OTHERS: Five elements

CHAPTER 3.9: LIGHTNING

22 January 2030, 06:00 PM

I woke up to the sound of voices, distant at first, like echoes in a tunnel. My head was pounding—no, more than that. It felt like something inside my skull was clawing its way out. A pressure I couldn't explain, hot and unbearable. I blinked, trying to make sense of the shapes in front of me. Slowly, the haze cleared, and I saw Anna and Ruby. They were both kneeling near me, worried expressions etched across their faces. I could see Anna's lips moving. I think she was saying my name, again and again. Ruby looked scared, with tears in her eyes. They were shaking me, trying to wake me. 

- "Richard, can you hear me?" Anna asked, her voice thin but sharp, like it was trying to cut through layers of darkness.

- "Daddy!" said Ruby, repeating like a prayer.

- "Yes, I can hear you", I replied. 

The moment I said that and fully came to my senses, Ruby hugged me. The hug was tight. It was clear that she was relieved to see I was okay. Anna felt the same. 

- "What happened? Are you okay? We were worried about you. You didn't come to pick up Ruby, so I took her to school by myself. I thought maybe you had gone straight to work. Later, you didn't respond to any of my messages—I texted you several times. I thought you might show up at the school to pick up Ruby. I wanted the three of us to go have coffee together. But you didn't show up. So, we decided to check on you. The first place we went was your apartment. When we saw you lying on the floor, I immediately called an ambulance and the police. Has someone attacked you?"

- "The neighbor across from me attacked me with a knife. I have no idea what got into him to make him attack me. I hit him with this sculpture in self-defense, and he immediately fell to the floor. It looks like he managed to get up and leave after that."

- "How are you feeling?" Anna asked. 

- "I have a terrible headache."

As Anna was trying to help me get up, suddenly a voice was heard. A voice I had never heard before. A voice that was getting louder. I couldn't hear Anna or Ruby. I was hearing something else.

- "Kill!"

I closed my eyes tight, trying to push it away, to make it stop. But the harder I resisted, the louder it became. The voice wasn't shouting. It didn't need to. It was inside me now, embedded in my nerves, in my thoughts. And worse than the voice was the feeling. My blood felt like it was boiling. Like something was running through it that didn't belong to me. I felt my heart pounding against my ribs so hard it hurt. My fingers twitched with some uncontrollable impulse. My throat burned—not with pain, but with thirst. Like I hadn't had water in days. But I knew it wasn't water I craved. I looked up at Anna and Ruby again, but I didn't see them clearly. Their outlines blurred. Their faces twisted in my vision, like shadows under flickering light. Something is breaking inside me. 

- "Go," I croaked, barely able to control my voice. "Get away from me."

- "Richard..." Anna said, confused.

- "I said GO!" I shouted, staggering back. 

My own voice scared me. My hands were shaking, and I grabbed the edge of the dresser to steady myself. Anna took Ruby and headed toward the door. I turned around, clutching my temples. The voice was louder and more persistent. 

- "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

My vision went dark at the edges. The world spun. My breath came in shallow gasps. I knew something was wrong with me, something terrible. And then... Something inside me snapped. A part of me went numb, and the rest of me surged with something else—rage, hunger, a need to hurt. I turned toward the hallway. Anna and Ruby were already running. I moved after them without thinking. My legs carried me faster than I remembered being able to move. I was panting. I didn't feel pain anymore. Just need. My body felt foreign, but powerful.

I reached the stairs. Anna was trying to shield Ruby as they hurried down. She turned to look at me, her eyes wide full of fear. 

- "What the hell Richard! Stop it, that's not you!" 

But her voice didn't reach me. I simply raised my hand and slapped her. Anna fell, tumbling down the stairs until she hit the wall. Blood smeared her face. Ruby stood frozen in the corner of the landing. Anna looked up at her and whispered to her to run. Ruby was completely frozen. Her legs were trembling, but she couldn't move. It was as if roots had grown from her feet and buried her into the floor. Her eyes were locked on the scene in front of her - her father, the same man who taught her how to draw and color, who watched cartoons with her, is attacking her friend. I walked over to Anna, grabbed her, and lifted her up by the throat, squeezing. I didn't know what I was doing. It didn't feel like my body anymore. And suddenly, a scream pierced through my head. Ruby was screaming—screaming to save Anna. The sound cut through me like a blade. I wanted it to stop. I dropped Anna and turned toward Ruby. She was already running toward the ground floor. I went after her. But Anna grabbed the cuff of my pants. I kicked her in the stomach and kept going after my daughter, who was still screaming. She learned that from me. I remember telling her: If someone attacks you, scream and run. Someone will help you as soon as they hear you. I just never imagined it would be me she'd be running from.

She reached the bottom of the stairs fast. But I was faster. I caught up to her. Grabbed her. Lifted her and pinned her against the wall. My hand clamped over her mouth to silence the screams. Her eyes were full of tears. The same eyes as Evelyn's. Eyes that stared at me without blinking. And the last thing she said, just before I lost consciousness, was:

- "I love you daddy!"

And then everything went black.