Nix - a fateful kiss (Vol.3) ✅️

Chapter 45

When Lyric stepped out of the portal, he stopped for a moment. He raised his head and let his gaze wander. There were broken and collapsed houses, overgrown with greenery and plants. A smashed water well whose stones were scattered everywhere. Weapons were stuck into the ground, some of which had already been overgrown by plants.

He took a deep breath, forced his legs to move and walk through the streets. Some houses lacked part of their roof, or even the whole of it. Some were completely burned down and only the foundation was still standing.

His feet carried him on until they came to a standstill in front of a house. The house in front of him had lost part of its front wall and part of the roof, but otherwise it was still standing. He gently pressed against the door to enter and with a crash, it simply fell over.

"I am home," he whispered and looked wistfully at the remains of his old home in the village where he had grown up.

Dirt, debris, and boulders littered the ground. A climbing plant had worked its way through the opening in the front through the room and meandered over the floor and the furniture. Remains of fabric lay in the middle of the former living room. He got down on his knees and stroked over it. He and his mother had slept here.

Reluctantly, he sat up and walked back towards the entrance. There he took the rotten stairs next to the front door. A step collapsed under his foot and he had to hold onto the railing to avoid falling. Carefully, he pulled his foot out of the fractured step and moved further upwards.

Once at the top, he went to the left and stopped in front of an old wooden door. He stroked the wood of the door and the faded letters on an already rotten sign with his fingers. He pressed against the door and it swung open squeaking. Unlike the front door, it did not simply fall forward, but remained, albeit shaky, in the rusted rods.

His old room stretched out in front of him.

"It's still whole," he said, surprised. He entered the room and was surprised to find that it hadn't changed except for dust. No trace of rust, mold or plants that had reclaimed the room. He felt like he was thirty-five again.

Slowly he went forward and stroked over the dark desk, on which lay only a yellowed piece of parchment. How could I have forgotten that?

Ilyric listened and closed his eyes. A vivid scene appeared before his eyes, describing his mother. It was a story about a small bird trapped in a cage. Then she began to sing and Lyric saw it clearly in front of her.

Every day, the little bird looked sadly between the bars to the window and longed for freedom. There were seven items in the room.

The cage stood on a table. To his left was a mirror on the wall. Next to this mirror sat a small pale doll, looking sadly towards the window. In front of it was a white paper and an open fountain pen. Opposite on the wall next to the window hung a small box – a clock, but its hands moved counterclockwise.

Directly in front of the cage was a silver comb and between the window and the paper a golden necklace and a ring. The bird looked through the bars, longing to fly to freedom.

Lyric took his gun bag off his shoulder and opened it. First, he took out the clock and hung it on a protruding nail next to the only window in that room. In front of this window stood his table, which connected to both walls. Then he took the fountain pen and put it in front of the paper. Right behind it, he placed the doll and turned her head towards the window.

Next, he placed the necklace and ring between the window and the yellowed paper. All that was missing was the comb and the mirror, which found their place next to the doll and the paper. It was all the same as in the song. Everything was in place, only the cage with the bird was missing.