Old building

Jack slowly lifted his head and his eyes instantly bulged. He never imagined there was a picture of the top of the altar and still in one piece. A picture of a man with a sturdy body using a long green robe to cover his body, making his aura more mysterious. His long black hair flowing freely down to his shoulder and his green eyes were lit and sharp, implying there was a secret inside them.

"Albert, who is he?"

"He is Loki, one of the ancient Gods who protect our world from the darkness. He is also the guardian of this city, Altheria city."

"Darkness? What is that?"

"I'm not sure what that thing is. I know a few information from the orphanage owner that darkness is a blood-thirsty group of creatures from another world. He always said those words every night, trying to scare the orphanage children from leaving the orphanage." Albert shook his head." But, I believe humans are more terrible than Darkness. For instance, that old bastard. He just raises us because he wants to sell us."

'Darkness? Is that some kind of a ghost? Or maybe even horrible? I don't know, but I agree with Albert's said humans are more terrified.'

"Okay, enough with that. I think that thing is just a myth and never exists." Albert patted Jack's shoulder. "Anyway, glad to see you again, Jack." He smiled then took out a piece of bread from his pocket. "Here. Eat this. I believe you must be starving, right?"

Jack's stomach started to growl when he saw the piece of bread in Albert's hand. His hand took out the bread and chewed it voraciously. As he kept chewing it, he noticed Albert's eyes stared directly at the bread without even a blink. He knew Albert was still hungry, so he decided to split the bread into two pieces and then he gave him half of it.

"Wait, Jack, what are you doing?" Albert wrinkled his brows, seeing Jack offering him a piece of his bread. 

"Just eat it. I know you're not fully satisfied and still hungry." Jack smiled. "Hurry up, take this bread before I change my mind."

Albert is silent for a moment, his eyes start to tear up. "Thank… thank you, Jack. I'm promising, tomorrow I will get more bread for you." He took the bread happily. "We should go to the city and maybe you'll remember something."

"Thanks, I hope so." Jack sighed deeply. "But how can you find this place?"

A black cat suddenly jumped out inside the big hole near the altar, then it spun around between Albert's leg. The furry creature then rubbed its body against Albert's leg repeatedly, trying to mark its scent. Looking at the adorable cat, Albert instantly put the cat in his lap without hesitation.

"It's all because of this cat. This cat is my savior." He patted the cat gently. "When I was trying to escape from those old bastard, this cat suddenly appeared in the middle of the road. This cat was looking for food in the trash, but it didn't find anything and lay weakly on the ground. At first, I tried to ignore it, but for some reason I felt sympathy for it. I took out my milk bottle from the orphanage and gave it to this poor cat. Soon after, this poor cat woke up and tugged on my sleeve and led me to this place, an old abandoned church." He glanced up, looking up at the night sky through the hollow roof. "How strange, right?"

Jack approached the cat and patted it. "Yeah, but maybe this cat is purposely doing that, because it wants to repay what you have done."

"I don't know, maybe like that." Albert smiled happily. "But, honestly, when I was on this place for the first time, I don't think this place is quite big." He turned his head around. "This place is quite usable and maybe just needs a few repairs. But, why don't anyone take the effort to fix it up?"

"Maybe because this place is located far enough, so many people choose to build a new church on the Altaria city." Jack stroked his chin. "Besides, the road to get here is still rocky and it's very hard for anyone to go into this place."

"Yeah, that makes any sense." Albert nodded his head. "Okay, I think we should now take a rest. It's a quiet, exhausted day, and you also feel the same, right?"

"That's a good idea."

"Okay, so now follow me. I will show you our room." Albert slowly walked nearly to the big hole near the altar. "This is the entrance, follow me."

"Huh? Are you sure we're gonna jump into the hole?"

Without replying to Jack's words, Albert went straight into the hole and instantly disappeared. Jack looked into the hole and couldn't find Albert, and after a minute later, he saw there was a light inside it, but he didn't know what that was.

"Albert? Albert?"

"Jack, hurry up. Jump into the hole."

"But, but Albert, are pretty sure this hole is safe?"

"Don't worry, just believe me. Hurry up, jump."

"Uh, o…okay."

Jack took a deep breath and tried to calm down. He tried to gather all his courage and jumped into the hole with his feet landing on the thick sandy surface. He immediately let out a long breath, realizing that his body was still in one piece and hadn't suffered any severe injuries at all.

"Welcome to my place." Albert gave his torch to Jack. "Although this place is full of dust, but at least this place is quite warm and most of all, we can save from rain, cold wind and of course bad guys."

"Yes, you're right. But, actually, what is this place? "

"I'm not quite sure what the place is, but if you see all this wooden cabinet, I think this place used to be a storage room. You know, the place to put something important, it's very common to have those rooms like that." He leaned his body on the ceiling sheet lying on the floor. "Never mind, it's time for us to rest. Tomorrow will be a long day, hurry up."

"Okay." Jack laid back down, wishing he'd found something to remind him about what was going on with him.