"Is that how weak you are?" A voice called out to me. I was standing in front of some 40-year-old dude. Dressed up in all black, top to bottom, like some pirate. His overcoat reached till his knee joints. He had an unshaved beard. Hands in his coat, with one eye covered with an eye patch, he seemed to have a turbulent life.
We were back in our world. Just that it was a bit twisted. How? I was standing in the sky, while the sky above me was the ground in the buildings upside down. This was something similar to a mirror dimension. But everything was inverted.
"Is that how weak you are, kid?"
"Who are you?"
"Answering my question with another question, what an imbecile!" His voice suddenly turned raucous. "I've been the closest with you for a while now, and yet you have the audacity to question who I am?! How miserable!"
"You've been with me for a while now? I don't remember sharing a room with some 40-year-old dude. You sure you're talking to me?"
"Look around you. What do you think this place is?"
"I don't know. Looks like a scenery an artist would draw and sell it for a huge chunk of money?"
"How hopeless can you get?!" He seemed like he was suffering from migraines. Well, I do feel bad for him. He seemed to have expected a lot more from me than I could live up to. I'm sorry for his expectations. Rest in Peace!
"Looks like I'll have to take you from the basics. Listen here kid, this world you're living in, the inverted world that you labeled it as, it's your inner world!" He just said that so nonchalantly that it was almost like a teacher reading a storybook about how serial killers preyed on innocent people just for satisfying their own pleasure without any feelings at all.
No, that's not the right way to explain it. But I won't bother trying to explain it. Since I myself was struggling to understand what he just meant.
"My world? This?"
"Hard to swallow the fact that twisted place is your inner world, isn't it?"
"But, why is it in such a way?"
"That is because of who you are."
"Because of who I am."
"You think of one thing, while you do the opposite of it. It's a recurring theme with you. Because of this your inner world's ultimately resulted in such a form. You've been always holding back your punches. You've been always trying to play the bad guy, and you've stopped listening to your inner voice. Time and time again, it has tried to reach out to you, but you've never cared to listen to it."
I've never listened to my own voice? Mt feelings? The thought of that made me bite my lips in anguish. Of course, I've always heard it. Those cries. I just shut them down, since they made me weak. But did that thought itself make me weak? I...don't know.
"But have you ever wondered the repercussions of your own actions? Have you ever wondered what was to happen if you carried on in such a fashion? Have you ever wondered, what if...what if...what if..."
He had just said those empty words but my brain had already started formulating a pattern and imagining stuff. I could start to figure out the gravity of the situation I was in, I guess.
"I guess you can already imagine it. But what if I showed it to you?" He snapped his finger. Nothing happened. Is this supposed to be a joke? After all that talk. I waited for a while since I knew this stuff wasn't always instantaneous and needed some time to take effect. But still, nothing changed.
I decided to give a piece of my mind to him. But then, I felt something roll down my cheek. Something kept pouring down. Sand? Like an hourglass? But how? I looked up, and to my utter horror, the buildings above my head started to disintegrate to sand, and now, I was stuck inside a sandglass. I couldn't spot that old man anywhere.
The buildings started disintegrating at a faster rate, and now, I was starting to get swept away by the pouring sand. I desperately tried to escape it but to no avail, all my efforts were put down to the drain. Wait, maybe I can escape this! Sudden confidence bloomed into me. Of course, I was an alchemist now. So this wasn't any trouble for me. Or so I thought.
I looked to my right wrist only to realize that I didn't have my bracelet on. Ugh! I need to focus on my surroundings. My awareness is pretty low. This is bad! Wait, so this wasn't the doing of Emily.
I don't think she could open a portal to my inner world. That means, that old man, if he's a spirit, was he the spirit who resided within the bracelet? And does that mean he was the gateway to my inner world? But that wasn't the whole point I needed to worry about.
What if I were to be submerged into this quicksand? Would dying inside my inner world kill me outside too? I don't know, and at this point, I couldn't care less. Since I was about to be submerged under this rumble.
"So, how was it?" I heard the old man's voice again. Not the overcoat old man. The sphinx old man. "I told you to follow this path, and here we are. So, how are you holding up?" I was levitating in a dark space. A recurring theme now.
"So, you wanted me to conquer my demons and nightmares huh?" I could guess his intentions. Or something like that. "I wasn't ready to be her knight, ain't I?" He let out a dry laugh.
"Sorry. I needed you to do that. Because it's only then you can understand what I'm about to tell you in our further meetings. We shall meet again, as our paths are connected."