Chapter 24: The pain that still remain with me across worlds

Brandon and the other cops arrived at the police station, which resembled a 1900s sheriff station as well as a modern compound building of a police station and military base painted blue to match their uniforms. It featured cement white painted block stairs that led to the door. Flagpoles fluttered in the wind as officers rushed out to respond to an incident while carrying necessities to defuse the situation, as evidenced by the walkie talkies emitting an inaudible sound mixed with static, while some of them drank coffee and ate doughnuts on the opposite street of the place as they chatted with friends.

A Goblin and a huge guy with blue skin and displaying fangs snickered, as an Elf and a human woman exchanged suggestions while writing in their notebooks. The cops all turned their heads and waved their hands to greet the officers and detectives who were accompanying Brandon.

To play it off, Brandon waved his hand to say hello as well but was met with unpleasant looks with hints of disgust as they returned to their prior task, as one of the cops down the stairs quickly. 

Brandon shook his head and privately mocked: 'Intitled pricks'

Brandon entered through a door with sliding mechanics that automatically opened as he walked toward it. 

Now inside, Brandon looked around with surprise and interest as he was met with an empty hall with a single teal desk and a police officer behind it. Silence made the hall looked polished and shinning with newfound cleanliness, and both detectives, Brandon and the officers who were escorting him like a prisoner without handcuffs.

As their shoes rang in the empty hall, the woman staggered slightly because she was distracted by her phone. Judging by the sounds, she was playing a game as she fidgeted with the phone, placed it on the desk, and awkwardly got herself together. She stood up and saluted, wearing a blue uniform with military spots that were not apparent due to the hue and a blue beret.

"Good morning, Sir Cormac, Joseph, and fellow colleague," said the woman with blonde hair as she blushed; with that display, Brandon couldn't help but recall about a private he knew and had a crush on back in the days of Lesley Dorn; he couldn't help but blush as he spoke the word aloud:

"Cute"

The world fell still, and then the deep silence of the corridor accentuated the word, drawing everyone's attention to Brandon, who shrugs and stares at them bewildered:

"Why are you looking at me, did I tell a lie? sorry some thoughts always escape my mouth" as he said this, he looked down to hide the awkwardness.

The female looked at the kid and asked:

"And you are?"

Brandon turned his back to her, reaching on his back to display his neck as a black surging tattoo, with a shadowy entity lunging for his neck as he said:

"Obvious suspect, for now"

After hearing it, Cormac told the woman:

"This Mr. Brandon Wilson, a suspect for the Siegfret teen murder, the boy in the picture"

The woman gave Brandon a smile and added:

"Hello, my name is Sarah, and I am an officer. Also, you did not lie.

"Of course not," he responded, smiling slyly.

Sarah chuckled a little.

Brandon wanted to shake Sarah's hand, but was stopped by Joseph who got in between and said:

"We need the room to talk"

Sarah gazed at Joseph as he was looked up and down as he supported her face with her hand and said:

"Your behavior of not flirting or making advances is questionable. Guess getting married changes you, huh. Okay, please fall in line while I prepare.

As she said this, she pulled out a wooden thin stick with a protruding edge that Brandon recognized as a wand used by witches and wizards to cast magic. 

As she said this, she pulled out a wooden thin stick with a protruding edge that Brandon recognized as a wand used by witches and wizards to cast magic. Brandon had a fleeting thought that caused him to reconsider something about this place, but before that thought could come to fruition, the world was shaken as Brandon heard something crashing like glass as he looked to the woman who was chanting something with her eyes closed as if she was conducting an orchestra. 

Sarah was chanting while waving the wand in a whirling fashion and performing ballet-like moves; he couldn't hear what she was saying as she was chanting something that was fast and inaudible. Brandon felt a wave of exhaustion sweep over him whenever he looked at her, but it vanished as soon as he looked down. The void within spoke:

"So, she isn't human, that is a Silk user"

Brandon added:

"Is that a wraith?" he questioned, having a recollection of what a wraith is.

"Yep" answered the void. "She is chanting a spell that changes the space around you, you might feel a bit nauseous and under any circumstance don't puke in front of people"

"Why not?"

Void stated:

"By staring at a Wraith, you will be cleansed of your venom or inflicted with it. I'm not sure why that happens, but you might puke out the eyeballs you swallowed, then I will be expelled from your body."

'Really' Brandon thought.

"But the curse will remain"

Brandon wondered about what would happen if void disappeared and the curse body remained, and he felt cold as he recalled that pool of eyes that squirted into his mouth.

 It wasn't surprising that Brandon was thinking of this from a political standpoint because he had to witness some memories of Original Owner being tormented by his peers about his people, they constantly made fun off... He will be studied, experimented with, which will cause another rift between the Half-breeds and society if they find out about the Tree-yin and the substance of eyeballs.

Brandon felt the space quiver briefly before stopping. Brandon's head was still spinning as he slowly regained his gaze. He saw something that made him both nostalgic and star struck by everything he looked at; he was still blocked by his recollection and didn't realize anything.

He was currently in a gigantic pure white dome that resembled the oval of an observatory. Suddenly, a small disk-like object went past him at incredible speed, and he heard a tremor of his surroundings as he fell to the ground. He abruptly heard a voice:

"Watch out" as he quickly retreated and a big foot suddenly appeared, nearly stepping on him. The location was somewhere between physical and illusionary, and he witnessed a plethora of individuals of many races performing everyday tasks without the need of magic. 

Brandon collided with someone as he was retreating.

"MY COFFEE!!!" exclaimed person who was bumped into.

The person Brandon had run into suddenly turned his head 360 degrees, and what he saw was an oval egglike shape head with combed feathers, large obsidian eyes, and a small gray beak that appeared to be only for swallowing seeds and drinking small portions of things where the voice came from. 

As he turned to face Brandon, the individual's body was dressed in a teal suit.

"Kid, you spilled my coffee," he said abruptly, raising his hand for a chopping motion. Joseph moved in front of Brandon and the man with the owl head.

"Trying to kill a suspect are we huh?"

"Joseph, criminals are criminals. It's as apparent as the sun shining on us all: That Husk over there murdered the youngster to silence him and used his minions to conceal evidence by attacking the body after he died. Half-breeds have always been what they were meant to be: the devil's workers created expressly to destroy us," he added, glancing at Brandon.

Brandon ignored the man's words and returned his focus to the room. The person who had missed was now on the opposite half of the room; he was a ten-foot-tall humanoid with a big belly that jiggled like jelly as he moved, wearing a vest and a protruding single horn on top of his head.

To his left, he observed two individuals pushing a creature with a canine head composed of tangles into a cage with a collar around its neck. 

To his right were workstations, where men and women typed on their laptops and answered phones. Brandon then observed something that answered a question he hadn't asked himself, namely, why were the officers so quick to respond and determine who gave the signal?

He observed an area surrounded by ever-changing shadows that were segregated by an invisible barrier with a magical circle within that continued glowing and dimming every five seconds, then a booming voice echoed around the place:

"Officer needed on corner street near A-list skyscraper. "Grand theft auto is in progress."

Then an officer left his meal and drink on a table in the cafeteria and dashed down to the magic circle, which glowed in a beeping light of red and blue lights like a cruiser, alerting cops to their presence.

He jumped into the circle, causing the blinding lights to surround him. When the brightness faded, his body vanished. Brandon grinned briefly, wondering if technology in his world could be as magical as this, as someone appeared from the magic circle afterward.

He was holding a person in handcuffs as she was led by a man dressed similarly to the one who had left.

"Its Fascinating isn't it huh?" Joseph commented as he gazed down at Brandon due to his size.

"Pardon?" asked Brandon.

"That is a Silk circle made by a Phantom mage from the Wraith race, it allows for instant teleportation to any location that is mentally memorized"

Brandon sighed with a smile that could melt someone's heart, then shed a single tear while mentally stating:

'I… am…. Really…. Definitely not a dream. I have died, and this is not an isekai dream.

Lesley was gone, and he had had no dreams about this incident. He still didn't believe it because he was very private about his emotions and pain. 

There was no phantom pain when he lost his limbs.

However, his current feelings made Brandon regret having such sentiments.

Brandon's heart felt like it was being pierced by little needles as he bowed down in anguish, which was muffled by covering his mouth, as that one tear turned into a summer shower that was influenced into a torrent of pain as he cried without making a sound.

The pain was worse than when he had lost his buddies on those islands.

He instantly felt disoriented, like if his world was collapsing around him, as another flood of pain attacked his body; the pain's effect was stored and unleashed at a moment's notice.

Creak, creak! His mind was beginning to crumble as a purple mist clouded it.

The accumulated pain, the shredded limbs, and the ultimate mark of realization all pointed to the same source. He gripped his head as he eventually yelled out loud, causing people to pause their daily tasks and hurry down to Brandon, who had collapsed. 

Suddenly, a recollection formed.

 Lesley was never the same after he returned from the islands; the therapy helped a little, but there was lingerie that made Lesley believe he was still present at that place. He had PTSD, but it was quite manageable when Lesley was with his family, which made him laugh again.

During this time, he became interested in anime and manga after one of his brother's children introduced him to them; it served as a means to help Lesley integrate into society and connect with his nephews and nieces. 

Lesley gave up on the military and founded a manga and comic bookstore in Harlem, New York, as he happily accepted the past for what it was.

Brandon was now on the ground as the salty tears stopped, but the anguish of his shredded limbs was gradually dissipating as he trembled and hugged his body as he heard a soothing voice try to sooth him and another voice warn the soothing voice that he was playing it off.

Brandon smiled and giggled as he added in an inaudible tone:

This should be a normal reaction to being transmigrated. This emotional baggage should be released in a regulated way.

Brandon surmised that the Curse Boon had bad defects that rendered him impervious to pain, and that the Vampire had numbed him to the point where he felt nothing at all, which remained a mystery to him owing to a lack of evidence. Brandon was out of reach of any power that could harm him after being swept away by the sewer water.

Brandon wanted to ask Void about this, but he couldn't until he understood the curse and abilities. Brandon was still shivering in those dark thoughts, but he was also angry, as his blue eyes began to turn purple. Suddenly, they faded as his rage began to manifest as he clinched his teeth; the hatred was not intended at the position of accepting reality.

He had restrained his emotions since returning from those islands, and he was not exhibiting them as much as he is today. But because to his fury and despair, Brandon was able to view a flashback of that night again; he saw a man wearing a brown cloak with a hunchback carrying a wisp as he whacked him with it while saying:

"Your ancestor killed children, so this is your punishment," he said over and over as Brandon's skin was crawling and stinging. The only thing Original Brandon could hang on to be the recollection of a tall girl splashing milk on his head while laughing with her friends as they took turns.

The memories made Brandon a bit joyful, psychopathic, and borderline psychotic as he also repeated a phrase: 'She was better with pain'

Brandon concentrated on the already fading memories as he peered at the face in the original's vision. He saw the face of the person, a middle-aged man with a right glass eye and two sets of teeth visible, and when he brought his palm down, he grinned. This was the first time he had successfully read memory cleanly.

'Found you' Brandon exclaimed as he opened his eyes.