had thought, the ceiling was close enough to bang on with his hand.*Thump thump thump*Unfortunately, his soft mitten fist wasn't doing any damage so Alex looks around and tries to loosen the prison bars next to him with no luck. With nothing else he could think to do, Alex started licking the ceiling trying to eat his way out."Hey! What the h*ll are you doing? Get down and let me try if you're just going to play around." Chris says in exasperation.Climbing on Alex and holding onto the bars Chris starts banging on the ceiling too but does no visible damage. At this moment a door in the distance opens and a series of squeaking footsteps can be heard approaching. Chris starts going berserk trying to loosen the bars before he also starts licking the ceiling.The guards turn the corner and see this, "Hey! Stop what you are doing!"Chris jumps back down and lands with a loud squeak, "We have no choice, we're going to have to fight our way out."Alex just nods his head in agreement as the guards open the cell doors and rush in with their electric sticks out and ready. Chris does a flipping forward kick but doesn't even get the guard to stumble which makes Chris fall flat on his back on the floor before getting stabbed with the shock stick and is subdued.Seeing this and having been shocked to h*ll before, Alex puts up his hands in surrender as the prophet down the hall yells, "A square, a shape. Triangle has three sides. A circle is a line!"All the guards stop and look at one another. "Oh, that was profound!"Dragging Chris along the guards lead Alex down the hallway. As they passed his cell, the prophet smiles at Alex and says, "Have fun!"After they pass by, Alex asks the guards, "Is he always so crazy?"At this, the guard next to him slaps Alex across the back of the head and says, "Don't disrespect the prophet. He may be held in the re-education love center but it's for his own good. Not like the rest of you ungrateful rebels."Alex is lead down the hallway and out of the prison.
