I'm the alpha, I'm the leader, I'm the one to trust (trust) 😈🐺

Every day, I imagine a world where I can be with you 😜

There he stood; the man who faced one too many battles and lost more than he had. Friends and children, his home and his dignity. Even while prevailing in the end, there was no end to the murky waters that clogged the pipes of his heart.

His eyes were dull and hazy, as his daze-like appearance was the ultimate result of the time spent in that fantastical land slowly chipping away at his body and soul. Proof of his hardships and shortcomings painting his skin and his mind.

Will he ever find a way out, he wondered. The companions he made, only to be put in vain as he was immature and selfish as they came. Only ever putting the lives of others after himself when times are most desperate.

He goes back inside and sits down on his bed. Drinking the last cup of liquid he'll ever taste, and lying in bed.

He had slain dragons and became the king's favourite above all else, befriended demons and made peace in the land he lived with his companions, yet there was no God that sent him back to his original world.

Oh, how he prayed every morning and night, before and after every meal, and visited the church daily to pray to this God in hopes of being sent back home where he truly belonged.

Not Esteria, home of all creatures from orcs and elves to half-foots and dwarves, but Earth, where his beloved baby brother and worrisome sister awaited him.

Whether time passed differently or not, he didn't know. But now that all had been said and done, it was time to try the one method he was too cowardly to commit to for all these years. Death.

It was the same spiking sensation as when he was hit by the truck; his mind and body felt as though it's melting and spinning around in a pot. Burning and breaking, tearing and crushing—there were no words for the pain he felt, but he was willing to settle with "a minor setback" on his way back home. If he'd even make it.

His heart began beating faster and faster, eyes snapped open and he gasped for air as though breathing for the first time in his life—looking around frantically while trying to understand what was happening. These cables plugged into his skin looked similar to leeches or parasites he had seen before in swampy areas or dungeons; quick beeping sounds and a clammer of people with strange attire and gloves holding him down as he tried to get up; speaking a language of gibberish he couldn't understand.

Despite the ringing in his ears, he took a deep, albeit shaky, breath. His limbs settled down and his heart took a few beats more before settling down.

The dark-haired man with dishevelled hair and a pale appearance sweating bullets as strange equipment is placed all over the room. The only recognizable objects with him being chairs or the potted plant on top of what looked like a complicated drawer. There was a magic instrument in one of the—what seemed to be—a human's hand and their thumbs moved quickly across a tablet of letters.

..Wait a minute, is that a... phone..? Where was the keyboard? Why did the messaging bubbles look so... not shiny?

Whatever. His head began to hurt and he looked away, ignoring whatever the woman in front of him was saying.

Not on purpose, of course, but he felt disoriented and stuck in a daze as if he never really died in that world.

When he finally looked back at the woman, who had long since shut her mouth and began staring at him as if waiting to see if he'd listen this time. He feels his back tense and his face stiffen before he looks away for a moment, glancing at the woman from the corner of his eye and clearing his throat lightly before fully looking back and apologizing with his eyes. Hoping the message goes through.