I left that house with Darius, while Iris decided to stay. She said there was something she needed to discuss with the old lady. I didn’t ask. I wasn’t interested in asking. (Well, truth be told, curiosity was killing me, but I knew she wouldn’t answer no matter how much I pressed her.) I walked alongside Darius, then turned to him and asked:
"Are you sure you want to meet her?"
Finding her wasn’t an easy task it was impossible at first. I had no real information: no name, no address, no facial features. But after I asked for Inspector Edward Graves’ help, along with his extremely irritating assistant, it didn’t even take a single day.
Just one day! Now I fully understand why Raven trembled in fear whenever he mentioned the Bureau men. Even I shiver now, but luckily I work with them, so I’m safe... at least for now.
I pulled a small piece of paper from my pocket, the one Graves had given me, stared at it for a moment before saying:
"According to the information I have, your mother sold you."
"I still want to see her."
"You’re extremely strange."
"If I may, Mr. Jevan, you’re the strange one here."
"I mean, who risks his life to break into a warehouse and save children he doesn’t even know? And then helps one of them find his mother?"
I didn’t reply. Because honestly? I agreed with every word he said. But the truth? My saving them wasn’t out of nobility or heroic impulse. To be precise, it was because of this body’s will. It seems that the original Jevan (the owner of this body before I woke up in it) was a vagrant with an overly tender heart and an excess of humanity. A pity, really, since those traits don’t help much when it comes to staying alive in a world .
I sighed inwardly in frustration, then turned to Darius and asked:
"Why do you want to see her?"
Is he joking?! Does he realize how much effort, time, exhaustion and most importantly, money this took? I literally spent half of what I’d saved over the last three months.
We arrived at a small house on a side street. The address matched the one written on Graves’ note. I stepped forward and knocked. Barely a minute passed before a woman in her early thirties opened the door. Her hair was black, her eyes a clear, piercing blue.
"Are you Mrs. Agatha?"
"I’m Jevan, and I’ve brought you your son."
"I don’t want him. Take him."
"Really? That’s all you’ve got? No tear, no hug, not even a sigh? Just take him?"
"I didn’t ask you to bring him."
She said those words and then shut the door in my face.
"Is affection really that expensive in this place?"
I muttered inwardly, then turned to Darius. His face was completely stiff, but the façade didn’t last long. He was on the verge of tears, though he restrained himself. Then he turned his face away and walked off. He didn’t say a word, and neither did I. I just stared at the closed door for a moment, then followed him.
I closed the door behind me, not daring to peek through the crack. I didn’t want to see him leave. My son was gone the only light in my gray life had now been snuffed out. The thought that I might never see him again weighed heavily on my heart. But I had no other choice.
I turned toward the dark corner of the room. There stood the man with the half disfigured face.
"I did what you asked. Now leave me."
"Well done." The rıghtful source is 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝘯𝘦𝘵
He slowly raised his hand, and my body froze entirely. I tried to move, but it was useless. Then his hand twisted unnaturally, and from the center of his palm opened a vast, lipless, toothless black mouth.
That mouth shot toward me like an arrow. In the blink of an eye, everything vanished.