12
I stared out the window, trying to avoid the beating on the door.
The beating sound became louder, and I heard a man shouted. I didn’t understand what he said, but I knew why he was there.
He was there to kill me.
I tried to stare out the window. Human is naturally afraid of death even when we don’t realize it. Every time we have to face something we fear, our mind will order us to protect ourselves subconsciously.
I always reacted to whatever I feared by turning my face away from it. Doing that wouldn’t make me any safer but we human are so fragile, we always need something to hold on. It doesn’t matter how useless it is, if it made us comfortable, we’re ready to hold on it tightly.
I moved away a bit more, placed my cheek on the window. The cool touch spread over my face. For now, it was the feeling of safety.
The beating became lighter before finally disappeared. The footstep on the outside was moving away. The stairs’ wood boards had screamed for a while before everything went silent. I turned to look at the door to make sure that the attacker actually left. I sighed with relief.
But the silent was scarier.
I sat there alone hugging my knees, staying with the fear my heart created. The attacker might be lurking somewhere in the house, or he could pretend to run away to lure me out.
I felt like I was caged in a locked room.
Suddenly, my phone rang. I looked at the light blinking on the screen, hesitating to receive this mysterious call.
I slowly reached the phone with my shaking hand. My eyes shook. My body bathed in sweat. I squeezed the phone tightly, hesitating briefly before answered it.
No voice was heard from the other side. I listened a while before hanged up. Suddenly, it rang again. I felt uncertain but still answered it.
I heard breathing sound.
I hang up immediately. Then, someone knocked on the window. I looked there with confusion. I was on the second floor, and the house structure was rather high. It was impossible for someone to knock on the window.
Outside was empty. Only bloody hand prints were there.
My body reacted to what I saw automatically. I jumped back, trying to stay away from the window as far as possible.
Nowhere was safe. Nowhere to hide.
I heard someone shouted from outside the window. The glass shook violently as if someone hit it. Blood seeped down through the cracks in the ceiling, dripping in the room as if they were rained.
Suddenly, my shoulders felt heavy. Coldness went throughout my body. I turned around slowly. No matter how much I wanted to run away, the curiosity pinned me down.
White teeth lay neatly. It smiled happily in the dark.
That was the last thing I saw.
I woke up frightened. My body was soaked with sweat. I tried to look around, trying to separate the dream of the reality.
The sunlight shone through the window. The birds were chippering, waking people up from their slumber.
In the bright morning light was a man sitting there in the same place. His hair was messy. Both eyes had dark circles under them. His look let me saw his tiredness and sacrifice.
Dad…
The corners of my lips went up before I realized it. I proudly watched at the image of the middle-aged man in front of me. Dad wasn’t the most capable person in the world, but he was the best Dad I could ever wish for.
“Why do I have to be so scared?” I laughed lightly. “Dad has been with me the whole night.”
I stretched my limbs to relieve the tension before left the room silently. Today was a holiday. I should let him rest.
I took care of myself for half an hour. After finished dressing, I walked out of the bathroom.
Dad still sat there.
I threw myself on the bed, looking absent-mindedly at the ceiling. A lot of thoughts mixed together. For how long had I forgotten this empty feeling? After mom had died, Dad had tried even harder to fill the hole in my heart. Our family might be uncompleted, but I was happy with my life now.
Even when we used to fight each other, even when I used to hate him so much, nothing could be compared with the good things he’d done for me.
I got up, leaning on the window glass. Dad might not be a perfect father, but he really was the best father for me.
While I was thinking about the past, Dad opened his eyes and rubbed them confusingly.
“It’s… morning already?” He yawned.
“Yes, it’s already morning,” I replied and pointed at the clock. “Don’t you know that your daughter is getting hungry?”
“Oh, yeah, I forget.” Dad frantically got up from the chair. He arranged his messy clothes and hair before rushed out the door.
Before he stepped off the room, Dad turned back and smiled at me.
“Thanks, Dream.” He smiled broadly then ran downstairs.
I smiled to myself before dropped on the bed again. This might be the best thing I could do to repay him.
I might not be a good daughter but, at least, I wanted to pay him back even just a little. Now, I could only give him chances for little happiness like this, but I promised that one day, I would make him truly happy by myself.
I promised.
While I was lying around waiting for my breakfast, my phone rang. I looked at the screen before answered it.
“Dream, Ton’s here. Are you free now?” Ton’s voice was comfortable.
“Yeah,” I replied. “What’s the matter?”
“Can we meet at the library?”
“What’s going on?” I asked while scratching my head.
“It’s the same old thing.”
When I arrived at the University, Ton was waiting for me at the gate.
“Haven’t we agreed to meet at the library?” I asked.
“I’ve been curious about something. Let’s walk there together.”
We walked along the sports field before went through the back of a building. We walked through a park until reached the library. Ton looked back before asking me.
“You do realize that Bill follows you?”
I nodded, so Ton continued. “I’m just wondering how Bill know that you’re coming here? You don’t normally have class today.”
“Bill comes here every day, doesn’t he?”
“That’s because you see him almost every day.” Ton said. “Normally, if you don’t have a class, I won’t see Bill around.”
“Are you telling me that Bill knows my schedule?”
Ton nodded. I forced a laugh.
“That shouldn’t be possible. Are you trying to tell me that Bill has been stalking me? That’s insane.”
“But your ex is really insane.” Ton said. “Well, let’s hurry to the library.”
While we were heading to our usual seats, Max walked over to us from the other side.
“H- h- hey.” Max greeted. “Y- y- y you don’t have a class today, right, Dream?”
“I come to play around,” I replied.
“I- I- I’ll go to my class then.” Max waved goodbye. “I- i- it’s about to begin. See you.”
Max left the library in a hurry. I sat down on my usual seat while Ton took out a notebook from his bag, placed it on the table, and started to write something.
“What are you writing?”
“The information we discussed the other day.” Ton looked up briefly before lowered his head to continue writing. “It might be useful. I can’t get the whole image if I don’t write it down.”
“Well, and what do you want to talk about?”
Ton placed down the pencil before looked up.
“About the condition. The culprit starts to do something now. Moreover, Max and Bill saw you today, so they probably know that we won’t give up easily. So, we need to hurry.”
“You can think of a way to find the condition?”
“No.” Ton played with the pencil. “I still have no idea.”
I leaned on the chair’s arm, adjusting my glasses thoughtfully.
“You just said that you prefer to write everything down?” I asked.
“Yes.” Ton looked at me curiously. “Why?”
“Why don’t you try to draw it?”
“Draw? Draw what?”
“I think it might be not enough. We have to go back to the old house again.” I leaned back. “We have nothing more to investigate now, I think then why don’t we just draw that house and see how the culprit got into the house? What else had happened there?”
Ton’s eyes went wide with surprise. He sat straight, laid the pencil on the table, and clapped lightly.
“W- what? Why are you clapping?” I didn’t feel good with his action.
“Great. Your idea is marvelous.” Ton smiled. “Why haven’t I thought of it earlier?”
“So, you agree that I’m cleverer than you now?”
“Don’t be overconfident.” Ton picked up the pencil and used it to point at me. “It’s just this once. Moreover, we still have a lot to find out.”
Suddenly, the library went extremely bright. Rain dropped on the roof harshly. I could hear the sound of thunders before the light went out.
“That’s too bad.” Ton said. “When the library will have enough money for the reserved electricity?”
I laughed. Ton put his stuff into the bag before stood up.
“Let’s go outside.”
The gray cloud covered the sky. Large rain drops hit the leaves fiercely until they dropped. Ton looked around before turned to me.
“Sorry for dragging you into this.” He said. “Do you have to hurry home?”
I shook my head. Ton smiled in reply.
“Okay, where should we sit the rain out now?” He asked.
“I think standing here is fine.”
“Well, since we have nothing to do,” Ton rummaged his bag. “I think I’d better walk you home.”
Ton took out a small umbrella from the bag. I raised my eyebrows before asked.
“Can it cover anything?”
“It sure can. If my lady won’t mind.”
I turned away to hide my emotion. Ton laughed before shook the umbrella a bit. The umbrella sprang out. It was a lot bigger than I thought.
“We don’t have to cramp together.” He smiled. “Let’s go and chat pleasantly.”
I hit his chest once then we left the university.
While we were turning into the shortcut, Ton asked.
“When will we go there again?”
“I don’t know, but if it’s as you said, we’d better go there sooner.”
“You might be able to think of something more than me. You’re more familiar with the place. This time we might get something useful.”
“I hope so.” I sighed. “But I’m not sure if I can do it.”
Ton stared at me for a moment. He coughed before started to say.
“I observed you when you talked about the illusion.” He looked straight. “Sometimes you were… out of it. Sometimes you seemed… in pain. It was like you were thinking of something terrible. You also told me that you can’t remember them, right?”
“Yes. Your memory is good.”
“What I want to say is…” Ton paused. “I think this is important. I have a conclusion, but it seems impossible. If I’m not certain of it, I don’t want to tell you about it. It’ll just make you worry.”
“If you have something to say, say it. Why act like it’s a top secret?”
“It’s not that I want to keep it a secret. I just think that…”
Suddenly, the sky was brightly lit. Thunder hit the ground not too far from where we stood.
But that wasn’t what stopped us.
In the middle of the thundering sound and the heavy rain, we heard footsteps.
We made sure that no one secretly followed us when we walked passed many people a while ago.
Then, how did a mysterious man suddenly stand behind us? Why did his footstep sound different from anything we’d heard in our lives?
Why did the atmosphere change from what it should be?
The wet smell of the rain was replaced with the smell of blood. The sound of thunder was replaced with a rhythm of metal hitting.
A chill spread throughout the area. It was an unusual cold. I could feel my bones eaten up. It was as if ice was trying to penetrate inside.
The surrounding exuded the feeling like… we were standing inside that old house. The smell of death reeked throughout the place.
A man in a black raincoat walked toward us as if an approaching monster. He held a large hammer so big that an average person shouldn’t be able to lift it, but he wielded such killing weapon easily.
I glanced back. My muscles were tense from fear.
Everything was like the nightmare I saw.
But what was happening now… It was a reality...
The hunt… was about to begin.