You stole that line from that movie, didn’t you?

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Brother, are you okay? You've been in there for almost an hour now. Should I call Big sis to check on you if you're doing okay?"

Just when John was about to ask for more information, there was suddenly a knock on the door, which was quickly followed by the cute voice of Kylie on the other side.

'It's been that long?'

John was clearly startled, he didn't really realize that he's been staying that long in the bathroom.

"Uhh... I'm okay! I'm just having a little bit of uhh...stomach ache! Yes, stomach ache! So no worries, okay?" John answered as cheerfully as possible so as to not make Kylie worry and make her really call Lorraine, because that would see embarrassing.

"..."

"Hmmm...okay~!"

Kylie replied after a brief moment of silence, and the sound of her walking away soon followed, making John sigh in relief.

"But is he really okay? He was talking like there was someone other than him inside. Did he finally turn crazy from overwork?" Kylie mumbled to herself as she couldn't help but worry.

"Phew, that was nerve-wracking" John sighed in relief when he heard Kylie walking away.

"..."

"Anyway, can you read my mind? Do I need to always talk to you like I'm talking to myself?" whispered John.

[I can't read your mind, and as I've mentioned earlier, there's the thing called privacy, and my answer is yes to your second question]

"Well, shucks!"

"Brother, you're talking to yourself again or is it that you're fighting with someone on the phone?!"

John couldn't help but almost yell in anger, but he quickly covered his mouth.

Unfortunately, he still couldn't stop his mouth in time and he heard his sister yelling at him from the living room.

It's that instance when you thought of something you want to say but at the same time, you really don't want to say it, but it's just that your mouth couldn't help it.

"I hope she doesn't think I've become crazy or something"

John lightly shook his head as he slowly stood up, and to make it more convincing, he didn't forget to flush the toilet to make it look like he was using it.

Leaving the bathroom, John made his way towards the living room where he saw Kylie watching some cartoons on the TV.

"Kylie, I'm gonna take a short nap in the room. Breakfast is in the kitchen, so don't forget to eat"

"Okay, but make sure to wake up before lunch, okay?" Kylie replied without even bothering to look at her brother, her eyes still glued on the television in front of her.

The room was small and just enough to fit two beds and a half.

Though other than that, the bedroom is almost bare of anything. From the door, you can see simple bed at the corner near the window and two plastic wardrobes of similar size on the opposite corner.

John sat down at the edge of the bed and looked at the red vial, the size of a thumb on his hand.

He pulled out the cork on the vial and quickly chugged down its contents with no hesitation before throwing the vial on the floor as he immediately laid down on the bed.

"Nothing's hape- Argg, motherf*cker"

At first, John didn't feel anything and even thought that the item was scam.

But oh boy was he wrong as only a couple of seconds had passed when a sudden unbearable pain assaulted his body as he frantically grabbed a nearby pillow and bit on it to prevent him from screaming while he started squirming on the bed.

His actions would cause serious misunderstanding since he looks like a human that was on the verge of being infected by a zombie virus like in the World War Z movie, and the other possibility is that they would probably call for a priest thinking that he's being possessed by a bad juju!

'Motherf*cker! So that's what that note meant when it says "It hurts, really bad"!'

John sounded like he was rapping when he uttered those words due to the pain!

He doesn't even know how many times he had cursed since this early morning, but he wanted to be a Karen just once so he just cursed and cursed inside his mind since the pain he is experiencing right now feels like his whole body is being burned alive!

And Kylie who was in the living room and watching her cartoons suddenly heard this creepy voice of someone talking in gibberish.

"Is there a ghost in the house or something?" she mumbled as her head kept looking around her, and the most surprising thing is that there's not even a trace of fear in her eyes, instead...there was curiosity in it.

So unlike kids her age who would probably start screaming for their mommy when they suddenly hear a creepy voice talking in gibberish and can't find its source.

"Just so you know Mr. or Ms. Ghost, I'd punch you in the face if you pop out in front of me, just don't"

Kylie balled her little fist in front of her and threatened, though it would have looked and sounded threatening if it weren't coming from such a cute kid.

Not even two seconds later, she was quickly distracted and her attention shifted back to the T.V because the commercial was over and Loud House was streaming again.

A couple of minutes passed, the pain that John was experiencing finally subsided like a receding tide.

"Haa! Haa! Haa!"

John quickly sat up from the bed and started panting hard with his whole body soaked in his sweat, and the bed cover looked like someone has peed on it after a night of drinking.

"For second, I thought...I was gonna die with how painful it was" John held half of his face with a crazy smile on his face, though he was clearly scared with the previous ordeal, his eyes are on the other hand is shining in excitement!

He couldn't explain it in words, but he can feel that his body had clearly undergone a huge change!

It's just that weird feeling that made him think that lifting an elephant with one hand is a possibility!

Of course, that was just some fantasy going on inside his head. He knows that he could not really lift an elephant in one hand.

Though the feeling his having right now is similar to a scenario inside a gym, where you're lifting something heavy and did it, then you look at yourself in the mirror, and you think you're suddenly the king of the world.

[Congratulations! You're combat power has gone by one. You can now breathe underwater like it is your home and swim fast like an aquatic creature!]

Oberon's voice echoed inside his head a moment later.

John slowly jumped out from the bed and immediately changed the bed sheet, then a change of clothes before he barged out of the room as he hastily made his way to the front door.

"Kylie, I'm going out for a bit," he said when he passed by the living room.

Kylie quickly turned her head around and said, "I thought you were going to take nap?"

"I can't sleep, so I'm going out for a bit! Don't leave the house!"

He was already outside of the house when he replied to her while running towards the front gate.

Kylie stared at the door for a second before she just shrugged her shoulders and went back to watching.

John ran towards the beach, and the nearer he got to the water, he slowly had this sudden weird feeling that the ocean is calling out to him, so he quickly increase his speed like he was in the Olympics 100 meter dash.

"Yo, John!"

Andy called out to him when he heard someone running from behind, but he only saw John ignoring him while taking off his shirt as he through the shallow waters before diving into the water a few seconds later.

"Uhh...isn't he even cold? The water today is currently 11 degrees"

Splash!

Swimming deeper towards the deeper waters, John felt it.

He really could breathe underwater after a slight apprehension.

The potion wasn't scam after all!

Emboldened by this, John quickly swam towards to even more deeper waters, and not can only he breathe underwater, he also realized that he could swim as fast as any aquatic creature, something humanely impossible!

That wasn't all, instead of a blur, his vision underwater was so clear that he felt like he was wearing goggles over his eyes.

It's hard to properly describe it, but everything was so crystal clear to him.

[Having Merman's blood flowing through your veins is more than being able to breathe underwater. Your body is now equipped to survive the extreme cold and pressure, and your eyes are now able to adjust itself to see in the dark]

John stopped in his tracks, and all he felt like was like he was just standing on a flat ground even though his body was slightly moving up and down like bobber.

"You stole that line from that movie, didn't you?"

Gurgle!

Even though no sound came out, and only bubbles, he mouthed those words perfectly underwater.