7. Case 2 part 1 (1/2)

i pushed at the gate and frowned as it refused to budge.

"okay let's think about this,"

i had expected the fog to clear and put me back in the normal world after dealing with the angel. but now here i was, stuck.

maybe i had to head out and find an exit, maybe a tv?

of course, that was assuming that there even was a world out there. there was a chance that there was nothing out there past the walls.

still, just standing around here wasn't going to do anything, so it was time to strike out into the great unknown.

"persona," i summoned lamia who picked me up in her arms and carried me over the wall.

to my relief, there was indeed a floor out here. lamia set me down on the road right outside the church.

the fog was thick, almost impossibly so. i could see around myself well enough, but everything past that was gone. still from what i could remember, there should have been a building right in front of me.

i held my arm out and started waking forward carefully. as it turned out, i hadn't even needed to do so. the building crept out of the fog just as my hand was about to touch it.

i glanced to my sides. even standing with my chest to the wall, the fog was too thick to see the ends of the building. i slowly made my way to the buildings, door, hoping that the door would be open, there was less fog inside, and that they had a big tv.

a quick check of the doorknob would prove the first hope false. and with that part of the plan gone, the other two didn't really matter.

i thought about using lamia to

eak the door down, but hesitated. there was still too much i didn't know about his world. for all i knew, anything i did in here would reflect back on the normal world. i had burnt down the church because i needed to, but no reason to add random vandalism to a church arson.

the news in this town was already busy as it was, i didn't need to add stuff on top of it.

"come lamia," i had hoped that my persona would be able to see better in the fog but that was also a no go. i kept her out as i started walking back in the direction of home. so far the tv in my living room was the only way back, so it was going to act my goal for now.

only one small problem.

"why is it so far?" i demanded of the fog as we passed by an iron fence decorated with a certain sign. it told the world that this was oliver roberts's memorial park.

it told me that i was still halfway to my apartment building.

why did the church have to be so far away anyway?

wait…

if the purpose of the church and the angel was to act as a trap for persona users, why was it in the middle of nowhere? the more i thought about this trap, the less sense it made.

there was something that i was missing. and i was pretty sure i wasn't going to be able to investigate unless i managed to get back to the normal world.

"this is so frustrating," i grumbled as i walked into the park. cutting through it was a pretty good short cut. of course i would have to be careful to not accidentally walk into any trees.

so of course i strayed off the path almost right away and ran headfirst into a tree.

hey it wasn't my fault that the fog was thick enough in the park to completely block the ground from my vision.

"why?" i growled as i crouched down and rubbed the spot on my face that had hit the tree. "how could this get any worse?"

i blinked as i looked around for the giant dragon or zombie army that my tempting of fate had summoned.

to my surprise, i was still all alone in the fog-filled park.

"looks like my life hasn't turned into as much of a fantasy as i though it has," i heard a strange buzz behind me. i turned around and saw a shady figure approaching me. it was smallish and flying through the air. as it got closer the buzzing got louder.

"oh me and my big mouth," i grumbled as i ducked out of the way of the giant robot bee. i could just barely see it stab its stinger into the tree that i just had bonked my head on.

i could just make out the robot bee in the fog. it was about the size of my torso. it was made of yellow and white metal that was arranged in stripes. it had six skinny metal legs that ended with sharpened points. its head had eyes made of green glass panels.

"any chance that you're the type of bee that dies after stinging once?" i asked the bee as it dug its feet into the tree and pulled its stinger out. "doesn't look like it,"

i summoned the card to my hand and got ready for a fight when i heard more buzzing behind me. i glanced back and saw three more shady figures approaching.

"nope," i ran off into the fog following the path the best i could. let's see, the park path made a left here… a right here… another right here.

"okay maybe not quite," i said as i ran into a wall. this would be a lot easier if i could see anything. well at least i was at the wall, and if i was at the wall then…

i took off running to the right as the sound of buzzing filled my ears again. no time to think when i had four murder bees after me. i was close to the entrance to the park anyway… at least i was pretty sure i was.

i smiled as i came up to an opening in the wall. i turned the corner and ran right into something. i was thrown back and landed on the ground.

"oh come on again," i mumbled as i got to my feet and patted the dust off of me. "what did i even run… into,"