First World 1.4

I woke up in a daze.

My head is still throbbing with pain.

Sigh.

I have been sighing a lot after my death.

Clearly, I lived in a carefree manner when I was still alive, where did those good days go?

I looked around to find myself in a hospital bed. There was a nurse next to me checking out something written on the clipboard that she was holding.

"Excuse me, can you please tell me why I am here?" I asked her, knowing full well that it was due to the panic attack-sort-of thing.

"Sir, you had suffered from hyperventilation caused due to claustrophobia. A little bit of rest and few medicines will be required to get well" replied the woman.

I thanked her and asked if I could get discharged, when she said yes, I did the required procedures to take my leave from here.

As I stepped out of the hospital, I realized that I was missing something.

Then it clicked.

I was missing Levi...

Where on earth did she fly off to?

Oh no, wait, is this place even the earth that I know of?

I looked around for a while to see if I could find that tiny little thing but came out empty handed. So I hired a cab to go to Evan's apartment.

When I finally stepped into the place where the previous owner used to live, once in a while that is, I was surprised to see it very clean. I was actually mentally prepared to do the dusting and sweeping work but it seems like I am lucky that the previous owner was quite good at maintaining his property. The apartment mostly consisted of two large rooms with a dining room, kitchen and hall.

I checked the refrigerator and found it fully stocked with vegetables. Meat was nowhere to be seen.

I sighed in displeasure. Being someone who loves meat so much so that I could eat it everyday without getting bored, having none today made me miss my own food supplies back at my house. Unfortunately, I have died and all that food items that I had bought are probably going to get wasted.

I cooked myself a bowl of noodles and fried potatoes and stuffed myself till I was full.

When I was planning on sleeping after the hectic day I had, lo and behold, Levi came into the bedroom through the window.

"Where were you? I thought you went missing" I asked.

Levi chuckled and said "I didn't get lost. I was looking for someone"

"And who might that be?" I enquired curiously.

"That I cannot tell" said Levi not meeting my eyes and looking flustered.

"Okay, forget it. Did you find that person though?" I said calmly.

Levi suddenly looked sullen and said "No..." then turned to me and said with new found determination, "But I will find him for sure"

"Alright, good luck with that and good night" I said and covered myself with a quilt.

The next morning when I woke up and looked towards my bedside window, I saw Levi dancing in the air and twirling around like usual. I shook my head and smiled at the pixie who had a sunshine like bright and warm personality.

It is not bad to have someone like that around you as they fill you with happiness with their smile.

Oh yeah, I remembered something very important. I should have probably asked her this yesterday but I felt too sleepy to care about anything else.

"Say, if you go out for your personal work and I need your help with something then how will I contact you?" I enquired.

"Sorry, I had forgotten to tell you that. As long as you call out to me in your mind I will appear the next second right in front of you. I have a contract with the Lord to help you with your missions but I have the freedom to go anywhere I please as I am your partner rather than a servant. But don't you worry much as I won't leave you alone for long periods of time unlike other excessively prideful pixies" said Levi.

"What sort of contract do you have with your Lord?" I asked.

"The contract states that as long as I help a soul successfully complete their tasks and help them reach paraneria then I will be allowed to take a riepearl from his treasure trove. Riepearl is a kind of pearl that the pixies need to make their houses. It is very pretty and it also releases an aura which helps increase our vitality and power. All in all it is a very nice thing that all pixies want to possess" Levi said with sparkling eyes as if she could already see a riepearl in front of her.

Looking at her appearance I couldn't help but laugh.

A silly and simple girl she is.

I was thinking about what to do now that I have already proved Evan innocent, when Levi exclaimed "You forgot something Ray" then looked with eyes filled with sympathy directed towards me and continued "You didn't complete your daily task. Now you will be punished"

My jaw slacked open.

Holy Spirit above! How could I forget such a thing!

I had so much time yesterday after I returned from the hospital yet I didn't do the task.

I wanted to blame Levi for not reminding me but stopped at the last moment.

It is my own fault. Ever since I was a kid, I had always been forgetful when it came to tasks that I felt were not really that important or less important when compared to others.

I sighed heavily in remorse and asked "So, what is the punishment?"

She clasped her hands then spread them wide and a bright red stone appeared out of thin air.

"Here touch this and you will find out" she said pushing the floating stone towards me.

My hands became cold along with slight sweat due to the slightest bit of anxiety I felt for what was to come and rubbed them on my trousers before touching the stone.

The piece of red stone was soft and warm. It actually felt nice to hold it.

Then the color became fuzzy turning blue and a blue water screen appeared before me.

Words floated on the surface of the water and I read it with dread.

It, that solely and soulfully holds,

and rhythmically molds,

shall feel the pain,

during the rain.

(Time limit - 10 days).

I frowned and thought, can you please specify? What is this supposed to mean?

Expect for the word pain, and I know a punishment is most likely going to be painful, I can not make sense of the rest of the write up.

After hearing about getting punished, all I want to do is curl up on my bed and sleep. Don't want to think, am I being a sloth here?

That's it!

No need to blame your impatient self to not even giving it a try to think about this riddle. Why waste time thinking when I can just ask Levi.

My lazy self instead of trying to come up with answers just turned to stare at Levi so as to let her explain to me.

But before I could utter a word, I heard the pitter patter sound of water falling and turned to look out of the window and saw it was drizzling. The next second all I could feel was suffocating pain right at the location of my heart.

I felt like dying right now.

The pain continued for quite some time before stopping.

"Our hearts hold feelings and it molds our character. Within the ten days from now, every time it rains you will feel the same pain" said Levi, shaking her tiny head at my look of pity.

Oh, then I should probably hang a sunshine doll outside and pray for good weather, I thought sardonically.

Then I completely stopped still when a thought flashed my mind. I stiffly told her, "Please don't tell me it's rainy season now" hoping with all my heart that it is not but my expectations were shattered the next moment.

Levi said rolling her eyes at me "Congratulations on guessing it correctly and for your first punishment".

Oh come on!

I groaned in displeasure.

I hate this punishment over a thousand times already.