Something was about to go down.
Slam!
A supposedly wonderful night had turned south, taking away all the harmony.
Daniel, who had a good drink minutes ago, was in the parking lot, smashing an attacker's head through the rear window. He clenched his fists and punched the arm of the man he just smashed to the window. He also choked and kneed the attacker’s upper abdomen, thrusting him out of the car. Daniel hopped on the car’s rear bumper and performed a leg maneuver. The sole of his shoe struck the man’s head. One attacker down.
A sharp pain pierced Daniel’s back, annoying him.
Reflex caused him to violently twirl as he thrust upward instinctively with tensed arms. His unbalanced knife attacker was caught unaware as Daniel then spun low in a sweep to catch the attacker's foot. The two toppled over as Daniel grappled the knife attacker hard to the ground. The feel of shattered cartilage met his fist as he knocked the knife wielder out cold. He let the attacker bleed.
Multiple men appeared from all angles, and their shadows were running towards him.
When Daniel leapt up and turned, he then got shanked in the eye. No scream, but a heavy grunt. It hurts, and his depth perception was disordered. Some of the parked vehicles were pressed together. The attackers that were charging towards him appeared two-dimensional, like paper.
Daniel has lost his left eye. It had been a long time since his last encounter with an ambush. His body refused to stumble. Unpleasant memories of a forbidden past overwhelmed his mind, triggering adrenaline. Daniel, with his right eye, then aimed towards the stabber’s stomach. He lashed out with his foot and missed.
The eye stabber dropped to his knees, grabbing his groin in agony. Daniel pulled out his Glock 17, firing at the guy’s shoulder and right knee. He didn’t have the suppressor on, so it was loud in the open parking lot. Despite his vision being distorted, Daniel continued to fire and wasted one bullet out of his only magazine.
One more man to go, and it only enraged him more, so he went on charging and slammed him to the pavement. Hard enough to leave a tiny crack.
Sirens whirred from behind. The police came to the scene. Daniel’s mind raced, switching focus to get out of the parking lot.
That was when it hit; Daniel climbed off the last attacker. He stood up only to collapse to the pavement. He couldn't escape from this.
One called for paramedics through the radio and grabbed the med kit out of the back of the cruiser.
“Oh my god. Why didn't you call us, Operations Chief?” The cop asked as more police cruisers arrived at the scene.
Daniel was relieved, realizing it was his allies. “No, I didn’t Joe…it was too fast.”
The cop and a few others were looking at Daniel. They grimaced at his horrific wounds. He recognized a few who had long experience, and they didn’t take it well.
The paramedics arrived a second later, and two women came sprinting with the gurney, arriving to accompany Daniel. They did verbal and physical checks on him. Everyone around helped him up and put him on the gurney.
“When can I leave?” Daniel asked while partially lying on his right side. A few pillows were placed on his back to be more comfortable.
Silence.
“I don’t know. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“No way!” Daniel jolted up, causing an eruption of panic among the paramedics and officers. They got him down onto the gurney. “You'd better let me out in a few days!”
“Sir, I’m not a doctor, but after seeing these wounds, I think you’re staying with us for a while,” one paramedic said with her hand gently on his forearm. “Please, relax. Getting mad won’t help.”
Daniel remained silent, with a little burning mind slowly dwindling.
When the paramedics and police lifted him into the back of the ambulance, his eyes went heavy, closing as the ambulance’s doors closed.
Two Days Later.
7 AM
3/24/2019
Daniel woke up with no one else inside the hospital room. He was still connected to multiple IVs. Before he could process further, his left eye started to hurt. Daniel thought of phantom pain, lifting his hand towards the left side of his face. It hurt like hell despite no eye or any of its connective tissue anymore. A moment later, the left side of his face was wet. A sensation like a hose shooting out water. His bandage was soaked.
When Daniel looked at his hand, it was all blue, raising alarms. The hospital room’s bathroom was on the left side of the bed. He got up. Frustrated over the lines, he yanked it out of his left arm, triggering a machine beep. Daniel didn’t care about them. He went to the sink, washing his hands. The small openings on his arm, where the IVs were inserted moments ago, were bleeding blue. Looking in the mirror, the bandage and his entire left face were covered in blue. It didn’t take too long for him to process that it was blood. His blood. To confirm it, he pulled the bandage out.
He threw it in the trash, and then he was stuck staring at the mirror. His lost eye came back.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
A hand wave before he covered the right eye, revealing his left vision had come back. Which was weird. He was told yesterday that his entire left eye had been removed because of the severity of the wound.
A few blinks followed, observing everything around him. The left eye did as it should. Daniel washed his face, clearing all residue. The door slammed open as he brushed his teeth.
“Daniel! What the heck are you out of bed for?”
He looked at the reflection, seeing Dr. Annia and a few nurses behind her. “I’m okay.”
“Call the custodians. What on earth is this blue liquid?”
“It’s…my blood.”
Dr. Annia, dodging the blue trail, walked right up to Daniel. “Finish brushing your teeth, and I’m going to get you back to bed.”
Daniel grumbled, finishing it up. After washing his mouth and wiping the water off with a towel, Dr. Annia guided him back to the bed. “Look, I’m fine. I can walk,” he said.
“You’re my patient; I’m not risking anything that goes wrong,” Dr. Annia muttered. She made him sit down on the side of the bed. “The nurses will come in a moment for your next bloodwork.” With a turn to the blue trail on the floor, she deeply sighed.
“Look, I’m fine. I can see everything again.”
Dr. Annia was in denial when she saw that Daniel had his left eye and not an empty socket. She checked his left eye with a vision test. She took multiple steps back, grabbing a whiteboard and the marker on the desk. After writing something on the whiteboard, she told Daniel to cover his right eye before revealing the words written. “Read everything from top to bottom.”
Daniel didn’t lean forward as if he were nearsighted. He remained in the same position and read. “Colemond, Texas. A city between Houston and Dallas. Population: Four hundred and fifty thousand.”
Dr. Annia erased the board, putting it back on the table. “Holy crap. I can’t explain this.” She scratched her head and expressed her confusion. “I was the one who did the operation….It doesn’t make sense to me at all.”
Daniel shook his head. “No, it doesn’t.”
Two nurses came in with supplies. They washed their hands before putting their gloves on. One tied an elastic band around his upper arm. The other nurse and Dr. Annia prepared the needle. Daniel sat still on his bedside.
After disinfecting the site, the nurse inserted a needle into the vein. Everyone looked at the blue blood flowing out, heading to the collection tube.
Dr. Annia pulled her phone out, taking photos as part of the documentation. “So, I’m not the only one seeing blue, right?”
The two nurses were silent. Both were focused on the flow of blue blood.
“Nope,” the nurse muttered.
Once it was finished, they took three collection tubes of his blue blood. The custodians arrived to clean up the floors. Dr. Annia handled the labeling and gave it to the nurses after they had sanitized their hands. They left the room and headed to the on-site lab, leaving Dr. Annia and Daniel. The custodians eventually departed.
“This might become headlines if the word spreads,” Dr. Annia said.
“If you can give me an official discharge tomorrow, then the press won’t find out,” Daniel muttered. He really wanted to get out of the hospital as soon as he started walking on his feet again yesterday.
Dr. Annia clicked her tongue. “Fine…I can give it to you tomorrow. You’re still a crazy man, Daniel.”
“Everyone says so.”
A knock on the door, and different nurses came in. They went to remove the machines and clutter next to the hospital bed. Dr. Annia left with them, leaving Daniel alone in his room.
He went to grab his phone, opening the home screen. There were hundreds of notifications from his email and messages from fellow employees and professionals. As he was about to click on the latest notification, a spiral portal appeared on the ceiling, spinning clockwise.
The spiral opened, revealing a dark void. A book then dropped from the ceiling, jolting Daniel. And another followed. Then the spiral portal closed, dissipating from the ceiling. A hella strange moment. 魔术的艺术
Daniel went to the floor, grabbed the stack of two books, and put them on the bed. He started with the first book. It was a chunky book. The front cover was written in Chinese. Daniel, who was fluent, began reading it. The Raal Art of Magic (魔术的 Raal艺术)
After opening the first page, he was transfixed. His mind was forcefully focused on the contents of the book. Since it was still early morning, it was likely that there wouldn’t be anyone interrupting for the next few hours.
Once he was out of a trance, three and a half hours had passed. His phone said it was 10:50 AM. Daniel counted the pages he had read through. He read three hundred and sixty-three pages. And the entire hardcover book was nine hundred and ten.
Since he was still stuck in the hospital, he decided to read a little of the second book. Unlike the first book, this was a floppy paperback and not as thick, so it would be a light read. He opened the first page. Maybe a big mistake.
Bright light flashed from the title page. It was written in German. Die Verbotene Kampfkunst: Der Weg der Alphabete von Hilde Georgine (The Forbidden Martial Arts: The Way of the Alphabets by Hilde Georgine).
When the flash of light faded, Daniel turned the page. It began with a warning. Below it was a paragraph providing a disclaimer.
It warned that learning incantations and casting them required knowledge and experience with their soul energy, qi. Abusing them will be catastrophic. Without being specified on the page, it asked if Daniel was certain to read the book. He didn’t hesitate, so he turned to the next. This time, it was one sentence.
Die Zeit wird neu gestartet.
“Huh?” Bright light flashed again, but was followed by heavy winds. Winds pulled him to the book. Daniel’s hand grabbed his phone before the light overwhelmed his field of sight, and his cheek touched the paper. Then it all went black.
3/22/2019
Daniel, blinking his eyes, felt something like whiplash. He wasn’t at the hospital. He was somewhere familiar not that long ago. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!”
He found himself in the same parking lot a couple of nights ago. His body was on full alert. The next second, he dodged a head punch from behind. Daniel responded with a thrusting punch, striking at the attacker’s abdomen. His fist created a shockwave when he struck.
The force from Daniel’s punch sent the attacker across hundreds of feet to a concrete light pole base. He was splattered into bits, painting the concrete red and leaving a mess on the floor.
When he turned around to face all the remaining attackers, they somehow didn’t run away. Until Daniel pulled out his Glock 17, firing at them. This time, not all of the magazine was used.
He then pulled out his phone, checking the time. It was ten-forty. And the date was 3/22/2019. As he put his phone away, a black silhouette appeared right in front of him, summoning winds out of nowhere. “What?!”
A second later, the silhouette peeled off its darkness, revealing itself to be a tall, slender figure of a beautiful lady.
“Hello Daniel.”
