Ten Days

JAKE'S POV

When I wake up on a regular evening, I expect nothing but silence. I wish I had this now but no, I've got nothing but rambling instead.

How do I remove this I ask? How do I clear away the past mistakes from my head? Can I turn back time to the moment I stepped in front of the shop that night? I wish I stayed at home.

Being a twenty-five-year-old is not a lot of work but when it gets here, oh my I beg to differ. Imagine you were up in another dimension and had a task to complete in just ten days, nothing but ten days or else you lose your soul and die.

That's my actual position right now, it all started at the liquor shop yesterday by 8:25pm. Sometimes I ask myself what a young man of my status would want at a place like that. It's usually not my thing but I was surprised when I got there.

I felt like a force pulled me up to that shop, as a graduate with an engineering degree I still wonder why I'm jobless or unemployed if I might add.

Well back to the shop story, so here I am at the liquor shop and suddenly I see a nice-looking lady walk past me. Of course as a bachelor I must apply. I wish I didn't do it at this point. I regret it all by now.

She gave me this nice smile, what a charmer you'd think. I never asked her for her name but she told me anyway, the name she explained to me was Mary tank (if that is her real name) and drew me closer to her.

She had this medium height and looked like she had been born in her early 20s. I'm sure she's 18 and above so I asked her for her number. I mean there's a first time for everything right?

To cut the long story short turns out it was fake and void. I heard a masculine voice, a really deep one instead of the sweet Mary Tank kind. This gave me a shiver at first until sudden suspicion hit me when he spoke about a life-changing deal.

As a graduate without a job, I felt like this was my golden chance, my epic opportunity. Guess what? I accepted, and I did. He gave me a book with a black covering but gold writing on it.

The gold writing looked really clear but too bright for a regular, I opened it and saw it blank but the funny aspect was the fact that it had nine pages with the inscription, 'ten pages' by the side. Who does that?

Puzzled young mister like myself thought over and over and over again for another reason why I can't take this but I couldn't find any. Believe me, if I knew it was a soul trap, I wouldn't. I mean no one would.

So here I am with just ten days left for me to get an orb, a dark orb with a brown color written all over it. At least that's the description given to me by him.

As for Mary Tank, well let's say she's in charge of my soul and her dark guy friend is the main keeper of stubborn and aggressive and failed souls. Oh yes, I mean deep down yes.

Didn't think after graduation my life would end up in the hands of an unknown person per day, a person from another world like ours but different from ours. I also never saw chances of this being a real thing until my breath seized up and I fell on the floor unconscious and right now in the hospital. I realized it was our world and none other came after it. I just had illusions, I think.

That's why I heard noise all over, still on the bed with a needle in my arm. Escaping is my only option for now but how is the direct question, how?

The book is all I think about, besides the escape plan not formed in my head. All I remember is just how he told me to kill a soul every day to get another day for myself.

The thing is I've never killed a tiny rat before so this killing thing had no space in my mind or heart. The options were to kill a soul a day to see another day or die and meet him. Who is this 'him' you ask? I don't know. Can I see his face? No, I never saw it at all.

Believe it or not, I'm not planning on meeting this sinister dude for the second time again, running from him is what I want but how is the direct question? I'm breathing by chance, because I know when it's nighttime and I've killed no one, by the stroke of midnight I'll be dead. Boom! Just like that.

A summary is for nine or ten days I've got to kill and also get a brown orb thingy from a museum or ancient building. I don't even know if it's haunted or anything but I know this is not good. I must return this orb and myself on the tenth day.

This is my story and not my favorite song but I guess I've got to kill all nine to ten days long...

The underworld I hear is strange and quite void. I've never been there so I heard. The plan after leaving the hospital is to run up with the map in the black book. But the thing at hand first is who to kill, how do I go about this? I don't know but I have to.

I'm looking at the sides of the bed and glory to God I see a knife. A surgical knife that is, what's that doing here? Are the doctor's killers too?

Just like a butterfly could flap it's wings a nurse walks in and looks at me in shock. Didn't think they'd want me dead but who am I to judge all this crap work anyway.

She stares at me and asks, "You're alive Mr Jake?" And for once in my life, I've never felt so much disgust for such a person I never knew in my entire life. So I reply like I never said any of this in my head.

"Yes? I am?" All she does is stare and suddenly she walks over to the bed like she's looking for an object or anything in particular. "What are you looking for?" I ask and act like I didn't see a knife a few minutes ago.

She says, "Nothing." She looks at me for a few seconds and tells me to relax my nerves on the bed. I do as she says.

She pulls out the needle from my arm and places a plaster and cotton wool in my arm. Finally, it's out so I thought. She takes the needle and throws it away, still in shock over how I survived she looks at me and walks out of the room.

With immediate effect, I move around the room looking for only God knows what when I see the stuff injected into my body is nothing but acid.

Holy crap! How did acid get into me and I'm not dead? I ask myself. Maybe it's not the real acid but the nurse's face and the noise and burn I felt while I tried to wake up from the bed explains everything.

I've got to run or escape from here, I thought to myself. I can't die now but it seems I'm immortal until ten days or maybe midnight. Running was the plan.

I move to the nearby window leading to the hallway and I notice the nurse coming back with extra doctors from the beginning of the hall. I've never had such great eyesight since I was born but it seems the deal gives me two noticeable abilities. Immortality and great eyesight.

I pull off the hospital garment as I like to call it and wear my black T-shirt and jeans and as quickly as I can, I peep and notice they're halfway close. I look around and I spot my file on the table, I pick it up to make a run for it when they all burp into me at the door. Talk about a bummer in the evening.

Yikes!!!

I run to the left where they came from and I notice they run after me, naturally, after the doctors see you all healthy they let you go far away from them so a new patient can take over your bed and room but these guys are the only ones here. I'm not seeing another patient close but it all looks like a lab, a lab for wild tests on dead or misplaced humans. Is this real? It can't be.

While taking turns around the hallway I notice a staircase and I follow it, the doctors follow me and the nurse has another female friend with her. One of them, well holding a new knife, tries to swing it over to my head while the other jumps down to me but I dodge her.

Finally, on the first floor, wait, it's a mortuary for dead people. So I died, that's why she's surprised but also the acid is unexplainable. I see a car without a person in it and I run into it, with the keys in it I start the car and zoom off to the road.

Looks like it's deep in the hospital, far away from actual civilization if you ask me. Making a turn for the gate I see two muscular fellas and I horn for them to open the gate but instead, the first guy draws out a long sword. Maybe the doctors made a call to their neighbors, I mean who knows if they were real doctors.

I press hard and run him over, bursting the gates open at full speed. Let's just stay on a good note cause I just escaped actual death like twice or thrice. I lost count when I tried to understand how I got there.

Making sure no one saw me, I drove at regular speed when I got to the road, thankfully I made it home but looking at the watch makes it sad for me to make it home.

Walking towards the mirror I see my skin turning pale, I blame the acid or let me say cold weather. Wait a minute I just remembered I've got to kill a soul right now or I die.

It's like 11:35pm looking at the clock. I've got less than thirty minutes to find a soul, innocent or not. I try to take a quick shower and I succeed but suddenly I hear a noise from my door while I try on a similar black shirt and jeans. I move closer to my drawer and pick out my licensed gun from it.

There's no way I'm going down more than once today. It's so tricky, is it? Well back to the noise I heard. I turn the lights off and hide behind the big shelf.

I see the nurse with a large knife and no one behind her. She sights me and throws it at me I miss and immediately I shoot her in the neck. Expecting her to fall to the ground was the first thing in mind but suddenly I notice she stands up and pulls out a gun. Holy crap! Is she alive and dead?!!!

I shoot again, this time it hits her chest but still, she comes for me. What a surprise! I pick up a knife and run to her. She gives me a push and I notice she's extra strong, I stab her heart and she stops moving.

I push her off me and I look at the mirror, my hands with another person's blood. The regret in me reminds me of Mary Tank. But wait she tried to kill me first.

Just immediately I noticed a book on her, it was the same as mine. She's like me, she had to kill too. What about the other doctors around her, guess they were like me too.

I move closer to the mirror and notice the pale skin is gone, my natural tone is back. My head turns to the door when I notice the trio from earlier. I shoot one straight in the heart and the other two attack me. They looked even more than pale.

I threw the nurse's long blade at the doctor and he died. The last nurse is nothing but fragile, at least looking at her from my distance. She pleads for her life but I've got no option but to kill her, she saw me kill two and found one dead. There's no way she'd keep it a secret.

I pierce her heart with my knife and she coughs out blood and dies.

In total, I've just killed four souls, at least not innocent at all. Only God knows how many they've slaughtered for the Orb's freaking sake.

Looking around my apartment I see four dead bodies and a murderer. Me. I wash my hands and move out with my papers, the car keys and my photos. The clothes I fling over to my back and I match downstairs. I first clear out any form of evidence against me and zoom off.

Where I'm off to I have no idea but I am willing to survive it all through, well I guess it's just nine days left for the actual event right?

Driving off to the road I see people all over, I've never been a fan of crowds so I drive far away from town and I notice a motel close by. I pull over and I decide to spend a night there, it's not like I've got a home.

It's time to relax, I get into the motel and I notice a half-dressed lady for a receptionist but smile and order a room. She gives me the key with a flirty smile and I walk off like I didn't see it.

Getting to my room I switch on the light and wait for some time to make sure I'm safe before I sleep, that's if I can.

It's 2:00 am now and I know I can sleep, so I lay on the bed with a gun in my right hand and a knife in the other. With my doors locked I'm in for any surprise out of town.