3.3
74 1 3
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

"We'll see each other tomorrow, same time same place."

Not giving Jack a chance to answer, Cast walked away, quickly vanishing into the streets that were even darker at dusk.

Just like that Jack was left standing at the entrance of a rather shabby-looking building.

Unsure of what to do next and suffering from an intense headache, Jack looked around him for any hints.

When he couldn't find any, he decided to sit down on the front porch for a bit. Leaning his thumping head against the cool medal handrailings, hoping that it would allevate the pain even a little bit.

His eyes were still burning and he felt sick to his stomach.

As he sat there he felt an extreme sleepiness well up inside him. All he wanted was to lay down on the cool stone beneath him and rest for a bit.

At that moment, the door behind him opened, startling him awake. He jumped up from the stairs and looked at the person behind him.

The middle-aged man seemed to be just as surprised as Jack, but soon his expression turned into an amused smile.

"Don't scare me like that! I almost shat my pants!"

Jack's brow furrowed a bit when he heard the other's second sentence, the man discovered this and started to laugh heartily.

"I'm kidding," the man continued while laughing.

"You're just too much fun to tease. This side of you reminds me a lot of your mother."

As he said this the hearty laughter was replaced with a melancholic smile for a moment.

"Argh, enough of that, let's go in, dinner's almost ready!"

He turned around and walked deeper inside the house, leaving the door open for Jack to follow.

Hesitating for a second, Jack also went inside, closing the door behind him.

The other person seemed to be related to him, judging by the way he talked about Jack's mother and directly invitated him for dinner. Maybe this was his father that he had heard about before?

Jack became nervous thinking about this possibility, if that really was his father then the other knew more about 'Jack' than he did!

He followed the man into a room with a table in the middle, there were already two crude sets of dishes and cutlery lying on it.

"Sit down, I'll bring the food over!" the man said happily.

Jack chose one of the already set spots and quietly sat down, then he watched the man who was standing, in what he presumed was the kitchen, handling some pots. This was the first time he noticed that the other's left arm was missing.

But the man didn't seem too bothered about that, casually walking over and putting the pot on the table as if it was nothing. Before he sat down opposite of Jack and laddled some of the stew in the pot on Jack's plate.

He repeated that process for his plate and started to eat contently.

Jack looked at the food in front of him, it was a kind of potato stew with bits of cabagge mixed in. Fortunately, he didn't see anything that looked like meat and started scooping some of the soup into his mouth.

He had been very lucky with his 'Realms' so far, he only encountered a non-vegetarian dish once. Even in his last 'Realm' the food he received never contained meat, which meant that his identity there was also a vegeterian and that the hospital knew about it.

But this didn't make his hidden identity any less mysterious, quite the opposite...

"What took you so long? I was about to go over to your friend's house and look for you!"

Jack almost chocked on the piece of potato in his mouth.

His friend's house? What friend?

Jack instantly became anxious.

"We, uh, lost track of time."

He really wanted to hit himself after he said that, but instead he tried to mask his nervousness by putting another spoonful in his mouth, while praying that the other believed his lame excuse.

"Hm," he could feel the man staring at his face, at this moment Jack was only thankful that he didn't take a hit to the face during the group fight today.

"You didn't drink, did you? Your eyes are red."

Jack unconsciously wanted to cover his eyes, that were still irritated because of the incident earlier.

Taking this action as an admission to guilt, the man's tone suddenly turned grave.

"What did I tell you, Jakob?! You have to stay away from alcohol, at all costs!"

The man seemed genuinely angry as he said this. His current expression was very differnent from his easy-going behavior before, this appearance reminded Jack of the overweight man. Shrinking back, he silently looked down at the food in front of him, not daring to lift his head.

"Sigh."

The man calmed down suddenly.

"I'm sorry."

"Your old man is just really worried that something might happen to you... We only have each other after all."

"..."

He waited for Jack to say something but Jack didn't dare reply.

They continued their meal in silence.

After they finished, the man wordlessly took Jack's plate and utensils away.

Jack stayed seated for a moment, but ultimately stood up, wanting to look around for a bit and find his bedroom, if he had one. His headache had only worsened throughout this meal and his energy was drained to the last drop.

"Are you going to sleep? I'll also come over after I finish up here."

It was obvious that the man tried to lighten the atmosphere a bit, but Jack was in no mood to wreck his brain for any suitable response beyond 'OK'.

Jack soon found a room with two beds inside on the first and only additional floor of this house. Jack didn't know which one of the beds was his so he just randomly chose one, his head hurting too much for him to care.

He changed out of his outdoor clothes, which only left him with his undergarments. He didn't know where they stored their clothes, so he decided to just sleep like this.

After he laid down and closed his eyes, it didn't take long for his mind to become groggy.

 

Meet Jack's father! 

Thank you for reading!!

3