After crying for a while, Aunt Karen slowly moved away from me and wiped the tears from my eyes. With a trembling voice, she whispered to me.
"When I went to see the principal today, you had beaten someone I expected. I didn't expect that from you, I even considered being angry with you, but then when I arrived, I saw you. You were standing alone in the bloody corridor. Your eyes were red. At that moment, I couldn't stand it. You're my only one. No matter what you do, I'll be by your side," she said, her voice becoming more tearful towards the end.
But when I entered the principal's office, do you know what he said to me?
He didn't even mention you, just asked how you'd get out of this situation. He said that, when necessary, you could always come to the Severus clan, their doors would always be open.
I asked him why, why were your doors open instead? Why didn't you stop the incident? He said, "I didn't have the power."
"Life is like that, Esteban. Do you think I run a Whorehouse for fun? Do the people there do this for pleasure? People like you have endured it. What if you were expelled from school? Before graduation. What would have happened to you? Nobody could have stopped it. You'd have become a male prostitute or worked in some ridiculous place. Your brilliant mind would have withered away."
"That's why I felt so sorry for you when I left. I couldn't stand it, you're like my one and only child. We've been through so much together," she said.
After a long silence, the only thing I could say was, "You're right."
Aunt Karen, wanting to change the subject, said, "Come on, let's check your wounds. The club's empty right now."
She started the car and drove towards the slums.
As we approached the slums slowly, I noticed the hatred in the trash, the dark eyes. I knew that everything didn't look like it did from the outside. But still, seeing it up close shook me deeply. Everything here had a price, and no matter how hard you worked, you were just waiting for the moment when you'd decay and fall. If I made just one more mistake, I'd be right in the middle of that world.
The noise of my old car's engine seemed to push everything further away. At that moment, I took a breath and thought about the past days. The fight I had at school, running to classes late in the morning... Every moment, every mistake made me think I shouldn't repeat them. If I had made one more wrong step, maybe I'd be in the slums, maybe I'd get lost among the trash. And then what? What would happen? Would I accept becoming one of those people? Someone who has lost themselves, struggling to hold on to life, decaying a little more each day? The question of what all of this meant echoed in my mind. The rising fear inside me suddenly felt like the end of the road. If I found myself there, among the trash, it might be too late.
We continued towards the club. Looking back, I thought about the same old path, the same dark corner. But maybe now I had to be different. Maybe, after all the mistakes, the past, and everything else, I had to take a step forward and try to truly change something. Or… maybe everything had already been lost. So, what was I waiting for?
Somehow, I made it out, yes. But I didn't know what I had made it out of or where I was going. I didn't know if I'd find myself or if one day, while walking that path, I'd get lost again.
With those thoughts, we finally arrived at the club. We got out of the car.
The security at the club opened the door respectfully, and we entered. Some of the women were already working, sucking on men. Some were flirting with men at the bar, making sexually suggestive movements. Without bothering with the bar, Aunt Karen led me straight to her office. There was a man waiting at the door. Aunt Karen sent me into the room and started talking to the man at the door.
As soon as I entered the room, it felt like I had entered a completely different world. The strange smell of the bar, the sweat, and the scent of semen seemed to vanish. In its place, there was the fresh smell of flowers. The view through the window, though not very pleasant, was still somewhat refreshing. Due to the building's height, I could see a bit of the outside of the slums. Slowly, I sat down in the leather chair I always passed by. The chair was very comfortable, but after sitting for a while, it made me sweat. When I was a child, whenever my mother wanted to brush me off, she'd send me to the club. Aunt Karen would always keep me in her office so I wouldn't be affected. Of course, over time, I understood what was going on, but it was normal. After all, if I hadn't acted stupid, I wouldn't have ended up in a place like this.
I slowly looked at the photo of my younger self on the desk. Aunt Karen didn't have a family. Her ex-husband, a retired military officer, was dismissed due to false accusations, and in the end, he couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide. Aunt Karen didn't talk much about this, but when she did, she just called him a coward.
I guess she was right. After all, when Aunt Karen fell from high-rise buildings to the slums, instead of complaining, she rolled up her sleeves and opened this club with the remaining money. Her husband either couldn't take it and committed suicide or there were other reasons. But who knows? He was dead.
Aunt Karen entered the room as I was lost in thought.
"I've handled everything. Now it's just the two of us. Let's take care of your wounds," she said.
She slowly laid me on the chair and began tending to my wounds, one by one.
During that time, of course, she spoke.
"Did you feel better after hitting your friend, Augustus?" she said with a grin.
"It felt good, but that bastard's name is Augustus," I replied.
Aunt Karen giggled like a young girl.
"Good, you should've hit him more," she said.
"I think I made a good impression," I said.
Aunt Karen had a special ability to change the atmosphere. The weight on me seemed to vanish. I felt like I was turning into the playful little kid I used to be. It felt good.
As Aunt Karen applied cold treatment to my swollen cheek, she asked, "What happened to Alice?"
I answered, "That's complicated. I think Alice was Augustus's girlfriend. I'm not sure if she did it willingly, but she didn't even budge when we fought."
In short, that situation is over now.
Aunt Karen: "Don't worry, 'Chamaco.' Aren't there girls for you, my little prince?"
"HEY! I'm grown now!" I said.
Aunt Karen smiled. "Uh-huh, I'm sure you are," she said. "No matter how much ducks grow, they still look small to me."
We spent a while reminiscing about the past, and eventually, I decided to leave.
She asked if I wanted her to take me, and I said I wanted to walk. She kissed me, put some money in my pocket, and sent me off.
When I stepped out of her office, the loud music disturbed me. I quickly ran down the stairs. As I was descending, I bumped into a man kissing a prostitute. I didn't give him a chance to speak and quickly continued down and out the door.
The familiar smell of sulfur hit my nose as I stepped onto the street, but oddly enough, it felt refreshing. The lively, brightly-lit, and crowded streets didn't feel strange anymore. Having lived here for years, it no longer felt weird.
I slowly turned away from the bustling streets and made my way to the quieter residential streets. I thought I might see a star in the sky, so I looked up. But the city's pollution left no room for any stars, and the one that shone was faint. Maybe it wasn't even a star but a passing teleport photon. But it didn't matter.
As I was walking, I had been so lost in looking at the sky that I accidentally bumped into a middle-aged woman.
Before I even looked at her, I immediately apologized.
When I looked at her, she had black hair, wearing a black blouse and skirt. She had a lot of natural stone necklaces around her neck.
She said, "It's okay. I was looking for a place. Can you help me?"
I wasn't in the best mood, but after thinking of the customers I'd be getting soon, I said, "Yes, I can help."
The place she wanted to go happened to be just one block away, so it wasn't a problem. On the way, she told me about her youth and her years at the institute.
Curious, I asked, "Madam, I understand you're from the institute, but why did you fall to the slums?"
The woman started talking.
"I'm a seer," she said.
Of course, a seer. I should've understood from her exotic and slightly outdated clothing. But my mind was too full today. Seers had lost their vision about 19 years ago. Nobody was ever told why, but their loss of sight was a sign that fate had been tampered with from the outside.
In the institute library, I had read articles suggesting that this incident was caused by fate being forcibly expanded
The woman stopped and said:
"I've talked so much, but I still haven't learned your name, handsome."
Without letting me speak, she told me her name.
"I'm Valeria. Nice to meet you," she said.
Just as she was about to extend her hand, a black bottle fell from her pocket and shattered. The black liquid inside spilled everywhere.
"Ah, you should be a bit more careful. Do you need help?" I said, looking at her face.
Her face was filled with disbelief. The calm demeanor from earlier had completely vanished. She suddenly started screaming.
"COLLECT IT! COLLECT IT, DON'T LET IT SPILL OR IT WILL COME AND CONSUME!" she shouted.
The woman was attacking her face, as if she had seen something she shouldn't. Her once-beautiful, calm face was now covered in blood, and she had one hand pressed to her eye.
At that moment, stupidity overtook me. I didn't know what to do. When I tried to hold her hands, she pushed me away with strange force. "Don't worry, I'll collect it," I said, but how was I supposed to do that?
The liquid's flow was very low, almost like a mix of tar and honey. I quickly tried to touch the bottle, but as soon as I did, a loud, sharp sound hit my ears. Someone was whispering in my ear, but it sounded unbearably loud.
For a brief moment, I felt like I lost control of my body. I collapsed to the ground, curled up in a fetal position, trembling as if I had gone through a massive trauma. It felt like I was watching the world through a different window as the whispers grew louder. My vision was covered in a red liquid, probably my own blood. An unimaginable pain struck me. It felt like millions of cold needles were stabbing my eyes, and I curled up in agony. My vision was fading to darkness.
My sight went completely black, and the whispers stopped. It felt like I had closed my eyes, and I immediately tried to open them. My eyes wouldn't open. Panic hit me, and I screamed loudly. I brought my hands to my eyes, but it felt like there was skin covering them. I tried to tear the skin off to open my eyes. A strange sense of madness took over me. I couldn't bear it any longer, and just as I was about to break, my eyes opened, but not in the way they had before.
The world looked strange to me. Everything was white, but it felt foggy. The light from above hurt my eyes so much that when I focused on it, it felt like boiling water was being poured into them.
I couldn't even process how absurd everything was.
At that moment, a gray object appeared in the distance. It was odd. It was within my sight but I couldn't perceive it. A strange sense of anxiety and madness spread from it. If I didn't understand it within a second, I felt like I would die. I tried to reach it with my hands. I crawled, crawled, and crawled, but I still couldn't reach it, and a strange sense of anger and trembling filled me.
Suddenly, a voice that shook the very ground and sky echoed:
''From the bloodline of the slackers, Esthas's pupil, and Dreamer's enemy.
The day will come, the stars will fall. With the power of the heavens, the world will tremble.
At that moment, you will remember me.
Remember that I will be waiting for you.
Beyond everything your eyes can see, I will exist in the thin boundary between you and me.
Even if time tries to forget you, I will be here.
When you remember, even rivers will stop flowing through the stream of time.
This will be the moment everything waits for, a noise, yet a deep silence.
And when that moment comes, the lost stars will leave a single trace behind.
But you… Will you remember?
Or as the stars fall from the sky like a ball, will everything be lost?
From the bloodline of the slackers...
A power beyond your enemies...
Believe me, even if you wanted to forget, you will never be forgotten.
You will hear me in that holy revelation.
Do not fear, for when your fear finds you, I will be here.
Time will pass, as the souls continue to descend, I will always be waiting.
And when you remember, time and space will cease to exist for you.
You will find me and I will touch you.
Do not follow your faith, for when you find that moment, everything will be beyond you.
Do not forget me, because if you forget, I will forget you.
And I will be here forever.
The only truth within eternity...
When you remember, I will be waiting.
Like an eternal well, always waiting''
When I opened my eyes again, there was no trace of the delirium. I was back in Aunt Karen's room, on the leather couch, and she was attending to me.
There was a void inside me, and it felt as if my breath would tear through my chest. I looked around strangely.
"Are you okay, Aunt Karen?" she asked. "I have to leave," I replied.
I ran out quickly, heading straight to the street where the woman had dropped the liquid. Without questioning what had happened, I ran down the street, pushing myself until I felt like my spleen would explode.