Ah, the far-stretching grassland, a very soothing place. I could stay here forever.
A dream, or maybe not.
I walked in a random direction, following a poem. Someone there? This green field won't let you hide.
…I feel like the state of calm of life burdens me as a whole…yet the night shouts me to sleep…again and again I go to my dreams, try to reach them…
…but it haunts me as a whole…but never was I hate nor love it…sometimes I simply don't want to exist anymore…
The voice I know so well, I remember that little boy. Someone who was shunned.
"Rudy?" I whispered.
His shadow disappeared without a trace, blown away by the night wind in that place. I sat up, for some reason my face felt cold. I felt something coming down.
"How sad...?"
The blurry image then left with him. Then another place was born anew
An apple tree in the middle of the gray void, picking a monochrome fruit, eating it. So bitter! Like medicine, what is this?
A bad apple.
Instantly the space began to disintegrate, the gray replaced by pitch black again I opened my eyes, welcoming what lay ahead.
What's going on?!
"What's wrong with you?" Noir asked.
I wiped away the tears that had fallen on my cheeks, shaking my head.
"I just thought of Rudy, where he might be right now."
Everyone looked at me, tilting their heads. Who is that? Judging from their expressions, that's what it says.
"Could it be, you guys don't remember Rudy?" I asked.
Noir and Sunny shook their heads, answering no to my answer.
"Oh, is your new illness delusional? Schizophrenia?" Mr. Umbrella joked.
"Not funny." I replied shortly.
We had arrived at Annt, the inner sector. This time Lagtrain took us directly into the place. Everything was noticeably brighter than the last time I was here.
Mr. Umbrella went to greet the people working there, while Noir and the others wandered off somewhere.
Finding only me there, Mr. Umbrella told me to look for the others, I didn't notice where they went so maybe I got lost, just a little.
Running around the passages that went up and down right and left in a route that was as strange as its name, an anthill.
I came to the big hole where I talked to Mr. Umbrella.
There he is! Noir and the others, how could I have missed them. They were running around like children, were they playing hide-and-seek? Seriously, in a place like this.
On the way down that twisting incline, I accidentally bumped into someone. As if it was not bad enough, what made it worse was...
"I'm sorry, are you okay?" I asked the girl.
"It's okay, how about you?" The girl looked at me.
What is this? Something I've never felt before, or ever? The strange feeling came with a déjà vu that came out of nowhere.
"Aadflyn, I thought you were bad, but I didn't think you'd have the heart to run over someone in a wheelchair." Noir said mockingly from a distance.
My eyebrows shot up, my hands clenched into fists. Frick you!
"It's okay! I swear!" Said the girl, laughing awkwardly. "But, I have one problem. Will you do me a favor?"
I nodded quickly, before I could even think about the return, which I always did.
"By the way, Mr. Umbrella is looking for you two. Come back."
Noir smiled, followed by Sunny.
"By the way, where's Nich?" Sunny asked.
"None of my business." I turned around, pushing the girl in the wheelchair.
After parting with them for a while, the girl finally spoke again.
"Thank you." She said. "Every day I have trouble getting upstairs, you help me."
"No big deal, it was my fault for bumping into you."
The girl laughed.
"They're your friends, aren't they? You were looking for them, running around up there." The girl pointed in a direction.
I nodded.
The girl turned her face to look at me, was silent for a moment and then smiled.
"What? Is there something on my face?" I asked.
The girl shook her head.
After a while we went up, she asked me to turn into a hallway. She went into a room to see a doctor.
Interestingly, the doctor recognized me, perhaps he was the one who helped me the first time I came here.
"Ah, Aadflyn, it seems you have decided to work here." The doctor said, looking at his nametag it turned out that his name was Evans.
"Who is it, I just came to visit, also to-"
"To familiarize yourself yes, I understand. I also see you have made friends with this young lady, what do you think of him?"
The girl smiled broadly.
"he's a very nice person!" The girl said.
She only talked about how I helped her to get there, not once did she talk about the collision on the ramp.
Evans asked a question or two, then focused on what he had to do as a doctor. The girl had come for a routine check-up.
A few moments passed and I was assigned to take the girl back. Returning to her room, I said goodbye.
"Wait!"
I turned around, what's wrong?
"My name is ***." She said, then went into her room.
Again, like this...can i just know names? Why are the universe against me?
I rushed up one or two floors again. On the floor where the Lagtrain station was, I saw Mr. Umbrella and Evans talking.
I also saw them eating a noodle, probably the cup noodles that the scientists here often eat.
This place has an annoying structure that takes ten minutes just to go up one floor. I stopped for a while.
It's so high, imagine if someone fell down there. Joke.
Turning around, screams filled the room, bouncing off every corner.
I looked up, What's wrong? Why? Looking down the answer would come...
Evans!
"So, will you work here?" Asked Mr. Umbrella.
While most people were still dealing with the sadness of being left behind by one of their coworkers, who supposedly killed himself. This guy...
I looked at him in disgust, staring intently. This bastard! Was he the one who killed Evans?
"It wasn't my doing, Mr. Evans was very happy to see you, he was the one who near the end of the day said...what was it? I forgot."
I clutched my fingers, damn it! At this rate, how is that girl going to do her regular check-up routine? Her doctor is also gone, what will she think.
At that moment I realized something, me who was thinking, Mr. Umbrella who was smiling, still with his strange smile.
The two cups of cup noodles lying nearby, I realized that...
I cared for that girl, whether out of pity or what, even though if I was the one before...i wouldn't care at all. Heck, even when i bumped her, if it was the old me, i would've left her.
"You're in a metamorphosis, indeed. From the beginning, I wasn't going to gaslight you into working here. I am a time traveler..." said Mr. Umbrella.
I glared at him sharply.
"Mr. Umbrella, I will work here!"
End Of Nihility.
Next : Erudition.