The first destination that came to mind was, for obvious reason, my house. I needed to get my stuff with me, at least the important few things. My assumption was, after the pursuit, they worked on identifying my identity by looking at whatever traces that led to me, and securing what I had any connection with.

Walking around to find a shallower slope for me to ascend in order to get myself out of the gorge had me a good couple of miles. Though every ounce of my muscle felt like wincing, the main struggle I met was that, the hunger developing out of my stomach wouldn't stop gnawing, in addition to the extreme thirst growing from all over my dehydrated body. The utter pain even stopped my brain from thinking, as if urging me to get my hands on any meals and water I could get.

Either a coincidence or my instinct simply guided me to where I was, I saw an all-familiar sight in front of me, the lake. The very same lake I usually fish at.

‘I can sense a familiar feeling growing on you. Is this a place you knew?’ Radon's voice chimed from inside but disregarded naturally.

The nostalgic feeling of getting ‘home’ let my tears running down my cheeks. Wiping them off, I realized that literally gallons of water lied ahead of me. Approaching the side of the lake, I got on my knees, scooped up a handful of water, and poured it into my awfully dehydrated mouth, moisturizing my entire body.

“Should I bathe?” I brooded while staring blankly at the carpet of azure lake water. The freshness of aqua flowing through my esophagus tempted me to rain my whole itchy body with it. The thick layer of dust sticking to my clothing and exposed body part made me nearly unrecognizable had I stayed at the rocky scene, seeing how thick it was.

‘Hey, don't ignore me,’ Radon rebuked.

“I'm sorry, Mr. vampire, I had an excessive thirst being unconscious for literally half a year. Let me cure my lust, ok?” I didn't bother to speak mentally this time, having the energy to not do so. Besides, no one's around. It was a lot more comfortable speaking aloud, being raised that way.

‘Well, actually, the moment we made the deal, I stopped all of your metabolism, preventing any droplets of water and nutrients from escaping your body through excretion. In short, I paused then played your body to the time before you went unconscious. So your thirst is just from the exhaustion of what was happening during that night.’ Radon explained meticulously.

“Wow I wonder what you're able and not able to do to my body, Radon,” I spoke hollowly, trying to digest what he had just clarified.

‘In addition to that, just access to your senses. I can see what you see, hear what you hear, smell what you smell, etc. Oh, and also sense your current emotions and feeling, I can do that too,’ he added, neglecting how I had responded, but answering the wonder.

Thinking back to Radon's first explanation, I ignored the second one, “Wait a minute, back to the previous topic, was I essentially dead??”

‘Yes and no, but technically speaking, yeah.’

“But how did you heal my injuries? Doesn't a stopping metabolism mean no energy being produced, hence no heart beating, and then no blood flowing to transport the nutrients needed to repair the broken tissue?”

‘I used aether,’ he voiced shortly.

“And that is..?”

‘It is actually hard to describe since I was born with it, and it being around. Basically, it is an element besides your ordinary fire, water, earth, and wind. It behaves differently, though. In my world, it's everywhere. It is even among the ambient air, so it protects us from the sun─”

“Wait, your world? What are you talking about?” I cut him short.

‘You realize I'm not from around here, don't you? The dark-reddish shade aether filling the entire world, blocking the incoming sunlight, thus making it known as the dark world. Like we refer your world as Earth, our official name is Rathea,’

I fell silent. I wanted to continue the talk, but my starvation defeats my curiosity. I ineptly changed the subject to what he asked me earlier.

“This is the lake I usually fish, uhh, work at.” I corrected my word, afraid Radon wouldn't know what fishing was, remembering he's from an entirely different world. “My hut located on the opposite side of where we are,” I pointed with my index finger raised.

‘So shall we go?’ Radon asked rhetorically, not knowing that I had a different thought.

“I don't know. Yes, it is my hut, but I didn't put any important stuff there. Since we're not staying, even if we go there, we won't get anything, might as well go straight to my house and─”

‘At least you can rest for a bit, Kai. It's been way too long since you got proper sleep,’ Radon consoled me for the very first time, a bit suspicious, yet still comforting. He perhaps caught the concern laced in my voice, whose been overthinking any worst possibilities might have happened. Maybe we had progressed, I reassured myself.

I sighed. He' s right. “You're right. We'll see the situation there and decide what to do next later. I was just afraid it has been secured and guarded by the authorities, you know.”

I weighed on which would be fishier, pun intended, if I happened to meet anyone, whether displaying my whole body covered in a thick layer of dust or exposing my fully torn apart attire. In this sense, I couldn't make a conclusion. So I chose neither of them.

I dipped myself well into the lake, washing away every tiny dust sticking to either my skin or my clothes. Thereafter, I took off my shirt, revealing my bare upper body, and tied the piece of clothing around my hips. This way, no one would see the broken apparel as obvious. I then wrapped the scarf all over my head like a hoodie and mask in case someone would recognize me.

As I walked alongside the lake, it was quieter than ever. No one was around. The trip went faster than I anticipated. Even as I arrived by the dock, it was like.. abandoned.

The dock consisted of a wooden structure with a fishermen hut complex stood on it and bridges that protruded into the lake with boats tied to them. Refuted using logs that dove deep into the water, this architecture lasted strong, taking into account the regular maintenance done by an entire group of economy which had revolved around this area that was not present anymore. Mosses could easily be spotted in every visible corner, indicating the lack of preservation for some period of time.

Six months or a week I couldn't quite tell. It wasn't like everybody went disappear all of a sudden, but left. The boat parked by the dock was fewer than what I remembered, but my eyes couldn't catch any other land transportation. As I peeked through the huts' windows, I saw most of them had been emptied.

I didn't make a fuss about it since it was making things went easier for me. Even if it was a government order or something, it wasn't my problem, for now. I swept around to recheck one last time whether no one was really around, and as that was the case, I stopped before my simplistic hut formed in classic wooden fashion.

The door rose a few inches above my head, made out of teak, and was locked. Being left for over half a year, I couldn't glimpse through the dusty glass situated at the right of the wooden door, which had the same highest point, but only reached my hip's height instead of the floor.

As a normal person would do, I hid a spare key in one of a flower pot lined up in front of the window, deep within the soil. So I lifted the second pot from my left among the four pots available and dug into it, picking up a rusty metal key buried in it. Before I insert it into the keyhole, I wiped the remaining dirt sticking to it using what's left to my shirt.

The door creaked open and I was welcomed by sawdust raining from the ceiling. I instinctively covered my mouth as well as my nose with my right hand, despite being covered all the time by the scarf still wrapped around my head.

The first thing I tried to reach was the light switch. Fortunately, the lamp was still functioning. The dim yellow light coming from the incandescent bulb lit up the whole room, making all stuff fairly visible.

After washing further my body with cleaner water, I tidied up myself using reserve t-shirt I kept if I were to fish overnight, and layered it with a varsity jacket hung behind a door since who-knows-when.

I went to the kitchen and took a look at the storage cabinet above the sink, the place I usually put my food stocks in. By happy chance, I found a couple of canned foods stored inside. From sardines to tuna, various kinds of canned fishes were there. Not bothering to check the expiration date, I pulled open the tab on each can and compiled them at the table in front of me as I sat at the dining chair.

Half an hour was what it took for me to finish a total of ten canned foods with gusto. Walking to my room, I spoke to Radon for one last time, “Thank you for today and the whole time. Oh, and thanks for mentioning me by my name.”

I gulped one last sip of water, put the glass back on a table next to the bed, and fell into my slumber.