“Each person possesses within them a well of mana. This well however is limited and will eventually run dry.” My teacher spoke as he drew a quick sketch of a well to accentuate his point. “It’s possible to draw upon this well directly but wielding mana in such a way is a method reserved for fools, unlearned amateurs, and madmen.”

I stared at him with rapt attention as he spoke. His every word filling me with a sense of childish adventure as I violated that most ancient of taboos. What could be more exciting than sticking it to the man?

“The true way to use magic is to store your mana within an object. Like my lucky coins.” Nicholas continued his explanation as he pulls three coins out from within his pockets. He holds them between his knuckles as he shows them to me. “The item you choose to do this with will go through a special process utilizing the element of ether to create a membrane to regulate the mana within. If you do it correctly it will be able to hold mana without leaking and the transfer power will be smooth. It’s also important to create a seal within this membrane that will store some of the curse generated as a byproduct of your magic.”

The man takes out from within his pockets a silver hairpin studded with tiny jewels. He sets it down and smirks at me. He’s missing a couple of his abnormally white teeth and he has a few silver fillings in their place. Nicholas is a black skinned man with short hair that’s a mix between white and brown. His eyes are a light brown color. His wardrobe consists of a loose white dress shirt and gray slacks. He’s wearing a pair of old brown shoes that had long ago gone out of style. He looks to be in his late fifties.

“It’s best to choose an object that’s discreet to store your power in. You want it somewhere easily accessible and yet not too obvious.” Nicholas gestures at the hairpin. “A hairpin will be perfect. Your hair has already grown out a bit so it can easily hide something so small and it won’t take long to grab onto it in a pinch.”

“But…. Mister Goffrey why does it need to be jewelry?” I looked at the hairpin in dissatisfaction. It was far too girly for my sensitivities. “Can’t it just be a piece of wood or something?”

“With the proper enchantments it’s possible but wood tends to rot when exposed to the elements of earth and fire. Wooden tools are mainly used for sealing spirits; as spirits can’t easily pass through organic matter.” Nicholas continues. “Silver and gold are two of the only metals that aren’t worn down by channeling the element of fire and jewels are effectively for sealing the curse of water and earth. It should be noted that iron tends to disrupt direct uses of mana. This can be avoided by using attacks that don’t need direct control like throwing stone, firing lightning, and other things of that nature.”

I blink my eyes open as I yawn and take in my surroundings with bleary eyes. I get up out of bed and grab my diary to begin writing down my latest dream. Every few weeks I’d dream of, what I believed, to be memories from my past life.

Who am I you ask? My name is Melchizedek. I have no last name that I’m aware of. Where was I born? What’s my family like? Do I have any skills? Sorry but I can’t tell you any of that. I’m an amnesiac after all.

Five months ago, I’d woken up in this city, Ethel, lying in some dingy alleyway. I’d managed to get an apartment since then and make myself some money; a difficult endeavor without any identification but I had managed.

Time freezes. The world is enveloped in a layer of pink smog as all motion ceases. A white worm slithers through the air. The creature looks as if an artist had left a long streak of convas unpainted. The creature’s length was over five feet and its width was that of a pinky finger.

“Choose Mel; save the city and prevent the coming calamity, flee the city and preserve your sanity like the spineless coward you are, or join the immortals in their quest for power.” A beautiful female voice says as some slits on the worm open and the skin peels back to add lips onto the creature’s side. “Ah, it’s good to you know again Melky. Little Melky. How I love to see you my lad. Enjoyable. Fantastic. I could just eat you up.”

Some of the mouths lick their lips as the creature speaks. Whenever the mouths open the area they’re at bulges to many times the worm’s width. It curls itself around my immobile form and wraps its body around my head. Some of the tongues begin slowly licking his face.

‘Option one.’ Melchizedek thinks. ‘I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do that.’

“Hrrrhhhhh, so funny. Absolutely hysterical. To imply you don’t love my touch is such a silly joke.” The worm senses his displeasure and lets out an odd purring noise. “It’s a shame you’re so unwilling to stay but I suppose I’ll be seeing you again my dearest of friends. Have fun.”

One of the creature’s mouths expands to insane proportions and swallows Melchizedek whole. The world is enveloped into darkness before he falls rapidly and slams back into the place where he’d just been. He leans forward and pants after the experience.

“Ahh… Ahh.. Ahh…” Deep breaths as I gradually regain my calm. “Gotta get busy now.”

I put on my shoes and coat as I walk outside. I head straight to the library before grabbing a chair and sitting down after entering. I use my friend’s library card to log into one of the computers and start looking up the local news. I went to the Felbook pages of the reporters, community pages, etcetera and eventually find something.

“Bingo.” I smile. After an hour of research, I’d found something.

There were reports of a woman flying and firing the occasional lightning bolt whenever someone tried shooting at her. Some were claiming she was the High priestess of Samarkand. She must have something to do with my power’s activation. No way this could be a coincidence.

I break out of the library in a run as I rush to the location of her most recent sighting. My surroundings blur as I whip my way through the pedestrians as I rush. I run beside the highway ramp and, with a leap, manage to attach myself to the back of a passing truck.

For those of you reading my diary you might be questioning if I’m exaggerating when describing my various athletic feats. You’re right to do so however, the truth is, that I’m just amazing. My physique is inhumanly durable, my feet are more agile than an Olympic runner, and my arms can lift far more than someone of my frame reasonably should.

There’s a bar on the back of the truck. I’ve my legs loop themselves through the bar and I hold myself parallel to the ground with my abdominal muscles. I took this chance to get my headphones out and start up my MP3 player. I attempt to whistle along with the music but the wind makes it difficult.

The truck is slowing down and trying to pull over. It seems I’ve been noticed. I pull myself up and look behind the truck for other vehicles. I see a car twenty feet behind me with the speed its going I should be able to make it.

With a jump I soar through the air and land on the roof a blue car with a thud. I leave small indentation on the hood of his vehicle. I dig my fingers into the metal to stop myself from falling off. My fingertips bleed from being forced through the metal like that.

The car I’m on is blaring its horn, making it hard for me to hear my music. He soon calms down on the honking of his horn and starts slowing down. I jump to one of the cars behind him. This repeats once more before the driver decides to tolerate my presence. It’s likely that he’d learned from previous examples that I’d just become someone else’s problem. What an altruistic soul.

All good thing must come to an end unfortunately and it seems like the cops have come to bring an end to my hitchhiking. I dig my fingers into the car’s roof harder and make some space around the sunroof’s window. I pry it open and make sure to give it a good toss outside the highway.

There’s a brown haired woman looking at me in terror. I smile and wave to reassure her of my presence.

“Mind hitting the gas?” I ask while laying a hand on her shoulder. She shudders in fear. “The cops look to be catching up and I’ve got places to be.”

The girl doesn’t seem to be complying, so I get out my switchblade to motivate her. Our speed experiences a sudden increase as she feels cold metal pressed against her neck. We quickly break a hundred in our chase. Lovely.

“See?” I let out a laugh. “That wasn’t so bad was it?”

The girl doesn’t say anything; I shake my head in disappointment at her silence. I start humming along to the song playing. I open the window and crank the sound up to max as the deafening screech of sirens picks up a couple notches. There’s my exit.

“Pull into the right lane missy!” I bring myself closer to her and lean in to give her a couple taps with my switchblade. Our transition is swift, and I open the door to give the officers a wave. There isn’t a whole lot of space. I start kicking at the door hinges and rocking the car. Eventually the door gives wave and opens beyond its normal limit.

“Thanks for the ride!” I give one last wave to the nameless girl and jump. “YAHOOO!”

I fly over the curbing at the highway’s side. I then curl into a ball and do a couple flips before extending my legs and hitting the ground feet first. I do a couple skips, switching from leg to leg, as I kill my momentum and regain balance.

I continue my run towards my destination with barely a pause. The top of my shoe is flopping open and exposing my toes. It’s pretty obnoxious so I start hopping on one leg and taking the shoe off before doing the same to the other foot. I continue the run in my steadily tearing socks.

The police are catching up so I jump onto a building’s pillar. I wrap my arms around it and set my feet to the sides and push my way to the top of the pillar. The roof is blocking my way so I lean back while holding myself in place with my thighs. I grab the edge and release the pillar. I swing myself onto the roof and land with a flip.

I get my bearings and take off once more. I jump from roof to roof sometimes clearing upwards of ten feet with each leap. Often I break shingles, slide, and the roof I was on even caved in at one point. Trust me when I say that roofs do not make good tracks.

As I’m running, I see amongst a crowd someone who catches my attention. He’s a large man standing well over six feet in height. His skin is tanned a golden brown and his body is bulky with muscle.

I frown. He seems familiar and if I had to make a guess then I’d say he was someone from my past life. I walk up to him, my bare feet hitting the pavement, and send a right hook at his face. My palm is slapped to the side.

“You need something?” The large man raises an eyebrow. “I have other business I need to attend to, so I’d appreciate it if you were to be quick.”

“Just don’t like the cut of your jib.” I poke his chest and snake pull my switchblade out of my back pocket. I open the blade.

“Ha. You wanna die?” The man lets out a snort and grabs my finger. “I don’t believe for an instant that you’re here on a whim.”

“You’d be surprised.” I let out a smile.

I pull my blade at him and give a stab. He squeezes my hand and reduces the finger to pulp. He lets go, bends under my blade, and rams his skull into my stomach.

Screaming, I spin the blade in my hand and hold it in a reverse grip before stabbing him with the blade facing inward. I try to pull the blade up and start carving up his flesh, but the man pushes me back and it feels like I just got hit by a truck.

I wobble a couple times as I regain my balance and look at my switchblade to see that the knife is missing. Much of the blade is stuck in that guy’s back. He looks surprised for some reason. He reaches behind him and starts digging. I book it.

“Huh, I thought you wanted to fight asshole?!”

“That was before my knife broke!” I remember that I should be screaming in pain. “AHHHHH!”

I drop down as some primal instinct alerts me to the coming danger. An object flies through the space my torso had just occupied. A blur impacts the wall and goes straight through it. The man climbs out of the resulting hole and that is when I know for certain this loop is a failure.

He looks at me in smug satisfaction as he slowly approaches step by step and I start matching his pace step by step. I look at place my poor missing finger had previously been attached.

“I don’t know who you are but you’re going to regret fucking with me.” The man lets out a bellowing laugh. “Well, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to ponder how much of a massive fuck up you are in hell.”

“Are you done excreting from your mouth?” I send a glare his way. “How much crap do you have to eat to vomit that much bullshit? I suppose it might come naturally when you’re just one giant asshole though.”

‘Choose Mel; save the city and prevent the coming calamity, flee the city and preserve the city like the spineless coward you are, or join the immortals in their quest for power.’ The worm spoke once more.

I was back within the pink mists where everything had begun. Time had rewound itself to give me another chance at completing my task and-

“That hurts!” I screech as one of the mouths grows teeth and bites me. It’s deeply uncomfortable being unable to pull away as it gnaws on me. “What was that for?”

“You looked to be having another existential crisis you did. So I, the great devourer of the abyss, had decided to awaken you from your daydreaming and brought you back to reality.” Two of the mouths starting chewing on my flesh. They tear and devour my muscle only for the tissue to reform and be bitten into again. “Where’s your gratitude? Where’s your greeting; not even a hello? Are we not closer than even the most intimate of lovers? Are we not a fated pair of the highest order? Well?!?! WELL!?!?!”

‘OPTION ONE!’

“AHHHH!” The worm screeches as I’m consumed by one of its mouths. “You’re the asshole!”

Darkness consumes me as I’m tossed back into my mortal coil. I fall forward and land on my knees as my consciousness returns to me. I vomit before closing my eyes and leaning against my desk.

“Guess it was mad.”

Usually it isn’t this rough when I enter back into the loop. I close my eyes and lean against my chair. I get up and change my clothes before heading out. It doesn’t matter whether I clean up or not. It’ll all be reset once this loop ends.

I hail a taxi. I’m not in the mood for anymore action at the moment and would like to spend a few hours longer resting. The car arrives and I give him the street the woman had been sighted at. I have no chance of beating the man without repeating the loop a sickening number of times so I might as well try my luck with that eastern priestess.

I scrape together the last scent in my wallet and pay the driver. There’s a nearby park and I look around until I find a dilapidated phone booth. I check my watch. I’ll wait another ten minutes before calling. If they got here too early I’d have to spend far too much time dealing with them. I tap my foot as I wait. My mind is still restless.

Now is the time. I make the call and claim someone’s been stabbed. I give them the street address before closing the line. I wait. The police arrive and I approach one of the officers.

“Howdy officer!” I put on my best winning smile. “What brings you here on this fine day?”

“We got a call about some knife attack.” The cop says. “You know anything about that?”

“No, can’t say I do.” I approach him with my hands to my sides and clearly visible. “Why does the falcon fly from the east to rest on the sleeping giant’s nose?”

My hand blurs as I crush his throat and use him as a shield against his partner. I look around and see an ambulance parked in the distance and another police car arriving. Tsk. I pull the man’s gun and fire at his partner as he tries to duck behind the vehicle. I’m not a very good shot and I miss completely.

On second thought this probably wasn’t a very good idea. I should’ve just called the cops and sicced them on her. Trying to steal the gun was a mistake on my part. I’ll just have to use him as a hostage. I back off into a wooded area as I point a gun at my dead hostage while hoping they don’t notice that he’d already passed away.

“Back off or I shoot!” I shout at the top of my lungs. “I’m serious!”

Like this we end up in a standoff for a good ten or twenty minutes. The woman appears. This is my chance. I begin emptying my magazine into her as… The bullets stop midair and I’m ignored.

“Dang it.” I drop the body as I sigh. I give the dead officer a glance and wince. “No worries buddy. You’ll be good as new once all this is over.”

The cops fire at me after a brief pause. My chest is pierce by multiple rounds as I fall back. They approach to check on their friend. I move and try to fire. More bullets impact me as I realize I’d already emptied my magazine on that woman. I fall back down and play dead again. They check me before taking away my gun and switchblade. My clothes are then cut off and my body examined. I’m brought into the back of the ambulance on a backboard. A collar is placed around my neck. An oxygen mask is put on my face as they take my vitals and cover me in a blanket.

I get up and grab the officer’s neck as I choke him into unconsciousness. I smile at the paramedic. I take off the mask but keep the blanket in order to preserve my dignity. I grab another blanket and tie the cop’s wrists and ankles together with it. I pick up an oxygen canister.

“Mind driving me to Westfield?” I ask the driver. “I’ll tell you where to stop.”

I give the canister a few swings as I experiment with using it as a club. The handle is pretty bad. Hard to get a good grip on the thing.

“Sir, that’s pressurized oxygen.” The paramedic says. He’s a well-built man dressed in a navy blue EMS shirt and regular cargo pants with a radio strapped on. His hands have a pair of orange gloves on them. “It’s possible for it to explode if mishandled.”

“Mhmm, thanks.” I nod as I continue waving it around. “Don’t answer your radio.”

“Do you have a knife or anything?” I frown as the radio begins sounding. “What about those scissors you used to cut my shirt? Give them to me.”

I stare at the paramedic and he complies. I take the weapon and look at my chest. I cut off the dressings and bandages before examining my gunshot wounds. They’re somewhat hard to find but I’ve always had a good eye so I’m sure I’ll manage.

“What are you doing?” The paramedic asks. “I recommend you don’t-“

I remove the dressing before I begin cutting into my flesh to dig the bullets out. It doesn’t go well. While the ones in my chest got stuck in my muscle, making them easy to pull out, the rest had hit my abdomen and depending on the location where they’d hit the bullets had managed to make their way into my organs. I was this unable to pull them out and just ended up stabbing myself in the gut a bunch.

“That didn’t work.” I look at the ruined pair of scissors glumly. “Broke them too…”

The paramedic looks like he wants to say something but keeps quiet. I’ve probably made quite the fool of myself just now. I start whistling as I squeeze my way into the passenger seat. My blood stains the ambulance. I’m not going to die but I sure do feel light-headed. I’d become quite experienced in judging these kinds of things by now. Wait, when did I become experienced in getting stabbed? That’s super lame. Must be something from my mysterious past. Yep, I’m not related to that guy who made a habit of getting cut up. That’s someone else.

“Whoa, black betty. Bam-ba-lam…”

I begin singing for the rest of the trip. At one point I took their radios and threw them out the door. They were getting on my nerves.

“Thanks for the help.” I smile at the girl driving. “Mhmm, this feels familiar.”

I jump out the door as we’re driving for style points. I bounce off the ground and roll. My blanket is ripped in the process. I fasten it around my private area as a loin cloth. I lean against the wall of a building near where I’d first seen the man and wait for him to pass by again.

There he is. He looks at me and turns away. He’s heading in the opposite direction of me. Have I been recognized?

“Oi!” I approach him and he only walks faster. “Get back here and kill me!”

“What the hell?!?!?!”

He runs faster as I chase after him. He’s not displaying the same mind breaking levels of speed he’d shown during our last meeting. It makes sense. He’s a mage after all and practicing the art is very illegal. His pace quickens as I chase after him and we blaze through pedestrians at an absurd rate. If I had to estimate a speed I’d say we were going around thirty miles an hour.

Bang. A bullet hits the side of my head and I tumble to the ground. With a raging headache I pull myself back up onto my feet and continue chasing my quarry.

“Arty! We’re trying to be discreet!” The man yells. “You can’t just shoot people!”

“Any chance at stealth died the moment this naked weirdo started chasing you!” A voice yells from the distance. Bang. Another shot hits impacts my cranium. “I think I got him this time.”

Just to spite her I get back up again. I’d planned on giving up but this whole loop is probably lost anyway. Might as well follow my heart and persist unto the bitter end.

A green light shines down and I look up. Hovering above the city is a massive shining orb of green. My target has also stopped to gawk at the spectacle. Air is sucked in towards the sphere. The man’s form blurs as he fires himself into a nearby house. I decide to follow behind him.

I head downstairs into the basement as the wind howl in fury. The entire building shakes as I hear a chorus of screams in the background. Guess I’ve found out what it is that destroys the city.

“What in the seven heaven’s was that?” I ask the man.

“How the fuck should I know?”

The sound of the wind ceases and in its place, the earth begins to shake. Thump. Everything falls from the shelf. Thump. Dust falls from the sealing as the shaking intensifies further. THUMP. I’m knocked to the ground and when I look up the ceiling is gone.

I look up to see a massive figure standing well over a thousand feet in height. His body glows with a rainbow of colors. His body has no genitals but is covered in well defined muscle. The face is androgynous, and its hair is a long beautiful glowing white.

I’m back with the white worm.

“How’d I die?”