Tarun Nagpal

You were isekai’d into another world and defeated the Demon Lord. But now you are back home… Years have passed and you are lost.

Read a draft first chapter

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My hand was cramped, knuckles white, grabbing onto something that wasn’t there. It took effort to unclench. Sweat beaded my forehead and but I was shivering. I reached over and felt around the nightstand to grab the water bottle that I had put there.

I desperately gulped the water, the inner noise of water competing with the loud beating of my racing heart.

The nightmare was already gone. I tried to hold onto pieces of it but… there was nothing.

I lay back down and calmed myself, taking deep breaths and letting my thoughts settle. Sleep didn’t come and eventually I have up. My phone told me it was only two a.m.

Another typical night without much sleep. I thought about getting a lorazepam from my medicine cabinet, but my therapist had told me to only take them when needed, and this was just the usual…

After another hour I gave up. I felt restless like I should be doing something.

So, as I did every night, in the dark, I got dressed and decided to go for a run.

The city lights were mostly dimmed and the sidewalk I was sprinting up was difficult to see in the dark. Up and up the hill I went to the top, then a light jog back down, and sprint up again.

The rough neighborhood of the Tenderloin gave way to the uplit gothic towers of Grace Cathedral and the Beaux Arts Fairmont hotel at the top of Nob Hill. Back down the hill, watching the sudden shift to dilapadated buildings, the homeless, prostitutes, and drug dealers.

A light coat of sweat beaded my forehead… I absent mindedly wiped it away before turning around at my apartment buildinig’s entrance and beginning the long sprint back up the hill.

A third time, and a fourth. Faster and harder each time. Trying to work out whatever it was that kept me moving.

I was on my fifth sprint up the hill when I saw two guys pulling a hooker into one of the alleys as she resisted.

Without thinking, I came up and punched one hard… the sound of his jaw breaking reverbrating through the narrow alley with a sharp crack as he slammed against the wall. The other guy was quick to react, pulling a gun. I instinctively closed the distance grabbing his wrist and cracking his arm over my knee. His eyes were glazed and pupils dilated, he didn’t even make a noise but was fast enough to punch me in the chest where his knuckles struck the metal in my weighted running vest. I let go of the broken arm and elbowed him across the face knocking him to the ground and then, as he started to work his way up, kicked him hard across the face again where he fell unconscious.

The woman was whimpering behind me but I couldn’t hear her. My neon yellow running sneakers were stained bright red. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them, I was lost in a momentary vision of blood and mud, bodies on the ground… I could feel bile rising and forcibly swallowed it.

“Ummmm… ‘scuse me…”

The woman was Asian, too much eye makeup, somewhat overweight, wearing black lingerie and neon green leggings. Tattoos and needle marks traced up and down her arms. She looked like she wanted to run.

“I can’t pay you… you want a freebie?” her voice was quavering and heavily accented.

Another sudden flash of black hair and an almost visible face was in front of me and I staggered hard.

“No…” my voice came out raw, suppressing an emotion I didn’t know what it was. I couldn’t say more and I staggered back to my apartment before actually throwing up in the sink. I called dispatch and let them know to pick up the men in the alley.

I looked into the mirror. My brown hair was a mess and my blue eyes were dark and sunken. Stubble coated my face, and I had an errant thought that I should really shave.

I was panting and shaking and slowly slid down the wall to sit on the cool tiled floor until morning.