Cole could hear soft whispering in his sleep. The exact words were unclear, but he knew it was something negative.
Weakly, Cole lifted his lids to properly gaze at the sky. The moon was sinking back into the distant valleys, dragging away its carpet of darkness along with it.
"The indulger..." Cole uttered like it were a morning greeting.
He shook his head to ease the heaviness he felt; Cole noticed somehow his vision had improved slightly. It wasn't noticeable enough until he squinted his eyes at his palm.
'Today's the day I meet them...' Cole thought.
Hastily, he jumped out of the field and ran towards the stream far across the main road.
It was dangerous to go to a public bathhouse at the moment.
Cole didn't have a choice but to clean himself in the way of the ancestors. Though it wasn't decent , he was used to it after countless missions.
Afterward, Cole wore his clothes without drying himself. His shirt and jeans may have been soaked, but at least he was clean.
'Oh yeah, I have to get back to reading that book,' he scowled. 'Unfortunately.'
The morning sun steadily rose above Cole's head as he strolled back to the bridge. Sceneries like the blissful patch of grass swaying to the warm breeze might not recur so often from then on.
Once Cole finished his stroll, he reached beneath the bridge.
"What the hell?!" Cole exclaimed in a surprised shriek.
'It's gone, someone... must have stolen it.'
Cole stooped as he clung to his hair in a violent rage, "Shoot! I was being careless, that was my only key!"
"Finding another copy of that book is going to be extremely difficult. It'll take more time than I can afford to give," he squeezed his face like he drank something bitter.
"What now...I should have read while I had the chance. I'll have to wing it!" Cole resolved in a poor, disappointed voice.
Things were already going south that morning. To make matters worse, he was about to meet a faction Head for the first time!
Ironically, the weight of his past carelessness began to rigorously slam his head. Still, he did what he could in that situation.
Simply put, Cole was caught in a cycle of do or die.
At that same time, Snider was also quite baffled.
Snider stared at his mirror quite oddly.
He thought out loud, "What am I going to wear today?"
"Should I put on something overly formal? Or something more casual and easy-going?" Snider stroked his chin as he locked his gaze on his reflection.
He already spent 2 hours trying to decide; from the looks of it, Snider wasn't deciding anytime soon. Beforehand, Snider called in sick as an excuse to ditch work.
"Today's the day they meet! I'm so tense my brain isn't functioning!" Snider covered his face as he blurted out.
In the end, he went with a navy blue suit with brown cufflinks and black loafers to match. A more formal look was the best look.
But still...
"There's still way too much time before the meeting...dang it, I'm already so hyped!"
Snider snapped his fingers.
"I know! I'll just go back to sleep!" He shot up.
As Snider intended to leap on the bed behind him, something peculiar caught his eye. Like a warped space, something swam across his floor like a fish.
Snider was popeyed, yet refrained from acting carelessly. Still, he crossed his two fingers and pointed it towards the floor.
With a firm, menacing voice, he asked, "Who are you? And how did you get past my barrier?"
He was met with no reply.
Instead, the floor beneath his feet warped and distorted until it resembled water, and he sank. Snider was slowly swallowed like he were being engulfed in quicksand; he couldn't even glimpse what had caused it.
On top of that, he lacked the sufficient power to resist.
Snider's head sank in; all he could view afterward was a multicolored dreamscape-like space. His body felt weightless as he hung at the top. He could breathe just fine, but his mouth was sealed shut.
All he could do was muffled and flap his hands. Snider took a quick glance of the surface; above his head were currents like the casual flow of water.
'Am I being attacked? But how did this indulger get past my barrier?' Snider wondered as he hung out in the space.
Try as he may, getting out seemed impossible. Snider treated it like a pool and tried to swim out, but it was pointless.
Still, he didn't give up! He kept desperately trying to swim to the top!
While he tried to escape, the warping on his floors receded and returned to normal.
"Hmmmmm...what outfit should I wear today?" A clone resembling Snider asked the mirror.
The mirror neither had an answer nor his reflection. From the mirror's view, there was no one present in the room.
'This will be a problem,' the clone thought.
SNAP!
In the mirror, a dark gloop rose, twisted, and mimicked Snider's appearance. Finally, the result was a perfect reflection on the mirror.
"PERFECT," he uttered.
The clone then took a swift glimpse of the wall clock on the 3rd wall of the bedroom.
'10:15, huh? I should start going to exercise punctuality.'
The clone darted back at the mirror.
'This suit is so tacky, and the shoes are even more horrendous, alas I must go early so I'll stomach it this once.'
Within 10 minutes, the clone put on Snider's clothes and properly tidied himself. It took another glimpse of the clock.
'10:23, still right on schedule it seems,' the clone smiled in an appeased manner as it stepped out of the room.
To everyone else in the apartment, it was just Snider going out on some important personal business. The clone's accurate portrayal and identical looks left no room for suspicion amongst the neighbors.
'This is too ea...'
"Snider, wait up!"
A blast chill permeated through his body. He dared not act out of place in that moment.
"I was planning to pick you up," a soft and light female voice spoke calmly to him.
Her features were common: pitch-dark long hair extending to her shoulders, brown focused eyes, pink lip gloss, and somewhat pale fair skin. She wore a loose pencil skirt extending past her knees, a white crop top covered by a blue jacket, and black sneakers livened up by white socks.
"Antadisma? Where's the boss?" Snider inquired with a terrified expression.
"I don't know. They asked me personally to go in their stead," she responded in a bold yet frail tone.
'Shoot!' Snider furrowed his brows.
'I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone.'
"Do you have any idea why the boss didn't come?" He asked with a smirk playing at the side of his face.
"How the hell should I know what the boss does?" She retorted.
"Good point," Snider agreed reluctantly, his smirk twitching.
"So..." She thickened her frail voice into something serious, "Let's go meet this guy!" Antadisma scowled.
Snider was gripped by hesitation; either way, he conceded and took her along. Unlike he had a choice, though he was a fake, he still had a bad feeling about the whole situation.
Meanwhile...
Cole was busy considering who took the chronicles. It wasn't anything too special in the supernatural world from his knowledge, at least.
'Perhaps a homeless person took it? If that's the case, then they must have sold it somewhere.'
'But that too is one of many possibilities.'
Cole stepped out of the cold, humid bridge to glance at the sky.
The sun was out, the clouds were visible and strongly formed, along with the sky's shade of blue.
'It's almost time,' a drop of sweat ran down Cole's cheeks.
Regardless, he clenched his fist and steeled himself.
'There's no time to be looking back. I have to keep going ahead and adapting, or I might just lose my life,' he concurred.
Cole performed a few light stretches, some push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and a small run around the bridge just to get himself in shape.
He then tucked the Swiss knife into his boxers and covered it with his shirt. It was best to keep his trump card as a last resort after all.
Cole branched the lake few meters beside the bridge and splashed water on his face. He took a look at his reflection in the water and chuckled.
'Do or die. Nothing special.'