Son of Night

Coming to Terms

When I got through the door, my eyes caught a glance of a small rift just ahead.

Snapping back to reality, I run for it and shove my hand in the rift knowing that might be the only chance I get to run away. A dizzying feeling rushed my body, and in a flash, I was back to the rift departure room, noticing that all the alarm systems were going off and the whole RWC was in a state of emergency.

"CODE RED!"-I heard one of the rift supervisors yell at the top of his lungs.

"A 5th class rift has unexpectedly started fluctuating, connecting to a 1st class rift." The supervisor once again yelled at the other soldiers that were on standby. With prior experience in this job, it was the first time in history that this had happened, and when I looked at the clock, it was 5 minutes past 12, which meantI had departed only 5 minutes ago.

This was not possible. I had spent more than two weeks running around the dark castle alone. But if I told this to the rift supervisor, I was sure they would think I was crazy and just trying to profit from the incident. I get out of the pod and tap the supervisor on the shoulder. He almost jumped out of his seat.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the rift? You mutt."... "My time in the rift is still vague,"- I continue despite him being rude to me, knowing I can't talk back since he's a noble and It would get me in trouble to stand up to him. "So you are telling me you can't remember a thing from what you saw" a suspicious tone came from him that just seemed like he did not believe a thing I just said. "But sir…." "It must have malfunctioned" ignoring me, he started to turn off the CODE RED and report my situation as a simple malfunction.

A SIMPLE MALFUNCTION- I go through all that, and they just write it as if nothing had happened. Even though it was the best outcome for me, it reminded me of how unfair this world could be to those with no privileges and the impoverished. Nevertheless, thinking I would not get any rewards since the mission had gone awry, I got off the rift platform and headed to get my bag of belongings and submit a report to the Secretary.

I was met with a couple of working-class rift walkers in the changing rooms as they walked out. We exchanged glances, and one of them was closer to a bump on my shoulder, which was intentional. I turn my head, my eyes slit and one brow raised.

"Don't go hurting yourself" I lightly smirked to piss them off. Surprised that a "Nobody" like me stood up for himself, he walked up to me in an intimidating fashion, clearly provoked by my attitude. "We got a problem, mutt?" he mocked. "I mean, I don't have one, but I can solve one," keeping my sarcastic  speaking intact. Immediately he swung on me full force, trying to land a clean hit on my jaw. It was very predictable, so I just dodged, only to be tackled by the other one."That's not very kind of you, haha" I laughed as they kicked me to the floor.

They got off me with a look of disgust, seeing that I could not fight back, and spat on the part of the ground next to me to show their disrespect. "You're better off working in the slums underground, damn rat," he continued, almost short on breath from the beating they gave me.

As I passed out on the ground, the last thing I saw was them leaving. I wake up outside the gate of RWC, lying on the floor with my bag next to me and an envelope with a letter and some copper in it. Investigators had swarmed the gates as the whole neighborhood had heard the alarm going off, but they seemed to be looking for another case that had just happened.

I opened the envelope not minding what was happening and not surprised, my report was stamped as a false one and another letter attached to it wrote "If you dare to say anything to the investigators or anyone we will exempt you from any profit that you may have had since the period January 20-May 16, and you will be in debt to the RWC for ten gold. We would advise you to think about it carefully and come to a conclusion."