Restless Nights

In a huge well lit room, a man paced around with a tense face. Wooden logs burning in the fireplace kept him warm in the frigid winters. His hairs were dishevelled, clearly indicating the countless times he ran his fingers through them. His brown eyes gleamed in the warmth of the fire.

"What happened during the task?" He mumbled to himself.

"Why am I not able to recall any memories of last night?" He wrecked up his brain.

He sat on a chair, impatiently shaking his leg as he strove to recall the memories. This was the first time he was experiencing something like this and he sought the answers.

He glanced at the wall clock and muttered, "He might still be there."

He got to his feet and put on his overcoat. Looking at the clock one last time he stormed out of his room in the chilly atmosphere outside.

"Take me to the council," he said to his coachman, who stood outside of his enormous manor.

Reaching in front of the council office, he glanced around, making sure no one was watching him. He hopped out and instructed his coachman to wait for him in the nearby village instead of standing in front of the office.

Glancing at the carriage, disappearing from his sight, he turned around and strolled towards the place he intended to visit. He moved through the underground passageways of the council building. There was a door at the end of the floor with a wooden board hung on it with the word 'LABORATORY' printed in bold red letters.

The man sighed looking at the numerous webs the spider had woven around the board making it appear shabby. There was a thin layer of filth on the door. The only thing that was clean was the doorknob. Perhaps because that was the only spot that was touched frequently.

Without bothering to knock on the door, he dashed inside the room. Rusty odour welcomed him. Normally, a person's face would have distorted due to the nauseating odour by this point, but the man kept a poker face, unaffected by the foul odour.

"Knock on the damn door, Elric!" A man in a white lab coat said with a stern face.

Doctor Gallen Artemis, a middle-aged man, the only forensic specialist who was brave enough to join the council and attend to the rampaged dead bodies that councilmen handed to him. Well, he too enjoyed slitting the bodies and experimenting on them, without informing the council, hiding profoundly from them. Except from the one person who now stood in front of him staring at him with bored eyes.

"Thank you, but no thanks. I don't want to get infected by the disease any time soon and come to you for treatments," Elric replied, signalling the amount of dirt occupied around.

Rolling his eyes, the doctor continued with his experiment on the body who lay dead with a chest slit open.

"Why don't you ask the servants to clean?" Elric asked, touching the test tubes with colourful liquids in them, placed on the wooden cupboard.

"I asked the cleaner to mop the floors, but she passed out from the odour and never returned. Everyone doesn't have immune to the rusty smell of blood. They don't have three hearts like me, you see," he stated.

"I see," Elric responded, not really paying attention to what Gallen was saying.

"Well, what brings you here at this time? This is not the right place for a young man like you to be in these romantic hours," he said, winking at him, trying to be playful.

"I honestly don't know," Elric said, sighing.

Gallen paused his work and stared at Elric with a furrowed brow. If it hadn't been Elric, the guy would have been thrown out of his lab by now. Being already irritated by the people who entered his lab, he never encouraged small talks or the people who did them. But again Elric being an exception. 

Looking at his expression, Elric continued, "I was performing the task in the forest last night. I remember each and everything except for the night. And when I woke up I found myself lay behind a bush."

Gallen frowned and walked towards him, removing his face mask.

"Did someone hit you on your head?" He inquired.

"If someone had done that, I would have known."

"Not really," the doctor was about to elaborate to him with an exceptional case he was handling before joining the council but stopped looking at the two eyes glaring at him.

"All right," he continued, "let me examine you."

"Did you get adequate rest before proceeding with the task?" He inquired further, examining his eyes. 

"Two hours," Elric replied.

"How long have you been doing this?"

This time, Elric remained silent.

"That is, after all, the issue. Your body gave up and passed out in the middle of the task," he theorised. Looking at Elric's disbelieving gaze he added, "I can still check you if you permit me to slit your body." There was a mischievous smile plastered on Gallen's face as he said those words which Elric noted.

"You don't have to act like your last name every time, Mr Artemis," he replied, rolling his eyes.

The doctor laughed and resumed his experiment with the body.

"What are you doing now?" Elric inquired, perplexed, brushing off the bug from his mind which was bothering him and decided to get some sleep, acknowledging the advice of the doctor. 

"Trying to trigger the genes and figure out how they work."

Elric nodded and sat for a while longer before going back to his manor.

*****

Nights were indeed sleepless. In another small, dimly lit room, a lean man sat in a chair, his eyes wide open. His eyes were swollen and red in colour. Sweat began to build on his temples, affected by the parchment in his palm.

He looked at the parchment with the golden seal on it, hinting it was from the council, trembling. The parchment stated that he had passed the tier two examination and that he should appear for the interview three days later.

"I've got to get out of here. I want to live," Derek mumbled. His words twitched as he spoke. He shuddered as he thought about something. His face appeared as if someone was threatening him.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he tore the parchments from his hand. He got up and put his belongings into an old corroded metal truck.

He wiped his tears away and stepped out of his house, without looking back, in the freezing winter nights.