A week has passed and yet…

Sokar lies on his couch with his arm over his forehead, absently looking at the ceiling of his apartment.

I thought I resolved myself to move forwards toward the future and stop focusing on the past. But that’s a lot easier said than done. I don’t know anything about World Essences, and I have no idea about the people chasing me down.

A bottle of water floats over to Sokar’s hand, then the cap seemingly unscrews itself and he raises it to his mouth to take a drink

Ah... I should probably stop using Greed like this. It’s a bad habit to make, wasting so much of my Ka for menial tasks. If something actually does happen then i’ll be all tapped out and won’t put up much of a fight at all. But at the same time, If I don’t use it often maybe I’ll get rusty. What a true predicament I’m in right now.

Sokar chuckles to himself and continues to stare at the ceiling, not thinking of anything in particular and just letting his mind roam. His state of tranquility is soon broken, as a soft humming noise rings out.

Did someone message me?

A phone floats off the table next to Sokar’s couch and places itself in his hand, he then lifts it above his face and looks at the new message he got.

Unknown Number - Hey! This is a message going out to everybody in the city so make sure you take this seriously! Whoever dealt with that guy in the crimson suit, you need to respond to this message! And don’t think of trying to fake it you losers, because I’ll know

What? There's no way this can be real, I should check that city message board and see if other people are talking about this before responding.

Sokar clicks on an app on his phone that sends him to a message board where everybody from his city can discuss current events. He notices that the commotion from the text has already garnered discussion.

BlazBlueX - Yo! Did you guys get that weird message too? The one that was sent out to the whole city from that unknown number.

Inperfectcell - Yeah I did, kind of weird isn’t it?

Chaos35 - Yeah, I don’t even give out my number to people I know in real life, how would this random dude get it?

Mistoton - That guy in the crimson suit was that activist going around freaking people out wasn’t he? I’m not surprised something happened to him.

Why would you have such stupid usernames on a city messageboard?

Sokar continues to watch the message board as more and more people join in to talk about the strange message.

It looks like it really was sent to everybody in the city.

Sokar exits out of the app and takes a deep breath, before opening back up the message.

I’ll respond to this. I want to find out more about the guy I killed and the people he was working with. They’ll come to me eventually as long as I still have this essence he was talking about anyways. Instead of being chased down from the shadows, I’ll meet them on an open playing field!

Sokar types out a message and sends it towards the unknown number, staring at his phone in earnest.

Sokar - The cross he had, the monster he transformed into. Is that sufficient evidence to prove that I was the guy who “dealt” with the guy in the crimson suit?

A response is almost immediately sent.

Unknown - Ding Ding! Congratulations you passed! You’re the suspect, the man who killed Felix! Now tell me where you are so we can fight!

So his name was Felix...

Sokar - I’d rather not fight. Who are you, and what connection did you have with Felix?

Unknown - Ha! You think you can just sponge me for information? Nah, that’s not how this works. Listen just tell me where you are, I want to fight you already!

Fight me? Is this guy for real?

Sokar - Sorry, But that’s not really gonna work for me. I’m a bit busy right now, so let’s meet up later. Maybe at that clocktower south of the river at 12:00. How does that sound for you?

If I walk it’s probably about an hour and a half away, but being far away from my home would be a good thing.

About 5 minutes pass and another message is sent to Sokars phone.

Unknown - Yeah, sure that works for me. It’ll be more fun fighting at the place you pick after all. Homefield advantage.

Not quite a home field advantage, but he doesn’t need to know that.

Sokar quietly passes the time, until about three hours before he’s meant to meet up with the unknown messenger. He picks up the knife he killed Felix with and moves his finger down the edge of the blade, memorizing the shape and feel before resting his finger at the point of the knife.

It’s odd. I thought I’d gotten over it but now that I know his name these feelings are all coming back in full force.

He slides the knife into his pocket and begins to wrap his right hand in sports tape, hiding the eye of ra on his right hand.

The First Day... At first I thought it was completely useless, but after some thinking I’ve done these past two days I think I have a much better idea on what it's for. Hopefully I get to put it to use tonight. Well it’s about time to leave, better early than late after all. Who knows what’ll happen when I get there.

Sokar starts to head out but he’s stopped by his phone once again buzzing notifying that he got a message. He quickly walks over and picks it up to look at it, and a smile slowly creeps across his face.

Alice - Sokar! Christmas is coming in three weeks, and you’ve been so down lately. I know you’ve been home alone for a while, so I did some thinking. How about we throw a christmas party at your place to celebrate, so you’re not alone on the happiest day of the year. I just want to do something for you, I don’t like it when you’re sad because when you’re sad I’m sad!

Sokar - Yeah, I’d love to do something like that! I don’t really know that many people though, so who knows it might just be you and me here. Some party that’d be right? Thank you, Alice. I’ll be able to feel better after today, I’m sure of it.

Alice, thank you truly. You’re the last beacon of normalcy I have in this world.

Sokar puts his phone down and heads towards the clocktower he arranged the meeting at. He gets there thirty minutes early and is there alone, sitting in silence on a bench in front of the tower. Eventually someone sits next to him, a young man. His body is about the same height as Sokar’s, and neat black hair is slicked backwards on his head.

“So... you the guy?”

The young man says looking over at Sokar with suspicion.

“You’re gonna have to a bit more specific than that. Sorry, I just don’t want any misunderstandings to occur between the two of us.”

The young man eyes Sokar up and down before again trying to get him to confess.

“Are you the guy who killed Felix, that loser always wearing that stupid scarlet suit.”

It looks like Felix wasn’t thought of very highly, at least by this guy.

“Yeah, I killed him. He attacked first, but that doesn’t really matter to you does it.”

With a slight laugh the young man sits up from the bench, looking at the huge clock tower in front of them.

“You’re right. Frankly, I really don’t care that you killed him. Felix was… He was a bad person, he killed innocent people because of his blind loyalism to Oswin. But I’ve been ordered to kill you, and that’s what I have to do.”

Ordered to kill me huh? So it’s probably a whole group of people I’m up against. This really just keeps getting worse.

“You’re quite nonchalant about this whole thing, is killing somebody not a big deal to you?”

Turning around, the young man turns his back towards the clocktower and faces Sokar

“No, it’s a huge deal honestly. I’ve never killed somebody before so I guess this is a test for me, a test to see if I have the guts to. I’m really… hesitant honestly. You don’t seem like a bad person and Felix deserved to die. But, I don’t think I can go back without killing you, so... “

A huge bell rings out and the clock towers face turns to midnight. A cross appears in the young man’s hand emanating with a red glow.

“I’ll have to get rid of you.”

This red glow, it’s just like when Felix…

“The man who killed you is named Declan, I hope that brings you some solace in death.”

A grey flesh begins to erupt from the cross in Declans hand, surrounding his body. It wraps around his body, swallowing his body creating a blob of grey flesh. The flesh then begins to writhe and twist, condensing itself to the same size and shape as Declans body. Four wings burst from his back, resembling those of a bats. Two slits open up on his face, revealing two eyes with black sclera and blue irises. A mouth forms below, filled with razor sharp teeth. Finally, above its head a ring of white light forms.

“This is the major blessing, Heaven’s Step!”

This time, I’ll solve it without killing anybody.