Awakening

Marcus hurriedly climbed the stairs and zoomed into the room. He saw the woman lying on the bed without any movement.

"Didn't you say everything was on fire? But look around you, I don't see any fire, and neither the room appears to be damaged." Marcus glared at Marvin and uttered.

"But I saw it… There was fire everywhere. This room… here… she… caused it all… I saw it with my own eyes. Why won't you believe me?" Marvin asked him.

"Marvin, you are delusional. Wake up. I guess it's you, who need a long sleep. I am sure all these years you were working hard, now it's time for you to take some rest." Marcus said and tapped behind his neck twice.

Marvin fell on the floor unconscious instantly. Marcus snapped his fingers and a few of the subservient vampires rushed inside the room. They lifted Marvin from the ground and brought him to his crypt.

Once they left, Marcus walked towards the woman lying on the bed and caressed her cheeks. She was colder than him and it felt like she was not alive.

He kept his head on her chest and listened to her heartbeat. Even though it was very light compared to normal humans, still he could hear the pulsation of the heart under her ribcage.

"What are you and who are you?" He asked and pecked on her lips.

There was still no movement from her. He rubbed her head lovingly and kissed her forehead.

…

"How is it going?" Brian asked while checking at the monitor for the progress of the transformation.

"She is doing good. But the connection is still not getting established properly. Her soul transfer is successful but reviving her in her new body is not working. Unlike last time, the functioning of the system had been altered after the first travel. It looks like we are missing something important," Jorge said and clicked on the system continuously to figure out the reason for the malfunction.

"How long do we have before the body of the host disappears from the other dimension?" Jorge asked and slid while sitting on his chair towards his mother.

"Exactly two hours. If we cannot do the transfer successfully in two hours then the body of the host will disappear. We will have to find a new body and it would be difficult as there was no more human left in that dimension." Brian reported.

"Then let's try to transfer my mom efficiently in two hours. I am going to reboot the system again and see if it's going to work," Jorge said and hit the restart button next to the bed his mom was lying.

Then he returned to his desk that had several monitors connected on the wall. Each one of the monitors displayed the performance of a different system.

"I found the reason behind the transfer delay," Brian shouted.

Jorge dashed near him and saw the error message on the screen.

"This… This… Isn't this the host's internal memory that we are trying to hide?" Jorge inquired.

"Yes, but the body is rejecting the process because the memory of the previous owner is recovered," Brian explained to him.

"Let's continue the process," Jorge ordered.

"But, it would mean the soul will have the memory of the previous owner and it may cause confusion to the host's body," Brian said.

"That's fine. My mom is intelligent enough to figure out that it was not her memory." Jorge mumbled.

The system once again came back online and started the processing. A message got displayed on the screen,

'The transfer is complete with the memory of the host body. The host will awaken in a few minutes. Awakening initiated…"

"Yes! We have done it!" Brian shouted and jumped in joy.

"We have achieved our goal. Your mother will stay alive forever…" Brian patted Jorge's back and hugged him.

Jorge sat there with no reaction on his face. He looked at his mother once and tears flowed down his cheeks.

He pushed Brian away and walked near his mother who laid on the bed with wrinkles all over her body.

"Do you know my mother never fell in love with anyone or even married throughout her whole life?" Jorge stared at his mother and asked Brian.

"I know… She is the iron-lady everyone looked up to. She started from scratch with almost nothing in her hands and built an empire with no one's help. Everyone admires her and she is a role model to almost all of the country's citizens," Brian said with admiration in his eyes.

"Yes, that's the only part everyone concentrated on but I have seen her other sides too. As she never got any affection from her childhood and suffered a lot, she always thought money was everything in her life. Love and warmth, she never got any. So, she never knew what those words even mean," Jorge stopped speaking and held his mother's withered hands.

He took a lotion that was kept on the side and applied it to her dry hands.

"Did you see her hands? Even before she went into a coma, she had been working hard. She didn't know why she was working so hard or what she actually wanted in her life. All she thought was to work until the last breath. She never complained even once, when she got a call from the factories after midnight. She would rush to the location and resolve all the problems." Jorge said and closed the lotion bottle.

He kept it on the table and said, "I now hope that this withered bride would live a life which she missed in her hundred years. I will make sure that she would always have someone at her side who would protect her all the time. And not the other way around.

I will ensure that she will feel the love and compassion that she missed getting from anyone here. Even if I have to change the fate of someone, then I would do it. I will go to any extent and fulfill all that my mother never got in this lifetime."

He then looked at Brian and mumbled, "If you feel that I am doing something wrong or you could not help me out anymore, then you are free to leave. I would not stop you."

"Why would I? If it was not for your mother, I would have been left in the streets to fend for myself against the harsh world. I am always grateful to her for what she had done for me. And I would never leave you, you are my best friend. I have no one in the outside world who needs me. But here, I have a friend and his mother. I am really happy that you chose me as your helper," Brian assured that he would never think of leaving him, no matter what!

He then went back to monitor the system. Jorge felt relieved and a huge burden lifted off his shoulder.

He changed the drip bottle that was almost over and examined his mother's health. When he noticed that everything was normal and going smoothly according to their plan, he got relaxed.

"I will cook something for both of us. It had been a long day. If you want to take some rest or freshen up, go ahead. I had already put the alert into the system so that we will be notified immediately if anything went wrong. As she has just awakened, the system will automatically provide her with some minor tasks." Jorge informed him.

"Alright, I will go once I finish this last check," Brian said and got busy with his work.