ORGÁNOSI I: Broken Mask

ANTECEDENT: CHAPTER 12

A/N: Sorry for the delay. I got busy with the Anthology. Happy reading!

ANTECEDENT: CHAPTER 12

MIDNIGHT had been experiencing sporadic headaches ever since his last psychotherapy session with Silvanus. His head would throb and pulsate, as if a jackhammer was drilling into his skull, but the pain would vanish as quickly as it came. Since those headaches were tolerable, he brushed them off and let the days slip by without giving them much thought.

However, as days passed, he noticed his headaches were becoming frequent. Upon returning to Silvanus' laboratory, he informed Silvanus about it.

"I know it's a side effect of the hypnosis, but I find it odd. I never had headaches this severe before, even though I was under hypnosis a couple times a week for nearly a decade."

Silvanus leaned back in his seat while listening to Midnight. "It's because we are unearthing your buried memories that could exhaust the brain. Those memories were buried for a reason. Also, your hypnosis before focused on planting thoughts and ideas in your head, not the other way around." He sighed. "Imagine this, when you were young, your brain was like a verdant forest. Then it got exposed to toxic chemicals and substances. Everything withered, and the soil became dry until it became a barren land. Now, we are trying to plow that hard, dry soil to see what kind of toxic chemicals it absorbed. And the process is going to hurt the soil."

Midnight looked at his hands and became silent. He was lost in thought for a full minute before he looked up at Silvanus and spoke.

"Let's continue our session." He was determined to know what happened to him. Pain was something he was already used to.

Silvanus nodded and set a schedule for tomorrow for the psychotherapy to let Midnight have a good rest after prescribing him a medication for his headaches.

When the next day came, Midnight prepared water and food for Loki before going out of his room for the psychotherapy.

Silvanus was already ready when he arrived at his laboratory, and he was immediately hooked up to different machines that would monitor his body.

Shortly after they started, Midnight once again entered the familiar empty hallway and the equally familiar hypnosis room.

When his brow furrowed, Silvanus take note of it, but did not stop.

"Just listen to my voice. What you're seeing now is a memory. It's not the present. It already passed. Focus on me."

Midnight tried his best to listen to Silvanus, but the scene in front of him felt too real that his hands started trembling.

Fear and nervousness combined as he kept hearing those words that had been engraved into his mind.

'Only your father is right. Only listen to your father. Never go against him if you want your brother to be safe.'

These words were repeated countless times until he couldn't extricate his mind from it anymore. From mere words to becoming his belief and his own law.

Yes. His father was right. Father shouldn't be questioned. I have to be obedient to keep my brother safe.

"—night! Midnight!"

Midnight continued to drown in his own memory, caging him from the present, imprisoning him in his own mind.

Frightened. Desperation. Obedience.

"Midnight! Snap out of it!"

Midnight's heartbeat was raising to a dangerous level. He was trembling. He was lost. And Silvanus had to end the psychotherapy before they could delve deeper into his past.