Under the oddly bluish light coming in from the window, I chatted with Victor.
"How are you feeling so far?"
Slightly nervous, I tried to break the ice by asking basic questions.
"Well, the healing charm did heal most of my injuries, but it will still take about a week for me to be able to get back to work."
"Well... what about your right arm?"
I looked at his bandaged right arm and remembered that night where the wraith bit him by the arm and slammed him against the wall.
'Bram said he probably won't be able to use it again... I just hope that—'
"Oh this?"
He chuckled a little before raising it up into the air.
'Huh?'
Dumbfounded, I stared at his right arm which was moving in front of me.
"But I thought... Bram said that you won't be able to use it again."
"Ah he was just exaggerating. Though there will be some lasting effects, it's not like I can't move it at all."
Upon closer inspection, his whole arm was trembling slightly.
"But wouldn't that mean you can't bartender or fight properly anymore?"
"Fighting yes, bartending not so much. When you've been a bartender for over twenty years you are bound to be able to perform tricks and pour a drink with only one hand haha."
He tried to lighten the mood by cracking a few jokes after that.
"Don't worry too much about me Amon, I will be fine. But judging from your expression I think you have a few other, larger problems than worrying about an old man like me. Why don't you tell me about them."
"Well, I have been hired by Mr. Carrow as a psychiatrist for past victims of supernatural attacks and today I just visited two of such victims."
At that point I let out a soft sigh while leaning back into my chair.
"The problem is that all their stories seem so unnatural, to me at least. By any chance have you heard about Henry Cooper or Lucy Harris?"
"Henry Cooper no, I heard that Bram saved him from a zombie but I wasn't personally involved. On the other hand, for Lucy Harris I was there to fight the demon."
Hearing his words, my eyes lit up.
'Maybe hearing Victor's side of the story I will be able to gain new information!'
"Could you tell me your account of that day?"
"No problem."
I leaned in closer towards Victor to make sure I heard every word clearly.
"On that day, I was running an errand with a close friend of mine. Well he was a former member of the Braveheart also... You probably know what happened to him since you already spoke with Lucy Harris so I will spare you the details."
With a downcast gaze he continued the story, albeit his tone a little low-spirited.
"We just so happened to hear her screams and decided to check it out. She was held in one of the houses in the lower-class residential area, it was completely run down with cobwebs everywhere. But on our way up we heard a soft chant before a blood-curdling scream."
"By any chance do you remember what the man was chanting?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure. It was pretty brief and he was quite far, but I think he said something about human and unnatural stuff."
I nodded in response while inwardly pondering what the chant could really be.
'Human and unnatural... What could it be and why does it sound somewhat familiar?'
"Well after we heard the scream we rushed in and encountered the demon. Unprepared to face it, we only had normal bullets loaded in our revolvers which did not do much damage to it. During the battle my friend sacrificed himself, taking a fatal blow to hold the demon in place while I shot it with a pure iron bullet."
"Could the healing charm not save him?"
"Unfortunately the injury he sustained was too severe, unable to be healed."
We both then sat in silence, as if we were mourning his death.
'To be able to willingly walk into the face of death just to save someone... could I do that?'
First Victor's friend and now him, both of them made the decision to sacrifice themselves to save a random person they did not know. I wonder what was going through both their minds at that moment.
It is human nature to want to live, so how could both of them overcome that so easily to risk their lives?
Even during the fight with the wraith, the reason why I went back to help Victor was because I was unsure if I had enough time to escape and the wraith was still quite far from me. But for Victor to be able to ask me to run, taking his only way to escape... just what kind of willpower must one possess to make that decision?
"I see, thank you for telling me your story."
"Hmm, you still look troubled."
"Well it is just that, I am trying to find the link that connects all these incidents together and also I just found out that I have a slight memory lapse when it comes to thinking about..."
"..."
"About what?"
'Dammit it is getting worse!'
"Listen closely Victor, but on the day I lost memories I visited a certain person and the conversation I had with him felt like it lasted only a few minutes at most, but when I left it went from the afternoon to evening. Whenever I think about this person I keep subconsciously pushing the thoughts to the back of my mind and now I can't remember who it is."
At my words, Victor's eyes widened and his expression quickly hardened.
"This may be related to something supernatural. Have you taken notes or anything about the subject?"
"No... I haven't."
'This is odd, I usually take notes about everything but when it comes to this guy I didn't!'
"Then quickly tell me everything you remember before you forget, maybe what is affecting you won't affect me."
"Ok. I think the person is connected to both me and Graham somehow. I am not sure in what way, but I know that I did not have a good impression of him. Uh, oh! I think I was planning to confront him on Wednesday. Yes, in a public event I was going to ask him about something."
"Do you perhaps remember anything else?"
I gripped my hand in an attempt to recall but nothing came to mind.
'Why can't I remember?!'
I slowly shook my head side to side in defeat as I rested my head in my hands.
"This is some serious problems. If your memories are really being altered then this person you were thinking about could be the cause of it. In any case the person would be a huge hazard, maybe it is a demon in disguise as a person."
"What should I do?"
"Since you have already told me all this we already have a lead. I will write it down and tell the rest when they get back, so on the off chance my memory is also altered we will have a backup. For you, have you noticed anything supernatural happening so far?"
"No at least I don't think so..."
"I think you should head home immediately. I will ask Litch to escort you on the off chance that something does happen. I heard that you will be meeting Hugo tomorrow, I will also inform him about your situation."
I then stood up and quickly left, returning back to the physical world. Litch went up to talk with Victor at my insistence while I waited outside the bar.
Soon, he walked out and stood next to me, his revolver could be seen inside his coat.
"Tsk. Why is it you are a magnet for trouble."
He criticized me openly but I could sense a hint of worry from within his words.
Time passed and we both walked side by side through the roads until we reached a familiar street.
We walked past an apple shop which was closed. I looked up to see the sky gradually darkening, closing in to the evening.
"Why do you have to live so god damn far, I feel like my legs are going to drop off."
"Stop whining, maybe you should go outside more often and exercise instead of playing billiard."
"Tsk. Who said that I only play billiard, stop judging me on something you saw me do only once."
Throughout our journey we occasionally bickered but it was getting more often now that I was drawing close to home.
"So you live in the middle-class residential area. How nice it must be."
"Yea yea whatever, stop complaining we are almost there, just a few more streets down."
As we got closer and closer, there was a weird smell in the air, one that I have never smelled in this area before.
In addition to the weird smell, it was unusually noisy as many people were running back and forth from the direction I was headed.
'Is there some kind of event happening today that I did not realise?'
However, as I drew closer and closer to home I quickly found out the cause of all this commotion.
"So you live down there right? The place which is currently FREAKING ON FIRE!"
I stared dumbfounded at the sight in front of me. Blazing infernos engulfed everything in sight, the whole row of houses around mine was completely burnt.
Wildfire raged on, emitting a bright orange light that contrasted the dark sky.
I was wrong. It wasn't that the sky darkened because it was becoming night time.
In fact, it was only around four in the afternoon at that time.
The sky was blackened with ash, blocking out the sun, creating the illusion of night.
I immediately sprinted forward, leaving Litch behind.
"Hey wait! Where do you think you are going?"
He chased after me closely from behind.
'Run! Run! I have to run to find mother!'