PROLOGUE
Alexander's opponent hit the mat, hard enough to render him unconscious if he had landed on his head. Jake groaned as he got himself to his feet. He looked unsteady but Alexander knew it was only a ploy to get him to drop his guard just enough for Jake to deliver one of his bone-crunching sidekicks he was so fond of.
"Even though I started first then convinced you start training all those years ago," said Jake as he wiped the sweat from his brow and swayed on his feet."You might be better than me. I didn't even see your knee."
"Well of course you didn't see my knee, otherwise why'd you end up on the floor?"
"Magic?"
"Right, magic," Alex shook his head and sighed.
Right as Alex's eyes moved the fraction of an inch required for a head shake Jake spun around sending the back of his heel in a wide horizontal arc toward Alex's head which Alex dodged by simply moving his head backward, Jake followed up with a jump sidekick, driving his heel into the center of Alex's chest causing all of the air to be pushed out of his lungs in order to absorb the impact. Alex took the sidekick grunting in pain then grabbed Jake's foot, sidestepping his leg and brought the point of his elbow into the center of Jake's thigh twice in quick succession before Jake was able to push Alex away. Before he could recover his balance and get both of his legs on the ground Alex placed a sidekick directly in the middle of Jake's other thigh, weakening both legs and following up with a sweep that Jake was unable to avoid or counter due to the weakened condition of his legs. Alex then crouched down to where Jake lay and after a second or two had Jake locked in an arm bar. At this point Jake knew it was all over, too much pressure on his arm like that would start tearing muscle. He tapped the mat to signify the end of the match.
"I'm done, you win this this time, Alex," said Jake in villainous sounding voice, "But I'll be back next week and then you will feel my wrath!"
"Sure I will," said Alex as he helped his friend to his feet. "You and what army?"
"The same one that you used to beat me"
Alex rolled his eyes as they walked over to their lockers and started removing their padding. Everything was silent for a few minutes except for the sound of two men breathing heavily after over one hour of sparring with no breaks. No words were required as they walked out of Jake's Dojo. After Jake locked the door they started walking down the sidewalk towards their houses.
"So, whats new with you?" said Alex, still wincing a little from Jake's well placed sidekick.
"Just same old, same old," Jake responded, "work, running the Dojo, you know, the usual. How about you?"
"Same here, minus the Dojo."
"Hey, what about your girlfriend, how is that working out?"
Alex gave an almost inaudible sigh before responding. "She broke up with me."
"Sorry to hear that, what happened?"
"She gave me an ultimatum and said, 'your martial arts or me,' said it was taking up too much of my time. Guess which one I chose."
"Sheesh, that's harsh. Well, this is my street, I'll see you later Alex." Jake said while turning down a side road.
"Yeah, I'll see you around Jake."
After Jake left Alex continued walking down the side walk towards his apartment. Due to it being sometime after nine o'clock the street he was walking was dark and devoid of life. Except for a man in a nondescript black hoodie and jeans, walking towards Alex. When he reached Alex he tapped on his shoulder from behind.
"Can you see them," said the man, "do you see the blue elephants?"
"What elephants?" Alex said turning around.
"They are everywhere," he whispered.
"Why don't you go home and get some rest." said Alex noticing the crazed look to his eyes.
"I'm so sorry," said the man sadly, pulling out a revolver, "if you can't see them then they already have you, and once they have you they don't let you go."
"I don't want any trouble," Alex said calmly, as you would to a rabid dog, while slowly backing towards the front door of his apartment building which is ironically only ten feet away. Barely any distance at all, unless there is a gun pointed at you, it could be a mile and it still wouldn't make much of a difference. Thought Alex.
"I will purge you of their influence! Prepare for your sacrifice of blood!" Screamed the man, spittle flying from his lips as he advanced unsteadily. "Be free!" He yelled, firing the gun repeatedly, every shot punctuated by another cry of "Be free!" or crazed laughter. After emptying the cylinder he threw the gun with surprising accuracy after missing four out of the five shots with the revolver.
The heavy piece of steel flew through the air, seemingly in slow motion, hitting Alex in the temple rendering him unconscious.
The man looked at what he had done, shrugged and walked over to the middle of the street and sat down. He then pulled out a large knife and started cutting his left forearm screaming, "Begone foul demons! Begone!" over and over, effectively distracting any rescue that would notice Alex lying in the darkness against the side of the building just a few yards away.
Wake up, check. Realize left arm has been shot, check. Have concussion, also check. Alex slowly started to open his eyes an immeasurable amount of time later. Not that made much of a difference because it was pitch black with just a sliver of the moon peeking above the door made of a warm golden light... Wait, I don't remember a door being there before. Alex thought, Oh well, never look a gift horse in the mouth, especially with a concussion. Alex got to his feet unsteadily, swearing under his breath when he tried to use his left arm to steady himself against the wall. He shuffled his way over to the door and upon reaching it called out softly, "Hello? I could use some help, mind if I come in?" After receiving no answer he shrugged, "If they didn't want company they would have closed their door." Alex walked through the door and disappeared in a flash of light, permanently blinding the two cockroaches who were watching him intently.
Alex woke up noticing three things immediately: his headache had subsided substantially, he was in a forest, and there was a rabbit sitting on his chest waving a carrot around at him like a fencer would a sword. The last one was by far the most strange. This is going to be a long day. He thought to himself, reaching slowly for the rabbit that was completely unaware of Alex's powerful hand sneaking up on him from behind. As Alex clenched his fist around the rabbit's neck it's eyes suddenly widened in fear. "I would say I'm sorry, except I'm not." Alex told the struggling creature as it slowly suffocated.
After Alex finished building a small fire with the lighter he always carried with him he placed the blade of his multi-tool in the fire knowing the next step would be extremely unpleasant. After he got the knife a hot as he could he bit down on a stick and got to work cauterizing the bullet wound. He silently screamed in agony and was unable to keep grunts of pain from escaping his lips as he held the knife to his arm and started sealing the wound. The bullet had gone straight through his arm missing the bone by about an inch and had pierced his tricep, which was both good and bad. Good because he didn't have to go digging around inside his arm muscle looking for the round, and bad because he had to cauterize both sides of his arm to prevent infection.
After completing the grisly task he muttered, "If there is a proper hospital around here close by I'm gonna be so ticked, and if not I'll thank myself later." As he started cooking the "fencing" rabbit that he had strangled earlier he realized how hungry he was, the rabbit had smelled good raw and now that he was cooking it, it smelled even better. He was unsure how long he had been unconscious, but he thought that more than a day seemed like a reasonable assumption, if his hunger was anything to go by.
Alex's small fire sputtered and died a few minutes after he finished eating the rabbit, however, he wasn't worried because it looked to be about mid morning. Unfortunately he couldn't be certain because somehow his cellphone was broken and his digital watch just kept jumping between midnight and noon. He was distracted from fiddling with his devices when something fell out of the sky landing in his lap...