Chapter Eleven

Cyll was still somewhat in shock from what he just did. In his last life all he had done was missionary in the dark, too shy to even let out his voice.

But today he just lured a completely stranger to ram him against the shower wall where someone could have easily walk in and see. This was nothing like his past self and was a bit embarrassed.

By the time he had left the locker room 40 minutes had already passed.

Outisde the door was Loreleia still waiting.

"What took you so long? I thought you might of fell and gotten hurt! 10 more minutes and I was about to come check on you."

Her hair was a bit of a wreck as she must of been pulling on it out of stress for him.

"Sorry Loreleia I haven't taken such a nice shower in a very long time so I couldn't help myself and stayed in as long as I could. I happened to use all the hot water by accident, I hope that's okay."

"Oh don't worry about it, it's fine. No one will be using the room until later this evening."

'Then why was that man there?' Oh whatever. Why worry about who your meal is when they won't think what happened was real?

What he should be worrying about is if he could still eat normal food in front of these people. What if he gets sick? He doesn't want them to think he's sick and start bothering him more.

"What now?"

Loreleia looked down at her watch.

"It looks like the cafeteria is still serving food. We'll get something to eat and then after I'll bring you to meet some people."

Being in this unknown situation was already very stressful, adding on the thought of meeting more unknown people made it worse.

Loreleia noticed the nervous face and wanted to ease his worries by continuing on.

"They will be talking to you about what happened yesterday although if you feel uncomfortable you don't need to answer questions. Just say as much as you can so we can try to give you justice after what happened."

"Okay I'll try" Yea try to sit there as quietly as possible and ignore them.

——

Once we got to the cafeteria only a few people were left. Back in the farthest corner was Zal and Lowell sitting there talking with their plates empty.

"How about you sit over there with them while I get the food? Today's choices are either meatloaf or salmon, which would you like?"

"It doesn't matter."

When he got closer to the small table Lowell heard his footsteps and looked over, causing Zal to also notice him. The big purple guy waves at him with a big smile on his face.

"Hey kiddo! Sit over here with us!"

'Where else would I be sitting? Can't you see I'm already past the other tables and making my way directly to yours? Isn't the saying something like all brawn and no brains? Sounds very accurate.'

Cyll stopped himself from snapping back at him and silently sat down.

"How are you feeling? You were asleep for over a day!"

"I'm okay." Cyll looked down at his fidgeting hands. A sad look on his face.

"Well that's great! Just concentrate on recovering for now. If you need anything just let any of us know and we'll try out best and get it for you."

Zal attempted to pat Cyll on the head but was quickly swatted away by Lowell.

"Stop acting so overly familiar. Cant you tell he's uncomfortable about being touched?"

Zal awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he said, "Ah bad bad. I'm sorry Cyll."

"It's okay." Cyll quietly mumbled.

Actually he felt very proud of himself. He was able to react quickly and flinched on que. What a beautiful performance.

Now that he thought about it, he couldn't help but think that his personality is starting to warp. Maybe he was always secretly like this at heart or maybe he's being influenced by turning into a demon. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be that bad of a thing. At least he's not running around the city in a killing spree.

"Alright I'm back with our food" The strange atmosphere instantly went back to normal when Loreleia arrived.

"I got you the meatloaf. You are much too thin, this should help put some meat on your bones!"

Although this food was made in large batches for many men and women the quality was great. It could be on par with a nice restaurant. A thick slice of meat, a scoop of mashed potatoes, a noodle soup of some sort, sliced peaches, and a glass of apple juice. Cyll's eyes almost popped out of his head at the shear amount of food in front of him. How was he supposed to eat all this?

Loreleia chuckled at the sight. The only reason she got him so much food was for this reaction. She was indirectly saying that he's welcome here and to feel as ease. He can eat whatever he likes. You could say this is special treatment.

Or lowering his guard.

"Just eat how ever much you can. Zal the living garbage can will eat whatever's left over. Seriously, his stomach is a bottomless pit."

He softly smiled and calmly put a large forkful of meat in his mouth. Or at least that's what it looked like. Internally though he was panicking.

After his encounter with the man in the locker room he noticed that any hunger was gone immediately and came to the conclusion that he doesn't eat normal food to survive.

'What if this makes me sick and I vomit all over? Actually, what if I just up and die? I can't even pretend to eat this as they're all staring at me.'

There was no way to avoid this.

'Well here goes nothing!"