APRICITAS [ENG] || Johan Liebert || Monster

Chapter 26 - The Border

The next morning, Emiko went to Dr. Reichwein to tell him about what happened to her last night. Even though it had been several hours since she returned to her room and went to bed, she was unable to sleep even for a moment. She was still experiencing everything that had happened to her in a long-abandoned apartment, under the banner of Three Frogs...

Half-conscious from lack of sleep, she took off her pajamas, put on her clothes and headed towards the room next to her own.

****

The elderly man was sitting in the armchair, mouth wide open, again and again following the figure and body language of the girl. The story of how she had a daydream, so realistic that it was mixed with the reality, seriously disturbed him. According to his doctoral experience, schizophrenia could begin with such symptoms... the lack of separation of images created in her own imagination from the surrounding reality, inventing her own events and experiencing them in depth, escaping from reality after traumatic experiences... Who knows what she went through during those few days with Johan.

Or so could science have explained it. Dr. Reichwein, being a man who grew up on it and educated, never believed in a supernatural things. After all, it's impossible that Emiko...

He felt a cold sweat drench him at the very ridiculous thought. He rubbed his forehead with his hand to bring himself back to the world around him.

"...So doctor, you also found the Three Frogs yesterday?" The young woman sat curled up in an armchair, her chin resting on her lap.

"Ah... yes, that's right. I did it yesterday morning, but I had no way of telling you. See, I even took a picture of myself there." The man handed her a piece of paper with his figure on it, right under the sign of the tenement house. "I think Schuwald will be pleased. I was inside, the same as you, I walked around all the rooms, but found nothing special."

"You mean all those empty walls and floors?"

"Exactly. There is absolutely nothing there." The old man nodded. "I even managed to talk to some resident who has lived in that area for many years."

"Oh?" More interest appeared on Emiko's face. "Did you learn something interesting, doctor?"

"Only that: about fifteen years ago a young blonde woman actually lived there, but he couldn't tell if she had any children. The strangest thing..." At that moment, he wiped the cold sweat off his face again. "...Her place of accommodation was exactly in the apartment where you had... this dream of yours... or whatever you could call it. Not long after she moved in, most of the apartments in the tenement house burned down in a sudden fire, and the rest of the things that remained there were taken by tenants to their new homes. Since then, no one knew what happened to the blonde, and the tenement house itself remained abandoned." Emiko hugged her legs around with her hands and thought deeply. She had no doubt that she had discovered a scrap of Johan's past. But what kind of person was his mother...?

"It looks like we were both not very lucky with our mothers. (...) How can a mother... choose between her children and call it a justice?"

With her heart pounding, she remembered his words from the hotel, which sounded genuine sincerity. She slowly began to realize that it was because of what he had experienced as a child that he had become what he is now. Just... what could it be? For sure she knew that children can't be blamed for the mistakes of adults, because they themselves are to blame... and pure, innocent souls of children, doomed to terrible experiences, need help. No matter how many years have passed. She knew that for the one she love, she would stop at nothing.

****

In the days that followed, Dr. Reichwein sorted out the information regarding the investigation related to Emiko's brother and returned to Germany to report to Schuwald. Unlike him, young Tenma still remained in the Czech Republic. She wanted to know more... Her intuition told her that she should stay here for a while, and she would find something really important.