Colorless world (II)

The massive sandwich looked quite intimidating; the waiter seemed to have difficulty carrying it all the way over to our table and even left us a massive knife to be able to cut into the large meal. When the waiter let the giant plate fall on our table, it made a strange sound, spilling the juices of the meat.

It all felt as if reality was going on slow mode: the panicked expression of the waiter dressed like a stripper as the plate fell on the table, Elena's father reaching out with his hands to save the giant sandwich, and the large, scalding hot drop of grease flying straight towards my right eye.

"Fuck!" He cursed as the massive plate slipped out of his hands.

I screamed in pain. I thought I was about to go blind. The fracture was indeed as scary as I thought.

The waiter was quick to react; he rapidly handed me a bunch of tissues while Elena's father was using his powers to heal the wounds. When I regained my vision, he immediately put away the artifact used to heal me.

I swear to god… You'll pay for this; once my dad's here, you will be the fourth on the chopping block!

I could hear some folks laughing in the background, which made the scene feel ten times more humiliating than it should've been.

The waiter bowed down a thousand times, apologizing over and over again, but I couldn't care one bit about it; we accepted their apologies and free drinks and simply moved on.

The smell was something like never before; the juices slowly dripping down the massive plate made my mouth watery.

Mhhh, they were able to save it, thankfully, but… how will it taste?

Pork wasn't my favorite kind of meat, but it wasn't my most disliked. But I wasn't courageous enough to immediately cut a piece or ask for it to be cut for me, so I dug in the side of fries.

The lack of colors made the food look a bit more bland, but there was no impact on the flavor; the fries tasted the same as always, although they seemed a bit saltier and had a strange added flavor that was simply addicting.

"Hey! Don't hog the fries! I ordered them; if you want some, just ask for them!" Elena protested as she snatched the small plate away from my hands.

"Come on kids, let's all just share for now; we can always order some more fries later." Her father intervened shortly after to calm her down.

Then he took the knife and began to carve the massive sandwich like a cake and handed a generous portion.

Meanwhile, I served myself a glass of the two different sodas he had ordered earlier when I was occupied trying to break the glass. One was clear; the other was dark.

The former had an odd smell. It seemed sweet yet pungent at the same time. It was sweet, but in an odd and disgusting way. The strong acidic flavor overwhelmed my mouth in an instant, and even after swallowing, I could still taste that bitterness. Moreover, the carbonated drink was so strong it felt as if I was trying to swallow a bunch of needles.

"Ugh, what the hell is this? It's disgusting! What kind of man could drink this?" I complained while my body was still shivering from the shock.

Regrettably, half of that establishment was currently enjoying that drink.

"What do you mean? It's delicious! It's best to drink after a full plate of meat." She replied, offended by my statement.

No, seriously, get yourself checked! There's something really wrong with your tongue to like shit like that; not even my father is that extreme, and he's into very weird food; he just does it because he's obsessed with staying healthy; he too hates the taste!

I looked at her father, and he simply shook his head.

The second drink was regular cola, which I used to wash away whatever aftertaste the first drink left in me.

Now I couldn't escape anymore; I had already tried everything else on the table; all that was left was the large slice of sandwich.

My first instinct was to lift the bun to seek out the onions; there I saw a good amount of sauce covering the top bun; right beneath was the first layer of chopped tomatoes resting over the layer of raw onions.

Nope, never in hell will I eat this—

"Hey, Luke, isn't it a bit too early to give up? Why don't you try it first? Who knows, you might enjoy it?" Helena's father tried to convince me to try out the dish without removing the veggies.

I sighed, not wanting to argue. I decided to swallow my pride and attempt a bite; however, I quickly realized that no matter how I put it, the sandwich was too big to fit in my mouth.

Why is a sandwich this big? I've seen birthday cakes smaller than this on the surface. What's the point of ordering something so big? No one could possibly finish this on their own!

I could hear Elena in the background desperately holding out her laugh as I struggled to get my first bite; ultimately, I decided to get a bite of the top half of the giant sandwich. I experienced something I never had before: the beast was so tender and juicy I barely needed to chew it.

Unfortunately, the onion ruined what to me felt like heaven; the first crunch sent shivers down my spine, the second ruined the taste of the meat, and the third felt so strong I almost spit out the mouthful I was enjoying.

It all felt like a sudden combo; first they lured me in with the sweetness of the meat, then they took advantage of the moment of sweetness to punch me in the face with onions, and then the greasiness of the meat overwhelmed my mouth.

"Nope, I don't think I can enjoy this." I said as I quickly removed the top bun once again and began to remove all the onions.

"What a shame, you're missing out on some real good stuff." Elena commented while grabbing the onions I was taking out and putting them in her own portion.

On the second attempt, I tried to start from the lower bun and quickly came to regret it as I was attacked by a sea of flames. Not only was the meat still piping hot, but there was a spicy sauce spread on the bottom bun.

"Argh! What is this? Why is it so hot? How can you even eat this?"

"What? Don't tell me that this is too spicy for you; this is not even that bad. At most, they put some black pepper on; you can't possibly be weak to black pepper." Helena seemed surprised.

"I'm not!"

I mustered all my willpower and took a second bite of the sandwich, desperately holding the urge to pant under the pressure put on by the spiciness.

After a bite too big for me to handle, I tried to wash down the spices with the cola, but that only added fuel to the fire.

"Calm down for now; why don't you just scrape the sauce off the sandwich? It's fine if you can't—"

"I'm perfectly fine; I was just a little surprised. I have no problem handling spiciness!" I interrupted Helena before she could finish her sentence. I didn't care if she was genuinely worried or wanted to tease me more; I couldn't let her look down on me.

Finishing my portion of food was a mixed experience; the meat was extremely savory, but after a while I couldn't taste anything due to the intensity of the spices and could barely feel my lips.

"I've done it! I ate it whole, you see? I can totally handle this level of spiciness." I shouted after I was able to finish the plate.

I could feel my stomach making weird sounds, and I was sweating buckets, but I felt proud of myself at that moment.

Fuck. I really am hitting my limits… I can barely feel my lips anymore, my throat is on fire, and my lungs are taking in pure fire. What the hell is this?

"Here, you can freshen yourself up with this." Said Helena's father as he handed me a bowl full of ice cream.

I felt so sweaty and stuffy I tried to take off the beanie, but Elena stopped me; she grabbed my hand and handed me a bunch of peanuts.

Ah, sorry, I forgot.

I took another look around us and felt some sort of peace; it was calming seeing so many people simply relax and enjoy themselves; it helped me feel a bit more at ease.

If the people that have to fight on a day-to-day basis can relax here, it probably means that it's safe.

It was strange; this place was completely different from what my mother always described to me. There weren't demons, the explorers were nowhere to be seen, and so were the ashen dealers.

The ruins my mother described seemed far more technologically advanced than the city I saw today.

Were all those bedtime tales lies then?

As I was enjoying my strawberry-flavored ice cream, I kept glancing around; Helena and her father were now talking about school stuff, so I didn't really care about taking part in that conversation.

And after a long time, I was to catch someone using the rainbow-colored powder; somewhere far away, a young man wearing a dark hoodie and gray pants was snorting that powder, using a strange object to make a few lines on the table.

After every time he snorted the powder, his body shivered, sometimes almost spasming out of control. He was making strange sounds; after every use, he would slam his head against the table.

"Don't look at him, just ignore him, Luke." Helena's father said, as he covered my eyes using his hands.

"Why is he like that?" I asked him.

"That's… You'll understand when you become a grown-up; for now, just ignore him."

Helena's father kept a close eye on me to make sure I didn't turn back around to look at that individual, and then once Helena finished her meal, he quickly dragged us away from that restaurant.