* * *


    "El, are you there?"


    *Knock, knock, knock*


    "Hey, are you there?"


    *Knock, knock, knock*


    "Hello… are you there?"


    *Knock, knock, knock*


    As the knock and the call periodically resonated, El himself stayed to keep his mouth shut while slowed down his breath. It was a hushed conundrum that left after.


    That was, until…


    *Knock, knock, knock*


    "You there, aren''t you?"


    *Knock, knock, knock*


    "Why don''t you call me back?" this time, there was a hint of impatient behind the tone. The knocks and the calls slowly went faster – and even faster.


    *Knock, knock, knock*


    "Why???"


    *Knock, knock, knock*


    "Why, why, why, why, why, why?


    *Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock*


    "ACCCCCCCKKKKKKKK" at the end of it, the man''s hurried voice changed into a shriek, that of a shrill one – penetrated the door and filled all the space inside the room with ear-splitting noises. It was so loud that it made El''s eardrum ring and his head dizzy, compelled him to have no choice but to tightly close his ear. A moment after, again, was a stillness that ensued. A quiet and tense atmosphere seemed to swallow the air itself, making it heavy and hard to catch a breath. El''s heart palpated inside his chest.


    Then out of nowhere, that same voice outside the door earlier was heard right at the side of El''s ear, as if someone was there with him, sitting right at the same bed, telling him in a whisper right on the side of his face – glaring at him from behind. El could even feel the bizarre cold that intermixed with hot air blowing right on his ear, along with the stench of a rotting corpse.


    "Why?" this time, it was really clear to El as the malice and hatred behind that whole connotation was threatening to strike him at any moment''s notice. His heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest.


    "Arrrgghhhhh…"


    El abruptly screamed, eyes open wide as he awakened from his dream, quickly forced his body to instinctually sit on the bed even when his sense of reality was not quite there yet.


    Gasping for air, El examined himself. He was still shuddering in horror from that experience. ''It was… a dream?''


    Putting his palms to cover his forehead and one of his eyes, he once more widened his eyes. Swiftly jumps away, then lands hard on the floor of the room with his feet, he turns his sight to the bed where he rested earlier. And there was nothing.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    That''s what he thought at first – until a silhouette against the dim light with the shape of a head gradually resurfaced from his soft, springy bed as if it were a puddle of deep swamp. It started from the top of its pale and wet, bald head with many stitch marks that managed to shift the bedding and the blanket he left in there with an unknown force, up to the red eyes that finally showed itself – glaring at El with all the animosity it contains.


    However – once again this time, El jolted awake from his sleep.


    Precipitously opening his eyes, El adeptly sat and then went straight to a jump, springing away from his bed hastily. Turned his vision nervously to the place where that head was emerging, El discovered.


    Nothing this time.


    Waiting in a bated breath, perspiration ran down his forehead, eyes locked to the target, and with all of his five senses forcefully heightened to the maximum, to perceive if there was any other surprise occurrence that would proceed to catch him off guard again, by standing or staying right behind him. Or if there was another creepy, uncanny thing that he should be wary of, which going to startle and frighten him silly.


    Seconds subsequently turned into a minute. Then two and three minutes. Just as El wanted to exhale a relieved sigh, three knocks on the door successfully made him shudder on the spot.


    *Knock, knock, knock*


    ''Bloody hell…'' El clutched his chest, cursing inside his mind.


    "Boy, are you there? What''s happened??"


    "Ah…"


    Realizing the voice, the intonation, and the atmosphere this time was a plain one, El decided to stand up and slowly drew closer to the door. Holding onto the handle, and after finally gathering enough of his courage, El raises a question to the other side.


    "Is that you, sir???"


    "Yes, what''s happened? I heard noises coming from your room."


    *Cklek*


    Opened the door, El found himself face to face with the man.


    "What''s happened, boy? You look like someone seeing a ghost for the first time," the man''s eyes scanned the inside of the room, while weirdly remaining outside.


    "Nothing sir. Just, some bad dreams," El replied, his face pale, still rather out of breath, along with the sweat that soaked his shirt wet.


    "I see. Let me in then. There is something I wanted to tell you…"


    "Alright," El then made way for the man to come inside. Stepping into the room, the man briefly scrutinizes the messy bed. Looking upward for no apparent reason, he stayed like that for a couple of minutes.


    "What''s wrong sir?" following the man''s action, El also looked upward.


    His eyes directly widen in his socket. Because El found out that, there was a massive claw mark right at the ceiling. It was not there when he first time awoke in this room. El didn''t know what kind of animal or beast could’ve done that and left that kind of mark, but one thing for sure was, whatever the thing that had left the trace in there, it was lucky for him to stay alive right now.


    Another thing for El to consider was that, if he were a normal human, he wasn’t supposed to see that. Because other than one candle dimly brightened up part of the room, there was no other source of light. Observing the man, it seems like, he also could see that mark even under the darkness.


    Though his guard was still raised quite high even after being rather close with the man, truthfully, after experiencing this whole day with him, El was already slowly trusting that man. However, in spite of all that, the rationality inside his mind based on the logical approach in his current condition, was still pretty much operating just fine.


    He hadn’t known who the man was, his origin, or the purpose behind his willingness to take care of an unknown boy like him. He also wondered how the man knew about his memory loss, which only a few villagers from his previous home were supposed to be aware of. Therefore, this time, he had to keep precaution at the top of his priorities, so as not to end up dead right away without putting up a fight.


    Living in the village, all the caring adults had always taught the kids from an early age that no gifts came without a price. They had not had a choice to live their lives any other way, as it was an ill fate that had brought them into the world during those troubled times. At least, that advice about ''nothing is truly free'' had given him and another boy a few more chances to keep living for more years than they were supposed to in the midst of starvation and conflicts.


    For all the reasons mentioned above, El eventually chose to pretend he did not know what the man had seen at that moment.


    * * *