After a while resting, Tobey finally felt like he was able to get up now. He didn't feel like it, but he knew that it was necessary. Staying depressed inside an alley wouldn't solve his problems, much less turn the tables; and what he truly needed at that moment was a turn on the tables.
'Honestly, I would like to keep under the rain, with my head resting on that dirty wall of the alley, and just think about life. However, no matter how much did I think, I never came up with a solution. When there is no solution, it means that I didn't explore the board as much as I need,' he thought as he limped out of the alley.
'The best thing I can do right now is to walk to a hospital. I bet that I will be able to think better once I get these wounds healed, then head to my apartment to think things through.'
As he limped out of the alley, he saw that there was a worn-out and dirty overcoat popping out of a dumpster. It smelled really bad and was more soaked than Tobey's clothes, which was a very curious point since he needed to run under the rain for several miles to finally get to that alley, and even there he kept getting wet.
'Well, I never was the type of guy to complain about things like these. I already needed to wear something worst than this when I was out of underwear at the department,' he thought as he sighed and wore that overcoat.
'The water will wash the bad things that I know that are dirtying this coat. The water will wash...' he repeated like a mantra as he kept limping.
'I got targeted by some arrows here and there. The most curious thing about these arrows is that they disappear after a while. Maybe it's some kind of magical thing. I can't discredit anything at this point, hehe... Not after...", he bit his lips, tearing up, "not after having my own grandmother saying that she will hunt me down with many other people. Not after being considered a demon and falling into this completely different world.'
The call that he received an hour ago was nearly enough to make him want to die already. However, Tobey wasn't the type of guy who would allow himself to die, even when facing death head-on. He would always fight until the end, no matter how helpless things turned out to be.
"Damn it... I just want to have had punched the guy who shot me right on my calf!" he cursed as he kept going forward little by little.
Once he got to the streets, he began to walk among the other people. It was already at night, so it was quite busy at that hour in the city since many people were leaving their work and going to their homes.
With difficulty, he was zigzagging between those people. As always, he was looking them at their eyes; he did it so he would be able to see what kind of expression they had or if anybody was following him with their eyes. It was just a countermeasure for him to be aware of his surroundings.
Nonetheless, Tobey never thought that his biggest mistake at that moment would be to look at their eyes.
As he walked under the rain with that smelly and worn-out overcoat, his eyes darted around, looking at all those people. The more he looked, the more desperate he got.
He met the stare of a normal office man who was wearing an overcoat as well and carrying an umbrella. He was attentively looking at Tobey until their eyes met and he avoided them as quickly as he could.
Just a look over was enough for Tobey to lock his eyes in a beauty that was walking in his direction. She had a complicated expression while looking at him, though she avoided being too indiscreet while doing so.
From his right, he saw some other curious, severe, and disgusted looks. From his left, complicated expressions, cautious glances... In front, some stares here and there. From behind, the feeling that someone was following him.
After just some steps on that busy street, a thought invaded Tobey's mind, making him nearly stop walking due to shock.
'Is it... Is it a coincidence? N-No... a coincidence would be too much, but they aren't doing anything too strange, right? I mean, I am not looking good right now at all. It's completely reasonable that they are looking at me because I look disgusting but... If that's not the case... Why are they?'
He felt a chill run down his spine slowly as a realization got highlighted in his mind.
'Are there any of those people among this crowd? I mean... my grandma... or the woman that I considered my grandma, said to me that they are everywhere. If one of them could disguise just as well as that caring and lovely old woman that raised me since I was young, then it's logical that they are able to disguise as an office man, a businesswoman, a mother, a normal teenager... They can, can't they? If that's how it is, do they know who I am? Are they targeting me right now and just don't finish me over because there are too many people? Was my grandma bluffing? I, unfortunately, can't believe the last option after seeing so many of them running after me a few hours ago...'
Tobey's heart was beating so wildly inside his chest that he thought that the crowd was able to hear it. His body got hotter as his muscles got tenser, prepared to attack at any moment. For a second, he felt his heart burning again, but he repressed that feeling as much as he could. He didn't want to go on demon form again. If that happened, he wouldn't only draw the attention of those white-dressed people, but also from common citizens that would panic and start a fuss.
He needed to bear all that pressure all the way towards the hospital. When he finally got there, he felt relief for the first time in hours.
He saw some people entering that place, which was quite unfortunate, though satisfying as well. As long as there were citizens there, nobody could ever think about attacking him... or so he thought. He wasn't sure whether those crazy people were bold enough to do that. He was still in doubt about their modus operandi.
Tobey looked at the front of the huge building of the hospital for a while before he hurriedly hopped up the few steps that separated him from the entrance and walked hastily towards the glass door of the entrance.
When he put his hand there to push the glass door and enter, he ended up looking at the right. His eyes locked with a nurse that was taking a smoke in front of the hospital.
It wasn't exactly an ethical thing to do, but nobody really cared. The number of smokers was increasing every year, so it wasn't a surprise to see people taking a smoke in every corner you turned on the streets.
Nevertheless, what caught Tobey's attention on that woman was the way she glared at him. The sharpness of her eyes and the way she didn't dodge them made him shake from his very soul.
She put her cigarette slowly in the middle of her fingers again and expelled the smoke from her lungs, never avoiding her gaze from Tobey.
"Hmm... Good afternoon," Tobey awkwardly said, waving at her sympathetically. She didn't respond though.
"Well... I guess it's evening already, right?" he corrected himself.
She didn't respond again.
"I am... just feeling really bad so..." he pointed at the glass door, going to push it again, but sparring a glance at her. To his despair, she was taking her cellphone slowly.
He remembered again the call he had with Han's grandma at the alley.
"There is nowhere to run. You don't have a safe harbor. You don't have any idea who we are, and where we are. We can be among you or watching you from far away. We are everywhere. Now that you are our enemy, you don't belong to this world anymore, demon!" her voice echoed in his head repeatedly as he saw that nurse slowly turning on her phone while walking backward.
Tobey gritted his teeth, not able to take it anymore. Even though it hurt a lot, he flew off that place as fast as his body allowed. It was very difficult to run with a messed up calf and many arrow holes in his body, but it was a life or death situation, possibly.
As he ran, he saw that some pedestrians passed by looking intently at him, others just glanced, some glared, a few pointed... All of this made him run faster and faster without looking back.
After that brief walk on the streets, Tobey knew very well that his life wasn't going to be the same anymore. It never would.