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Bora Flames
New City of Macau

Hour 24:59

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Rest was never an option. Not while you work for FFI. Only been done with a mission not more than forty-eight hours ago and getting assigned straight into another one, getting cut down from his usual six months vacation that he highly deserved after a successful mission and on top of everything been severely disturbed by these lingering thoughts of that one colleague who has ended up in a Reliver-tube at FFI's underground laboratories for all the places he could have gone including the afterlife, Heba is now at verge of quitting his job.

Fed up with everything and just wanting some much-needed sleep, sunk in salty water: the only thing that can make him relaxed, Heba slam shut the door behind him as he stumbles into his humble abode. Loosening the straps, he throws his backpack away, making it fly across his modern living room, follows by a smashing sound from wherever it lands. He stomps his way down the hall leading to the bath: a place where he would go to sleep; something very common in Seas living on the Land.

He strips off his veil, finally coming to the safe and comfort of 'home' and goes down a short flight of stairs, entering a long dark hallway that opened out to a courtyard on one side. The courtyard was empty except for the mass of ivy that had escaped the confines of its pot that seems to have never gotten any attention since the its roots got forced there. So it climbs up everything its vines can reach. As all the flora and fauna one could find around here, this ivy too is a creation of New World's tech, rather than the mother nature herself.

Leaving the courtyard behind Heba enters a dimly lit room, humid with steam and smelt like sea, which's the door is in fine lab-birthed Oak, tiles with smooth pebbles and the walls made of stone. In the middle of the steam room stays his bed: a massive pond carved into the rock floor, filled with hot water and dissolved sea salt.

A fond smile creeps onto his lips as Heba strips, throwing his clothes onto the floor, not giving a single damn thought to the mess he is probably be creating there.

Taking a deep breath, he jumps into the water embracing the best feeling of finally returning home. Reaching the bottom, he lays himself on the rock, letting himself practically get drawn into the salty water.

He enjoys the sudden flow of good energy seeping through his veins and his body relaxes getting him ready for a good sleep. His marks glimmer ever so lightly and a bit by bit as his skin absorbs the salty water, he could feel them peeling off.

Pixel by pixel the turquoise paint gets off his skin and gathers up on the surface of the pond, making it look like a pool of pixie dust. It is going to be his coverage, a barrier that protects him from him any sudden attack or whatsoever, for slumber is the most vulnerable state that one would find a Sea in. It naturally gathers up all his energy and frees him from the burden of carrying it around for a while.

Getting his energy released, feeling relaxed and much better than ever before, Heba let the shimmering water to lull him to sleep.

But for Heba, his relieves never live long.

As soon as he starts to drift into his sweet sleep it starts lamps and lights flickering in his bath. Sensing the extraordinary blink beyond his pixie dust barrier, Heba stirs awake from his slumber. He takes a minute to get back into reality of living on Lands in New World and another minute to figure out what is happening around. Still steadily lying on the rock bottom he sharpens his sense of hearing trying to catch any odd noise coming from behind the doors.

A cold breeze drifts through the room which has no windows and only a closed door as the only vent. Despite the bath being steamy hot he feels a sudden chill down his spine.

And a loud thud could be heard in the courtyard next. It makes Heba shoot out of the water, getting the feeling that something is not quite right. He hastily gets out of the pond, not even giving enough time to the released energy to get back to its chore. That results in the turquoise dust getting littered all over his body, instead of neatly sticking back on his face to form his mark.

Getting out all glistening as if someone has just dipped him in a barrel of glitter, Heba snatches some dry towel hanging from a hook nearby, his fist in tight balls as he storms out of the bath. He feels all enraged for being disturbed in his beauty sleep and makes his way back to the courtyard.

But as he reaches the courtyard it seems as peaceful as it ever could be. There is no one, not a single living thing except for the ivy, peacefully crawling its way up. He scans his surrounding for any possible threat, nonetheless.

It's only then he catches the unusual blink coming from the main hall of his house, through a single window facing the courtyard. Bewildered, he walks back into the house curious of how the light shades inside could flicker on their own like that, for he is pretty sure he didn't do it by himself.

Being the gloomy day and thunder cloud he is, Heba never really enjoyed the light. Nor colour in that matter as well. So, his abode has always been as colourless as it could be and dimly lit, just for the sake of him standing upright and not tripping as he moves around at the dead of the night.

It being that, as he opens the door back to main hall, Heba notices how the whole place is illuminated, every single source that could be possibly emitting light including a roaring fire in his fire place despite it being the hot of the summer, all the floating light panels emitting white light, the floating chandelier he has recently bought and even some candles that he have never seen at his place ever before, brightening up his place. Upon the sight his mouth falls open and he stays there too stunned to walk or talk.

A cool breeze drifts through an open window in the hall, making the curtains fly away from the wall. Heba snaps his head to see where the open window is. The wind blew harder again taking out the fire, candles and even the flickering light panels next time. And Heba who was on his way down the flights to the hall barely manages it down without tripping from the last flight.

Then another thud could be heard and Heba grabs onto his head, a huge pain in the back of his head bringing him down to crouch. He whines in pain, ears ringing with the impact of whatever has hit him on the head, making him temporarily hearing impaired. His eyes screw shut, eyes pooling with tear of pain. He tries to catch a glimpse of his surrounding whenever his eyes flicker for a fraction of a second but fails as he completely blacks out.

A/N: Severely unedited.