“Are you ok?”
“Yes. I’m ok. I’m just. . . tired,” replied Kaien. “I’ll rest in my room. I think I would skip lunch too. I’m sorry, Dom.”
“If you need anything, call me.”
“I will. I will. Thank you, Dom.”
Kaien made a haste to his room, slammed his door and locked it. He was extremely anxious about everything. About the diary, about the mansion, about Sean, about Dominique, about himself and about everyone.
His heart beat fast and he felt like it almost burst out any moment. His head felt so hot from thinking too much and he couldn’t think clearly right now. He kept mumbling to himself while walking around his room.
Suddenly he kicked the chair near the fireplace, took the diary from the table nearby, quickly jumped and lay down on his bed. He let out a deep sigh before opening and read the diary again. Hoping to find all the answers to the question in his head. Hoping to find the way to get out of this place.
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Tearsday
They will stay here with me.
They are my friends.
We are having so much fun!
I’m so happy.
But they started to get sick.
One by one.
Are they going to die soon like mother and father?
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Kaien adjusting his posture on his bed. An uneasy feeling began in his stomach. He flipped to the next page and tried to focus on it.
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Wasterday
They are very sick and can’t wake up.
The oldest kid said if they can see a doctor, they would be fine.
Then we could play again.
He plays a game with the man. Then they go.
But, he promised they would come back.
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When Kaien opened the next two pages, it was blank. Kaien was shocked and thought the diary would end there. It was already weird enough that there were two black pages between each entry. Now the diary just ended like that?
Unsatisfied, Kaien looked carefully and noticed that a few pages had been ripped apart. Curious, he could not help, but wonder why the pages had been ripped apart. He tried to think positive. Perhaps, the owner wrote it wrong and ripped the pages.
Kaien flipped another page and other pages again. Blank. Blank. Blank. Blank. Blank. More blank pages. He grew tired and frustrated. Then, on the last third page, there was an entry. He did not immediately read it but flipped through the entry till the end.
It was the last entry in the diary. The last two pages were just empty pages.
He read the entries slowly. But before he had finished he felt that the content was unacceptable and had not come off. He reread over and over again until he decided it was beyond unacceptable. He cursed out loud and threw the diary to the wall.
“This. . . This. . . This can’t be happening,” Kaien mumbled. The room was cold, but he was sweating a lot.
Those words from the diary keep repeating in Kaien’s mind like someone was reading the diary next to ear over and over again. His head felt like it was going to explode.
He refused to believe what he had read. Perhaps he was too tired and misread it. From reading too much, and sleeping too little, not only he felt physically weak, but his brain dried up on him and he lost his judgement.
Physical ills were miserable, but this depression was unbearable. He never felt this way since his wife died a few years ago. He did not know what to think or what to expect. Kaien felt like he was hoping and waiting for something that would not going to happen. Deep in his heart, he wished everything that happened since a few days ago was only a dream and he would soon wake up in his room.
However, how many times Kaien tried, he would never ‘wake up’. Because it was not a dream. It was the reality. The beautiful yet cruel and ridiculous reality that Kaien has to face no matter what.
“Kaien . . .?”