Ax was staring into the gaping hole he ripped into the stomach and what he saw, were bodies of himself.
He just... sat down on the ground under him and went silent, dropping the fangs to his sides.
It was a moment of much-needed clarity; something about seeing his own lifeless face changed something in him; it flicked a switch. The absurdity of everything that had happened the past two days made zero sense; the only thing that truly made sense was that nothing made sense.
He reached out to the coins on the ground, and smudged the viscera off, the best he could, and shoved them back into his trousers.
He rummaged through his own bodies, inspecting them one by one as he pulled them out, trying to learn the bizarre nature of his newfound power, if you can even call it that; he still feels the pain and death every instance he 'Dies'.
"This is gross and unnerving, but... there doesn't seem to be... there's no dagger or my gun, just the ones I have on my own bod—well, living body.", he talked to himself.
Only his bodies and clothes are duplicated, not his weapons or other important possessions he has, and the coins or Totas he collected, he loses them on his first death.
A realization hit him, like a brick through a glass window.
He pats his body all over and looks for-
"My phone! It's... it's screen cracked... damn it.", he complained to himself.
Figures, he was thrashed about and almost had his soul squeezed out of his own body as if he was a bottle of mustard; he hates mustard.
"Now how do I... contact Ace and Nasri... forget it, I'll worry about that later; I'm tired.", he muttered to himself.
There were a lot of questions he needed to find out, but this was the most amount of data he could gather right now. As he got up to leave, he picked up the fangs and put them in his pocket; he then realized that he needed to go home, but first he needed to go back to-
"Nexus... was it?", he asked himself.
A blue door appeared behind the visceral remains of the pile of corpses on the ground.
"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes, bluey?", he immediately cringed the second the last word left his mouth.
He silently made his way through the door, and as he opened the door. He entered that world again, making his way through the crowds of people, losing his train of thought.
"Ow!", he exclaimed as he ran into another person once again.
"Ah!", the girl reacted.
"I'm so sorry, I should pay attention when I walk; I didn't mean to-", he stopped.
The girl he ran into was still clutching her head, but she looked different; she stood out.
She was wearing a black leather jacket, but her right arm was covered in a metallic armor; she wore black jeans, but her boots were metal to match with her right arm; her left arm was just covered with a long sleeve, and her left hand was bare, but it was on her head; her skin tone was awkwardly pale, but that didn't catch his focus; it was her hair.
Her hair was two different colors, separating down the middle; her left side was jet black, and her right side was as white as snow, but they had braids running through them. Her eyes were closed, but her lashes were white, which to Ax implied that she dyed her hair black. Her bottom lip also had piercings, two rings pierced into them. They were snake bites.
As she opened her eyes to look at him, moving her hand away, he noticed that her pupils were red; it was as if she-
"No, it's fine, I'm still getting used to walking too.", she continued as she walked away.
She vanished off into the crowd.
"Hey! Wait!", Ax tried to follow her, searching for her again; there were so many questions he wanted to ask her.
...
As he ran around, looking for her again, various questions ran through his head.
"Are you from my world too? Can you come back from the dead too? Do you know what all this is even about?" he thought to himself as the crowds changed; he eventually gave up.
But, because he tried following her, he came to a new area with a new set of stores and buildings, the signboards... they were "English?", he muttered to himself.
As he peered through the windows, he saw clothes which looked familiar. Mannequins wearing... normal clothes, human clothes, coats, gloves, hats, etc.
He walked into the store and-
"Hello! How may I help you?", asked a somewhat skinny man, wearing a white shirt, black vest, and black trousers. He was wearing a black cap on his head; he looked like a foreigner, but still human. He had a British accent.
"You're new here, aren't you?" he asked.
"Yeah, I came here followi-", Ax was about to say following a girl but he realized how odd that would come across. "I was following someone who looked like they were from the same world as me, and I came across this part of... Nexus? Was it?" Ax corrected himself.
"I see, so you're NEW new; it's fine, and yeah, It's called Nexus, but that's all I should really answer.", replied the man.
"Seeing as your pockets are heavy and make a certain jingle, I'm guessing you just came through the doors, right?" asked the man.
"Yes, actually," replied Ax.
"Well? You buying?" asked the man.
"Sure, I guess. Let me look around," replied Ax.
...
Ax walked about the store; it was a clothing store. The front section was mainly ready-made suits, which he found odd because, "Who would wear suits to fight monsters?" he asked himself.
But at the back section of the store, he found the leather section.
He saw various clothing made of leather and leather-like materials; they came in a various selection of colors as well, but the most common was black.
He picked up a pair of black leather gloves.
"These are perfectly sized," he thought to himself.
He walked back to the counter wearing them on and showing them off to the man.
"How much are these?" he asked as he held his hands up.
"Oh my, those fit you like a glove!" the man said, visibly proud of himself.
Axton's right eye twitched.
"Three silver Totas, but... I'll give them to you for two silver and two bronze because they are not selling at all," said the man.
"Oh, like a clearance sale?" asked Ax as he dropped three silver coins on the counter.
"Precisely like a clearance sale," replied the man.
"Where are you from, by the way? I'm Welsh. I stumbled across one of the doors like five years ago. You?" asked the man as he picked up the coins.
"Oh, me? I'm Bangladeshi. I graduated college like late last year. I'm kinda just taking a gap year before I apply for Uni. I just stumbled across one of the doors when I was walking back home.", replied Ax.
"That's cool, so you're Indian?" asked the man.
Axton's right eye twitched again, and he just stared at him, blankly.
"No, actually, Bangladesh is a VERY different country," Axton sternly corrected him.
"Oh well, not that big of a difference; it doesn't matter to me much," replied the man as he was turning around to fetch some change for Ax.
As the man was turned around to look for three bronze coins, Ax had one foot on the counter and was slowly reaching for his neck with both of his hands.
"Gloves... leave... no... fingerprints," he muttered to himself.
"As long as you're paying, that is," added the man.
Ax quickly went back into position as the man turned around and handed him the bronze coins, assuming his previous position.
...
"Hm? What's wrong? You look off," asked the man, somewhat showing concern.
"No, it's just—" Ax showed him his phone.
"That's rough; you know there's an electronics shop nearby, you know that right?" asked the man, informing Ax in the same sentence.
"No, actually, no, I didn't. Where is it?" asked Ax.
"This is house no. 46; look for no. 65; it's a few buildings over; it's somewhat obvious; you can't miss it," replied the man.
"Thank you. Sorry for trying to kill you just now," said Ax as he was leaving.
"Yeah, no worries, come back anytime!" exclaimed the man.
...
"Wait, trying to do what to me?"
...
As Ax walked around the newfound area, he walked past a fountain, where he saw many people from his world just chilling there, relaxing. They looked like they were from different countries and ethnicities, but they were from his world, his time. It was clear that he belonged here, well, at least when in this realm.
Ax found it, no. 65. It had glass windows, and through it, he saw... phones, computer parts, "and—Electric guitars?", he muttered to himself.
He walked in, and behind the counter this time was an older woman, in her 30s, so older than him at least.
"My, my, I haven't seen you here before," she noticed.
She was wearing a band t-shirt and some regular jeans.
"Yeah... Hi, I just wanted to repair my screen," Ax said as he gave the lady his phone.
She inspected my phone.
"Can I take this apart? It'll take me like twenty minutes max, and I'll get it fixed," said the lady.
"Oh, it'll cost five silver or one gold," added the lady.
"Sure, I'll just look around then," replied Ax. It was costly, but he was willing to pay for almost whatever.
...
Ax was curious, so he looked around the store, and it was... almost everything he could ever think of needing: computer parts, phones, phone parts but most intriguing, he saw electric guitars, basses, drum sets etc.
He even found some spare pickups and even amplifiers and multi-effect processors and interfaces.
The lady noticed him gravitating towards the music section as she was wrapping his phone in rubber bands.
"Hey, I'm done now," the lady said as she called out to him.
Ax walked back to the counter, and as he placed a gold coin on the table and the lady gave him his phone, fully repaired, the lady asked him, "You play?".
Ax was checking his phone, turning it off and on again.
"Hm?" Ax was confused.
"An instrument, I mean. Do you play an instrument?"
"Oh yeah, I have an electric guitar back home."
"That's dope! What genres? You in a band or just a hobby?" asked the lady, making small talk.
"Rock mainly, some metal, and a little bit of punk, but I'm not the lead in my band, which I was a part of," said Ax.
"Oh wow, that's actually really cool; my niece has been saving up for one. I gifted her an acoustic as a joke, and now it's all she ever talks about; it's annoying... but oddly... wholesome," replied the lady.
"Anyway, have fun now and take care; do try to come again if you can," the lady added.
Ax nodded and just walked out of the store, thinking about what she said.
"I'd... like to go home now..." he mumbled to himself as he walked out the door, only to see the blue door appear ahead of him; without stopping in his tracks, he grabbed the knob and walked through and—
He was home again.
...
Ax was about to crash onto the mattress, but he realized something.
"I stink..." He made a turn to his closet, took off his gloves and placed them in there, grabbed some sweatpants, a towel, and a t-shirt, and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.
...
Half an hour later.
Ax was brushing his teeth, lost in thought. Who was the girl he ran into? Will he see her again? How long have people been sucked into the doors? Are they all like him, or is he the only one who can come back?
Ax shivered at that last thought; if he was the only one, that would mean he might get targeted, or the worst kinds of torture might await him.
But one thought kept repeating on loop in his head. It was the conversation he had with the lady about her niece and the guitar.
"Why is it bothering me?".
After freshening up, he checked his phone, and it was 4:00 am. He should go to sleep.
He then headed to his bed and just crashed face-first into the bed, the dagger and gun sitting on the table next to it.
He then slowly turned over and sat up straight and moved to the side of the bed, got up and took the fangs, then he grabbed his weapons and gently put them in the second drawer, knowing what the revolver was capable of this time.
He then looked at the first drawer.
Axton sighed. Heavily, he was tired of everything.
He grabbed the first drawer and gently pulled it open.
In the first drawer, he pulled out a 'CC 76,' a standard-issue police pistol, with one lead bullet in its chamber.
He raised the pistol towards him, held the gun in a proper grip, and-
*CLICK*
He turned the safety of the pistol on and shoved it in the 3rd drawer and put his revolver and dagger in the first drawer.
He then finally laid down on his soft mattress, closed his eyes, and finally took a well-rested and much-deserved sleep.
He was done with the day.