Nick huddled in the dimly lit room. The white blanket that stretched across his back slowly turned into billions of brownish-colored crystals. Migrating winds carry the finer grains in the upper layers. Nick lowered his head, not allowing the flying sand to strike his bright eyes.
“Where am I?” Nick left a trail even though the storm shackles bound his leg bones.
Now and then he stumbled, unable to come to terms with such a force of nature. Some of the sand dust that was blanketed on his back weighed down his body. Nick’s up and down Adam’s apple hinted at how dry his throat was. The desert seems to have no end. Nick dragged his body, hoping to find an oasis. However, there were only cacti molting under the gloomy sky. Should he surrender himself to the master of destiny? Letting his body slowly turn into a skeleton is shameful. The storm hit many times, paralyzing all joints. Nick’s eyelids had dangled, leaving only a small part of the eyeball. However, in the rest of his eyepiece, he saw hope.
“Jessy!” The spirit that was almost extinguished suddenly flared up, but was unable to awaken the anatomy of his body that had given up. Nick could see a woman with curly hair smiling faintly through the fog. It was Jess, the wife he had missed so much for years. She was the oasis he was looking for in the barren. The oasis suddenly creaked in sadness, then changed faces. The face he had seen when he came back from the forest after a long time.
“Daddy, is that you?”
“Yes, Dear. I am your Daddy!” Longing burst from the estranged man’s brown beads. His rough hand reached out to grab the white cheek of the bespectacled girl who was squatting in front of him.
“Daddy, hug me, please! I miss you so much. I really love and always need you.” The little girl’s mouth let out a conscience-squeezing sob. Nick looked heavy. His chest was so tight that he couldn’t do anything.
“Daddy … Daddy!” Elfara walked backwards, a pair of masked humans suddenly carried her by force.
“Elfara!”
“Don’t hurt my daughter!” Nick’s hands guided him forward, until the friction made his bare chest gush a red liquid. However, Elfara’s cries disappeared as her shadow faded.
“My princess! I miss you too, so much. Please, forgive me!” Nick cursed his helplessness. The tears that flowed from the slashes of fate didn’t even help him reach what had gone. Does the world judge him like a pile of garbage that pollutes the earth? Everything that happened was his own fault. He couldn’t force people to judge him according to his will.
“Tough men shouldn’t wail!” Someone’s deep voice poked Nick’s head. A young man bends his knees as he reaches out his hand. For a moment, two pairs of the same colored eyes met. Nick didn’t recognize him, but his eyes flashed affection.
“Don’t look at me like that! You don’t recognize me because we’ve never met.” Nick put his palm on the shoulder of the boy.
“I met you when you were just born, you got what Elfara didn’t get from me. A kiss, a hug in infancy. You are still my adorable little son, Dev Sasaka Erhan. How could I forget my only son?” Nick dropped his head on the sturdy shoulder of the boy he recognized as a son. Sobs fell, the man with the title ‘father’ couldn’t stop it. However, Dev prefers to keep the strings of phrases floating in his chest.
“If you just cry, then you will only get even more destruction!” The ice-covered speech caught Nick’s attention. Their twin eyes met, then Nick saw the red color filling his son’ssclerae. The man of the rank of father loosened the distance with a single leg swing. Strangeness is increasingly taking over Dev’s body. Nick still fixed his gaze on Dev’s brown eyes, which were slowly turning purple. It happened exactly as he saw Masma.
“Everything has been broken!” Dev’s growl suddenly broke all the pores. Thick scales start to change Dev’s body shape. Nick gasped, feeling sharp nails pierce his shoulder.
“Dev!” Nick fell, again his logic had to be reversed when he had to witness with his own eyes that his son had suddenly turned into a terrible creature. An absurd event that can stop Nick’s blood circulation in an instant. The creature groaned uncharacteristically. The thorns embedded along the back are detached. The flying creature with sharp teeth continued to wriggle, until it slowly melted and spewed out a red liquid that hit Nick’s face.
“Dev!” Nick called out his son, sadness took the relief from his chest. The man threw the blanket that still covered his entire body roughly.
“Argh!” Nick turned on the bedroom light, clutching his shoulder. He saw a red stain flowing from it.
The white blanket lying on the floor did not escape the stain. Nick’s eyes conveyed an indescribable confusion. How could it be, he had experienced a delusion-like event that produced a completely real effect. It had been a while since his eyes had closed, but he hadn’t really fallen asleep. tsk tsk! There was no sound sleep as long as he was separated from his family. If he dreams, blood and a wound on the shoulder will be a big question. However, if he wasn’t dreaming, why would he suddenly be in a desert and return to his original place without knowing how?
“Whatever I’m going through right now, my heart tells me that something has happened. I have to do something, but how do I get out of this cursed place? Argh, damn it!” Nick threw down the nightlight and groaned in frustration.
Suddenly, the sound of a lock sounded, Nick immediately picked up the lamp he had thrown away, then pretended to be asleep. True to his suspicion, a nurse entered the room to just check. Apparently, the noise in his room attracted attention. The woman turned her back after making sure everything was fine.
The moment that came, Nick snatched the woman’s consciousness with a single blow. An opportunity that may not come for many times. Reluctantly, he stripped the woman of her clothes. The old trick she had used to sneak into Jacob’s room. Nick kept the poor woman under the bed before buttoning the uniform that was attached to his body. The tap of the shoes that slowly hardened made Nick pause his action.
“Janette!” A female voice buzzed along with the cessation of the sound of the shoes. Nick was silent, trying to be calm as he latched the buttons of his uniform one by one.
“Janette, when you’re done, head to the second floor. There’s a problem with patient number nine.” Nick didn’t answer, couldn’t trace the voice of a girl named Janette.
The eyes of the man who still looked young fell onto the iron support of the nightstand. The short haired girl behind him shook her head. In no time, the expression on the black-eyed woman’s face changed. Nick’s gloomy complexion suddenly melted when he realized the nurse on his back was staring curiously under the bed. Hot red moved to Nick’s face. It turned out that the heels of the nurse named Janette were slightly visible. There was a lot of swearing exposed on Nick’s face. Careless! Unfortunately, the sexy nurse walked closer to him. What would happen if he was found out? Perhaps a place more terrifying than this would happily torment him.
“Aaah!” A scream from outside caught her attention. Nick exhaled.
The second that tightened all his veins had passed without having to do anything. Nick should be grateful because this time luck is on his side. Not wanting to waste time, Nick carried his feet up the tiring stairs. His current goal was to get out of that damned hell. Nick was a little relieved, the dungeon wasn’t heavily guarded. The guards are very relaxed and relaxed. In fact, some of them were busy making maps with their eyes closed. Poor thing!
Arriving at the last stairs, a guard opened the door without any suspicion. Good! Nick looked around, the last door he opened was unprotected. The iron door connected him to a corridor he didn’t know about. While thinking about which way to go, someone’s presence forced him to hide behind the back of the cleaning service who happened to be mopping the floor. It was Ezhar, the rogue cop who broke the bones in his face. He came alone? What for? The ruthless man glanced at him, then proceeded to enter the secret door with the key taken from his trouser pocket. Wait! Why did Ezhar have such free access? However, there was something that caught Nick’s attention more, a small object that had fallen from Ezhar’s pocket.
“Miss, sorry! Can you take your hand off my shirt? I have to finish my work.” Nick gasped, the janitor’s voice made him spontaneously let go of his hands.
Again, Nick was silent and immediately picked up the flash that had fallen in front of the door. After finding the object, Nick gave up his intention to run away. He slipped into an unlocked empty room. There was a PC on in the room full of books, Nick quickly plugged Ezhar’s pendrive into the CPU connector. Several video recordings appeared on the surface of the screen.
“What’s this?” Nick is astonished to find Jacob on the tape.
“It’s like in the forbidden forest.” In the fifteenth second, Jacob is being hunted by a coyote in a battered state.
“Oh, could what Jacob said be true?” Nick is still patiently watching the seconds go by. Until the sixth minute, a show managed to make his mouth gape. A woman dressed as Masma violently flirts with an unknown man. Nick continued to stare at the screen with his eyeballs nearly popping out when he reached the process where the man’s genitals were severed.
“This is exactly what Mehmet said!”
“What really happened? Damn it!” Nick caught his breath, dizzy with his newfound reality.
Immediately, he rejected the flashdisk. This will be one of the important pieces of evidence to free him. And now he had to hurry back to his room.
After all, no one should be able to figure out his disguise. One swing of the foot, the door was broken in from the outside. Ezhar and two other policemen were seen. The look on the uniformed man’s face there hinted that Nick’s history might be coming to an end.
“Nick Erhan, how dare you do this again!”
“I’m not crazy and I’m innocent. I’m looking for evidence for that, what am I afraid of?”
“You’re dreaming! You’ll still rot here even if you get it. No one will believe you. Especially after this, you won’t have any chance. You’ve been trying to escape after staining a nurse in your room.” Nick smiled sadly. He had already guessed what would happen to him if he was found out.
“You have found Mister Erhan? All right, I thank you. I will immediately place him in very safe isolation,” said a doctor who had just appeared.
“Very well, Doctor Richard. We will deliver. Police will tighten security. Mister Erhan is not only crazy, but he is extremely dangerous. Let there be no more victims of abuse.” Ezhar smirked seeing Nick’s defeat for the umpteenth time. While Nick was trying to be calm, his heart and mind were churning to mutilate the wide-eyed man. Everything was read from the way Nick glanced.