After shouting for about a minute straight and unloading the whole catalogue of profanities he had stored in his brain towards the innocent night sky, Joey stopped, completely out of breath.
If he wasn't exhausted before, he definetly was now, but it felt good in a way, cathartic even, like a heavy load lifting from his bruised shoulders.
The best course of action now was to figure out where he was and think up a plan of action.
A quick scan of his surroundings told him that he was in dark alley, it was quite narrow, just wide enought to fit the dumpster, leading to a dead end.
The street ahead was barely visible from his line of sight, a few cars passing by occasionaly, but other than that, everything else felt completely foreign to him.
It wasn't long before he noticed another peculiarity, this time inside his own mind. It started out as an itch on the back of his head, scratching it did nothing as the sensation grew rapidly, and suddenly...
Memories, a short lifetime of new memories, actually blossomed from out of nowhere, making him involuntarily close his eyes, reviewing each and every scene individually.
His trance-like state lasted for a few minutes, and when he came out of it, he was sweating profusely.
'Argh, that was weird,' he shook his head.
Pushing off of the wall, he managed to get up and walk towards the street.
Taking a big whiff of the clean and not garbage-polluted air,
"I need to go home," he said aloud, his voice sounding a smudge different from earlier.
Picking a direction, he started limping along the sidewalk, the lack of light or any source of illumination was seemingly of very little importance to him as he kept going undisturbed.
Just as he was about to turn right on the next junction,
!!
Joey visibly recoiled, almost losing his footing in the process, his heartbeat battering at an accelerated pace.
"W-what the h-heck was that!" he stammered, terrified of what had just happened to him.
Leaning against a nearby wall, Joey tried to contain his panic and regain his composure, a task proving itself to be really hard, considering what he had gone through just now.
The best way Joey could describe it was,
'I-I was taken, taken over somehow, b-by those memories, I had no control over my own body, o-or this kid's body, I-I...' Inwardly voicing his thoughts seemed to drive away the brunt of that terror, but that horrible skin-crawling sensation still remained somewhere. His memories intertwining with another person's was a hurl-enducing experience.
Heaving a deep sigh,
'Ooof, dammit Topha-'
ding
'Wha-'
[ {TATAIG} Boot Sequence ] : Started.
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[1%]
[2%]
..
All of a sudden, a semi-transparent purple wall of light with golden letters manifested itself in front of Joey.
Thankfuly, other than a small suprise, its sudden appearence didn't put much of a dent in Joey's already dented phsyche, as it was of the tamest variety of crazy things he had witnessed the last unkown amount of hours, after his death.
Besides, he had an inkling that the little screen was most likely the promised guide Tophat had talked about.
Looking at it again,
[13%]
It still had a long way to go, so Joey decided to wait for its eventual completion somewhere else, preferably at home, or more precicely the house of the dead ten-year-old, dumped in garbage, kid's body he had...
...possesed.
On the move again, he weaved through the streets easily, he had done so hundreds of times after all.
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'Hm, I'm close,' he remarked, unfortunately...
"hmm, I'm close babe!"
'Crap.'
Joey had decided to take a known shortcut through an abandoned parking lot, the boy's house was just on the opposite side of the road, but it wasn't worth it to go all the way around instead of cutting through.
It wasn't even possible to just slip away unnoticed anymore, the adventurous couple were already staring dead through his soul. Any kind of lady with at least a modicum of standards would never allow for this kind of copulation in a dusty old car space like this one, unless she had a reason to.
This particular one, judging from her ugly schrunched-up expression, definetely had one, a big one, not just the scruffy-looking construction worker between her legs, who had actually brought two hammers for the occasion, but something she wanted absolutely no one to learn about.
Joey, considering his vast experience, didn't even stop to try and explain himself out of the hole he had dug himslef into. Especially since he had somehow recognized the lady, he couldn't truly place the where from yet, but he would eventually, these were fresh memories.
He ran as fast as he could, although from a simple glimpse only, to the boy's knowledge about this new world he had found himself in, that one most likely wasn't the best or the safest choice.
Years and years of gangster instincts were hard to override after only a single night.
Realization of why the lights went dark never came.
Just a sound, a sound kind of like lightning, and an almost imperceptible burning smell, one only Joey's ever-present keen sense of smell could point out.
"GET THAT LITTLE RAT!"
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thud
___________________________________________________
"...why did you even bring that kid over here, what do you expect me to do with him, huh?"
She was screaming I had to do something before ..."
"I told you not to mess with that woman..."
"It's alright, Soji, you faultered, but you can still find your path, and whatever it is you may decide, me and my trusty ma-"
"Shut up, Rojiya, I'm trying to find a solution here..."
"Haruhisa, stop smoking and say something..."
Loud voices participating in a heated discussion could be heard through the gap under the door as Joey slowly came back to his senses.
'Argh.'
He couldn't move as his hands and feet were tied up together, forcing him into a fetal position.
This establishment wasn't getting any five-star ratings either, as from what he could understand based on the little visibility he had, he was lying on his right, on the floor of a dusty old storeroom.
He was cold, uncomfortable, and had a killer headache to boot, Joey's mood was at an all-time low.
Any attempt at even sitting up straight ended in failure and eating more dust.
spit
'Ugh, that's disgusting!'
Joey struggled to keep quiet as he was forced to smear his face with dirt.
Thankfuly, he managed to keep a level head. Closing his mouth, careful not to inhale anymore dust, he curled himself even tighter and into a ball. He built up momentum by pushing off of the ground repeatedly with his right shoulder, the agility of a ten year old coming in handy, then in one last smooth motion, he launched himself onto his back.
He hugged his knees as close to his chest as possible, now resembling a famous yoga pose. Exhaling deeply, he noticed the rope around his arms had gotten tighter, bound to leave a mark.
'That's way better,' he thought.
His new position offered Joey a bit of relief, especialy to his lower back. Now able to think better, Joey considered his options.
Not many viable ones, he was dealing with multiple adults, and not your run-of-the-mill everyday citizens either, based on snippets of conversation he caught behind that door.
'Well, that's obvious, still, kidnapping a ten year old to cover up some petty affair must come from this world's guidebook.' Joey had always considered himself a gangster with principles and he made sure to aqcuaintance himself with people of similar mindset, some lines wouldn't and shouldn't be crossed.
'Besides, who's going to take a ten year old seriously.'
sigh
The only way out of this was through dialogue, hopefully these guys weren't too insane, although the odds were not in the transmigrator's favour.
For the next few minutes Joey pondered, he made sure to figure out what he would say, how he would say it, and any reactions that he may get, growing more confident, he prepared to alert the group outside that he was awake, ready as ever.
Before he could do that,
creak
"Oi, kid, looks like you're finally awake, good, let's talk."
"Nice pose, haha!"
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