I was running through the street. The same familiar street I took practically every day. Today was blazing hot and even the wind created by my run was so hot that it felt like being in front of an open oven. The precious book I had just received from Eiea was in my hands, held by my fingertips, as holding it in my arms would undoubtedly soak it with sweat. I couldn’t wait to start reading it. Trees and grass flew across my vision from the sides of the road. No one could be seen going about the other houses. No men mowing the lawn, nor dogs barking or even cats prowling about. The street was devoid of life but the absence of movement did not feel out of place. My breath was starting to run out but I accelerated when my house came into view. It seemed like the hundred metres separating it from me passed in a second as I found myself skipping over the small stairs in front of the main door. My arm swung it open and closed it in a single motion, emitting no noise despite being slammed. 

I rushed inside and opened my mouth to scream, trying to tell my mom that I was home. But even if I felt my mouth open, nothing came out of it. This time I took notice of the strange lack of sound, but before I could wonder about the weird phenomenon, I found myself suddenly sitting on the couch with my mother besides me. The precious book wasn’t in my hands anymore. It was nowhere to be found.

Mom was talking to me but I couldn’t hear anything. Her mouth was flapping slowly while she had a nervous look on her face, clearly hesitant to say whatever she was trying to. I tried telling her that I couldn’t hear her. But the second my mouth opened, she flew across the room in a rag doll. It was like a silent explosion was produced from my mouth, sending her barrelling. As I watched in horror, her flailing body hit the wall hard but there was no loud crash. A huge splash of red painted half of it, originating from the back of her head. Her lifeless body softly fell to the ground.

All warmth drained from my body and tears streamed down my face. I found myself unable to open my mouth at all. I wanted to scream. Scream so loud the whole world would hear it. But my lips were sewn shut. Suddenly, I saw my mother’s hand twitch. It slowly started to move, followed by her whole body as she got up on her feet. But I couldn’t feel relief. Her eyes were wide open, but had turned hollow. Dark, empty cavities were staring at me. Her twitching body started walking towards me, inching slowly forward with awkward, jerky movements. I couldn’t move. My arms were heavy like they were made of lead. I couldn’t feel my legs. She approached further and her previously closed mouth opened, showing not teeth but a deep, abyssal darkness. The edges were jagged, moving in unnatural movements, like a blind insect trying to find food by feeling around. It was so large that it almost looked like a jet black bandana was covering the bottom half of her face and neck. And from that mouth came the first sound I heard since I entered the house. A vile, screeching cry that could not have come from anything that ever existed. It made me feel like a wretched darkness was creeping on the edges of my consciousness. I wanted to pass out, I wanted to stop existing, to be the furthest away from that thing I could possibly be.

My mouth opened. It was no longer sewn shut. I screamed, the hardest I possibly could while closing my eyes, begging to nobody to take that thing away. If I couldn’t run away, I would scream everything else away from me. But when I opened my eyes again, that thing was sprawled in the same place as before, close to the wall. Its limbs were broken in many places, crooked in impossible directions, but it wasn’t bleeding. Only a thick, black ooze-like substance was slowly pouring from the wounds. Nothing else had moved an inch. It started moving again, not even a few seconds after being blown away, in even more erratic movements than before. The broken limbs were stitched together with the same indescribable darkness flowing out of its mouth. Even more tears fell from my eyes in an unending rain. No matter how much I roared it into the wall, It becoming more and more inhuman until it was basically formless, I could still recognize my mom. No, I couldn’t recognize it as anything else other than my mom.

The dark, gaping holes that were its eyes were crying, swollen eyes in which you could see despair, sadness and pain. The formless, warped mouth was a trembling, kind smile trying to be reassuring and the broken limbs were thin arms trying to hug me warmly. But I couldn’t stop screaming. Before long, my cries wouldn’t push it all the way back to the wall. Every time I opened my mouth, it would back down less and less. It approached me, it's movements gradually becoming smoother, more confident, until it was just in front of me. I had no longer the strength to emit a single sound. My throat was numb and in pain. As my mother hugged me and a gentle warmth enveloped my consciousness, its gaping jaws sunk themselves into my neck. Everything went dark.

I woke up in a startle, jarred awake by the sound of a cell phone ringing on my left. My struggling breath was so loud to my ears I almost couldn’t hear Eiea shifting in her bed next to mine, trying to reach for the phone on the bed table in between us.

Eiea : urgh.

My body was completely drenched in sweat, a fact easily attributable to the hellish temperature not at all different from yesterday. I threw the sheets at the foot of the bed but it barely made any difference. I rolled my head to the side in time to see a groggy Eiea in her pajamas picking her cell phone up and squinting at the screen, trying to make out who the caller was. I found myself wondering again how the hell did she manage to survive the night with a pajama clearly made for winter, covering every inch of her body except her head, hands and feet. She answered the call.

Eiea : Hi? Eiea Canton speaking… Yes, that is correct… That’s a relief! Sure, we’re coming in not too long. Thank you.

She hung up with a slight smile and a clear air of relief. Turning to me, her smile deepened.

Eiea : It was the hospital ; Veronica woke up. We’ll be able to go visit her and all go back home today.

The first thing to come to my mind was that horrible nightmare, making me feel like crying and trembling. I couldn’t feel the heat for a moment. Doing my best to ignore it, I closed my eyes and forcefully swallowed it down, nodding to express my agreement.

Eiea : Are you okay?

A tint of concern crept into her voice, so I opened my eyes and tried to look the most normal I could muster.

Maria : I’m fine. When are we going?

Eiea : Whenever you’re ready.

Eiea slipped out of bed swiftly, heading to the bathroom, as I contemplated the sorry state of the clothes I wore yesterday. It was very unfortunate that we had forgotten to get a change of clothes when leaving the house. I had been very confused when I saw Eiea pull out a pajama out of her bag last evening, but she justified it merely by stating “For emergencies” and nothing else.

A shower noise came from the bathroom and died down quickly. She came out of the bathroom, in her own dirty clothes, with the only difference being wet hair. I took my turn in the shower, taking a little bit more time than her, and rapidly changed into my sadly unclean clothes. Eiea suggested we make a trip to my house to get a change of clothes before going to the hospital and I accepted, not wanting to stink of sweat in such a public place. The desire to see my mother in a fine shape was great but the cold, dark thing at the edge of my mind made me fearful of seeing her again, enough to convince me to take a detour. 

Once the meager amount of things we had was packed, we went down to the first floor. We were greeted by the sight of Geoffrey happily making breakfast for a few customers, whistling and working a sizzling pan. When he heard us coming down the stairs, he looked in our direction in slight surprise.

Geoffrey : You guys are early! Hungry?

Eiea : Sorry Geoffrey, we’re in a bit of a hurry.

Geoffrey : Oh that’s fine. How about an egg sandwich to eat on the way then? They’re already done.

We had no reason to decline, so we gladly took them and headed outside. Once in the car, I began to eat my takeout breakfast. It was delicious so I mowed down on eat, just now feeling hungry, and saw Eiea do the same in the corner of my eye. Wait… Taken aback, I actually looked at Eiea directly only to be surprised even more. She was slowly eating her sandwich, both hands on it, while the steering was turning seemingly on his own. I was dumbstruck for a few seconds before recovering my wits enough to express my incredulity.

Maria : huuuuh…

Eiea : ?

She tilted her head quizzically to the side at my uncertain expression before showing a gesture of understanding and hurriedly swallowing her mouthful.

Eiea : Haha, you think keys are the only thing I can twist?

Maria : Isn’t that… dangerous?

Eiea : I can control it better this way to be honest. Fragments are faster than limbs in general.

I blinked a few times, digesting the information at the same time as my sandwich, and opted to drop it. If she said so, it was probably right. The rest of the ride to my house was uneventful and silent. It was a kind of awkward silence, but one that stemmed from truly having nothing else to say.

We arrived at our destination about half an hour later, having essentially traversed the whole city again. Eiea pulled up in our driveway still without using either of her hands and, at this point, I really believed her that it was better this way. This ride was significantly smoother than the one yesterday. It dawned on me that Eiea might actually just be bad at driving, with her hands anyway. Exiting the car, Eiea approached the door at a brisk pace, but I lagged behind. As soon as I stepped outside the vehicle, a bad feeling assaulted me. The dark thing gripped to my mind started scratching at it, producing a headache. Now at the door with her hand on the handle ready to open it, Eiea looked at me with concern sprouting on her face.

Eiea : Maria?

I attempted to shake the bad feeling off, taking a deep breath and tightly clasping my hands, but to no avail. It would go away, I didn’t want to enter that house.

Eiea : You’re not okay at all, aren’t you?

She left the porch, slowly walking up to me, before putting her arm around my shoulders and turning me away from the building.

Eiea : Look at you, trying to look unaffected. It's fine, just wait in the car. I’ll bring what we need here.

I thanked her, relieved but a bit embarrassed. She was right, the last events affected me much more than I thought at first. She left me in the car and entered the house with her spare key. Mom had given her one 6 months ago, for no apparent reasons for me at the time, although now I knew it coincided with her becoming my second guardian. Waiting in the car for her to come back, I tried my best not to look at the house, as it still didn’t feel very pleasant, instead choosing to examine the sky from the open window. The clouds were drifting slowly, sparse in the blue expense, pushed by a soothing breeze.

The whirlwind of thoughts in my head that had not stopped turning ever since yesterday gradually ground to a halt while observing the calm scenery. It felt weird to have an empty mind for the first time in many hours, but I abandoned myself to it for what seemed like a significant amount of time. I was suddenly jolted back to reality by the door of the car opening. Eiea was holding a bunch of clothes in her hand with a black trash bag, her own clothes having changed for something that was still very similar to what she was always wearing. Sluggishly moving after being ripped so abruptly from a serene state of mind, I accepted the clothes and bag she handed me.

Eiea : You can change here and put the dirty clothes in the bag. I’ll shield you from looks.

She closed the door and leaned on it, preventing people from seeing inside. I changed quickly in the clothes she had brought, taken from the closet in my room. When I was finished, she entered the car.

Eiea : Oh. I also found this.

She handed me a book which I instantly recognized. “A Night in Walpurgis” was written on the cover in bold red letters on the cover of the leather-bound tome.

Eiea : You had left it on the table.

She flashed a cheeky smile, contagiously spawning one on my face as well. She nodded, seemingly satisfied, before returning to a more serious expression.

Eiea : Ready?

Was I ? That was uncertain, but I had no more excuses, so I nodded back my consent. The engine roared to life and we took off, the wheel still turning on its own, n direction of the hospital.