Episode 5

Episode 5

Enear

"The IASA announced that the meteoroid–"

Enear turned off the small boxed TV. He stared at the necklace and a letter atop the tea table just right before the floor where he slept. His father had not arrived yet. Maybe he found a new family to sleep with–that's why he said he loves him and his mother for the first time which just meant goodbye. 

Enear drew out the curtain and the dawn's wind warmed his skin and tousled the short sleeve of his white uniform wrapped by a brown vest. It was just morning yet, it's already hot. The world always felt like living inside the sauna hut. 

He looked back again at the brown necklace shaped like an oval with pointed ends, attached with light black chains. The table was at the center, surrounded with the metal walls of cargo containers. Outside the curtain were crowded with metal box shelters like his.

After walking an hour on the reddish dirt and dusty highway, he arrived at the train station. Pillars were stained in black, trying to hold up the ceilings eaten by rusts, sunshine poking through the holes. He stayed behind the small crowd. After a few minutes, the ground rumbled. The train came and fetched the passengers.

The yellow lights pierced the window glass of the train, touching Enear's cheeks as he watched the buildings contesting heights to each other. He remembered when Dycron and him crossed their paths inside the train. Dycron's bright yellow eyes sparkling while watching the progress of humanity.

"One day, I'll own one among these buildings in this city. And I will call it Cyber Tech Advancement Company," he would say and glanced at Enear's uninterested green eyes. "How about you, Enear?"

I wanted to see those buildings melt piece by piece, together with the statues, until they turned to ashes. Just how it was supposed to be when the Nuclear came to claim the suffering of humanity. He wanted to reply. But nevermind.

Enear put his wrist in the level of his chest and opened the hologram of his watch.

Career Evaluation Test

Fill in the blanks with the best words that suit your desire.

I like doing ________

I am good at ________

My dream is _________

Killing, killing, to kill everyone.

~

"Okay, class, pass your drone project together with your career evaluation test," the teacher announced in the classroom.

Jonathan in his chair glanced at Enear, expecting something. When he saw Enear wasn't grabbing out a thing from his bag, his eyes began to rattle. The representatives fall in line to offer their drones to their teachers. The line was nearly ending, yet Enear was still on his blank face, staring in the air. Why wasn't he standing up yet to pass their drone?

Until the line had been cleared and the teacher checked his list.

"Jonathan and Enear, stand up," he declared and looked at his students. "Where is your project?"

The class buzzed with murmurs.

"Why are they hiding it from us?"

"Are they waiting for this moment to land a surprise?"

"If it's Enear, I won't be surprised anymore if he overdoes his projects again. He's a top student afterall."

Enear slowly stood up. "I didn't do it," he replied nonchalantly. 

"Come on, Enear, you just forgot it in your house, right?" Jonathan made an alibi.

"It's okay if you forgot it. Just pass it tomorrow–"

"I told you–"

"It was broken, right?" Jonathan interrupted and made a frustrating face, "Oh my! We worked hard for it! Why did you let a broken dog on the street bite it!"

"What a suspense," the class commented.

"I have no reason to do this crap. I'm not going to a university anyway," Enear said monotonously, and without looking at his classmate, he added, "Jonathan, you tried to take advantage of the wrong person."

The teacher raised one of his brow to Jonathan. "So you didn't make anything at all?"

The bully shook his head in disbelief. "N-No, Sir. W-We made a drone–"

"Stop." 

Jonathan gulped anxiously.

The teacher looked at Enear. "It's okay, Mr. Flos. With your high written outputs, you will still get 76 marks even without passing a project. There will still be some universities that will accept you."

Enear fixed his green soulless eyes at his teacher. "Are you deaf?"

Silence waved in the corners of the classroom. Enear was always disrespectful. But a top student telling he won't go to a university brought them the feeling of sympathy rather than the urge to discipline him.

"H-How about me, Sir?" Jonathan broke the momentum and stole their attention.

The teacher hesitantly stared to Jonathan. "Oh. You only get high scores on assignments but not on quizzes. We will meet next year."

"But, Sir! My grandmother has stage 5 lung cancer! Her only last wish is to see me at graduation! S-She won't make it if it is next year!"

The bell rang. The teacher packed his things before he answered uninterestedly, "You should have told that yourself while still early."

Jonathan dragged Enear inside the stockroom–a one story small room departed from the other buildings. It was filled with dusty boxes lined in steel shelves, and the sun was barely invited by the small windows near the ceilings.

"What have you done!?" he screamed in anguish to his face, just an inch of space between their noses. The way he looked at Enear, eyes blazing with the urge to kill him.

"I've done nothing to be exact," Enear said emotionless

Jonathan grabbed his neck and squeezed tightly. The veins popping on his strong hands. 

"You knew it! You would pass without submitting a project! So this is where you can take revenge on me, right!?" Jonathan blew a heavy fist on his face. His head twisted sideward. It stung on his head, almost breaking his skulls. 

But he didn't bother flinching. He just didn't care anymore. There's no point to this life even if he dies right now.

"That punch will just heal a day, or perhaps a month. But my grandma wishes to haunt my guilt forever! So, to be fair, I'll make this day remarkable to you too forever!" Jonathan yelled as he drove his knee to Enear's stomach. 

Enear gasped in pain, collapsing as his back slid down onto the floor. Without giving him a rest, Jonathan unleashed a barrage of kicks simultaneously, assaulting every part of his body. Curled like a baby, Enear covered his head, accepting all the anguish of his classmate as if he was a turtle encased with a protective shell.

Enear might be a ruthless assassin every night, with a record of killing hundreds of dangerous people, but in the end, he's just a seventeen-year-old lad, trying to find a reason to live.

But now, that dream has gone. Thanks to his father, his teacher, to Jonathan, and to this world.

Enear heard a giggle. When he peeked his eyes open, he saw a smile striking on Jonathan's lips. He was crying in despair just before, but now, beating someone to death was now giving him joy–

The kind of people the messiahs hoped to save; making me buy bread when I barely fill my own stomach. Those scientists saved humanity just to birth people like him.

To preserve a corrupted government to run this sickening world.

To give birth to my father to make me a killing machine.

To create my mother to give me false hope.

To labor me just to give me a life suffering in the lowest form of the food chain.

Enear's eyelids started to feel heavy. The pain was fading, unable to feel his body, letting him to release his defense posture, giving up himself. Lying on the ground like floating on the water, like a dead doll existed to receive people's frustration from their fists and kicks.

His head turned sideways, the door of light shone before his eyes, wishing his father to come and tell him to void the order of not executing anyone without an order. His palm was now itching to grab the knife hidden in his shoes and slit the throat of the useless dummy in front of him.

Why even bother to save this humanity when this should be crushed from the start>

The immorality and suffering should have ended from the day before I was born in this world.

I may not be able to change the past.

But I can take control of this world's future.

And become the messiah to end all the sufferings.

"I'm a killing machine afterall."

"Get away from him or I'll kill you, Jonathan!"

Just like a lion roared when the door banged open, almost broken. Enear witnessed a fierce blaze in those yellow eyes, a stare was enough to kill one's soul, eyes that were once full of enthusiasm. Dycron's veins bulged on his neck, gritting his teeth like a wild beast, panting as if thirsting for vengeance. Before him hovered a flying drone, with a gun aiming in their direction.

The blast of light struck down behind Dycron, like an angel perishing the darkness of the world. Tears escaped in Enear's green eyes, an unfamiliar sensation that made him feel weak. 

The deep ear-piercing rumbling sound intensified, sending shivers down their spines, and jolting fear throughout their bodies. Time seemed to warp as if the clock skipped a beat when they were suddenly thrust into the air by a colossal impact of the ground. In a single second, the symphony of crashing glasses and crumblings of cements echoed through their ears. The next thing they knew was the world swallowed with darkness.

A colossal meteor had fallen to claim humanity.

Quintessence Nightmare | mvcabusas