The moment Noel opened his eyes, he was in the much familiar bathtub but without the ladies. However, something felt off.
Is this Gregory's memory?
He did say he was going to show him something. And now, he suddenly appeared here.
Noel glanced around. He was alone. Also, he was back in Gregory's body.
But this still isn't reality.
He knew because he could not make any action. He could feel his body move out of his control, leaving the bathtub, and switching to warm towels. Also he could see, smell, taste, feel and hear the same thing as he did.
He now felt like the third-party in Gregory's body.
"Still small huh?" Gregory's mouth spoke by itself. Strangely, Noel could tell that he was referring to the toothpick between his thighs.
Is this guy for real?
"Maybe I should have that surgery after all," he added. "I can't have fun like this."
Why's he showing me this?
He also discovered that he could hear his thoughts. Some were half formed sentences while others were simply a foreshadowing of his words. Nevertheless, he was now certain that this was a replay of Gregory's memories.
Suddenly, Noel heard a loud, screeching, high-pitched ring. Gregory, who seemed to have heard it too, stumbled backwards, crashing his mass onto the bathroom floor.
What now?
The sight before him grew hazy, clouding with a powerful tinge of red. His head felt heavy, as if his brain was suddenly replaced by a rock. Slowly but surely, Gregory could feel a pounding in his skull, worsening by each second.
It was torture.
He held his head in pain, screaming inaudibly. Rather, he tried to scream but all that left his mouth was a pained gasp.
The ceiling of the bathroom hung over him, seemingly split in three halves. The light had begun to blare at him, sending rays that pierced his eyes like needles. He could also see multiples of whatever he looked at, reflecting in disorganised patterns as they blurred in a blend of agonising white. Unable to cope, he rolled over, trying to avoid any light source.
It didn't help.
The space before him began twisting in a chaotic manner, warping in impossible dimensions. He saw everything around him bend and vanish, as if reality itself was being edited.
And when everything was gone, he lay immobile, in pure darkness.
The pain vanished instantly, and the sound faded.
"Huh?" Gregory stood up. The moment he did, he was somewhere else.
A desert, dry and desolate.
"How did I—!"
Gregory blinked and once again, he was someplace else.
Urban buildings, stretching high enough to reach the skies.
Gregory, who had quickly caught on, was now scared of blinking. "What is this place?" he muttered.
However, Noel knew what it was. A pocket dimension.
But who is responsible? And why?
Gregory glanced up.... and fell to the ground.
Somehow, he was back in the desert, but that wasn't the worry on his mind. As his fingers squeezed through the sand, he fixed his gaze upward, unable to look away.
His face was literally stuck in place.
Wide enough to cover an entire village, large enough to compare to a mountain, it stared at him.
One ridiculously ginormous eye.
Noel was just as shocked as Gregory since he observed through his lens. To him, it was a mini-jumpscare. For Gregory….much larger.
Terror struck him.
"Ah please, don't kill me!" Gregory pleaded, bawling immediately in fear. Noel could feel horror emanate from his appearance. And maybe for a second, he pitied him.
However, he was more focused on the being that lurked above them.
So, that's him, huh?
Noel could feel an insanely powerful force weigh down on his body. Gregory was sweating bullets, and from what he sensed, was on the verge of shitting himself.
Noel believed it to be the deity that Gregory was bonded to.
Watcher of Ages.
Fortunately, it dispersed his lingering worries. Gregory was the contracted soul, not him. Nevertheless, there were still unanswered questions, and Noel was keen on finding out.
The strangely humanoid eye did nothing but stare, but Gregory was already pissing himself. Noel, on the other hand, was completely calm.
This was simply a replay of past memories. Nothing could go wrong.
"Please! Give me more time." Gregory continued to beg. From the familiarity he exuded, Noel presumed that this wasn't the first time that this being had appeared to him.
The sky seemed to fold.
Two transparent eyelids drew slowly towards each other like curtains. Steadily, they crawled over the eye, burying it under the blue, cloudy, sky. Gregory bowed repeatedly as he continued to ramble, his words sounding more pitiful by the second.
The eye closed shut.
The moment it did, Gregory was back in the darkness.
"No! No, please, I beg you."
A presence. Several 'presences'—if there was such a thing, surrounded him.
The void was the presence. It was a thing that couldn't be deciphered, but exuded a strong, eerie, sense of superiority. It was too clear to perceive, and too real to be ignored.
Isn't this…?
Gregory felt something touch him.
"Who..?"
Then several things.
"H-hey!"
Then everything.
"Stop!" He screamed. But it didn't stop.
They felt like hands—thick, powerful hands that were of the darkness. In one accord, they clutched tightly unto every inch of his being, squeezing his frame with an increasingly torturous force. It felt terrible, even for Noel who was reliving in first-person.
Gregory resisted, striving to pull himself away from it all. But it was futile.
The grip was relentless, easily becoming firmer the more he fought. However he was persistent—pushing, fighting and even kicking each time he had the chance to.
It only got worse.
His skin cut open as the fingers dug, boring into his flesh like a knife sinking into butter.
Blood clots formed all over his body, as his blood vessels would strain and burst, shooting several jets of blood and plasma at high pressures. Gregory felt his bones develop multiple fractures as they creaked, slowly turning to powder. His heart seemed to harden, feeling a lot worse than several heart attacks.
"Argh! Please stop!" He pleaded. But his words fell on deaf ears. Rather, the grip on his neck tightened, forcing him to gasp in helplessness.
Noel wondered why he wasn't dead yet.
Mercilessly, they dragged. Unto their separate ways, they went, pulling out anything they latched their grip on.
Gregory felt tangible darkness, with the texture of cold human fingers, dig into his skin, hook onto a large fraction of flesh and pull away with no mercy.
"Argghh!"
One by one. Then all at once. In their numbers they dragged, tearing off layers of skin, and clumps of flesh.
Noel felt invaded, and violated.
It was certainly painful—even for him. But he had experienced worse, so he was still able to cope mentally.
Gregory didn't feel so good. His eyes were bloodshot, and his appearance was pitiful. With every ounce of his energy, he begged, gasping as his jaw was torn off.
"Arrnng—!" He made a sound that couldn't be understood, as he had lost his lower teeth. He tried stretching his fingers, perhaps to some savior—but honestly to anyone. He didn't want to die just yet. He begged, bawled, and shed tears of blood.
His fingers—now replaced by bare phalanges, hung weakly in place. His tongue was pulled off quickly, leaving a stream of red that gushed in his mouth, and flooded his throat.
The pain was unending. Limbs—all four of them, were detached all at once with an unnerving click sound. Skin. Flesh. Bone. He was now completely unrecognisable as a human.
He looked more like a gruesome clump of blood, flesh and broken bones. Yet, they didn't stop pulling.
Somehow, he was alive.
Noel could hear his thoughts. His slowly fading thoughts.
Please….s..to..p
Then a message appeared.
[You have been recognised by the System.]
[You have been selected as a Vessel.]
[You are being ejected from the pocket dimension.]
Oh?
Noel was more interested in what the System said, than what Gregory was going through.
It definitely wasn't up to a second, when Gregory met himself in his bathroom, hugged in towels, staring at the mirror.
His body was completely fine too. There was not even a slight bruise on his skin.
His mind wasn't faring well though. Without a single word, nor a single thought, he collapsed, passing out instantly.
It ended there.