Surprise II

Sneeze.

Obed sneezed for the fifth time before it finally stopped.

'Who the hell keeps calling my name as if they gave it to me?' He asked himself.

Obed was wearing a green shirt, black trouser, and a pair of black sandals.

He was in a market area. Obviously, he was here to buy a few things.

He walked into one of the shops. It was filled with kitchen utensils ranging from spoons to plates and pots.

When he reemerged, he was holding a medium-sized bag. He walked into another shop and came out with another bag. He repeated this a few times before he decided to head home.

He stopped a carriage and got in.

Soon, he was in front of Luke's apartment with bags hanging in both hands. One was even on his neck.

He walked into the building. As he walked inside, he could feel danger oozing out from above.

He just shrugged it off. Since a few days ago, his body had changed very much. He knew what it meant but he kept it to himself.

When he was in front of Luke's door, the feeling got worse but he just overlooked it.

Opening the door, he walked inside.

"Welcome. Welcome. Come and have a seat." Luke was sitting on a broken piece of chair and smiling as Obed walked into the apartment.

Obed, cautious of how to start the conversation, kept scratching the back of his head. "I didn't expect you to be back so soon."

"I didn't expect it either." Luke replied the moment Obed finished speaking.

"By the way, did a bomb by any chance go off in here?" Luke asked with a straight face.

"No, nothing of such. I can explain." Obed was trying to avoid arguments as much as he could.

"I just left the apartment to you for two weeks and it's in such a huge mess. Wonder what would've happened if I left it for a month. The whole building would probably be gone by the time I returned." Luke stared at Obed with disgust.

"It wouldn't have gotten to that stage. And why the hell does that line sound so fami… Damn you. How dare you use my words against me?" Obed finally noticed Luke's wordplay.

"Hehe, congratulations on awakening." Luke was already in front of Obed, hugging him.

"Well thank you." Obed smiled. He hadn't said a thing but Luke already knew what happened because he had been in a similar situation.

"You're welcome. But that doesn't change the fact that you almost made us homeless, and why the hell is the aftereffect of yours so much?" Luke had been too shocked when he first came to the conclusion that this was due to Obed's awakening.

Luke's awakening didn't bring this much damage so he didn't totally believe this was the aftermath of Obed's awakening, but when Obed walked in and he noticed that Obed was already a Chosen, he knew he had been right.

"Well… In the process of awakening, I lost it." Obed was still standing in front of Luke. He was almost a head taller than Luke and he was almost twice as wide as Luke now.

"You lost what? A valuable item of yours?" Luke asked.

"No." Obed shook his head.

"The house key?" Luke asked again.

"No." Obed answered.

"What did you lose?" Luke asked once more.

"I went nuts." Obed gave a lay smile.

"Oh, you went nuts." Luke let out a deep breath. " I see. Wait! You went berserk?" Luke finally understood what Obed meant.

"Yes. I went haywire and went on destroying things till I ran out of energy."

"Oh. Sorry I wasn't here to watch over you. I figured it would be easier for you like mine. I shouldn't have given you the pills in the first place." Luke apologized.

"It's all good." Obed waved off the apology.

"First, we'll have to do massive fixings in this apartment. Every item we owned is now in pieces." Luke sighed.

*****

One by one, they cleaned the apartment. The broken chairs and tables were all taken out.

Broken plates, glasses, and other items were packed and disposed of together. Luke made sure to sweep the floor several times to rid the floor of any shards of glass.

When they finally took care of most of the tasks, it was already late and Obed hurriedly prepared food for them to eat.

Luke was teary all through the meal.

When Obed asked why, "I missed homemade meals. I only ate tough meat from some crazy beasts all day long," was what Luke said.

When the meal was over, Luke went to wash the plates while Obed cleared some more stuff.

"We'll call someone to fix the cracks on the wall tomorrow. Pretty sure it's going to cost a whole lot." Luke told Obed who already knew what it would cost them to fix the walls.

"Yeah, let's leave tomorrow's problem for tomorrow's Luke and Obed. You need a lot of sleep and I need a lot of rest. I'll hear all about your training tomorrow."

Luke's room and Obed's room still had their mattress. They took out the mattress and placed it in the sitting room. Luke and Obed each lay down on one.

"Good night man." Obed said after a while.

He waited for a reply but none came.

"I said good night." He repeated.

Too bad, Luke was already asleep as soon as he had laid down.

When Obed noticed, he just laughed and closed his eyes. Soon, he was asleep as well.

*****

The next morning, Luke was already in the bank.

"Good morning sir. I'd like to retrieve my card and also make a withdrawal." Luke greeted the man he met at the counter previously.

"Oh, it's you. Good morning to you too Luke." The man recognized him and responded to the greetings.

"Here's the card. How much are you willing to withdraw?" The man showed the card to Luke before asking him.

"I really don't know but in any case, I'd like a forty gold withdrawal. I've still got some leftovers with me." Luke answered the man at the counter.

"Ah, I see. Well, here you go." He placed Luke's card on a device and returned it to Luke. The number on Luke's card had dropped by forty.

He handed Luke a small bag with forty gold coins in it.

"Thank you very much, sir. I'll see you later." Luke bowed and left the bank.

He quickly met up with Obed along the way.

Obed was waiting for him just outside the building of their apartment. He was standing with a male, he was shorter than Luke and had brown hair with black eyes. He looked at least in his late thirties.

"So how much would it cost?" Luke asked Obed when he got close enough.

"Seventy golds," Obed answered and Luke nearly stumbled.

"Was that the best you could do?" He asked with a face saying Obed should do some more convincing.

"Yes. He said he wouldn't accept anything less." Obed replied.

"Ah. I knew this was going to bleed us dry." Luke sighed.

"How much do you have with you? Obed asked Luke.

"About sixty. I'm not sure it's up to sixty but it's definitely more than fifty." Luke answered Obed's question.

Luke turned to greet the other man with Obed. "Good day to you. I'm hoping you'll do a great job." Luke gave him a polite bow. The man was the one called to fix the walls.

***************

This Chapter is Dedicated to Yogumunt129