Duskwood After Story

Love and Forgiveness, Part 1

The next morning, Jake woke up with Bailey clutching to his body. Her head was resting on his chest. Her whole body curled up like a little kitten next to him. Since last night, she had been more clingy than usual, trying to stay close to him every chance she got. But Jake didn't mind it. As she bore all her vulnerability with him, all he wanted to do in return was protect her in whatever way he could.

Jake reached out for his phone on the nightstand nearby. While they were asleep, Nymos detected another hacking attempt from his pursuers. Jake felt immediately alarmed. He tried to get up, carefully removing his arm from under Bailey so as to not wake her up. Then, he looked at the notifications from Nymos.

An unidentified person is trying to access your device location...

Attack successfully blocked...

Deploying malware...

Target's location successfully accessed...

Target's audio input successfully hacked... Connection established... This connection will auto terminate within 5 minutes...

Check activity log for full report on this hack attempt...

The extra features that Bailey installed on Nymos worked! Jake looked over at her sleeping face, smiling proudly and gratefully at her. She would be thrilled to learn about this later, he thought.

He opened the activity log to read the report on the hack attempt.

Nymos had managed to locate his pursuers. They were at Igreja, more than 4000 miles from Helianford, at the time of the attack. Jake noticed, That's quite a considerable distance between us.

The report also included an audio file. Jake suspected Nymos had captured what his pursuers were saying when it seized control of their audio feed. He put on his earbuds and listened to the recording.

He found it amusing that while being barraged by a chorus of goats yelling, his pursuers weren't able to say anything. From what he could make out, there was screaming, swearing, and total chaos. Based on their reaction, they must have been completely taken aback by the loudness. And it seemed that they still couldn't figure out where the noise originated from until the end of the recording. Jake grinned with satisfaction. Bailey's ideas worked in mysterious ways.

Then a warmth enveloped his lower body. He glanced down to find Bailey's arms wrapped around his waist.

"You're up?" - He ran his fingers through her hair. Her eyes were still closed as she etched her face onto his skin.

"Hmm... You were smiling at your phone. Found something funny?" - She mumbled in a groggy voice.

"Mmh. You could say that."

Then he told her about the attack Nymos had spotted the night before. Like him, she was first concerned. She opened her eyes and propped herself up, away from his body. But when Jake showed her the report and the audio clip, she laughed."Haha, serve them right!"

"Your features work really well." - He kissed her forehead.

"I'm glad they worked at all." - She smiled shyly - "But with this, I think we will have to tell my father why we are here soon, Jake." - Her face turned serious as she pondered.

"You're right. And hopefully, he will help us."

***

After breakfast, Jake and I returned to the hospital. My mind was still trying to make sense of all that was going on at the time. Even a week ago, it was difficult to see myself in this circumstance. I had believed that I had been abandoned by both of my parents, that I had been left alone because I was a burden to both of them. And I had come to accept it. Then, all of a sudden, my father reappeared, who had shown me nothing but remorse and...love, perhaps. I had little knowledge of parental love. And now I was faced with the possibility of losing him soon. Life was relentlessly dealing me bad hands, one after the other.