I never knew how fearful living in utter darkness would be. The incapability of telling what lies ahead, the noises that makes you wary of what might be around you.
It’s funny how the tips of my fingers feel freezing cold, yet my body feels as if it is a volcano ready to erupt.
As I press my hand to my stomach, I feel the warmth transferring along with the liquid that has been streaming down from my flesh.
How did I get hurt this badly? I can’t seem to remember…
I could feel my heavy breathing and racing heart yelling for me stop walking. Even my hazy mind seems to agree despite knowing well that I must find a way out as soon as possible.
What was I doing here? I forgot…
My body feels heavier through each passing second. Even if I must crawl my way out, I will never stop moving forward.
…
…
…
Perhaps even my heart has grown tired. I no longer see the point of struggling. Even if I do manage to escape this endless darkness, I still have a big wound corroding my consciousness away from me.
Perhaps…
I should stop…
It’s not like there is anyone out there who would be sad if I die. No one would even search for me.
I hope no one finds my remains… because they might realize that they have entered an inescapable maze.
But……
If there is someone who happens to find my remains…………
Then…………
I hope they can find a way out……
The young man shut the book in his hand. He stared at it for a while as if meditating on what he had just read. The stench of rotting flesh didn’t seem to bother him as he focuses on wrapping the book inside the plastic bag he had prepared.
He had been standing in front of a corpse, the owner of the book, for quite a while. He was in the middle of hiking when he found the mouth of a cave, which, out of curiosity, he went in. The steep path inside had many big, uneven rocks. It seemed spacious enough to fit a two-story house, giving anyone standing in there a heavy sense of emptiness, as if something had been taken away from them. But the most unnerving sight was how there really does seem to be no end to the path.
He had brought a pillar of light that should be bright enough to make it seem like daylight had found its way into the cave. But even still, there was darkness at the farthest part of the path. He chose to walk further down, following the blood trail as he imagined the kind of journey the corpse had to go through... to walk to their death.
The blood trail grew wider and wider as he went, making him question if it was even humanly possible to walk such a long journey with such amount of blood loss. He arrived at a fork road and examined both paths as if considering whether to venture further or not. His sense of danger held his body in place, but his curiosity made his hearing and sight grew sharper. He decided to return after taking several pictures of the path… just in case he would need it... though, he might never.
He blew a heavy sigh as he took off his dirtied gloves, taking out his phone to check the reception. With the torch in his other hand, he walked past the corpse as he kept his eyes on his phone. His search for reception brought him back out to where he came from, a rocky path which provided quite a beautiful view of the forest below, though not the best place for those who fear height. The young man then became busy tapping his phone, finally pressing the dial button, and waiting for someone to pick up.
「This is the police department, how may I help you?」
“I found a body that seems to be dead for quite a while… my location is……”
He proceeded to speak on the phone for a while as he waits for the police to come.
“Dien, child… you might as well apply for the search and rescue department at this point!” an officer said as he approached the young man named Dien.
Dien only smiled for a second in response before facing the entrance of the cave,
“It’s in there,” he said calmly.
The officer laughed as he hits Dien’s back a few times, then gesturing his unit to follow. He was used to how Dien behaved, but still found it amusing how he truly does not seem to care of having any relationship with others, even when the other parties are doing their best to become close with him.
“You know the protocol, right?” the officer asked as he walks past Dien, taking a glance at the young man before dragging them back to where his destination lies.
“Like the back of my hand, sir…” Dien answered, then walking towards the few officers approaching him.
…
…
…
Tired from his outing, Dien entered his room with a long sigh, already washed up and ready for bed. His slightly long black hair covered his rose-colored eyes which seemed to gleam more like precious minerals under the room light. His face was effortlessly beautiful, almost like a sculpture and his body was in quite a good shape thanks to his hiking hobby, not too muscular but also not too thin.
The moment he threw himself onto his bed, the door gently opened, causing him to glance at the small intruder peeking behind the door.
“Brother, can you braid my hair?”
It was Dien’s sister, Velvea. Her messy hair revealed how she had perhaps attempted to braid her own hair a few times before giving up.
“Sure,” Dien said without much expression on his face, sitting up as his sister hops gleefully towards him. It was past dinner time and Velvea was supposed to go to bed, but she would sometimes ask her brother to braid her hair when she wants it to be wavy on the next day.
“Can you braid from here… to here on both sides?” Velvea asked as she points her hand around the back of her head.
Dien silently brushed his sister’s hair and begun to do a braid, starting from the crown of her head down to the side, just as requested. His sister didn’t seem to care about his lack of response and instead complained the entire session of how difficult it was for her to braid her own hair. Well, the little girl was not very nimble-fingered to begin with. Her strength was more in her intelligence, though her behavior often showcase otherwise.
“Thank you, brother!” Velvea said as she struggles to climb down Dien’s bed, almost falling, though didn’t because Dien was quick to catch her.
After the little girl was gone, the young man threw himself back to his bed, enjoying the quality of the mattress he was on. His love for sleeping was so immense that he invested a lot of his time… and money (well… not his), just to find the perfect mattress for himself. It was to the point that his father went from furious when he knew what his son had done just to test every single brand of mattress he could find, to giving up since Dien would always come to his father with presentations of why he must go to such lengths. His mother, on the other hand, found this side of their son cute, and wholeheartedly helped him on his quest since she was the one who held all the money and cards of their family anyway. Of course, she made sure that the money was well spent and the whole quest to be beneficial to all parties, though, that's a story for another time.
Thus, the young man lulled himself to sleep by enjoying the comfortable mattress and thinking of his plans for tomorrow.
…
Hhh…
Hhhh…
Hhh…
Immense pain overwhelmed his entire body, so much that he could feel his senses growing numb.
His foot tripped on something, causing him to fall face down to the ground. The man spat out the pebbles and dirt that went into his mouth, groaning, hoping he could hear his own voice. A loud high-pitched sound kept buzzing within his ears, it was mixed with an odd low rumble and hints of something akin to whispering voices.
The man clenched his fist as he gave all his might to stand up. He felt like he should not remain still, that he should hurry.
Suddenly, the man could not feel the ground anymore.
It was as if it suddenly disappeared, but he didn’t feel like he was falling. It felt more like he was… floating.
A blinding light engulfed his blurry vision. Just when it was about to adjust, odd visions, seemingly maddening ones filled the entire place. It was as if his brain, heart and body was being torn apart and sewn back together, just to be twisted, thrown and chewed back apart. Then the feeling of something forcefully kneading his consciousness back together came. As if trying to keep the man together using any means possible, even throwing sensations like being mixed with dirt and water.
Screams…
The maddening screams and laughter…
He could not make out any of the voices, but he knew that if there were people who fought verbally in such way, any normal being would escape from the torturous play before them.
All of these sensations kept on repeating, mixing and fighting over the man's consciousness, causing him to scream his lungs out, ignoring the throbbing pain such action was causing.
“Dien?!”
The man jolted awake from the sudden familiar scream.
His breathing was a mess, and his body was burning hot. Dien rubbed his eyes so he could have a better view of the people before him. There stood his parents, his sister, and the head butler, all staring at him with concerned look.
“… did I… scream again?” he asked, which his mother replied with a weak nod.
“Kath, give him some water,” Dien’s father said.
The butler nodded with a slight bow as he then took the glass already prepared behind them. He then brought the drink near Dien and held the straw to his mouth, as he seemed too weak to be able to drink on his own.
As if he had not drunk for a long time, the water was drained clean from the glass within seconds. Dien’s mother then opened the towel in her hand and dried her son who had been soaking wet.
“He’s burning hot, dear,” the mother whispered as she then turned her head to see her husband.
“… do you think you can hold on until the doctor comes?” Dien’s father asked with no emotions in his face despite the warmth of the words he uttered.
Dien’s eyes shook a little, as if it was unable to focus for a second, but he then stared at his father and gave a single nod.
“…” his father blew a heavy sigh as he then signaled the butler to call a doctor. Meanwhile, Velvea tried her best to climb her brother’s bed, then crawling her way towards her brother.
“Vea! Your brother is sick, come over here!” their mother called as she held Velvea by the arm.
“No! I want to stay with brother!” she said as she shook her mother’s hand away and did her best to hide behind her brother’s back.
“You’ll get sick, child,” their father said.
Velvea shook her head strongly as she kept her grip on her brother. In return, Dien hugged the child as he attempts to make his sister look at him.
“You can stay with me when I’m better… okay?” the young man said gently as he wiped his sister’s tears. This made his sister who had been holding herself, bawl out as she says incomprehensible words and pulled her brother’s shirt.
Their mother smiled to this as she then took Velvea out of Dien’s hand, she then tried to calm the little girl down as she walks out of the room. Somewhere between Velvea's jumbled words, you could hear her asking “is brother going to die?” in which her mother replied “of course not, honey…”
Their father closed the door and sat on Dien’s bed. The silence went on for quite a while as Dien’s father examines his son.
“Same nightmare?” his father asked,
“…… I think so,”
Another long silence filled the room. This time, Dien’s father was thinking.
“Did you perhaps find another body while you were hiking yesterday?”
To this question, Dien averted his eyes. His father then fixed his position and brought his face into Dien’s field of vision.
“Child… how can I help you?”
Dien answered his father’s stare and pondered his question.
“… I don’t know,”
“If you really wish to go hiking, can you at least bring one of our servants with you? Evonn perhaps?” Evonn was Kath’s son who was also the children’s immediate servant.
“…”
“Please? I’m not telling you to not go, I just want you to bring someone along,”
“I understand,” Dien said as he seemed defeated. To this, his father finally gave a very subtle smile and stood up.
“I’ll have Evonn watch over you until the doctor comes. If you need us, we will be in the living room,” his father said, walking towards the door.
“Just sleep, father, you won’t be able to work properly later,” Dien grumbled as he laid back down.
“Nonsense! And it’s almost dawn,” Dien’s father said as he opened the door and gestured with his hand to call someone from outside.
“Prepare bath for him first and change his bedsheets… perhaps his bed as well if it needs some rescuing,” Dien’s father said to Evonn who was now standing in front of Dien’s door, which made the young man panic for a second but froze when his father glanced at him.
“You have many mattresses to spare, don’t waste them,” his father said sternly as he disappeared behind the wall.
Side story
“The bath is ready, young master,” Evonn said, maintaining his professional posture.
“………”
“Young master…” Evonn replied with a tired, slightly annoyed tone.
Dien seemed reluctant to walk out of his bed but did anyways since Evonn begun staring at him like a parent waiting for their child to do as they are told.
He glanced towards his bed, checking its condition. He blew a long sigh; it was as if someone had poured a bucket of water onto the bed.
“Can you at least… change it to the mattrass from clore?” (clore is a brand name)
“Of course,” Evonn answered as he approached the bed and begun his work.
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