There seemed to be a voice murmuring in his ears, and his whole body felt as if it was being gnawed by ants—a ghostly itch beneath the skin that carried a dreadful chill.
Edward opened his eyes. The crimson veil shone through the glass window onto an ink bottle with an angel pattern. The red hue danced across the contours of the room like blood spilled across parchment. Next to the ink bottle was a silver steel pen with intricate patterns—sigils, maybe.
"Where is this?" Edward looked at the Crimson Moon in the sky and couldn't help but fall into contemplation. The moon pulsed faintly, as if watching him.
A large amount of information suddenly surged into his mind; it was not his memory, but the life of another person—foreign, fragmented, and echoing with screams.
"Damn it? I clearly just fell asleep while doing an experiment, how did I transmigrate?" Edward patted his head and couldn't help but curse his "boss" in his heart.
He probably understood the reason for the transmigration. Thirty consecutive hours of experimentation led to his sudden death, and only then did he wake up in this place. It was all because of that damn "boss" who squeezed him with graduation pressure.
'Son of a bitch !'
If he had a chance to go back to his original world, he definitely wouldn't work himself to death again.
'I will strangle that fat swine ! '
His memories gradually merged, and fragments appeared in his mind. He gradually learned the identity of the original owner.
The original owner was a descendant of the Abraham Family. His father died unexpectedly in his early years, and his mother gradually lost control after becoming a Beyonder. Before losing control, she entrusted him to a merchant.
Later, by chance, the original owner became a Beyonder of the Fate Pathway, and since then, he has been walking on the edge of losing control.
In other words, this is the world of Mysteries. Edward looked up at the sky and reined in his scattered thoughts. The sky felt heavier here, as though something ancient and forgotten loomed just beyond the stars.
There are too many taboos in the world of the Lord of the Mysteries. Many things cannot be thought about. Only by doing so can he ensure his safety.
As he reined in his thoughts, the murmuring sound in his ears gradually disappeared, and the pain in his body seemed to have improved significantly. This was the effect of meditation.
Suddenly, a gas lamp lit up in a corner of the room. The pale yellow light dispelled the Darkness, but shadows clung stubbornly to the corners. Beside the flame was a woman wearing loose pajamas.
Her light gray hair was slightly curly, and her body was slightly plump. If an idiom were to be used to describe her, it would definitely be "having capacity makes one great."
By the light of the gas lamp, Edward saw the black veins under his skin looking like crawling insects, and then slowly calming down again.
Edward knew that this was a precursor to a Beyonder losing control. He was already walking on the edge of losing control.
If he didn't find a solution, he would lose control within one or two years at most and become an object of the Nighthawks' crusade.
"Lewis, did you have a nightmare again?" The woman let Edward lean on her shoulder. Edward smelled a faint scent of essential oil—lavender, laced with something metallic.
"I'm in pain." Edward twisted his features and looked up, entering the role of Lewis, although he was not the real Lewis.
"Lewis, if others call you a Monster, then just be a real Monster. I'll give you another twenty pounds. Let yourself relax a bit at the brothel and be a gentleman who knows how to listen," the woman comforted him.
Edward slightly opened his mouth. He suspected he had heard wrong. His own sister was actually encouraging him to go to a brothel.
With such a beautiful sister, Lewis still had to go to brothels frequently.
Was this Lewis a bit too depraved? However, he liked this kind of treatment.
"Thank you, Sister." Edward made Lewis Harvey's gesture based on his memory and kissed the woman on the cheek. Her skin felt oddly cold.
"Rest first, don't forget to share what you heard with me tomorrow."
Turning around, the woman habitually pinched her right eye socket, and a perfectly appropriate arc curved at the corner of her mouth. A glint of something alien shimmered there.
"Okay, dear Sister," Lewis replied with a smile.
After the gas lamp went out, Lewis slowly fell asleep. For some reason, for a moment just now, he suddenly felt that this woman was very strange—too perfect, too prepared.
Lewis did not forget this sense of incongruity. In the world of Mysteries, intuition is not just intuition; it is an inspiration from the spirit.
Moreover, Lewis himself is a Beyonder, and a Monster of the Fate Pathway.
He recalled one of the diary entries—Klein Moretti's perhaps—"We are all actors on a stage too grand to understand, watched by something that hungers for a reaction."
As a Monster, Lewis has extremely keen intuition and hearing, and can often hear sounds that are difficult to detect. If he felt incongruity, something was most likely wrong.
In the morning, Lewis and his sister had breakfast together. Freshly baked bread with bacon, and then a layer of sweet cream, the taste was not bad. But there was something off—something too normal.
"Lewis, try to be a real Monster. Perhaps, this will help with your condition and also allow you to hear the murmuring in your ears clearly sooner." Mandy pinched her right eye socket and turned to leave.
There seemed to be a voice murmuring in his ears, and his whole body felt as if it was being gnawed by ants—a ghostly itch beneath the skin that carried a dreadful chill.
"Do not call up that which you cannot put down." The words echoed faintly, though he couldn't tell whether they came from within or without.
Lewis, smiling, watched Mandy leave. Mandy was a senior employee at a bank, with a weekly salary of nine pounds, plus the inheritance left by their adoptive parents, which was enough for the two of them to live a good life.
Until he confirmed that Mandy had left the room, Lewis's pupils suddenly dilated, and fear filled his brain.
What Mandy said just now, was she hinting at the acting method to him?
He didn't remember Mandy having the habit of pinching her right eye socket, nor did he remember Mandy being a girl who indulged her younger brother. In fact, the Mandy in his memory was very serious.
It wasn't until a night two years ago during a heavy rainstorm that he became a Beyonder that night, and Mandy also had some subtle, hard-to-detect differences from before.
As Lewis thought deeper, the whispers in his ears gradually became clearer, and the black lines under his skin seemed to come alive, another precursor to losing control.
Lewis tried to rein in his scattered thoughts. Through meditation, the murmuring in his ears gradually faded away, and his mind became much clearer.
Daring not to think anymore, Lewis tidied up the tableware, put on his formal attire, and went out to take a carriage.
"To the Evernight Goddess's church," Lewis said to the carriage driver.
"Eight pence."
Lewis reluctantly took out a one sule banknote and handed it to the driver. Eight pence had the purchasing power equivalent to thirty or forty yuan in his previous life, which was enough for a decent lunch.
"Heil ! No, Evernight Goddess above ... Praise To Be!" Lewis pointed four times on his chest to outline the Crimson Moon. These eight pence were all for devout faith. Of course, if the Goddess reimbursed him, that would be even better.
...........................................................................................................
Once Lovecraft said ,"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity."
— The Call of Cthulhu
"In a world ruled by Fate, identity is a coin easily flipped."
We shall bear witness to Lewis (Formerly Edward :👿)