Chapter 2

Jake was brought to the hospital together with the child he saved. He went under some tests and was dismissed right away when they didn’t see anything wrong with him. 

The wounds he got from the scene were all gone. Also, luckily, the child didn’t get any serious injuries from the incident. 

He was about to get out of the hospital when a doctor suddenly approached him.

“You’re Mr. Jake Drummond, right?” the doctor asked while looking at him intently. 

“Yes, I am. Why?” he responded as he faced the doctor with gray hair and wrinkled face.

“How did this happen?” the doctor asked with circled eyes. “You’re supposed to be bedridden for the rest of your life. And your right leg. It was supposed to be broken. How come, you can…”

Jake smiled then patted the doctor’s right shoulder. “There are things in this world that are really hard to understand, doc. Just be happy for me.” Then he leaned and whispered to the doctor’s ear. “And please don’t tell this to anybody. This is better kept secret, okay?”

Then after that, he walked away without looking back. 

He looked at the Aetherlock in his left ring finger and smiled. He could feel the magic power in his body. He was even able to use a healing spell to heal the damages he got from saving the child. But he still couldn’t understand why he was sent back to his real world together with that powerful magic ring.

“Hey, Mister!” a girl’s voice got his attention. He turned around and what he saw put a small smile on his face. It was the girl he saved running towards him. “Thank you so much for saving me.”

He dropped on his right knee and gave the girl a hug. “Well, I am glad that you’re safe,” he said.

He noticed a lot of scratches on the girl’s skin, on the forehead, arms and legs. He grabbed her hands. “I want you to close your eyes,” he said, which the girl did without hesitation.

He took a deep breath and whispered a spell, then a sigil of glowing green light appeared on the girl’s forehead. However, only him could see that. And slowly, all the scratches in the girls’ body disappeared. 

“You may open your eyes now,” he said while smiling. 

“Woah! I feel great! I feel so light and full of energy! Thank you, Mister…”

“Jake. Just call me Jake.”

“Hey! Alicia! You ran from me again!” a woman’s voice made the girl turn around.

“It was mom!” the girl said.

The woman ran towards them. “I am really sorry. And I am so thankful to you for saving my only daughter. If not because of you, maybe…” She stopped and wiped the tears welled in her eyes.

With tightly closed lips, he nodded his head then walked in front of the woman. “Saying sorry won’t be enough if you lose your daughter in that fire. You have to prioritize things ma’am. If you treasure your daughter, you gotta show it more on your actions.”

The woman didn’t answer. She just looked at her feet and did her best to hold her tears.

Then Jake kneeled in front of the girl again. “How old are you, Alicia?” 

“Seven.”

He smiled and put her left hand on the girl’s head. Then a sigil appeared on her forehead, but like the other one, only Jake could see it. “With the power I have. You, Alicia, will grow up to be smart, loving, and strong. You’ll be happy until you draw your last breath.”

The sigil went deep inside the girl’s skin and Jake smiled when it fully disappeared. Then he stood up, said goodbye to the girl, and started to walk away.

“Thank you again!” shouted the girl’s mother. “I’ll make sure to pay you next time!” However, he didn’t look back anymore and just continued walking. 

“It feels so nice to help others. This brings back memories and I’m starting to miss the children of Eldramoria,” he said to himself. Then he fixed his eyes on the ring. “Are you the one who sent me back here? If so, why? Why do I have to be here again?” 

His shoulders started shaking, then that was immediately followed by a burst of laughter. “I can’t believe I talked and asked a question to a ring,” he said. “I’ll eventually get the answers to my questions. What is important now, is that I can use parts of my magic and healing spells. I want to test  if I can use my full power but I guess I can’t do that in this busy city.”

He sighed deeply and continued walking until he arrived in his apartment. Fortunately, the wall of his flat didn’t suffer much from the fire. 

He just entered and closed the door when someone knocked. So, he turned to the door and opened it. And four huge men in black suits with rimless sunglasses greeted him. He even had to look up just to see their faces. And the one in front of him had a huge vertical scar on the left cheek.

“Yes? How may I help you, gentlemen?” he asked as he looked at them one by one. And to him, they all almost look the same. Maybe because of their buzzed haircut.

“We are looking for Jake Drummond,” said the one in front of him. 

“I am him. What do you need?”

The man in front of him grinned. “Finally, we found you. We are here to collect the payment for the loan you made.”

“I am sorry but I didn’t make any loans,” he squinted his eyes and stared at the face of the man in front of him. 

“Yes, you did. Your wife Rosalie Drummond took the cash.”

“What?” he asked in disbelief. “How much is it?”

“70,000 dollars. 10 percent interest per month isn’t included yet,” the man replied while glaring at him from head to toe. “So can you pay up? If you can’t, we have other payment methods. Boys!”

The three other men brought out bags, and the metals inside of those made clanging noises. “You can pay up using your organs. Your eyes, kidneys, or maybe your life,” the man in front of him continued.

“I think you have the wrong guy here. And Rosalie isn’t my wife. You should do a thorough background check before lending your money. Okay?” He was about to shut the door when one of the men shoved it, causing the door to swing violently and him to fall to the floor. 

“Your due was three months ago. I think it’s unfair if you’ll just close this damn door on me!” the man shouted and his eyes were glaring in anger. “Boys! Pick him up and put him on the table!”

The three other men rushed inside and grabbed him in his arms. But before they could pull him to the table all three of them suddenly dropped on the floor. Their bodies were all disfigured, like their bones were brutally twisted. And their screams of pain filled the room. Then in just a snap of Jake's finger, their voices were gone. 

“W-What did you do? H-How… W-Who are you?!” the man with the scar on the left cheek asked with a shaky voice.

“Has somebody told you that going inside someone’s house without permission is rude?” Jake asked while glaring at the man. “I guess I have to teach you some manners, huh?” he continued calmly. Then he walked towards the man and pulled him inside the apartment.

“N-No! Please spare me. We’re just here to collect money!” The arrogant man suddenly began to tremble and turned pale. He was slowly stepping back when the door shut loudly. 

“I understand. But you guys chose violence and I have to defend myself.” 

“I’m really sorry. Please. Just let us go! I promise not to show our faces to you again!” the man pleaded.

Jake didn’t respond and just stared at the man. 

“Please…” The man kneeled before him.

“Do you have a phone?” he asked, to which the man answered with a nod. “Let me borrow it for a minute” The man gave his phone to him. “Do you have Rosalie’s number?”

“Yes. It’s saved there.”

He frowned as he scanned through the phone's phonebook, then dialed Rosalie's number as soon as he found it. Then, Rosalie responded after a couple rings.

“Hello! I told you not to call me and take Jake as a payment! His organs are more than enough to pay all my debts!” Rosalie shouted on the other line.

“Are you serious, Rosalie? You literally made my body as collateral?” he asked with a rigid expression on his face while his eyes were still locked on the man in front of him.

“Jake?”

“You cheated on me with my best friend and now, you want me to be killed because of the money you owed? Is this your plan all along?” he asked simultaneously.

Rosalie chuckled. “It’s a shame you didn’t die.”

“What?” his forehead wrinkled and his eyebrows almost joined together on what he heard.

“I really thought you would never wake up again. And of course, you can’t just die without paying me for taking care of you. So, I decided to loan money using you as my collateral,” the woman said, followed by a giggle.

“You’re too much, Rosalie. Your evilness is beyond anyone's imagination,” Jake replied while shaking his head. “I am disappointed.”

“Disappointed?” she chuckled again. “So what? What can a limp and stupid man like you can do? You know what? Here is the truth, I just had a relationship with you because of your family background. But I learned when you were in your coma that they casted you off because of your stupidity. I can’t believe I wasted my time on you.”

Jake gritted his teeth while his lips were tightly shut. His grip on the cellphone was getting tighter and tighter. “Even them? They still thought of that even though I was already in the bed of death? Curse them!”

“Curse us all you want! But you can’t do anything now. Just accept your fate and die poor and miserable,” Rosalie replied.

He closed his eyes and he took a deep breath. He knew that being furious would do nothing and it would just bring more joy to Rosalie if he showed how angry he was. 

“Okay then, I hope you enjoy all of the money you got. Because the time will come that you’ll pay for that,” Jake said with a relaxed voice. “Remember this night, Rosalie. What comes up must come down. I swear, I’ll come for you.”

“Do—” 

He ended the call and switched his attention towards the man in front of him. 

“See? It’s her fault. Please let us go,” the man begged, then he bowed down to him. His face almost hit the floor.

“Shut up!” He touched the man’s head and the man lost consciousness. Then he did the same with the others. After that, he cast a spell to bring back the bodies of the three men in normal state and dragged them to the center of the room.

“You’ll all forget everything that happened here and you’ll forget everything about me,” he said. He raised his hand then he cast a spell. A large sigil appeared below and above the men in black suits. Then a very bright light appeared from those signs. He put his arms sideways and cast another spell and in an instant the men in black suits disappeared in front of him.

“Stupid? Useless? Me?” he said while looking at the phone he borrowed from the scarred man. He gritted his teeth and said, “Let’s see. Let’s see if that is still true.”