by Burak Koç
Lena started moving her body and got up first. She looked around to remember what happened. She saw the masked woman lying on the ground and moving slowly. She quickly took the young man on her lap again and carrying him to the house as fast as she could.
The masked woman saw she got inside the house with the young man. She got up and followed them with anger. I was right behind the woman. She opened the door of the house, looked inside. She stepped slowly and started to go to the living room. She stopped when she heard the sound came from the upper floor. She turned back and went upstairs. While she was deciding the room that sound came from, another sound came from the library. She walked to the room slowly. She got inside the room and the door of the room closed.
I tried to get inside too but I couldn’t. The story didn’t want me to see what was going to happen. There was no sound coming from the room. I went to Alfonso’s room to check if Lena was there. She was sitting in the armchair and waiting for Alfonso. I didn’t know if Alfonso was at the library.
After a short time, the door of the library was opened. Alfonso appeared in front of the door, holding the masked woman's clothes and a tube bottle that contained the masked woman's blood. He came quickly to his room. He seemed nervous. He looked at Lena and said:
“Who was that man?”
“A man? What are you talking about?”, Lena said.
“There was a man who helped you while you were fighting with that masked woman.
I was going to help you but I saw a man who suddenly appeared right behind the masked woman and he hit her head with an iron stick. Then he disappeared like a ghost.”
I was shocked while I was listening to this conversation. I thought nobody could see me but Alfonso had seen me. I must admit that I was a little bit nervous when I heard that knowledge. This story had started to be scarier and I could lose my invisibility ability.
Lena couldn't make sense of what Alfonso told her. She had not seen me because she was unconscious when I showed up. She looked at Alfonso with a confused facial expression and she said:
“I..., I don’t know who was him. I don’t remember anything. When I was awake she was lying on the ground. I did just what you said.”
Alfonso sighed deeply. It seems, another witness did not make him happy.
“Ok, Ok, Let’s focus on our plan. I took the masked freak’s blood. I will inject it to you and in a couple of minutes, you will be ready to go, Ok?”
“Ok.”, Lena said.
Alfonso injected the blood into Lena slowly. After injection, Lena looked overly normal as if there was no medicine circulating in her blood. But then I noticed that she was looking at the same place without any move just like a robot. She was like someone who waiting for the commands. Alfonso after waiting a couple of minutes leaned over to Lena's ear and whispered something. I couldn’t hear what he said to her. He stood up and walked away from a few steps. He was waiting to see if Lena would do what he said to her.
Lena stood up quickly and started walking to take the masked woman’s clothes from the floor. She seemed she focused to do what Alfonso said to her. When she reached the clothes, there was a smile on her face. She was happy when she completed the command that was told to her. No doubt this was because of the medicine. It kept her to be loyal to the command. The other masked people were doing it just like her: With happiness, without mercy, without thinking.
Lena wore the masked women’s clothes and put the mask on. She took the young man on her lap easily. She was stronger now. She got out of the house quickly.
When Alfonso made sure that Lena left the house, he went to the library and closed the door. He was acting weird, there seemed to be something she didn't say.
I wanted to follow him but the story didn’t let me. He put me out of the house. I did not complain about this situation, it did the same thing before. I looked around for Lena and saw she was going deep into the forest. I started following her without wasting time.
All around was dark, it was very difficult to see around by eye without any light. The trees were too many. They always came across me while walking. I thought if a normal person walks in this forest, her injury is inevitable. But this theory wasn’t working for Lena. She seemed to know the location of every step she would take. How did she know this? I had no answer. After walking 10 - 15 minutes, I saw a road in the forest. There was a black car on the road. A masked man was standing next to the car. He was staring at Lena. Probably he will take Lena to the center of the organization.
“What was it taking so long?”, he said.
“The young man was smarter, stronger, and faster than a kid. It was hard to catch him.”
The masked man said nothing and opened the car door. Lena got into the car. I did the same thing. We traveled for a while and finally, the car stopped. Lena got out of the car and there was another road that goes into the forest. After 15 - 20 minutes of walking, the center of the organization was standing opposite us. It was an old small house. It was so small that 2 people barely could live inside. I knew it was a deception. I was sure this house has a hidden side.
Lena approached the door of the house and opened it. I looked inside the house, the house was empty. There was only a table and a knife stuck in the wall. Lena looked around, she didn't seem like she knew what to do. That meant the medicine did not help her, Alfonso said her to where she should go. But apparently, Alfonso had not said what she should do when she reached the house of the organization.
After she was looking around a couple of minutes, she noticed the knife. She put the young man on the floor, approached the wall, and tried to remove the knife from where it was stuck. She pulled it with all her strength. The knife didn't even move. She tried again but the result was the same. She was tired and rested a bit. Then she started staring at the young man, she was thinking something. She took him in her lap and put him on the table. She tried to pull the knife again and he got it easily.
The table was key for pulling the knife. The knife was completely white. It was not difficult to understand why the knife was there. Alfonso had shown knife scars on the masked man's hand. This knife was helping to see if the visitor was a member of the organization.
Lena cut her palm with a knife. The white knife was painted with Lena's blood. It was absorbing Lena's blood. After the knife absorbed enough, Lena stuck in the knife back on the wall.
I noticed the blood that the knife absorbed from Lena was flowing to the wall. After a couple of minutes, the knife became white again and a door appeared on the wall. Lena opened the door, there was a staircase going to the down. The down floor looked dark. Lena took the young man from the table and started going down the staircase.
There was a long hallway on the down floor. We walked towards the end of the hallway. We reached a door at the end of the hallway. The door was huge. There were weird figures on the door. Lena pushed the door to open. A large hall stood in front of us. There were all kinds of creepy paintings on the walls. There was a door opening to a room next to each painting. There were many columns holding the ceiling. Between these columns, there was a long red carpet and a big table. Many members of the organization were standing on the carpet and behind the table. They were staring at Lena. They all had a mask on their face and dressed up completely black. Apparently, they were waiting for Lena for this young man. This young man was important to them. Perhaps they had found what they were looking for.
This situation was not in the plan so Lena had should be calm. She walked slowly towards the members. I could feel her uneasiness every step she took. Even if there was medicine in her blood, she did not lose her human feelings. Creepy violin sound coming from afar increased uneasiness.
When Lena arrived in front of the desk, she looked at the man who had a different mask. His mask was a gold color. This meant he was the top manager of the organization. He made a movement with his hand for Lena to put the young man on the table. Lena put the young man on the table. Then he made another movement for Lena to
get away from the table. One of them holding an empty syringe in his hand approached the young man. He took some blood from the young man and went to a room. I wanted to follow him but the story didn’t let me get into the room. Everybody waited for him without making any sound. A couple of minutes after, he opened the door and came behind the table again. The syringe that he was holding looked different than before. The blood inside the syringe was dark brown. He put medicine in the syringe. Now they were going to inject it to the young man. While they were preparing for injection, I noticed the color of the young man’s blood medicine was not the same as other members' blood medicine's color. They had brown blood but this was dark brown. Then I realized it was the same as Alfonso’s blood color. I did not understand the reason for this difference. There was a lot I didn't know. They injected the medicine into the young man. They waited for a short time then checked if he was alive. He was alive. After they had this knowledge, they checked if he physically reacts. He reacted to tests. The result made the members happy. They started singing some weird song.
The manager made another movement for Lena to come in front of the table. Then he made another for Lena to put the young man on her lap. He started walking towards a room and Lena followed him. I got into the room this time and got a chance to check inside. There were 3 tables standing side by side in the middle of the room. A masked man was laying on the last table. There was nothing else in the room. I was staring at the masked man laying on the last table. He seemed dead. I thought they will use the young man’s blood to bring him to life but it was not like that.
The manager made movements with his hand for Lena to put the young man on the first table and lay to the middle table. Lena did what he said without hesitating. After Lena laid on the table, several members surrounded Lena by singing a strange song. They held her arms and legs tight. A member took blood with a syringe from the masked man laying on the last table.
At that moment, I understood what were they going to do. They were going to replace him with Lena. This masked man must have had a key role in this organization. After he died, they gave a mission to get the right to replace him. The mission was to kidnap this young man. Lena got this right. This situation was not in the plan. Lena had should save Tina and return to Alfonso’s house. Things seemed to be more difficult.
Lena was aware of the situation but she didn’t resist. She let them injected the medicine into her. Maybe Alfonso had told her to do this. The blood in the syringe was dark brown just like Alfonso’s blood. Maybe Alfonso was working with them. There were too many doubts about Alfonso.
The man who was holding the syringe injected the blood into Lena. A big scream echoed in the room. Lena was screaming loudly. The medicine inside her blood was hurting her a lot. Lena's whole body trembled excessively. This shitty situation continued for minutes. Then she slowly returned to normal. She got up slowly and looked at the manager. Apparently, she was waiting for a command. The manager approached her and whispered something to her ear just like Alfonso did. Lena quickly took the young man on her lap and went out of the room. I followed her with curiosity. At the end of the hall, there was a huge door and there were 2 the masked guard standing in front of the door. Certainly, there was something important behind the door. Lena was stepping towards that door. When she approached enough to the door, the guards opened the door. What I saw surprised me so much. There was a labyrinth across us. It looked too complicated, many starting points were there. In front of the labyrinth, there was a table. On the table, there was a knife and a blank paper.
Lena put the young man on the ground, approached the table. She held the knife and cut her palm with a knife again. After the knife absorbed enough Lena’s blood, she put the knife in the middle of the paper. The blood flowed to the paper and then some shapes started appearing. The paper was a map of the labyrinth. Lena looked at that map for a while and after that, the paper became blank again. She put the paper on the table, turned back to take the young man on her lap, and from the 4th entrance entered the labyrinth. I followed her. She had memorized the map very well, there was no hesitation in her steps. Anyone without had seen the map would easily be lost in that labyrinth. Weird writings on the walls of the labyrinth attracted my attention, but there was no time to read. Lena was moving too fast, I didn’t want to lose her. I was trying to memorize the path we went but as we moving forward, oxygen started to decrease. I started to feel dizzy. Lena was not affected by this situation. When we reached the end of the labyrinth, I did not remember anything about the path. I took a deep breath and relax. When I looked across there was a big door again. Lena was waiting in front of the door. The creepy violin sound I heard before was coming behind the door. There were many people's huge portraits on the wall near the door. One of them caught my attention: Alfonso’s portraits. Alfonso had a big relationship there. I was about to learn this relationship. Suddenly, the door started opening so slowly. I went to Lena’s behind to see what was inside the room but that time something was different because I noticed my steps made sounds when I walked there. That meant only one thing and it was not a good time for that. That time I felt the fear of death because Lena’s body was turning towards me. She looked at me and clenched her fist. I was so stressed and couldn’t move. She approached me with quick steps and gave a punch in my face. I felt deep pain on my face and as I fell down to the ground my surroundings became dark again. I was in the dark and I couldn’t see anything but the violin sound was still coming to my ears. After a couple of seconds, the violin sounds changed a little bit. And then changed completely. Now, it was my alarm sound. When I realized this, I opened my eyes. The story was over but I knew that was part 1. I was sure that it was going to continue and I was right. With this thought, I got up from bed without wasting time and went to do my daily job. After I finished my job, only one thing was in my mind: returning to the story and to complete it. I went home and lay down to my bed. I closed my eyes and started waiting for the story...
CHAPTER 4: Unexpected Partnership
Probably Alfonso was in the secret room so I went to the library without thinking. The room was tidy again, all books were standing on the shelf. I approached the shelf to open the secret door. There were a lot of books and I didn't remember which ones of them were key for the appearing the door. I tried to remember a couple of minutes then I started to take off books that I remember. A lot of things were racing in my mind so I couldn’t be focused on what I was doing. Unanswered questions, a mysterious organization, the portrait of Alfonso, the creepy violin sound, and more, had greatly affected me. I had no idea what was going to happen.
I always believe that quote: “ If you do not focus on what you are doing, you will definitely miss a critical detail ”. But what I was doing, was the opposite of this quote. I missed the critical detail which could kill me. While I was trying to remember the right books, I stopped thinking suddenly, took a deep breath, and looked at the books in my hand. A danger alarm started ringing suddenly inside me. I could touch the books so that means I was appearing. I turned back slowly and saw two crazy eyes staring at me by desiring to kill me. I was shocked because of the scaring.
Alfonso approached me by quick-stepping, held me by my collar, clenched his fist, and gave a punch in my face. And there was a black screen in front of me, I was unconscious. It took a couple of minutes to be conscious again.
I opened my eyes and tried to understand where I was. The place was familiar; it was the secret room. I was tied to the chair and couldn’t move. Alfonso was standing in front of the table. I couldn’t see what he was doing there. His body didn’t let me see. Only I could see was his back. Then he turned back to looked at me. He put a smile on his face when he saw I wake up. He was holding a syringe in his hand. The medicine inside the syringe looked like normal blood. Same color, same density. He approached me and said:
“ Well, you finally awake. Before I inject you this medicine that will delete all you saw recently, I want to know why you came her
e. “
I was angry because of him. He could’ve killed me with that punch and now he was going to poison me.
“ Foolish guy! Don’t you know how to speak without brute force? You could’ve killed me. ”
“ If I wanted to kill you you would already be dead. You are lucky, I didn’t prefer that. You will be alive but if you remember what you saw recently, it wouldn’t be good for me. I’m sorry dude, I have to inject this medicine to you.”
He held my arm and prepared to inject it to me. I was calm because I knew that he was going to stop it when I said this:
“ Wait, I know what happened to Lena.”
Suddenly he started staring into my eyes. A surprised face expression just now had replaced the smiley face expression. He said loudly:
“ What?”
“ Lena is in danger, your plan didn’t work.”
He was more curious after hearing that.
“ Plan? How you know the plan?”
I was confident, I knew he needs me. I continued to speak calmly:
“ I know more than you thought. I think you need my memory.”
Alfonso got angry, held my collar tight, and said:
“ Talk! Who are you? Are you working for the organization? How do you know all of these?”
“ Hey, calm down! None of these were true. Now please give up to hold my collar if you want me to talk.”
Alfonso stopped holding me but he was still angry. My knowledge was disturbed him a lot but still, he wanted to know.
“ Quickly, tell what you know or I swear, I kill you this time.”
These threats didn't make any sense to me but I knew if I don’t tell him, really he would kill me. I did not completely trust him. There were a lot of unanswered questions about Alfonso in my mind. Still, I told him.
