“Ah, my head.”

“Can you see?”

“No”

“O-wait! Wait! Noooo! Frank!”

“Tina!”

.

.

.

“You better give me her back. Or your going to know pain.”

Memories swirl, the light opens. Like I’ve lived this a thousand lifetimes. And I have.

“I’m done with this.”

I step out of the darkness. Into the OpenRealm. The land in between.

“Elias! I know your there!” I scream into the void of white.

A figure peels off the white paint dribbling down like water revealing facial features, clothes, washing away the white.

“I would prefer you call me by my title. The Count.” He says in a nasally voice.

“Well in that case I’d like you to call me by mine.”

Magic swirls up, its awesome. I can feel the power. It twists and turns, like a ribbon of paint. Colorful and deadly. All until it sharpens into a beautiful black blade.

“If you mix all the colors, you’ll eventually get black somehow. Like I said, I’m done with this.”

I grow more as I throw them at him. Pinning him down. My anger and rage fueling me.

“Give me back my wife, Count.”

“Oh but why. I’ve stolen her so many times. It’s so easy. You change your name, she does too. I change my power and we all live happily ever after. Except your all alone. And apparently in this dimension, the OpenRealm has something to do with paint, I bet your wife is-“

I grab his throat. Raise my blade.

And. And.

“What are you.” The Count says chokingly.

“I’m the Other.”

And I slice a hole into the wall behind him and push him in.

“Have fun rotting in a ditch you frickin screw loose.”

And it ends. Another life without my wife. Rhyming. Huh. I’ll find her. After all. I’ve done it three thousand sixty five times before.

I open a rift if you will. To find a boat manned by three people. A three man crew. One of them is a woman.

My wife’s appearance always changes in different realms, looks like this times no different.

I sigh and step through the portal.

“Ho there! What do you know about The Spiral Voyage?”…………….

End of story