~Chapter 39~

TW: Sensitive content ahead, proceed with caution.

A loud bang interrupted the dreamless sleep of a certain young boy. He didn't wake up immediately, his eyes refused to open but his senses became clear. Two minutes later, he decided to shake off his sleep even though his body protested. He forced himself to get up from his warm bed and with his unsteady legs, he crawled under his bed sleepily and after a bit of searching blindly in the dark, he found what he was looking for as he touched the cold metal. He took it out rubbed off the remnant sleep off his eyes and exited his bedroom.

He tried to turn on the light switch but it didn't work. Probably there's power outage due to the rain along with gusty wind that's blowing outside. He clutched his phone and his metal baseball bat in his hands as he proceeded with whatever little amount of light the phone's flashlight could provide. He slowly got to the living room and eventually towards the front door that was at present hanging on side from its hinges. Suddenly he felt a chilly shiver run down his back. He sensed that a darkness prowled around his house like a greedy hyena, poisoning the air of the enclosed area. The area though not completely enclosed because the front door is not closed but the resident inside it clearly remembers of locking it properly. 

Slowly he felt a presence behind him and he started to hyperventilate after which he collapsed and suffocated even after opened door from where the drizzling rain outside is soaking the dry carpet due to the gusts of wind.

And he thought he was over with all these...

The presence simply held out their hand to touch the previously standing boy but now at the sight of him being collapsed, the presence itself felt like their selves have been divided into two sections with one section urging to go down and have their way with the boy and the other section is pleading to dial the emergency number and help him out. The former self unfortunately won.

The resident of the house suffocated, shivered, making breaths come out in pants as the hyena coiled around him tightening its grasp on him, peering at him with its haunting, creepy reddish-brown eyes. The whispers in his mind became stronger and so did the annoying ringing in his ears.

 Stop!

Just stop!

 Once again lightening crackled, illuminating the dark room and shone on the metal club that has rolled onto his side and the mobile phone that is still clutched into his hands. Something or someone made the person float before he sank further into the abyss of semi-consciousness—somehow now he could breathe a bit. He opened his eyes for a fraction and saw a light ahead of him; it seemed quite far away, if he only could move his hands, he could've got a hold of that light.

 Won't he be able to do it? Couldn't he at least try?

...…Even if he did…will he succeed?

What's the point in trying when he won't succeed…and as if sensing his rejection, the light died down.

He closed his eyes again and allowed the darkness to engulf him peacefully so that he doesn't suffer so much but surrender to whatever pain is going to be inflicted upon him. But once again the previous vision of the annoying light behind his eyelids distracted his subsequent submissive mind. This time, he got frustrated because neither he could surrender himself totally to the darkness nor could he get his hands on that light. The vision of light teased him annoyingly as if asking him to catch it if he can.

Annoyed and frustrated, the unmovable hand moved and with the fingers, grasped the light tighter, got hold of the metal club and swung it with all the force he had stored in his body blindly.

He just wanted everything to stop.

And it did stop.

The annoying ringing, the creepy hyena, the ominous presence, the claustrophobic darkness, everything just disappeared all at once and he was left drenched in rain water.

Rio's left hand trembled as he held on his phone to call someone as his other hand might be suffering from a sprain, probably due to swinging the baseball bat a little too hard. Upon remembering the baseball bat, he found it slid underneath the couch of the living room. He crawled over to reach that baseball bat but stopped when he caught hold of certain patches of wet mud left by boots. He felt his entire body starting to get numb.

It wasn't a hallucination out of his panic attack!

Emilia knew how to drive thanks to the personal training by her aunt but she never applied for a license. At this point that's what she regretted the most of not having a license yet driving her aunt's car in the middle of the night amidst a rainstorm that is not showing any signs of stopping. She had already called the emergency number and hoped that the police would have already reached Rio's house. That call from Rio was not only a cry for help to her; it was a desperate attempt to live.

By the time she reached, the police along with ambulance are already there and they're in the middle of escorting Rio out of the house in a stretcher with an oxygen mask on his face.

Emilia rushed over before they could close the ambulance doors; "Hi I am Emilia. Mind if I join?"

"And what is your relationship with the patient, ma'am?"

"I—uh I am his girlfriend." She blurted out to the paramedic.

"Okay. Hop in."

Emilia didn't even know when she had dozed off. She started awake when she felt her ringtone ringing loudly. She was so worried about seeing Rio unconscious with the oxygen mask all through the ride to the hospital that she had forgotten to set her phone in silent mode.

She picked up the call. It was her aunt. A series of questions were rained on her before she could even start speaking; "Emilia! Where are you? I can't find you anywhere in the house? Why did you leave the house without informing me? Do you think you can do anything now just because you have graduated from high school? I think you need to be grounded once again!"

"Are you done?" The blonde girl in the waiting area of the hospital asked calmly.

There was a moment of silence from the other side signifying that her aunt is done with throwing questions at her; "Okay first of all I am not in the house so you won't be able to find me in the house. Secondly I didn't inform you because it was an emergency and of course you wouldn't have let me leave if I had told you about it in the middle of rainstorm…" she sneezed. "….and not only did I graduate from high school I am already over 18. I am 20 year old anyway—"

"Are you okay? What are you doing in the hospital? Which hospital?"

"It's Rambourgh Children Hospital. I am fine—"

"Is it the sleepwalking again?" her aunt asked quietly.

"What? No! It's Rio. I don't know clearly what happened but he called me yesterday night seeking help, I panicked and dialed the emergency number and I took your car which should still be there in front of his house—now before you start yelling at me again, I am aware that I do not have license but it was an emergency, Aunt. And it was raining. So, I had to. I'm sorry."

"It's alright, you don't have to apologize. I…..I panicked. I am coming."

"Yeah and uh…could you possibly bring a change of clothes maybe?" Emilia coughed. "I think I might catch a cold as I have been sitting here since yesterday night in these wet clothes."

At the crack of dawn, Rio opened his eyes to meet a serene ceiling.