Chapter 4: Chapter 4

He lifted the white sheets off the furniture, dust flew as he worked his way around the room that was only 177 square feet.

Almost all the furniture was removed from the white and the room seemed to gain a little bit of life. The furniture was only two chairs and a table. The furniture was sleek but also very ordinary, as he looked closely around the room he realized it was a small library. 

The shelves were inside the walls, every wall was a bookshelf. He hadn’t noticed because the white books blended in with the white shelves. There were 2,000 books at most.

There were no exits or windows to escape the room, the walls were all as hard as concrete. 

He sat on a chair looking over the room carefully, his eyes caught a bit of light blue in the farthest of the book shelves. He pulled out the small thin book and laid it on the table.

The cover had an illustration of four teens holding flashlights and various items on the cover. The title being ‘Hollow Towns Missing.’

He tried opening the book, but he couldn't turn any of the pages. He closely examined the book. The back had a summary.

It was a detective book as he expected. It started off with five teens and quickly became four. 

A gang of no good teens go searching for their friend, who has been missing for several weeks.

Each with their own unique skills they slowly start solving the mystery.

He laid the book on the table, wondering what to do now. He had already done everything he could with the book and nothing happened.

His eyes scanned the white room, a ticking sound that had gone unnoticed by him entered his ears.

Tick. Tick. Tick

His hands reached under one of the selves and pulled out an old pocket watch. The dial spun around crazily at a speed that almost made it invisible to the eye.

His hand pressed the button at the top of the pocket watch.

Nothing.

It still spun like crazy.

Annoyed, he threw the pocket watch to the table with the book and decided to continue his search.

He turned around when the room was quiet.

There was no more ticking. He watched the pocket watch pause before rewinding. Faster and faster.

His eyes unfocused and his mind blurred. His body went numb.

He woke up to the smell of fried chicken and yelling. 

“Dale, send the garbage out back!”

A man smacked his shoulders and pointed to a pile of garbage that sat in the corner. Carter looked around in surprise, he was in a bustling kitchen. 

The man kept urging so Carter had no choice but to throw out the garbage.

The alley rank with a stench that made him gag, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

He needed to figure out this whole book situation. 

He was feeling aggravated, would he never be able to see his mother again? He was just given the opportunity to better her life and yet he was suddenly stuck in a library.

He wanted to go home.

It was like hell all over again. He could feel himself caving in. He would never see his mother again. He would live another life full of misery regretting every choice he ever made.

He was starting to panic.

Deep breaths, he took a deep breath and tried to calm down. He was sad but he had to keep living on, he would see her again. By hook or by crook.

The alley's dim lights shone on a desolate corner full of trash cans. Most were filled to the brim with garbage spewing out.

Only one trash can was empty. With no other choice he had to delve deeper into the alley. Its walls were painted on with colorful spray paint, the drawing of a man hanging was the most eye-catching. It gave off a luminous glow under a street lamp.

The alley gave him the heebie-jeebies.

He could hear his heartbeat.

He threw the trash into the garbage can quickly and hurriedly made his way back to the kitchen's back door.

He froze.

A man was standing by the door. He was lanky in stature, his face under the hood was covered by the shadows of the night. 

“Hehehe.” He giggled and Carter could feel his arm hairs standing on end. He ran.

The wind whooshed passed his ears like white noise and the sound of following footsteps slowly started to make themselves known.

His heart sped up. He couldn’t think straight.

Too much was happening all at once.

Was he gonna die? 

He turned around his muscles tense. The two collided, the lanky man was thrown to the ground.

Carter's new body was very sturdy.

He lifted the lanky man by the collar growling, “What do you want?”

The lanky man just smiled and lifted his hands to Carter's gut. Not expecting him to have a gun, Carter went to clumsily smack the guns out of his hands.

Bang.

Pain. Pain. Pain.

It hurt so bad.

A familiar pain numbed him and his mind clouded.

He was dying, this was the exact feeling.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

He shook.

The smell of fried chicken pervaded his sense of smell. The hustle and bustle of the kitchen had once again been felt.

“Dale, send the garbage out back!”

A hand smacked his shoulder and woke him from his daze. In the end his overloaded mind had shut down and he fell to the ground with a thud.

—

[Insufficient Experience]

[Would you like to complete ‘Tasks’ and ‘Missions’ for Experience?] 

[Yes]   [No]

—

That’s what he woke up to. Along with a consistent beeping.

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His hands reached across from himself and picked up a light brown pocket watch. It ticked endlessly, it seemed to have fixed itself as the time displayed was normal and it was moving forward at a slow speed.

When his eyes focused on the clock a small box with letters paperless above it.

[Davis Clock- This clock has been passed down the Davis family and can rewind time, however the clock can only rewind time with enough energy.]

He still had a lingering fear of death. He had died two times. He knew the numbing feel of death with clarity.

He wasn’t willing to once again feel death, even with a clock that could rewind time.

He needed to survive though, to see his mother again. So he would collect energy as a fail safe.

He wouldn’t go out just like that.

He accepted.

[Ding!]

[…]

[Name: Carter Atticus Davis

Age: 14 (38)

Current Identity: Dale

A highschool dropout who works at a fried chicken restaurant.

You have a basic understanding of yourself and the world around you.

Plane: F class

Exp: 0

{Skill Shop}

Inventory: 

Book: Hollow Towns Missing

-

Tasks:

Find the protagonists. 0/4

20 Exp 

Beat up the bad guys. 0/20

40 Exp

Find the missing friend. 0/1.

50 Exp

Missions:

Find the assailant. 0/1.

60 Exp

~

Time limit: 2 months.]

[Rewind Button: 20 Exp]

[Return Button: 40 Exp.]

His mind stung with a numbing pain. The screen in front of him glitched and random numbers flew by a few times before settling down and becoming readable.

Small obscure memories entered his head, his questions about the world and this body became clearer the more he thought about it. 

The original owner, Dale, was a 22 year old who dropped out of school and had to work to take care of himself. His mother, Bethany, had died two years prior during childbirth with his baby brother, and both his fathers were never a part of his life.

He was completely alone.

This wasn’t the modern world too, it was a world based on the 1960s and a war, which never happened in his previous world, had swallowed half of the country. The war had ended and the new regime had taken a more active part in fixing the country’s laws and regulations.

With this change many immigrants were forced to leave the country and seek work abroad.

That was a long time ago, from 1940 to 1950 to be exact, and the country was finally at peace ten years later. 

The war that shook this country had set it quickly behind the others in technological advancement, which led to his mother dying during childbirth that could have easily been avoided if they lived in another country.

Even regular clean up of garbage and health examinations of businesses wasn't hugely regulated and bad guys roamed the streets.

Carter didn’t know how he was going to find a couple of teens. No technology, no schooling, and no money.

He was cornered.

He didn’t even know the characters' names.

As his mind swirled he suddenly turned to the screen in front of him and thought of his inventory, within his mind was the view of a room the size of 1 cubic meter.

A small book laid on the ground in a corner of the room.

With just a thought the book appeared in his hands. It still could not be opened and except for a brief summary on the back and an illustration on the front there were no other clues.

The illustration provided plenty for a lead though. The illustration was clear and the faces of the children were discernible. He stared at the cover for a long time and made sure to remember the faces of the teens.

Another clue was the title, Hollow Town’s Missing.

With this he knew he needed to travel to Hollow Town, where everything would most likely take place.

He was clearly not in the town, as the large buildings made it clear he was in the city.

He threw the Davis Clock into his inventory and stood up from the hospital's bed. He quickly got dressed into a pair of casual clothes that laid on a chair next to the bed. He opened a nearby drawer and opened a small box of masks. 

He pulled the mask over his face and walked out of the room at a normal speed. 

He couldn’t pay the hospital bills so he had to sneak out. He would pay but the money was his only funds to Hollow Town. The original had luckily saved a lot to go back to school.

No police would really go after him after he left anyway, not with the city still crawling with crime. They didn’t have time to chase after someone who healed and dashed.

As he neared the exit he briskly walked out.

He breathed a sigh of relief when no one had noticed him. He made his way home with familiarity, the streets were darkening and the dull lights turned on.

Many streets didn’t have any, and the sidewalks were cracked and splayed with many potholes. 

He turned to a street and walked quietly to a nearby building. 

The building smelt of old cigars and a squeaky sounding dog was barking somewhere in the building. The carpets were furnished with an ugly but colorful design, and the lobby held a charm only the 1950s could provide.

The lobby desk had an old black rotary phone, and an old style cash register.

He made his way to the stairs and opened a door on the third floor. Inside was dingy and dimly lit by the light of the outside buildings that were high in the sky and covered the streets by a small margin.

He walked to a mattress that was on the floor and plopped down on it. It was clean and held a blanket.

His weary eyes closed and he fell asleep.

He would deal with the rest tomorrow.

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