Gentle wind brushes against the trees.
In the middle of a forest, he stood in the center.
In his hand was a crystal of sorts.
Bryon felt intimidated by it, yet so intimate.
He felt a tingling sensation where the crystal lays.
His heart was beating faster and faster, out of fear and a strange sense of intimacy.
"—Wait, the body!" He shouted in realization.
If he had just teleported, then that means there's a body currently ruining his bedroom. He'd prefer to get rid of it before it's too late.
However, since he was suddenly teleported, he didn't know which way was correct.
"Uh... where's north? Actually, I don't even know what direction I came from in the first place. So a compass would still be useless."
Suddenly becoming lost in a dense forest sent Bryon into a sense of urgency.
"But with this crystal, I could just teleport back. Right? But I should find a place to hide my body first.."
He tries clawing at the ground, but it's too solid.
"This is going to take awhile, maybe I should look for a softer spot?"
He equips himself with a stick he found on the ground.
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It's been a few hours since Bryon set out to find soft ground.
He should've just teleported way back then, and he's about to give up any moment now.
As he's hiking, and poking the ground, he hears a faint voice in the distance.
"—sn't my fault."
The voice appeared to be a man in his 20's.
"—It wasn't my fault, It wasn't my fault, It wasn't my fault!" He cried.
Bryon was freaked out, and hid by a tree.
"It wasn't my fault! Wasn't, wasn't, wasn't! Wasn't my fault! Wasn't my fault! Wasn't my fault! I didn't mean for that to happen!"
Clearly, this person is under distress.
What wasn't their fault? What did they do?
"It wasn't my fault! But! It! Felt! Good!"
Oddly enough, the voice went from distressed to joyful.
This person is clearly insane.
"I beg of you, it wasn't my fault! I couldn't help myself! Oh but, it felt so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so good!" He shouted.
Yikes, I think I'm better off getting away from here.
What are they guilty of though?
Suddenly.
"Hey I heard you shouting, are you okay?" A worried hiker approached the lunatic.
What are you doing!? That guy's mentally ill! He could have a knife!
"You— you saw me. You heard me. You talked to me. You remember me. You will despise me."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Don't look at me with those eyes of yours, you disgust me. You, you, you, you!"
"Y-you're freaking me out—"
"Shut up, scum!"
The crazed man points his index finger towards the hiker.
On it, is a beautiful ring.
Within an instant, the hiker dropped to his knees.
Blood leaked from his mouth. He was dead on the spot.
"You're better off this way. I freed you, I saved you, I am your savior! From this hellish world, I liberated you!" The crazed man kicks the body.
Bryon couldn't believe his eyes, what did he even just witness?
No one would believe him, should he do something about this person?
There's no way he could survive him, he's better off running away.
Bryon tries to move away.
Rustle.
"Shit."
"Who goes there!?" Shouted the lunatic.
"..."
"Fine, hide all you want."
The lunatic points his finger at a tree.
Before Bryon had realized it, the tree had grown twice in size and withered away.
"There you are."
Bryon could not be in a worse situation than this.
There he stood, making eye contact with a murderer.
————————————————
"—You saw me."
The lunatic starting ranting, Bryon knew what this meant.
If he didn't act fast, he would surely die.
But what could he do?
He scanned the area for a possible weapon, but how could you attack someone who could just point at you to kill you?
If he could just take him by surprise..
That's it!
"Unlike the scum from before, you kept quiet, like a good dog. I'll allow you to say your final words." The lunatic said mockingly.
"You're a piece of shit, kill me already." Bryon spat.
"You—! I treat you kindly and this is how you treat me!? Die, you shithead!"
As the lunatic raises his finger, Bryon clenches his fist and grips his belt.
—Bring it!
Bryon's lifeless corpse drops to the ground.
"Hmph."
Ptooey
Easily offended, the lunatic spat on Bryon's corpse for his comment.
"Once again, another liberated. Such a corrupt soul, I pity you. You will surely burn in hell. But I shall not weep for you, you got what you deserved."
He cackled with laughter.
But despite being able to hear Bryon from far away earlier, his laughter drowned out the sounds from his surroundings.
Suddenly, a belt had wrapped around the lunatic's neck.
"—Ack!"
The man struggled as he was being strangled from behind.
He tried pointing his finger at the individual, however it never landed.
At some point, he struggled to even lift his arm.
His face turned blue, and the light was leaving his eyes, as well as tears.
As he lost consciousness, he couldn't help but cry.
Crack!
His neck was snapped.
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The man who strangled the lunatic stood over him.
His fingers were trembling,
"I wasn't sure if I could get the timing right, I could've died there."
In his desperation to survive, Bryon had teleported to a blind spot, where he could catch the lunatic off-guard.
Even though he managed to survive, he felt sick.
Sure, he's disposed of many of his own corpses, but just now, with his own hands, he killed a man.
For a split second, he glanced at the man's fingers.
The ring that was on his hand felt alluring.
It felt seductive, it was calling for Bryon.
"Can't believe I'm grave robbing too, now."
He removes the ring and puts it on.
"So what does this even do?"
He tries copying what the lunatic did earlier, pointing at a tree.
At first, nothing happened, but with a lot of imagination, the tree had grown and withered.
"Woah, that's dangerous."
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"Finally, back home."
After covering the bodies and himself in dirt and leaves. He finally got to teleport.
He could've done that awhile ago, but he just thought of that after putting the ring on.
"I left in the morning and it's already evening. I'm just going to go to bed— shit, I forgot."
There was a mangled blob of flesh and what was supposed to be Bryon by his bed.
"God fucking dammit!"
He lost another freshly bought rug that night.
————————————————
After finally cleaning up, Bryon once again cleans himself off of whatever gunk he got on him. He puts the ring and crystal in his bedside drawer and attempts to go to sleep.
But the memories of strangling a man and snapping his neck still haunted him, it was still the same day, after all.
Eventually, around 3am, his eyelids felt heavier. And he drifted off into sleep.
But even during that, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something isn't right.
Soul Transit - Chapter 5 Thou Shalt Kill