Once she finished bandaging his leg, the maid looked up at him, a warm smile gracing her lips. "What's your name?" she asked politely.
"Raphael," David replied, adopting a slightly more dignified tone. "Like the angel Raphael."
The maid's smile widened. "My name is Katherine," she said, her voice gentle and kind. "It was nice meeting you, Raphael."
David, still reeling from the conversation about realms and his hopes of returning home, blurted out, "Give me thirteen reasons why."(reference to a popular series)
Katherine blinked, her smile faltering slightly. She looked at him with a puzzled expression for a moment, then simply shook her head and turned to leave. "It was nice meeting you," she repeated, a hint of awkwardness in her voice this time. She gave a small bow of her head and exited the room.
David watched her go, then sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Ah, man," he muttered to himself. "She's gonna think I'm weird."
After Katherine left,David realized she has left some clothes, medieval style which he wore, within minutes David decided a strong drink was in order. He made his way to the hotel bar, hoping to dull the lingering pain in his leg and quiet the chaotic thoughts swirling in his head. He ordered a potent local spirit, something with a high alcohol content that would burn going down.
As he took his first sip, a sudden, vivid flashback assaulted him. He saw himself standing in the town square, the Barrett XM109 recoiling in his hands. He saw Elara's surprised expression, then the eruption of blood as the bullet tore through her. The image of the blood splattering across his face, warm and sticky, was so real that he could almost feel it again. His lighthearted demeanor instantly vanished, replaced by a grim seriousness. A deep sadness settled over him. He whispered, barely audible, "Elara… huh. I'll remember that name." As he spoke, the tattoo of a black heart reappeared on the back of his neck, a dark, pulsing mark that then vanished as quickly as it had materialized.
The bar, which had been bustling with activity just moments before, was now empty. It seemed everyone had quietly departed, leaving David alone with his memories. He took another swig of his drink, and then, a strange thing happened. A giggle escaped his lips, a small, nervous sound that quickly escalated into full-blown laughter. It was a laugh of pure release, as if a tremendous burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He laughed like a maniac, tears streaming down his face, the sound echoing through the empty bar.
As he laughed, a horrifying transformation began to take place. His teeth began to darken, turning a sickly black, and red, X-shaped markings appeared on his lips, as if the flesh had widened and torn, bleeding out the markings at the two sides of his lip and two holes at the sides of his cheek revealing his teeth. His teeth were etched with fine black markings, and the edges of the newly formed holes in his cheeks were rimmed with black. His gums became an even more vivid shade of red. Two double lines, like dark tear tracks, appeared beneath his eyes. On his right eye, a semi breve, a musical symbol resembling a filled oval with a short line, appeared, pitch black against the white of his eye. His left eye displayed a bass clef, also pitch black. Under his hairline at the back of his neck, a crotchet rest, a symbol resembling a backwards question mark, appeared, and directly beneath that, a minim rest, a filled rectangle, manifested. David noticed the bartender shaking and the waitress showing sign of running, he then stopped laughing and he reverted back to normal and left the bar,not even paying, the bartender too scared to ask
The scene then shifted to a completely different location: a balcony. This wasn't just any balcony; it was part of a massive, elaborate garden that seemed to float, detached from the building it was connected to. The building, or perhaps it was more accurate to call it a castle or a fortress, was constructed of ivory, its walls scaled like a dragon's hide. The ground of the garden, and the inner walls that surrounded it, were forged from golden sand, the remnants of countless ancient ruins ground down by time and the elements. A single tower rose from the garden, its architecture defying any conventional style. It curved and twisted in impossible ways, hinting at a magic or technology far beyond anything many had ever seen. The very structure of the tower screamed of impossibility, a feature of this strange and wondrous world.