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  As Maria began to regain consciousness, she felt herself laying in what felt like a completely different spot then where she had collapsed earlier, the hard wooden surface of the bar was instead replaced with a heavily worn yet warm bed. This warmth was short lived however as she tilted her head to see that the door to this structure she was in was opened slightly, being swung in and out slightly by the outside wind. The light from the yellow/reddish evening sun forced itself inside just enough to temporarily blind Maria as she shielded her face from it.

  Maria: “Ah…where in the hell…am I this time…damn, feel like I just got hit by a damn train.”

  Soon enough, Maria regained most of her strength and was able to lift herself upright, her hair shooting off in random directions as it receded from the straw pillow. Whatever this building was supposed to be, it was pretty small. The walls were rotted out and the roof above her head had many small holes and cracks covering its surface, some sort of abandoned shack was her best guess. From what could be gathered with the last few seconds before her apparent death, she heard Ursa shouting to a few random people coming into the bar to help her, but now that she was wide awake, she couldn't find a single person around her at all, the building seemed totally empty.

  Maria: “H-hello? Is anybody here with me? …I'm not sure where I really am but I am fine now…s-so no need to hide or anything like that.”

  She spoke, but nobody answered. Perhaps there were people tending to her but simply stepped out of the shack for a moment, that was the only guess that Maria could come up with at the moment, why would the people who came to help her just abandon her in the middle of a shack? Upon further examination, Maria could see that there were no medical items or tools at all inside, nor was there any sort of bandaging or aid she could see on her body.

  {Well…this is weird, nobody is here. At the very least, it's a lot quieter than it was outside earlier. I've been so confused and worked up all day that I haven't had a single damn chance to calm down for a bit.}

  As Maria spent more time calmly examining the room, a sudden realization washed over her, just a few minutes ago she was talking to somebody, but even then, her current state was so calm that it took her a few minutes to even remember what she had just been through and where she was right now.

  Maria: “...oh, oh shit. That's right. My throat. How did I forget that?”

  As swiftly as she could, Maria cupped her left hand and brought it up to her throat, and it was just as she suspected, the deep slash wound that the man in the bar had inflicted upon her was completely gone. No trace of blood. No loose flesh. Not even a physical cut to feel anywhere, it was completely gone. The only part of her that still had blood on it was her tank top, and even then, it must have been so long that the blood had dried out, appearing more…grayish than anything resembling the color red. Besides the fact that her blood appeared to be an odd color, everything else seemed normal.

  Maria: “Oh my god…I'm, I'm alive. I'm not dead…I'm not dead. That cut felt so damn painful, but I can barely remember the pain now, is this what the voice was talking about? Was he able to heal me? Speaking of that…I can't forget what he said, he said that he was going to help me, well if that's the case then…where is he.”

  Maria, with her sudden resurrection freshly resurfaced to the front of her mind, also remembered that the mysterious voice in that strange place told her that he would have to guide her to wherever she had to be in order to go home, but it didn't seem like any voice or person had come to greet her now. Was it possible that despite everything else, maybe all of that was just a dream. But even if that was the case, even if the voice in that shadow world wasn't real, how could Maria confidently explain to herself how the wound on her was healed?

  Maria: “Uh…oh…please don't tell me…that was just a dream. Out of everything in this fucked up world, why would that be the one thing that was faked…somebody here to actually help me, go figure i guess.”

  Lifting herself up more to lay her back against the wall that the bed was against, she craned her neck down towards the floor near the foot of the bed to see that some sort of liquid was pulled up near the area, along with a…black bag?

  {...I guess when you're stabbed in this world you can't be picky about the weird places they might bring you to fix you…but leaving spills like that? well…Guess I can't say anything about that, my place was way messier than this.}

  She looked more and more to the left of the bed to get a clearer picture of the mess, the bag or whatever it was is pretty big…it had-

  Maria: “…what…is…”

  Her heart sank and the air drifting out of the cracked door came to a deafening silence as she inspected the floor more and more. As soon as she saw the leg and boot next to the “bag” she knew instantly what it was, it was as if she had already grown accustomed to what a dead body was supposed to look like after only a few hours in this world.

  Maria: “What…happened…”

  Her voice trembled and her face contorted from one of surprise and confusion to horrified and bewilderment.

  The person the body belonged to was not just dead, they looked defiled, as if a savage beast was raised from hell just to end this poor soul's existence. The thin black fabric that covered the body was torn to shreds, three massive gouge marks that resembled blunt daggers covered the entire torso, and where a left arm and right leg should be, was not there, flesh, meat and bone hanging from the stumps was all that could be seen. The only comfort that maria could gain from this was the fact that the face, no doubt either mortified or torn to shreds as well, was covered completely by the oversized hood that was draped over it.

  Maria: “Who did this…I don't…why.”

  Maria could only let out fragmented and confused words as she looked down at the body and then around the room, trying to find any answer as to why it was there. No weapons, no monsters, no villains, no culprits, Maria had the whole room to herself. Either out of desperation for answers or instinct to get the hell out of the building, Maria slowly shifted her legs from the center of the bed to the side and began to pull herself out of the bed, sliding the cover off while doing so.

  After landing her feet onto the ground, Maria lifted herself out of the bed, pops and crackles running through her un-taken-care-of body as she groaned in discomfort. Turning around, she looked down again to see the mess, and it was even worse closer up. Closer and closer she got towards the body, it was the only way towards the exit but it didn't make it any easier as the smell became almost unbearable to be near. All she was able to do was cover her face as she meekly walked around the body, being careful not to step in any of the blood that surrounded it.

  A silence filled the air as she brought her hands towards the handle of the shack door, she froze for a second, then turned her head towards the body again.

  {...this person…tried to help me…and he's dead. Why…}

  Her hands shaking, the grip on the handle loosening, mind fogging over. She slowly turned away from the body and rested her head against the wooden door as tears began to swell.

  Maria: “If I wasn't here…sent here…this wouldn't have happened. This guy would still be alive…was his death really worth it for somebody like me…no matter what world I'm in…I bring nothing but trouble…why do I keep doing this.”

  Quietly crying to herself, all she could think about was the person next to her. How did this happen? Why did this happen? Could it have been prevented? Though above all others, why did he die and she live? All she could think was how unfair it was, she was so used to being the center of bad things happening that it became the norm for her, not just in this world but in the old one as well, but one difference came to mind.

  Maria: “Any time anything bad has happened to me…I deserved it in some way…but this person…was trying to help me. Why…..why…he didn't deserve this.”

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  After about a minute, Maria finally regained some sort of composure and wiped some of the tears from her face as she tightened her grip around the door handle once more. Taking a deep breath in and out, she opened her eyes and slowly creaked the door open, the bright sun bathing her in a warm yellow glow as she stepped outside.

  It seemed to be midday as the sun was noticeably closer to the ground than it was earlier, but what was more noticeable than that was the area that maria found herself in. She look around, upset to find that where she was is not familiar with her, hours before she had walked through the housing and market area before being bought into that bar, but what surrounded her now seemed to be a slum, dozens of poorly built wooden houses, long overgrown grass and countless amounts of trash filled the badly maintained dirt path that she walked towards.

  {Where…is this, this doesn't look like the town at all, they took me all the way out here to fix me?}

  All she could do was look around sporadically, looking for some kind of road sign to tell her where she was until she remembered that she couldn't read the writing that these people used, how convenient that these people spoke the same English that she recognized but not any written language.

  Giving up on looking for clues in this spot, she sluggishly swerved herself towards one way of the road and started to walk eastwards. Crossing her arms, her shoeless pathetic self walked through the dirt, taking slight glances off to her side to catch any recognizable landmarks. Maria normally would have been nervous for people to see her, but at this current moment, she felt oddly at ease, but it wasn't the situation or area that she was in that brought this ease, but what seemed to be the lack of…anybody in the area. The entire time that she has been outside since the shack, she hasn't seen a single person around, alive or otherwise, it was strange and a complete 180 to what she experienced in the market.

  Maria: “Where…is everybody? Normally I'd be alright with this, but now…it's concerning.”

  After a few hours of walking, stopping, looking and waiting, she had finally gotten tired of it, it was clear that this slum was huge and more than likely abandoned, it proved that this town was much bigger than she originally thought, but also proved that she was bad at navigating, realizing that she had traveled in a circle a few times. Dazed and thirsty, Maria's vision started to go wonky as she swung back and forth, whether it be from lack of water or loss of blood, it was finally getting to her.

  Walking over to a wooden bench next to an abandoned house, she lazily fell back onto it and dropped her head down, her hair dripping with sweat as she focused on breathing, the life of a shut-in didn't mix well with walking as much as she has today, and coupled with the fact that she lived in a more colder area back home, it was a bad position to be in.

  {This is…an absolute…hell hole…whatever asshole that brought me here…couldn't have dropped me off somewhere cooler.}

  As she thought this, she lifted her head to see if anybody was around, but to no avail, no help was coming. She slumped back down and with a little time to think, the man in the shack came back to her mind. What really happened? It was so strange, for there to be no better place within the market district to bring her to, bringing her out here? For her, it made no sense at all.

  As the sun got lower and lower to the ground, only one thought came to her at the moment, once it had gotten dark enough, what would she do? Split between sneaking into one of the houses, continuing her walk towards civilization or just sleeping outside, all three choices seemed heavily out of her favor. Not wanting to sleep out in the cold, that one was out of the question, and not knowing fully if any of these “houses” were vacant, it would be a risk to waltz into one of them only for there to be very angry occupants already inside.

  {No surprise…here I am, making a hard decision…alone. I guess that not even in a weird fantasy story like this can I catch a break. I'd rather be wasting away in my apartment than whatever all this is…god, I'm so exhausted.}

  Everything started to come back to her at that moment. The morning in her apartment, the call from a parent, waking up in a new world, her life seemingly ending and then her resurrection, only to be welcomed with a corpse and an unfamiliar area within the town. Occasionally, Maria would still pinch herself or slap her face to be fully certain that she wasn't dreaming, but every attempt to wake herself up from this supposed dream was met with disappointing results, it was real, and every time she realized this scared her a little more than the last.

  Maria: “I’m…tired…so tired. Just need…to go to…sleep…for a little bit maybe.”

  Sitting on that bench, the pure unstopping situation after situation has had its toll on her, the heart calmed and eyes fluttered, it wouldn't be long before the exhaustion took over and decided for the girl where she would go.

  ???: “...Maria! Where did you go!?”

  Out of nowhere, Maria’s name was called out, she raised her head slightly, but wasn't quite sure where the voice was coming from, she was so dazed that at this point, the voice calling her name could have been coming from the heavens for all she knew, an angel to take her somewhere else.

  ???: “Oh I don't know where he went, that has to be her though…, Maria!”

  {Who is that? Somebody knows me? But… I only talked to a few people today…I…talked to somebody.}

  It was only 15 seconds after the name was called that the person Maria heard came into view, a familiar face. That woman, with brown hair and green eyes could be seen running towards her, it was Ursa.

  Maria: “A-ah…I can't believe it…is it you? Ursa? What are you doing here?”

  Ursa, with dust left kicked up behind her, came to a dead stop in front of Maria, almost falling over in exhaustion as she bent over to catch her breath. All that Maria could do was look straight towards her in disbelief. Somebody had actually come, and even more surprisingly, it was a person that she actually knew, as if the girl had lucked out for the rest of her life at that very moment.

  Ursa: “Ah…ah, yes…by the gods…we thought that we would never find you. Where did you…how are you…here?”

  Maria: “W-well…how did you know that i was out here? I thought you forgot all about me after all of that went down.”

  It took a bit, but eventually Ursa regained her composure and took in a large breath before standing up straight once more.

  Ursa: “Well, once the men took you, the guard had a mage he knew track the guys that took you since he couldn't keep up, the mage told us they disappeared after a while, but then a couple hours later the mage saw you leave some random shack, he told us about it and that's when we took off looking for you! I'm so happy to see you again!”

  Maria: “You…you came all the way out here to look for me?”

  As the conversation continued, Maria became more confused than relieved.

  Ursa: “Well yeah, of course we did! You were stabbed in the neck, honestly I should have known that something bad was going to happen when all of that started, and you were new to this place so I should have gotten you away from all of that, but…other than all of that…I mean.”

  Ursa paused as she gritted her teeth and a worried expression took hold, it was obvious that Ursa was taken aback by something, even somebody like Maria, a girl bad at picking up on social cues, could see this.

  Maria: “...Ursa, did i…do something wrong? You look worried…”

  Ursa: “No, it's completely fine Maria, you didn't do anything wrong! I'm just…confused, about you. I'm happy that you're alright but, how are you…you know, feeling?”

  Maria: “Oh…I-I'm…fine, I'm just very tired right now…”

  Ursa: “Well, I don't know any other way to say this Maria, but…that wound the guy left on you was…pretty bad, very bad actually, I'm just confused. A few hours ago you were pretty much at death's door, even the guard said that you probably wouldn't make it, but now you're here and you seem perfectly fine, what happened?”

  Ursa, not being aware of what maria went through for the past few hours, was completely stunned at how Maria had survived the attack, and she had a fair reason to feel that, the cut that Maria had taken was very deep, while it was more of a slice than a jab, it still cut a fair couple of inches into her neck, more than enough to completely open the vocal cords, and then the wind pipe.

  Maria: “I…yeah I'm fine Ursa…I'm not too sure what happened, but I'm alive, I know that, I uh…woke up somewhere weird, and then I walked…and now I'm here…”

  After a few stutters and pauses, Maria could barely form a sentence as tears started up again, she was relieved. Relieved that Ursa was here, relieved that a familiar face was here to greet her, relieved that people actually came to help, and relieved that there was somebody who cared enough to remember her. It was all too much, and she was tired.

  Ursa: “Maria…are you alright?”

  Looking down, she was too worn out to give a response.

  Ursa: “...alright girl, give me your arm, I'm taking you back to my place, you had a long day so we'll worry about everything else later, but for now you need some rest.”

  Ursa took Maria’s arm and slung it across her shoulder, preparing to aid her in walking back to the bar where they departed from. Ursa was still confused about many things, most of that confusion was how Maria seemed so alright after the bar situation, but at that moment she knew that the girl didn't need any more stress for the day.

  Maria: “Ursa…you don't need to-”

  Ursa: “Maria, i appreciate the politeness, but you were a patron at my inn, and you were attacked in my inn, I failed to cut off the argument that lead to you being…hurt, and I'm responsible, I'm not gonna let you wander through the roads all night, come with me.”

  Maria, after hearing Ursa’s stern yet apologetic explanation, gave up on trying to stay away from her and gave herself up to Ursa’s care. Lifting herself up from the bench, Ursa hoisted her arm up and around her shoulder and helped her get on her feet, and began to head up the road towards the inn where Ursa lived, walking slowly so as to give Maria plenty of time to gather herself.

  Ursa: “This reminds me of…something…but I can't put my finger on it, at the very least you're pretty light so you're easy to help. If I knew that any of this would happen I would have never brought you to the inn…god I'm stupid. Well, you're good now though, so this is good, I haven't had to help anybody like this since my adventuring days so it feels familiar. C'mon, let's get you to a warm fire.”

  With this being said, Ursa and Maria slowly but surely headed back towards the market district of the town, with a lot on both of their minds and a lot of figuring out to do when they were ready.

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