blood....

I kept on running towards my home; I didn't care whether or not this made some noise. I just wanted to get back to home. I never felt this helpless in my life as the scene kept on replaying in my mind.

My lips were trembling as I opened my mouth to breathe. I couldn't even say anything to calm myself. Sure I have seen blood but that was behind the screen. In anime the blood was animated so it didn't have an effect on me.

While the blood in horror movies always looked so fake that I never got scared or disgusted by it. Maybe it was because I always knew that those scenes were not real.

But now I felt terrified and helpless. I felt like a worm waiting to be squished under some shoe. Even when I didn't see any blood today because I knew that this scenario was not fake. Because I knew that I witness a life being taken in front of me.

I wish I could go back in time and choose never to go in that direction maybe that way I would still be able to live in nice comfortable hole like before. Back in the worm hole that sheltered me from the cruelty of the world.

I wish that I had enough power to save that woman from that cruel fate. As soon as I entered my house I ran towards my room. I sat on my bed covered in a blanket after I locked the door.

My hands couldn't stop shaking. My throat felt dry as I tried to speak to comfort myself. I gulped down bottles of water while spilling some on me in the process.

I fell asleep as soon as I laid on my bed due to exhaustion. I could be grateful for one thing, that was that I didn't dream at all.

I sat in one place for many hours after waking up. I am tired. I want to take a break from all of this but how could that happen. My mind kept on reminding me of what happened yesterday to the point I felt numb to the scene.

I would gladly take that woman's place, at least that way I wouldn't have to go through this. But now I can't do anything.

I can't keep on sitting like this. I have to get up, I need to get up.

It took awhile for me to get up. I went to take a bath. There are two water tanks in my home. One is underground and the other one is on the roof. The one that is underground supply water to the ground floor. while the one on the roof is responsible for the first floor.

I used the good washroom on the ground floor. I felt so much better after the bath. I was thinking of leaving this city before that happened. Now I wanted to leave this city as soon as possible. I know I can't make sudden moves.

I know a story can have many perspectives and mine is just one of them. So it's not good to just tag those people as evil but that does not mean that I could relax after that incident. After lunch I busied myself with reading a web novel.

I gradually placed the incident in the back of my mind as I read about the protagonist working hard to improve and the protagonist ability to improvise and adapt. It was already three in the evening when I ate lunch so night came pretty quickly as I was reading the novel.

I went to sleep after dinner. Reading novel and watching anime always had this weird affect on my mentality. I would be affected by whatever I have read about. For example if I saw an anime which revolves around a lazy person whose purpose of life is to be lazy, I would also feel lazy after that. Same is the case with some energetic one.

Vibes of what I am reading or seeing do affect me but it's usually the content that affects me the most.

From the next day I started to collect things that I would need to take with me. I cautiously collected most of them and took not more than a few things from a single store.

There is one thing I am sure of and that is that nothing is without cause and effect. So I took precaution while taking things even though they seemingly get replaced as if it was magic. Thinking about it magic also depends on mana and in most cases in anime you can sense mana disturbances around you. I don't think that's the case this time but I can't take any chances.

After a week I had already collected most of the things. I purposely took a long time to collect. I kept an eye on my surroundings as well by focusing on mana around me. Now I have better control of it and can easily see mana around me, well easy compared to before.

It's starting to get cold since it's almost the middle of autumn. It's so weird; seasons are still changing like normal. I laughed thinking how I find something weird just because it's normal.

I don't know if the laws apply to me but I can't take any chance of catching some disease. So I dressed warmly for the first time in such weather. I enjoy cold weather so usually I am the last one in my family to wear warm clothes.

I wore a plane white long shirt which reaches just above my knee. I wore a black oversized hoodie which covered the shirt completely. I don't know why but I love oversized clothes, well tops such hoodies and sweaters. With that I wore black jeans, sneakers and wool scarf.

I took the bag in my hand as I made my way downstairs towards the main gate. I took one last glance around before I locked the main gate and went out. I wore my bag on my back as I made my way towards the exit of the city. I planned to go to the capital, well why not.

I know capital would be dangerous but it can also be considered as a spot where most people would go to. Maybe I would find people like me there; I have to take a chance for that.

There is one thing I know after that incident is that the only way we would get a chance to protect ourselves is when we are with others in a group. I know that those people were not from here, it can also have some other explanation but right now this is the only one I can think of. Why else would they be emitting mana or why else would they have mana greater than the gate.

I have to cross the area containing gate to reach the city exit that leads to the capital. The main road towards the exit was not that close to the portal but it was not that far either.

I took the shotgun and held it with both hands. I don't know for sure if they have left. At this point I don't know anything about the situation. People say that ignorance is bliss and it usually is for most cases but ignorance is also dangerous. In my case ignorance is just dangerous and nothing else.

I somehow managed to find a shotgun and a sniper with silencer on. I know that they might not be able to do much damage but they can provide me a chance to escape at least.

Right now I am in the area containing the portal. I want to leave as soon as possible but a part of me wants to go check the portal out one last time. I can still see the dense mana of the portal so it's clear that the portal is still there. Did those people not leave? If they did leave then are they planning to come back? There are so many possibilities and I can't even eliminate a single one.

I want to leave after the sunset, in that way I would be able to hide myself in the dark. It would be completely dark by the time I would be at the exit. I would then start to travel on a bicycle which I have already stored in the pocket dimension.

[I still have some time] I bit my lip thinking as I looked in the direction of the portal. I don't know why I am feeling like this but I really want to visit the portal one last time.

[Let's just take a quick look] I don't want to but at the same time I do. I don't know, it just feels like I have visited the portal every day since the day I was born. I know it's not right but right now I could do nothing but to follow this feeling.

As I was about to take the last turn, I stopped myself. What is going on? I didn't even notice when I reached here. [Sh*t!!] I cursed in my mind. I knew something was not right. It's so hard to stop myself from going forward. It's like my body is listening to me but at the same time it's not. It's addicted to the flavor of the portal.

I was slowly walking toward the portal. I want to stop. I looked around to see if there is anything I could grab to stop myself but I found nothing. I looked around the surrounding but I couldn't see anyone or even a slightest mana disturbance. Then why is this happening? This never happened before.

As I was just about to get in touching distance of the portal I heard a faint splash. I looked down at my feet to see my foot completely covered in water. But why would there be water here, It didn't rain for so long and there was no water here before. My body had stopped walking as I was in my thoughts.

The more I stared at the water the more I noticed that this was not water. It was red in color. My body instantly became stiff at this realization.

Suddenly my body felt the pressure exerted by the portal. My nose started to sting as my eyes became watery. This feeling was just like before but this time it was on a whole new level because of how close I was to the portal.

I didn't care about that; right now my mind was filled with the thoughts about that blood. I don't know what happened here but one thing is sure that they are severely hurt. The blood stains stopped at the entrance of the portal. I bit my lip thinking of what should I do. I am still standing there and the pressure was becoming hard to ignore.

I decided to follow the blood trail in the opposite direction. The blood started to become faint and further apart as I followed it. I become nervous, I was also looking around for any signs of mana disturbances. This is the fifth turn I took as I entered this street.

I walked the whole street but there was no sign of blood in the street at all. I went back to the pervious street to see if I missed a turn but that was not it. I saw blood stain at the corner of this street leading into the fifth one. I looked down at the blood. It was faint and was smudged on the ground as if something was dragged.

At the end of the smudge was some sort of a ball. It looked like a plushie but it was covered in blood. It look like a fur ball and was a size of I year old baby's fist. I was worried, did I follow it in the wrong direction? If so then…. I looked at the blood that I followed which lead into the portal.

I felt miserable at this thought. I made up my mind that I have to leave this city as soon as possible. I looked at the blood stained furball that was still in my hand. Should I put it back? I should right. As I was about to leave it where I found it, I stopped.

I had many things going on inside my mind. I picked the furball up and wanted to put it in my bag. Maybe it's just a way to keep myself from feeling miserable. It was like giving myself fake hope that if I ever meet its owner I would return it.

When I tried to put the furball in the bag, the bag rejected it. It was like a force not allowing me to put it in. I didn't have enough time to think why. I just placed the furball in my pocket before hurrying to leave. It would almost become too dark to see and I want to use this to at least reach the next city.