CHAPTER ONE
They were so tiny yet very pretty from where I stood maybe my lenses helped amplify them "beautiful" I whispered stretching out my arm. Goosebumps traveled through my entire body, and my blood soaked trench coat waved about. "It sure is quite a lovely night….a lovely night to die". Immediately, I leaped down the edge of the new tower, wonderful how it was the first of it's kind, with four giant clocks on each side. "Ahhh sublime! I can feel it! This time, this time for sure!...." it was a ninety metre tower…a frickin ninety metre tower! Why? Why is my body still… cracking, crunching, and snapping sounds somehow resonated with each other as I slowly stood erect. "Damn it, I'm really getting sick and tired of this" I muttered. "Aaand total reconstruction… but damn, that was one hell of a fall mate" his face was barely viscible, just his forest sized beards and stretched out arms. "What made you think it would work this time again? He continued with his arms still stretched out "urrg….give me a break Patrick" I said grabbing his arm. "Tchh I wasted sixteen years for nothing". " Yeah I uh.. I feel sorry for you" he said clearing his throat. " Well you don't sound sorry jerk" I yelled while moving from one corner to the other. " So uh, can I ask what you're searching for? "My glasses you dimwit! Jesus Christ, children these days" " oh… I see, um you remember that you fell from a ninety metre building right?" " Yeah? And so?" I said, and then paused and looked back at Patrick who was walking away. " Hey! I just had great fall, that's the only reason…. "You should call it a day Gray. Oh and I'm sure your standard for adult is warped, but I'm sixty eight" " sixty eight? My my, how time flies" "you know Gray, no matter how I want to accept the truth, it's still really awkward hearing things like that from a guy that looks like he could be my grandson" lost for words, I just started at him as we made our way into an alley.
Yeah, that's right. Soon I might have to bury him too.
"I can't believe you spilled blood all over the shiny new tower two days after it's completion, no wait, I can" Patrick said with a lousy voice,and then he pulled out a bottle from his trench coats inner pocket and gulped on it, his uneven steps told me where he was going to next. " You know, I can't believe you either. A run down bar stemmed from your own addiction, your wife and son left you a long time ago, and your grand kids don't even know what you look like, but for some reason you can casually take a back alley to a whore house, and drink yourself to stupor on your way". " Well that was a mouth full" he opened his mouth to say something but stopped to take a shot from his bottle, gave a deep sigh and casually said "we've all got our demons Gray, people like me who don't have eternity to fix my mistakes settle for the small things in life to feel momentary pleasure, and then go back to hell at sunrise. I'm at my last legs, I've already spent my whole life making mistakes, I might as well make pleasurable ones before I kick the bucket" concluding with a hiccup, he made his way to the brothel while I just stood there, and watched him as he made his way inside the building filled with giggles and moaning.
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My legs felt like noodles, my fingers tremored, and my lips vibrated as I stood in front of her, unable to move a muscle. Her pale, dry, wrinkled skin resonated with her smile which did a good job of exposing every single tooth left in her mouth, and the strings of her she had left on her head partially covered her one good eye as she walked up to me as fast as her hunked back let her. And with a knife on her right hand, and blood gushing out of her left wrist, her shrieking voice echoed " For thy impertinence, thou shall be imprisoned in thy very own body. Thou at chained and shackled to remain for times, a time, and time in this endless world".
"Gray…hey Gray, wake up" Patrick's voice slowly became audible from the background as he grabbed tightly on my shaking shoulders. Gasping, I sprung up from the couch looking around frantically as If to make sure, and with my face buried in my palms I vibrated stopping myself from shedding tears. "Hey….hey get a grip. At ease mate, at ease" he said still holding on to my shoulder.
"Here, it calms the nerves" as he gently slid a glass of brandy to my side of the counter, I thought" seriously alcohol this morning? Well not like my parched throat and fucked up mind could resist. I gulped it up in one go, and slid the glass back to him. " Your remedy for everything is alcohol huh, where did you get the idea that brandy calms nerves? " Well it sure made you make two sentences after one glass so…" he shrugged his shoulders and said while pouring another in my glass. " So you had that dream again huh?" "Yeah" " was it any different this time?" " No…same old shit for the past five centuries. For some fucked up reason it always seems like it was just yesterday" "hahaha,well it's not very often one stumbles upon the freaking goddess of immortality now is it?" " Don't joke Patrick, she was the devil" I said finally downing on my refilled cup. "Take a look at this, a I thought it might peak your interest" with a heavy sigh as he finished talking, he passed a newspaper to me, pointing at a particular article. " According to it, there's some secret organization or should I say cult currently giving aid to the Japanese military" "what's this?" I saw myself almost jumping of my stool" yup, apparently they're aiding their military with black magic" " well I'm very well aware of that form of killing, but to think that they've advanced it this much!" " Yeah of course you know of it…suicidal maniac….tchh. it might be just a rumor, but knowing you I was sure it'd be good news to you. Don't take it too seriously though, you might get disappointed for the thousand'th time. Hey! Are you even listening?" "huh? Uh…yeah" I replied as my eyes scanned through the article over and over again. Taking another shot, he continued "I would discourage from going into the middle of a war. But knowing you, you'd be thrilled to be in a place like that, hell you might even let yourself get shot. So why don't you go there and seek for answers, you never know, it might be the miracle you've been searching for centuries" he said clearing his throat at the last bit. "But then, how in the world am I supposed to even get there?" "Yup the part about the war and you getting shot doesn't bug you in the slightest" " now why in God's name would it? I've seen, and died countless time in too many wars already" " uh-huh well then I'll hook you up with a dealer delivering arms to Japan next week. You'll join his ship as cargo" " how the… you know you actually scare me sometimes Patrick" " Good. Now then, let's go whoring one last time" " hahahaha your kind of guy is really hard to come by every century" I said while he opened the door,and the sun finally found its way into our rundown dump of a bar.
Hunking sounds blasted through my ear drums as we stood on the ducks watching ships anchor on shore. " Here, take this" Patrick passed a large bottle to me. " What's this, brandy?" " No, rum. It should help if you get sea sick" bursting into laughter, I took a good look at it and my laughter turned into a smile that slowly faded. " You know you didn't have to right?" " Yeah well I did. It was just gonna go to waste there anyways". I opened my mouth to say something, but a loud voice from behind "hey cargo!" Cut me off. I picked up my bag, and with the bottle of rum in my hand, I walked towards the ship without saying a word. We're men, men don't need words I thought to myself as I borded the ship. " You better not come back alive you hear me!" Patrick yelled. I turned around, and for the first time in the fourthy years we've known each other, I saw tears roll down his eyes. I waved the bottle at him " I will never forget you Patrick!" I yelled back at him and then made my way inside. That manwas my friend, the only one who didn't run away from me after finding out what I was, the only person inmmy life who didn't surround me with forks and torches in the middle of the night. We drank together, laughed together, went whoring together, and even planned my suicides together. "Damn it" I said sobbing as I walked down the cabin.