Bab 22: [XXII] - Slaughter Crater
•••
•••
There was nothing in that room.
And when I say "nothing", I literally mean it.
The whole room was once a space filled with two, so comfortable you could endlessly dream on them, black couches. Between them, was a small, old table, big enough to fit a few books, full of knowledge. The walls of the room were covered with huge maps, one of the current city — Lectus, the other one of the whole district we are living in, The T-V district. And the last one, was supposed to be the map of the whole globe. It was the biggest one, covering the whole, white wall. I was often finding myself lying on a couch for hours, and admiring every curve of the continents, that I supposed are still there, outside the walls and the barrier.
I was touching the place on the wall where the map once was. My finger was following the borders between the land, where they should be, from my memory.
But now there was nothing.
No comfortable couches, no sturdy table, no maps on every wall. No other gadgets we had in here.
Just an empty, white space, lightened with only one, flickering lamp from the ceiling. The only thing filling it was silence, and my arising anxiety.
Where… Is everything?
Why is… everything gone from here?
The vision of something worse than I have expected arose in my mind.
The cold sweat started dripping from my forehead, down to the ground. It felt suffocating. Seeing as something you held very close, disappeared into thin air. And you don't even know where, and why.
Just mere furniture, but hurts so much to see it gone. But I deeply knew there was something else scratching my mind, like a nail against the glass. But I didn't want to let it hit me… I just wanted to prove to myself I'm thinking wrong. But how to proceed further from the neuralgic place I am in?
Unraveling what's next, is horrific. In life, you cannot see into the future, you don't know what's ahead of you, behind the corner. You don't expect anything bad to happen, as long as you're happy. The difference now is that I know whatever I'm going to see, it's not going to be good and acceptable. I just can't let it go to my mind…
That…
Anything happened…
The vision in my eyes blackened… I felt like collapsing any moment…
I had to support myself with the wall. My body fell on its own to the ground, and now I was just sitting on the floor, looking at the void of the room, a white space without any sense and goals.
And then, I felt something cold and small under my hand. A few of long, cylindrical things, made of metal, hollow inside. I brought them before my eyes to identify them, the only things left in my room.
These are…?!
The things I held in my hand were nothing else than the shell of the bullets, already fired.
But…
There are no visible gunshot marks in the room?
What the hell?!
Where did the shot bullets disappear?
Who…
Who was in here?
I opened my eyes widely, the shock that came to me grasped my whole body, and squeezed it like a lemon.
It can't be.
I quickly got off the place I was sitting, and run to the corridor by the room. A few shells could be found in the corners of the room I left. I guess they made the quiet moving sound that I heard earlier. Rolling shells on their own.
The corridor wall opposite the room entrance wore no bullet marks either. No dark holes, no bullets lying around. I suspected that someone may have fired from outside the room to here, but no. No marks left.
This was the most confusing puzzle I've ever encountered.
But… I've only seen one room…
What's with others?
I… I felt like seeing only this one… Was enough for me…
I know… She is not here… I… I don't want it anymore…
I felt desperate, enough to run away from here…
But I knew I came here for something. If not some words, then…
•••
I threw myself to the handle of the closest room — the kitchen.
But as something deep inside me has told, it was empty too. No living soul. And no furnishing at all.
The walls bore the marks of the furnishings being attached for a long time. But why the hell would someone take an old cooler, cooking stands, burners, and other kitchens accessories? The cupboards and even a chair that was at the corner…
There was no tiniest crumb anywhere. Surprisingly, there were no bullet shells either.
I run into every room that was in my home.
Bathroom — Cleared. Only the holes in the walls remained, as the water pipes were there. But as I came closer, there wasn't even water in them anymore.
The plant room — Empty. In the dark vicinity of this room, lightened by a special lamp that could replicate the light of the real sun. There was only a small pile of powdered dirt, fragmented enough not to be picked by anything anymore. And the great plants… Disappeared too… I've enjoyed their smell for years. Cared like no one else. I gave them the love I couldn't give to anyone else. They grew proud of me as their owner. But even now, I've lost what I've cherished.
I moved on to the next room, which was my bedroom.
And there, I could see something that made my blood freeze.
•••
Everything was on its place.
Nothing was moved by even an inch… It was left… In the same state that I left it when I was last here…
My big, and tough bed, that I hated sleeping on because it gave me neck pains. It was still in the corner, covered with white sheets, untouched. The wardrobe was open, I didn't close the doors after changing a few days ago… I was so urgent to go and deal with my problems at once…
The clothes filling the inside were all black, my favorite color. They smelled like… me. I could feel it better now. It was different from the clothes the man gave me after I woke up… An artificial smell contrasting with the delicate fragrance of mine…
I closed it and looked around more. Next to the wardrobe was a desk — my workplace. I was always reading books here, drawing, creating plans and stuff my mind was vigorously thinking about. Additionally, writing all the stuff I saw, in case I would lose all of my digital materials…
The notebook was lying peacefully on the corner of the desk. I've suddenly felt, that it's too important for it to be lying calmly like that, in such a visible spot.
I reached for it with my two shivering hands, swiped the dust from its cover, and put it into the pocket of my coat. Good thing they were deep, enough to fit a good portion of items.
Looking further, a few papers were still on the surface of the desk, but one was suspicious and out of place. I noticed something written with a black ink, not with my hand style.
"It's not like you think…"
•••
Shivers went down my hands, holding the paper. It wasn't me who wrote it. Then…
Was it my… aunt?
To be honest, I've never seen her write anything. It was as mysterious as everything I've been living in until now.
It's not… like I think… huh…
Could it be, really? Could the answer be something else than I've thought? But why… Haven't you told me…
I've tried to hold in the tears, as I touched the books on my shelves. Such rare items, I held them just like that, visible to me. Treasures I could only have, but not hidden. I could reach anytime to them. Their yellowed pages smelled like something I could never grasp, in no eternity.
I randomly took one of them, and opened where my fingers told me to.
"Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope." — Aristotle
•••
My hands took out the book I've never been so keen on. My aunt tried to persuade me to read it a few years ago, yet as a growing kid, I think it was too hard for me then. It lied forgotten on my shelf, and I dedicated myself to other activities.
Now I understand I was too young to understand it all. And maybe I still am to understand the truth of this world.
I've put "Opera Legis" back on my shelf, where it was. There were many other books I would love to open right now, but I felt something crawl on my back. The time that passes, and me not knowing the answer yet.
The pens, colored markings, magnets, gadgets, were all lying happily around the room. One of the walls was covered with an electrical screen, that could count as a computer. I could display what I wanted to, and interact with it in many ways. I could project myself a beautiful view of the sea, I generated myself with the engineering abilities I've learned, and look at the waves smiling at me for hours.
Something in me was eager to see them once more. I went to the side of the screen, to switch it on.
But surprisingly, nothing happened. It was dead transparent, cold like stone.
To investigate why this technological masterpiece can't turn on, I had to go check the electrical room that was just behind the wall, the screen was on. It was connected to my personal device, the big computer that administrated the whole flat.
I've left my room that seemed like a time machine, with everything preserved and untouched, in opposite to every other room I've been in.
I wonder why of all rooms, mine was left uncleared. What is the reason behind that? What is the reason behind everything…
My heart was at that weird state, when you don't know anymore if it's reality, or just a dream. But it's too perfectly planned to be a dream… Maybe it's just a simulation someone has put me into…
Because, why would everything…
•••
The computer room was very close.
But I didn't even have to step inside of it. The door were opened widely.
Just from behind a corner, a thick, scarlet crimson liquid was flowing on the ground. In the lighting I have in here, it seemed like a trail of condensed abyss.
My beating heart got up to my throat.
Things couldn't be stable in my mind.
Was she…
…still in there?
The air got heavier, like mercury. I felt like if I was breathing not air, but water. It felt unwell, the whole world was stirring inside of me. I was afraid to step forward, and look… what's behind the corner…
I could see the bullet shells accumulated below the wall, opposite to the entrance. And some dark blood droplets, tiny as sand grains, spluttered on the wall.
I can't wait any longer. It's killing me!
I stood in the entrance to the room, supporting myself against it.
But it was worse than hell. Worse than the battlefield I unconsciously found myself at.
The whole room…
…Was covered in dark blood, like if someone painted it that way.
Like a falling meteor, it's burning tail was the firing blood on the walls. And it's whole body, was accumulated on the one spot on the floor, right in the far corner.
What on Earth happened here? Is that… the blood of my aunt? If not, then whose?!
But no body was lying there. Just a puddle of void's tears. It was shining in the rhythm of the electrical cords, pulsing on the walls, and reflected the bright screen of my computer, that surprisingly was turned on.
But instead of the usual sight that greeted me, a dark blue wallpaper, a text was lighting up.
[System reset — 100%]
[All files have been deleted]
•••
A petrifying strike shook my body, paralyzing it.
Who… In hell…
And now I've reminded myself. I've held everything important in there. All of my footage, evidences, movies, and photos. Everything I've worked on so precisely.
If no one copied it, it's all in vain now. Deleted. Or in inappropriate hands.
I could feel my fingertips go numb, itching like if someone shot them with a thousand needles at a time. And it went up my hands, as my heart went crazy.
What am I going to do now?!
It all unexpectedly hit me directly in my head, from the back.
The pain. The unknown.
Panic.
•••
I wanted to lie on the ground, cover myself from the horrible world of lies and pain I'm living in, and just be like that. Lie for ages. Create a barrier, a world where no one could reach for me anymore. Where I could be sustainable and without worried of daily survival.
But the ground was covered in blood. And the world could not let me go.
I believed that it was just an unhappy occurrence. The door lock broke once in a lifetime. That she is still somewhere here, maybe in the kitchen, cooking something delicious, maybe in the bathroom, cleaning, maybe in her bedroom, sleeping peacefully…
That the plants are being watered by her right now, the screen in my room displays calming sea waves, the computer here shows me that all files have been successfully converted, ready to be shown to someone.
The silent buzzing of the computer kept me sane. I was still here. And time was still passing. I wish it wasn't.
For the first time in my life, I felt overwhelmingly alone. Alone to the point that the goal I had in my head was hidden behind a thick curtain of dark smoke.
I had no idyll anymore. No safe and turning point. With the darkness of this room staring into my soul, I've learned, that there was no one in here that could listen to me anymore.
She isn't here. I don't have her support anymore. And she was the only one who cared about me. And now she is gone. Everything is gone. My purpose has…
I kneeled on the ground, holding my face full of tears.
I knew when I entered this flat, that something was out of the place. It may have been that moment when I realized there is no more hope left in my home. But somehow… I still had hope…
I was crying loudly, squeezing my knees to my eyes. They pinched like if someone poured salt in them. It hurts. It horribly hurts. She is not in here. My files are not in here. Am I… even safe here anymore?
Someone was in here. And they did cruel things.
I can't be here anymore.
I…
Do I have anywhere to go?
I looked around the room. I wanted to stay here forever. My sweet home. My precious memories.
Yet, the sight of a stranger's blood, splattered all around the place, was horrific. This is a place of crime and delusion.
Will it make any sense to clean it, even if I have to leave it anyways?
I couldn't look at the sight of the slaughter crater, but do I have anything I can even clean this blood with?
I got off the ground, and came closer to the spot where it seemed to explode from. It was all in the back of the room, a dark corner where nothing ever stood. This room was never lightened brightly, as a computer room, the screen generated enough light. Therefore, corners like this were abandoned, creating a door to the abyss.
Even with my focused sight, I could barely see anything. The spot of obliteration was on the ground. But…
Weirdly, it seemed that in some places, the blood disappeared…
How could there be clean, symmetrical spots within the blood puddle, when everything around is covered with it?
It was disgusting to do, but I instinctively followed the thin, clean trails with my finger.
The trail created a square shape, big enough to fit one human standing on it.
Its contour was weirdly matched to the corner. Ideal distance from the walls. A perfect square out of nowhere.
Right in the corner, when my finger touched the angle, a weird current flew through my finger.
"Ouch!" I yelled, as it was quite high voltage.
What the hell?!
What could it be?
I swept the thick, brown blood of the floor, unraveling that there are actually thin slots in the ground, that the blood soaked in, leaving spots.
That means…
There is something under this square. But…
What? And how can I open the passage?
Why has such a thing been hidden here, without me even noticing it?
The time passed immensingly quickly, while I was thinking about solving this difficult puzzle.
A square entrance in the corner of a dark room. Nothing more around, other than just a bunch of scraped, electronical devices that seem to have nothing in common with the solution.
Other than it being marked with a blood explosion, there was nothing suspicious about it at all.
I glared at its shape intensely, trying to force myself to do anything to make this thing open before me.
Because I know there is nothing else I can do in here.
Suddenly I remembered something that someone has told me in the past.
I clenched my hand in a fist, and knocked on the squares surface, trying to get my ear closer to it.
A dull sound came to me, that seemed to be as empty as what's beneath this square. It indeed goes somewhere, and knowing that made me even more furious with my demise.
"Why! Can't! This! Shit! OPEN! You're the only trail left…"
I was punching the damn thing with both of my fists, every punch stronger and bearing more fury. If there isn't any lock and a key, then I will open this damn thing with force!
One punch.
Another one.
And more. Each one exchanged my mental madness to physical frustration. I've had enough it all.
This thing was made of a hard, metal plate, that didn't even dent when I used all of my strength.
And finally crushing sound came from my hand, and then a piercing pain squeezed it.
Aw shit. Did I break something?
The tears blurred my vision, but I could still see the redness of my swollen hand. It was scarlet from all the beating, cracking the drying blood on the floor. And a trickle of crimson was flowing down from it, it was really a pitiful image to look at. Me, like always, harming myself when I get angry.
I'm so reckless… Why are my emotions imprisoning my free will…?
The tear droplets flew down my cheeks, and landed on the square on the floor, glittering like pure crystals. They were mixing in the air with the ruby sequins of my blood, dripping from the hand. A true rain of despair.
And yet after every rain, I've always heard there is a rainbow. I've never seen a real one with my eyes. Rain barely ever comes in this city, and sunlight is a occurrence dependable on time and place.
Yet the most unexpected things can sometimes come and shine upon your head. But what shined, was beneath me.
A blue light outlining the shape of the square, it's rays coming from beneath it.
While my eyes were widely glaring at the magnificent occurrence, the seal hissed quietly, disappearing deep into the hatch.
What?!
Why?!
Why did it open right now? Of all times? Out of nowhere? Did it have to do something with…
My shocked glare was staring into the deep abyss. A deep hatch, with cold metal stairs leading into the unknown hades of the world. Dimish blue lights were softly setting a truly futuristic mood. And the blood that soaked through the gaps of the entrance, the liquid was making a dark gradient with the gray walls.
But my eyes couldn't see the end of the descent, only the fading turquoise, creating two, confusing lines.
How could I have never noticed that something like that was in my home? In a room that I've spent most time in? Was I so blind to keep closed eyes to secrets like that? What purpose does it even serve for…?
I knew there was no one living here besides me, and her. Yet another suspicious evidence of my aunt hiding something more painful than I could imagine.
Without further thinking about this all, I carefully stepped onto the first step. The passage was quite low, therefore I had to bend while going down.
I would never expect the thing that was waiting for me at the sole bottom.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone