The Unwelcomed Gift (1)

Erik turned to look at his door opening. There was only one person who had a copy of the keys.

"You…"

Erik looked at the man staring at him on the other side of the room, like a wraith would have looked at a living being.

The last time Erik saw his father was two years prior. His face was how he remembered it, but a long black beard grew on it.

But aside from the new physical features, there was something else Erik noticed. Lucius looked in a hurry.

His movements betrayed anxiety — his eyes darted across the room, as if he expected someone to be hiding there.

"You?!" Erik couldn't help but repeat himself.

"Son..."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room. Through that silence, Erik's rage boiled.

The young man wondered what his old man was thinking while looking at him, at the state in which their house was.

<Is he even worried about me?> Erik was in his underwear, his wounds were visible.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around much," the man said, looking at Erik. He seemed to notice Erik's wounds.

"You are sorry? YOU ARE SORRY?! FUCK YOU! YOU USELESS SCUM PIECE OF SHIT!"

Erik's breath quickened, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. Refusing to show weakness, he composed himself and glared at his father, anger simmering beneath the surface.

"What do you want?"

"I have little time to explain… I came by to drop something important, Erik. You must hide it somewhere safe and ensure no one touches it."

"What? Are you just here to give me more problems?" Erik said angrily. "Or did you finally bring back the milk you left to buy years ago?"

Meanwhile, his father retrieved a large glass container from his backpack. Inside, a strange liquid housed an odd-looking creature.

It had an arachnid-like body with a long hook-tipped tail and eight repulsive, elongated legs. The creature's mouth, as the young man guessed, resembled a mussel but featured strange, pointed teeth.

"DID YOU JUST FUCKING BRING A DAMN THAID INTO MY HOUSE?!"

"No," Lucius said.

"Then what is it?! I swear, if you do not give me a satisfying answer, I will call the blackguards!"

At those words, Lucius face got worried. The blackguards were basically the world's police.

"This is the cause of the Sinister Cold…" Lucius said.

"Fuck you! You can't even come up with something good!"

Erik turned away and walked toward the kitchen. Shaking, Erik poured himself a glass of water, drank it in one gulp, and then returned to his living room.

With a look of rage, disbelief, and pity on his face—pity for himself, for the cruel abandonment by the man he once loved dearly, but also for his father, who seemed so lost in delusions that he'd resort to preserving a thaid, albeit dead, in strange fluid. Whatever mission the Military had sent him on had clearly driven him mad.

"You're not taking me seriously…"

"How am I supposed to take you seriously? Do you hear yourself? The source of the Sinister Cold? I've heard a lot of bullshit in my life, but this beats them all…"

"Erik, look at me," Lucius said. "This isn't a joke. I can't stay any longer. Hide this somewhere safe—a place no one else can find. I'll return for it later. Until then, you mustn't say a word about my visit to anyone. Understand?"

"Why should I, after all you have done to me? Besides, If you found the reason for the sinister cold, why don't you give it to the Military?"

Lucius sighed. "It's complicated."

"Come on! You can't pretend I will do what you say without giving me a single explanation!"

Lucius shook his head. "Look, I know you're scared, but—"

"Scared?" Erik interrupted him. "No, I'm not scared, Lucius… I'm pissed."

Lucius noticed Erik's use of his first name instead of "dad," a realization that pained him.

However, Erik was in the worst mental state. He came home after a humiliating beating. His father returned home after two years just to spout bullshit and dump problems on him.

"Erik, I know I wronged you a lot. However, I only ask you this one favor. Please take this and hide it where only you can find it."

Erik stared in disbelief. His father, the proud Lucius Romano, was pleading with him. Never had Erik seen his father look so vulnerable, never had he seen pleading.

"I assure you, there's nothing to worry about," Lucius said, his voice urgent. "Unless you tell someone about this."

Erik was dumbfounded. His mind raced thinking about the consequences of the Military discovering this thing in his home. Unsettling images flashed through his mind.

He saw himself being interrogated and tortured by Military officials, trying to extract information about this creature—the alleged cause of the Sinister Cold, if his father's words were to be trusted.

Erik didn't know if he had to believe the man, but everything pointed out that he was telling the truth—his look, tone, eyes.

"Okay… I'll keep it hidden. Can I ask you something else, though?"

"Yes, anything."

"Why are you doing all this?"

Lucius furrowed his brow, contemplating a suitable response. After a long pause, he said, "It's for both of us—and to safeguard what's left of our world."

"Protect our world? From what?"

"From something worse than the Sinister Cold and the Thaids—"

Lucius abruptly stopped mid-sentence, his ears catching a faint sound. He rushed to the window, eyes darting outside.

"I can't stay here any longer," he said. It looked like he spotted something outside.

"Of course... You're leaving again," Erik said, his voice laced with bitterness. A storm of emotions—rage, sadness, and betrayal—churned within him.

Once more, he was being abandoned by his father. He teetered on the edge of unleashing his fury, nearly screaming at Lucius to go to hell and demanding he take his mysterious thaid and leave.

Despite his anger, Erik chose to honor his father's request out of the remnants of affection he still held.

He was going to hide the glass container and its content. Though Erik lacked wealth, influence, or social standing, he possessed integrity and determination, but most importantly, empathy.

"Erik… Believe me when I say that I'm sorry. When everything is over, I will tell you exactly what happened. I'm sure you will be able to understand by then, but I need to go for now. Stay here, and I promise I will return to pick you up."

And with that, Lucius left.

Erik slumped into his desk chair and buried his face in his hands.

"Dad..." Erik said.

Despite his anger, Erik couldn't help but hope Lucius would return and take care of him like he did in the past, like a father should.

One thing was certain, though—by agreeing to his father's request, he had exposed himself to an enormous risk. From what or whom, Erik had no idea.

The young man looked at the glass container on the table; there was a clock close to it, and it displayed 03:00 PM.

"Fuck, I'm late for work!"

The young man changed into more fitting clothes. Despite his weakness, Erik was expected to join the military academy in September.

<Fucking shitty country,> he thought. He would be forced to go somewhere where he was sure more bullying was going to come to him.

Erik retrieved his backpack from his room. As he did, he cast a glance at his computer monitor, still displaying the article he'd been reading earlier.

The prospect of joining the Military filled him with dread; he loathed the idea of helping what he saw as a corrupt nation in its struggle against Hin.

<We also are the ones who started all of this…>

Erik picked up his jacket from the chair where he left it and went toward the table to pick up his keys.

But taken as he was by emotions, Erik didn't pay enough attention. The jacket hit the glass container, which crashed with a resounding thud.

The container shattered into countless pieces, and the liquid poured over the floor.

The creature tumbled out of the shattered container, sending a jolt of fear through Erik. He had no idea what this thing was, but if his father's words held any truth, its connection to the Sinister Cold made it unquestionably dangerous.

"Fuck! FUCK! FUUUUCK! Erik Romano, you stupid piece of shit!"

Despite the panic, Erik gave a closer look at the creature. Luckily, it didn't move.

<It should be dead, right...?>

Regret filled Erik.

<I should have said no!>

Did he just mess up what his father had worked on for years? Did he ruin the chance to find out what the sinister cold really was?

Erik turned around and ran to the bathroom, searching for where to put the creature's body.

"Dammit!"

Erik remembered the plastic bags under the kitchen sink. He took them, but by the time he was back, the creature was nowhere to be seen.

"DAMN!"

Erik ran to the kitchen to grab a knife.

"I have to get rid of it now. It's ok, they can still research on its body, right?"

As Erik grabbed the knife, he heard a noise behind him. Turning, he saw the creature suddenly lunge at his face, its mouth wide open and legs extended. Before he could react, it latched onto him, its teeth bared.

Erik fell backward onto the wooden floor, unable to do anything to stop the creature. His eyes widened when he saw the creature on his face.

He tried to scream, but the moment he opened his mouth, he felt the creature force something inside.

Then a stinging pain hit the young man on the chest; the creature stung him with its tail, injecting something inside of him. Slowly, as the young man was losing consciousness and falling to the floor, he started seeing something.

[Downloading information from the host -Contemporary knowledge- in progress]

[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]

[Download complete]

[All systems ready]

[Welcome to the Biological Supercomputer System.]