Chapter 40: Feral state 1
Kathe sat in the car, lost in thought as she kept imagining the condition Jark could be in. He didn’t seem like one who could get hurt easily.
"How far is it?" Kathe asked as she kept glancing at her watch, calculating the seconds and minutes since she had left the mansion.
The driver could sense that she was worried.
"Not far, ma’am."
"How long will it take us to get there?" Kathe asked, wanting to know the exact time they would get to the location.
"In a few minutes, we should be arriving at the villa."
"Villa?" Kathe asked again to be sure if she had heard the driver correctly.
"Yes, boss’s villa."
She was surprised that they were heading to his villa. She was expecting a place like a hospital, but at the same time she wasn’t that surprised, considering the type of person Jark was. She never knew that he had a villa.
"Okay."
Within a few minutes, as the driver had said, they arrived at the villa. It wasn’t as big and well-detailed as the mansion, but it screamed wealth and rich taste. As the car drove its way towards the car lot, Kathe looked at the building briefly. She found Thompson standing at the car lot with an umbrella in his hand.
After making sure that the car was properly parked, Kathe got out of the car, and Thompson quickly shaded her from the rain with the umbrella.
"Careful, ma’am. The ground is a bit slippery," Thompson said, helping her steady her feet.
"Thanks. Where is he?"
"He’s inside."
Thompson led her to the entrance door, and just as Thompson had said, the ground was indeed slippery. Thompson had to steady her at each difficult step.
"Step back a little."
Kathe stepped back as Thompson walked to the door and pressed some buttons that Kathe could not understand. Then a small door screen came on, and a female machine voice sounded, leaving Kathe thrilled by the advanced technology.
[Face confirmation]
Thompson walked closer to the screen, and it scanned his face. After confirming his face, it ticked green and skipped to the next.
[Blink]
Thompson blinked his eyes for a few seconds before it was confirmed.
[Eyes]
Thompson’s eyes were scanned as a blue flashlight scanned his eye lenses, and after processing for some minutes, it skipped to the next step.
[Successful. Have a wonderful time.]
Click.
The door opened by itself.
"Let’s go inside," Thompson said as he gestured for Kathe to go inside.
All through the process, Kathe was left wowed as she stared at the door. She couldn’t find the screen which had scanned Thompson earlier.
Seeing that Kathe was still staring at the door in surprise, Thompson quickly explained to her,
"It always scans everyone, and the person must already be verified by the boss, making the system recognize the person too. The only person who doesn’t have to go through the process is the boss. It’s just like the door you have in your room."
Kathe nodded at him as she understood what he was saying, but that didn’t stop her from being amazed by the technology. Though she was the daughter of a millionaire, she was sure her father had never seen such technology.
"Hmm, Jark seems to be using high security, and each one is always advanced."
"Yes, safety measures," Thompson said.
But his words made Kathe confused.
"From what?"
"You won’t understand. It’s complicated."
Thompson waved his hand, not wanting to dive into the topic.
They made their way to the transparent elevator in silence. Kathe couldn’t help but admire the decor. From the outside, the building gave little detail, but the inside was jaw-dropping.
"If he’s this rich, that means he has to increase my pay at the end of the contract," Kathe thought to herself with a smile. She could already imagine herself living in riches.
Unknown to her, Thompson was looking at her weirdly as he didn’t know why she was smiling.
"Ma’am, before we go in, I want to explain some things."
His voice brought her back to reality.
"What’s going on?"
"Boss’s condition is complicated."
"You said that earlier over the phone."
"Yeah, I did. It’s... that boss has a deep, unidentified trauma."
Kathe couldn’t help but feel confused at his words.
"What do you mean by unidentified?"
"We don’t know the cause."
Kathe went quiet for a while.
"What’s the trauma about?"
"I can’t really say for sure, but one thing we know is that the trauma is always triggered."
"Triggered how?"
"Sometimes if he remembers the past, sometimes rain, especially ones that come with lightning, storms, and thunder, he becomes..."
Click.
Thompson paused on his words as the elevator opened, and they both stepped out while Thompson led Kathe the way.
"He becomes lost in a trance, like..."
Thompson searched for a better word to use in explaining, but Kathe was already getting impatient.
"Like what?"
Thompson paused as he was still searching for a better word to use.
"Like he was lost in another world. I don’t know what that world shows him because he seems to be living the life of that world whenever he’s lost in it."
"Was he born with this?"
Thompson paused in his steps.
"No, he wasn’t. It only happened after the accident."
"What’s the cure?"
"We can’t identify the cause, so we won’t be able to have a cure. But research is still being carried on."
"What is the old lady saying about his health?"
"He hates people seeing him in such a state."
"How long does the episode last?"
"It highly depends. It can last for days. If it was triggered willingly, it lasts a week."
"That’s cruel."
Click.
It was when Thompson opened the door that Kathe noticed they had gotten to the room. She was lost in the conversation that she didn’t even take note of where she was heading.
Thompson switched the light on, and Kathe could see Jark lying on the bed like someone who was in a deep slumber. This was the first time she was seeing him that deeply asleep. She was about to rush toward him when Thompson quickly held her back.
"I forgot to add, he’s very dangerous at this stage. That’s why we all keep a safe distance away from him."
Kathe didn’t know why Thompson’s words made her furious.
"What do you mean, keep a safe distance from him? He isn’t an animal, neither is he a beast."
Seeing that Kathe had misunderstood his words, Thompson quickly explained,
"You don’t understand. We tend to keep him away from people. He goes feral in that state."
"Then how do you guys get him to sleep and keep him in check?"
"Sedatives," Thompson said.
"Sedatives? Don’t you think they might end up harming him?"
"It’s recommended by his doctor. It’s the only way to calm him down."
Kathe nodded at him and was about to walk toward him again, but Thompson stopped her.
"I’m sorry, ma’am, but you can’t get close."
"Why?"
"He might hurt you, and when he gets back to his normal self and finds out that he had hurt you, he will feel guilty about it."
"What makes you think he will hurt me?"
"But, ma’am, I don’t want you risking it."
"And I want to risk it. It’s my husband there, and you don’t have any right to stop me, do you?"
Thompson slowly released her hand.
Kathe walked toward the bed. She stared at his face. Even in his slumber, his brows were knotted together. She sat slowly on the edge of the bed.
She touched his forehead, and the heat almost burned her hand.
"His temperature is high."
"It’s normal."
"I don’t think so." She touched his forehead again. "Get me a bowl of water and something to dab his forehead with."
"Okay."
Thompson went out of the room. After a while, he returned with the bowl filled with water and handed it to Kathe. He stepped away a little, but he made sure that he was close enough to protect her in case Jark went feral.
Kathe used the wet cloth to dab Jark’s forehead, her actions slow, not wanting to wake him up. Thompson breathed out in relief, seeing that she succeeded in the first three rounds.
Her hand was suddenly held mid-air in a tight grip just as she was about to dab the cloth on his forehead again. Before Kathe could process anything, Jark threw her away across the room, her back crashing against the table. She rolled over and landed on the floor, and the flower vase that was on the table fell on her thigh.
"Ouch!" Kathe screamed out in pain.
"Ma’am!"
Thompson quickly rushed toward her. Everything had happened too fast, without warning, not giving him a moment to step in.
"Are you hurt?"
Before he could get a response from Kathe, he found himself floating in the air as he was thrown away, his face hitting the wall and the rest of his body crashing against the bed’s wooden frame, leaving him groaning in pain.
Jark walked toward Kathe, his eyes full of fury, like he was staring at his enemy and, at the same time, his prey. Kathe kept crawling in pain as she struggled to stand, but before she could crawl further, Jark grabbed her by the neck, lifting her up. Then he suddenly slammed her head against the wall, making Kathe gasp in pain, her vision getting blurred due to the lack of oxygen.
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