Chapter 215 Volume IV - Chapter 60: A Familiar Dwarf
"Remember, Mr. Aaron, you are here because of your brother."
The woman hesitated for a moment, looked sharply at the woman I was hiding behind, and then at me.
There were many things that could be seen in her expression. She didn't like us, maybe she didn't like where she was, maybe she wasn't in the mood.
I tugged at the dress of the woman I was hiding behind, the woman in front of us was uncomfortable. I didn't want to stand here.
Yet I couldn't voice it.
"Go ahead, don't forget what I said."
So the woman moved out of the way, making way for us.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't convince anyone to turn back and we entered the building, went down the elevator and further down, and stepped into a room with white walls.
That was my first step into hell.
At that time, I forgot and threw away all the negative thoughts that were going through my mind and looked at this 'hell' in front of my eyes with great admiration.
Those were the innocent glances I cast at this hidden hell, which I had not yet realized existed and which I thought was paradise.
Later I realized that this place was not what I thought it was.
Because right behind the countless emotionless glances I had experienced after my first entrance into that room, I had directly met the terrified eyes of my mother and father. I saw them shouting at the people in front of them, going crazy.
My mother was looking at me with eyes full of worry and fear. My father was pointing his finger at me and arguing angrily with men with emotionless looks, an expression I had never seen on the face of a man like him before.
And yet this was hell, the worst hell.
Because even when I got out of there and we went home, I had to go there again and again and again.
So, slowly but painfully, I witnessed the disappearance of those horrified looks. Day after day, I watched the regret I could see in my parents' eyes fade, and I experienced my parents putting on those white coats and approaching me like those men.
Maybe that was what hurt my little body more than anything else.
The way my family slowly began to lose themselves in this hell, and then turned their eyes on someone other than me.
*******
First, my whole body trembled violently. Then the pain that caused it slowly spread through my body.
I tried to open my eyes, but I realized I couldn't. I tried to move my body, but it was futile.
Finally, I decided to focus on my surroundings, trying to ignore my body.
So the first thing I realized was that someone was talking. I focused even more and tried to listen to what they were saying.
This didn't last long though.
Because before I could even comprehend what was happening, my whole body became even weaker than it already was, my consciousness slowly shut down and the darkness enveloped me once again.
*******
The gentle breeze blew past me, caressing my hair. As the setting sun painted the sky an orangish color, I stood where I was, doing nothing.
And why?
This question popped up in my mind, though it was not a difficult question to answer.
Because I was looking at someone.
I was looking at a girl, a girl with brown hair, gray eyes, and a shorter stature than her peers. I was studying the sweet, yet fake smile she offered to the friends she walked with on either side of her in her school uniform.
An uneasiness arose in me. It was an uneasiness that appeared as I looked at the fake smile on the girl's face. At the same time, it was a faint feeling that I hadn't realized until now, but it was a deep emptiness inside me.
I continued, watching her from where I was, on the roof of a building, until she stepped into a street and all she needed was a few steps to get out of my line of sight.
"Tempo."
The colors of the world slowly faded. Cars, birds flying in the sky, people moving through the streets... Everything slowed down and then stopped completely.
I continued to stare at the girl through the stopped time, not caring how long I kept doing it, not caring how long I kept doing it because seeing that smile, even if it was fake, made the soullessness in me lessen a little and the endless darkness in my heart light up, if only with a candle.
At the end, I narrowed my eyes.
"Thank you."
And that was it.
The colors of the world slowly returned, and then time continued to flow as before.
The girl turned down the street and out of my sight.
I let out a deep sigh and turned my eyes to the sky, covered in the orange color of the setting sun.
It was beautiful.
'Why do you always act like it's your last time?'
I didn't react to the voice echoing in my mind, as if more than one person was speaking at the same time.
Still, I was aware that I couldn't always remain so unresponsive.
"Because the last time will come, no matter what."
There was silence between us for a while. It was a silence I wasn't complaining about, watching the stars slowly appear after the setting sun filled me with a little peace.
'You're hiding something.'
I didn't react, I didn't open my mouth. The silence between us grew heavier, my breathing became labored as if the atmosphere was condensing on me.
'What are you planning?'
Finally, I closed my eyes against the dark emptiness inside me that came again with this voice that broke all the peace I felt.
"The future, it's nothing important."
With that I turned away, heading for the fire escapes, and the voices didn't bother me again as I made my way downstairs.
I wasn't complaining, of course. I also wasn't stupid enough not to realize that they were unsatisfied.
*******
After a fragmented dream, the details of which were already fading from my mind, I woke up again, slowly.
This time it hurt less. I felt a little more in control of my body.
Still, my eyes didn't open.
No... they opened, or rather only one of them did.
I paused, realizing that while my left eye was slowly opening, my right eye was not.
No... It's not that it doesn't open, it can't.
So, I gave up trying and tried to get a grasp of where I was.
My left eye, which seemed to have been closed for quite some time, was still blurry. That's why it was difficult to make out what was around me, but besides that, my senses were pretty good.
I was on a bed, a big soft bed.
I tried to move my body so that it felt like something was moving. Something... attached to my limbs?
For a moment I felt a sense of terror. That feeling of being 'tied' suddenly permeated my mind and brought countless memories to the surface.
I remembered what had happened and what I had done.
So, without thinking about what happened, I tried to sit up. And I succeeded.
I sat up with my back against the head of the bed and quickly looked at my limbs.
There are no chains... My limbs are not attached to anything.
No... They are attached to something, a machine. Each of the cables with a colorless liquid that I can see running through them are attached to my limbs.
Yet they don't seem to be there to 'hold' me in place. Rather... they are for medical purposes.
As the vision in my left eye slowly returns, I finally look up, and find a pair of eyes.
A dwarf. He was looking at me in amazement.
"Easy there, young man, ye almost scared me half to death."
A seed of hatred welled up inside me, the idea that I had failed to survive was the first thought that popped into my mind, but it was very fleeting.
Because the dwarf in front of me was not from the South, he was from the North. It wasn't hard to tell from the clothes he was wearing.
More importantly, he was one of the people in my memory.
"Dor..."
His name did not appear in my mind for a moment, though that was not the main reason for my hesitation.
My throat was dry, too dry.
The dwarf sighed slightly, smiled, and picked up a glass from beside my bed. Then he handed it to me.
I didn't really care what it was. I took the glass in my hand and raised it to my head. I felt a little relief as the dryness in my throat went away.
I turned back to the dwarf once again and he acknowledged me with a smile on his face.
"Yes, it's me. I'm Dorhud."
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