home

search

The Strange Place 14 : My Own Way

  Nothing changed. At the end of the unbearable pain he could hardly endure, save for its aftertaste strong enough to make an average man beg for death, Masa Ed once again returned to the top of the bed in the room that has strangely reset itself. Maybe everything is a setup organized by superior minds ordering numerous limbs, or he is truly experiencing a time loop, no one can tell right now.

  However, what Masa Ed thought about everything as he slowly opens his eyes, regaining his consciousness amidst lingering pain is:

  'I am definitely on the right track'.

  Him choosing to follow his own path might have been a choice he should have chosen long ago.

  But no regret. So, despite the pain of the evil snakebites and the accompanying wicked venom his mind is attempting to dominate and the great difficulty of commanding his muscles that still remembers the crushing weight of the invisible strange force, Masa Ed with sheer will alone, forced himself out of the bed as fast as he could.

  As far as he is concerned right now, what doesn't kill him make him stronger; thus it is time for him to move to his next target that might hide a passage that leads out of the godforsaken mysterious prison he found himself—a strange place. And its this next target he is now walking towards—the only wardrobe in the room that has three vertical partition corresponding to its three wooden doors.

  Now.. Reaching the wardrobe made of shiny glossy brown wood, measuring about three meters across and two and a half meters tall, Masa Ed without delay set his eyes on the first door knob on his left.

  'You first.' After holding and turning it, with a click sound, it opened easily. And after opening the door wide by pulling the knob towards him, what Masa Ed found hidden behind it was just an axe with a shiny silver blade with a very sharp edge sitting on the revealed compartment floor with its wooden handle resting vertically against one of its two corner.

  "What a surprise." Masa Ed muttered after a careful look at the axe. In his mind, the axe is the closest to the best tool he can have as regards his endeavor to break out of the place so far.

  So without delay, he grabbed it by the handle, taking it out of the compartment. However as he closed the compartment door, about to set into motion, the axe easily forced itself out of his hand.

  "???" Looking stunned at it as it float midair like its being wielded, before he knows it, he felt a very sharp, intense stinging pain on his left shoulder, and looking at his left bleeding shoulder that is missing an arm—one that he realized has been cut off and is lying on the floor—he felt another sharp, intense stinging pain on his right knee, which in turn made him go down on his other knee after loosing balance because its his right leg attached to that knee that has also been cut off.

  Before he can process his thought on what is actually going on, a third sharp, intense stinging pain followed his right shoulder that he saw the axe cleanly cut off, which then led to him falling face down on the floor helpless. Then in the next instant, feeling a sharp, intense stinging pain on his left knee, he knows for certain he has lost all his four limbs.

  However that wasn't all. He felt a never ending series of sharp stinging pain paired with the force of a heavy blow hammering anywhere on what is left of his useless body, his skull not spared; he was slowly and mercilessly been butchered by the mysterious flying axe.

  Refusing to cry out from the accumulating overwhelming pain or show a reaction to the horror he is a subject of, Masa Ed in his mind count the seconds—27 seconds—till he felt a sharp stinging pain on his neck which then leads to him blanking out totally.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  But yet again, the cycle repeated itself, everything reset.

  Masa Ed lying on the bed like all the previous times slowly open his heavy eyes, and despite the vestige of the overwhelming pain on his mind, like a zombie, he rose from the bed and similarly marching on it like a zombie, he came down from it. And not stopping at that, like a man on a mission, he marched towards the wardrobe, and like he has done before, he fearlessly opened the first compartment where he is certain the axe is. Then this time, grabbing the axe with two hands, he gripped it tightly as he took it out of the wardrobe.

  'Let's see how you will escape this time.'

  Like he is talking mentally to the axe he raised with his two eyes on it—appraising it—Masa Ed grinned with mischief.

  Right away and leaving the wardrobe compartment door opened, he neared the ultra transparent glass wall through which he could still see the moon sitting motionlessly on the sea of fog like it has been watching all his cycles of suffering, entertained.

  With the axe raised and anger and hatred distorting his youthful face, he bring it down on the glass wall with all the force he can generate. However, like a ping ball hitting a hard rock, the axe recoiled, getting easily knocked off his super tight grip, but not without inflicting on the hands he held it with a stinging pain paired with paralyzing shock that echoed all over the rest of his body, shocking him physically and leaving swollen blisters on his two palms.

  'I guess it wouldn't be that easy.' Realizing there is no path through the glass wall, he turned around, facing the evil axe that lies flat on the floor mat, but instead of worrying about the horror it can unleash, he fearlessly neared it, and contrary to what he might have expected, he was able to grab it without drama and restore it to his super tight double grip, ignoring the pain from the blisters on his palms.

  "Oh.." Masa Ed briefly surprised by the axe current temperament, thinking it has become good and obedient, moved on; he neared the wall where the only door is—the one opposite the glass wall—and repeating what he earlier did, he struck the wall with the axe, and the axe also like earlier bounced off his hold, inflicting on him pain and shock like earlier, while also leaving more blisters on his bloody hand.

  "This guy is practically useless." He muttered, glancing at the axe now lying not far from him. And now realizing the axe might offer no help, he ignored it—unconcerned if it might act up and ambush him—instead, he neared the wardrobe again, and without delay, he opened wide the middle compartment door, frowning at what he saw behind it—laid on its floor.

  "Strange." He chuckled.

  Though confused as to why a white notebook and white pen similar to the one from room 33 will be next to a pile of folded clothes inside the middle compartment, Masa Ed anyways bent down and picked up the white notebook, attempting to look at its pages. However unexpectedly, it flew from its hand, hovering midair before opening to its first blank page as the white pen also mysteriously flew next to it, hovering and about to write on it.

  Then watching the pen write its first sentence:

  [Coward, I expected you were going to go your own way...]

  "Idiot." Masa Ed gave it one last contemptuous look before moving on, ignoring it and whatever it will write next. Then opening the door to the wardrobe last compartment, it revealed to him, four wooden boxes stacked on one another, a black one at the bottom, followed by a golden one, then one white with gold touches, and lastly a purple one at the very top.

  Proceeding... Although Masa Ed expected traps associated with his further actions with the boxes, he nevertheless bring all four out, placing them side by side on the floor. And before proceeding, he quickly left to retrieve the evil axe. Then returning, he focus on the black box, crouching in front of it, and as he opened it, he suddenly moved few steps back, gripping tightly the axe in his hand, brandishing it and tensing all his muscles.

  Then watching the top of the box in anticipation, his eyes reflected a large black snake that shouldn't fit into it come out of it with its horned snake head racing for the unusual tall ceiling before it suddenly bend—facing his direction—hissing at him with a vicious glint in its red evil slit eyes, about to dive at him and swallow him in one gulp.

  However, grinning, unperturbed, and somewhat excited, Masa Ed held the evil axe in his hand towards the floor at an angle, his widespread bare feet planted on the ground firmly. Then after a short spell, with gritted teeth and a yelling scream, he swing the evil axe vertically upward at angle. And in the next moment, he quickly moved several steps back, barely dodging a shower of black smelly liquid coming from the cleanly cut off neck of the large snake and its cleanly cut off head of the deader than dead snake that landed in front of him a moment later. Meaning, for the first time, Masa Ed won against a trap.

Recommended Popular Novels