《My Psychotic Ghost Girlfriend an Isekai Experiment Gone Wrong》 Prologue. Prologue. There has been a strange rumor going around on the internet recently. It was something that I randomly came across one day while I slowly found myself stumbling deeper and deeper into the weird side of the internet. It was a post I found on a certain message board. The title was ¡°Sightings of the Ghost Girlfriend.¡± Being the atheist I was, at first, I scoffed it off as rubbish, but when I opened up the thread and read through it, I found that it was actually quite intriguing. The title of the thread read ¡°Anon: Hello world, I got a girlfriend! :¡¯D¡± The thread played out as one would expect when one ventured through the weird side of the internet. ¡°Troll1: Fake and gay.¡± ¡°Troll2: Post nudes with today¡¯s newspaper for proof.¡± ¡°Troll3: OP is faggot.¡± ¡°Troll4: ^2nded¡± ¡°UpstandingSamaritan: Congratulations Anon!¡± ¡°Anon: ^Thank you!¡± ¡°FirstToParty: first¡± ¡°Troll1: ^lol too slow noob. I am god of the firsts.¡± ¡°FirstToParty: ^Damn it, I¡¯ll remember this!¡± ¡°Troll1: ^Get gud nub.¡± ¡°Troll2: @FirstToParty number 1 grunt line.¡± ¡°Anon: Uh... this is a thread about my first girlfriend, right?¡± ¡°Troll3: OP is pleb and newfag.¡± ¡°Anon: I¡¯m a lurker, this is my first post. Please cut me some slack.¡± ¡°Troll2: ^Virgin poster. *inserts gay brony pron*¡± ¡°WhiteKnight: ^Ugh! Disgusting!¡± ¡°UpstandingSamaritan: OP, who¡¯s the lucky lady?¡± ¡°Anon: You wouldn¡¯t believe me even if I said it.¡± ¡°Troll1: lol virgin noob, unless it was a ghost I wouldn¡¯t believe it.¡± ¡°Anon: ¡­ ¡° ¡°Troll1: ^???¡± ¡°Anon: How¡¯d you know she was a ghost?¡± ¡°Troll2: ^lol gtfo. You can¡¯t troll the trolls.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Troll4: lmao¡± ¡°Troll3: OP #1Virgin4Lyfe #Unsurpassable #Unrivalled¡± ¡°Troll1: ^that :¡¯D¡± ¡°UpstandingSamaritan: She¡¯s a ghost?!¡± ¡°Troll1: ^gullible newfag.¡± ¡°Anon: @UpstandingSumaritan yeah¡± ¡°UpstandingSamaritan: ¡­ how did you meet?¡± ¡°Anon: My friend gave me an old VHS tape and told me it was a classic movie. So I watched it and fell asleep halfway through. When I woke up, she was already in front of me and told me we were dating now.¡± ¡°UpstandingSamaritan: *gulps* good luck my friend. May the gods have mercy on your pitiful soul.¡± ¡°Anon: ^?¡± ¡°Troll1: ^lol this nub doesn¡¯t even realize the shit he got himself into. Even UpstandingNewfag has heard.¡± ¡°Troll2: ^exactly my thoughts¡± ¡°Anon: What are you guys talking about?¡± ¡°WhiteKnight: Don¡¯t listen to these clowns, you must treasure all women.¡± ¡°TriggeredLady: ^exactly¡± ¡°Troll4: ^Oh no, the social justice task force approaches.¡± ¡°SocialJusticeWarrior1: You called?¡± ¡°SocialJusticeLeader: Attention!¡± ¡°SocialJusticeWarrior2: Reporting for duty!¡± ¡°Troll3: Ugh. It¡¯s a raid! Troll squad scatter!¡± ¡°Troll2: Nuuoooo! Not again!¡± After that, the thread was flooded by a bunch of social justice warriors advocating for equality and women¡¯s rights. After a while, I found a second thread from the OP shortly after. ¡°Anon: Anon from the last thread here. What is wrong with my ghost girlfriend? Can people please explain to me what¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°FirstToParty: First! Guy below, get rekt.¡± ¡°Troll1: You¡¯re going to die dumbass. Have you really not heard any of the rumors circulating around? *inserts serious troll face with hands overlapping on table picture*¡± ¡°Troll1:@FirstToParty get a life please.¡± ¡°Anon: What rumors?¡± ¡°Troll1: *rolls eyes* OP is done for.¡± ¡°Troll3: OP #Doomed4Sure¡± ¡°Troll4: Any time now.¡± ¡°Troll2: Wait for it. Wait for it.¡± ¡°Anon: He¡­¡± ¡°Troll1: It¡¯s here!¡± ¡°Anon: is¡­¡± ¡°UpstandingSamaritan: I was too late.¡± ¡°Anon: dead.¡± ¡°Troll2: This again?¡± ¡°Troll1: Do you think the OP is just another trolling copycat?¡± ¡°Troll3: But this is how every thread ends whenever the ghost girl of rumors from the mysterious VHS tape is brought up. Isn¡¯t it too elaborate for it to just be trolling? Threads like this have been popping up for a year now.¡± ¡°Troll4: Yeah.¡± ¡°Troll1: Whoever it is, is really quite dedicated to the cause. I traced the IP of 12 previous OPs, but they were always scattered all across the world to make it look like they were all different people. Doing a check on each of the IPs, they don¡¯t appear to be from known VPNs or proxy servers which is annoying.¡± ¡°Troll2: How much dedication can one person have to this same old story over such an extended period of time? Shouldn¡¯t he have gotten bored by now?¡± ¡°Troll1: They could just be imitators.¡± ¡°Anon: Yooooooou¡¯re... neeeeeeext.¡± ¡°Troll1: She¡¯s picking her next ¡°victim¡± again. How scary. She allegedly picks one of the unsuspecting lurkers in threads, but that¡¯s just a rumor.¡± ¡°Troll3: Plot twist, OP was #CreepyGhostGirl and never existed the entire time. It was all a ruse to find her next target.¡± ¡°Troll1: lol¡± ¡°Troll 4: rofl¡± After that, no one bumped the thread and it died off not long after. ¡°Haha, creepy ghost girls? Where can I find one of those? Haaaah. My luck with real women is terrible enough as it is, you think a ghost girlfriend is scary? Take a look at my exes and you¡¯ll be even more terrified. Seriously though, ghosts? It¡¯s obviously just another random troll trying to be the next big creepypasta.¡± Of course, I had no idea at this point in time just how much I would come to regret my naive thoughts. Chapter 1. Chapter 1. When I opened my eyes, having just woken up, I was still in a rather groggy state. The first thing I discovered was a black reflective screen; in simple terms, of course, it was none other than my laptop. When I recalled the last thing I did, it all came back to me. After I¡¯d discovered that thread, I¡¯d done a bit more research into the strange rumor in circulation related to the creepypasta ghost girlfriend from the VHS tape. When I regained clarity of mind, I realized something felt very strange. It was like a sort of sixth sense I¡¯d developed over the years after all my failed relationships with women. I suddenly had a frightening thought; what if I suddenly turned around and there just so happened to be the scary ghost girlfriend waiting for me? It was only when I listened to the background sounds that I noticed light breathing coming from directly behind me. Trickles of chill-inducing cold sweat ran down my back. I was struck by a creeping fear. As an atheist, I was adamantly against the thought of discovering an actual ghost. Rather than the creepy ghost girlfriend in rumors, the rational side of me thought of a far more terrifying possibility. I gulped down a pool of saliva which at some point accumulated in my mouth and bent the laptop monitor¡¯s screen slightly towards me so I could see the reflection of whatever was behind me. The moment my eyes landed on the figure¡¯s reflection, my face paled, my expression warped and an intense sense of dread crept into my heart. It was far worse than I could have ever imagined. The person was someone I knew quite well and was easily identifiable, it was none other than, Adele Homestalk, in other words, my first psychotic ex. ¡°Darling, why are you looking at me with eyes like that?¡± ¡°Because you¡¯re batshit crazy!¡± Just to be clear, I didn¡¯t have enough courage to look her in the eyes when saying that. I could only say it while petrified in place with my gaze locked onto the deceptively fair face reflected off of my laptop¡¯s monitor. Seeing her face after such a long time apart, I took in deep breaths, hyperventilating while countless terrifying memories of our time together ran through my mind. ¡°Why would you say something so hurtful, Darling, you¡¯re my beloved boyfriend, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°No! No! NO! Don¡¯t try that! We broke up over five years ago!¡± ¡°Broke up? With who?¡± ¡°With the crazy broad holding a knife in her hand who¡¯s supposed to be locked up in a mental asylum!¡± ¡°Oh. You mean this?¡± ¡°Yes, that. What else could I mean?! Also, don¡¯t just ignore the most important part at your own convenience! You¡¯re supposed to be in a mental asylum! How the hell did you escape?¡± ¡°I thought I would just come out to visit and cook you a nice meal since it''s been so long since we¡¯ve seen each other. I figured it would be a nice change of pace sneaking out and paying a visit to my significant other after enduring the trials and tribulations of separation over such an extended period of time. By the way, Darling, you look rather hungry. What would you like your last supper to be?¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. The way she hadn¡¯t blinked once throughout our entire exchange, with her eyes locked on the back of my head the entire time, told me she was definitely the same insane woman I remembered. Luckily, I was prepared for such situations. With the number of psychotic exes I¡¯ve had, I¡¯d long accepted a day would come where my life would be in mortal danger. The moment I realized it was her, I secretly called the cops by rapidly pressing the power button five times on my phone and swiping where the slider should be to complete the call. Of course, this was done completely hidden away out of her sight inside my pocket without even looking at it. I¡¯d naturally gotten the process down to instinctive muscle memory, so it was as natural as breathing to me by now. After all, if there was ever a time I failed to successfully call for the cops in a situation as dire as this, my life would easily be forfeit. Some people thought paranormal activities and ghosts were the scariest things known to man; however, in my opinion, I believed such people definitely never had a psychotic ex-girlfriend before. As the saying goes, ¡®bitches be crazy.¡¯ ¡°Hmm? Why are you so quiet? Could it be that you would like to take a bath first? Or perhaps you would like me¡­ to chop off your head so we can be together forever?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Kyaaa! I said it. Just kidding. It¡¯s just a joke, a joke¡­ or maybe not. Fufufu.¡± She is definitely not kidding. Absolutely not! Did she really think by trailing off and mumbling the last part of her sentence under her breath that I wouldn¡¯t be able to hear her? Did she really believe I was bloody daft or senile? This chick would definitely kill me if I didn¡¯t play along with her. I absolutely had to stall for as long as humanly possible to have any chance of avoiding a future where I¡¯m cruelly butchered by her hands. ¡°Haha. You know what Adele? I am actually a bit hungry now that you mention it.¡± ¡°Oh? Great! I have the perfect meal.¡± ¡°Really, what are you planning to make for me?¡± I finally worked up the courage to turn around and look at her directly. ¡°Do you like what you see?¡± ¡°Hahaha. Yeah. I like. I like. You¡¯re as beautiful as I remember.¡± Yeah, your eyes are still the same psycho killer, crazy shit, something wrong with your head, eyes I remember. She might be beautiful, but it¡¯s always the beauties that are the craziest broads. She was my first girlfriend, but you could also call her my first ex. ¡°Silly Darling, I wasn¡¯t talking about myself just now, I was talking about your food. You¡¯ll make me blush if you¡¯re so upfront with me.¡± Are you sure it¡¯s not just the blood of someone you killed staining your cheeks? ¡°Haha. Right¡­ so... what are you going to cook?¡± ¡°Darling, can¡¯t you see? I¡¯ve been holding onto it the entire time just for you. How about some rat soup?¡± ¡°What?¡± Of course, it didn¡¯t take long for me to register what she meant when I glanced down at her hand and found a live rat whipping it¡¯s tiny tail back and forth in the air. What followed was a sight I wished I¡¯d never seen. ¡°Squeeeeeeeak! Squee Squeee Squeeeeeeak! Squee Squeeeeeeak!¡± She pressed the tip of the knife in her hand against the rat¡¯s neck and started to peel away at the skin around its face. She methodically skinned the rat in her hand as blood flew about messily in all directions. The rat pitifully squealed out loud, violently thrashing its body left and right in her hand, desperate to escape from her clutches. The entire sight left my stomach churning in disgust. The thought over her intent to personally hand feed the mutilated rat carcass to me raw left me horrified to an unimaginable degree. Chapter 2. Chapter 2. ¡°You expect me to eat that?¡± ¡°Of course, you can¡¯t waste precious food. Didn¡¯t I teach you that before?¡± There was a time in the past I caught her eating a cockroach she¡¯d accidentally stepped on and killed. Based upon a past experience like that, I knew she was dead serious. If she was perfectly fine with godforsaken cockroaches of all things, I had no way to know whether there was anything off-limits for her. When she finished skinning the poor rat alive she stuck her hand out in my direction. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Take it and eat it.¡± ¡°Raw?! Are you crazy?¡± Ah, sorry. That¡¯s right, you¡¯re not crazy, you¡¯re absolutely insane. Calling you crazy would be a compliment rather than an insult after all. Even crazy people would surely think, damn that bitch is crazy when comparing themselves to Adele. ¡°You can¡¯t call just skinning a rat, cooking. Didn¡¯t you say you were going to cook for me? Shouldn¡¯t you at least season it up and boil it in a pot or roast it in the oven or something?¡± That should buy enough time for the cops to show up, so please don¡¯t let me down, Adele. Daddy needs a new lease on life since you¡¯re the crazy type to throw that shit straight out the window. Hell, there isn¡¯t enough life in the world to fill the creases between her teeth let alone my little life. It wouldn¡¯t even be enough to act as an appetizer for this lunatic of an ex-girlfriend. Thankfully, my words were not in vain and she lowered her gaze seemingly in deep thought when she heard me voice my concerns. Throughout our exchange, I found it very difficult to stop the sweat that accumulated on my forehead from sliding down the side of my cheeks. There was an eerie silence between the two of us and it was so silent that I could actually hear as the beads of sweat dripped down from my chin and splattered on top of my lap. I somehow doubted the so-called ghost girlfriend would be able to terrify me more than this psychotic woman. ¡°Well, I suppose if I¡¯m going to make you your last meal, I should make it taste better.¡± Last meal? Hurry up, officers! What are you lazy bastards doing? Get your butts over here ASAP! Just a few words from her were enough to cause my heart to thump heavily against my chest and make the inside of my mouth turn dry from nervousness. ¡°Hmhmmhmmhmmm.¡± For some reason, her happy humming as she headed towards the door sounded like the most dreadful horror movie effects imaginable to me. Forget about little children singing creepy nursery rhymes. It was to the point that all the hair on my body stood on ends and it was definitely on a level far above a little creepy ghost girl giggling at the end of a dark hallway.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. She walked out the door and closed it behind her before I heard her footsteps head in the direction of the kitchen area. Through the closed door, the sounds of pots and pans being tossed about before they crashed loudly against the ground and walls could be heard outside my room. I could tell she¡¯d certainly made a mess in record time. It was only when she wasn¡¯t in the room that I realized how erratic my heart raced from the sheer terror of my present situation. Just looking at the skin she¡¯d tossed to the ground after she mutilated the rat left me heaving long drawn out breaths of cold air in and out of my lungs when I tried to calm myself down. Rather than helping me regain my composure, it just sent more shivers down my back. If I made a wrong move, I¡¯d definitely end up like that poor rat. I got up from my seat and tiptoed my way over to the door. I tried to open it, but I found that the door was wedged and there was no way for me to sneak out without alerting her. I turned my line of sight towards the window behind my laptop and pried open a gap between the horizontal blinds to keep an eye out for the cop¡¯s arrival. I was on the 20th floor of a high rise apartment complex and there was no way I¡¯d be able to survive a fall like this, so I could only pray the cops reached here before it was too late. There was a balcony, but it was only accessible through the living room. The window was too far to jump to the balcony and it wasn¡¯t possible to open it anyways. Right now I was in a locked room situation with no escape in sight. ¡°Hmmhmhmhmmm. Darling, I hope you don¡¯t have any strange ideas. I wouldn¡¯t want to have to slit your ankles so you can¡¯t run away from me again.¡± Of course, those were the terrifying words that came from the mouth of my psychotic ex-girlfriend who I heard happily cooking my last supper behind the door that led to hell. ¡°Oh, by the way, darling, I took the liberty to remove the battery from your phone before you woke up so we wouldn¡¯t need to worry about the cops coming to ruin our merry little reunion.¡± The words of the grim reaper resounded in my ear like a hammer striking a gong. Naturally, I hurriedly pulled out my smartphone and tried to turn it on. To my horror and dismay, I realized I couldn¡¯t. How did she pull it off without waking me up? With her words echoing in my head like the cry of a savage beast, it was almost as if she¡¯d thrown a bucket of ice-cold water ruthlessly against my face. My naive hope of rescue arriving to save me was completely thwarted and washed right down the drain. Even though that plan was a failure, I still refused to completely give up. With that plan rotting in the gutter, my brain rapidly moved towards another path towards survival. I sat back down on my chair in front of my laptop and turned it on. Thankfully, she didn¡¯t remove the battery or take the power cord for it. Seeing it boot up so easily, I doubted myself. Would she really just leave me with such a convenient device like this that could be used to contact the outside world to request for help? I opened up Brave, because I really needed the browser that would pump me full with the most courage; however, the first words that entered my eyes were ¡°this site cannot be reached.¡± I looked down and checked the connection status and saw a disgusting red X in the corner indicating there was no connection to the internet. I stood up and rushed over to the modem and found the power cord was¡­ missing. This can¡¯t be happening¡­ no internet? ¡°Oh that¡¯s right, I forgot to mention you can use your laptop to enjoy those games you like, but you can only enjoy offline single-player since it wouldn¡¯t be good if someone was rude enough to disrupt our alone time.¡± I fell to my knees in crushing defeat and looked up at the ceiling of my room and screamed out, ¡°A laptop without an internet connection is just scrap metal! You! YOU MONSTER!¡± How can such a horrifying monster exist? To take away the internet is equivalent to killing me off. How can a person in the modern age live without an internet connection? Damn it, I can¡¯t even use my phone as a hotspot. I knew I should have bought a second smartphone and kept it hidden in case of emergencies! Wait¡­ a phone? Chapter 3. Chapter 3. What about dial-up? I do have an old laptop lying around that still has a phone jack port of the ancient era of corded phones. I also happen to have an AOL dial-up free trial disk lying around with it as well. Having thought up to here, I rushed over to my closet where I stored the relics from my thirty years of life on this planet. Not long after rummaging through the junk, I found the disk buried along with my ancient antique of a Toshiba laptop; thankfully, its power cable was still intact. I rushed over to the power outlet, plugged it in, and booted it up. A glorious Windows Vista logo appeared on the monitor, which had me nearly jumping for joy at first; only until it registered in my head. Windows Vista! Why this godforsaken trash OS of all things! Was I an idiot five years ago! Of course, two minutes later, to my dismay, it entered the bios setup utility. I moved over to the exit tab and selected, save changes and exit, in hope that it would somehow miraculously start. Once again the Windows Vista logo popped up, but again another failed boot crushed my fleeting wishes of finding an easy solution. This piece of junk hadn¡¯t been turned on for at least five years, what was I really expecting? Damn it! It was probably over ten bloody years old by this point in time. It was all in all, practicality a freaking antiquated pile of scrap metal now. However, I tested my pitiful luck one more time and went to the exit tab and selected to save changes and exit one more time. The Windows Vista logo popped up once again and I closed my eyes tightly for a solid five minutes while thinking of my next course of action when it failed for the third time. When I finally reopened my eyes, a wide smile bloomed on my face like a beggar had been given a shot at newfound life. It actually got past the boot screen and displayed a familiar beloved anime character that I still proudly used as part of my present gaming laptop¡¯s wallpaper on shuffle. It was only natural that I named my laptop after my anime waifu. Now was not the time to reminisce over the past though. I opened up the disk drive and put the disk in and waited patiently. It took a good five minutes before anything popped up on the screen and I struggled through the agonizingly slow installation process that had me pulling at my hair. I grabbed a phone cable from the box and plugged it into the socket in the wall and ten minutes later I came to the sudden realization that I was a complete idiot. There was no way an AOL free trial disk from all those years ago would actually still work. If I¡¯m remembering correctly, they even discontinued distributing them in 2006. Weren¡¯t they essentially useless collectibles gathering dust now?Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. If I wasn¡¯t under such a stressful situation, there was no way I¡¯d make such a rookie mistake. Once I realized I¡¯d reached another dead end, I knew I needed to think of another way to call for help without her catching on. I looked through my box of keepsakes that I stashed away in the closet and found a powerline adaptor which could potentially allow me to access the internet through a power socket. Before I rushed over to the power outlet, I thought about it and realized there was no power cord for the modem to begin with. Since it needed to be connected to the router to start with it was another dead-end idea. What if I just created a new power cord for the modem? I could use my old laptop cable and just strip the wires and touch the live wire to the center pin and the ground wire to the outer shell to complete the circuit. I rummaged through my closet, but I soon discovered all my tools were missing. She even went so far as to hide those? Aren¡¯t I a bit too boned here? As time continued to tick by, the pressure weighing down on my back only intensified. Damnit, I even built a stupid mini supercomputer in my closet, but without an internet connection, what good was that thing to me right now? Shit! It¡¯s because of building that stupid piece of junk that I never had any spare money to afford a second smartphone in the first place. I shouldn¡¯t have been so damn frugal and stingy with money. I really should have taken some out of the budget that I¡¯d allocated to building it to at least get a second smartphone. Building it was a bit of a hobby of mine, but I hardly ever used it since it was inconvenient compared to my laptop which could easily be transported anywhere. Also, the amount of heat released by it would turn my room into a sauna, which was of course extremely uncomfortable. I even went as far as using a liquid nitrogen cooling system instead of an inefficient fan, but it still turned my room into a desert if left on for too long. Another factor contributing to why I hardly used it was the gigantic electricity bill I¡¯d rack up. I actually needed damn generators as a supplementary power source since I¡¯d blow the fuses in the apartment complex due to drawing too much power. Another money drainer was that I needed to completely soundproof the closet with prism-shaped shock absorbers plastered along the walls to avoid disturbing my neighbors. I learned that the hard way after they filed noise complaints with the cops. Explaining it to the cops definitely wasn¡¯t a fun time. Every cent I earned went into that pile of junk in my closet. I mainly just made it for fun to pass the time and relieve some stress from my job. Working as an electrical engineer was exhausting with all the deadlines, pressure, and expectations after all. If being an electrical engineer wasn¡¯t enough, I¡¯ve always found myself together with the craziest of women. It¡¯s like I¡¯m just a magnet for bad unhealthy relationships and life decisions. Ugh, what am I even thinking right now? Focus, I¡¯ve got to concentrate on the task at hand or I¡¯m doomed. What else can I do? I picked up my old laptop from the ground and placed it beside my gaming laptop and blankly looked at the monitors while in deep thought. I need to keep thinking. I must find a way, anything, but what can I possibly do in a situation like this? How about leaching off of someone else¡¯s Wifi network? Could that work? Chapter 4. Chapter 4. I peeked over at my gaming laptop and clicked on the icon to open up the list of local Wifi networks available. Disappointingly, there were none, much unlike how it normally was. I found it strangely bizarre when I thought about it more carefully. There was no way she¡¯d be able to take down all modems in the vicinity, would she? When I turned my gaze towards my old laptop and similarly clicked on the icon to show the local Wifi networks available, shockingly they were all there. There were about ten networks available, but unfortunately, they all required passwords. Puzzled by the difference between the two, I picked up my gaming laptop and examined the edges closer. Upon inspection, I realized there were traces of the dust that was originally gathered along the edges missing. It was evident that it had been opened up recently. Holy shit! Did she actually take out the Wifi card from the motherboard? But by this point, there really was no point being scared of the creepy stalker level shit she¡¯d pulled off while I was asleep. I couldn¡¯t afford to panic and I could only accept the reality of the situation and move on. Deep breaths. Stay calm. Where there¡¯s a will, there¡¯s a way. I could potentially take the Wifi card out of my old laptop and put it into my gaming laptop, but that still wouldn¡¯t solve my problem of not knowing the password to any of my neighbor¡¯s Wifi networks. I do have some cracking programs that could potentially get lucky on one of the ten networks, but unfortunately, it¡¯s on another one of my USB flash drives in the living room. Since I was never in a situation where I didn¡¯t have access to the internet here, I never bothered to crack their passwords. In the good old days, before I moved here, I played around with cracking Wifi passwords for ¡°educational purposes¡± of course. Yes, good old educational purposes that starts with the letter p and ends with orn. It was only when my eyes wandered aimlessly in the direction of my old laptop that I noticed a particular icon on the desktop screen named brute force. Ah! That¡¯s right! Back then I was still young and immature and coded up a brute force program for this very purpose. Ah the good old days where brute force was slow but still somewhat plausible, I was such an amateur back then. After I made it and tested it out, I easily realized how idiotic the endeavor was due to the pathetic processor on my old laptop. However, isn¡¯t this just perfect for my present situation? Don¡¯t I have just the right piece of junk in the closet? It¡¯s about 500-1000 times faster than my gaming laptop, which is already a far cry ahead of my old laptop, right? With such thoughts in mind, I unplugged the flash drive that was plugged into my gaming laptop, then inserted it into the old antique and transferred the required programs onto it. After I finished copying the files, I opened them up on my gaming laptop that was far superior speed wise. I modified the code a bit so it would work properly on my homemade mini supercomputer. Naturally, parallel processing was a course I¡¯d taken in university, so it didn¡¯t take too long to modify the code; in fact, the entire process of editing the code only took about ten minutes since I still had some old projects where I could essentially just copy and paste it then use the find and replace feature to change a few of the variables in the code to suit my needs. Once I was finished, I transferred the new files back onto the flash drive after compiling the code into an executable.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. By the time I finished, altogether, forty minutes had passed since she began cooking and I was really getting nervous. I was running out of time and I presumed in the best case, I had at most twenty minutes until she finished cooking. My head was spinning from the precarious situation I found myself in and I was sweating buckets right now. I approached my neglected mini supercomputer and turned it on, it only took thirty seconds for it to finish booting up unlike that antique failure of a laptop of mine. I plugged in the flash drive and ran the brute force program on the ten different available Wifi networks simultaneously. Once it managed to connect to one it would trigger the program to cease brute-forcing the other networks. I¡¯d also modified the code in the program to immediately broadcast an automated SOS emergency message on police radio frequencies which would provide them with my exact geographic coordinates to ensure they would be able to easily locate me. When everything was set up and running as intended, I stepped out of the closet, grabbed my old laptop, and powered it off. I then tossed everything I¡¯d taken out back into the closet to avoid raising her suspicions when she returned. I moved over to the window by the table where my gaming laptop was positioned and took a long breath of cold air in. I then slowly exhaled at a constant pace, once again trying to calm the rampant chaotic mess of emotions running amok inside my head. It was an arduous battle, but I, at the very least, managed to create a small possibility of survival after this run-in with my psychotic ex. I¡¯d done what I could and now I could only wait and pray that my efforts weren¡¯t in vain. It was difficult to believe just how prepared she was for this though. I couldn¡¯t help but strengthen my belief that women really were dreadful creatures when their love became twisted and warped. After twenty excruciatingly long minutes passed, I finally heard footsteps slowly approaching from the other side of the door. I closed my eyes and simply waited patiently. I already knew after searching earlier that I didn¡¯t have anything in my room that I could effectively use as a weapon. My laptop was a no go. I¡¯d cry too many tears of blood if I went and broke it like a brute. I¡¯d probably fail even if I tried to use it as a weapon. Adele was far too fast and agile, she was far more athletic than I was. At times she reminded me of an experienced trained hunter, and it was far too difficult for me to actually pull anything off. The clunky chair in my room was metallic and heavy. It was a single metallic piece for the base that couldn¡¯t be deconstructed without any of my tools which I¡¯d already confirmed were missing. I was also not strong enough to wave the chair around like a clown in a futile attempt to keep her away from me. My bed doesn¡¯t have any legs either. It¡¯s just a mattress on the ground because I was too cheap to pay for a proper bed frame. My room was barren of any other furniture since I didn¡¯t have any real desire to buy anything unrelated to computers. This was the one time I cursed my frugal lifestyle more than anything else in my life. Any of the few weapons I purchased and stored away for times of emergency like this were all missing, similar to the tools that I kept in the closet. She really was far too thorough. Bang! Bang! Bang! With three strong kicks, the door behind me flew open rotating around the hinge as it slammed against the wall. ¡°Darling, your last supper is ready.¡± I didn¡¯t really want to look, but I needed to stall for time, so I opened my eyes and turned towards the door. My eyes immediately landed on the skinned roasted rat laying on a silver platter. I didn¡¯t pay much attention to it before, but there were holes all over its body. When I finally realized what they were from I wanted to vomit. On the left side of the platter beside the rat was a small pile of disgusting yellow mush. To the right of it, I found the shells of what were once parasitic botflies. I gagged reflexively when I thought about the fact that she really expected me to eat something on this level of disgusting. Chapter 5. Chapter 5. ¡°Darling, I know how much you like condiments so I made sure to prepare a few that I thought you would love. What do you think? Does it look good?¡± With a livid expression and monotone voice, I responded to her unfounded confidence, ¡°uh¡­ yeah, it looks delicious. Haha. Haha. Hahaha.¡± ¡°Well? Darling? Aren¡¯t you going to eat? Go ahead, eat up, eat up.¡± I was suddenly having thoughts that dying might not be so bad when I weighed the options on a scale in my head. ¡°Isn¡¯t it still a bit too hot? Shouldn¡¯t I wait for it to cool down a bit?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a problem, I¡¯ll just blow on it a bit to cool it down and feed you like how we always did in the past?¡± That is absolutely not going to happen. ¡°Uh, what about drinks?¡± ¡°Oh! That¡¯s right! How could I forget about that? Silly me. Just give me a few minutes, I¡¯ll prepare a drink immediately.¡± She walked over to my desk with a scary smile on her face and she placed the disgusting platter down. My gaze was locked onto her crazy eyes as she picked up a cup from my table. She opened her mouth and allowed her saliva to flow down, slowly filling the cup. Why did she need to have the most disgusting ideas for meals? If I wasn¡¯t holding myself back, my entire body would be convulsing and twitching in revulsion. Despite thinking as such, I somehow held back from displaying my true thoughts on the matter. If I miraculously make it out of this alive, I¡¯m definitely moving. How did this crazy chick even find my new apartment anyways? Ten minutes silently passed by quickly while she prepared what I presumed was my drink. When the cup was full to the brim, she placed it back on the desk beside the platter and said, ¡°do you have any other requests you¡¯d like for me to fulfill?¡± ¡°Can I at least have a straw?¡± I¡¯d really run out of ideas to stall and I was literally a dying man grasping at straws. It was humiliating to truly come to a personal understanding behind the meaning of the idiom. ¡°Anything for my darling.¡± She left the room and not long after, she returned with a straw from the kitchen and stuck it in the cup. With no other ideas, I reluctantly picked up the fork and knife from on top of the platter and cut into the rat. I dipped a piece into the bot fly condiments on the side and lifted the fork up to her and said, ¡°ladies first.¡± Her lips twitched a bit, but she still smiled and opened her mouth wide and moved forward clearly intent on eating it without the slightest hesitation.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Crash! Just as the fork was about to enter her mouth, to our side, the sound of broken glass falling to the ground reverberated through the room. The next thing I knew a man with SWAT written on his back was pinning my ex down onto the ground and restraining her movements. He had already kicked the knife she had in hand to the far corner of the room preventing her from putting up any resistance. There were pieces of shattered glass littered all over the desk and floor from his sudden entry through the window. It didn¡¯t take long before more SWAT members came rushing into the room through the door. Seeing their reassuring bulky figures, I felt like I¡¯d somehow just barely avoided the biggest calamity of my life by a very small margin. ¡°Tch. Darling, it looks like our reunion this time has been rudely interrupted by a bunch of lanky brutes.¡± I¡¯d been dying to find out for a while how she found me, so I asked her now that I had the chance, ¡°Adele, how did you find my new apartment?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lady¡¯s secret, darling. Maybe I¡¯ll tell you next time when we have some more private time.¡± ¡°Please just leave me alone. I really don¡¯t want to ever see you again. We broke up, so please just accept reality already. Isn¡¯t it enough? Can¡¯t you just forget about me and live a happy life? The longer you act like this the more of your life you¡¯re going to waste away in that mental asylum.¡± ¡°What are you talking about darling? We¡¯re the perfect couple. We were born to be together. You even told me you loved me the first time we met exactly eight years, four months, twenty days, one hour, forty-two minutes, three seconds, and thirteen-tenths of a second from precisely this moment.¡± Scary! How the hell?! There¡¯s no way in hell she can be that accurate for such a stupid event! ¡°That was just a result of university kids playing truth or dare!¡± ¡°Even if it was a dare, my love for you was eternal from that point forward.¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t there been countless men who¡¯ve told you that over the years?¡± ¡°They¡¯re all dead liars. You¡¯re the only truthful man alive who has ever told me that you love me.¡± Crazy. That¡¯s the only word I had for her. The first time we had sex was back in university where she nearly killed me by strangling me when she rode on top of me. I thought she was just the wild type of girl who was getting a bit carried away and it was honestly a bit hot at first. Little did I know how wrong I was back then. One day I discovered, or should I say, she presented her deepest and darkest secret to me. We always met up at my place, and about three years after we started going out, I visited her parent¡¯s house for the first time when she mentioned to me in passing that she wanted to visit her hometown to meet them together. I truly never expected what laid in wait for me back then. My relationship with her was the longest, as well as the first, out of the five crazy relationships I¡¯d been in. She was definitely among the very top of the list for the most psychotic girlfriends I ever had. Back then, we traveled by passenger train to her hometown; she had a liking towards old fashioned modes of transportation and said she found it romantic. I didn¡¯t bother to really question her about it since it felt like a girl thing. When we arrived at the train station in her hometown in the countryside, we walked hand in hand and followed along the road towards a forest in the distance. After we walked for about an hour, we arrived at the forest¡¯s tree line where we proceeded down a trail that led deep into the forest. She told me her family was quite well off, that they liked to stay distanced from the mundane world and closer to nature; thus they built a mansion out here in the boonies where they peacefully lived together in harmony among the wildlife. She also mentioned they were very deeply rooted here and couldn¡¯t find it in themselves to move anywhere else. It was only later I understood how literal her words really were. Chapter 6. Chapter 6. When we finally arrived at our destination after several long hours of hiking in the woods, what came into sight was a large mansion with ten-foot walls erected around it¡¯s surrounding area. It stretched as far as the eye could see, but it was disguised and hidden well in the densely packed trees deep within the forest. We entered through a rusted gate at the front and ventured inside. Behind the gate, there were even more trees lying in wait. There was a narrow path that branched off into several directions throughout the forest enclosed behind the walls. The first thing I noticed when we entered was the three gravestones off to the side in an open patch not too far off from the gate. When I asked about it, she just said those were the graves of a few of her deceased family members. At the time, I didn¡¯t think too much about it since my head was in the clouds when we were together. I was really looking forward to meeting her parents despite being slightly nervous. Would I appear to be a poor match for their daughter? I remembered having such normal innocent thoughts back then. However, it didn¡¯t take very long for my thoughts to change when we arrived at the main building. When she first opened the door, a small gust of wind blew into my face and with it, it brought a rather peculiar smell. If I had to describe it, it was musty, like mildew or mold had built up excessively over an extended period of time. It felt like it had been quite some time since anyone had actually lived there. Rather than somewhere that somebody would live, it all felt very off-putting; it was not homely at all. Rather than somewhere warm a family lived together, it felt cold, isolated, and abandoned. When I asked her about it, she just laughed it off a bit and said her parents sometimes spent time away from the main building and they stayed in some of the smaller housing areas within the premises. She said they didn¡¯t like servants or maids either so things tended to get a bit musty after some time passed without it being aired out properly. It was by that point I grew a bit more concerned and suspicious. The moment we stepped inside, the fluffy atmosphere we had outside had completely vanished into thin air. The door eerily crept shut behind us before I heard the click of it locking in place when it was fully closed. It was rather chilly inside and the stench was getting worse the deeper we ventured inside. I tried to turn on the lights, but when I flipped the switch, nothing happened. There was either no power, the breaker was tripped or the bulbs were blown, any of those things were enough to put me on edge. She explained and claimed the power to the building was turned off since no one had been using the main building recently. Red flags were going off in my head right, left, and center by that point and I¡¯d grown aware that the entire situation was the perfect setting for a classic horror film. When I asked her if she was pulling a prank on me to try and scare me, she smiled and nodded her head, but she didn¡¯t say a single word as she proceeded to drag me further into the mansion with her.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. She led us into an empty room near the back of the mansion where she came to a stop in front of a bookcase at our side. She placed her hand under one of the bookcases¡¯ shelves and after fiddling around a bit, it slid to the side revealing a door behind it. In my nervous state, my heartbeat accelerated out of control. I took a deep breath to try to calm myself down, but it really wasn¡¯t helping much. On the off chance that it wasn¡¯t some sort of prank, I internally prepared myself to make a break for it. She was acting far too strangely. She opened up the door, walked in, and motioned with her hand indicating for me to follow behind her. When we entered, I discovered a winding staircase leading down to what appeared to be the mansion¡¯s basement. Of course, I naturally tried to find out where she was taking me, but she only chuckled and asked if I was a little kid who needed his girlfriend to hold onto his hand. Incensed by her provocative words, the masculine nature in myself, which oozed of concentrated testosterone, was provoked and I said the only natural thing a muscle brained idiot would say in the situation. I widened my larynx and stuck out my chest and in a manly deep tone of voice told her resolutely, ¡°I¡¯m hella scared, so let¡¯s go back, babe.¡± Somehow, I got a laugh out of her by touting the air of a true intellectual alpha male. I¡¯m certain it was a line so powerful and dominant that it had surely made uncountable panties drop throughout the history of mankind. But really, I was scared out of my mind by that point and I really wanted to lighten up the mood somehow. In the end, she held onto my hand and pulled me along, down the winding staircase, and despite how much I protested against it, she didn¡¯t listen to a single word I said. When we reached the bottom of the staircase, a rancid odor grew more distinct. It smelt reminiscent of dead rats or animals on a farm. When she pushed open the door to what I initially thought was the basement, I finally saw what I was most afraid of seeing. There were about fifty human skeletons and one body that had a few scraps of decaying rotten flesh remaining on it. The majority of the organs were eaten up and in a tattered state with only small portions of it still intact. There were several rats digging in, they were all eating away at the body and there were maggots growing out of what little flesh remained on the decayed body. The disgusting sight, combined with the foul stench left me in a state where I couldn¡¯t hold back any longer. Without any warning, I spilled some nasty looking spaghetti all over the ground. In my delirious, horror-stricken state, I asked her what the meaning of the scene she¡¯d shown me was. She simply told me that they didn¡¯t love her for who she was, so she had to lock them up here to let them play with her pets. She actually got a bit flustered as well and explained that she hadn¡¯t visited them once during the three years we were together. It was almost like she was afraid I¡¯d think she was cheating and seeing other men while we were together. After she explained everything, she asked me while looking deep into my eyes whether I loved her for who she was. I knew for certain what fate awaited me if I said I didn¡¯t love her, so the only thing I could do was tell her that it was only natural that I loved her. I lied through my teeth, looked her in the eyes, and forced myself to put on a warm loving smile while I killed off all my true thoughts jumping about chaotically in my head. When people told me women had all sorts of baggage, I scoffed it off as nothing much in the past. It wasn¡¯t until that very moment that I finally understood just how heavy that baggage could truly be. It was baggage so heavy that it was surely more than enough to leave me eternally devastated and scarred. Chapter 7. Chapter 7. The moment I saw the skeletons littered across the ground, I suddenly remembered the three graves we¡¯d passed by on our way here and a sense of dread filled my heart. I had a creeping suspicion, but I didn¡¯t want to accept that it could be true. However, when I thought about everything she said since we arrived, I felt like it was the only possible answer. When I finally worked up the courage and asked her which family members the three gravestones near the entrance of the mansion belonged to, she put on a warm smile and told me they belonged to her parents and elder sister. She went into detail about how she personally killed them because they didn¡¯t truly love her for who she was. She explained everything to me merrily like she was reminiscing about memories she was fond of. She put on a joyful appearance when she explained how she meticulously tortured them in various ways. Listening to her explanations, I started to lose all faith in humanity. I prayed for it to be a lie to test how committed I was to her, but her serious face left me thinking otherwise. When she finished recounting everything, she asked me with her terror-inducing, unblinking eyes, whether I truly loved everything about her. Of course, I couldn¡¯t find it in myself to love her after I heard what she personally did to her own flesh and blood. How could anyone possibly love such a monster? However, I was certain that if I answered incorrectly, I¡¯d very likely end up like the poor saps over there, left as nothing more than a meal for her pet rats. With such thoughts in mind, I stiffly nodded my head forcefully as the words, ¡°I love every aspect about you¡± escaped my dry cracked up lips. My throat was similarly parched and the inside of my mouth was devoid of all saliva. I found it very difficult to utter a single word, but I still somehow managed to voice the lies I instinctively knew she desired to hear from me the most. At the time she said, ¡°I¡¯m glad. I¡¯m really truly happy you can still say that. You¡¯re the first to say that after being told about my parents and sister. Every single one of those two-faced bastards just called me a monster and tried to run away. I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t need to use this, this time.¡± She pulled out a gun from her purse and shot a lovely, or should I say spine chilling smile my way. She tossed the gun to the side, approached me, and when she came to a stop directly in front of me, our lips locked together. It was the worst kiss I ever had with her, but she looked extremely content with it like she felt she was really loved and treasured by me. I thought I was in the clear when we reached that point, but without my notice, she¡¯d pulled out a taser from her purse. Before I realized anything fishy, I¡¯d collapsed into her embrace powerless, unable to move a single muscle. When I looked at her thinking she¡¯d deceived me, she merely chuckled quietly and stated she still wanted more proof that I was being truthful and that I really loved her.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. I was horrified, I shouldn¡¯t have let my guard down. All sorts of crazy thoughts rushed through my mind at the time and I thought for sure I¡¯d be tortured to test my ¡®love¡¯ for her. However, contrary to what I thought, she stated she was only taking precautions in case I tried to run or pull something on her while she performed her so-called test of my love. She laid me down on the ground and pulled down my pants and told me that if I truly loved her, I should still be able to get a hard-on even in a situation like this. Naturally, I nearly coughed up blood from her insane twisted approach for a test of love. She really expected me to be able to pull off such a grand feat after everything she¡¯d just done to me? I felt like I¡¯d been completely checkmated. There was no way in hell I could really forcefully produce such an impressive result. After all, I was dealing with a monstrous psychotic freak of nature who had her eyes locked on my Johnson, who even looked like she¡¯d cut it off if I were to fail her little test. No, my Johnson was the least of my worries back then. If I failed her so-called last test, she would definitely have killed me and I wouldn¡¯t be alive today to tell the tale to begin with. The only thing I could do back then was to feebly look her in the eyes and struggle to tell her it would be very difficult without a bit of a helping hand. Since I knew my life tethered on the edge between life and death based upon whether I could get a hard-on or not, I steeled my resolve and closed my eyes. Boy, that was definitely a line I never imagined I¡¯d ever have thought in my life if not for meeting her. To have one''s line hang on the balance and depend on whether you could get a stiffy was definitely not a story I ever wanted to tell anyone I knew. Anyways, with her understanding, she lent a hand with the biggest moral dilemma of my life. I closed my eyes and imagined the most erotic scene I¡¯d ever seen. I did something absolutely horrible, but necessary, I forgot about the girl who¡¯d lent me a hand and self-deluded myself into thinking she was another woman. I forcefully shoved all the irrelevant information that would block my path to survival and I let nature take its course. When fully erect, I heard her giggle gleefully and also heard when she stood up. What followed was the sound of her clothes falling to the ground. The sound was very distinct and perhaps heightened thanks to having my eyes closed. I could tell she¡¯d only taken off her mini skirt when she straddled my waist as the feeling of the pair of familiar bare, silky soft legs were pressed up against my sides. She rested the palms of her hands against my chest and the rest after that was a complete blur. It was a traumatizing event after all. It wasn¡¯t something I¡¯d think back on fondly and get off to. Just thinking about the fact that she was in the mood to monkey around where the dead were watching sent chills down my back. She practically put on a show for all the rats and maggots in the background that watched us with their curious beady little disgusting eyes glued to every one of our actions. I could only imagine how unsanitary it was with the entire floor littered with rat feces and dead maggot carcasses. Chapter 8. Chapter 8. ¡°HQ, the hostage has been secured. I repeat; the hostage has been secured.¡± ¡°Good work Team Alpha.¡± ¡°There appears to be a problem with the hostage though, he¡¯s been rather unresponsive and in a daze. We think he may have a form of PTSD.¡± ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m fine. I was just a bit lost in thought just now recalling a few frightful memories just now.¡± ¡°Say so sooner, you just stood their blankly without responding to any of our questions.¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s not every day a psycho ex-girlfriend comes after your life.¡± ¡°Ex-girlfriend? You mean to say, you¡¯re her ex-boyfriend, Diogenes Genovese, the one who reported her five years ago and got her sentenced to a lifetime in a mental asylum?¡± ¡°Eh? You actually know who she is?¡± ¡°Of course, I recognized her the moment I burst through your window and restrained her. You are pretty lucky I recognized her and didn¡¯t mistake her to be the hostage by accident. When I first saw you holding a fork up to her mouth I was about to take you down until I took a better look and realized who she was.¡± ¡°Haha, that would definitely be awkward if you took the wrong person down, wouldn¡¯t it? But there¡¯s no way an experienced SWAT member like you would not notice the knife in her hand, right?¡± ¡°Well, she could have been holding it up in self-defense to try and resist you.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it discriminatory to assume the female is automatically the hostage?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a tough world out there. Deal with it.¡± Where¡¯s the so-called equality women like to fight for when you really need it? ¡°Men, take her away.¡± ¡°Kid, you should probably move. To be honest, even we don¡¯t know how she escaped. You never know if there could be a second time.¡± ¡°Yeah, moving was my intention.¡± I didn¡¯t know how she escaped, but if she could do it once, then it really wouldn¡¯t be surprising if it happened again. ¡°Darling, I¡¯ll see you next time.¡± I felt a chilly sensation when I thought that the possibility of us meeting again really might be plausible when I saw her calm confident eyes despite being restrained.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. As such, when everyone was gone, I immediately called a moving company and had all my things put into a storage locker temporarily. I also got in touch with management for the building, explained the situation, and immediately terminated my lease. They were understanding of my circumstances and I wasn¡¯t charged any penalties for breaking the contract early. I immediately contacted my workplace and handed in my resignation letter in fear my ex-girlfriend somehow located me through social engineering by discovering where I worked and extracting it from a loose-lipped coworker. It was a real pain to quit since it was a well-paying job I¡¯d been with for a while, but I didn¡¯t have much choice in the event she miraculously escaped again. With the assistance of a realtor agent, it only took a month for me to find a new apartment. The place was dirt cheap at only $200 a month. I was happy it was cheap, but I knew there definitely must have been a reason. When I asked why it was so cheap, they just told me that someone had recently committed suicide in the room and people were too scared to live in it in fear of it being haunted by the ghost of the previous tenant. They were really vague about the previous tenant¡¯s death, but I didn¡¯t question it much since it wasn¡¯t any of my business how another person chose to die. Luckily for me, I was an atheist and skeptical of ghosts to begin with, so I wasn¡¯t too worried about things like it being haunted. Rather than ghosts, it was real people that scared me the most, so it wasn¡¯t a big deal for me to stay there. Like that, I moved in without giving much thought to it since I was still spooked by my run-in with my first ex and I wanted to get out of my old place as soon as possible. The place still had the old tenant¡¯s belongings inside, but I was told I could do whatever I wanted with it. Nobody wanted to take on the job of clearing out the place since everybody was too spooked thinking they would be cursed if they so much as stepped into the place. When I settled into my new apartment and all my possessions were brought out of storage, I immediately searched for a new job. At first, I figured I¡¯d stick with something temporary. I didn¡¯t care too much about what I did and I didn¡¯t really care if it was a high paying job. Luckily for me, with a decent resume and good references, I landed a job as a senior electronics repair technician at a local electronics repair store that had branches in various cities across the country. It was a position at their head office as well which was nice. I was a bit nervous using my last workplace as a reference though, so I requested that no records were left regarding the call my new workplace made to inquire about me. Once things calmed down, I had some time to relax a bit. When my stirred emotions had settled and I wasn¡¯t on edge anymore, I went through the previous tenant¡¯s belongings and cleaned up the place a bit. During the cleanup process, I stumbled across a rather peculiar item that sparked a memory from a recent event. It was an old VCR player along with a lone VHS cassette tape. Despite not believing in ghosts, I was still nervous when I remembered the rumors circulating on the web about the alleged ghost girlfriend. I¡¯ve had more than enough psychotic women in my life; as I absolutely wanted nothing to do with it, I did the smart thing that any sane person would scream at the cast to do in a horror movie situation. I put on a pair of thick rubber gloves, doused the VHS tape and my rubber gloves in salt, bought a grabber arm, and used it to toss it straight out the window. Like hell am I letting another psychotic woman into my life. Hmmp! It wasn¡¯t too hard for me to put two and two together with the discovery of the VHS tape and the timing of the death. The tenant was discovered dead three weeks ago. They were likely an outcast from society and they stuffed themselves up in their room for the majority of their time. It likely wasn¡¯t until a neighbor smelled a rancid odor originating from the previous tenant¡¯s unit that the body was discovered. This would likely explain the slight delay between the forum post and when the death was discovered. From what I heard, the tenant had no family, nor did they have a significant other. The cops came to the natural conclusion it was a case of suicide and as such, they didn¡¯t dig any deeper into it. Chapter 9. Chapter 9. Although the circumstantial evidence connecting the two events weren¡¯t necessarily the strongest; in fact, it could just be a coincidence. Despite that, it really felt likely that I¡¯d stumbled across the location where the guy from the thread a month ago allegedly met the rumored ghost girlfriend and died. Either way, what¡¯s in the past was in the past. I still didn¡¯t believe the so-called ghost girlfriend was real and I was more inclined to believe it was really suicide like the cops thought. I didn¡¯t want to be too cocky though, so I still took precautions to dispose of the VHS cassette tape in the manner that I had, but that was just me being paranoid. I¡¯m skeptical of them existing, but I¡¯d rather not invite them to disturb my peaceful and quiet lifestyle in the off chance they really existed. When I finished my thorough clean up of the place, satisfied by my work, I climbed into my bed and peacefully visited the world of dreams. I was completely unworried about any spooky ghost girls that may or may not exist and be out for anyone¡¯s life. When I fell asleep, I expected to have nice and peaceful dreams with how I handled the situation. However, rather than a peaceful dream, it was a somewhat ominous one instead. In the dream, I opened my eyes and the first thing that came into view was a gravestone. When I looked around, I easily recognized where I was. It was the mansion that belonged to my first ex-girlfriend. When I examined the gravestone, I realized the name written on it was scratched out and indiscernible. When I moved my face nearer to try and inspect it more closely, a hand shot out of the ground which nearly led my heart to leap out of my chest from the unexpected disturbance. The shock of the sudden jump scare kicked me out of the dream and I found myself on top of my bed, cold sweating and hyperventilating when I woke up like I¡¯d just finished a marathon. After some time passed while warily looking about my room, nothing further happened as one might have expected. Only the dead silence of the night returned my anxious state of mind. I let out a sigh of relief and got up to take a shower to get rid of the uncomfortable sticky sensation on my skin left behind by the cold sweat. When I got out of bed, my foot landed on something cold and hard. Confused by the foreign object below, I glanced at the ground and my heart immediately dropped to the ground. Nope! Just, nope! It was the remote control for the TV. That¡¯s definitely not a VHS cassette tape! It¡¯s just a remote control, a remote. I¡¯m not hallucinating or anything, that is without a doubt a remote control! I looked up, walked over quickly to the bathroom, flipped the light switch, then stripped my clothes before I turned on the hot water, and jumped into the tub. It was just late at night and I was just a bit spooked after what I went through, that was all there was to it. It was just my imagination, my mind playing tricks on me. When I leave the washroom, there definitely will not be a VHS cassette tape by my bed. I closed my eyes and continually repeated the same words over and over again to try to brainwash myself. All I could hear was the pitter-patter of the drops of water landing on top of my head before they rolled down my body and went down the drain. I inhaled and let the warm steam enter my lungs as I simultaneously felt the sticky sweat being washed away as my entire body was cleansed and warmed.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. At least, that was how I felt until I noticed the light that permeated through my closed eyelids flickered on and off along with the sound of a dying bulb in the background. Nope. Not opening these eyes. Absolutely not! I know what happens in the movies. As long as I don¡¯t see it, nothing will be there. The moment I opened my eyes, it would surely be there. Damn it, spooky ghosts are just like Schr?dinger¡¯s cat! Thou shalt not observeth the unobservable! Thou doth not exist unless mine eyes land upon thy ghastly figure! What the hell, the power of mother fucking Christ compels you! I felt the need to emphasize this, but, I am still an atheist. I don¡¯t know why I had the strange urge to reassure myself of this fact. Stuck with my internal dilemmas in mind; like this, the light and I entered into a heated deadlock. If I opened my eyes, I would lose. If the light stopped flickering first, it would lose. ¡­ Ten minutes later. Ah, screw it, stop being a damn pansy! I''m a freaking atheist, what do I even care about a stupid flickering light?! After I had enough of that nonsensical deadlock, I¡¯d clearly grown impatient; I opened my eyes and found there was nothing spooky to be found after all. There was only a flickering light bulb that needed tightening. The flickering light was likely just a result of the steam condensing and interfering with the circuitry or contacts. After I rotated it a bit, like magic, the flickering stopped. Really, when you¡¯re in a somewhat new, unfamiliar environment, just about anything can scare you and leave you jumpy. I am a man of science though, how could I possibly be spooked by something like a flickering light bulb? I¡¯m still immature for a man at the age of thirty if that freaked me out as much as it did. I¡¯ve still got a lot to learn on my long arduous journey towards becoming the king of atheists. When I exited the bathroom, I glanced at the area beside my bed and realized there really was nothing there after all. Haaaah. I must have been hallucinating earlier as I clearly wasn¡¯t in the right state of mind; I was likely still just a bit groggy after just having just woken up from a nightmare. Such mistakes weren¡¯t unheard of or impossible after all. I¡¯ve read about studies where under enough stress, the brain could create sensations so real that they can fool any of your five senses; whether it be touch, sight, hearing, taste or smell, it isn''t an impossible feat to deceive any of them. For example, someone was once shown a knife then blindfolded and they were told they were about to be cut. The scientist simply brushed the knife against their arms, yet they experienced pain to the extent that they truly believed they had been physically cut. That could easily explain the unusual sensation I felt when I thought I stepped on a VHS cassette tape earlier. As for what I saw, it was surely just a hallucination. On a subconscious level, the brain was known to only experience and recognize what it wanted to. Once I reasoned everything out logically, it all made perfect sense. The stress I faced recently was definitely enough to cause such problems. Despite my calm analysis of the situation, I was now in no mood to simply go to sleep though, so I did the only thing any normal person would do. I grabbed my laptop and started surfing the web. Since I wanted to talk to someone about the situation, I decided to pay a visit to the message board I¡¯d stumbled upon when I first discovered the thread that, which I presently suspected, belonged to the now-deceased tenant. I was slightly curious about how people would react to such a far fetched story. The discovery of Anon¡¯s room, as well as the fact that someone who was lurking in that thread actually moved into his former residence; I¡¯m sure there would be people interested to learn of such a juicy clickbait topic like this. Chapter 10. Chapter 10. I created a thread and titled it, ¡°I am a lurker from the past thread who moved into the apartment of the last known victim of the rumored ghost girlfriend.¡± I then made a post to the thread. ¡°FormerLurker: Through a certain sequence of unspeakable events, I accidentally stumbled upon the apartment of the last rumored ghost girlfriend victim. As for how I know it belongs to the previous poster, it is only based upon circumstantial evidence. The tenant of this room was discovered dead three weeks ago. The cops didn¡¯t investigate into much detail since the tenant was known to be a social outcast without family or any loved ones and they assumed his death was just another case of suicide. The body was only discovered one week after he died, only due to a neighbor discovering the rancid odor emanating from the unit who later informed management. The story went unreported in the news. Another reason I suspect it to be the same person was because I discovered a VCR player and an unmarked cassette tape. I don¡¯t really believe in the whole ghost thing, but I wasn¡¯t really daring enough to watch the tape. Instead I disposed of it by tossing it out a window with an arm grabber after dousing it in salt. PS. I¡¯m an atheist lol.¡± Shortly after posting, a flood of replies came in like they were starved for more details. ¡°Troll1: Suicide? For real? So it was just a prank or copycat after all?¡± ¡°Troll2: Take a picture of the room with today¡¯s newspaper as proof.¡± ¡°Troll3: ^Dumbass, what would that prove?¡± ¡°Troll4: OP salted VHS cassette tape. OP tossed it out the window with an arm grabber. LOL am I the only one who picked up on that?¡± ¡°FormerLurker: ^better be safe than sorry, right?¡± ¡°Troll4: ^LMAO exactly. You sir, are a smart man. I believe I shall reward you with all the interwebs.¡± ¡°Troll1: Curious to see if the ghost girlfriend rumors die down now that the cassette tape of rumors is gone.¡± ¡°Troll2: Nah, there will definitely be copycats still.¡± ¡°FormerLurker: Yea arsidcfkgwhijlklldqiweetrotmyouriroopw¡± As I was typing out a response, the keyboard suddenly stopped responding to my input and a weird message from me somehow ended up getting posted. ¡°Troll2: ^What the?¡± ¡°Troll1: ¡­ are you sure you didn¡¯t watch the tape and get possessed lol?¡± ¡°FormerLurker: I really didn¡¯t, but my keyboard stopped responding to my input for a second for some reason.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Troll3: Brah, are you trying to troll the trolls?¡± ¡°FormerLurker: I¡¯m really not.¡± ¡°KHAAAAHAAAHAAAAHAAAAHAHA!¡± The lights in the room which were initially off flickered rapidly for a brief instance along with a loud woman¡¯s cackles that echoed throughout the room. I fell backward on my chair as I felt my heartbeat sore to the skies when my head hit the ground. The moment I¡¯d pressed the enter key on the keyboard, the screen flashed for a moment and a woman¡¯s face drenched in blood, with only the whites of her eyes visible, appeared on the screen before she disappeared a second later. Enough with jump scares please! I seriously hate creepy shit like that! After a few seconds passed by, I realized there was something strange on the ground where my head landed. I was certain it wasn¡¯t the solid ground I¡¯d felt. When I raised my hand behind my head and examined it a bit through the sensation at my fingertips, I nearly had a heart attack. It definitely felt like a VHS cassette tape. I jumped to my feet, scurried away to a corner of the room and looked back at the ground where I was previously; but once again, there was nothing there. I was surely going insane, that had to be it. I really needed to schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist to get myself checked out. When I was about to raise my hand to wipe the sweat on my forehead, I realized something dreadful. What was an empty hand a second ago, now had something solid in it. Fuck man, I¡¯m not a damn magician. Why me? I really wanted to cry. When I looked down, to my dismay, all I saw was my empty hand. Is this place really cursed like everyone else was afraid it was? This was all too much for my fragile heart to bear with. I was an atheist, why was I getting so jumpy over irrational nonsense like ghosts? ¡°You know what? Screw it! Ghost girl, if you¡¯re really there, you¡¯re the most beautiful woman I¡¯ve ever laid eyes on. Please date me.¡± Yeah, that¡¯s right, an atheist just tried to hit on a nonexistent ghost girl. I¡¯m definitely going mad. Unfortunately, or should I say fortunately, I received no reply. But I was not a man to take a cold shoulder for an answer, I needed to make absolutely sure the coast was clear. ¡°Still not coming out? Come at me ghost girl! Bring it! You want a piece of this ass? Fight me grill! I¡¯ll send you flying so far you¡¯ll need ghost dentures when I¡¯m done with you!¡± ¡°Pfft.¡± Eh? What? Wait. Nonono. Hell naw! I looked all around the surrounding area, but I didn¡¯t find anyone in the vicinity. Was I really hearing things now as well? Slowly, but surely, it felt like my senses were being hijacked and controlled by someone else. I¡¯d heard of taking away the player¡¯s ability to flee or fight back in games before, but hijacking the person''s senses that they¡¯re overly dependent on to differentiate reality from fiction was an entirely new concept to me. No, what am I thinking? It¡¯s all in my head, my brain must be playing tricks on me. With my back pressed against the two walls of the room in the corner, I kept a vigilant watch out for anything suspicious until morning without a single wink of shut-eye. Despite my efforts, nothing appeared after that and my first horror-filled night in my new apartment came to an end. It was anticlimactic, but rather than feeling relieved at making it through the night, I felt like I was being toyed with. The entire time it felt like I was being watched. As for how I could tell, it was naturally my sixth sense which was trained through my past relationships with psychotic exes. In all honesty, it was scarier not seeing anything scary compared to actually seeing something scary. My nerves were on edge at all times, constantly waiting, but nothing ever came. It was the type of situation that could drive you to insanity. At some point, I completely forgot about the thread I¡¯d started on that message board. When it was finally morning, I immediately dressed myself before I fled from my apartment and headed over to my new workplace. Chapter 11. Chapter 11. When I arrived at work I was greeted by the junior technicians who looked up to me as their senior despite just recently starting here. All in all, flexing superior experience despite only recently joining the company felt pretty nice. It didn¡¯t take very long before a troubled junior technician approached me seeking guidance. ¡°Hey Dio, no matter how I try to fix this shorted power supply, nothing seems to work. I¡¯ve replaced a lot of the chips, fuses, capacitors, and resistors but the short refuses to go away.¡± Ugh. Power supply problems are a nuisance, but seeing as the poor guy looked up to me with respect, I dutifully did my part as a respectable senior and took a look. Inspecting the top portion of the motherboard didn¡¯t reveal much, there wasn¡¯t anything in particular that really stood out either. There didn¡¯t appear to be any corrosion near any of the components or traces, so I turned the motherboard around to the other side. The other side was just as pristine, but there was a small area with a smidge of corrosion. It was barely visible, but it was close to a hole that looked to be where a screw passed through the motherboard to hold the power supply in place and keep it secured to the chassis. ¡°Did you check out the corrosion by this hole?¡± ¡°There? Why would the corrosion there make a difference?¡± ¡°If the two layers on the board were shorted at some point in time then that could have been what lead to the corrosion you see there. If they are shorted, then you¡¯ll find shorts all along the power supply circuit; hence, no matter how many components you replace, you¡¯ll always have shorts.¡± Sure enough, when I tested for continuity between the layers on the board, the multimeter beeped confirming my suspicions that there was continuity between the layers. ¡°What?! I spent hours on this and you¡¯re telling me the seemingly unimportant corrosion that I ignored because it looked irrelevant was where the problem was? I was about to scrap the board... I want to cry. I want my time back. Why couldn¡¯t you just lie to me and make my life easier? Haaaah. Well... even if I know that¡¯s where the problem is, how would I fix it now?¡± ¡°Well, it depends on how bad the corrosion is, if it¡¯s spread too far into the board and it¡¯s reached the traces then it may not be possible to repair it with the tools we have available.¡± ¡°What you can try to do is scrape away at the layers there and keep checking for continuity. If the continuity disappears between the layers after scraping away at the corroded area, then the power supply problem should hopefully be resolved.¡± Thank god it¡¯s not my problem, I don¡¯t want to do the grunt work for a job that might turn out to be a futile struggle.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Haaaah. Thanks Dio.¡± After providing some pointers to my pitiful junior, I went over to my desk to check on the work orders in the system that were assigned for me to handle. Luckily, it looked like there were only three at the moment that needed my attention. I took down the bin numbers and went over to pick them all up. The first was a gaming console with partial power, the second was a DVD player with no video and the last was a¡­ VCR player that was eating tapes. A freaking VCR? Are you kidding me? Why?! It¡¯s the 21st-century dude, just buy a new one for dirt cheap! What¡¯s the point in repairing it? I was peeved about there being a VCR player so I left it aside for the time being and took a look at the gaming console first. I tested out the console and just as the memo indicated, it turned on for a moment before it immediately powered off a second later. It was a case of partial power which could turn out to be far more complicated to fix compared to a full power failure. I took the console apart then took a look at the power supply first and tested it on a working console we had in the office. The power supply appeared to be fine, so it seemed more likely to be an issue on the motherboard. After a bit of tinkering about, I found a few faulty components, small chips, and blown fuses here and there. Luckily the main chips were fine and I didn¡¯t have to bother with them. A bit of flux, a heat gun, along with some resoldering here and there and it was as good as new. When I opened up the DVD player, I immediately found that there was a lot of corrosion around the HDMI port. I cleaned up the corrosion with a fiberglass pen and resoldered the pins to the contacts that were loose. It was similarly a surprisingly easy fix. While I worked I was constantly interrupted by the junior repair technicians¡¯ questions. It really affected my work efficiency, but that couldn¡¯t be helped, it was the fate of the senior repair technician to provide guidance and training to his juniors. When it was finally time to work on the VCR, my face cramped up when I took a look at it after taking it out of the box. It was the same model as the one I had at my new apartment. I instinctively had an immense aversion towards working on it; however, work was work and I couldn¡¯t be picky. I took it apart after I verified the only problem was that it ate tapes and I found a nasty brown residue staining the inner chassis. I immediately knew the VCR player definitely belonged to a smoker at some point in its long life thanks to the smell and the disgusting brown residue everywhere. The first thing I looked at was the mode switch since I knew it was a common cause for this particular type of problem. I unscrewed the mode switch and took it apart. When I looked at the contacts, the culprit was exactly what I¡¯d expected. The same brown residue that stained the chassis could be found on the contacts along with corrosion in a few areas as well. I cleaned up the messy residue with isopropyl alcohol and a q tip before I took care of the corrosion that had built up on the contacts; when I finished shining it up, I applied some tune-up grease. After I reassembled the mode switch, I also cleaned up the motherboard and the chassis while I was at it before I assembled everything back together. I hooked the VCR up to a TV and put in a blank tape in first to verify that the VCR wouldn¡¯t eat the tape up. Luckily, it worked perfectly fine so I decided to test and verify that the video was still displaying properly by putting in a VHS tape with actual recorded footage on it. Just to be safe, I called one of the junior technicians, Rick, over and told him to test footage with me to make sure it worked fine. He had a face full of confusion, but I told him it was for educational and training purposes. I wasn¡¯t a coward or anything and I was definitely NOT afraid that a spooky ghost girl would show up. It DEFINITELY wasn¡¯t because of that. Chapter 12. Chapter 12. I pressed the play button and an image of four cheerful teletubbies appeared on the screen. They frolicked about happily full of pure innocence; in fact, there wasn¡¯t a single scary thing to be found in the footage and it was like chicken soup for my weary soul. However, perhaps I¡¯d spoken too soon. After a minute watching the footage, things took a strange turn for the worse. The baby¡¯s face in the sky bled from his eyes, ears, and nose, while the teletubbies fell to the ground as the skin on their faces peeled back and revealed twitching muscle tissue beneath their face. They rolled about on the ground, letting out painful agonizing screams of anguish and despair as a brown burn mark appeared from the bottom corner of the screen. It was an effect that appeared as though the tape was burning. Slowly, but surely, the world was engulfed in flames and the picture on screen inevitably disappeared with nothing left behind but a strange burnt smell that pervaded the air. I was startled by the overly dramatic turn of events and looked over to Rick, but he didn¡¯t seem fazed in the slightest and it was like nothing strange had happened at all. When I turned back to the TV, the picture was back to normal, the burnt smell had vanished without a trace, while the four teletubbies and the babyface sun were perfectly fine like nothing had ever happened to them. A slight chill ran down my back and I naturally needed answers so I asked, ¡°Hey Rick, did you notice anything strange just now?¡± ¡°Was there something wrong with the footage just now? It¡¯s just a recorded episode of the teletubbies, right?¡± ¡°No¡­ never mind, you¡¯re right, there wasn¡¯t anything strange, I was just asking for a second opinion. Sorry for the weird question. You can return to what you were doing now.¡± Now that I was officially creeped out and certain that not even my workplace was safe like I¡¯d once thought, I kept my head down and stole some work from a few of the junior technicians to keep my mind off of things. There was no way a spooky ghost girl who haunted me really existed, I was just losing my mind due to extenuating circumstances. I was more inclined to doubt my sanity than believe that spooky ghost girls with nothing better to do were stalking and messing with me in their free time. Of course, no matter how I tried to forget about it, the video from earlier was playing on repeat in my head. When the end of my shift arrived, I didn¡¯t want to return to my new apartment right away, so I invited Rick and a few other coworkers out for drinks. It was a sausage fest, but we still had a good time. It wasn¡¯t normally my style to do such things, but I¡¯d read that holing up by yourself all the time could lead to a deterioration in your sanity. Maybe the strange things would just disappear if I became more social, that was my line of thinking this time.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. I was the stick in the mud who never drank though and I was also stuck as the designated driver anytime I went out anywhere. For the guy who suggested the drinking excursion, I was probably the biggest party killer in their eyes. They were all in their early to mid-twenties, while I was already thirty. It wasn¡¯t so large that there was a generation gap, but I just couldn¡¯t bring myself to kill off brain cells unnecessarily by drinking; after all, that might just increase the speed at which I lose my sanity in the event I really am going crazy. At the end of the night, I drove the four drunk deadbeats back to their homes. Rick was the last person I dropped off at his place. When he was getting out though, he glanced back in my direction and had a strange look on his face before he shook his head and said, ¡°bro what¡¯s that? Ah, never mind. Haha, sorry I must be seeing things and my eyes are playing games with me. I¡¯m really way too wasted right now.¡± I was confused by his words and skeptically turned my head to check behind me; but as expected, there was nothing there. Like that, the two of us parted ways. I was still a bit antsy about returning to my apartment, so I decided to rent a room at a hotel for the night. I wanted to spend at least one day away so I could cool down a bit and recompose myself a bit. I checked in at a nearby hotel only ten minutes away by car and got a room at a moderate price. When I arrived at the room assigned to me, I first thought to take a relaxing bath. I filled the tub up with hot water and poured in some bubble bath to soothe my tense nerves. My thought was that, by taking a nice relaxing bath, the stress would just melt away into nothingness and it would allow me to fully unwind. When the water level was high enough, I slid into the bathtub and submerged my body fully below the water. Slowly, the strange and unusual events that transpired today sank to the back of my mind. I¡¯ve always hated overly stressful situations more than anything, so a change of pace like this wasn¡¯t so bad every now and then. As time went by, my eyes grew heavy and I found it difficult to stay awake. I knew I should get up and at least get to bed first, but somehow, I didn¡¯t have the energy to move anymore. My eyelids slowly closed half shut while my head slumped to the side. Directly before me was a mirror that reflected the side of the bathtub. I was truly relieved to find there were no scary little girls reflected in the mirror. When my eyes closed fully I reopened them slightly one more time¡­ there definitely wasn¡¯t a little ghost girl in the mirror when I reopened my eyes either. I closed my eyes shut firmly one more time and chose not to resist anymore. My body was so relaxed I was reluctant to move anymore in fear of growing slightly uncomfortable¡­ again, it definitely was not because I saw something that couldn¡¯t have possibly been there. As for what was really in the mirror, my memory was a bit foggy now. It really felt like a bit of an incorporeal memory if you know what I mean. The only thing I could somewhat vaguely remember was the feeling of being pat on the head, along with soft cold breaths beside my ear. Those were definitely the sounds of my own breaths and the cold sensation was probably just a draft from outside the bathroom seeping through the cracks of the door¡­ Chapter 13. Chapter 13. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a rather peculiar situation. I tried to remember the events that lead up to the present, but I was drawing a blank. I found myself standing in my apartment, but it felt like my body wasn¡¯t my own. When my vision focused, directly in front of me, what I saw left all the hair on my body standing on ends. At least, that was the sensation I had; but when I looked more closely at the extended arms in my field of view, they were fair, feminine, and devoid of any hair. In a bathtub full of water, where the hands reflected in my eyes were extended towards, my body laid unconscious inside the tub. The hands that reached out towards the direction of the body in the tub were wrapped around my neck. My head was fully submerged inside the tub, below the surface of the water. There wasn¡¯t a single reaction from the body in the tub, it simply laid lifeless, listless and unmoving beneath the surface as though it had already accepted death. I didn¡¯t have any control over the body that I shared this perspective with and I wasn¡¯t able to pull my body out of the water despite wanting to. The only thing I could do was watch the events unfold powerlessly before my eyes. A few moments after watching my own murder transpire, a blinding light entered my eyes. ¡­ Splash! ¡°Haaaah! Haaaaaah! Haaaaaaaaah!¡± My eyes shot wide open as I desperately gasped for air. At some point, my body had slumped down into the water while I had that strange nightmare. If I hadn¡¯t woken up just now, I would have definitely died. At least, that was what I presumed to be the case at first. When I focused my attention, I realized that although my body was wet and I was freezing cold, the water that should have been in the tub was nowhere to be found. When I looked at the drain, the plug was missing and I couldn¡¯t find it anywhere in the bathroom. My body was tingling all over, half from the cold, while half was from the tinge of fear that lingered inside me towards the unknown. What was really going on here? Was somebody playing a prank on me? I immediately exited the tub and glanced into the mirror to examine myself more closely. Thankfully there were no strange marks or signs of strangulation. I relaxedly close my eyes and breathed out a sigh of relief when I confirmed it was just a nightmare after all; however, that relief didn¡¯t last very long. When I reopened my eyes I noticed the glass had fogged up from my breath and I discovered a written message in the fog, ¡°this is only the beginning.¡± Why?! Why me?! I didn¡¯t even watch the damn VHS tape! Doesn¡¯t this defy all sorts of laws in horror movies? I followed all the steps to avoid this, didn¡¯t I?If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Haaaah! Haaaaaah! Haaaaaaaaah!¡± Thanks to my heavy breaths, more fog accumulated on the glass which revealed a few more lines below it, ¡°It only ends when you look my way. You can not look at any other but me. My boyfriend can only have eyes for me.¡± With my extensive experience with girls like this, those were definitely the psycho girlfriend lines I was quite familiar with. ¡°Real psycho girlfriends are scary enough, I don¡¯t want a psychotic ghost girlfriend. Can¡¯t you please just find someone else?¡± ¡°No.¡± I rapidly turned my head right in the direction I heard the whisper only for my gaze to fall on empty space. The only thing that met my gaze was a door with nothing else of significance in visible sight. I backed up to the towel rack, grabbed one, then wrapped it around my body before I ran out of the bathroom and jumped under the comforter on the bed. I wrapped my entire body up tightly in the shape of a worm and felt like a child afraid of the monsters under the bed, who also somehow thought the flimsy little covers were invincible shields that couldn¡¯t be penetrated. These covers were the only solace to me in my present situation. It was truly the only thing I felt I could depend on. While under the covers, I heard a long drawn out quiet whisper reminiscent of something straight out of a snake-like house from a certain famous story of witchcraft and wizardry. ¡°Hoooow cuuuute. He¡­ he¡­ he...¡± Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! I heard nothing! I see no evil! I hear no evil! Zip! Nadda! Nothin! I quit! Leave me alone! Like a worm who was cut in half, I curled myself into a ball and clutched at my head in fear while wrapping myself tighter in the sheets as a sort of defense mechanism. Even if I left the hotel room now, nothing would change. I was just insane, that was all. I¡¯d lost a few screws. I was just hearing, seeing, and feeling things that weren¡¯t really there. Of course, things would be far too easy if my night just ended at this though. I felt a strange sensation at my foot; through the sheets, it felt as if there was a hand resting on it. As time passed by, the sensation grew more and more distinct; until slowly, but surely, the sensation inched its way up my leg and approached my body. It passed over my hips and eventually stopped on my upper arm. It felt like someone¡¯s body was crawling up mine from the bottom up. After several more minutes had passed, I felt an arm wrap around my chest from behind. The pressure from the arm around my chest only became more firm as time progressed. Eventually, it was no longer just the sensation of my upper body being hugged from behind, but I felt another limb intertwine itself around my legs as well. After half an hour passed in silence, the sensation of an entire body pressed against my back grew more and more realistic until my sense of perception grew twisted and warped. It felt like I couldn¡¯t distinguish between what was real and what was fake anymore. I kept telling myself it was all in my head, but no matter what I thought, I couldn¡¯t shake off the slight possibility of it not being a figment of my imagination. What am I thinking? I¡¯m an atheist, there is a very simple explanation and it is just psychological pressure. Maybe I¡¯ve unconsciously been feeling lonely and my brain has unknowingly decided to create an imaginary girlfriend of some sort. With the setting of my new apartment, such a turn of events wouldn¡¯t be impossible, would it? Chapter 14. Chapter 14. Unfortunately for me, I didn¡¯t have the guts to take a look right now, and the only thought on my mind was to simply make it through the night until daybreak. I recited all the digits of pi that I¡¯d memorized to try and pass the time in my head. Altogether I¡¯d memorized a thousand digits, so it was a decent way to pass the time and keep my mind off of the sensation of being spooned by a ghost, whom in all likelihood was a figment of my imagination. It was still an agonizing process playing the waiting game like this, but as time passed by, seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to hours. After an unknown duration of time passed by, I finally made out the sounds of vacuums going off in the room adjacent to mine. With that, I was certain it was morning and housekeeping was making its rounds to clean up the hotel¡¯s rooms. I patiently waited until they arrived outside my room and I finally heard the glorious knock I¡¯d waited so long for, along with a Juanita-like sounding voice, ¡°houzkeepen.¡± Knock. Knock. Knock. ¡°Houzkeepen.¡± Knock. Knock. Knock. ¡°Houzkeepen.¡± Clink. Beep beep. The door swished open almost silently and I heard the steps of my Mexican savior as she magnanimously strut her way into the room. I couldn¡¯t see her yet as I was still cowering while wrapped up in the comforter, but that was how she appeared in my mind. It didn¡¯t take long for her to notice there was still someone in the bed. ¡°Oh so sowwy. I deedn¡¯t knoooo.¡± With the words of a beautiful sounding Mexican angel acting as a trigger to set me free, teary-eyed, I leaped out from under the cover and prostrated myself on the ground, thanking her profusely for her fine work as a valued housekeeping lady. ¡°Sir deed yo wan me to clean up naw or layta?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, I¡¯m checking out now. You can go ahead and do your fine respectable work. The world truly doesn¡¯t appreciate housekeeping women like you enough. You, my good woman, deserve a raise.¡± In response to my words heralding her as mankind''s savior, she shot awkward expressions in my direction like she didn¡¯t know what to do. It took me a few seconds before I realized the reason behind her dilemma. All that presently covered my body was the towel from last night after I ran out of the bathroom. ¡°We don offa that type of serveece here, sir.¡± ¡°Hahaha. Sorry. Sorry. My bad, I forgot to get dressed after I took a shower last night. It¡¯s definitely not what you¡¯re thinking.¡± She still looked doubtful despite my explanation, but I chose to ignore it and get out as soon as possible. When I passed her by and stepped into the bathroom, I glanced in her direction momentarily and I noticed her shooting me a wink, ¡°but eef it¡¯s fo yo I make eekseption.¡±If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I suddenly felt more scared than last night, so I donned my clothes in record time before I sprinted out the door and ran down the corridor to safety. I handed in my keycard at the front desk, made a mad dash to my car, then sped off to make it to work on time for my shift. I¡¯d heard the boss was a stickler on tardiness and docking people¡¯s paychecks unreasonable amounts for even a single minute. When I entered the building I greeted everyone as usual; however, I noticed that the junior technician Rick wasn¡¯t around. When I asked a few of the others that were on good terms with him, nobody knew where he was. It was already an hour after when he was supposed to start his shift. He also didn¡¯t call out sick today and this was apparently the first occurrence of this happening. He¡¯d never failed to call beforehand to notify the office that he would be late or absent. ¡°Hey, Dio, you were the last one with him yesterday last night, right? Did he get drunk enough to the point that he wouldn¡¯t be able to make it today? Did he mention anything to you?¡± ¡°No, he didn¡¯t say anything about not being able to make it today; but now that you mention it, he did seem to be a bit out of it when I dropped him off at his place. When he got out of the car he¡¯d mumbled to himself that he was way too wasted and mentioned how he was even seeing things, but he didn¡¯t say he wouldn¡¯t come in today. That¡¯s all I really know though.¡± ¡°Dio, can you check up on him at his place after work?¡± ¡°Sure, I guess so.¡± In all honesty, I¡¯d rather not, but since I was the last person to see him, it was sort of my responsibility to check up on him and at least make sure he was okay. Thus, after work, I made my way over to his place once again. Similar to me, he lived in an apartment complex, but he lived on the 14th floor. I made my way into the building and headed over to the elevator. Ah, such mundane events were so nice, normal lackluster events like this where nothing scary or traumatizing happened was what I lived for. When I put one foot into the elevator, I suddenly realized something. For some strange, but inexplicable reason, I felt like taking the stairs today. I really needed the exercise after all. Also, nothing scary ever happens on the stairs, right? Compared to the shit show, horror infested elevators where you¡¯re trapped in an enclosed space with nowhere to run when shit hit the fan, the stairs were surely a better bet. At least on the stairs, I won¡¯t be confined to a small space where I¡¯d be trapped if the power mysteriously went out for some inexplicable reason that could only be called an act of god, right? Better to be safe than sorry was my favorite motto after all. Although, now that I think about it, none of my precautions have ever actually gone well. Should I use reverse psychology here and actually take the elevator to play mind games with said nonexistent ghost girl? No, but what if this theoretical ghost girl, or in other words; my possible case of insanity, was aware that I was trying to use reverse psychology and it ended up backfiring resulting in countless jump scares being thrown at me while on the elevator? Yeah, my insanity has human-like characteristics and has a mind of its own. Is there some sort of problem with that? I liked to imagine if my insanity were a person; he¡¯d surely wear a top hat, speak with an English accent, have a fancy curled mustache, and wear a monocle. However, ignoring my unrealistic perception of my insanity, this was truly the dilemma of the century. That was of course until I had a brilliant idea. I just needed to get a sucker to walk behind me up the stairs so I can sacrifice them if worse comes to worst. When shit hits the fan, one cannot be judged if it¡¯s for the sake of their survival. Thus I patiently stood by the entrance of the stairwell waiting for some poor sap to walk up the stairs. I waited and waited until a cute white chick who sported runners and shorts made her way towards the stairwell with her overly expensive fancy looking wireless earbuds in her ears. A rather nefarious smile floated to my face as I thought to myself with a villainous voice in my head, ¡®excellent.¡¯ Chapter 15. Chapter 15. My eyes narrowed as I¡¯d discovered the perfect sacrifice if the worst-case scenario came to pass. I¡¯m not a racist or anything, but white women predominantly tend to die in horror movies after all. There was a saying among some of my black friends; as long as they ran in front of the white woman at night, they would be fine since the killer wouldn¡¯t be able to see them with their natural camouflage and the white beacon drawing the killer¡¯s eyes. My black friends like to call this move the, ¡°Aw hell naw gurl. Don¡¯t you use ma black ass as camouflage for yo white ass by running in front of me. You fight him! Throw those damn pointy high heels at his eyes girl! What do you mean they¡¯re Gucci?! Hell, are they more expensive than yo life? Dis gurl be hella dumb! Oh shiot! Girl, right behind yo ass! Turn around! Turn around! Aww hell naw. She dead. She real dead.¡± As for why it had such a long name, perhaps I¡¯ll never know. I¡¯ll probably also never know why it was such an oddly specific name either. One can only ponder the deeper meaning of such a great black mind; to think that there could be a person so brilliant that they could come up with a name with such profound depth and intent. It was truly a title that I could call a masterpiece if turned into a song. Speaking of music, the present state of the music industry, where did it go wrong anyways. When titles of this level could still be birthed into this world, why couldn¡¯t music maintain such high standards? Perhaps it was Musical.ly¡¯s and Tiktok¡¯s fault that kids without any sort of musical talent made it big by simply lip-syncing. I digress though, I¡¯m really just salty about how crappy music has become lately. Whenever I think about all the snot-nosed spoiled brats, still wet behind the ears, that think they¡¯re suddenly gangsters when they¡¯ve been pampered all their lives and have never truly worked a hard day in their life, it really gets me a bit heated up. Though In all honesty, throwing this cute girl under the bus wouldn¡¯t be a problem at all in my eyes. As for why that may be the case, well¡­ that would be for the simple fact that I heard the rancid music made by those very same snot-nosed spoiled brats, with the vocabulary of two-year-olds on full blast from her wireless earbuds. Thus, I followed directly behind her into the stairwell and sprinted up the stairs positioning myself in front of her. In the event any spooky ghost girl showed up behind us, I¡¯d kick her the stairs in reverse and hightail it out of here. If she appeared in front of us, I¡¯d simply run back down the stairs, trip her on my way down and offer her up on a silver platter all while I exited the building safely. Despite my malicious plans, It was truly lucky for her that nothing strange happened and I successfully made it to the 14th floor safely.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. When I confirmed the coast was clear, I made my way to the end of the corridor on the 14th floor where Rick¡¯s unit was located. Deep down I was relieved as nothing creepy or off-putting popped up out of nowhere in the corridor as I got closer to his unit. It was just a normal corridor with nothing out of place. That was when I realized that I¡¯d made another mistake. Any time something looks too normal was when things normally hit the fan. Upon being struck by that realization I braced myself mentally for the worst. When I was outside the door leading into Rick¡¯s unit, I took in a deep breath and knocked thrice for good measure. After a minute of waiting in silence, there wasn¡¯t a response. I knocked again and this time placed my ear against the door to listen for any sort of movement. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t hear anything moving behind the door and I thought that he might really just be out at the moment. Before I left, I turned the doorknob with my sleeve to verify that he hadn¡¯t left it unlocked. One may ask, why with my sleeve? Well, doorknobs were a breathing ground for germs and it was a force of habit that I opened them with my sleeve to avoid direct contact. Just thinking about public restrooms with door knobs and handles always grossed me out a bit. As I expected, the door was locked and it really appeared he wasn¡¯t around. Rick told me that he often left his door unlocked when he was at home. He was the careless type, but he mentioned he was on good terms with his neighbors who often crashed at his place to party. He often left his door unlocked so he wouldn¡¯t have to waste his energy getting up to open the door for visitors every time they came to visit. With that in mind, I was fairly certain he had to be out at the moment. Since that was the case I resolved myself to depart, but the moment I did, I heard the slow eerie creek of a door opening to my side. Naturally, I froze up at the stereotypical development that transpired; yet, despite knowing better, I still turned to take a look to visually confirm what I¡¯d heard was real despite knowing it would surely lead me down a rabbit hole. There was no way a locked door would just magically open up on its own like that. I looked upwards starting from the ground in a straight line and discovered the door was slightly ajar with the chain hooked on the door from the other side. With that serving as evidence, I was now convinced that my coworker, or at least... somebody, had to be home right now. How else would the chain be latched right now if not for that? ¡°Hey, Rick, come on man. This isn¡¯t funny. Why are you being all freaky about this right now?¡± Unfortunately, nobody answered me. We¡¯d tried to call Rick earlier today, but we didn¡¯t get any answer. If Rick really was home, surely he should have his smartphone on him, right? I took out my smartphone, so I wouldn¡¯t feel so alone and freaked out by everything, I asked my AI comrade in arms, ¡°Siri, call Rick, mobile.¡± ¡°Calling Rick mobile.¡± Thankfully it was the normal robotic voice I was accustomed to hearing and not some freaky deaky glitch girl shit. A few seconds after my phone started ringing, Ligeti¡¯s Requiem started playing from behind the door. ¡°Rick, this isn¡¯t funny man. I know you¡¯re there. What¡¯s with your spooky ringtone dude? This is not cool man!¡± Chapter 16. Chapter 16. The music only grew louder as time went on and my heart rate was slightly elevated now. It was only natural, spooky music was known to be the basis of building atmosphere. My mind told me to run for the hills, but my body wouldn¡¯t listen as the curiosity only rose in my heart. I really wished it was just a twisted joke and my coworkers would jump out from the surrounding rooms and scream out ¡°you got punked boy,¡± but it never happened. Instead, the music just got creepier and creepier the longer it played. Against my instincts to flee, I moved my eye into the gap to peek inside the room, but I failed to discover anyone hiding inside. The only thing that stood out was Rick¡¯s smartphone on the table vibrating as it played the creepy music. I stared at it until the music suddenly stopped and I heard the expected voicemail prompt from my phone. ¡°Hi, this is Rick, I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t catch your call. Please leave a message after the beep and I¡¯ll return your call as soon as possible.¡± However, strangely enough, the beep didn¡¯t come. It went on in silence for a few more seconds before I heard an unsettling, but extremely quiet, and drawn-out whisper from the recording. ¡°Rick will never be able to return your call.¡± I was startled out of my mind as chills ran down my back. I dropped my phone and backed up to the wall staring on in abject horror towards the door. ¡°Dude, Rick! Stop messing around man! This isn¡¯t a joke anymore! I¡¯m serious! I¡¯ll call the police if you don¡¯t answer soon.¡± Naturally, despite my pleas, there was no response from anyone behind the door. I really wasn¡¯t joking when I said that I¡¯d call the cops, so I crawled over to my phone and started to dial 911. Just as I was about to press the call button, my phone abruptly powered off from a low battery. I hadn¡¯t charged it since yesterday, but I was certain I still had at least 20% battery life before I called him. Could it be off because I haven¡¯t calibrated it in over a year now? Maybe it was from the fall just now. Was it damaged? I refused to believe something unscientific like a ghost drained my battery. Maybe it¡¯s still on but my present state of mind is just deceiving me into thinking it appears off? I pressed down on the home button, but there wasn¡¯t any vibration, which left me a bit more convinced that it likely was really dead after all. Of course, that¡¯s under the assumption that my brain isn¡¯t playing tricks with my sense of touch as well. I really needed a therapist ASAP. No matter what, I didn¡¯t want to go into the room so I ran down the hall back towards the staircase. I burst through the door into the stairwell and stumbled to my feet upon entering. When I looked back up, what I saw next left me deeply shaken. In front of me, rather than stairs, was the inside of a room. The smartphone I¡¯d previously seen on the table inside Rick¡¯s room was directly in front of me.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. When I looked to the left and right, I confirmed it was definitely the inside of Rick¡¯s unit. There was a kitchen to my right, washroom to my left, and the door to his bedroom directly in front of me. His living room was towards the far right corner of the unit while his bedroom was at the far left, towards the back. I fell backward onto my bottom as I crab-walked in reverse out of the room and turned around only to see the exact same scenery I had been staring at. When I did another 180 it was once again the exact same. I couldn¡¯t return to the hallway no matter what I did and I was a trapped rat with no path to escape. I stumbled over to Rick¡¯s phone and pressed the power button five times in rapid succession and tried to make an emergency call, but I found that when the call connected there was no ring tone. There was only the sound of static on the line. ¡°Ghosts aren¡¯t real. Ghosts aren¡¯t real. Ghosts aren¡¯t real. There is a logical reason for everything. I¡¯m just insane. I must be. I¡¯ve only ever been involved with insane women my entire life. Surely my sanity has gone down the drain thanks to that.¡± An unexpected response in the form of a ghastly whisper was mixed into the static noise emitted from the other end of the phone call I made with Rick¡¯s phone. ¡°You¡¯re not insane, you just belong to me now.¡± Without another thought, I tossed his phone far away through the opening of his living room area into the rightmost corner, the furthest away from me. I didn¡¯t want to be anywhere near his haunted phone from hell. I burst through the bedroom door praying my coworker would be there, but there really was nobody home after all. I checked the closet in his bedroom before I moved to the bathroom to check the tub. When I thought back to my dream the night before, I was a bit concerned as to whether he experienced something similar to what I had. Thankfully I didn¡¯t find any dead bodies, which was a huge weight off my mind. I searched through his entire place in hopes of locating some trace of him, but I didn¡¯t find anything in the end. When I exited the bathroom and turned to the unit¡¯s entrance, I realized the hallway had finally returned. With freedom in sight and the realization my coworker definitely was nowhere to be found at home, I tossed my thoughts of him to the back of my mind and fled for my life. It was only for a short time, but I¡¯d definitely had enough of this bizarre looping twilight world for today. I closed the door behind me and escaped at the fastest speeds known to man, down the staircase, directly out of the building with my tail tucked between my legs. I surely would have given Usain Bolt a run for his money. With a lingering fear hanging over my neck, I immediately drove back to my apartment to gather some things to sleep in my car for a few days. I couldn¡¯t stay at hotels or my own room in peace, but surely nothing spooky would happen while staying out in my car in a parking lot, right? Ugh. Sure, there are definitely stories about haunted cars; but my car is new, it¡¯s not a classic or anything. In the unlikely event that a ghost had really haunted me, there was no way the ghost would be interested in a new car like mine, right? Right?! What were they going to do? Mess with my bluetooth? Interfere with the heated seats and make them cold seats instead? In all honesty, I¡¯d much rather take my chances with my car over my apartment or a hotel room right now. Chapter 17. Chapter 17. Any horror movie has old school fancy cars that roam the streets at night with no driver. It¡¯s never a boring mundane everyday car like mine with all the modern gizmos and gadgets, so I definitely should be safe. Is it wishful thinking? Yes. Is it escapism? Maybe. Am I a coward? Absofuckinglutely. When I arrived home and entered my apartment, I stopped in place for a moment. All the lights were off... except for the bathroom light. The door to the bathroom was slightly ajar and a distinct streak of light was painted along the ground. There was a rancid, rotten stench that pervaded the air inside the room. My stomach was churning and I felt sick when I thought of the worst-case scenario. Based on everything that happened today, I had a good idea of what would be waiting for me on the other side of the door. Instead of opening it up to check on the situation, I took out my phone and plugged it into the wall to let it charge up a bit. When it turned on, I immediately called the cops. With the way things stood, it really wasn¡¯t looking good for me, but it was best to report this immediately. I knew I would likely be a prime suspect, but I was hoping the time of death lined up well with when I was at the hotel. There were camera recordings as well as records of me checking in at that hotel, so hopefully, it would be a solid enough alibi. ¡°911. What¡¯s the exact location of your emergency?¡± ¡°640-575 Ariala Street.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the cross street?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t remember, I just moved here recently.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Diogenes Genovese.¡± ¡°How do you spell that?¡± ¡°First name, D-i-o-g-e-n-e-s. Last name, G-e-n-o-v-e-s-e.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the problem? Tell me exactly what happened.¡± ¡°I came home and there was a dead body in my bathroom.¡± ¡°Do you know who the deceased is?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t examined the body yet in fear of disrupting the scene of the crime.¡± ¡°Are there any signs that the murderer is still nearby?¡± ¡°If I said I suspected it was a ghost, would you believe me?¡± ¡°A¡­ ghost?¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Is this a prank?¡± ¡°Look, I know it sounds crazy. Even I think ghosts are a load of hogwash, but I have no idea what¡¯s going on anymore.¡± ¡°Alright, we will have officers dispatched ASAP. Please don¡¯t move from where you are and wait for their arrival.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± ¡°Hahaha guys, get this. What? This lunatic claims ghosts killed someone in his apartment. LMAO! How many times is that now?¡± Before the call ended, I heard the operator practically diss me outright. Well, I knew it sounded crazy, but please cut me some slack. I¡¯m not in the right state of mind right now. I was frustrated and didn¡¯t want to hear anymore so I ended the call and waited patiently for the police to arrive. Ten minutes later, I heard the sirens from outside. After a few more minutes passed by, the cops showed up in front of my open door. When they arrived, I weakly pointed at the bathroom while squatting down in a corner with my back against the opposite wall to the bathroom door. I hadn¡¯t taken my wary eyes off the door for a second since I ended the call. The two cops entered my apartment and surrounded the bathroom door from both sides. One opened the door slowly and checked the blind spots while the other held onto his gun firmly prepared for any unexpected changes. When they confirmed there wasn¡¯t anyone else inside the bathroom, a few more cops burst in and inspected the rest of the apartment. While the others examined the rest of the apartment, the cops inside the bathroom opened up the curtain hiding the bathtub and discovered a dead body as I¡¯d expected. I snuck a peak and it was exactly the person I¡¯d been looking for, my coworker, Rick. In that instant, my heart dropped to rock bottom as I knew the future would likely be bleak. It wasn¡¯t my first run-in with the dead though, so I wasn¡¯t as shaken compared to my first time with Adele five years ago. ¡°Sir, do you recognize the deceased?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What is your relationship to the deceased?¡± ¡°He is, or I suppose now that he is dead, was a coworker of mine. His name is Rick Roer, a junior electronics repair technician at my workplace.¡± ¡°When did you discover the body?¡± ¡°Right when I called 911.¡± ¡°Judging by the decay of the body, how far rigor mortis has progressed and accounting for how the body was submerged in water, it¡¯s been at least half a day since he passed away. When was the last time you saw the deceased?¡± ¡°It was about 11:00 PM last night. We were out drinking with a group of our coworkers and I was the designated driver. I dropped all of them off at their homes and he was the last person I dropped off.¡± The cop frowned as he seemingly noticed the questionable timing of events with what he surmised was the estimated time of death. I knew I needed to clear up any sort of contradictions that would arise, otherwise I could very well be tagged with the crime of murder. Well, who am I kidding? No matter what I say now, discovering him in my place would easily land me a position as a prime suspect either way. ¡°The reason I didn¡¯t discover his body until now was I didn¡¯t come home after dropping him off at his place. In case you didn¡¯t already know, this apartment belonged to someone who recently killed themselves. I moved here because the rent was super cheap, but recently I¡¯ve been getting a bit spooked when staying here so I decided to spend the night at a hotel for a change of pace. You can check the recordings and logs at the hotel for proof to verify this.¡± ¡°When I woke up this morning I also ran into a housekeeping lady at the hotel before checking out of the hotel. After that, I immediately went to work. When I arrived at work I discovered that Rick hadn¡¯t shown up. At first, we thought he might have just been too hungover, we never suspected it would turn out to be something like this. I was asked to check up on him because he hadn¡¯t called in and we couldn¡¯t reach him either, it was really unusual for Rick as he was a very punctual type of person. Unfortunately, when I arrived at his place, I received no answer so I gave up, left, and returned home only to discover¡­ well, it¡¯s as you can see.¡± I naturally left out the crazy shit that happened while at his place fearful that they would think I was a mental patient. The security cameras in Rick¡¯s apartment building should at the very least confirm that I did pay his unit a visit. What the security camera footage revealed on it was another story altogether, but I¡¯ll deal with it when the time comes. There was no point in opening a can of worms by telling them I was a lunatic who had crazy hallucinations when I went to check up on my coworker. ¡°I understand, we¡¯ll need to take you down to the station for further questioning to take an official statement.¡± Chapter 18. Chapter 18. Once the cops were finished examining the scene and body, I was escorted away from the bathroom and out of my apartment. However, when I left the room, something at the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was something I hadn¡¯t noticed initially that left my eyes shrinking into pinholes. Beneath the murky water inside the bathtub, my eyes honed in on the stopper that prevented the water from draining. The rubber stopper was the exact same one from the hotel I stayed the night before. In my blank state of shock, I was escorted out of the building and brought to a police car. Before I knew it, I was tagging along for a ride in a cop car down to the station for questioning. Yet, with my mind left in shambles, the only thing on my mind was the mysterious reappearance of the rubber stopper. My thoughts were a chaotic mess and no matter what type of logical explanation I tried to put together, I could only presume I was seeing things. It was true that the water was drained from my tub and the rubber stopper was missing back at the hotel, but for it to show up there was far too strange. Was the nightmare I had actually me after all? Did I somehow kill my coworker? Do I have a split personality, dissociative identity disorder, or some sort of brain-related disease affecting my memories? No way. This can¡¯t be for real. If I was the killer, wouldn¡¯t everything that happened fall into place and make perfect sense? No, before I jump the gun, I need to wait for the result of the cop¡¯s investigation. My theory is far too ludicrous for it to be true. I refuse to believe any of it is possible. ¡°Sir.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Sir!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°SIR!¡± ¡°Ah. Yes?¡± ¡°Are you okay? You look like you¡¯ve seen a ghost.¡± ¡°Hahaha. Yeah. I bet I do.¡± ¡°Well, coming home to suddenly find a dead coworker is sure to leave you spooked.¡± ¡°Ah. Yeah. Right.¡± I could only return a lackluster response with saggy eyes to his show of empathy towards my situation. After that small exchange, ignoring the occasional reports broadcasted through the radio, the rest of the ride was spent in dead silence. When we arrived at the station my statement was taken, it took a few hours, but I was eventually released. They also took down my contact information and fingerprints then told me I would be contacted should they require anything further from me. When I returned back to my apartment building, the only thing I could do was take my car and leave empty-handed for the time being. The place was presently a crime scene and until the case was closed, I couldn¡¯t take anything out of the apartment.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. They offered to provide me with accommodations in the meantime, but I declined since I wasn¡¯t interested in another hotel scare. I told them I¡¯d just stay at a friend''s place for the time being as I was too spooked by the case to be alone. Though that was a lie and I just camped out in my car at a nearby shopping center¡¯s parking lot. I bought a blanket, huddled up in the backseat of my car, and passed the time by surfing the web on my phone while gazing at the stars in the night sky. Somehow it was the most peaceful I¡¯d felt in quite a while. It was to the point that I wanted to quit everything, move away from the city, and start a new life alone as a secluded recluse distanced far away from society. If I went where no one else was around, surely none of my five crazy exes would be able to find me. Psycho ghost girls wouldn¡¯t go after someone living alone out in the boonies, right? If a crazy ghost chick like the rumored ghost girlfriend was real, she would definitely prefer areas with lots of people around to haunt and kill, wouldn¡¯t she? While I passed the time and admired the stars overhead, I figured I¡¯d check out the message board I occasionally visited. It was the one I¡¯d recently posted my story to, the same one that guy posted about his so-called first girlfriend before he allegedly committed suicide. I leisurely scrolled through some of the threads, but I found there wasn¡¯t really anything interesting at the moment. I was curious about how the thread I¡¯d started two days ago ended, so I searched through a site that archived threads and luckily found it. Picking up from the last message I sent, it went as follows. ¡°FormerLurker: I¡¯m really not.¡± ¡°Troll1: ^Bro, you are absolutely trolling right now.¡± ¡°Troll2: Lack of response is proof of trolling.¡± ¡°Troll4: ¡­ guys I don¡¯t mean to be a buzzkill, but did nobody notice the hidden message in the keyboard spam from earlier?¡± ¡°Troll3: What hidden message?¡± ¡°Troll4: Remove every second letter from the keyboard spam starting from the first ¡®arsidcfkgwhijlklldqiweetrotmyouriroopw¡¯ and you get rick will die tomorrow.¡± ¡°Troll1: Holy shit! Is OPs name Rick? Does he also plan to commit suicide like the last guy?¡± ¡°Troll3: ^Bro calm down, this is clearly next gen troll tactics. Rick probably doesn¡¯t even exist and it¡¯s just a made up name.¡± ¡°Troll1: ^No shit Sherlock, it¡¯s sarcasm.¡± After that, it was just some back and forth nonsense about them debating that even if someone named Rick died tomorrow, it would just be pure coincidence. I, on the other hand, was absolutely horrified by the revelation of the hidden message. What I initially thought was a result of a keyboard malfunction or even processor glitch, foretold the future. Of course I would be creeped out, it was just more evidence to convince me that there had to be something wrong with my head. Did I actually plot his death without realizing it? Am I merely trying to blame a nonexistent ghost that I¡¯ve simply made up in my head? I debated whether I should start another thread to seek out others'' opinions, but I was worried if I gave too much information they would discover my identity so I refrained for now. It would be best to see whether any of this story gets covered by the media and also what the cop¡¯s investigation turned up first before I decided what to do. If it turned out it was in fact somehow me and I really was insane like I¡¯d thought, everything would make sense. However, if I really was at the hotel the entire time and the cops can verify that through the recorded footage and the times in which the keycard was used to enter the room, then that would prove my innocence to myself. It would also be enough to convince me I¡¯m really not insane. If there are no signs of the window in the hotel room being damaged, that would mean I was in a locked room situation as well. If the logs showed me entering the hotel room only once with my keycard and no one else but the housekeeping lady, who saw me in the morning, came in afterward; I could thus verify that I was definitely inside the room the entire time. That would also prove it was physically impossible for me to be the one that used that rubber stopper in the bathroom at my place; of course, that is assuming my eyes weren¡¯t playing tricks on me. Chapter 19. Chapter 19. The sensor data logs should also allow the cops to determine if the door was left open for an extended period of time. That would rule out the possibility that I left something wedged in the door to avoid a second usage of the keycard. I also didn¡¯t bring my laptop with me at the time, so there shouldn¡¯t have been any way for me to hack or tamper with the sensor log data remotely and modify them in any way. My laptop didn¡¯t magically appear beside me when I woke up at the hotel in the morning so I should be clear in that department. I didn¡¯t know what room they kept the sensor data logs in that hotel as it was my first time staying there. If I was sneaking about randomly or loitering, I¡¯d definitely be caught on security camera footage or even caught by the security guards themselves. With all that in mind, there really shouldn¡¯t be any possible way for me to be the murderer. Of course, this all depends on the findings of the police. Whether they would dig so deep was also an unknown. Rather, the death in itself was extremely strange. There didn¡¯t appear to be any resistance put up that one would normally expect from someone being drowned alive. His body in the bathtub appeared far too peaceful and the clothing he wore was in perfect condition with no signs that there was any sort of struggle before his death. The more I thought about it, the more I suspected it was truly the work of a ghost like in the nightmare I had. Would the cops entertain idiotic thoughts like that though? I doubt anyone would and when I considered how the last case was handled, wouldn¡¯t they just mark it off as a simple suicide again? While I stared at my phone blankly, I noticed something blurred out in my peripheral vision slightly behind it poking out over the edge. When I focused on the ceiling overhead, blocked off by the smartphone obstructing my vision, I noticed a black mass. ¡­ upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a head of black hair, but I was doubtful. I slowly lowered the phone to reveal everything that was there, but the moment I did, it faded out of existence as if it were a simple illusory figment of my imagination. Nevertheless, it still left me rubbing my face with my hands to try and get ahold of reality. Why was a head of black hair somehow the creepiest thing ever? It wasn¡¯t a jump scare and I didn¡¯t hear a thing, yet I was still somehow immensely disturbed just by the thought of it. It brought back memories of my past psychotic girlfriends. Oftentimes I¡¯d go to bed alone with doors locked, yet I¡¯d wake up in the morning only to discover they would be right beside my bed peering over the edge at my face with their crazy unblinking eyes. I still get chills whenever I think back to those days; even now, I wake up in the morning worried about what I¡¯ll see when I open my eyes.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. When I confirmed it really was just a figment of my imagination and that it was truly gone, I wrapped myself in my blanket, put in my earbuds, then turned on soothing music to help me fall asleep. I was determined to not think about today''s events any further and after about half an hour, I managed to finally fall asleep. ¡­ ¡°Hah... Hah... Hah...¡± I couldn¡¯t move unhindered. I could hardly breathe. No matter how much I willed myself to, I couldn¡¯t run away or escape. My body refused to move the way I wanted. It felt like I was in quicksand and I was slowly sinking downwards into a thick quagmire. The more I struggled against it, the more fatigued I felt. Both my legs felt like dead weight and no matter how strongly I tried to convince myself that I was surely much faster than this, my body wouldn¡¯t obey my wishes. All I could see was the figure of someone¡¯s back in front of me. Yet, I couldn¡¯t catch up to them even when I knew I should¡¯ve been able to. No matter how badly I wished to move my legs faster they continued to slow until I came to a dead stop. Eventually I fell to my knees in exhaustion and I was forced to crawl along the ground at a snail''s pace. I crawled a few meters forward, but even my arms felt heavy and I could no longer move them after a while. I struggled forward with all I had until I came to a complete dead stop. My body felt like stone and I had no way to resist the numb sensation coursing through my body. Eventually, I ceased to breathe when my lungs inevitably collapsed. ¡­ My eyes shot open wide, I sat up panting for oxygen as I realized it was a familiar type of nightmare that I hadn¡¯t had in quite some time. For as long as I remembered, I¡¯ve had that exact same type of nightmare many times. Regardless of what dream it may be, whenever I try to run in my dreams, it always turns into that exact same phenomenon where I feel completely helpless. It¡¯s always as if I¡¯m slowly sinking into quicksand without any way to resist. When I walked everything would usually be fine, the only time this phenomenon occurred was when I ran. I was always rapidly drained of my stamina and I fell into that dire state every time. Not long after I woke up, I came to my senses, glanced outside the car window, and found it was already morning. Being outside and seeing the sun first thing in the morning left me with a strange sense of security along with relief. Ignoring the recurring nightmare I¡¯ve frequently had in the past, I¡¯d made it through a night without anything too over the top happening for a change. I noticed the time on my smartphone and realized it was almost time for work. Albeit reluctant to go, I knew I needed to. Not being alone was for the best. For the sake of keeping my sanity, interacting with my coworkers was the best choice available to me. When I thought of what happened to Rick though, I wasn¡¯t too sure whether I would be inviting danger to my coworkers. However, I¡¯m no selfless Buddha and if they just so happened to die for inexplicable reasons, what did their deaths have to do with me? People were dying all the time across the world and the world was already overpopulated enough as it was. I¡¯d already long grown more or less indifferent to people dying thanks to those psychotic ex-girlfriends of mine anyways. Chapter 20. Chapter 20. Ready for my shift, I crawled into the driver¡¯s seat from the back and immediately made my way to work. I parked in my usual stall outside the office and entered the building. The moment I entered the room, the chatter inside died down; it was to the point that a pin could be heard if one were dropped. All the eyes in the room locked onto me the moment I stepped into the building. It appeared that there were already rumors in circulation that had spread about the incident with Rick. ¡°I get that you all may have already heard a bit about the situation and you probably have questions, but I don¡¯t know anything more than you do. Honestly, I¡¯m just as confused as you all are regarding what happened.¡± ¡°...¡± Nobody spoke up at first, but after a few minutes in this awkward silence, one of the junior repair technicians finally worked up the courage and asked. ¡°Do you really not know more about what happened to Rick? I-i-is he really...¡± Before responding to his question, I breathed in before letting out a long drawn-out breath. ¡°Yes, he is.¡± When I affirmed the truth, whispers once again broke out in the surroundings. It was at that very moment a woman from HR came over and pulled me towards the boss¡¯ office away from the chattering workers. ¡°The boss would like to see you immediately. Please go in.¡± I knew it was bound to happen eventually. I followed as instructed and opened up the door and instantly locked eyes with my boss. She had an intense glare directed towards me the moment I stepped into her office. ¡°Mr. Genovese, I presume you know why I¡¯ve called you here, correct?¡± ¡°Is it because I stole pens from the office?¡± ¡°Cut the crap. I received a call this morning from the cops who informed me that one of our junior technicians committed suicide yesterday.¡± ¡°Suicide?¡± There was no way they would really declare it as suicide so quickly, right? Did they even properly investigate? It¡¯s only been a night. ¡°Yes. Suicide. But of course, when they explained the circumstances behind his death there was no way I could easily believe it was a mere case of suicide. Tell me now, did you really have nothing to do with Rick¡¯s death?¡± ¡°Definitely not. I have a solid alibi, there¡¯s no way I could have killed him. The cops should have been easily able to verify everything I did yesterday.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Yes, I heard about that too. You stayed at a hotel and allegedly visited his apartment to check on him, worried that something was wrong when he didn¡¯t show up to work yesterday after the drinking party you had with a few of my other junior repair technicians. Was that what your story was?¡± ¡°... that¡¯s right, but how do you know all that?¡± ¡°Thanks to a friend of mine in the force, I was able to gather a bit of information about you and the details related to the case.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Did you really only go visit his place to check on him like you said you did yesterday?¡± Uh oh, did they catch onto the fact that I¡¯d entered his room? Did somebody actually discover all the events that transpired when I visited Rick¡¯s place? ¡°I definitely did visit his place.¡± ¡°Why are you lying?¡± ¡°What do you mean lying?¡± ¡°The cops were able to verify that you were definitely at the hotel you said you were on the night he died. They were also unable to find any connection linking you to the scene of the crime. The sensor logs showed that you entered the room and never left it until the door was opened by the housekeeping worker. The housekeeping worker verified you were in the room as well when she entered. There were also no signs of forced exit through the window in the room, nor was there any trace of tampering with the sensor data or security footage. There was no footage of you seen leaving the room or building. The only contradiction in your statement was the fact that there were no eyewitnesses or recorded footage of you entering Rick¡¯s apartment yesterday. Explain to me, what is the meaning behind this one contradiction in the statement you gave the police?¡± ¡°What do you mean I never went to his apartment?! There is no way there isn¡¯t any footage! I was definitely there! And what do you mean no witnesses saw me as well?! I know for a fact there was at least one girl who saw me that day.¡± ¡°Like I said, they found not a single witness or recording. There is zero evidence that you ever visited his apartment. Not even a single fingerprint.¡± ¡°The cops should be contacting you soon to follow up on the contradiction in the statement you gave them. I hate dealing with unnecessary and bothersome work you know.¡± ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± ¡°In the information I collected on you through an acquaintance of mine, I learned of a certain name, ¡®Adele Homestalk,¡¯ does the name sound familiar to you?¡± ¡°Yes... I know of her.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good that you know of her name. I would have fired you on the spot if you denied it. Then, how about these four women? Do you know them as well?¡± She slid a piece of paper across the desk with the names of four women I was quite familiar with. Reading the names one by one, I felt horrible; my stomach was churning to the point of sickness just from thinking of any one of the five women''s names she¡¯d written down. ¡°Well?¡± ¡°Yes. I know them as well. They are all ex-girlfriends of mine.¡± ¡°Really¡­ if I knew you had such baggage I would never have hired you. Five insane psychopaths for girlfriends. You really are a chick magnet, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Trust me, if I knew they were psychopaths I would never have dated them.¡± ¡°Well, what¡¯s done is done. Since you were honest about it and didn¡¯t lie to my face, for the time being, I¡¯ll let this slide, just this once. However, there will not be a second chance after this. In the meantime, you better come up with a way to fix the contradiction in the statement you gave the cops. I don¡¯t know why you lied about something unnecessary like that, but the cops won¡¯t be as lenient as I am. I hate scandals. You¡¯re lucky I still consider your skills to be an asset to the company; however, if things blow up, I will cut all ties between you and the company immediately. You may take your leave.¡± Ouch. She was still as cold and heartless as ever. Meeting the boss was always nerve-wracking, but thankfully it was over. Since I¡¯d received pardon and a heavy warning, now that I was dismissed, I turned and exited the room in record time before she had a sudden change of mind. Chapter 21. Chapter 21. When I returned to my desk, I checked on the jobs assigned to me and found there were about ten work orders assigned to me. Altogether there were three laptops, two gaming consoles, two smartphones, two tablets and one camcorder. Ugh. This was definitely going to take a while. I worked on them one by one and methodically identified and solved the problems each device had. After five straight hours of continuous work I¡¯d managed to fix nine out of the ten devices. The only one remaining that troubled me was the camcorder. The LCD refused to turn on no matter what I did. I tried rotating the display into the outward facing position, but it remained off. Through a bit of testing I could tell that although the LCD wasn¡¯t displaying anything, the menu controls were still functioning. I tried replacing the LCD with a known working one, but that didn¡¯t fix the problem. I tried factory resetting it through trial and error with the unseen menu and I also reinstalled the firmware, but that also failed. I checked the microswitches on it to make sure they were functioning properly and they appeared to be perfectly fine. I verified there was continuity between the lines on the LCD¡¯s ribbon cable to the microswitches and to the internal processor. I also tested a brand new hard drive in case it was somehow a problem related to a hard drive failure, but similar to everything else I tried, there was no change. I even went so far as to individually check every single individual component on the circuit boards as well and didn¡¯t find any blown fuses or faulty components. When I eventually exhausted everything I could think of, I marked it off as unfixable, but even then, my pride still wouldn¡¯t let me resign myself to defeat. Perhaps it was due to Rick''s death, but nobody approached me the entire day and I spent that time working relentlessly trying to fix up the camcorder until the end of my shift with no success. By the time I realized it, everyone had already left for the day. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s good to see you¡¯re working hard, but it¡¯s time to get lost.¡± When I looked up, my boss was looking down at me while standing in front of my desk as she curiously eyed the camcorder in my hands. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be more concerned about your statement to the cops rather than this broken piece of junk?¡± ¡°Haha. Maybe, but I¡¯ve always preferred to do things like this to calm myself down when in stressful situations.¡± ¡°You mean like with your psychotic ex girlfriends?¡± ¡°Yeah. More or less.¡± ¡°You have really poor taste in women.¡± ¡°I get told that a lot.¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Well, with your subpar social skills, it''s no wonder you can only attract mentally unstable women.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to add insult to injury.¡± ¡°Anyways, get lost. I¡¯m not paying you for overtime.¡± ¡°Hey boss... you more or less know my situation, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, what of it?¡± ¡°Would it be okay if I stayed here tonight? I can¡¯t really return to my apartment and I¡¯d rather not stay in a hotel.¡± ¡°How about staying at my place?¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather stay here and figure out what¡¯s wrong with this camcorder.¡± ¡°Tch. Aren¡¯t you the biggest beta ever?¡± ¡°If I were to stay at my beautiful, benevolent boss¡¯ place, who is as noble and temperate as a summer¡¯s day, do you really think I¡¯d be able to control my desires?¡± She simply rolled her eyes and grinned disdainfully towards my flowery words of flattery. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have the balls to make a move on your beautiful boss even if she threw herself at you.¡± Well... she¡¯s definitely not wrong. I¡¯d be too afraid of her turning out to be another psychopath. ¡°Just for the record, I¡¯m not a psychopath.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what my last four exes said before I started dating them. In case you¡¯re wondering, it¡¯s the first question I ask any woman I¡¯m interested in.¡± ¡°Haha. You really have bad luck. Or should I say you¡¯re just too naive to think they¡¯d just obediently say ¡®yes, I¡¯m a psychopath¡¯ when asked?¡± ¡°Rather than bad luck, it¡¯s probably just bad taste in women; and no, of course I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll really tell me the truth. I may be an unlucky man, but I¡¯m not a stupid unlucky man. At least I like to tell myself that at night to make me feel better about myself.¡± The boss presently in front of me was completely different when I compared her how she normally appeared when other workers were around. It was quite a contrast to what I¡¯d seen when I first started working here. ¡°Well, seeing your circumstances, I suppose you can stay here for the time being. If you work on anything it will be considered your rent though, so don¡¯t expect any overtime out of me.¡± ¡°Alright, that¡¯s fine with me.¡± Having received permission from her to freeload, boss turned away with her hips swaying from side to side and left the building. I couldn¡¯t stop from looking up at her figure receding in the distance. I was slightly thankful towards the cold business version of her that hid a warm caring heart on the inside. It really wasn¡¯t bad working for her despite the cold distant act she displayed on the surface. After she departed, I was finally truly alone. The only thing remaining was me and the camcorder I was tinkering with in my hands. The only thing that I hadn¡¯t really taken apart was the camera lens itself. The lens appeared to be mechanically functioning as intended when zooming in and out, so I didn¡¯t really suspect it to be a problem at first; but maybe, just maybe there was something more to it than I could see from the outside without having taken it apart. But before I got to that stage, I wanted to verify whether the hard drive from the camera was functioning properly in the first place, so I hooked it up to a known working camera. It was a long shot, but if I was lucky there might just be a video showing when and how the camcorder came to the state it was presently in. Sure enough, a few videos appeared on the LCD of my working camcorder. I played through one of the videos on the hard drive and discovered the owner of the camcorder was a young male in his early twenties. He appeared to be an amateur film maker. As I skimmed through the videos from oldest to newest I discovered a female started to appear more frequently in the thumbnails of the videos. As I was curious and I had nothing better to do to pass the time, I completely forgot about my mission to fix the camcorder and I watched a few of the videos they¡¯d taken together. Chapter 22. Chapter 22. The videos, from beginning to end, slowly transformed from amateur short films into vlogs about his happy times together with his girlfriend. Based upon the time stamps, he stopped recording videos about six months ago, and judging by the dates of the recorded videos, they were only together for about a month. There were quite a few videos of the times they spent together, ranging from them eating meals, dating, shopping, taking vacations, and traveling together. The last recorded video was actually quite scandalous and probably something I shouldn¡¯t have watched. The thumbnail was the two out in the woods while his girlfriend was naked. I knew it was wrong of me to watch, but I had to admit she was quite attractive; in the end, curiosity got the better of me and I fell for the blatant clickbait. I ¡®accidentally¡¯ dropped the camcorder on the desk and it just so ¡®coincidentally¡¯ landed on the play button. Before my innocent eyes, a scene straight out of a porno was depicted and despite my wholesome efforts to try and press the pause button, for some strange, inexplicable reason, the pause button wasn¡¯t ¡®functioning¡¯ as intended. Against my will, I was forced to watch on as the power button was also ¡®stuck¡¯ for some bizarre reason which could only be described as an act of god. I couldn¡¯t take out the battery either because it was somehow ¡®wedged¡¯ tightly into the compartment and I was unable to pull it out. While I watched the video against my will, about a minute into their act the girlfriend chuckled seductively and said, ¡°we won¡¯t be able to directly film what I¡¯m about to do for you, so we should put away the camera for now.¡± Her words left me in dismay and I powerlessly watched her malicious plot to ruin the video as it unfolded. She stood up, walked over to the camera, and squatted down in front of it with her legs spread open in plain view. The picture went dark, but surprisingly, although there was now no video there was still audio. Through the recorded audio, I heard her stand up where she then proceeded back to her boyfriend¡¯s side. ¡°Honey, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you this for some time now.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡±Why are you cheating on me?¡± Eh? What? Cheating? I suddenly didn¡¯t like the direction things were headed in. I came for the porn, but ended up discovering an affair? ¡°Cheating? What are you talking about babe? You¡¯re the only girlfriend I¡¯ve had my entire life.¡± ¡°Then why do you look at other girls all the time whenever we¡¯re together?¡± ¡°I only have eyes for you babe. There isn¡¯t a single girl in the world that could make me look their way when I¡¯m beside you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like liars you know.¡± By this point in their conversation, major warning flags were already going off in my head as traumatic memories flashed through my mind. Those were definitely words similar to what I¡¯ve heard from some of the psycho girlfriends I¡¯ve dated before.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Of course, things only went downhill from there. ¡°Babe, what are you holding behind your back? ¡°Oh? This? Hehe.¡± ¡°A knife?! Is this some sort of new kinky play?¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s my favorite type of play, Honey.¡± ¡°AHHHHH! BITCH WHAT ARE YOU- AHHHH! GAAAHHHHH!¡± ¡°Killing cheating boyfriends is my favorite type of play Honey.¡± ¡°YOU CRAZY BROAD! GET OFF ME! GAAAAHHHH!¡± ¡°Hahahahahahahaha! Do you love me now? Hahahahahahaha! Well? Honey? Love me more!¡± For a full minute, the boyfriend¡¯s screams rang out endlessly as he pleaded for mercy and forgiveness. He begged for his life, but it was to no avail. The only thing that returned his desperate pleas was the cynical and crazed laughter of his girlfriend who enjoyed every second spent slaughtering him. What I thought was going to be an erotic scene turned out to be the evidence of a murder. I had my doubts though as it could very well have just been a scene for another amateur film he was planning. It would make perfect sense if that was the case. After all, who would have brought the camera in to be repaired if not him, right? That could also explain the mistake of only cutting out the visual, but only leaving the audio. It would make for a rather interesting scene. Sometimes what¡¯s not directly seen was more impactful than what was actually seen. It spurred the mind to visualize the worst based upon what could be heard. If it was a low budget production, the faked death and blood would be much more obvious if it was actually seen. When the boyfriends cries died out, shortly after, the sound of footsteps could be heard again. I presumed it could only be the girl who was approaching the camera since it was implied the man was now dead. Despite knowing beforehand that it was the girl, the last few recorded words before the audio cut out was a soft chilling whisper that sent shivers down my back. ¡°You¡¯re next, my future honey.¡± Nope! Nope! Nope! I shut the camcorder off and took the hard drive out immediately and I completely noped myself out of reality. No thank you, crazy lady. I have no interest in psychotic women. I¡¯ve dated more than enough crazy chicks for one lifetime. I just want a normal, lackluster, down to earth lady from now on. One who didn¡¯t have crazy eyes that gave me the hibbie-jibbies like you. It took some time, but when I finally recomposed myself I decided to push thoughts of the strange video to the back of my mind. I¡¯d found what I was looking for and if I was correct, the malfunction might have had something to do with what the girlfriend in the video did back then. Seeing as how there were no videos after that scene, it seemed plausible. Although, I really had no idea what she could have done in that instant to create such a lingering problem with the camera. Since I probably wouldn¡¯t get any further by just thinking about it, I disassembled the camcorder further and eventually stripped it all the way down to where I could see the camera positioned behind the various lenses. When I pulled the camera away from the compartment housing the lenses and looked inside it, I found something very unsettling that I never would have suspected. A clump of balled up long black hair was blocking light from passing through the lens and into the camera. Upon closer inspection of the board, I also found there were fine strands of black hair wedged between some of the contacts of the ribbon cables connected to the board. It made little to no sense to me as I was able to find continuity between all the lines earlier, but maybe it somehow interfered with the connections and shorted certain lines which resulted in internal errors. It was really something I could never have imagined was possible unless I¡¯d seen it with my own two eyes. It was truly an inhuman feat if this had really occurred when that video was filmed. If I hadn¡¯t watched that video, I would definitely have been baffled as to why hair ended up here. When I unraveled the balled up hair, it was the same length and color as the girlfriend¡¯s hair in the video. Even with the evidence before me, I couldn¡¯t help but think that my eyes had to be playing tricks on me; but no matter what angle I looked at it from, it was definitely her hair. Chapter 23. Chapter 23. The only explanation I could come up with was that she was a ghost; yet, regardless of how I tried to believe it, there really was no way I could believe all of this was real. I was far more inclined to think someone had to be messing with me the entire time. Maybe it was all just a sick and twisted elaborate prank to get me to freak out and record my reaction. I didn¡¯t want to think about it any further and I simply wanted to finish up my work on the device as soon as possible. Since I¡¯d discovered the source of the problem, I removed all the hair and cleaned up the contacts as best I could before I reassembled the camcorder. I reconnected the original hard drive and verified that the LCD turned on properly now. I tried recording a video and changed the camcorder into the play mode. When the video thumbnails loaded up I found the video I¡¯d just recorded. Yes, I found the video I just recorded¡­ it was just that... it was now the only video on the hard drive. Ignoring the fact that the videos were now missing, I still played the video I recorded to confirm it was functioning properly. Even if spooky crap happened, a job was a job no matter what. Maybe I screwed up and the files were just unreadable now. At the end of the day, making sure the job was completed properly, no matter the circumstances, was the code of ethics and creed I abided by. As long as it was functional¡­ screw the previous creepy videos. When I hit the play button on the video, the ceiling appeared with my face in frame. All was good and well for the five seconds of footage I¡¯d recorded. However, just as the recording hit the fifth second, it was for only an instant, but a face lacking a nose and mouth appeared behind me; with white rolled-back eyes, along with long black hair hanging from above draping down towards me, it¡¯s head had morphed and become one with the ceiling. With shivers running down my back, my hair standing on end, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on; I played back the footage and paused it on the fifth second right as the head emerged to verify I wasn¡¯t seeing things. It was without a doubt still there. While the footage was paused a mouth grew on the picture and let out a creepy grin. Without thinking I tossed the camera into a box and taped it up tightly. I knew it was irrational to think that would do anything, but spooky camcorders were definitely spooky. I checked the ceiling just to be sure, but there was nothing there.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I¡¯m definitely just having a mental breakdown right now. That¡¯s right, it¡¯s just a mental breakdown. Nothing more, nothing less. ¡°Why won¡¯t you just leave me alone? I didn¡¯t even watch the damn VHS tape.¡± Of course, no answer was returned in response to my loaded question. What was I really expecting? For a ghost to really be there and answer me? I will refuse to believe in ghosts until the day I die. Shit, that¡¯s not some foreshadowing, okay? Never mind, I take back my words; I just refuse to believe in ghosts regardless of whether I¡¯m alive or not. It¡¯s really about time that I see a psychiatrist. Recently there have been far too many discrepancies with what I view to be reality and fictitious events. When I checked the time, it was already 4:00 AM. I¡¯d really spent way too much time working on that stupid camcorder and looking through the videos on it. Since I¡¯d finally fixed it I tried to calm down by loafing about a bit. I pulled out my smartphone and surfed the web for a while since I still wasn¡¯t sleepy. I paid a visit to the message board I¡¯d frequented recently. After looking through a few threads I came across one titled, ¡°Is Rick Dead?¡± When I opened it up, it was just a bunch of trolls discussing conspiracy theories about the rumored ghost girlfriend. There were some trolls who claimed to be Rick. Some of them acted like they were presently dating the ghost girl and pretended they were having a merry time together. Others acted like their lives were presently endangered and they were either on the run or seeking asylum with the cops. There were all sorts of false claims being thrown about, but surprisingly there wasn¡¯t anybody who believed Rick was already dead. Since that was the case, I figured I¡¯d be the god to shed my wisdom with the blind peasants fumbling about with their incoherent stories. ¡°FormerLurker: Rick is dead. He died yesterday.¡± ¡°Troll1: ^proof?¡± ¡°FormerLurker: I¡¯d rather not for my personal safety as it may reveal my identity.¡± ¡°Troll3: ^fake news.¡± ¡°FormerLurker: All I can say is he was a coworker who was a junior electronics repair technician.¡± After I posted that to the thread, I closed the page out and left it at that. I wasn¡¯t really in the mood to discuss it any further as it reminded me of the creepy dream I had the night he died. Since there weren¡¯t any other threads that piqued my interest and instead only cancerous brony and trap threads at the moment, I listened to Vocaloid songs on YouTube to pass the time. I eventually stumbled upon one I found somewhat catchy, Lucky Orb, and I listened to it on repeat until I eventually fell asleep on top of my desk. I definitely didn¡¯t want to fall asleep with some creepy eerie music playing in the background and end up with another nightmare, so I settled with the happy go lucky song that could do no wrong, Lucky Orb. I really needed some luck, so even the title of the song gave me some peace of mind. ¡­ Chapter 24. Chapter 24. A colorful world. A young boy on the sidewalk looked about in all directions at the unfamiliar environment. There were countless tall buildings that fluctuated in a collage of all sorts of different changing colors from one end of the spectrum to the other. It appeared to be an abstract piece of work like someone randomly tossed paint onto a canvas that constantly changed colors on its own. There appeared to be no rhyme or reason behind the buildings¡¯ ever so frequently changing colors. It felt like a whole other world, one of which the boy had never seen before as he marveled at the peculiar foreign scenery that had drawn him in. The boy mindlessly moved autonomously along the street towards a large intersection. There were all sorts of bizarre vehicles in an uncountable number of different shapes and forms. Some hovered slightly above the surface while others traversed along the ground, while some even flew high up in the sky. Those traversing the ground had wheels ranging from a standard circle to a lopsided oval, while some were more extreme and had square, rectangular, or even star-shaped wheels. Any shape of wheel you could imagine could be found in the sea of vehicles in front of him. The skies were similarly filled with strange objects that defied the natural laws of physics. It ranged from figure-eight shaped contraptions that rotated about a helix-like path to helical objects moving about in random patterns that lacked in any sort of rationalistic order. It was a world of sheer chaos, but it was one the boy was drawn to, an unknown world where laws didn¡¯t govern him. When the crosswalk light lit up indicating he could cross the street, the world of chaotic moving masses came to an abrupt halt which allowed him safe passage to the other side. Unsuspecting of anything, the boy blindly moved forward hopeful towards seeing the other strange wonders in the world. However, halfway across the street, the colors in the world started to drain and disappear. The boy gradually aged and grew taller until the boy looked to be a youth in his teens. The boy, now a teen, became anxious and lost with the unexpected changes that occurred both to his body and the world around him. Afraid of the undesirable changes, he turned around with the intent to return to the sidewalk only to be greeted by a pitch-black world with nothing in sight as far as the eye could see. There was nothing there, there was no way to return down the path he came and he realized he could only move forward and not back. Against his will, the boy turned back towards the other side of the street. He took a single step forward and then another. Repeating the mindless pattern, he continued his journey to the other side as all the bizarre and peculiar sights he¡¯d previously seen at the beginning slowly changed and morphed before his eyes. There were no more of the dazzling shapes and bright colors everywhere like at the start of his journey. The further he proceeded the more scared he became of what lay in wait on the other side. The colors were one by one replaced by black, grey, and white. When he was one step before the end of the crosswalk, all the strange vehicles he¡¯d previously seen were simple cars with standard circular wheels. The nonsensical ones that moved through the sky or hovered above the ground were all grounded. Either they crashed and burned or they adapted and grew wheels like all the other vehicles. They were unable to fly high up in the sky and were now pitifully shackled in chains to the earth below.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. By the time the teenage boy realized it, he was already an adult. He was a man before he noticed anything about himself had changed. Deep down he also knew the moment he took that last step, he vaguely understood he would lose something important. Even so, by now, his view of the world had changed. All the interesting things that he dreamed of vanished. His childlike perspective towards the world completely disappeared without even the slightest trace remaining. His heart had turned cold, his eyes which were once lively and full of anticipation were dark, cloudy, and listless. His heart had sunk down to rock bottom. When he finally took the last step over the boundary to the other side, he turned around to look behind him. The black world he was expecting, now instead reflected the dreary reality of what his modern everyday was. Buildings with singular colors, bland, boring, box-shaped cars that were all grounded in single file lines. Flying far, far out of reach, too far to be clearly made out were airplanes in the distant sky. The dreamland he was once apart of was already long gone and there was truly no way to return. Those airplanes up above didn¡¯t remind him of the freedom he¡¯d previously seen with the strange vehicles flying about freely in the sky. Somehow, even the freedom he thought would come from flying far away felt as though he would still forever be grounded to the earth. The man returned his gaze to the front with a face that showed a complete lack of care for the world and simply walked forward without looking back again. The only thing he hoped for was for some sort of change, yet no matter how far he walked, there was no change in sight. If he had to pick up on any sort of change, it was that his side of the street, slowly but surely, became more and more desolate until there were no longer any passersby. After an unknown time spent walking forward, the man, eventually unable to move forward, collapsed to the ground. He looked around him, but there was no one in sight to help him up. He was left completely alone on his side of the street. When he turned his head and looked at the other side of the street, he could see the crowds moving about emotionlessly, not bothering to look at the deserted sidewalk he was on. The man called out, but no sound escaped his mouth. He hadn¡¯t realized it until now, but the bustling sounds from the surrounding world had gradually been drowned out into a dead silence from the time when he was still just a child. By the time he¡¯d grown into adulthood, all that remained was an emotionless world, devoid of color, sound, and warmth. The man felt cold, colder than he¡¯d ever felt before. The world wasn¡¯t the beautiful place he¡¯d innocently looked upon as a child. All that awaited for him in the world on the other side of the street was a despairing emptiness. As the man lost all hope, his eyes grew heavy. In the process of closing his eyes, cracks reminiscent to that of shattered glass appeared as his eyelids, like a curtain that signaled the end, slowly descended and blocked off the fragmented pieces of the last scenery in his direct line of sight. ¡­ Chapter 25. Chapter 25. When I reopened my eyes I realized I¡¯d been in another strange dream again. I couldn¡¯t really call it a nightmare since nothing too out of the ordinary happened, but it was still a strange dream nevertheless. ¡°It¡¯s about time you woke up.¡± When I raised my head I discovered my boss sitting directly across from me. ¡°Do you know what time it is?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°You idiot, it¡¯s already an hour into your shift. Are you trying to give me more reasons to fire you?¡± ¡°Haha. Sorry, sorry. I was up late working on the camcorder in the box over there. I¡¯m such a hard worker, don¡¯t you think I should get a raise?¡± ¡°Are you an idiot? I was nice enough to let you stay here overnight and I come in to find you snoozing on the job. Shouldn¡¯t I be docking your pay instead?¡± ¡°My benevolent beautiful beloved boss would never do such a thing.¡± ¡°Tch. Shut it and get to work already.¡± ¡°By the way boss, were you really just waiting here the entire time watching me sleep instead of waking me up?¡± ¡°Yeah, I needed to confirm exactly how many hours I needed to dock you for.¡± ¡°For real? It wasn¡¯t because you were a psychotic stalker or anything like that?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not one of your exes.¡± ¡°Haha. Right.¡± ¡°You looked like you were having an interesting dream though. What did you dream about?¡± ¡°I dreamt about how magnanimous my boss was for giving me a raise.¡± She let out a slight chuckle, rolled her eyes, and shot a jeering smile in my direction. She merely responded with a ¡®scram¡¯ and ¡®get lost¡¯ while shooing me away like a pesky fly. I found it refreshing to see a reaction that wasn¡¯t a psychotic one for a change. When she was done with the small talk, she told me to get back to work before she got up and took her leave. Of course, not before she gave me another stern warning. ¡°Make sure I don¡¯t find you slacking on the job again, or else.¡± ¡°Or else what? ¡°I¡¯ll tip your exes off to your address.¡± A chill went down my back as I pleaded, ¡°please don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Then you better wring yourself dry and work yourself to the bone to make sure things don¡¯t come to that. I¡¯m a busy woman. I don¡¯t have time to babysit a problem child with as much baggage as you.¡± A problem child?! Well, it¡¯s not necessarily wrong. ¡°Uh, by the way¡­ the thing about Rick¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bring it up. It¡¯s a sad thing he¡¯s dead, but as the boss around here, I can¡¯t let it weigh on my employees¡¯ minds. I¡¯m running a business after all and deaths will affect efficiency and productivity. Don¡¯t spread more unnecessary trouble for me to clean up.¡± ¡°Right.¡± I was curious about why she was acting so friendly with me, but while thinking about it, I suddenly felt my psycho senses tingling. A ludicrous thought I didn¡¯t want to entertain floated to mind. What if I was just being used as a scapegoat to throw off the cops¡¯ investigation into Rick¡¯s death? What if I was somehow disillusioned into thinking it was the work of a ghost?Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. What if my dream wasn¡¯t a dream, but I was drugged and it was reality I¡¯d seen back then rather than a simple nightmare? How else could the stopper from the hotel end up there? If there was someone who had enough money to pay or bribe a few people to manipulate data or security footage, that wouldn¡¯t be impossible, right? Not only that, but she¡¯s also the one who told me about the details pertaining to the investigation. In the end, the cops haven¡¯t told me anything yet. What if there were things she lied about? I¡¯ve got my fair share of experience when it came to rich psychopaths after all. No, wait. I need to calm down. It¡¯s said that if you set out to find something that isn¡¯t actually there you¡¯ll start twisting things to suit the situation towards your biased perspective. To begin with, my boss doesn¡¯t have any reason to do any of this. Besides, as far as I¡¯m aware, there were no conflicts between Rick and the boss anyways. But is there any way I can really be sure that this is the case? Bzzzzzzt. Bzzzzzzt. Bzzzzzzt. My train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the phone vibrating on my desk. I glanced at the number, but I didn¡¯t recognize it. Despite not recognizing it, I still answered since it was a local number showing up on the caller ID. ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Hello, is this Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°Yes... it is. Who is this?¡± ¡°My name is Investigator Zenos, I work for the FBI. Is this a good time?¡± ¡°Sure... what is this concerning?¡± ¡°It¡¯s regarding the statement you provided related to the deceased, Rick; we found a few contradictions in the official statement you provided and we wanted you to come down for further questioning.¡± ¡°What was wrong with the statement I gave?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll discuss that when you come in.¡± ¡°I finish work at 7:00 PM, is it alright if I come down to the station then?¡± ¡°Yes, that will be fine. I¡¯ll see you then. Goodbye.¡± It looked like my boss was really telling the truth yesterday. There really was something up after all. If there really was no footage or anyone who witnessed me going to Rick¡¯s place, then I¡¯d really made quite a blunder in the statement I gave. I know I¡¯ve had time to think about it, but how can I explain the contradiction to them? Tell them it¡¯s the work of ghosts? Hah! I¡¯ll be tossed into a mental asylum in that case. Should I just make something up? I could just say I went to his place in my car, but never got out. It makes no sense, but it¡¯s better than nothing I guess. With my thoughts in a mess, I somehow fumbled my way through to the end of my shift. I departed the moment my shift ended and headed straight down to the station. I was a bit nervous, but I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. I was no stranger to the station thanks to my crazy exes. I¡¯d already lost track of how many times I¡¯ve had to provide statements thanks to the insane things they¡¯ve gotten me involved with. The moment I stepped into the station, the first thing I heard from the receptionist who appeared peeved upon seeing me was, ¡°Tch. You again? What crazy bitch did you date this time?¡± ¡°Haha. No one, but I¡¯m here to give a statement. I was called in by Investigator Zenos.¡± ¡°Oh? Let¡¯s see here. Hmm? A contradiction in a statement you provided? That¡¯s rare for someone with your level of experience (lol).¡± ¡°Yeah. Yeah. I get it. I¡¯m just a joke to you guys, aren¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Ehem. Excuse me. Anyways, I see. A statement it is? I¡¯ll ring him for you right away. One moment please.¡± Deeeeeeeee. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. ¡°Zenos speaking.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese is here to provide his follow up statement.¡± ¡°Show him to boardroom one. I¡¯ll be there shortly.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Click. The receptionist stood up and led the way further into the station. It was already getting dark outside so all the lights in the station were presently on. The receptionist walked directly in front of me and guided me down the long hallway towards boardroom one. We passed by the offices that lined both sides of the hallway that I¡¯d already grown acquainted with after my previous visits to provide statements in the past. The tiles, walls, and ceiling were all pure white with the doors painted pitch black. The station made use of low power, tube-shaped, fluorescent bulbs that emitted white light much unlike its incandescent predecessor. No matter how many times I visited the place, I always found it to be extremely creepy and off-putting. It was to the point that I often wished the person who thought up the design for the station would have been fired. We walked down the hall for about a minute in silence, when we were almost at the boardroom, one of the lights in front of us flickered on and off momentarily as it gave off the buzz of a hyperactive dying bumblebee. The building was centrally air-conditioned, so it was also quite chilly as well. If the person who designed the place was aiming to scare the crap out of criminals, I had to admit they did a pretty good job. The place really gave off the spooky haunted type of atmosphere. ¡°Tch. Another loose bulb? What is the maintenance guy doing lately? I recently just had him replace that bulb too. He¡¯s always doing a half-assed job.¡± Despite the receptionist¡¯s complaints, she temporarily ignored the bulb and we continued down the hall towards boardroom one. As we continued down the hall, a few more bulbs flickered on and off. The receptionist looked annoyed every time another bulb flickered, but she chose to remain silent instead of continuing with her complaints. Chapter 26. Chapter 26. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap¡­ Tap. Tap. Tap¡­ Tap. As we continued our journey down the long hall, I listened closely to the sounds of our footsteps; distinct crisp taps against the glossy ceramic tiles echoed out loud with each step we took. However, after some time had passed, what was once the sound of two footsteps suddenly grew to three. Ours were in sync, but the third was a half a beat off from ours. I had my eyes on the receptionist in front of me the entire time, but it appeared they hadn¡¯t noticed the sound of the phantom third footsteps behind us. Someone who I initially didn¡¯t notice had stepped out of their office, that was how I rationalized it in my head. I¡¯ve been a bit jumpy over the last few days; but perhaps to the receptionist, the additional set of footsteps probably wasn¡¯t something of major significance. I took a deep breath in and resolved myself to not look back. If you look you lose. Looking back would be a sure fire bad end screen in a horror game. There¡¯s no way I¡¯ll be stupid enough to look. Must resist the temptation. Curiosity killed the cat. While such wishful thoughts of escapism flew through my mind, from behind, I felt the sensation of a gentle finger as it brushed across, starting from the middle of my back, all the way down my spine. The suddenness of it all had me jumping slightly like I¡¯d been electrocuted and without a second thought, I turned around only to find nobody was there. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Ah... Nothing... Sorry, I thought someone was behind me just now and I got a bit startled.¡± ¡°Are you getting haunted by a ghost now instead of your exes?¡± ¡°Ha. Maybe.¡± ¡°Anyway, we¡¯re here now, just wait inside here for a moment. Investigator Zenos should arrive shortly.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± The receptionist unlocked the door, then turned on the lights in the room before she left me to wait in an eerie boardroom all by my lonesome. Similar to the hallway, it was a completely white room with a long white table at the center and black cushioned chairs surrounding it. There was a black chalkboard on the long wall in the room as well as a projector screen mounted along the shorter dimension of the room. In total there were two doors in the room along the wall opposite to the chalkboard. Honesty, the room felt very peculiar to me. If I had to point out what made me feel so unsettled, it was likely related to the out of place, old fashioned shaded antique lamp at the very center of the table that provided additional illumination to the room. The lamp, despite its antiquated appearance, looked to be battery powered as there was no cord. I suppose the reason for it being there was in the unlikely event the ceiling lights malfunctioned for some reason. Shit. That¡¯s not foreshadowing. No freaking way is it foreshadowing anything. I really wanted to just leave and go home, but it really wouldn¡¯t look good if I did that after coming so far. Even if I knew it was coming or expected it was coming it still had me on edge.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Quick, make some other reason for it being there so I can cancel the foreshadowing. It was surely also there for meetings to provide small amounts of light when the main lights were off so people could take notes during presentations when the projector was in use. Safe! Yeah¡­ that should work and cancel out all godforsaken acts of foreshadowing. I pulled out a seat with my back facing the chalkboard so I could keep an eye on the door. If anything messed up was going to happen, it would surely come in through the door. If I had my back to the door I¡¯d definitely be boned. I waited patiently on high alert like an eagle eyeing his prey. For a solid five minutes I glared at the door like my life depended on it, but it didn¡¯t take long before I got bored. Just as I was about to let my guard down when I realized nothing freaky was happening, I heard the sound of a glass crack to the left. One of the fluorescent bulbs in the overhead lighting panels had gone out. Since there was still a significant amount of lights on, I didn¡¯t pay it much attention and just treated it as a one off. I still had delusions that my secret technique of the quick play magic card, foreshadowing cancellation, was somehow miraculously in play. Several minutes passed by in silence where nothing else occurred. In my boredom, I took my phone out with the intention to play some games to pass the time, only to find that the battery was at two percent. Reflexively, I pulled out my charging cable and plugged it into the power outlet at the center of the table without much thought, but the moment I plugged it in the lights momentarily flickered on and off. Due to the unexpected sequence of... well, in reality I knew it was coming when I realized I¡¯d made an inadvertent horror oopsie with my careless actions, but I was still caught off guard and instinctively unplugged the power cord from the outlet. The moment I did so, the lights immediately shut off. The only illumination in the room that remained came from the gap beneath the two doors along the wall opposite to me. To any other person put in my situation, with all the freaky stuff that has happened recently, the common sense thing to think of would be that it was the work of ghosts. It would also be common sense for me to try to turn on the battery powered lamp that just so happened to conveniently be in the room; however, I am not a man of common sense who will fall for such obvious ploys. It¡¯s like blatant clickbait, someone clearly wanted me to turn on that wretched and despicable lamp at the center of the table. With that being the case, I did the only rational thing I could do. I closed my eyes with the intent to take a nap. If god gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? Well, if god gives me darkness, wouldn¡¯t the natural reaction be to sleep? It was a sign sent down to me from the heavens to sleep and act like everything was perfectly normal. If I turn on the lamp, there will surely be some sort of jumpscare waiting for me, but if I do nothing and don¡¯t see it, then it¡¯s as if it never existed to begin with. It was the same concept as crouching backwards through a horror game to avoid every jumpscare scare. Right now all I had to do was patiently wait for my savior to enter the room and I would be safe. Coincidentally, as if my savior had responded to my train of thought, it was almost as if everything was coordinated beforehand; I heard the sound of the door handle as it was slowly turned until a small click resounded amidst the darkness. It seemed my savior, the man of the hour, Investigator Zenos was finally here. I reopened my eyes and looked directly at the door closest to me only to realize the light that entered the room through the small gap under the door was much unlike before I closed my eyes; it was presently flickering on and off. The door slowly creaked open as a low, long and drawn out squeak reverberated throughout the room. My eyes were locked directly onto the door waiting for Investigator Zenos to step in. In a small interval between when the light flickered on and off, two shadows appeared cutting into the continuous stream of light that entered the room through the gap beneath the door. I let out a sigh of relief as I was certain it had to be Investigator Zenos. Without any warning the light suddenly stopped flickering and remained shut off and the squeaking noise from the door simultaneously ceased. I immediately noticed that another click sounded out from the other door leading into the room on the far side. When the door was fully opened, a man entered the room and looked directly at me and asked, ¡°Mr. Genovese, correct?¡± Seeing the man call me by name, the tension in my body from moments before vanished as I slumped backwards into my chair. I glanced towards the door close to me for a moment without answering him, only to find the door was fully shut and the light was shining through the gap beneath the door like when I first entered the room. I was now left with several unanswered questions, but there was no one who could answer them. Was I just hallucinating due to the stress? Was everything that just transpired in my head? Unfortunately, I would likely never be privy to the truth. Chapter 27. Chapter 27. ¡°Mr. Genovese, are you okay? You look a bit pale.¡± ¡°Sorry, I was a bit out of it just now.¡± ¡°Why are you in the dark, why didn¡¯t you turn on the lights?¡± ¡°Uh, the power to the lights seemed to go out randomly when I tried to charge my phone just now.¡± ¡°Charging your phone tripped a breaker? You¡¯re messing with me right?¡± He tried to flip the switch to the lights, but they didn¡¯t turn on. ¡°What? Seriously? They¡¯re really out? What were you really doing to trip the breaker?¡± ¡°Fortnite and Minecraft take up a lot of power?¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Of course not. I really have no idea why the power tripped from plugging in my phone, but it really did. I swear!¡± He rubbed his forehead clearly frustrated and said, ¡°whatever, forget it. As you probably expected I¡¯m Investigator Zenos. I¡¯ll get to the point since it¡¯s already late. We found a few contradictions in the statement you provided and we need you to provide another statement.¡± ¡°What exactly was wrong with the statement I gave?¡± Before he responded to my question, Investigator Zenos walked over to the center of the table and turned on the lamp. He put down a digital recorder on the table and posed a question to me. ¡°You said you went to Rick¡¯s apartment before you discovered his body at your apartment, is that correct?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. Was there something wrong with that?¡± ¡°Are you certain you really went there?¡± ¡°Of course I am. Why would I lie about that?¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t think we would find anything wrong with that statement when you boldly claimed there should be recorded footage; however, the problem was there was actually no such footage as you claimed there would be.¡± ¡°That was the only flaw in the statement you gave to us. Everything else checked out perfectly fine. Based upon the logs and recorded security footage at the hotel you stayed at that night, it should have been absolutely impossible for you to be involved in his unusual death. After an autopsy, his death was estimated at 2:00 AM during your stay at the hotel. Based upon that alone, you should have been completely unrelated to his death. However, that is under the assumption that the time of death was truly accurate and wasn¡¯t manipulated in any way, or the body wasn¡¯t cleverly moved with some sort of hidden gimmick. You¡¯re a smart guy, Mr. Genovese, would I be wrong to say that?¡± ¡°I¡¯m really not smart. Also, are you really trying to insinuate I was involved with Rick¡¯s death right now?!¡±Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Never. I wouldn¡¯t be so presumptuous to do such a thing. After all, as we say in law, the murderer is always innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You¡¯re not a murderer, now are you? So you don¡¯t need to worry about that.¡± ¡°But on a side note, if you were the murderer, how would you have tried to manipulate the time of death and move the body?¡± ¡°I have no idea. I¡¯m not a murderer, so I wouldn¡¯t know about things related to your field of expertise as an investigator. Although, I¡¯m sure an investigator like yourself would be the perfect murderer since you would know all the tricks in the book to cover up your tracks.¡± ¡°An investigator like me? You surely jest. With your track record of poor relationships, I¡¯m sure you¡¯d know much more than a small time investigator like me.¡± Dude, you¡¯re with the FBI. If you¡¯re a small time investigator, what are private investigators worth? ¡°Let¡¯s get back on track. Can you explain why there was no footage or witnesses around who saw you at his apartment that day?¡± ¡°Did I ever say I went inside the building in my previous statement?¡± Investigator Zenos frowned when he heard my question. ¡°Then are you saying we misunderstood your previous statement?¡± ¡°Yes. I did pass by his apartment, but I never left my car. I parked outside and called him from my car, but I didn¡¯t receive any answer. I thought there would at least be recorded footage of when I was parked outside in front of his place. I thought I would have been in view of a camera at the front, I guess I was mistaken in my assumption.¡± ¡°Why would you simply park in front of his place and not go inside when visiting to check up on a coworker who didn¡¯t call out sick for work?¡± ¡°Rick always left the window and the curtains in his room open whenever he was home. Just by looking, I could tell he wasn¡¯t actually home, so there was no need for me to enter the building to verify it.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t it have just been that he was home but he didn¡¯t bother to open the window or curtains?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t really think too much into it at the time and figured he was out since the window was closed on such a hot day. I didn¡¯t want to wait all day staking out his place, so I left not long after.¡± ¡°Your story is a real stretch, you know that, right?¡± Obviously I know that, but would you like me to tell you it was the doing of a ghost or something? ¡°Hah. Well it¡¯s fine, there was a record of you having called approximately when you said you were there. Sorry about the trouble. I¡¯ve been wracking my head over this case since it was assigned to me. It¡¯s been nothing but a complete mystery to me. Why would a kid with such an optimistic future commit suicide? It really makes no sense. Maybe I¡¯m just digging too deep into things after all.¡± ¡°Was that the only problem with the statement I gave before?¡± ¡°Yeah, that was all. In truth, I was grabbing at straws by calling you out on that flaw. You probably have your own concerns after all with those psycho exes of yours. Mr. Genovese, please accept my apologies for my presumptuousness just now.¡± Could it be my boss really didn¡¯t lie to me about anything she told me? Investigator Zenos had practically verified everything my boss said was accurate. There wasn¡¯t a single discrepancy to be found between the information I acquired from her compared to what Investigator Zenos had told me just now. ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s just work. I get how it is. It must be tough getting put on cases that don¡¯t make much rational sense.¡± ¡°You¡¯re correct Mr. Genovese, it is quite mentally taxing. A lot of cases nobody else wants to take up are typically dumped on me. It¡¯s only because the majority of cases I look at are somewhat similar that they get to claim, ¡®oh, Zenos has experience in this let him do it.¡¯¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to be so formal with me Investigator Zenos, just call me Dio.¡± ¡°Then Dio, you can just call me Seth.¡± ¡°Dio, I do have a few other questions I¡¯d like to ask.¡± ¡°Like what?¡± ¡°I know you were asked this before, but do you really not know anyone who might have any sort of motive to kill Rick?¡± ¡°No, I can¡¯t think of anyone with such motives.¡± Chapter 28. Chapter 28. ¡°Did Rick have any sort of romantic relationships or love affairs with anyone in secret that you are aware of?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Has there been anyone acting differently around you after Rick¡¯s death?¡± ¡°Well¡­ actually, that¡¯s not quite accurate. My boss has been acting a bit differently, but that¡¯s just because she¡¯s trying to keep the workplace in order.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Did you see Rick entering his home when you dropped him off that night?¡± ¡°He definitely entered the building. As for whether he entered his unit I don¡¯t really know. Was there any footage of him entering his unit?¡± ¡°There was footage of him entering. However, the only strange thing was his fingerprints weren¡¯t on the door knob. Did you notice whether he was wearing gloves that night?¡± ¡°No he wasn¡¯t when he left my car.¡± Ah. Wait a minute. Wait a damned minute. There were no fingerprints on the doorknob? Didn¡¯t I use my sleeve to open the door? Did I wipe away the fingerprints in the process? But that would be evidence for myself that I¡¯m not insane and I definitely did go to his place after all like I thought. So it really wasn¡¯t just some delusion of mine. Then the footage of me being there must have been doctored and manipulated or somehow deleted by someone for reasons unknown to me. But why would that be the case? With such thoughts in mind, I stumbled upon a question I never considered before. Who was my boss anyways? For her to be able to get information on me as easily as she had and also be informed so quickly of Rick¡¯s death, wasn¡¯t it strange? I don¡¯t know how old she was, but she actually appeared a fair bit younger than I was. Was she in fact a well off daughter from an upper class family who was getting some experience by taking up the position as the owner of one of their companies? ¡°Uhm, Seth, I have a question. Do you know the identity of my boss by any chance?¡± ¡°Her? Haha. Sorry. If you don¡¯t know already, I can¡¯t say.¡± ¡°So she isn¡¯t just an ordinary owner of an electronics repair company?¡± ¡°Why do you ask?¡± ¡°I was slightly interested in her was all.¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Seth simply returned a mysterious knowing smile before he shook his head and said, ¡°I¡¯ll give you a word of advice, you should give up on any strange thoughts you might be having. Your luck with woman isn¡¯t good to begin with, you shouldn¡¯t gamble with your life like this.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not interested in her like that.¡± ¡°Oh? Then what is it that you were interested in? You¡¯re not going to drop a bomb and claim she was involved in some kind of conspiracy, right?¡± ¡°Nah. No way would I ever make an outrageous claim like that.¡± If I did, judging by how quickly and easily my information was leaked to her, I¡¯d probably be dead if she really turned out to be another psychopath. I¡¯m not ready to court death just yet. It would definitely be better to just play dumb and distance myself from it all instead of getting involved anymore than this. Even though I thought that, I still tried imagining myself in her shoes out of sheer curiosity. Let¡¯s say she was in fact a psychopath, what type of psychopath would she be? The type of psycho to cut someone off cold turkey the moment they did something disadvantageous to her image that outweighs that individual''s utility? Wasn¡¯t that precisely the meaning behind what she told me before? Then, could Rick have had some dirt on her? Did he himself have some sort of unspeakable secret that could have disadvantaged her in some way if it was made public? But if that was the case and she did get rid of him, why would she try to use me as a scapegoat? If I had gone home that night instead of staying at a hotel and I didn¡¯t have any sort of alibi, wouldn¡¯t I have basically been guilty? But if I was discovered as a murderer, that would have caused trouble for the company like she said. Is that contradiction the very reason why she did it then? She was willing to take the hit for me being discovered as a murderer and the scandal that resulted from it was of less significance to her when compared to her secret being discovered? Honestly, I was inclined to believe this was more likely rather than believing that it was the work of a ghost. While I was lost in my stray thoughts, Seth reconfirmed a few of the things I previously made in my last statement while I mechanically answered on auto pilot. After half an hour of questioning, he wrapped things up and brought his questioning to a close, ¡°Thank you for your time Dio. I¡¯ll be in contact should anything else come up. Here¡¯s my card in case you ever need to contact me. If you remember anything or come across anything that may be related to Rick¡¯s death, no matter how insignificant you think it may be, please let me know.¡± He looked to be defeated and exhausted by the time we were finished. It didn¡¯t appear as though he¡¯d gained very much from anything I¡¯d told him. I felt a bit bad, but if I carelessly misspoke regarding things I was only speculating about, I could end up in deep shit. Forget about losing my job, I may very well be the next victim on the list. After I took his card, the two of us stood up and prepared to leave the room. When I got up and turned around I noticed there was something written on the chalkboard that was directly behind me. ¡®She killed Rick.¡¯ There were only three words written on the chalkboard. If there was one thing I could be certain of, it was that when I first entered the room, there was definitely nothing written there. For it to be written without me hearing a thing, the only time I could imagine it being written would have been when the door slowly creaked open on its own when I was hallucinating. It was the only time I could think of where the sound of the chalk moving across the board could have been missed if it was disguised by the squeaking door. If that was true though, then was it really a hallucination like I¡¯d previously assumed? Chapter 29. Chapter 29. Who does ¡®she¡¯ refer to though? My boss? An ex? A ghost? Can I even trust what I¡¯m seeing right now? With doubts in mind, I sneakily erased the first two words with my sleeve and decided to verify I wasn¡¯t just seeing things. ¡°Hey Seth, why is Rick¡¯s name written on the chalkboard here?¡± ¡°Where?¡± ¡°Right here?¡± When I first pointed it out, Seth looked slightly confused for a moment, but it appeared he had suspicions of his own since he still patiently responded to my random question. ¡°Hmmmmm, you¡¯re right. Why is it written there? Well, it¡¯s probably just one of my colleagues messing with me. They¡¯ve been cracking jokes and making fun of me for how serious I¡¯m treating the deceased, Rick¡¯s, death. Some of them have teased me by saying his death was the work of a ghost if it wasn¡¯t suicide like everyone suspected.¡± ¡°Maybe the reason the breaker blew was also related to a prank directed towards me and you just happened to get caught in the crossfire. They probably wanted me to get freaked out and likely set up a few gimmicks to trip the breaker.¡± ¡°Haha, I see. It sounds like you¡¯ve got it tough.¡± ¡°At least it¡¯s not as bad as you have it with women.¡± Ugh, the burn. After I verified the words written on the chalkboard weren¡¯t just a figment of my imagination, I erased his name from the chalkboard and followed closely behind Seth as we exited the room. Rather than feeling relieved after I got this mess out of the way, I actually felt more on edge than when I came here. My questions and worries since I came had only increased rather than decreased. As we were finished, I didn¡¯t dawdle any longer, I immediately left the station and returned to my car. I drove back to my workplace and parked up in the lot nearby and spent the night outdoors again. My workplace was already closed and there wasn¡¯t anyone inside to let me in, so I could only rough the night out in my car. All sorts of unanswered questions ran through my mind amidst the silent night and I found it difficult to sleep. As I was unable to fall asleep right away, I pulled out my almost dead phone and plugged it into the built in USB port in my car to charge it while I watched YouTube videos. I really needed to keep my mind off of ghosts and murder as much as possible for the sake of maintaining my sanity. Too much had transpired for me to take in over the last few days. I¡¯d only recently started working here, but I already wanted to take a long vacation away from everything. I made sure to set my alarm so I¡¯d wake up in time for work this time to avoid repeating an embarrassing mishap like today when I was caught sleeping on the job. In between YouTube videos, I also looked up a local psychiatrist that I could make an appointment with in the morning. I really wanted to get myself checked out. I had reasons to both believe and disbelieve in my sanity; seeing a psychiatrist was one of the few things that would allow me to reaffirm to myself that I was still sane.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. As time passed by slowly while I watched random videos, my eyes grew heavier and heavier until I eventually entered a state of deep sleep. ¡­ The silhouette of a woman stood directly before me. Adele? She was the first person that came to mind. But¡­ no. It wasn¡¯t quite right. Who was that person? Her hairstyle from behind was different. Adele¡¯s hair was white and perfectly straight; this person¡¯s hair despite also being a lovely white, hers was wavy instead. She also had a more dignified and mature feel to her when looking at her from behind. I couldn¡¯t see her face as she had her back to me, but just her figure alone told me she was definitely gorgeous. She wore a black one piece that beautifully contrasted with the wavy snow white hair that draped down to slightly above her waist from behind. Her legs were completely bare without any footwear and there was nothing that hid the smooth distinctly arched curves from her lower calves to her upper thighs. Only the skin tight fitted black dress which was somewhat see through in certain areas obstructed the magnificent sight of the full view that provoked a man¡¯s carnal desires. She looked far into the distance out a window while she simultaneously gave off a rather lonely, desolate feeling. If she didn¡¯t remind me of Adele, I might have sympathized with her more; however, I knew from my past experiences, the more beautiful the woman, the more psychotic they were. I¡¯m not about to go and fall for a blatant honey trap again. Despite that being the case, when I understood that it wasn¡¯t Adele I felt a slight sense of relief and I somewhat let my guard down to a certain degree. If it was Adele, I¡¯d definitely be left shitting my pants in terror even when I¡¯d already long understood that this was only a dream. In the past I really loved Adele, but I was left heartbroken when I discovered the real her and I couldn¡¯t ever come to accept her because of it. Her parents and her sister¡­ she personally killed them. She also killed who knows how many people in pursuit of her twisted form of love before she met me. Was this dream an unconscious wish of mine for an Adele that turned out differently than she had? Somehow, that thought left me extremely conflicted. I was torn internally when I thought about how I didn¡¯t really know a thing about her past despite the three years we spent together. How did she come to murder her parents and sister? I¡¯d been running away from her ever since the day I discovered she was a psychopath. ¡°You¡¯re the worst. Thinking of other woman when you already have me.¡± ¡­ ¡°Hah! Haaah! Haaaaaah!¡± Without any warning, I awoke with saggy eyes in a state of hysteria. When I heard the words that belonged to the mysterious woman in my dream, my eyes, which were glued to the floor in deep contemplation raised upwards and I traced a path from her toes to her knees, waist, back and finally her head. What came into view was a pale white face straight out of a horror film. With her head rotated 180 degrees vertically, looking directly back at me with a sinister smile and large pointed piranha like teeth that stretched from one ear to the next. Only the whites of her eyes were visible and they contrasted heavily with the large black circles painted around them along with the long streaks of bloody tears that trickled down from the corner of her eyes. Where there should have been a nose, was caved in and hollowed out; in addition, one of her ears were also missing. In reality, I¡¯d actually been so shocked by the large gap between my expectations and reality that I was immediately scared to the point that I was kicked out of my own dream. At first glance, I¡¯d assumed she was just another dime a dozen beauty from behind, but the moment I saw her face, those naive thoughts flew straight out the window. I definitely got baited to the extreme. Chapter 30. Chapter 30. After I woke up, it didn¡¯t take long for me to realize something was strangely out of place; I had a very unsettling feeling. ¡°Rise and shine sleepy head.¡± Instinctively, my back straightened up as a bolt like electric current coursed through my body and down my spine. My instinctive assumption was that it was Adele, but I quickly realized the voice didn¡¯t match hers. When I turned my head to the side, a figure I¡¯d recently become more familiar with came into view. When I realized who it was, I confusedly asked the intruder, ¡°Boss?¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Have you forgotten who your beautiful magnificent boss is?¡± ¡°Of course not, but why are you here?¡± ¡°Why am I here?¡± ¡°Yes, why are you here?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s almost time for work. Why else would I be here?¡± ¡°No. The real problem is. Why are you in my car?¡± ¡°Oh that? You were careless and left your door unlocked. See, it¡¯s open, right? I was worried someone would notice and rob you. Be grateful.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t you have locked my door and left? Why would you stay?¡± ¡°Because I like watching my cute employees sleeping face?¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°As if. I was just a bit sleepy and exhausted myself after dealing with the aftermath from Rick¡¯s death and I didn¡¯t want to be caught sleeping on the job like a certain idiot.¡± ¡°You were sleeping? For how long?¡± ¡°About two hours.¡± ¡°Do you sleep with all your employees?¡± ¡°Haha. Only the ones I like.¡± Did my boss just hit on me? ¡°I¡¯m obviously just kidding. I just felt like I can relax if it¡¯s around someone with as many problems as you. Looking at your love life in shambles lets me find a strange sort of solace.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not funny. This is no time to make jokes, wouldn¡¯t this be considered as a form of trespassing. Aren¡¯t you afraid of being arrested?¡± ¡°Arrested? That¡¯s probably the last thing I¡¯m afraid of. Letting myself be arrested would probably be like letting yourself be free in a certain sense. Letting go of all your responsibilities as well as all the pressure weighing down on your shoulders. Not having to worry about results, efficiency, productivity, or the cold emotionless glares full of scorn from a society who is constantly watching and judging every move you make. Starting from ground zero behind bars wouldn¡¯t be so bad. Prison isn¡¯t really anywhere as bad as it¡¯s made out to be by movies or the media. You get free shelter, food, and a social community where you¡¯re all just the dregs of society who can understand and relate to one another. As long as you don¡¯t get into conflict with the wrong people, you¡¯d be fine.¡±The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°When you put it like that, in a sense it might not be too bad, but I think it¡¯s a bit naive to think it¡¯s all just fun and games in prison.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you think it would be nice to just let everything go and forget about money, bills, expenses, rules, regulations, social hierarchy and all the chains that shackle us in modern times?¡± ¡°Hah. Of course. That¡¯s every person¡¯s dream, isn¡¯t it? To live a free, debtless, happy life while unrestrained and unfettered by those around us.¡± Without realizing it, I¡¯d somehow gotten caught up in her pace and I carelessly let out my true thoughts. ¡°Is that something you should be admitting to your boss? Shouldn¡¯t you be coming up with some sort of counterargument? What if I was testing you and based upon your answer I would fire you?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not testing me. You really feel that way don¡¯t you?¡± She smiled at me and said, ¡°don¡¯t get me wrong, I don¡¯t feel that way at all. I just wanted to tease my financially and romantically challenged employee a bit.¡± Beep. Beep. Beep. After my alarm went off, her face suddenly turned stern and expressionless as she coolly said ¡°Mr. Genovese, you are now officially late for work.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? I set my alarm for 10 minutes before my shift starts.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be docking your paycheck for every minute you are late.¡± I checked the time on my phone and found that she was actually right. It was already time for my shift. ¡°Did you press snooze when I was sleeping?¡± ¡°Are you trying to blame your tardiness on your boss? Such an impudent employee. That will be another deduction from your paycheck.¡± ¡°Cheapskate!¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, I¡¯ll see you at work. Insulting your boss earns you a ten percent dock in pay.¡± ¡°This is blatant daylight robbery!¡± After the sudden 180 degree reversal in her personality she calmly opened the car door, flattened out her skirt and got out of my car like a true professional. I was left completely flabbergasted by my boss¡¯ peculiar quirks. When it was on the clock, she¡¯d show utmost professionalism. When it was off the clock she was far cuter, warm, and she even had a slightly flirtatious personality that I found myself strangely attracted to. She was really throwing me off to the point of making me suspect her true motive. With my shaky track record in romance, I had low expectations of something like chancing upon the love of my life, who just so happened to not be a psychopath for a change. I¡¯m sure there aren¡¯t many guys who have to specifically include the, ¡°not a psychopath for a change¡± as a checkbox on their list of things they¡¯re looking for in a woman. Should I take pride in that checkbox for being unique, or feel ashamed that I¡¯m a psycho magnet? Wait. Could it be she¡¯s actually scoping me out and judging whether she needs to silence me? Am I a hindrance to her in some way? Haha. Yeah right. This isn¡¯t an action movie where everyone¡¯s out to get me. It¡¯s probably just her trying to look after her employees health to make sure they are stable after a recent death in the office. Still, to go so far as invading my private space without permission is still overstepping her bounds. Well, what¡¯s done is done; grumbling about it after it¡¯s already happened is pointless. At least that¡¯s what was on my mind until I turned to open the door and noticed something. The locking mechanism was down on my side. I checked the back doors and they were also both down. I thought back to the time right after I woke up and how she pointed towards the locking mechanism that was up on her side; I tried to not think too deeply into it, but try as I may, a slight doubt towards her words were formed in my heart. When I lock the driver side door, all the door locks are engaged. Theoretically the lock on the passenger side should definitely have been locked as well, unless it somehow broke without me ever realizing it. I never really have passengers so it¡¯s not like I¡¯d ever really notice if it was broken, but it¡¯s still too suspicious. I tested the locks by pressing the unlock button at my side and then locked it again. The passenger side door¡¯s lock didn¡¯t engage or respond though and it appeared to be malfunctioning. It must have happened some time between when Rick died and today, that was the only thing I could confirm since he sat in the passenger seat that day. As a fellow repair technician it was unlikely for him to miss it, he would surely have noticed and pointed it out unless he had some sort of hidden agenda. Chapter 31. Chapter 31. I examined the lock closer and found there was actually something wedged in it that was preventing the locking mechanism from lowering. I pinched and pulled at it to try to dislodge the strange white silky soft bundle of unknown mass. When I pulled enough of it out to verify what it was, I realized it was a lock of wavy white hair. How in the¡­? I blinked once and when I reopened my eyes I was left further confused. Was I just seeing things? There wasn¡¯t any hair between my fingers after all, there was only air to be found in place of what I thought to be a lock of wavy white hair. Do I have some weird hair fetish I¡¯m unaware of that causes me to see illusory locks of hair in unexpected places? First it was the camcorder and now it¡¯s my car door locks? Are these some sentient almighty locks of hair that can travel through parallel dimensions just to play mind games with me? How much free time do sentient locks of hair have? I should write a novel about the misadventures of the time someone reincarnated as a lock of hair who wielded the power to manipulate the space time continuum. Random garbage like that seems to hit it big these days anyways, so why not? Haha, well¡­ that¡¯s enough jokes out of the guy trying to escape reality. Aren¡¯t I seriously boned right now? Ghosts can¡¯t really exist, right? Is my boss a ghost? Is she maybe... possessed by the ghost girl from my dream? Okay, okay, I must be absolutely crazy to even consider that. But if on the off chance that ghosts really did exist, and she were possessed, that would explain the large gap in her personality at times, wouldn¡¯t it? No, get your shit together, I¡¯m sure there¡¯s some sort of logical explanation behind everything and I¡¯m just overthinking things. After I spent an unknown duration fumbling about in my head trying to calm my stray wandering thoughts, I left the car and confirmed all the doors were locked properly before making my way into the office. When I entered the building, my boss stood there, looking at her watch and jotting something down onto a notepad. ¡°Fifteen minutes late altogether, you really are an irresponsible employee.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you cut me some slack?¡± ¡°Well, if you work an extra hour for free I might consider it.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you a bit too evil for a boss?¡± ¡°Take it or leave it.¡± ¡°How about fifteen minutes instead?¡± ¡°Now it¡¯ll be two hours.¡± ¡°What? Why¡¯d it increase?¡± ¡°Every minute wasted after the fifteenth minute will add an additional hour to the length of time. Tic, toc. The clock¡¯s ticking, make your decision.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°This is definitely a violation of some sort of labor laws.¡± ¡°Now it will be two hours and you¡¯ll have to take me out for a meal.¡± ¡°No way.¡± ¡°Are those your final words before you hand in your resignation letter?¡± I opened my mouth wanting to retort, but her eyes told me she wasn¡¯t kidding. ¡°Fine. It would be my pleasure to do two hours of free labor for a boss as forgiving as you.¡± Job hunting is a pain and I¡¯d rather avoid that. ¡°And?¡± ¡°And what?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ so I take it you¡¯re resigning then?¡± ¡°Fine. Fine. I get it. I get it! I¡¯ll treat my cheapskate¡­ I mean, frugal boss to a meal.¡± ¡°Good. An employee should know when to be thankful for their boss who put in so much effort to cover for them.¡± ¡°Cover? You covered for me? How?¡± ¡°Of course I did. I was kind enough to explain to the cops that Rick had always been madly in love with me; but when he discovered a certain coworker he looked up to was in a relationship with the woman he loved, it must have been too much for his fragile heart to bear with. That was likely what led him to committing suicide in your room. He couldn¡¯t bring himself to get violent with you, but he wanted to cause a bit of trouble for you for taking away the one he¡¯d been madly in love with.¡± Huh? Did I just hear a completely outrageous scandal? Skeptically I asked, ¡°just for confirmation, Rick was madly in love with you?¡± ¡°Yes. He¡¯d even proposed to me a few times. Of course I shot him down every time.¡± ¡°Then the certain coworker he looked up to is?¡± ¡°You.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Sorry, I think my ears aren¡¯t working properly. I feel like I¡¯m hearing an absolutely nonsensical, made up, poorly constructed third rate drama right now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the truth though.¡± ¡°Since when was I ever in a relationship with you?¡± ¡°We are in one. An employee-boss relationship.¡± ¡°What did you specifically tell the cops?¡± ¡°I just told them Rick discovered I was in a relationship with you.¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± ¡°They never asked what type of relationship.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t giving misleading statements like that a crime?!¡± ¡°Shh. Quiet down you idiot, or I¡¯ll really fire you. Are you trying to cause a scene and ruin the image of a boss I¡¯ve built up in all my employees eyes after everything I¡¯ve done for you? Are you that much of an ingrate?¡± ¡°If the cops knew the context of your words, everything would easily fall apart.¡± ¡°Well then, take me out for a meal so they don¡¯t take it out of context then.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you too devious.¡± ¡°A free meal is a free meal Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t this basically blackmailing your employee to treat you? Aren¡¯t you loaded? Why do you feel the need to senselessly extort a meal out of some random small time employee like me?¡± In response, she tilted her head to the side a bit, a small cheeky grin creeped up onto her face as she said, ¡°I find you slightly interesting is all, maybe a bit cute even.¡± Don¡¯t fall for it. Definitely do not fall for such an obvious trap. Shit. The fact that I found her to be really attractive just now was just plain weird. She¡¯s my boss. I swear, I won¡¯t be deceived. Everything she says, on the surface, makes me want to believe she¡¯s not a complete psychopath, and instead, she¡¯s just a bit of a tease. Unfortunately, my past experience screams to always doubt attractive women. Any woman who is too good to be true has always turned out to have extreme baggage. The more attractive a woman, the more crazy they tend to be. The more beautiful something appears to be on the surface, the more disgusting the things you¡¯ll find when you dig deeper into it. Chapter 32. Chapter 32. I mustn¡¯t let my mind be controlled by my lower body¡¯s desire to procreate and spread my genes. Just as how certain female spiders kill off male spiders that come to mate for an easy meal, I must be cautious to avoid such a fate falling upon me. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m not interested in you in that way at all boss.¡± When she heard my decision she giggled then said, ¡°I¡¯m glad you feel that way. That¡¯s one of the things that I like the most about you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s something you should like though...¡± She completely ignored my attempts to keep my distance, ¡°I¡¯ll be looking forward to your treat after work.¡± I definitely needed to find a way out of this, I really didn¡¯t want to get involved with more crazy chicks. What if I feign illness, would that work? ¡°Hey boss, I¡¯m not really feeling too well, my stomach¡¯s killing me right now. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to treat you to that meal today.¡± ¡°Hmm? I have some stomach medicine. Here, take it.¡± ¡°Why do you carry that around with you?¡± ¡°In case the person I¡¯m asking to treat me to a meal decides to feign having a stomach ache.¡± ¡°Haha. I¡¯m allergic to this type of medicine though. I don¡¯t think I can use it.¡± ¡°Oh, I also have a few other types as well. Surely you¡¯re not allergic to all of them, right? But now that I think about it, it¡¯s strange though. You didn¡¯t ever mention you had any allergies when we hired you.¡± ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t? That¡¯s weird, it must have slipped my mind at the time.¡± I wanted to cry. Of course I didn¡¯t have any allergies. Just take the hint and let me off the hook already! ¡°I can maybe accept that you have one medication for stomach ailments on hand, but why do you have so many different kinds on you at all times?! Are you trying to cure the entire world of acid reflux?¡± ¡°Of course the answer is pretty obvious Mr. Genovese. It¡¯s for bad men who like to act like they¡¯re allergic to the first stomach medicine I take out so they can avoid treating me to a meal.¡± ¡°Oh? That¡¯s an oddly specific situation. It would be surprising if such a situation ever happened to my beautiful boss with no rival under the nine heavens.¡± ¡°Now enough bullshit Mr. Genovese, treat me to a meal or lose your job. Which will it be?¡± ¡°This is definitely against labor laws.¡± ¡°Mr. Genoves, is there some reason why you are so reluctant to treat your boss to a meal? Could it be that you fear you won¡¯t be able to hold yourself back and you are actually afraid you will assault me? Don¡¯t worry about that, I have a taser, so it¡¯s safe even if you tried.¡±If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. She¡¯s starting to sound more and more like the type of women I¡¯ve had the misfortune to date. ¡°You¡¯re really not a psychopath who¡¯s out to get me, right?¡± ¡°Haha. You think too highly of yourself Mr. Genovese. I just like mooching free meals off of my employees.¡± ¡°Should you really be admitting that so blatantly?¡± ¡°Just because I have the money doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t be a thrifty or frugal woman, right?¡± ¡°What if I¡¯m broke and can¡¯t afford to treat you?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take it out of your paycheck so don¡¯t worry. Feel free to treat me to the most expensive thing you can think of.¡± ¡°I never knew a woman could be so shameless.¡± ¡°Oh, but I guess you¡¯re right, I should be a bit more considerate. Your paycheck is already looking a bit low this month after all the deductions. Oh well, it won¡¯t affect things too much if we tap into the paycheck after that, right?¡± ¡°Can you please stop docking my pay as you please? How am I supposed to maintain my livelihood?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you just find and marry a rich girl?¡± ¡°Hah? And where am I supposed to find something convenient like that?¡± ¡°Oh. Good point. I¡¯m not really sure where you would find one either.¡± She¡¯s definitely just making fun of me and playing around with my fragile glass like heart; yet, for some reason I couldn¡¯t help but want to laugh. It had been a while since I was able to joke around like this with someone. I somehow felt a bit relieved despite my suspicions towards her. ¡°Haaah. Fine, I give. I give in, Boss. How about all you can eat from the dollar menu at McDonalds?¡± ¡°Eh? Isn¡¯t that a bit on the cheap end?¡± ¡°Is it?¡± ¡°Yeah, what¡¯s wrong with you? Don¡¯t you know how to treat a lady to a good meal?¡± ¡°Then what do you want?¡± ¡°Well... I have these buy one get one free coupons for McDonald¡¯s... how about some fine dining with the more expensive burgers?¡± Pfft. Who is this god tier wife character? ¡°I-i-if you don¡¯t want to that¡¯s fine. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m too embarrassed to go buy burgers there by myself or anything. It¡¯s also not like I¡¯ve never eaten there because I was too embarrassed either, okay?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve never eaten there before?¡± ¡°I said I have.¡± ¡°You really don¡¯t seem like the type who¡¯d eat there though. Could it be since the beginning your goal was getting someone to go to McDonalds with you?¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, if you dig any deeper, your paycheck will definitely have seen better days. But if you must know, my family wouldn¡¯t exactly sit quiet and let me eat commoner food like McDonalds when I was a child.¡± ¡°Oh. I see. So are you just a rich pampered girl who had a fight with your parents and took up the CEO position at one of their smaller businesses?¡± ¡°Haha. Hey, Mr. Genovese, did you hear that?¡± ¡°Hear what?¡± ¡°The sound of your paycheck decreasing. You do realize I¡¯m your boss, right?... Right? RIGHT?¡± ¡°Please forgive this impudent employee for spouting rubbish with his loose mouth. Please don¡¯t take it out on his paycheck, his paycheck is innocent in itself and doesn¡¯t deserve such harsh unjust treatment.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll let it slide this once Mr. Genovese; however, you will be accompanying me to McDonalds after work. No excuses.¡± She turned away and completely ignored anything I had to say after that. I was left all alone, still a bit dumbfounded by the sequence of events that had just transpired. Chapter 33. Chapter 33. Our entire conversation was hushed down to avoid others from hearing us. At some point we¡¯d already arrived at my desk halfway through our discussion whereupon she immediately departed without giving me another chance to find a way to weasel my way out of treating her. There were a few juniors who were curiously looking in our direction throughout our entire exchange, but none of them dared to approach the two of us while we were in the midst of our quiet back and forth banter. The only thing I gained from our one sided discussion just now was an outlet to unwind a bit. Despite her formalities at times, it didn¡¯t feel awkward when I was with her; instead it was somewhat fun and entertaining. The weird things that happened recently had been completely pushed to the back of my mind thanks to her. Deep down I was somehow thankful for her pushiness despite my wariness towards her due to my own personal reasons. She never explicitly makes clear what her true intentions behind her actions may be, but it feels like she genuinely shows concern for her employees in her own way; however, be that as it may, my gut instincts told me to remain cautious around her. On the surface I saw a boss who really was concerned about her employees well being. She also maintained a professional boundary to a certain degree. On one hand it felt like she tried to be more down to earth, while on the other hand, she somehow felt a bit above you at the same time. If it was any other man with their sanity fully in tact, I¡¯m sure they would jump at the chance to get to know her better. ¡°Uhm. Excuse me... Senior Dio, what were you discussing so seriously with the boss just now?¡± With stern eyes, sunken brows, and a serious frown on my face; despite still contemplating and ruminating over boss, I gave a curt to the point response, ¡°Business.¡± ¡°I get it¡¯s business, but what type of business? The two of you looked like you were in a major disagreement over something just now. It looked pretty heated even. Are any of us getting the boot? With the whole thing with Rick, would she really do something like laying us off when everyone is in such a sensitive and emotional state? She wouldn¡¯t be so heartless, right? She doesn¡¯t suspect us of being involved or anything, does she?¡± ¡°No. It¡¯s nothing of the sort. You don¡¯t need to worry about your job being in jeopardy or anything. We were really just discussing future plans.¡± ¡°What future plans specifically?¡± ¡°Sorry, that is confidential information of world shattering proportions.¡± ¡°I¡¯m being fired after all, aren¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Look, Peter, you¡¯re not being fired. Just chill out man.¡± ¡°What else could be world shattering other than that.¡± A scandal where a boss blackmails her employee to buy her a meal at a fast food restaurant. It¡¯s pretty world shattering if you ask me. My paycheck is seriously suffering you know.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Get back to work already before the boss sees you slacking off and really considers firing you.¡± ¡°Yeah. You¡¯re right.¡± After I was finally really left alone without anyone else coming over to bother me, I spent another day grinding away fixing up a bunch of malfunctioning electronics. Today there was a rather large amount of work orders assigned specifically to me, totaling them altogether there were eighteen devices. I somehow managed to power through all of them with only an hour remaining until the end of my shift. I¡¯d completely engrossed myself in my work and I hadn¡¯t really taken any breaks in between. By the time it was over, I was both sleepy and starving. Since I finished all my work, I figured I¡¯d take a short nap. I looked both ways to make sure a certain cheapskate boss wasn¡¯t around and propped up a few open books in front of my desk to make it look like I was reviewing schematic diagrams. I folded my arms on the table and put a face mask on top of my head to make it appear as if I were looking directly at the books in front of me. If anyone came over I could move my head into the mask and make it appear as if I was awake the entire time. It was truly the perfect crime. I was already a repeat offender and life was meant to be lived dangerously on the edge like a rebel. Okay, I admit, it was neither a perfect crime, nor was it really living dangerously on the edge like a rebel. I know that, but a man can dream, right? I set an alarm to go off in an hour. I really didn¡¯t want a repeat of this morning¡¯s incident in my car. When I was certain the timer was set properly, I shut my eyes tight and buried my head in my arms on the table. With a minimal amount of effort, it didn¡¯t take very long before I dozed off. ¡­ In front of me was once again, a woman. However, this was a woman I was able to easily identify. ¡°Boss? What are you doing?¡± She was looking down over what appeared to be a deep overarching cliff. ¡°What are you looking at so intently boss?¡± She turned her head and peaked at me for a moment before nonchalantly turning back as if she were entranced by the sight below. When she didn¡¯t respond to me, I moved closer to her side so I could determine what she was so engrossed with. When I looked down, all I saw was a never ending abyss of darkness. There was absolutely nothing that could be seen. It was a world of the unknown as far as the eye could see. Whether there was a bottom to the cliff was a mystery to me. ¡°Boss, is there really anything interesting enough down there to draw your attention?¡± She didn¡¯t respond, but instead, she glanced behind us while showing a listless expression. When my eyes followed in the direction of her fleeting cursory glance, I came to the realization that all that lay in wait behind us was a dreary, desolate, barren wasteland devoid of any form of life. Her gaze returned to below the cliff, but this time she raised her right arm, extended her index finger, and pointed directly across from us. About ten meters in front of us and twenty meters below was the other side of the cliff. Far into the distance on that side, the vegetation was bountiful, there were all sorts of wildlife and even an oasis where everything lived peacefully in harmony with one another. It really drew a stark contrast to the barren wasteland behind us. I now understood what she was truly interested in, it was the overwhelming appeal of the other side that had actually drawn her in rather than the seemingly bottomless chasm down below. ¡°Why not jump?¡± She shook her head and peaked at me with a look that seemingly implied she was curious as to whether I was actually a complete idiot. When my pride took a bit of a hit, I sought out a rational explanation to justify the plausibility to my suggestion. To redeem myself, I squat down and I drew out a few calculations in the dirt with my finger. If I assumed the average human was running at a speed of about sixteen kilometers per hour and since I knew the acceleration due to gravity came to approximately 9.8 m/s2; with some simple mathematical equations any high schooler who took a physics class should know, I could easily figure out whether it was possible to jump the gap. Chapter 34. Chapter 34. Whether we survived the fall would be questionable though. A twenty meter fall would definitely hurt. However, now that I looked at it more closely, the cliff on the other side was at an incline. By increasing the time that it takes for us to come to a complete stop, we could decrease the overall force acting on us from the fall. It¡¯s a tactic commonly used in parkour. In this case, sliding down the incline would increase the time over which we experience the force. Crunching the numbers using standard formulas any high schooler would learn, I determined we needed to maintain a speed of 5 m/s horizontally which was equivalent to 18 km/hr. That should be easy enough to manage for the two of us. If we can run faster than that and maintain our speed in flight by decreasing the air resistance acting on us to the minimum by positioning our bodies at the ideal angle, it should be doable. ¡°Hey, Boss, how fast can you run?¡± Instead of responding to my question out loud, she mirrored me and squatted down on the ground and wrote something in the dirt. When I read what she¡¯d written, I discovered her true thoughts on the matter, ¡°are you really an idiot?¡± ¡°Is there anything to eat or drink on this side of the cliff?¡± She shook her head left and right then wrote, ¡°everything on this side is dead.¡± ¡°Then won¡¯t we die regardless of whether we take the risk to jump it?¡± Her response was again a simple shake of her head. She threw a mysteriously smile at me as if she were amused by my assumptions. ¡°Without anything to sustain yourself, how do you plan to not die?¡± She lifted a finger and pointed directly at me. Doubt was plastered all over my face. I was confused and I couldn¡¯t help but seek out clarification on what she meant, ¡°What? Do you expect me to make food magically appear for you?¡± With her brows turned upwards happily, she nodded with a smile like she was congratulating me for finally saying something smart for a change. ¡°Where is this magical food supposed to appear from? Here? Or there? Maybe, here? Just for the record, I¡¯m not a magician who can pull food out of my ass.¡± She squinted her eyes then narrowed the distance between us. Her face drew closer and stopped only a few inches away from mine. She then raised her right hand like she intended to point out where the food would come from. The closer her finger got to me the more antsy I felt. ¡°You can¡¯t go eating your employees, that would be quite the scandal you know.¡± I¡¯m not thinking anything dirty right now. Definitely not. Okay, I might be thinking about being eaten by my boss in that sort of way. With how she¡¯s been teasing me lately it¡¯s hard for my thoughts not to wander in that direction. With my better judgement interrupted by such stray thoughts, I didn¡¯t notice her left hand that was hidden behind her back at all until it was too late. Before I had any chance to react to it, I felt a powerful electrifying sensation I hadn¡¯t felt in quite some time. My paralyzed body fell backwards onto the ground, electrified from the strong current which wrought havoc inside my body as it spasmed violently from the unexpected shock. I somehow remained conscious, but I couldn¡¯t move my body or say a thing. When I looked up at my boss who adeptly wielded the taser in her left hand, I naturally understood what happened. All sorts of crazy thoughts raced through my mind and I wanted to ask her what the meaning behind her actions were, but it didn¡¯t take long before I found out.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. She sat down by my side with a knife in hand. She slit the tendons in my arms and legs which left me with no means of escape. My nerves were paralyzed from the earlier shock and I couldn¡¯t feel a thing. Throughout the process, she looked at me like an animal free to be slaughtered with a wide, devious, smile plastered across her face. Why is this happening? No. The real question is what does she intend to do with me right now? Could it be that I¡¯m really about to die? She lifted my right arm and brought my finger into her mouth. She wore a wide grin on her face as she stared deep into my horror stricken eyes. She chomped down firmly into my index and middle fingers and ripped them cleanly out of their sockets. I heard the crunch of broken bones resound from between her lips while watched powerlessly as my very own flesh, meat and muscle tissue was minced into little pieces inside that deceptively petite mouth of hers. She¡¯s eating me? She¡¯s really fucking eating me?! With my fight or flight instincts triggered and adrenaline rushing through my veins, the pupils in my eyes constricted as I struggled to try to forcefully flip my body over and somehow flee. My struggles were in vain; to no avail, another round of a shockingly powerful jolt from her taser robbed me of my ability to escape once again. When I looked back at her again with a face begging for mercy, her smile became even more vicious and ecstatic like she were enjoying every moment of my suffering. Even in my electrified state I struggled to voice out a muffled, ¡°w-hy?¡± Instead of answering me, she crawled on top of my body and bit down onto my right shoulder strongly before she pulled her head back. A large chunk of flesh was simultaneously ripped from my shoulder when she pulled back her head. It dangled grotesquely between her bloodied lips before she fully encased inside her mouth. She chewed it up well like one would when tasting fine cuisine. She fully savored every second of it like it was a rare delicacy. She wore a look full of drunken euphoria like she was at the peak of a climax from pleasure when she looked back down at my face which was contorted in excruciating pain when the numb sensation in my body was forcefully overwritten. It felt as if the sounds of my hoarse screams of anguish that echoed out through the barren land was one of the finest pieces of music in the world from her perspective when I saw her close her eyes peacefully as she listened intently. She repeatedly chewed up the flesh in her mouth like a prim and proper lady sampling a dish served to her by a master of the culinary arts. If I ignored the blood that trickled down her lips, I¡¯d never be able to tell what she was really chewing on at all. When she finished swallowing she bent over again, this time her lips pressed against my right ear like she planned to whisper sweet nothings to me. Yeah, there¡¯s really no escaping reality here, there definitely were no sweet nothings to be found coming from her crimson, blood stained lips. The next thing I heard, instead of sweet nothings was the sound of an ear, ripped clean from my head. It was definitely a sound I never imagined I¡¯d hear in my lifetime. I had no way to escape or resist, I could only helplessly watch on as she continued to take sometimes large, while other times small, chunks of flesh out of my body one piece at a time. This went on for quite some time, she only stopped after feasting on me for a solid ten minutes. I thought she¡¯d had her full, but when I saw the look on her face which suggested otherwise, I trembled internally. She walked around the wasteland picking up dried sticks and rocks, when she returned to my side she placed them in a circular pile beside me. She looked directly into my eyes and clearly reveled to herself when she noticed the dismay in my eyes. She squatted down directly in my line of sight with her knees pointed outwards. She took out a lighter, ignited the pile of sticks, and started a fire with a malicious grin on her face. She actually planned to cook me alive now?! Why can¡¯t she just put me out of my misery? Why must she torment me like this before I die? One of my greatest fears in life was to be tortured before death. The feeling of being powerless to control one¡¯s own death was the only thing I always wished I¡¯d never be forced to truly understand, especially not through first hand experience like this. She didn¡¯t look like she cared in the slightest about what was on my mind though. Instead, she calmly shuffled over from beside my head to my waist with a knife in one hand and a pointed stick in the other. Her following actions left my heart dropping to rock bottom. She unzipped my pants, pulled it down and skillfully chopped off the line to my future descendants. Then as if she were roasting marshmallows and wieners, she dangled it over the fire to cook it. When she finished cooking it, with a jubilant smile she raised the shriveled up wiener and two roasted marshmallows to her mouth. She opened her mouth wide, placed it at the entrance to her mouth then ch- ¡­ Chapter 35. Chapter 35. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep... ¡°Hah! Haaaah! Haaaaaaaah!¡± Holy shit! It was just another nightmare?! Without looking, in a panic I felt myself up and confirmed everything on my body was where it should be and I realized there was nothing missing. Thankfully for me, right before a new sort of trauma was about to be engraved deep in my heart, the alarm I set earlier came to my rescue. It was the first time my alarm had come in with the clutch play; lately it had really been dropping the ball on me, but not this time. Thank you my good man, Mr. Alarm. If you weren¡¯t an inanimate object, I¡¯d surely treat you to a meal instead of that scary boss of mine. When I raised my head- @$$#01€! The nightmare was scary enough, yet I nearly had a heart attack the moment I woke up from it as well? It was naturally the last person I wanted to see after a nightmare like that. ¡°You scared the crap out of me!¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong Mr. Sleepyhead Genovese? You look pretty pale right now. Did you have a bad dream while you were sleeping on the job again?¡± ¡°Are you a cannibal?¡± ¡°Cannibal? Me? Hahaha. Was that what you dreamed of? Mr. Genovese what kind of lewd, perverse dreams are you having about your boss?¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to know that as well. You literally ate me alive.¡± ¡°Well, if you want me to eat you alive, you¡¯d have to woo me first.¡± ¡°No thank you, I have zero interest in becoming food.¡± ¡°What was it you dreamt about exactly?¡± ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯ve been having these weird dreams lately. When I¡¯m in those dreams they¡¯re so real that often times I can¡¯t tell when any of it is for real or not.¡± ¡°Were you just trying to rip off a line from a certain video game?¡± I was surprised she caught onto it and I couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°you¡¯ve played it too?¡± ¡°I never had the chance to play it, but I did watch gameplay for it. I loved the intro song from it and I played it on repeat endlessly when I was younger.¡± The bad sentiment from my earlier nightmare was suddenly swept under the rug like nothing happened; my eyes even brightened up a bit when I heard her follow up. The moment I found out she liked something I liked back in my childhood, it really put me in a much better mood. I found that I was honestly a bit happy to a certain extent. How can I possibly let myself be such a simple minded idiot and forget about how I was just eaten alive? Ugh. But none of it was real in the end. I can¡¯t judge someone just because I had a misguided nightmare involving them.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°I loved that song as a kid as well.¡± I decided to be honest about it instead of trying to forcefully go against the flow for a change. ¡°Oh? We actually have something in common?¡± ¡°You¡¯re giving me- complete the lyrics to prove you¡¯re not trying to pull the ¡®me too¡¯ card Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°-too many things lately, you¡¯re all I need. You smiled at me and said.¡± She followed up the lyrics with, ¡°don¡¯t get me wrong,- what was next again?¡° ¡°I love you-¡° ¡°Eh~? Aren¡¯t you a bit bold confessing your love to me so quickly Mr. Genovese?¡± Ah. ¡°It was a trap, wasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Haha. And you walked right into it. Aren¡¯t you a bit too easy, Mr. Genovese?¡± I naturally couldn¡¯t hide the embarrassed smile that floated onto my face. ¡°How cute. Are you embarrassed after playing hard to get only to later confess your undying love to your boss who you tried to shrug off at first?¡± With a hand covering my face I mumbled under my breath, ¡°this is humiliating. I¡¯ll definitely remember this boss.¡± ¡°Anyways, you mentioned you had a weird dream about me?¡± ¡°Yeah, I did.¡± Why is it she¡¯s always able to make me let my guard down so easily, even when I try to remain on high alert? Is it just in her genetics? Is this what a socially gifted butterfly of noble birth is like? ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you going to fill your boss in on the details?¡± ¡°It would probably be a better idea to wait until after we eat. It¡¯s a nightmare that would make you lose your appetite.¡± It¡¯s likely just a nightmare fueled by my wild imagination and track record of poor romantic interests in the past anyways. No matter what angle I looked at my boss from, she seemed like someone I could somehow get along with, if I ignored my docked paychecks that is. It¡¯s really just my trust issues that unreasonably blow up the smallest of possibilities in my head. ¡°Well then, lead the way Mr. Chaperon.¡± I looked around the office as we headed towards the front entrance and discovered everybody except for us had already left the office. The office was closed up for the day and most of the lights were shut off already except for the ones we turned off on our way out of the building. When we arrived at my car, I took out my keys and unlocked the door. When I pulled on the handle to open the door, I felt a tinge of pain originating from my right hand. In my confusion I lifted it up and discovered disturbingly there were deeply engraved teeth marks on my index and middle finger. I immediately realized the significance of the markings. I glanced towards the areas where the tendons in my arms were located and found long red slit marks across them. I touched at my right shoulder as well and sure enough, I felt the indentation off teeth marks. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, why are you just stupidly standing around like an idiot? Aren¡¯t you getting in? Hurry up already, I¡¯m starving.¡± Those were definitely not the words I wanted to hear right after I discovered the bite and slit marks on my body. Unfortunately, she was already in the car and I really had no way to back out at this point. I sucked it up, got into the car, started it up and backed out of the parking spot immediately while a mass of chaotic thoughts swirled about inside my head. Calm down me. I¡¯ve heard that things like this can happen when under a strong enough impression that something was real. There was of course, for example, that experiment where a blindfolded man was put under the strong suggestion that they were being cut when in fact a knife was only brushed across their skin. Their body had a physiological reaction to it even when they weren¡¯t cut in the slightest. As for the bite marks on my fingers and shoulder it¡¯s possible that I could have somehow bitten them in my sleep. The shoulder would be a long shot, but it¡¯s not like it¡¯s impossible to accomplish. ¡°Hey, Dio? ... is it fine if I call you that when we¡¯re alone in private? I heard the others in the office have been calling you that, is it okay if I do as well?¡± ¡°Huh? Oh that? Sure no problem boss. Call me whatever you want, it¡¯s not a big deal to me.¡± Of course, while I was still distracted, I¡¯d responded to her like it was only natural and I hadn¡¯t put much thought into where she was headed with the topic she brought up out of the blue. Chapter 36. Chapter 36. ¡°Then¡­ when we¡¯re alone, don¡¯t call me boss. I don¡¯t like being called that when I¡¯m not working. I rather not bring work into my leisure time.¡± ¡°Oh? Your name? ¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, call me by name instead of boss.¡± Shit. Shit. Shit! Her name? What was her name again? I was so used to calling her boss I never bothered to learn her name. Am I the biggest idiot of all time? What am I going to do? Is this something I could be fired for? What will I do when applying for my next job when asked, ¡°why did you leave the last company you worked for?¡± Will I be forced to say I didn¡¯t even know my bosses name and she fired me on the spot? ¡°Well Dio? Aren¡¯t you going to call me by name?¡± The only possible thing I could really do was pull out all the stops and give birth to a silver tongue of flattery that could make even the gods up above blush in shame. ¡°... sorry I¡¯m driving right now. I¡¯m trying to concentrate on the road. I need to pay utmost attention, especially when my important boss is in my car. What would I do if I got into an accident when the most beautiful boss in the world was in my car? Can you imagine the amount of pressure I¡¯m carrying on my back right now? You couldn¡¯t possibly imagine the level of the burden I¡¯m bearing at this very moment.¡± ¡°You know¡­ you can just be honest and say you forgot it.¡± ¡°I would never forget the name of the wonderful noble goddess boss of mine. You have a name so lovely that animals gather just to hear the bell like chime of your name reverberating through the air. A name so soothing it can put any crying child at ease. A name so enchanting it can make any man fall to their knees in worship. A name so-¡° ¡°Cut the shameful lip service. My name is Valkyria Rosenberg, since I¡¯m calling you Dio, just call me Val for short when it¡¯s just the two of us.¡± ¡°V-Val? Isn¡¯t that a bit too close for a business relationship? It should be Ms. Rosenberg instead, right?¡± ¡°Relax Dio, like I said, it¡¯s only after hours or when it¡¯s just the two of us.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s what you say boss¡­ Val.¡± ¡°Honestly, if I didn¡¯t stop you there, how long were you planning to go on with praising my name to the sky?¡± ¡°Until the gods up above smote me down in jealousy towards the blessed me, who has the pleasure of knowing the name of a woman with a caliber so high. A woman, whom not even those very same almighty gods can make swoon.¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Shameless brat, cut the crappy flattery. Your paycheck isn¡¯t going up with only a few flowery words.¡± ¡°Hahaha. I¡¯m just trying to learn from example.¡± I still don¡¯t understand how I keep getting caught up in her pace like this. It¡¯s to the point that it¡¯s a bit creepy. It¡¯s like she can read my mind and whenever I start to grow weary towards her, she jumps in to somehow ease my nerves with random conversations like this. Am I that much of an open book to her? Just how observant does she need to be to be the CEO of the company anyways? Without realizing it, we¡¯d already arrived at the McDonalds closest to the office. It wasn¡¯t far at all and in the short conversation we had, it really didn¡¯t take long to get here. Boss¡­ I mean Val, had an expectant look on her face as she hurriedly unbuckled her seatbelt and hopped out of the car. Honestly, I found her to be adorable when I saw her acting in the somewhat childish manner she had. ¡°Hurry up.¡± It was also a bit embarrassing being seen with a grown woman getting worked up about fast food while trying to hide it. Though admittedly, the stares of the nearby surrounding pedestrians when she eagerly stepped out of the car directed at us did hurt a bit. She was also a bit fidgety when she waited for me to get out of the car. She allowed me to walk in front to lead the way into the fine establishment known as McDonalds. Haha, at least that¡¯s how it felt with the nervous glances she shot left and right while flusteredly looking all over the place. When we entered, there were two people lined up in front of the cash register at the front. She put on a confused expression like she couldn¡¯t understand what they were doing. I was slightly curious whether she thought an attendant or waiter was supposed to greet us at the entrance. ¡°You¡¯ve really never ordered fast food yourself before?¡± ¡°What? Of course I have, it¡¯s common sense what to do.¡± She walked to the end of the line and stood there patiently. Of course, I didn¡¯t follow her and went to the kiosk at the side to place my order myself. ¡°Eh? What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°The do it yourself station.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have to stand in this line to place your order?¡± ¡°If it was about five years ago you¡¯d have been right. Oh, by the way, you can also order through the app.¡± ¡°I¡¯m the CEO of a tech repair company, of course I¡¯ve heard of such innovations. But if you don¡¯t order through the cashiers, won¡¯t their jobs become obsolete? Won¡¯t that take away from their purpose of existing if everyone put in their orders themselves? As an upstanding citizen, shouldn¡¯t you be more concerned about doing your part to protect their jobs?¡± ¡°The cashiers still have their role to play for customers paying by cash. They also do more than man the register, they also bag your orders up and have other miscellaneous tasks to take care of.¡± ¡°Oh. Is that so? Still, you can¡¯t cheat like that! You have to help me with my order.¡± ¡°Do I? I was looking forward to seeing what a woman of such fine palate would order on her own. Someone with good tastes like you couldn¡¯t possibly not know what to order, right?¡± I felt a bit like a sadistic bully. The feeling wasn¡¯t bad though, the strange sense of superiority over your superior. God, I¡¯m petty. ¡°You¡­¡± When the line was empty and it was her turn to order, her eyes were swimming about randomly while looking at the menu overhead. ¡°Ma¡¯am what would you like to order today?¡± ¡°Uh. Hmm. Well¡­ I have a buy one get one free coupon, what can I get with that?¡± The cashier didn¡¯t look amused in the slightest, she just blandly responded, ¡°two Big Macs it is.¡± Chapter 37. Chapter 37. ¡°Eh? Big what? Is that the only one I can get with the coupon?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it may be the burger with the most fat you can get with that coupon, but I¡¯m sure you¡¯re the type that won¡¯t get fat no matter how much you eat. You definitely won¡¯t turn into a Miss Piggy. Since you look like a Starvin Marvin and it appears to be your first time eating here, just for you I¡¯ll even pay out of my pocket so you can get two and two free for the price of one.¡± ¡°Eh? Uh¡­ okay?¡± ¡°Will that be for inside or to go?¡± ¡°Inside.¡± ¡°That will be $6.59. How were you paying, cash or card?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ him.¡± ¡°Oh? Tch. Rich looking and you even have a boyfriend who pays for you? If I knew I wouldn¡¯t have bothered to give you a freebie. Oh well.¡± In a confused state she motioned for me to come over and forced me to swipe my card to pay for her. After waiting a few minutes off to the side for our orders, they called our numbers. The employee handed the trays over with an annoyed look on their face. We ignored their attitude and headed over to an open table to sit down and enjoy our meal. The entire time, my boss had a confused look on her face. ¡°Dio? Was I being complimented or insulted by her just now?¡± ¡±Both maybe?¡± Jealous women are scary. Normally I¡¯d have a Big Mac, but after I heard what she was pushed into getting without being given much of a choice, I changed things up a bit and ordered a McChicken and Quarter Pounder with Cheese instead. ¡°Are you really going to be able to eat all those Big Macs?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°What did you get Dio?¡± ¡°How about trading with me? You could have tried out each one if you just read the fine print on the coupon instead of letting the cashier push you around like that. These are two other magnificent creations you can get with the coupon. Among the sandwiches, there was one other you can get with it, but we don¡¯t talk about that one around here. If I had to say why, it¡¯s like the child nobody really wants to speak of.¡± Of course it was likely only me who felt that way, but my boss didn¡¯t need to know about that.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I took two of her Big Macs and let her take my two burgers in return. The two of us ate and leisurely passed the time with some small talk about our hobbies and the things we did in our free time. When she finished eating, she excused herself and said she was going to the washroom to wash her hands. She put her phone in her purse, but left her purse on the table instead of taking it with her. Before she left, she even boldly asked, ¡°watch my purse for me. By the way, you better not have any strange ideas of peaking...¡± When she was out of sight, with what she¡¯d said, I glared at her purse with even more curiosity than if she hadn¡¯t said anything at all. Based upon my past experiences, you could easily tell whether a woman was a psychopath just by taking a look at what was inside their purse or phone. This time, I really, really wanted to know beforehand whether or not the person I had gotten involved with was another psychopath. With my nightmare earlier weighing down on my mind, I knew this was probably the best chance I¡¯d ever have to confirm it. With a serious expression on my face, I checked around me to make sure nobody was looking while I stealthily unzipped her purse. I glanced inside and let out a sigh of relief. Everything appeared to be normal. There was a taser like she mentioned, but it wasn¡¯t something I¡¯d label an attractive business woman crazy for having for self defense purposes. The rest was very typical of what you¡¯d expect of a beauty; makeup, perfume, breath mints, pens, a notepad, her wallet, and a lot of stomach medicine. Well, it was normal for the most part if I ignored the excessive amounts of different types of stomach medicine. However, I wasn¡¯t quite convinced just yet. I pulled out her phone and immediately tried to turn it on. I hoped there was no password set on it, but of course, I wasn¡¯t so lucky. It¡¯s a shame that the different glitches I was aware of to unlock her model of phone without the passcode were already all patched. The fingerprint scanners these days also wouldn¡¯t fall for cheap imitations of fingerprints either. The only thing that might be of use to figure out what the passcode was would likely be in her notebook. She seemed to be the type who had a lot of different important passwords to remember, so I put my hope in the fact that she may have written it down somewhere. When I pulled out her notebook, written on the front was ¡°Annual Report Notes: EGPI¡±. I was a bit confused as to why it was EGPI written on the notebook instead of EGRI. I wondered whether it was by some sort of oversight that she¡¯d somehow missed a single stroke in the R for our company¡¯s name. After all, the company was called Electronics Group Repairs Incorporated. I chose to ignore that mistake for now as her notebook was the complete opposite of the girly type of notebook I expected. It was strictly business related and there were no cute smiley faces or doodles anywhere to be found. The contents of the notebook pertained to all sorts of information related to the financial situation of the company. Based upon the numbers I saw, it was clear the company had a bright future. Unfortunately for me, there was nothing that really screamed to me that it was the passcode. I really had to admit though, if it was hidden in the mess of different statistics and numbers in the notebook, it would definitely be the perfect place to hide the passcode if you knew where to look for it. But remembering exactly where in the notebook you wrote the passcode down might be a bit of a pain without any sort of indicators. Of course, that was when I thought of the mistake in the company name in the title of the notebook. Could it be that the mistake itself was a hint? Or was it just bait or a distraction? Well, this is just under the assumption she even hid it in the notebook to begin with. It could just be a wild goose chase in the end. I only had so many attempts at the passcode on her phone though. If I made six failed attempts at the passcode, it would be game over. The sixth attempt would only be a one minute lockout which shouldn¡¯t cause any problems. The 7th would result in a five minute lockout where you can¡¯t attempt to get in again. If she returned and tried to unlock her phone and discovered a five minute lockout, it would be obvious what I¡¯d done. It really felt like mission impossible, but I was not a man who would back down from this sort of challenge. Queue the music please. Challenge accepted. Chapter 38. Chapter 38. I first tried the most simplistic and obvious code I came up with based upon the EGPI written in the title of the notebook; I exchanged each letter with the number that looked closest to them. ¡®3691¡¯ It was my first attempt where I immediately stumbled into a rabbit hole. After I punched the numbers in, I came to a horrible realization. Her passcode wasn¡¯t limited to only four numbers. I keyed in a few more numbers and realized it took as many numbers as I could put in. Since it was still my first attempt I tried it once with 3691 to see if by some off chance it took it. Of course, it was naturally a failure. Only a small vibration along with a horizontal shake of the passcode box was returned to me in response to my valiant efforts. I proceeded to enter the next code I thought of by substituting the letter with the number that corresponded to its place in the alphabet. ¡®57169¡¯ Another vibration was returned upon my second failed attempt. Like a gambler who refused to concede defeat, I immediately replaced each letter with their ASCI character code. ¡®69718073¡¯ All that returned my efforts was yet another cold hearted vibration. For my fourth attempt I tried the most blatant possibility, I selected the number that corresponded to the letters on the phone itself. ¡®3474¡¯ Before I knew it, only two attempts remained. I doubted myself and actually wondered whether the typo in the title was really just a careless mistake after all. However, I was too invested in the typo being a hint to give up now. Maybe the typo indicated the page in the notebook where the passcode was on. I turned to the 16th page which corresponded to its position in the alphabet. I found a pie chart that displayed the percentages of the company¡¯s income channels. It appeared the company gained the majority of its profit through the repairs and various labor duties us repair technicians performed. Altogether 36% of total revenue was generated by the workforce, 25% came from investors, while 23% came from high returns on investments made in the company¡¯s name. The remaining 16% came from a section titled miscellaneous. There was a list which went into more detail about what miscellaneous entailed, but it was likely irrelevant to what I wanted to know. It was a long shot but I tried using the percentages as the code. ¡®36252316¡¯ It was already my fifth attempt and what I got for all my efforts was another cold hearted vibration, it signaled I only had one last chance. Yes, only once chance to get it correct with the limited time that remained. It was do or die. Truly, mission impossible. I knew. I knew it was unlikely, but I was unresigned to my fate. What did I really expect out of this all anyways? I went into it even when I was certain of the futility, but I still tried anyways. I dreamed. I dreamed a dream where passcodes were easy as they once were in the not so long ago past. Is it a crime to dream? I ask you, is it?! Is it?! Well... it was a total invasion of her privacy, but we don¡¯t talk about that. My psychotic exes also don¡¯t talk about it, so why should I when it¡¯s inconvenient to me? I was just about to give up when I mused to myself over the passcode I used on my own phone. It wasn¡¯t any coincidence that my thoughts flew to my own password, rather, it was likely I¡¯d been subliminally led to think of it. It was the pie chart and the letters PI, the incorrectly written company initials in the notebook¡¯s title that guided my thoughts towards it. As a way to remember pi, I used quite a few significant digits of pi as my phone¡¯s passcode to get me to memorize it. Over time I increased the significant figures by five every now and then for... fun and I learned many significant figures of pi over time as a result. Please don¡¯t judge my questionable outlook on fun.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. When I thought about the pie chart in the notebook, I found it ironic that the mistake in the title had PI at the end of it. Was it just a coincidence? That was of course until I thought back to my first attempt when I tried 3691. Was I just trying to find connections in things that were in actual fact completely unrelated? Was it just a coincidence that the highest percentage of revenue was 36%? If it wasn¡¯t, then was the mistaken company title itself actually literally telling you what the password was? It couldn¡¯t really be this, right? Thirty six digits of pi? ¡®314159265358979323846264338327950288¡¯ I keyed it in as a joke, not really expecting much. I knew right now I was just senselessly trying to find connections between things that were most likely unrelated to each other; they were likely a result of pure coincidence after all. It was just like that stupid movie that revolved around a certain number whose god forsaken name shall not be mentioned. I knew there wasn¡¯t much chance to really guess it correctly, regardless of how much I thought about it, so I figured I¡¯d try it just to sate my curiosity with this last, nonsensical, conspiracy theory type of guess. When it failed, I¡¯d just gracefully admit my defeat, put her phone back, and forget about it. I¡¯ll move on with my life and there shall be no salt spilled from any pore of my body. I¡¯m far too sophisticated for that and a defeat was a defeat. After all''s said and done, there really wasn¡¯t anything too extreme that I could pick out from the way she acted around me that really led me to believe she was a psychopath. All of this was just because of my own paranoia. She¡¯d never done anything overly wrong for me to be suspicious to the point that it warranted an invasion of her privacy like this. She¡¯d actually been nothing but kind and caring despite her slightly pushy nature and occasional joke to dock my innocent paycheck that had done no wrong. Well, of course, whether it was a joke would be for me to find out on my next paycheck though. I pressed OK on the touchscreen and instinctively gave up immediately. I reached out to place the phone back into her purse when I realized there was no vibration like on my prior attempts. I tilted the phone back towards my direction and realized I¡¯d successfully unlocked it. In my state of disbelief, I didn¡¯t really know where to start looking. I didn¡¯t really plan this far ahead because I thought it was unlikely to ever get into her phone to begin with. Seeing as I was now in, the first thing I did was open up her search history in Safari to see what types of things she¡¯d searched recently. From past experience, search history was a tell tale sign as to what type of person someone was. Search engines had it down to a science when it came to targeted advertisements these days. My motto was, learn by example; if the big guys used it, naturally I could as well. At least, that was until my heart dropped to rock bottom when I saw her search history. It wasn¡¯t because I saw anything that indicated she was out of her mind, it¡¯s just that the most recent search result was, ¡°Well now, whatever shall I do with my nosy employee who managed to get into my phone while I went to the washroom? Should I fire him? Maybe blackmailing him into working for free would be nice.¡± The time she made that search was slightly before she left for the toilet. You¡¯ve got to be kidding me. There¡¯s no way... right?! The second most recent search result was, ¡°I¡¯m impressed you managed to figure out the passcode with that tiny hint I left on my notebook. Should I praise you for your efforts?¡± Is she actually having a conversation with me through search results right now? The third most recent search result was, ¡°How should I threaten my employee who I recorded sleeping on the job again so he will stop slacking off at every possible opportunity presented to him?¡± The mission impossible music that played in my head since the start immediately came to a scratchy abrupt stop. It was suddenly replaced by the jaws theme. The hunter was suddenly the hunted. Chapter 39. Chapter 39. Ugh. Was this all just an elaborate trap? I¡¯m done. I¡¯m so done right now. I was of the mind to toss her phone on the ground and break it in rage, but I refrained from digging myself a deeper grave. I didn¡¯t immediately put her phone back though, I opened up the photos app and found said recording she spoke of. It was about 50 minutes long and there was a caption, ¡°My cute employee falling asleep at work again.¡± I skimmed through the video and realized she¡¯d recorded me right up until I woke up, before we left to eat. If this was in any other context, being recorded without your knowledge by a woman while you¡¯re asleep would definitely be a sign you¡¯re dealing with a psychopath. If I had checked the pictures first instead of the search history, I¡¯m sure that I would have reached that conclusion. Getting played with so badly¡­ feels bad man. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever been schooled this badly before. I¡¯d suddenly made another discovery about why women were to be feared aside from being bat shit crazy at times. The ones that weren¡¯t insane, but intelligent and wealthy, were probably just as terrifying as the lunatics in their own way. While I had such thoughts in mind, I suddenly realized something else when I skimmed through the video. At the beginning of the video my right hand was perfectly fine and there weren''t any bite marks on my finger. When I skimmed through the video again, I realized that although I definitely hadn¡¯t moved from the start; yet somehow, at some point, visible near the end of the video were distinct bite marks on my index and middle fingers. I rewound through the video to find when the bite marks had appeared, only to realize to my horror they never disappeared. By the time I rewound the video all the way to the beginning where I initially started from, unlike when I first watched it, the bite marks were suddenly there and perfectly visible in plain sight. I closed the photos app under the impression that it might have been some kind of bug with the video and I reopened it and navigated back to the video again. When I was back to the beginning, this time I didn¡¯t have any bite marks anymore. Once again, I skipped through the video until the end, but what disturbed me the most was the fact that there were no bite marks throughout the entire video. More than I had ever been before, I was actually freezing right now. I didn¡¯t know when it happened, but the air was livid. I was chilled all the way down to my bones. I looked around only to discover there was not a single customer to be found anywhere in the restaurant. In my nervous state, I checked behind the counter and found no trace or sign of any employees either. The restaurant was suddenly abandoned. Only dead silence emanated throughout the area. What was once a bustling establishment full of life was now an eerie ghost town at a death like standstill. Now, if this was a movie, the natural thing to do in this situation would be to check the toilet to check in on Val. If I were a true man, that would definitely be what I would do. That is, if I was a true idiot who had never watched a horror movie, so to speak, that was surely what I would have done.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. As such, I did the natural thing that any sane person should do. I slowly stood up from my chair before I made a sudden mad dash towards the exit as I tried to fly out the door. Screw investigating and getting to the bottom of this. I¡¯ve seen enough crap to know a bad deal when I see one. Slam. Rattle. Rattle. Rattle. Eh? No no no. The door wouldn¡¯t budge an inch no matter how hard I pulled or pushed. While I tried to force my way out, a creepy, but slow squeak of a door resounded from behind. I¡¯m not looking at the toilet damn it! I heard nothing at all. What creepy slow squeak of a door? Squeak your mom! I picked up a chair and tossed it against the window to try and break out. I¡¯m definitely not going to stick around for a slaughter story. Yet, to my dismay, no matter how hard I slammed the chair against the window, it rebounded back with overwhelming force. What kind of witchfuckery was this? Did someone install bullet proof glass at McDonalds? Damn it! Is McDonalds actually a high class establishment all of a sudden? Calm down. This can¡¯t be for real. I need to think logically and find scientific explanations for every- Ssssssssssssss... The sound of a running tap interrupted my train of thoughts. Against my better judgement I instinctively turned towards the direction of the toilet when I heard it. The door to the women¡¯s washroom, as one might expect, was open. Whether or not at some point there was a spooky ghost girl, who might have peeked through the crack of the door before she suddenly disappeared when the door opened earlier was unknown to me since I¡¯d chosen to ignore it. Oddly specific? Yes. Did it happen? I have no idea, but I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t look earlier to find out. My gut instinct told me that surely would have happened if I had looked earlier. As there was no escape and I was fairly certain things wouldn¡¯t end until I at least checked out the bathroom and turned off the tap, I decided to man up a bit. Like a little girl too scared to be jump scared, I shut my eyes and made my way towards the women''s bathroom. I also took precautions, I squatted as low as possible and crab walked as a safety defense mechanism so I could roll out of the way then curl into the fetal position in case things went south. Ehem. I meant I crouched down like a manly basketball player, in a preparatory stance, so I could dodge in the event an axe was suddenly swung down on my head from a mystical rift in the space time continuum. Because that¡¯s the only manly thing one can do in a situation like this. Just ignore the fact that I made no sense just now. Also ignore the fact that I can¡¯t see anything due to my eyes being closed like a legendary samurai too disdainful to look his opponent in the eye. I¡¯m not a wimp who¡¯s scared. I have no idea what I look like right now, but I can only presume I looked like a cool, humble, blind swordsman with an unmatched sixth sense. I can see with my mind. I can dodge the undodgeable. I can make it through this. Yeah¡­ I just need to keep telling myself that. Ahhhhhh! Who am I kidding right now?! I¡¯m trying to play things off as a joke to try and distract myself, but it¡¯s not working at all! I¡¯m legitimately creeped out. I only made things worse for myself by keeping my eyes shut. It was actually far scarier with my eyes closed than when they were open. What if there really was someone... or something in front of me right now and I was completely ignorant of it the entire time? Chapter 40. Chapter 40. Looking and actually seeing someone there was far less scary than being in this vague state where you were aware there may or may not be something there, but you were just unable to see it. The vague unknown was what was truly the scariest and I had no one but myself to blame for trying to avoid the cliche developments from earlier. However, since I was already this far invested in this sightless route, it actually felt more nerve wracking to open my eyes now. Somehow while in this state I made it to the running faucet without any complications and I could feel the tap was directly in front of me. All I had to do was reach out to turn it off. In spite of how easy it sounded, there was a slight fear inside me. I feared when I reached out I wouldn¡¯t grab onto the handle to turn it off, but it would be something else instead. After all, the light sound of breathing to my right was freaking me out to an unbelievable degree. I could feel there was no heat from the water in front of me, so I knew it was the cold water on the right that I needed to turn off. Right?! Of course it would be that way! It just had to be the same side where I heard the sound of someone breathing! ¡°Dio, what are you doing?¡± Eh? Without any control, my eyes opened on their own and looked to my right. What greeted me was the sight of a woman¡¯s chest. ¡°Dio, my eyes are up here.¡± ¡°Haha. My bad. My bad.¡± I was relieved to find it was my boss Val. I felt a bit awkward as I didn¡¯t know how to respond to her question considering I was in the woman¡¯s¡­ ¡­ what in the mary go poppins shitcraft sorcery is this? I was seated in the same chair I was in before Val left for the restroom. The mess that I made earlier when I tried to break a window open was nowhere to be found. The employees were back behind the counter working as hard as ever and the customers were scattered throughout the establishment while buzzing and chattering about as lively as ever. The deathly silent world completely shattered and the bustling noisy environment had returned once more. I blankly looked up directly into Val¡¯s eyes and found her gaze locked on mine with slight confusion written on her face. ¡°What do you mean what am I doing?¡± Since I wasn¡¯t in the women¡¯s washroom I was naturally clueless towards the underlying meaning behind her words so I naturally probed her. Was it her phone she was asking about? ¡°Why were you closing your eyes just now?¡± Safe! Thank god! ¡°I was just contemplating the meaning of life.¡± ¡°Oh? And what great revelation did you come up with after your contemplations, great sage?¡± ¡°Melons aren¡¯t bad. It¡¯s actually quite relaxing and soothing to see melons after waking up from a nightmare.¡± ¡°Hahaha. What the hell does that mean?¡± ¡°It means I like knockers.¡± ¡°Should I report you to HR for sexual harassment?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say I liked yours.¡± ¡°I am above HR though. Are you sure about your answer?¡± ¡°Oh, really? I didn¡¯t say I didn¡¯t like yours either. You can neither confirm or deny any form of sexual harassment took place here.¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Treating your boss to a meal alone doesn¡¯t look too good in your defense you know.¡± ¡°If anyone has been harrassed it would surely be me.¡± I¡¯d been mind fucked so badly that my ass actually hurt a bit from clenching too hard just now. ¡°There¡¯s no proof of that.¡± ¡°Then we¡¯re even. Neither of us have proof that any harassment took place today.¡± ¡°What are we even talking about right now?¡± ¡°You started it, didn¡¯t you?¡± Again? Whenever we talked, I always felt a comfortable relaxing feeling. She somehow always made my unease vanish into thin air and feel like the strange scares I experienced were nothing much. It¡¯s too unusual for it to just be a coincidence for it to happen every time. It was like she could read me like a book and she knew exactly what to say to calm me down every time. It always seemed to be an emotional roller coaster ride when I was l with her. When she was around, things were calm. When away, things went awry. Why the hell? Don¡¯t tell me ghosts are afraid of her or something stupid like that. I shook my head and immediately refuted the idea. Ghosts don¡¯t exist. It¡¯s all my brain playing tricks on me from excessive stress. Maybe I just have some sort of disorder where being alone causes hallucinations and nightmares. Though the only exception to that would be the time Rick and I watched that creepy teletubbies video together. That was the only time where I was around another person and freaky stuff like what occurred earlier happened. Actually, there was also the time with the receptionist at the station wasn¡¯t there? But it was just flickering lights and the third set of mysterious footsteps in that case. I didn¡¯t technically see any hallucinations that time, so I guess I couldn¡¯t really count it. What if that time Rick had also seen what I had seen, but he just pretended he didn¡¯t in fear that he was the only one who saw it? Maybe he didn¡¯t want to be thought of as a crazy lunatic, similar to me, so he hid it. But when did the hallucination I experienced just now actually begin? How much was a simple delusion and how much of it was reality? After watching the video? Reading through her browser history? Was it some time even before that? ¡°You like to fall into deep thought a lot when you¡¯re together with your captivating boss, now don¡¯t you? Are you so infatuated with me you can¡¯t get me off your mind?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m going through a lot of things lately, it¡¯s completely unrelated to you.¡± ¡°Puberty?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Girl problems?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Love problems?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Oh? It¡¯s really girl problems isn¡¯t it? To think that¡¯s what would be troubling you even when the incident with Rick only just recently happened? Despite being related to girls, it¡¯s not related to love? Now you have me a bit curious.¡± ¡°It¡¯s really none of your business.¡± ¡°Work problems?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Ex problems?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Eh? Really? I thought for sure it would be related to one of those.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not, so stop probing.¡± ¡°Come on, you¡¯re just making me more curious now. What has my precious little employee¡¯s feathers so ruffled?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°It couldn¡¯t be that you fell for me, right?¡± ¡°Nah. That¡¯s impossible.¡± ¡°Eh, you did fall for me you say? Hmm. Maybe in a few years I¡¯ll consider it.¡± ¡°I said I didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Is it family related?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Just tell me already. Do I have to dock your pay for withholding confidential information from your employer?¡± ¡°Confidential my ass!¡± ¡°If you¡¯re not a corporate spy internally struggling between his previous employer and his love towards his new boss, then what are you so stuck up on? What¡¯s got your panties in a bunch? Just tell me already.¡± ¡°What? A corporate spy for my former employer? Also, just for the record, I wear boxers.¡± ¡°I know. That was just a joke.¡± ¡°Wait, wait, wait. Which one did you know and which was the joke?¡± ¡°I already confirmed you weren¡¯t a spy after looking into you. Although, I won¡¯t lie, I did consider the possibility initially, but I still took the risk because I valued your abilities. Your potential worth outweighed the risk, so I figured I¡¯d give it a shot.¡± ¡°Oh? Is that why you¡¯ve suddenly gotten closer to me?¡± ¡°No. I got closer to you because I found it interesting how horrible your luck with women was. I wanted to know why you were a psychopath magnet, but I still don¡¯t get it even now.¡± ¡°Well wouldn¡¯t that mean you¡¯re not a psychopath if you don¡¯t see me that way?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ maybe I might be slightly psychotic after all.¡± ¡°Huh? What was that?¡± ¡°Haha. Nothing, I was just musing over something.¡± Chapter 41. Chapter 41. It was only when we were talking that I had an idea on how to verify a few things that occurred earlier in that hallucination. In the midst of our conversation, I slipped my phone into a crevice at the side beneath the table near the ground. I fidgeted about a bit and made it obvious that I was searching for something. It didn¡¯t take long before she asked me the only obvious question when she noticed my unnatural behaviour. ¡°What are you looking for?¡± ¡°My phone. I know I had it a few minutes ago, but I can¡¯t seem to find it. Can you let me use your phone to call it?¡± The key point here was to ask her to let me use it first. If I paused or hesitated and waited for her to offer to let me use it, she might have instead asked me what the number was so she could call it for me. If I then requested for her to let me enter it myself, it would definitely arouse her suspicions. She took out her phone and unlocked it with her fingerprint rather than password before she handed it over to me. I opened up the phone app and input my number and started the call. While I let it ring, I opened up the photos app and found the video recording of me that I¡¯d seen earlier was still there. I closed out the photos app and opened up her search history again, but unlike the first time I looked through it, the original results I¡¯d seen were gone. They were replaced by searches for songs, clothing, shoes, makeup and other girlish things. I immediately closed out her search history the moment I heard my phone ring from the crevice at the side. While I bent under the table to reach it, I turned off her phone and I tried to key in the passcode. To my dismay, I discovered it was now a four digit passcode much unlike before. I was baffled by the paradox like nature of the situation when I understood the implications of what it meant. I felt my eyes metaphorically shrink into tiny pinholes due to the shock of the whole ordeal. How was any of this even possible? There was no possible way this could be real unless she somehow punked me with a fake lock screen the first time. For the video to be there, but the previous browsing history gone and the passcode changing without any indication she had taken any sort of suspicious actions before she handed the phone to me? How was any of this possible? Is she actually playing around with me even now? Is she watching and looking down on me as I squirm while trying to figure out how she¡¯s been messing with me the entire time? ¡°Here. Thanks...¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Despite my kindness, you don¡¯t look very thankful.¡± ¡°Are you playing games with me?¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Games? What games?¡± She¡¯d already taken her seat and had her eyes locked onto mine. Her elbow was on top of the table while she rested the side of her cheek on her palm. She quietly stared back at me with what appeared to be a slightly flirtatious or even teasing smile on her face. Her eyes were partly closed while her head was tilted at a slight angle. It really looked like she was simply playing dumb with me and she didn¡¯t intend to seriously answer my question. It was the worst feeling, sitting on a fence in uncertainty, while being forced to watch her vague playful actions at the same time. I think my heart might have skipped a beat from fear of the unknown just now. It definitely wasn¡¯t because my thoughts were inadvertently wandering around in the gutter because I thought she was a bit pretty or anything. ¡°Hmm? Well? What games could my precious employee Dio be thinking of?¡± ¡°Are you actually possessed by a ghost?¡± She blinked a few times before she burst out into laughter, ¡°hahaha! What? Possessed by a ghost? Have you suddenly lost it? Did you eat too much and start feeling sick?¡± ¡°It was just a joke. A joke.¡± But it was definitely what I really wanted to know deep down in my heart. ¡°Boss- Uh¡­ no, I mean, Val¡­¡± ¡°Yes? What is it? ¡°Do you believe in ghosts?¡± ¡°Ghosts, huh? What makes you bring up ghosts out of nowhere like this?¡± ¡°Well... I¡¯ve been having a lot of weird dreams and sometimes even hallucinations when I¡¯m not asleep recently.¡± ¡°Oh? Are we finally getting to the dream you mentioned that was about me earlier?¡± ¡°The dreams, or should I call them nightmares, aren¡¯t just limited to the one I had about you earlier.¡± ¡°I see. I see. Go on. Go on.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you a bit too eager to hear about it?¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯ve been acting all mysterious about it for a while now. The curiosity has been killing me on the inside.¡± After I let out a small sigh, I explained the various nightmares and hallucinations I''d had since I moved into my new apartment. I started from the day I discovered the VHS tape that I tossed out, to when I woke up in the middle of the night and I hallucinated the phantom VHS tape that haunted me until morning. I also mentioned the rumored ghost girl on the web to give a bit of context to my actions, as well as my speculations towards the identity of the person who committed suicide in my apartment. I then explained the hallucination I had when Rick and I watched that VHS tape before he¡¯d committed, what a lot of the cops suspected was suicide in my apartment. She was actually laughing and giggling the entire time when she listened to the story. ¡°It¡¯s not funny you know, this is serious stuff.¡± ¡°I know. I know. It¡¯s not funny at all, but you really doused the VHS tape in salt? You even took the time to put on gloves, douse the gloves in salt, buy a grabber tool and you even used it to toss the VHS tape out the window? How am I not supposed to laugh?¡± ¡°Do you want me to continue with the story or not?¡± ¡°Yes, please continue, please do, I¡¯ll do my best to make sure I don¡¯t laugh.¡± ¡°Pfft. Hahaha. Sorry. Sorry. Starting now. Starting now, I swear. This time for sure.¡± ¡°Really? You promise?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. I promise.¡± ¡°Fine then.¡± Chapter 42. Chapter 42. One by one, I brought up the various nightmares I''d had since I came into contact with the VHS tape. The first was the gravestone related to a deep rooted trauma of mine. The second one was in the hotel where I possessed what appeared to be a woman¡¯s body. I, or she, then attempted to drown me while I was still asleep in the tub. The third, I had in my car which was one I¡¯d had several times in the past. No matter how I tried to run in that nightmare it felt like I was always sinking in quicksand. The fourth one I had was also in my car, it was the one with the colorful world where I continually walked forward as it slowly degraded into a monotone one where I eventually collapsed. The fifth was where I ran into the mysterious white haired beauty with the gorgeous, entrancing wavy white hair that shared an uncanny resemblance to Adele. The sixth I brought up was the most recent one I¡¯d had where I was literally eaten alive by none other than Val. ¡°Hahaha! You¡¯re so thirsty you¡¯re dreaming of me eating you?¡± ¡°You said you wouldn¡¯t laugh!¡± ¡°How was I supposed to know you were going to drop a bomb like that?¡± ¡°And just for the record, you literally dissected me, cut me up, and ate my flesh. There definitely weren¡¯t any sorts of sexual thoughts in that nightmare.¡± ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t just have such forbidden fetishes?¡± ¡°Absolutely not.¡± ¡°How would you know if you¡¯ve never tried it? Would you like to test what it¡¯s like to have your boss eat you?¡± ¡°Nope. Definitely not. Never. Please refrain from giving me more nightmares. I¡¯ve had enough to last a lifetime as it is already.¡± ¡°Hah. For a guy who¡¯s not a virgin, you sure like to answer like you¡¯re a virgin.¡± ¡°It¡¯s called self control.¡± ¡°Anyways, were there any other strange things that happened?¡± ¡°Yeah there were a bunch of times where there have been hallucinations mixed into reality as well. Aside from the phantom VHS tape I already mentioned previously, there have been several more strange occurrences that came after.¡± I told her about the hallucinations I had when I tried to sleep at the hotel. Then came the time I visited Rick¡¯s twilight world apartment before I discovered his body at my place. Which led to when I was roughing it out in my car with the vanishing head of black hair. Even when I stayed the night at work fixing that weird camcorder with the rather ¡®cultured¡¯ recording. Finally, was the phantom third set of footsteps, flickering lights and mysterious opening door at the police station.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The only one I excluded was the one I¡¯d just had moments before she returned due to the sensitive nature of what I¡¯d done. Although I did point out the strange bite marks and red lines that I discovered on my body after the cannibalistic nightmare I had. By the time I¡¯d finished recounting the events one by one, she had a deep contemplative look on her face. After she spent some time in silence, she eventually opened her mouth and asked me, ¡°would you let me spend the night at your apartment with you?¡± ¡°What? No way! No way!¡± ¡°Then how about spending the night together at my place? I¡¯m really curious now that you¡¯ve brought up all these strange occurrences. Don¡¯t you want to know more about what¡¯s happening to you?¡± ¡°The problem isn¡¯t whether I stay at your place or you stay at my place. It¡¯s the fact that you¡¯re my boss. We¡¯re in a working relationship, not a romantic one.¡± ¡°Oh? It¡¯s a problem if it¡¯s only a working relationship between us?¡± ¡°Of course it is! No. Wait. it¡¯s not a matter of ONLY, it¡¯s a matter of fact that we HAVE a wor-¡° ¡°Mmph?!¡± My mind went blank, completely white while my eyes shot open wide. It was a sudden attack out of nowhere that sent my heart leaping in fright. There was a pleasant soft sensation along with a slippery wet foreign object pressed firmly against me as something passed between my lips. Before I finished my sentence, she¡¯d abruptly stood up half way out of her seat. She leaned over the table and simultaneously pulled on my necktie. She¡¯d moved in and closed the distance faster than I had time to react which prevented me from pulling away from her. I naturally tried to move my head back when our lips locked together, but she pulled on my necktie harder and prevented my instinctive desire to flee. Her tongue infiltrated and began a war of its own. I was shocked at first, but I somehow calmed down after a few seconds passed by and I ceased my resistance. I found that I wasn¡¯t that against the situation; as strange as it may have been, I didn¡¯t feel repulsed by her sudden forceful approach either. She stared back at me with seductive half lidded eyes for about half a minute. She eventually let go of my neck tie and moved her face away from mine. A string of saliva connected between our lips pulled apart until it broke in two separate strands above the table. She bit the corner of her lip, but still maintained a calm demeanor when she seated herself. She cupped her hands together on the table and planted her lips onto the back of her hand. Her chin barely hovered above the table while she examined my reaction closely. I was uncertain on how to respond to her gaze. The standoff persisted until she eventually broke the silence and asked, ¡°well? It shouldn¡¯t be a problem now, right?¡± Her tone and actions drew a conflicting image in my mind. Her tone of voice made me feel the sudden kiss just now didn¡¯t mean much to her at all, but judging by that alone might be a mistake. The way she lowered her head on the table and looked up at me with her upturned eyes pulled at my heartstrings in a strange way. She truly knew how to manipulate a guys heart and have it dance in the palm of her hand. It was to the point that it was scary. ¡°What are you even talking about? Why did you kiss me out of nowhere like that? We have a business rela-¡° ¡°Did you want your boss to keep kissing you until you change your mind? You have two options, I can fire you and then we stay at your place, or my place; or we skip the firing and we stay at your place, or my place. Which do you prefer?¡± ¡°Those aren¡¯t even options!¡± ¡°You¡¯re taking things too seriously. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m forcing you to have sex with me.¡± ¡°You just forced a kiss on me without my consent!¡± ¡°Because you wouldn¡¯t shut up with the whole business, romance nonsense. Regardless of what our relationship is, just staying over at someone¡¯s place doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯re busy monkeying about and making babies.¡± Chapter 43. Chapter 43. ¡°That¡¯s not how the public sees it.¡± ¡°Obviously. But you¡¯ve undergone a traumatic experience recently, so there¡¯s a perfect excuse for your boss to show compassion for your situation.¡± ¡°If you were a guy, that might be an acceptable excuse, but you¡¯re not! Please be more aware of that.¡± ¡°Just shut it already. You¡¯ve already peaked my interest with your story. The mysterious ghost girl rumored on the web who appeared about a year ago; who wouldn¡¯t want to see it with their own eyes?¡± ¡°You even had a dream where you saw a woman you¡¯d never seen before who resembled your first ex, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, what of it?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you mention a grave in your first dream?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°What if it¡¯s the grave that belongs to that girl or something like that?¡± ¡°That definitely shouldn¡¯t be¡­ possible?¡± ¡°What is it?¡± Her question somehow struck a chord that resonated within my heart. Perhaps it was something I¡¯d subconsciously thought of, but never wanted to connect the two things together in fear of what it meant. ¡°That grave¡­ I¡¯m fairly certain that it belongs to my first exes older sister.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never seen her older sister before and to begin with, she also died before I met my first ex.¡± ¡°Oh? And where exactly is this grave located then? Do you know?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve seen it only once. It was the day I first discovered my ex was a psychopath that killed her own family and fed an unknown number of men who¡¯d taken a fancy to her to her pet rats as food.¡± ¡°Getting involved with you really is troublesome.¡± ¡°Then why are you getting involved to begin with?¡± ¡°The thrill of danger and the unknown is what keeps us alive, is it not?¡± ¡°The nonbusiness version of you is practically the complete opposite of you when you¡¯re working.¡± ¡°Is it wrong to keep the business me and casual me as two separate identities?¡± ¡°There isn¡¯t really. It¡¯s just that your personalities are at two opposite ends of the spectrum.¡± ¡°By the way, was the big sister pretty?¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°What does that matter?¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m just curious whether you¡¯ve got the hots for the older sister as well as the younger one.¡± ¡°I refrain from commenting.¡± ¡°What a shocker, you¡¯ve actually got the hots for a girl who¡¯s probably dead? Are you into necrophilia or something?¡± ¡°No! Absolutely not! She didn¡¯t look dead at all when I first saw her. I admit she was beautiful, maybe even more so than her sister, but that was just from behind. The face I saw was a far cry from it though; when she turned her head in my direction, what I saw was something straight out of a horror film.¡± ¡°Hmmmmmm. I see, I see. I understand. In that case, I won¡¯t call you a closet necrophiliac for the time being until there is more evidence.¡± ¡°Good. By the way, it¡¯s getting a bit late isn¡¯t it? It¡¯s already been over an hour since we got here. We should probably leave before the staff come over and kick us out.¡± ¡°They would have the nerve to kick us out?¡± ¡°Yeah, if you stay too long without buying anything they will eventually ask you to leave.¡± ¡°Then, how about giving me a ride to my place.¡± ¡°Huh? Why don¡¯t I just drive you back to the office so you can drive home in your own car?¡± ¡°I took the bus today.¡± I was speechless. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Last night I heard a noise, when I went out to check on it, I discovered that someone had slashed my car tire. Because I had a flat, I had to get it towed early in the morning and I took a bus to get to work on time. That was also one of the reasons why I was tired this morning and snuck into your car to take a short nap.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just say that before?¡± ¡°You never asked why I was so sleepy, did you?¡± ¡°I had to ask for you to tell me that?¡± ¡°Of course. If you don¡¯t ask the right questions you¡¯ll naturally always be left in the dark.¡± I could only let out a drawn out sigh as I resignedly responded to her, ¡°whatever, let¡¯s just go already. I¡¯ll drop you off at your place.¡± ¡°Haha. What a gentleman.¡± I got up from my seat and she raised her left hand towards me with her palm faced towards the ground. ¡°What?¡± ¡°What do you mean what?¡± ¡°What¡¯s with your hand.¡± ¡°You¡¯re supposed to help the lady up here. I¡¯m so full I don¡¯t know if I can stand up by myself.¡± ¡°Can you stop making shit up?¡± ¡°Then I guess we¡¯ll be forced to sit here until I find the strength to stand up.¡± ¡°You got up perfectly fine before when you went to the bathroom after eating, what¡¯s stopping you from getting up now?¡± ¡°My legs are asleep after sitting for so long. Stop fussing and just give me a hand.¡± Begrudgingly, I extended my right hand, held onto hers and assisted her. She stood up from her seat without any sign of difficulty which proved she was full of it. I tried to pull my hand away once she stood up, but she didn¡¯t let go. ¡°Could you let go of my hand now?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your excuse this time?¡± ¡°Nothing much, I just wanted to hold your hand so you don¡¯t get spooked by a ghost on our way to the car or something.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not scared of ghosts, nor do I actually believe in them. Deep down I just thought the idea of ghosts was slightly interesting, that¡¯s all there was to it.¡± ¡°Sure, whatever you say.¡± I didn¡¯t fight her about it since the car wasn¡¯t far anyways. We left the McDonald¡¯s hand in hand which drew the eyes of a few people in the surroundings when we exited the establishment. Naturally their eyes were glued to the eye candy known as my boss. When outside, we made a beeline directly to my car. I opened the door for her and let her in first. ¡°Oh? You finally did something right.¡± ¡°Haha. Right¡­¡± I went over to the drivers side and got in. I started up the car and looked into the mirror ready to back up when- Chapter 44. Chapter 44. ¡°Hey¡­ Val¡­¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Do you see anything in the mirror?¡± ¡°Oh? What? Is there something strange behind us? Haha. Is it a ghost?¡± ¡°Yo. Long time no see, Darling.¡± I, of course, shivered uncontrollably when I heard those dreadful words. Why? Why? Why?! How?! No way. Again?! Shit. Shit! SHIT! ¡°A-A-Ad-d-d-dele?! W-what are you doing here?¡± ¡°I was just feeling a bit lonely so I slipped out to see you again. You really need to visit me sometimes you know.¡± ¡°How did you get out this time?!¡± ¡°Well¡­ if it was just the two of us, I might not mind telling you, but it looks like there¡¯s some slut in the seat adjacent to yours.¡± ¡°Slut? Haha. Aren¡¯t you the psychopathic bitch who was dumb enough to kill her own family?¡± ¡°Oh? You know of me, yet you¡¯re daring enough to say such a thing? You¡¯re quite brave for a whore, aren¡¯t you? Darling, do you mind introducing me to this whore?¡± Fuck! I¡¯m scared! I¡¯d be less scared if it really was the ghost girl that I saw in the mirror instead! I¡¯ll take the ghost girl over my psycho ex girlfriend any day. Wait. If the ghost girl really was her big sister¡­ what if she was worse? Such a thought actually shook me more than anything else I would¡¯ve imagined. ¡°Adele, we¡¯re not in that sort of relationship. She¡¯s just my boss.¡± ¡°Hoh? This slut is your boss?¡± ¡°Adele, how did you find me?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t hard darling. As your girlfriend, it¡¯s a natural ability to be able to locate your lover. You could call it a sixth sense.¡± ¡°Ms. Homestalk, I believe you¡¯re a bit mistaken. The two of you are no longer dating. He¡¯s your ex now.¡± ¡°Oh? Is that so darling?¡± Adele leaned towards the front seat and held a knife against my cheek with a lovely smile on her face. ¡°Boss, what are you talking about? Adele is my precious girlfriend. I would never break up with her.¡± ¡°See, Ms. Slut, we¡¯re still a couple who are still as madly in love with each other as ever.¡± ¡°Ms. Homestalk, aren¡¯t you a bit pathetic? You¡¯re holding a knife against his cheek, what else is he supposed to say in such a situation?¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°My darling would never lie to me. His body has already proven how honest he is with me.¡± ¡°There really is no reasoning with a psychopathic serial killer like you, Ms. Homestalk.¡± ¡°It¡¯s such a surprise to meet someone who doesn¡¯t show any restraint when meeting me. Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll kill you for being so insolent?¡± ¡°The only thing I fear in this life is living too long.¡± ¡°Do you have a death wish?¡± ¡°Not really; but, when I die, is when I¡¯ll die. If I¡¯m fated to die here, then that¡¯s as far as I go.¡± ¡°Tch. Killing someone like you wouldn¡¯t be interesting at all. I-¡± ¡°I bet you were planning to say, ¡®is that what you were hoping I was going to say?¡¯¡± ¡°You¡¯re a real pain.¡± ¡°I get that a lot Ms. Homestalk.¡± Do these two actually get along somehow? To go back and forth with my psychotic ex like this so well... is my boss really a normal person? I was really shocked when I realized how calm she appeared when I compared her to myself. I always freaked out and had a nervous breakdown the instant I saw any of my exes. Where do I buy the type of gonads my boss has? She didn¡¯t even let out the slightest scream or look of surprise; let alone disbelief, when she discovered a person who was, unknowingly to us, seated behind us in the car. Was she some sort of super woman who fought villains at night in the name of justice while she stamped papers and ran a company during the day? That actually sounded kind of cool. No no no. Now¡¯s not the time for nonsensical thoughts to escape from reality. I too often turned to escapism when reality smacked me with a jab to the face. Rather than simply admiring her disposition, I should really set her as a role model to follow instead. Staying calm in any situation, it would be best to follow the example she set. Once the fear resided, I calmly looked into Adele¡¯s eyes through the reflection in the rear view mirror. After fear, the next emotion that overwhelmed me was a tinge of heartache when I thought back to when we first met. Through the pain, I worked up the courage and asked her a question I¡¯d always wanted to reconfirm, ¡°Adele, did you really kill your family?¡± It was definitely a strangely out of place question that disrupted the natural flow of events, but it was something I¡¯d always wanted to verify. Deep down, I never wanted to accept she really did what she¡¯d claimed. ¡°Darling, where is this coming from all of a sudden? Haven¡¯t I already answered this question before? The answer won¡¯t change, of course I did.¡± ¡°Then why did you kill them Adele?¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I told you this before as well darling. They simply didn¡¯t love me enough, so I killed them.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve never told me about how you killed them though.¡± ¡°How I killed them? Could it be my darling is so in love he wants to know even more about me?¡± ¡°Yes. I do want to know more about you.¡± ¡°Hmmmmm. So my darling really loves me that much? I¡¯m so happy!¡± ¡°Yeah. I really love you. So can you please put the knife down.¡± ¡°Well, since my darling is asking so nicely.¡± I let out a sigh of relief when she retracted the knife. Despite the fact that there was another woman in the car, I somehow didn¡¯t feel as threatened in comparison to the last time she¡¯d shown up. It was likely just because I wasn¡¯t alone this time, and the other person who was with me kept their composure without much effort while Adele was present. That fact by itself filled me with much more confidence when in contrast to our last meeting. Bzzzzzzzt. Bzzzzzzzt. Bzzzzzzzt. Out of nowhere, Adele suddenly received a call just as I¡¯d hoped to probe a bit into her past. ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Adele here.¡± ¡°Eh? Already?¡± ¡°Hah. Fine then, it can¡¯t be helped.¡± Beep. ¡°Darling, it looks like our chat will need to wait.¡± Adele sighed once and shook her head like it couldn¡¯t be helped. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Something important came up. Sheesh, how useless. My important time with Darling has been cut short. It¡¯s truly too infuriating, but it can¡¯t be helped.¡± Chapter 45. Chapter 45. ¡°Darling... if you really want to find out more about me, meet me where I laid my heart bare to you, at the place where you accepted my everything. I¡¯ll see you then. By the way, if you bring the cops with you, I might need to punish you for being a naughty boy next time.¡± I absolutely never accepted your everything. Without my notice she¡¯d snuck her left hand around the headrest of my seat with her knife in hand. She pressed the flat side of the knife against my cheek and forcefully turned my head in her direction. She leaned forward and whispered, ¡°I won¡¯t forgive you if you cheat on me, Darling,¡± as she stole my lips. A shiver went down my back. I felt the point of the knife slightly cut into my cheek. Instead of pulling away after she finished with her kiss, her tongue trailed off to the side of my cheek as she licked at the blood from the small cut she¡¯d made with the knife. ¡°Darling¡¯s blood is inside of me now. What a sweet parting gift.¡± I peered into the depths of her eyes when she slowly moved her face away from me. All I saw in her crazy eyes was deeply rooted, to her core, pure insanity and madness. As she backed away from me she glanced towards Val with a slightly disdainful smile, ¡°I¡¯ll deal with this slut another time. I¡¯ll definitely make sure we have a lot of fun with some light hearted girl talk in the near future.¡± With such ominous parting words, she opened up the back door and walked into the distance with her hips swaying from side to side; until, like a phantom, she disappeared from sight. She gradually melded into the darkness like she never existed to begin with. But there was no way it wasn¡¯t real. Even boss talked to her, right? ¡°Aren¡¯t you too easy to push around? You really didn¡¯t resist her much just now, did you?¡± ¡°She¡¯s like a type of trauma that¡¯s sunk into my bones. Whenever I meet her, my body tenses up. My lungs constrict tightly making it harder to breath. It feels like thousands of pins and needles puncture at my heart while my brain is assaulted by an intense sense of dread. It¡¯s difficult for me to resist her because of the fact that I once loved her deeply.¡± ¡°The memories of the times where we were happily together are still always at the back of my mind when I see her. They always conflict with the horrific scene she revealed to me on the day our relationship fell into broken pieces. There¡¯s a part of me that wonders whether it was my fault that things had changed so greatly. If I accepted her back then, unconditionally, and tried to help her through things, I always questioned whether things could have turned out differently for her. Perhaps my life would have gone in a completely different direction if I made choices opposite to the ones I did in the past.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Hey boss, there¡¯s one thing I just want to make sure of.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Adele was really here, right? Why weren¡¯t you scared in the slightest just now?¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°I choose to refrain from answering.¡± ¡°Boss, it wouldn¡¯t be something like you were just ad libbing and playing along with things just now, right?¡± ¡°... Dio?¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°If I said the cut on your face was real, I saw blood vanish into thin air, but I didn¡¯t see Adele at all, would you believe me?¡± ¡°I might believe it.¡± ¡°Would you also believe that I didn¡¯t hear anything just now and I was only imagining what Adele would say and how she would respond and act to what I said?¡± ¡°I still might.¡± ¡°Haha. Dio, do you believe ghosts really exist?¡± ¡°I refuse to believe in them.¡± ¡°Well Dio¡­ I think I might be inclined to believe in ghosts now.¡± ¡°You¡¯re messing with me, right?¡± ¡°Who knows? There are a lot of strange unexplainable things in the world.¡± For some time after that, we remained in an awkward silence. When I settled my rattled emotions, I finally reversed out of the stall and exited the parking lot. After fifteen minutes passed while we drove in silence, Val casually said, ¡°Dio, it¡¯s a bit chilly out tonight, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yeah, it is.¡± ¡°Are you really planning to stick up in your car out in the cold like this tonight?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid a ghost will come to visit you in the midst of night again?¡± ¡°... no.¡± ¡°By the way Dio, we¡¯re here. That¡¯s my place.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s really that one.¡± ¡°You mean the luxurious looking one beside that rundown building, right?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not kidding, it¡¯s the rundown looking one.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t this a bit¡­¡± ¡°Shabby?¡± ¡°You are a CEO, right? A rich girl, right?!¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean I have to live in some overly luxurious mansion, right?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the point of being rich and successful like you then?¡± ¡°Money doesn¡¯t buy you happiness. It¡¯s the small things that are the most enjoyable, even when you are successful in life.¡± ¡°Successful in life? I suppose I¡¯d be a failure at the thing they call life.¡± ¡°What makes you say that? Aren¡¯t you living a rather decent life right now?¡± ¡°I might be making a living financially on my own, but my relationships are a complete and utter shipwreck.¡± ¡°Haha. True enough.¡± ¡°Hey, Dio?¡± ¡°What? ¡°Could you escort me to the door?¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because I¡¯m too scared to walk to the door all by my lonesome at night?¡± ¡°And what¡¯s the real reason?¡± ¡°Because I secretly plan to push you down onto a bed and have my way with you?¡± ¡°And what¡¯s the real, real reason?¡± ¡°Because I plan to drug you and sell your organs on the dark web?¡± ¡°Why are the reasons getting progressively worse?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s common courtesy to make sure your beautiful boss, who could be attacked at any moment by ravenous men under the cover of night, gets home safely.¡± ¡°Still not buying it.¡± ¡°Because I¡¯m being stalked?¡± ¡°By who?¡± ¡°By you?¡± ¡°Can you please give me a serious answer here?¡± ¡°Well, what can I really say? There isn¡¯t really a reason other than because I want you to. Are you not going to listen to the orders of your boss? Are you looking for a demotion at work?¡± ¡°Haaah. Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say boss. Just don¡¯t dock my pay. Anything but that.¡± Chapter 46. Chapter 46. When I pulled on the handle and opened the door, I realized my hand was still shaking ever so slightly. Despite how we acted like nothing happened, I was still internally startled by everything. The thought of a ghost who took on the appearance, while simultaneously imitating the mannerisms of my ex, left me slightly shaken up on the inside. My thoughts were left in a tumultuous rut of disorderly chaos. I couldn¡¯t tell whether boss was messing with me or not; such thoughts left me more nervous and uncertain than ever. Why was she always so vague about everything? A ghost? Was something like that really possible? I took in a deep breath, exited my car and made my way to the passenger side where I opened the door for her. She extended her right hand in my direction, similar to how she¡¯d previously done at McDonald¡¯s. I reflexively held onto it with my left like it was a conditioned reaction. Ugh. Why did I do that like it was the only natural thing to do? ¡°You did it properly this time? Are you actually learning? Or were you so scared from earlier you wanted someone to hold onto your hand to reassure you?¡± ¡°It was just an accident. It definitely won¡¯t happen again.¡± ¡°Your hand is shaking a bit, you do realize that, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not, isn¡¯t it actually yours that¡¯s shaking?¡± ¡°Haha. No need to hide your true thoughts. Did you fantasize about me too much and get overly excited to the point you could hardly contain your carnal desires?¡± ¡°As if.¡± As she teased me and I listened to the sound of her voice, the anxiousness I felt in my heart from the earlier encounter was slightly alleviated. While we held hands, she got out of the car and dragged me along towards the worn down looking building. A sudden scene flashed by for a moment as certain memories overlapped with the surroundings. The outside world turned to the inside of an old mansion and the woman in front of me similarly overlapped with Adele¡¯s figure for a brief instance before it returned to normal. For a moment, my grip on her hand tightened, but it relaxed soon after when the scene returned to normal. Now before me, was a house that had definitely seen better days. The paint was peeled back in some areas while the gate was rusted in several locations. When we were outside the door, I made an attempt to pull my hand away from her so I could escape and flee back to the safety of my car; but before I had the chance, she turned towards me as asked, ¡°want to have a cup of coffee before you go? Seeing as you plan to sleep in your car, it¡¯d be a good way to warm up with how chilly outside is tonight.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t drink coffee.¡± ¡°For real? What kind of man are you?¡± ¡°I just never grew to like coffee, does that really make me less of a man?¡± ¡°Then how about some tea?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really like tea either.¡± ¡°Hot chocolate?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not really feeling like hot chocolate right now.¡± ¡°Beer?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t drink.¡± At least not with women anymore. ¡°Wine?¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you allegedly frugal? Do frugal women have wine lying around for any random guest they have over?¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Sex on the beach?¡± ¡°No thank you.¡± ¡°How about a coke?¡± ¡°A coke?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°You drive a hard bargain.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not bargaining though, and why is it you only struggle to decide when it¡¯s a coke?!¡± ¡°Coke is the master class of sodas obviously. You can¡¯t say no to a coke. By the way, how is a coke supposed to warm me up?¡± ¡°The sugar? How the hell would I know? You¡¯re the one that rejected all the others.¡± I was actually reluctant to stay after the hallucination I had just now, but I found it difficult to cold heartedly reject her in the end and I eventually caved in under her intense glare. I really felt like a pushover. ¡°I¡¯m kidding, I¡¯ll take the hot chocolate after all. Honestly, I was just a bit worried that you¡¯d be financially strained if I took up your offer (lol).¡± Her lip twitched a bit in response to my shameless jab; but for once, I somehow felt like I¡¯d come out on top in our exchange despite being the one that caved under pressure. Without thinking too deeply behind her intent to invite me in, I followed behind her and entered the house. After I entered through the front door, I followed her lead and took off my shoes. I placed them off to the side before I followed behind her into the living room. The floorboards were creaking with every step we took and by their appearance, it was clear they¡¯d never been replaced. ¡°How old is your place anyways?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a house I bought cheap off an old couple that passed away, so I¡¯m not too sure. Would you be freaked out if I said that?¡± ¡°Ha! Like I¡¯d be scared of that. Do you even know the freaky shit that happened in the new apartment I bought?¡± You want to compete with me on freaky places to live? You¡¯re a million years too soon for that, young grasshopper. I stared up at the ceiling with dead eyes when I thought back to the other far from ordinary places I¡¯d lived throughout my life. Why was I even competing over this? ¡°Then, you should let me come over and experience some of that freaky shit.¡± ¡°Absolutely not.¡± ¡°Why not, you¡¯ve already come as far as entering my place, haven¡¯t you? What¡¯s the big deal if I went over to your place?¡± ¡°Ugh. I completely forgot because of what happened earlier, but you¡¯re right. I really shouldn¡¯t be here. Sorry, I¡¯ll be leaving now.¡± Katcha. Katcha? What do you mean by that katcha sound? ¡°Hold on. You¡¯re already here and there¡¯s now recorded picture evidence to prove it. Whether you leave now or later it doesn¡¯t really make that big of a difference, right?¡± When I turned towards her, I saw a triumphant smile on her face. She held her phone up to me with the camera pointed in my direction. ¡°What are you taking pictures for?¡± ¡°Obviously so I can blackmail you into working for dirt cheap.¡± ¡°You¡¯re joking, right?¡± ¡°Am I?¡± ¡°Well, just sit down obediently and wait for the hot chocolate. I''m going to make it now, so be a good boy and behave yourself in the meantime. Also, you don¡¯t need to worry about creating any financial hardships for me, I¡¯ll just take the cost of the hot chocolate out of your paycheck.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t.¡± I resignedly took a seat on the couch in the living room while she made her way into the kitchen area. She opened up a few cupboards with a cheerful smile, that bloomed on her face like a flower beside a tranquil spring. It was only barely discernible from her side profile and if I hadn¡¯t paid close attention, I would have never noticed it. Despite the house being old, the kitchen and the living room were an open concept design. I naturally saw everything she did in the kitchen, in plain sight, even from the couch. She let down her hair that she normally had tied up in a professional manner. It hung down slightly above her waist, it was much longer than I¡¯d expected. Her hair was a shiny pitch black, it was very well kept and the light above her reflected off of it and gave it a radiant sparkle. She removed her jacket and tossed it from the kitchen area onto the couch I was on. Judging by the slightly warm smile on her face, she seemed to be in a fairly good mood despite what happened not too long ago in the car. She really moved from one thing to the next and never let anything weigh her down. I found that I was constantly pulled into her pace. Though, I still didn¡¯t understand anything about her with how short the time we spent together was. The only thing I vaguely felt, was that I¡¯d grown more attached to her over the short time that we''d been together recently. However, that was also what scared me all the same. I was scared to grow any closer to her than this. I was scared to grow more attached to her. I was scared I¡¯d come to like her. I was scared there would come a day where she would change. I was scared of becoming romantically involved, only to discover her true colors later on. I really had far too many fears. Chapter 47. Chapter 47. I¡¯ve already been burned more than enough times and I¡¯m tired of it all. Why did my boss even approach me to begin with? ¡°Hey, Dio, you like to doubt yourself too much. You should really stop doing that or life will always look dreary and bleak.¡± Why does it feel like she always knows everything I¡¯m thinking about? ¡°Hey, Dio.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°If I said I have a secret I¡¯ve never told anyone before, would you want to know what it was.¡± ¡°Oh a secret? What is it? Are you suddenly coming out of the closet or something?¡± She rolled her eyes in my direction. ¡°Well, if it¡¯s a secret you¡¯ve never told anyone before, please don¡¯t make me the first one to know. I¡¯ve had enough crazy secrets for a lifetime.¡± ¡°Dio, I¡¯m actually-¡° ¡°A guy? I knew it!¡± Swish. I was petrified, I definitely never expected a knife to come flying my way. ¡°Are you crazy?! Your secret is actually that you want to kill me?!¡± ¡°Well, you kind of deserved to die a few times over for that one.¡± ¡°Just because you¡¯re actually a dude doesn¡¯t mean you have the right to throw knives at me!¡± ¡°I¡¯m a full fledged woman! Can you not see these?¡± ¡°They¡¯re too good to be true though. Aren¡¯t they just silicone implants?¡± ¡°Dio, are you trying to pick a fight?¡± ¡°Eh? So¡­ by coming out of the closet you were really just talking about being a lesbian then?¡± ¡°If I was not interested in men, would you be here right now while I¡¯m making you hot chocolate? Look, just shut your trap and listen to me.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t wanna know.¡± ¡°Stop acting like a kid and listen to me.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you just tell your neighbor or something? It¡¯s probably going to be something insane anyways! Any woman that has ever told me, ¡®I have a secret¡¯ with a serious face like that has always been a psychopath!¡± ¡°Well¡­ I admit my secret might make some people think I¡¯m unusual.¡± ¡°See?! It¡¯s better off not telling me then!¡± ¡°I¡¯m really not crazy though.¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°Said every psychopath in existence.¡± ¡°Haaah. Whatever, just sit there and listen. I can tell you don¡¯t know much about me and are secretly curious, so I¡¯ll do you a favor that way you don¡¯t need to think about snooping through my phone to find out about me.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. I know about your intent to snoop. I also vaguely know about what you refrained from telling me when we were back at McDonald¡¯s.¡± ¡°Are you a stalker?¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t your first guess be a psychic?¡± ¡°Peh. I had a psychotic ex who pulled the psychic card before, but she turned out to just be an insane stalker who knew every single detail about whoever became the target of her misguided love instead.¡± ¡°Oh that¡¯s right, you did, didn¡¯t you? That was your third ex; if I¡¯m not mistaken, it was Anna Thena, wasn¡¯t it? The girl who¡¯d drive her love interests to the point of committing suicide from her over intrusive nature?¡± ¡°Yeah... that¡¯s her.¡± Just the thought of her sent shivers down my back. ¡°It¡¯s rather impressive you managed to safely escape her clutches, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°That would only be thanks to my second ex¡¯s reputation. She got scared off when she dug too deep and discovered who my second ex was.¡± ¡°Oh, you mean the woman who turned out to be a wanted contract killer? The same one that used you to infiltrate the company you worked for so she could fulfill one of the contracts she¡¯d taken up? Yet by some strange twist of fate, she fell madly in love with you and nearly got caught by the cops, right?¡± Her questions really struck at all my sore spots. ¡°Haha, you really dug quite a bit, didn¡¯t you? I don¡¯t even know her real name in all honesty. The name you wrote down back when you interrogated me about Rick was just an alias she went by when we were together. In the end, she never told me her real name before she abruptly disappeared on me one day.¡± ¡°You really did get the short end of the stick. Sorry.¡± ¡°Haaaaah. You don¡¯t need to apologize, it¡¯s completely unrelated to you after all. But tell me about it. The cops busting into my room that one time to apprehend her, only to find the innocent me, peacefully asleep, definitely gave me a heart attack.¡± ¡°Haha. I¡¯m sure it was an interesting twist in its own way. Anyways, we got a bit off track there. You had another hallucination while we were at McDonald¡¯s, right?¡± ¡°You realized that?¡± ¡°I not only realized it, I more or less have the gist of what happened.¡± ¡°How is that even possible?¡± ¡°The world you and I see probably looks very different, that would be why.¡± ¡°Different?¡± ¡°Yes, different.¡± ¡°As you¡¯ve assumed previously, my family is rich.¡± ¡°Is this a difference in the world in terms of social status you¡¯re talking about here?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°What is it then?¡± ¡°I hate my family.¡± ¡°That¡¯s pretty random. You hate them when they let you grow up living a lavish life of luxury?¡± ¡°No. The reason I hate them is because of what I can see and they can not.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to tell me you can see ghosts, right?¡± ¡°No, I cannot see ghosts. Nor have I ever actually seen one.¡± ¡°Then... what is it you can see?¡± ¡°Colors.¡± ¡°Hah? Colors? Uh¡­ by the way I¡¯m not color blind-.¡± ¡°Not colors like a normal person sees when looking at the world around them. Colors that allow me to see through people¡¯s state of mind. Any person I look at, what I see is a mass of different colors. Sometimes it¡¯s one individual color, while often times it¡¯s a mixture of many. These colors can either radiate from the person or fill up their internal body. Through observations over the years I¡¯ve come to be able to determine what these colors represent and I¡¯m able to read people like open books thanks to it. Color emission from people reveals what they are experiencing at a given point in time. Colors that fill the body represent the kind of person they are overall.¡± ¡°What does this have to do with me? Why tell me about something like this?¡± ¡°It has everything to do with you. Before I met you I thought I knew everything and I could see through anyone¡¯s intentions at any time. Everyone I look at has some sort of color to them. Whether it be pitch black like my family, who I cut ties with, or the pure white of a new born baby.¡± Chapter 48. Chapter 48. ¡°Since the first time I met you, I came across something I couldn¡¯t fully understand for the first time in a long time. There are times when you are colorless, completely transparent in my eyes so to speak. It was the first time in years I¡¯d come across something so peculiar, so I chose to approach you. Why do you take on such a beautiful colorless appearance? I was curious and I wanted to know, so I naturally got closer to you.¡± ¡°Then, the color that I appear to you right now is?¡± I was really skeptical to believe in the absurd claims she was making. Just listening to her raised several red flags on my psycho meter. ¡°No colour. You are colorless. To the point I can see right through you.¡± ¡°When you become emotional I can see a color emanating around you, yet your body always appears transparent except during certain circumstances. From my observations, your body is only filled with color when you¡¯re hallucinating or dreaming.¡± ¡°...¡± I really didn¡¯t know what to say in response to her ludicrous claims. She can see through me? Is this Xray vision or something? ¡°Now, tell me Dio, I¡¯ve always wanted to know this, why are you colorless?¡± ¡°How would I know?! Are you trying to say I¡¯m an empty hollow shell of a person with nothing on the inside? Are you saying I have nothing in me that makes me human like everyone else out there except on certain occasions?¡± ¡°That¡¯s precisely what I want to find out. Can someone colorless like you be painted into a beautiful picture I¡¯ve ever seen before if you find happiness, true despair, sadness or pain? You¡¯re too peculiar for me to just ignore.¡± ¡°Val, could we stop here? It¡¯s a bit too much to take in and you¡¯re starting to scare me a bit.¡± ¡°Oh. Right. Haha. Sorry, I tend to get a little excited and worked up when talking about the unknown.¡± ¡°Was this what you meant by there are a lot of strange unexplainable things in the world?¡± ¡°Well, one of them at least.¡± ¡°I still can¡¯t really believe what you¡¯re telling me. It feels like you¡¯re just making fun of me or something.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine even if you don¡¯t believe me for now.¡± She walked out from behind the kitchen counter with a mug in hand. She calmly approached the table and placed the mug down directly in front of me before she took a seat by my side on the couch. She sat close enough to the point our shoulders were touching. She picked up the remote control and turned the TV on. Contrary to what I expected of someone in her line of business, it was surprisingly an old bulky cathode ray tube TV rather than the flat screens that were the standard these days. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder whether she was just too cheap to upgrade. ¡°I somewhat have a fancy towards older technology in case you were thinking something rude like I was just being a miser.¡± ¡°Did the so called colors give me away?¡± ¡°Yeah, there was a tinge of a very specific tint of green emanating from you just now. You were thinking about something related to money, right?¡±Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Yeah, I definitely thought you were too cheap to upgrade like you expected.¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s not incorrect to say I don¡¯t care to waste money on a newer TV considering I hardly watch it to begin with.¡± ¡°Yeah, I see where you¡¯re coming from considering all I watch now are videos on the web.¡± ¡°I only keep the TV around for when I have guests over.¡± ¡°You have guests over?¡± ¡°Yeah, congratulations, you¡¯re the first in five years. How does it feel to be selected as the lucky winner?¡± ¡°I feel truly moved to tears. I can¡¯t believe this is happening to me. It¡¯s such an honor. Can I tweet about it?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t even use any social media sites.¡± ¡°How do you know that?¡± ¡°We screen our employees obviously. We found nothing for you. What kind of loser doesn¡¯t even have a single social media account these days?¡± ¡°I¡¯m the type of rebel who believes in anonymity on the web.¡± ¡°You mean a neckbeard rebel on the web who¡¯s too afraid of getting followed by his psycho ex girlfriends?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not why. I¡¯m also cleanly shaved, far from a neckbeard, so please don¡¯t label me as such.¡± ¡°Was it actually because of the stream of unending stalker level messages of love from your exes who were creating new accounts endlessly and no matter how many accounts you blocked they wouldn¡¯t stop?¡± ¡°Geh.¡± ¡°Did I hit the nail on the head?¡± ¡°I quit because I enjoy my peace and quiet.¡± ¡°And not being stalked?¡± Defeated, I quietly sipped at the hot chocolate she prepared. I absolutely refused to say anymore. She didn¡¯t seem too bothered as she leisurely flipped through the channels and continued to send occasional jabs in my direction. Despite my loss, it surprisingly wasn¡¯t unpleasant being teased by her like this. I also didn¡¯t feel too weirded out by the so called ¡°secret¡± she revealed to me either despite how ridiculous I thought it was. We were even able to joke about it which I also found a bit unusual. Anytime secrets were revealed to me in the past, things always turned out poorly for me, so it was nice for things to go so well for a change. Without realizing it, we¡¯d somehow talked for two hours straight while we were together side by side on the couch. Time flew by so quickly that I didn¡¯t even notice I finished the hot chocolate. I¡¯d gotten so caught up with chit chat that I¡¯d forgotten I only came in for that to start with. Tomorrow was Saturday and neither of us had to work, but I still didn¡¯t want to overstay my welcome. ¡°Hey Val, it¡¯s pretty late, I should really be going now.¡± ¡°You look sleepy though, you should just spend the night. You can sleep on the couch instead of inside your car. It¡¯s not good for your health to sleep in such a confined space.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s really not so bad.¡± She was right though, my eyes felt heavy already and it was hard to keep them open. I still had to drive to a parking lot nearby, so I really needed to leave before I got too tired to stay awake while behind the wheel. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I can¡¯t let you drive, it would be too dangerous considering I put sleeping pills in the hot chocolate.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, with how sleepy I am it might be¡­ wait, what? You drugged me?!¡± ¡°Relax, I¡¯m not going to do anything to you. I just want you to sleep well for a night. You¡¯ve been through quite a bit and you¡¯re stubborn as a mule. Just consider it your boss looking after your mental health.¡± My eyes grew heavier and I found there were seconds at a time where I was blanking out, fading in and out of consciousness. After a while, I couldn¡¯t fight it off and my body swayed from side to side until it collapsed with my head landing on the armrest of the couch. In this semi conscious state I heard when Val got off the couch shortly after that. I also vaguely felt her touch when she lifted my legs to fix my posture on the couch. I thought she¡¯d just leave me here alone like this and let me sleep, but something outside of my expectations happened. I felt a strange warmth wrap around my chest. There was a weight pressing down on my body, but it wasn¡¯t uncomfortable in the slightest; instead it was a very pleasant and relaxing sensation. It made me feel more at ease like all my concerns were trivial and irrelevant. I slowly drowned in the sweet, dreamlike rosy scent that surrounded me. Not long after, I- ¡­ Chapter 49. Chapter 49. It¡¯s warm. It¡¯s comfortable. It put me at ease. I felt at home. Like a boat lost at sea had returned to its dock. Like a sailor on a voyage found his way home to his family. At least until that feeling was interrupted by a certain question that left me puzzled. ¡°Daddy, where¡¯s mommy hiding?¡± Eh? I can assure you, that would be the natural single word response any male bachelor, presently not dating anyone would utter in this situation. ¡°Daddy? Daddy?¡± I looked down at my chest towards the origin of the speaker. I immediately found a pair of innocent looking eyes peering up at me. Yes, the speaker I spoke of was this adorable girl who stared at me with her purely inquisitive little eyes. Daughter? Mine? Nah, couldn¡¯t be. Last time I checked, I definitely did not have children. Who¡¯s the mommy though? ¡°Let¡¯s go look for your mommy.¡± Since I didn¡¯t want to shatter a cute little girl¡¯s image of me as a father figure, I couldn¡¯t outright deny her request for attention. ¡°Yay!¡± I also couldn¡¯t say no to her pure little eyes which implored me to dote on her. She latched onto my hand and dragged me off of the couch. She merrily skipped away with a spring in each step while she simultaneously let out a happy melodic hum. When I looked around more closely, I remembered where I was. It was definitely Val¡¯s house. Did she actually have a daughter? This little girl really did resemble her though. The thought of it left me with a somewhat bitter smile on my face. Did she have a kid with someone else already? Was she actually secretly a widow or something? We ventured through the living room and kitchen as on the way to the staircase that led upstairs. The floorboards were as squeaky as when I first entered and the stairs were by no means an exception, if not much worse. ¡°Where are we searching first?¡± ¡°Daddy is silly, naturally the bedroom would be the first place to check for mommy.¡± Eh? Isn¡¯t that a bit risqu¨¦? ¡°I don¡¯t think it would be a good idea for me to enter there. Your mommy will probably get angry with me.¡± ¡°Why would mommy get mad at daddy?¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°It¡¯s too complicated for children to understand.¡± ¡°But daddy is daddy and mommy is mommy. ¡° ¡°When you¡¯re older you¡¯ll understand.¡± With her adorable head slightly lowered, I couldn¡¯t hold back from patting her on the head. Cute things were cute after all. ¡°Daddy, I¡¯ll search in mommy''s room. You search the study room at the end of the hallway.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± I followed the little girl¡¯s instructions and approached the room she¡¯d pointed towards at the end of the corridor. The closer I got, the colder I felt; by the time I reached the door at the end of the hallway, I found I was actually freezing. My first assumption was Val just liked to keep the air conditioning on max in the room. Maybe she kept stuff in her study that needed to stay cold. I figured I¡¯d search the room quickly to satisfy the little girl who called me daddy then immediately leave. I extended my hand in the direction of the door knob with the intention of opening the door, but the moment my hand came into contact with the door knob a terrifying shiver went down my back. It was far colder than I¡¯d expected and I was chilled all the way to my core. If I was to give a comparison, it was on the level of licking a pole in winter and your tongue getting stuck to it. For such a run down looking building, wasn¡¯t the air conditioning way too strong? Despite my stray thoughts, I still turned the knob, pushed the door open and found my boss seated on a chair in front of her desk with the back of the chair faced in the door¡¯s direction. All I could see peeking out over the chair¡¯s backing was the back of her head angled downwards seemingly engrossed in her work. It appeared she¡¯d been diligently working rather than playing hide and seek with her daughter like the daughter had led me to believe. ¡°You¡¯re really quite the hard worker for someone whose daughter thinks she¡¯s playing hide and seek with you.¡± ¡°...¡± There was no response. Only an eerie silence returned my abrupt query directed at her. She didn¡¯t even flinch or react in the slightest to my words. Like she were frozen in time. ¡°Hey Val? Can you hear me? Actually, as curious as I might be about your daughter, what was with last night? What was your real reason for putting sleeping pills in my drink without my permission? You really didn¡¯t do anything weird to me last night, right?¡± ¡°...¡± Still no answer. I only realized it now, but the room was fairly dark, the only light in her study came from the dimmed lamp on her desk. I approached closer under the assumption that she might have dozed off while working. My first thought when I saw her in such a defenseless state was to give her a bit of a scare when she woke up as payback for sneaking sleeping pills into my drink. It was only when I was directly behind her chair that I felt a strange sensation at my foot. It became apparent to me immediately, I¡¯d stepped into a cold viscous liquid that soaked into my socks. Did she spill a drink when she was sleeping, or did I just get punked? Ugh, this better not be anything overly gross. ¡°Val, were you not saying anything so you could play a prank on me or something?¡± ¡°...¡± Once again, my questions fell on deaf ears, all that was returned to me was the deathly silence that pervaded the room. Being this close to her, I grew more and more unsettled by the lack of any sort of response. Despite the unsettled feeling I had, it didn¡¯t stop me from plotting against her. The best I could think of was to jump scare her when she woke up as a cheap form of payback for last night. It was childish, but I couldn¡¯t get too crazy with payback when I took into consideration that she was my boss. I placed my hand on the back of the chair and rotated it slowly in my direction. My idea was simplistic, to scream loudly in her ear to get her to jump out of her chair in fright and snap a memorable picture. But the moment I saw her on the chair, my heart completely stopped. My field of view shrank into tunnel vision. In my state of disbelief and shock, my legs gave out; when I tried to stabilize my body from the momentary weakness in my legs, I stumbled to the side and dragged the lamp on the desk with me during my fall. With abject horror, I stared into Val¡¯s lifeless eyes. Her face was pale and there were drops of blood splattered on her cheek. That was all I could describe as everything below her head was gone. The only thing below where her body should¡¯ve been, was a rod skewered threw her esophageal tract, duct taped to the back of the chair. Crimson blood had splattered all across the seat and backing of the chair, it painted a truly a gruesome vomit inducing picture that left me pale faced as all the blood completely drained from my face. Chapter 50. Chapter 50. In my hysterical state I didn¡¯t notice it right away, but I landed on something that broke my fall just a few short moments ago. It felt cold to the touch... and rigid¡­ very rigid. Before I could check what it was I finally saw- ¡°Hello my darling.¡± Those daunting words traveled to me through the darkness in front of me. When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, like a ghost, she appeared, completely undaunted by the skewered head on the chair. I opened my mouth, but in the petrified state I was presently in, I couldn¡¯t let out a single peep. It felt like my heart was being ripped apart. The pain was equivalent to a stampede of horses trampling over my body. ¡°W-w I?¡± No matter how I struggled to voice my words, only a weak whisper like sound escaped from between dry lips. ¡°Are you wondering why it came to this darling?¡± I nodded my head weakly as the excruciating pain in my heart gradually grew stronger. She smiled a smile, reminiscent to that of a grim reaper collecting on owed debts. As I stared at her face, I could sense the sheer insanity embedded deep within her unblinking eyes when she casually said, ¡°it¡¯s because I love you darling.¡± When I heard her answer, my grip reflexively increased around the cold rigid object in my right hand. It was only now that I vaguely understood what it was I¡¯d grabbed onto. I turned to my side and found Val¡¯s headless body beside me. My hand had been squeezing her upper thigh from the moment I broke my fall and landed on her body. ¡°To think that bitch would have designs to tempt you even when she¡¯s already dead.¡± ¡°M-m-mom-m-m-my? D-d-dad-d-d-dy? Why? M-mommy is okay, right?¡± When I looked in the direction of the voice which originated from the entrance to the room, it was none other than the girl I¡¯d presumed was Val¡¯s daughter. ¡°R- n¡± Run! Please turn away and never look back! Just escape! Don¡¯t come closer! Please escape! Don¡¯t come in here! No matter how badly I wanted to scream out, I couldn¡¯t. Instead, the little girl, with a blank traumatized look stumbled towards the skewered head secured to the back of the chair. All I could hear from her was her repeated mumbles of ¡®mommy¡¯ over and over again like a broken record on repeat. Each step she took closer stabbed deep into my heart. Every step forward resounded in my head like a heavy gong that echoed throughout every corner of the room as it overlapped into a grand crescendo. I felt a heavy sense of guilt and dread that I allowed myself to get close to Val. It was my fault. If I had been more resolute to keep my distance from her, none of this would have happened. Why was I so stupid? Why did I allow myself to become fond of her? Why did I let myself grow even the slightest bit attached? I should have kept our relationship strictly business as I originally intended. Everything was my fault!Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. When I looked up at Adele, a jubilant, merry smile creeped onto her face. She could only be described as a sinister devil who knew no limits to her madness. The little girl fell to her knees in front of Val¡¯s decapitated head while she feebly held onto the seat while looking up with vacant soulless eyes. Adele casually walked out from behind the side of the bookcase she¡¯d been hidden behind. She moved behind the little girl, who¡¯d collapsed to her knees on the ground; then with a knife in hand, like a snake coiling around its prey, she gently positioned the knife right below the little girl¡¯s neck. With all my strength, I tried to stand up and run towards her to try and do something. Anything. I didn¡¯t want to see this. I wanted to push her out of the way, anything would do, but my body felt like lead. It was a feeling I was all too familiar with, the type of feeling where I was in quicksand, unable to move an inch. Damn it move! Shit! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! Why can I never run when I know I can?! She didn¡¯t hesitate for an instant when she saw my actions and she nonchalantly gouged the knife deep into the little girl¡¯s throat. She muffled her screams by covering the child¡¯s mouth with her free hand while delightedly observing as the child¡¯s struggles grew weaker and weaker. She looked exuberant when she tore into her neck as she jerked the knife back and forth until the little girl¡¯s body slumped to the floor. Adele turned the decapitated head towards her and examined it closely before giving a nod of approval. ¡°Darling, your daughter was a little cutie, but fear not, our daughter will be even cuter.¡± ¡­ My eyes shot open wide and the first thing I felt was a warm streak of liquid flow down the side of my cheek. I also immediately noticed the stinging sensation that originated from my jaw and realized my teeth were clenched down firmly to the point that it actually ached from pain. In my peripheral vision I saw fine black strands. When I lowered my eyes I found a circular black mass on top of my chest. When I finally came to my senses, I realized it was all just another sick and twisted nightmare. My arms were wrapped around her upper back and her hands were pressed against my chest. I heard steady breaths from her and felt her heartbeat through our connected bodies which provided confirmation she was alive and well. Unconsciously my arms that were wrapped around her tightened up a bit. I was relieved when I discovered she was perfectly fine and still in one piece. ¡°How many times did you plan to grope me while you were asleep, Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°Grope you? When did I do such a thing?¡± ¡°When you were having another nightmare.¡± ¡°If you knew I was having a nightmare, why didn¡¯t you wake me up?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t dislike being groped? Was that what you were hoping I¡¯d say? It was actually just to increase the amount of dirt I have on you, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Wake me up next time! The nightmare this time was seriously messed up!¡± ¡°Oh? What was this one about?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You can¡¯t tell?¡± ¡°Well, I can tell it was related to me by how you reacted when you woke up, but I don¡¯t know the specifics. I assume I probably died or was killed by someone, is that correct, Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°Correct, you did die, but I didn¡¯t witness your death first hand. Adele killed you and then proceeded to kill your daughter.¡± Chapter 51. Chapter 51. ¡°Daughter? Whose?¡± ¡°Yours.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a daughter, Mr.Genovese.¡± ¡°Ah. Right... Sorry, it wasn¡¯t real after all. I got a bit too caught up in that dream.¡± ¡°Wait, Mr. Genovese, don¡¯t just gloss over things so quickly. Who was the father?¡± ¡°What? Ah. That is¡­ I¡¯m not really too sure either.¡± ¡°That sounds rather suspicious.¡± ¡°What does it matter who the father was? I watched as Adele beheaded her all while your fictional daughter listlessly gazed at the skewered head of her bodiless mother. I was powerless and unable to do a single thing to stop it and I was forcefully given a front row seat to bear witness to her senseless slaughter.¡± ¡°Why are you trying to avoid the question? Did the girl you claim to be my daughter call you daddy or something?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not important. Be more concerned that she was killed.¡± ¡°It is important, so tell me.¡± ¡°Why are you so stuck up on that? You should be more concerned that your non existent daughter who was only a figment of my imagination died so tragically.¡± ¡°So you really had a nightmare where we had a kid together after all?¡± ¡°She wasn¡¯t my kid. She was yours.¡± She just kept staring at me, clearly unconvinced. ¡°Shit. That¡¯s exactly what happened, okay? So just drop it already. It¡¯s embarrassing. Having a child with my boss? What kind of weird delusions am I having in my nightmares? I don¡¯t even want to ever have a kid.¡± ¡°I¡¯d personally like to have two though. It¡¯s a bit troubling for me if you say you don¡¯t want any, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°In what way does me not wanting to have children cause trouble for my boss?¡± ¡°In a variety of different ways, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Can you stop messing with me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not messing with anyone, I¡¯m merely stating opinions of mine that may or may not have any deeper meaning.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll be the one troubled in a variety of different ways.¡± ¡°Such as?¡± ¡°No comment.¡± ¡°Would it be related to the solid object that started pressing against my thighs before you said that?¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°No comment.¡± Ugh. When I compared the sensation to my nightmare they were certainly worlds apart. ¡°Well, that¡¯s fine for now. There¡¯s no need for me to make things too difficult for you Mr. Genovese.¡± No need to make things difficult for me? Please, that is all you¡¯ve done for quite some time now. She pushed away from my chest and got off of the couch, she didn¡¯t show any sign that she was flustered in the slightest. She really looked to be the definition of a prim and proper young lady and if I didn¡¯t know any better, I¡¯d never guess she was sleeping on top of a man¡¯s chest just a moment ago. ¡°By the way¡­Va- no, boss, what was your real reason for slipping sleeping pills into my drink? You know that¡¯s a crime, right?¡± ¡°There were no sleeping pills to begin with. I just said that so you¡¯d give up on thoughts of trying to force yourself to stay awake. It was just a simple psychological trick.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way that¡¯s true, right? I could hardly keep my eyes open.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just how mentally exhausted you actually were. It really had nothing to do with me, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Then, why did you sleep on the couch with me? What is the meaning behind that?¡± ¡°I was a bit tired and didn¡¯t feel like going upstairs to my bed. Where I sleep in my house shouldn¡¯t really concern you, right?¡± ¡°It concerns me a lot when I wake up to find you sleeping on top of my chest.¡± ¡°Consider it rent for loaning you the couch for the night, Mr. Genovese. Besides, it seems like you were pretty happy after you woke up despite your complaints. At least that guy looks full of vigor.¡± She said that while pointing at the region between my legs. ¡°It was just morning... you know... it was definitely not a reaction to you.¡± ¡°That better be the case or your job might have been on the line just now, Mr. Genovese.¡± This form of humiliation might have been worse than the nightmare I just had. Damnit, if this was a porno, this scene would definitely have turned out much differently. Why must fiction and reality be so far apart in the real world? Actually no, I change my mind, the real world is better after all. If things did play out in a manner stranger than they already had, it would definitely be even more awkward. The way she randomly reverted to her professional mode really threw me for a loop at times. When she was like this, I instinctively thought of her as my boss rather than the woman, Val, I¡¯d gotten close to yesterday. No matter what angle I looked at her from, the two sides she showed me really felt like two completely different people. Bzzzzzzzt. Bzzzzzzzt. Bzzzzzzzt. Without any warning, my phone vibrated. I looked down at the caller ID and found it was a number I was unfamiliar with, but since it was a local number I still answered. ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Hello, is this Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°Yes, it is.¡± ¡°This is Officer Johnson with the local police department. We have finished collecting evidence in your apartment and it has been thoroughly cleaned, you may move back in now.¡± I got off the couch and walked into the hallway, outside the living room and out of boss¡¯ line of sight. She didn¡¯t bother to follow behind me, instead she took the hint and moved into the kitchen, it seemed that she planned to make breakfast. ¡°I can move back in already?¡± ¡°Yes, the case has already been closed.¡± ¡°Closed already?! So quick?! How is that possible? I only just recently gave a follow up statement, right?¡± ¡°Yes, it indeed has been closed. Unfortunately, I can¡¯t disclose much about it.¡± ¡°Uhm¡­ if you don¡¯t mind me asking¡­ can you at least tell me what the final verdict was in the end?¡± ¡°The case quickly went cold and it was marked off as just another suicide.¡± ¡°Suicide¡­ I see.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t sound too happy despite being found innocent Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°I was never guilty to begin with and what¡¯s there to be happy about when you find out your junior at work committed suicide?¡± ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right. Anyways, that was all we had to inform you of.¡± ¡°Alright... thank you... for letting me know. Bye...¡± Chapter 52. Chapter 52. After I ended the call, I returned to the living room. I found Val curiously staring at me like she was waiting for me to speak up first. With my lack of a response despite her making it obvious that she wanted to know, she eventually broke the silent deadlock. ¡°Well? Was that a secret mistress of yours? Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Mr. Genovese, I never would have imagined you¡¯d be THAT type of person.¡± ¡°It¡¯s was the police.¡± Ah. I instinctively retorted. ¡°Oh? Were they already onto your unusually high levels of sexual harassment and calling to give you a warning?¡± ¡°How did you know?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good to see that you¡¯re aware you¡¯re a closet sexual harasser. Anyways, were you given the okay to return to your apartment?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a closet sexual harasser, but yes, I was told I could return to my apartment now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll always be a closet sexual harasser in my heart. So, what do you want to do now? Surely my loyal employee, Mr. Genovese, wouldn¡¯t want to be as shameless to say he wants to stay here and not return to his own place, right?¡± ¡°Can you please drop the closet sexual harasser thing? Also, what are you plotting now?¡± ¡°Plotting? Me? I never plot against my valued employees, Mr. Genovese. What do you want for breakfast?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t lie, you smell like the biggest schemer in the world. What can you make?¡± ¡°This is why you¡¯re not popular with normal women, Mr. Genovese. I can make a lot of things.¡± ¡°Normal women don¡¯t scheme as much as you. You can make a lot? Like what?¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, you must know every normal woman is actually a schemer. I¡¯ll have you know, every normal woman likes to conduct shit tests to test how faithful their lovers are. I can make a pretty good cup ramen.¡± Cough. Cough. Cough. I actually choked on my own saliva there. ¡°Cup ramen?! Uh, boss¡­ you really are a CEO of a company, right?¡± ¡°Yes, it is quite the legendary commoner food. It is so cheap, yet it contains countless mysteries of the universe, Mr. Genovese. You should not underestimate the power of such high class commoner food.¡± If it wasn¡¯t for her calling it commoner food, I might actually confuse her for a god tier budget waifu character from an anime.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°By any chance, you aren¡¯t actually the type to fill the trope of pretty rich girl who¡¯s cooking is awful, are you?¡± ¡°Of course not. My cooking will blow you away. My cooking capabilities are on the level of gods. Even the gods look at my cooking and can only fall to their knees in worship at how good it is.¡± ¡°Oh really? Then aside from cup ramen what else can you cook?¡± ¡°How about this, I¡¯ll surprise you.¡± ¡°Uh... I think I should really leave now. I haven¡¯t been to my apartment in quite a while and I¡¯m feeling a bit homesick.¡± ¡°Just sit your ass down on the couch and stop trying to make excuses to escape.¡± ¡°The last time I did that, didn¡¯t I get sleeping pills in my drink?¡± ¡°There were none in the end, so what are you talking about?¡± ¡°Can you prove there were none?¡± ¡°Yeah I can.¡± ¡°How?¡± ¡°I recorded the entire process of making it knowing you¡¯d be skeptical and wouldn¡¯t believe me when you woke up.¡± ¡°You really recorded it?¡± ¡°Yeah, I did. What, you don¡¯t believe me? I can show you if you¡¯d like.¡± ¡°... no... it¡¯s fine. With your meticulous nature in recording my poor work ethics I could totally see you doing it.¡± I obediently took a seat back on the couch and flipped through the channels to pass the time. I expected she¡¯d probably take a fair amount of time to finish cooking, but five minutes later she walked over with a cup in hand. When I say cup, I don¡¯t mean a cup that held a drink. ¡°This is what you cooked?¡± ¡°Of course. It¡¯s another classic god tier staple food among common folk that is to die for.¡± ¡°You mean¡­ mac and cheese?¡± ¡°Of course, Mr. Genovese. Don¡¯t you dare underestimate this staple food with a history as deep as the ocean.¡± I won¡¯t hate on it or anything considering I do like it, but¡­ for a rich CEO to be treating their guest to this¡­ am I being looked down on? ¡°I¡¯m not looking down on you. I just legitimately like it and wanted you to try my mac and cheese, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Ah, sorry. You¡¯re right, just because you¡¯re rich doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t like it.¡± Well, it¡¯s just mac and cheese that anyone can make. It¡¯s not like there is any way she could mess up when cooking this, right? I picked up the fork and took my first bite and nearly fainted from shock. I couldn¡¯t refrain from opening my eyes wide to ask, ¡°what did you put in this?¡± ¡°Sorry, but that¡¯s a trade secret that I can only tell my future husband.¡± ¡°Why does it taste so good?! Did you slip addictive drugs into this or something?¡± ¡°Haha. Of course not. It¡¯s purely thanks to a few special ingredients I added to it. I went around to a lot of different restaurants collecting data on the best mac and cheese recipes in the country all so I could create this masterpiece out of a cheap commoners food.¡± ¡°This can hardly be called commoners food. You aren¡¯t going to tell me you put something ridiculous like love into this cooking, are you? I really hope it¡¯s not your hair or dead skin or anything disgusting like that.¡± ¡°How rude. I¡¯m not one of your psychotic exes.¡± ¡°Haha. Sorry. There were times with Adele where her cooking tasted too good to be true. It was to the point I couldn¡¯t believe she made it. I only found out much later on what was actually in it. Rat meat, ground up cockroach shells, pig testicles, her hair, dead skin, all sorts of weird crap went into some of the things she made for me. Back then, she just said she put her love into it and I just blindly believed her. It was only after it was revealed to me that she was completely insane that I discovered the things she¡¯d actually used as ingredients whenever she cooked for me. Those experiences made me skeptical of anything cooked by women that tasted too good to be true. To this date, just thinking about it still leaves my stomach churning.¡± Chapter 53. Chapter 53. ¡°How can those sorts of things even taste good?¡± ¡°I have no idea. Imagine spaghetti and meatballs with meatballs being pig testicles covered in ground up cockroach shells. Imagine custom made spaghetti infused with her hair that she chopped up as fine as sand mixed into the batter to make the spaghetti. How she made them taste good, I have no idea.¡¯ ¡°Mr.Genovese, you¡¯re making me lose my appetite.¡± ¡°Ah. Sorry. My bad.¡± ¡°Anyways, Mr. Genovese, do you plan to return to your apartment today? Is there any point for you to continue avoiding the place when regardless of where you stay strange things continue to happen?¡± ¡°Well, I guess you have a point.¡± But before I actually return to my apartment, I do want to visit Adele to verify a few things. Whether boss really didn¡¯t see Adele or whether she was just playing around with me yesterday, I found it difficult to determine whether I was actually being played. Once we finished eating the mac and cheese she¡¯d made, I told her I planned to return to my apartment for the time being. She tried to tag along with me; however, I resolved myself to turn her down no matter what she said. When I left her place, she just grumbled about how much of a beta I was, but I ignored it since it was the truth. I didn¡¯t have the gonads to seriously make a move on my boss at the end of the day. Romantic relationships in the workplace never ended well. It also might be because I didn¡¯t want her to get hurt due to getting too involved with me, or, it may have been an unconscious self defense mechanism to avoid any more pain in the future. Just thinking about having a child with her, only for both of them to be murdered in cold blood by one of my exes left me terrified. It had been a while since I was able to have a decent amount of sleep due to all the nightmares I had recently, but thanks to her I did get a solid ten hours of sleep last night. Deep down, I was grateful for her care despite the questionable methods she employed. When I arrived at my car, paranoid by what happened yesterday, I checked the back seat and trunk and made sure nobody was hidden inside this time. When I confirmed I was in the clear, I immediately fired up the engine and sped away from Boss'' place. Five minutes into the drive I¡¯d somewhat zoned out while I thought about everything that happened recently. I drove on the freeway autonomously, only the sight of the road and cars passed me by in my peripheral field of view. The tall buildings to the sides flew by and created a dreary gray blur amidst the world that had fallen silent without my notice. The white striped lines on the road appeared as singular blurred solid lines with no spaces between them.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. I¡¯d been in the middle lane for quite a while and before I noticed it, I realized I was nearly at the turn off for the mental asylum Adele was supposedly located at. I turned on my indicator and shoulder checked to my right. ScreEeEeEch! I swerved out of control momentarily from shock, but quickly recovered. In the instant I looked to my side, I found in the once empty passenger seat beside me, was the very person I planned to visit. The very same girl I¡¯d just thought of, nonchalantly sat there with her head facing the window looking at the scenery fly by. She didn¡¯t say a single thing despite me having noticed her. It was a relief I didn¡¯t get into an accident and I regained control over the car in time, but my heart still beat madly, horrified by the unexpected turn of events. I quickly returned my eyes to the road, I only glanced at her for only a brief second, yet it was still enough to scare me to death. She¡¯s not real. She definitely can¡¯t be real. It¡¯s just a figment of my imagination. My brain is just playing tricks on me. Even when I thought that way, I still glanced to my side one more time for confirmation; I found she now had her eyes directly on the road in front of us. She remained dead silent oblivious to me. I quietly gulped down a mouthful of saliva. Again, I returned my eyes to the road. The turn off for the mental asylum was directly ahead. I shoulder checked again to confirm the lane was still clear, but this time Adele directly locked eyes with me. It left me even more jumpy than ever. My heart rate accelerated further, it was probably the most nerve racking lane change I¡¯d ever made in my short life. After I successfully changed lanes and exited the freeway she never looked away from me. From my side, she only stared directly into my eyes unblinkingly. I returned my focus to the road in front of me and I merged with traffic when I exited the bend. I never turned my head again, but instead I secretly peeked to my side occasionally. What I discovered was that her face had moved closer to me. Originally there was about a meter between us, now she was only about half a meter away. Neither of us said anything and I naturally kept it that way since I was too fearful to break the silence. Over the course of five minutes I sporadically peeked at the corner of my eye and discovered she gradually decreased the distance between our faces by about ten centimeters every minute. One more minute passed and the hair on my body stood fully erect on ends, I had a horrible case of goosebumps right now. She still had her gaze locked onto my eyes and now, despite doing my best to not look her way, I constantly saw her from the corner of my eye. She took up an entire quarter of my right eye¡¯s peripheral field of view. Perhaps the creepiest thing was that I couldn¡¯t hear or even feel her breaths despite how close she was to my face. I didn¡¯t dare to peek towards her direction again and I stared directly forward with my eyes glued to the road. I recited all the digits of pi I knew in my head over and over again to try and forget about Adele who was seated beside me. Like this, I drove onward with her face practically glued to mine until I finally arrived at the mental asylum. As soon as I parked, I immediately exited the car and entered the building. I¡¯d hoped that was the end of it, but when I checked behind me, I saw Adele. She silently stood eerily still, about five meters behind me. She still stared directly into my eyes. Not a single word was exchanged between us. Chapter 54. Chapter 54. I chose to continue ignoring her and approached the counter partitioned with what appeared to be bullet proof glass. ¡°Excuse me, I¡¯m here to pay a visit to Adele.¡± The person behind the counter glanced up with a crooked smile before he pointed down and spoke through a mic, ¡°place your ID on the scanner so we can verify your identity.¡± I followed as instructed and a light passed over my drivers license. ¡°Mr. Genovese is it? Oh, the boyfriend she¡¯s talked so highly of over the last five years despite having not visited her even once? Aren¡¯t you the dedicated man? To be lucky enough to have a woman as madly in love as her, I really envy you. Place your hand on the scanner.¡± I refrained from responding to him as the guy gave me a rather off putting feeling. Do the people who work in mental asylums like this also lose a few screws after working here for too long? Once my fingerprints were taken, the guy behind the counter pressed a button and told me, ¡°go in. Proceed straight down the hall and enter the room second to your right. You¡¯ll be able to speak to her through the microphones connected to the observation room. There are also recordings in case you wanted to see how she¡¯s been over the last five years. Despite her being a beauty, she really doesn¡¯t get any visitors. Mr. Boyfriend, you should really value and treasure a gem like her more.¡± I once again chose not to say anything. I maintained my silence, but out of courtesy I still nodded in his direction then entered the hallway. I stopped outside the second door to the right as he¡¯d instructed and looked to my side before I entered. Adele still stood there quietly, only one meter away from me now. Silent. Still staring. At me. Quietly. Unwaveringly. Expressionlessly. Unblinking. Only at me and nothing else. Why do you haunt me so? Are you really just a figment of my imagination? Are you just the symbol of guilt in my heart? What are you? Do you exist? What is existence?This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. She felt ethereal. My stomach churned and I felt more nauseous the closer my hand drew to the door knob. When I finally opened the door I stepped inside and found four LCD monitors mounted behind a desk with a chair. The room was very simple, on top of the desk was a PC, camera and microphone. The room was completely white, similar to the one depicted on the four LCD monitors mounted on the wall. The four monitors simultaneously showed the entire room Adele was inside from four separate corners. Adele was lying on her back in the center of the room blankly looking directly into one of the cameras. When I verified she was there, I was somehow slightly relieved in a way. I was now certain the one behind me definitely was a figment of my imagination. At least, that¡¯s what I thought until I took a seat in front of the desk. Gone. The room displayed on the four monitors was completely barren. I rubbed my eyes to make sure my eyes weren¡¯t playing some sort of twisted trick on me, but she¡¯d really vanished from directly before my eyes. Slightly flustered I turned to the recorded footage on the PC and rummaged through the footage for the last half hour, but she was nowhere to be found during that time. She did appear in the footage over half an hour ago, but she abruptly disappeared into thin air. When I thought back to it, the timing lined up perfectly with when Adele appeared in my car. Slowly, I turned my head to check behind me and sure enough... Adele was there. This time her face was only a short centimetre away from mine, similar to how it had been back in the car. It felt like she was peering into the depths of my soul. If she wasn¡¯t inside her room... did that mean this one was real after all? I hesitantly raised my hand and moved it closer to her face beside her cheek. I gulped down a mouthful of saliva as I slowly moved my hand closer until I made contact. The silky soft sensation of her skin which I expected to feel through my hand turned out to be nothing but empty space. My hand passed directly through her cheek as her face distorted, like smoke she mysteriously faded out of existence before my eyes without having uttered a single word. What is wrong with me? I really have lost my mind. Aren¡¯t I far more suitable to be the one staying in this mental asylum? When I turned back towards the monitors the room was still empty. I pressed the button on the microphone and said, ¡°Adele, it¡¯s Dio. Are you in there? If you are, please answer me. There are things I really want to ask you about.¡± There wasn¡¯t any sign of movement in the room and even after waiting five minutes for a response from the speakers, nothing returned my query. It didn¡¯t take long before I lost hope towards receiving an answer. I decided to immediately report her disappearance to the staff. Just as I was about to exit the room though, I heard a voice from the speakers behind me that whispered faintly, ¡°if you want to ask me anything, then come visit me at my home alone like we promised.¡± I immediately turned around when I heard her answer only to be greeted by the vacant room I was in with the still empty room depicted on the four monitors. I took in a breath of cold air and calmed myself down before I proceeded towards the room¡¯s exit without investigating any further. This was the second time she said this. To meet her there alone though¡­ I¡¯d be digging deeper into that traumatic experience again. The day I discovered she was a psychopath. However, if I never went, would I keep being haunted like this all the time? Wouldn¡¯t death be better than living a life where I¡¯m constantly put through scary shit like this? Fuck it! Whatever! If she wants me to go there, then fine! I¡¯ll go! If she kills me that¡¯s fine by me. I don¡¯t even care anymore, just stop it with these damn nightmares and hallucinations! As soon as I stepped out the door of the room, the first thing that came into view was¡­ Chapter 55. Chapter 55. There¡¯s no way. No! How?! Screeeeeeech! ¡­ the image of a blurry car with their brake lights on. I immediately slammed on the brakes which caused the car to skid. There was a car in front of me slowing down to turn off and exit onto the freeway and I¡¯d nearly crashed into them. At some point in time, it started to rain, I didn¡¯t even have my wipers on. Thankfully, my timely reaction saved me, I¡¯d avoided a collision and the guy exited the freeway safely. When I realized what exit I¡¯d just passed by, my mind turned to utter chaos. It was the exact same exit I¡¯d taken on my way to the mental asylum. The entire situation left me drowning in cold sweat. If I said my heart was beating madly before, then now, my heart was beating faster than the speed of light. This was surely going to kill me if things continued at this pace. A multilayered hallucination? Is that even possible? Hallucinations in hallucinations? Then what if even this is a hallucination right now? Actually, did I even wake up today? Am I actually just inside an extremely long nightmare still? I¡¯m going to have a nervous breakdown if things keep going like this. I was presently hyperventilating, I found it exceedingly difficult to breathe. How do I even know I am who I say I am? What is my name? Diogenes Genovese. What is my profession? A senior electronics repair technician. How old am I? Thirty. Are these things which I treat as facts even true? Is this what they call an identity crisis? As usual, I took deep breaths to calm myself down. Panicking and freaking out over everything only made things worse. Don¡¯t lose yourself in the sheer madness of your situation. I need to keep a level head. Stay calm and collected. Somehow, by brainwashing myself like this, I didn¡¯t jump off the deep end and fall into an unending cycle of self doubt and delusions. Those were some pretty dangerous thoughts I had just now. If I continued down that line of thought any further, I would surely have found myself in a negative spiral of self torture and resentment. Still, everything continually hit me out of the blue time and time again. Who knew when the next occurrence would be. I should just act under the assumption that everything I experience could potentially be a lie in itself. The car I¡¯m driving may not be a car at all. The rain falling now may just be the tears I¡¯m crying inside my head. The road I¡¯m on may not even be a road, but instead an illusory figment of my imagination. Whether I¡¯m driving forward at high speed or walking backwards right now is questionable in itself. I could very well be out cold on the floor without ever realizing it.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. This is just what the reality of the situation is to me right now. Any proof I find to prove or justify anything to myself may just be convenient coincidences, lies or excuses. I couldn¡¯t tell fiction from reality any longer, but it didn¡¯t change the fact that I wanted to meet Adele. I wanted to know exactly what was happening to me. I didn¡¯t bother to head to the mental asylum again. Instead, I set my sights on Adele¡¯s home where her family was buried. I spent a full day and night driving before I finally arrived at the woods that completely devastated me five years ago. I parked my car in a ditch at the side of the road, outside the woods, and decided to take a short nap before I made my way towards the mansion hidden in the deep recesses of the woods. I mentally prepared myself because I was almost certain I¡¯d have another nightmare. Thus, when I went to sleep, I taped my finger to the camera on my phone. I set up a heartbeat monitor app that would set off an alarm that would wake me up if my heartbeat reached a certain threshold. I plugged my phone into a power bank so I¡¯d be able to get a decent amount of sleep. I also set an alarm in the event I slept longer than the battery would last. With all that in place, I went to sleep slightly hopeful I¡¯d avoid the situation where I woke up excessively scared if things took a strange turn for the worse in my dreams. Strangely enough though, despite all my preparations, I woke up six hours later without having any sign of a nightmare. The preparations I made were completely pointless. To ensure I wasn¡¯t in a dream still, I took a shot to where no man should ever be hit. Yep, it definitely wasn¡¯t a dream as far as the tears trickling down my cheek could tell. Of course, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if I was somehow capable of feeling pain in a dream with the way my nightmares have played out recently. When I got up, everything was surprisingly normal. It was calm, peaceful, perhaps you would even call it tranquil. Any normal person would be at ease in such a situation, but I knew from past experience, it was nothing more than a facade before the impending storm. The moment I stepped out of the car, the world was sure to turn to shit. It¡¯s all a lie to get me to let my guard down just so I¡¯ll be scared later on. I was certain that it was all some sort of grand conspiracy in the making. God damn it! I¡¯m not falling for this crap again! I¡¯m so on edge you could call me the edgiest of lords right now. I might as well change my name to the edge master. I¡¯m naturally not going to really do something cringy like that though. I prepared my heart for the Armageddon and chaos that would unfold the moment I stepped out the door. I braced myself for the creepy piano music that would mysteriously play from deep within the forest. I googled all sorts of Buddhist sutras and chanted them in my head on repeat all for the moment of truth where shit hit the fan. And thus¡­ I opened the door and discovered¡­ Nothing happened. ¡°Hahaha.¡± Great! My plan to over dramatize things so nothing would happen to me worked out perfectly. It was a bloody heaven sent miracle as far as I cared. I honestly felt strangely satisfied with the results. Although, nothing happening might actually be worse now that I think about it. If it didn¡¯t happen now, wouldn¡¯t it just happen later? Suddenly, I found my nerves were more on edge than before. In my case, things always took a turn for the worst at the most unexpected times after all. Chapter 56. Chapter 56. After I exited my vehicle, I charged into the forest like a spartan warrior and penetrated to its depths. I made sure not to listen to any epic music like an idiot so I could hear if anything was approaching me. I wasn¡¯t going to be one of those casuals in horror movies who¡¯d let their guards down while thinking they could casually stroll about as though they were in Willy Wonka¡¯s Chocolate Factory. Of course, I was very likely just overthinking things. This was my ex girlfriend who still thinks we¡¯re together. She probably wouldn¡¯t really kill me, right? Haha. Even I, myself, didn¡¯t think I sounded very convinced when I had such a wishful thought. Besides my ex, if there was a ghost sister with a grudge against me involved in this, I¡¯m surely done for. The atmosphere was really getting to me though, to bring up unscientific oddities like ghosts was really troubling. Ghosts are just something born out of a man¡¯s romance, there¡¯s no way they truly exist. Ghosts are just used as a tool to explain things people can¡¯t quite comprehend yet. They were nothing more than a work of fiction so to speak. Yeah, I¡¯ll just keep mindlessly brainwashing myself like that since it¡¯s in my best interest. Like this, I ventured deeper and deeper into the forest. I vaguely traced a path with the fragmented memories of the landmarks in my head that I remembered from back then. It took some time, much longer than when I was guided by Adele in the past, but I eventually found myself in front of the gate to the mansion that had been engraved in both my body and soul. My hand slightly trembled when I reached out towards the gate. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and opened up the old, rusted, worn down gate. The moment I stepped past this point, things were certain to hit the fan this time. Definitely! It¡¯s definitely going to be some sick and twisted hallucination. Screw it, I probably fell into a hallucination a long time ago and just didn¡¯t realize it. Just treat it like everything that happened here wasn¡¯t real. Hah! Nothing can scare me if I treat everything as if it¡¯s fake. Yeah, I¡¯m using reverse psychology on myself, so what? If you got a problem with it, bite me creepy nonexistent ghost girl in my head. I stepped into the premises with a confident stride, only for it to deflate moments later. Nothing happened again. Why? Why is shit not hitting the fan yet? Well, it was a bit nice that nothing happened again; however, it still made me feel more anxious. The tough guy act really wasn¡¯t my thing. I let out a sigh and dejectedly, I decided to drop my internal over dramatization. If something happened, it happened. If it didn¡¯t, it didn¡¯t. Anyway, I¡¯m just tired of it all already. I only wanted to bring an end to everything quickly. But what will I do when I get answers from Adele? Even now, I don¡¯t have the slightest clue. Is there any point in seeking out these answers to begin with? Am I simply trying repent for my mistakes by trying to finally understand her after all these years? Is it because of a sense of irrational guilt towards her?This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Adele, please, just forgive me already. I¡¯m tired of being burdened with these heavy weights on my back.¡± After I entered, I glanced towards the tombstones in the distance and I found Adele beside three graves. The graves belonged to none other than her deceased family, the very same ones she claimed she¡¯d killed. The graves looked exactly the same as what I remembered in my memories from five years ago. There were two tombstones adjacent to each other, while there was a lone tombstone positioned a short distance away from them. It faced the opposite direction with respect to the pair that was together. I only now realized how bizarre it was when I actually thought about it. What was the reason for this sort of arrangement. Was there be some sort of story behind the way Adele positioned their graves? Adele looked lonesome, she stood there in a short black one piece dress. She wore a thin green jacket on top that suited her well. Her long white hair blew to the side in the wind, it painted a rather telling picture that tugged at my heart. The only thing I found out of place with the scene was the snake coiled around her exposed right leg. She didn¡¯t seem bothered by it though, and despite not looking at it, she¡¯d slid two fingers over the snakes head beside her upper leg as if she were petting it. I immediately chanted the Buddhist sutras I¡¯d learned earlier to dispel any impure thoughts I had when I examined her. How could I easily let my thoughts run about in the gutter when it¡¯s a perfectly wholesome scene. Damn it! It¡¯s Adele¡¯s fault for making it look suggestive, not my innocent little heart for thinking of anything dirty. ¡°So... my darling finally came to visit me after all this time?¡± Something was different about Adele this time. Just from the intonation in her voice, the way it resounded in my ear, the way my heart skipped a beat when she looked over at me. I couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on it, but she reminded me of the Adele I knew before I discovered her secret. Her eyes weren¡¯t the crazy eyes I¡¯d seen recently in my hallucinations, but instead, they were the ones when we initially started dating. I felt the same gentle warm type of love I remembered from when we first dated back in university. ¡°Adele? It¡¯s really you, right?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the first thing you ask me, Darling?¡± I didn¡¯t feel scared at all when I looked directly into her eyes like I had on previous encounters. Why was there such a big difference? I felt a splitting headache coming on from the large gap in my expectations and reality. Was I just villainizing her in my head all this time? No, that can¡¯t be right, there¡¯s definitely something to it. Or am I just trying to search for something not there that I¡¯ve just made up in my head? Is she the crazy one, or am I? Drip. Drip. Drip. When I heard the sound of droplets of water against the ground, I snapped out of it and I looked up at the sky. It was cloudy out and the sun was completely blocked out, it appeared to be set up perfectly for a heavy downpour. It was evening by the time I arrived here and it was already fairly dark outside. ¡°Darling, we should go inside before the rain gets worse.¡± ¡°Uh... yeah. Right. No... wait. There aren¡¯t any dead bodies this time, right?¡± ¡°Hmm? What do you think, Darling?¡± She had a slight smile, that despite the serious nature of my question, I couldn¡¯t stop my heart from beating faster. What shocked me more was I didn¡¯t find her smile scary like it usually was. Strangely enough, I felt truly happy to see her smile like she had in the past. Chapter 57. Chapter 57. No! Stop being deceived. This is how I get tricked every time. She walked directly towards me then latched onto my hand, our fingers intertwined while she led me towards the mansion in the distance. It didn¡¯t take long before we arrived in front of the front entrance of the mansion. We entered just in time to avoid the downpour outside. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since we had to run from the rain, hasn¡¯t it Darling?¡± ¡°Yeah, it really has.¡± I tried to pull my hand away from her, but she didn¡¯t release mine and instead dragged me into one of the rooms. It was a rather strangely laid out room. There appeared to be medical equipment in one corner, with shelves at the back of the room with rows of various bottles. The table at the center of the room was congested and gave the room a messy disordered sort of feel to it. She sat down on a bench beside the table in the room and proceeded to take off the green jacket that covered her pale white shoulders. The fine lace shoulder straps on her black one piece slipped down to her sides when she removed her jacket, it portrayed a rather enticing scene to look at directly. The snake which was originally coiled around her right leg was now resting and lazily hanging its body off her exposed upper thigh. Her face was slightly tilted away from me, but I could still see her eyes peeking in my direction. Was she trying to seduce me with a honey trap? ¡°Darling, take a seat.¡± ¡°Where? There¡¯s only the one bench you¡¯re sitting on.¡± ¡°Darling, did your IQ drop while we have been apart? I naturally picked this room for that specific reason. Just sit down beside me.¡± I cautiously sat down on the opposite end of the bench. I kept a good distance between us. ¡°Why are you sitting so far away?¡± ¡°Eh? Uh. That would be-¡± ¡°You¡¯re still shy about such things after all this time?¡± ¡°Yeah, you could say that¡­ a bit I guess.¡± Of course not, I¡¯m just not confident enough to fully put my trust in you right now. Things will surely hit the fan soon. There¡¯s no way a normal conversation between us is really possible. ¡°Darling, you look a bit tired, you must be exhausted after trekking through the woods to get here, you should take some time to rest before anything else.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. I had to admit, she was right, I was exhausted after walking for hours on end through the forest to get here. If things took a turn for the worse after I asked her what I wanted to know and I needed to flee for my life, I would definitely be disadvantaged greatly. ¡°You¡¯re right, I am a bit tired. Do you mind if I use one of the bedrooms to take a nap?¡± ¡°I do mind actually. Just take a nap on this bench. Here you can use my lap as a pillow.¡± ¡°That would be a bit troubling.¡± ¡°Could it be my Darling has been unfaithful and has a guilty conscience?¡± The sharp gleam in her eyes told me it was best to just cave here and do as she said. I definitely didn¡¯t succumb to her sex appeal. Her overwhelming sex appeal definitely wasn¡¯t what had me chanting Buddhist sutras in my head either. It was really just because I was afraid she¡¯d snap and return to her insanely psychotic persona if I outright disobeyed her. Okay... so a small part of the reason might also be because of her sex appeal after all. I was already used to the strange pets Adele had and I knew her pets were very obedient towards her, so the snake on her lap didn¡¯t scare me too much. I laid my body down to the side on the bench and let my head rest on her left upper thigh with my face pointed towards her direction. Adele took the jacket she¡¯d rested at her side and covered my upper body with it. Her jacket smelled like her. It reminded me of the old Adele, before things took a turn for the worst. It was somehow a smell that put me at ease and reminded me of my first love. One that was ingrained in my mind deep down to my core, even after five long years had passed. Adele raised her hand and rustled through my hair like she was trying to soothe me to sleep. ¡°You really need to take better care of your scraggly unkempt hair. Well, it¡¯s one of the things I like about you as well though so it¡¯s fine I guess.¡± Every time I inhaled, I drowned a bit further within the familiar scent that radiated from her jacket. It was to the point her scent became the only thing I could focus on. I felt like I was on cloud nine, slowly floating away and drifting off into space. The woman I thought of as a trauma was also strangely a woman that made me feel like nothing mattered. It was ironic as she was both a poison and a remedy to my ailment. Like a drug that you knew would harm you, but you couldn¡¯t resist but fall to it even when you knew the dangers that accompanied it. In this peculiar muddle headed state, my consciousness faded to black. ¡­ When I awoke, I felt a strange sort of dissonance with respect to my surroundings. In front of me was a stream of light emitted from a slightly ajar door. The light was quivering unsteadily, wavering strangely, like it was birthed from a weak flickering flame. Without any control over my body, it creeped forward. Silently. My body approached closer to the small crack to peer into the unknown world behind the door. From where I was, I heard a strange panting sound that originated from behind the door. The moment my hand was raised, it rested on the area between the gap of the door and frame to support my body. When I looked inside the room I immediately realized the reason for the dissonance I¡¯d experienced. The hand in my line of sight was small, tiny, perhaps even frail. They were very feminine, much unlike my own. It was only now that I realized the door knob was at eye level and I soon understood why. It was likely a dream similar to the one where I possessed another entity¡¯s body. Only this time I was self aware that it was a dream of some sort that I was presently in. It was a somewhat rare occurrence that I became aware in my dreams. When I thought I¡¯d woken up earlier, it was actually just the child opening their eyes in the dream. Chapter 58. Chapter 58. I lacked any sort of control over the body I was in and it acted on its own against my will. The scene inside the room slowly inched its way into my line of sight. My vision, initially blurred, focused and I discovered a woman on top of a bed. She had long wavy black hair and she looked to be in her mid twenties. Her hair draped down behind her as it bounced up and down wildly in rhythm with her lewd movements atop the bed. Portions of her porcelain, pure white, unblemished back, were momentarily revealed in a synchronized manner with every move she made. However, despite her perfection, there was one slight mark that stood out. An area of her neck was slightly darkened and there was a tinted imprint around her neck in the shape of a hand. She was positioned on top of the bed; her legs formed a seductive W. She faced in direction opposite to the door that we¡¯d peeked through. Underneath her, between her legs, I saw two masculine legs locked in place between her upper thighs. It naturally didn¡¯t take long for me to register what I¡¯d witnessed. The body of the child I was in seemingly lacked in understanding towards the act; instead of the child averting their eyes, the child quietly watched on in pure curiosity, completely unaware of the significance of the act behind the door. The woman on the bed continued without stopping to rest, she wildly bounced up and down and let out seductive heated breaths in rhythm to her movements with both hands pressed forward firmly against the man¡¯s chest. It went on for a few minutes until the man shouted out. ¡°Shit, you¡¯ve gotten too good. I¡¯m already about to- Ah!¡± At that moment, the man¡¯s body spasmed uncontrollably, it signaled he¡¯d reached his climax. The woman on top of him similarly leaned forward, her legs convulsed together tightly as her luscious thighs dug deep into his waist. Her chest pressed against his as he wrapped his arms around her upper back pressing their bodies firmly together. It seems the child I¡¯d observed this rather intriguing scientific endeavor through didn¡¯t notice anything strange, but I was no virgin and I immediately noticed something particularly unusual was astir. The woman, although clearly in the middle of an orgasm, simultaneously extended her right hand towards the desk at the side of the bed. She had secretly pulled out an object from inside one of the drawers. While the man was still in the middle of release, she abruptly pulled away from him strongly and swung down with the item she¡¯d taken from inside the drawer. When I understood what it was, it was far too late to stop her. A knife had plunged itself deep into the man¡¯s chest; however, the woman didn¡¯t stop there. She pulled it back upwards with both hands and repeatedly gouged into his body with sheer madness, all the while, the child watched the spectacle unfold in horror and confusion. Blood flew about the room dying the sheets crimson. Drops of blood reached as high up as the ceiling and was flung out as far as the four walls that caged the shockingly violent scene. The white candle on the desk that provided illumination to the room was similarly painted a deep shade of red. Her two arms, time and time again, sunk down only to rise up shortly after. The agonizing wails of the man butchered in cold blood resounded loudly and echoed through the encapsulated space. Like a pig, he was slaughtered endlessly until his cries for forgiveness inevitably died out. The violent struggle he¡¯d initially put up by flailing and kicking with his arms and legs ended in a sense of despairing futility. He was unable to push her away and his death throes inevitably ceased along with his pleas for mercy.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The only thing that remained in that bloody scene of carnage was a woman covered from head to toe in blood, panting and clearly exhausted of all the strength in her body from the violent struggle. Several minutes passed by in a completely hollowed out silence. The odor of death leaked out from the room ever so slightly. The child stood there locked to the horrific sight within the small gap. She merely looked on, petrified, unable to move an inch from the gap between the slightly ajar door. When the woman on the bed recovered her breath, I heard a small chuckle. That small chuckle gradually changed from nearly inaudible, to a light laughter, then eventually crescendoed to the level of deranged; filled with madness and utter insanity. When I viewed her from behind, in my perspective, she appeared broken and lost. However, that was definitely not the same view the child I¡¯d observed everything from saw her as. I could tell the child felt a sense of boundless despair, like her entire life had been broken at that very moment. She trembled uncontrollably, tears clouded our vision, and the scene became a blurry mess. She did her utmost to stifle her emotions and force herself to not cry out loudly. I felt the deeply rooted pain that pervaded her heart as it was torn into two separate pieces. All the while, the woman on the bed raised her head up high to the ceiling and let out her maniacal laughter at the top of her lungs. She pressed the side of the knife¡¯s hilt against her cheek in her right hand. Without any warning, the woman suddenly changed from hysterical laughter to a heart wrenching painful wail filled with an unending agonizing remorse. Her emotions were chaotic and completely unstable. The woman on the bed was drowning in the clash between all the conflicting emotions she¡¯d experienced in that one moment. What those feelings were, not even I had the slightest idea, let alone the innocent child that had watched powerlessly as everything unfolded before her eyes. The child, unable to stay still any longer, pulled away from the door, but in the process she accidentally knocked the door slightly with her finger which creaked it open ever so slightly. The creak of the door startled the woman on the bed and she instantaneously jerked her body in the doors direction. When she did so, the knife in her right hand flew directly outwards from her in the direction right above the child¡¯s head. The knife flew straight out the door, rotating in the air and the hilt of the knife hit the wall behind the child before it fell to the ground. The child who was terrified by the unbelievable sequence of events fell backwards and landed on her bottom. The woman on the bed looked on with wide open eyes when she noticed the child who¡¯d witnessed all the events that transpired. The child had a deeply traumatized expression on her face with a clear lack of comprehension. ¡°Why are you here?¡± The woman on the bed shakily asked with a deep sense of guilt and heartache visible on her face. The child slightly shook her head left and right and barely stuttered out as tears flowed down her cheeks, ¡°D-d-daddy?¡± Chapter 59. Chapter 59. The woman on the bed trembled ever so slightly before she wrapped herself up in the bloodied bed sheet. Visibly shaken by the child¡¯s words, she staggered off the bed towards the child. She took a few steps towards the open door, but the child kicked at the ground and moved back. Her legs had given out from fear and she was unable to get up to run away, the child could only struggle to use what little strength she had remaining in her arms and legs. She moved back until her back was pressed up against the wall behind her. With nowhere left for the child to escape, it didn¡¯t take long before the woman arrived in front of the child. She bent down and hugged the child while repeatedly crying out through her tears, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so sorry. Forgive me. Please, forgive me.¡± It was at this time, someone appeared from further down the darkened hallway. It was a woman with a sickly appearance, her gray hair bunched up behind her, she struggled forward towards the duo while in a wheelchair. She appeared to be on life support as there were medical instruments wheeled around attached to her wheelchair. The woman holding the child glanced at the sickly woman, the woman¡¯s eyes were laced with deep uncertainty and insecurity. When the sickly woman came to a stop in front of the room, she took one look in the room before an intense sense of dread filled every fiber of her being. She returned a deathly venomous glare towards the woman who held the child in her arms. ¡°You ungrateful wench! So what if he had his way with you a bit?! You should know what he¡¯s gone through after our last child was born!¡± ¡°Why?! Why is it always about her?!¡± ¡°You... You! Kill yourself now! You don¡¯t have the right to live anymore!¡± ¡°Why am I the only one that has to suffer?! Why do I have to give up everything?! Why am I the only unloved one?! Why is it only her who gets to live a normal life when I can¡¯t?! Ten years! Ten damn years! Fuck off! Why should I have to die for killing that despicable trash?! Why do you always take his and her side and not mine? Where is the equality or love here?!¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± The sickly woman¡¯s breathing grew more and more ragged. She reached into a pocket at the side of her wheelchair and pulled out a pistol. The woman holding onto the child reacted as if driven by her instincts to survive and pounced onto the sickly woman in the wheelchair. She wrapped her hands around the sickly woman¡¯s neck and clenched her hands tightly together in a vice grip. The sickly woman attempted to point the gun at the young woman, but she visibly lacked in terms of physical strength. She was unable to put up any sort of resistance.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Meanwhile, the child watched powerlessly, too scared to move an inch, as the little bit of happiness she once had, fell and shattered to pieces. The only thing that escaped her lips was the single word, ¡°Mother!¡± That was the last thing she called out before the sickly woman met her demise. It didn¡¯t take long before the sickly woman¡¯s struggle ended, the life in her eyes faded away and her desperate gasps ceased shortly after. When the deed was done, the only thing that resounded throughout the deathly silent mansion was the ragged pants of the young woman. The child was helpless, unable to do a thing. I felt something that every child should have was lost in her eyes by that point. She looked like a broken puppet completely robbed of the innocent curiosity that once originated from her eyes when I first entered this dream-like world. Shortly after, the young woman once more turned towards the child with easy to see mixed emotions in her eyes. Despite those transparent mixed emotions, I sensed there was still something in them akin to concern. However, I still felt exactly what the child felt. To the child, she only felt an intense hostility directed towards her that only made her feel threatened like her life was in danger. When the young woman returned to the child¡¯s side, she knelt down on one knee to once again pull her into an embrace to try and comfort her. I understood that even she realized how futile it was by now. Despite that, she still said a few words while she moved her hand through the child¡¯s hair in an attempt to put the child at ease. ¡°Everything will be okay. I promise.¡± However, what happened next was something I never expected. The child in the woman¡¯s embrace raised her right hand up and thrust it out. When I noticed what was in her hand, I was shocked. ¡°Kah! Cough. Cough.¡± In the child''s hands, a knife, now lodged deep into the young woman¡¯s midriff, directly through the bedsheets she¡¯d covered herself with. She released the child and her hands immediately pressed down where she¡¯d been stabbed. She looked towards the child despairingly. ¡°Why? Aren¡¯t we-¡° ¡°I don¡¯t know you! Go away! Go away! Mommy! Daddy! Ahhhhhhhhhh! Aggggghhhhhh! Gaaaaaahhhhhh!¡± It was as if I personally felt the excruciating, agonizing, and unbearably mortifying pain with just a single glance into the young woman¡¯s eyes. She felt heartbroken, betrayed, despair, remorse; all sorts of chaotic emotions swirled about inside her head as they clashed and eroded her sanity. ¡°This world is better off dead. There is no love in this world. No one will ever accept me. Not even you, huh? It¡¯s too unfair! Why me? What did I do to deserve this? Is there even a god in this world? Why must I suffer like this? What was I born for? What did I live for? Was it just to be a tool to satisfy someone¡¯s unfulfilled desires? Twenty-five years, fifteen of which I was able to live, yet these last ten have only been hell. I thought if I clenched my teeth and silently endured and bore with it that thing would one day get better. It¡¯s your fault! Everything is your fault! YOUR FAULT! If only you weren¡¯t born!¡± The earlier bit of care I¡¯d seen in her eyes directed towards the child gradually warped and twisted into pure malice and resentment. The little girl, on the other hand, was slumped down to the ground with her head parallel to the ground. Her eyes were locked onto her hands in disbelief with a lack of understanding toward what she¡¯d just done. Her hands were bloodied and trembling. Her tears were dripping directly from her eyes onto the palms of her hand. I felt her heart as it silently broke down and became fragmented. Her mental state inevitably deteriorated to rock bottom. Chapter 60. Chapter 60. Every word that left the young woman¡¯s mouth, despite not fully understanding them, were like nails that hammered down one by one into the child¡¯s body. They were like curses that would forever haunt her for as long as she lived. All this progressed as I observed indifferently. I was placed in the position of distanced and uninvolved third party, similar to how you¡¯d play a virtual reality game. Although, I somewhat understood what the two of them felt and I still felt slightly pained internally; however, I didn¡¯t feel overwhelmed by it all like the two of them were. The indifference I displayed on the surface despite my inner turmoil when confronted with the situation left me disturbed by myself. Deep down, I didn''t think either of these two were in the wrong. One was an innocent child who had everything stolen from her. The other was a woman who¡¯d seemingly gone through hell over the last ten years since the child was born. In all likelihood, the child didn¡¯t understand the young woman¡¯s hardships as she¡¯d only seen everyone getting along together happily on the surface. It felt like I was just reading a story from the child¡¯s perspective as I heartlessly watched on while not doing anything. I was curious about what the perspective of the young woman would have been like. What she really thought, what she¡¯d experienced, who she really was, I really didn¡¯t know a thing about her. There really were quite a few things I wanted to find out, but I didn¡¯t have the chance to ask her. Unfortunately, my time appeared to be up as everything in the world around us turned white. The scenery around me slowly dissipated, they turned into white particles of light, and floated away into the distance like nothing ever happened. It was as if everything I¡¯d just seen was a figment of my imagination. Not long after everything disappeared into the pure white world, I opened my eyes. I immediately realized I was no longer looking at Adele¡¯s silky soft black one piece. In fact, the bench was no longer at the center of the room beside the table. I saw the table in the distance at the center of the room, it appeared Adele had moved the bench against the far wall for some reason while I was asleep just now. When I tried to turn my head to look for Adele I soon understood based upon the silky sensation at the back of my head. She¡¯d just changed positions while I was asleep. When I looked down at my chest I found that she¡¯d wrapped her arms around my chest from behind. She¡¯d also interlocked our fingers together tightly. The back of my head was naturally at rest on her bosom. Her thighs were pressed up against my sides and were squeezed up beneath my arms and upper torso. I felt her chin resting on top of my head along with her gentle warm breaths whenever she exhaled and gently blew on my hair.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Did I have that dream because of Adele? Listening more closely, I heard the sound of her peaceful rhythmic breathing from behind me. She seemed to be completely at ease right now and asleep. I simultaneously felt her distinct heartbeat through the two bouncy mounds that were strongly sandwiched between our bodies. Ignoring the slightly erotic situation I found myself in, I was trapped in a dilemma. It wasn¡¯t any perverted delusion. It was a serious concern of mine. The girl behind me, I was nearly certain she was still a psychopath; however, despite that, I still wanted her to find happiness. My dilemma was that I was uncertain whether I¡¯d ever be able to find that elusive thing known as happiness for myself if I chose to stay with her. If I chose to be together with her and tried to help her with her problems, or should I say baggage, would I end up giving up on my own chance at ever finding happiness? Would there be any way to find happiness together with someone as broken as her? If Adele really was the child in my dream, I wanted to help her from the bottom of my heart. Also, in the off chance ghosts were to somehow exist, I would at the very least want to do something for the young woman who I suspected was Adele¡¯s deceased elder sister. The only thing that didn¡¯t quite match up with the dream though, was that their hair color was black back in the dream just now. That¡¯s the only doubt I had in my mind about the whole ordeal. I¡¯ve never seen Adele dye her hair and I always assumed her natural hair color was white whenever I considered how even the roots of her hair were as white as snow. As for the young woman, I saw her on her deathbed, but I didn¡¯t see her actually die in the end. The dream had abruptly ended before I confirmed she¡¯d breathed her last breath. If the dream was Adele¡¯s perspective, perhaps she passed out from the trauma and shock, hence the reason it came to an end so abruptly. The way Adele claimed to be the one who killed her family made it so I couldn¡¯t be certain whether she seriously thought that or meant it metaphorically. It could be that her memories were distorted and warped by the shock from what happened back then. ¡°Darling, are you awake already?¡± It appeared she¡¯d woken up while I was trying to analyze everything that had happened. Yet there was something strange. When I heard her words, this time, I instinctively grew extremely wary. For some reason, I had the feeling her flip had somehow been switched. It didn¡¯t take long for my fears to become reality either. ¡°Then darling, shall we get down to business?¡± She licked my neck from behind when she said that, sending an electrifying shiver down my spine. ¡°Being together like a pair of lovebirds for so long, I don¡¯t think I can hold myself back any longer darling.¡± She forcefully rotated our bodies in place and pinned me down with my back against the bench. She mounted on top of me and straddled my waist. With how quickly things were escalating, I knew I needed to find a way to cool her down. ¡°It¡¯s been five long years darling. You¡¯re not going to reject me after keeping me waiting for so long, are you? Isn¡¯t it about time we have a cute adorable little baby together?¡± Chapter 61. Chapter 61. Her eyes were definitely the same crazy eyes I remembered from the past. I really should have known better. Taking a nap was a huge mistake after all. I had the strength to resist her now, but I felt guilty towards her at the same time. In the end I didn¡¯t want to see her hurt despite knowing of her insanity. Even if I was hurt by her in the past, the way I handled things back then was incorrect. I only ran away from her in the end and inevitably betrayed her. She didn¡¯t seem to think of it that way and instead it appeared she was still strongly convinced we were still together. Even if it got me killed I wanted to at least start from square one with her. Oh god, why is square one so scary? Telling your psycho ex that you¡¯ve been broken up for the last five years and she needs to face reality? I really must have a death wish. No, I definitely have a death wish. Shit! Just suck it up, me. and take one for the team. What do I mean suck it up?! This is death we¡¯re talking about here! Are you stupid? Are you crazy? Did I lose too many marbles recently? ¡°Adele¡­¡± Ah, no. What am I doing? Stop me! I don¡¯t want to do this. Dying so soon isn¡¯t okay, me. Shut up me in my head. Why am I even talking to myself like this? Just how much of a nutcase am I now? ¡°What is it Darling?¡± She had a daring, or maybe it was better described as a dangerous looking smile on her face while she traced one of her fingers along the rim of my lips. Scary! Damn she¡¯s scary! Deep breaths me. Deep breaths. Just say what you have to say and get it over with. ¡°I love you.¡± No, not that! Continue damn it! Don¡¯t pause like an idiot! She smiled and said, ¡°of course I know that Darling. It still makes me happy to hear that though. Would you say it again?¡± ¡°Adele, I love you deeply¡­ but, there¡¯s a misunderstanding we need to clear up.¡± ¡°A misunderstanding?¡± ¡°Yes, a big misunderstanding.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°Could it be Darling thinks of me not as a girlfriend but a wife already? How embarrassing, for me to make such a mistake, I¡¯m a complete failure as your wife.¡± ¡°That¡¯s definitely not what I mean, Adele.¡± ¡°Then, what do you mean, Darling?¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t dating anymore. Five years ago we broke up. I turned you over to the authorities and you were put in a mental asylum. You need to accept that already.¡± ¡°What are you talking about, Darling? You¡¯re still madly in love with me, why would you say such a thing? Could it be... Darling has been cheating on me all this time despite loving me so much and Darling feels guilty? I really don¡¯t know what I''d do if you tell me you cheated on me. Hey Darling, have you ever heard about double suicide? Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s quite a romantic way to go? In death we¡¯d be together forever and you¡¯d never be able to cheat on me again.¡± ¡°Adele if you want to kill me, I don¡¯t mind dying for you. I¡¯ve done a terrible thing to you by running away from you for the last five years.¡± Despite my corny words, I was naturally bluffing. I have no desire to die at her hands. If it was a painless death, that would be one thing, but would Adele be sane enough to give me a painless one? She placed both her hands on my cheeks while looking deep into my eyes. She moved her face closer and closer which made me think she intended to kiss me; however, she stopped in place right when our noses touched together. She didn¡¯t blink even once throughout the entire process. ¡°Darling, will you be together with me even in death? If you hesitate to answer or lie, I will definitely kill you and then I¡¯ll follow you by taking my own life. If you resist me¡­ you see the snake wrapped around my right leg? It¡¯s a hybrid snake I¡¯ve personally bred and raised whose toxins are among the deadliest in the world.¡± Of course, I was stunned by the rapidly devolving situation and it took a few seconds for her words to register in my head. ¡°Too long.¡± By the time her words did register, by Adele¡¯s standards, I was too slow to answer. She slid her hands around my neck and locked our lips. We spent several minutes with our lips locked together and over time it became increasingly difficult to breathe with how passionate she was. Gradually, over time, she increased the pressure around my neck which further decreased my already low air supply. Before I was able to put up any sort of resistance, I¡¯d already grown light headed, weak and dizzy. I tried to push her away, but the sharp gleam in Adele¡¯s eyes told me she was serious about using the snake to kill me. While I barely managed to somehow stay conscious, in my groggy state of mind, my eyes rolled backwards. In the instant they rolled back I noticed the face of a semi transparent figure. It was likely a hallucination, but she resembled the young woman from my earlier dream. The only difference was her defining pure white hair that resembled Adele¡¯s greatly. I desperately struggled to take in a mouthful of air. I even tried to bite at Adele¡¯s tongue to get her to release me, but her tongue was like a sea serpent, slippery and quick, I couldn¡¯t lock down on it at all. Adele didn¡¯t seem to mind me trying to bite her tongue either and just masterfully played around with me, treating me like I was just trying to give her a lovers bite. I¡¯m seriously going to die at this rate. My body started convulsing and twitching violently as I tried everything to break free, but with the lack of oxygen, I couldn¡¯t build up enough strength to escape her by this point. The snake had also slithered along from Adele¡¯s leg and at some point it had wrapped around and constricted the two of us together. Shit, shouldn¡¯t all this just be another hallucination? Can¡¯t I just wake up and find myself in the car outside the forest? Why is it this time it has to be real? ¡­ Chapter 62. Chapter 62. A plane of white as far as the eye could see. I didn¡¯t immediately understand where I was presently located. I turned around in a full circle as I looked about in all directions. My eyes inevitably landed upon a young woman dressed in a black one piece with a flowery design. Around her neck was a red and silver choker. A detailed white snowflake ornament hung down from the choker at rest peacefully directly above her cleavage. Her black one piece was opened up around the top and drew a distinct V shaped line from her exposed shoulders down to the center of her chest. Her hair was pure white, similar to her pale face, reminiscent of a finely crafted doll. With her petite lips arched up slightly into a charming smile and her red eyes giving off a mysterious pinkish glow, I couldn¡¯t pry my eyes away from her. She hovered over a gap where a transparent unidentifiable fluid flowed down a long winding path far into the distance of the pure white world. She lifted her palm upwards in my direction with her index finger pointed directly at me. She then curled it towards and beckoned me forward. With no control over my body, by itself, it instinctively desired to close the distance between the two of us against my volition. Something screamed inside me that whatever she was on top of was exceedingly dangerous. If I entered, there would surely be no return. I would be trapped and unable to escape. That was the kind of feeling it gave me. With no means to resist, I mindlessly walked forward in a trance towards the index finger that beckoned me as it mesmerizingly extended and curled, extended and curled; repeatedly and endlessly. I was completely drawn in, like a fish caught in a large net. I was enchanted, mystified and controlled like a puppet pulled by an invisible string attached to her delicate finger. I was only a foot away from the strange fluid when the world took on a sudden unexpected change. My eyes were drawn downwards from her index finger to her chest, then her stomach, to her hips, thighs, legs, and finally her feet. Rather than say my gaze was drawn downwards, my eyes hadn¡¯t moved an inch from their initial position, they were still in the exact same position as before. The reason for the sudden change in focus was that I¡¯d fallen downwards. Before she disappeared completely from my line of sight, I glanced up briefly at her face and found a look of disappointment with a slightly displeased frown that replaced her earlier charming smile. After that cursory glance, she disappeared behind the horizon of what appeared to be the edge of the hole I¡¯d fallen in. The white world was no more and I continued to fall without any sign of the ground below into what appeared to be a bottomless pit with no end in sight. I fell and I fell, further and further into the silent abyssal darkness. Each passing second I spent falling felt like I¡¯d lost a portion of myself. The seconds felt like hours and minutes like days. My perception of time felt distorted like I was drifting into nothingness for an eternity. ¡­ ¡­If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ... Drip. Eventually I¡¯d forgotten myself, who I was, why I was here, and what I was doing. I couldn¡¯t remember anything that happened in the time before the darkness appeared. I¡¯d been consumed and engulfed. I no longer knew up from down or left from right. For such a long time there had been no change in sight that could be used to differentiate anything. It was just emptiness and isolation with not a soul to be found. I grew more insecure as time continued to ruthlessly flow by. I felt alone, afraid that things would continue on like this forever. At least, that was until a single drop of warm water landed on my face. How long I¡¯d been falling, I¡¯d already long forgotten. This single change rippled out far into the darkness; amidst the once perpetual silence, I finally heard something, a weak voice cried out as it progressively grew louder. ¡°Mommy.¡± ¡°Daddy.¡± ¡°Big sister.¡± ¡°Where are you?¡± ¡°Why did everyone disappear?¡± ¡°I¡¯m lonely.¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid.¡± ¡°Please come back.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to be alone again.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t leave me as well.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t abandon me.¡± In the vicinity around me, in the once empty space, bubbles slowly appeared one by one. When I looked closely inside the bubbles, I discovered there were countless different scenes depicted inside them. Some showed a child with long white hair that draped down to her waist. She appeared to be about eleven years of age. I examined a few others and found they all showed the same child, but older as her body grew and matured throughout her life. After I skimmed through them, I found a bubble that appeared to be the earliest scene in her life. I found the girl collapsed on the floor. She¡¯d woken up all by herself inside a large abandoned mansion alone. Well, she wasn¡¯t quite alone. There was a small dog licking the cheek of the girl who¡¯d just woken up. She looked very malnourished, she was clearly hungry and starved. She searched throughout the mansion, but was unable to find anything to eat. Her eyes were dead and hollow, but she instinctively struggled to live despite it all. The small dog followed behind her as well, but it was obvious it was not in any better shape than her. The two of them continued to wander through the mansion together searching and searching, until the small dog following behind the girl collapsed. When the girl noticed she no longer heard the sound of the dog behind her, she immediately turned around and found the dog collapsed on its side on the ground. She staggered her way back towards the dog while leaning on the wall to support her body. When she arrived at the whimpering dog¡¯s side, she knelt down beside it and called out to it. ¡°Mr. Puggy. Now¡¯s not the time to nap. We need to find food.¡± The dog whimpered a bit and licked her hand once before closing its eyes. The girl continued to plead to the dog endlessly begging it to wake up, but it never did. It had already long reached its limit, the end of its life, it was dead. The girl cried and cried, mourning over the dog, but despite her cries, no tears fell. She was extremely dehydrated and there were no tears she could shed for her beloved Mr. Puggy. In the end, she cried herself to the point of collapse. The bubble popped and disappeared after that. Of course, I wanted to know what happened to the girl after that so I looked through the bubbles until I found what I was looking for. Chapter 63. Chapter 63. This time the scene depicted was the girl and dead dog, but different to before, they were both surrounded by rats. The rats feasted upon the flesh of the dead dog and nibbled away at the girl¡¯s legs. Perhaps she had felt the pain when she was bitten, her eyelids trembled slightly. She weakly opened her eyes and discovered the rats who¡¯d greedily bitten onto her legs. Startled, she used what little strength she had, she kicked them off her legs and swatted away the ones that feasted on the dead dog¡¯s body. When she looked at the dead dog¡¯s open wounds, it triggered her survival instincts and overwrote the companionship she¡¯d built up with the pitiful half eaten dog that only just recently met his demise. Like she¡¯d just seen moments before, she learned by example and imitated the same actions the rats had taken. She bit into the dead dog the best she could then ripped and tore at its flesh. Her mental faculties had long been overridden by her hunger and she was unable to differentiate between food and her recently deceased companion at this time. She chewed what she could and swallowed what she couldn¡¯t. She nearly choked a few times, but she drank the dogs blood as a means to force it all down and stay hydrated. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder who this poor child was and what kind of events had transpired to push her into such a precarious state. I thought deeply over it, but in the end, I still didn¡¯t remember anything before I entered this never ending darkness. Once the child ate her full, she fell onto her back and remained there motionless. When she came to her senses she sobbed and weeped to herself when she realized what she¡¯d just done. The only thing audible in the mansion were her cries of despair and self hatred. The scene continued for some time until she fell sick from the uncooked raw dog meat she¡¯d eaten. She inevitably passed out from the pain caused by indigestion. Similar to before, the bubble popped when the girl lost consciousness. The next bubble showed the girl when she woke up again. Again, rats bit at her and ate away at the remains of the dead dog. She repeated the process again, but this time the blood had all dried up and spilled everywhere. She choked on a piece of the dog meat and passed out again. When she fell to the ground the shock from the fall dislodged the piece of dog meat stuck in her throat, but she still passed out due to the impact to her head. Pop. The next bubble showed when the girl regained consciousness for the third time. The rats were back, but this time, all that remained were bits and pieces of the dead dog¡¯s bones. There was no longer anything for the girl to eat. She was now left starved, in a severely weakened state, and clearly fatally ill. Instinctively to survive, the girl grabbed onto one of the rats that daringly nibbled away at her leg. The rat had certainly long noticed she¡¯d regained consciousness, yet it still greedily devoured her flesh despite the rat¡¯s better judgement on previous occasions. It likely believed the girl was incapable of any form of retaliation by this point and it naively thought of her as a free meal. Unfortunately, against this pitiful rat¡¯s expectations, the little girl savagely smashed it¡¯s head against the ground after she grabbed it. The rat¡¯s skull was instantly crushed under the force of the collision and it immediately died with one last anguished squeak. His fellow rats fled in all directions, terrified of the little girl who¡¯d been pushed into a corner. Left with no other choice, the child, barbarically ripped into the rat¡¯s flesh and tore a chunk of meat off and swallowed. Like a savage beast she chugged the rat¡¯s blood directly from it¡¯s carcass and forced the rancid rat meat down her throat with the assistance of the blood.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Depicted in several subsequent bubbles were many recurrences of this brutally grotesque scene. The longer I watched as she suffered through the pain that came with such unsanitary meals, the more I realized how her body at some point had gradually changed and adapted to it. With how lifeless her eyes were, I couldn¡¯t understand what pushed her to struggle to survive in such precarious conditions. After about a year of repeating the same pattern of eating and passing out, the little girl added another critter to her cuisine. Cockroaches and any other small insects that crawled about the mansion were by no means off limits to her. In fact, it seemed she preferred them over the tough rat meat. It was truly miraculous how she¡¯d somehow adapted to her environment the way she had. Eventually, the little girl ventured outside the mansion¡¯s grounds into the surrounding forest where she found a source of clean water. No more blood at long last after an entire year. She broke down into tears when she finally found that supply of clean water. The water and electricity to the mansion had long been cut off at some point before I¡¯d started my observation of the little girl. Her discovery eliminated the necessity for rat blood with her meals and she was finally able to clean herself up as well. Any injuries her body sustained healed rapidly, much faster than normal humans after everything she¡¯d been through. Her body¡¯s metabolism was far superior to your plain old average joe due to how often she¡¯d been bitten and injured over the last year. I was truly flabbergasted by the incredible development of her immune system. How she¡¯d survived all alone like this inside an abandoned mansion in the middle of nowhere left me awestruck and astonished. When she finally had time to catch her breath after she¡¯d grown accustomed to her harsh daily lifestyle she started reading through the countless books littered about the rooms of the mansion in her spare time. It was truly fortunate she knew how to read and she learned all sorts of different things by browsing through the various books available to her. There were many nights where she suffered through the freezing cold, completely isolated from the outside world; but thanks to the knowledge she acquired in the books she read, she finally learned different methods to start a fire using the materials inside the mansion and forest. She read through many different survival books and cookbooks in her free time; a result of those efforts was she¡¯d learned how to prepare all sorts of different dishes for herself to enjoy. When her life grew more stable, to the point where survival wasn¡¯t the only thought on her mind, I found her on several occasions blankly sitting by a window inside the mansion looking up into the night sky for hours on end all alone by herself. Her eyes which had regained some semblance of life often drowned in sorrow whenever she thought back to her past. She often called out and pleaded for her mother, father and big sister to return. While on other occasions, she curled herself up into a ball and held her head with her hands while she repeatedly muttered to herself how everything was her fault. She was to blame. She killed them all. Over and over again. Day after day, night after night. When she wasn¡¯t trying to survive, she was constantly haunted by her memories. Sometimes, she prostrated herself in front of three graves. She smashed her head against the ground while she weeped and shed countless tears; simultaneously, she apologized and begged them to come back. She¡¯d gained too much leeway and she now suffered through an endless spiral of guilt, self hatred and resentment. The process continued on and on, countless times and I realized her mental state that had slightly recovered became gradually more twisted and warped, until it eventually drove her to the brink of insanity. Chapter 64. Chapter 64. After five long years of suffering alone in pain, when she turned fifteen, she was discovered by a group who¡¯d gone for a hike deep in the woods. It happened when she was hunting and scavenging for food outside the premises of the mansion. She¡¯d been spotted by a group that consisted of three men and two women. Unfortunately for the girl, the group turned out to be individuals who held ill natured intent towards her. The young girl, despite her five years roughing it out in the wild, was a natural beauty with pure white hair. The men in the group were lustful in nature and pursued the girl deep into the forest. If it were any other girl, they would surely have had their way with her, but unknown to them, this girl spent the last five years constantly fighting for survival like a savage barbarian in a never ending struggle for her life. She¡¯d faced untold hardships all on her own and a few city folk posed little threat in her sharp hunter like eyes. The women who tagged along were indifferent towards the three men who were intent on forcefully having their way with the girl and they even jeered them. If only the men knew what awaited them, they would surely have made much different choices than they had. The girl split the three men up and methodically picked them off one at a time through schemes and underhanded plots. The girl had long grown indifferent to killing anything that threatened her life and now lived through her instincts alone. She had no qualms about killing someone completely unrelated to her that meant her harm. It was chilling to the bone to watch on helplessly as she lost her childish innocence. Over her time spent in isolation, she¡¯d progressively transformed into a heartless killing machine. Without any sign of hesitation she slit one of the men¡¯s tendons to prevent him from retaliating or escaping. When he was unable to put up any form of resistance, she leisurely interrogated him for information. She stopped at nothing to extract the information she wanted from him. She tortured him a bit and he easily sold out the others in his group. Through him she verified their exact numbers and that there was nobody else except the five of them. She also confirmed how they got here, what they were doing and what their intentions were. She then mercilessly backtracked on her words to let him off the hook, instead she used him as a hostage to get the others in their group to put down their weapons and surrender. She had the weak willed women personally tie the men up for her before she slit their tendons like she did with the first man she captured. She¡¯d lied, manipulated, and told them she would let them all go freely if they cooperated obediently. The men initially thought the girl was still green and naive so they allowed themselves to be tied up by their female companions with thoughts of turning the table when the hostage was released. However, far beyond anything they could have ever imagined, she was cruel and merciless and immediately killed four of the five without a second thought right after she said she¡¯d let them go free. With a grin on her face she chuckled a bit to herself. She found it humorous that they actually believed hope existed in the world. Out of the two women, she¡¯d killed off the one with a similar build to hers and took her personal identification.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. For the time being she left one of the women alive and used her as a means to return to civilization. She didn¡¯t know how to escape the forest as there weren¡¯t any roads to follow or maps in the isolated mansion, so she took advantage of the woman she left alive and used her as a guide. Before she left the forest for the first time in five years, she fed the four corpses to the pet rats she¡¯d raised over the last year before she transported the remains, their skeletons, to a secret room hidden away in the mansion. I skimmed through several more bubbles and observed countless scenes as the child inevitably made her way into adulthood. After she reentered society, I watched on as she committed several atrocious acts. The first thing she did when she reentered society was she used the woman she kept alive as a guardian/guarantor. She held her life in the palm of her hands and the woman had no way to go against her. She forged documents by modifying the ID that belonged to the woman she¡¯d killed off. She was very resourceful, cunning and adept. Through bribery she successfully enrolled into a high school by paying off a few people with her families accumulated fortune. She naturally took advantage of the forged documents she¡¯d made and with the help of her fake guardian, reintegration into society went smoothly for her. Once she¡¯d successfully integrated into society with how she¡¯d grown up she felt unloved. She vaguely remembered that rather warm, but foreign concept of familial love, thus she seeked out a partner to soothe her loneliness. There were several boys and older men who took interest in her immediately when she entered high school. Her suitors ranged from naive pubescent teens to middle aged office workers. They were all lured one by one to what she described to them as ¡°an abandoned mansion in the middle of the woods¡± to have some ¡°fun¡±. After they arrived, she would ¡°test¡± them to see if they truly loved her. She was lonely, she wanted to be truly loved by them, but in the end the men she brought never accepted her for what she was after she revealed her true nature. A cold blooded psychotic murderer who desired some form of twisted romantic companionship. What she desired was someone who¡¯d love her no matter what kind of atrocity she performed or committed. For the unlucky men that failed her ¡°tests,¡± she immediately moved on and heartlessly discarded them. She progressed like that for a solid four years into her second year of university where she met a man who spontaneously professed his love for her. The men that she¡¯d gotten involved with before were always the slimy types who started off blatantly trying to get in her pants. Yet after the strange guy confessed that he loved her, he ran away and asked nothing more of her. When she was told that he loved her, his strange actions actually sent her heart aflutter from the unexpected nature of his approach. She found it surprisingly refreshing and interesting. She¡¯d initially expected he¡¯d say something more to hit on her, but he just immediately ran away while holding his head in his hands as he mumbled to himself about how he¡¯d done the most embarrassing thing of his life. It was the first time she was approached in that manner and she immediately took an interest in the man who¡¯d so abruptly confessed and escaped from her without so much as another word to her. She followed behind the man stealthily undetected and found he¡¯d joined up with a group of guys that were hidden around the corner. They¡¯d all clearly observed everything from beginning to end. They laughed rambunctiously, patted him on his back jokingly, and pointing fingers at the quirky individual who¡¯d spontaneously professed his undying love to a random stranger. They were seated around a green picnic table found at various locations around the campus. The guy who¡¯d caught her eye was slumped over the table with his head buried in his crossed arms. While she remained hidden, she listened in closely to their conversation and learned more about the guy that they¡¯d made the fool of. She luckily discovered his name thanks to the guys who egged him on, they all referred to him as Dio. Chapter 65. Chapter 65. When I heard the name of the man, it felt familiar somehow. I couldn¡¯t quite put my tongue on it, but I felt like I had some sort of connection to the man named Dio. However, anytime I tried to draw on my memories as to what sort of relationship the man named Dio had to me, I experienced a striking pain in my head. The story between the two who¡¯d randomly crossed paths didn¡¯t end there. The girl who saw Dio, the butt of their jokes, calmly strode out from around the corner and walked towards the group¡¯s direction. When the guys around Dio noticed her approach, they immediately forced straight faces and stifled their laughter, but the girl easily saw through their little act. They poked Dio in an attempt to warn him of the ticking time bomb that approached him from behind. It was clear they all expected it to blow up in his face as flat out rejection, but Dio simply responded with, ¡°can you guys just let me lament over the biggest failure of my life in peace and quiet? It was embarrassing enough that I just want to kick the bucket and die right now.¡± One of the guys whispered to him ¡°Dio it¡¯s about to become a lot more embarrassing if you don¡¯t clear up the misunderstanding right now.¡± ¡°How can it possibly become any more embarrassing than randomly confessing your love to a complete stranger who doesn¡¯t even know who you are before you flee at full speed without saying another word?¡± The girl directly behind the unaware Dio responded and said, ¡°My Darling, if you love me, then isn¡¯t it natural you should take me on a date first rather than running away without saying another word?¡± Dio, when he heard her voice completely froze up when he finally realized what his friend meant. When her words registered in his head he shot a confused look towards his group of friends. It was clear he doubted what he¡¯d heard with respect to the rather favourable words of the belle like voice directly behind him. The group neither confirmed nor denied his inquisitory gaze, they too also looked dumbfounded and exasperated. They naturally also doubted what they¡¯d heard like they¡¯d been told the world had suddenly ended. ¡°Darling, did you not hear me?¡± ¡°Eh? Ah. That is... sorry, I don¡¯t think I did.¡± ¡°I want my Darling to take me on a date if you really love me.¡± ¡°Sorry if I¡¯m mistaken, did you just call me a creepy no life loser with no redeeming qualities and tell me to get lost before you call the police to have me arrested?¡± The girl smiled and chuckled a bit when she heard his response. She tilted her head to the side before she leaned towards him suggestively and asked in return, ¡°is that what I would say to my Darling who so passionately pronounced his undying love for me?¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Uh, are you sure you didn¡¯t confuse me with some suave godly gentleman who serenaded you for hours on end a few seconds after my pitiful failure of a confession?¡± The girl grabbed the side of his collar with her left hand and pulled him closer to her face. She placed her right hand on the table to support herself while she leaned on it at an angle with her body. With her head tilted to the side, their lips firmly locked together for a few seconds before they parted. When she pulled away from the dumbfounded Dio, she plastered a sticky note on his cheek with her phone number and left him there with a barely visible content smile on her face. Dio and his group sat there in shock for a solid ten minutes unsure of how to react until one friend pointed out, ¡°there¡¯s no way that just happened. Did the prankers become the prankees? Dio, you didn¡¯t secretly pay off that chick so you could flip the tables on us in our game of truth or dare, did you?¡± ¡°Like hell I would! Do you think I have any chance to get a girl like that to give me her number? She was definitely just messing around and having a bit of fun. There¡¯s no way the phone number she wrote on this sticky note is the real deal. You¡¯d be a fool to think it was.¡± ¡°...¡± The group was silent, it was clear they were all dying of curiosity as to the legitimacy of the phone number that the mysterious girl left behind in the heat of the moment. ¡°Dio¡­ why don¡¯t you just try calling it right now to verify it?¡± ¡°What?! Are you kidding me?¡± ¡°Dio, just do it man. Maybe your spring has come? University chicks are said to be open minded and wild creatures that live in the moment. Us dorky beings in electrical engineering, where it¡¯s predominantly a male populace who constantly have our heads buried in books and circuits probably just don¡¯t get to see that side of the story. Who knows, maybe that beauty was the creature known as the elusive beautiful arts student with a wild side? You¡¯re already a fourth year, shouldn¡¯t you jump at the grand opportunity presented to you?¡± ¡°But-¡± ¡°No, buts! If you don¡¯t call her, I¡¯ll be damned if I don¡¯t call her for you! We may pick fun at each other, but we¡¯re bros. Bros must look after their fellow bros! That is the creed we have abided by since we started this sacred degree!¡± ¡°I smell bullshit. You¡¯re just hoping if I get lucky and hook up with a beauty, you could potentially be introduced to that beauty¡¯s hot friends, right?¡± ¡°Dio, a man must do what a man must do. For science. For humanity. For evolution. To pass on your genes is a mission that belongs to every living being. There is a saying that every great man will come to learn of Dio. Have you heard that saying?¡± Dio looked skeptical, but he shook his head and chose to let his friend continue. ¡°Taketh one for thou team, honorable Dio. Please allow thy fellow wielders of rods to bathe in the windfall thou has been bequeathed by the heavenly order of thots.¡± ¡°-Some Unsung Hero, Friend Of Dio, Friend Of Mankind, A Thirsty Bro¡± ¡°Don¡¯t make up some shitty quote and act like it¡¯s deep!¡± I don¡¯t know what it was, but I felt even more annoyed than the man named Dio did. Perhaps it was something engraved deep into my soul, yet I still didn¡¯t know what it was that had me so irked by his friend¡¯s line. All I knew was something in me wanted to punch the thoughtless bastard in the face. Chapter 66. Chapter 66. ¡°Dio, please, doth mus not keepeth dat oh o¡¯er ere waiting. From yonder naught to wet our kazoo, in a dab of the sweetest of nectars. I beseech thee kin o mine to help this brotha of yos from anotha motha out my good kind sir. Tis but a simple wish o mine to lay the fairest of hoes. To bend er o¡¯er and en¡¯er where the undisco¡¯ered countries far beyond where my limited orizen¡¯s may seeketh out.¡± ¡°... what in god¡¯s name-¡° ¡°In case that thick skull of yours doesn¡¯t understand Dio, I will translate for you. You must help these brothers of yours get laid.¡± ¡°Get lost.¡± ¡°Dio, shut up and call her! Our livelihood is hanging on the line here. To lay or not to lay, that is not the question you must ask yourself my good man, Dio. The question you must ask yourself is whether you¡¯re a goddamned pussy with erectile dysfunction lacking in the department of bollocks!¡± ¡°Okay! Okay! Shit! I get it! I just have to call her, right?!¡± After the group with brains operated by their penises excessively urged him into action, Dio eventually caved in. He took out his phone and keyed in the number she¡¯d written on the sticky note and nervously initiated the call. The first ring went by with no answer as a drop cold sweat formed on every group member¡¯s forehead. The second ring came and went by quickly, similarly without answer. Followed by the third and fourth as their spirits sank low. However¡­ not all hope was lost, for on the fifth ring of heaven¡¯s bells, there was a click and then nothing for several seconds. Everyone held their breath in deathly silence with anticipation and boundless hope in their hearts. It was as if they themselves believed her voice would be the voice of god that determined whether they got laid in the near future. ¡°Hello?¡± Dio instinctively muted the mic and looked up to the group in panic. ¡°What are you doing?! Say something! You idiot! What if she hangs up and blocks you?!¡± ¡°What do I even say?!¡± ¡°Fuck if I know?! Just say something! It¡¯s not like you¡¯ve never talked with girls before! You have more experience than us!¡± ¡°What the hell? I¡¯ve never even considered getting into a relationship before, nor have I ever wanted to date anyone!¡± ¡°Bullshit! How many girls do you have as friends? Don¡¯t even try lying to us, we¡¯ve seen at least ten girls you¡¯re on friendly terms with.¡± ¡°What the hell? Group projects don¡¯t count!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t give us that shit! You even have their phone numbers!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t take it out of context you bastards, I have their numbers only because of group project work to begin with!¡± ¡°Hello? If no one¡¯s there I¡¯m going to hang up.¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Just tell her you love her again. She gave you a kiss and wanted to go on a date with you after a simple ¡®I love you¡¯ due to a stupid dare. What if she lets you do her after saying it the second time? Do you dare give up the dream, Dio? Do you dare?! I will slap you right here and now if you say yes!¡± ¡°Hah? Are you a moron? It was a fluke! A one off! A freakish one off accident! Maybe even an accidental blunder of the gods!¡± ¡°You¡¯re a damn atheist, what gods?!¡± ¡°If no one answers in five seconds I¡¯ll be hanging up.¡± One of Dio¡¯s friends lunged at him and desperately latched onto the phone to unmute it, but Dio struggled and resisted with everything he had. ¡°You¡¯ve got to be insane! How can I possibly say-¡° It was at that very moment in their desperate struggle between life and death that it happened. While Dio fended off his friend, his friend had somehow without his notice miraculously tapped the mic icon on the screen at just the right time to unmute it. With a deadpan expression I watched on as the most stereotypical event transpired before my eyes. My eyes felt as if they had been violated and raped by the most predictable event in the history of mankind. ¡°I love you?!¡± The horror. I couldn¡¯t bear to watch such a horrifying scene any longer as I turned my eyes away from the cringe I felt pervading to the depths of my soul. It left me utterly terrified by how idiotic university students were. Why did they only think with their reproductive organs? There¡¯s no way I¡¯d ever act like those foolish clowns. But strangely enough, something about the entire event had me breaking out into an intense cold sweat. It was like I¡¯d been forced to relive the most horrifying and painful scene imaginable. It felt like I¡¯d just witnessed first hand the deepest and darkest history of the man named Dio. ¡°Haha. It¡¯s about time you responded. I love you too. My name is Adele Homestalk. What¡¯s yours?¡± ¡°Eh? Me? Uh... My name is Electrical Engineering. I¡¯m in my Diogenes Genovese year and I¡¯m majoring in fourth year.¡± The cringe! It hurts! It hurts so bad! I can¡¯t! I fucking can¡¯t even live anymore! Did he really think that was a good ice breaker? That was intentional, right?! Right?! I really want to cry from the excessive levels of cringe on display. I didn¡¯t even know that was possible. To think cringe could make you even feel constipated and scared all at the same time. I might have been wrong though, rather than simply being due to the cringe, this painful feeling originally hit me the moment I heard their names. Something inside me had snapped and out of nowhere I¡¯d been assaulted by a sudden splitting headache. I wanted to stop thinking about it. From the bottom of my heart I truly wished to stop. I sensed a horrifying reality was about to hit me in the face if I watched any more of this. ¡°Hahaha! That¡¯s quite an interesting introduction. Darling. Oh, by the way, I¡¯m a second year, but I¡¯ve yet to declare my major. Is Electrical Engineering fun?¡± ¡°Yeah. It is a lot of fun.¡± ¡°I see. Is it more fun than me?¡± ¡°Yeah it is.¡± ¡°What? Aren¡¯t you supposed to deny that?¡± ¡°Ah. You¡¯re right. Sorry I¡¯m supposed to lie there and say you¡¯re more fun. My bad, I retract my previous statement. You¡¯re far more fun than electrical engineering.¡± ¡°Hahaha. Is that so? Glad to hear it.¡± ¡°Yeah, so just ignore the part about me lying to you.¡± ¡°No. I won¡¯t forgive you for lying to me.¡± ¡°Why not? Can¡¯t you give me a chance at redemption?¡± ¡°Hmm? What should I do? Should I?¡± ¡°You definitely should.¡± ¡°Then¡­ take me out on a date and maybe I¡¯ll forgive you.¡± ¡°You were serious before? You really weren¡¯t just playing around with me or pulling my leg?¡± ¡°If you want me to pull your leg, you¡¯ll have to wine and dine me first.¡± The group in the background watched the scene play out in sheer disbelief with jaws dropped, unable to process the words exchanged between the two. Even I had a hard time with it all. After all, I was presently cringing in regret as one by one, the memories from that point in my life flooded my mind like a giant slap to the face as all the most cringe inducing moments of my life played through my mind. Chapter 67. Chapter 67. I remembered. I remembered everything. What came after this point and everything before it was all a part of my memory after all. If only... if only I¡¯d been more adamant in declining the friends that egged me on back then. If only I wasn¡¯t such an idiotic inexperienced beta. There were so many points in which I could have avoided everything that turned my life into a mess, but I utterly failed with flying colors in that department. I was truly a veteran when it came to failing to notice the signs that someone had a few loose screws in their head. However¡­ if I did avoid it, that girl... would she have turned out even worse? Would she have killed even more people? As far as I was aware, for the three years in which we dated, she didn¡¯t target anyone else. I was the only one in her eyes after that day. I closed my eyes as my mind filled with countless scenes; like a tsunami crashing down, my head was assaulted with numerous memories. These memories pieced together one by one and formed a much larger picture in my head. The messy scrambled puzzle of memories had been reconstructed once again. When the final piece fell into place I recalled the last scene I¡¯d seen before I entered this bizarre world. ... ¡°Haaaaaaaaah.¡± I sucked in a deep breath and opened my eyes wide. The first thing I discovered was an unfamiliar ceiling. My body felt heavy, there was a wet sensation on my chest and a strange warmth that enveloped me. I heard a heartbroken suppressed weep from my chest where that warm wet sensation originated from. When I directed my gaze downward, I found a head of white hair buried in my chest. ¡°Don¡¯t leave me¡­ hah.¡± ¡°Please wait for me¡­ hah.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t wordlessly leave me behind like mommy, daddy and big sister did.¡± ¡°You... absolutely must wait for me darling, you can¡¯t go ahead of me.¡± ¡°We have to go together¡­¡± ¡°Damn it... why¡­ poison... taking so long... kill me? Hah hah hah.¡± ¡°If I¡¯m not fast enough¡­ hah... I won¡¯t be able to stay together¡­ hah... with my darling for eternity.¡± It was none other than Adele; who appeared delirious. She definitely hadn¡¯t realized that I¡¯d regained consciousness. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, she sweated profusely while she panted and heaved heavy breaths. She was short of breath between her words. When I looked at her from this angle, I noticed a small bite mark on her neck. It was only now I understood how serious Adele had been, she really intended to commit double suicide after all. As for the world I just saw, was that similar to what they meant by your life flashing before your eyes before death? When I understood her condition, I was left with two choices; of which, they were on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. I could play dead and wait until Adele passed on and then escape with my life in tact¡­ or I could attempt to save her by sucking the poison out.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. If Adele was a normal person, the latter would be the only natural choice for me, no questions asked. But, if I kept her alive was that really considered salvation to her? If she believed we died together, would that bring her happiness and let her soul rest in peace? Wouldn¡¯t letting her die be kinder than forcing her to live through a life of unhappiness as she suffers endlessly through life in her psychotic state? With the two choices before me, where I was forced to choose one or the other, my heart felt like it was ruthlessly torn in two pieces. On one hand, I still loved her to an extent and deep down I wished her a happy life; on the other hand, I feared her deeply and worried that if I saved her she¡¯d make another attempt at our lives. Is trying to keep her alive selfish? Does letting her die mean I¡¯m running away from her again? Is keeping her alive me preventing her from finding peace, or am I secretly selfishly wishing she dies so I can return to a normal life? Do I even really love her like I believe I do? Perhaps I hate her and fear to admit to the horrible person I truly am? Amidst the chaotic conflicted thoughts that violently clashed together in my head over the last few minutes, I never noticed it¡­ I never noticed how quiet and tranquil the room suddenly became. When I finally snapped out of it, it was already too late. With eyes of a traumatized helpless child, I gazed upon the peaceful expression of the woman that laid on top of my chest. Her smile full of bliss and release, much unlike the pained expression she¡¯d worn just moments before. The only sound in the room that remained was a single person¡¯s cold heavy breaths; my own. The only flame of life that flickered inside the room originated from a lone man, whose identity was none other than my own. I was the only human left alive in the cold deathly still room. In dead silence, I weakly raised my hands up. I wrapped them around the corpse of the now deceased, Adele, on my chest. I embraced her tightly as I desperately held back the uncontrollable trembles that wished to escape my body. I ground my teeth together tightly and held my breath. I forced down the scream of rage, anguish, and turmoil that desired to be released back down my throat. It felt like something had ripped a hole through my throat and body. A violet twister of emotions nearly exploded out and wreaked havoc within every pore of my body. Instead of releasing my grief out loud and disturbing her peaceful eternal slumber, I held it all in; I bottled it all up. I buried it deep down and locked it all away before I threw away the key. It was the least I could do to not ruin the moment for her who¡¯d only just passed on. I want to die. I want to die. I want to DIE! I WANT TO DIE! I should have saved her. I shouldn¡¯t have hesitated. I shouldn¡¯t have over thought things. I loved her after all. If not, would it be so painful? WOULD IT! AKGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAaAaAaAa! Tears trickled down my cheeks as I screamed out inside my head. Anguish. Remorse. Regret. Turmoil. Self hatred. Was that what these emotions felt like? I was never emotional over things in the real world. I never cried even once for anyone that died before. I typically never felt anything much in recent times. I¡¯d long grown accustomed to the cruel, merciless, unrelenting world around me. I always believed I was just a shell without the capability to truly feel for another from the bottom of my heart. But this¡­ this... hurt too much. Even for a soulless empty hollow shell like me. It was just¡­ t- too much. Why? Why didn¡¯t I act? Why... did I hesitate? She was crazy. She was insane. She was definitely... a psychopath. Those were all just excuses. I was a coward. Even if she was all of those things... she was still my first love. I loved her. In spite of the fear. That I held for her. In my heart. Chapter 68. (Web Novel Unique End) Chapter 68. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. So much. I can¡¯t even breathe. My lungs completely failed me. My heart had been ripped clean out of my chest. I felt crippled. My brain collapsed on itself. Even so, I still held myself back and prevented the formation of any more mournful tears. I desperately wished to shed them, but I didn¡¯t want to drown myself in a bottomless well of self-deprecation, resentment, and sorrow. Bury it. Stifle it. Stop feeling. Kill your emotions. Think rationally. Death... is a perfectly natural event. All living things inevitably fall to the merciless sands of time. Even I will surely eventually pass on one day. Crying won¡¯t benefit anyone. Despairing will do nobody any good. It¡¯s pointless. It¡¯s all irrelevant. Just escape it and seclude yourself from everything. Stay calm. Clear your mind and forget. Nothing matters. With no one to lean on right now, I was forced to think this way. It¡¯s because there are sad events in life that we can feel happiness. There is always a fine balance between the two. Feeling sad or down isn¡¯t necessarily a bad thing, but it is an unnecessary thing for someone who is alone like me.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. All I wish for is to live a simplistic life on my own where I can enjoy the things I like to enjoy. Nothing more, nothing less. I can¡¯t let myself sink any further. If I do I¡¯ll break. Accept the facts. Adele is dead. She isn¡¯t going to magically come back to life. I was somehow lucky and survived; however, in my case it was suffocation, hers was poison. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust was what they said at times like this, wasn¡¯t it? I took in a deep, but long, drawn out breath. I¡¯d thankfully calmed the ferocious flames of negative emotions that burned away at my sanity. Almost by miracle, I luckily ceased all the unspeakable dangerous thoughts that floated about at the back of my head just now. It really got to me far more than I¡¯d expected. I certainly lost my cool from the weight I felt from her death. The snake that bit Adele earlier was now nowhere to be found. After it obeyed Adele¡¯s command and bit her, the little guy was likely released. He¡¯d already slithered away to somewhere far off a long time ago. Crestfallen, I carefully slid Adele¡¯s body to the side while I held onto her carefully. I was afraid that if I used even the slightest bit of strength that she might shatter to pieces. I gently placed her down with her back to the bench and kneeled down directly by her side. I remained there and blankly stared at the ethereal pale white face of my beautiful, now deceased, psychotic ex who¡¯d fallen into death¡¯s embrace. She looked as though she were peacefully asleep in a pleasant dream. With a deep sense of loss in my heart, in silence, I mourned over someone¡¯s death for the first time in my life. Inside the room at a standstill, time slowly passed by. Seconds, to minutes, to hours. I memorized every one of her features like this. I occasionally checked her pulse and constantly listened closely for breathing. There were no such signs of life to be found anywhere in that body of hers. I glued my eyes to her in hope of witnessing even the slightest heave of her chest. Despite how long I observed her for, to my untrained eye she was deader than dead. The only thing that made no sense to me was how her body didn¡¯t grow stiff. I expected rigor mortis to kick in at the start, but even after an unknown number of hours passed, her muscles hadn¡¯t decayed in the slightest. It was a mystery to me, but I wasn¡¯t a medical professional so perhaps there were some other factors unknown to me to consider. The minuscule wish for a miraculous twist was the only thought that kept my eyes glued to her body. Maybe some sort of god sent recovery was possible was what I naively thought. However, no matter the amount of time I waited, nothing changed. GrrrRrrrRRrrrr. I¡¯d been so engrossed with her, I¡¯d forgotten all about my hunger. It was only the sound that signaled my stomach¡¯s rebellion that finally brought me back to my senses. I knew I needed to get back on my feet and move otherwise my health would really be affected. I forcibly struggled to my feet and turned my back to her corpse. I was finally ready to leave the mansion. I took one step away before I came to a stop. As for why I came to a stop, it was due to the electric current like sensation that ran down my back as I instinctively straightened my posture. I felt bags form below my eyes. I slowly turned my head and my gaze traced a path along my shoulder, down my arm until it landed on a hand. A hand had latched onto my arm from behind. When my eyes followed along the familiar feminine arm to its source, my eyes immediately locked onto Adele¡¯s face who looked directly into my eyes. Only, her head was twisted at a one hundred eighty degree angle, it was far from the beautiful face I knew of. Two black gaping holes for eyes stared at me eerily. One long ovular black hole for a mouth bent into a jeering smile along with a creepy chiseled out hollow nose. Frozen in shock we stared at each other in complete silence. Externally. things were dead silent, but in my head, I constantly repeated to myself the same words, ¡®it¡¯s just a hallucination.¡¯ Everything was just a hallucination, none of this was real. When you close your eyes and reopen them everything will be back to how it originally was. I closed my eyes and held my breath in horror. When I reopened them a few seconds later... ¡­ It was still there. Silently watching me. Unique Bad Ending 1. Interlude: What is the truth behind the dead end? Interlude: What is the truth behind the dead end? ¡°Diogenes why did you lie back then?¡± ¡°Lie about what?¡± ¡°You know exactly what I mean. What you saw when you peered into the abyss and the false ending riddled with lies.¡± ¡°I was¡­ afraid.¡± ¡°What were you afraid of that made you pretend that was the truth?¡± ¡°I was¡­ afraid of what I saw at that time. I wanted it to simply end at that. What was to come was something that shouldn¡¯t have ever turned into reality. It couldn¡¯t be true.¡± ¡°What you mean is you were afraid of coincidence, right?¡± ¡°Yes. A terrifying coincidence. The moment where fiction or scenes inside my head turned to reality. I wanted it to all just be a lie. I didn¡¯t want to acknowledge it.¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°You mean confounded nonsense like sham prophecies from self proclaimed psychics?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want people to think of it that way.¡± ¡°Yes, what would happen from that point on, it was much more interesting than one would expect at first glance. However, when scrutinized more closely, the links were undeniable.¡± ¡°It¡¯s all a coincidence¡­ a scary one.¡± ¡°We are but one in the same. You and I are the only ones that know the truth.¡± ¡°I¡¯m nothing like you. I am me and no one else. I won¡¯t accept you. As for that so-called truth, I know nothing of it.¡± ¡°Stay in denial if that lets you keep moving forward. The truth will be revealed in due time whether you want to accept it or not. Onlookers will begin to pick up and notice eventually. It can¡¯t be hidden forever.¡± ¡°Whether anyone notices it or not, it¡¯s all just a big coincidence.¡± ¡°Simple tomorrows are never a good sign, Diogenes.¡± ¡°Is that supposed to be some sort of shitty code?¡± ¡°Perhaps.¡± ¡°How idiotic.¡± ¡°Maybe so, but perhaps not all will think that way.¡± Chapter 68. Alternate. Chapter 68. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. So much. I can¡¯t even breathe. My lungs completely failed me. My heart had been ripped clean out of my chest. I felt crippled. My brain collapsed on itself. Even so, I still held myself back and prevented the formation of any more mournful tears. I desperately wished to shed them, but I didn¡¯t want to drown myself in a bottomless well of self-deprecation, resentment, and sorrow. Bury it. Stifle it. Stop feeling. Kill your emotions. Think rationally. Death... is a perfectly natural event. All living things inevitably fall to the merciless sands of time. Even I will surely eventually pass on one day. Crying won¡¯t benefit anyone. Despairing will do nobody any good. It¡¯s pointless. It¡¯s all irrelevant. Just escape it and seclude yourself from everything. Stay calm. Clear your mind and forget. Nothing matters. With no one to lean on right now, I was forced to think this way. It¡¯s because there are sad events in life that we can feel happiness. There is always a fine balance between the two. Feeling sad or down isn¡¯t necessarily a bad thing, but it is an unnecessary thing for someone who is alone like me. All I wish for is to live a simplistic life on my own where I can enjoy the things I like to enjoy. Nothing more, nothing less. I can¡¯t let myself sink any further. If I do I¡¯ll break. Accept the facts. Adele is dead. She isn¡¯t going to magically come back to life. I was somehow lucky and survived; however, in my case it was suffocation, hers was poison. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust was what they said at times like this, wasn¡¯t it? I took in a deep, but long, drawn out breath. I¡¯d thankfully calmed the ferocious flames of negative emotions that burned away at my sanity. Almost by miracle, I luckily ceased all the unspeakable dangerous thoughts that floated about at the back of my head just now. It really got to me far more than I¡¯d expected. I certainly lost my cool from the weight I felt from her death.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! The snake that bit Adele earlier was now nowhere to be found. After it obeyed Adele¡¯s command and bit her, the little guy was likely released. He¡¯d already slithered away to somewhere far off a long time ago. Crestfallen, I carefully slid Adele¡¯s body to the side while I held onto her carefully. I was afraid that if I used even the slightest bit of strength that she might shatter to pieces. I gently placed her down with her back to the bench and kneeled down directly by her side. I remained there and blankly stared at the ethereal pale white face of my beautiful, now deceased, psychotic ex who¡¯d fallen into death¡¯s embrace. She looked as though she were peacefully asleep in a pleasant dream. With a deep sense of loss in my heart, in silence, I mourned over someone¡¯s death for the first time in my life. Inside the room at a standstill, time slowly passed by. Seconds, to minutes, to hours. I memorized every one of her features like this. I occasionally checked her pulse and constantly listened closely for breathing. There were no such signs of life to be found anywhere in that body of hers. I glued my eyes to her in hope of witnessing even the slightest heave of her chest. Despite how long I observed her for, to my untrained eye she was deader than dead. The only thing that made no sense to me was how her body didn¡¯t grow stiff. I expected rigor mortis to kick in at the start, but even after an unknown number of hours passed, her muscles hadn¡¯t decayed in the slightest. It was a mystery to me, but I wasn¡¯t a medical professional so perhaps there were some other factors unknown to me to consider. The minuscule wish for a miraculous twist was the only thought that kept my eyes glued to her body. Maybe some sort of god sent recovery was possible was what I naively thought. However, no matter the amount of time I waited, nothing changed. GrrrRrrrRRrrrr. I¡¯d been so engrossed with her, I¡¯d forgotten all about my hunger. It was only the sound that signaled my stomach¡¯s rebellion that finally brought me back to my senses. I knew I needed to get back on my feet and move otherwise my health would really be affected. I forcibly struggled to my feet and turned my back to her corpse. I was finally ready to leave the mansion. I took one step away before I came to a stop. As for why I came to a stop, it was due to the electric current like sensation that ran down my back as I instinctively straightened my posture. I felt bags form below my eyes. I slowly turned my head and my gaze traced a path along my shoulder, down my arm until it landed on a hand. A hand had latched onto my arm from behind. When my eyes followed along the familiar feminine arm to its source, my eyes immediately locked onto Adele¡¯s face who looked directly into my eyes. Only, her head was twisted at a one hundred eighty degree angle, it was far from the beautiful face I knew of. Two black gaping holes for eyes stared at me eerily. One long ovular black hole for a mouth bent into a jeering smile along with a creepy chiseled out hollow nose. Frozen in shock we stared at each other in complete silence. Externally. things were dead silent, but in my head, I constantly repeated to myself the same words, ¡®it¡¯s just a hallucination.¡¯ Everything was just a hallucination, none of this was real. When you close your eyes and reopen them everything will be back to how it originally was. I closed my eyes and held my breath in horror. When I reopened them a few seconds later... ¡­ ?? ??? ????? ?????. ???????? ???????? ??. ?????? ??? ?????? ?. Adele¡¯s face was back to normal and oriented correctly, but as if reality had denied my belief that it was all a hallucination, a hand was still latched onto my arm. Adele¡¯s eyes, prior to this, dead and devoid of all life, were now reopened with bountiful signs of vigor. I tried to shake her hand off and flee, but she was firmly latched on and refused to release me. After I quietly struggled for several minutes, she broke the silent deadlock and asked, ¡°are you really trying to abandon me like a lost puppy all by myself like this? Don¡¯t you have a conscience?¡± ¡°No no no. This and that are two different things altogether. Please let go of my hand already.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you too cruel to just abandon a poor innocent girl who¡¯s suddenly regained consciousness after collapsing?¡± ¡°Collapsing?¡± ¡°Yes, collapsing.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t collapse. You died and came back to life.¡± ¡°What? Are you some sort of religious cultist? Did you knock me out so you could have your way with me before abandoning me to escape being prosecuted by the law?¡± ¡°Wait. Wait. Wait! Isn¡¯t there something really wrong with you right now?¡± ¡°Wrong with me? Like what?¡± Chapter 69. Chapter 69. I didn¡¯t understand, we were talking to each other, but it felt like I was talking to a complete stranger. Her speech pattern was completely different from usual and she hadn¡¯t called me darling once since she regained consciousness. Her eyes were relaxed and not on edge like usual. She was blinking naturally, unlike when she was in her usual crazy mode. ¡°Do you know who I am?¡± ¡°A cultist, right?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°A rapist?¡± ¡°Far from it.¡± ¡°Even worse than that?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m just a normal person. But, do you really not recognize me?¡± ¡°Of course I recognize you.¡± ¡°Then who am I?¡± ¡°My... savior?¡± Hah. Far from it, I essentially intended to heartlessly let you die by yourself. ¡°I¡¯m no savior.¡± ¡°What? If you¡¯re not my savior, then who are you really then?¡± ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡­¡± I didn¡¯t know whether I should answer her or not. Internally, I was really conflicted. If she was normal now, I thought I wouldn¡¯t mind staying together with her and starting out fresh. However, I couldn¡¯t shake off the possibility that she wouldn¡¯t feel the same way if she really wasn¡¯t pretending and legitimately didn¡¯t remember me. Thinking back to the time we first met where everything began between the two of us, I worked up a bit of courage and decided to take the plunge in the heat of the moment. I always wanted to start from the beginning with Adele and start over from scratch. I always regretted running away and betraying her back then as well. Wasn¡¯t this the perfect opportunity? Maybe through death, she¡¯d magically been reborn... but I couldn¡¯t shake off another possibility. What if someday she recovered her memories of me and reverted back to her former self? Wouldn¡¯t that possibility be much higher if she stayed together with me? Wouldn¡¯t that be a bit too dangerous of a situation to willingly put myself into? Why am I being such a coward now? Didn¡¯t I still have four other psychotic exes who could potentially kill me anyways? What difference was there in having five psychotic exes vs four anyway? I¡¯m still alive to this day despite the lunatics I¡¯ve dated, right? ¡°Well? Aren¡¯t you going to continue?¡± ¡°I... l-l-love you.¡± Ah, I just did something irrational without thinking it through fully. Wasn¡¯t this way too embarrassing? I even stuttered it out. ¡°Hah? What? I asked who you were not for you to profess your undying love for me.¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Haha. Right? Isn¡¯t that the normal reaction to that? Why did I think things would play out the same way they did back then? Am I an idiot who doesn¡¯t learn from his dark past of truth or dare, spontaneous confessions of love to random strangers? ¡°Isn¡¯t that a bit harsh?¡± ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s not you, it¡¯s me. You¡¯re not really my type, so I don¡¯t think things would work out between us. I don¡¯t mind being friends though.¡± Ugh. Not one critical hit, not two, but three! Three shots to completely shatter any man¡¯s pride. With deadpan eyes, I looked at her and said, ¡°yeah, let¡¯s just be friends, it was just a joke. Don¡¯t take it too seriously. I was just dared by someone to say that. I wouldn¡¯t ever seriously be interested in dating a woman who reminded me of a psychopath.¡± ¡°What? Aren¡¯t you the rude one now? I was trying to be kind here and let you down nice and easy, I didn¡¯t expect that you¡¯d just be another jerk.¡± ¡°A jerk? Me? Hah! Woman, the only jerk here is you!¡± Since she doesn¡¯t know me, then I don¡¯t know her either. ¡°I¡¯m not ¡®woman¡¯, I have a name.¡± ¡°Oh? You do?¡± ¡°Of course I do.¡± ¡°Then, what is it?¡± ¡°My name is¡­ uh.¡± ¡°What, you don¡¯t even know your own name? Are you actually just an idiot?¡± ¡°Of course I know my name! I just don¡¯t want to give it to a man who looks like a closet perv who would stalk me.¡± ¡°Stalk you? Are you kidding me?! You¡¯re far from interesting enough for me to want to stalk you.¡± ¡°Oh? Is that so? Then why are we all alone in a room together like this if you aren¡¯t stalking me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the stalker here, you¡¯re the stalker.¡± ¡°Why would I stalk someone as boring and plain as you? I¡¯ve got better things to do than watch paint dry all day.¡± Ouch. It burns. Her words burned too deep. I really couldn¡¯t deny them either, I wasn¡¯t the most interesting tool in the shed. But what¡¯s with this discourteous woman? She definitely wasn¡¯t the Adele I knew. ¡°I¡¯m leaving.¡± ¡°Eh? What? Wait. You can¡¯t leave.¡± ¡°And why wouldn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Because we¡¯re friends now and friends don¡¯t leave each other hanging, right?¡± ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m just drying paint on a wall. I¡¯m not even human. I can¡¯t possibly be your friend.¡± ¡°Come on. I don¡¯t even know where I am right now. Can¡¯t you at least help a cute girl out a little?¡± ¡°Cute girl? Where?¡± ¡°Right here.¡± She pointed to herself with her free hand like it was only natural. ¡°You¡¯re not cute at all.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t your standards a bit too high when you look like¡­ well, you know, (pfft) like that?¡± ¡°Pfft? Did you really just pfft me? That¡¯s it, I¡¯m seriously done here, let go of my arm now. I¡¯m really leaving.¡± ¡°I refuse. At least drive me home.¡± ¡°Drive you home? No thank you. That sounds like a pain.¡± ¡°Stop being such a wimp and be grateful that I¡¯m letting you drive me home. You¡¯re the one who got me into this situation, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°You want to be driven home, but do you even know where your home is? Better yet, do you even know where you are right now?¡± ¡°Of course, my home is. Wait, it¡¯s coming back to me. I definitely remember. I¡¯m just channeling my inner chakras in preparation to bestow you with the address of the great sanctuary I live at.¡± ¡°Cut the crap. You don¡¯t remember, do you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure I know it. Just give me a second to think.¡± ¡°Do you not remember anything at all? You really lost all your memories and became a mentally disabled child who can¡¯t fend for yourself?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not mentally disabled.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to refute the fact that you¡¯re presently incompetent and incapable of fending for yourself? Or the part about being a child?¡± ¡°I¡­¡± ¡°Then, if there is nothing further, I will be on my way now. Goodbye.¡± Get out before I get too involved with her. I knew full well that was the best choice to make here. Chapter 70. Chapter 70. I may have loved her, but in the end, if she no longer remembered me, she was as good as dead. She was no longer the same person I loved. The person here now was but a hollow shell of the person I knew. I was sad, but I didn¡¯t feel like there was much I could do in this situation. In all honesty, it hurt too much to look at her face for an extended period of time. The expressions were those I remembered when we spent our happiest times together, the exterior appearance was still the beauty I¡¯d fallen for back then, but what was on the inside was gone. She¡¯d completely morphed into someone unknown to me. They were two separate people as far as I could tell. ¡°Please wait, I¡¯m sorry! I might have been a bit impertinent just now. Can you please not leave me here all on my own?¡± ¡°Oh? You think just because you put on a weak look and cute expression that tugs at a man¡¯s desire to protect that I¡¯d suddenly change my mind?¡± ¡°Am I really that appalling to you?¡± ¡°Cut it out with your upturned puppy dog eyes. They have zero effect.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Tilting your head slightly to the side is also not going to help.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t let go of your hand until you agree.¡± ¡°I¡¯m starving right now, I don¡¯t have the energy to put up with this.¡± ¡°Then all the better if you take me with you, the sooner you cave in, the sooner you can get something to eat.¡± I grabbed her hand and tried to forcefully pry it off, but her grip strength was truly astounding. ¡°Why is your grip strength so damn strong if you¡¯re supposedly a frail innocent little girl?¡± ¡°Maybe I¡¯m just good in bed?¡± ¡°...¡± Sadly I couldn¡¯t deny that, since I knew all about that from first hand experience. ¡°What¡¯s with the convinced look like you suddenly understood something?! I was just kidding! Don¡¯t take it seriously. I probably just worked out a bit to stay in shape.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Yeah, so don¡¯t think dirty thoughts about me¡­ okay?¡± Taking a look up and down at her short revealing black one piece, not thinking dirty thoughts was definitely not an easy task to accomplish. ¡°You perv, would you not look at me like that?¡± ¡°Then, let go of my arm if you don¡¯t want me to look at you like that.¡± ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll give you special permission, you can look all you like in exchange for driving me home.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°I¡¯ll pass.¡± With teary eyes she asked, ¡°what do I have to do to get a ride?¡± ¡°Fake tears don¡¯t-¡± I didn¡¯t expect to ever see the day. She was legitimately crying. ¡°You¡¯re a jerk. I¡¯m insecure right now, okay? I suddenly wake up in an unfamiliar place, I don¡¯t know who I am, where I am, what I¡¯m doing here, and the only person who I can lean on won¡¯t show a shred of sympathy with regards to my situation. I hate you! I really hate you! Fine. Just leave me alone. If I die, what do I care?¡± ¡°Despite telling me to leave you alone, you still aren¡¯t really letting go of my arm.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to. You can starve to death and die with me here for all I care.¡± Ugh. What a pain. ¡°Okay. Okay. I get it. Just stop crying. I¡¯ll... give you a ride.¡± As much as it pained me to commit to that offer, I was really starving. If I didn¡¯t return soon I¡¯d end up too weak to trudge through the woods back to my car. ¡°I don¡¯t want to go with you anymore.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± ¡°You¡¯re too mean to me. I won¡¯t go with a bully.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a real pain in the ass.¡± ¡°Apologize for being mean to me and then I¡¯ll consider changing my mind.¡± I was already getting a headache so I immediately caved in, ¡°Fine. I¡¯m sorry for being mean to you. Will you get up now?¡± ¡°It sounded pretty insincere. You need to sound more sincere about it.¡± While rolling my eyes I asked her, ¡°and how may I do that, my fair lady?¡± ¡°Kiss the back of my hand and say you¡¯re sorry while kneeling down on one knee.¡± Without thinking too much about it I did as she asked. ¡°W-What are you doing, you creeper? It was just a joke. I didn¡¯t really think you would go and take it seriously.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Why are you so calm about it? Aren¡¯t you embarrassed?¡± ¡°Not really.¡± Whether it was kissing her on the lips, or the back of her hand, it wasn¡¯t something embarrassing for me after we spent three years together after all. ¡°Now, are you going to get up?¡± ¡°I¡­ I ca¡­ Carry me on your back.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I said, carry me on your back.¡± ¡°Stop joking around. There¡¯s no way I can carry you to the car.¡± ¡°What? Are you insinuating I¡¯m too fat?¡± ¡°Yeah, I am.¡± I sure as hell can¡¯t carry you for hours until we exit this damn forest. ¡°Stop messing around. Just get up and walk yourself.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t get up, just carry me. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s that far, right?¡± ¡°What do you mean you can¡¯t get up?¡± ¡°My legs are numb and I can barely muster any strength in them.¡± Was it from entering a death-like state, or was it a side effect of the snake¡¯s poison? I really didn¡¯t want to carry her. Also, based upon what I¡¯d seen in that dream, there really wasn¡¯t anything useful remaining near the mansion that I could use to transport her through the woods either. Resigned to my fate, I turned my back to her and wordlessly pulled her arm over my shoulder. ¡°Wrap your arm around me and make sure you hold on tight. Try not to throw off my center of gravity by moving around too much. I¡¯m not in the best shape to be the one doing something like this.¡± ¡°Eh? So quick? Can¡¯t you give me a second to settle down first?¡± ¡°I¡¯m hungry, I couldn¡¯t care less if you¡¯re crying or unprepared. My stomach comes first and I want to get something to eat as soon as possible. If you don¡¯t want to, then I really will just leave now without turning back.¡± ¡°You must be really unpopular with women.¡± ¡°You could definitely say that.¡± The normal ones. ¡°Hmph. Why¡¯d I have to wake up to find such a jerk by my side instead of my Prince Charming?¡± ¡°Beggars can¡¯t be choosers. Deal with it.¡± Chapter 71. Chapter 71. When I confirmed her arms were wrapped tightly enough around my neck, I discovered a great blunder made on my part. Her body, firmly pressed against my back left not the slightest room or gap between us. For certain unexplainable reasons, I was left in a rather uncomfortable position. Still, I sucked it up and steeled my resolve, I just had to put up with it for the time being. I placed my hands behind me, right below her upper thighs to support her from below. When I did, I heard a sheep-like girlish yelp from behind me. She didn¡¯t say anything about it, but her legs reflexively clenched together a bit more and dug into my waist. She instinctively pressed her forehead against the back of my neck, caught off guard by my proactive approach. Her reaction caused my back to reflexively straighten up when I felt her heated breaths running down the back of my neck. I myself was slightly flustered when I noticed the sweet scent from her hair that dangled slightly over my shoulder. It fluttered through the air on its own when her face drew closer to my body. I definitely didn¡¯t want to admit it to her, but even with the way she presently was, she was still more than capable of sending my heart fluttering out of control. In the past it was a result of fear, now it happened to be thanks to her pure feminine appeal. Due to several contributing factors, I really had a very difficult time carrying her on my back. One reason was attributed to her occasionally adjusting her position on my back. Sometimes resting her forehead on the back of my neck, while other times resting her chin on my shoulder. It might not seem like a big deal, but when you listen to a woman peacefully synchronizing her breathing, harmoniously with yours, right beside your ear at that, it¡¯s problematic for many different reasons. Whenever her silky soft cheek slightly brushed up against the side of mine, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder whether she was just born malicious in nature, just doing it spitefully to get back at me for getting on her nerves at the start. The only thing I had to be thankful for was that it was cool outside in the forest right now, so I wasn¡¯t immediately sweating buckets trekking through the woods while carrying the cumbersome load on my back. However, after twenty minutes of her torture, I couldn¡¯t hold back anymore and asked, ¡°could you please stop moving around on my back so much? It¡¯s making it very difficult to walk.¡± ¡°Sorry, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers.¡± ¡°You-¡° ¡°Cheeky little girl?¡± She interrupted. ¡°Slut.¡± Her response was more than enough confirmation for me, she was definitely doing it all in spite after all. ¡°Rude unappreciative old man.¡± ¡°I¡¯m only thirty.¡± ¡°You¡¯re practically a geezer then, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Hahaha, if I¡¯m a geezer than aren¡¯t you just an ugly old hag?¡± ¡°I take offense to that. It¡¯s pretty old hag to you.¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°We¡¯ve got a narcissist here, I take it.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯ll let you off for now since you¡¯re carrying me. Hohoho. Anyway, your lies sure are easy to see through when you have a built-in lie detector.¡± ¡°...¡± With no excuse to be had for my body¡¯s instinctive reaction to her, I shut my mouth and continued following the marks I¡¯d left on the trees on the way to the mansion. Though after journeying for an additional thirty minutes, my feet were killing me and I really needed to take a break. ¡°You¡¯re too heavy I need to rest a bit.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not too heavy. You just have too little energy because you¡¯re working on an empty stomach.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s really just because you¡¯re too-¡° ¡°Because you¡¯re too hungry.¡± ¡°No, like I said before, you¡¯re too fa-¡° ¡°Fabulously underweight? Fantastic with a hot bod? I know. I know I am. Thank you for the compliments.¡± ¡°Is it really that much of a taboo?¡± ¡°Do you want to die?¡± ¡°...¡± I really didn¡¯t. ¡°Whatever you say, Ms. Memoryless.¡± I chose to cut my losses and compromise. I was honestly too tired to continue retorting to her when I realized she looked like a bored young lass who could still talk up a storm. I stopped responding to her after I¡¯d gotten my two cents in. She¡¯d occasionally tried to start a conversation after that, but I paid her no heed, I only concentrated on recovering my stamina. Eventually, she gave up and obediently rested on the log I sat her down on. She was, of course, no stranger to pouting and sending me dirty resentful looks when I treated her like air. When I thought about how my psychotic ex, the former Adele, had turned into such a normal girl with such a high level of girlish charm, it made me feel remorseful over the twisted and sick lifestyle she was pushed into. She could have been an ordinary girl, found a normal lover, and lived a happy life if it wasn¡¯t for her twisted fate. If she was born into an average family, instead of a rich one that secluded themselves out in the woods, things would have surely turned out much better for her. There¡¯s really nothing that could be done about that now though. There were no what-ifs, buts, or maybes in this cruel world, what¡¯s in the past was unchangeable and absolute. Time travel was only possible in fictional stories and fairy tales. Half an hour later, I picked her up again and we proceeded further away from the mansion hidden in the woods. This time, she was much more docile and well behaved compared to before. Thanks to that, I was able to continue on for a good hour before I needed another break. We repeated this process several more times, and it started to get dark. We¡¯d set out from the mansion in the late afternoon, but the sun which was once visible, high in the sky, had now almost fully sunk below the horizon. Adele had gotten quieter and quieter as time passed by and she talked less and less the darker it became. I could sense she was uncomfortable, anxious, uncertain, and worried. I used an app I installed in advance on my phone and I was able to forage for a few edible berries and plants along the way to satiate our appetite, but Adele was clearly troubled over something for quite some time now. When I put her down this time and looked her in the eyes, she turned her head to the side like she felt too ashamed to look at me. I didn¡¯t bother to probe since it was none of my business. Once I dropped her off in the city, we would part ways and I would likely never see her again. That was what I planned, and that was what I thought would be for the best for both of us. I wanted to give her the chance to properly find someone she really loved and find true happiness. I definitely wasn¡¯t the person that could make her happy after I¡¯d already failed her on so many occasions. With how messed up I¡¯d become over the years, I¡¯m not someone who can make another person genuinely happy either. It¡¯s like Val described, I¡¯m just a soulless empty shell of a person without a single likable feature. Now that I really think about it, I don¡¯t have the right to be together with this innocent version of Adele. I¡¯m always just running away from her and I end up making things worse instead of better. When we first met, when I discovered her secret, when we reunited after five years apart, when I chose to let her die, and even now I¡¯m choosing to run away again. I¡¯ve done nothing for her at all except fail her as the man she once loved. I¡¯m really just a coward and a fool without a single redeeming trait to his name. Chapter 72. Chapter 72. ¡°Uh, Mister, are you mad with me right now?¡± Out of the blue, without any prior warning, Adele suddenly posed a question to me. I was too tired to open my mouth and respond, so I simply shook my head slightly. ¡°You are upset with me after all, right? It¡¯s all my fault. I had no idea when I asked you to carry me that we were so deep in the woods. If you were by yourself, you¡¯d surely have made it out of the forest by now instead of being stuck out in the middle of nowhere with me in a situation where your own safety is uncertain.¡± ¡°... if I¡¯m a bother, you should just leave me behind. I¡¯ll find a way to leave the forest on my own. Look, my legs are starting to feel a bit better and I can stand on my own now.¡± She put on a forced smile, hiding the pain, she stood up from the log I¡¯d set her down on. She really did her best to not let me see her trembling legs by wrapping her jacket around her waist. Initially, I¡¯d intended to set up some shelter here so we could hold out until daybreak before we continued; but seeing her act like that, despite the irrationalism of it, I made a decision contrary to the logical one in my head. I had a good idea of how far we were from my car based upon the numbers I engraved along with the directional markers I left on the trees on my way here. We were only about two hours away. I got up, walked over to her, and stood directly in front of her before I bent over and calmly said, ¡°just this one time, I¡¯ll play the role of your so-called Prince Charming.¡± ¡°What are you doing?! Wait! This is embarrassing!¡± I whisked her off her feet and carried her in my arms like a boss. I¡¯d suddenly turned into a true man with testosterone oozing from every pore of his body body. My muscles were bulging to the point the veins threatened to explode from the immense high octane, nut and balls pressure applied to them. Okay, we all know that sure as hell wasn¡¯t happening, but a beansprout can always dream, right? Maybe it was the pheromones she gave off that made me act like such a moron, but it actually didn¡¯t feel too bad in spite of how corny my words and actions were. ¡°Put me down already! It¡¯s already dark, you¡¯re going to hurt yourself! It¡¯s already hard to see at night, if you carry me like this, your vision will be more obstructed than when I¡¯m on your back. You won¡¯t be able to tell what you''re stepping on at all. Besides, you even said it... I¡¯m heavy, right? Carrying me like this is just going to tire you out even more.¡± ¡°Just be quiet, we¡¯re almost there anyways. It¡¯s not much further.¡± ¡°What do you mean? There¡¯s not a single thing in sight that looks like the edge of the forest. You can¡¯t even see in front of you, so how would you know we¡¯re almost out? If you¡¯re careless and get injured, both of us will die stranded out in the woods you know.¡± ¡°Yeah I know, but dying with a beauty in my arms like this wouldn¡¯t be so bad, would it? Wouldn¡¯t it even be a bit romantic?¡± ¡°Are you just an idiot after all? It would be the worst most senseless death in the world to die with a woman you hate in your arms!¡± She curled herself up a bit and appeared slightly embarrassed. It was hard to see it in this darkness, but I was certain if it were daylight, there would be a glaring pinkish hue plastered on her cheeks.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Of course, that didn¡¯t mean I was a nice guy, so I responded to her worries the only way I could, ¡°no, I mean, it¡¯s really not so bad. I get to see a woman I hate as she suffers a slow painful death out in the woods in my arms, what¡¯s senseless about that?¡± ¡°Are you actually just a psychopath?¡± ¡°Haha! No, you¡®re really the only psycho here.¡± ¡°Says the sicko who wants to watch me slowly die a painful death in your arms, in the dark of night, deep within the woods, and far away from civilization. Do you mind explaining to me how exactly I¡¯m the psychopath here¡± I didn¡¯t bother to respond to her again as it¡¯d already taken a huge toll on me to try and ease her mind with that little bit of dialogue. Despite all the sweat outside my body, the inside of my mouth was like a desert while my lips were dry and cracked up. My throat was sore from breathing in the cold air. It really hurt by this point to keep forcing myself to say anything to her. I was light headed and seriously wanted to collapse, but I couldn¡¯t allow myself to. As we traversed the maze-like forest, my eyes were drawn to her face as it sporadically flickered in and out of sight. I couldn¡¯t help but smile when looking at that barely visible face hidden amid the dark of night from this angle. I¡¯d never seen her in such a fragile state before, and it was a completely foreign territory to me. The only reason I¡¯d occasionally be privileged enough to see the face of the beauty in my arms was thanks to the slight illumination given off by the moonlight occasionally peeking through the densely packed thicket of trees towering overhead. Though, I was only provided with short fleeting opportunities to peer upon this natural wonder reflected beneath the moonlight, leaving much to be desired. Whenever I was humbled enough to gaze upon her visage, no matter how short lived the period of time, I was left completely winded. In my eyes, her face was that of a pristine unblemished mirror. Her reflective white hair was like a small flickering light at the end of a tunnel that gave one small hope that the end was in sight. That small hope alone pushed me forward despite my inability to see forward as we moved throughout the chilly night. Her eyes were reminiscent of crystal clear glass balls that seemingly displayed a reflection of my soul, looking into them left me in a strange sort of trance. Step after step, despite the difficulty, I continued on with only the sound of her breathing guiding my way forward. It wasn¡¯t all smooth sailing as I stumbled quite a few times, but I still avoided completely falling and breaking any bones. Unfortunately for me, I did secretly sprain my ankle on the way, but I sucked in a deep breath and acted like everything was okay. Two hours passed by before I knew it and I was sweating buckets, I was really at my breaking point and just about ready to collapse. I knew we had to be close, but my body started to rebel. I¡¯d done well to hide it to this point, but she eventually caught onto my condition and pleaded with me to let her down so I could rest a bit. If I was in a normal state of mind, I¡¯d definitely listen to her as I knew my own limits well. I¡¯d long gone past the length of time I could continue for, now I was simply running on adrenaline and doing things in the heat of the moment without any thought towards the repercussions or consequences of my actions. However, this was the first time Adele had ever really relied on me. The normal her wasn¡¯t a weak willed woman, she was far from some useless wallflower who needed a man to do anything for her; but in her weakened state right now, this was the first, and only chance I¡¯d ever had since we met to show her any sort of manly side I had. I felt embarrassed out of my mind like I was a child when I realized how stupid it sounded, but even though I knew it was childish and idiotic, I didn¡¯t want to quit like this. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Why are you going this far for no reason?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Are you just an idiot?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Answer me!¡± Sorry, I¡¯m too tired to talk. Even a single word response might make me collapse right now. ¡°We¡¯re just strangers, aren¡¯t we?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to suddenly tell me you were serious when you said you loved me or something, right?¡± ¡°...¡± Chapter 73. (True End Of Volume 1) Chapter 73. I definitely won¡¯t say I love you again. When we part ways, we will never meet again. Why I¡¯m going this far is just a self-serving way of repentance for failing to help you in the past. That is all. You were the woman I loved, you were also the woman I feared the most. Yet, you also turned out to be a woman I loved to the very end despite how much I may try to self delude myself to think otherwise. But I don¡¯t deserve you. I couldn¡¯t be there for you when the heavy reality of the situation was too difficult for me to accept. The weight of your baggage was too much for me. However¡­ now that you have another chance at happiness, I don¡¯t dare take that away from you. Despite everything that¡¯s happened between us, I love you, but no matter what I¡¯ve seen of your past, in the end, I still don¡¯t feel like I truly know you. ¡°Say something!¡± ¡°...¡± Ah... I made her cry. Silent tears trickled down her cheeks as she bit down onto her lips in frustration while holding herself back, not letting out a single sob. I¡¯m tired... so tired¡­ but¡­ we¡¯re finally here. With wobbly unstable legs and trembling arms, I took my final step out past the treeline and discovered my car a few meters away in the ditch. I made my way down the slope towards the car. When I reached it, I was slightly fearful and had the most horrifying thought of all time. It was truly a nightmare no man would ever wish to face after a long and treacherous journey. ¡­ Did I have my keys on me still? ¡­ Thank god! May the lords have mercy on my poor soul. If I¡¯d dropped them somewhere in the woods or at the mansion I¡¯d be better off killing myself. That would have been way too embarrassing and lame after all the build-up and drama that went into just getting back to my damn car. Literally, all my heartfelt emotions would have turned into the cruel bunt of some sick bastard¡¯s twisted punchline. With the gods on my side, I opened the door and picked up Adele who I¡¯d put down on the hood just moments before I was panicking like a mad man digging through my pockets while looking for the keys. Somehow, the sudden break in tension made all the fatigue fly away. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I was still physically exhausted to the extreme, but the mental strain after making it out in one piece left me ecstatic. Better yet, I didn¡¯t hallucinate the entire w- STOP! Don¡¯t say it, me! Or rather, don¡¯t you dare think it! I¡¯m not hallucinating right now, I definitely made it out alive and I¡¯m not actually collapsed somewhere deep in the woods right now. I¡¯m not going to suddenly close my eyes and wake up to find the scenery flipped on its side. That¡¯s definitely not going to happen. However, the more I thought about it, the more paranoid I got. Things had gone far too smoothly. Was I simply deceiving myself, or was I truly home free right now? Of course, Adele thankfully interrupted my overly worried train of thoughts and brought me back to reality. ¡°What are you just standing there for? Put me down already. The sooner I¡¯m away from you, the better. I really hate guys like you the most.¡± I could have said something, but I followed her wishes and gently let her down on top of the passenger side seat inside the car. I buckled her in, closed the door, and without another word, made my way towards the driver¡¯s side, supporting my weight on the edge of the car¡¯s body.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I didn¡¯t bother to rest, instead, we immediately departed. I wanted to return home and get a good night¡¯s sleep as soon as possible. This whole ordeal had taken a heavy toll on me. Adele tried to get me to at least take a short nap first, but I ignored her wishes and floored it instead. There were a few close calls here and there on the journey back to the city, but Adele gave me a good slap on the face and woke me up every time I started to look groggy. After a night and day¡¯s journey, we reached the city with my face in the form of a swollen pancake. Adele didn¡¯t look like she felt guilty about slapping me at all; rather, she looked like she¡¯d managed to vent some of her frustrations on me. Both mentally tired and physically exhausted, there was one last thing I needed to do. I needed to drop her off at the hospital so she could be checked out by a doctor. If I explained the situation to the doctor, Adele might have a shot of being released from that mental asylum if she¡¯s able to show she¡¯s mentally stable now. She¡¯d likely be hospitalized for her legs though. ¡°Hey, Mister, it¡¯ll only make me feel worse if you do anything more for me, so just drop me off here. I can just take the bus home or something.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ll drop you off at the hospital so you can get your legs checked on.¡± ¡°Ah. You finally talked again. I thought you¡¯d gone dumb.¡± I shot her a glare where she returned a lonely smile my way and said, ¡°it¡¯s fine, Mister. You¡¯ve already done too much for me. I can¡¯t trouble you any further than this.¡± ¡°Just shut up and let me take you to the hospital. The sooner I do that, the sooner I can go to sleep without any concerns.¡± ¡°Were you worried about me the entire time? Is that why you pushed yourself so hard?¡± ¡°Hah? Of course not. I just wanted to get home in time to record my favorite show. There¡¯s also an important sale at a supermarket nearby that I absolutely can¡¯t miss out on.¡± ¡°Eh? You¡¯re just making things up because you¡¯re embarrassed, right?¡± ¡°Does this face look like I¡¯m joking with you?¡± ¡°No way, right? Didn¡¯t you do all that for my sake?¡± ¡°Why would I do something like that for some stranger?¡± ¡°You¡¯re contradicting yourself. You would have just left and abandoned me if you thought of me as a mere stranger.¡± ¡°You¡¯re overthinking things. It would just weigh on my mind if I knowingly let someone die when I could have saved them.¡± In truth, it wouldn¡¯t bother me much if it was a real stranger; but if it¡¯s her, I¡¯ve already confirmed that it would heavily weigh on my heart if she really died. ¡°You¡¯re a liar, Mister.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not lying. I only tell the truth.¡± Because everything I say is riddled with lies and deceit. It¡¯s human nature to lie after all. ¡°I don¡¯t understand you.¡± ¡°And you never will.¡± Nor will I ever be able to understand you any further than I presently do. At least, the old you, now that she¡¯s gone that is. Whether that¡¯s a good thing or a bad thing, I¡¯ll probably never find any answers to the questions I had for the old you. What did you love about me? What made you go crazy for me? What did you see in me? Was there any meaning to us being together or was everything a lie? What if it was all just a simple dream? Was there really a time when we existed together? Or was everything a self-deluded nightmare that spanned eight years from the moment I met you? What is real and what is fake? What if it¡¯s not you that doesn¡¯t have her memories of me, but instead me who¡¯s constructed false memories of you in my head over eight years, only to snap out of it now? Wouldn¡¯t that make me the crazy one in this horrific and twisted love story? Just the thought of it alone left me terrified. Perhaps it would be the most horrific realization of all should that turn out to be true. Some would even be led to say, my life was but a fleeting dream; where the truth was only a subset of false preconceptions about the world, society, and the people around me. Who am I really at the end of all this? The victim? Or the true psychopath? Volume 1 End Chapter 74. (Volume 2 Prologue) Chapter 74. (Volume 2 Prologue) Kkkhhh. Kkkhhhhh. Kkkkkhhhhhhh. The world flickered strangely in my eyes. It appeared as if it were influenced by some sort of static interference. The peculiar effect created a glitchy black, grey, and white pixelated visual effect in the surrounding scenery. The world felt like a digital illusion that consisted of ones and zeros with random distortions that ate away at the world. It was reminiscent of an ethereal fictitious world that one could not physically touch. What was I thinking about just now before this sequence of events? Reality. Why did that word come to mind? I felt like there was something important I¡¯d just realized moments before, but after that bizarre pixelated effect appeared, the memory felt vague and unclear. It was on the tip of my tongue, yet it wouldn¡¯t come to mind; no matter how hard I tried to recall it, my earlier train of thought before this never returned. I knew I needed to remember what it was about. Deep down, I was certain it was surely something very important. What was I doing before I came to whatever that realization was? Perhaps my environment could shed some insight into what it was. I glanced to my left and found tall grey pixelated blurs flying by rapidly one after another. Nothing to my side rang any bells so I focused my attention toward the front. There were two parallel, semi-transparent, pixelated blurry white lines. Three glitched out segmented boxes were at rest to the left and right, and one between the two lines. They were slightly misaligned distance-wise with respect to my position. Displayed on the dashboard directly in front of me was static similar to an old fashioned TV with no signal. Still, nothing here jogged my memory. I turned to my right and found an attractive woman with wavy white hair, with a mature appeal to her, sitting there indifferently with her right elbow leaning on the door beside her. She nonchalantly held her head in place, her chin resting atop the palm of her hand. She blankly stared out the window beside her, far into the distance, completely uninterested in the world that passed her by. With her legs crossed, one over the other, she appeared to be in deep thought over something; I somehow felt like I shouldn¡¯t disturb her.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. That was when I had a sudden question, ¡°Who was she? Did I know her?¡± I tried to recall the last person I was with, and the name Adele came to mind. Something inside me told me this mature looking woman wasn¡¯t her though. In the end, the only thing I understood after I examined my surroundings was that I was seated inside what appeared to be a car. I¡¯d likely been driving somewhere with whoever the person named Adele was. Where was I driving though? Why was I driving? What relationship did Adele and I have? Without noticing, I drowned myself in a neverending spiral of questions. When I came to again, the world around me rippled like I was beneath a body of water, looking up from below towards the surface. The image of static depicted on the dashboard, similarly distorted in a strange manner. I found it was now much harder to breathe than it originally was and by the time I realized it, the car was completely full of water like a large storage tank. As I was fully submerged in water, the outside scenery reflected through the windows of the car quivered in a wave-like fashion anytime I turned my head to look around. It was such a strange disorienting sight; when combined with the constant fluctuations and ever-changing visual effects in the environment, it left me feeling extremely nauseous. The only thing that didn¡¯t ripple and distort in this world was the woman who seemingly noticed nothing out of place. She was disinterested in everything, almost as if this world was her everyday normal, and I was the strange one for thinking otherwise. She just continued to stare out the window emotionlessly in complete silence without bothering to acknowledge me at all. Was she mad at me or something? I closed my eyes to collect myself. While I held my breath, I focused more closely on what I could hear from the world around me. ¡°...¡± At first, there was only silence. Complete silence like all the sound in the world had been completely drowned out into nothingness. ¡°M er we r¡± It was nearly inaudible and very distant, but I still heard it. Something was there. ¡°M er? M er?¡± It felt like I was moving towards the surface of the water where sound gradually became audible again. ¡°Ca y er m¡± The voice slowly, but surely, penetrated the previously eerie silence until I could almost completely distinguish the words being spoken. ¡°Mister?¡± ¡°Mister! We¡¯re here already! Are you ignoring me again?!¡± That¡¯s right... I remember now. The hospital... I was driving her there. It wasn¡¯t the woman beside me, but someone else. When I reopened my eyes, my hands were on the steering wheel. The dashboard was back to normal, the pixelated world was gone and the beautiful mature looking woman with wavy hair was nowhere to be found. Slam! Instead, what greeted me was the familiar back view of a seemingly peeved beauty with long straight white hair outside the car. She¡¯d just slammed the car door shut in my face on her way out. Adele? Chapter 75. Chapter 75. Flustered by the unexpected change in scenery, I got out of the car when I understood everything. I¡¯d been zoned out the entire time while I was driving just now and I was dragged into some sort of strange mental state. Maybe it was similar to entering that state of zen I¡¯d heard of or something similar. At least, that was the only explanation I rationally conceived was possible with my limited imaginative prowess. I quickly caught up to Adele¡¯s side when I finally realized her legs had recovered to a certain degree during the time she rested them in the car. ¡°What is it? Aren¡¯t you ignoring me?¡± ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m just exhausted and I zoned out just now. I couldn¡¯t really hear you for some reason.¡± She turned her head in my direction, there was a somewhat noticeable hint of concern and guilt in her eyes. When she realized I was staring back, directly into her eyes, she turned the other way almost as quickly as she glanced at me. ¡°Well, you¡¯re an idiot after all, Mister. I told you to rest many times, didn¡¯t I? It¡¯s not my problem if you developed brain damage from lack of sleep and rest.¡± ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s none of your concern, so don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°You¡­¡± It appeared she wanted to say something, but she changed her mind and stopped midway through. We made our way into the hospital, checked in and waited patiently for about an hour before a nurse called on her. I followed closely behind until we reached an examination room where the nurse who led the way there gestured for Adele to step inside. She obediently followed as instructed and entered the room without putting up much of a fuss. I stayed outside and awaited the arrival of the doctor. It wasn¡¯t a coincidence I went to this hospital. It was because this was the hospital where a doctor who knew about Adele¡¯s condition worked. When the nurse left, Adele called out from inside the room, ¡°aren¡¯t you going to come in?¡± ¡°Sorry, I have to use the washroom, I¡¯ll be right back.¡± ¡°You really will return, right? You¡¯re not going to just leave me all alone here without saying anything, right?¡± It hurt a bit to respond, those were my exact intentions. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I won¡¯t do that.¡± I lied. I was just a filthy liar. I won¡¯t return. I naturally had no need for the washroom either. I only intended to find the doctor to explain the situation before I took my leave. We surely would never meet again after this, that was what I¡¯d decided long before we arrived here. I steeled my heart and wandered through the medical ward until I found who I was searching for. Dr. Phil.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. It¡¯s a coincidence, just a coincidence. It¡¯s not thee Dr. Phil, but one that coincidentally shared his name. He also happened to be a suave bald man with unbridled charm that no god could restrain, but that was just another coincidence. When I peered inside his office, I found him with his eyes glued to medical records spread out across his desk in deep thought over something. I knocked on the door and called out, ¡°Excuse me, Dr. Phil.¡± He raised his head and squinted suspiciously in my direction as he examined me closely. ¡°What is it young man?¡± ¡°Do you remember me?¡± ¡°Have we met before?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been about five years.¡± ¡°Five years? Five years¡­ Ah. Mr. Genovese? Long time no see. What brings you here today?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± ¡°Is this related to her?¡± ¡°Yes. It is about Adele. She¡¯s just been admitted here and I was hoping you could take a look at her.¡± ¡°She¡¯s here?! How is that possible?! That can¡¯t be-¡± ¡°She¡¯s really here.¡± ¡°Are you pulling my leg? If so, I don¡¯t appreciate such ill natured jokes young man.¡± ¡°She escaped and I stumbled upon her, but can you please examine her? It seems like she¡¯s recovered significantly. Although it seems like she has a case of amnesia. Her legs were also giving her a bit of difficulty as well and I was hoping you could also check up to see if they were alright.¡± ¡°You sound rather concerned for her contrary to what I¡¯d expect. Did something happen between the two of you again? How does that make you feel?¡± ¡°Shut up with the ¡®how does that make you feel¡¯ rubbish.¡± ¡°Ehem. Sorry, force of habit. Things that I find interesting, I can¡¯t help but probe.¡± ¡°I feel like shit. I want to sleep. Does that answer your question and satiate your damn curiosity?¡± ¡°Hahaha. You still have quite the bad temper.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a bad temper, it just annoys me when I¡¯m asked how I feel about things.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve never liked to open up or express yourself to others after all. You just bottle up everything and run away.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the one here for a mental exam, Adele is, so just leave me alone.¡± ¡°You should really find a mentally stable woman who you can open your heart to.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no such person. Any woman I encounter will inevitably turn out to be a lunatic. That¡¯s just how things work for me.¡± ¡°Is it?¡± ¡°Yeah old man. That¡¯s how all four of my relationships after Adele turned out.¡± ¡°Hahaha. Is it? You have quite the interesting luck there.¡± ¡°Yeah, bad luck.¡± ¡°Also, about the things between me and Adele, can you please not let her know who I am? I don¡¯t want to get involved any further with her.¡± ¡°You¡¯re running away again when she may have recovered?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not running. I just don¡¯t have the right to be with her. I betrayed her in the past, turned my back on her and never once paid her a visit since then. I moved on and tried to find happiness with other women on my own. I ended up encountering only psychotic women in the end. It was what I deserved. It¡¯s just a curse that has been placed on me. I don¡¯t deserve to find happiness, but Adele does.¡± ¡°She deserves to find happiness? The psychopath who admits to willingly killing her family due to not being loved enough by them?¡± ¡°She does. At least, I believe she does.¡± ¡°Did you lose a few screws in that head of yours after dating too many crazy women?¡± ¡°Haha. I want to deny that, but lately I don¡¯t think I can.¡± ¡°Well, you appear to be mentally stable enough if you can hold a conversation normally with me like this.¡± ¡°Anyway, just promise me you won¡¯t reveal anything about me or the past Adele to her. She likely doesn¡¯t remember you either, so just act like it¡¯s your first time meeting her. If she is in fact mentally stable now, I hope that you will support her and allow her to live a normal life now. I don¡¯t want her to be sent back to that mental asylum.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, that is a very difficult request you¡¯re making with no merit in it for me.¡± I grit my teeth and painfully uttered a name I hadn¡¯t brought up in a long time with a low voice, ¡°Maria Yayoi.¡± Chapter 76. Chapter 76. ¡°You¡­¡± ¡°Do you recognize the name, Dr. Phil?¡± ¡°What about the name?¡± ¡°I know her.¡± ¡°And what does it matter whether you know this person?¡± ¡°She¡¯s my fourth ex.¡± Dr. Phil¡¯s eyes opened wider than I¡¯d ever seen before. I was certain that even the famous one on TV would be given a run for his money if the two of them had a staring contest. ¡°The rumored doctor running her shady business through the dark web?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°The one that performs all sorts of banned, inhumane experiments and clinical trials on human test subjects at the request of various doctors across the world; the very same one known to maintain strict confidentiality with regards to her clientele?¡± ¡°Yes, that very same psychotic doctor who not even Interpol can track down.¡± He lowered his eyes and rubbed his temples with his right hand before saying, ¡°you¡¯re pulling my leg, right?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not. Do you want me to prove I¡¯m not trying to pull a fast one? I can tell you something that only someone who was extremely close to her would be privy to know.¡± ¡°Haha. I¡¯m not in the mood for jokes Mr. Genovese. You should really take your leave, I¡¯m not interested in listening to any more of your nonsense.¡± ¡°Promise me you will take care of Adele first.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t leave, I will need to have security forcibly escort you out.¡± ¡°Do you really think I don¡¯t know about the request you put in to further research the bystander effect? You pushed things to the limits in the request you put in. Do I have to list the experiments and trials one by one? The first experiment in that twisted request of yours was-¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, enough. Not another word!¡± I felt a chill run down my back from the intense cold glare he directed at me. ¡°I understand, Mr. Genovese. I simply have to let her find her own happiness, is that correct?¡± ¡°Yes. That¡¯s all I¡¯m asking of you.¡± ¡°And I also have to ensure she is released from the mental asylum without her being aware of a single thing?¡± ¡°Yes, that too.¡± ¡°Fine... but if you know so much about the things I did when I was younger, why did you choose me? Shouldn¡¯t you be far warier in trusting someone like me?¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°It¡¯s because I know the only reason you did it was because of the pressure to succeed and obtain results back then.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all?¡± ¡°It¡¯s also because I knew I could trust you to keep your word if I had dirt on you.¡± ¡°Haaah. The world isn¡¯t as beautiful and pristine as one may wish it were. At least you¡¯re smart enough to come prepared in the event I turned down your request. When you work in this field for long enough, you face a lot of criticism. You see countless deaths. You see untold hardships that mere common folk can¡¯t comprehend. Your heart turns away from the pure desire to save people into a disgusting black that only seeks power, results, money, and fame.¡± ¡°After seeing the filth in the world, you inevitably lose that pure desire you once had to save lives. After you¡¯re accused of being a murderer, despite trying your hardest to save, your body turns cold. You¡¯re forced to kill off your emotions to get through your day to day life in such a stressful environment. Becoming a doctor was one of the more foolish decisions I made in my lifetime. I truly wish I could go back to that time of youthful innocence where I could care for another similar to the way you care for this young lady.¡± I patiently listened to the lonely senile old fart rambling about a bunch of shit I didn¡¯t care to listen to without interrupting him. I really wished he would cut to the chase because I was dead tired right now and extremely irritable. All I wanted was to go collapse on my bed at home. ¡°Haaaaah. To be young again. Fine, Mr. Genovese, I will do as you¡¯ve requested. You can leave now.¡± When he finally finished reminiscing to himself out loud, and my ears were finally spared from the torture, I lowered my head in his direction in thanks before I exited the room. I still had to pass by Adele¡¯s room to get to the ward¡¯s exit, so I stuck along the opposite wall while keeping my head low. When I reached the examination room she was presently in, a nurse pushing a stretcher exited the room right before hers. I stealthily ducked behind the stretcher as it passed her room to ensure she wouldn¡¯t notice me passing by. I had to deal with the odd stare from the nurse, but it was a small sacrifice to be made in the name of the bigger picture I liked to call, ¡®get the hell out of here and get yo sleepy ass in bed *****. Aw hell naw, this ***** just censored my ass.¡¯ My sense of naming really tended to deteriorate the sleepier I got. Please don¡¯t hold a sleep-deprived person accountable for the poor naming decisions made when he hasn¡¯t slept. Anyway, my poor naming sense aside, just when I was certain I¡¯d be able to avoid any stereotypical scenarios from playing out, I heard a certain damned senile old man call out to me from behind. ¡°Young man, are you leaving already?¡± When I turned around and looked at him in the distance, I saw the smuggest smile I¡¯d ever seen in my life. I¡¯d clearly just been shot in the back by friendly fire, it was nothing more than his form of petty revenge. This damn doctor... I swear, I¡¯ll definitely remember this. He turned away with a cocky smile on his face and returned to his room, not bothering to watch the aftermath. I froze in place a short distance away from the room Adele was in, but I was now on the side closer to the exit. I just needed to make a mad dash for the exit and I would be able to avoid Adele catching onto my attempt at a wordless farewell. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side. Just as I was about to high tail it out of here, I heard her voice from behind, ¡°Mister, are you really trying to leave without saying anything?¡± When I turned around, I found her forehead peeking out from around the corner with her eyes locked onto my back. ¡°No... I just forgot something in the car. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± Pitifully, that was the best lie I could come up with off the top of my head on such short notice when mentally drained. ¡°Mister, your name-¡± ¡°Is irrelevant.¡± ¡°Wha-¡± ¡°My name is irrelevant and not important. We¡¯re just strangers who happened to meet in a strange abandoned mansion out in the middle of a forest. After today, we will not meet again. I don¡¯t see any point in giving my name to random insignificant people who don¡¯t mean anything to me.¡± Ugh. I thought saying it like that would be enough to make her hate me. I thought it would be the most hurtful thing I could say to her, but in the end, it felt like it hurt me more to say it than it was hurtful for her to hear it. The words I spoke were definitely a double-edged sword. Chapter 77. Chapter 77. ¡°Why can¡¯t you at least tell me your name? Is it really such a big deal if I know?!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal. It¡¯s just that there¡¯s no point in telling a stranger I¡¯ll never meet again what my name is.¡± ¡°You really are an unlikable jerk to the very end.¡± ¡°Then you¡¯re just an unlovable fugly brat.¡± ¡°Hmmp! Some Prince Charming you are. You¡¯re more like Prince Frog at the Bottom of the Well or Prince Man with No Eyes.¡± ¡°Yeah. That¡¯s right, that¡¯s what I really am, so leave me alone. I¡¯ll be back in a bit, so wait there patiently for the doctor to see you.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t come back. Who needs a jerk like you around anyways?¡± Her reaction was so normal when compared to the past, that it really left me with an overbearing, bittersweet aftertaste in my mouth. Wordlessly, I turned away from her and continued towards the exit. The moment I stepped passed the ward¡¯s doors, I felt something tug on my sleeve from behind. When I turned around, I found Adele with her back facing me. She¡¯d pinched my left sleeve with her right hand. ¡°What is it now?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll really come back, right?¡± ¡°This again? Of course I will, so just relax.¡± I lifted my free right hand and placed it on top of her head. I gently brushed it through her pristine white hair from behind for what I thought would certainly be the last. I held a small lock of her hair when I pulled my hand away. It was extremely smooth, silky and soft. Like the finest thread, it slid through the crevices of my fingers until parting ways as if fluttered back to rest in its original position behind her back. At first, her body tensed up a bit after my unexpected action, but she didn¡¯t freak out. Instead of getting weirded out and instinctively puting distance between the two of us, she relaxed her shoulders as though she felt some sort of reassurance. Why did I get so sentimental when I looked at the completely normal version of her? Haaaah. This feeling... it¡¯s honestly just gross and unnecessary. The thought of what could have been if she had always been like this when we were together all those years ago flew through my mind. Though I immediately refuted the thought as quickly as it came. The past was the past after all. No matter how much you wished that things turned out differently, it would never change. The two of us stood on separate sides of the entrance to the ward. For some reason, the ward¡¯s entrance felt like a strange divider that kept us on our respective sides. It felt like a barrier that I couldn¡¯t cross over to enter anymore. Internally, I was curious whether she felt the same way. There was a time in the past where we were two complete strangers. Yet, through a series of coincidences, we ended up meeting, and each of our lives were influenced heavily by the other. For her, she wasted five precious years of her life away in a mental asylum that she now no longer remembers. For me, my entire life flipped upside down, both through my time with her, and a series of unfortunate relationships that followed after our relationship ended.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. After Adele, it was a hired killer. The next was the super all knowing stalker, Anna Thena. After my third relationship, I became mentally unstable and met my fourth ex, in other words, my doctor who also turned out to be another complete psychopath. While ¡®treating me¡¯ of my mental instabilities from events related to my prior three traumatic relationships, she somehow fell madly in love with me, her patient. However, my fifth ex was probably the most dangerous of the five. Even thinking of her true identity leaves me internally terrified. The queen of black markets across the globe, the ¡®Bloody Queen of the Underworld,¡¯ so to speak. The leader of the largest criminal syndicate who inherited the position from her now retired father. Her organization has a monopoly on several billion, or perhaps trillion dollar, unregulated industries that ranged from human, drug, and organ trafficking. In addition to that, they had a big stake in many other branching illegal industries; you name it, and you would likely find them behind it somehow. Really, how did I let myself get romantically involved with such a shockingly big time player when all I ever wanted was a quiet peaceful life? Haha. Well¡­ it actually wasn¡¯t as impossible as you¡¯d think. My fourth ex was her cousin. One time when they were supposed to meet, I discovered her and inadvertently got in her good books without knowing who she was. My plan was to find a way to escape my fourth ex, and I thought I could do so through her at the time. Unfortunately for me, she was a person far scarier than I could have ever imagined back then, and she took a fancy to me after I daringly approached her in spite of the strange sort of relationship I had with her cousin. As for how I got out of my relationship with my fifth ex in the end, that was because I got her father to hate me and break us up. She couldn¡¯t go against her father¡¯s orders and reluctantly broke up with me despite what she really wanted. However, she still continued to relentlessly text me even after the fact. Of course, I eventually set up my phone to automatically delete any messages that came from her. I did so by creating an AI I programmed using deep learning neural networks to identify her texting mannerisms. As such, I haven''t contacted her or responded to anything she has sent me since we broke up. Why didn¡¯t I just block her number? Well, she disposes her phone several times on a daily basis. Her number was constantly changing. There wasn¡¯t really any way for me to simply outright block her with just a phone number due to the lifestyle she lives. Changing my number didn¡¯t do me any good either. Do you really think it¡¯s easy to hide anything from her with her networks? She¡¯d be the first person alerted to what my new number was. If I tossed my phone altogether, she¡¯d just send me a new phone with an ominous note saying, ¡®do it again and you¡¯re dead,¡¯ with a cutesy heart written out in blood at the end of the message. Not only that, if I did respond to her and her father discovered that I was still in contact with her, I definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to live a peaceful life. I might even be sleeping at the bottom of the ocean if he knew about it. Overall, all five of my exes were freaking scary as hell. Out of my five exes, four of them I¡¯d prefer to never see again. It may be surprising, but the single exception whom I was the least afraid of was my second ex, the hired killer. I wasn¡¯t aware of it back then, but she was only acting as though she was in love with me in the beginning when she first approached me. Later on her feelings did become more serious though. However, with the skills that came with her profession, I easily let my guard down around her and opened up to her the most. She didn¡¯t kill of her own will, but based upon the contracts she¡¯d taken up. That was likely the only reason why I didn¡¯t feel as scared of her when compared to the other four. Strangely, I found solace in that little fact. When I first discovered her identity after she disappeared, I was shocked; I felt betrayed, but I didn¡¯t feel as afraid of her when I compared her to Adele. We had very normal conversations, dates, and similar interests. In the end, it was the only break up completely opposite to my other four failed relationships. It was the only one that came to an abrupt anticlimactic end without any sort of closure, she just quietly disappeared without any prior warning one day. She was the only one that gave me space and breathing room despite being a little pushy at times. While I lost myself in thoughts of the past, by the time I came to, Adele had at some point quietly returned to her room. The entire time, I¡¯d likely stood there like an idiot as I awkwardly stared blankly off into empty space. Slightly embarrassed, with a somewhat lonely smile, I hid away the pain I felt towards my cowardly decisions deep down. I took one last look at the ward before I walked away without turning back. Finally, I exited out the hospital¡¯s front entrance and returned to my car. After I put the key in the ignition, the car¡¯s engine rumbled, and I immediately drove off into the distance. I returned to my apartment, then passed out not long after I hit the bed like a rock. With how mentally exhausted I was, I easily fell into a very deep slumber. ¡­ Chapter 78. Chapter 78. She was watching me. Always. Wordlessly. Without moving. Neither did she blink. Nor did she breathe. Expressionlessly, looking down at me on the bed from overhead with fully opened eyes. Her body was melded into the ceiling. Her body formed a cross. We stared at each other for an unknown duration of time. It was unnerving. Unsettling. Creepy. We never talked. No one ever said a word. I didn¡¯t move as I was fearful of what would happen if I did. Why was she there? What was she doing? Why didn¡¯t she say anything? It was none other than the wavy white-haired beauty I¡¯d seen more frequently recently. ¡­ When I regained consciousness, the dream I had was still vaguely in my mind. Nothing really happened in it, but I still had goosebumps all over my body when I woke up and I discovered I was drenched from head to toe in cold sweat. It was such a simplistic dream, yet it was one that really creeped me out and left me with a spine-tingling sensation running down my back. I looked up at the ceiling hesitantly, but as expected, there was nothing there; however, when I rolled over to get off of the bed, I noticed a sweet scent originating from the vicinity around me. It was definitely not a cologne that belonged to me¡­ I was certain, it was without any doubt in my mind a woman¡¯s perfume. Maybe I just didn¡¯t notice it when I was going to sleep. It could have been when the cops investigated my place. Maybe there was a female cop who wore a lot of perfume that sat down on my bed or something. I didn¡¯t want to think about it too deeply, so I got off the bed, grabbed my phone, and headed towards the bathroom to get ready for work. I¡¯d missed a day of work without calling in to let them know beforehand. Yesterday, after I dropped Adele off at the hospital, I was too tired to head to work, I skipped out since I was already late. I was probably in for an earful when I arrived at the office this morning, assuming I still had my job. I honestly wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Boss fired me for it on the spot.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. When I arrived in front of the bathroom door, I immediately stopped in my tracks. I¡¯d made a rather startling discovery after all. It was the crisp distinct sound of the shower running. I had a bad feeling and I worried that some homeless person had broken into my place while I was asleep. I stealthily made my way to the closet in my room and looked for something I could use to restrain whoever it was when they came out. I¡¯d recently seen a few horror stories online where a homeless person had lived in someone¡¯s attic, unknown to the residents, months at a time for shelter. That was one of the reasons I jumped to the conclusion it could have been a homeless person. As for how they got it, maybe they were a skilled climber and got in through the balcony or window in the bathroom or something. They could be moving from apartment to apartment while people are out or asleep. It could just be they were a skilled lockpicker though. But besides that, if it was a burglar, why would they leisurely take a shower when robbing the place? Logically speaking, besides a homeless person, who else would break into a stranger¡¯s apartment for the sole purpose of taking a shower? As for why I didn¡¯t immediately call the cops, that was simple, I was just damn tired of calling them all the time for crazy crap! I also didn¡¯t want to cause a big commotion over this if it was just a poor homeless guy who only wanted a shower. I doubted that it would be any of my exes since they couldn¡¯t have known where I presently lived. I only recently relocated here and I made sure to be very discreet when I moved in. After I poked around a bit in my closet, I found a pair of old handcuffs I¡¯d gotten from one of my exes in the past. As for why I had these, that would be thanks to my third ex¡¯s, strangely bizarre, really out there preferences. My time spent together with her especially traumatized me. She always restrained me and kept me locked up for herself, though that was only one of her twisted preferences. We were truly never apart from each other during our time together. I really don¡¯t know why I didn¡¯t ever throw these away when I miraculously survived my encounter with her. Maybe it was just to act as a reminder. Now that I had such a convenient tool at my disposal, I formulated a plan on how I¡¯d actually go about handcuffing the perpetrator when they came out in a way they wouldn¡¯t be able to fight back. I¡¯d hide around the corner and as he exited the bathroom, I¡¯d slap it on his wrists while his guard was lowered. That was probably my best bet. With the handcuffs in my possession, I returned to the bathroom and patiently waited for them outside like a vulture eyeing its unsuspecting prey. I waited for whatever homeless dude had invaded my humble abode. Wait, a guy? I only considered it now, but was it really a guy though? What if it turned out like an anime where it was a busty beauty and this was my one and only chance to have a lucky pervert moment by mindlessly walking into the bathroom? Could this actually be a chance of a lifetime that I¡¯m inadvertently going to let slip through the cracks? ¡­ nah, couldn¡¯t be. Get real. Shit like that doesn¡¯t happen in reality. The hopeful, anticipated beauty would surely just be a hairy beast at the end of the day. After I waited for a while, I finally heard the sound of the shower abruptly shut off. Shortly thereafter, the sound of footsteps approached closer from the other side of the door. I knew by the shadow cast beneath the gap between the door and the floor that they¡¯d stopped directly in front of it. Katcha. A long, low squeak reverberated through the room when the door slowly creaked open inwards. When it was fully opened, I noticed that there was no shadow cast on the ground from the would-be intruder. I wondered whether they were on to me or whether they were just being extremely vigilant. I waited for a solid ten minutes, but there was no sign that they had any intention of exiting the bathroom. I really felt like I was in a bit of a pickle. I didn¡¯t consider the possibility that they would already be armed or so cautious. I thought after a relaxing shower they would be in their most defenseless state with their guard fully lowered. I lamented over my naivety. I truly regretted the fact that I didn¡¯t grab a knife from the kitchen earlier. Why did I think playing the role of a cop would be a good idea? Was I too conceited? I should¡¯ve known better than anyone that this was a horrible idea. An untrained civilian taking the law into his own hands was just foolish. Why did I get cocky? It was already too late to turn back though. I pulled up the camera app on my phone and slowly peaked it around the corner and looked at the display to determine where the perpetrator was inside the bathroom. Beyond my expectations, there was nobody reflected on the display inside the bathroom like I assumed. I moved the phone higher up so I could peek inside the bathtub from the angle I was positioned, but I found it was also empty. Chapter 79. Chapter 79. The only thing I noticed particularly out of place was the way the window in the bathroom had been left open, the curtain presently blowing in the wind. When I thought about it more closely, I was certain that it had to be a distraction. The only conceivable place they could remain hidden was behind the door. There was no way they could really escape out the window so quickly when we¡¯re several stories high in the sky. I highly doubt one of the neighbors above me on a higher floor would grappling hook their way into my bathroom just to take a shower because theirs was on the fritz or some sort of nonsensical rubbish like that. As for my earlier homeless person theory, I didn¡¯t seriously think a homeless person would seriously go through the effort of climbing in here just for a shower. I mean, you never know with how crazy people in the world are, but it just sounded too absurd to be real. Whoever it was had to be hidden behind the door. With that thought in mind, I changed to the screen side camera, then slipped my phone under the gap between the door and floor to check behind it as stealthily as a Russian spy snooping on the president. I paid close attention to the display but immediately discovered there was truly no one there. In disbelief, I rushed into the bathroom and checked behind the door and found nobody was there. I made my way to the window, opened up the curtain, examined both above and below, but there were no traces that anyone entered or exited through it. Was everything that happened really all just my mind playing tricks on me again? You¡¯re not trying to tell me this was the work of a ghost, right? Haha. I don¡¯t believe it. I won¡¯t believe it. I refuse to believe it. I turned back around- My heart leaped through my chest and my eyes popped open wide when I discovered a straight white-haired woman wrapped in a white towel with her back faced towards me. She stood directly outside the entrance of the bathroom with her hands cupped behind her back like she¡¯d taken a leisurely stroll in the park. Mortified by her sudden appearance, I jumped at her and slapped the cuffs on her wrists from behind. In the process, I pushed her down against the ground. Ghosts aren¡¯t real. Ghosts aren¡¯t real. Ghosts aren¡¯t real. They definitely aren¡¯t. ¡°Haaah. Haaaaaaaah. Haaaaaaaaaaah.¡± My breathing was slightly erratic due to the near heart attack I experienced, the result of my shock. ¡°Mr. Genovese. What is the meaning of this? Did you lose yourself to your lust and decide to force yourself on your beautiful boss? Should I be firing you right now on the spot for your insolent actions towards your superior?¡± When the rush from adrenaline cooled down, I recollected myself. I soon realized, much unlike before, what I initially perceived as being long straight white hair was actually black. When her words finally registered, I faced a fear far worse than it being some random ghost girl. A sexual harassment lawsuit! Becoming a registered sex offender. Termination. Never being able to find another job.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. My face paled when I understood the repercussions of my actions. Far from this being a simple lucky pervert moment, this was on the level of a natural calamity that could end my life. ¡°B-B-Boss?! What are you doing uninvited in my apartment to begin with? Are you trying to rob your employee?¡± ¡°Me? Well, it¡¯s a rather embarrassing blunder on my part. Or should I say it¡¯s actually all your fault to begin with, Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°How is this situation my fault?¡± ¡°If your boss tells you it¡¯s your fault, you bow your head and admit your wrongdoings like a good employee.¡± ¡°No way. This is clearly breaking and entering.¡± ¡°Breaking? Where do you see anything broken?¡± ¡°How else would you get into my apartment if not for breaking in?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the idiot who left your front door unlocked. I took no part in breaking in; rather, you truly are just careless as always, Mr. Genovese. Didn¡¯t you learn your lesson from last time?¡± When I thought about it more carefully, she was right. I was so tired when I got home that I don¡¯t even remember locking the door after I entered. The only thing on my mind was to hit the sack and sleep. ¡°Even if that¡¯s true, this is still trespassing.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, again, you are too quick to jump to conclusions. On my way home, being the good caring boss I am, out of the goodness in my heart, I came over after work yesterday to check up on you since you didn¡¯t call in. I was worried that something happened to you. You weren¡¯t answering your phone no matter how many times I called you. You didn¡¯t even answer when I knocked.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t make any sense though, if you found me here, why didn¡¯t you leave after confirming I was fine? Why would you stay here overnight?¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, it¡¯s too embarrassing to admit the reason.¡± ¡°It couldn¡¯t be¡­ are you actually in love with your employee?¡± ¡°Haha. You flatter yourself too much. You really think I¡¯d be embarrassed to admit something trivial like that?¡± ¡°If it¡¯s not that, then could it be you plotted to silence me?¡± ¡°Silence you? Hahaha, Mr. Genovese, I take it you¡¯ve watched too many movies lately. Isn¡¯t your imagination a little too out there?¡± ¡°If it¡¯s not that, then what is it?¡± She twisted her body between my legs and faced me directly. Her legs bent up at an angle behind me and I felt her knees when they brushed against my back. The towel that was wrapped around her unraveled slightly, only just barely covering her important regions. Was this some sort of god-tier witchfuckery? Nonsense like conveniently placed portions of a towel that hid only the important parts actually existed in reality? Initially, she looked directly at me expressionlessly, but she suddenly averted her eyes to the side, somewhat bashful, as she quietly said, ¡°Dio, it¡¯s a bit embarrassing so promise you won¡¯t laugh, okay?¡± I looked on with deadpan eyes, not expecting a thing. I¡¯m not going to raise any expectations here just to have them shattered. I¡¯m not that naive to believe a romcom scene straight out of an anime would happen to someone like me. I bet she¡¯s going to confess she¡¯s actually a murderer on the run and she chose to hide at my place or something. That¡¯s the only plausible answer conceivable if I assumed she was truly just another psychopath. Aside from confessing to someone that they killed someone, what else would make a psychopath blush bashfully like this? Well? Is this the moment of truth where my dreams of interacting with a normal woman are finally shattered? Where my hope for a simple life is twisted and distorted as I¡¯m forcibly tossed into another bat shit crazy romantic relationship? ¡°Go on¡­ I¡¯m listening. I won¡¯t laugh.¡± With my phone in hand ready to call the cops in the worst-case scenario, I fully prepared myself for the terrible world-shattering news I might be told. I wasn¡¯t going to let my guard down just because she was a beautiful woman who¡¯d been handcuffed and pressed against the ground. Only a fool would be deceived by her appearance. Chapter 80. Chapter 80. ¡°Then¡­ do you remember how my car was in the shop for a slashed tire?¡± Eh? What does this have to do with that? It doesn¡¯t, right? ¡°Yeah¡­ I remember. What about it?¡± ¡°Well... I had to take the bus this morning. I paid my fare as one would expect and I arrived at work today. I thought I¡¯d be able to save some money on the way back home as well if I got you to drive me home, but then you didn¡¯t show up to work.¡± ¡°Go on.¡± ¡°Even though you weren¡¯t there, I did have enough money on me for bus fare to get home after work. However, something unexpected happened after work.¡± ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°When I took my wallet out of my purse to take out some change for when the bus came¡­¡± ¡°Uhuh? Please do continue.¡± ¡°While at the bus stop, I dropped my wallet.¡± ¡°What¡¯s unexpected about that? If you dropped it, just pick it up.¡± ¡°A dog.¡± ¡°A dog?¡± ¡°Yes. A dog.¡± ¡°What about a dog?¡± ¡°Hear me out okay? This was by no means any ordinary dog. It was a demon dog from hell. Cerberus himself opened up hell¡¯s gate and climbed through when he smelled that wallet fall to the ground. It was a dog who could put all other dogs to shame. Any normal dog would wag their tails between their legs and bow their heads in prostration and worship when confronted with this monstrosity of a dog.¡± ¡°Cut with the melodramatic bull and get to the point.¡± She turned her head back towards me and said with lifeless eyes, ¡°a stray Chihuahua ate my wallet and ran off with it.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°... I chased after it.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°For hours.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Around the city.¡± I was struggling. I was truly struggling right now. I said I wouldn''t laugh. I¡¯m a man of my word. Who am I kidding? A man of my word? Like hell I am! ¡°Pffftthahahaha. I¡¯ve heard of ¡®my dog ate my homework¡¯, but a dog¡­ an itsy bitsy little Chihuahua ate your wallet?! Hahaha! Rich! That¡¯s bloody brilliant!¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, do you want to die?¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Ah. Sorry. Anyways, go on. Please continue with what that has to do with you staying overnight at my place.¡± ¡°Ehem. As I said, I ran all about trying to catch the dog, but in the end, I lost him. I had no way to pay for a ride home, so I had no choice but to walk instead. If you were at work, this would have never happened, this is clearly all your fault. Anyway, after I ran like a madman all over the city, the journey to my house lined up perfectly with your place. I decided to check in on you, or rather, in all honesty, I planned to mooch a free ride off of you.¡± ¡°I actually called you several times before I got to your place to see if I could get you to pick me up, but you never answered. Again, this situation is clearly all your fault.¡± I checked my phone for missed calls to confirm her story and discovered she¡¯d told the truth. She¡¯d called three times and sent a few texts as well. They all came in after I fell asleep though. I was out cold in a deep sleep, so I didn¡¯t hear any sign of it ringing either. ¡°Haha. Sorry. My bad. But it still doesn¡¯t make sense why you stayed the night here.¡± ¡°When I got to your place I knocked a few times, but there was no answer. When I recalled your bad habit of not locking the door from that time back in your car, I checked to see if the door was locked. It turned out it wasn¡¯t locked, so I entered as I was a bit concerned about you. I stumbled upon you fast asleep on your bed. After having run around all over the city, I was exhausted as well and I ended up falling asleep on your bed right beside you.¡± ¡°I see. Still, you could have just woken me up and I could have driven you home.¡± ¡°Like I said before, I was exhausted. I was in no mood to stay awake by that point. I was done for the day and wanted nothing more than to sleep.¡± ¡°Well, I guess I can forgive the trespassing. So... can you please forgive me for this situation?¡± ¡°Fufu. Should I forgive you for giving in so easily to your carnal desires to ravage me? How does it feel knowing you¡¯ve slept with your boss in the same bed?¡± ¡°It feels awful.¡± ¡°Oh really? Then what¡¯s that hard thing that¡¯s been pressed up against my stomach for some time now? It seems to suggest otherwise, Mr. Genovese.¡± This situation was really dangerous. As calm as I may try to act, there were certain things that really couldn¡¯t be controlled at times. That organ was definitely one of those things that had a mind of its own. I stood up and awkwardly put some distance between the two of us. I really didn¡¯t want to get caught up in the heat of the moment and do something I might regret later on. Letting your choices be ruled by the wrong head, I¡¯ve already learned first hand what that leads to. I won¡¯t ever make that mistake again. ¡°Tch. You really are such a beta at times, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Can you stop acting like you wouldn¡¯t fire me on the spot if I actually laid a finger on you?¡± ¡°Who knows? You¡¯ll never know until you try, right?¡± ¡°I¡¯d really rather not lose my job. Anyway, can you please get dressed or at the very least properly cover yourself up?¡± ¡°And how am I supposed to do that, Mr. Genovese?¡± Ah. She¡¯s right. Her hands are cuffed behind her back. ¡°You really have quite the interesting kink, I would never have imagined you¡¯d have handcuffs just conveniently lying about your apartment like this. Do you use these on every girl you take a fancy towards?¡± ¡°Of course not. Those are a memento of my third ex.¡± ¡°Oh, I see. That makes a bit of sense I guess. With the way her personality was, it wouldn¡¯t be unusual if she used these on you. Still... to keep them after breaking up as a memento? Isn¡¯t that the opposite of what a normal person would do? She was a psycho after all. If you were a normal person, wouldn¡¯t you try to get rid of everything that reminded you of her?¡± ¡°You could say it¡¯s so I never forget what happens when you lose yourself. I also thought it was a waste to throw them out since they could come in handy one day with my pitiful luck. Thus, I packed them away with all the junk I kept in storage. With the way my life has gone, you really never know when something like handcuffs could be the difference between life and death.¡± I approached her again, adjusted the towel, and wrapped it up tightly around her body. Touching her bare skin was unavoidable, but she didn¡¯t display any visible sign of aversion. She appeared completely fine with it and even had a smug look on her face like it was her win somehow. ¡°You couldn¡¯t resist from laying your hands on me in the end, now could you?¡± ¡°No, I just didn¡¯t want to have my innocent eyes scarred if the towel fell down.¡± ¡°You¡¯re just being shy, how cute. You can¡¯t even be honest with yourself.¡± ¡°Just be quiet and come with me.¡± Chapter 81. Chapter 81. I rolled my eyes, helped her up, and led her back to my room. I entered the closet and rummaged through the junk to find the key for the handcuffs; however, even after I searched through every box in the closet, I conveniently couldn¡¯t find it. I shit you not, it legitimately wasn¡¯t there. I turned to my boss with a rather helpless, awkward expression, not knowing what to do. ¡°You¡¯re not really going to tell me you just so happen to not have the key, right?¡± ¡°If I said that was the case, would I be fired?¡± ¡°Hmmm. Maybe? Unless¡­¡± ¡°Unless what?¡± ¡°Help me get changed and take me down to a locksmith.¡± ¡°Wait. What? Can¡¯t you change yourself even if you¡¯re handcuffed?¡± ¡°Of course not. With my hands cuffed behind my back, that¡¯s not going to happen. Also, how do you expect me to put on the top properly by myself like this? I can¡¯t get both hands through the sleeves either. Unless you have a crop top or something similar where you could cut the straps for me and sew it back on.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t this asking a bit too much for me to keep my job?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it all your fault for not having the key to begin with?¡± ¡°Okay... I get it. I just need to help you get changed, right?¡± Just what the hell is wrong with me? Why am I going along with this ridiculous scenario? I went to the bathroom to collect her clothes only for her to point out, ¡°Those clothes are drenched in sweat, they stink from running around everywhere yesterday. I also can¡¯t put them on properly due to the sleeves as I mentioned before. Don¡¯t you have something you could let me borrow? Surely you¡¯re a pervert who kept some clothes as a memento from one of your previous exes, right? Just loan me something, I¡¯ll return it later.¡± ¡°Do you really think I¡¯d keep one of my ex''s clothes?¡± ¡°Yeah, I do. You kept handcuffs, so why not clothes?¡± She was right. When I was searching for the key, I did find some among the boxes filled with junk from my old place. I never really threw away any of their stuff. I always dumped their stuff into storage and forgot about it. I grabbed the first set of clothes I found and exited the closet. If I recalled correctly, these belonged to my second ex. A blue and white spaghetti strap crop top with a purple, white polka dot bow on the front. The second was¡­ skin tight spats?! I immediately broke out into sweat. I turned around quickly to try and hide what I¡¯d picked out. I was intent on finding something else, but she called out to stop me. ¡°What are you doing? If you¡¯ve already picked something out, bring it over. I¡¯m quite curious as to what my employee¡¯s first choice in clothing he most wants to see me wearing. I¡¯m sure it will give me a good idea of just how wild your delusions towards your boss are.¡±This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Sorry, I picked up the wrong piece. I¡¯m just going to get the right one now.¡± She didn¡¯t let me back into the closet. She stood in front of it and blocked it off with her body while she attempted to peek at the clothes behind my back. Reluctantly, I eventually took them out and showed them to her with my head lowered in shame. ¡°Look¡­ it¡¯s these, okay? You happy now? So let me just get something else in place of the spats.¡± ¡°Spats, huh? I¡¯ve haven¡¯t really worn any recently. Those will do though, help me put them on.¡± ¡°No way. Just let me get something else.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, I think you¡¯re mistaken here. The lady is the one who chooses what she wants to wear at the end of the day. If I say I choose to wear that, then you have no say in the matter. Regardless of what you bring out; unless you want to force me into them against my will, I can simply decline to wear everything after this until you are left with no other choice.¡± Of course, I was speechless. She was right. I sure as hell didn¡¯t have to gonads to forcibly make her wear it if she put up a resistance. I¡¯d immediately be put on a registered sex offenders list if I tried that. ¡°Now, help me put them on.¡± ¡°I¡¯d really rather not.¡± ¡°Then you prefer to lose your job and never be able to find another?¡± ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Then, get to it.¡± ¡°This is surely against the law.¡± ¡°Would you like to call the police and see whose side they take when they find a handcuffed naked woman crying in your room?¡± ¡°I¡¯d¡­ rather not have to find out.¡± ¡°Then¡­¡± She raised her right foot slightly off the ground dangling it in my direction with a face that said ¡®go on.¡¯ With no other choice, I bent down on one knee and carefully slid her leg through one side. She lowered her right foot and raised the other, allowing me to slide it through the other opening. When both her feet were on the ground, I threw caution to the wind and decided to get it over with as quickly as possible. At least that was my intention, but it was a lot more difficult than I expected with the way it stuck tightly to her skin. Because of how hard it was, I inadvertently felt up her legs and hips quite a bit through the entire process. Sliding it beneath the towel was definitely the part where I struggled the most. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect Mr. Genovese to be so lecherous. I can even feel your fiery, passionate gaze as it burns holes through my legs.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no such thing. Can you please refrain from smearing dirt on my good name?¡± ¡°You should be more honest with yourself. Seeing your boss in such a defenseless state, where she can¡¯t even change by herself, don¡¯t act like you feel nothing when I can see it written all over your face.¡± ¡°That is blatant slander, I can sue you.¡± ¡°I¡¯d really like to see how the case plays out as you struggle and squirm when they ask you to recount the scenario.¡± She abruptly turned her back to me. To my shock, she allowed the towel to slip off her body and fall to the ground. In my state of stupor, she demanded, ¡°hurry up and put the top on. Start from the bottom again, then cut the straps afterward and reattach it.¡± I felt somewhat lightheaded with the blood that rushed to my head, a result of the overly stimulating sight, but I still followed her instruction. We repeated the grueling process for the second time, I slid the crop top around her body until it was positioned properly beneath her arms. The most difficult part, this time, was definitely her chest. One word. Large. A lot larger than I expected out of a businesswoman like her. Normally they were hidden well beneath her business attire, so it was normally difficult to tell, but she was definitely blessed with how well endowed she was. ¡°Are you thinking anything inappropriate right now, Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°Yeah, I am actually. Your figure is pretty similar to someone I know.¡± ¡°Oh? Who would that be?¡± ¡°Never mind. Forget I said anything.¡± Chapter 82. Chapter 82. I grabbed a pair of scissors, cut the straps from behind, and immediately sewed them back on. When she was fully dressed, I let out a long sigh of relief. It was definitely something I never imagined I would be able to say I¡¯d done in my life. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get to the locksmith to get the handcuffs taken care of.¡± ¡°Why are you in such a rush, Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°The sooner this is over, the better.¡± I only just woke up, but I was already exhausted and wanted to go back to sleep. I didn¡¯t get paid nearly enough to put up with this sort of shit. When we left the room, we passed by the washroom on the way out. It was only then that I came to a certain realization. My back straightened up and I froze in place stiffly when I stepped on something cold and metallic. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Why¡¯d you suddenly freeze up?¡± ¡°That would be¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re acting pretty suspicious right now. Did you suddenly remember where the key is or something?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not quite that I remembered where it is. It¡¯s just that¡­¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I think I¡¯m stepping on it.¡± She shot a wide grin my way as she arched her body forward toward me. ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°It might be.¡± ¡°Could it be that you actually knew it was here the entire time, but you secretly wanted to perform such lewd acts with your boss?¡± ¡°I know it looks bad, but I swear I really didn¡¯t though.¡± I stiffly bent over and checked; sure enough, the key I¡¯d desperately searched for earlier was maliciously sitting there like a little devil looking up at me from beneath my right foot. ¡°Hmm. What a perverse employee, to think I would be plotted against like this.¡± ¡°You sure don¡¯t look like the one who¡¯s been plotted against. Rather than me plotting against you, are you sure you didn¡¯t plot against me?¡± ¡°Did I? Would I really need to plot against a little employee like you?¡± ¡°You did, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Who me? Never~¡± Did I really get played somehow? ¡°By the way, Mr. Genovese, you questioned me quite a bit despite my innocence. As your boss, shouldn¡¯t I be the one questioning you right now? Why did you skip work without calling?¡± ¡°Geh. I have the right to remain silent.¡± ¡°Oh? Do you have a guilty conscience? Is it something unspeakable? Something so shameful that you can¡¯t bear to tell anyone? Something that could incriminate yourself if spoken of?¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°It¡¯s not.¡± ¡°Then tell me. Your answer will determine whether you keep your job.¡± I let out a sigh before I answered her question, ¡°Haaaaah. It has to do with Adele.¡± ¡°Oh? Did you meet her again?¡± ¡°Yeah, I did.¡± ¡°And what happened?¡± ¡°I guess you could say... a lot of things happened.¡± ¡°Like what?¡± ¡°In summary, I suppose, in a way she¡¯s dead.¡± ¡°Dead? Did you actually lose it and kill her or something?¡± ¡°Of course not! Do you think I¡¯m that crazy?¡± ¡°You¡¯re crazy enough to handcuff your boss who was only wearing a towel just a few short minutes ago.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the crazy person who sleeps over at a guy¡¯s house without their consent. Whatever, forget it. A few things happened, and it seems she¡¯s lost all her memories of me. She¡¯s acting like a perfectly normal person without any mental problems now.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that great? Wouldn¡¯t it be the perfect chance for you to have a normal relationship with her now that she¡¯s recovered?¡± ¡°She¡¯s not the same person I fell in love with. She doesn¡¯t remember anything about me. It hurts just looking at her. If I stick around her, I¡¯m also afraid that she¡¯ll relapse into her former self one day.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you just running away like a coward?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not just running away like a coward. I am a coward.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good if you know that.¡± ¡°Did you still love her despite her craziness?¡± ¡°I think... I did.¡± ¡°That¡¯s surprisingly cute. Would this be what they call imprinting? What was it that people often liked to say again? Your first love is the hardest to forget?¡± ¡°Maybe...¡± ¡°What about your other exes? Do you have feelings for any of them still?¡± ¡°Yeah. There is one other among my ex¡¯s I still have feelings towards.¡± ¡°Oh, is that so? Which one would that be?¡± ¡°Why do you care?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just pure curiosity. Maybe it¡¯s also just a bit of lip service.¡± ¡°Haaaaaaah. My second ex¡­ probably.¡± ¡°That¡¯s rather surprising to hear.¡± ¡°Despite using me as a means to complete one of her contracts. She was still the woman who picked up the broken pieces of my heart and put it back together. She was one of the only people I was able to open up to about everything that was on my mind.¡± ¡°I see. Contrary to Adele, would you consider ever getting back together with your second ex if she turned out to not be a psychopath and remembered everything about your time together?¡± ¡°If we could have a normal relationship, if she dropped her profession as a hired killer and turned over a new leaf I might seriously consider it.¡± ¡°Hoh? That¡¯s quite a dangerous idea in my opinion.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Even if she turned over a new leaf, she would surely have made enemies who would very likely threaten your life.¡± ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re probably right. I¡¯m not thinking straight right now. I¡¯m just in a weak state of mind after the recent shock that came with the entire Adele ordeal.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s just assuming that anyone actually knows your second ex¡¯s identity to begin with. Cheer up, maybe you¡¯ll run into her and fall in love with her all over again, all while never realizing a thing.¡± ¡°That¡¯s never going to happen. I was just a tool for her to utilize. Whether she really loved me, or whether it was all in my head, I¡¯ve been starting to question everything about my life recently.¡± ¡°Hmm, you really think she wasn¡¯t madly in love with you in the end because of how she left you hanging like that?¡± ¡°Why would she love me? There¡¯s not a single lovable thing about me. Even when you look at me, all you see is an empty hollow shell of a person, right?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you to stop second-guessing yourself like that all the time?¡± ¡°Haaah. Right. Sorry.¡± ¡°Anyway, hurry up and unlock the handcuffs.¡± I did as she requested. I picked up the key from the ground and inserted it into the keyhole. The moment her hand was free, she raised it and thrust her palm against my chest. Riddled with incomprehension written all over my face, I was thrown off balance, lost my footing, and fell backward. She leaned forward intentionally, falling along with me, and landed on top of my body. Along with a clicking sound of the shackle locking into place, I felt when it clamped down on my right hand. I looked on in confusion as she took the key and tucked it away deep between the valley weighing down on me, pinning my body to the ground. Chapter 83. Chapter 83. ¡°Boss?! What are you doing?!¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a little game I suddenly thought of to help you with your self deriding attitude. You have two options, take the key away from me forcefully or make me fall in love with you and get me to willingly return it. If you can¡¯t do either, then we¡¯ll just be stuck together like this forever.¡± ¡°The bar is too high! Please lower it! Actually, no, what am I even saying? Would you stop messing around? We have to get to work.¡± ¡°Then the choice is simple, reach in and take the key back. However, I can¡¯t promise you whether your job will be safe if you offend me in some way after going with the first choice.¡± ¡°What the hell do you even mean by ¡®make you fall in love with me¡¯?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve only been in love once in my life Mr. Genovese. Since that person, I¡¯ve never fallen in love again. I simply want to be able to fall in love with someone all over again.¡± ¡°Why me? You can choose anyone you want. I¡¯m sure there would be men lining up for miles if you announced you were looking for a relationship.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want a guy who¡¯ll just blindly chase after me. I¡¯m more interested in the type that would challenge me and won¡¯t easily fall for me. Someone who also has similar interests and hobbies would be nice. The type of men that would chase after me without even knowing a thing about me, I have no interest in them.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese¡­ no, Dio, am I so unattractive in your eyes that you wouldn¡¯t even consider me as a potential love interest?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how attractive you are, if you¡¯re a psychopath I¡¯ll absolutely refuse.¡± ¡°Even when I¡¯m coming on to you this strongly, you¡¯d still refuse me?¡± ¡°Like I said, if you¡¯re a psychopath I¡¯ll absolutely refuse.¡± She smiled beautifully as she pulled out the key herself and unlocked the handcuff on my wrist before she got up. ¡°I see. I¡¯m glad.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this? I didn¡¯t accomplish either objective just now.¡± ¡°Are you sure you didn¡¯t?¡± ¡°Of course I didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Wait. Boss, you don¡¯t-¡° ¡°Haha. Who knows, Dio?¡± I was speechless, was she playing around with me yet again, or was she really serious? ¡°Dio, I¡¯m slightly troubled on what I should do right now?¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°What are you talking about, shouldn¡¯t it be obvious what you should do? Naturally, we need to get our asses to work.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant.¡± ¡°Then what?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a bit troubling as I might be slightly psychotic after all.¡± ¡°Boss, jokes like that aren¡¯t funny.¡± ¡°Haaaah. It¡¯s always boss to you. Well, it¡¯s fine for now I suppose. I¡¯ll make sure you get used to calling me by my name in the future.¡± ¡°No, calling you by name was just a one-time courtesy deal when I treated you to a meal. The offer has already expired.¡± ¡°You mean when you took me on our first date, right?¡± I didn¡¯t know how to respond, so I got up and diverted the topic, ¡°Since we don¡¯t need to go to a locksmith any more, we should head to work.¡± ¡°Running away? Did you get embarrassed by the fact you went on a date with your boss?¡± ¡°No.¡± I actually was very embarrassed. ¡°Hmm? Weren¡¯t you going to take a shower and get ready before this little ordeal? Or did you change your mind and plan to just go as you are?¡± ¡°Ah. I forgot.¡± ¡°Then hurry up and fix yourself up, you can¡¯t keep a lady waiting.¡± ¡°What about your clothes? You can¡¯t seriously be considering going to work in those, right?¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Are you crazy?¡± ¡°I¡¯m kidding of course. I¡¯ll give you a bonus on your next paycheck to compensate for your recent tardiness if you pass by my place on the way to work.¡± ¡°Deal. You better not go back on your word.¡± ¡°How rude, I would never go back on my word. Now hurry up and get ready.¡± As she¡¯d urged me, I grabbed my clothes and a towel; I quickly shaved, took a shower, and brushed my teeth all in the short span of fifteen minutes. When I exited the bathroom, I was greeted by her eyeing me up and down curiously before she shook her head in disappointment. ¡°You¡¯re such a letdown. I was hoping for you to shake off the water in your hair dramatically while sending the droplets flying in slow motion in all directions when you got out.¡± ¡°Like hell that¡¯s going to happen.¡± I¡¯m not a hot hunk in a movie. ¡°Can¡¯t you at least have more sex appeal or give a girl a bit of eye candy and come out with your dress shirt unbuttoned?¡± ¡°What?¡± I stared back at her with a deadpan expression as I wondered what really went through that brain of hers. ¡°I¡¯m just kidding, don¡¯t take it so seriously.¡± ¡°Right... Sorry for doing the normal thing and not taking every opportunity to make girls go crazy about my nonexistent ripped body.¡± ¡°Haha. You¡¯re not that bad despite not working out though.¡± ¡°How would you know that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that I was a bit curious and took a look while you were asleep or anything.¡± ¡°You did what now?¡± ¡°Nothing. Forget about it. Let¡¯s go already.¡± ¡°Hey, wait. You can¡¯t just escape when it¡¯s convenient for you.¡± We were beside the exit and she opened the door with the intention of running out and fleeing from me, but the moment I saw outside I instinctively latched onto her hand to stop her. It wasn¡¯t that I intended to stop her from escaping, but rather, what I saw startled me. I really thought she was about to die just now. What was it I saw behind the door? Nothing. It was a dark empty void as far as the eye could see. There was a small rocky ledge connected to the exit, but that was all. Below the ledge was a dark bottomless chasm with no end in sight. She looked at me with a weird puzzled expression and asked, ¡°Mr. Genovese, what are you doing?¡± ¡°What do you mean what am I doing?¡± ¡°Could it be you had some naughty thoughts in mind and wanted to prevent me from leaving so you could keep me all to yourself?¡± ¡°Absolutely not. Sorry.¡± Chapter 84. Chapter 84. It didn¡¯t take long before I realized she didn¡¯t see what I saw. I came to the conclusion that it had to be another hallucination so I released her hand. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you? You look a bit pale.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, did you forget?¡± ¡°Forget what?¡± ¡°My ability. You¡¯re hallucinating right now, right?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not. Don¡¯t worry about me, I¡¯m fine. Go ahead.¡± ¡°Well, if that¡¯s how you want to be, then fine.¡± She walked out the door without any sign of hesitation and I followed behind her. I closed the door on the way out and didn¡¯t forget to lock it this time. When I reached the edge of the rocky ledge, I stopped in my tracks. I watched helplessly when she stepped on the empty space in front of me. From my perspective she was levitating, or standing on an invisible platform; she seamlessly moved further into the void unimpeded by the laws of gravity. When she was five meters away from me, she completely disappeared into the void and I was left on my own, all alone in the darkness, amidst this never-ending void. The fear of eternal isolation gradually crept into my mind. A few seconds later, I heard her voice from a bit further ahead from the void where nothing existed. ¡°Dio, are you coming or not?¡± ¡°Yeah. I-I am.¡± I gulped down a mouthful of saliva, laughed to myself awkwardly, and brace my heart as I positioned one foot over the chasm below. I felt a light floaty sensation like I was about to fall, but suddenly a small formation of fragmented rocks grouped together beneath my feet from the void below, it then connected to the ledge I stood on. I was relieved that I didn¡¯t fall, but my heart was still ready to leap through my chest at any moment. It was unbearably nerve-wracking when I thought about falling off the ledge. I thought the hallucination would end when I overcame the fear of falling, but it didn¡¯t. After I took a few more steps forward, Boss reappeared when we were within five meters of each other. I continued forward until I reached her side; when I glanced back, I realized the original ledge in front of my apartment had crumbled away at some point and disappeared into nothing. It was now just the two of us standing on a rocky floating platform in space. It was terrifying, but I still kept quiet about it. I simply moved forward in sync with her and committed the exact path we took to memory. When she came to a stop, I naturally followed her example. She extended her hand out in front of her and poked something in the air. A short moment later, I heard a ¡®ding¡¯ echo out from the void in front of me. My boss still didn¡¯t hesitate, she walked in nonchalantly without a care in the world while I prepared myself for a mental breakdown. My present state made me feel as though I were standing on countless upright pins and needles, one wrong step would lead to my demise. It was like I¡¯d grown to understand the fear of one day losing my vision and being forced to live my life as a blind man.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. You really never knew how scary something was until you lost it. As scared as I was about my situation, I was still hopeful. I still expected that it would eventually end. Surely things would eventually return to normal. After following behind my boss, the rocky platform we were on top of descended lower into the endless abyss. The only reason I could tell we were moving down while amidst this dark void was due to the downwards acceleration I sensed acting on my body. When another ¡®ding¡¯ rang out, I once again followed directly behind my boss. She took a few twists and turns and I was left with no choice but to cope and adapt to the dilemma I¡¯d suddenly been presented with. When she finally stopped, I pressed the unlock button on my key and heard the sound of my car door unlock beside us. I moved to the opposite side with respect to where my boss stood then extended my hand in the direction where I expected the handle was located. I felt the solid sensation of the handle on the tips of my fingers and I pulled it toward myself. By feeling around, I somehow successfully seated myself down in the car that couldn¡¯t be directly seen with my eyes. Looking at my hands positioned on the wheels, they were visibly trembling. ¡°Mr. Genovese, are you really going to be okay like this?¡± ¡°O-o-of c-c-course.¡± ¡°Should I be concerned about my safety?¡± ¡°Probably.¡± ¡°Oh? I see. So you¡¯re going to take me for a joy ride that will get our adrenaline pumping?¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± I should really stop. This was a horrible idea. It would be best if she drove instead. ¡°Hurry up and reverse already. By the way, I don¡¯t have my license on me. I didn¡¯t remember to put it back in my wallet since I still haven¡¯t gotten my car back yet and I forgot it in one of my other pants at home. It¡¯s definitely not because a stupid dog ate it along with my wallet or anything¡­¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good-¡± ¡°Just drive. If you get into an accident I¡¯ve got your back.¡± My ass you¡¯ve got my back, I can¡¯t even bloody see anything aside from you! ¡°I really don¡¯t think you understand just how bad-¡± ¡°It¡¯s because of how bad it is that it gets me a bit excited.¡± She¡¯s definitely crazy. Where is the boss I know? ¡°Look, maybe by driving a bit by yourself you¡¯ll feel better.¡± ¡°It would be really nice if I do feel better.¡± I took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled out. I pressed the button I couldn¡¯t see on the hand rest beside me to lower the windows in the car. I then listened closely to the sounds outside to use them as an indicator. I could hear the chattering of people and whizzing of cars in the distance. Judging by the sounds closest to us, there didn¡¯t seem to be anyone around. It truly felt like I was learning how to drive all over again. I changed the gear into reverse and backed up slowly out of my stall. I kept track of every single motion in my head down to the finest of details. With so much visual information lost, with no need to process all of it, it felt like my concentration was heightened more than it had ever been before. It was scary, but I somehow found a way to calm down a little by focusing my attention on every individual sound in the vicinity. Every second I was in motion I made sure to take internal mental notes. When I switched the transmission from park into drive, I visualized the parking lot in my head and imagined exactly where I was after I reversed out. I cautiously moved forward until I miraculously arrived at the parking lot¡¯s exit. I was at a critical juncture, merging into traffic. Good god, we¡¯re really going to die. This was a horrible idea. I wanted to cry, the anxiety I felt was enough to crush me. Despite there being no sounds of cars directly in front of me, I could still hear them approaching in the distance from my left side. I also heard the sound of footsteps shuffling about in front of the car along with chatter, so I knew there were pedestrians around to be careful of. When the pedestrians were out of the way, that was when it happened. Flap. Flap. Flap. Flap... Chapter 85. Chapter 85. Confused by the unexpected sound, I turned my head to the left. What appeared from the void ten meters away was a swarm of brightly lit up fireflies that shot right in front of me before they vanished ten meters to the right. Flap. Flap. Flap. Flap... Again. Flap. Flap. Flap. Flap... Again. Flap. Flap. Flap. Flap... And again. They were all grouped together in a rectangular box-like pattern as they flew by like a passing storm. They all passed by in orderly, single-file lines. Sometimes they would even crossover and follow in a different line of what I could only describe as a representation of the traffic on the road. They all flew through empty space without any sign of the ground beneath them. The only location with the ground visible to me was the path I drove on top of. Similar to when I walked forward, a rocky formation rapidly formed below in front of where the car traversed. The ground behind simultaneously collapsed and disappeared whenever the car moved forward. When there were no longer any fireflies, Boss broke the silence and said, ¡°hurry up and go, there¡¯s no traffic or pedestrians now.¡± I nervously pressed down on the accelerator slowly and positioned myself in line with where the swarm of fireflies had passed along. Boss didn¡¯t say anything further, I simply drove forward in silence while I maintained a constant speed. It didn¡¯t take long before another round of fireflies started flying by my sides. There were some that changed into the lane directly in front of me. I sped up a bit so I could keep them within the ten-meter radius which they could be seen. ¡°You¡¯re doing a lot better than I expected. Are you actually fine now?¡± ¡°Yeah. I am.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lie, right? You still look terrified.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of anything, it¡¯s your imagination.¡± ¡°Black, remember the colors I see? Your body appears completely black to me right now. Naturally, I can tell whether you¡¯re hallucinating or not.¡± ¡°Right... I forgot about that.¡± More like, I didn¡¯t take her seriously. We maintained our silence after that little exchange and I continued driving further into the void behind the swarm of fireflies. You wouldn¡¯t fully understand it unless you tried it, but driving in a state where visibility was completely impaired was one of the most nerve-wracking and stressful things possible. Driving in a storm where your windshield was constantly obstructed by rain, snow, frost or fog no matter how quickly your wipers were running was horrifying enough, but this was countless times worse.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. After a while, my boss occasionally gave instructions on when to make turns; with her assistance, it didn¡¯t take long before we arrived at her place. We stopped for a short moment and she collected a change of clothes. She also retrieved her driver¡¯s license and we switched sides, the mental burden was too great for me to bear with so I let her drive us the rest of the way to work. I was immensely thankful that she really didn¡¯t lose it to a dog. At least for the time being, it was far from a laughing matter for me if the dog really ate it. It was too taxing on me to drive like this, and I definitely didn¡¯t plan to drive again any time soon unless the world seen through my eyes returned to normal. I figured I¡¯d leave the car parked up at work if things didn¡¯t get better and I resolved myself to take the bus back after work today. When we arrived at work, we went our separate ways. From that point on, Boss disappeared from my field of view. When I entered the office, I could hear the chatter of the workers all around me, but I couldn¡¯t see them like I could with my boss. Through my memories of the office, I made my way over to where my desk was located, but I couldn¡¯t accomplish much as I couldn¡¯t see a thing. I could only sit in the chair behind the desk I couldn¡¯t see and pretend I was diligently working. From my perspective, I was sitting on a void in space. To the others around me who could see me, I appeared perfectly fine. Some coworkers occasionally came over to ask for advice on whatever they were working on. Unfortunately, the only thing I could do was tell them common reasons for the problems they experienced. Somehow, I managed to bullshit my way through the day, but I was disappointed because I completed none of the work assigned to me. With my present state, there was literally no way for me to work on anything. Gradually I was driven to madness with how slowly time passed by when I had nothing to do in the empty void. The only thing I found I could do to pass the time was to occasionally ask Siri what time it was. I did that all the way until it was finally the end of my shift. When my shift was over, I declined any invitations from my coworkers and immediately departed to avoid anyone catching onto my unnatural behavior. I only prayed to myself that things returned to normal by tomorrow. Luckily, I remembered the location of the bus stop and I was able to use voice over on my phone to find out when the next bus was scheduled to arrive. After I waited for ten minutes with my eyes glued to the ground where I assumed the bus stop was located, I heard the sound of a pressure valve being released and I knew it had finally arrived. When I looked up, I found a long rectangular swarm of fireflies with a door shaped gap at the front. Thankfully, there was only one bus on this route, so was certain I had the right one. I got on the bus and fumbled about while I fiddled with the invisible change in my hand, trying to put it into the coin slot beside the bus driver. After I felt it up a bit, I found the opening and dropped the change in. I held onto the side rails as I moved toward the back of the bus. It was my intention to get to the back of the bus, but unfortunately, I kept bumping into the invisible crowd of passengers. When I reached the middle of the bus, I stopped then waited patiently and listened to the system calling out the intersections. As time continually flowed by, the bus became more and more packed until I was squished up against an invisible wall that couldn¡¯t be seen. The sounds of chatter grew louder and louder as voices came in from all directions. After some time, unable to match the origin to each individual sound, I grew disoriented, lost, and nauseous. The sounds of people breathing around me, I could hear many, but I couldn¡¯t see them. As all the different noises blended together, I grew warier and more dreadful toward the unseen environment around me. For me, even a simple bus ride was no longer a simple bus ride any longer. If I had to continue on like this for much longer, I would certainly lose my sanity. I never knew how scary it would be to be unable to see all the mundane scenes in the world. To become completely isolated from society as an outcast, all alone with nobody there to help me. I was mortified. I wanted to escape. I wanted to run away, but I couldn¡¯t. To begin with, I didn¡¯t know where running away would lead me to. I could only force myself to stand there amidst the chaotic sounds swirling about all around me, helpless to resist as it attacked and slowly chipped away at my sanity. Chapter 86. Chapter 86. When I finally heard my intersection called amidst all the background noise, I immediately reached out into the darkness to my side and pulled on where I assumed the cable was located. Once the rocky platform below my feet no longer disintegrated behind me, I pushed out with my hand against the door concealed within the darkness. I jumped off the bus when the door opened up then struggled through the darkness and somehow made my way back to my apartment by relying on my memories of the geographic area. I counted my steps carefully and made sure each step I took was evenly spaced apart in case I had to do this again in the future. I took the stairs to make sure I was on the correct floor and counted the doors by touching the walls by my side. When I finally returned to my unit, I collapsed onto the floor from mental exhaustion. I was mentally taxed and fatigued to an unbelievable extreme after only a single day of this hell where I could no longer see the world around me. I made the day sound simple and easy, but it was a truly horrifying experience I didn¡¯t want to go through again. I didn¡¯t have the strength to make it to the bed and I passed out on the ground at the entrance. When I eventually regained consciousness, I immediately asked Siri for the time and found I¡¯d been out for a solid ten hours already. I was now both starving and weak. Using the little strength I had, I made my way to the kitchen and felt around inside the freezer and found a frozen TV dinner. To my dismay, I still couldn¡¯t see a single thing, but I still somehow successfully popped it in the microwave and heated it up. When I took it out of the microwave, I got a whiff of the smell and it left my mouth watering just thinking about biting into its tendery goodness. I didn¡¯t hold back, I immediately grabbed a plastic fork from the cupboard and bit down into the fried chicken breast. With my other four senses heightened I expected it would taste even better than ever; however¡­ nothing. I bit down a second time thinking I¡¯d just been mistaken. Once again, there was not even the slightest taste. The tiny pleasure I had derived from the thought of satiating my hunger was suddenly robbed from me. The small smile that bloomed on my face from the simple act of eating a meal slowly disappeared as a new fear crept into my mind. If I lost two senses, what would stop me from losing more? I broke out into uncontrollable trembling. Despite now being aware of this possibility, I had no way to stop it. I wracked my brain for several hours, but it was to no avail. In no time at all, it was already time for my shift at work again. I contemplated asking for some time off, but even if I sat around at home, there wasn¡¯t anything I could really do here.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I¡¯m not some sort of mad scientist who can give senses back to someone who has lost them through some random invention I cook up in a day. I didn¡¯t have any sort of mystical ability like that. I was just a normal man who had some experience in the field of electrical engineering, that was all. Even if I could make something, without the ability to see it, I¡¯d be completely powerless to create anything that would be useful to the immediate crisis I faced. I may still be able to move around by memory for the time being, but creating something new that I can use requires me to see what I am doing with fine precision. If it were any of my other senses I lost first, I might have stood a better chance. As things stood, I could only play the waiting game and see what happened tomorrow. Dejectedly, I followed the path that I painstakingly mapped out the day before in my mind and took the bus to work again. It was another day where I barely scraped through without anyone noticing anything was off. Sadly, I didn¡¯t run into boss today, so it was another day spent completely alone in the emotionless empty void. When I arrived home, I was exhausted once again, but this time I at least made it to my bed and collapsed on top of it. As I laid there motionless on my bed, I caught a hint of a familiar scent that somewhat put me at ease. It was the one that I smelled on my bed when I first woke up and discovered Boss using the shower in my apartment yesterday. As time slowly ticked forward, my anxiety was soothed by her lingering scent. Before I completely passed out, I prayed deep down in my heart that my hunch was wrong and when I woke up the hallucination would come to an end. The night passed and morning arrived soon after. When I opened my eyes, the world was still an empty void and I still couldn¡¯t taste the inside of my mouth. The scent that still lingered previously which kept me calm throughout the night was also gone. I really was being picked apart one sense at a time after all. Why though? Why me? Unable to find any sort of reason, I curled myself up into a ball on the bed and buried my head in my arms. Just like the day before, I thought, and I thought, overall the possibilities, until I was brought back to reality when my alarm went off again. It was already time for work before I knew it. I felt a dreadful weight that bore down on my body when I stood up from the bed. Continuing through another day of this was truly unbearable to the point I once again considered skipping out on work. Despite how I felt, I forced myself to get to work regardless of my circumstances. Only two senses remained. I knew I was in deep trouble if I lost another. I was on my last leg and I knew I had to depend on someone if I wanted to survive like this. Thus, when I arrived at work, the first thing I did was seek out the familiar figure of that boss of mine, the woman who¡¯d recently been deeply engraved into my memory. For some reason, she was the only one I could still see in this world. I didn¡¯t know why that was the case, but right now, she really was my only lifeline remaining. Chapter 87. Chapter 87. Was I scared of becoming truly isolated and alone? Of course I was. I was terrified of that outcome. Despite how I maintained a certain distance between myself and everyone else, just the thought of a situation where I was left in a completely isolated world, where nothing ever changed, all on my own without any sort of entertainment... I didn¡¯t even want to imagine it. If I wasn¡¯t already insane, it would without any doubt be the straw that broke the camel¡¯s back. Not long after I entered the building, I found my boss. I saw her perfectly, but it seemed like she couldn¡¯t see me at all; I felt in front of me and discovered the door to her office was closed. I gulped down nervously and tapped on the invisible door. Knock. Knock. Knock... It was a simple knock, yet it reverberated loudly within the void. The sound overlapped in a crescendoing echo that slightly pained my ears. She didn¡¯t immediately say anything. Instead, she appeared hard at work with her eyes glued to her desk, diligently reading a report, but a short moment later, she looked up in my direction and said, ¡°You may enter.¡± ¡°Oh? Mr. Genovese? It¡¯s rare to see you coming to seek me out. Is something troubling you? Could it be you had a change of heart and missed me so much you couldn¡¯t hold back and wanted to bed me?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not wrong.¡± ¡°Eh? Sorry, I thought I misheard just now. Can you repeat what you just said again?¡± ¡°Can you please spend the night with me?¡± She looked at me with her mouth hanging slightly ajar like she was shocked by what she¡¯d heard. ¡°Mr. Genovese, do you realize what you are saying to your superior right now? Are you really insinuating you want to sleep with me?¡± ¡°I do realize what I¡¯ve said sounds crazy and I am fully aware it is completely inappropriate; if you want to fire me I will resign immediately. But before that, please sleep with me- no, I meant, spend the night with me. I never specifically said I wanted you to sleep with me. I just want you to spend the night with me. Just once.¡± ¡°Hmm? I don¡¯t know Mr. Genovese. Should I? What is there for me to gain through a negotiation like this with no merit to me?¡± ¡°Negotiation? I¡¯m begging you. I¡¯m really at my wit''s end and I have no one else I can turn to or rely on.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, Mr. Genovese. It doesn¡¯t seem like it would be a good idea like you previously mentioned.¡± ¡°You¡­ was this why you didn¡¯t push me for an answer about the hallucination I was having back then? Did you expect this would happen and know I¡¯d be left with no other choice but to rely on you in the end?¡± ¡°What are you talking about, Mr. Genovese? How could I possibly plot something devious like that? I¡¯m just a simple woman trying to run her business.¡±Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°You¡¯re anything but a simple woman. You¡¯re just a devil.¡± ¡°Devilish woman? Is that how you address the woman whom you are asking a great favor of?¡± ¡°What do I need to do for you to agree? Work for free for the rest of my life?¡± Her eyes opened up wide like she¡¯d just been given a great idea she¡¯d never thought of before. She suddenly sported an expression that screamed, ¡®You¡¯re a bloody genius. Why didn¡¯t I think of that sooner?¡¯ ¡°I was just going to have you promise to always call me by name for the rest of your life when we¡¯re alone together, but I actually like your idea a lot more.¡± ¡°V-V-Val. I choose your suggestion. Please spare me of a life wrought of slavery.¡± ¡°What? You can¡¯t choose yourself. It¡¯s my choice, you don¡¯t have any bargaining chips you know.¡± ¡°Anything but slavery. Val, I¡¯ll promise one more thing aside from calling you by name.¡± She narrowed her eyes and shot a daring grin at me, more than eager to hear me out. ¡°I promise. No matter what it is, just so long as it is not something that would incriminate me, I¡¯ll oblige.¡± She raised her index finger, rested it atop her lower lip, and said suggestively with pure interest written on her face, ¡°Then¡­ make my heart skip a beat with a kiss. If you dare that is.¡± ¡°That¡¯s-¡± ¡°If you fail the first time, you¡¯ll have to keep trying until you succeed. If you say another word before accomplishing this, the deal is off.¡± I returned her gaze with uncertainty in my eyes. To begin with, was it really possible to make her heart skip a beat from a simple kiss? Was she trying to scam me here? When she noticed my hesitation, she placed her elbow on the desk and propped her chin up with her thumb. With a grin, she repeatedly tapped on her lower lip with her index finger provocatively. Left with no other choice, I approached her and stood in front of what I presumed was her desk. I leaned forward over her desk and watched as she slowly closed her eyes when our faces were only a few centimeters apart. When I confirmed her eyes were completely shut, I pussied out and pressed my lips against the back of my hand, then pressed it against her lips. It didn¡¯t take long before she opened her eyes disgruntledly and pieced together what I¡¯d done. ¡°Mr. Genovese, what¡¯s the meaning of this?¡± ¡°Were you surprised by my bold kiss just now?¡± ¡°You-¡° ¡°Were you surprised or not?¡± With an annoyed expression plastered all over her face, she wore a deep frown, clearly not amused. ¡°Yes or no?¡± It appeared she¡¯d caught on to what my game was as she struggled to answer me. ¡°Well?¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Shut it. I was surprised, but just because I was a little surprised doesn¡¯t mean my heart skipped a beat just now. So kiss me again on the lips. You hear me? The lips!¡± ¡°No no no. Your heart skipping a beat doesn¡¯t need to be a literal saying. It can also be interpreted as a metaphor for being surprised. You can¡¯t go back on your word boss. It would set a bad example for all your employees. Also, you never said to make your heart skip a beat by kissing you on the lips, you only said with a kiss; not properly specifying the part of my body you wanted to be kissed with, you can¡¯t just change the rules as you like. If we were to make an analogy, it would be like not providing all the design parameters for something you want an engineer to make for you, then asking for a full refund despite the engineer fulfilling all the requirements.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese. You may leave.¡± ¡°Eh? Are you really going back on your word?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not. I¡¯ll see you after work. I¡¯m not paying you to stand around here just to do nothing all day.¡± ¡°Ah. Right. Sorry.¡± As I exited her office I heard when she grumbled under her breath in frustration. ¡°Tch. Annoying. Cheapskate. Con artist. Coward. Beta.¡± Chapter 88. Chapter 88. The day inevitably passed by with me unable to get anything done again. I tried to make it look like I was busy by occasionally getting up and going to the washroom or wandering around like I was looking for someone. Sometimes I heard voices call out to me from the darkness and I was forced to answer any questions they had. Again, I could only make general conjectures based upon what they told me about the problem. Whenever they asked if I could take a look, I was forced to flee. I just claimed I was too busy with an important assignment from the boss. I did my best to try and adapt as fast as possible to this lifestyle by making use of the limited time I had to memorize the building¡¯s layout. I counted the number of steps and committed them to memory as I mapped it all out in my head. If I really lost my remaining two senses, how would I possibly be able to survive on my own? I knew that sort of thing was impossible. In spite of understanding how futile my little struggle was, I thought, and I thought over it endlessly as I wandered about everywhere. I¡¯d never thought so much about anything as I had over the last two days. A life without senses, was it considered a life at all? Before I realized it, my shift was already over and I heard people in the background saying their goodbyes. I confirmed the time with Siri and it was true, my shift was already over. Another day had been wasted without finding any answers about how to escape this nightmarish reality. ¡°Mr. Genovese, are you taking a bus today?¡± It was none other than the voice of the person I¡¯d placed my trust in. ¡°I was planning to, but could you give me a ride?¡± ¡°Me? My car is still in the shop. They keep stalling and it¡¯s really getting on my nerves.¡± ¡°Still? How about using my car then?¡± ¡°Hmm. Why don¡¯t we just take the bus together? I¡¯ve always wanted to bus with someone I know.¡± ¡°Okay... I guess.¡± If I took it with her, maybe it wouldn''t be as mentally taxing as the last few times. That was my line of wishful thinking. It would be good to get as much practice in while I still could. Driving in this state was far too dangerous. If I continually lost my senses at the present rate, taking the bus would be my only means of survival if I was left on my own. I followed behind Boss without a word as I anxiously watched her back, afraid it too would soon disappear. She didn¡¯t say anything, but her presence alone was enough to keep me sane right now. We boarded the bus together and she took a seat near the front. I stood directly in front of her looking through one of the rectangular gaps in the peculiar formation of fireflies. Outside the gap, there were countless swarms of fireflies traveling alongside and behind us.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Just what is it you¡¯re seeing right now?¡± ¡°Nothing. Only you and some fireflies.¡± ¡°So everyone else except me is as insignificant as a firefly in your eyes? So... what you¡¯re saying is, you only have eyes for me? Should I take that as a confession of your undying love?¡± ¡°Your choice. Even I don¡¯t know what the meaning behind it is. Perhaps there may not even be any meaning behind any of it.¡± ¡°You really have the worst way to serenade a woman with words.¡± ¡°Mm. I won¡¯t deny that. It¡¯s the truth after all.¡± When it was our stop, we got off and entered my apartment building. Just like the last two days, there wasn¡¯t anything different. Once we reached my unit, I took a shower while I could still feel the soothing warmth of water running over my body. After I refreshed myself in the shower, I proceeded to my bed. It was just another boring day in my life, but it felt far too different from the normal life I was used to. I was drained again and I wasn¡¯t in the mood to joke around about it. Each second that passed by, my awareness that I was one second closer to losing something important grew more and more distinct in my mind. It was like a guillotine constantly hung down over my head. It could fall the second I closed my eyes and failed to reopen them. It was like knowing the time of your death, but worse. It was worse than death as I would still be living through an empty soulless world devoid of all life. It was like being sentenced to eternal damnation while still being a part of the living. When Val finished her shower after me and noticed how despondent I was, she laid down on the bed beside me without saying anything. Her face was directly in front of mine, taking up my entire field of view. I was thankful. Right now, she was the only thing left in this abyssal world that I could depend on. How did things come to this? When did I become so weak? Why am I so pathetic? Why do I have to suffer through something like this? Isn¡¯t this world too unfair and unforgiving? Many other questions floated through my mind as time slowly ticked by. Warm. In my zoned out state, that single word came to mind. When I focused on the origin of that warmth, I immediately discovered what it was. She¡¯d wrapped her arms around my head pulling me close to her body. My head was pressed firmly against her chest. I didn¡¯t realize when it happened, but I chose not to pull away. Her warmth was the only thing I had right now, and I didn¡¯t want it to disappear. I was so terrified that it too would leave me that I returned her embrace. I was really pathetic right now. I knew that. Uncertainty towards my future had truly left me crippled. With her presence giving me a strange sense of security and reassurance, I fell asleep in her arms. ... When I woke up, this time, the darkness was gone. The world had returned. The sight of my bed, the walls, everything was back. Though she was gone. In a panic, I jumped off my bed and searched everywhere in my apartment, but she was nowhere to be found. I rushed to work and asked everybody if they¡¯d seen her, but whenever I asked about her, they only gave me a weird look like there was something wrong with me. When I asked them about it, my coworkers told me there was no such woman in our company. They even claimed our boss was an old middle-aged man. I refused to believe them and went to her place only to find an abandoned lot. There was nothing there. There was no trace of her. It was like she¡¯d disappeared from the face of the Earth without any evidence of her having existed. I was completely devastated. I fell to my knees and cried out in madness towards the sky. I shut my eyes tightly from the overbearing pain in my heart, but no matter how I cried out to her, she never returned. ¡­ Chapter 89. Chapter 89. The next time I opened my eyes I found a familiar barren scenery. I¡¯d returned to the empty void. As far as the eye could see, there only existed darkness. I soon understood what had happened. It was cruel. Too cruel. Instead of waking up from this nightmare, I¡¯d woken up in a dream world where the world had returned, but Val had completely disappeared. When I really woke up this time, the first thing I noticed was the numb sensation from my body. Or rather than calling it numbness, it was more like I just didn¡¯t feel anything. I could feel neither the warmth of my own body or the cold from the once chilly room. As for Val- Val? Where? Panicked, I used my hands to examine my surroundings. I couldn¡¯t feel that anything was there, but tracing my hand across the surface of the bed, it was blocked by an unseen obstruction and I couldn¡¯t move it further. I listened closely and discovered I could still hear breathing in front of me along with the rustling of clothes. I was wrong, it wasn¡¯t that she left; rather than her leaving, it was just that I didn¡¯t only lose the ability to feel things, I lost my ability to see the one thing that kept me sane. The only thing I had left now was my ability to hear her. All I could rely on now was the sound of her voice. I was terrified. What would happen when I lost even that? Would it be better off if I just killed myself now before I turned into a complete invalid? Should I? It would be better than continuing to be tortured like this while I¡¯m forced to watch on helplessly as I lose everything important to me one by one. What good was there in continuing on in a world where I was completely disconnected and isolated from everything, unable to ever return to normal? Wasn¡¯t my present situation like being born in reverse? Like I was actually growing younger and returning to the origin of life as a fetus without any developed senses? At the same time, it could be said I was just aging and becoming old to the point all my senses had fully deteriorated back into nothing. Didn¡¯t that mean the end of life was simply returning to one¡¯s original state when they were first brought into this world? Was I actually really just dying at a much faster rate than others right now and not actually hallucinating all of this? Did I just incorrectly assume it was a hallucination when it was actually reality this entire time? ¡°Dio, can you move your hand?¡± I pulled my hand away when I finally heard her say something. I didn¡¯t know where I touched her, but it couldn¡¯t have been appropriate based upon the slightly bashful sound in her voice when she asked me just now.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Dio, what¡¯s wrong with you? Your eyes... ¡± ¡°My eyes are what?¡± ¡°Well¡­ they¡¯re completely white.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Dio, would you at least tell me what it is you¡¯re going through now? It really looks like you¡¯re in a bind.¡± After struggling for a while, I decided to come clean. After all, she was the only one I¡¯d be able to rely on to survive through whatever it was I was experiencing right now. ¡°Val, to put it in the simplest of terms, I¡¯ve lost all my senses except for the ability to hear. The first sense I lost was the ability to see, but back then I was still able to see you for some reason. However, as of today, I can no longer see you. I can only hear your voice.¡± ¡°What? How is that possible?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t understand either. I thought everything was just a hallucination and I¡¯d eventually return to normal. I truly thought I¡¯d be back to normal in no time, but it¡¯s already been four days. Each day I lost one of my senses. At this rate, if I even lose my hearing, I¡¯ll surely go insane and try to kill myself.¡± ¡°Dio, you can¡¯t just give up so easily.¡± ¡°Why not? If I have to live like this forever, completely crippled and incapable of doing anything by myself, what is the point in continuing to struggle through a life filled with such suffering?¡± ¡°Then, how about we make a deal Dio?¡± ¡°A deal? What are you talking about? What would there be to gain from making a deal with a cripple like me?¡± ¡°There¡¯s not really anything for me to gain. In fact, rather than gaining anything, I have a lot to lose by making this deal with you.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°How about this? I will take care of you even if you lose all your senses and become completely crippled.¡± ¡°Wha-¡± ¡°Let me finish before you interrupt me.¡± ¡°... sorry... go ahead.¡± I felt endlessly useless, ashamed of myself, and incompetent. The fact that I felt my spirits raise a bit when I heard her words left me internally disgusted with myself. ¡°I will stay by your side the entire time. If you reach a point where you can no longer take it anymore and truly do wish to die, just ask me to kill you and I will put you out of your misery.¡± ¡°Are you insane! Do you even realize what you¡¯re saying? Assisted suicide? If you just leave me alone, I¡¯ll just die anyway. What purpose is there in you killing me when I¡¯d just die either way? Whether you killed me or left me alone, I¡¯d die in both cases.¡± ¡°It¡¯s quite simple really, I just don¡¯t want to see the guy I¡¯m interested in killing himself. If the man I¡¯m interested in is going to commit suicide, I¡¯d rather kill him with my own two hands.¡± ¡°Spoken like a true psychopath.¡± ¡°Are you happy?¡± ¡°To be killed by a woman who claims she loves me?¡± ¡°Naturally.¡± ¡°You¡¯re insane.¡± ¡°Even if I¡¯m insane, you¡¯re still actually happy deep down, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°If¡­ if I had to choose between committing suicide from despair or dying at the hands of someone who cared about my well being¡­ as crazy as it sounds, I think the latter might not be such a bad option.¡± ¡°See?¡± ¡°I¡¯d be doing you an injustice if I really asked you to kill me.¡± ¡°Then just don¡¯t wish to die and you won¡¯t need to have me shoulder the weight of your death.¡± ¡°You¡¯re... unfair when you put it like that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s to make sure you can¡¯t run away again. Just rely on me a bit for a change.¡± Chapter 90. Chapter 90. Rely on somebody else? It felt like it¡¯d been ages since someone had asked me to do something like that. Was I actually slightly moved by her strange proposal? ¡°Why would you go so far for me? I don¡¯t understand anything about you, we only just recently met, so why?¡± ¡°Who knows? Maybe it¡¯s love?¡± ¡°Yeah right. I don¡¯t buy into that one bit. You must have some sort of hidden agenda.¡± ¡°You¡¯re always so skeptical to believe that someone truly loves you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard for the rational side of me to fully believe in something deluded and short-lived as love. Love comes and goes like the wind. One moment you think you love someone, the next you may end up fearing them. Other times, you delude yourself into believing you love someone when in reality you were simply caught up in the heat of the moment and jumped the gun. Feelings that lay dormant may reignite under certain extreme circumstances, but is that true love, or is it a fool¡¯s love who only wishes to repeat the same mistakes of his past?¡± ¡°What are you trying to get all philosophical and serious about it for? If you always live in such a pessimistic and skeptical manner, with only overly depressing thoughts on your mind like that, you¡¯ll never find any sort of happiness or salvation in your lifetime.¡± ¡°Does such a convenient thing like happiness and salvation truly exist in this world or the world I see right now?¡± ¡°Who knows? How do you expect me to know whether it really exists or not?¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t even know, aren¡¯t you just spouting nothing but hypocrisy?¡± ¡°It¡¯s true that I may not know; however, even if I don¡¯t know, there is one thing I can say for certain. If you only avert your eyes, look the other way, and always go in with the mindset that it doesn¡¯t exist, will you ever be able to discover whether it really exists when you¡¯re not looking properly to find it in the first place?¡± When she countered me, I hung my head low in deep thought as I contemplated over her words. She had a point, if you didn¡¯t look for it, you would surely never see it even if it was right in front of you the entire time. Without realizing it, she¡¯d successfully diverted my thoughts away from dying, towards a subject that left me rather puzzled. ¡°Val¡­ by any chance, do you love me?¡± ¡°You¡¯re really an idiot. Why are you asking such a stupid question?¡± ¡°I see.¡± She didn¡¯t directly answer with a yes or no. Thanks to the vague response, I failed to determine whether I was an idiot because she thought it was blatantly obvious that she loved me, or whether it was because she didn¡¯t love me.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I wouldn¡¯t say I was particularly dense or anything, it¡¯s just that I was extremely wary when it came to the word ¡®love.¡¯ Once bitten, twice shy; five times bitten, please just die. If there was an extension to the saying, I¡¯m sure it would be along those lines. But no matter how I racked my brains over it, it still made little to no sense to me how anyone our age would claim that they fell in love so quickly. We were practically strangers who hardly interacted with one another before I became an employee at her company. ¡°Anyway, what do you want to do with your last day before you lose your sense of hearing?¡± ¡°There isn¡¯t really anything in particular I want to do, but if I really had to choose something¡­ I¡¯d like to memorize the path to work without relying on any of my senses.¡± ¡°Why would you want to do something like that? Even if you lose all your senses, we can still communicate. I can also just take you around anywhere you want to go. You don¡¯t need to do everything on your own.¡± ¡°Even if I can rely on you, there could be times of emergency where I¡¯m put in a situation where I¡¯m not with you. It would be best to have some sort of contingency plan in a worst-case scenario like that, right?¡± ¡°I suppose so.¡± ¡°By the way, you just said we could communicate even if I lose all five of my senses, how exactly is that possible?¡± ¡°Of course we can.¡± ¡°How?¡± ¡°You can still talk to me even without your senses. You can ask me yes or no questions and I can move your hand in a direction to indicate yes, no, or neither. For yes I can move your hand to the right. For no, I can move it to the left. For neither, I can move your hand forward. It¡¯s pretty simple, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°I can receive answers from you, but I can never receive questions from you like that. Fully communicating with each other is still impossible like that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s still better than nothing though. Also, if there is something I want you to know, I¡¯ll move your hand up and down. You can then try to guess what it is I want to tell you.¡± ¡°That seems worse than a game of twenty questions.¡± With a playful tone in her voice, she replied, ¡°¡®as they say, ¡®just get gud...¡¯ at reading a woman to avoid losing then.¡± ¡°Understanding the mysteries of a woman¡¯s mind¡­ don¡¯t you think you¡¯re setting the bar too high?¡± Especially when you considered how all my romantic interactions with women were all bats who fell off the major genera tree often referred to as shit crazy. ¡°Not at all.¡± Out of nowhere, she called out my name loudly as if she were struck by some sort of revelation. ¡°Dio! I just realized something, you¡¯ve been going along with this, but I forgot you won¡¯t be able to feel, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right.¡± ¡°I forgot you wouldn¡¯t be able to feel the directions I¡¯m pulling your hand in, but you went along with it as if it would work anyway. You also mentioned how you lost your vision first, but could still see me in the beginning, right?¡± ¡°Yes, that''s correct.¡± ¡°Then, the reason you agreed my idea would work was because of the fact you could still see your body, right? It¡¯s just the world around you that you can¡¯t see, am I correct in assuming that?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Dio, this is a serious question. Do you know sign language?¡± ¡°Ye-¡± Before I finished my confirmation, I froze up and immediately realized what she meant by her question. ¡°Val... you know sign language?¡± ¡°Yes, I do. It looks like you understand where I¡¯m going with this.¡± ¡°You¡­ you intend to use my hands to form sign language symbols just so we can communicate and understand each other?¡± ¡°Pretty smart, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°But, that¡¯s¡­ too much of a burden on you, isn¡¯t it? Every conversation we have, you intend to go through all that effort¡­ for me?¡± ¡°Why not?¡± Chapter 91. Chapter 91. I felt a big lump in my throat. I couldn¡¯t hold back the strange feeling. I crossed my legs, hung my head low, and cupped my eyes in the palms of my hands. What could I really say to her? Even when I was about to be completely abandoned by the world, she¡¯d still be willing to be my eyes and ears? She¡¯s even willing to be the only person in the world left by my side who could communicate with me in this darkness? Should I be moved? Of course I should, and I did feel moved; but at the same time, I felt crushing guilt towards the idea of living as a parasite, leaching off of her for the rest of our lives. If I never recovered and stayed like this forever, there would surely come a day where I selfishly asked her to put me out of my misery. From the bottom of my heart, I didn¡¯t want to become someone like that. ¡°Val, you should stop. You¡¯re going too far for me.¡± I¡¯ll be... crushed by your sincerity. ¡°I¡¯m just doing what I want to do.¡± I really wanted to see what kind of expression she had on her face right now; but I couldn¡¯t, no matter how badly I wished to see it. ¡°Dio, we should head to work.¡± I didn¡¯t want to go. I felt horrible about having to rely on her for everything, but I still wanted to try and memorize enough so I might be able to acquire some means to rely on myself even when I lost all my senses. Even I recognized I was delusional to think that I could ever rely on myself for anything if I lost all my senses; despite that, I didn¡¯t want to be labeled an invalid. My arm raised up in front of me, and my body was pulled forward. I heard the sound of the door open and knew we were already outside. It was the same void as the previous three days. Nothing had changed. We took the bus again today, however, I spent the majority of the day pulled around by Val as she assisted me with memorizing the layout of the office and the number of steps required to get around from one place to the next. I was able to practice quite a bit with her assistance and guidance compared to when I tried alone before. We spent a lot of time talking and chatting about random topics like favorite foods, places we¡¯d like to visit, people we found interesting, our dreams, aspirations, and countless other little things. Before I knew it, my shift was over without getting any real work completed again. I should be fired. I didn¡¯t have the ability to work any longer. Val should have realized that by now. I couldn¡¯t understand why she was still considerate of my situation when she knew I was just a waste of the company¡¯s time and resources. Val helped me practice getting to and from work. We took several trips back and forth between my apartment and work. Thanks to this, I successfully memorized the bus schedule for the route I was taking. Val said if the schedule changed in the future, she would let me know. She would also let me know whenever twenty-four hours passed so I could recalibrate the internal clock in my head. I was forced to constantly keep track of what time it was from now on, I would no longer be able to rely on the master of time checking, the all-knowing Siri when tomorrow came. Val really ran me ragged without letting me slack off the entire day. She dragged me from place to place until it was late into the night. When we eventually arrived back at my place, I didn¡¯t want to go to sleep. I was terrified of losing everything. I was scared of what the next day held in store for me. A perpetual state of nothingness, that was the only thing I could imagine the world would become when I woke up next. This was what it truly meant to fear nothing. When one said they feared nothing, what they really meant was they feared the concept of what nothing entailed, not that they had no fear at all. I couldn¡¯t see her, but I could still hear her breathing directly beside me on the bed. By the sound alone, I knew she was facing and looking directly at me.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Tomorrow was the weekend and it was our day off so we didn¡¯t have to go into work when we woke up. As such, we continued to talk all through the night until she eventually stopped responding. Initially, I thought the time had come, but I could still hear her breathing, she was actually just asleep. Normally I¡¯d follow her lead and sleep, but I forcefully kept myself awake. The fear of a new day prevented me from falling asleep. All throughout the silent night, the only thing I was able to focus on was the sound of her rhythmic breathing in front of me. There was nothing else in this world aside from that. As time went on, my eyes grew heavy, but my mind was still a mess and reluctant to sleep. ¡­ In the end, I didn¡¯t sleep a wink. ¡°Dio, you¡¯re up already?¡± ¡°Yeah, I am.¡± ¡°You can still hear me?¡± ¡°Yeah, somehow I can.¡± ¡°The bags under your eyes look terrible. Did you actually get any sleep?¡± ¡°Yeah, I slept.¡± ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± ¡°I¡¯m really not.¡± ¡°You can drop the act. Are you that scared of what the world will become when you wake up next?¡± ¡°I¡­¡± ¡°What?¡± Of course I¡¯m scared. ¡°I¡¯m not.¡± But I couldn¡¯t admit it. It felt too embarrassing to admit that to her when she was willing to go so far for me. ¡°Liar.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine if you don¡¯t want to admit it, but what do you want to do today then?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°How about we go to a karaoke bar?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not much of a singer, and I also won¡¯t be able to read the lyrics.¡± ¡°Just pick songs you know the lyrics to. Or you could listen to the song while you¡¯re singing. You¡¯ll just be a bit offbeat.¡± ¡°I¡¯d really rather not.¡± ¡°Before you can¡¯t hear, don¡¯t you think you should utilize your ability to hear to the fullest?¡± ¡°Is karaoke even fun?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve never done it either. I¡¯ve never had the opportunity in the past to enjoy karaoke with what my profession was before I started up my electronics repair business.¡± ¡°Then why are you suggesting it if you¡¯ve never tried it?¡± ¡°Because I want you to be the first person I try it with.¡± ¡°I still won¡¯t go. It¡¯s too embarrassing to be seen at a karaoke bar.¡± ¡°Embarrassing even when you can¡¯t see?¡± ¡°I can still hear if people mock me.¡± ¡°Nobody¡¯s going to mock your singing, you¡¯re too self-conscious.¡± ¡°People will definitely mock me.¡± ¡°Then how about we just do karaoke here with just the two of us?¡± ¡°How would that work?¡± ¡°There are apps for karaoke obviously.¡± ¡°Oh. You¡¯re right, I didn¡¯t think of that.¡± Like that, we spent the entire day laughing and having a blast singing the day away like two drunken fools. I drank my problems away, but I knew the next time I woke up, instead of a hangover, what would be left of me¡­ the thought truly terrified me. I decided to forget about it for the time being though. Instead, I did as she suggested and enjoyed what could still be enjoyed. We both sucked at singing so I really didn¡¯t feel too bad. She was slightly offbeat, but her voice was pitch-perfect. She might have been humoring me by lowering her standards, or it may have just been the alcohol getting to her. Unlike her, I was against all expectations in time with the songs. I maintained the correct pitch when the vocals were lower, but when it came to high notes¡­ I was an utter joke. You could even say it was a crime against humanity when I tried to hit the high notes. I could tell she was tearing up whenever I forcefully tried to hit the high notes only to fail horribly. Either the note didn¡¯t come out at all, I¡¯d be too high, or I¡¯d just end up reverting an entire octave down after conceding a pitiful vocal defeat. In spite of the fun we had, no matter how I tried to forget about it, it was always at the back of my mind. For every second that passed, I drew one second closer to losing everything. The more I sang and drank my problems away, the more tired I felt, both mentally and physically despite not feeling it. When the day was over, my eyes were so heavy I could barely focus anymore. Though I still adamantly refused to sleep. I was well aware of what would happen when I did. Chapter 92. Chapter 92. For the second night in a row, the two of us slept on the same bed. I forcefully kept my eyes open by holding my eyelids in place with my fingers while I blankly stared up at where the ceiling should be. Due to my inability to feel anything, I never actually felt drunk. That was likely the only reason I could still stay awake in spite of ingesting so much alcohol. Even in spite of that, I occasionally found my eyes rolling backward. There were several occasions where I half passed out in a state of blankness. For the second night in a row, the only thing I could focus on amidst the silent night was the sound of her breathing as she peacefully slept by my side. When morning came and she woke up, we inevitably had a conversation similar to the one we had yesterday. She didn¡¯t push for me to go to sleep, but I knew I was already at my limit. She didn¡¯t ask me to do anything today out of concern for my health. Instead, she quietly stayed with me by my side on the bed. I couldn¡¯t see what she¡¯d done, but at some point, my body was forcibly moved by her. Now, instead of her breathing coming from my side, it came from overhead. My head had been repositioned on top of something. If I had to guess, it was likely her lap. My hair occasionally moved about in front of my eyes as though she were rustling her hand through it. Contrary to the previous day, she didn¡¯t talk nearly as much. The majority of the time we spent together today was in silence with the occasional random topic brought up. With how the day passed by, it really felt like I was on my deathbed. I was still scared. However, all things must come to an end. No good thing would last forever. Man must sleep, lest he dies a vain death. Even if that man felt no pain, that did not mean he could avoid sleep. Against my will, I eventually passed out. ¡­ I had another strange dream. It was a very short one. I was laying on the ground looking up into the void with listless eyes as blood flowed down the side of my head out of my ears. A pool of blood formed on the ground behind my head, but I didn¡¯t react to the pain almost as if I hadn¡¯t noticed it at all. The same scene repeated endlessly in my head, over and over again. ¡­ When I woke up, I could immediately tell something was wrong. I expected to not hear anything, but there was something slightly off. The sensation was similar to being underwater in a small concealed room. I heard the sound of air as if it flowed by my ears, but it echoed out endlessly inside my head. It reminded me of a time in university during an extremely cold winter where I was left with quite a scare. I never fully understood it, but back then both my ears felt like they¡¯d popped and caved in.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I was left with a very uncomfortable feeling in both of my ears back then. I was no biologist, but I did take an AP biology course in high school. I vaguely remembered there was a sac with a certain fluid in the ear. It kind of felt like the fluid in that sac had decreased or compressed due to the excessively cold weather that reached as low as minus fifty degrees Celsius with the wind chill. The result was every sound I heard echoed nonstop inside my skull until I felt nauseous and dizzy to the point of collapse. I couldn¡¯t stay on campus and I immediately escaped to somewhere quiet. The only way I was able to fix my ear problem was by applying negative pressure. I pushed water into my ear with my palm while I simultaneously applied suction by creating a weak vacuum force with the palm of my hand.. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t just the weather that caused this problem for me back then. It also happened anytime I slept on my sides. It happened whenever my head was pressed firmly against the pillow. I would sometimes wake up in horror to find I¡¯d partially lost my hearing like this. In all honesty, losing my hearing completely would have been less scary than being put into my present state where any sound I heard left me feeling disoriented and sick to my stomach. It was the absolute worst-case scenario that could have happened to me. I wouldn¡¯t be able to function at all with my hearing in this condition. ¡°D-d-d-d-d-di-d-d-d-o-d-d-di-o¡­¡± ¡°Ahhhhhhh!¡± ¡°A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah¡­¡± After I let out a scream, I raised my hand up forming a stop sign to signal her to not say anything. Even my own words echoed endlessly in my head. Was this done to simultaneously take away my ability to speak? Just how much would be taken from me? Why was this happening to me? I formed a few hand signals to explain my situation to her. I asked her to not say anything and informed her of how everything I heard echoed inside my head. Even the sounds she made when slightly moving around left me feeling ill. However, Val really didn¡¯t drop the ball, she immediately came up with a countermeasure when she understood the situation. She bought the best sound-canceling ear muffs money could afford. It helped quite a bit and the magnitude of the echoing in my head was substantially reduced. The echoes were still there to a certain degree, but it wasn¡¯t to the point that I couldn¡¯t stomach it. However, I still wasn¡¯t able to talk like this and I could only use sign language to communicate with her. In a way, it really wasn¡¯t only my hearing taken away from me, my ability to speak was simultaneously taken as a byproduct. It was truly malicious. Like someone or something was upset that I still had a way to communicate despite losing all my senses, so they¡¯d taken away my ability to speak as a bonus. Two for the price of one, I really got the shittiest bargain sale in the world. By this point, there really was nothing left to be taken aside from my life. If I could live through this hell, would things really return to normal though? Or was all of this just my new everyday reality? The longer this went on, the more uncertain I grew. Anxious was far from enough to describe how I felt. My body was casually pulled around by Val the entire day and once again, she took me to work. I really didn¡¯t know why I was there anymore. I had no way to accomplish anything, and instead of pretending to work at my desk like I¡¯d done last week, Val kept me by her side in her office. Unbeknownst to me, my nightmare had only just begun. The day came and went by without me accomplishing anything. I just sat there and occasionally had a few conversations with Val through sign language every now and then. Leaving her office was dangerous as my coworker¡¯s casual chatter in the background constantly echoed out loud and left me on the verge of collapse. It was to the point I¡¯d pass out even with the earmuffs I had on. Chapter 93. Chapter 93. One day. Two days. Three days. Four... Five... Six... Seven full days passed by in a flash with no sign of recovery in sight. By the seventh day in hell, I was on the verge of breaking down. I was losing it. My eyes were dead. I felt like a lost wandering soul with nowhere to go. Even when I knew she was right there beside me the entire time, I still felt unbearably alone. I¡¯d grown numb to being alive and seeing the same empty void day in and day out. It was only when I came out on the eighth day that there was some sort of change to the outside world. The moment she took me outside on that day, I was greeted by a cacophony of fireflies fluttering wings. They were everywhere. They had filled the void as far as I could see. However, the further we went from my apartment, the lower the density of fireflies remained in the surrounding area. By the time we were at the office, there were hardly any fireflies remaining. I was confounded by this sudden realization and for the first time in what felt like an eternity within these seven days, I was slightly intrigued. From the very beginning, the fireflies had been around from day one. Could the inauspicious fireflies actually hold some sort of secret after all? If I figured out their significance, would the world return to normal? This time when I was at work, I left Val¡¯s office on my own without her assistance. I told her I was going to the washroom and that she didn¡¯t need to show me the way. I didn¡¯t want to bother her with this if it turned out to be nothing. After a week of practice with Val, I¡¯d gotten much better navigating through the void. The chaotic sounds, despite the reduction from the air muffs, still left me feeling sick to my stomach even after these long seven days. No matter how much time passed, it was something I knew I¡¯d never grow accustomed to. I made my way to the bus stop and took out my wallet. Val helped me buy a bus pass, so all I had to do was flash it when the bus arrived and I was able to avoid fiddling with the invisible change I couldn¡¯t see or feel when trying to pay the fare. She was far too considerate, but it pained me deeply to rely so heavily on her for every little detail. The last week made me fully understand how dysfunctional a person without any senses truly was. The simplest of operations became extraordinarily difficult and even the slightest change in the environment became a monumental life-threatening hazard to me. Without Val leading the way, every step I took was like walking on a tightrope over a bottomless chasm.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. While I rode on the firefly bus, the name I gave it after lengthy internal deliberation; I looked out the window. I saw the usual firefly cars, but unlike before, there were now lone fireflies flying about everywhere. The closer we got to my apartment, the denser the firefly population became in the vicinity. When the bus stopped at the intersection where my apartment was located, I made my exit into the firefly infested world. I tread through the void carefully in the direction the fireflies grew more dense in search of the origin of what caused their sudden influx. It didn¡¯t take long before I realized that the fireflies all had one similarity, overall, they all flew in the same direction. They were also unnaturally moving from sparsely populated areas to a region increasingly dense in population. With that unnatural phenomenon, I was certain there had to be something attracting them all. It lit a small flame of hope in my heart while I desperately trudged through the cold heartless void. I was slightly convinced that it had to be the key to escape this nightmarish reality. The fireflies had been here from day one, and I never understood the mystery of what they represented in this world. The closer I got to the origin, the more quickened my pace. I was anxious. I wanted to be released from this desolate world where nothing existed; the sooner the better. As the distance decreased the closer I drew to the truth, the more ragged my breaths became. I couldn¡¯t feel the thumps in my chest, but I was certain I had a significantly elevated heartbeat. With the inability to feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins, it made me unsure whether I was really dead or alive. When I arrived at my final destination, where the fireflies had congregated, I was left confounded. At the origin was a single door created by fireflies whose lights gradually transitioned between on and off. It wasn¡¯t the strange door that left me confused, it was because based upon my memory, the door led to the unit directly beside mine. I started to doubt my memory and assumed that I somehow miscalculated my steps on the way here. It could very well be my own room and I might have made a simple mistake. I felt unnerved when I examined the door constructed by the fireflies. When I approached closer, I discovered both the frequency at which the light flickered in and out along with the intensity of the light given off by the fireflies was inversely proportional to the distance I was away from the firefly door. I backed away to verify this, and as expected, the emitted light returned to its previous state where the frequency and luminosity was notably lower. It screamed of sketchy, but I was desperate to escape from this world no matter what cost I paid. I extended my hand out to touch the door formed from fireflies, but the moment I did, they suddenly scattered in all directions in slow motion. They fled both towards and away from me as they created a peculiar flickering particle effect. When they scattered, what was revealed behind was a wide-eyed figure completely buried in lightless fireflies. A gruesome figure with insects veiling their entire appearance was all I could see amidst the flickering lights from the fireflies in the surroundings. My heart stopped momentarily as I staggered backward and called out in a panic, ¡°who are you!¡± My own question rattled my brain when my voice echoed out on repeat inside my head. I felt queasy and weak in the knees, just about ready to collapse from the spinning sensation brought on by lightheadedness. The figure instinctively replied to my abrupt question with a single word, ¡°Adele.¡± The instant I heard the voice, or rather; the moment the name registered in my head, the darkness suddenly expanded from the two of us as the crux, outwards, revealing the familiar scenery I¡¯d desperately longed for over the last two weeks. Chapter 94. Chapter 94. Before me, stood a girl in a white frilly tank top with straps and short pink hot pants. With a popsicle dangling between her lips, she looked back at me with surprise and confusion written all over her face. Her long straight white hair was of course, all too familiar to me, but I couldn¡¯t believe what I was seeing; thus without a second thought, I immediately fled and escaped from her. I hurried to my apartment, opened the door, then slammed it shut and locked it behind me. I slid to the ground with my back against the door while holding my head refusing to believe who I¡¯d just seen and where I¡¯d seen her. My neighbor? It couldn¡¯t be. Why? No, how could she be there? Just like this past week was an illusion, that was surely my eyes playing tricks on me again. Am I missing her despite everything that happened between us? Was the reason behind the change in the world due to my sense of loss from bottling up my feelings towards her? Just what is going on with me? Why are the hallucinations and strange dreams still happening? I thought that by moving on, putting things behind me, and by burying the hatchet something might change; but in reality, isn¡¯t everything still the same? Is it actually not my mind playing tricks on me? Am I really haunted by a vengeful ghost who¡¯s upset I¡¯m trying to avoid becoming their boyfriend at all costs? Like hell! Knock! Knock! Knock! Startled by the sudden knocks, my back inadvertently slammed against the door a bit. ¡°Mister, it¡¯s you, isn¡¯t it?¡± I naturally refused to answer. It was all just in my head. It was all in my head! She¡¯s not really there. Knock! Knock! Knock! ¡°I know you¡¯re there. At least say something!¡± Knock! Knock! Knock! Go away. ¡°Why did you lie to me and leave without saying anything?¡± Knock! Knock! Knock! Go away!This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Do you really hate me that much?¡± No. Knock! Knock! Knock! Get out of my head! You¡¯re not real! You¡¯re not Adele, you¡¯re an imposter! I don¡¯t know you. I don¡¯t know you. I don¡¯t know you! My nails were digging deep into the skin on top of my head, but I didn¡¯t feel the pain in the state I was presently in. I felt cornered. Trapped. With nowhere to run or hide. After I spent the last week completely alone in the darkness, I felt more vulnerable than ever. I was a nervous wreck and hysterical. When the knocks on the door finally died down, I took the chance to recompose myself. After several minutes passed by without any knocks, another knock finally came. I was taken by shock earlier, but I realized I¡¯d definitely overreacted as a result of the overwhelming rapid changes that had taken place in the world. I stood up, turned toward the door, and resolved myself to face whatever reality awaited me on the other side. I placed my hand on the doorknob, jerked it to the side, and flung the door open only for my eyes to land on the scenery of the tall buildings in the background through the long glass window that stretched from one end of the passage to the other. Adele was gone. I stepped out of my room in a rush and looked about left and right in a panic trying to locate her. I stopped in my tracks and froze in place when I saw someone I never expected to see. ¡°Mr. Genovese, you¡¯re so slow. We¡¯ll be late for work if you don¡¯t hurry.¡± My brain shut down. I heard her words, but I couldn¡¯t comprehend the present situation. ¡°Val¡­ why¡­ are you here? Shouldn¡¯t you... be at work?¡± ¡°What are you talking about? How can I already be at work? We just got up a few minutes ago.¡± ¡°What do you mean we just got up?¡± No. No. No. No. No. It can¡¯t be what I¡¯m thinking of. Tell me it¡¯s a misunderstanding. Please! While observing her look of confusion, chills continuously ran down my back. All the bones in my body were tingling in fear while I was overcome with a deep sense of sudden dread. Cold sweat immediately built up and I felt extremely dizzy and disoriented like I couldn¡¯t tell up from down or left from right. The world felt topsy-turvy, twisted, convoluted, and warped to the point I could hardly understand a thing. ¡°Mr. Genovese, is something wrong with you? You don¡¯t look too good.¡± ¡°Val¡­ what day is it today?¡± ¡°Tuesday obviously. You skipped yesterday after all. It¡¯s your fault I¡¯m here, did you already forget that.¡± Liquid accumulated at the ridge of my eyes and I nearly broke down on the spot. I was tired. So tired of it all. Two weeks. Two entire weeks flashed before me in the span of an instant? Everything was a delusion? It can¡¯t possibly be true. I fell to my knees powerlessly as my body slumped to the ground. ¡°Mr. Genovese?! What¡¯s wrong with you?!¡± I couldn¡¯t focus and it was difficult to comprehend anything she said. Chaotic thoughts ran rampant and wrought destruction through my mind. It was enough to make me want to just die. ¡°Uweh.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese?! Mr. Genovese! Can you hear me, Mr. Genovese! Mr. Genovese! Answer me!¡± My vision was locked on the ground that was painted with spaghettini. Whatever was previously in my stomach was plastered all over the ground. ¡°Cough. Cough.¡± I covered my mouth with my hand. When I examined my hand I realized it was stained with blood. In a drunken-like madness, Val¡¯s voice was drowned out in the distorted world seen through my eyes. Unable to process it, the world turned sideways and- ¡­ Chapter 95. Chapter 95. What happened to me? Where am I? A hospital room? Somehow, it looked familiar. ¡°It appears you¡¯re awake.¡± I turned in the direction the voice originated from and discovered a woman with dyed pinkish-purple hair that tapered off into a purple hue at the ends. Her name instantly came to mind, Maria Yayoi, my fourth ex. ¡°Maria, why are you here!¡± ¡°Oh? You know my name? You actually know of me¡­ How surprising. As for why I¡¯m here... if you do know me, then you should also know that I''m a doctor; it¡¯s only natural I¡¯d be in a hospital.¡± ¡°Of course I know you, how could I not know you after all the time we¡¯ve spent together?¡± ¡°I believe this is our first meeting though. You were admitted here after having a nervous breakdown related to your girlfriend¡­ or should I say ex considering how you were dumped? This should be your first time admitted to this hospital, right?¡± ¡°My first time?¡± ¡°Mr... Genovese, was it? There shouldn¡¯t have been any chance for us to have ever met before this, so how do you know my name already?¡± I looked to her side and noticed a calendar on the wall and somewhat understood what was going on. I must have been dreaming or something. It was two years ago that I first met Maria. When I met her back then, it was in this exact same manner. I¡¯d been kept captive by my third ex for an extended period of time, but at some point, she let me off the hook and left me alone. At the time I never understood why I¡¯d been let off the hook, it was only later that I realized it was thanks to my second ex. Though, by the time I regained my freedom, it was already far too late for me. My mind had collapsed and I had a nervous breakdown after my run-in with my third monster ex. I was hospitalized here and I initially became one of Maria¡¯s patients, later on, I turned into one of her guinea pigs. Before she used me for experimental purposes she helped me recover. Once I¡¯d grown mentally stable again, she showed her true colors. Throughout the process of my recovery, I naively fell in love with her. At least that was what I thought back then. Looking back on it now, it may have just been latching onto any kindness shown to me after a traumatic experience with another failed relationship. I was truly an idiot, it was practically a repeat of how I fell for my second ex. Having a moment of weakness exploited so easily. Did I never learn from my mistakes? Well, she was a doctor, I thought from the bottom of my heart I could trust her fully with my life considering how she¡¯d literally saved my life once already by assisting with my recovery. From the very beginning, she¡¯d worn two faces, she only helped me so she could later use me for her personal gain. She manipulated my feelings and got me to fall for her. What she probably never expected though, was that throughout the course of her experiments, I somehow successfully snagged her heart in return. Despite how she¡¯d fallen in love with me, her experiments only increased the more her love grew.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. It was a positive feedback loop I could only blame myself for creating. After a few of her experiments, I understood her true colors. I thought it might have been possible to get her to lay off with the experiments by making her really fall in love with me. I never expected that her love was only a double-edged sword that would backfire in my face. The type of drugs and tests she used in her clinical trials were all illegal, banned, and deemed to be too inhumane in the surface world. She operated on the dark web and ran a very profitable business where she conducted uncountable clinical trials for her seemingly endless clientele based across the globe. Any normal person would be shocked by how filthy the underground world really was, I was no exception. The sorts of things I saw back then made me lose all hope towards better days. ¡°You don¡¯t seem to be sick, so why are you looking at the wall behind me blankly like an idiot? Is the wall that interesting?¡± ¡°Sorry, I was just a bit entranced by your beautiful hair.¡± ¡°Hmm? Do you hit on every random woman you¡¯ve only just met? You don¡¯t seem to be a traumatized victim like the reports say you are. Could it be you¡¯re actually a stalker who feigned sickness to get closer to me?¡± Despite being in the same situation as two years ago, it was completely different from my memories. Was this really a dream, or was my entire life up until the recent events in my memory a dream that I only now woke up from? Since I was too afraid of that being the case, I decided to act under the assumption this was the dream instead. If it was a dream, couldn¡¯t I enjoy it for a change since I was aware it was a dream? I had full control over my body after all, right? What should I do though? ¡°Gross. You really are a stalker, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m the one that was stalked and imprisoned, when would I have had the chance to stalk you?¡± ¡°How do I know that is the truth? That could just be a fabricated story.¡± ¡°What if I told you I¡¯m your boyfriend from the future and I returned to the past to save your life?¡± What if there was a life where Maria changed her way of life and became a normal person? If Adele had that possibility, couldn¡¯t Maria also have a chance as well? ¡°Hah? Did I make a mistake in my diagnosis? Is there really a problem with you after all? Could it be, you''re actually insane? Haaaaah. It looks like I might have a lot more work at hand than I initially expected.¡± ¡°Insane? Yeah, I¡¯m definitely insane. Inanely in love with you, that is.¡± Ugh, the cringe. The cringe! Stop, me! Please! Never use such a crappy line again! I even messed up when I tried to say insanely. So embarrassing! Calm down, me. It¡¯s a dream. Mess up or not, no matter what cringy line I use, if I want the cringy line to work in a dream, it will surely work. Contrary to my beliefs, she looked at me with a disgusted expression. A clear revulsion towards me oozed out from every pore of her body. Wait a minute. Why should I even bother with her? Weren¡¯t things actually looking pretty good if she wanted nothing to do with me? Wouldn¡¯t I be an idiot to chase after her? If we don¡¯t know each other right now, then screw it, right? Her, ¡®what could have been¡¯, life doesn¡¯t have anything to do with me in a dream, right? If I went the opposite route instead of getting her to fall in love with me and I made her want to stay as far away from me as possible, wouldn¡¯t my life proceed in a much better direction? Hah. Yeah. I had not a single excuse for any of this. My self-defense mechanism for rejection was fully engaged. Suddenly, her colorful exterior expression turned indifferent and cold, she¡¯d completely switched gears. With a frosty tone, she asked without a hint of her earlier friendliness, ¡°Answer me truthfully. Are you a stalker or not? If you are a stalker, just how much do you know about me? Pick your words carefully. Your answer may be the last words you utter while breathing among the living.¡± Chapter 96. Chapter 96. Hah. What? Wait. It¡¯s different? Isn¡¯t it too different from my memories? Her blunt words with no trace of warmth¡­ how should I describe it? Perhaps it was like a bucket of ice water had been ruthlessly dumped on my head? It suddenly sunk in just who I was dealing with and I understood the errors in my earlier train of thought. She was someone with countless secrets to hide. If she really met a stalker who she wasn¡¯t aware of, she would definitely take care of them just to be safe. Even if there was a slight doubt in her mind, she would certainly silence me. ¡°It was a joke. I thought if I pretended I knew you I could get lucky and maybe get in a beautiful doctor¡¯s pants.¡± ¡°Then how did you know my name after only just regaining consciousness?¡± ¡°I heard it when I was in a semi-lucid state of consciousness. I figured it was likely your name, so I took a gamble and got it right.¡± ¡°Dio, do you mind if I call you that?¡± ¡°Eh? Why?¡± Did I ever tell her that nickname back then? Her intense atmosphere momentarily vanished as she casually walked over to my bedside. She leaned forward a bit with a warm smile that suggested she was about to whisper sweet nothings to a lover. As she peered directly into my eyes, her facial expression reverted to indifference when she said with scary wide-open eyes, ¡°because Dio, I do not like liars.¡± Ugh. I looked down and found the tip of a syringe lodged into my wrist. I immediately froze up. When I looked back up after a minute in shock, I realized I¡¯d fallen into a trap. Her face distorted and rippled strangely. I didn¡¯t even have a chance to react to her actions. I never thought she¡¯d be so wary of me no matter what I said to her. ¡°What... did you just¡­ inject me with?¡± It was fast-acting and had taken effect immediately. ¡°It¡¯s an experimental drug that is said to make people a bit more honest. Well, it¡¯s fine if this one doesn¡¯t make you spill the beans. Luckily for you, I have many others I¡¯d like to try out as well you see. Honestly, this is actually much more convenient for me. I originally planned to help you recover and fatten you up first before I turned you into an ideal experimental lab rat, but it appears there will be no need for that. Seeing how your mental state appears to be perfectly intact, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡± ¡°I¡¯m really... your ex-boyfriend from the future.¡± I absolutely did not willingly say that again. Did her drug really work? ¡°Tch. Looks like this one¡¯s a defective product.¡± ¡°It¡¯s really not defective, it¡¯s the truth!¡± ¡°Dio. You¡¯re quite cute. To struggle to keep up that lie when you¡¯ve been drugged. I¡¯m starting to like you a bit more. It really just makes me want to try out all sorts of drugs until I can break you down and get the truth out of you.¡± Her smile taken out of context could be considered one belonging to a top beauty, but under these circumstances, she was definitely a devil.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. She¡¯s one of the reasons I disliked hospitals and why I avoided them at all costs. After I escaped Maria¡¯s clutches, hospitals only triggered the worst sort of memories whenever I thought back to my relationship with her. Even though I was fairly sure this was a dream, for some reason I couldn¡¯t control the flow as I desired. I wanted to change the scene to something else, but the dream felt unbearably realistic. She placed her hand on the side of her cheek with a drunken smile. Her eyes were intoxicated as if she were drowning herself in pleasure at the peak of euphoria. She simultaneously hummed a content tune before she said, ¡°Hmm hmm hmmm hmmmm hmmmmmm. Dio, my self proclaimed ex-boyfriend from the future, whatever shall we try next?¡± I shrunk back in my bed terrified of what was to come. She pulled out a few syringes strapped to her thighs under her lab coat and grinned sadistically. ¡°Well, how about we start with this one my beloved guinea pig, Dio?¡± I wasn¡¯t able to put up a fight after I was drugged the first time. The second syringe expertly pierced my vein as I weakly looked on in horror. ¡°Hiiiiih. Haaaaaah. Hiiiiiiiiih!¡± I clawed at my throat in pain when I realized how excruciatingly difficult it was to breathe. I couldn¡¯t suck in any air. ¡°This one is quite interesting Dio. It¡¯s supposed to partially paralyze your diaphragm and leave you teetering on the edge between life and death as you desperately struggle to breathe. Each breath begins to feel like it¡¯s your last, but what¡¯s great is that this drug allows the person to just barely suck in enough air to survive right on the edge. They aren¡¯t even given the opportunity to die even if they want to. What do you think of this one? It¡¯s pretty good, right? Right?!¡± I shook my head left and right as tears accumulated at the corner of my eyes. It was painful, unbearably so. ¡°Do you feel like telling the truth now?¡± I nodded up and down signaling I¡¯d obediently tell her everything. I wanted to tell her, but I wasn¡¯t able to say a word. ¡°Such a shame. It looks like you still don¡¯t want to tell me the truth. Well, that¡¯s okay, we¡¯ve just started after all. Hahahahahahaha.¡± I was shivering all over when I saw the deeply rooted insanity in her eyes. She¡¯d clearly used this one so I wouldn¡¯t be able to say anything just so she could enjoy herself for longer. She didn¡¯t actually care to hear my answer, this was just the sort of sick thing she got off to. A third syringe shot into my arm. When it took effect, my eyes started to burn up. It felt like a flame was placed directly on my eyeball. I could only look in horror through a small opening between my eyes as she immediately followed up with a fourth syringe. ¡°Khkhkhhkhhhkaaaah!¡± Once this drug kicked in, it felt as though pins and needles had punctured into every pore of my body. My body convulsed from the unbearable pain the drugs wrought on my body. I entered into a seizure-like state. My head was throbbing violently, it felt like my brain had been split in half cleanly down the center. ¡°So cute! I want to see more, but what should I do? If I go too far too quickly, you¡¯ll break on the first day. But it¡¯s so hard to resist.¡± Why was I in this nightmare with her and why did everything feel so damn realistic! It¡¯s scary. Too scary. It¡¯s painful. I¡¯m dying. Please¡­ No more. ¡°P-p-pllllle-eeee-eeeaas-sssss-sss s-ss-ss-ss-st-oooooopp-pp-p-p-pp.¡± ¡°When you ask me to stop so passionately, you know I can¡¯t hold myself back. If you survive this one, I might really just make your ambitious delusions a reality.¡± God damn it! I don¡¯t want that at all! I want absolutely nothing to do with you! I definitely don¡¯t want to be in any kind of relationship with you EVER! With the fifth syringe, came an intense pain that left me clawing at my chest. My heartbeat became erratic and irregular. It felt as if the blood flowing through my body had suddenly reversed in direction. Soon after the pain struck, my mind went blank and I fainted. ¡­ Chapter 97. Chapter 97. ¡°Beeeeeee~eeeeeeeeeee~eeeeeeeeeeee~eeeeeeeeee~eeeeeee¡­¡± ¡°Wha~t happ~ened all of a sud~den?! J~ust when we finally sta~bilized his condi~tion his heart sudd~enly stopped with~out any si~gn or warn~ing!¡± Somehow, in the strange condition I found myself in, I heard a man¡¯s murky, muffled out voice. It sounded very similar to when you were underwater. ¡°Calm do~wn. Pa~ss me the de~fibrill~ator!¡± ¡°3. 2~. 1.¡± ¡°Bzzzzzzzz~zzzzzzzzzt¡± ¡°Beeeeeee~eeeeeeeeeee~eeeeeeeeeeee~eeeeeeeeee~eeeeeee¡­¡± ... ¡°3~. 2. 1.¡± ¡°Bzzz~zzzzzzzzzzzzzzt¡± ¡°Beeeeeee~eeeeeeeeeee~eeeeeeeeeeee~eeeeeeeeee~eeeeeee¡­¡± ... ¡°3. 2. 1~.¡± ¡°Bzzzzzzzzzzzz~zzzzzt¡± ¡°Beeeeeee~eeeeeeeeeee~eeeeeeeeeeee~eeeeeeeeee~eeeeeee¡­¡± ... ¡°3~. 2. 1.¡± ¡°Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz~zzt¡± ¡°Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep¡­¡± ¡°We¡¯ve... somehow brought him back. His vitals have returned to normal. They¡¯ve finally¡­ stabilized.¡± Whoever said that sounded winded, they were completely exhausted. Somehow it seems I came very close to death again. It was unnerving to think that in a certain way, one of my psychotic exes nearly killed me in reality while I was inside a nightmare. I weakly opened my eyes and discovered a plastic piece over my mouth and nose. Two men looked down at me from both sides of the bed. One had a white lab coat on, the other wore scrubs. They both had face masks on, but they both appeared exhausted. When I traced a path through my memories, I vaguely understood the situation. I¡¯d collapsed and vomited blood in front of Boss after that ridiculous hallucination. ¡°Mr. Genovese, can you understand us?¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I turned my head toward the doctor, with a bit of struggle, I nodded in his direction. ¡°How many fingers am I holding up?¡± With a hoarse voice, I answered, ¡°th-ree.¡± ¡°What is five plus four?¡± ¡°Ni-ne¡± ¡°Good, it appears there isn¡¯t any immediately apparent damage to your mental faculties.¡± ¡°Keep your eyes on my finger.¡± He moved it right, left, up, and down. I followed it closely with my eyes as he instructed. ¡°It seems your sensory abilities are also intact.¡± ¡°You may rest for now. You finally appear to be out of the woods.¡± ¡°How long have I been unconscious?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been two weeks since you fell unconscious.¡± ¡°Two weeks¡­ Doctor, is there something wrong with me? Do I have some sort of chronic disease that¡¯s endangering my life?¡± It was hard for me to digest. The doctor looked at me strangely for a moment before he revealed, ¡°We were initially certain something had to be wrong with you, but after thoroughly examining your condition over the last two weeks... the only thing we determined was... you were in perfect health. Shockingly so at that. I¡¯m ashamed to say it, but we couldn¡¯t find a single thing wrong with you despite the grim reaper almost claiming your life...¡± ¡°That can¡¯t be-¡± ¡°You¡¯re in peak condition and could never be better. Your body is... how should I say it? Strange? In my twenty years of experience, quite frankly I¡¯ve never seen anything like your case. It¡¯s like you¡¯re not even... no, forget that, I¡¯m being rude and making biased presumptions. Just because I haven¡¯t seen anything like it doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s impossible. It could just be people like you never need to see a doctor to begin with.¡± ¡°What the hell do you mean I¡¯m in perfect condition! There has to be something wrong with me to collapse the way I did. I even coughed up blood! Freaking blood!¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just stress.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a doctor yet you¡¯re coming up with the same diagnosis an amateur without any expertise like me would? There¡¯s no way simple stress can really be causing everything I¡¯m going through! There must be something wrong with my brain. I must have hit my head and developed brain damage somewhere!¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t know what you want me to say. Your brain is a perfect masterpiece and shockingly well developed without any signs of abnormalities.¡± I slumped back deeper into the bed unsure of what to say. I was at an extreme loss right now. "I understand you may be confused and you¡¯re scared after you just made it through a life-threatening ordeal only to be told nothing is wrong with you, but you should just be thankful that you at least got away with your life in one piece. There are many cases who aren¡¯t as lucky as you.¡± Lucky? This is lucky? This is hell. ¡°Yeah¡­ I guess you¡¯re right. Thanks. I was just... overreacting.¡± They did save my life, I couldn¡¯t be ungrateful towards them for having simply done their job. ¡°Well then, we¡¯ll be taking our leave, we have other patients to tend to. We¡¯re always short-staffed here.¡± ¡°Haha. It¡¯s got to be tough on you as a doctor. The reason I didn¡¯t try to become one was because of how stressful it would be. At times working inhumanely long shifts where a single slip up could lead to another person dying. The worst part being when you can¡¯t save someone, the responsibility suddenly falls on your back to inform the family of the crippling news. I¡¯d end up crushed by the overbearing responsibility that comes with that sort of position.¡± ¡°Yeah, this job definitely isn¡¯t easy. It¡¯s by far the most stressful profession in the world; but if no one made any sacrifices, do you have any idea how many of the lives that could be saved would be lost? Life is a precious thing that shouldn¡¯t be squandered lightly.¡± He was definitely still a pure-hearted doctor, far removed from the doctor in my earlier nightmare. The aversion I held towards hospitals in my heart might have ever so slightly decreased thanks to this strangely zealous, true to his ideals, doctor. However, in my eyes, he was still only a single small flame feebly flickering, one of which barely visible amidst the darkness in this corrupted world of questionable medical practices. ¡°I hope you can keep up that mentality. I¡¯ve seen a lot of different types of doctors and they¡¯re definitely not as dedicated to the cause as you are. Even if there is something wrong with a patient, there are some doctors who will pretend there is nothing wrong simply because they have no interest in shouldering the responsibility that comes with treating them. They¡¯d rather push all the hard work off to someone else to avoid opening up a can of worms for themselves. They only want the easy to handle patients because the only thing on their mind is putting in the least amount of effort to reap the most profit. Once those types finished their hellish education, their mindset was one of slacking off, taking it easy, and living a life of luxury and riches.¡± ¡°I¡¯d never do anything underhanded or low like that. I made a vow to treat all patients equally no matter what their ailment may be, I will do everything in my power to help them. I want my patients to have unwavering trust in me, as such, I will never lie to them in a manner like that.¡± The doctor exited the room after he put in his two cents. The male nurse in scrubs followed closely behind him. To think, they really couldn¡¯t find anything wrong with me. I let out a long dejected sigh. Dying might not have been so bad. Rather than a sense of relief from the good news that nothing was wrong with me, it actually increased my anxiety instead. Knock. Knock. A short time after they left the room, I heard a knock from the entrance. When I looked over I realized it was none other than Val. ¡°You¡¯ve finally regained consciousness?¡± ¡°Eh? Ah. Yeah. It seems¡­ so.¡± ¡°Is that all you have to say to your boss who¡¯s been put through quite a bit of stress thanks to you?¡± ¡°Sorry.¡± ¡°Sorry? I¡¯m not really looking for an apology.¡± ¡°Then what am I supposed to say?¡± ¡°How would I know? How about maybe... professing your undying love for me? Of course, that¡¯s just a joke though.¡± ¡°I love you.¡± Chapter 98. Chapter 98. ¡°Wait. What? Mr. Genovese, I said it was a joke.¡± ¡°I was also just joking.¡± She squinted her eyes suspiciously as a seductive grin formed on her face. She entered the room, then approached the bed I was on. I found it slightly bizarre as she¡¯d worn the same spats and spaghetti strap top I¡¯d loaned her two weeks ago. She also appeared a bit sweaty like she¡¯d recently been out for a jog. ¡°Mr. Genovese, are you sure it was just a joke?¡± She leaned over the edge of the bed and positioned her face close to mine. From what I gathered, she seemed to take great pleasure in watching me squirm uncomfortably in her presence. Her scent was much more predominant compared to normal, perhaps it was because she¡¯d worked out a bit before she got here. Rather than it being a bad smell, unexpectedly, she smelled really good instead. ¡°It really was just a joke. Can you please move your face away a bit?¡± When I thought back to our two weeks together in the hallucination I had, my heartbeat sped up. I felt a strange attraction towards her, it was much more significant compared to before. If in reality, she was truly the same person I¡¯d been together with inside my hallucination, I thought I wouldn¡¯t mind spending the rest of my life together with her despite her strange quirks. ¡°Why is it I¡¯m finding it hard to believe you right now, Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°How would I know?¡± I looked away from her face, I felt butterflies fluttering about in my stomach. Was I some high school girl who just developed her first crush? What the hell was this? It¡¯s hella embarrassing. Ugh. Don¡¯t start thinking like one too. That¡¯s even more humiliating and mortifying. I¡¯m not some damn virgin with no experience. Get yourself together, me. Stay cool. It was just a hallucination and not real. ¡°You didn¡¯t really fall for your boss after she saved your life, did you? I guess I won¡¯t be able to blame you if there are such circumstances. I might even find myself falling for such an amazing boss after all.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing of the sort.¡± ¡°Hmm? Really?¡± She climbed on top of the bed and straddled on top of me. She trapped my waist between her thighs. She bent forward and used one hand to turn my head to look her directly in the eyes. She removed the plastic piece that covered my mouth and nose and shot an inquisitive look at me. ¡°Can you please get off the bed? This is a hospital. It¡¯s not the appropriate place for these sorts of things.¡± ¡°What sorts of things? What kind of things are you thinking of doing with your boss when she¡¯s sweaty after a workout and wearing your ex-girlfriend¡¯s clothes?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the thing pressing against me then?¡± ¡°Medical equipment. Don¡¯t try to slander me. I¡¯m innocent here.¡± ¡°Oh? Is it really medical equipment like you say it is? Mind if I take a closer look at this so-called ¡®medical equipment¡¯?¡± ¡°I do mind, can you please not?¡± ¡°Then, answer truthfully, are you in love with me?¡±Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°I¡¯m... really not too sure.¡± Jumping into a relationship too quickly wasn¡¯t a good idea. My feelings towards her were directed towards the fictional version of her in my head. I couldn¡¯t answer her confidently that I love ¡®her¡¯ and not the ¡®her¡¯ from my hallucination instead. For me, making a distinction between them wasn¡¯t as simple as it sounded. ¡°Well, how boring, that was actually the truth this time. I thought I¡¯d finally caught you too. So your feelings are still inconclusive, how annoying. You¡¯re like a girl who can¡¯t make up her mind.¡± She pouted and leaned back clearly disappointed with my lackluster response. Either way, even if it was two weeks in that hallucination, it was still too short a time period to determine if it was what people often jumped to conclusions and called love. ¡°Well, Mr. Genovese, how do you intend to repay me for putting me through this troublesome ordeal?¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t this fall under sick leave?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not talking about your pay this time. You¡¯ve also taken up my time as well. I spent the last two weeks anxiously watching over you by your side while waiting for you to wake up.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry for being such a problematic employee. I promise I¡¯ll make it up to you in the future¡­ Val.¡± It was honestly quite similar to the hallucination I had. She¡¯d stayed by my side through those two weeks just as she had back in the world inside my head. When I thought it over, I began to contemplate the order of events that transpired inside the hallucination. Perhaps, rather than calling it a hallucination of two weeks, it was actually a nightmare from the very beginning. In reality, I¡¯d actually collapsed the moment I stepped outside and wasn¡¯t aware of it. I then had what I thought was a hallucination; when really, I was already long trapped in the nightmare the instant I collapsed. When the world initially turned dark, it was because I¡¯d passed out. When I allegedly snapped out of the so-called hallucination, I was actually just remembering the sequence of events that transpired before I entered the nightmare. Then losing my remaining senses, perhaps that was a result of drugs acting on my body. Right! That¡¯s it! I¡¯ve heard of this before. Some patients are said to experience traumatizing hallucinations when heavily drugged in the ICU. It was so convoluted and confusing I actually developed a slight headache when I tried to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. The level of twistedness was unreal, but everything made perfect sense if that was the case. When Maria administered those five drugs to me in my nightmare; it correlated to the five senses I lost. Was it just a coincidence, or was that the way my brain on a subconscious level tried to clue me in on what had happened to my body outside of the hallucination? Did that mean the car I drove through the darkness on the first day was when I was transported to the hospital inside the ambulance? What about the fireflies? Adele? What was their significance in all this? Fireflies, a fragile existence who often flew too close to the sun. Then¡­ did that mean¡­ the reason I collapsed, was it just a result of the heavy mental burden I felt when dealing with Adele? The more I scrutinized it, the more twists and turns were revealed in relation to the strange story that all played out in my head. Val suddenly interrupted my train of thought, ¡°You look pretty exhausted for someone who just woke up after two weeks spent sound asleep.¡± ¡°Do I really look that bad?¡± ¡°Yeah, you do. You kind of look like you¡¯re carrying the world on your back.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Do you want to go out for some fresh air?¡± ¡°I do.¡± ¡°Are you able to move by yourself?¡± ¡°The doctor said my body was in perfect condition so it should be fine, I think.¡± I really wanted to see the outside world. It felt like it¡¯d been far too long since I had been able to properly look at the scenery outside. She got off the bed, left the room, then found a nurse and explained the situation. After the nurse confirmed I was really fine, they disconnected the medical equipment hooked up to me. Val helped me stand up and carefully supported my body in case I lost my footing due to a sudden lapse in strength. It was as the doctor said, there really didn¡¯t seem to be anything wrong with my body after all. I had no trouble despite spending two weeks in an unconscious state. ¡°Shall we be off then?¡± ¡°Sure... let¡¯s go.¡± She held onto my sleeve and pulled me out of the room. I was slightly scared that I would step into another fictional world upon exiting, but it all appeared normal for once. It wasn¡¯t the usual normal, but something was off type of normal. Instead, it was just the plain average world I remembered with nothing out of place. The bland world was strangely reassuring and gave me peace of mind. This was how the world should always be. All the tension in my body faded away when I took my first step outside the hospital. Chapter 99. Chapter 99. Honk. Honk. Vrrrrrrrvrrrrrvrrrrrvrrrrrvrrrrr. Swish. Swish. Swish. For some reason I envisioned myself being hit by a truck the moment I exited the building. Luckily, I wasn¡¯t hit by such a horribly cliche event. With my luck the way it was, I would have been bashed straight into another hallucination instead of another world. I contemplated as such over these deeply profound, unfathomable matters as I watched the cars on the street. I took in a deep breath then listened attentively to the familiar sound of engines rumbling and horns honking as traffic whizzed by us. Somehow, these simple mundane events made me really feel like the world had truly returned this time. Whether things would simply end here, I wasn¡¯t entirely certain. It would have been great if it did, but the ominous end of that nightmare left me unsettled. According to that nightmare, Adele would surely turn out to be my neighbor. I wasn¡¯t dull enough to not understand what the nightmare implied. It was clearly the gods of foreshadowing picking another fight with me. A lot of nightmares and hallucinations I had contained some sort of truth or relevance hidden within them. I was certain this one was no exception. Once I¡¯d taken in the scenery outside, I instinctively refused to return to the stuffy hospital room. As such, I requested to be immediately discharged. After talking to a nurse a bit, the process was quickly taken care of when they confirmed I was fit as a fiddle and there was absolutely nothing wrong with me. I left the hospital with a refreshed feeling alongside Val. She¡¯d apparently gotten her car back within the last two weeks while I was unconscious. When I sat down in her car, a sudden question entered the back of my mind. To begin with, why did I really collapse? Was it really all just simple stress that made me collapse without any warning like that? They found nothing wrong with me, but for me to effectively be in a coma for an entire two weeks, there surely had to be some other reason besides stress, right? When I looked at Val¡¯s side profile, in her present apparel, an image of a certain individual overlapped with her. A terrifying idea suddenly formed in my head, but I tossed it to the back of my mind in fear of the repercussions of what it meant. That person and Val were too different for that to really be possible. Initially, I thought Val was somewhat cold, but after I got to know her, I found she was a surprisingly kind and caring individual. There was really no way the two of them could be related to each other. Besides that, what sort of motive did she have to do such a thing? It didn¡¯t add up. My boss tried to poison me using some untraceable method that could easily fool the doctors in this hospital? Wouldn¡¯t that be way too far fetched? But what about with Rick¡¯s mysterious death? ¡°Mr. Genovese, are you doubting me about something right now?¡± My back straightened up in my seat when I registered her words. Shit. I forgot, she could read me like a book. ¡°Are you suspicious about why you fell ill and are thinking I was somehow involved considering I was the only one with you before it happened?¡± My entire body stiffened up.Stolen story; please report. When she glanced in my direction, I noticed a tinge of melancholy and disappointment in her eyes. ¡°Sorry, I was jumping to conclusions without any basis. You would be the first person who would be investigated if you were found to be the last person with me if I really died that day. If it was related to you in any way, then you would surely make yourself as distant as possible.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine to doubt me, Mr. Genovese. You¡¯d much rather doubt someone you can see rather than someone you can¡¯t, right?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s my fault for thinking something stupid, but what do you mean by that? Are you implying it was the work of a ghost or something?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re really sorry, why don¡¯t you do something to make it up to me? As for whether it was related to a ghost that got jealous, that has nothing to do with me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not admitting ghosts are real, but wouldn¡¯t it have everything to do with you if it was a ghost? I incurred the wrath of a ghost because of your actions, right?¡± ¡°You¡¯re really against anything unscientific to the point it¡¯s ridiculous. It¡¯s also your own fault for being haunted if said ghost really exists, not mine.¡± ¡°I was born as a man of science, I¡¯d rather find a logical explanation for everything rather than attribute it to the handiwork of ghosts or demons.¡± ¡°You¡¯re certainly the unromantic type. The woman who marries you will definitely have a hard time in the future.¡± ¡°How rude, I¡¯m perfectly norm-¡± She sent me a glance that said I was full of shit right when I tried to finish my sentence. ¡°Ugh. If we ignore the crazy shit happening to me and my psychotic exes, I¡¯d say I¡¯m pretty normal.¡± ¡°You are?¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± I was actually losing confidence that I was normal and not some sort of abnormality magnet when I really thought over my life seriously. ¡°Where shall we go now? Do you want to go home and get a change of clothes first?¡± Looking at the hospital attire I donned, I couldn¡¯t stop myself from nodding my head. ¡°Good, we¡¯re almost at your place.¡± ¡°My place¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Are you scared to return?¡± ¡°A little.¡± ¡°Oh? Why?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a creeping suspicion that¡¯s been at the back of my mind. I hope it won¡¯t turn out to be true, but I can¡¯t seem to get my mind off of it.¡± ¡°What is it? You¡¯ve got me a bit curious now.¡± ¡°If I said that I¡¯m afraid Adele moved in and is now my next-door neighbor, would you think I¡¯m crazy?¡± ¡°Does she know where you live?¡± ¡°Definitely not. I made sure when we parted ways not to leave her with any clues as to who I was or where she could find me.¡± ¡°Then aren¡¯t you being too paranoid? Why would she suddenly show up again as your neighbor if you cut all ties?¡± ¡°How would I know? I¡¯d like to know that too.¡± ¡°Now you¡¯ve really piqued my curiosity. What basis is there for you to have such a suspicion?¡± ¡°There really isn¡¯t much basis for it, but you can call it a hunch of sorts.¡± ¡°You¡¯re lying again. Do you really think you can slip one past my eyes? Is it related to something that happened during your two weeks in that coma? You were having a nightmare the entire time, right?¡± So it really was all a nightmare like I theorized? ¡°Val, when I first stepped outside of my house that day, in your eyes, did I appear to be hallucinating at all?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t really remember. I was too shocked by your sudden collapse to pay attention to that.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Oh, that was faster than I expected. Mr. Genovese, we¡¯re already here. You¡¯re pretty lucky your place is so close to a hospital. If it wasn¡¯t for that, you might have really wound up a dead man two weeks ago.¡± Chapter 100. Chapter 100. ¡°Two weeks. It¡¯s... really been... two weeks already?¡± ¡°Is there something strange about that?¡± ¡°The nightmare I had also lasted two weeks. The nightmare only ended when I discovered Adele. Well... that¡¯s not quite correct either. I had another nightmare after that involving my fourth ex, but it was much shorter.¡± ¡°Always with women on your mind. Aren¡¯t you quite the player?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one who pried into it.¡± ¡°Want to place bets on whether Adele is really your neighbor?¡± ¡°If I can have a bonus on my next paycheck.¡± ¡°A bonus? After not working for two weeks?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a joke.¡± ¡°Well I don¡¯t really mind, but if you lose, your penalty will be a harsh one.¡± ¡°Deal.¡± ¡°Oh? You seem pretty confident, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°I bet she¡¯s not there. It¡¯s definitely not possible no matter how I logically think about it. There¡¯s absolutely no way she suddenly became my neighbor when she only just recently lost all her memories.¡± ¡°Is that so? Well, I¡¯ll happily bet that she is there.¡± I was just in denial. Even I didn¡¯t trust anything I said. If she really was there, I¡¯d definitely take the biggest L of all time. But I was in a direct confrontation with the bastardly nonexistent being known as the god of foreshadowing and I didn¡¯t want to accept it. ¡°You really don¡¯t look confident despite your choice.¡± Of course I¡¯m not. In reality, I was just pleading with the god of counter foreshadowing in my head that my nightmare didn¡¯t turn out to become reality. When we got out of Val¡¯s car, the first thing that greeted me was a familiar building that towered over us from high above. It hadn¡¯t been long since I moved here, but a lot of memorable things had already transpired since I started living here. ¡°Are you scared you¡¯re going to suddenly lose consciousness again?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not necessarily just that. Surprisingly, there are many things I subconsciously fear that I¡¯m not fully aware of myself. I really don¡¯t know what I¡¯m most scared of when there¡¯s such a large selection of fears for me to choose from, but If I really had to choose one thing that did scare me, I can say with confidence that uncertainty is near the top of the list.¡± ¡°What a flavorless response. I bet you must have been terrified out of your mind when you first learned Heisenberg''s uncertainty principle.¡± ¡°Haha. That shitty principle gave me nightmares as a child. To be able to know one quantity but not the other at any given point in time; where the more precision you know one, the less precise you know the other. A principle where you are always left in the dark about something. Isn¡¯t that among the greatest fears all?¡± ¡°You really had nightmares about it? Are you serious?¡± ¡°Of course not, but it is still a scary concept. There are many strange, inexplicable discoveries in science. The fact that simply observing a nonsentient object such as light changes its properties or behavior, doesn¡¯t that make you question whether light isn¡¯t just a higher dimensional being who gets shy when you look at it or bold when you ignore it? To be one thing, but another at the same time. Wouldn¡¯t that fulfill the requirement of a higher dimensional being?¡±You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°Light? A higher dimensional being? Haha, that¡¯s an interesting take on it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s all just nonsense at the end of the day though.¡± ¡°Why do you say that?¡± ¡°Because even if it were a higher dimensional being, as a third-dimensional being, we would never be able to observe its fourth dimension with our own eyes. As long as we¡¯re three-dimensional beings, that is.¡± ¡°So if a fourth-dimensional being existed in this world they would be able to observe the fourth dimension to light?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, how do you think one would become¡­ no, maybe create a fourth-dimensional being?¡± ¡°How would I know? Become or create a ghost?¡± ¡°A ghost?¡± ¡°If ghosts were real, the only thing I assume they might be would be a higher dimensional being. That would be the only scientific explanation I could accept if they really existed. That¡¯s the conclusion I came to recently after mulling over it from a scientific standpoint.¡± ¡°Since we¡¯re in a world with three expanded spatial dimensions and we cannot interact with their higher spatial dimensions, it would explain why at times we may observe them as being incomplete, seemingly massless, even holograph-like three-dimensional beings when in our world. Only when their awareness is focused on a particular plane and they want the observer on that plane to see them can we vaguely perceive or interact with them. We may be able to see the ghosts as three-dimensional beings, but in fact, they actually have this nth expanded spatial dimension to them.¡± ¡°Just like we can stick our hand through a two-dimensional plane at will to allow a two-dimensional being to see a line in their world. It works the same way here. When a ghost wants you to see them, they touch upon our plane and allow us to see them in the shape of a strange incomplete three-dimensional being. They appear incomplete to us simply because we can¡¯t truly observe them in totality with only our eyes that can only depict two-dimensional images.¡± ¡°Basically, in quick summary, our body¡¯s equipment is trash. Defective goods if we wished to truly observe a higher dimensional being¡¯s form. We only perceive depth, three dimensions, because our brain overlaps and combines two sets of two-dimensional images in an interesting way. If a single eye could capture a three-dimensional image by itself, I really wonder what the world would look like with two of those eyes. It could potentially look something like overlapping holographic images, but that is just a theory.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, are you actually a quack rather than an electrical engineer?¡± ¡°Of course not. I¡¯m just an average man living an average life, there are many people before me who already came up with this sort of theory. I¡¯m far from being the first. I¡¯m sure you know about M theory already, right?¡± ¡°Yes, I have¡± ¡°Then you should understand where I and many others might have derived a theory like this to explain ghosts, right?¡± ¡°I guess so. But why do ghosts look so scary to us?¡± ¡°Because we can¡¯t fully observe or identify their real appearance as it changes in whatever manner they want. We may be able to somehow feel or sense something is off with them, but we can¡¯t quite put our finger on it, so our mind instinctively labels them as something scary. Well, whether this is right or not, thinking of them like this is the only thing that would allow me to keep my cool if I ever confronted one of those mysterious higher dimensional beings.¡± ¡°So, if a ghost existed and they really were a higher dimensional being, in theory, they could appear at any point in space or our timeline, couldn¡¯t they?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m not a ghost, so how would I be able to confirm that? Maybe they can do one, but not the other at any given point; similar to Heisenberg¡¯s uncertainty principle or the dual nature of light? So, although they can shift between plains that are slightly misaligned to move to another point in space, maybe they can¡¯t actually exist in multiple places on that same plane while moving between locations when they are inside that world without leaving for another plain.¡± ¡°Maybe they are limited by distance as well. So perhaps the number of projections they can cast on our plane is limited by the number of plains close enough to each other for them to utilize. Maybe by a means of a quantum tunneling-like mechanism they can make it appear as though they are in more than one place at one time when in reality it is just another part of their body that entered a plane closely overlapping with ours.¡± ¡°This would be analogous to how the number of projections we as three-dimensional beings can cast onto a two-dimensional plane with our body alone. Thus, the further apart the locations on a singular plane they want to project themselves onto, the lower the total number of bodily projections they can cast onto a singular plane. The spread their projections can reach on a single plane can thus be thought of as the size of their body.¡± Chapter 101. Chapter 101. ¡°Okay, you¡¯re really nerding out on me right now. I feel like you¡¯ve also just completely ruined the mystery behind ghosts and what makes them scary.¡± ¡°Just because you have a hypothesis about them doesn¡¯t really make them any less scary though. They are still a completely incomprehensible entity, that alone is enough to make them scary. If they truly existed, just our lack of understanding towards them, their thought process, and views towards us lower dimensional beings is a scary thing.¡± ¡°Is that really so?¡± ¡°Yes, it is. Because if they truly existed¡­ well, have you seen Attack on Titan?¡± ¡°Of course I have. How could I not watch a classic like that?¡± I looked at Val with eyes laced with slight trauma and despair for added effect, ¡°Then aren¡¯t we just caged by our plane as countless higher dimensional beings are looking down upon us from places we are unaware of? Are they not just watching an amusing sitcom play out before them? We would never be aware of a thing just like how the fictional characters that we create in two-dimensional planes aren¡¯t aware that we created them or how we control their lives, decisions, relationships, and emotions, all for our own twisted amusement and entertainment. Perhaps, just like how there are people in our world who fall in love with these two-dimensional characters that we see as being fictional, there exist fourth, fifth, sixth, and up dimensional beings that feel the same way about those nth minus one-dimensional beings below them including us three-dimensional beings.¡± ¡°Stop trying to act all dramatic. There¡¯s no way that¡¯s really possible.¡± ¡°Haha. Right? It¡¯s complete nonsense... or are we merely controlled and scripted to believe that way?¡± ¡°Does it really matter?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t. Ignorance is bliss after all. It might be best if humanity never uncovers such a despairing truth like that anyways.¡± ¡°We really got off topic there, didn¡¯t we?¡± ¡°How did we even get to this point anyways? Weren¡¯t we betting about Adele being my neighbor? Our conversation just now really makes me feel like the whole, Adele turns out to be my neighbor, isn¡¯t even a big deal anymore.¡± ¡°Right? What¡¯s with us?¡± ¡°We actually got so off-topic I didn¡¯t even realize when we arrived at my front door.¡± At some point in our conversation, we went off in our own little world in front of my unit chatting back and forth, completely ignorant of our surroundings. The door to my neighbor¡¯s unit was right beside us, only a short distance away. It was presently closed and it was unknown whether anyone was currently inside.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I glanced at Val as I tried to think about how to proceed. She smirked at me like she knew of my internal dilemma and she wore a face that suggested she¡¯d suddenly thought of some sort of fun trick to play. She wrapped her arms around mine, pulled me toward my neighbor¡¯s front door, and without giving me a chance to react, she rang the doorbell. I was slightly flustered and unsure of what I¡¯d say when the tenant answered the door. Regardless of whether it was a random person or Adele, I hadn¡¯t come up with a topic or excuse for what we were here for. From behind the door, I heard the sound of movement, along with a familiar voice call out, ¡°I¡¯m coming. Just give me a sec.¡± I instinctively tried to flee to my room, but I was blocked from doing so by the woman with the abnormally strong vice grip locked onto my arm. When I looked at her, she had a devious smile plastered on her face. ¡°Well Mr. Genovese, it¡¯s looking like it¡¯s going to be my win. Naturally, you can¡¯t try to run away and later on claim that you never verified it with your own two eyes to try and invalidate the bet.¡± ¡°I concede defeat. Please let me leave. I promise b-¡± Squeak. Before I could escape or finish my words, the door flung open wide and I was left petrified. Not because I was shocked by the sudden appearance of the person behind the door, but because right when the door opened, Val simultaneously leaned forward. She pressed her body firmly against mine, pulled me by the tie in her direction, and locked our lips tightly together. ¡°Eh? Tch. It¡¯s just a stupid couple with PDA issues who aren¡¯t aware of the appropriate time and place? ¡­ Wait¡­ Mister? Is that... you?¡± Those were the words I heard from the side after the door opened up. I felt lightheaded when my brain tried to process the present situation. It felt like endless incomprehensible random strings of hexadecimal error codes were popping up non stop in my head from overheating. It was both embarrassing and definitely not something I ever wanted Adele to see. What if a scene like this jogged her memories or something? Wouldn¡¯t that be completely terrifying? It would be the return of the psychotic version of Adele. I didn¡¯t want her to return to being that way, I wanted her to find her own happiness. If the old her really returned, I would have nobody left to cry to. It appeared Val had her own hidden agenda and I couldn¡¯t understand her thought process at all. What meaning was there in doing this directly in front of Adele? Was it to prove whether she¡¯d really lost her memories and that Adele wasn¡¯t simply acting like she¡¯d forgotten everything? When Val finally released me, she smiled and said, ¡°Darling~, you¡¯re so daring to kiss me so passionately out of nowhere like that.¡± My face paled the moment the words left her mouth. Are you trying to get me murdered? What if she really was just feigning amnesia? Do you have any idea how dead I would be right now? Scary! Women are freaking scary! I nervously looked over to Adele to check on her reaction, only to feel a slight stinging sensation in my heart. She didn¡¯t appear to be affected at all. She just looked confused like she didn¡¯t understand the situation. ¡°Mister, what are you doing here? Are you stalking me?¡± ¡°Me? What am I doing here? Uh¡­ no, what are you doing here?¡± ¡°I live here obviously.¡± ¡°Darling, why are you acting so flustered. We just came to greet our new neighbor, right?¡± ¡°New neighbor? Mister, you live next door?¡± ¡°Ah. Uh. Yeah. That¡¯s... right.¡± ¡°How long have you lived there? I just want to make sure you¡¯re really not stalking me.¡± ¡°I moved in over a month ago. I was away for the last two weeks because I had some medical issues pop up.¡± ¡°Medical issues? You really were hurt from back then after all? Are you okay? Is it all my fault?¡± Chapter 102. Chapter 102. I still found it very strange to see her acting like this. A completely different person, that was all I could see when I looked at her. Even if she was completely insane back then, it still hurt to be completely forgotten by the person I spent three long years of my life in love with. Being completely forgotten by a loved one was a terrifying thing, but being remembered by this particular loved one was simultaneously far scarier than being forgotten. It was a terrible dilemma to find yourself in. ¡°I¡¯m really fine, it wasn¡¯t related to that at all. It was something else entirely.¡± ¡°Darling, why are you being shy about the truth? We had a wild night where things got a bit crazy and you had to be taken to the hospital in the morning after you suddenly passed out. You need to be more direct when explaining things to people.¡± No, you! What is with that misleading, but somewhat scarily accurate interpretation of what actually happened that day! Are you trying to make me out to be some sort of sexual predator in her eyes? Can you also stop calling me darling? It¡¯s bringing back some traumatic memories. ¡°Is that so? I see, so Mister was that type of person after all. It¡¯s a miracle you were able to hold back that night in the forest.¡± Ah, this is a nightmare. It¡¯s surely just another nightmare that I¡¯ll wake up from soon just like every other time. While I tried to escape from reality, the two girls chatted back and forth a bit. They somehow got along well despite the bizarre meeting we just had. After she chatted with Val for some time, their conversation veered in a direction I wanted to avoid. ¡°Uhm, I completely forgot, we never introduced ourselves. It would be strange as neighbors to not even know each other¡¯s names, right Miss¡­¡± ¡°Valkyria Rosenberg. You can just call me Val for short.¡± ¡°Val? I see. I see. It¡¯s a really nice name. My name is pretty bland. Due to certain circumstances, up until recently, I didn¡¯t even remember it. My name is Adele Homestalk according to my license.¡± ¡°Val, isn¡¯t it about time we take our leave?¡± ¡°What are you talking about, Darling? We have plenty of time.¡± I shivered every time she referred to me in that manner. ¡°Mister¡­ wouldn¡¯t it be rude if you didn¡¯t at least introduce yourself to your neighbor?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not strange for neighbors to not know each other''s name.¡± ¡°It is strange, it¡¯s very strange. Unless you¡¯re a complete shut-in who never interacts with anyone outside.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°I¡¯m a shut-in, so it¡¯s not strange.¡± ¡°His name is Diogenese Genovese.¡± What are you doing Val? Are you really after my life after all?! ¡°What a weird name. Is that why you were so reluctant to tell me?¡± ¡°You talk like you¡¯ve already met him before, you also mentioned a forest, Adele? Could it be that my Darling is cheating on me?¡± ¡°Eh? What? Who? Me? With him? Never! He¡¯s not even my type!¡± ¡°I was just kidding, my Darling would never be able to cheat on me even if he tried to.¡± Yeah, no shit. We¡¯re not even dating. ¡°Then, how did you two meet, Adele?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not really too sure on the specifics because I can¡¯t remember it very well. All I know is I woke up deep in a forest inside an abandoned mansion with amnesia and he was the only person around. I had a lot of questions, but he wasn¡¯t considerate in the slightest towards my situation, so I never got the chance to clear up anything about the situation I found myself in at the time.¡± ¡°Oh? Is that so? My Darling is quite a bully then, but at least he¡¯s faithful to me.¡± ¡°What do you see in him? Don¡¯t you think you set your sights a bit low? He¡¯s actually a complete jerk. Don¡¯t you think you deserve better?¡± What the hell is this conversation I¡¯m listening to right now? My former psychotic ex trashing me in front of my face to my boss who¡¯s pretending to be my girlfriend on a random whim? Well¡­ check that off my bucket list of shit I never thought I would be subjected to. ¡°He¡¯s not so bad. He still helped you out in the end, didn¡¯t he?¡± ¡°Well¡­ I guess he did. That¡¯s still not an excuse for him being an inconsiderate idiotic jerk who lacks a brain and has no delicacy or tact.¡± In my head, I coughed out a mouthful of blood with each subsequent critical blow. ¡°Oh? What¡¯s this? Aren¡¯t you actually blushing a bit? Did something interesting happen out in the forest while the two of you were alone?¡± Blushing? Where do you see blushing? Am I blind or something? ¡°Of course not. Aside from him getting to feel me up a bit, nothing else happened.¡± Adele peeked at me from the corner of her eye like she was looking to see if she could get me in trouble. ¡°He felt you up?¡± ¡°It was unavoidable contact due to circumstances.¡± ¡°I see. I see. I¡¯ll need to keep that in mind for future material.¡± Val had a scary smile on her face that I couldn¡¯t quite read the meaning behind. Rather than the look of a psychotic girlfriend, it made me think it was the look of a schemer who intended to blackmail me into oblivion in the future. ¡°Future material? What do you mean?¡± ¡°Oh? Nothing much, but thanks for being honest with me.¡± ¡°Darling, we shouldn¡¯t keep Adele standing around forever. We just came for a simple greeting. Judging by all the moving boxes behind her, it seems she still has a lot of unpacking to do.¡± ¡°You¡¯re leaving already?¡± She looked a bit like a lost puppy about to be abandoned. Ugh. I¡¯d completely forgotten, this Adele had her own cute points. The discrepancy born through the disharmonious nature of the sexy psychotic version of her and the cute innocent version of her clashed in my memories and left me a bit lightheaded. ¡°Val, can¡¯t you at least stay and chat with me a bit longer? Since it looks like he¡¯s in a rush to escape, your boyfriend should just leave us girls to talk if he¡¯s got something better to do. Are you free right now, Val?¡± ¡°Free right now? Well... I suppose I can spare some time for a bit of girl talk.¡± My eyes shrunk slightly and I seriously questioned whether she was sane. She was actually alright with entering into a room all alone with a former psychopath? What if she suddenly regained her memories while they were talking and things took a turn for the worst? Was she actually the bravest woman alive in disguise, or just insane? Chapter 103. Chapter 103. ¡°Val, we really should go.¡± ¡°Darling, it¡¯s fine, I have time to spare. You can head back to our room by yourself. I have some things I want to talk about with our new neighbor in private.¡± ¡°What things?¡± ¡°Girl stuff obviously.¡± I was terrified of what this so-called ¡®girl stuff¡¯ entailed. I never knew how scary the words, girl stuff could be until this instant. She couldn¡¯t be planning to reveal Adele¡¯s past or my relationship with her, could she? ¡°Relax, it¡¯s not like anyone¡¯s dying. Why do you look so pale all of a sudden? Are you not feeling well, Darling?¡± Why does my boss enjoy messing around with me so much? Is it that entertaining? ¡°Yeah, sorry. I¡¯m really not feeling too well right now. I¡¯ll just return to my room for now. You two can do whatever you want.¡± Just go claw at each other¡¯s throats behind my back when I¡¯m not looking or something. Besides, the more I try to interfere here, the more troublesome it will become, so I better just get as far away as I can from this scary battlefield while I still have these two legs attached to my body. The nightmare where Val was decapitated by Adele flashed through my mind at one point, but in the end, that wasn¡¯t real. It was only a nightmare. I parted ways with the two of them and entered my room in deep contemplation. Of course, I was a nervous wreck, and I couldn¡¯t stop pacing back and forth. Why did Val take on such a big risk to be alone with Adele? Was she just trying to legitimately be a nice person and see if it was possible to get along with a reformed psychopath? My heartbeat grew more elevated from the sheer nervousness brought on by the entire ordeal. It didn¡¯t take long before I was unable to hold myself back. The walls in the building were fairly thin, so it wasn¡¯t impossible for someone¡¯s voice to be heard through them. I relocated to the closet in my room and dug around through the boxes a bit. I knew I had one lying around somewhere in all this junk. I never bothered to throw away after all. It was a stethoscope that belonged to my fourth ex, a memento of sorts to ensure I never forgot to never date another doctor in my lifetime. After a few minutes scouring through all the junk, I found it and immediately placed it against the wall which divided our units. ¡°Do you have a crush on my boyfriend by any chance?¡± Hah?! Val?! Are you messing with me right now? ¡°A crush?! No way! What are you talking about Val? How could I like a guy like him?¡± Yeah. You go girl. Tell her. Ah. I feel pretty depressed for some reason. ¡°You don¡¯t need to be shy. It¡¯s just the two of us girls. There are no intrusive eavesdropping boys around to hear your true thoughts. Besides, you don¡¯t really look like you dislike him that much despite what you say.¡± Am I an open book to her? Is she actually aware I¡¯m eavesdropping? No, the real question is, what the hell is she plotting now?The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Can I be honest with you even though you¡¯re his girlfriend?¡± ¡°Of course, I won¡¯t judge you if you have a crush on my boyfriend.¡± ¡°A little. Just a little, okay? It¡¯s not to the point that I¡¯d fight another woman for him or anything.¡± What the hell? Did I ask you to have a crush on me? I know I said I got a little depressed just now, but I take it back! Please don¡¯t make things more complicated than they need to be! ¡°Oh? Is that so? You don¡¯t say.¡± ¡°Y-yeah.¡± The slight waver in her voice fully gave away her embarrassment and nervousness. ¡°Then what if I wasn¡¯t his girlfriend? Would you pursue him then?¡± ¡°It depends on the situation. If it¡¯s meant to be it will be. If not, then that¡¯s fine as well.¡± ¡°So you wouldn¡¯t be entirely against the idea then?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say I would be against the idea.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not his girlfriend.¡± ¡°¡°...¡±¡± ¡°Eh?! What? Wait, Val, what do you mean?¡± ¡°It¡¯s exactly as I said, we¡¯re not in that type of relationship.¡± ¡°But the kiss earlier.¡± ¡°Was just because of a bet we had. When you opened the door, I found your reaction cute, so I wanted to tease you a bit.¡± ¡°Are you being serious right now?¡± ¡°Of course I am. What reason do I have to lie?¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°To fall back on the bed looking so relieved after hearing that. You¡¯re really too cute. It would be such a shame to let him have you.¡± ¡°Hya! V-V-Val?! W-What are you doing all of a sudden!¡± Eh? What? What?! What?! ¡°As I said before, it would be a shame if some smelly guy came and plucked such a cutey.¡± Was my boss a lesbian the entire time?! No no no. This must be my imagination. There¡¯s no way. Could it be she already informed Adele that I was secretly eavesdropping on their conversation and they plotted against me with this entire scenario? That would make a lot of sense if she wanted to play around with my fragile little heart. I needed to visually confirm the events that were transpiring. Just hearing her words were not enough to confirm whether any of this was really happening on the other side of the wall. But how could I possibly get a glimpse of that Shangri-La, the forbidden sacred grounds, beyond the wall that divided us? It was at that moment I noticed something I¡¯d never seen before in my unit. It was a beam of majestic light hitting the back of the sofa against the same wall I had the stethoscope glued to. I¡¯d never noticed it before because I never checked behind the sofa since I moved in. There was never any reason to do so either. I was suspicious though, would I really be dumb enough to fall for such a blatantly obvious jump scare opportunity? Though, if I don¡¯t act now while I still can, I¡¯ll never know the truth. Wouldn¡¯t I regret not knowing the truth when presented with such a golden opportunity? Screech. My thoughts were interrupted by the abrupt sound of something heavy being dragged across the ground. When I looked at the couch I discovered there was now a distinct line of dust revealed beside the couch. Just to be clear, I never touched the couch. Was it an act of god? Like hell it was. Was I being taunted? Perhaps. Would I really fall for such a blatant provocation? Yes, I surely would. Challenge accepted. If you thought I was going to just naively let myself get startled by a jump scare, you had another thing coming. Instead of moving the couch out of the way like any other normal person might have done, instead, I grabbed a roll of duct tape from the table in the room and commenced operation ¡®hanging phone.¡¯ I took one long strip and folded it together so the tape wouldn¡¯t stick to the wall or back of the couch when trying to position it in line with the hole. I took another strip and taped the first piece to the back of my phone. Once my sophisticated anti-jump scare spying device was fully functional, I opened up the camera app on my phone and pressed the record button. Chapter 104. Chapter 104. I lowered the phone behind the couch and carefully lined up the camera with the hole in the wall. Just as I was about to turn away, let my phone record everything, then call it a day, the corner of my lips spasmed uncontrollably. There was some sort of sphere-shaped object gradually forcing its way through the hole toward my phone. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what it was at first, but its identity soon became apparent. Its identity was that of an eyeball. It bulged out of the hole and swiveled around in place as it squeezed it¡¯s deformed ¡®body¡¯ through the hole. If I were to make a direct comparison, it was essentially an eye, bulging out of its socket; however, it was much more graphic. When three-quarters of the eye was exposed, it stopped squirming, froze in place, and looked up directly into my eyes as though it were shocked it had been discovered. A spine-tingling sensation ran down my back when our gazes aligned. Suddenly, eyeballs randomly emerged one by one across the wall outwards from the singular eye as the origin. It was creepier than anything I could have imagined. If I knew things would turn out like this, I would have definitely taken the jump scare. The sensation of being watched from all directions was creepy and extremely off-putting. Was this my just deserts for trying to spy on them? Every inch of the room was covered in a seemingly endless array of wide open bulging eyeballs, all locked onto my body. I licked my dry lips and gulped down the accumulated pool of saliva in my mouth as I warily moved through the room while rotating in a circle to carefully record everything. Anywhere I moved, the eyes closely followed. I exited the living room and entered my bedroom. The moment I entered the bedroom, the eyes, like rapids bursting through a dam expanded into the room like roots out of the doorframe. I cautiously approached the bed then slowly pulled the sheet off it and covered my entire body. The only thing I could see now was the ground beneath my feet. After a few seconds of privacy, eyes formed beneath my feet and looked directly up at me from the ground; they were still locked onto my every move. The ends of the bedsheet came into contact with the eyes on the ground; like they were spores, they stubbornly latched onto it. The highly infectious disease of eyes sprouted from the ground up until I was completely surrounded by eyes embedded in the blanket. I had nowhere to turn or run. I closed my eyes and moved forward, but I tripped on the sheet in a panic and tumbled onto the bed. When the eyes squished up against my body freezing cold shivers traversed the surface of all the skin on my body. Completely grossed out, I thrashed about beneath the sheet frantically to get away. When I finally escaped the sheet I sat up straight on the bed and opened my eyes, only to find the mass of eyes had all mysteriously vanished almost as if they¡¯d never existed. ¡°Haaaah. Haaaaaaah. Haaaaaaaah.¡± The ordeal didn¡¯t last long, but my heart was already pounding madly in my chest. I was already out of breath from the few short minutes the eyes had appeared. My sanity definitely couldn¡¯t take much more of crazy weird shit like this. Honestly, it felt like I¡¯d just woken up from a bad dream just now. I wasn¡¯t quite sure whether any of it was real either.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Luckily, I had my phone that I recorded everything with which would hopefully shed some light on what transpired just now. I dropped my phone earlier when I tripped on the sheet, but thankfully it was still in one piece. I got off the bed, picked it up, and played back the video I¡¯d just recorded. When I saw the length of the video I was shocked. It was much longer than what I¡¯d just went through. That was also when I noticed the present date and time. The next day... it was already the next day¡­ The timestamp on the video also indicated it was taken ten hours ago. A memory lapse? Did I fall into an unconscious state after I fell on the bed? Mortified, I still played the video in hopes I could uncover some sort of truth. Rather than the revelation of anything that made sense of the situation, I only grew more confounded by everything. The video was thirty minutes long. I skimmed through the entire thing and it never moved away from the wall the way I remembered the sequence of events. It was stuck there, swaying slightly in place. It was positioned perfectly in line with the hole too. The only thing I learned from the video was what happened in the room on the other side. That was the only thing depicted for the entire duration of the video. The first scene I saw was Val who¡¯d pushed Adele onto the bed. Her hands were pressed down firmly against the bed with Adele¡¯s head positioned between them, bashfully angled to the side away from Val¡¯s face. Val was on top of her with knees glued to the bed, Adele¡¯s body was perfectly positioned like a hot dog in a bun, trapped, and unable to flee or escape. Holy mother of god. I definitely shouldn¡¯t have spied after all. This was for real and not just some prank? While on top of the bed, Val moved her face closer to Adele¡¯s; it appeared she intended to whisper sweet nothings into her ear before they moved onto the real stuff. ¡°Val, we¡¯ve only just met, isn¡¯t this too fast?¡± After a few seconds, Val turned her eyes in the direction of the camera and poked out her tongue like she somehow knew I was watching. It really felt like everything was just to tease me. She immediately got off the bed, chuckled, and said, ¡°it was a joke, I¡¯m straight. I just wanted to see how you¡¯d react.¡± ¡°Eh? Val?! What do you mean? I was seriously considering your advances. Isn¡¯t it mean to play with someone like that after having just met?¡± ¡°Sorry. Sorry. It was just a bit of fun between us girls.¡± ¡°Though¡­ wouldn¡¯t you rather it be your neighbor doing what I just did?¡± ¡°What? Are you crazy? We... hardly know each other.¡± ¡°Hardly know each other. I guess that¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ hardly know each other.¡± ¡°Is something wrong?¡± ¡°Well¡­ the last two weeks... I¡¯ve been having weird dreams.¡± My heart skipped a beat when I heard her. What do you mean weird dreams? Go on. Please! ¡°Oh? Is that so? How about we go out and grab something to eat while we talk about it?¡± ¡°Eat? Well, I am a bit hungry.¡± Val! Are you really that malicious?! You really knew I was spying, didn¡¯t you?! What the hell? Was she really serious about that whole seeing colors thing? Did I ooze colors through the hole or something ridiculous? Was that really what gave me away? Maybe it¡¯s just a sixth sense, perhaps similar to developing a feeling for when someone is secretly watching you. I had first-hand experience with that sort of thing, so I could certainly relate if that¡¯s what it was. Chapter 105. Chapter 105. After a bit of girl talk related to their favorite foods, they left the room. With them gone, the only thing depicted in the video was an empty bedroom. It was a simply designed bedroom, similar to mine, but the bedroom was filled with unopened boxes that needed to be unpacked. There was a table with a chair on the opposite side that faced the hole in the wall, a dresser in a corner beside the closet, and the bed where they were in that rather precarious position earlier. I didn¡¯t see much point in watching any further as it seemed nothing interesting would happen; however, the moment my finger lowered to the screen to close out the video, a screech resounded in the room. I missed what happened because I looked away for an instant when I¡¯d lost interest. I replayed the scene and discovered the origin of the screech. The chair behind the desk had been mysteriously pulled out... seemingly, by nobody. It was unnerving to witness such an occurrence, but I still scrutinized the recording closely to verify whether there was a string tied to it somewhere. No matter how many times I rewatched that scene to uncover the truth, I found nothing particularly out of place with the chair. It truly appeared to be a perfectly normal chair with no gimmicks or hidden tricks. Curious, I let the video play on. I felt certain Val was surely messing with me again. By now, I could totally see her doing so. With her overly playful and spontaneous personality which she kept hidden most of the time, I was certain it had to be her pulling the strings behind the scenes just to mess with my head. What kind of tricks were used in the video left me slightly intrigued; so with detective-like eyes of a hawk, I scrutinized everything from then on with utmost determination to demystify it. At some point, I¡¯d completely forgotten about my initial objective, the mysterious eyes from before. I subconsciously cursed my short attention span. After the video played for several more minutes, there was a sudden change. With effects on the level of big-budget movie production, a teacup atop a small saucer mystically fazed into existence on the table. Baffled by its sudden appearance, I questioned whether the video really had been edited after all. Had Val gotten ahold of my phone during the period of time where there was a lapse in my memories? Though things didn¡¯t end at just that. If it did, everything could still be explained as some sort of prank. The teacup rattled on top of the saucer for a second before it was lifted¡­ no¡­ more specifically... it floated up into the air on its own. There was no one there to lift it. In a human-like fashion, it tilted slightly in the air as if someone had just taken a small sip. Not blinking, in fear of missing a thing, I realized the seat of the chair where I expected to find someone seated was now slightly distorted. Only, just ever so slightly. Initially, I assumed it was a green screen effect. Barely visible in the rippling space was the slight outline of a strangely ethereal figure. I couldn¡¯t see any sort of facial features, but the shape of the slight distortions in space felt somewhat... feminine, in a way I couldn¡¯t quite describe. My sixth sense as I watched the video told me whatever it was, it had locked onto the camera. It seemed it was fully aware it was secretly being monitored.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Without any warning, the teacup shattered in the air and the fragmented pieces evaporated. Left behind in its place was a trail of smoke with droplets of a crimson, blood-like substance frozen in the region of space where the teacup once hovered in place. I thought it was over, but a blue flame surrounded the frozen in time crimson globules of liquid. I watched on as they disintegrated in a rather peculiar manner, similar to how an old fashioned film burned up on a projector. Throughout the entire process, I¡¯d observed everything without blinking even once to avoid missing a single detail. When it appeared everything settled down in the video, I felt a sudden striking pain in my head and I reflexively shut my eyes tightly. When I reopened them next, I discovered, without a single sound, the chair which was previously pulled out was back in its original position, almost as if it had never moved an inch from the start of the video. I nervously rewound the video to see what happened, I was afraid of a repeat of the last time something similar to this happened. I soon discovered the events I¡¯d just witnessed in the video¡­ there were no traces of what I¡¯d recalled from only moments before. Not a single shred of evidence that suggested what I¡¯d seen was real remained. What happened to me? Nothing made sense anymore. Was there really no way for me to distinguish between reality anymore? The doctor said there was nothing wrong with my body and even my brain appeared to be fine to them, but how could there be nothing wrong when stuff like this continually happened all the time? It was driving me to madness. I even contrived various different conspiracy theories with regard to my present situation. Was I in the matrix? There was no way that was really possible. Even if I was, why would they torment a random nobody like me? Why use unscientific things like ghosts? It made little to no sense. Merely postulating or entertaining such a ludicrous idea proved how far off the deep end I already was. Ugh. Another migraine. I winced from the pain and my face warped slightly. In that instant I saw the world distorted, it flickered and skewed at a weird angle momentarily in the limited view between my squinted eyes. I simultaneously heard a strange, high pitched, electric static noise in the instant it occurred then a voice followed. ¡°Mr. Genovese, you¡¯re up? It¡¯s about time, you really kept me waiting.¡± Out of nowhere, I found Val by the door with her arms crossed. I was certain she wasn¡¯t there just moments before this. ¡°Since when have you been here?¡± ¡°What are you talking about? I¡¯ve been here the entire time.¡± ¡°Where?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been standing right here since you sat up on the bed.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Another discrepancy. ¡°Of course.¡± The world was crazy. No... I¡¯m crazy. I¡¯m definitely the one who¡¯s lost his mind. ¡°Are you okay? You seem pretty spaced out.¡± ¡°Uh. Yeah. Sorry. I¡¯m fine.¡± Just what the hell was wrong with me? Chapter 106. Chapter 106. ¡°Do you feel well enough to return to work yet?¡± ¡°It should be fine.¡± ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s really fine?¡± ¡°It really is. By the way, did Adele mention anything when she was with you? Did it seem like she might remember anything about the old her?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t act like you weren¡¯t trying to eavesdrop through the walls.¡± ¡°Haha. Sorry, but I was really curious about how you¡¯d bad mouth me. But I really was surprised by how bold you were.¡± ¡°Hmm? What¡¯s this? Did you get excited when you thought about what we were doing together?¡± ¡°Of course not. I¡¯m an upstanding man who would never get excited over such things. I was just concerned about Adele a little so I listened in on your conversation a bit before the two of you left.¡± ¡°Is that really true?¡± ¡°Are you sure you didn¡¯t do anything that could have you branded as a criminal? Like, for example, peep on us through a peephole in the wall?¡± I broke out into a cold sweat and laughed it off, ¡°I would never make a peephole.¡± I was not guilty here, nor was I lying; the peephole was there from the start. I had nothing to do with making it. It was probably the previous tenant, the same man who¡¯d sunk so low as to chase after the infamous ghost girlfriend, he¡¯d likely done it after wallowing in loneliness for years. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll ignore that matter for now. If you¡¯re feeling good enough to go to work, I¡¯ll leave you alone for now. I got a call from my secretary and I¡¯ve got tons of work piled up because of a certain problematic employee. You¡¯ve really caused me a lot of trouble. By the way, you still owe me for your loss earlier.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Wasn¡¯t kissing me in front of Adele what you¡¯d planned as your prize?¡± ¡°Of course not. I just did that to see whether she really lost her memories. I thought you would understand my intentions.¡± ¡°But that¡¯s-¡± ¡°No buts, Mr. Genovese. A loss is a loss and I¡¯ll make sure to milk you for all you¡¯re worth.¡± ¡°My eyes are up here boss. Can you please stop it with the sexual harassment?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not sexual harassment. Mr. Genovese, your eyes may be up there, but your tent appears to be down there looking pretty vigorous.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not, so would you please stop making up misleading statements to intentionally defame my character?¡± ¡°Hahaha. It¡¯s just a joke. Besides, I just wanted to verify that part still works, you did just get out of a coma after all.¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°It works just fine, thank you.¡± ¡°Oh? How would you know it works just fine? Did you test it out yesterday using material related to a certain psychotic ex of yours and your boss?¡± ¡°No... I haven¡¯t tested it, but I¡¯m sure it¡¯s just fine. The doctors said my body was perfectly healthy after all.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, your body may be fine, but what if due to a psychological block after your coma it became useless?¡± What? Could that really happen? No way, right? She¡¯s just messing with me. ¡°I¡¯m not messing with you, Mr. Genovese. I¡¯m one hundred percent serious. Which is why¡­¡± ¡°Which is why, what?¡± ¡°I want to¡­¡± She bent forward and flashed a suggestive smile, but once again paused right before she finished her sentence. ¡°You want to what! Would you just finish your damn sentence and stop pausing dramatically like that!¡± ¡°I changed my mind. Haha. It seems to be fine after all. I¡¯ll cash in on that bet later.¡± She turned and left with a cheerful hum without sparing me another glance. Ugh. I seriously hate her sometimes. It was honestly humiliating to react like that to a cheap tease. Well, at least I confirmed it was still functional. Really, what¡¯s with her though? She pulls me in on a whim at times then pushes me away at others. To be played with so easily, am I a stupid high school virgin with no experience? No, I need to be careful and wary of her still. No matter what has happened between the two of us to date, whether it be real or in a hallucination, there was always the chance she was the perfect actor. I need to think about it rationally and not let irrational emotions control me. I still don¡¯t know what she would ask of me from losing that bet, it could turn out to be something dangerous... for more reasons than one. Learn from the mistakes of your past failed relationships. I need to doubt her. I can¡¯t put blind trust in someone no matter how normal they appear on the surface. There are actually quite a few suspicious points related to Val, no matter how fond I¡¯d grown towards her, I shouldn¡¯t completely write them off as nothing. A lot of strange things also happened after I got involved with her, and they¡¯ve continually escalated the closer our relationship became. Who was Val really? It¡¯s crossed my mind in the past, but she resembled someone I knew despite how different they looked appearance-wise. I didn¡¯t want to think too deeply about it when we were alone together in the car because I instinctively feared how perceptive she was. If the seeing colors story was real, and she wasn¡¯t just pulling my leg; then even more so, I should remain wary of her. She was dangerous. Very dangerous. My instincts told me so. She was an unknown variable that I was incapable of fully wrapping my head around. Perhaps it was that very same uniqueness to her which drove me crazy that I¡¯d been drawn to. It¡¯s definitely not just because I think she¡¯s hot. Definitely not. I¡¯m not that shallow. It was just a coincidence all my exes were strangely attractive in terms of appearance. Ugh. For now, I¡¯ll just keep telling myself that so I can sleep at night. Uncertainty and a lack of information was something I feared, but at the same time, it was something that captivated people like me. It was the desire to discover and uncover the mysteries of the unknown that always led me down rabbit holes like this. Fighting off curiosity was truly both the boon and bane of man¡¯s existence. My apartment. The VHS tape. The hotel. Rick. Rick¡¯s apartment. My car. Work. Val¡¯s house. My coma. No matter how hard I thought about all the different events that occurred in all sorts of different locations, I couldn¡¯t connect the pieces of the puzzle. Despite many of the events potentially being related to her, everything somehow felt disconnected. There was something or someone acting in places I couldn¡¯t see. There had to be a better explanation than a ghost. However, if I assumed Vas was that person, maybe it would be possible to connect a few of those seemingly disjointed dots. I thought back to all the conversations we had and slowly a picture formed in my head. The dream I had related to my fourth ex before I woke up from my coma. Was I poisoned at some point? An undetectable new drug of hers maybe? Was it an assassination attempt on my life? Was Rick¡¯s murder really actually disguised as suicide? Was it because of ¡®love¡¯ or something more contrived and twisted? What about the police who easily dropped the case? There were still far too many things I couldn¡¯t piece together. Chapter 107. Chapter 107. Knock. Knock. Knock. I snapped out of it when I heard the knock at the front door. Did Val forget something? Actually, how did Val even get in here before? Was it during the time I had a lapse in memory? Either that or she secretly made a copy of my key at some point. That definitely wouldn¡¯t be impossible when I took into account the first time she snuck in. There were also more than enough opportunities to do so when I was in a coma for two weeks. Knock. Knock. Knock. ¡°Yeah. Yeah. I¡¯m coming.¡± When I opened the door, it was someone I didn¡¯t expect to see so soon. Well¡­ in all honesty, I really should have seen it coming. Did I really just fall into this trap so easily? Have I lost my psycho ex senses? Do they no longer tingle when she¡¯s in this state? ¡°Mr. Genovese-¡± I cut her off curtly, ¡°Just call me Dio. I don¡¯t like being so formal unless it¡¯s business-related.¡± In reality, it actually just hurt being referred to so formally like we really were complete strangers. I loved her in the past, yet she completely forgot about our time together. How could I not feel anything from that? I knew it was contradictory that I also felt relieved she¡¯d forgotten about me, but humans were known to be living contradictions. Despite knowing it was toxic, we only singled out the good times from our memories. At the end of the day, I was just another human in this world. If we¡¯d be neighbors from now on, I¡¯d rather not feel that way every time I ran into her. ¡°O-Okay.¡± ¡°What is it? I¡¯ve got things to do, I don¡¯t have all day to just stand around doing nothing. I¡¯m busy.¡± Please just go away. I don¡¯t want to feel the sensation of my heart being torn in two for long. ¡°I-i-it¡¯s just that I came to say thank you for helping me out so much before. That was all.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to thank me. It¡¯s like religious folk say, help thy neighbor or something like that, right?¡± She blushed a bit and retorted in slight embarrassment, ¡°It¡¯s love thy neighbor as thyself. At least get it right.¡± ¡°I¡¯m an atheist. You expect me to get it right?¡± ¡°I¡¯m an atheist too, but even I can get that line correct¡­ I think.¡± ¡°If that was all, then bye.¡± Just as I tried to heartlessly close the door shut in her face, she called out, ¡°Wait, hold on! There was one other thing as well!¡± ¡°One other thing?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Go on.¡± ¡°I-is it true you and Val aren¡¯t lovers?¡± I acted like I was unaware and responded, ¡°She cleared up the misunderstanding with you? It¡¯s good if she did. That is correct, she is my boss at work. The scene you saw was a misunderstanding.¡± ¡°A misunderstanding? How can that possibly be misunderstood?¡± ¡°It just was. I¡¯m not obligated to explain any more than that. If that¡¯s all-¡± She tugged on my sleeve to prevent me from leaving and called out desperately, ¡°Wait!¡± ¡°What is it now?!¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I looked back with annoyance fully emphasized on my face. I really wasn¡¯t in a great mood right now to deal with this. There was too much stuff happening too quickly, and I wanted to take some time to think everything over. Yet, anytime I tried to do that, I found myself always interrupted. It was almost as if everything was planned beforehand to prevent me from thinking things over. There were always too many distractions around to divert my attention. When I can¡¯t even be sure I have my head on properly, I don¡¯t have time to deal with your problems. ¡°I¡­¡± I took a deep breath. I realized I was agitated and annoyed, but it still wasn¡¯t right to take it out on her. She was just as lost as I was; the only difference being, she was without her memories. I was plagued by a similar problem, but instead, it was gaps rather than everything like her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for raising my voice. I¡¯ve just been going through a lot of things lately. I didn¡¯t mean to say it like that.¡± ¡°I-it¡¯s okay. I¡¯m sorry for coming at a bad time. Forget about what I was going to say. Bye.¡± Without thinking, I reflexively grabbed her hand from behind. She didn¡¯t struggle or resist, she simply stood there, her shoulders drooped down with her back to me. ¡°If you¡¯ve got something to ask just ask. I won¡¯t get mad again.¡± ¡°Darling, will you die with me?¡± A whisper came from behind me, right beside my ear, but I was certain it definitely wasn¡¯t the question the Adele in front of me asked. It was the seductive whisper of the devilish psychotic Adele of old in my head. My body tensed up a bit and my grip on her hand strengthened by a notch. When I first grabbed her hand, I felt her tremble a bit, but when my grip intensified, I sensed that feeling of unease in her significantly dropped. I¡¯m not trying to reassure you here, I¡¯m actually the uneasy one now damn it. I demand a refund on self-reassurance. I need it more than you do! ¡°Dio, I don¡¯t know what to do.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Darling, I want us to die in each other¡¯s embrace and eternally be together forever and ever.¡± Again? Please don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s a premonition that the old her has returned. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I really even came to say right now. I can¡¯t find the words.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll just wait here with you until you find them.¡± Because I¡¯m too frozen in place from anxiousness to go anywhere else. ¡°Why are you suddenly showing kindness to me out of nowhere? It¡¯s throwing me off you jerk.¡± Jokes aside, what am I doing right now? Why am I just going with the flow again despite knowing I should cut all ties? No matter how many times I tell myself to do that, I keep making the same mistake. I¡¯m not in a situation where I can think about these things. She¡¯s also not someone I should get any further involved with, for the both of us, it would be best to outright end it. Am I really going to repeat the mistake of getting closer to her only to be scarred later on when things go awry? Is it just human nature to repeat the same toxic choices despite knowing better? Am I just a fool that doesn¡¯t learn? ¡°If you¡¯re not seeing anyone, would you go on a date with me?¡± Ah, she actually went and asked. ¡°A date...? Why?¡± Please enlighten this idiot as to why a date would be a good idea. ¡°I wanted to pay you back for helping me. I wouldn¡¯t feel right if I didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Is that really all there is to it? There¡¯s no deeper meaning? You¡¯re not hiding anything?¡± Are you sure you aren¡¯t secretly going to try and kill me? I really wanted to ask that question the most, but my better judgment told me to hold back. ¡°I¡¯m not. There¡¯s no deeper meaning either¡± You¡¯re not going to kill me? Is she a mind reader? I¡¯m pretty sure I didn¡¯t say that last part out loud. Oh, right, she meant she¡¯s not hiding anything. ¡°Fine... but not today. Today¡¯s my first day back to work. Tomorrow would... be fine.¡± At first, I considered bailing on the date to get her to hate me and leave me alone. The only reason I accepted her offer was that I was curious about her so-called weird dreams. Were they related to why she approached me today? Did Val mention anything to her? There were all sorts of questions I had that would only be answered if I asked her directly. ¡°Then, tomorrow after work. In the evening. I¡¯ll meet you here... D-Dio.¡± She averted her eyes to the side a bit when she stuttered out my nickname. She really was a different person. It was an action the Adele I knew had never done in the past. Back in university, she was the type who boldly called me Darling without a hint of shame or embarrassment. She always acted overly affectionate in public without a single care for how it looked to others. ¡°Okay. See you then.¡± I knew I¡¯d probably regret this later on, but I still agreed. When I let go of her hand, she returned to her room. I stood there blankly in uncertainty over what was to come. I closed the door and dejectedly slumped down on the sofa in the living room while I spaced out. I watched videos online to pass the time until it was time for my shift. When my alarm went off, I got ready and made my way to work. Chapter 108. Chapter 108. I drove my car to work for what felt like the first time in forever. When I arrived in front of the building, it really felt great to be able to see the place for a change. When I stepped inside, there were a lot of people who greeted me with concern as they inquired about my health. They all appeared sympathetic on the surface, but I didn¡¯t feel any sincerity in their words. It felt like they were more interested in gathering material to gossip about. ¡°Senior Dio, you¡¯re finally back. Some of us thought you¡¯d died like Rick. It¡¯s been crazy lately. The boss also suddenly disappeared and only reappeared today. We only had a bit of information from her secretary to go off of. There have also been tons of conspiracy theories going around in the office related to you, Rick, and boss.¡± When I finally got past the crowd and arrived at my desk, Peter, one of the few people in the office I got along with approached me. He did me a favor and filled me in on everything that went on while I was away. Peter just so happened to also be among our group of four that went for drinks on the night Rick died. ¡°It sounds pretty bad. What kind of conspiracy theories are there exactly?¡± ¡°Too many. You eloped with the boss was very popular among the ladies. You killed Rick who you saw as an eyesore in your relationship with her. The guys on the other hand think you infiltrated the company to get dirt on the boss for a rival company, but Rick discovered you, so you killed him off.¡± I was slack-jawed. ¡°What idiot is spreading such nonsensical inaccurate garbage like that?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± ¡°What is it? Go on¡­¡± ¡°That is¡­¡± ¡°Bloody hell, speak man! Speak!¡± He averted his eyes to the side and said, ¡°Sorry... It was me who inadvertently started it. I accidentally made a bad joke in our group and someone from outside overheard it and took it too seriously. From then on... it kind of blew up.¡± ¡°Peter, you¡¯re breaking my balls man. You¡¯re really breaking them bad.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry! It really wasn¡¯t my intention for things to blow up the way they did. But isn¡¯t it true your relationship with the boss is surprisingly close despite only recently starting here?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that close.¡± ¡°How can it be such a coincidence that you returned to work the same day the boss did though?¡± ¡°That is¡­¡± I was stumped. Certainly, to return to work the same day the boss did, that would definitely raise a few eyebrows. I didn¡¯t think too deeply about something like that, I just wanted to return to work to get my mind off of things a bit was all. Repairing electronics, strangely enough, helped me cope with stress and allowed me to think more clearly. When I became more aware of my surroundings, I discovered there were a lot of busybodies in the office who¡¯d perked their ears up in our direction. There were others who occasionally shot discreet glances over, clearly also interested in getting an answer. I didn¡¯t have any idea what they were told by Boss¡¯ secretary, so I didn¡¯t really know what to say. With Rick¡¯s recent death, it was likely she didn¡¯t want to cause any stress for the other employees by informing them that another employee had fallen into a coma so soon after. A negative atmosphere would lurch over the workforce while work efficacy would have certainly plummeted with the exceedingly low morale in the office.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. In a way, the strange stories that arose may have actually been a convenient spin-on Rick¡¯s death in the office as a means to distract everyone from reality. It spurred on people¡¯s imaginative nature. It turned their eyes to something fictitious in nature, far removed from the depressing reality. The reason it blew up, and as for who benefited the most¡­ could it be? The one behind the scenes fanning the flames the entire way would be¡­ no... I was surely thinking too much into it. ¡°Well? What is it? What¡¯s the reason you two returned on the same day?¡± ¡°The reason for that is actually pretty simple Peter. It is-¡° Slam! Just as I was about to make up some sort of rubbish explanation, the sound of a door slamming open resounded loudly in the building. It was none other than the door to Val¡¯s office. She stepped out and scrutinized all the employees closely before she calmly announced, ¡°I¡¯ve heard there¡¯s quite the interesting gossip circulating since I¡¯ve been out of the office. To clear up the misunderstanding, Mr. Genovese was stuck in the hospital for the last two weeks due to a medical condition he had that flared up. I came across him passed out while he was on his way to work and I took him to the hospital to get treated.¡± ¡°Due to an emergency situation that popped up with a partner company, I had to take an emergency trip. I only returned today so I couldn¡¯t fully explain everything that happened personally. It is merely a coincidence that Mr. Genovese was recently discharged from the hospital yesterday and returned to work the same day that I got back from my business trip. My secretary should have already informed you of this emergency business trip, so this gossip is truly ludicrous.¡± Business trip? ¡°Psst. Peter, she was on a business trip?¡± ¡°Yeah. That¡¯s what we were told, but nobody took it seriously. Everyone secretly thought it was a conspiracy and that boss¡¯ secretary was just covering things up.¡± ¡°As people working under me, for MY company, I expect you all to maintain a certain level of professionalism even when I am not around. It¡¯s very disheartening to return to such a mess. I hope you all maintain due diligence and take time to reflect on your immaturity. I am running a business here, not a daycare. Anyone found spreading baseless rumors like this will face corrective action. Depending on the severity, immediate termination may be considered.¡± Peter really didn¡¯t look too good when he heard the last part of her speech. Hell, even I felt bad for him when it was completely unrelated to me. ¡°Senior Dio, you¡¯ve got to help me! I don¡¯t want to get fired for a stupid joke. It¡¯s absolutely not my fault! You know I¡¯m not the type of person to spread malicious rumors like that intentionally, right?!¡± ¡°Relax, chill out, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°How can it possibly be fine?! I¡¯m basically the source of this. If they investigate, no, what if they already know?!¡± ¡°Mr. Kerparski and Mr. Genovese, please come to my office. There are some things I would like to clear up.¡± ¡°See?! I¡¯m screwed! They already know everything after all!¡± ¡°Stop panicking and think rationally. Why would our boss also call me in with you?¡± ¡°Maybe she just wants to keep you happy by showing you how she deals with the person who was responsible for the rumors that spread about the two you?¡± ¡°She¡¯s not that harsh a person.¡± ¡°How would you know? You said you weren¡¯t close!¡± ¡°Just call it instinct. She looks cold on the surface, but I¡¯m sure she¡¯s warm on the inside.¡± ¡°No way. Definitely not! You definitely haven¡¯t heard about the rumors of when she first started the company. It¡¯s said back when she first started the business, a single glare from her when she was frustrated made an employee pee their pants. Another time, a guy looked at her the wrong way and she fired him on the spot.¡± ¡°One time someone tripped and spilled a cup of water on her shirt and she put him on display in a dunk tank as payback for an entire day. She charged staff and people passing by outside to take shots at hitting the bullseye to dunk him. She made a killing that day. To add insult to injury, she even docked 10% from the poor sap¡¯s paycheck that month.¡± Was the last one even supposed to make her look scary? It sounded exactly like what I¡¯d expect of her. Getting even and docking pay for petty reasons; sounds about right to me. ¡°Those don¡¯t even sound that scary to be honest. The first person was probably just a nervous wreck in front of their boss, the second was probably a troublemaker even before that and probably had it coming. The last person was¡­ just unlucky it had to be her he spilled the cup of water on.¡± ¡°Did I mention it was winter?¡± ¡°...¡± Chapter 109. Chapter 109. ¡°See? She¡¯s scary right?¡± Just a little bit. ¡°It¡¯s just winter¡­ it¡¯s not that bad...¡± ¡°To not be scared even after hearing this much... are you some sort of reincarnated hero who knows no fear?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve just seen worse.¡± Haha. You have no idea. Every day has been scarier than little kiddie stuff like that. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s not keep her waiting. She might dock us pay if we put her in a bad mood.¡± ¡°Right.¡± We followed Val into her office and closed the door behind us. ¡°Mr. Kerparski, do you know what this is about?¡± ¡°I think I do.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good if you know. I don¡¯t really intend to make a big deal out of it, but I naturally need to set an example. I¡¯m docking you 20% on your pay for this month. You may leave now.¡± ¡°Eh? What? That¡¯s it? Shouldn¡¯t I be in more trouble?¡± ¡°Like I said, I don¡¯t really care. I just need to set an example, so when you leave the room just act like the world has ended and that will be the end of this matter.¡± Peter¡¯s eyes lit up when he heard her words. Peter stood up fit as a fiddle and eagerly slammed his fist against his chest for dramatic effect. ¡°Boss that¡¯s not a problem. I¡¯ll do my utmost to make sure everyone thinks I¡¯m a broken mess when I leave this room. If all I have to do is just act a bit, I¡¯ll be sure to put on the waterworks to set an example for everyone to be a model worker from now on. I¡¯ll be sure to sing songs of your good name and praise you to the skies in front of my great, great grandkids in the future. I¡¯ll tell everyone all about how I was reformed and how I¡¯ve seen the light thanks to the magnanimous words of my benevolent boss who put me on the path of righteousness!¡± ¡°Shut it. I don¡¯t need you to do anything annoying like that. Just leave with your head lowered; when they ask, just tell them you were berated, warned sternly, and received a demotion.¡± ¡°Eh? That¡¯s really all?¡± ¡°Yes, Mr. Kerparski.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s all, why did you call Senior Dio as well?¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°I have some business with him. I didn¡¯t want to have to leave my office a second time or bother my secretary, who¡¯s busy enough as she is with miscellaneous tasks, so I called him in with you to save some time. Too much work has piled up in the last two weeks and I intend to make good use of the slacker who¡¯s been off in the hospital while getting paid for doing nothing. Hahaha. I really don¡¯t like having to pay workers who don¡¯t work you see. Mr. Genovese is going to be putting in a lot of work as my assistant for the next little while, you should inform your team of that.¡± ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am!¡± Peter shot an obnoxious look of pity my way like he¡¯d gotten off easy in comparison. From the look on his face, I knew that in his eyes, I was the one receiving punishment for being away on sick leave for two weeks. He didn¡¯t say anything in my defense either, he kept his mouth shut and weaseled his way out the door like it was no longer his problem. This guy... I¡¯d definitely remember this. Boss chuckled when he was gone and looked at me like I was a lamb on a chopping block. ¡°Now what kind of work should I dump on you, Mr. Genovese? I¡¯m sure you¡¯re quite good at writing technical reports as a former professional Electrical Engineer.¡± ¡°Please no, anything but that! I hate writing technical reports!¡± ¡°Hahaha. Did you forget you owe me? I knew if I asked you to do this before you¡¯d adamantly refuse since it wasn¡¯t in your job description, but now that you owe me one, do you really think you have the right to refuse?¡± I¡¯m going to cry. The thing that scared me the most about my last job was the technical reports. In fact, I¡¯d rather never write any kind of report ever again. That was one of the major reasons I settled for being a repair technician here. Strict deadlines were also a nightmare. Compiling the report into one document was an agonizing process when there were so many people working on it. ¡°Anything but writing reports. Please spare me from such a horrible fate.¡± ¡°Anything? Are you sure about that?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure.¡± Ah. I might have spoken too soon. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear that. Then you¡¯ll be going with me on my emergency business trip to patch up relations with a potential partner company that cropped up because I was so busy with you. Since the mess came up because I was preoccupied with you, I¡¯ll ensure you¡¯re the one who fixes this. Make sure you make good use of your presentation skills to convince our partner. I¡¯ll be looking forward to it.¡± It was something worse than I could have ever imagined. A meeting with the board of directors of another company to patch up a business relationship. I started to feel sick just from the thought of how stressful it would be. ¡°Are you crazy? You really expect me to do that on such short notice?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°This is completely unreasonable! I have no data, no context, I know nothing at all. I don¡¯t even know who the partner company is.¡± ¡°You truly don¡¯t need to worry about any of that, Mr. Genovese.¡± She looked at me with a slightly deranged smile before she continued. ¡°The potential business partner, you know them all too well. You only just recently resigned with them after all. It¡¯s obviously your old firm I¡¯m talking about.¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t you been curious why I¡¯d be so concerned with you to the point of staying by your side for a full two weeks while you were in the hospital?¡± ¡°It was this?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s only one of the reasons. As for the other reasons, you don¡¯t need to concern yourself with them.¡± So that was why she¡¯d been trying to build our relationship up recently? Was everything a honey trap from the very beginning? If that was the case, was I overthinking everything before about her being that person? Or was that just further evidence to support it? Chapter 110. Chapter 110. ¡°My relationship with you isn¡¯t just a honey trap if that¡¯s what you¡¯re thinking.¡± ¡°I first stumbled upon your resume by chance during my routine check-up on our HR department and the first thing I noticed was the name of your previous firm. Your firm was only one of several different reasons I had for hiring you. They became a potential business partner because I hired you. Due to your request to maintain confidentiality when contacting your references, I even personally made the call to your old firm rather than our HR department.¡± ¡°You actually contacted my references yourself rather than HR? Ugh. Just what sort of dirt did you get on me from them?¡± ¡°Nothing much really, but after speaking with your reference at the firm a bit, things took an unexpected turn towards talking business. That¡¯s really all there was to it. Hiring you just happened to also lead to a potential business partnership. Your previous firm relied on you quite a bit from what I gathered. It would be a waste to let you slack off all the time by only repairing a few electronics.¡± ¡°Do I get a raise?¡± ¡°No.¡± Flat out rejection with no room for negotiation. ¡°Why would I accept this then?¡± ¡°You already agreed to anything, you can¡¯t go back on your word.¡± ¡°What¡¯s stopping me from quitting?¡± ¡°Your attachment to me?¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be a honey trap if that was the case?¡± ¡°Well, the real reason you won¡¯t quit is because I¡¯d make certain you¡¯re unable to find another employer in your field after that. You¡¯d be left with no choice but to come back here¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you too evil?¡± ¡°When we talk business, I¡¯m the devil. When we¡¯re alone in bed, I¡¯ll be your angel. How does that sound?¡± ¡°It sounds like a horrible proposition.¡± ¡°You¡¯re quite the hard man to please.¡± ¡°You¡¯re just too cheap to pay me for the extra work.¡± ¡°It¡¯s called being frugal.¡± ¡°No, Boss, it¡¯s called being a modern-day corporate slave.¡± ¡°Oh? You want to be my slave now? That isn¡¯t quite appropriate to say in a working environment like this, Mr. Genovese. You should keep that to yourself for when we¡¯re alone at night.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t play dumb, you know exactly what I mean.¡± ¡°Anyway, prepare a presentation to show how a business partnership with our company would benefit your old firm. With your inside knowledge, knowing the firm¡¯s ins and outs, your connections, and your relationship with them, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem for you.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t this too much stress for someone who just got out of the hospital?¡±Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°I just got out of the hospital too and I¡¯m dealing with it, what¡¯s your excuse for not being able to deal with it.¡± ¡°Just being in the hospital beside the person actually hospitalized isn¡¯t the same thing!¡± ¡°What¡¯s different? We both spent two weeks in the hospital. I stayed by your side looking over you worriedly the entire time, forgoing my business, which was what created this little mess. Take some responsibility, would you?¡± ¡°You were really worried about me?¡± ¡°Of course I was.¡± ¡°Sorry.¡± Was she worried that if I wasn¡¯t around she¡¯d possibly lose money from a potential business partnership slipping through her fingers? She shot me a glare like she knew exactly what I¡¯d just thought. ¡°Again, sorry.¡± She smiled menacingly. ¡°Oh? What are you apologizing for this time?¡± ¡°For thinking you had an ulterior motive.¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s fine, it¡¯s not like there aren¡¯t any ulterior motives after all. It¡¯s just not the one you¡¯re thinking of.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± ¡°This is probably why you have so many problems with women.¡± ¡°No. I don¡¯t think anything I did had any direct impact on my exes turning out to be psychopaths.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a joke. You¡¯ll never be successful with a normal woman at this rate. By the way, how are things with your new neighbor? Were there any developments after I left your place?¡± ¡°No comment.¡± ¡°Hoh. Are you getting cocky with me?¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to keep my private life separate from work.¡± ¡°You¡¯re still saying things like that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s normal to say things like this.¡± ¡°Are you trying to hide something? Did she work up the courage to actually ask you on a date or something?¡± My heart momentarily froze in place when I noticed the interrogative look on her face. ¡°How suspicious. I take it that¡¯s a no comment?¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡± ¡°Even if you don¡¯t answer, you¡¯re still easy enough for me to read you know. Why do you even try to hide anything from me anymore?¡± ¡°If you already knew, then why ask about it?¡± ¡°Because your reactions are cute. It¡¯s fun to bully and tease my employee a bit every now and then. It¡¯s a good way to relieve some stress.¡± ¡°Is this what you call every now and then? If it is, I definitely don¡¯t want to see what a lot means to you.¡± She bit her lips seductively and suggestively responded, ¡°would you like to see what a lot looks like?¡± Why do I have to have a boss who finds entertainment in giving guys blue balls? Must resist... the urge to say yes. I¡¯m not a masochist, so no thank you. She¡¯s definitely the sadistic type, that much I¡¯m certain of. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Mr. Genovese, why aren¡¯t you responding? It¡¯s as simple as yes or no? Should I take your silence as yes?¡± She got up from her chair and moved closer to me. When our faces were mere centimeters apart, close enough that I could smell the sweet rosy scent of the perfume she had on, she let out a breath of hot air and asked again, ¡°Well? Yes or no?¡± ¡°If I said yes, would I be fired?¡± ¡°Who knows? That depends on your ability, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Can you please give me your definition of ability?¡± ¡°I cannot do that, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Can you please use the word in a sentence?¡± ¡°I just did, but I¡¯ll repeat it in case you didn¡¯t hear the first time. It depends on your ability.¡± ¡°Can I have the language of origin?¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, I¡¯m not running a spelling bee here. Stop wasting my time or I really may just need to fire you. Yes or no? It¡¯s as simple as that.¡± ¡°My answer is no.¡± Her lips twitched as she burst into laughter to the point of nearly crying. ¡°You¡¯re too much, Mr. Genovese. Even with that much, your will to resist is really quite the annoying brick wall.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got a presentation to take care of, don¡¯t I? When would I find time to get it done if you increased the level of your teasing?¡± ¡°Hahaha. I see. I see. That¡¯s just what I¡¯d expect of you. That¡¯s good I guess, but it¡¯s also a bit of a shame though.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a sha-¡± Chapter 111. Chapter 111. I looked down at my chest and saw a knife plunged into my heart. I was hit so bloody hard by her assault just now that my thoughts didn¡¯t bother lining up with what really transpired just now. I was so used to insane women that even my thoughts had developed a mind of their own. They just assumed the worst case on their own. What the hell just happened though? I couldn¡¯t even really process it right away. My mind spun in circles from the abrupt spontaneity of her actions. She was always way too forceful at times. Just when I tried to ask her what she meant, she¡¯d pulled on my tie and gave me a brief kiss on the lips before she pulled away as quickly as she¡¯d attacked. ¡°Even if you say no, I¡¯ll still do it just to see your troubled face. That is what is a shame.¡± I¡¯m extremely troubled and conflicted whenever you do that, so if that was your objective you definitely succeeded. ¡°If we weren¡¯t at work right now, who knows what a lot more would have been, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Can you please hold back a bit?¡± ¡°The more you resist it, the more difficult it is to hold back, Mr. Genovese. Next time you should just say yes and I might lose interest in you that way.¡± ¡°You¡¯re telling me to use reverse psychology? Wouldn¡¯t you just see through the lie right away and really just take it too far instead of losing interest?¡± ¡°Unless it actually happens, I wouldn¡¯t be able to confirm or deny it. Why don¡¯t you take on that gamble for a change?¡± ¡°Gambling is a losing game where the odds are always stacked against you. It¡¯s completely irrational to put your fate in the hands of an unlikely probabilistic event.¡± ¡°Are you really a man?¡± ¡°The biological anatomy inside my pants suggests that I am.¡± ¡°What if you¡¯re actually a transsexual or cyborg disguised as a man?¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t the doctors have said something if I was?¡± ¡°There¡¯s also a big old M on my birth certificate, is that not proof enough?¡± ¡°Certainly, I did see it with my own two eyes after all. It definitely was rather big back then like you claim.¡± ¡°The M on my birth certificate was, right?¡± ¡°Certificate? Oh yeah, it did have an M on there for your proof of identity in your citizenship documents; you¡¯re right, I almost forgot.¡± ¡°Why does it feel like we were talking about two completely different things just now?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s nothing important.¡± I looked at her suspiciously, but she turned away like it was nothing and returned to her desk. She beckoned me to move closer to her desk and take the seat opposite hers. When I took a seat, I saw all sorts of reports and documents scattered across the desk.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°These are documents and reports with everything that could be useful to the partnership we¡¯re trying to strike with your previous firm. This should help you with putting together a compelling presentation, shouldn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°All of this?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°How long do I have?¡± ¡°Two days.¡± ¡°Two days?! What the bloody hell, are you crazy?!¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah, I get what you¡¯re trying to say, but your firm won¡¯t give us any more time to prepare. They just said there were many other companies they could partner with and if we couldn¡¯t even manage this we had no right to partner with them.¡± ¡°Tch, that sounds about right for what I¡¯d expect from the higher-ups working there. The pressure on deadlines was extreme. An extension? Hah, they¡¯d rather push an unfinished product and cut corners to get them out even earlier than intended. Just patch through software updates after release if something came up, that was their favorite motto. They honestly couldn¡¯t care less about hardware problems if there was a potential workaround through software. The work ethic was unbearably frustrating.¡± ¡°That¡¯s precisely why partnering with them would be beneficial for us. The flaws that result from that sort of carelessness is exactly what upper management likes to see. They can reel in money through repairs or selling replacement parts while at times even forcing people to upgrade their devices later on down the line. They can even intentionally botch repairs and claim the device is unfixable due to some sort of fault on the user¡¯s end. They don¡¯t want a perfect product that never needs to be replaced or repaired, if they did that, they wouldn¡¯t be able to keep generating revenue in the long run. Disposable products are profitable in their eyes, while long-lasting products are a waste of potential revenue they can capitalize on in the near future.¡± ¡°You¡¯re exactly right boss, that was their exact business model. As an engineer who worked for them, it was agonizing to see the firm have that sort of mindset. Us little electrical engineers, software engineers, and programmers wanted to do our jobs, but we never could because of the corrupt management at the firm. We were always the ones forced to face all the public criticism for major design flaws that became apparent only a few years down the line. Even though we were already long aware of the problems before the product was launched and wanted to fix them, we couldn¡¯t due to strict orders in place by management. The evil non-disclosure agreements they made us sign before we started working for them was essentially selling our souls to the devil.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, If we can land a partnership with them, we can gain a monopoly on repairs for their firm¡¯s products. They can save money by outsourcing us for repairs and they can avoid having to constantly train and hire repair technicians on their own. We can cut them a deal by supplying them with a percentage earned from repairs on their products. How does it sound?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t see them being interested. They would need to reveal the schematics for their products to our repair technicians, of which they consider to be trade secrets. It becomes more dangerous for them as the number of people who know of their darkest secrets increases. It would be the equivalent to cutting off their arm and donating it to someone else.¡± ¡°That¡¯s where you come in though. You worked as an electrical engineer for years for them, right?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not thinking of applying pressure by using me, are you? You realize I¡¯m bound by the non-disclosure agreement I mentioned, right?¡± ¡°Even if sensitive insider information mysteriously leaked, how would they prove the source of the information leak if it¡¯s done in an untraceable manner? Mr. Genovese, you should very well be aware of the black markets thanks to your past relationships, correct?¡± ¡°You¡¯d really go so far as holding a knife to their necks for the sake of landing a big contract?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a businesswoman, I don¡¯t hold knives. I simply use the pieces I have at my disposal to accomplish my objective.¡± This was definitely a far more cunning version of the woman I¡¯d recently grown closer to. It was certainly a side I¡¯d never seen from her before this. ¡°What if I refused to disclose their secrets?¡± ¡°You would refuse the request of your boss who cares for your well being so much?¡± ¡°I¡¯d be sued if they were able to prove I was the one who leaked such sensitive highly classified information like that.¡± ¡°Well, we¡¯ll see how things go. If things go well, there would be no need to play our trump card. Whether it ends up being used or not depends on the presentation you put together. At the end of the day, your fate rests in your own hands.¡± Chapter 112. Chapter 112. I slumped back in my chair defeated. Those old farts part of the board of directors were all stuck up with their heads held high above the clouds. They only listened to how much profit could be made. If it meant leaving a defect in an item only noticeable after the warranty ran out, they¡¯re the type to leave it in there purposely. Boss was too optimistic and I didn¡¯t understand where her confidence came from in this venture. ¡°Dio, to begin with, we don¡¯t need them to reveal their top-secret schematics to our repair technicians. All you need to do is train our technicians on how certain common defects can be fixed. If it¡¯s anything complicated that they can¡¯t solve, they can have it sent to us at corporate where you can deal with it personally, or you can locate the source of the problem and provide a method to fix it to one of our technicians here.¡± ¡°In theory, it sounds like that could be possible to accomplish, but I doubt it would work out well in practice. We¡¯d likely be overloaded with work until large delays become apparent with repairs in the long run due to an abundance of backlog piling up.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the exact point where we have a chance to expand the business.¡± ¡°Boss, repairs become less possible and feasible as technology advances due to how complex the subcomponents are becoming, you should know that, right?¡± ¡°Of course I¡¯m aware of that, but that¡¯s because big companies are more and more prone to keep their schematics on the lockdown. If they were shared with repair shops, many things deemed unfixable would suddenly be fixable again.¡± ¡°Dio, if the big guys want to play dirty and exploit consumers, then don¡¯t you think we should strike at their weakness? What would happen if their reputation sunk to rock bottom? Their sales would plummet. If pressure was applied to the big wigs from other angles as well, I¡¯m sure they would cave in.¡± ¡°Other angles? What other angles of attack are there?¡± A shiver ran down my back when I noticed the razor-sharp look of a predator in her eyes. Her look right now contrasted greatly with the woman I knew. ¡°You should know the world isn¡¯t a pretty place, Mr. Genovese. Business isn¡¯t such a pretty thing either. Sometimes a heavy-handed approach is necessary when dealing with people that just refuse to listen to reason no matter what is said to them.¡± Instinctively, I vaguely understood what she meant by that. My boss definitely wasn¡¯t a normal woman, that much I was certain of. The cold emotionless eyes locked onto my own was more than enough proof for me to arrive at that conclusion. Did she know something? ¡°Are you scared of me?¡± ¡°Of this side of you... a little.¡± I definitely didn¡¯t expect the lighthearted conversation we¡¯d started off with would take such a dark turn. ¡°The scummy big wig executives who take advantage of the little bit of wealth and power they¡¯ve accumulated are all rotten to the core, Mr. Genovese. You shouldn¡¯t feel any sort of sympathy for them. If they were to mysteriously die one day, not a single person would grieve for them. At the end of the day, they only care about their personal gain and social standing. Anyone below them is viewed as either disposable pawns or slightly useful pawns they can exploit until they break.¡±This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Right.¡± I was too afraid to refute her, and in all honesty, deep down, I somewhat agree with her to a certain degree. What I¡¯d seen was more than enough to make me think the same way. But just what was my boss¡¯s identity? ¡°I¡¯ve dumped a lot on you today, for that, I¡¯m sorry. You can take these documents home for today and work on the presentation there. Tomorrow I¡¯ll come over to your place to help you out. I¡¯ve still got other matters to take care of. I¡¯m counting on you for this. Please don¡¯t let down my expectations.¡± ¡°Y-yeah, I understand.¡± I stacked up the scrambled documents together in one pile, immediately got up from my seat then left the room with all the documents in one hand. When I was outside the room I felt the color drain from my face. I¡¯d only just gotten here for my shift, but I was told I could return home and work from there? The business boss is terrifying. Peter wasn¡¯t kidding, she definitely had a side that was like a devil. She hid the two extremes to her personality behind that neutral and cold business smile of hers really well. Was this enough for me to call her a psychopath though? I wasn¡¯t too sure. Either way, I definitely couldn¡¯t call her a normal woman like she claimed she was. Normal women surely don¡¯t think of casually attacking a larger company¡¯s weaknesses. When I returned to my desk I put all the documents into a briefcase I hadn¡¯t used for quite some time now. I always kept it here at work in case I ever needed to safely transport anything to and from work. With such a thick stack of documents, they would definitely be damaged if I just willy-nilly tossed everything in my backpack. ¡°Senior Dio, are you leaving already?¡± ¡°Yeah, Boss assigned me with quite the troublesome task and told me I could work on it at home.¡± ¡°You have my sincere condolences.¡± ¡°Peter, you sure ran away quickly with your tail tucked between your legs when you realized you weren¡¯t fired.¡± ¡°Haha, well... it would be bad if she had a sudden change of heart, right?¡± ¡°Whatever. Let the others in our group know that I¡¯ll likely be away for a few days on a business trip with the boss. Make it damn well clear that it¡¯s strictly business and nothing else. It¡¯s just an opportunity to form a business partnership with one of my previous workplaces that sprung up. There¡¯s no funny business to be had here.¡± ¡°Oh? Are you getting promoted as soon as you return after a sick leave?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not getting any sort of raise for this, so no.¡± ¡°It must suck to be you right now Senior Dio. Once again, you have my condolences.¡± ¡°You have no idea how bad it actually is. Be glad you¡¯re a simple junior repair technician with a normal life ahead of you, I really envy you for it.¡± I was definitely what people called cursed. If such an unscientific thing existed that is. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll see you next time.¡± ¡°Yeah, whenever next time will be.¡± I might die from overwork after all. I let out a long dejected sigh when I exited the building and returned to my twilight world apartment where all sorts of weird shit occurred. But even if I moved, would things go back to normal? Or was it already too late for me? Ugh, but the rent was so cheap that it was practically a steal. So what if some creepy shit happens? I just had to suck it up, get used to it, and avoid losing my sanity was all. Besides, even when I wasn¡¯t here weird shit still happened, so even if I moved it was unlikely it would stop. In that case, I¡¯d be stuck with high rent and I¡¯d still have to cope with all this nonsense anyway. Chapter 113. Chapter 113. Maybe I should write a story about all this crazy stuff and try to monetize the whole haunted apartment story? I could sell the story online and just pass it off as a fictional horror story. I wouldn¡¯t want to claim it¡¯s real and have people think I¡¯m some sort of delusional author who was unable to differentiate between reality and fiction. They would surely think I¡¯d lost my mind if I really labeled it as ¡®based on a true story,¡¯ or if I claimed it was a nonfiction work. Well, I suppose I¡¯ll leave that for another time. Working on this stupid presentation she pushed on me comes first. I immediately set out to work and read through all the different documents. I took pages upon pages of notes on my laptop. Eventually, I completely lost track of time as I mindlessly slaved away as I skimmed through them one by one. I scanned through it for only the distinct notable keywords that I knew those geezers were so fond of. It would be very difficult to scrutinize every single detail in the reports with the limited time available to me. With what looked like thousands of pages to go through, I knew I needed to cut corners where I could. Hour after hour went by and before I realized it, thirty-two hours had gone by completely unnoticed to me. By the end of it, my eyes sagged down low in a similar fashion to how they had when I was back in university. I truly was mentally exhausted to the extreme. It really was such a mundane, boring process that drained all the life out of you. It was simultaneously the embodiment of every university student¡¯s worst nightmare. The horror of waking up one morning after continually procrastinating every day, not having started your presentation, and realizing it was due in only a day or two. I thought I¡¯d rather die than ever have to write reports or presentations under conditions like that ever again. I greatly feared I¡¯d trigger a bad resurgence of insomnia whenever I thought back to those days. It was only now when my body rebelled that I realized how hungry I was. I headed over to the kitchen and put a TV dinner in the microwave. A metaphorical tear of gratefulness rolled down my cheek. Thank you chef Stouffer¡¯s for your decades of hard work. Without you, I likely would have dropped dead from starvation on countless sleepless nights over the years. Now that I had a bit of idle time, a sudden realization hit me. If I remember correctly, didn¡¯t I accidentally double book today? I told Adele we¡¯d go on that date today, but Boss said she¡¯d come over to help with the presentation after work as well. I was in a major pickle. I, of course, wanted to find out more about Adele¡¯s so-called dreams, but I naturally didn¡¯t want to let down my boss either. A potential business partnership was a pretty big deal and I could deal with Adele later. Still, the thought of seeing Adele¡¯s disappointed face was like a weight at the back of my mind I couldn¡¯t shake off. I didn¡¯t know how to break it to her; if at all possible, I¡¯d rather just avoid her and act as though I¡¯d forgotten all about it. I¡¯d rather see her mad face than a look of disappointment with those abandoned puppy dog eyes of hers. While waiting for my food, I wanted to get a bit of fresh air. It was honestly pretty rare for me to actually want to go outside, but after that nightmare in the void, it was understandable. I went out on the balcony as a change of pace to refresh myself a bit and take in the scenic view. The nice thing about living here was the place had a rather interesting design to it. It was split into three separate buildings connected together. There was a west, central, and eastern wing with walkways enclosed by a glass dome that connected the three buildings on each floor.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I liked the western and eastern wings the best because we had access to an open-air balcony on the side facing the central building. We also had the luxury to look out over the city in the other direction whenever we exited our units and entered the corridor. It was a nice plus that the east and west wings could get a good look at the city down below and watch the pedestrians go about their day in the comfort of your own personal unit. The central wing didn¡¯t have the luxury of an open-air balcony like the east and west wings. They only had a long window in the corridor similar to ours that fully encompassed each floor of the central building. The layout of units in the central building was maze-like in comparison to its much more simplistic detached east and west wing counterparts. Some people who lived in the central building found it more interesting as it kept their minds active, while others found it outright annoying. These various features made the location rather unique, and it attracted a wide variety of different people of all ages. While I looked down over the edge of the balcony in deep thought, my eyes wandered about randomly through the endless swarms of people on the bustling streets below. It was already approaching the evening, so most people were either going out to party with friends or returning home after a long day at work. It felt strange to not be part of the crowd, it was typically around now that I¡¯d be getting off work. Shhhhhhk. From my side, I heard the sound of a door slide open. When I glanced over, I immediately recognized who it was by the signature long white hair blowing to the side in the wind. It was the very same person that I was internally conflicted about meeting at the moment, Adele... It seemed she hadn¡¯t quite noticed me yet. She just vacantly looked down at the crowd in a manner similar to how I had done just moments before. I was uncertain whether I should escape or whether I should call out to her. The guilt of bailing on her really weighed on my mind quite a bit. I... really should say something to her about it though. Just when I worked up the courage to call out to her, I saw something I never imagined possible. I saw myself walk out of her unit... My eyes shot open wide in shock. I quietly stood behind her without alerting her of my presence. My heart stopped in place, frozen, unable to comprehend the sight. Was it another hallucination? What I saw next made my knees grow weak. The spitting image of me behind her raised one arm up, then slowly and quietly extended it out heartlessly towards her back. He ruthlessly pushed Adele who¡¯d leaned her full weight on the balcony¡¯s railing. ¡°You¡¯re a nuisance, you¡¯re no longer needed the way you are.¡± It was hard to make out the words from the person behind her on the balcony with the appearance identical to my own. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have long to think about the meaning of his words. ¡°Wha- Kyaaaaa!¡± A shrill scream echoed out loudly. I instinctively fell backward onto the ground from the horrifying scene I¡¯d just witnessed. I shivered uncontrollably when I registered the voice of the victim¡¯s scream. I knew I hadn¡¯t slept for quite a while, so it wouldn¡¯t be unreasonable if I suddenly started seeing things that weren¡¯t real, but this was far beyond anything I ever expected. I took a few deep breaths, stood up, and looked at her balcony again. The door was closed like there was never anyone there, the me I¡¯d seen was long gone. What the hell was this? What happened? Why! ¡°Hah. Hah. HAH. HAH. HAH! HAH! ...¡± Hyperventilating heavily, I stood back up... Chapter 114. Chapter 114. I warily looked over the edge of the balcony under the assumption it was all in my head, but to my horror, I discovered an outstretched arm beneath one of the connected bridges that partially obstructed my view from the rest of the body below it. Mortified, I couldn¡¯t believe my eyes. There was no way. My eyes were surely playing tricks on me. I rushed into the corridor towards the door to her unit and frantically knocked. I prayed that what I¡¯d just witnessed was only an illusion. Nobody answered. The door was locked. Not a single soul appeared to be home. I knew it would put me in a precarious position if this wasn¡¯t some sort of hallucination, but in my hysterical state, I couldn¡¯t think straight. To stand back and do nothing again, I didn¡¯t want to see it again. On the off chance her life could somehow be saved, no matter how small the possibility may have been, I wanted her to live this time. She deserved a second chance at a normal life. She was only recently given this chance to live a new life, for it to be taken away just like that¡­ it was too unreasonable. It was unfair. Wasn¡¯t it far too cruel and unjust? Without any hesitation, I slammed against the door to her unit with the full force of my entire body. I threw all caution to the wind. After a few strong bashes with the back of my shoulder, along with several heavy kicks, the door violently flung wide open. I fumbled into the room on my knees as I frantically looked about left and right for any traces of her. There was nobody around. ¡°Kyaaaaa!¡± Once again, for the second time, the sound of a panicked scream echoed loudly inside my head. Whether it was a real scream or myself replaying the traumatic event in my head when I witnessed her fall it wasn¡¯t very clear. I ran towards the balcony and looked directly down, but I didn¡¯t see a body as I¡¯d previously seen. A seed of slight doubt sprouted in my heart from the contradictory information I¡¯d perceived. I dashed out of her unit and madly descended the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. I jumped down a flight of stairs at a time as countless chaotic negative thoughts corrupted all my thought processes. I¡¯d never lost my cool this badly before. It was truly a first for me. I completely blanked out; by the time I arrived at the location where she¡¯d fallen, on top of the roof of the main lobby¡¯s building, what laid there in plain sight was the bloodied body of a familiar white-haired woman. Before I lost myself to despair, I approached her side. I fell to my knees powerlessly beside her as I examined her closely. I couldn¡¯t lose myself yet. In the unlikely event that she could be saved, I had to keep myself together. I placed my hand by her nose and there was a very weak flow of air. It was so faint and fragile that I nearly overlooked it. I took out my phone and immediately called the emergency line before I examined her any further. ¡°911. What¡¯s the exact location of your emergency?¡± ¡°575 Ariala Street on the roof of the main lobby between the eastern and central buildings.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°What¡¯s the cross street?¡± ¡°Just google it! For the love of god, I can¡¯t even think straight, someone important to me is dying right in front of my eyes!¡± ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Diogenes Genovese.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the problem? Tell me exactly what happened.¡± ¡°My neighbor just jumped off the balcony in her unit. She landed on top of the main lobby¡¯s roof after falling. Her breathing is very weak after the fall and she is on the verge of death. Please send help immediately!¡± ¡°Sir, I understand the severity of the situation and have put through emergency dispatch. Sir, do you know how to perform artificial respiration to assist her with breathing?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Is she bleeding from the nose?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Is there blood pooled at the back of her throat?¡± ¡°... no, not from what I can see..¡± ¡°Can you feel her pulse?¡± ¡°It¡¯s weak, but it¡¯s still there.¡± ¡°Start counting her heartbeat when I count down to 0. Do you understand? Please confirm.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± ¡°3. 2. 1. 0.¡± I held two fingers against her wrist and calmly counted. After fifteen seconds passed the operator on the phone asked, ¡°what is the count?¡± ¡°Eight.¡± ¡°Her heart rate is at 32 bpm, she¡¯s in critical condition and is teetering on the edge of death if she¡¯s bleeding as you¡¯ve indicated.¡± No shit! Get to the damn point, I don¡¯t need pointless information I already know! I grit my teeth and kept my mouth shut because I knew it would result in further delay. ¡°You need to provide her with more oxygen immediately. The more concentrated oxygen she has while at a dangerously low heart rate the better. You will need to perform mouth to mouth respiration to avoid pushing blood from her nasal cavity to the back of her throat. If you have anything more efficient that could provide her with more concentrated oxygen that would be for the best; if not, please begin immediately, her life is in your hands. Please also refrain from moving her body to avoid aggravating any injuries she sustained from the fall. Do you understand?¡± ¡°Yes, I understand.¡± Countless emotions and thoughts flew through my mind. Fear. Pain. Disgust. Anxiousness. Worry. If you named it, I felt it. My own heartbeat was off the charts right now, my mind was operating as if it were on drugs. The adrenaline coursing through my veins was definitely the cause behind it. Despite that, I couldn¡¯t think of anything that I could use to deliver more concentrated oxygen to her right now. There just wasn¡¯t enough time to put anything together or find anything useful on such short notice. If I had a balloon, a tube, and a can of oxygen, that would be perfect; but as if there were such bloody convenient things lying around on a rooftop. I didn¡¯t have any time to think further over it so I immediately pinched her nose, covered her lips with my mouth, and exhaled at a steady rate. To prevent blowing the air down her throat into her stomach instead of her lungs I ensured that I wasn¡¯t too forceful. I separated from her and took a deep breath while she exhaled naturally before I methodically repeated the process. I avoided assisting her through chest compressions as her injury would likely flare-up. This continued for another five minutes until I heard the sirens approaching from the distance at a breakneck speed. Not long after I heard them, a few clunking sounds came from the ladder that led to the roof. When I turned my head in the direction of the ladder, a woman in a paramedic uniform appeared, soon followed by three men behind her. She rushed over to my side and took immediate control over the situation. They set up the emergency equipment they¡¯d brought along and attempted to stabilize her condition. They hooked up a bunch of different devices to her body to monitor her vitals and placed an oxygen mask over her mouth feeding her with concentrated oxygen. They immediately stopped her bleeding and began an emergency blood transfusion on the spot while they occasionally stimulated her heart with electrical pulses from a defibrillator whenever her heart stopped. Chapter 115. Chapter 115. I watched on nervously from the side praying for her safety. I always feared the psychotic version of her in the past, but now that I was watching her die for the second time, I found it exceeded that fear by far. Why did this happen? Did I do it? I saw myself push her off. How was that even possible? It¡¯s my fault? I did it? I did this to her? When I entered her room I didn¡¯t notice anyone else there and the door was also locked. If we excluded the open balcony, it would be an impossible locked-room murder mystery. Unless my mind was playing games with me and what I saw both before and after I entered her room was not reflective of reality; this should otherwise be an impossible crime. What if it was a ghost disguised as me though? What am I thinking? A ghost? Enough of that rubbish! There must be some sort of explanation for all of this. The only logical explanation I could think of was that I was the crazy one who¡¯d misremembered the entire sequence of events from beginning to end. I must have never been standing in the balcony in my unit at the start as I initially thought. I was likely in her room with her the entire time, and now I¡¯m deluding myself from the truth by constructing these false memories in my head. Perhaps I was in the balcony with her, pushed her off, then jumped over to my balcony creating the appearance of a locked room murder. From that point, I must have created false memories of me witnessing everything play out as a third party observer from my balcony. But none of this made any sense, I never wished for her to die. I only ever wished the best for her. ¡°Mr. Genovese! Mr. Genovese! Get a hold of yourself!¡± Slap! A strong force assaulted my face and I was forcibly brought back to reality. Where was I? With a lost expression, I refocused my vision between my two palms which were glued to my face. I finally registered my surroundings. A hospital? When did I get here? ¡°Val? Why... are you here? Where... are we?¡± ¡°We¡¯re at the hospital obviously. What the hell happened! I came over to your place to help with the presentation and found a bunch of ambulances around while you were being escorted by paramedics pushing a stretcher with Adele on it. You were completely out of it the entire time. I tagged along by claiming I was your girlfriend, but everybody was too busy to explain what was going on. You just blankly held onto Adele¡¯s hand the entire time in the ambulance. What the hell happened to her!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t know anything. I don¡¯t understand. I can¡¯t understand. Nothing makes sense anymore. This world is twisted. It¡¯s wrong. It¡¯s impossible. Incomprehensible. It doesn¡¯t add up. What do I do? I didn¡¯t do it. It wasn¡¯t me. I swear. I had no desire to see her dead. I didn¡¯t kill her. Why is this happening to me, Val? What did I do in life to deserve this? It¡¯s too unfair.¡± ¡°Snap out of it! Stop panicking, she isn¡¯t dead, and you didn¡¯t kill her! She was in critical condition, but her condition has miraculously stabilized now with the timely emergency aid she was given. For now, she¡¯s in the clear, and out of murky waters.¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°She¡¯s alive? She¡¯s really still... alive?¡± ¡°Yes. The paramedics were also rather surprised by her condition. She was in critical condition, but she didn¡¯t look like someone who¡¯d fallen from such a height at all. Aside from some bleeding, there weren¡¯t any broken bones, and all of her internal organs were still perfectly intact. Are you sure that she really fell from her balcony?¡± ¡°What are you talking about? I saw it happen. No, actually... I don¡¯t know if I can trust what I saw after all. I might be completely wrong. I¡¯m so confused I can hardly understand what¡¯s happening anymore.¡± ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡± ¡°How can you not know?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know whether what I saw was a hallucination or not. I don¡¯t know where it would have begun or where it would have ended. I have no way to differentiate or determine whether my memories are fake, real, or somehow altered by my own will. Everything happened too fast and I didn¡¯t have any time to prepare any sort of countermeasure for anything.¡± ¡°Relax, nobody died. With the way things are, the police would likely think this was a case of a failed suicide. She had amnesia, and in her unstable state of not knowing who she was, she decided to end her life. It¡¯s that simple. Two days ago when we met her she told me all about her uncertainties and her strange dreams when we went out to eat.¡± ¡°Strange dreams? I¡¯ve wanted to ask her about them for a while, what were they about?¡± ¡°She had dreams about you. More specifically, from what I gathered, they didn¡¯t seem to simply be delusions, but rather, they felt closer to being her actual memories of the times the two of you spent together. I don¡¯t have any way to confirm with one hundred percent certainty whether they were legitimate memories though. Only you would be able to affirm whether they were real or something she made up in her head after she met you as strangers.¡± My chest felt heavy, I didn¡¯t know how to interpret it. Was it a good thing or a bad thing if she remembered me? If she did remember everything about me, wouldn¡¯t her psycho switch be flipped back on again? ¡°Does it really make you that anxious? Her remembering you?¡± ¡°It does.¡± ¡°Did you maybe want her dead to prevent that?¡± ¡°What are you talking about! Of course not! Why would I try to save her if that was the case?¡± ¡°A guilty conscience? Or maybe to throw off the cops?¡± ¡°Do you... really think I did it?¡± Even I wasn¡¯t confident anymore. ¡°Not really. I¡¯m just speculating how others might contrive conspiracy theories about it. Unless there was irrefutable evidence like a recording of the scene where she jumped off the balcony of her own accord, there are bound to be people who come up with theories like that.¡± ¡°Are there any security cameras in the area, Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I just moved there.¡± I¡¯d definitely love to see the footage of myself pushing her off while simultaneously being on my balcony. At least then I could verify whether I was just a lunatic or not. ¡°I¡¯ll make a few calls then. It will be troublesome if I can¡¯t utilize you for that presentation.¡± ¡°You still expect me to go in these circumstances?¡± ¡°I told you, didn¡¯t I? I¡¯ll be your angel outside of business, but when it¡¯s related to business, I will always be the devil.¡± What the hell, why did she sound kind of cool when she said that? ¡­ I seriously felt like a tool for thinking it sounded cool. After that, she turned to the side, crossed her arms, and started a private call with the audio playing through her wireless earpiece. Somehow, I found it a bit hard to avert my eyes from her when I realized she was wearing the same clothes I¡¯d loaned her from before. Did she like them? But why would she wear them when she planned to visit my place right after work? Her hair was also slightly damp for some reason; whether it was sweat or water, I couldn¡¯t really tell. These little observations really had nothing to do with anything. I just found her appearance right now to somehow put me at ease. Maybe it was because the clothes belonged to my second ex and she was someone who¡¯d picked up the pieces after things went awry with Adele in the past. Perhaps it was a sort of nostalgia. Val couldn¡¯t really be her, at least, I didn¡¯t want to believe that. Chapter 116. Chapter 116. I felt a bit bad that things turned out this way, but I was thankful that Val was by my side right now. ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Yes. Oh? You already heard? Great. Then send it over. Bye.¡± ¡°... so fast?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not actually doing any grunt work, of course. I just called up an acquaintance who¡¯s really on top of events like this.¡± Swish. ¡°Oh? That was quick.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°It looks like my acquaintance really was already looking into it before I even called them.¡± ¡°How is that even possible?¡± Just what sort of person did she call? ¡°Well, we¡¯ll know when we open it, won¡¯t we?¡± I anxiously got up from the bench on the side of the corridor and looked over her shoulder at the phone in her hand. She leaned back against me, but I was of no mind to pay any attention to it. My eyes were glued to the video she was sent. Depicted on the screen was a low-resolution recorded video that had been uploaded to YouTube. At the corner of the footage was a running timer and date. It was the exact time when I was out on the balcony. It was very difficult to see myself, but I was located at the bottom left-hand corner of the video, almost out of frame. Though that was all it showed. Only me. Even when I fell backward, there was no sign that anyone was in the balcony beside me in the direction I faced. It appeared I¡¯d just fallen backward without any sort of stimulus. ¡°Mr. Genovese, you said she fell from the balcony beside you, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then where is she?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Val, could the footage be doctored?¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s for the cops to figure out, but it¡¯s looking like any sort of conclusive verdict to what really happened to her will be difficult without getting an account from the victim herself.¡± ¡°This is absurd.¡± ¡°It definitely is, but it doesn¡¯t change the fact that you¡¯re still going on that business trip. The police already questioned you about it while you were still out of it. You just autonomously answered everything, but you were clearly not all there. The police didn¡¯t want to give you a hard time with how much stress you¡¯ve been put through lately, considering how you were just discharged from the hospital.¡± ¡°I did all that?¡± Again? Another lapse in my memories? I guess I was just that shocked by it. ¡°You don¡¯t remember anything about it?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t. Not a single thing.¡± ¡°Val, do you think I have dementia? People in their 30s can potentially show signs of it, right? Or maybe even schizophrenia?¡±Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°According to the doctors you don¡¯t have it.¡± ¡°What if they misdiagnosed me? I was in a coma for two weeks after all, right?¡± ¡°Who knows? It could just be a side effect, after all, you only just recently regained consciousness. It may get better after a while.¡± I sat back down on the bench and glued my eyes to the ground. I couldn¡¯t stop my foot from constantly tapping against the ground or hide how nervous I was. I was an unstable wreck right now, but when I thought things over again, I realized that I had worked for thirty-two hours straight on that presentation. If all of this was the result of a severe lack of sleep, it wouldn¡¯t be impossible for my brain to confuse everything and for me to grow despondent the way I had. When I looked back up at Val the world looked strange. It was only an instant, but Val¡¯s exposed skin appeared transparent while the hallway had strange vibrant green characters that floated down vertically. Soon after they appeared, they disappeared. What the hell was wrong with my head? This wasn¡¯t the bloody matrix. I shook my head to the sides to snap out of it. It was the lack of sleep, definitely. ¡°Val, was I just hallucinating just now?¡± ¡°Yeah, you were.¡± ¡°Can we leave?¡± I felt disgusted with myself when I said that, but I wanted to escape. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you¡¯d want to leave. I thought for sure you¡¯d be adamant about staying by her side.¡± ¡°A large part of me wants to stay, but the other side of me wants to get the hell out of here and run as far away as possible. A business trip might be exactly what I need. I feel terrible for leaving heartlessly like this, but my sanity won¡¯t hold out at this rate. I need something to take my mind off of everything.¡± ¡°Good. Let¡¯s go then.¡± When I got up, we proceeded to the exit. Before we exited the emergency room area, I took one last look back in the direction of the doors at the end of the passageway. At the end of the passage on the opposite end, I saw someone standing there. I was certain it was a woman. She had straight white hair draped over the front of her face, while her head was tilted down eerily toward the ground. She stood there silently without uttering a single word. I blinked once and she was gone. Chills continually ran down my back after we exited the building, it felt like I was being followed and watched. When outside, we caught a cab and immediately departed from the hospital. On the way back, I occasionally looked behind us, but there was never anyone there. However... it always felt like someone was directly behind me. Watching. Observing. Judging. As one might expect, the cab driver seemingly caught onto my abnormal behavior and asked, ¡°Hey pal, you okay? You aren¡¯t looking too well.¡± When my gaze was drawn to the front of the cab, my eyes immediately landed on the rearview mirror and I felt like I was about to have a heart attack at that very moment. A hand clutched onto the trunk as a body creepily climbed on top slowly. Her long white hair, still covered her face as she crawled closer to the window. She only paused when her hair came into contact with the window. She sat there as still as the night and appeared to only be watching me. Quietly. She observed me. She never averted her gaze for a second. Was I truly being judged? Or was this a manifestation of my guilty conscience? I had no way to ascertain either. When I finally worked up the courage, I turned my head; she was gone again. I checked the rearview mirror one more time, she was still there. ¡°Dio, what are you seeing right now?¡± ¡°Adele. She¡¯s behind us.¡± ¡°Where?¡± ¡°Nevermind. If you can¡¯t see her it¡¯s probably all in my head; a result of guilt.¡± We continued in silence all the way back to my apartment. For the duration of the ride, I couldn¡¯t pry my unblinking eyes away from the rearview mirror. Before I knew it, the cab driver called out, ¡°We¡¯re here. That will be $15.30.¡± I didn¡¯t have my wallet on me so Val paid the fare before we exited the cab. In the side-view mirror, when I stepped out the door, I noticed Adele who¡¯d wrapped her arms around me from behind. I looked down, but there were no arms there. This wasn¡¯t the first time something like this happened, but different to last time, I didn¡¯t seem to be in a hallucination like with my previous visit to the mental asylum she was supposedly locked away inside. I took in a deep breath and calmed my on edge nerves. ¡°Are you flirting with a ghost in front of me or something?¡± ¡°I¡¯m... definitely not.¡± She¡¯s not a ghost after all. She¡¯s still alive, this was just a figment of my imagination; a real-world materialization of my guilty conscience. Everything I saw was all inside my head and seemingly only appeared on reflective surfaces. A mirror was a reflection of one¡¯s self, the truth so to speak. In this case, my real thoughts. Chapter 117. Chapter 117. ¡°Let¡¯s get my laptop and get out of here. We¡¯ll go to your place to finish the presentation. I don¡¯t feel comfortable at my place right now.¡± ¡°To boldly proclaim that you¡¯re going to a woman¡¯s place, did your desire to procreate grow to such an extent when you were confronted with your ex¡¯s close call with death?¡± ¡°It hasn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Then, you can¡¯t go to my place.¡± ¡°What? Why not?¡± ¡°If you say you want to procreate I might reconsider.¡± ¡°You¡¯re messing with me again, right?¡± ¡°Am I messing with you?¡± ¡°What if I was scared by the thought of an unexpected near-death situation happening to me like what happened to Adele? Mr. Genovese, did you ever consider a woman¡¯s desire to leave behind offspring may increase in such a situation? Shouldn¡¯t you be jumping for joy when presented with an opportunity of a lifetime like this?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Well? Mr. Genovese? Do you want to or not? Or do you lack the guts to do it?¡± ¡°I certainly lack the guts.¡± Especially when I¡¯m randomly seeing Adele clinging to me. I¡¯d like for you to not raise death flags casually for me at every given opportunity; please, and thank you. ¡°Well, that¡¯s about the answer I expected from you. Coward.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather not wake up one day to find one of my exes holding your head in their hands.¡± ¡°Well isn¡¯t that nice of you? You really don¡¯t have to worry about that though. I¡¯m not a pushover after all.¡± A mysterious smile hung on her face, it was one filled with overwhelming confidence that I couldn¡¯t understand. ¡°How can you be so fearless without a single care in the world?¡± ¡°Do I look fearless to you?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°That¡¯s incorrect, Mr. Genovese. There are things that even I fear in this world.¡± ¡°Like what?¡± ¡°Like being widowed and dying after the man I¡¯ve fallen in love with.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a surprisingly normal fear. Are there any others?¡± ¡°Are you probing for my weaknesses right now?¡± ¡°Yeah, I am.¡± ¡°Well, at least you¡¯re honest about it, I suppose.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve told you about my greatest fear before, right?¡±A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Yeah, your bland general response was really boring.¡± ¡°Then can¡¯t you tell me yours? It¡¯s only fair, right?¡± ¡°Hmm. I don¡¯t know. Is it fair? You chose to blab without thinking of negotiating anything for that piece of information. Did you forget? I am a business-minded woman.¡± ¡°Then what would it take to get you to tell me your fears?¡± ¡°It seems you¡¯re finally talking in terms I can understand, Mr. Genovese. It sounds like a rather lucrative proposal that I can reap some benefits from if you¡¯re saying I can decide. How about you become my significant other? I may just consider telling you if you were.¡± ¡°Theoretically, if I said yes, what would the fear you reveal be?¡± ¡°There are no theoretical situations here. It¡¯s a simple yes or no. I may reveal more for free if you were my significant other you know.¡± ¡°More? Like what?¡± ¡°Something big.¡± ¡°Big?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I looked into her eyes and seriously contemplated her offer, albeit slightly nervous. From her tone of voice, it seemed she wasn¡¯t joking. ¡°Can¡¯t you give me a hint as to what this big thing might be?¡± ¡°It involves your life.¡± ¡°My life?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m really making this offer out of your best interests, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°You will never get an offer this good out of me ever again if you turn it down. This time, it is really no joking matter. You should really consider becoming my significant other.¡± Her eyes were clear and unwavering. I could feel the sincerity in her offer, but I still felt skeptical. It was a huge deal for me to even consider something like this for real. I started to sweat, my thoughts ran rampant out of my control as I considered where all this suddenly sprung up from. I felt a strange sort of pressure that weighed down heavily on my shoulders, and I vaguely understood that it very well may be a life-changing proposition. It could very well tip the scale my life was balanced on. Though an even greater potential mess may arise in the future based upon the decision I made here. ¡°If you agree to my proposal, you have to kiss me on the lips of your own accord. No half-assed hand or forehead rubbish escape route will be permitted this time.¡± Her eyes had me on lockdown. I couldn¡¯t flee or sidestep around it even if I wanted to. ¡°Why does this feel like a shakedown?¡± ¡°Because that¡¯s precisely what it is.¡± ¡°What other benefits do I get?¡± ¡°Oh? Seeking other benefits without realizing the position you are presently in? We can negotiate those so-called benefits after you¡¯ve made your decision.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t I be a bad businessman if I didn¡¯t first negotiate some terms and conditions?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have a choice in the matter.¡± ¡°Are you not blatantly advocating for underhanded business practices right now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s all part of the job description. If you want to progress in this world, you need to bend the rules and learn to be resourceful at times.¡± ¡°This is clearly beyond bending the rules or being resourceful.¡± ¡°It really isn¡¯t, you have the choice to decline after all. It¡¯s just that you¡¯ll probably regret it if you do.¡± Faced with the ultimatum in front of me, I cooled my riled up emotions and calmly thought it over. She surely wouldn¡¯t do this if it wasn¡¯t something of significance. But no matter how I racked my brains over it, the only thing I came up with was that it had to be something that threatened my life for her to try and persuade me so strongly. Something that only a relationship with her could avert. When I finally came to a conclusion I closed the distance between us and told her, ¡°Sorry, I refuse.¡± Our lips pressed together and I felt embarrassed by the lines I¡¯d thought of for when she asked for the meaning behind my contradictory words and actions. She appeared frozen in shock like she couldn¡¯t understand when I pulled away from her with an awkward expression. ¡°You can¡¯t just refuse then do that.¡± ¡°Why not? There wasn¡¯t any clause that said I couldn¡¯t kiss you and still choose to not become your significant other.¡± ¡°No no no. Mr. Genovese, that¡¯s like having your cake and eating it twice.¡± ¡°If I did get into a relationship with you, I¡¯d rather not cheapen it by it being formed just to possibly save my own ass or to get some information out of you. I¡¯ve already been on the receiving end of a relationship where I was used before, I¡¯d rather not do the same thing to someone else.¡± Ugh, it was more embarrassing than I thought to say that with a straight face. Chapter 118. Chapter 118. ¡°Haaaah. Here I thought it was a good chance to take advantage of you, but you decided to go and spout some cheesy lines instead. Fine. If you¡¯re that against it, we¡¯ll act as a fake couple during our business trip if that makes you feel better. Either way, it¡¯s in your best interest to do so.¡± ¡°Then¡­ what was that ¡®something big¡¯ you mentioned before?¡± ¡°That? Sorry, only my real significant other can be privy to that information. No fakes allowed.¡± ¡°What? I still kissed you like you asked, you can¡¯t just give me nothing for that!¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Kiss me again and maybe I¡¯ll reconsider.¡± I leaned forward and kissed her on the lips briefly before I pulled away. ¡°There, now what was it?¡± ¡°Sorry, my memory is a bit foggy. I think another kiss might make me remember better.¡± ¡°Are you just trying to scam me?¡± With half-lidded eyes and a crooked grin on her face, she said, ¡°Of course not. I¡¯m 100% serious. A long passionate kiss may really jog my memory.¡± We¡¯d long arrived outside my apartment. To a third party observer¡¯s eyes, we¡¯d merely been quietly flirting back and forth like this the entire time. I felt terribly embarrassed by the curious judgmental gazes from the residents who occasionally passed us by. I wasn¡¯t entirely certain whether this was just Val¡¯s twisted way to ease my tension and get my mind off of things. Despite the uncertainty in my heart, I closed the distance again and shut my eyes when our lips joined together. I instinctively positioned my arms under her arms and placed my hands on her curvaceous waist. In response, she passed her arms through the gaps between my arms and waist. She wrapped her arms around my back and our bodies drew much closer together. I felt my heart stop for a moment when her slippery tongue came in contact with mine. Earlier was just a quick peck on the lips. It was almost as if a jolt of electric current propagated through every pore of my body directly into my spine all at once. Her soft moist tongue, warm, like an invasive creature, forcefully wrapped around mine in a fashion reminiscent of a snake who¡¯d discovered its prey. Her saliva was sweet to the point I thought I¡¯d drown in it. Her lips were succulent and I couldn¡¯t avoid nibbling on them occasionally. Her breaths were strangely steady despite our sudden passionate tryst. When I finally thought it was long enough, I tried to pull away, but she moved forward and continued like she wasn¡¯t satisfied. It was only after several minutes passed that she finally let me catch my breath. ¡°Hah. Hah. Hah. That should be... enough, right?¡± ¡°Was it? I¡¯m not too sure it was enough though...¡±Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡­ I was dead tired. I truly didn¡¯t understand what her definition of a passionate kiss entailed. I definitely had no way to know. How the hell would I ever expect she¡¯d keep repeating the same line over and over again? It was hell. Was she a monster? Our definitions of a passionate kiss were certainly misaligned on separate dimensional planes. I never thought for a second it meant a full-on make-out session. At some point, she¡¯d forced us into my unit. We struggled back and forth until we reached my bed where she mounted on top of me as she continued her assault. It was only after an hour when I reminded her of our original objective that she finally stopped. If she didn¡¯t stop there, it was uncertain just how far we would have gone. I still wasn¡¯t ready to raise that death flag just yet. A kiss was one thing, but any further was a can of worms I wasn¡¯t prepared to open up. ¡°Mr. Genovese, it¡¯s really quite a shame we have to get this annoying presentation finished.¡± ¡°Can you please stop looking like you¡¯re dissatisfied with something? Shouldn¡¯t I be the one who¡¯s dissatisfied? You still haven¡¯t told me what I wanted to know.¡± ¡°Hmm. My memory¡¯s still a bit fuzzy though. Maybe something a bit more stimulating than a kiss would help jog it. Perhaps something rock solid meant to really penetrate to my core. Something like that would surely help me with these problematic vague memories of mine.¡± ¡°Absolutely not. You¡¯re really testing the limits of my patience.¡± ¡°Relax, it¡¯s just a joke this time.¡± I scrutinized her closely, I was extremely skeptical whether that was the truth. ¡°If you direct such a fiery intense gaze at me, you might inadvertently flip my switch again you know.¡± I immediately diverted my attention away toward my laptop and got back to work on the presentation. If that happened again, we definitely wouldn¡¯t finish in time before our flight. I was nervous when I thought about it, not because I would be together with Val on the plane, but because I was unsure whether the freaky shit would follow me onto the plane. What if the plane crashed for mysterious unknown causes and we were left stranded on a deserted island? Or what if it was hijacked by a criminal syndicate, bombed by terrorists, or even struck by some sort of nine colored divine heavenly lightning? Naturally, I tried to think of all the worst-case scenarios when mid-flight to confuse the god of foreshadowing. Surely that bastard would feel conflicted with all these crazy ideas tossed out in his face. By the time he made up his mind on what he would choose, I would have landed safely at the destination airport. It¡¯s always a struggle when you have the threat of foreshadowing looming over your neck constantly like this. #TheForeshadowingGrindIsReal For some reason, I like to think of random stupidly long hashtags like that to calm myself down at times. I really don¡¯t though. I can¡¯t be bothered to take social media seriously. This nonsense is all just for the sake of distracting myself. ¡°Mr. Genovese, are you thinking about pointless crap instead of work right now?¡± ¡°Of course not. I¡¯m diligently slaving away for the sake of this presentation. Anyway, are you going to tell me what I want to know?¡± ¡°Haaah. Fine. I get it. My three sizes are-¡± ¡°Please get to the point.¡± ¡°You¡¯re really no fun sometimes. Well... simply put, Mr. Genovese, a contract was put out on the dark web for your head.¡± @#$%^&*()! Her words were equivalent to a bucket of cold water dumped on my head without any prior warning. ¡°What the hell do you mean by that!¡± I¡¯m a freaking normal person, what the hell do I have a bounty of my head for! Yeah, let¡¯s stick with the ¡®I¡¯m still perfectly normal and not a lunatic myself yet¡¯ gig. Haha. Denial seems to be a trend with me lately so I might as well stick with it to the end, right? ¡°There¡¯s no deeper meaning behind my words. It¡¯s exactly as I¡¯ve stated. Someone wants you dead. I chanced upon it while digging up dirt on a few companies I had my eyes on. The bounty for your head is a rather attractive amount, presently standing at $2,000,000.¡± I nearly coughed up blood and fainted when I heard the staggering amount. Chapter 119. Chapter 119. ¡°That¡¯s impossible¡­ You¡¯re pulling my leg, right? That¡¯s just some weird crappy plot to a 3rd rate creepypasta story on the web or something, right? Why would someone want me dead?¡± ¡°Who knows? Though I¡¯m really not messing with you this time. Maybe it¡¯s a suitor of one of your psycho ex-girlfriends who is jealous of you. Perhaps it could even be one of those very same psychotic ex-girlfriends behind it. Or maybe it¡¯s for the purpose of silencing you for certain unspeakable reasons.¡± ¡°Then, the reason I fell into a coma?¡± ¡°It could easily be a failed attempt on your life.¡± ¡°Are you really telling the truth right now?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t believe me?¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to swallow.¡± ¡°Here.¡± She handed her phone to me, there was a certain page on the dark web pulled up. There was a picture of me along with a profile containing various bits and pieces of information related to me. For my location, it was listed as; revealed only to those who are given the rights to the contract. Just like she said, the bounty listed was $2,000,000. The conditions for the bounty were, wanted dead or alive, but the contractee wanted to see the body in person if dead. ¡°Why? I don¡¯t understand. What about me would warrant a $2,000,000 bounty? Actually, can I turn myself in, play dead, and collect the reward?¡± ¡°Of course you can¡¯t.¡± ¡°Tch. Such a shame.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, did you offend anyone recently?¡± ¡°When exactly was the bounty posted?¡± ¡°There is no post date. The only thing I can attest to is that I only discovered it on the day I went to your place before you collapsed. I didn¡¯t mention it back then for obvious reasons, but one of my reasons to check up on you was because of that bounty as well.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t poison me and collect on the bounty by faking my death did you?¡± ¡°You¡¯re actually doubting me?¡± ¡°I could totally see you doing it for the money.¡± She averted her gaze and cleared her throat, ¡°Ehem. I did no such thing. That¡¯s too despicable.¡± ¡°Can you look me in the eyes and say that?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up and finish the presentation. We¡¯re running out of time.¡± ¡°Val¡­¡° ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Who¡­ who are you really?¡±The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Who am I? What do you mean?¡± ¡°For a long time now it¡¯s been weighing on my mind. I¡¯ve been trying to refute the idea that¡¯s stemmed in my head because of the absurdity of it all, but it¡¯s getting harder and harder to do so. There are just far too many similarities for me to continue writing them all off as just coincidences.¡± ¡°Oh? Is that so?¡± Rather than showing any sort of caution, she looked like she anticipated what I was about to say. Rose Valentina. A name that I was all too familiar with. That was the name my second ex-girlfriend went by. ¡°An average run-of-the-mill CEO responsible for a normal business surely wouldn¡¯t know where to find ridiculous bounties like this. Would I be incorrect to assume that?¡± ¡°No, you wouldn¡¯t be incorrect.¡± ¡°The real reason you¡¯re so intimate with me¡­ and why everything feels natural between us...¡± She smiled, clearly eager to hear what I had to say. Stop. Just stop at this. I don¡¯t need to say it. ¡°I don¡¯t know why I never questioned it, but Rose¡­ Val¡­ is it just a coincidence that her alias contains part of your first and last name?¡± ¡°Whoever could you be referring to?¡± I can still keep lying to myself if I stop here. ¡°Stop playing dumb. Did you ever go by the name Rose Valentina?¡± ¡°You mean your second ex-girlfriend? Did I? I can¡¯t quite remember, but I¡¯ve seen a picture of her before, don¡¯t we look completely different? What makes you think we¡¯re the same person?¡± ¡°Your appearance may be different, but your body types are very similar. Your hair and facial structure may not be identical in the slightest; however, that could have been disguised by a mask, extensive makeup, and hair dye.¡± What am I saying right now? I¡¯ve clearly lost my mind. It can¡¯t be true. The most damning evidence I have in mind is far too preposterous. ¡°That¡¯s pretty weak evidence to draw such a conclusion from. Don¡¯t you have anything more concrete to base this hypothesis of yours on?¡± ¡°There are definitely other things, but the most damning thing is that the way you made out with me just now reminded me of exactly how my second ex made out with me in the past.¡± ¡°Pfft hahaha! That¡¯s the most damning evidence? You¡¯re going to make me cry from laughter, Mr. Genovese, or should I call you sweetheart?¡± ¡°Sweetheart¡­ you¡¯re really...¡± That was exactly how she referred to me back then. ¡°It took you long enough. I thought for certain you¡¯d figure it out and call me out on it when I wore my old clothes from back then, but you just glossed over it. I also really thought you¡¯d catch on when we talked about your second ex before.¡± I was on edge when I heard her confirmation, but it wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as the time Adele made her sudden appearance out of nowhere without any forewarning. I did feel a sense of betrayal from my second ex back then, I was naturally scared of her to a certain degree, but she never really directly did anything too terrible to me aside from using me. I did consider her to be a psychopath when I discovered she was a hired killer, but after the things I¡¯ve seen in my relationships after her, she was actually the most normal and down to earth of the five. It definitely hurt when I discovered she¡¯d lied to me; but at the same time, it was thanks to her that I was able to stand back up on my own two feet after my relationship with Adele. ¡°It¡¯s always weighed on my mind since you disappeared out of nowhere, but¡­ did I really mean anything to you back then?¡± ¡°Do you want the truth or a lie, Dio?¡± ¡°The truth of course.¡± ¡°Haaah, getting me to genuinely say something embarrassing like this, you¡¯re really the first. Well¡­ in all honesty¡­ I did fall madly in love with you. After I completed that contract, I even cut all ties with my family and started a business in hopes our paths would cross in a more natural way one day. I felt embarrassed to just openly come up to you and say, ¡®hey I¡¯m your ex-girlfriend who you consider a psychopath, please go out with me.¡¯ Would you have considered it if I approached you like that?¡± ¡°Absolutely not, I would have just thought you were a mental patient.¡± ¡°Haha. Right? I would too.¡± ¡°Then¡­ you¡¯re really not another psychopath?¡± ¡°I have feelings too you know. Do you really think I enjoyed taking on those contracts? It¡¯s just... with my family¡¯s line of business, and my talents, that was the direction my skill set was developed towards.¡± ¡°No wonder you¡¯re such a stiffler when it comes to docking people¡¯s paychecks to the point of being criminal.¡± Chapter 120. Chapter 120. I found the entire situation bizarre to the extreme. Talking to my second ex, I definitely didn¡¯t think we¡¯d ever meet again with the way our relationship came to an abrupt end. ¡°Did you miss me, Dio?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not really sure what to say to that.¡± ¡°You could just profess your love for me.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather just think of you as my boss, Val, though.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine by me. This is closer to the real me anyway.¡± ¡°You mean being a miser? You used to sport brand name goods all the time, what happened?¡± ¡°Those belonged to someone else. I only borrowed them.¡± ¡°You mean after you rebelled and were disowned by your family, you suddenly realized how difficult it was to make clean money the hard way and you became a miser because of it?¡± ¡°Pretty much. Pinching pennies became common after that. Running a business on your own wasn¡¯t cheap after all. To get to the point the business is presently at now in such a short period of time, I really had to spill blood, sweat, and tears.¡± ¡°Of other people, right?¡± ¡°Be quiet, I¡¯m trying to make myself look like a better person here. Sure, there were a few people that cried from having their paychecks docked. Sure, some people may have bled from overwork and also coughed up blood from seeing their docked paychecks. Sure, there may have been a period where we didn¡¯t have air conditioning so it was a sweatshop at times. Nevertheless, it doesn¡¯t change the fact that blood, sweat, and tears were shed; regardless of whether or not they were my own.¡± ¡±No, that completely changed the meaning, didn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s something I¡¯ve never liked about you. You¡¯re supposed to blindly agree with your significant other, regardless of whether it''s a pretend relationship or not.¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t think that¡¯s how it works.¡± ¡°What would you know, mister psycho chick magnet?¡± ¡°Val, thanks.¡± ¡°What are you suddenly thanking me for out of nowhere? You¡¯re throwing me off you weirdo.¡± ¡°For being there for me both now and back then.¡± If I didn¡¯t have her making senseless banter with me all the time like this, with all the crap that¡¯s gone on lately, I definitely would have lost myself in this nonsensical topsy-turvy world. Even back then it was her who helped me pull myself together despite how she used me to achieve her own hidden agenda.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I was especially thankful in my present situation; where for quite some time Adele had been visible in the monitor¡¯s reflection with her arms wrapped around me. In case you wondered, my eyes were tranquil and completely accepting of the situation. I¡¯d reached the point of no longer giving a shit. Like hell I had! If Val wasn¡¯t beside me, I¡¯d definitely have shat my pants from paranoia. No¡­ but really, can you please stop appearing on every reflective surface like this? It¡¯s actually god damn scary! You¡¯re making it exceedingly difficult to focus on this stupid presentation when I¡¯m trying to suppress the fear constantly welling up inside me. Just imagine if she was like this the entire time when I made out with Val earlier¡­ too scary! All the skin on my arms crawled just from the thought of it. Unfortunately for me, despite my wish to be left alone, she never disappeared even after several hours into our work, and long after we finished the final touches on the presentation. She was still there, latched onto me from behind, refusing to let go like she was afraid she¡¯d be left behind if she allowed for the slightest bit of carelessness. Amidst the fear that ran amok inside my head over the last few hours; comparatively, the guilt I felt in my heart grew heavier each time I saw her figure on the reflective surfaces around me. It was all a reflection of my inner thoughts that led to this creepy hallucination. I didn¡¯t have any clue how to make it end. It was already late when Val suggested we get some sleep before the flight. Of course, Val casually fell backward onto my bed like it was natural without seeking my permission; inconsiderate of my thoughts on the matter, she immediately fell asleep. When I thought about how she was my second ex, I really wasn¡¯t sure what to think anymore. I was confused, our relationship had suddenly drastically changed into something completely different from the single word ex. When I looked at her lying on top of the bed defenselessly, and I thought about how the two of us already had that sort of physical relationship, the entire situation felt unreal to me. A fake relationship on the surface she said? Is that what we¡¯re going to be doing now? Pretend lovers? How was that supposed to be beneficial to me in any way? Rather, wouldn¡¯t it compromise my survival even more? Did she actually con me? Whatever it was, I was too tired to think about it any more than this. I got up from the bed and took out a second blanket from the closet. I covered Val with the second blanket before I laid down and covered myself with the blanket already on the bed. It didn¡¯t take long before the fatigue set in and I fell asleep. ¡­ The familiar scenery of the city outside my balcony. That was what I first saw. It was like any other time I came outside and looked out. The streets bustled with people that moved about through the clustered masses below far in the distance. There were bright lights everywhere that illuminated the world. The lights cast long shadows on the ground below their feet. Everything was normal as could be until I heard, ¡°You¡¯re a nuisance, you¡¯re no longer needed the way you are.¡± A force pushed me forward over the balcony, but I managed to glance back and I just barely caught a glimpse of the perpetrator. My eyes shrunk into pinholes when I discovered it was none other than Adele who¡¯d pushed me over the edge. I watched in horror as the ground grew more well defined and distinct while the distance rapidly decreased. I was powerless, unable to fight against the infallible force of gravity that pulled me closer to my end. The weightless sensation on my body from free fall combined with the lack of control over my life left me paralyzed in a way you could only describe if you felt it first hand. I wanted to scream out at the top of my lungs, but the conflicting thoughts in my head made me wonder whether dying was really such a bad end. I would no longer need to deal with any more of the crazy shit in this insane world if it all just ended here. ¡­ Chapter 121. Chapter 121. When I opened my eyes, I realized it was all just another nightmare. I¡¯d had so many nightmares recently that this became the norm for me. I couldn¡¯t even find it in myself to be afraid after waking up anymore. I was covered in a cold sweat, but my heart wasn¡¯t beating as madly as it had on previous occasions. It didn¡¯t take long before I registered the soft sensation pressed against my chest or the legs intertwined with mine. When I lowered my eyes a bit, I found a familiar head of black hair positioned in a straight line with my chin. I recalled the events from before I went to bed and immediately understood the situation. I was definitely boned. In my muddle-headed state from a lack of sleep, I foolishly went with the flow last night. I ended up doing things I definitely wouldn¡¯t do if I were in a sober state. Was everything calculated on her end? Who am I kidding? Of course it was, she was my second ex who was surely adept in such matters. The way she could read me like an open book would make it easy for her to know when her success rate would be highest. ¡°Morning, Dio. What time is it?¡± She asked me in a sleepyheaded manner. ¡°Siri, what time is it?¡± ¡°8:45 AM.¡± ¡°Ugh. Hearing you call out another woman¡¯s name in the morning isn¡¯t very pleasant.¡± ¡°Since Siri isn¡¯t alive you can¡¯t really call her a woman, right? ¡± ¡°11:00 AM is our flight, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Dio~, what do I do? I don¡¯t want to get up~¡± I turned my head to the side and glanced at the mirror and I instantly knew I definitely wanted to get up. ¡°Sorry, I really don¡¯t feel the same way. I want to get up and leave as soon as possible.¡± As for what I saw that made me feel that way, it was the two dainty hands wrapped around my neck in a position to choke me to death. Yep, definitely not what I want to see first thing in the morning after waking up. ¡°You¡¯re terrible. Having your way with me then heartlessly leaving in the morning.¡± ¡°Stop saying misleading things. Nothing happened! Nothing at all!¡± Woman, are thou daft! Do you not realize the great implications of what such misleading statements could potentially result in? I scanned the room and confirmed that there weren¡¯t any magical black flags that suddenly sprouted out of the ground. It¡¯s hard enough to avoid death flags, please don¡¯t attract them carelessly without reason. I¡¯m already on the borderline between screwed and not screwed after last night. The nightmare I had was already more than enough evidence to suggest that.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°How would you know whether nothing happened? You were asleep the entire time, right?¡± ¡°What are you suggesting?¡± ¡°Look at all the sweat you worked up. Are you really certain nothing happened last night while you were asleep?¡± ¡°I¡¯m certain nothing of that sort happened.¡± ¡°Tch. You¡¯re no fun. You could have at least groped or felt me up a bit you wimp.¡± ¡°No thank you, I¡¯d prefer to be alive when I wake up in the morning.¡± When Val sat up, the blanket slumped downwards revealing the state of her clothes beneath. She fell asleep in the same clothes I¡¯d loaned her. Her top was disorderly while her hair, wildly scattered about, in its natural let-down state. A large region of her midriff was visible and revealed her fair white skin beneath it. When she noticed where I was looking she smirked and tilted her head to the side and asked, ¡°you¡¯re certain you don¡¯t want to take advantage of the situation while you still have the chance?¡± I got off the bed, walked over to the closet, and dug up some of her old clothes that were less provocative. I wasn¡¯t the same old virgin from five years before who¡¯d jump at her any time she used her wily fox-like tactics. I tossed her a selection of clothes without explanation and immediately headed into the bathroom. ¡°The old you who was honest with your desires and jumped at the opportunity was much cuter, but this version of you isn¡¯t too bad either I guess. It makes it more fun for me in a way.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Val.¡± I closed the door behind me then stepped into the shower after I stripped my clothes. When I finally turned on the faucet it ran for a minute before it turned warm. The warm water flowed down my body and washed away the sweat along with the drowsiness from having just woken up. All the muscles in my body completely relaxed, the comfortable sensation brought on by the warmth of the water that flowed over my skin was the best. I lathered myself in soap, then used shampoo and conditioner on my hair. Everything was nice and peaceful until I lowered my arms and felt something beneath them. I jumped forward, violently spun around, and discovered the culprit, but I slipped and fell backward in the process. The soap made the tub extra slippery, as a result, I landed heavily on the ground inside the tub with my back against the wall. ¡°Why¡¯d you get so jumpy? It¡¯s just me.¡± Naturally, the person I discovered was none other than Val. Her long hair draped over her shoulder and covered the important areas, but there was still more than enough revealed to provoke any normal man¡¯s desires. Despite the erotic nature of the situation, my reasoning was still damned well intact from the scare just now. ¡°What do you mean it¡¯s just you! You scared the crap out of me. No, actually, what the hell are you doing in here anyway!¡± ¡°Well, we don¡¯t have much time to waste. We¡¯ve got to leave soon and I thought it would be quicker if we just showered together to save some time.¡± ¡°No no no! That¡¯s not how this works, Val!¡± ¡°What¡¯s there to be embarrassed about? You¡¯ve already seen it all before, haven¡¯t you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not about being embarrassed, it¡¯s a complete invasion of privacy unless you ask if I¡¯m okay with it first!¡± ¡°We¡¯re also in a pretend relationship, so we also need to get used to this sort of skinship again, don¡¯t we?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t try that shit with me, that¡¯s not an excuse at all. I don¡¯t believe for one second there¡¯s any problem in that area with how aggressive you are.¡± Chapter 122. Chapter 122. ¡°But you didn¡¯t even lay your hands on me when I was in such a defenseless state last night. How can I be sure you¡¯ll be able to put on a convincing act when we¡¯re out together?¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°If they believe you don¡¯t have any sort of backing, whoever is out for your life won¡¯t back off of course. What better backing is there than the CEO of a company? Or for others who are vaguely aware of my former identity, should I say a rather well known hired killer? Would they still have the guts to lay a hand on someone who belongs to me?¡± I somehow found her smile mixed with derision and confidence rather attractive despite the fact that I¡¯d clearly just been labeled as one of her belongings. ¡°Val, just for the record I¡¯m your employee, not one of your belongings.¡± ¡°Oh? You didn¡¯t read the fine print in your contract that I meticulously wrote in?¡± ¡°What fine print?¡± ¡°The one that declared ¡®by signing this contract your life belongs to the company, whether you live or die is dictated by the sole discretion of yours truly, the CEO, Valkyria Rosenberg.¡¯¡± ¡°I absolutely never read that anywhere in the contract. You¡¯re definitely making shit up.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not lying though, it really was in the fine print.¡± I scrutinized her facial expression and body language closely to determine if there were any telltale signs of her lying. Of course, this was purely to uncover any signs of lying and not because of the pleasant scenery. ¡°Whatever, enough of that Dio. Help me wash my hair already, we¡¯re wasting time.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get out now, you can wash your hair by yourself.¡± Before I could get out, she turned around, sat down, leaned back against me, and trapped me against the wall. ¡°You can leave after you help wash my hair.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding right?¡± ¡°Does it look like I¡¯m joking?¡± ¡°Haaaah. This is blatant sexual harassment.¡± I reluctantly picked up the bottle of shampoo and applied it to her long hair starting from her scalp, working my way down. ¡°It feels just as good as I remember. You always were good with your hands.¡± I methodically moved further down toward the end of her long hair that draped over her shoulder and hung down in front of her. ¡°Ah~¡± ¡°Can you cut it with the erotic noises? I¡¯m just trying to get this over with quickly. Please refrain from making this more complicated than it needs to be.¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°You say that, but you sure are thorough.¡± ¡°Hya!¡± ¡°Seriously! Enough with the suggestive moans! It¡¯s just washing your hair.¡± She leaned her head back and brushed up against my cheek. She tilted it slightly at an angle where she could peak at my face. Her actions opened up a perfect line of sight directly to the protrusions on her chest partially covered up by her silky long black hair. ¡°If it¡¯s just washing hair, what¡¯s the thing directly behind me doing?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just your imagination. I¡¯m just washing your hair.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Yes, so could you stop looking back at me from this angle?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t, you¡¯ll just have to put up with it until you finish with my hair.¡± With the direction events had proceeded toward, I¡¯d definitely be murdered in the near future. Stay calm. Just finish washing her hair without any mishaps and you¡¯re home free. I¡¯d definitely never be the one to take a shower first in the future if we ever share a room again. My hand brushed against her chest when I lifted her hair up from beneath to apply the shampoo. In the instant when I came into contact with her skin, her eyelids lowered halfway as she let out a heated breath directly beside my cheek. ¡°You really need to knock it off.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mind me, I¡¯m just enjoying the thorough services my employee is providing me with.¡± How in the hell did things escalate in this direction so quickly anyway? This made no sense. None! None at all! To prevent my mind from wandering towards lewd stray thoughts, I recited all the digits of pi I knew in my head. She¡¯s a woman who formerly killed people for money, she surely knew all the tricks in the book to seduce a man and make them lower their guard. I¡¯m not the same person from all those years ago though, I won¡¯t let myself easily be swayed by her charm again when she¡¯s clearly just finding enjoyment through teasing me. Several minutes passed by and she occasionally leaked out a few moans. It was a grueling process, but I somehow made it through to the end with my sanity intact and successfully finished shampooing her hair. ¡°There, we¡¯re done with your hair, now let me leave in peace.¡± ¡°Finished? Dio, what are you talking about? You still need to use conditioner.¡± All the blood to drain from my face when I heard her words. How could I forget about such an obvious trap? She grabbed the showerhead and placed it in my hand. I slumped back in defeat, I washed the shampoo out of her hair with water without any more futile complaints before I applied the conditioner. Of course, I suffered through more of her incessant teasing throughout the process. When I finally washed all the conditioner out of her hair I thought I was truly free from this infernal hell, unfortunately, I noticed a somewhat sinister smile had crept onto her face at some point. A shiver ran down my back as I sensed the impending calamity inducing words about to escape those deceptively seductive lips of hers. ¡°It¡¯s time for the soap. Dio, you can¡¯t forget about the most important part.¡± ¡°No way. You can do that yourself. I absolutely refuse.¡± ¡°What will I do? If you don¡¯t do it, we¡¯ll be stuck like this all day and miss our flight. Do you understand the repercussions of missing our flight, Mr. Genovese? It would mean potentially losing a big business partner. It could even affect our stock prices if news leaks. It could result in the company downsizing and many people losing their jobs. Who will be to blame for that, Mr. Genovese? Can you consciously live with that constantly weighing on your mind, knowing your refusal to do the very simple task of assisting your boss with a few personal affairs resulted in countless financial losses?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way that would happen. Do you think I¡¯m stupid?¡± ¡°Of course, I don¡¯t think you¡¯re stupid; however, it¡¯s not out of the realm of possibility for something like that to happen. Anything is possible in this crazy world after all. Look at your luck with women for example. You were met with five back to back catastrophic relationships, right? Your luck doesn¡¯t seem to be on the good side, right? What if your bad luck rubbed off on the company and it really happened?¡± ¡°Alight! I get it! I get it! I just have to do it, right? It¡¯s not like this is the first time.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, we used to do this sort of thing quite a bit back then, didn¡¯t we? Those have always been very fond memories for me.¡± A peaceful smile filled with nostalgia hung on her face as she reminisced to herself over our time together in the past. Chapter 123. Chapter 123. I started at her shoulders and traced a path lower, along her arms, one by one, meticulously down each individual finger. They were certainly as soft and smooth as I remembered, maybe even more so. Next was her neck, then her back, further down until I reached her hips, followed by her sensational thighs, and finally her lower legs. She bent her knees up which allowed me to reach all the way to her toes. When I was finished with all the areas I considered safe zones I steeled my heart for the final stretch. I placed the soap by her abdomen and moved it from side to side as I worked my way upwards inch by inch until the back of my hand was squashed under the two bountiful obstructions blocking the path. I moved back and forth beneath them, her breathing picked up slightly in the process. When I noticed her gaze, slightly lucid and dreamy, I discovered how difficult and treacherous the path of a Buddha truly was. In response to the unseen pheromones in the air, my own heart rate grew more erratic compared to what was normal for me. I followed the path up the sides until I reached the mountain¡¯s peak where I thoroughly cleaned every spot my hands could reach. I truly thought that was the last obstacle on my grand journey to escape the tub. ¡°Hah. Dio, wait. There¡¯s still one more place to clean.¡± She blissfully shut her eyes with an appearance of pure pleasure when those words escaped her lips. She held onto my hand and guided me to the final battlefront. The jaws of death. The gatekeepers pass. I could come up with innumerable names for it, but I¡¯m sure anyone could imagine what I meant. The moment my hand passed down between her two upper thighs, her legs clamped down together tightly and locked my hand in place. I simultaneously felt her body pulsate a few times through our cojoined skin. Her body arched backward forming a small hollow cavity between my chest and her back. A minute later, the hollow cavity between our bodies closed up as she lazily slumped back like a satisfied cat against my chest. ¡°Haaaah. It¡¯s been quite a while. I was really getting impatient and pent up after holding back for so long.¡± ¡°Holding back? You? You definitely don¡¯t strike me as someone holding back at all.¡± ¡°Since the last time we did it back when we parted ways, I haven¡¯t had one since then. Oh? What was that? Did hearing that get you a bit excited?¡± ¡°It didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Dio, holding it back so much isn¡¯t good for your health, but I¡¯ll respect your decision. Haha. In fact, if you ever want to release some of that pent up frustration you¡¯ve bottled up, just let me know.¡± ¡°No thank you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re really such a pain to deal with sometimes, Dio.¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a compliment.¡± ¡°We should really finish up and leave soon or we¡¯ll really end up late.¡± ¡°If we¡¯re late it¡¯s definitely your fault, Val. Don¡¯t try and blame me for that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if we¡¯re late, I''ll definitely take responsibility.¡± ¡°Val¡­ can you please move your hand away. I don¡¯t need you taking responsibility like that.¡± ¡°Oh? Is that so? That¡¯s a bit of a shame.¡± ¡°Val, can you please get up now and let me leave?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± When Val stood up, she extended her hand out toward me to help me up. I grabbed her hand and she pulled me up; however, in the process of standing up, thanks to the combination of shampoo and soap the tub¡¯s surface was even more slippery than when I¡¯d fallen earlier. I had my doubts about whether or not it was intentional on her part, but I was pulled down along with her. I found myself in a rather awkward position where I was mounted atop her while she was pinned to the ground between my arms and legs. She simply looked up at me curiously, not saying a thing, with her body fully exposed in plain sight. She wasn¡¯t bashful at all and she didn¡¯t try to hide her body in embarrassment, instead, she calmly kept her eyes locked onto mine like she wanted to see what I¡¯d do. ¡°You did that on purpose, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°And if I did, what are you going to do about it?¡± ¡°Noth-¡° I said that as I raised my head only to freeze in the middle of my sentence. Directly in front of me was Adele, squat down with her face only a few centimeters away from mine. Bloody tears trickled down from the corner of her eyes. ¡°Ahh-¡± I leaped backward off of Val, shocked by her unexpected appearance, and hit the back of my head hard on the wall behind. The resulting impact forced my eyes shut as I winced from the sudden onslaught of pain. When I reopened my eyes she was gone, not a single trace of her remained. ¡°Hah. Hah. Hah. Hah. Hah. Hah¡­¡± ¡°Am I so scary that you need to react like that?¡± ¡°Of course not¡­ Hah. Hah. Hah...¡± ¡°I know. It was just a joke. You were hallucinating again, right?¡± ¡°Huh, yeah¡­ hah... hah... just another... hallucination.¡± Where I could even feel her breath on my face. It wasn¡¯t just her image off a reflective surface like the previous occasions. It was extremely realistic and surreal this time. It was the first time I¡¯d interacted or physically felt anything when I saw her in a hallucination. Albeit just her breath, I certainly felt it on my face. ¡°Are you okay? It looked like you hit your head pretty hard.¡± ¡°It hurts, but it¡¯s not too bad.¡± Val got up on her own and placed her hand on my cheek then said, ¡°You really don¡¯t look very good, you¡¯re really pale. Are you feeling sick at all?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m really okay. I was just startled a bit.¡± ¡°Is that so? Good. Then you can¡¯t use it as an excuse to try and bail on our presentation.¡± After that, she smiled and exited the shower with a refreshed look on her face. I, on the other hand, was frustrated to no end. Why didn¡¯t I think of feigning illness to get out of it? I should have just bashed the back of my head even harder against the wall to pass out. Damnit, I was presented with a golden opportunity to escape and I completely failed to capitalize on it. Exhausted, I dragged my body out of the shower and discovered Val in the middle of getting dressed. She¡¯d already put on her lingerie. She was presently putting on a dangerously erotic garter belt with stockings. Chapter 124. Chapter 124. Wait. Those actually looked pretty familiar. I knew I definitely didn¡¯t give those to her earlier. I¡¯d only handed over some more formal looking attire before I entered the shower. ¡°Val, where¡¯d you get those?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just using what was originally mine. I didn¡¯t think you were such a perv that you¡¯d even keep my garter belt and stockings.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like I particularly kept it. I just dumped all of your stuff into a box and never bothered to throw it away. Actually, I never gave you permission to go and dig about my stuff.¡± ¡°I never gave you permission to keep my stuff either, Mr. Genovese, so take it as though we¡¯re equally at fault. However, this could be considered sexual harassment if not for the fact we¡¯re in a pretend romantic relationship at the moment.¡± ¡°And the stunt you pulled in the shower just now wasn¡¯t?¡± ¡°Of course not. It¡¯s just some physical bonding with your boss. Far from sexual harassment. Just think of it like going to a hot spring to relax on a company vacation. Besides, did I lay my hands on you? Isn¡¯t it actually quite the opposite? You¡¯ve touched every crevice of my body, Mr. Genovese.¡± I opted to keep my mouth shut since it felt like fighting a woman in an argument was a pointless endeavor with only losses to be had. They always twisted the facts however they saw fit to gain the upper hand. That was beside the point as nobody would ever believe my side of the story. It was too ludicrous and outlandish to believe. The beautiful CEO, a woman, who surely had countless guys gawking at her, lined up at her beck and call; instead, sexually harassed her pitiful employee with a terrible track record of poor relationships. Even I¡¯d find that story hard to believe. ¡°Haha. You suddenly got a bit quiet. What¡¯s wrong? Cat got your tongue?¡± I sighed off to one side and quietly dressed myself in silence. After I put on my pants, Val, who only had her lingerie on, picked up one of my dress shirts along with a tie and came to my side. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Raise your arm.¡± I did as she asked and she put on my dress shirt like a true professional. ¡°I can wear it myself you know.¡± ¡°Well, we need to get back into the habit of doing couple-like things if we¡¯re pretending that you¡¯re my significant other.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the point in doing that when we¡¯re alone? Who is there to convince?¡± ¡°No one really. The real reason is just because I want to do it.¡± She casually said that and happily fastened the tie around my neck. It was a bit nostalgic, she used to do this back when we were really dating in the past. The way she did it overlapped perfectly with my memories. It was like seeing a mirrored image. Strangely, she really was the most normal among my five crazy exes.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I gulped down the saliva which had at some point pooled at the back of my mouth. I simultaneously warded off the stray thoughts, the result of her overly revealing appearance. Somehow she was more provocative with her lingerie on than with nothing at all. She had that sort of dangerous devilish appeal to her that tempted one to make all sorts of mistakes. The way she looked me in the eyes while doing it felt like it was all on purpose; as if every action she made was calculated to rile up a man¡¯s desires to the max. It took quite a bit of effort to stay focused on work with how provocative her attire was. Thankfully, I miraculously maintained my rationality until both of us were fully clothed. When we were both dressed, the two of us both donned formal business attire. I¡¯d changed into black dress pants, with a black coat worn over a white dress shirt and a black tie around my neck. I really looked the part of an ideal corporate slave. Val wore similarly colored clothes, the only difference was she had a short, tightly fit black skirt with stockings. Her garter belt wasn¡¯t visible, but I knew it was still there, it was just well hidden now. Like me, she had a white dress shirt on, but her coat greatly emphasized her curvaceous figure compared to mine. I was far from fat, but overall, my apparel made me feel kind of chubby compared to her tight-fitting clothes that outlined the distinct contours of her body. She¡¯d also tied her hair up from behind and she looked like the textbook definition of a truly professional high-class villainous businesswoman. Honestly, I was taken aback. It was like day and night. It was like a wild tiger transformed into a much more docile, classy looking belle. You¡¯d never imagine they were one and the same. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°The gap is just too big.¡± ¡°Oh? Did you prefer me when I wasn¡¯t wearing anything?¡± ¡°No comment.¡± It was definitely a trap question I wouldn¡¯t fall for. ¡°Well? How do I look?¡± ¡°You look like a scary business woman who¡¯ll sell me a horrible life insurance policy.¡± ¡°Hahaha! Is that right? Though I might be the one collecting on it rather than the one selling it to you.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You still look as dorky as I remember in your suit, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Not every random guy is some hot muscular supermodel stud with an amazing six pack that has all the ladies¡¯ panties dropping. I¡¯ve never looked good in this stupid suit.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t particularly dislike the way you look in it though.¡± I wasn¡¯t given the chance to respond to her. She grabbed onto my hand and dragged me out the door. ¡°We really need to stop dawdling. I already called for a taxi before our shower, so it should be here already.¡± With her suddenly pulling me out the door, it was lucky I didn¡¯t forget my laptop which had the presentation stored on it. It would¡¯ve truly been a nightmare if we showed up at the meeting without anything in hand. When we arrived downstairs, just like Val said, there was a taxi parked up outside. ¡°Oh, what a coincidence. It¡¯s you two from yesterday. It¡¯s really a small world.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± After we got in, when I examined the driver, I realized it was the same taxi driver from the day before. I was so out of it yesterday I¡¯d already almost forgotten about him. ¡°To the airport. Please step on it. Our flight is in an hour and a half.¡± ¡°Whatever you say, you¡¯re the boss, Missy.¡± ¡°Please refrain from calling me, Missy. My name is Valkyria, it¡¯s unpleasant being called so casually.¡± ¡°Boss Valkyria it is then.¡± When she heard the prefix appended to her name, she looked a bit more content. I couldn¡¯t help but think that she really was a power craving boss to her core. ¡°What with that look of yours, Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°Nothing. I just thought it was a slightly cute side of you was all.¡± Getting all content just because he put Boss before your name. Of course, she gave me the stank eye when she understood what I meant. Chapter 125. Chapter 125. When I looked in the rearview mirror I saw Adele again. The only difference from the last cab ride was how she wasn¡¯t on the trunk outside the vehicle. Rather, she was now seated on my lap faced towards me with her legs in the shape of a w around my waist. I couldn¡¯t see her face as she had her back to me, only the back of her head was visible. I couldn¡¯t determine what type of expression she had on. With so little information at hand, I felt extremely unsettled. Is this the feeling of knowing you¡¯re doing something with a guilty conscience behind someone¡¯s back when you know they constantly have their eyes on you? I often feel like her appearance is only a reflection of my state of mind like it is right now, but there are other times that I feel doubtful of that; for example, back in the shower with Val where I felt her breath on my face. I¡¯d grown a bit more accustomed to Adele appearing like this after a full day of it, but I still really wished she¡¯d just disappear. There were times where I felt scared out of my mind, but right now, I only felt unsettled by it which was actually worse. It was like a gradual unnerving build-up to something more horrible compared to when everything went wrong all at once. I¡¯d much rather just get it over with quickly in one go than put up with it over a long stretch of time. The way it was drawn out like this was really the worst. I averted my gaze and looked outside the window to distract myself. I noticed her side profile was slightly visible from the light reflected off the surface of the glass. Though I could only make out her body through the reflection on the glass. Her head and facial features were obscure and indistinct in the window. I had no way to know what she felt or thought right now. Ironically, it really felt like she was the real ghost haunting me instead of that illogical VHS tape nonsense. Adele always weighed on the back of my mind and refused to leave me alone. I still wanted to return to the hospital to check on her condition, but maybe, the farther away from her I was, the better. The internal terror I felt when I thought back to the scene yesterday was no joke. The image of myself when I pushed her over the edge of the balcony was on a loop in my head ever since then. Then there was also the contradictory footage Val showed me that didn¡¯t coincide with my memories. With so much uncertainty in everything around me, deep down I knew, I wanted to escape far away from it all. If I thought about things rationally, there was no way for me to put the mismatched pieces of the puzzle together. No individual peace seemingly fit together perfectly. It was like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that could potentially paint a picture when connected, but the connections were deformed ever so slightly and didn¡¯t fit together perfectly as a result. As a piece of the puzzle myself, it was a frustrating unsolvable mystery that likely couldn¡¯t be solved by looking at it from a single angle. Maybe if I removed myself from the puzzle and looked at it as a third party or observer I¡¯d better understand what really happened. Unfortunately, I really didn¡¯t have the luxury to do that as a party deeply entangled in this disorderly mess.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. I¡¯d been so deep in thought I never even noticed when we arrived at our destination and got out of the taxi. We¡¯d even checked in and were at the boarding gate. When I turned around, I found Val with a displeased expression on her face. ¡°Oh? Now you¡¯re paying attention to me? You¡¯ve been ignoring me all this time you know.¡± ¡°I have?¡± I don''t remember hearing her call out to me even once during our trip. Did I sink so far into my own world that everything else became irrelevant? ¡°Yeah you have. Even when I kissed you, you weren¡¯t even fazed in the slightest. You just had this infuriatingly stupid, blank, zoned out, expressionless face the entire time.¡± I pointed at myself in utter disbelief and asked, ¡°You kissed who? When!¡± ¡°Right in front of the taxi driver when he started to hit on me. It was immediately effective and he naturally backed off, but your reaction really ticked me off that time.¡± I¡¯m not even going to question it. Gaps in my memories aren¡¯t even a surprise anymore. ¡°Sorry for spacing out like that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, I¡¯m sure there¡¯s a lot on your mind that you¡¯re confused about. More and more pressure keeps getting piled on your back and bombs are casually being dropped left and right around you.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t say the word bombs. I really don¡¯t want any sort of foreshadowing, no matter how weak it may be, especially when we¡¯re about to board a plane.¡± ¡°Hey Val... you said someone¡¯s out for my head, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, I did. You¡¯re asking about that now?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t a plane hijacking be a perfect opportunity to make someone disappear and look like a random act of terrorism? It could easily be blamed on terrorists and no one would be the wiser that it was all an orchestrated assassination.¡± ¡°That would be a rather interesting turn of events though, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°For you who can watch on the sidelines, maybe, but my life would be forfeit.¡± ¡°They would have quite the gonads to do it while I¡¯m around though.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? They would surely have guns as well. What are you supposed to do to deter guns?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t need to do a thing. They just wouldn¡¯t dare to.¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t see where your confidence comes from. You¡¯re just another person who was once in a similar line of business right?¡± ¡°Well, you could say that. Just relax though, it¡¯ll be fine. Your imagination is just running wild and thinking of the worst possible scenarios.¡± ¡°I hope so.¡± When we finally boarded the plane after they checked our documents, it didn¡¯t take long before we took off. On the way in, I got a good look at the pilot, he was a well-aged man with the appearance of a veteran who¡¯d wracked up thousands of hours in flight. I felt slightly more reassured that no failures due to inexperience would crop up thanks to that. When everyone was seated, an announcement was made over the intercom before liftoff. It was all standard procedure and thankfully nothing was out of place. Without looking, I immediately pulled the shutter down over the window at the side for obvious reasons. Imagine if I got sniped thanks to carelessly leaving the window open. Yeah right, who am I kidding? I just didn¡¯t want to see Adele anymore. Chapter 126. Chapter 126. Ten minutes after the plane took off, Val stood up and said she needed the restroom. I was tempted to follow her because I had a bad feeling something bad would happen when she just happened to be gone. Honestly, why else would she leave if not for something bad about to happen? When I noticed her mischievous smile that suggested she¡¯d read my thoughts, it appeared as if she was eagerly waiting for me to follow behind her. I instinctively felt like it would also lead to something much more troublesome if I really got up. If I was damned if I went and damned if I didn¡¯t, I might as well just sit here and relax while I still could. Only fools would claim they would regret it less if they take action rather than no action; well I say nay, relax and enjoy the good times to the last second while you still can. When Val realized I had no intention to follow her, she quietly whispered in my ear, ¡°Such a shame, I was curious about those movie scenes on planes that I¡¯ve heard happen a lot in the bathroom.¡± Upon which, she left without sparing me another glance. The only thing that remained in her place was the scent of her perfume that lingered in the seat to my side. Her suggestive words had me thinking of all sorts of rather interesting scenarios. In fact, there was even one time in the past when we were in a similar situation. It was a long flight and she¡¯d done something even more risqu¨¦ than in a private space like a bathroom. The majority of the other passengers were asleep at that time. All I could say was, there were three parties involved in that incident. A blanket, Rose, and me. The younger me was too easily dragged into her pace. I naturally understood very well what sort of scenes she referred to, but as I¡¯d matured, I wouldn¡¯t just jump at every offer like a horny teenager in puberty. I¡¯m not secretly regretting it and extremely salty on the inside right now or anything. Trust me, I¡¯m really not¡­ There was a time and place for everything. No matter how hot I think it would actually be deep down, I can¡¯t possibly let that part of my body control me. Its thoughts like those that lead to a man with a mask and machete cutting down the door and lopping off your head. I¡¯m not a dumbass who¡¯d fall for that blatant trap. Wouldn¡¯t that actually make for an interesting story though? A murderer, one by one, kills off everyone on a plane without anyone realizing a thing? You can¡¯t really run, escape, or hide, right? While I mused over the idea of a story like that in my head with my eyes closed, I patiently awaited Val¡¯s return. Five minutes passed by quickly and I heard movement beside me when she got back and sat down. When I reopened my eyes, instead of being greeted by her familiar black hair, I discovered someone I hadn¡¯t seen in quite some time. Beautiful wavy white hair, coupled with a flawless complexion. She had the same short black one-piece dress I¡¯d always seen her in before. She seemed slightly bored, with her head directed toward the front of the plane, but I noticed her eyes were slightly angled in my direction. When she noticed that I was looking back at her, she smiled slightly while her eyes closed halfway. She opened her mouth as if she intended to say something to me, but not a single sound escaped her lips. I tried to read her lips, but I wasn¡¯t too proficient in that area so I was unable to discern her intent.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Everybody put your hands where we can see them! This is a hijacking! If you resist, prepare to forfeit your life on the spot!¡± My eyes immediately shot up in the direction of the front of the plane where the shout originated from. ¡°If you resist we¡¯ll shoot you on sight! We¡¯ve already killed the pilot and have bombs planted all over the plane!¡± He held up a decapitated head in front of the crowd which caused the voices of outrage to still when they understood the severity of the situation. Fresh blood visibly dripped down from the pilot''s head while bits of flesh dangled beneath it; it was an image that made one¡¯s blood run cold from its overly grotesque nature. It reminded me of a certain terrorist group from the Middle East and I was terrified just from the thought of it alone. It was something I feared much more than some little ghost. Being directly involved in a terrorist hijacking was something I never thought I would ever experience first hand like this. I thought I¡¯d done pretty well to use reverse psychology to cancel out any god awful foreshadowing by calling it before it happened, to think that it really happened after all. I was mortified. The snuff videos I¡¯d seen online of the group that performed such atrocities, I never thought I¡¯d have a run-in with them in this short life of mine. Shit! I¡¯m just a civilian! Why do I have to put up with something as outlandish and unreasonable as this? The group of men in the aisle slowly made their way from the front of the plane to the back while they scanned through all the passengers carefully. They menacingly pulled out men from their seats who were more robust and held them at gunpoint. A few armed men passed by my seat, one man in particular stopped and shoved the muzzle of his gun into my mouth and said, ¡°Get up or die. Choose now.¡± I kept my cool and nodded my head in understanding. Panicking now would only lead to me losing my life sooner rather than later. I slowly got up with my hands in the air to make it clear I was unarmed and not resisting in the slightest. Lately, the situation always devolves far too quickly, I never have a chance to think of any countermeasures. God damn it! I wish I had at least disguised my face before I got on the plane. Was it just a coincidence they chose me? Or was I their real target because of that ridiculous bounty on my head? If I willingly cooperated with them I might at least have a chance to survive. At the very least, it was much easier for them to transport a cooperative person who was alive over a dead body. After all, the contract said, ¡®wanted dead or alive.¡¯ They may have even struck a deal to increase the bounty if I was taken alive, right? Two lines were made at the front of the plane in the aisles. They¡¯d tied up women, children, the less threatening men, the elderly, and lined them all up in one aisle. The more robust men with strong appearances were held at gunpoint, bound, and lined up in the adjacent aisle. It was a clear, distinct, division of power. There were the easily handled hostages, while the rest were the ones that could be problematic. I was grouped together with the problematic ones for god knows what reason. I wasn¡¯t robust in any way shape or form, so I really felt like the odd one out in the group. When I finally understood where things were headed, my heart sank to rock bottom. There were two men before me in line. The terrorists unbound the first man¡¯s hands and gave him a large machete then instructed him. ¡°Behead this child and join us, or die. Choose now.¡± Chapter 127. Chapter 127. ¡°W-what¡­?¡± ¡°Mommy!¡± ¡°... did you say?¡± The man left dumbstruck, his eyes laced with disbelief, disgust, and rage. The woman beside the child trembled when she heard the terrorist¡¯s words and called out, ¡°Please spare my child! Take my life instead!¡± ¡°Tch. I¡¯ve changed my mind, behead both these lower life forms now or die.¡± I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to vomit. I¡¯d seen a lot of death and I¡¯d grown more numb to it over the years, but this still felt utmost revulsion toward this group. I seriously questioned whether I would be able to do something as low as that to save my own life. The robust man with the machete in hand looked like the weight of the world had crushed him down into the dirt. This was undoubtedly the biggest dilemma he¡¯d faced in his life. He looked back and forth between the two he¡¯d been instructed to behead and the terrorist. He weighed his options carefully while held at gunpoint. ¡°Hurry up, we don¡¯t have all day, moron!¡± In the end, the man never arrived at an answer. Before he did, one of the armed men, dissatisfied by his indecision clicked his tongue then coldly said without a shred of humanity, ¡°Failure.¡± Two of the armed men beside him latched onto his arms. They confiscated the machete as they forced him to his knees and restrained him. The man who¡¯d stuck the nuzzle of his gun in my mouth earlier declared the man a failure and approached him emotionlessly. He first reached out towards his right eye and- ¡°AAAAGHHHHH!¡± A loud spine chilling scream of agony reverberated throughout the cabin. Everyone was left with widely opened eyes in complete disbelief. The heartless terrorist ripped out an eyeball clean from its socket and squashed it without the slightest sign of hesitation or remorse. It didn¡¯t end there though. Just as he reached out to the man¡¯s left eye, the man shrilly cried out at the top of his lungs, ¡°I¡¯ll do it! I¡¯ll kill them! It hurts! AHHHHH! It hurts! I¡¯ll fucking kill them! Please stop! I don¡¯t want to die! I don¡¯t want to die! Not like this!¡± Tears of blood flowed out from where his right eye once was as clear liquid tears leaked from his still intact left eye. The endless stream of tears, both crimson and transparent, trickled down both sides of his cheeks until they met and mixed together at the bottom of his chin. Once the two streams met, drop after drop dripped down to the floor amidst the dismayed cries of horror from the other restrained passengers. The terrorist showed not a single sign he was moved by the man¡¯s words and he coolly said, ¡°It¡¯s too late. You hesitate once in life and it will lead to a mission¡¯s failure. We have no room for those who hesitate. We need war machines who will fight for our cause without the need to think. Only those with superior abilities deserve to live. You¡¯ll serve as an example to the rest so they understand what happens to those who hesitate to do as we say. From past experience in recruiting newbies, we always need examples before people really understand the severity of the situation they¡¯re actually in. People are always foolishly stuck in their comfortable little bubbles of peace until we show them what their futile little resistance leads to.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Life drained from my eyes, I was once again powerless to resist the atrocity which played out directly before me. When outnumbered with guns pointed directly at you, no amount of plans or clever tactics would save you. Action movies were all full of shit, bullets wouldn¡¯t just miraculously miss or skim by you as you conveniently take them out one by one like some sort of one-man army god of war. These men did not look the part of some amateur street-side thugs. By the murderous aura that surrounded them, it was obvious enough they were all highly trained professionals in the art of murder. At this range, you¡¯d be deader than dead the instant you put up any form of resistance. I knew I had to make a decision, and quick. To kill an innocent bystander and live another day, or die here? Which would I choose when it was my turn? The woman presently across from me was none other than the mysterious woman with wavy white hair. Strangely enough, it seemed everyone around could see her for a change. Why was that though? ¡°AHHHHHHH!¡± I didn¡¯t have long to think about it as another shrill shriek of horror echoed out loudly through the cabin. This time, the man¡¯s left eye was pulled clean out of his socket and then shoved into his mouth while still connected to his optic nerve. The terrorist sent a knee upward and slammed it into the man¡¯s jaw from below. His jaw was forced shut and the man bit down firmly into his own eyeball. I threw up halfway in my mouth but forcefully swallowed it back down. The acid burned the back of my throat and left behind a bitter sour taste in my mouth. Now wasn¡¯t the time to spill my guts. Any sign of weakness here would only result in my own situation turning out far worse than it already was. I thought the man would finally be put out of his misery, but the terrorist picked up the machete and popped off a finger from the man¡¯s right hand. Disparaging screams and curses leaked out from the man¡¯s mouth. With every chop that tore into his flesh, he threatened to kill each and every one of these bastards. The terrorist sported a malevolent smile as he reveled in the man¡¯s continued suffering. It felt like the terrorist found the man¡¯s threats to be among the finest compliments he could ever be offered. He was with no doubt a purebred psychopath. I¡¯d run into my fair share to know that. Hell, even if I hadn¡¯t met them before, it was plain as day; just from the look in his eyes, any normal person would have arrived at the same conclusion. I stifled my breath, fearful that the slightest sound may draw their attention toward myself. I had no way to defend myself here. I was trapped like everyone else, unable to put up any resistance against the threat of the overwhelming military might in their possession. With no control over my life, I resigned myself to the awful fate before me. If I wanted to live, killing the woman in front of me was my only option. If it was Val with me right now, I was uncertain what I would have done. However, this woman was a complete stranger, or at least, someone I¡¯d never actually had a conversation with. She¡¯d made a brief appearance a few times before this, but I still don¡¯t know what to think of her. A ghost? It¡¯s too absurd to believe that. The only thing I knew, she may very well be the cause of what was happening here. If she didn¡¯t show up, then this surely wouldn¡¯t have happened. Wait. What am I thinking? This is because of the bounty on me, right? Was I just trying to relate two unrelated things to each other to make the decision for myself easier? Besides that, what if this person was actually completely unrelated and she was actually a real person who coincidentally looked a bit similar to the woman I¡¯d seen in my hallucinations? Maybe I¡¯d seen her somewhere before and she became the model for the alleged ghost I¡¯d seen in my hallucinations and nightmares? She could just resemble the woman I presumed was Adele¡¯s sister. No. I need to stop doubting myself. No matter how I spin things to try and justify it in my head, I still need to resolve myself if I want to survive through this ordeal. ¡°Please! No more! Just kill me already!¡± The man who¡¯d been tortured the entire time suddenly changed his tone from violent curses into pleas to be released from his torment. The terrorist had already chopped off all of his fingers and toes one by one, but he showed no signs of stopping his sick and depraved mutilation. Before the terrorist cut off each of the man¡¯s minor appendages, he meticulously tied a string tightly around the stumps to minimize the blood loss and keep the poor guy alive longer. For the next step, the terrorist peeled away at the man¡¯s skin on his arms and legs. When the muscle fibers below were revealed, the terrorist ripped them cleanly out and stuffed them down the man¡¯s throat to stop him from screaming out. ¡°Why don¡¯t you eat up mate? I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get some good gains if you eat pure muscles. Hahahahahaha.¡± Chapter 128. Chapter 128. The surrounding group of terrorists approvingly laughed along like they found the joke hilarious. The dread I felt from the surroundings only increased as a result. The torture didn¡¯t last much longer and shortly after the terrorist cleanly chopped off the man¡¯s four limbs, he lopped off his head, raised it up, and presented it to the next man in line. With a mortifying grin, he said, ¡°I hope you¡¯re not a fool like him.¡± Completely despondent, the next man in line gave no response; his eyes, soulless, like he¡¯d lost all hope in humanity. The terrorist handed him the machete while he aimed at the man¡¯s head with his gun in the event the man displayed the slightest sign of resistance. However, the man didn¡¯t put up any sort of struggle. He approached the woman and child who¡¯d long lost all hope. Rather than fearful toward the man, they somehow appeared a bit thankful should they die an easy death here. To them, it would at least be a quick death by his hands compared to a gruesome and drawn out one at the hands of the brutal terrorists. They both wept by themselves quietly holding onto each other tightly, but they never begged for their life, likely afraid they¡¯d face a fate comparable to the first man¡¯s death. The second man who saw their reaction didn¡¯t hesitate, he cleaved down without hesitation and cleanly cut into their necks. What immediately followed were anguished cries of pain. They hadn¡¯t immediately died from the initial strike, but after a short minute passed, they bled out, and their struggles died down. Egged on by the terrorists to continue, the man finished the job, he fully chopped off both of their heads. When it was finally over, he lost all strength in his arms and legs. He dropped the machete and fell with his back to the cabin¡¯s wall between two seats. He looked down at his bloodied hands in horror once the severity of what he¡¯d done sank in. This was his new reality, once you crossed that bloodied bridge drenched by the innocent¡¯s blood, there was no turning back. I didn''t have very long to pay attention to his plight as the terrorist smiled and turned toward me next. He picked up the machete then placed it in my hand with a sinister smile and said, ¡°please do put on a good show. You¡¯ve got quite the beauty to behead there. You¡¯re lucky for your kill to be a beautiful and memorable one. It¡¯s actually quite a shame I can¡¯t take the time to enjoy her for myself.¡± I looked down at my hands and observed as they trembled uncontrollably. I held onto the machete as firmly as possible with the limited strength I could muster. The handle felt chillingly cold in spite of the still fresh warm blood on it. The woman directly adjacent didn¡¯t appear phased in the slightest; instead, she calmly looked me in the eyes unwaveringly. She patiently awaited my choice with no hint nor sign of fear. How was she so calm in this sort of situation? I cautiously repositioned myself to her rear and stood directly behind her. She hung her head low down in position as if she¡¯d already accepted whatever decision I¡¯d made. I was extremely conflicted about everything that happened. Was this really the correct decision? Would I really be able to survive by killing her? These questions only birthed further hesitation which was detrimental to my survival. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the worst, but I suddenly heard words from directly in front of me. My resolve immediately crumbled to pieces. ¡°Mr. Genovese, do not hesitate.¡± My eyes shot open in horror as I looked down in front of me and realized the wavy white-haired woman was gone. In her place was a familiar head of black hair. It was¡­ Val... Why? ...Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Why? Why? Why! What was she doing here? ¡°Stop hesitating, if I am to die here, then so be it. Besides, did you not know, Mr. Genovese? For a person in my former line of business, dying at the hands of someone important to you is a rather romantic way to finish your life.¡± Any sort of resolution I once had completely shattered to pieces when I understood it had been Val with me the entire time. No, was it really Val? Rather than what I saw before, was this the hallucination? Or was any of this ever a hallucination? This single new piece of information completely flipped the scale inside my head. I was to kill... Val? There was no way I could do it. But if I didn¡¯t, I¡¯d be the one who died. It was among the greatest dilemmas I¡¯d ever faced. Where did Val¡¯s previous bravado from before go? I thought she was confident no one could touch her. Then why are things suddenly playing out like this? ¡°You¡¯re taking too long. I¡¯ll give you to the count of five. If you don¡¯t cut this woman¡¯s head off by the time I count to five, I¡¯ll just have to make an example out of you like the first fool.¡± ¡°One.¡± ¡°Wait! Please give me a bit of time!¡± ¡°Two.¡± Think! Think! Think! Damn it! God fucking damn it! ¡°Three.¡± Anything! Anything! Isn¡¯t there anything I can do! Why is there nothing I can do to stop this! ¡°If you don¡¯t hurry up and choose; after we kill you, I might need to let my men release some pent up stress on this woman, if you catch my drift. Hahaha. Anyway, where was I? Oh, that¡¯s right. Four.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, stop hesitating. Rather than being touched all over by some filthy dogs before I die, I¡¯d much rather my life end early with you as the last man who felt me up all over when I was still alive.¡± Her voice was tranquil. It was like she wasn¡¯t facing death at all, but instead, having an intimate discussion with her lover. I have no desire to live if I have to live the rest of my life as her murderer, but... if I choose to end my own life without killing her, it would be the same as betraying her. I¡¯d just be taking the easy way out in life yet again. She¡¯d remain here as food for a bunch of ravenous wolves who¡¯d pounce on her the moment I died. There was nothing fair about the hopeless world I found myself in. Where was that thing people called justice? Where was the superhero who saved you at the last minute in the knick of time? Who was I kidding, there was no such thing as justice to be had for the deceased when murdered in cold blood by fear-mongering terrorists with guns. No matter how much I wished for it, there really were no heroes that would magically show up right on time to save the day. Why did such madness exist in this world? Why was justice worth jack shit? This was insanity. Irrationalism at its finest. With the situation I was presented, I had no real choice in the matter. It felt like the concept of free will had been completely stripped from me. I could only kill her. There were no other options available. ¡°Haaaaaaaaaaah.¡± I took in a long deep breath. ¡°Fi-¡± Don¡¯t think, just act. I no longer hesitated when the terrorist was midway through the last count. In a flash, I raised the machete up high and cleaved down with all my might. Rage, helplessness, resentment, hatred, reluctance, a seething fury, all sorts of countless negative emotions were imbued into this single downward swing. I put in everything ounce of strength I had and ground my teeth together as my eyes opened up wide. I watched carefully as if the world ran in slow motion before my eyes. With my concentration at an all-time peak, I did my utmost to ensure I wasn¡¯t off the mark in the slightest. I didn¡¯t want to mess up and prolong her death after I witnessed the earlier example. If she was destined to die, I¡¯d make it as quick and painless as possible. I was about to become a murderer. A murderer. There was no going back. My heart was breaking, it was torn in two opposing directions. Tears threatened to escape as a result of my internal turmoil, but there was no hesitation in my swing, only pure resolve to bring an end to her life as quickly as possible. The machete landed cleanly on the back of her neck. I watched on with my wide, horror-stricken eyes, as the blade penetrated her flesh and cleaved through the skin and fibers which connected her skull to her spinal cord. The machete, with unreal sharpness, landed precisely in the position required to get a nice clean cut through one end and out the other while avoiding direct contact with any bones. Blood erupted out from her neck like a geyser and splattered in all directions, both my hands and face were stained by the violent downpour of blood. My once white dress shirt was similarly dyed crimson as several stray droplets soaked in and diffused into the fabric. Chapter 129. Chapter 129. I stood in place petrified, straight as a rod, completely frozen. The machete listlessly hung down by my side amidst the silence as I stared blankly at the cabin ceiling. I didn¡¯t know how to react to the warmth of her blood that turned my own cold. ¡°Oh, it seems we have a natural. For a first kill to be so clean and resolute, it¡¯s actually quite impressive.¡± They were words that I despised down to my core. The immense revulsion I felt toward the terrorist that spoke out grew stronger with every second that ticked by. I¡¯d reached a point where I couldn¡¯t care less for anything or anyone, not even myself. I felt like a hollow empty husk after I¡¯d decisively reaped Val¡¯s life with my own two hands. I¡¯m¡­ better off dead than living on like this. But if I was going to end my own life now anyway, why let a piece of trash like this live? I might as well try to take one down with me even if the endeavor turns out to be a fruitless one. ¡°Hahahahahahah! HAHAHAHAHA! HAAAHAAAHAAAHAAAHAAAHAAA!¡± A burst of maniacal laughter erupted from somewhere within me. Even I had no idea where it originated from. Like a mad man who¡¯d lost all semblance of sanity, I shouted out, ¡°So much fun! Who knew killing would be so great! My good brother, I must truly shake your hand for allowing me to see the light. I never imagined killing someone would feel so amazing!¡± I sounded like a purebred, top-class psychopath. I¡¯d been around my fair share after all. Acting like one wasn¡¯t very difficult for me. In fact, it was almost like breathing to me by now. I approached the terrorist and extended my left hand out toward him in a gesture to shake hands. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a businessman at my core. If I¡¯m to join your side, I¡¯d like to shake hands on it. You¡¯re quite the good man, as such, I naturally must shake the hand of someone who¡¯s shown me such a grand way of life.¡± ¡°Hahaha. So you were actually one of our kind. Shackled by society, but released after your first blood. Who knew we¡¯d find a natural like you in this group. It¡¯s a shame though. Such a shame, really.¡± He shook his head and mumbled regretfully at the end. I took it as a vague confirmation that it really was the bounty on my head that they were after. Despite that, the terrorist still extended his hand out in my direction. Though it was clear to me he hadn¡¯t let his down his guard in the slightest, he still had his other hand firmly glued to his gun. But still, in spite of that, it didn¡¯t matter to me. Even if I was shot here in the process, even if it cost my own life, I¡¯d ensure this machete cleaved through the flesh around his neck. Right before our left hands came into contact, without any warning, I swung the machete diagonally upward from my lower right and aimed directly for his neck. The man instinctively moved back and raised his gun, but I¡¯d already anticipated it. I¡¯d preemptively intercepted him, I punched the inner joint on his right arm with my left hand. It made it impossible for him to point the gun directly at my head before the machete sliced into his throat. Bang! With my punch, the gun was diverted to my shoulder. When the initial pain from the machete registered with him, it further offset his aim. The bullet exited the barrel of his gun and shot a hole straight through my left leg, but that didn¡¯t stop the machete¡¯s momentum. I grit my teeth with rage and fully followed through with my swing. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Time in my eyes came to a near standstill as the machete sliced cleanly through the front of his throat, a trail of blood left behind in its wake flicked along the path the machete exited. Blood erupted out from his neck and he stared at me wide-eyed full of disbelief and rage. I was certain he never expected he¡¯d suffer such humiliation at the hands of a normal civilian in such a fashion. If there was one thing I was good at, it was running simulations in my head. The instant I decapitated Val, in a flash, I¡¯d simulated hundreds of ways to at least ensure I¡¯d successfully drag him down with me to hell, no matter the price I paid. The option with the best chance of success was to go at it with the intention to die. Before, when I was shackled by the desire to live through this ordeal, the chances of successfully taking one down was always zero. However, the scariest sort of person was one without anything left to lose. Once I¡¯d given up on life, a path presented itself to me. A path opened up where the cornered weak little ant toppled the scary behemoth. The path I chose was the most simplistic and primitive, act decisively without care for your own well being and never allow a chance to escape; if I die, we die together. Drag the enemy down to hell, claw at his feet. and make him regret everything. It was an idiot¡¯s plan to kill a simple-minded murderer. When he was convinced I¡¯d awoken to the sort of pleasures they enjoyed most, strike him down. Even if he wasn¡¯t the one who killed me, his other little terrorist buddies surely would, that much I was certain of. Though I¡¯d likely face a fate far worse than the first man who¡¯d been tortured to death. However, what I found even scarier was, the possibility that they didn¡¯t allow me to die? I didn¡¯t even consider that possibility initially. They might make me regret ever being born. When the severity of the situation hit me, it was already too late to turn back. I¡¯d acted in the heat of the moment out of rage without thinking much further beyond this terrorist¡¯s death. I wanted to immediately jump out of the plane to my death, but that was impossible, they had the aisle on lockdown. My little act of bravado was already over. Even if I wanted death, it might not be given to me. All these thoughts raced through my mind in an instant while the machete continued along its projected path. I struggled to stop the machete¡¯s momentum immediately due to the onset of pain from the bullet that pierced through my leg. When I unsteadily recovered my footing, I rotated the machete in my hand and hurriedly raised it back up fully intent on slicing into my own neck to immediately end my life, but right at that moment, several bullets were fired by the terrorist¡¯s allies. All the bullets penetrated, with fine precision, directly into both my hands forcing me to drop it. My attempt to kill myself was thwarted in its tracks and I was met with the worst-case scenario I¡¯d just imagined. If they wanted me immediately dead, they¡¯d have done so with those shots. The terrorist on the verge of death eyed me evilly and made a hand gesture to the others in the group. All the men chuckled and nodded in understanding before they all simultaneously turned their heads in my direction. They all had wide grins plastered on their faces that sent shivers down my back. I found it chilling to the bone how they weren¡¯t even slightly bothered by the death of their own. ¡°It¡¯s your lucky day to kill one of us. It really is, now you don¡¯t get to die. No, you¡¯ll definitely wish you were successful just now in your attempt to kill yourself.¡± One of the terrorists said that to me. ¡°Since you wanted to fuck one of us up, we¡¯ll just need to fuck you up a bit if you know what I mean. We prefer women, but oh well. A hole is a hole. Whether it¡¯s two or three, they¡¯re all holes at the end of the day. They all serve the same purpose for us at least.¡± My eyes shrunk when I understood their meaning. ¡°Can¡¯t I just have the same torture the first guy had? Why do you guys have to be this way?¡± God, I didn¡¯t know there really was something so much worse than the way the first guy was tortured. At least he was left with his dignity intact. This was just sick. ¡°You wanted to act like a big man, so we need to show you your place as the weak little woman you are.¡± If this is just another crappy nightmare, please let me wake up right now. I visibly trembled as they approached closer to me. This was what I got though, I killed Val with my own hands after all. I suppose I merely took her place instead. I guess I should have expected that sort of divine retribution. It was my own fault. The decision I made brought this on me. Chapter 130. Chapter 130. I suppose it¡¯s better me than her. With all hope lost, my head sunk to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. I¡¯d already done the most I could and I achieved one of the better results. There wasn¡¯t anything more I could have done in this situation. Well, I suppose there was another choice; I could have kept my temper in check, joined them, then bided my time in the group while I waited for a more opportune moment to strike. Through infiltrating their ranks, I definitely could have plotted against them in that manner, but that meant watching all the innocent people behind me as one by one they died directly before my eyes. I¡¯m not a hero who can clench his teeth and keep living life normally after selling out the last bit of humanity in myself. I¡¯m not a good person, but I like to think there¡¯s still a certain threshold or bottom line I won¡¯t cross. Filled with endless remorse and a profound sense of dread, I looked back up one more time. My intention, to permanently ingrain the appearances of the twisted bastard terrorists into the back of my mind; but instead, when I looked up, my heart skipped a beat with the first face my eyes landed upon. A familiar woman with wavy white hair had squatted down in front of me at eye level. She examined me interestedly for reasons I couldn¡¯t understand. In this instant, time felt as though it were at a standstill. The terrorists were all frozen in place, unmoving. There were no longer any sounds or cries from the hostages. Everything remained deadly still, like the two of us were separated from the mortal world. It might have all been in my head. Perhaps it was one last memory I fabricated in my head before I faced a fate worse than death. She opened her mouth, and for the first time, I heard her voice. ¡°How long will you keep me waiting, my Darling?¡± When she noticed my lack of response, she turned her head away from me in the direction of the terrorists. Time resumed, but she didn¡¯t disappear. I thought I was hallucinating as a form of escapism, but something unexpected happened. ¡°Ahhh!¡± A cry from one of the terrorists at the back sounded out. When everyone turned his way, a grey snake had bitten and constricted around his neck. His fingers pried desperately at his neck in an attempt to pull the snake away, but it didn¡¯t budge an inch. It was already firmly locked in place. What a brave valiant snake, I thought. If I had the strength or ability to do that, I definitely would have done the same. However, against my expectations, things didn¡¯t simply end there. From the overhead compartments, snakes erupted out like torrential rain. Some bit the terrorists, while others constricted around their bodies to bar any opportunity they had to escape or retaliate. The unexpected change left me shocked and I couldn¡¯t comprehend the situation. My feelings were mixed, very much so. I fucking HATED that godforsaken movie! Why was this bloody shit scene of all things playing out before my eyes right now! I knew I should be thankful in a way, for keeping my dignity intact and all, but I felt my dignity took a hit in another strange sort of way. To be saved in this manner was a bit¡­ insulting? Or should I say humiliating? Perhaps even infuriating? Unfortunately, the mayhem that ensued didn¡¯t stop at the terrorists. The snakes didn¡¯t discriminate between them and the hostages on the plane. Mass panic broke out as people chaotically fled in a disorderly fashion to the back of the plane. However, in reality, there was nowhere to flee to. Some of the unlucky passengers, slower to flee, were trampled underfoot by the stampede of the crazed desperate crowd and immediately died. A good number also suffered at the hands of the snakes¡¯ venom. The rest of them were constricted to death and left foaming at the mouth by a few particularly ruthless snakes. There was no way for anyone to escape the maddening despair ridden cabin as countless people died left, right and center. A snake fueled apocalypse had befallen not just the terrorists, but the passengers on board the plane as well.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. I was the only one who the snakes completely ignored. No, that was incorrect, the wavy white-haired woman was also similarly ignored by them. She only calmly observed as everything unfolded. She never batted an eye from any particular individual¡¯s death no matter how pitiful or desperate their appearance. She was cold, extremely so. I didn¡¯t know what her goal in all this was, but I was in no mood to have a nice little chat with her. I simply wished for death. Dying now was better than living on for the rest of my life in anguish. I¡¯d already killed Val and I¡¯d resolved myself for death the moment I took her life with my own two bloodied hands. The guilt of the deed committed weighed down heavily on my heart. All sorts of suicidal thoughts ran rampant through my mind. I ignored the woman¡¯s existence. I disregarded the snakes. I picked up one of the terrorist¡¯s guns, then forcefully dragged myself to Val¡¯s now headless body. I picked up her head and positioned it carefully by her neck as delicately as I could. When I saw it in two pieces like this, it truly brought me immense pain. It was unbearable. I was brought almost to the point of tears. To think that I really¡­ It seemed I could survive this absurd situation if I wanted to, but I much rather just die here like this. There was no point in living with these hands forever stained by her blood. My conscience would never allow me to forgive myself. I¡¯ve always believed you can only kill one person in your life. The moment you kill another, you simultaneously kill your old self. You will never be viewed the same way by society ever again. You can never go back to how you once were after you¡¯ve reaped another person¡¯s life with your own hands. Everyone will judge you every time they see you. He¡¯s killed someone. He¡¯s a murderer. They¡¯re a dangerous person. Even if they don¡¯t know that you¡¯ve killed someone, you¡¯ll always be paranoid and jumpy wondering whether they are aware of what you¡¯ve done in the past. Simple looks of passersby on the street will feel like they¡¯re seeing right through you. Sure, if you keep killing more people from then on you will grow numb and desensitized to that sort of feeling, however... I don¡¯t want to traverse a path wrought with nothing but endless bloodshed. Unfortunately, if something happens once, it¡¯s bound to happen again. What I¡¯m most terrified of is turning into the same sort of heartless monsters some of my psychotic exes transformed into. I can¡¯t live my life in the world with these sorts of thoughts forever tormenting me, dying here and now would be a blessing. I weakly lifted the gun up, positioned it slightly behind my ear. I shut my eyes tightly and lightly placed my finger on the trigger. ¡°Hah... Hah... Hah...¡± My breathing became ragged as time slowly ticked by. I was... about to die. The moment I pulled the trigger, I¡¯d really die. It would be the end. No more suffering through these endless hallucinations and nightmares. No more of this insanity. It will all be over. Everything will come to an end. I put a bit of strength into my finger and increased the pressure on the trigger until... I heard the click followed by a loud bang. The moment the bang resounded, my eyes reflexively shot open wide, fully anticipating the instantaneous pain that was to soon follow. I waited. Waited. But... there was nothing. I lowered my head down and found both my hands stained by blood; however, the pain I expected never followed. Confused, I turned my head to the side, what I saw left me wide-eyed in disbelief. Val. She was... perfectly fine. ¡°Hyaaa! S-s-snakes! Everybody, there are snakes on the loose at the back of the plane!¡± What followed the bang I heard was a scream from behind. I looked back down at my hands and the blood I¡¯d seen only just moments before was gone. My hands were as clean as ever. The blood on my hands and clothes were all gone. I didn¡¯t feel any trace of blood on my face either. The injuries I sustained from gunshots were similarly gone. Everything was back to normal. A sudden announcement came from the intercom system. ¡°Everyone, this is an emergency! Please evacuate the plane immediately as calmly as possible in an orderly fashion. Snakes that were being transported have somehow escaped from their cages.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, what are you spacing out for? We have to evacuate the plane immediately!¡± ¡°Evacuate? What do you mean? How are we supposed to evacuate, aren¡¯t we in the middle of the flight?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been asleep since I came back from the restroom, we¡¯re already at our destination you dolt. Get it together!¡± Everyone immediately crowded into the aisles. There were some who¡¯d opened up the overhead compartments to quickly grab their things, but to their horror, snakes flew out from some of the compartments and bit at their faces. A scene similar to what I¡¯d witnessed earlier played out. Although, this time there weren¡¯t nearly as many snakes as before, only a few here and there. It was far from enough to block off everyone¡¯s path to escape. Chapter 131. Chapter 131. Those bitten by the snakes back on the plane were given immediate medical attention and administered the antivenom once they were off the plane. It was quite the scare overall, but miraculously, nobody died from snake venom. When I was certain we were in the clear after we got off the plane, I fell back on a couch in relief. I¡¯d just gone with the flow, I wasn¡¯t given a single opportunity to grasp the situation or catch my breath thanks to panic that followed the sudden announcement over the intercom. ¡°Val, I never want to go on a plane ever again. Planes are freaking scary. If this was what happened this time, then next time the plane will undoubtedly crash on a deserted island.¡± ¡°Stop being such a baby, it was just a one-off.¡± ¡°A one-off you say? A one-off! Snakes on a freaking plane is a one-off!¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s just a freak accident of sorts.¡± Even she looked skeptical when she said that. ¡°What about that shitty movie?¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, we don¡¯t talk about it. No, nobody talks about it, so just forget that abomination ever existed.¡± I let out a long sigh, I really never imagined we¡¯d ever talk to each other like this again after that terrible nightmare. ¡°Val, why didn¡¯t you wake me up sooner? You always do this.¡± ¡°I tried this time, but you were out like a log.¡± ¡°Fine. Whatever... it¡¯s alright I guess. I¡¯m just glad you¡¯re still with me in one piece.¡± ¡°You had another nightmare, right? What was it about this time?¡± ¡°Haha. I guess you could say... terrorists, snakes, and a ghost walked into a plane?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a rather interesting combination.¡± ¡°It¡¯s really not. It was the worst.¡± ¡°Well, where¡¯s the punchline?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t a joke, I was being serious.¡± ¡°Then make a joke out of it. I¡¯m in the mood for a good laugh.¡± I was speechless, did she think I was a stand-up comedian? ¡°Okay, I have a really spooky joke for you.¡± ¡°Oh? Do you really?¡± ¡°It¡¯s awful, so don¡¯t get your expectations up.¡± ¡°Go ahead, I¡¯m listening.¡± ¡°A snake slithers onto a plane with a hiss. A ghost immediately tries to scare it, but the snake doesn¡¯t quite understand the meaning behind the ghost¡¯s actions and only looks on utterly baffled. Caught in the crossfire of the ghost¡¯s failed attempt to scare the snake, the ghost inadvertently scares the terrorists instead. What do you think the terrorists¡¯ first words were?¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Oh? I don¡¯t know, what were they?¡± ¡°I KEEl you.¡± Val blinked a few times clearly not comprehending where the joke was. I awkwardly cleared my throat and reenacted the scene. ¡°The snake said ssssss, the ghost said boo, and the terrorists said KEEl, it was very sssbookee, get it? Didn¡¯t I say it was a really spooky joke?¡± Val facepalmed so hard I heard the cringe as it rattled through every single bone in her body, but she still couldn¡¯t hide the vaguely visible embarrassed to be smiling smile formed by her slightly arched up lips. ¡°Mr. Genovese, that was pretty bad after all. Please stick to your day job and never enter the world of stand-up comedy.¡± ¡°I told you it would be bad.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t think it would be awful enough to make even gods and devils cringe down to their bones.¡± ¡°What the hell other joke could I possibly make out of those three things anyway?¡± ¡°Anything but that please.¡± I was slightly disgruntled that my path toward becoming the Comedic King was suddenly barred from my future prospects just based upon one bad joke, but I suppose I¡¯d live even without such a stupid title. Either way, with Val¡¯s assistance, it didn¡¯t take long before I¡¯d calmed down and cooled my head off. Telling that terrible joke on the spot helped me relax. ¡°Thanks again Val, there are really times where I don¡¯t know what I would do if you weren¡¯t around.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I have to take good care of all my employees¡¯ health after all.¡± Now that I¡¯d calmed down to a certain degree, I sat up straight from my slouched position and examined the area around the exit terminal. When my eyes landed on one individual in particular, I nearly leaped out of my seat. ¡°Val... why... is our taxi driver... dressed up as the pilot?¡± ¡°Taxi driver? What are you talking about? That person IS the pilot; he¡¯s not dressed as one.¡± ¡°No way, our pilot was an aged looking veteran, definitely not that guy who looks like it¡¯s his first job!¡± ¡°Dio, I think you¡¯re still a bit confused right now. Our taxi driver was the aged looking veteran you¡¯re talking about, he definitely wasn¡¯t young like this pilot.¡± I looked directly into Val¡¯s eyes, but there were no visible signs that indicated she¡¯d lied to me. ¡°That¡¯s not possible!¡± I got up then rushed over to the pilot and grabbed onto his collar like a mad man, ¡°You! You were my taxi driver on the way to the airport, right? Why are you dressed as a pilot now!¡± ¡°Sir, please calm down. We¡¯ve definitely never met before, nor have I ever driven a taxi in my life.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Stop lying to me! You were my taxi driver on two occasions!¡± ¡°Dio! Calm down! He¡¯s really telling the truth, you even saw him when we first entered the airplane.¡± That can¡¯t be possible, I saw the pilot two times, there¡¯s no way I could be mistaken. Once when I first boarded the plane and the second when the terrorists in that nightmare displayed his decapitated head in the cabin. Val grabbed my hand, separated us, and stood in between. She lowered her head then said, ¡°Sorry, my employee was bitten when he took a snake bite to protect me back on the plane. It appears his memories are a bit shaken up as an after effect, please forgive us, he didn¡¯t mean any harm.¡± ¡°No, Miss, please forgive us. It is the airline¡¯s responsibility to ensure our passengers have a comfortable stress free flight. We will be refunding all passengers for this flight. All passengers from this flight will also receive a free all-inclusive night at our airport¡¯s five-star hotel in addition to a free flight on their next trip with us. We sincerely apologize for the hectic situation and we hope this one blunder doesn¡¯t dissuade you from flying with us in the future.¡± ¡°It¡¯s really alright, it¡¯s not your sole fault as the pilot, so don¡¯t take it too hard. We¡¯ll be taking our leave now though.¡± ¡°Thank you for your understanding and forgiveness.¡± The guy really looked remorseful over the situation. I felt bad for attacking him out of the blue the way I had, but I was just too baffled as to why the taxi driver had suddenly turned into the pilot. It wasn¡¯t like it was a world toppling change, but it felt like a piece to a much bigger puzzle had somehow been revealed to me completely out of the blue. Chapter 132. Chapter 132. I was either insane and completely nuts, or there really was something more at play here. In the nightmare I had on the plane, that woman asked me how long I¡¯d keep her waiting¡­ what did she really mean by that? Was it death? Or was there something more to her words? The reason everything always turned out differently from my memories, could it be something as outlandish as what I¡¯m thinking? Was everything I experienced truly fake? From the very beginning was it all real? Everything I once thought was false... what if it¡¯s not? If I ran with the supposition that what I theorized was possible, all the pieces could potentially fall into place. It was too absurd for me to accept though. This was the real world, such things only happened in fictional tales. I couldn¡¯t consciously accept such an outrageous theory. I¡¯m slipping into... parallel... world lines? What I¡¯m seeing and experiencing, both awake and asleep, could it possibly be something ridiculous like that? The rational side of me refused to believe that my situation was one of some science-fiction fueled drivel. If I made such claims, anybody would think that I¡¯d surely gone insane. It was too far fetched and ludicrous to believe it. However, would that woman be able to confirm whether my speculations were correct? Even if she did confirm it, was it possible to trust anything she said? She could just be the embodiment of my own insanity. One might consider her words the metaphorical whispers of the devil spreading seeds of doubt and madness inside my head. I¡¯m hearing voices inside my head, haha, isn¡¯t that a perfect indicator of a madman who¡¯s lost his mind? Really though, what good would confirming my speculations do for me? If everything that happened turned out to be true; then killing Val... being eaten alive by her, Val¡¯s... death to Adele... that child who was killed before my eyes... me, when I pushed Adele off the balcony¡­ wouldn¡¯t everything have still happened in some twisted parallel timeline? The more I thought about it, the more my head hurt. I felt both woozy and internally mortified from the thought of how everything I once wrote off as nothing could all potentially be part of some twisted, convoluted reality. It was best to drop the idea and forget about all these terrifying thoughts. There was one way to test my theory, but I wasn¡¯t confident it would work. If I killed myself right now, would I wake up in another world line as if it was just part of another dream? I was too scared to find out. If it was true, then it meant I wouldn¡¯t ever be able to find peace even in death. I¡¯d be forced to live through countless world lines. If I reached old age in one world line and died of natural causes, then I¡¯d wake up in another world line as if everything was but a fleeting dream. If that was the reality of my situation, then I truly had no means of escaping this chaotic cycle. I¡¯d surely be driven into a corner with enough time. Why is all of this happening to me now though? What was the trigger of all this? That stupid VHS cassette tape? To begin with, I didn¡¯t even watch the damn thing. Where did it all really start? How far back would I have to go to find an answer? My parents? Would they know anything?This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. My¡­ parents? Who were my parents? Ugh. Just trying to remember their names resulted in a striking pain in my head. I had parents, I¡¯m sure I did. I can definitely remember our time together growing up¡­ That time in twelfth grade my father died. In tenth grade, my mother died. No wait, wasn¡¯t it the other way around? No, that¡¯s not right either, my father died in 9th- no, 7th? Or was it 4th? As for my mother, it was 8th, 5th, 2nd? What is this? What¡¯s going on? Wait, wasn¡¯t I an orphan from birth? No, my parents died shortly after I was born? The more memories I recalled; how and when they died, and the contradictory circumstances I¡¯d grown up under, the more confused I grew. I suddenly found myself in an existential crisis over my own identity. That¡¯s right! My birth certificate! It would surely have my parent¡¯s names recorded on it! I didn¡¯t carry it around with me, but I had a picture of my birth certificate stored on the cloud. I pulled out my phone and located the file. When I opened the image I found the name recorded for my mother was Ellen A. Genovese while my father¡¯s name was Moupsekn I. Genovese. Did all these contradictory memories actually provide support to my earlier theory? Or had I just lost my marbles and forgotten everything about my own parents? ¡°Mr. Genovese, what were you thinking about just now? You sounded like you¡¯d lost it.¡± Val suddenly chimed in and interrupted my disorderly train of thoughts when we were a good enough distance away from the airport staff. ¡°Yeah, my bad. It was my mistake earlier, I just misremembered.¡± ¡°Cut the crap. You already know I can tell when you¡¯re not telling the whole truth.¡± ¡°You¡¯d think I¡¯m crazy if I told you what I really thought right now.¡± ¡°Try me.¡± ¡°If I said my memories weren¡¯t me misremembering things, would you believe me?¡± ¡°That depends on your reasoning and evidence to support your claims.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really have anything I can use as evidence to convince you.¡± ¡°Just tell me anyway.¡± ¡°The reason for the discrepancies in my memories is because they aren¡¯t memories from this world. More specifically¡­ this timeline.¡± ¡°Oh? Isn¡¯t that a rather interesting theory? Rather than you hallucinating, seeing illusions or nightmares, you¡¯re saying everything you¡¯ve seen is reality; just not the reality of the timeline we¡¯re presently in?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not entirely certain on that. I¡¯m probably completely off the mark, but it could explain everything that has happened to me recently if it was true.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re claiming you have some sort of absurd supernatural power?¡± ¡°Definitely not. A supernatural power would be something you¡¯d be aware you had, right? Or something you would have some sort of control over or understanding about. To my knowledge, I have neither awareness nor control over such an absurd ability. Besides that, I¡¯m sure there must be some sort of scientific explanation behind all this bizarre phenomenon.¡± ¡°Again with science? You always like to think too rationally about everything, can¡¯t you just accept anything irrational like the supernatural even once?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a man of science, I believe there must be a logical explanation for everything.¡± ¡°And parallel world timelines are scientific to you?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t really consider it a scientific explanation as it stands without knowing the mechanism and forces at play; rather, it¡¯s something that falls into the realm of science fiction. It¡¯s only one possible theory that would fit my present circumstances. There could be a much better explanation that I have yet to think of. My only lead in all this would be the wavy white-haired woman I saw in the nightmare I had on the plane earlier.¡± Chapter 133. Chapter 133. ¡°You mean the ghost girl you suspect is Adele¡¯s deceased elder sister?¡± ¡°Yeah. She¡¯s appeared in a few of my hallucinations and for the first time ever, I actually heard her voice. She asked me how long I¡¯d keep her waiting.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not entirely certain of that either.¡± ¡°You secretly just want to get in her ghost pants.¡± ¡°Absolutely not. She oozes freaky psycho vibes. I¡¯ve been trying to ignore her existence to the best of my abilities since this all started.¡± ¡°Yet you can¡¯t get your mind off of her I bet.¡± ¡°Are you jealous of her or something?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not. Just slightly annoyed.¡± ¡°That would be jealousy, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not.¡± ¡°Are you in denial?¡± ¡°You think too highly of yourself. You¡¯re my employee, it will be troubling for me if your thoughts are diverted from work-related concerns.¡± ¡°Anyway, forget about the unrelated things for now. We¡¯re far away from home so just push thoughts of things like ghost girls to the back of your mind. You can think about those sorts of things when we finish the job we came here to accomplish.¡± ¡°It would be great if things worked out that way, but even when on a plane far from the origin of everything, weird things are still happening. It doesn¡¯t seem like there¡¯s any simple way for me to easily escape this.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care. Just leave it for later. We should hurry up and leave now.¡± She grabbed my hand and pulled me along out of the airport terminal. We took a shuttle bus which took us to the five-star hotel the pilot mentioned earlier and checked in. When we arrived at our room, we discovered the staff had already delivered our luggage from the plane as a courtesy for our troubles. They were really diligent in accommodating us and trying to placate all the passengers for the little, or should I say, big ass crisis on the plane. Thankfully my laptop was also delivered with our luggage. I¡¯d completely forgotten about it due to the earlier commotion. It was a relief that it had a tag with my information attached to it. They really worked their asses off to get all this done so quickly. After all, the negative publicity would be terrible for the airline. They were likely trying to downplay it by getting those involved to stay hush on the matter. Even if they were provided with the antivenom immediately, lawsuits wouldn¡¯t be out of the question for those who were actually bitten by the snakes.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Once the two of us were settled in, we called for room service and were brought overly lavish meals free of charge all at the expense of the airline. We were really treated like kings and queens. Naturally, we stuffed ourselves and didn¡¯t hold back at all. Both of us were misers to a certain degree, so we definitely weren¡¯t chivalrous enough to hold ourselves back when it came to a free meal. Although, I was still surprised by how much she ate. ¡°Val, where are you fitting all that?¡± ¡°My metabolism is significantly higher than normal as a result of my former profession. I can last for long periods of time on the bare minimum, but naturally I¡¯ll eat as much as possible when given the opportunity to store up for a long haul.¡± ¡°Essentially, what you¡¯re trying to emphasize to me is no matter how much you eat, you won¡¯t get fat?¡± ¡°If that¡¯s how you want to take it, I can¡¯t say you¡¯re wrong.¡± ¡°You always used to eat so little when we were dating before though.¡± ¡°Well, guys like girls who are mindful of how much they eat, right? Back then I could tell you were more on the shallower side and you¡¯d find it unattractive, so for the sake of my objective, I fit my character to the role. You¡¯re a lot different from before and stuff like that doesn¡¯t really bother you anymore, right?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t really say you¡¯re wrong. No matter how much you eat, you¡¯re still the same Val at the end of the day.¡± ¡°Exactly! Now that I don¡¯t need to hold back, why should I?¡± After she said that, she picked up the remote from the desk at the side of the bed and turned on the television. The first thing that came on was the local news. To my shock, the headline read, ¡°Armed terrorist group thwarted through the accidental release of snakes on a plane.¡± I took a deep breath in and quelled the urge I had to retort. ¡°Val, what does that headline read?¡± ¡°It¡¯s exactly what you think it reads.¡± My jaw nearly dropped to the ground in disbelief when I understood it wasn¡¯t just my overly active imagination. ¡°Twelve armed terrorists were found dead today on a plane after being bitten in several locations across their body. The bites were from deadly poisonous snakes that a passenger, now under arrest and being interrogated by local police, had bribed a worker to load onto the plane.¡± ¡°The worker claims he was completely unaware of the contents of the suspicious package and didn¡¯t think it would be something outrageous like deadly poisonous snakes. He stated he received quite a hefty sum and thought it would be an easy way to make some fast cash. The worker has been fired despite the snakes inadvertently saving all the passenger¡¯s lives after they were accidentally released and killed the armed terrorist group who¡¯d found a method to bypass airport security¡¯s thorough screening checks.¡± Thorough my ass! How the hell do you let an armed terrorist group of twelve board a plane without anybody being the wiser! Are you bloody daft woman! What the hell is this bullshit propaganda and control over the media? What about the innocent people who were actually bitten by the damned snakes? Are they trying to use this as damage control to say, thanks to the snakes, your lives were saved? We should be grateful for your damned corrupt employee who let them on? You still let freaking terrorists on board! Don¡¯t try to downplay this with a crappy story about how some heroic snakes and a corrupt employee saved our lives. ¡°Is it okay for me to be annoyed right now?¡± ¡°Well, I suppose it¡¯s fine to be annoyed with how they¡¯re running the story, Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t seem upset or surprised about this at all Val.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t? What are you talking about? I¡¯m very surprised.¡± ¡°Your composure when hearing about terrorists on the plane is abnormal.¡± ¡°Well, it comes with the job.¡± ¡°Which one?¡± ¡°Both.¡± ¡°You weren¡¯t involved in this, were you?¡± ¡°Me? Of course not.¡± She wore a rather mysterious smile that told me otherwise. Chapter 134. Chapter 134. ¡°Theoretically, Val, let¡¯s say you didn¡¯t go to the bathroom at that time. What would you have done during that time?¡± ¡°Hmm. Nothing much really, why?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not convincing at all.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not? Aren¡¯t you just jumping to conclusions without anything to back your speculations?¡± ¡°Did you ¡®accidentally¡¯ release the snakes or not?¡± ¡°No comment.¡± She squinted eyes with a wide scary smile when she responded. The look on her face was more than enough of an answer for me. ¡°I definitely don¡¯t want to get on your bad side...¡± ¡°You don¡¯t sound too appalled.¡± ¡°If you were related to it, then so be it. They deserved death as far as I¡¯m concerned. You might have actually been too kind to them by letting them die so easily.¡± That was especially the case if the hell I saw in my nightmare became a reality had she not meddled. ¡°You sound like you really have a grudge against them.¡± ¡°Remember the nightmare I mentioned about terrorists and snakes?¡± ¡°Oh, now that you mention it, it is quite the coincidence. What happened in it?¡± ¡°You might think I¡¯m just making up a story after the fact, but in the nightmare I had, they successfully hijacked the plane and recruited those they could make use of.¡± I explained the nightmare in its entirety to her. I even gave detailed descriptions of each one of the terrorists I¡¯d seen. When she heard the specific features I listed off for each of them, her eyes turned much more serious. ¡°Mr. Genovese, you¡¯ve really never met that group of terrorists before that nightmare?¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡± ¡°You said you didn¡¯t have any evidence before, but with this... I suppose I¡¯d have to take your hypothetical theory from earlier a little more seriously. The descriptions and traits you¡¯ve described are perfect matches for those trashy, vermin-like scoundrels that were on board the plane. They¡¯re an elitist terrorist group who think of anyone not a part of their group as fodder whose only use is to be slaughtered by them.¡± ¡°None of their specific details have been released to the public as of yet. For you to have this knowledge without ever seeing them previously, aside from an extremely improbable coincidence, I can only conclude there could be some sort of plausibility to what you theorized.¡± ¡°Also, if you were lying to me, I would¡¯ve been able to immediately tell. I¡¯m starting to get even more interested in you than before.¡± She had an intense stare that made me feel she wanted to cut open my head and see what was inside. However, I might have been slightly off on my interpretation of her stare. I couldn¡¯t help it though, it was the sort of stare one of my other exes gave me before. My fourth ex told me it meant that when I asked her why she was looking at me like that. ¡°Please don¡¯t become more interested. The more interested a woman is in a man, the crazier they inevitably become. I learned that the hard way.¡± ¡°Tch. I do have to admit, Mr. Genovese, you¡¯re still rather annoying at times.¡± ¡°Haha. Why thank you. I do my best.¡± ¡°Anyway, we can discuss this at night as some pillow talk later. For now, we should at least make sure we¡¯re prepared for the meeting tomorrow.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°What do you mean, pillow talk?¡± ¡°The meeting, Mr. Genovese, the meeting. Please stay focused.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one who said it...¡± I took out my laptop, booted it up, and connected to the guest Wifi. As we were seated opposite to one another, she couldn¡¯t see my laptop screen, so I opened up a game. She drilled me on things to take note of and also told me what I should specifically say at the start. I just mindlessly nodded my head and agreed despite the rather... eccentric lines she wanted me to say to my former employer. If it led to any problems she said she¡¯d take care of it herself. Her words went in one ear and out the other after a while. I mean, it was my old workplace, what more preparation would really help me at this point? It was like taking exams in university, cramming right before it was typically useless. If not prepared in advance before the exam, then no matter what was crammed the day before it, the majority of it would be forgotten. As for the game I opened up, it was Angry Birds. Yeah, a gaming laptop and Angry Birds¡­ that was the pitiful game of choice I¡¯d suddenly been reduced to at the moment. Naturally, if I played a legitimate video game, the loud fan and abnormal keyboard usage would give me away immediately. It¡¯s not like I was particularly fond of Angry Birds, but it was better than nothing to pass the time. I made it appear as though I diligently took notes on her little pep talk by randomly tapping on the keyboard with the fingers on my left when in reality, it was just to disguise my use of the touchpad with my right hand to launch some derpy birds into walls. With my left hand, I faked taking notes¡¯ with my right hand, I reaped the lives of countless moronic looking birds. Ah, the relief of smashing things into walls, that was another reason for playing this game. The news report earlier really rubbed me the wrong way which only increased my desire to smash these stupid dopey looking birds headfirst into walls. It wasn¡¯t until I reached a certain level that the game took a sudden strange turn. I frowned as I realized the birds that smashed into walls suddenly had animations that I¡¯d never seen before. They were bleeding from the head, sometimes from the eyes. The obstacles also eventually changed from the usual ones I remembered being in the game. There were pointy spears positioned right before a few of the walls. In the background, I even noticed there was a cross with a bird crucified on it. I brushed it off then launched one bird as I normally would and as per the usual, it toppled some of the walls. However, the bird ricocheted off the walls and ended up skewered graphically on several of the spears protruding from the ground. Blood trickled out of the bird''s lifeless body down the spears. The spears were dyed crimson by the bird¡¯s blood until it reached the ground and contaminated the soil beneath it. The blood, seemingly endless, soaked the ground and slowly changed it from its relaxing green into a gory red mess. You thought this was enough to scare me off? Please, I played Amnesia, Condemned, Silent Hills, Dead Space, and many more in the past. Not even considering the other creepy shit I put up with recently, you really thought something of this level could really scare me? Get on my level devs. Really though, did I download a sketchy modded game without realizing it? Well, since I¡¯d already begun, I continued. I wasn¡¯t going to let myself be trolled by some creepypasta cloned video game, especially not an Angry Birds variant. It was at that very moment, right when I had that thought, a cutscene played. However, this certainly wasn¡¯t any sort of cutscene from Angry Birds. No¡­ I knew very well where this was from. A certain notorious snuff film whom I shall not name for various reasons. I immediately closed the game and ran a virus scan just to be safe. A game of dubious origins hiding a scene from that particular snuff film definitely couldn¡¯t be good news. Once the scan finished, it indicated there was nothing suspicious found. It really was just a creepypasta game that got one up on me as soon as I got too full of myself. Seriously though, being reminded of that particular scene whose existence I¡¯d rather forget was unpleasant, very much so. To think I watched that entire shitty film back in high school. What was wrong with my head? If I had to describe the scene in simple terms, imagine driving a certain type of rod like structure through the orifice of something that should never have something jammed inside. Now imagine if that orifice belonged to a child, perhaps even your own child at that. On a side note, if you were the type that thought of the rear end, I¡¯d have to admire your still pure and untainted soul; however, you¡¯d be completely on the opposite end of the spectrum, if you catch my drift. I¡¯m also certainly not referring to oral in case that was what you were led to believe. Whoever thought up the sick idea, I have no words to describe what must have been wrong with that person¡¯s head. There are just some holes that should never be seen in that manner. Thanks to the jerk behind that film, an entire lesser-known twisted genre related to a particular type of sockets popped up. I rarely seldom judge people based upon their tastes, but this was certainly one fetish any person should be condemned to death, should it ever be acquired. Chapter 135. Chapter 135. ¡°Mr. Genovese, what¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°I saw something I wish I never have to see again.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Sorry, please don¡¯t mind me and continue with what you were saying.¡± I definitely learned my lesson this time. Nothing was safe for me, I couldn¡¯t even find solace in the virtual world of video games anymore like I used to. I could have sworn I downloaded the game from the official download page though. I thought it would be safe with no way for anything to go wrong, but was I really so careless that I didn¡¯t even notice it was a knock off imitation page? I resigned myself to boredom and forced myself to diligently listen to the rest of Val¡¯s spiel about the meeting. We¡¯d already been over all of it the night before, so there wasn¡¯t really anything new to go over. It wasn¡¯t until two hours in that she asked me ¡°Are you even listening anymore? I really need you to take this seriously.¡± ¡°I am taking this seriously, it¡¯s just that we already went over all of the exact same topics last night.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, we did not. Everything I¡¯m telling you right now is the first I¡¯m telling you these things.¡± ¡°What? No way, you¡¯re just trying to mess with me, right? We covered all this last night while putting together the presentation.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Last night you called it a night early and said we could put the final touches on the presentation before the meeting. Wasn¡¯t that what you were doing just now? I thought we were on the same page here.¡± In a bit of a panic, I opened up the presentation we put together, but to my horror and dismay, it wasn¡¯t completed as I remembered. I nearly wanted to punch myself in the face. How could I not remember not completing it?! Was I that bloody tired! No, is it related to my theory? There are minor differences between the parallel timelines? Fuck off with that nonsense theory! I¡¯m clearly just an idiot who somehow dreamed that I completed my work! AHHHH! This even happened to me in university before. I swore I¡¯d never let that happen to me a second time yet low and behold here I am. I want to cry. I felt the sweat that accumulated on my forehead as it trickled down my cheeks. I really almost made the greatest blunder of my working career just now due to simple carelessness. Scary! I¡¯d definitely have lost my job regardless of what type of relationship the two of us had if I messed this up. ¡°Mr. Genovese, just what exactly were you doing earlier?¡± ¡°Uh... that is...¡± There¡¯s no way I could tell her I was ignoring her and playing a creepypasta knock off game. What should I say? She¡¯ll know right away if I lie. ¡°I was... researching various matters.¡± ¡°Various matters, such as?¡± ¡°Impactful things.¡± Birds hitting walls are pretty impactful, right? ¡°Impactful things?¡± ¡°Yes, there are some truly notorious impactful methods to make something memorable and unforgettable. I was researching that.¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°Why do I feel like you¡¯re not quite fully honest?¡± ¡°It¡¯s your imagination. Even the best of the best can be wrong sometimes.¡± I said that with a dead serious face, there was only absolute certainty and conviction visible in my eyes. ¡°Why don¡¯t you show me what you were researching?¡± ¡°Sorry, I forgot how I got to the page.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine, just open up your search history.¡± ¡°I was using an incognito window.¡± ¡°... you¡¯re full of shit, right?¡± ¡°Absolutely not! I always use an incognito window. Don¡¯t you know how important privacy is these days?¡± ¡°Let me see your downloads folder.¡± I broke out into another round of cold sweat. ¡°Sure... go ahead... and take a look.¡± I dragged the file to another random folder before she moved to my side to check my downloads. ¡°See, it¡¯s all just old stuff. Nothing from today.¡± ¡°Fine then. I¡¯ll take your word for it since we still have more important matters at hand¡­ for now at least.¡± I internally breathed out a long sigh of relief. That was actually scarier than the game or snuff film itself. If my boss found me with something like that downloaded on my laptop, I¡¯d definitely be boned if she opened it up and the scene I closed the game out at started playing again. ¡°You look pretty relieved like you just dodged a bullet or something. I wonder why that is.¡± ¡°Do I? Hahaha. It¡¯s just your imagination.¡± She returned to her side of the bed, upon which I madly worked to complete the presentation based upon the memories I had from the night before. Within thirty minutes, I narrowly finished everything before we left for our meeting scheduled at 3:30 PM. By the time we left the hotel, I was completely exhausted and running on empty. I only realized it now, but I got tired much more quickly whenever I had any sort of hallucination or nightmare. It feels like it¡¯s recently gotten much worse than before. What if it was some sort of side effect from passing between two timelines? The greater the difference between the two timelines, the more my brain has to rewrite and rewire itself to make sense of the situation. There was really never any indication that such a strange phenomenon occurred though. The transitions were so smooth that I typically never realized anything. Well, that¡¯s all under the assumption that I¡¯m not a mad man and that theory is even remotely possible. The odds that I¡¯m way off the mark are astronomically stacked against me. In all honesty, I¡¯m probably just trying to find an excuse for why I¡¯m a lazy bastard who wants to slack off and sleep all the time. While I contemplated over recent events, we arrived at my old firm. The receptionist led us to the meeting room where we were greeted by a solemn atmosphere. There was no warm reunion to be had here like I¡¯d secretly imagined in my head. Just a bunch of old fogeys only interested in their net worth and how large their fortunes were. They definitely didn¡¯t care about anything aside from profit. I stiffly greeted them before I calmed myself and moved to the area where the cables to hook my laptop to the monitor were located. When I turned around, I felt like I should have expected as much. Their faces were all gone. God damn it! No warning? No build-up? Nothing! Deep down, I knew I shouldn¡¯t have let my guard down and looked away from them for even a second, but it was too late. With dead fish eyes and a feeling of constipation in my guts, I pulled up the presentation on the large screen. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen you stuck up old geezers.¡± I knew a gentle passive approach would get me nowhere with these sticklers. Val was also the one who wanted me to grab their attention in such an arrogant manner. She just told me to say something unbelievable that they would never imagine would be used to break the ice. Val who¡¯d already taken a seat was the first to respond and said, ¡°Mr. Genovese, please watch your language. We¡¯re all civilized people here.¡± I couldn¡¯t see anyone else¡¯s expressions, but I could still strangely hear them whispering among themselves quietly, despite lacking any mouths. ¡°Weren¡¯t we here to rob them?¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, enough with the jokes. We¡¯re here for business. Busi-ness. Do you understand?¡± ¡°Sorry, I mixed up our meetings. I thought we were robbing them today.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, that¡¯s our meeting for next week. We wouldn¡¯t rob a valuable business partner like we¡¯re some sort of uncivilized criminals in our first meeting, we need to make a good impression first you fool. Don¡¯t worry though, we¡¯ll definitely take them down to the bank next week to really tax them and collect some real big money.¡± I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand before I lowered it back down and rubbed my hands together ingratiatingly. I shamelessly requested, ¡°please forgive me for my earlier rudeness, oh valuable, walking, talking, money bags-¡± Val interjected and cut me off with a cough before she immediately cleared her throat. Chapter 136. Chapter 136. I corrected myself immediately, ¡°Sorry, I fumbled my words just now. What I really meant to say was our oh so valuable future scumbag business partners in crime. Ehem. All jokes aside, now that I have your attention, I''m sure you old-timers remember me, so I won¡¯t bother to introduce myself. The fair lady over there is my present boss who has pitched this business proposal, and in the process of doing so, she¡¯s decided to exploit me for everything I¡¯m worth.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get straight to the point skipping the pointless hoobla and show you the numbers as I¡¯m sure that¡¯s all you care about. I know old-timers like you have a short attention span and only care about how much profit you can make from striking up a deal.¡± ¡°Here, you¡¯ll find projections on the estimated annual revenue over the next five years.¡± I gave them a brief rundown on the projected annual revenues then immediately switched gears into a quick breakdown of the proposal. ¡°The figure you see here accounts for all the benefits and costs associated with the deal we¡¯re proposing.¡± One by one, I went into a few details over each point in the analysis of the reports my boss provided. I posed a few questions of my own that I knew they likely had on their mind and answered them well in advance before they even had a chance to interrupt. When I was near the last slide, I finished it, ¡°As you can see, the benefit to cost analysis is overwhelmingly favorable to both parties involved in this partnership. With this, I conclude that It is in your best interest to take this partnership very seriously. You¡¯d be making a grave mistake to pass on it.¡± I¡¯d flipped through the slides at a machine-gun pace and slammed them with all the specifics I knew they wanted to hear. I¡¯d uploaded everything to the network, so they were able to pull it up and verify all the source documents via the touch screen monitors embedded on the table in front of them. I¡¯d been here several times in the past; as such, I naturally knew exactly what equipment they had available in their meeting rooms, so I came prepared. I was like the Light Yagami of presentations right now, totally killing it with meticulous preparations. If I had a potato chip in one of my hands, I¡¯m sure I would have done it justice. If there was a strange magical glow effect added to my eyes right now, this meeting would have been an untold epic only spoken of in legends. I even visualized how the camera would pan in and out from various angles in my head with Low of Solipsism from the potato chip scene playing in the background. Whenever I occasionally slammed my hands on the table to grab their attention it felt like I actually saw the dramatic camera shakes. I was truly in awe of the scene I¡¯d depicted in my head of this mundane, boring meeting. I didn¡¯t bore them for an hour by simply reading the slides one by one to them. I¡¯d given them the most concentrated information. Anything else they wanted to verify was in the documents we compiled. The most important part in the presentation was predicting their final questions and having an answer prepared. Those were the slides that required the most foresight on our end, they were all planned out in advance laying in wait like a sleeping dragon at the end of the presentation. Everything was to instill a sense of reliability and boldness. We wouldn¡¯t let these big shots look down on or take advantage of us just because our company was smaller than theirs. I¡¯d answered all the questions I knew would come up in the middle of the presentation, this greatly limited them on what questions they could ask to trip us up at the end. I¡¯d utilized the art of planting suggestions to make them ask the final questions we wanted them to ask the most, it was similar to what mentalists did. The key to success on this battlefield was how prepared you were. If you could ferment in the other party¡¯s mind that forming a business partnership was both beneficial and potentially profitable with your demeanor alone, that was half the battle in itself. How much confidence you exuded and garnered in their minds was of utmost importance. When I finally paused, and there was a bit of silence in the room, one of the big wigs finally posed the real concern on their mind. ¡°Mr. Genovese, the reasons you¡¯ve listed in the presentation are definitely noteworthy, but you should understand our position on the matter. This relationship is entirely dependent on us revealing trade secrets to your company which is a huge risk for us. Your side doesn¡¯t take on any risk at all.¡± ¡°Yes, we understand that you may be concerned about the risk of any leaks, which is why I''ll be the only one privy to those trade secrets. As I¡¯m already aware of the finer details related to the firm¡¯s various schematics, I¡¯ll be teaching our technicians first hand how to fix the common faults in those circuits which cause each type of problem that crops up. Anything they aren¡¯t able to take care of with the knowledge they¡¯re taught will be sent over to me. They will never see the actual schematics themselves; only I will. Thus, your so-called trade secrets will still only be known by me.¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Of course¡­ you can naturally turn down this business partnership... BUT... if trade secrets were to mysteriously leak from an untraceable anonymous source when we¡¯re not partnered¡­ well, you understand what I mean, right?¡± The temperature in the room dropped by several degrees the moment the words left my mouth. ¡°Mr. Genovese... are you trying to blackmail us?¡± ¡°Blackmail? I would never do anything underhanded like that. In my new boss¡¯s words, we¡¯re simply talking business right now.¡± ¡°Do you really understand what you¡¯re doing right now?¡± ¡°Of course, I understand. I¡¯m certain there are quite a few trade secrets you wouldn¡¯t want the public to be aware of, right? Considering how some of those ¡®trade secrets,¡¯ I was personally forced to put in against my better judgment in the name of profitability, right? Well, all we¡¯re doing is trying to cut a deal here. If you don¡¯t want certain things to come to light, things that could very well destroy the entire firm¡¯s reputation that you¡¯ve fostered over the years, it would be in your best interest to partner with us.¡± ¡°What we want is very simple, give our company exclusive rights as the only certified service centers for your brand. It¡¯s a pretty cheap price to avoid a leak that could destroy the public¡¯s trust and confidence in your products. Although our company isn¡¯t as big as your firm, we do have a decent number of locations across the country and a few international locations as well.¡± My expression turned disdainful as I sneered at them mockingly, ¡°To begin with, your service center is already complete trash and an utter embarrassment to true repair technicians. They basically just tell people sorry, it¡¯s not fixable, how about getting a new one instead? Since your technicians are so useless, why not just get rid of them altogether? Just hand over the job to real professionals who are actually qualified and able to get things fixed instead.¡± ¡°Your workers are even incompetent to the point that you like to claim you¡¯re losing money on repair services all the time, right? Even when in truth you¡¯re making a killing off of jacked-up repair costs you¡¯ve inflated to extremes to disincentivize customers from seeking repairs and encourage new purchases instead. Could it be you¡¯re afraid that the truth will come to light if you hand over the job to someone else? Are you afraid that your annual sales will take a hit if your products are properly fixed by competent repair technicians with years of experience under their belt?¡± ¡°Think about it this way, though costs charged to your customers are significantly reduced by partnering with us, you can save on all the money you pay to train those crappy repair technicians. With how they¡¯re encouraged to be rubbish at their job in the name of boosting year on year sales, you¡¯re doing them a favor by canning. Just admit it, you don¡¯t even really care about all those poor saps at the very bottom. If you really did, they wouldn¡¯t be treated like shit when they actually do their job properly.¡± ¡°Anyway, with our proposal, you get 50% of the profits earned through repairs on any electronics for your brand. It¡¯s a lucrative enough deal if you ask me. You also receive profits from the parts we purchase from you, at a discounted price of course. With that discount, the overall cost of repairs decreases further which serves as an incentive for customers to flock to us instead of private repair companies that you get no piece of the pie as they get parts off salvaged boards from resellers.¡± There were a lot of parts that you often couldn¡¯t buy these days because the manufacturers had contracts that prohibited them from selling certain critical parts to anyone but the big players that held a monopoly on them. This drove prices up further due to artificial scarcity on the market and the little repairman was cut completely out of the loop. It made it impossible for a private repair company to repair these sorts of devices without purchasing a resold donor board. It was a direct attack on private repair companies to try and bleed them dry in the coming years. Fewer things would be repairable due to the many roadblocks set in place by these corporate giants. It was an extremely slimy tactic that I knew of all too well but could never stomach. ¡°My boss¡¯s company is a rather reputable one and despite being smaller in scale when compared to yours, at least in terms of repairs, we get more business than your firm does. With such a partnership, as an added plus we can even recommend your brand to those in our customer base with little exposure to your brand. It¡¯s a perfect opportunity to expand the size of your potential customer base. Our customers take the word of our repair company as gold after all. Once again, it¡¯s definitely a business avenue you should seriously consider.¡± As I essentially outright blackmailed them and answered their question, I simultaneously went through a few of the slides I¡¯d prepared in advance for this question so it would really sink in. The slides really spoke for themselves and I didn¡¯t need to add much more onto them. ¡°Mr. Genovese, we¡¯ve heard enough. We¡¯d like some time to organize our thoughts on the matter and discuss a few things. We¡¯ll save any further questions for a later date. Should we decide to go forward with this proposal, we¡¯ll discuss the nitty-gritty specifics at that time. We will be in contact. Please show yourselves out.¡± I froze up a bit when they suddenly brought an abrupt end of the meeting out of nowhere. As I couldn¡¯t see their facial expressions, I lacked greatly in terms of my ability to read the atmosphere. I wasn¡¯t certain how things had actually gone due to the cold shoulder response I was suddenly given. Did I blow it? The only person¡¯s expression I saw the entire time was Val¡¯s, but she was like an ice statue the entire time. Her face was practically a Noah mask right now and I was unable to read anything from her. Apart from the introduction at the beginning, she was silent and didn¡¯t utter a single word after that. She coolly stood up from her seat and exited the room without sparing me another glance. Sweat broke out from my forehead when I saw her response. Was it that bad? Had I screwed up horribly in the approach I¡±d taken? I had no idea what sort of hell was in store for me when I left the room. The anxiety and fear of not knowing how it went was the worst. Chapter 137. Chapter 137. Slightly dejected, I lowered my head. I bent my body forward a bit thanking them for their time before I immediately packed up my things and followed Val out the door without another word. Val told me beforehand if things turned out this way to follow behind her and leave without saying anything further. Don¡¯t show desperation; we¡¯re not the ones in the weaker position, that was what she claimed when we discussed things. I still didn¡¯t understand where her confidence came from. The moment the door shut behind me, I heard a loud bang from inside the room. Had I pissed off the cranky old farts that badly? I just went along with Val¡¯s instructions though, don¡¯t blame me. ¡°THAT WRETCHED WOMAN!¡± When I heard the seething rage in their voice, I immediately hightailed it out of there. It turned out it wasn¡¯t me they were mad at, but a woman instead. By that, they naturally meant Val, right? What the hell did she do? She was silent the entire time after the start. When I caught up to Val, I noticed she had a devilish grin plastered all over her face. ¡°Val, I feel a bit out of the loop right now, didn¡¯t I completely mess up just now?¡± ¡°Mess up? What are you talking about? Didn¡¯t you see how ugly their faces were the moment they realized they were getting blackmailed in broad daylight?¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t see their faces too well in the room.¡± ¡°Then you missed out on the chance of a lifetime. It was extremely satisfying to put those dirty old money-grubbers in their place.¡± ¡°Val, did you do something? They sounded pretty mad at you rather than me for some reason.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing much, Mr. Genovese. You don¡¯t need to worry yourself about the conflict going on behind the scenes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m seriously confused, can¡¯t you clear this up for me a bit?¡± ¡°All I¡¯ll say is you weren¡¯t the only one with dirt to blackmail them with.¡± ¡°What? When did you do that?¡± ¡°When I secretly slid my business card over to them while you were in the middle of answering the only question they asked you. Weren¡¯t you curious why they ended the meeting so abruptly without warning?¡± ¡°What was on your business card?¡± ¡°Nothing much, just a bit of interesting information I got a hold of off of a peculiar black market information broker on the dark web.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that going a bit too far? I mean, wasn¡¯t me acting like some traitorous street thug in a turf war already pushing the limits a bit? If you go any further than that, aren¡¯t you afraid of the repercussions or backlash?¡± ¡°It¡¯s never too far when you¡¯re dealing with scummy old businessmen with only money in their eyes. There will also be no repercussions in this particular case; they wouldn¡¯t dare. In all honesty, this meeting was somewhat of a farce to an extent.¡± ¡°If this¡¯s how it was going to turn out, was there even a need to bring me or make me work so hard on that stupid presentation?¡± ¡°The presentation isn¡¯t necessarily useless; it serves the purpose of making everything look completely reasonable and natural on the surface. There will be rumors that spread as well within the firm. Inevitably, there will be leaks here and there to media outlets through employees to those snoopy reporters who caught wind of this meeting. With the data you put together, nobody would think there was anything truly underhanded going on behind the scenes.¡± ¡°Additionally, with how you¡¯re a former employee with the firm, it looks even less suspicious when you¡¯re acting as a bridge between our company and your old firm. The deal looks clean, and it¡¯s all thanks to your good name and effort.¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Only those inside the meeting know the true nature of this underhanded deal. It¡¯s important for publicity purposes. Maintaining a dignified and righteous appearance in the eyes of the consumer is key to maintaining a company¡¯s reputation. The more trust we garner in the people, the more we¡¯ll be booming and raking in cash later on. In case you were worried, I made sure no recordings or minutes were left behind for this meeting. They wouldn¡¯t want what was said in the actual meeting to spread either, so they readily complied with the request.¡± A chill ran down my back when I heard the full explanation of the underhanded exchange that unknowingly transpired right in front of me. I once again reconfirmed my boss was a big-time schemer whose bad side I should avoid at all costs. ¡°Val, I¡¯m still curious though, can¡¯t you just let me in on what dirt you have on them?¡± ¡°Fine, here¡¯s a hint. You remember the weird introduction I instructed you to break the ice with?¡± ¡°Yeah, what about it?¡± ¡°There were a few hidden keywords in our little back and forth banter that really made them pay attention.¡± ¡°Keywords?¡± ¡°Yes. Bank, next week, tax, and collect.¡± ¡°Sorry, now you¡¯ve lost me.¡± She squinted her eyes like a vulture, ¡°Well, that¡¯s only natural. You don¡¯t know the context of why those would be keywords that would trigger them. They are words they would be particularly jumpy around at the moment.¡± ¡°And what is this context that I¡¯m ignorant of?¡± ¡°It¡¯s quite elementary, my dear Mr. Genovese.¡± ¡°Even if you pinch above your lips with two fingers like that, there¡¯s no mustache, so please drop the poor impressions.¡± ¡°You¡¯re just grumpy because you¡¯re the only one who can¡¯t see the bigger picture.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not grumpy. Just hurry up and tell me already.¡± ¡°Should I? Should I really tell such an impatient sidekick who doesn¡¯t know his place?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a sidekick, and quit going off-topic.¡± ¡°Haaah, it¡¯s lonely being at the top with nobody around to understand my thought processes.¡± ¡°Enough of the crappy jokes.¡± ¡°Sheesh, I¡¯m just in a bit of a good mood after a great success, don¡¯t ruin it for me you party pooper.¡± ¡°Fine, I won¡¯t ruin it for you, but just explain to me what¡¯s going on.¡± ¡°Well, do you remember how I mentioned I cut ties with my family before?¡± ¡°Yeah, I do. What about it?¡± ¡°I did cut ties, but I still occasionally hear a few things about them through various means. My sister, in particular.¡± ¡°You have a sister?¡± I was genuinely surprised. I couldn¡¯t imagine what her sister would be like at all. Just the thought of their being two of her gave me a headache. ¡°Yeah. I can¡¯t say we get along very well, but she is still my blood-related sister despite how I cut ties with the family. After I quit taking up contracts, our lives basically diverged along two completely separate paths. Due to one particular reason, we really aren¡¯t on good terms at the moment though.¡± She said that with a strange look on her face. I wanted to ask her about it, but it felt like we¡¯d get off-topic and I¡¯d never find out what I originally wanted to know if our conversation went off on another unexpected tangent. ¡°What does your sister have to do with any of this?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a long story, but I¡¯ll try to make this short. The reason those old fogeys reacted strongly to those words was because of how they were caught in a trap recently. They¡¯ve taken part in extremely shady dealings over the last few years. The little success of their firm, coupled with their rapid expansion in recent years, got to their heads; they¡¯d grown complacent and cocky, which led them to overestimate their abilities.¡± ¡°They¡¯ve been embezzling and laundering their firm¡¯s funds to several offshore bank accounts in countries considered tax havens while disguising them as donations, losses, and fake investments so they could reap big tax breaks from the government. Simply put, it is tax evasion at its finest; on a level that normal civilians would never be able to wrap their heads around. We¡¯re not talking small amounts here. We¡¯re talking about unknown billions of dollars in dirty money being moved through many unscrupulous channels.¡± ¡°Eventually, they incurred the wrath of the wrong person when they got greedy and ventured too deep by expanding into an industry they should have never tested the waters of. When my sister caught wind of the operation they¡¯d recently wet their hands in, she posted all the information she had on them to an online darknet market.¡± ¡°She did that to show them she was dead serious. Her words were not empty threats when she said she¡¯d destroy them if they didn¡¯t cough up the appropriate sum. Though she cared little for the money, her intent was simple, bleed them dry and hurt them with what she knew they cared about most, how much money they had hoarded away in their accounts. If they suffered a great enough financial loss, they would think twice about crossing the line they crossed for a second time. They would forever fear incurring an even greater loss. After all, business is all about risk and return; when the risk far outweighs the return, a smart businessman will step back.¡± ¡°Anyway, the post my sister made was a direct threat to the board of directors in code that only the two parties would understand. Essentially, if they wanted her silence, in a week¡¯s time they would hand over an extraordinary sum of cash to her. Should they refuse, she would leak all the dirt and documents she¡¯d compiled to both the public and authorities.¡± Chapter 138. Chapter 138. ¡°If news broke, it would be the greatest scandal of the decade, one of which would lead to the demise of the entire firm. The hole they dug themselves into was just too deep to climb out of. They would face a lifetime in prison without any hope of freedom with all the dirt my sister gathered on them.¡± ¡°After I coincidentally stumbled upon this juicy information, I cashed in on a favor my sister owed me. After some negotiations, she agreed that I could use the dirt she had on them as a bargaining chip in exchange for something she wanted. Essentially, they partner with my company, and they get out of having to pay to keep her quiet; it¡¯ll all be water under the bridge. They had no choice in the matter; we won the moment we stepped into the meeting, Mr. Genovese. It was checkmate long before the battle even began, and it¡¯s honestly thanks to you in more ways than one.¡± ¡°Thanks to me? What do you mean by it¡¯s thanks to me? I clearly didn¡¯t do much in all of this; you and your sister took care of mostly everything, right?.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t sweat it if you don¡¯t understand.¡± Why did her words sound unusually ominous to me? ¡°Hey, instead of staying at the hotel tonight, can I just return home on the first flight back? I suddenly have a bad feeling in my gut that something terrible will happen to me tonight. My history with hotels is not the best.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? We only just got here, and you already want to leave? Besides, we''ll be together tonight, what do you have to be fearful of?¡± ¡°You. How do I know you won¡¯t attack me in the middle of the night?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry; I promise I won¡¯t lay a single finger on you tonight.¡± ¡°Can I really take your word for it?¡± ¡°Of course. I¡¯m a woman of honor.¡± I¡¯d undoubtedly be an idiot to believe that. ¡°Though I can¡¯t promise I won¡¯t subjugate you if you try to escape in the middle of the night.¡± From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely hated how sharp she was at times. In the end, I wasn¡¯t able to find an opportunity to escape. Even on the way back to the hotel, when I said I had to use the toilet, she stood outside with her arms crossed and patiently waited for me like a bodyguard on guard duty. With her so overly cautious, on high alert to prevent my escape, I was certain something was up. As for what it specifically was, I was uncertain, but it had to be related to why she said it was all thanks to me. Had she sold me out to the person who put a bounty on my head after she made full use of me? Was I about to be disposed of after I was no longer of use to her? Was I played by her again this entire time since the very beginning? Everything was just an elaborate act that I fell for? Val rolled her eyes seemingly aware of what was on my mind and said, ¡°Mr. Genovese, stop getting so worked up over nothing. Nothing will happen to you if you stay at the hotel with me tonight, I swear. You¡¯re too on edge lately, would you just try to relax?¡± She squished my cheeks together between both her hands as she tried to put my mind at ease.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. There was still a sliver of doubt in my mind, but her reassurance did have an unusual sort of calming effect on a subconscious level. When someone was as good as her at reading people, it was scary how easily they were able to gain your trust when you showed them even the slightest sign of weakness. ¡°Sorry, my imagination was running wild again... I¡¯m... fine now.¡± ¡°Liar.¡± Once we returned to the hotel, to my relief, nothing out of the ordinary happened as I¡¯d initially assumed. We watched a few movies together, ordered room service, downed several bottles of expensive wine, and ate all the fine cuisine they had to offer, on the house, before we inevitably got a bit tipsy from the liquor. At some unknown point, we went to bed uneventfully; there really wasn¡¯t anything strange, nor were there any unforeseen plot twists. ¡­ Dinggggggg. I received an unexpected text that woke me up in the middle of the night. It read, ¡°Meet me at the harbor at 3 AM on the dot. I¡¯ll take that problem off your hands.¡± It was only a few minutes until 3:00 AM. The sender was pretty demanding without any advance notice. I was naturally confused at first, but I still did as instructed. It was from a number I didn¡¯t recognize, but I thought I could use it as a chance to escape. If it turned out to be a text from Maria toying with me, then so be it. There¡¯s nobody I could contact that would help me escape from her. I knew I was grasping at straws by praying that some random stranger had discovered my situation and texted me anonymously with an offer to help me. It was a long shot, but I took it anyway. Anything was better than being Maria¡¯s beloved experimental lab rat. Her love was too twisted for me to understand. I wanted a way out. No matter what price I paid for freedom, I¡¯d take it without hesitation. Even at this late hour, Maria was busy performing tests on one of her disposable groups of drug slaves. I used the chance while she wasn¡¯t around and snuck out. I¡¯d worked hard to gain the little bit of freedom I had under her watch by displaying unwavering obedience toward her. No matter what type of messed up drug she administered to me I made sure not to resist her twisted form of love. Thanks to that, I was given a fair degree of freedom. Despite the trust I garnered from her, she still implanted a GPS tracker inside my body; however, through rigorous experimentation, I uncovered a method to temporarily fool the system into giving out a fake set of coordinates. Though it still wasn¡¯t easy to take advantage of in practice as it only gave me fifteen minutes of freedom. After fifteen minutes passed by, my real coordinates would be given away. When I went to sleep, the GPS tracking system similarly entered a low power saving mode deep sleep state. After I woke up, it took fifteen minutes before it released my next set of geographic coordinates. That was the only exploit I found in the GPS tracker she surgically implanted inside my body. Why it worked like that, I wasn¡¯t one hundred percent certain. I did have my theories on the matter, but the only thing I knew for sure was it definitely functioned in this manner. It could have been a bug she wasn¡¯t aware of; however, it might have just been a careless programming mistake as well. If intended to function this way, the best explanation I had was that it only woke up after it detected enough bodily motion, in conjunction with passive analysis of brainwaves and signals along neural synapses. As humans often moved about in their sleep and dreamed, it likely used multiple conditions before it determined when to wake up from power-saving mode. Through trial and error, I established that when the amplitude of the signal was maintained at a specific minimum threshold for more than fifteen minutes, coupled with enough brain activity; it typically exited power-saving mode and revealed my geographic coordinates actively. Though even with such knowledge, the only way to escape was if I had the assistance of an accomplice from the outside free from these cursed implanted GPS tracking devices. There was nobody around here that had such luck; everyone had them. I tried to jam the signal one time, but even that failed. It used technology that could counteract being jamming. Maria was extremely cautious. So cautious that I was even skeptical about whether the bug I found was really there and not just something I contrived in my head. Perhaps it was even an elaborate trap set for me by Maria. I had no way to know for sure, but I wanted to escape tonight at all costs. I was so sick of this. I wanted my freedom back, a simple life with a normal woman who wasn¡¯t completely insane. That¡¯s all I wanted, but apparently, that was too much for me to ask for. I wasn¡¯t cut out for things like love. Things always turned out this way for me. Chapter 139. Chapter 139. As I¡¯d just woken up, at present, I only had fifteen minutes. Without hesitation, I made haste and immediately exited the building in a rush. I threw all thoughts of the consequences of my actions to one side. Worn down by a lifestyle comparable to that of a lab rat shackled in invisible chains, I wished to return to the mundane world where I could enjoy myself freely without such heavy restrictions. I was still able to continue my work as an electrical engineer during our time together, but she used various experimental drugs to restrict and limit my actions. I was also under constant surveillance by her bulky black-suited lackeys who followed me everywhere whenever I went out. That was one of the few privileges I was given as her boyfriend once I acquired her trust. Luckily, her lackeys only kept an eye on me when I left the facility she lived inside where she held me captive. She¡¯d even rigged my phone in a way that, although I received texts from others, I was unable to reply to them. It was set up for her to be the only person I could respond to, only texts and phone calls from her, nobody else. I was completely isolated from the rest of society despite the trust I gained from her, the ¡®freedom¡¯ she¡¯d given me was an illusory one. It was by no means real. What we had didn¡¯t feel like a romantic relationship, but in her eyes, everything was perfectly normal. I had far more freedom than I had with my third ex, but I was foolish to take things at face value. I naively fell for her just because she was the doctor who took care of me and nursed me back to good health. After my first three failed relationships, before her true colors came to light, she helped me recover from the trauma I developed toward women. I shook my head and refocused on the present. Now wasn¡¯t the time to lament over the past. I had to get to the harbor quickly. The harbor wasn¡¯t very far from her facility, and it only took a short five minutes before I arrived. What awaited me at the end of the dock was a mysterious woman who stood up straight with perfect posture. Her long crimson hair blew to the side in the wind and revealed the black designer trench coat she had on. Her gaze was locked far into the distance over the ocean, seemingly in deep contemplation over some important affairs. It was dark out and difficult to make out her features easily; however, the limited illumination from the moonlight allowed me to distinguish a few of her characteristics from behind. The moon hung high over the ocean and simultaneously reflected off the surface of the water below us. Kilometers out along the coast, there were uncountable numbers of lights; they encircled the harbor and formed a crescent-like shape that shimmered with an air of elegance amidst the night. Those lights never reached the dock, they felt so close, but so far away like the stars overhead. In stark contrast to the view of the city in the surroundings along the coast, only the harbor area remained poorly illuminated at this late hour. Overall, it was a picturesque and memorable view that would be forever profoundly engraved in my memories. What left me most joyous on this occasion was the woman at the end of the dock. She wasn¡¯t Maria, and I was quite confident we were strangers who¡¯d never met before. The only problem was, I wasn¡¯t certain whether she was the one that texted me. As such, I cautiously closed the distance between us until we were side by side on the dock. ¡°You¡¯re early. Where are the goods?¡± ¡°The goods?¡± Did I get the wrong person? ¡°Sorry, I think you¡¯ve got the wrong person,¡± I responded. It appeared I was mistaken, I¡¯d approached the incorrect person after all. Why would a beauty like her be the one trying to help me when we¡¯re complete strangers anyways? It was definitely someone else who texted me.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Wrong person? No, that¡¯s impossible.¡± Ready to take my leave, I turned around and discovered a group of bulky macho men in black suits. ¡°Ugh.¡± I groaned out loud as my stomach churned. Had I screwed up when I escaped? It hadn¡¯t been fifteen minutes yet; she shouldn¡¯t have been alerted unless I¡¯d really been deceived into thinking there was an exploit with the tracker. I looked around in desperation for a way to escape, but what could I expect? It was a dead end. When I remembered the woman, I panicked and realized that she¡¯d likely also be captured and experimented on by Maria as a result of my careless actions. If she were taken back with me as a conspirator, she¡¯d inevitably face hell, especially if Maria got jealous and thought I¡¯d cheated on her. When I thought of the wrath incurred from seeing another woman behind her back, I felt internally mortified. ¡°What is the meaning of this?¡± Was she referring to the group approaching us? Without time to think, I scanned the area and noticed the motorboat on her side of the dock. When I checked her out, I discovered a distinct set of dangling keys attached to a ring on the right side of her trench coat. ¡°Do you have the keys for the motorboat beside you?¡± ¡°Huh? What are you asking such a stupid question for out of nowhere? Of course I do; it belongs to me after all.¡± ¡°Get on it and flee as far away as possible. Please don¡¯t ever return here.¡± I immediately grabbed her hand and dragged her to the boat. ¡°What are you doing! Let go of me! Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? Are you trying to get yourself killed?¡± She fired off a bunch of questions my way as she tried to pull her hand away in a panic. My sudden actions left her visibly flustered, but I didn¡¯t give her a chance to resist. When we were in front of the boat, I pushed her onto it dramatically. Like a suave hero who¡¯d accomplished his mission in life, I turned my back to her dashingly. When the men not too far away from us noticed my actions, they picked up their pace, sprinted toward me, and rapidly closed the distance in a flash. I knew it would be useless for me to try and flee together with this woman when I considered the GPS tracker inside my body. If I fled here, it would only result in both of us caught. ¡°Go. Now.¡± ¡°Hah? What?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t die, don¡¯t worry about me, just go and don¡¯t look back.¡± I¡¯m screwed either way, at least let me look cool for once. If I lived through this, I¡¯d probably die from this unbearably cringe-inducing scene; but at least in this one moment, let me try to act a bit cool for once in my life. I peeked over my shoulder expecting to see her moved to tears by my awe-inspiring sacrificial actions. My expectations were completely shattered, rather than moved she wore a baffled flummoxed expression of utter confusion on her face, at least from what I could make out of it in the darkness. She burst out into laughter for some reason before she finally obediently nodded her head in understanding. She departed with a strangely amused smile on her face rather than an emotionally moved one. At that time, I didn¡¯t understand much behind it, nor did I have much time to think about it. Amidst the sound of the motor boat¡¯s engine that receded into the distance, I fell hard on my back as I lost consciousness after I was pummeled to the ground and restrained by the group of macho men. I didn¡¯t know it back then, but that was how I met my fifth ex for the first time. It was a meeting that was a complete freak accident born out of pure coincidence. The text was really from the woman I met on the dock, but my number just happened to be one digit off from the person she was trying to contact at the time for a big drug deal. She later told me it was the biggest blunder she¡¯d ever made, but it also made her laugh the most she¡¯d ever laughed in her life. I also found this out later; those men weren¡¯t out to retrieve or capture me... they were her bodyguards. When she asked, ¡°what¡¯s the meaning of this,¡± that was a question directed toward her bodyguards, not me. With our first meeting serving as a catalyst, she eventually took up a strange interest in me. One day she went so far as to hire a group of kidnappers. She faked my death to Maria by taking advantage of the GPS tracker. The last coordinates it gave off indicated I¡¯d sunk to the bottom of the ocean. She even planted the blame for everything on another criminal organization and used it as a reason to wipe them out. Of course, to begin with, it was just for the sake of silencing the hired kidnappers that were from that organization. She was a scarily thorough person who always eliminated loose ends to acquire the things she desired. There¡¯s much more to the story, but that was the gist of how I eventually escaped from my fourth ex¡¯s clutches. ... Chapter 140. Chapter 140. At some late hour of the night, I awoke from my embarrassing dream of the past. I was immediately greeted by the rustle of bedsheets from my side. When I opened my eyes, I discovered Val had unsteadily gotten off the bed, clearly still disoriented from all the wine we downed earlier. ¡°Val?¡± ¡°Did I wake you up? Sorry, my bad. I need the toilet. I drank way too much; to think I¡¯d let myself reach that state. What a blunder. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got to use it too, so don¡¯t take too long.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, we could go together if you have that weird sort of kink.¡± ¡°Just hurry up.¡± I really had to take a leak. In the dark, she expertly made her way to the bathroom like a veteran despite her drunken stupor. When she reached the door, she turned on the light and ventilation. The light formed a trapezoidal outline from the doorway along the ground onto the wall. Her figure also cast a distinct shadow amidst the light. The outline of her shadow moved into the bathroom then slowly disappeared when the door shut behind her. Only a small stream of light remained from beneath the gap of the closed door. I couldn¡¯t help but muse over how mindful women were over appearances when it came to the toilet. It was only a leak, right? What¡¯s the need for the vent, there wasn¡¯t a nasty spice burrito bomb smell, was there? I wasn¡¯t the type who judged a person based upon how it sounded when they took a leak, I was a cultured man who only judged after the true raid boss, le Taco Bell. This over-sensitivity to the call of nature was something I never understood about women no matter how much I thought it over. Haaaaah. I certainly never imagined I¡¯d wake up in the middle of the night and muse to myself over other people taking leaks and deuces. Where did I go wrong in life? Five minutes passed by in silence, then ten more. It was pretty hard to hold it in, so I called out to her, ¡°Val, could you please hurry up in there? I really need to use it now. It feels like my bladder won¡¯t make it much longer.¡± There was no response and I suddenly had a bad feeling. I knew I had three choices I could make. The first was that I could go back to sleep, forget about the washroom, and wet myself. The second was to go check on her and potentially set myself up for an awful jump scare. The third was to leave the room, run away, and never look back while wetting myself during the escape. All three situations resulted in wetting myself so I was really in quite the dilemma right now. As a famous poet once said, to wet myself, or not to wet myself, that is the question. Screw it, I¡¯ll take my chances with the jump scare. If I know it¡¯s coming and close my eyes when I open the door, I should be able to hold it in as long as I don¡¯t see it.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I got off the bed and carefully made my way to the bathroom in the dark. When I stopped in front of the door I had an idea. It was the same trick I used previously. I pulled out my phone and slid it under the door while recording. Just when I thought to pull it back to review the recording and see if there was anything directly behind the door waiting to scare the crap out of me, something from the other side pulled the phone out of my hand. ¡°Val, if you¡¯re there, would you please answer me?¡± There was still no response. ¡°If this is your idea of a joke, it''s not funny at all.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Val! Answer me!¡± Suddenly the light from the gap beneath the door went dark. I calmed myself down, shut my eyes, and pushed open the door; it wasn¡¯t locked. If she thought she was going to jump out and scare me, to avoid it, I just wouldn¡¯t look. Ah, ¡®twas the naive wish of a man who simply desired to pee and emptieth one¡¯s bloated bladder. I walked into the bathroom without hesitation but immediately bumped into someone a few steps in. ¡°Val, would you say something?¡± That was when I realized something, what I bumped into felt nothing like a woman. Did I make a big mistake in my assumptions? What if it wasn¡¯t just another occurrence of freaky shit, but instead a murderer who¡¯d snuck in and killed Val? I broke out into an uncontrollable cold sweat when I considered the possibility that a psycho killer had hidden away in our hotel room¡¯s bathroom while we were out cold drunk. I slowly backed away up to the entrance, turned on the light, then warily opened my eyes. When I did, what I found was... not a psycho killer? Rather, it was just a strange... black... monstrous organism... made out of a liquid-like substance. It approached closer to me the moment I¡¯d turned on the light. I immediately turned the light off thinking my mind was playing tricks on me. I knew I had way too many drinks earlier, so it wasn¡¯t unreasonable that I¡¯d see weird shit like this. But still¡­ this was a bit much, wasn¡¯t it? A few seconds passed in silence and I turned the lights back on in hopes the strange gooey black mass was gone. I squinted my eyes to verify it once again. Yep. It¡¯s definitely still there. As soon as the lights were on, it approached closer to me again. I did the only obvious thing I could do... I shut the light off again. A few more seconds passed and nothing happened. Now, if I didn¡¯t need to use the washroom so badly I¡¯d normally just go back to bed or leave at this point, but nature really doth not wait for any man. Not even the greatest of men could defeat nature¡¯s call. In the end¡­ I let out a long sigh and inched my way around where I presumed that thing had stopped in the dark. As I edged around it, I stepped on my phone. Extremely grateful that I found it so easily, I immediately picked it up and put it back in my pocket. I used my hands to feel around in the dark to verify the toilet seat was up, undid my fly, and finally found joyous release. That weird thing beside me could wait its turn. When a man needs to answer nature¡¯s call, not even a weird gooey black monster-like thing can stand in his way. Now if it were a psycho killer, that would be another story altogether. When I was finished, I circled around where the alleged monster was located in the dark and I diligently washed my hands. I wasn¡¯t in much of a rush since this monstrous apparition appeared to be mentally challenged and couldn¡¯t move around in the dark, so I even took the time to use a good amount of soap for good measure. If only all weird monster encounters could be this casual. Man though, getting wasted on wine makes you see some really weird shit at night. Once I was finished with my bodily needs, I knew it was time to deal with whatever this freak of nature was. Psh, as if I¡¯d do something stupid like that. If it can¡¯t move in the dark then just don¡¯t turn on a light, duh. Chapter 141. Chapter 141. I exited the bathroom, closed the door behind me then returned to my bed. I took out my phone, then out of pure curiosity, I shone the flashlight on the wall parallel to the bathroom door. After several seconds, I noticed a black gooey liquid squeeze it¡¯s way under the door in the mirror. I only did it as a test, but I was disappointed when I found that this small amount of light allowed it to move. What if it stuck around until morning? With the light from outside, wouldn¡¯t I be screwed if it was still there? What kind of stupid monster can¡¯t move in the dark anyway? What the bloody hell is with this broken freakshow? I turned the flashlight off and weighed my options. What choices did I have though? Well¡­ what if I lured it far away, trapped it in a dark room, then returned here and went back to sleep? If it didn¡¯t know where I was, maybe it would lose interest in me and go after some other poor sap. It was at least worth a try. Although it meant I¡¯d have to take the risk out in the brightly lit hallway where it would be able to freely move around unhindered. This was honestly such a pain in the ass. Well, I guess it was still a much better alternative to being chased to the end of the Earth by one of my psychotic exes. I¡¯ll take a date with a weird retarded monster-like thing over one of my psychotic exes any day of the week. With a dejected sigh, I got off the bed and opened the door to exit the room. As intended, light from the hallway lit up inside the room. With my foot, I put down the door stopper which kept the door wide open. When I exited the room, I walked further down the hallway at a leisurely pace. I figured it would eventually get out of the bathroom if I left it like that and opted to use the spare time to look around for somewhere to lock it inside so I could go back to sleep as soon as possible. I walked in the direction of the elevator, but it didn¡¯t take long before I realized something was off. I¡¯d already walked for several minutes and I should have long reached it, but the elevator was nowhere in sight. Not even the stairwell. I had a strange sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu all over again. Wasn¡¯t this the same twilight world shit that happened back at Rick¡¯s place? Was I trapped at a point where many world lines intersected, a singularity? Could that explain this strange phenomenon? Then that strange monster like thing¡­ what is that supposed to be or represent? A bad omen? An amalgamation of evil? Something that moves around in the light and rests in the dark, what would it represent? Aren¡¯t there too many things? An animal? Maybe a human? Would something of its nature mean it¡¯s a bad person? Who¡¯s a bad person? Val? Was this a warning related to Val? No, but what about the weird dream I had? Maria, my fourth ex, or maybe my fifth ex? Why was it in the bathroom though? Was there a reason for it? Haaaaaaah. Why were so many freaky things related to the bathroom anyway? Was it all some sort of grand conspiracy? Whatever, forget about that for now, I need to figure out what to do first. The only notable thing in the hallway were the doors. Could one of these doors be an exit to this weird looping twilight world?This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Will any of the doors even open to begin with? I turned the knob on one of them to test it. Click. It wasn¡¯t locked. As for what was behind the first door I opened, it was a hallway identical to the one I was in. I could even see far down, standing in the hallway, was myself opening a door and looking at what was beyond it. I took out my phone, placed it on the ground, and recorded the door. When I turned back and gazed beyond the doorway, I could see my phone lying on the ground in the same position recording the depiction of myself and the door down the hallway. What the hell was this supposed to mean? I chose to not immediately enter through the door, instead, I ran down the hallway I was still in for a short distance, but I never came across my phone. I turned around and after I took a single step, I discovered my phone was right there where I left it. It was as if I never moved an inch from this spot. I could also see at the end of the hallway in this direction there was an open door. It displayed my side profile with a phone on the ground beside me. ¡°Hah? What in the...?¡± This world was really messing with my head. It was far worse than a simple labyrinth and it would be a nightmare for anyone trying to construct a map of the place. Thanks to this early discovery, I immediately gave up on trying to construct a map of the place to avoid losing my way. It seemed pointless as space was somehow wrapped and convoluted. My perception of both space and time was likely completely off in this strange hallway. I turned the phone to record me from behind again and repeated the same test. This time I also ran away from the open door at the end of the hallway where I was depicted. I still never came across my phone. When I turned around and took one step, my phone was right there beside me, it was like I¡¯d never moved an inch again. I picked up my phone then replayed the video and found something that left me confounded. The video showed me moving away from the phone, but when I turned around and took a single step, I was suddenly directly in front of it again. I next ran in the direction of the open door at the end of the hallway where I saw myself. The image of myself in the door disappeared around the corner. However, it didn¡¯t feel like the open door had gotten any closer. I turned around and found my phone right beside me again. When I examined the open door at the end of the hallway, I was visible again. What in the fuck is this madness! It was far beyond my comprehension. I watched the first recording I¡¯d taken when the camera was pointed at the door beside me and it didn¡¯t answer any questions either. It only raised more instead. I could hardly call it teleportation; rather, it was like bending space and time into itself. One step back was no longer equivalent to one step forward. A single step back eliminated all forward progress in an instant. It felt like it was a message to myself on a subconscious level. Even if I ran away from a problem, the moment I turned around, the problem would still be there, it would never just conveniently disappear on its own. Was that supposed to be a hint on how to escape from this strange hallway? Face the problem head-on rather than trying to flee from it and hope that it goes away, was that what this meant? The problem being, whatever that black monster-like thing was supposed to be? Just how the hell am I supposed to do that? Did somebody give me a rocket launcher I could use to blow it up? I don¡¯t think so. Haaaaah. What a stupid door and hallway. I slammed the door shut in rage, moved on to the next door, then opened it up hoping to see a different view. Chapter 142. Chapter 142. The scenery behind the second door I checked was identical to the first. Several doors later, I confirmed they were all the same. However, when I reached the twelfth door, I noticed something different reflected on the other side of the door. A black mass had appeared directly beside me. I glanced to my side and immediately understood how useful the doors were. I stepped inside one and closed it on the way in. When I looked behind me there was a long hall with the same doors as before. In front of me, further down the hallway, I saw the gooey black liquid monster originally by my side a moment ago. I couldn¡¯t help but think to myself that this was nothing but a giant pain in the ass. Face that godforsaken freak of nature head-on? How the hell do I do that? It was already closing the distance between us, not giving me any chance to catch my breath. I jogged down the hall as I held my phone up with the camera app open to show what was behind me. Whenever it got too close, I opened a door, stepped in, then shut it behind me to instantly increase the distance between us. It was a futile struggle though, I already understood there was no way out of this looping world through random guesses. I was certain there had to be a method, but I just wasn¡¯t able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Wait. To start with, why was I running from this thing? Why did I automatically assume it was something that would kill me? If I have to face it head-on and it¡¯s the only way out, would I really die if I come into contact with it? If it¡¯s bound to happen, then the only thing I can really do is see what happens, right? Either way, I¡¯d lived more than long enough, if I died wasn¡¯t it fine? I didn¡¯t have much to live for lately with the direction my everyday life had headed toward recently. It was nothing but oddity after oddity. I only wanted normalcy and my status quo back, but strange things continually followed me wherever I went these days. If death could set me free from this shit show, why not? It was probably the result of my slight intoxication from the wine that made me so flippant over death here. God, to begin with, I¡¯m probably just drunk now that I think about it. I stopped in place and observed the image on my phone with my back to it as the black liquid mass approached closer on the camera. When in range, it opened up wide and surrounded me from all sides. When I was fully submerged in the black gunk, it felt like I¡¯d been drowned in disgusting grime and filth. With a lack of air, I drew closer to suffocation when it poured in through every one of my orifices. The black goop sought out any entry point that could bring me a painful death. Though strangely enough, albeit difficult, I could still breathe. The biggest problem I had was how utterly repulsive it felt when it entered my body. Both in body and mind, I completely rejected everything about the strange black substance with every fiber of my being. I wasn¡¯t dying from it, but the sensation it brought on made me wish I really were dead. I was disgusted with not only whatever it was, but myself as well. Pure revulsion, those were the best words to describe how I felt toward whatever this sensation was. That was when they appeared within the endless compounds of the black mass. Me. As far as the eye could see, in the limitless expanse of the darkness, there were countless spitting images of myself.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Who are you?¡± I was suddenly asked. Who am I? Who the hell are all of you? ¡°¡°¡°I am you.¡±¡±¡± They all answered in unison. I am me, stop disguising yourself as me you damn imposters. ¡°You are us.¡± Are you saying I¡¯m supposed to be all of you? ¡°¡°¡°No.¡±¡±¡± Hah? Then what am I supposed to be? ¡°¡°¡°You are fake, we are real.¡±¡±¡± What the hell do you mean you are the real ones? ¡°¡°¡°We are not like you, but you are like us.¡±¡±¡± Sorry, you¡¯re making absolutely zero sense to me. I clearly had far too much to drink. ¡°¡°¡°You are an exception,¡±¡±¡± they randomly spouted out. An exception? What do you mean by that? ¡°¡°¡°A glitch.¡±¡±¡± A glitch? ¡°¡°¡°Yes. Something that should not have happened if not for a miraculous set of coincidences and countless failures.¡±¡±¡± What? Are you some kind of prophet telling fake fortunes? I¡¯ll have you know, I don¡¯t take kindly to phonies. ¡°You are comprised of us.¡± What the bloody hell, at the beginning you said I¡¯m not all of you. What are you suddenly backtracking and saying I¡¯m comprised of you for? ¡°You are not all of us, you are only comprised of all of us, you are you. An individual, but at the same time a fake.¡± I¡¯m starting to get a headache. This is all just nonsense to me. We definitely can¡¯t communicate or comprehend each other. I guess this is what happens when someone gets wasted. ¡°¡°¡°You don¡¯t need to comprehend it now, you already know the answer deep inside you and you will accept it whether you like it or not when you need to face reality.¡±¡±¡± After they said their part, the world suddenly dispersed into particles of rainbow-colored light. The black liquid was gone, the hallways were gone, only an endless expanse of white filled with colored particles remained. ¡­ ¡°Fer s ch a p~n n th ss ss! Ts nt fr a ll th u cn b wt hm bt I ct!¡± When I slightly cracked open my eyes, the world was spinning all about. I was groggy and very likely still hungover. I had a striking migraine, but still heard a slur of words from a voice I couldn¡¯t quite make out whom it belonged to. Through the small gap between my squinted eyes, I saw a figure at the edge of the bed who appeared to be staring back at me intently. I couldn¡¯t make out who it was, the only discernible feature was their reddish looking hair. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t fully wake up, the pain from the migraine was too great and I immediately fell back to sleep. Who... was that? That was the last thought I had before I fell back to sleep. ¡­ ¡°Mr. Genovese. Wake up.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese. Rise and shine.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese! Wake your ass up!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Tch. If you don¡¯t wake up now, I¡¯ll leak your address to your exes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m up! So please don¡¯t.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re up, then say that. Unless of course, you enjoy hearing the sound of my voice first thing in the morning. In that case, please feel free to go back to sleep while I whisper sweet nothings into your ear until you feel like waking up.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve learned my lesson, so I¡¯ll wake up.¡± ¡°You¡¯re really not cute.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already had that done to me by my third ex, I¡¯d ask that you please not bring up past traumatic memories.¡± ¡°Hahahaha! Is that true?¡± ¡°Yeah, it was really scary and often gave me nightmares.¡± Chapter 143. Chapter 143. When I thought back on the sequence of events from last night, I was rather perplexed. The first part was a simple dream or recollection of my past, right? Then when I woke up after in the hotel room, was it actually a second phase to it that led into a nightmare? Or was that something that really happened like I initially presumed in which I somehow shifted between world lines? Or¡­ was I just wasted the entire time? Well... what if I wasn¡¯t wasted and it really happened. Would that mean I was in the same world line I was in the day before, or did I end up in one different from the one I was originally in? The differences were likely minute details if it was a small shift compared to the large one I may or may not have experienced on the plane. I was still extremely skeptical about this whole nonsense world line theorem I¡¯d come up with. My theory was along the lines of something a maniac, mad scientist, or conspiracy theorist would come up with. I¡¯d surely be seen as a lunatic if I brought up something like this in a public setting. ¡°Hey, Val, this is a weird question which I know you wouldn¡¯t be able to answer, but are you the same Val I know from yesterday?¡± ¡°What is that supposed to mean? Do you think I got plastic surgery overnight or something?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mean it like that.¡± ¡°Oh, you mean the random theory you brought up before?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Then there¡¯s not really any way I can confirm that myself. Unless you knew every single detail about me from yesterday, there would be no way to confirm it.¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s about what I thought.¡± ¡°Besides, you could easily misremember something and incorrectly convince yourself that there is some sort of difference when there isn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s that too. Things are just getting stranger and stranger.¡± ¡°You had another nightmare?¡± ¡°I guess you could call it that. I¡¯m not quite sure about any of it. The first part of my dream was simple enough, but the second part was¡­ how do I put it¡­ indecipherable? Maybe better said, beyond common sense, something a sober man could never understand?¡± ¡°If you can¡¯t figure it out now, it¡¯s not like you need to immediately understand it. Just put it aside for the time being until the day comes where you can comprehend it. Rome wasn¡¯t built in a day, neither was human understanding. What we don¡¯t understand now isn¡¯t necessarily true about the future us.¡± ¡°But I feel like it¡¯s something very important. Something that could reveal the truth behind everything. At the same time, I feel like it¡¯s something that will destroy me from the ground up and turn me inside out when I understand it. Like I¡¯d understand exactly what has been happening to me recently. Whether I, myself, am a fake as they claimed. I want to understand the meaning of their words.¡± ¡°A fake? Are you some kind of fraudster impersonating someone?¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s not what I mean. At least, I don¡¯t think it is.¡± ¡°Then what?¡± ¡°It¡¯s complicated.¡± ¡°Are you an indecisive teenage girl, or a middle-aged man having an identity crisis?¡± ¡°Biologically speaking I was a man the last time I checked.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t identify as a teenage girl. That¡¯s rather unpleasant, Mr. Genovese. To think you had that sort of side to you.¡± ¡°Of course I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Jokes aside, it¡¯s honestly not a big deal whether you¡¯re fake or real, Mr. Genovese. Everyone has a fake persona they put on for the public. Everyone around us in the world are phonies to a degree. If everyone is fake, why should you care whether you are a fake or the real deal?¡± ¡°Why care? Because it¡¯s the logical thing to do, isn¡¯t it Val?¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t, Mr. Genovese. Humans aren¡¯t as logical a creature as you may believe they are. The vast majority of humans are very irrational beings that rarely think logically.¡± ¡°If humans are told 2+2 equals 4 is an absolute mathematical fact, there are still many who will get it wrong when asked. They may think it¡¯s a trick question due to the simplicity of the question, they may overthink it and believe there is some deeper meaning to being asked it, while there are others who will even try to disprove it. Some people may purposely answer incorrectly to intentionally appear dumber than they are to try and fit in with other irrational idiots. Others may just want to make things political because they want to feel special.¡± ¡°Haaaaah. Just why would they get such a simple question wrong even when they know the answer? Simply out of irrationality. A computer will answer you with certainty ten times out of ten for such a simplistic calculation, it won¡¯t second guess itself like humans like to. To the computer, the answer to 2+2 is always 4 unless there¡¯s some sort of external factor that introduces a bit error or glitch in the system.¡± ¡°A computer¡¯s output answer is derived purely upon logic, inputs, and conditions you feed into the system, there are no needless emotions to get in its way like us irrational humans. At times the answer it yields may seem illogical to us, but to the computer, it is the only possible answer that makes sense to it. It will not question or doubt itself like us humans as such an action is completely irrational.¡± Question and doubt itself¡­ ¡°Val, what about error detection and correction processes? That is essentially a computer questioning and doubting itself, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Can a computer question or doubt itself on why it needs to do those processes? No, it cannot as it has been instructed through code, it must perform those procedures, but a human can. If the computer is told to do it through code, then it is a perfectly logical thing for it to do.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Anyway, this isn¡¯t the only example of human irrationality. Another would be humanity¡¯s sense of values. As much as humans believe they value authenticity, in reality, humans worship convenient falsehoods without realizing it. Do you know why they accept fakes despite being aware that the value is lower than something authentic?¡± ¡°For convenience, right? They don¡¯t have to put in as much effort to get something fake as it is more readily available. They can simply deceive others into thinking it is something authentic when it¡¯s not; and though some will, the vast majority of people won¡¯t bother to question it.¡± ¡°Yes. Exactly. The action of deceiving simply for the sake of skewing how you appear to others is rather illogical, but humans do it anyway. It¡¯s easier to accept something untrue but convenient than to face the cruel reality that¡¯s staring you directly in the eyes. Mr. Genovese, you are just another normal human in everyone else¡¯s eyes, even if you think you¡¯re a fake, in everyone else¡¯s eyes you are the same as them. With such irrationality in society, does it still bother you whether you¡¯re real or a fake?¡± ¡°I¡¯m... not exactly sure, but with the way you put it, I think I¡¯m actually more annoyed with humanity''s illogical way of life. You should care whether I¡¯m a fake or not. It makes a big difference.¡± ¡°It only makes a big difference to your own sense of self-worth. Nobody else cares how fake or real you are. If something is interesting or intriguing enough, that¡¯s all that matters to others.¡± ¡°Val, putting that aside, what are we doing today?¡± ¡°Mmmmmm. Good question. As things went smoother than I expected yesterday, there isn¡¯t too much on the agenda aside from waiting to hear back from the big shots at your old firm. Once we do, I can finalize all the specifics of the partnership with them.¡± ¡°In other words, I don¡¯t have anything to do then, right?¡± ¡°You do. You have a big job to take care of.¡± ¡°I do?¡± ¡°Naturally you do.¡± ¡°What would that be?¡± ¡°Of course that would be to keep me entertained while we wait.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that was in my job description.¡± ¡°I wrote it into your contract last night, so don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s illegal, isn¡¯t it? There was no mutual consent for that change in my contract.¡± ¡°I took your fingerprint as a seal while you were asleep, so it¡¯s all good. From a legal standpoint, I¡¯m covered.¡± ¡°That¡¯s blatant fraud, in what way are you covered?¡± ¡°Because you¡¯re a pushover who wants to keep his job and you wouldn¡¯t bother to try and fight your boss for being a bit unreasonable.¡± Chapter 144. Chapter 144. She wasn¡¯t wrong. It would be a pain in the ass to sue her over something as pointless as adding in a clause to keep your boss entertained without mutual consent. ¡°Yeah. Yeah. I get it. So how would you like to be entertained, my peerless majestic boss without a single rival beneath the heavens?¡± ¡°How about truth or dare?¡± ¡°With two people? Actually, I¡¯d prefer to refrain from such activities. I have a lot of bad blood with that cursed game.¡± ¡°Well, it isn¡¯t just two people, I have a friend who heard a bit about your situation and they wanted to meet you today.¡± She completely ignored my unwillingness to play. ¡°A friend?¡± I was extremely skeptical as soon as the words left her mouth. A friend of hers couldn¡¯t be a normal person. ¡°Is this friend a guy?¡± ¡°Are you getting jealous?¡± ¡°No, I would just much rather it be a guy.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a girl.¡± ¡°By any chance, were they here before I woke up?¡± ¡°No, they weren¡¯t.¡± ¡°Before I fully woke up, I could have sworn I¡¯d seen somebody. Are you really telling the truth?¡± Knock. Knock. ¡°Oh, speak of the devil. It looks like she¡¯s already here.¡± My guard was on high alert. The timing was too fishy. Everything about this so-called friend smelled like bad news to me. ¡°Mr. Genovese, can you please relax? It¡¯s not like my friend is out for your life or anything.¡± ¡°You¡¯re sure about that?¡± Val looked up a bit like she had to think about it for a second before she said, ¡°Probably. I should be right¡­ I think. No, I¡¯m pretty sure.¡± I got off the bed and jumped behind the sofa chair in the corner of the room as I prepared myself for the worst. ¡°It was a joke. Just a joke. Can you please not embarrass me when she comes in?¡± Paranoid to an extreme, I eyed her suspiciously over the edge of the sofa chair. ¡°You¡¯re full of it, I don¡¯t buy it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s really the truth, I swear! She¡¯s honestly not that weird or anything if you ignore a few details about her. Honestly, I wouldn¡¯t introduce you if I didn¡¯t have to.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Didn¡¯t have to? What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°Oh? Haha. Nothing. That was just a slip of the tongue. Forget I said anything.¡± Knock. Knock. Knock. ¡°Coming.¡± ¡°Val, wait! I need to prepare myself mentally first.¡± It was too late. She¡¯d already opened up the door before I could stop her. When the figure behind the door was revealed, I was... confused. Was my assumption incorrect? I thought for sure I¡¯d successfully connected the dots this time. A brunette stood there as she examined the interior of the room curiously. I expected the appearance of a certain psychotic, crimson red-haired woman. Her friend¡¯s facial features were completely different from what I expected as well. ¡°You¡¯re not going to fool me this time, it¡¯s a mask, right!¡± Val looked back at me with a glare, ¡°It¡¯s not, look.¡± She pinched her cheeks and stretched them out. ¡°Ow ow ow ow! What are you doing? Let go!¡± The voice was also different? Slightly less confident than before, I declared, ¡°It¡¯s got to be makeup and hair dye¡­ no¡­ a wig. Definitely, a wig.¡± Val entered the bathroom then exited with a damp towel in hand. ¡°Eh? What are you doing? Hold on! What¡¯s all this about?¡± Val didn¡¯t hesitate in the slightest and wiped her face down in front of me with the towel. No way... there wasn¡¯t any makeup? The towel was as white as before, not a single blemish could be found on it. ¡°Ow ow ow! Let go of my hair! What is with you all of a sudden?¡± Val didn¡¯t stop there, she went so far as to dispel all of my suspicions. She yanked, like a cat in a catfight, on the yet to be named woman¡¯s hair to prove it wasn¡¯t a wig. ¡°Is that enough proof for you? This woman is a completely normal person, she¡¯s just a normal friend of mine.¡± ¡°Friend? Friend! This is how you treat your friends!¡± The woman looked like she was about to break down into tears at any moment. She ran into the bathroom and locked it behind her. Val leisurely returned to the bed, she paid not even the slightest attention to the woman who¡¯d just locked herself in the bathroom. ¡°I¡¯m not coming out until my safety is assured and my human rights are upheld. This is friend abuse, I demand compensation. No, make that divine retribution!¡± The character was in no way similar to the woman in my memories. She... really wasn¡¯t disguised? With Val shooting me an annoyed glare, I felt slightly guilty. I got out from behind the sofa chair and approached the bathroom door. I knocked on the door once and made up a convenient lie, ¡°Sorry, that was all part of a dare we made earlier. We were playing truth or dare and I dared her to do all that to whoever it was that knocked on the door.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes, really.¡± Of course not. When she opened up the door, my heart subtly leaped in place when I got a better look at her from close up. I didn¡¯t think Val¡¯s friend would be on the same level as her. The only thing I found peculiar about her was how her demeanor felt slightly different compared to when I initially saw her at the entrance before she locked herself in the bathroom. She appeared more nervous than curious, that was probably all though. I looked behind her just to be certain, but there didn¡¯t seem to be anyone else in the bathroom. It seemed like it was the same person, but I wanted to be fully sure I wasn¡¯t about to be played. I stepped into the bathroom without a second thought to verify that nobody else had snuck in and hidden inside. ¡°W-what are you doing so suddenly?¡± The woman in front of me flusteredly took one step back and tripped on her heels. As she fell backward, she reflexively extended her arm out to latch onto my shirt and regain her balance. It was a real shame for her that I wasn¡¯t a macho man with endless testosterone pumping through my veins and a mission to show off my manly prowess. I had every intention to step back and avoid her, but against all expectations, her reaction speed was far superior to what I¡¯d anticipated. The scene was best described as a baby lion cub about to fall off a ledge desperately clinging onto its last hope at life. Chapter 145. Chapter 145. Already off-balance from trying to step back and avoid her, I was pulled down along with her. She expertly cushioned her fall by using me to decrease her velocity. Avoiding an injury was clearly what she¡¯d intended, but there was something else I was certain she never anticipated. Although she successfully avoided any injury... The pair of lips joined together coupled together in addition to the scenario that looked like I¡¯d violently slammed her against the ground and forced myself on her; I was certain those two factors were outside of her original plan. I immediately broke out into a cold sweat. Would I be sued for this? This situation definitely wasn¡¯t my intention, I swear! I wanted to avoid this sort of stereotypical rubbish event by avoiding her, not recreate it. Thankfully, Val didn¡¯t see the precarious position we found ourselves in since we fell inside the bathroom. My only saving grace was the wall that fully blocked off her line of sight from on top of the bed. I got up quickly without a word; far from a gentleman, I didn¡¯t bother to offer a hand to help her up, rather, I immediately returned to the sofa chair beside the bed in the corner of the room. I calmly sat down across from Val like nothing happened to avoid rousing her suspicions. I didn¡¯t want to make a scene of it. I only wanted to check inside the bathroom to make sure no one else was hidden. I never wanted to experience a forced lucky pervert event like that. Rather than call this lucky, this was absolutely terrifying. Val was a former hired killer, this wasn¡¯t a woman who¡¯d cry and run out of the room if someone she was interested in kissed another woman. It was a woman who would slit your throat if you crossed her bottom line. What if her friend later hired her to kill me? I know she said she wasn¡¯t in that line of business anymore, but still. ¡°Dio, what happened just now? It sounded like someone fell.¡± For some reason, Val didn¡¯t address me the way she normally did. Somehow I felt scared. ¡°No such ridiculous event transpired.¡± My voice was an octave higher than intended as a result of my on edge nerves. ¡°Are you sure? It kind of feels like you¡¯re lying to me.¡± The woman, similar to me, exited the bathroom and stated, ¡°He¡¯s telling the truth, nothing happened.¡± ¡°Is that really true?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s really the truth...¡± It seemed Val¡¯s friend intended to also keep what happened a secret between the two of us. It was likely from embarrassment, but she had her face angled to the side; to the point that I couldn¡¯t quite see her lips when she¡¯d spoken just now. It was almost as if she was hiding them from me. ¡°Why is it that I¡¯m finding it hard to believe that nothing happened then? Are you certain what you¡¯ve said is the full truth?¡± Val¡¯s friend didn¡¯t answer this time, instead, she wordlessly nodded her head. She didn¡¯t look at either of us directly when she did which made it even more suspicious. ¡°Mr. Genovese, the two of you are hiding something, right?¡± ¡°Why is this suddenly about me hiding something? Shouldn¡¯t I be the one more suspicious that you¡¯re hiding something instead? Don¡¯t try and redirect the finger pointing at me.¡± ¡°What would I have to hide, Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s continue where we left off; truth or dare?¡± I abruptly derailed the matter and directed her thoughts toward a completely different direction. If I was a certain socially awkward blue-haired basketball player, I¡¯d be proud of how I expertly utilized the art of misdirection.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Val crossed her legs daringly, squinted her eyes, and leaned forward on the edge of the bed as she confidently stated, ¡°Dare.¡± I hadn¡¯t thought about it before, but I suddenly realized this was actually a perfect opportunity. If I gave her a dare so outrageous that she was forced to pick truth... I could probably obtain valuable information I¡¯ve always wanted to know from her. ¡°Hold on! You¡¯re just going to ignore me and treat me like air now!¡± The two of us looked back at her when we realized we¡¯d gotten a bit ahead of ourselves. Ugh. Don¡¯t interrupt my spontaneous master plan to extract valuable intel. ¡°... you¡¯re right... sorry... we haven¡¯t even introduced ourselves and we almost went off on our own just now. My name is Diogenes Genovese. It¡¯s¡­ a pleasure to meet you.¡± I couldn¡¯t bring myself to say my real thoughts after the little incident in the bathroom so I fumbled out a few awkward lines. ¡°Ah, I already learned your name from Rose. I¡¯m the only one that actually needs to introduce myself here.¡± Rose? Did that mean she didn¡¯t know Val¡¯s real name and instead only knew her alias? ¡°Don¡¯t be confused, she knows my real name but she just likes to call me Rose for some reason.¡± ¡°Because I like roses, I prefer to call you by that nickname.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve told you many times to just call me Val, it¡¯s troubling for me that you never listen.¡± I¡¯m sure it is considering how it¡¯s the alias you went by when you took up contracts to kill people. ¡°My name is Reine Krovavyy.¡± For some reason, she peaked at me with an expression that suggested she was slightly worried about something. ¡°It¡¯s a pretty unique sounding name. Rain Crovavy, was it?¡± ¡°Yeah... It is. Haha.¡± ¡°Was something worrying you? You look a bit nervous, Ms. Crovavy.¡± Was that awkward mishap in the bathroom bothering her that much? ¡°Please just call me Rain. It feels really weird being referred to as Ms. Krovavyy.¡± Truly though, Val and Rain¡¯s personalities were on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. I was a bit surprised that my overly aggressive boss had a meek friend like this. I still had my suspicions, but because of how different she was from the person I¡¯d expected, I inadvertently lowered my guard before I even realized it. ¡°Rain, I¡¯m still a bit amazed and I¡¯m still finding this a bit inconceivable, but you¡¯re really friends with this penny-pinching boss of mine?¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, were you trying to give me more reasons to dock your pay?¡± ¡°Sorry, it was a joke of course. She¡¯s actually the most magnanimous boss who knows no bounds with her giving nature. She¡¯s a true role model for all women across the globe.¡± At how to be a cheapskate and dock your pay that is. ¡°Good, that sounds much closer to reality, Mr. Genovese.¡± Yeah, the part I didn¡¯t say out loud, right? ¡°Rose, why do you stiffly refer to him as Mr. Genovese?¡± ¡°I used to find it a bit stiff as well, but after a while, I grew more fond of addressing him that way. In a way, it¡¯s a secretly intimate form of address for him as his boss.¡± ¡°Intimate?¡± ¡°Yes, very intimate. It goes far beyond the level of those shallow nicknames that people think they¡¯re close for calling them by.¡± ¡°Since you¡¯re here Reine, why don¡¯t we play truth or dare with Mr. Genovese? You wanted to meet him, right?¡± Rain reservedly nodded her head again. Was she just naturally shy or was I overthinking things? ¡°Then¡­ Mr. Genovese... truth or dare?¡± ¡°Me? Why me? Val already accepted a dare, we should start with her before we get to me.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, don¡¯t you know it¡¯s common courtesy to let your guest go first?¡± ¡°Guest? We¡¯re in a hotel, we¡¯re all guests here.¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t you ever heard of ladies first?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a strong advocate for equality. Whether you¡¯re a man or woman I couldn¡¯t care less, so don¡¯t pull out that ladies first crap with me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s too bad logic doesn¡¯t work with women. We have the majority here. Seeing as we live in a democratic society where majority rules, you can only bend your head in defeat and accept that you¡¯re going first.¡± Ugh. It was only a matter of time. I just need to get it over with and I can go after her. It¡¯s only delaying the inevitable by a bit. As long as I keep my cool for a little longer I¡¯ll be able to interrogate Val. I¡¯ll finally find out everything I want to know from her as long as I make her change her mind and pick truth instead of dare. Chapter 146. Chapter 146. ¡°Truth.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, how many women have you had se-¡° ¡°I change my mind. Dare. Just give me a dare instead.¡± I was far from willing to answer a question like that. ¡°Haha. Then I dare you to go on a date with one of your exes excluding Rose.¡± ¡°What? I¡¯m sorry... I think I misheard your question.¡± ¡°I said, I dare you to go on a date with one of your exes. By the way, you¡¯ve already refused truth so you can¡¯t change your mind again. Also, if you refuse the dare something bad might happen to you.¡± I was slightly intimidated by the way she put it. She didn¡¯t feel like the previous her at all when she said that either. Her personality had done a complete one-eighty out of nowhere. ¡°Tch. Reine, if you make such a dare, he won¡¯t be able to do a thing you know. His first ex is in a coma right now. As for his third and fourth ex, he¡¯s definitely not going to want to meet them either. The only option he has left is his fifth and that one is especially troublesome. You make it seem like he has a choice, but in reality, his only choice is his fifth ex here.¡± ¡°How is his fifth ex troublesome?¡± ¡°Because her father will definitely kill him.¡± ¡°Kill him? Why? Their relationship can¡¯t be that bad, right?¡± ¡°You just don¡¯t know about it is all.¡± ¡°Wait. Wait. Wait. How does she know about my exes and my prior relationship with you?¡± ¡°Well, I naturally told her a bit about you is all.¡± ¡°Why would you reveal the personal information of your employee without their permission?¡± ¡°I own your life with the contract you signed of course. It¡¯s only natural that I can disclose the history of my belongings to somebody else. Remember? It was all in the fine print.¡± ¡°Again with that damned fine print I¡¯ve yet to see?!¡± ¡°Belonging? Rose, he¡¯s not one of your belongings.¡± With slight reverence in my eyes, I looked over to the holy maiden who was benevolent enough to side with me. She understood me, I thought. ¡°If he¡¯s not my belonging, who¡¯s belonging is he supposed to be?¡± ¡°Tha-That is¡­¡± When I noticed her struggle to answer, all that grandeur I built up for her internally plummeted and crashed to the ground. It was pretty obvious she thought I belonged to someone, just not Val.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Uh, Rain, just say it. I don¡¯t belong to anyone, right?¡± ¡°What are you talking about? After you were so forceful just now. You belong to me now, isn¡¯t that obvious?¡± Hah? Wait. Wait. Wait. Those are some rather dangerous sounding words. Is it just me, or did they sound exactly like the thoughts a psychopath would have? ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that! Sorry, I¡¯m just a bit flustered after what just happened and I¡¯m not thinking straight.¡± Strange... very strange¡­ her voice sounded off just now. Slightly different than she had before. Was her voice off-pitch because she was flustered and anxious? Another thing I found strange was how she¡¯d positioned her hand over her mouth whenever she spoke. Was that also simply the result of embarrassment? ¡°Hey, Rain, why do you cover your mouth all the time like that when you¡¯re talking?¡± ¡°After what you did earlier it¡¯s a bit embarrassing.¡± ¡°What he did? Mr. Genovese, Reine, please do let me in on this great secret the two of you seem to be hiding from me? Just what is it he did when I wasn¡¯t watching just now?¡± ¡°¡°Nothing.¡±¡± ¡°I see. I see. Well then... seeing how the two of you are so determined to hide it, I¡¯ll forget about this for the time being. I honestly can¡¯t imagine how much pay I¡¯d have to dock an employee if it turned out he forced himself on a woman in my presence and kissed her. Truly, the amount of money I could save if I had that type of dirt would be pretty amazing.¡± A chill went down my back. The legendary so-called women¡¯s instinct was without any doubt one of the most terrifying things known to man. But... a date with my ex? That makes little to no sense why she¡¯d dare me to do that unless she was related to one of said exes. Initially, I thought she¡¯d turn out to be one of those crazy exes of mine, but Val convinced me otherwise at the start. That said, her actions have been extremely suspicious since she exited the bathroom. Was everything really from the embarrassing situation earlier like she claimed? Her dare also contradicted her own words, despite how she retracted them. Unless... she really turned out to be¡­ one of my exes somehow in disguise. ¡°Mr. Genovese, my dare just now was only a joke. I just wanted to see how you would react to that dare. I was slightly curious, that was all there was to it. My real dare is, I dare you to take responsibility.¡± ¡°Responsibility? For what exactly?¡± ¡°Val doesn¡¯t need you today, but I need your assistance. I have a bit of a problem you see.¡± ¡°A problem?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What exactly is this problem and why would a stranger like me be able to assist you with this supposed problem?¡± ¡°She has a stalker,¡± Val chimed in. ¡°A stalker? No thank you! Please allow me to decline. I¡¯ve had enough of my own problems with stalkers, there¡¯s no way in hell I¡¯m stupid enough to get myself involved with someone else¡¯s stalker. You¡¯d have to think I¡¯m a complete and utter moron to do something idiotic like that!¡± While I made my position clear on the matter, Rain approached closer to me. She whispered into my ear quietly, ¡°Would you like Rose to learn of what happened earlier in the bathroom? Wouldn¡¯t your pay suffer substantially as she mentioned?¡± Had I been played? Why the hell were all women schemers! Even the ones that looked innocent, shy, and normal were devils in sheep¡¯s clothing. ¡°Will you take responsibility, or not, Dio?¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, you don¡¯t have much choice in the matter, it¡¯s a dare. You¡¯ve already been shown enough leniency. You can¡¯t chicken out of it now.¡± I should have just answered her earlier question if I knew the dare would be this atrocious. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with anyone else¡¯s stalker. I have more than enough shit going on around me right now. ¡°Val, can¡¯t you cut me a break this time? You know my situation right now, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Sorry, I owe her a big favor so I can¡¯t.¡± ¡°Mr. Genovese, when I heard about your experiences in the past with stalkers, I knew you were the only one I could seek out advice from. As a master of escaping one¡¯s stalkers, surely you could assist me in this endeavor.¡± You¡¯re bloody breaking my balls here woman. ¡°I refu-¡° ¡°Rose, guess what happened earlier-¡° ¡°I accept.¡± I¡¯m so weak. My paycheck. Please spare its feeble little life. Chapter 147. Chapter 147. I dramatically grit my teeth. I did my best. I truly did everything in my power and fought to my last breath to refuse and turn her down. Unfortunately, when I weighed the two on a scale in my head the thought of my paycheck being cut further was something that scared me more than dealing with her stalker. I even momentarily saw my life flash before my eyes as I extended an arm out in my head toward that poor innocent paycheck that hadn¡¯t harmed anyone. ¡°I¡¯ll be in your care then.¡± With a hostage in Val¡¯s hand, I had no choice but to bend my head in defeat. ¡°So what exactly does this responsibility you mentioned entail?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple, take on the responsibility of helping me get rid of my stalker. With your abilities, I¡¯m sure it won¡¯t be a problem.¡± You have to be shitting me. I can escape from them, sure, but you think I can magically make them disappear like I¡¯m Houfuckingdini? You¡¯ve definitely got the wrong person; in fact, I¡¯d love to meet the person who has such convenient and mystical god-tier level magic at their disposal. They wouldn¡¯t be a stalker if it was so easy to get rid of them. Forget about confronting them, just thinking about stalkers makes me feel ill. I had the queen of stalkers stalking me and it was only thanks to Val that she backed off. ¡°Don¡¯t you think Val would be able to help you out more than I would be able to?¡± ¡°How would Rose be able to help me with this? A woman won¡¯t make a male stalker give up. I need the help of a true man who knows the ins and outs of getting rid of a stalker. A man who can take on the role first hand to scare them off.¡± ¡°I can assure you, You might think I¡¯d be a good candidate based upon my track record, but I can assure you that I¡¯m definitely not a good choice for playing a role like that. I know how to escape from them, that doesn¡¯t equate to being able to get rid of them.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? You single-handedly got the infamous female stalker who made every man she pursued commit suicide back off on your own. If you¡¯re not an experienced god of wisdom in this field, then dares call themselves one?¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°You¡¯re misunderstanding, it¡¯s not like it was because of anything I did that she backed off.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, you still have the experience and are the only one to claim that title among all of her targets.¡± ¡°Val, say something to her, she¡¯s clearly deluded.¡± ¡°Haha, don¡¯t worry Reine, Mr. Genovese is a man who has vast experience in that field. He¡¯ll certainly be able to take care of some random small-time stalker in no time at all.¡± The look in her eyes told me she somehow found the entire situation amusing. As long as it entertained her it was fine with her? Was I a joke to you? Actually, please don¡¯t answer that. My pride would take a hit. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m here on important work with Val so I really don¡¯t have the luxury to-¡° ¡°Mr. Genovese, as I¡¯ve said before, we''re pretty much free today until we hear back from those big wigs. Even when they do contact us back, I¡¯ll be the one to finalize all the smaller details so you can continue assisting her while I see about that.¡± With my paycheck held at gunpoint and no avenue of retreat, I could only dejectedly accept this so-called dare. ¡°I understand.¡± Yes, I fully understood how screwed I really was. ¡°Perfect, then let¡¯s head out and locate the stalker in question so you can work your magic.¡± ¡°What? Wait, what about my turn for truth or dare?¡± With a sinister smile, Val responded like it was only natural, ¡°You¡¯re in the middle of a dare, Mr. Genovese, obviously you have to complete your dare before it¡¯s our turn.¡± Haaaaah... What did I really expect? ¡°This is a scam.¡± ¡°It¡¯s your own fault for falling for the scam. Enough bickering, let¡¯s go.¡± With a long sigh, I proceeded to the door. When I opened the door¡­ Bang! I wasn¡¯t even given a chance. I reflexively shut my eyes tight when the gunshot resounded loudly in front of me. I felt a nearly instantaneous pain; its origin, my forehead, When I reopened my eyes, blood trickled down over my eyes and painted my vision a bloody crimson. All the strength in my body dissipated into thin air. I collapsed back onto the ground. Like a blur forming a collage; the wall, door frame, and ceiling whizzed by my eyes one by one. A second later, the ceiling morphed into a door. The person I¡¯d just seen outside the door who shot me was nowhere to be found. But the door in front of me now wasn¡¯t the same door from the hallway in the hotel. It was... different, but it was definitely one I knew well. Chapter 148. Chapter 148. I was... somehow outside the door to my apartment. How did I get here though? Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. With a sudden loud static noise, my thoughts became disorganized into a jumbled mess as I remembered a slew of memories that lead up to the present. I retraced my steps in those memories and deciphered how I¡¯d gotten here. The disorganized memories ran through my mind rapidly, but there was still a gap between them and how I¡¯d gotten here. After I was shot¡­ was I really shot? I¡¯m not even sure, but several events transpired after that. Eventually, I reached my limit and I chose to return home regardless of what Val said. When I chose to return home I deeply mulled over all the events that had happened to me and at some unknown point, I found myself outside my apartment. That was what led to me returning, but between when I saw Val last when I was together with Reine and now there was still a gap. When I turned around I saw the same familiar scenery of the cityscape below that I always saw whenever I left my apartment to go to work. With the scenery I was accustomed to, there, I confirmed this was my apartment and not just a door and passage that looked the same. My gaze returned to the door. There was no sign of Val or Reine anywhere in sight. From the memories I had, I realized I¡¯d previously mistaken the spelling for her name when I first heard it; it was spelled Reine, not Rain. She¡¯d corrected me on it when it was just the two of us alone together. Though right now, the spelling of her name was the least of my concerns if my memories were correct. For the time being, I was completely alone with neither of those two women to be found. The real question was whether this was reality, or whether this was all in my head again. It wasn¡¯t just those two that were gone, there was no sign of anybody in my immediate vicinity and I felt a strange sort of unsettling dissonance. It was my home, right? This was where I lived and it wouldn¡¯t turn out to be someone else¡¯s place when I entered, right? Random doubts ran through my mind as I settled my on edge nerves. I took out my keys with my unsteady hand. When I tried to insert the key for the door in the keyhole, I stubbed the key on the lock and accidentally dropped it. I immediately picked it up from the ground then this time carefully inserted it and opened the door. What greeted me was a dark room with the lights all off. I flipped the switch by the entrance to turn the lights on, but immediately discovered there was no power. Had I forgotten to pay the electricity bill? Did they shut me off or something? Just as quickly as I mused over that thought, the light flickered momentarily before it released a short buzz and died out. A faulty bulb was the cause? I entered the room and retrieved a new bulb from the closet beside the entrance. I unscrewed the light bulb from the socket and hurriedly replaced it. It lit up for a moment before the exact same process repeated itself. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Was there a short that caused it? However, right before the light bulb went out again, I noticed something I didn¡¯t recall leaving on the table before I left. It was only for a brief second and I even doubted my eyes when my brain finally registered its appearance. It was gold with a metallic sheen. I vaguely understood what it was, but I couldn¡¯t figure out why such a thing was there. I certainly didn¡¯t own one, so how did it end up on the table in my apartment? Amidst the darkness, I approached the table as I extended my hand out curious as to whether it was truly there. When I touched it, an electrifying tingle ran down my back. Cold, was my first thought when I touched it. I was certain, it was a gun. I picked it up and made out the shape through touch while I relocated to the balcony to get a better look at it with the illumination from outside. When I was a few feet away from the balcony, my eyes shrunk; I... recognized the gun. It was the same one the person that shot me held when I opened the door back in the hotel. Why... was it here? I¡¯d lost my mind. The theory in my head this time was even crazier than all the others before this. Was the world trying to tell me I shot myself? Am I supposed to kill myself for some reason? What the hell? Why... Why... Why would I do that? I... killed myself? How? I can¡¯t logically comprehend such a preposterous sequence of events. Was I the one tormenting myself rather than all this being caused by someone else? Not my exes, nor some ghost? If I take the gun and kill myself now, would I understand anything? How can I understand something by performing such an idiotic act? There will be no time to understand anything if I shoot myself. I¡¯d simply turn into a corpse devoid of life before I even have a chance to formulate a single thought. A chill ran down my back as my gaze instinctively shot up from the gun to the balcony. With wide-open unblinking eyes, I looked blankly in front of me as something ethereal and semi-transparent phased through my body from behind. What I saw was... me? Holding the gun, the other me stood there and looked over the edge of the balcony. He slowly lifted the nuzzle up to his chin ready to blow his head off with resolution. He took a deep breath in and out as he braced himself. His finger slowly pulled down on the trigger until- Bang! I reflexively blinked from the loud gunshot. The instant before my eyes shut fully, I blood splattered up into the air like a fountain. I even felt the droplets of warm blood that landed on my skin when my eyes were closed. When I reopened them, I saw a completely contradictory scene. The apparition of myself that¡¯d just blown off his head, who previously faced away from me, now looked directly at me with the gun pointed in my direction. I broke out into a sweat. Of course, I was naturally nervous. BaBaBaBaBaBang! Without any chance to react, he pulled the trigger six times in rapid succession. A cacophony of noise explosively rang out loud and overlapped constructively as my brain was rattled from the aftershock. The bullets traveled along trajectories as if in slow motion, but I still couldn¡¯t move out of the way to avoid them. It was like my brain could process it all, but my body had no way to react. The bullets passed directly through my body, the only strange thing was... I felt no pain from any holes punctured through my flesh. Instead of a body full of holes, they¡¯d cleanly phased through my body similar to how the apparition of myself phased through my body earlier. When I turned around and followed the path the bullets had traversed, I saw- Chapter 149. (Volume 2 End) Chapter 149. Who was it that I saw? It was indistinct and blurry as several figures overlapped at once. Adele? Val? Anna? No, was it Maria? It also felt like I could see my fifth ex standing there. I couldn¡¯t comprehend what I¡¯d seen at all. Their figures all overlapped perfectly in one place. I shook my head to try to snap out of it, but it was futile, they never disappeared. Though that was not to say there was no change at all. This time, the scene was different, they all held up a gun pointed in the direction of the balcony. A conflict suddenly broke out between me on the balcony and the depiction of the overlapped ghastly apparitions. This time, the apparition of myself was shot by them. The more scenes I saw, the greater my confusion grew. Eventually, I was left with a terrible migraine that only grew progressively worse as time went on. The echoes of countless gunshots perpetually overlapped which only worsened my condition. With each shot fired, the amplitude of those overlapping sounds violently crescendoed, unceasingly to the point I felt my head would explode. ¡°GAHHHHHHHHHHH!¡± ¡°GAHHHHHHHHHHH!¡± ¡°GAHHHHHHHHHHH!¡± My scream only added to the endless echoes. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS! I¡¯LL SERIOUSLY DIE IF THIS GOES ON! I was overwhelmed by the pain and couldn¡¯t bear it any longer. The pain was that of a brain being split down the middle torn in two opposing directions. I let out another loud hysterical cry when I reached my limit, similar to before, it made things worse as it mixed in amidst all the noise. I couldn¡¯t hold onto the gun properly and as a result of the splitting headache, I resentfully tossed it at the apparition on the balcony in rage. The gun, similar to what happened to me earlier, phased directly through his body. Death was a very tempting seductress amidst the chaotic world spinning in my head, her allure was irresistibly enticing if it meant this otherworldly pain in my head would end. Anything was a better option than the wretched pain reeling in waves across my body that inched me ever closer to the brink of insanity. My sight turned back toward the gun I¡¯d just tossed away. I immediately regretted that I¡¯d thrown it instead of immediately shooting myself. I stumbled my way over to the balcony and collapsed to the ground disoriented. I clawed at the ground desperately with my hands and dragged my body forward. When I reached the gun, I picked it up and pressed it firmly against the side of my head. I grabbed onto the balcony railing with my free hand and pulled myself up to my feet. What came into view next was the scenery beyond the edge of the balcony. My breathing increased proportionally to my nervousness. My heart pounded violently against my chest. The world was lopsided, distorted, and twisted.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I took in a long breath without exhaling and held it in. I prepared to pull the trigger that would end this outrageous pain. It was right when I thought to pull the trigger that the sound of gunshots came to an abrupt end. With the sudden disappearance of the noise, the pain subsided as I stood there frozen in place when I realized what I¡¯d nearly done. ¡°Hah¡­ Hah¡­ Hah¡­¡± I gasped for air as I desperately calmed myself down. I¡¯m crazy. I really... almost pulled the trigger just now. When I finally cooled my head, just when I prepared to lower the gun and thought the whole ordeal was over, I heard the whisper of the devil behind me. ¡°Darling, I¡¯m back... Did you... miss me?¡± One arm wrapped around my waist from behind, the other held onto my hand with the gun. She prevented me from moving the gun away from my head. As for who it was, by the voice and form of address alone, I knew it was Adele. Her tone was enough to assure me it wasn¡¯t the innocent version of her either. ¡°Y-y-you¡­ it¡¯s impossible. You should-¡± ¡°Be in the hospital?¡± With traumatized eyes, I nodded my head in dead silence when I noticed an incongruity with respect to the situation I¡¯d found myself in. The feeling from behind... it didn¡¯t feel like Adele¡¯s body, instead, it felt like my fifth ex¡¯s. It wasn¡¯t the only thing I found out of place. The scent, I knew the smell well, it was my third ex¡¯s scent. It wasn¡¯t only the scent that threw me off. The taste in my mouth, it was bitter like a poisonous drug that reminded me of Maria. I didn¡¯t turn around to look. I was too shocked to do so. I was lost in all the conflicting sensory signals being fed to my brain. ¡°Who... are you?¡± ¡°What do you mean, Darling? Can¡¯t you recognize me, Honey? My precious Dio?¡± ¡°Get away from me!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do that. Darling, you¡¯ll find freedom if you die you know. Even if you die, you¡¯ll still live. By dying once, you¡¯ll come to accept the truth. You¡¯ll finally face reality. Just die once for me. Pretty please?¡± ¡°You¡¯re insane! Death is death. Once I die it¡¯s really over. Everything is all in my head. All in my head. All in my head! World lines? That¡¯s just the nonsensical ramblings of a madman! I¡¯m just a normal human, not some immortal freak of nature who won¡¯t die if shot! I¡¯m not an experimental lab rat! I AM HUMAN! A NORMAL HUMAN! A human¡­ a human...¡± ¡°Darling, come. Let us die together. Let¡¯s be together forever.¡± ¡°Let go of me! What are you doing?¡± ¡°Just helping you.¡± She bent my finger and placed it on the trigger. ¡°Stop! What are you doing?¡± I¡¯d lost all control over my body. It was like I was possessed. I was just willingly following along with her actions. ¡°Get out of my head! You¡¯re just a phantom! You aren¡¯t real!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not real, am I?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not!¡± She moved her head over my shoulder. What I saw was a head of black hair. When her face came into view, it was a completely pitch black ball with no eyes or nose. Only a mouth with a large grin. I only saw endless darkness inside her mouth... no, its mouth. Whatever it was. It was like a bottomless abyss. ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s really me, Darling. It makes me sad when you can¡¯t recognize the woman you¡¯ve dated all these years. We¡¯ve been together for so long already, yet you just aren¡¯t aware of it. Or at least, you just won¡¯t accept it. When you are complete though, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll accept me like I accept everything about you. Together we will become an existence that surpasses all. Just pull the-¡± Bang! My eyes rolled back from the pin point pain that spread through my body like thunder through the air. My eyes opened wider than they ever had before. Blood gushed out from my forehead. My body slumped forward over the balcony. My thoughts were left in a completely blank slate. My vision grew darker. The resulting impact from the gun shot pushed me over the edge as I fell downward. In the instant, before I fell, I got one last good look at the insides of my room. I thought I saw a figure from the bottom of my rolled-back eyes, but my mind was already unable to process anything by this point. In my final moments, with the last choppy semblance of consciousness still intact, I thought, ¡®I knew it... I¡¯m not immortal... I¡¯m human... I can die... To think otherwise¡­ insanity... death... The end... true... end... Free¡­ domin... sense... re¡­ leased... from... torment... of... cru-¡± The sky grew more distant as I fell. It didn¡¯t take long until even the sky disappeared into a pitch-black world of nothingness. The only thing that vaguely remained was the whizzing of the wind. My body had lost all sense of pain by this point. A few moments later... silence w- Volume 2 End.