A Wish From The Devil

CHAPTER 10: The Un-Expected

Present or past,

future or nothing,

the stories we outlive are the ones we remember…

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There's nothing as bewitching as watching a battle amongst men. The blood, the gore, the ever-wanting need for glory and power.

However, I know nothing more baffling than being thrust into the centre of one you know absolutely nothing of, where you are not only assaulted by huge looking men wielding swords that could crack open a human skull but by millions of questions that you can't even put into words,

The last thing Ray remembered was leaning against the wall of his bare apartment with his eyes closed and nothing else but the clothes he wore and the scraps and leftovers of the little lunch he had eaten still in the nylon beside him,

Only for his eyes to pop open at the sound of the slashing and clanging of swords and shields, as he heard the grunting of voices, with the first image that meets his gaze being that of a man warring chainmail and armour being pierced with a long sword, crying out in pain as the sword was pulled out only for it to swing sideways, quickly taking the man's head with a swish,

Blood splatter was nothing new as the attacker simply moved to another person who attacked him from behind while trying to watch his own back at the same time, however to Ray, it was a different case,

A smidgen of blood on cheeks, was all it took for him had to begin racing faster than a train dashing across its tracks,

A wake-up call seemed to explode in his brain but before he could begin to even process it, another grunt was heard behind him, as only a single glance was enough for him to see a newly dead body drop to the ground as blood flowed from the gaping hole in the armour less chest,

"I'm going to die here" was the only thought in his mind, as his hands shook at the mere thought that he could die without even knowing how or where it came from, as his eyes suddenly widened watching an arrow suddenly pierce the eye of someone that stood merely three fleet's aware from him with no idea where the source came from,

"I'm going to die here," he screamed this time in his mind, scrambling as fast as he could to his feet without actually fully getting up, as he crouched low on the spot where he found himself, still wearing his red shirt and yellow pants which was nothing like the clothes worn by the people around him,

"What are you doing?" A voice suddenly asked from behind, as Ray fearfully sprang up, looking up in fear as if the next second was going to be his last,

"You humans are always weird," continued the small figure flying with wings in front of him,

"As per the terms of our services, Our clients would be protected for the next 24hours after their wishes have been granted and I'm just here to make sure that happens,"

"Who...What are you," Ray asked as he tried to make out the figure of the creature flying in the sky above, thankful the moment he noticed a small bubble around him that seemed to render him invisible to the people battling around him,

"Duhhh….these horns aren't for decoration you know," answered the creature while delightfully pointing at the two horns at each side of his forehead,

"But so you know, I'm one of Mr D's top messagers," he said, almost puffing up its chest with pride,

"But you can call me Aiko, for the next 24hours," replied snappishly as he finally dropped down to take a closer look at Ray before turning his face away with disinter.

"Wh...Who is Mr D? Wh...Why am I here? And what do you mean by my wish has been answered cause it definitely..."

Ray began to ask a few of the questions he knew he absolutely needed answers only for Aiko to immediately interrupt and shut him up by dashing right at his face, as the cute and grotesque look of the red creature in front of him immediately shut him up,

"Please stop asking me unnecessary questions. If you have any questions or are unsatisfied with your wish then kindly forward your complaints to the customer service section of H and F. It's not my job to do that and you'll just annoy me enough

for me to keep you for twenty-four hours in a tightly sealed box with enough air and water for your safety," Aiko said staring intensely into Ray's eyes as he subtly passed across his subtle threat,

"I don't know anything about whatever's going on" Ray softly replied in a pleading tone as he looked around and slowly took in the bloody battle around him as thousands of people, as far as his eyes could see, fought and gruesomely killed each other,

" I don't care," replied Aiko, with the same disinterested look on his face, as he continued flapping in the air,

"I'm not here to babysit you. My only job is to deliver and protect our clients, which in this case is you,"

"What then do you get for doing what you do?" Ray asked racking through his head for a way to get Aiko to answer the constantly multiplying questions, in his head,

"Blah...Blah...Blah...you couldn't give me even if I told you and any more annoying questions like this will get you into a perfectly square box just for you,"

Silenced, Ray stiffly stood looking around him in bewilderment, as it felt like he was stuck in an ancient war movie that he wanted no part of,

Confused and with no intentions to participate or find out how it ends, Ray begins to walk in the direction of what seemed to be a road or an over-trodden path, desperate to somehow find some peace-loving citizens and humans who would be willing to answer whatever questions he had,

"Where are you going?" Aiko suddenly asked popping up in front of him the moment he noticed Ray walking as if he had a direction,

"You don't even know where you are," Aiko continued talking without expecting an answer while chuckling slightly while throwing a smirking expression in Ray's face,

"But I can't wait for you to find out," said Aiko for the last time before popping off into smoke,

"Well, I can't wait to find out too," Replied Ray speaking to the air, annoyed at the fact that even though he couldn't see the little devil, he was sure it could see him and was paying very close attention to him, not to talk of the fact that he currently blamed it for the dilemma he was currently in,

After walking for what felt like hours in nothing but flip flops his feet felt so flat and sour that he was sure that another hour of walking would get him nothing but holes in his heels, however at the end of it all, Ray felt like it had all been worth it the moment he sighted a high and tall metal gate,

In only a couple of minutes, gasping for air, Ray got in front of the gates making sure to immediately line up on a long queue leading up to the entrance of the gates excited to finally see people who didn't seem like bloodthirsty enough to kill a stranger like him although Ray found it strange to see them looking so poor and shabby as some of them looked like they hadn't eaten a good meal in days,

"21 hours and counting," heard Ray suddenly in his ears, immediately recognizing the voice to be Aiko's, reminding him that he only had 21 hours left before he would be free of its presence,

Dismissing its words, Ray joined the queue, as he began to speak to the man in front of him the moment he did,

"Can you please tell me where this is?" He asked, stretching his hands out at the same time to tap the middle-aged and ageing man in front of him only for him to jerk back, horrified the moment he placed his hands on his shoulders only to watch his fingers pass through almost like his hands weren't real and were only a figment of his imagination,

"Aaah," Ray unconsciously screamed retracting his hand as if he had just gotten burnt, before using his left to touch and make sure that his right hand still belonged to him,

"Wha-what is happening," he managed to stutter out while looking into the empty air behind him, expecting an immediate explanation for why he suddenly felt like a ghost,

"Duh… what if assassins were after your life. It's not like I know the reasons why you decided to procure a coin and use one of our wishing services," Aiko replied even without feeling the need to appear and show himself,

"I didn't get the coin it was given to me by some crazy beggar named Lucy or morning whatever...," exclaimed Ray, feeling the need to point out that fact to Aiko,

"That's impossible, are you saying fa…Whatever. All I'm trying to say is that for the next twenty hours forty-five minutes, you won't be able to interact with reality in any physical way that may endanger your life,"

"However…" stressed Aiko, suddenly feeling the need to pop out of wherever he was disappearing to with a huge smile on his face, and a huge parchment paper in his hand coupled with a weird looking feather,

"If you can not wait for the protection period to be over and you feel dissatisfied with my service and no longer require my protection, simply sign here and here," pointing at the top and bottom area of the huge paper he held,

"After that, I'll be on my way and hopefully if the future smiles on you, I would never have to see you again," Aiko said as he continued speaking bringing the paper close enough to Ray's face for him to read it,

"So I sign this paper and you leave and…"

"and you get to talk and touch whosoever you want," interrupted Aiko without allowing Ray to finish,

"Why can't I talk to them though? How can they hurt me by simply talking to me?" Ray then goes ahead to ask in an exasperated manner, marvelling at the image of Aiko who stood close enough for him to see the deep and curved lines drawn on his face including his horns, while wondering why the creature in front of him seemed to enjoy messing with him,

"Then let me ask you a question of your own. Do you know how many diseases a human can get from another human simply by talking to them? I'm not ready to take that risk and apparently you aren't ready to take any risks of your own," Aiko said shaking his head in part disappointment and annoyance, allowing the parchment of paper and pen he held to disappear in a snap of his fingers, before slowing disappearing into thin air in the same manner,

Slightly annoyed that he couldn't speak or talk to anyone and the only person he could speak to and try to ask questions was hell-bent on ignoring those questions,

After a while of standing in confusion, trying to deduce what was going on from afar, Ray finally decided to go further to investigate,

Walking through the broad gates, without being seen, after passing by the armour-plated soldiers at the gate as they unknowingly ignored his presence completely,

Ray went into the city and immediately headed for what he assumed to be the town hall, while making sure to get some food and a drink on the way,

He had barely spent an hour walking through the streets of the city and at an inn for him to find out enough information about it to know that the city was unlike any he had seen on earth,

He heard tales of dungeons and slaves, evil creatures and beasts, adventurers and knights, unbelievable abilities and weapon mastery about magic weapons unlike the guns and metal weapons he was used to,

However, on getting to the town hall, after looking everywhere until he saw the big sign he found out the most shocking news of all. He had barely stepped in through the threshold when he spotted the dazzling box-like thing at the side of the door, beeping loudly and beaming bright red big enough to be the first thing anyone saw when passing through the door,

"Is that stuff broken, I thought we just got a new replacement," said one of the two people sitting behind the huge counter at the back of the hall the moment he spotted the sudden red blinking lights at the door without seeing anyone pass through,

"Maybe it was the wind," replied the young woman sitting beside him who was also in charge of matters relating to the city brought by the people to the town hall,

"You know as much as I do that no one can pass through those doors without the proper means of identification," she said as she continued speaking, lifting her head to look at the entrance of the double doors with intense scrutiny before going back to what she was doing on the counter in front of her,

"Yeah, only a slave without proper identification would make the sensor turn red like that," he replied, reiterating her point while looking towards the doorway as he wondered why the red beaming light continued blinking without stopping,

"And as you can see, the doorway is empty and no one is there or the security alarms would have gone off," she continued speaking with her head bent as Ray shockingly listened to what she said while processing what that meant for his future stay in the city,

"Slaves?" He whispered softly underneath his breath in shock knowing fully well that the word applied to him since he didn't have any means of identification,

He was still standing at the entrance when a group of people suddenly strolled in, past him fully decked in armour and weapons, even as the smell of blood clung to them,

It was pretty obvious that they had just returned from some sort of war, as one of them even went as far as to drag a big burly bag drenched in the dirt behind him as he entered right after the rest of his group members, with the box-like thing at the door beaming green as it easily allowed them entry,

Ray stood by the door watching them go in when he suddenly took a sharp breath in when the last bearded man to go in suddenly turned back around to look at the exact space, Ray stood in,

"Am I visible," was the first thought that popped into his mind, holding back the urge to call out to Aiko, and ask him why he was suddenly no longer being protected,