The day had quietened down as a full moon hung high up in the sky. Today was tiring with all the preparations going around. After all, tomorrow is a big day.
I stood before the mirror, inspecting my tongue. Its colour wasn't this bluish before, which meant that my condition was getting worse.
"This is…" I squinted at my reflection, sensing something more peculiar. I saw my tongue getting split into three, each part wiggling around like tentacles. My mouth became filled with a dark liquid as it slowly transformed into another familiar one; one that ate me about a month ago.
Slap
I slapped my face hard.
This was a method taught to me by the old doctor to quickly get rid of the hallucinations and as expected, it worked just fine. The backlash from seeing my own body getting swallowed still lingered around me.
More importantly, I died.
As an aspiring hunter, my dream was to join the ranks despite having a useless ability.
So what? So what if I have a useless ability? With enough money and resources, I can easily become one– I thought.
I aced the written exams and was qualified for a hunter's licence when I got rejected by all of the major guilds.
So what? Solo hunters exist– I thought again.
My financial condition was decent because of the inheritance left behind by my parents. And so, I went on my first mission– which also ended up as the last one.
The moment I saw that mouth, all my confidence shattered, my goals vanished, and my mind desperately searched for possible ways to survive.
I had never witnessed an actual monster before other than reading about them in novels, yet I dreamed of being heroic like those hunters? Thinking about it now made me realise how dumb my decisions were.
Like grandfather used to say, I was just a frog in the well.
In my final moments, I instinctively used my ability, which led to the current predicament.
Become a hunter? Fuck that.
Even if I had a super strong ability, I wouldn't make the same mistakes again. My only wish right now was to cure the illness somehow. Though I felt somewhat grateful for having this ability; who would've thought it'd help me survive such a situation?
It was a simple one that let me separate my soul from my body.
Once used, my body will become completely useless and vulnerable. Moreover, there wasn't much of an advantage while in my soul form besides being able to travel a bit faster. If my body dies, I would die as well, at least that's what I thought. This was why I refrained from using it almost all the time.
But right after the incident, my soul possessed another person.
Of course, I had no idea how it happened. In fact, I had tried using my ability to possess others, thinking it was some cool ghostly ability. But it always ended up failing.
This person was named Jin, an orphan herb gatherer who lived in the capital city. He suffers from an unknown disease, which resulted in him having an insanely weak physique.
COUGH! COUGH! COUGH!!
I think I'll die coughing my lungs out.
"Jin, is everything okay?" came a worried voice from next door.
"I'm fine" I yelled back.
It was aunt Rosyanne. Our apartments were attached, so they could easily hear my death rattle.
Jin had lived with them since birth, until his teenage years when he moved out to the other apartment where his parents used to live. That said, his uncle and aunt looked after him like their own son. They come here from time to time to check up on his condition.
Although I had no feelings for this family, I deeply respected them.
When I possessed Jin at first, my only thought was to somehow leave this place. What else could I do? Stay here and pretend to be someone whom I wasn't?
No. There'll be a day when the truth will be revealed.
Then, should I just tell everyone the truth right away?
Not at all. I didn't want to be perceived as a monster.
But alas, my escape plan as well didn't work. For some reason, the hunters union had strictly restricted anyone from leaving the city during this month.
Thankfully, I found the diary of Jin which helped me realise the situation I was in. It was only because of that I managed to hold on until now.
Extinguishing the lantern, I went back to bed.
Tomorrow is the day I'll recover.