Merik.

  Merik woke up abruptly gasping for air as if he had been drowning all night. Though seeing as drenched as he was in his own sweats, one might not consider the possibility of him drowning in his own bed as zero.

  “Gosh, Merik. You startled me.”

  He didn’t notice his surroundings since he was like half-fish, breathing all the air in but after a few moments, he noticed that someone else was sitting beside his bed.

  It was Stella Green, his playful neighbor, the beautiful ex-actress.

  “Ma’am.”

  “I mean I understand that we do need to breathe air to live but your action is quite... intense, don’t you think?”

  The lady in question put her book onto the chair that she was sitting and went into his kitchen.

  Merik’s mind had yet to function properly as to know why Mrs. Stella was in his kitchen, in his own house, brewing some alluringly fragrant tea.

  “Wait...”

  As soon as he tried to get up from his bed, he hopelessly fell down onto his bed like a stringless puppet.

  Pained grunts and grumbles escaped from his mouth since his whole body was aching as if it was being torched by flames alive.

  He checked his body and noticed that he was wrapped in a pool of bandages.

  And these bandages didn’t even leave a small gap on his body!

  “Don’t make sudden movements. Stay still on the bed and drink this tea. It’s not easy taking care of you, you know. If you’re sick again, I’m not going to take care of you, you hear me?”

  With some unsatisfactory comments, Stella came into his bedroom again and put the aromal tea onto the table before helping him to slowly lean onto his bed.

  Merik looked at the tea and saw that it was quite different from what he considered as “tea”.

  The scent didn’t seem to match the color and appearance.

  Seeing that Merik was hesitating to drink her tea, she explained:

  “It’s my family’s remedy. It’s my mom’s, to be exact and her mom before. I wasn’t the same strong, fearless woman as I am now, you know. I was quite frail in my childhood and whenever I was feeling sick, my mom would brew this for me and gone the fever the next day.”

  Merik could somewhat feel the confidence in her words and decided to gulp it down in one shot.

  Needless to say, some books could really be judged by their covers.

  In the next moment, every line on his face became extremely knitted and in horror, he thought that he could no longer feel his own tongue.

  Tasting was bad, swallowing was worse.

  Only by the time painful tears from his eyes reached his chin did he manage to swallow the supposed “tea” wholly.

  “Never said it was tasty, though.”

  A stifled chuckle slowly escaped from her mouth and Merik met her gaze with a subtle glare.

  Merik blew a long turbid air before saying,

  “Thank you, ma’am. I’m really thankful for taking care of me.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Even for the tea?”

  “Ye...Yes. Even for the tea.”

  Stella broke out into amused laughter and her beautiful voice rang pleasantly for a while.

  “Well, then. Seeing you up and okay now, it’s about time I take my leave.”

  “Yes. Ma’am Stella. Thank you very much. But may I ask, how did I get back here and what happened?”

  “Hmm, a bunch of guys, I think from your work, carried you back here in the midnight. I was wide awake by the all noises they were making so I just came to check and there I saw you, out of consciousness. So, I didn’t know what happened before.”

  She continued while folding her arms, to seemingly ease up the cold.

  “One of the guys, saw that I was watching so he came talked to me. And requested me to take care of you there and there. I thought it was a drag but I couldn’t deny it outright seeing how he was so polite and humble. Wouldn’t want him to think I’m so heartless and all, right? So, I decided to take care of you. And in case you are worrying, I’ve already told Richard and he was just here before he went to work. He was worried about you, too, you know.”

  “I understand. Did the polite guy had a red hair?”

  “Why, yes, he did. How did you know?”

  Merik fully understood now and his mind finally relaxed.

  So, they came as backup, after all.

  “He is my supervisor.”

  “Figured. I’m not going to ask what happened because I will respect your profession and whatnot but, as a concerned neighbor, it wouldn’t hurt you to take care of yourself more.”

  “I understand and thank you for your concern, Ma’am.”

  Merik returned her kind gesture sincerely and further thanked her.

  “Anyway, Ma’am Stella, thank you so much, really. I’m not sure how I can even repay you.”

  Stella softly glanced at Merik’s face with a naturally beautiful smile.

  Though she had long retired from the art industry, the gleam of her former glory didn’t seem to falter, not even for a tiny bit.

  Merik suddenly felt uncomfortable and slightly shifted.

  Then, she maintained her smile and gently said,

  “Don’t worry, I just didn’t want my play night to be ruined. But yes, you owe me a big one, Merik. A very big one.”

  “If, nothing else, Merik.”

  With a slight curt, Stella lightly turned back to the door.

  “Also, just call me Stella.”

  Merik was in a daze even after several moments she had left.

  These past interactions made him self-deprecatingly think,

  “What’s with these women wanting to be called by their maiden name?”

  ________________________________________________________________________

  After enjoying some more of his beloved bed, Merik decided to get up and leave for work.

  He still had to deal with the aftermaths, after all.

  The injuries on his body were a lot less pleasant than he thought they would be but considering he just danced on the lips of demise, he was incredibly lucky.

  But what happened? How did he get back home safely?

  He knew reinforcements arrived in time but his Head Captain specifically warned him that he was without backups last night, so how come?

  A lot of questions that he would get answers to once he got to the garrison so, he put them into the back of his mind.

  He checked his body once again to see a lot of blood-stained bandages, tightly wrapping around his chest and back; making him seem like a gift wrapped in lovely ribbons.

  It was like he was hit by a train!

  Slowly, his mind shifted back to the visions before he blacked out.

  He knew that he didn’t get hit enough to get all these severely painful injuries all over his body but now, it was more than difficult for him to even take proper steps towards the bathroom.

  No matter how badly hurt he was, he saw that the reflection his two crimson eyes, devoid of emotions, still stayed the same – staring at him as if he wasn’t even there.

  Then he slowly unwrapped the bandages to see the “gift” inside.

  Once he saw what was wrong with his body, his cold and imposing eyes instantly betrayed their very nature.

  He was shocked beyond despair.

  Because from the right side of his upper chest towards the whole of his back, countless layers of twitching blackish goos that resembled his blackish flames were attached to his body in a grotesque manner.

  Furthermore, they seemed alive on their own.

  Merik, in shock, tried to touch those... blackish things on his body and what further shocked him was that, these things reacted to his touch and tried to consume his curious finger, even.

  Suddenly, he felt weak in his knees and lost his balance and through his shaky breaths, he saw that the blackish things retracted from his finger as well.

  He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  Fear, shock, uncertainty, disbelief, guilt, all sorts of negative emotions surged out from the deepest parts of him as he helplessly fell onto his butt.

  Fear.

  It seemed that the mysterious power he once wielded as his greatest weapon was now his greatest danger.