MONSTER OF THE UNKNOWN

THE END OF A STORY

It's a dark cloudy Sunday afternoon when a small group of six people gather at a newly installed gravestone to pay their respects. The persons in question are just a few of the characters we've been able to meet in the course of this tale-Lyam, as well as both his parents (Aldéric and Joséphine Badi), Kate, Sara Bloomaert and Laura-and they're all dressed in black. In case you haven't already pieced together who the deceased is, it's our dear Hispanic normal, Mathéo.

Tears and silence fill the cemetery's ambiance as they all take turns dropping flowers at the grave and reading the heartfelt tributes they've prepared for the dead teen. This extreme melancholy is however interrupted by the arrival of a 'not exactly wanted' guest, Aaron. Like the others, he came dressed in all black with flowers and a sad look on his face, but that's not enough to make his presence here welcomed.

"What exactly do you think you're doing here?! Who the fuck even told you that you could come?!" Lyam asks the boy furiously the second he spots him. "I thought I already told you I never want to see you even remotely close to my brother's grave, or was that just too difficult for your psycho brain to comprehend?"

"I just wanted t-" Aaron doesn't get the opportunity to finish his statement before he's brusquely cut off by the departed's grieving sibling.

"You wanted to what?! Tell me, huh! To kill him a second time 'cause the first just wasn't satisfying enough for you?!" Lyam's voice gets even louder and angrier as his aversion towards the boy grows more and more by the second. His eyes glow golden as he feels tempted to release the electric current pulsing through his veins and electrocuting Aaron. He wants him to feel the pain his brother felt. The pain of being brutally murdered, but Kate steps in before he can make any rash decision he'll come to regret.

"Babe, calm down. You know your brother wouldn't want to see you like this because of him," she tells her blonde boyfriend and he grudgingly listens as he knows she's right. Mathéo never liked seeing any of his loved ones genuinely angry over anything. "Don't you think it's best if you just leave here on your own? You've already done enough and the family clearly doesn't want you here, so just go," Kate directs her last statement to Aaron with an almost irritated expression on her face.

Aaron considers trying to explain his honest intentions again, but once he takes a look at everyone else here he decides to not to do so. Joséphine and Laura are sobbing as they kneel in front of the grave of his dead friend (not paying an ounce of attention to his presence here); like his biological son, Aldéric is giving him a really dirty gaze; Sara seems too ashamed to even look him in the eyes right now. Kate is correct. None of them wants him here.

"I'm sorry for everything," Aaron apologizes solemnly for the last time before turning around to leave. He should have never come here in the first place. After all, it's his fault they're having a funeral. He killed his closest friend and now, he has to live with that guilt for the remainder of his life. He truly wishes he was the one in the coffin, not Mathéo.

* * * *

Aaron's eyes slowly open up as he gradually regains consciousness and realizes everything he just saw was nothing more than a bad dream. He scratches the back of his head as he sits up from the bed he's lying on to examine his current surroundings. He's in an unfamiliar all white room with no windows, yet it's still well ventilated. There's also a single door in the room and it seems to only be openable from the other side 'cause there's no handle on this one. The teen reflects deeply but he can't remember anything about how he got to this place, but all he does recall is flashing images of blood and violence.

All of a sudden, it all comes back to him. The memories of everything that went down after he granted Feto control over his body hit him like a bullet and his heart instantly sinks. What he did is nothing short of atrocious. He murdered all those Zomer cultists, and even worse, he hurt his friends.