Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Chapter 188 - Trauma

It was wrong to say he was inside the body of a boy. Technically. 

He was instead in the boy's head, which appeared to him as a vast empty plain. Tall grass swirled around him perpetually, the wind cold yet gentle. Clouds loomed above, with only few rays of sunshine penetrating it, giving the sky a golden hue. 

Despite the confusing situation, Evin was calm. It was because in the middle of this place, stood a dome-shaped building. Evin was familiar with it. Sure enough, when he entered it, he saw screens on the dome above which showed the surroundings of the boy he was inhibiting. 

'Is this due to the memory scouring spell?' Evin thought with curiosity. 'Then is this Endra's past?'

'Lord Kena did say the spell might work in odd ways… First, let's see what's going on?'

But before Evin could see what was going outside, information on the boy started pouring into his mind. 

The boy was named Evan Lorelei, and he was born in a small, middle-class family. He was the third child with a sister and a brother above him, and two twin sisters below him. As far as Evin could tell, the boy did not have any needs, and he always found himself surrounded by the love of his family. 

His doting mother and sister; his rough, but loving father and brother; and of course, his two adorable little sisters. 

The boy found it fascinating that he could suddenly become an elder brother just like that. He remembered only finding the increasingly large belly of her mother worrying, but to think they'd suddenly produce two living beings… it was hard to imagine, let alone witness in reality. 

Due to the two twins, the attention he got from the rest of his family diminished, but Evan did not care. He himself was absolutely captivated by the two girls. He would help his mother out with the twins as much as he could, and would spend hours just staring at the two. His father always called him the most doting elder brother in the world, but the title only instilled pride in the boy.

Of course he was the most doting elder brother in the world. Who else was going to look out for his two sisters?

But lately, he wasn't allowed in the twins' room as much as he used to. 

It all started happening after the boy's family went to the Harvest Festival. The did not remember what it was like the previous time he went there, but he did remember enjoying it a lot. However, this time, the festival was rather disappointing. The whole thing ended in only the first hour when some people with a rash started vomiting. 

From then on, Evan was not allowed to visit the twins. Even when he gathered the courage to go there in secret, he found that his mother was always in front of it, guarding the room.

The boy's family also started acting weird afterwards. His elder siblings still spent time with him, but he could see they were not focused on the games at all. They always had a serious expression on their faces, thinking and worrying. 

A few days after the festival, as little Evan was walking around his home, he heard his mother's stifled cries outside the twins' room. The boy decided to go comfort her, as she did to him every time he cried.

But as soon as she heard his voice, she screamed at the boy to get away. Evan flinched in fear and ran away. He felt wronged and cried a lot afterwards. She never screamed at him like that before. And he just wanted to go comfort her.

He went to complain to his elder siblings, but they were nowhere to be found. He searched around the house for them, and he ended up in the girls' room door.

This was the only place he hadn't yet checked, and his mother, who was usually guarding the door, had also disappeared off to somewhere. Curious, he entered the room.

"Gah!" Evin gasped as the sudden surge of memories ended. 

He looked at the screens on the dome and saw the now familiar room.

A lavishly furnished room, painted in bright colors and filled with toys and items made for newborns. There were two cradles put together in the middle of the room. The wooden floor around it were worn down, the paint of its metal scraped off… and a thin white cloth covering it.

"Liz and Les…?" the boy asked as he approached the cradle. "Why did they cover you with this?"

"Don't go there!" Evin shouted from inside the boy's head. 

The boy did not react and pulled off the cloth innocently.

Lesions and rashes covered his little sisters' pale bodies. Their faces looked fake, almost comic, like someone put makeover over one's pimples in a bad attempt to hide it. Some older lesions turned into indents or rashes, while others were leaking some yellowish fluid from it.

And these things covered every inch of their skin. Not a single part of their bodies was left untouched. Their limbs, chest and back, and the entirety of their heads looked inhuman. A melted mess of pus and liquid. 

Evan could only stare at the bodies of his sisters, spellbound. He could not even cry, his voice stuck, barely able to keep breathing. He did not know how long the moment lasted.

"Evan! No!" his mother's voice came from his back.

"I told you not to go there! Why didn't you listen to me?!" she screamed as she dragged him out of the room.

"Why? Why?! Listen to me properly!" his mother reprimanded him with a teary face.

"You'll be alright. You won't turn out like your sisters… I won't let it happen to you…"

Evin was helpless. He could only scream at the boy, but of course, Evan could not hear him. 

Soon, the flashback ended. The screens on the dome went dark, but at the back of Evin's head, he could feel the memories and information on Endra bubbling up. 

Evin was deadly curious.

Endra only told him about how he originally came from a different world. But other than his few life lessons and scientific knowledge, Endra rarely talked about himself. Evin could guess that some of the stories he told had something to do with his life, but there wasn't enough info to put together a coherent picture. 

But finally, he found a way to learn about what happened to Endra. Evin found a spot to sit inside the dome-shaped house and allowed the memories to flood through his brain.