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C L A R I E N'S      C L I N I C 

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Jason lifted his head out of bed and realised with horror that he was no longer on the street where the incident had occurred. His eyes wandered to the ceiling and he let them drift toward the door. It hurt. He had a severe headache, and the fall from such a height caused him great pain. The pain was unbearable for him, and even though he screamed, he could not stop thinking about his brother. He bit his lower lip as he struggled to get back on his feet. His hands scrambled to his head and he felt the bandage wrapped around his head. It occurred to him to take it off.

He had not been officially discharged, and he would not have wanted anyone to prevent him from leaving the hospital in this condition. He trudged into the bathroom and held his forehead. He stood in front of the mirror and looked at his own reflection, and he could clearly see that he was still bleeding. The bandage had to be there, but he had to take it off so as not to attract attention.

A few moments later, he was already out of the walls. Somehow he managed to get out without attracting the attention of those who passed him. He was so weak, and weakness would have given up on him, but he managed to maintain a strong posture whenever he saw someone coming from a distance. . .

Fortunately, he had some money with him, and he was glad of it. It took him less than 20 minutes to get a cap, and he was off. .

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R O U T E 3 2 - R E L I G E A N H I G H W A Y 

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He paid the cap driver and quickly got out of the car. This all happened about 3 hours after he was found unconscious and taken to the hospital. As he had expected, the police were still on the scene trying to figure out exactly what had caused the accident and what had damaged the car so badly that the engine had melted. It was a strange thing that took a lot of time to process.

There were about three of them; two middle-aged men and another man who appeared to be around 60. The older man was examining the broken car, and the other two were trying to solve the mystery of the accident. They examined the road for cracks and to see if there had been a collision. Obviously there was no other car there, and there was nothing in the way of the car, so it looked to them as if the car had broken down by itself. . .

They came to a strange conclusion, but based on their investigation, they could not say anything about the cause of the accident.

The older man lifted his head from the car engine and his gaze met Jason's. He was shocked to see him there. A few hours ago they had literary taken his unconscious body to the hospital, and he was the last person he expected to see at the scene.

"Mr. Nishimura! Should not you be at the hospital by now?" he asked, shocked. Jason was very popular in this town, and almost everyone knew him as one of the richest businessmen in town.

"I could not lie in the hospital knowing my brother was missing," he said to the old man, and his eyebrows drew together . . .

The other two also turned the moment they noticed Jason's presence. Jason had reached the spot where they were, and he was standing in front of his most expensive car, which was now damaged beyond repair.

"Your brother, Minato Nishimura? He was nowhere near this place. In fact, you were the only one found here on the road. You should pick up your phone and call your brother to find out where he really is. By all appearances, you are the only one involved in the accident. And by the way, I see you are still bleeding, you should rest in the hospital, you are broken!" Said the old man to him, and he clenched his jaw.

"Do not talk to me about resting when my brother is gone. And what is it that you are trying to find? There is nothing to see here, because it was not usual. There is no clue here! Yes, the car was damaged, but what was the cause?" Jason said to him, and his brows drew together in shock.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, his eyebrows still interlocked.

"Well, Mr. Nishimura, I think we should talk about a more pressing issue. For example, how this incident came about," he said to Jason. His statement made Jason clench his jaw even tighter.

He wondered what could be more important than a missing brother. . .

"The only pressing question here is how and where we are going to find my brother. You are the one who has no idea what happened. I saw what happened, and even though I can not explain it, I know it was supernatural, and that means you are all wasting your time trying to find an explanation for what happened," Jason said in an outburst, and the three men were shocked after hearing what he had to say.

The fact that an international, educated businessman with a doctorate was so convinced of the supernatural baffled them. It looked like an accident to them, perhaps not quite so common, but they would never have blamed the cause on a supernatural event. It sounded silly to them because they were talking about car engines and stuff. . .

"Mr. Nishimura, no offence... but I think you are just stressed out and need to rest. Peter will take you back to the clinic, and after you get some rest, we'd like to hear your side of the story. Let us do our job first and see if we can get our hands on anything else," he said, and Jason remained silent. He was angry that they were wasting their own time.

"I saw what happened. My brother and I were on our way out of town, I was taking him to his job interview. We were talking, and suddenly the earth shook, and there was a tremor that hit in the middle of the road in front of our car. It was deep, and a strange green mist erupted from within, and it only took a minute for that mist to sort of electrify. It took another minute or so for it to magically turn into some kind of portal that opened up and revealed to us what was on the other side. It was as if on the other side of the portal was a whole new world, a great wilderness, several mountains. . ."

"And where was your car when all this happened? According to what you described. Your car was facing the magic portal, so that was not enough time for it to crash through the portal to the other side," the old man told Jason.

"No, no, I was not finished. There was something, like a force. At first it pulled us toward the hole in the earth from which the portal emerged, but then something happened, and it was as if we were in a field of immobility. Even the car doors would not open," he said, and the old man bowed his head in pity. He began to think that the accident had touched a wrong place in Jason's head.

"You said there was a 'hole' in the floor. Can you show us?" one of the younger men, Peter, said to Jason.

Jason felt so stupid when he turned around and found that the hole was no longer there. It was as smooth as if something like that had never happened... he turned back to Peter and was at a loss for words. Jason tried to put himself in their shoes, and he realized that he himself would not believe that something like that had ever happened there. He could not blame them anymore for not believing, but he was going to do his best to convince them.

"I do not know. maybe the same supernatural force that made the portal appear was also responsible for it disappearing again. Let me finish before you interrupt me, I was not done describing what happened here . . ." Said Jason. He was a respected man, and they just wanted to give him his wish.

"You can go ahead . . ." Peter gave him permission to continue, and he sighed.

"There was a man who came right through the portal and he was dressed like an Egyptian mummy. He was wrapped in black shrouds, and there was a. a staff. He was holding a staff in his hand, a golden staff, and his eyes were also shining with a bright golden light," Jason said, and before he could say anything, Peter interrupted him

"Is this the end of your story?" asked Peter. . .

"No, I'll tell you when I am done. Please let me speak . . ." 

"Go ahead. .", Peter urged him to continue speaking.

"That ancient man who came through the portal approached us . . ." Said Jason, and Peter turned to Graham. He wanted to see if Graham was following Jason's story, or if it sounded ridiculous to him, too.

"And . ." Graham said, waiting for Jason to continue, but Jason had nothing to say. He was pretty much unconscious from that moment on, and he wondered how it would sound when he finally told them that he had passed out.

"I do not know what happened then . . ."

"How can you not know what happened next? You said you were there. How can you tell us you have no idea what happened next?" Said Graham and Jason hung his head for a few seconds.

Jason remained in that position for about half a minute, then raised his head. . .

"That man took my brother. I just woke up when the portal closed. I could not see any of them, but I have a feeling he left with my brother," he told Graham and the others.

Graham turned to Peter and Peter to Henry, and there was silence as everyone turned their attention back to Jason. . .

"Mr. Nishimura, I respect you very much, but I want to tell you that we simply cannot work with a mere feeling. Especially not from someone who should be in the hospital at this time. I think I have the contact with your brother. I will call him to find out where he is. In the meantime, Peter will accompany you back to the hospital. I will call him as soon as I reach your brother."

Peter walked toward Jason and tried to reach for his arm to support him, but Jason pushed his hand away and backed away.

"Do not you touch me! And don't you dare tell me to call my brother to find out where he is. Calling will not solve the problem because you can not reach him anyway. You need to know that he is no longer here. The place that was revealed to us through the portal was where he was taken," Jason told them and they stood frozen.

They all thought he had lost his mind. Because he sounded pretty stupid when he said these things that he claimed happened right before his eyes. For them, it was outrageous that he would make them believe such an implausible event.

"Calm down, Mr. Nishimura. I'll call your brother in a minute just to put your mind at ease. Would you go back to the clinic then?" Said Graham, and Peter nodded, agreeing with him.

There was silence for a while. Jason knew they'd only be wasting their time trying to reach his brother via a phone call, but he wanted them to find out for themselves, so he nodded and accepted their condition.

"Go ahead I'll apologize for the interruption if you can reach Minato, and I'll just fold my hands and go back to the clinic, just as you like," Jason said with a grin. He forced the grin even though he wasn't happy. He just wished their heads would drop in confusion right after they couldn't reach his brother by phone.

Graham pulled out his cell phone and tapped Minato's contact. He sighed as he clicked on it... .

The call bounced, it didn't go through. It didn't go through at all, and he raised his eyebrows. He wasn't sure how to react, especially since he had already argued with Jason about it. He didn't want to admit it, so he tapped the phone again, waiting for the connection to come through, but it didn't work for the second time, and when he took his eyes off his phone, Jason greeted him with a frown, and he swallowed.

"Tell my brother I said hi!" Said Jason with a frown on his face and Graham had nothing to say. . .

"It didn't work out. Maybe, maybe . . there's, um, maybe there's a problem with-" Graham stammered, unable to make sense of his own words, and Jason stared at the three of them silently. . .

"The connection's not coming through because he had his phone in his pocket and he dove into this circle with the phone. Wherever this world is, you definitely won't be able to reach him by phone. Talking to the police seems like a waste of time, since they have absolutely nothing to do in a case like this. Good luck I'll try to find my brother on my own," Jason says to the two and storms out of their presence.