An Unexpected Host

+ CHAPTER 3 +

That night, Mk had an odd, but vivid dream, where he'd talked to the Spider Queen - unwillingly of course - It was terrible. He couldn't move nor control what he said, he just had to sit there, it was like he was just watching, like he wasn't in his own body, but he knew it was..! He could feel his bandana, and could see the hair just in view over his eye.

The brunette woke up in a cold sweat, moving his arms and muttering quietly, glad to be able to move again. Mk's heart rate soon went back to normal and he sighed, sitting up and hugging himself. What was that..? It was so realistic.. He could see every little scratch and dent in the Spider Queen's legs, even from how far away he was.

Mk looked around at his room, sighing quietly. His eye got caught on his dresser, where he saw something he hadn't put there.

He crawled over to the side of his bed, examining the item. It was the manual, the manual was open to the page about the blob again, but this time there was writing under the basic description in his handwriting.

'SLEEP WELL, FORGET THE DREAMS'

The successor felt panic set in, he read over the words over and over, had he written this?! He didn't recall doing so.. Maybe he was just hallucinating again. The brunette closed the manual, opening it again, the writing was gone.

He let out a quiet sigh of relief, it must've been an illusion.

"Whew.. Okay.. Wait- then how did I see-"

Mk closed the manual before opening it again, the writing was back, he closed and opened it again, it was gone. The brunette repeated this over and over again until the writing just stopped showing up altogether.

"Wha..? What is going on here?!"

He blinked in confusion, rubbing his eyes. Was he just tired? That seemed like the only rational non-mystic-monkey-business answer there was to this dilemma. He sat there for a long while before he heard a loud beeping and screamed, throwing the manual at the wall. The beeping continued and Mk saw his alarm clock going off, he quickly shut it off, putting a hand to his chest, sighing.

"Woo! Okay, okay.. It's just my alarm- Wait.. MY ALARM!"

Mk panicked, seeing the time on his alarm clock, he was already ten minutes late.!!

The brunette rushed to get ready, speeding down the stairs into the noodle shop.

"Kid! You're late again- Woah, what's up with your hair?!"

Pigsy looked at Mk in astonishment, raising an eyebrow.

"Huh..? What do you mean..?"

A part of Mk's hair was ghostly white, Pigsy blinked and it was back to normal, he sighed.

"Nothing, kid, must be seein' things. Anyways, you've got orders to do, get ready."

Pigsy waved his hand dismissively, walking back to the kitchen, a few bags with the Pigsy's Noodles logo on them already sat on the counter, Mk snatched them and walked outside, putting them in the back of his delivery scooter and hopping inside.

Mk shoved the keys into the keyhole of the scooter, turning them and starting it up, he zoomed off a moment later to do his deliveries.

"Pigsy's Noodles!"

The delivery boy chirped at each opened door, handing every customer their noodles enthusiastically before he went back to the shop to get more deliveries. He repeated this over and over throughout the day until his shift came to an end and he sat down at the counter, letting out a sigh of relief, putting his head down. He was oddly exhausted this time around, but he decided it must've been because of how early he'd woken up.

"Tired?"

Mk straightened up, looking around for a moment before spotting Monkey King sitting in the seat next to him. Well, an astral projection of him.

"Y-Yeah, why?"

The brunette muttered quietly as Pigsy gave him a confused look.

"Well, you'd better get some rest, we'll have training tomorrow so that you can get to that New Year's stand of yours on time!"

"Oh..! Okay then, thanks."

Mk smiled, Wukong just nodded and vanished, the delivery boy looked over at Pigsy.

"Sorry, Monkey King was just telling me I'll have training tomorrow early, I should get to bed, tell Mei to go back home. Kay byee!"

Mk left before Pigsy could respond, waving and leaving the shop, going up the stairs to his apartment, where he was about to collapse onto his bed, when he stepped on something slick. It wasn't wet, just smooth and cold. The brunette slipped, stumbling a bit.

He glanced down, seeing the manual. The young man's hands curled into fists and he groaned, picking up the manual and flicking to the page on the blob. The same weird message was back..

Okay.. This is getting annoying now. Was this stupid manual cursed? Was Mk cursed? The boy hadn't the slightest clue of what was going on, which angered him more than he'd like to admit.. In fact.. This kind of anger seemed easier to show than it usually was..

Mk felt frustration flood through him as he ran over to his window, opening it and chucking the manual out. There was a thud as it landed on the ground and Mk sighed, slowly closing the window and walking over to his bed, flopping down on it.

It didn't take long for Mk to get comfortable under the covers, the exhaustion really starting to hit now..

Despite his extreme exhaustion, Mk had a tough time sleeping that night, much to his annoyance. He just couldn't stop thinking about the cryptic note in the game manual.. On top of that, something was apparently wrong with his hair according to Pigsy. So here he was, contemplating these strange occurrences. It couldn't be a coincidence this all started happening after the.. Incident. Right?

Well, it felt like Mk didn't have all that much time to think about it, because he passed out from pure exhaustion soon after his pondering began.

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Surely all these things aren't connected..

Right?