14 Jackson’s memory of Haruto

In a maximum-security prison, with no windows, Jackson was held as a prisoner. When his plane landed, he was arrested without any explanations. No one was ready to talk to him or even hear his explanations. He was immediately transported to this prison and all the things which he brought along with him had been confiscated.

He was being monitored for almost all day and no one would tell him why he was arrested. When almost two days passed like this, one day he was handed a handwritten book to read. When he opened the book and saw the title, "The Deathly App", he lost interest in reading that book. He kept it aside and once again went near the door and shouted,

"Anybody there? Why are you doing this to me? I did not do anything wrong. I have to see my son immediately. At the least give me an explanation of why I am being held captive."

However he shouted it just echoed inside the closed doors and no one answered. They gave him 2 meals a day through the small door. He was not allowed to go anywhere other than the room he was confined in.

He went and sat in a corner. Once again his eyes laid on the book, 'The Deathly App'. Because of boredom, he opened the book and flipped through the pages. Suddenly, the name Hastin caught his attention.

"The author of the book, Hastin. My son! It's my son's book? Does he actually write horror and thriller novels? What a total waste of time! Once I meet him, I will make him stop all this bullshit and train him properly to become my successor."

He threw the book away into one corner. Because of the force, when the book landed a page opened and it displayed,

'Dedicated to Jackson, by THE APP'

"Did my son know that I am here? Why does it say 'The app' instead of my son's name."

Out of curiosity, he picked the book and started to read,

'How are you Jackson? Even though we have never met, I have heard a lot about you from Haruto. Poor soul, may his soul rest in peace.'

"What happened to Haruto? What did you do?"

'Let us just be clear about one thing first, how much ever you shout no one would respond to you. Do you even know why you were arrested? For carrying an ultra weapon that could destroy half of this country. Do not worry, I would make sure you would rot in that prison forever.

You should have stayed hidden when you found out that you survived the accident. I will tell you the truth, I am the one who caused that accident in the first place. Do you know why? Every time Haruto opened his mouth, he would blabber about you non-stop.

In truth, you are actually not that great. I know all about you, investors. If you did not find out that he was actually a genius who could make your investments grow ten folds, do you think you would have even rescued him from those evil men?

No! Definitely not! Let us just keep all these talks for some later time. Do you want to know what I have converted your son into? Then go ahead, read the terminating stories of your friends from all over the world. I picked your most favorite ones and gave them the ultimate scare of their life.

Oh! I even asked Akemi to include her life in this story, which Hastin didn't know. I hope you will enjoy reading this book and please all your feedback is welcome. You can just look at the camera which is placed on the right corner of the roof.

Your feedback will be added to the review section, definitely after severe filtration and alteration, to encourage the author to write more and more such real horror to entertain you.

Now let us not waste any more time, and see how your friends died.'

"Akemi? What is Akemi doing here? Is she staying with my son? How do they know each other? Didn't Akihiro say that she went missing a few days back? What is happening? Who is this person? Why is he doing all this to his family?"

The book dropped from his hands and he shivered. He cannot believe anything that was written. He went towards the door of his cell and started to bang on it.

"Someone opened the door. My son's life is in danger. I need to go now. I have nothing to do with the weapon. Please, I beg you. Let me out!" Jackson shouted.

Inside the monitoring room where Jackson's face appeared on the screen,

"Sir, He talked about the weapon! Should we go and interrogate him now?" an officer dressed in a blue uniform asked his senior officer.

"No, let us wait for a few more days. Only when all his will power is lost, then we could make him confess. We might have to declare war on another country for helping a terrorist bring such a powerful weapon into our country. And currently that weapon was being tested to analyze its power. Let us wait for the results, at least. Till now, I have received news that no one had ever seen such a tiny weapon with massive power in it. Just think, if there were many such weapons, then this whole earth would be destroyed in no time." Colonel Gary said.

"Yes, you are correct, Colonel. Let us monitor him more, he might even be willing to talk on his own."

"Closely watch him and do not let anyone near his door. We do not know what he is capable of doing. I have asked the team to do a search using his face in our system. And you know what was the result I got? This person here was declared dead twelve years ago in an accident in Japan. And now, he came back alive. I don't know if the dead man came back alive or the person had a surgery to resemble the dead man."

"He definitely looks dangerous. I will increase the security level for him. And would never allow such a man to cause any trouble for our nations."

Officer Carson saluted the colonel and declared. Colonel Gary responded back and left to carry on with his other duties.

Jackson did not want to lose hope. He kept on knocking on the door until his hands started to bleed. But no one answered him despite how loudly he shouted. He was not sure if anyone was even there behind the closed doors.

Suddenly the light went off and complete darkness surrounded him. It was very difficult to see anything around him. He sat near the door and closed his eyes.

"Do you know, Jackson, what I want to build? A super artificial intelligence app that would make this world shake in terror!" Haruto said while shaking his head in one direction.

"Sure! Haruto. If you say so. But remember to add your favorite animals in it. By the way you are a good painter. I would like to hold an exhibition of your paintings one day. Would you allow me to?" Jackson said and held Haruto's hand.

A few years back, when Jackson saw Haruto being tortured on the streets, he chased away the men and rescued Haruto. He was just twelve at that time. All he could see was a boy similar to his son. He asked him where his parents were? But when the boy spoke, he understood his problem.

"Parents…. parents… parent's…" He repeated the words but later when Jackson soothed him, he realized that Haruto was not a normal kid.

Most of the time, he repeated what he heard rather than answering the questions, Jackson asked. He couldn't find anything useful and tried to take him to the police station. But the minute he saw the place he was brought to, he immediately ran away and hid behind a bush.

When Jackson reached him, he saw Haruto shiver and tremble in fear.

"It's ok. Let us not go there, if you do not like it. Relax!" Jackson took his hand.

They went to Kayoko and Jackson described her what happened. Kayoko tried to talk to him for a long time. But he would not open his mouth and would rather cling to Jackson. Haruto hid behind Jackson all the time.

After a long time, Haruto finally got used to Kayoko. She gave him food and water. Haruto, who was hesitant at first, later grabbed the food when Jackson signaled him to take it. He hungrily gulped the food down.

Looking at him wolf down and almost cleared the whole plate in a few minutes, like he never saw food before. Kayoko brought even more food for him to eat. Once she noticed that he was full, Kayoko approached him and asked for this name.

"I am… Haruto…"

"Good boy, Haruto. Can you now tell me where are your parents?"

"Parents...Parents...Parents…" Haruto repeated the words once again.

"Even I tried to ask him before about his parents. All he did was repeat that word and shake his head in one direction. I am not sure what is wrong with him."

"I think we might need to take him to a psychiatrist to find out more. He really repeats our words a lot rather than answering our questions.." Kayoko said while trying to disinfect the wounds on Haruto's body.