Lio meets his reflection in the polished glass doors at the entrance of a building. He looks up, and in his opinion, the sun is just slightly higher up.
He reaches out to the door but they automatically slide open as he approaches. Standing at the entrance, he looks at the address on the black card.
"No.4, Tripitaka road..."
He looks up at the street sign reading the same name and takes a step forward, but for a split second, he has a vision of a golden ring and hears a loud ring.
He walks towards a cubicle with a transparent glass window and the same name, "Hernandez" boldly written in gold on the front of the cubicle.
After stepping in, he meets a small room with a cubicle in the centre, the woman doesn't notice him as she speaks on the phone, her eyes focused on a notebook with her writing things in it.
He knocks on the glass, but she ignores him for about ten minutes. To Lio, it feels like a whole day. He thinks about what the doctor said to him and knows his brother's condition can get worse any moment from now.
He knocks again, but this time, she looks at him from the head down and presses a button underneath her desk; two hefty men in security uniforms emerge from a room whose door is to the left. One of them tells Lio to leave but he can't hear them.
He breathes deeply, clenching his fist.
"These fools don't understand. "
The voice of the snake echoes in his ears as the smell of burning wood starts to cover him. He closes his eyes and slows down his breath.
"Please, I just came to see someone. "
He raises the card, and as his blood boils, the card changes from black to a bright red colour and in the blink of an eye, the room becomes completely empty save for a single door adjacent to Lio. He looks around, confused as he proceeds to the door.
He reaches for the handle again, but once again, the door opens before he touches it. He is at a loss for words at what he sees. A busy street with kiosks and people walking around lit by a floating grey sphere.
"Excuse me."
A light-skinned man in a business suit holding a transparent bag of what Lio only hopes is powder brushes passed him to walk through the door.
He starts to walk down the road when the gold ring appears again in his mind, this time with a strong headache forcing him onto his knees. A hand on his shoulder brings him back to reality.
"First time, friend...?"
The voice was muffled, but he recognised it, he looked up to see the man who had attacked him in the alley...Bang in a v-neck t-shirt and blue khaki shorts over Nike slides showing burn scars and wounds over his wrists and legs. He's holding a white shopping bag in one hand and eating a shawarma with the other
"You want one?"
"You." Lio swings his arm at him, but his body stops moving as soon as the thought crosses his mind.
"Oh, I forgot to mention...no violence is allowed in Limbo."
"Limbo?"
Lio asks, frustrated as his limbs are still unable to move.
"Think of something peaceful...like puppies."
"Dogs are filthy, I'm more of a cat person."
"Weirdo."
Lio takes a deep breath and is slowly able to move.
He gets up as Bang finishes eating.
"We should get going,.the boss is waiting."
"Wait, I have a lot of questions. "
"Ask away."
He walks down the street, and Lio follows behind.
"Where exactly are we?"
"I told you, we're in Limbo."
"Okay...what is Limbo?"
"That...is a good question. No one really knows..."
He leads. Lio to a space between two kiosks and down a flight of stairs.
"Some say it's a place between life and death, others say it's where two realities converge."
"What do you think?"
"It's an easy place to buy cocaine...it's like a real-life dark web."
Lio sighs as they enter a dark room with a rectangular table and two seats on opposite sides with a single light bulb hanging over him, just barely illuminating the room.
A man is seated there wearing jeans, boots, and a long-sleeved white shirt. He rests his feet on the table as he types on his phone.
"Have a seat..." he says nonchalantly.
Lio doesn't respond; the man sighs and pulls out the golden ring he's wearing as a necklace held by a string.
As soon as he does, Lio's body feels extremely hot, reeking of burning wood, covered by cinders and from it, the giant solver serpent appears and leaps at the man; Bang catches both its upper and lower jaws with some level of effort before slamming it against the wall.
"Oh, I forgot, Bonds can fight in Limbo."
The serpent leaps at Bang as the wooden mask appears on his face.
"Listen, I'm late for an appointment. "
He holds up the ring, and both Lio and the serpent fall to the ground in pain; the serpent eventually disappears.
"Ready to have a seat now? Lio."
Lio takes a seat with his hand rubbing his head.
The man puts the phone down and looks at Lio, revealing his heterochromia eyes;
The left is blue and the other is brown.
"Sorry about that, I had to sort out a domestic problem. My name is Ricardo Hernandez, and I'm sure you have a lot of questions."
"W..who are you? What do you want with me?"
"Want? Wha...Bang, Did you offer him the shawarma?"
"I did, boss."
He looks back at Lio
"Did he?"
"Look, Mr Hernandez..."
"Call me Rico."
Lio breathes deeply
"...You got two guys to get me here, what do you want?"
The man reclines in his seat.
"Do you know who the silver Mamba was?"
"Who?"
"Okay, the truth is that I need your help, and I admit, I have some questionable methods,s, but I come in peace and with a solution to your...snake problem."
"Is that the silver mamba?"
"It's...more complicated than that. You see, what you, Bang, and Dr Jones have is "a bond, at least that's the closest word in English for it."
"What language is it from?"
"It's from the Abu tribe from a far away Islan called Blackout Island."
"Okay...."
"Anyone with ancestry from the Island can have a bond, but if someone dies without taming it, the malice-filled creature is automatically inherited by the next of kin. "
"So if I should die right now..."
"The beast will go on a rampage, but target those closest to you first."
"Your grandfather was a fighter on the Island, a champion even but he never tamed his bond till he died and..."
He pauses for a moment.
"He worked for my grandfather and my grandfather had him killed. "
Lio's expression doesn't change, his eyes focused, waiting for more information.
"Keep talking, how do I tame my bond?"
"I don't know if you heard me."
"I did and now I know my problems are his damn fault."
"I want to offer you a chance to take control of this but it's going to take you far away from home."
"My brother, I...."
"All his medical bills will be taken care of but I need you to do something for me first. Bang, can you excuse us?"
Later that evening, he climbs the steps of a building to reach an apartment.
He opens the door with a key and hears the sounds of cartoony explosions coming from the Television in the living room of his apartment, the kitchen is tucked in the corner with a fridge next to the stove and cupboards above them, directly in front of him is a green couch with a flat-screen TV hanging in the wall, a wooden table is between the TV and the couch.
He walks to the couch as his brother is covered in a blanket, watching "Looney Toons."
"Hey Ray, How are you doing?"
"I'm okay." He coughs
"I got you Shawarma. "
"Without Mayonnaise?"
"Mayo is for savages." Lio retorts with a chuckle.
His brother sits up as Lio puts a cup of cold orange juice in front of him.
"Have you eaten? Ray asks.
"Don't worry about me, you need to get better so you can do well in school and not end up like me."
"But you're really cool."
"You mean that?"
"Yeah, my friends keep asking me if you drive a tank. "
"And what do you tell them?"
"I say, you do." He says in a silent tone."
He sits next to Ray and puts his arm over his shoulder
He thinks back to the last thing Herandez said after he told Bang to step outside.
"I want to fire Dr Jones, but he's always been difficult to understand me, so I want you to make things clear to him."
"You want me to kill him?"
"Your choice, you're not a soldier anymore, I'm not going to give you orders."
1:00 AM
A blonde man in the call room eats from a bag of potato chips while reading something from his phone.
A female nurse in light blue scrubs walks in and sits on another chair, resting her head against the wall and sipping from a water bottle.
"Long night?" He asks
The triage was free for a few minutes, so I came up here for a break.
As she stands up to stretch, unbeknownst to her, an invisible leech as wide as a cooking pot picks up her bottle with its appendage and pours it on her outfit, containing the blue scrubs she's wearing.
"What the hell?!" She screams looking for a napkin.
"My hands are over here." He says holding the phone and the potato chips.
She goes into the callroom bathroom to change, the leech becomes slim enough to slip under the door, and the tip of the other appendage becomes transparent, allowing Dr. Jones to see her undressing.
He chuckles as another appendage slithers to him allowing him to see the entrance; it shows Lio walking into the hospital.
"What are you up to, Mr Morgans?"