Tobey opened his eyes in a start as he raised his body. He was panting hard, sweating profusely, and all his body was tense for some reason.
'I didn't have a nightmare at all, but I am feeling like I had. I know that I dreamed with a demon, and this demon by chance was another side of me, but it wasn't frightening at all... Well, that's not something I should be thinking about right now. It's just a trivial reaction of my body. I feel strangely hot, though... Did I change to my demon form while sleeping? Is it even possible?'
"M-Mask?" he said, trying to get any response coming from his mind, but not finding anything.
"That damn idiot... I bet that he will just respond when he wants to. I am starting to hate that guy," he cursed as he clenched his fists and grimaced in frustration. He already needed to go through a lot, the least he wanted was to beg for someone to help him to understand things.
'Although he is part of me, he seems so out of place... Is that why my mind decided to subconsciously make this separation and create an alter ego? Mask said that it was protecting me from having a conflict with this new side of mine. Probably, I would have an identity crisis or something of the sort. My chances of survival would be decreased greatly if something like this happened,' he reasoned while sliding off the mattress and taking a look at his bed.
The pillow was on the ground, the sheets were completely messed up and thoroughly wet due to how much he sweated during the night and his wet clothes.
'I think that I will just go take a bath before anything. I need to wash my wounds once again, then redo the bandages. I also need to change into my other clothes. These I am wearing are still wet after staying under the rain for so long...'
Tobey felt quite disoriented at that moment. He had a good sense of direction, but waking up in a pitch dark hotel room wasn't the best situation for anybody to perceive things around. He didn't even know where the switch was.
'The windows are closed, the lights turned off... I really made a devil cave here, huh? I am getting into the role really well,' he sarcastically thought as he groped along the wall, trying to find the switch.
'Most likely it is beside the entrance door,' that idea flashed in his mind as he went to the door and searched there, finally finding it.
Without hesitation, he turned the lights on, having a clearer sight of that hotel room. He took a good look around, just to realize something...
"Ah..." he said out loud. "So, I ended up opening one of the windows after entering here," he commented to himself as he gazed at one window, the only one that had its glass opened and the curtains spaced out, leaving the breeze of the night to enter inside the room.
"I always forget to close them, anyway," Tobey muttered, finally going to the bathroom while taking one of the white towels with golden adornments of the hotel.
Tobey entered there and slowly closed the door behind him. He maintained the towel in his hands and didn't wear off his clothes as he went to the shower and opened it.
[You are smarter than you seem to be], a voice appeared in his mind as if it was being whispered right beside his ear.
'Thank you, Mask. And go to hell, you didn't respond to me before, so I won't respond to you anymore as well.'
[I won't say sorry if that's what you want. Just burn in hell, too,] he straightforwardly said, snorting afterward. [Also, I will talk to you when I find that it is worth enough. Ask whether you were in demon form while sleeping was dumb and quite useless for this moment
[Anyway, tell me how did you notice that there is someone inside your hotel room?]
Tobey gritted his teeth while hearing that.
'Did you know all this while and didn't tell me?'
[First of all, watch yourself. You better soft your voice when talking to me. I am still a demon, although part of you, remember? Also, I didn't know it. You are the one in total dominance of our brain right now, so you are the one that will be able to reason properly. I am just a spectator that discovers and reasons things based on what you see and think... Sometimes I might perceive a thing or two, but it's up to you, man.]
Tobey nodded, although he found it a hassle. Having two separate personalities that intertwine in specific ways, but diverge in others surely was confusing.
[Anyway, just explain it to me. I wasn't even paying attention, to begin with...]
'Ah, so that's why this bastard couldn't notice anything, huh?'
[I am hearing you...]
'Ok, ok, anyhow... I realized that someone entered the room by connecting many points since the time I woke up. First of all, my body was tense and reacting strangely, even though I didn't have a nightmare. My body seemed to react quite sharply when a Paladin was near me back in the previous fight I had, so I figured out that it was a possibility. Also, the window was open, which is strange. It's already an unbelievable feat to walk to my room while subconscious, but having the ability to open a window then head back to bed is a little too much, particularly considering that it was raining and I was very tired.'
Mask got quiet for a moment before his voice echoed again in Tobey's mind. In truth, he was as smart as Tobey since they shared the same conscience and body, so he could grasp those points as well as the logic behind the detective's analysis.
[Well, I agree with you on this matter. I can even sense some Divine Power in this room. Whoever entered this place is still inside here. You did well by pretending that you didn't notice anything. Go to the bathroom is useless since a Paladin will just break through the door with ease, but you have a better position to counterattack, if needed.] Mask basically said all the things that Tobey planned previously
'Yes, and the fact that he will come here expecting me to be off guard will increase my chances of surprising him. By the way, will you tell me how can I change to my demon form?'
[Are you prepared to kill someone? Remember that, against a Paladin, you can't hold yourself back. It's kill or be killed. At least, what they want is to kill you, so you don't have any choice instead of fight back with equal intentions.]
Tobey had a serious expression on his face. He was still struggling internally about the fact that he would need to kill a lot of people from now on in order to keep alive. Actually, the moment when he killed his first Paladin was still craved in his mind. So much that, when he was dreaming, he was sure that something like that would appear to torment him. Thankfully, Mask took place and prevented his brain from tricking him.
The detective was a human. He wanted to survive, but he was a damn real human. Nobody should feel that taking lives was something so simple and meaningless. It was easy for anyone to claim that they could do it if the situation demanded, but people who only knew how to talk would never know how much weight murdering someone added to one's shoulder.
'I am not prepared to kill another person, Mask. However, someone once put something in my mind that I cannot get rid of until this day: even when it is unfair, never hold yourself back from pulling the trigger when your life depends on it.
'I won't feel good about killing a person, even when this person is trying to take my life. However, not feeling good about it is different from not having the initiative to struggle to keep alive. If killing is what it takes for me to survive, I will do it.'
Mask felt really impressed when hearing what his human side had to say. He never thought that the righteous and softy defensor of justice called Tobey Foster would have such thoughts. Although he was his alter ego, he didn't know everything about that guy. In truth, Mask felt like he got born just some hours ago, even though he had always been inside Tobey in the deepest bottom of his consciousness.
[Got it. That's a good response, I must admit. Anyway, I won't teach you how to change to demon form. Not now. First of all, you need to get out of this hotel or find a way to fight against this Paladin in your human form if you want to stay here. Your demon form will cause a lot of trouble since it would draw too much attention, both from common people and other Paladins.]
Tobey took out from his waist a combat knife that he took in his apartment before leaving, holding it in a reversed grip.
'Got it. There is no way to escape from the bathroom, unfortunately, so I need to go in the hardest way!'