When he opened his eyes again, he felt strange and unattached.
He looked down and saw his own body on the ground. His hands, rough and worn, weren't his. The realization hit him hard; now he was in the hot dog vendor's body.
His breathing was heavy, almost hysterical. "Just like yesterday," Akondo thought. "I'm in someone else's body..again… How is this even possible?"
He dropped to his knees, his hand reaching out tentatively toward his true body. He cupped his borrowed hand under his nose and felt the faint, reassuring warmth of breath. His body was still alive.
The crowd around them began murmuring; concerned faces trying to make sense of the situation. Akondo, in the hot dog vendor's skin, tried to piece it all together. "The same thing… Heart pain, that hologram telling me to 'swap body'… This is exactly what happened with Mom. But how can any of this be real?"
People were closing in, forming a tight circle around his real body. He could feel their eyes, their curiosity ripening into anxiety. Akondo had to think fast.
"What would the hot dog guy do in a situation like this?" he asked himself as he felt the pressure build up. He strained to take a deep breath and steady his voice before hollering, "Somebody call an ambulance! Please, call an ambulance!".
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In a black luxury car, Ren sat, looking out the window. The road was crowded with people, and as they passed by, his eyes lit up with a golden glow; he could see their souls.
"The moment I realized I had supernatural powers yesterday, I thought it was pretty cool," he said wistfully. "Now it's just useless. I see people's energy everywhere, and from what I've deduced so far, I guess I can sense who's lying, and also understand people's emotions if I focus this power on them."
He scowled and said to himself, "But it doesn't even feel real. Even if it is real, what good is it? At least I know I've got something no one else has."
He turned away from the window and looked to his right.
There, he saw a woman with long dark black hair sitting in a black dressy gown and gloves and glasses.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked.
"Nothing, Mom. Just some junk stuffs" Ren said.
"I still don't understand why you wanted to study in the Antherion. I just feel so awful about it," she replied.
"If I go to school in my country, I won't be treated like a normal student," Ren explained. "I want to be treated like everyone else. I would've left sooner, but the man-made royal family rules in the country never allowed me to. Now I'm eighteen, and I couldn't wait any longer."
"Queen Maxima, we're entering the forest area," the driver announced. "Please don't be alarmed."
Ren gazed out the window and noted that they had left the city behind; they now drove along a road with trees flanking them.
"Spooky," Queen Maxima commented.
"Maxima, if I might suggest it, we did indicate that an escort car could accompany," a man with his coat on black, seated beside the driver, indicated.
"I desired to do so, but Ren informed me and wished us to bring no additional fanfare here to this little excursion."
"Don't be afraid, Mom. Uncle Marou is here. Nothing will happen to us," Ren said, pointing to the man beside the driver.
"You can rely on me," Marou said to her. "I would rather die than let anything bad happen to you."
"I know, I know," Maxima said, though her voice was firm.
Ren looked at Marou and was surprised to see his soul glowing red.
"What th'… Why's his soul red? Did he lie about something?" Ren wondered in his mind but had no time to pursue the thought as Marou suddenly got up and yanked two guns from his coat. He pointed one at the head of the driver and the other at Ren and Maxima.
Ren and Maxima looked at him in disbelief.
"Pull over now, or I will shoot," Marou ordered.
"What?" the driver stuttered, confused.
" I'm not playing or making jokes . Pull over NOW!" Marou shouted.
"What are you doing, Marou!?" Maxima screamed.
"You want to know, my dear sister? Yah I will tell you right before you die. " Marou snarled, and fired twice into Ren's chest.
Maxima screamed, throwing her arms around Ren, and the third shot grazed her arm.
"Ah… I didn't want to shoot you, little sister," Marou breathed, glacial, "but you're getting in the way now."
The car swerved to a halt.
"Ren! My baby!" Maxima wept, grabbing onto Ren as his chest bled and his eyes closed.
"Ren!" she wailed in panic.
Marou looked at Ren and thought " Looks like he died instantly…as this special bullet was supposed to do." then smirked.
"He's most probably dead," Marou said calmly. "Now, look at me, sister."
"Why… you bastard!" Maxima wailed, struggling to surge forward towards him, but Marou shot a second time and hit her hand. She stumbled back, grasping at her arm in pain.
"Listen, sister," Marou said, his voice chillingly calm. "By now, King Rainer-I mean, your husband should be dead. If everything went as planned, he'd already been taken care of."
A black garbed man lay on the polished marble floor within the halls of Valloria's Palace, bleeding from his many wounds. All around him stood many dark coated guards, on the alert and watchful.
A little way off to his side, King Rainer stood with his golden hair and beard catching the dim light within the palace. His royal attire spoke of authority, though his golden eyes revealed an intensity fueled by desperation.
"By now, maybe. the queen is dead, and Marou will soon finish the job," the wounded man wheezed, fighting for words.
King Rainer's face was icy. "Tell me, why did you want to kill me?" he demanded.
The man in black refused to look up at him. "I was sent from Eraland. The president… he ordered us to kill you and your family. I—I'm sorry," he stuttered.
"Why?" the king asked, his voice cold.
"They… they were angry because you took Peraland's side. You openly denounced them in the genocide of Piraland, and now, with your support, Piraland is winning this war. Eraland sees you as the reason for their downfall," the man confessed, each word heavy with dread.
King Rainer turned to his guards. "Take him to the Black Chamber," he commanded, his voice even, but his eyes dark with resolution.
Two suited guards stepped forward and, taking hold of the man under his arms, dragged him from the room without another word.
The king clenched his fists as his mind worked quickly. "Maxima, Ren…" He whirled around to one of his aides standing nearby. "Get in touch with the president of Antherion.
Tell him it's an emergency. I want them to know about Maxima and Ren right now," he commanded, his voice crisp with a sense of urgency..
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Inside the car, Marou spoke in the most arrogant tone. "And after it's done, I will be the new ruler of Valloria's ; I will ally with Eriland, and very soon they will take over Valloria."
"You can't do this!" Maxima wailed, her voice shaking with disappointment. "How could you betray me like this, Marou? You can't do this to your sister!"
"I can, and I will," Marou retorted, his eyes flashing with venom. "You'll be a nuisance if you live, so I'll have to kill you, too."
The driver, sensing the escalating danger, instinctively pushed Marou. But in a split second, Marou retaliated, shooting the driver in the head, the echo of the gunshot filling the confined space. Maxima screamed, her heart racing as she realized the gravity of the situation.
"Now it's your turn, sister," Marou sneered, raising his gun to her. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a bullet hit his hand, and the gun dropped from his fingers.
Marou turned in shock to find Ren standing there, a golden revolver clenched tightly in his grasp.
"Ren!" Maxima cried out in surprise as a mixture of relief and horror crossed her face.
Ren stood bleeding from the chest but not going down easy. "Not that easy you son of a—" He cut himself short, looking over at his mother. "No, not 'son of a bitch.' You're the bitch here," he rephrased, shooting through Marou's leg, then the other.
Marou yelled in pain as he fell into the seat, his body contorting in agony. Ren quickly took advantage, using the hard edge of the revolver to hit Marou on the head, rendering him unconscious.
Maxima hurried toward Ren, tears running down her face as she hugged him. "You're alive! You're alive, Ren!" she exclaimed, the relief flooding her.
"Don't worry about me, Mom," Ren said in a steady voice, though he was suffering. "But you're bleeding. We need to get you to a hospital fast."
As they hugged, Ren's mind was a mess. "I knew Uncle Marou was dangerous when I saw his soul was red. I had to act fast. He shot me, but I survived…thankfully, the bullet only scratched me but I should've died with one shot if I were a normal human. My gun was under the seat, and my acting worked better than I had hoped. But how did I even survive?"
Just then, Ren's phone buzzed, breaking the tension. He looked at the screen, and confusion set in as he tried to guess who might be calling now.
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The hot dog vendor sat in a hospital corridor, anxiety etched on his face as a nurse approached him. "Are you with the patient?"
"What should I say?" Akondo thought, his soul was still inside the hot dog vendor's body.
"Sir, we need to know," the nurse insisted.
"Um... yeah, he came to my stall to buy a hot dog, then he fell to the ground," Akondo replied, maintaining the vendor's persona.
"You don't know him personally?" the nurse asked, her brow furrowing.
"No," he answered.
"Hmm, okay. What's your name?" the nurse inquired.
"Me?" he said, panic rising. "What is the owner of the body's name? I don't know that."
Just then, his phone rang from the vendor's pocket.
"Excuse me," he said, pulling out the phone. The screen displayed the name "Aresa."
"Who is this?" he thought, glancing at the nurse who was still waiting.
"Whatever it is, I should pick it up," he decided, answering the call. A voice came through the receiver. "Denso, where are you? It's already twelve. Won't you come home?"
"Oh, so the hot dog vendor's name is Denso," he realized, then replied, "Who are you?"
"What? Who am I? I'm your wife. Wait, are you with another girl and pretending you don't know me?" the voice on the other end sounded upset.
"What should I say?" he thought, scrambling for a response. "I'm in the hospital. A kid came to buy a hot dog and fell ill, so I brought him here."
"Great answer," he thought, feeling a rush of relief.
"Why are you there? Come home. Don't spend money on random people," the woman insisted.
"I'm hanging up now," he said, cutting the call abruptly.
He turned to the nurse and said, "My name is Denso."
"Okay, we have news that the boy isn't waking up. We've given him saline. Can you pay for that? This is an expensive hospital, and I doubt you can afford it," the nurse replied.
"What's the cost? Is it hospital policy to ask for money like this?" he asked, his irritation rising.
" It would be 12,000 FGs or 70 Dollars" Said The Nurse.
Akondo thought " Daymn…this must be an expensive hospital, they are cutting too much" and said " Let me see.."
Saying he slipped his hand into the vendor's pocket, pulling out some money the vendor had.
He stared at the money for a moment, guilt tightening in his chest.
"Sorry,Mr. Hot Dog Guy... If I ever get back to my real body, I'll return this to you...I promise"
Soon after,The hospital's yard stretched out before him under the dim glow of streetlights. The area was crowded with ambulances, their flashing red and blue lights dancing across the night sky. Beyond the hospital gate, a busy road buzzed with headlights streaking past in a blur of white and yellow.
Akondo stood still, gazing up at the stars. A bitter ache swelled inside him. "This feels so unreal... like a dream. I wish it was a dream... because then I wouldn't have lost my mother."
That thought pierced deeper than he expected. Memories of his mother's final moments rushed back her pale face, her fading breath. And then..
"Wait... my mother? I was inside her body just before she died... What the...? This... this feels the same. I'm in another body right now.
Is this man going to die too? "
Panic gripped him. He slapped his own face, hoping to break free from the thought spiraling in his mind.
"No! What am I even thinking? My mother didn't die because of that... right? Or...did she? "
Doubt twisted deeper, a shadow sinking into his chest. "What if... what if my mother died because I entered her body? Did I kill her? Am I the reason...?"
The chilling realization made his body tremble. A dark thought whispered, a dreadful possibility—Was his power the reason for his mother's death?
"No... it can't be... right? Of course not... but... what if it is? "
Lost in his thoughts, Akondo's mind drifted into a void, everything around him fading into blank nothingness. He was so consumed by guilt and confusion that he didn't notice his body moving. Step by step, as though guided by something else, his legs carried him toward the hospital gate... and closer to the busy road beyond.
Outside the hospital, three ambulances and several police cars arrived, sirens wailing before they fell silent.
From one of the police cars, Ren stepped out and his sharp eyes was scanning the scene as paramedics unloaded an unconscious Maxima from the ambulance onto a stretcher .
A police officer approached him, nodding respectfully. "We reviewed the security footage, There is enough evidence.... You won't need to face any further investigation."
Ren nodded calmly."Thank you, Officer Curter..um.. I expected nothing less from your country's justice system."
The officer lowered his head apologetically. "Still, we failed to protect a prince from one of our allied nations. We take full responsibility."
Ren's gaze softened. "It's alright. I'm not angry... these things happen."
Suddenly, a strange sensation crawled up his spine, cold and unnatural. He felt something..a presence of something.
He turned sharply toward the hospital gate. There, the hot dog vendor stood, moving toward the road in a slow, trance-like walk.
But Ren saw more than just the man, he saw a faint and dark energy swirling around the vendor, like a shadow clinging to his body.
And then, from above—an invisible, black string stretched from the sky, latched onto the vendor, pulling him forward.
Ren's heart pounded."What... is that? Is he being... pulled? "
The vendor kept walking, unaware. Ren's eyes widened as he noticed headlights approaching fast from a distance. A speeding truck was coming.
"Hey! Stop! STOP!" Ren shouted, breaking into a sprint toward the gate.
But Akondo, lost deep in his thoughts, couldn't hear him. He was trapped inside the hot dog vendor's body blind to reality, haunted by the belief that he had caused his mother's death.
The truck reached closer. Its blaring horn echoed, at that point Acondos eyes opened but Akondo remained frozen unable to react, just feeling the inevitable crash.
CRASH!!
The impact was brutal. Metal crunched. Glass shattered. The vendor's body was flung violently, broken and bloodied, hitting the ground with a sickening thud.
Ren stopped dead in his tracks ,horror twisting his face. He rushed toward the body, but it was already too late .
Blood pooled beneath the twisted limbs, and the body lay lifeless, destroyed beyond saving.
"What... the hell just happened...?"
And then—something unnatural.
From the body, a swirling black mist began to rise. It wasn't smoke. It was... alive. Twisting, writhing .
Ren could see it clearly, yet the surrounding officers were oblivious, reacting only to the tragic accident.
The black energy pulsed once—then shot off toward the hospital in a streak of supersonic speed.
Ren's breath caught in his throat. "What... was that?"
Akondo's eyes shot open, finding himself back in his hospital bed.
Tbc…