Divided heart

3. whispering room

"There's always a dark place to escape to when the bright light is too blinding."

- Sin -

The place was stuffy, cramped, and dark. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.

"Hei.... you came," a little girl whispered right beside me.

"Hei... you promised, where's your pinky finger?"

I extended my pinky finger, and the little girl linked our pinky fingers. Her figure was invisible, though I could hear her voice. I could sense her much shorter and smaller form.

"Do you want to taste it now?"

I felt the figure move closer to me. A moment later, her thumb was put into my mouth.

I shook my head violently, surprised and afraid, pulling my head away from her. What did this mean?

"It's okay, it doesn't hurt! Don't hesitate. Heii..! bite it." This time, I felt her tiny hand firmly holding my face again, the little girl's thumb was put into my mouth.

"Bite it...!" she commanded.

I wondered, was she crazy?

"Bite it...!" she urged, rubbing her thumb against my teeth.

A bitter taste dominated, along with a very foul smell. Her thumb felt horrible.

"Bite it...! Don't you like it? I said bite it, I'm yours, bite me...!" Now she was pleading in a pitiful tone.

I was silent, still not knowing what to do.

The little girl snorted in annoyance. "You're such a loser." That one sentence felt like igniting a fire within me. My anger peaked very quickly, beyond my control.

My teeth clamped shut instantly, following the girl's heartbreaking scream. The smell of blood filled my senses. Salty, slightly sweet, and an overwhelmingly metallic taste.

I couldn't stop after the first drop. The thirst I'd been suppressing seemed to have found an oasis.

"Good, very good," her tiny hand stroked my head as I sucked on her thumb.

The salty taste intensified over time. But this time, it was accompanied by pain. At first, the pain was mild, then it became unbearable.

I opened my eyes, listening to my own heart pounding wildly. My sweat dripped, making my clothes sticky, clinging tightly to my body. The pain brought me back to my senses; I realized I was sucking on mythumb. And that salty taste still lingered in my saliva.

What had I done in my sleep? The taste of blood, strangely, didn't make me vomit or feel disgusted. No, quite the opposite. My tongue even sucked harder, and I couldn't stop it.

I needed more as I jerked mythumb, gasping for air. Blood still flowed from the open wound on my skin. Deep enough that I could see the white flesh beneath. This is insane. What have I done?

I rushed to the bathroom, stood at the sink, cleaned the blood and rolled up toilet paper as a makeshift bandage.

Why again? Damn it!! All because of meeting that strange girl. She even appeared in my dream tonight. If only I hadn't met her this morning.

After the tissue was no longer wet, meaning my blood had started to clot and close the open wound, I walked towards the kitchen. Opening the refrigerator hastily, I grabbed a bottle of water and drank it down.

The coldness made me fully awake, chasing away the last traces of sleepiness from my eyelids. I was just about to place my bottom on the single chair in this room when I caught a glimpse of a section of the ceiling directly above me swaying. As if something was resting on it.

I rubbed my eyelids, making sure that it wasn't fatigue or sleepiness causing my vision to malfunction. No! I was one hundred percent awake. However, as if knowing someone was watching, it stopped moving."

I think my brain is too tired, making me easily scared right now. Starting from unpleasant things, it led me to stupid assumptions. It must have been just a rat. Yes, a very big rat, for sure. Damn! Why does my logic have to fail me at a time like this?

Loki, you're not a loser, you're not a coward. Funny, encouraging myself in a dimly lit room. It's so pathetic.

"Heyyyy...... goo...."

I almost fell off my chair when I heard a soft whisper, unclear what it was saying. I stood with trembling legs on the chair, trying to hear more clearly and identify the source of the sound. Who knows, maybe the thin walls of this apartment are reflecting sounds from other flats.

"He..., it's there..."

The sound was indeed coming from above the ceiling. The sentences were strange and repetitive, unclear whether it was a woman's or a man's voice, because it was just a very soft whisper.

"Back, he's back....back....."

"Who...?" I dared to ask.

I fell silent for a moment. I saw something shift slightly on the ceiling. As quickly as possible, I jumped down, grabbed a broom near the glass balcony door, and brutally stabbed at several ceiling panels.

"Heyyy... get down, you thief!!" I shouted angrily.

The sound of my stabbing was accompanied by a scraping sound, like someone crawling away from where I was stabbing. Oh damn, if only I could get up there, I'd stab harder and more brutally, making a loud noise in the silent night.

"Get down..! Here....! Don't go....!" I lost track of him. The thief suddenly stopped and didn't move anymore. Damn! Where the hell is he hiding?

"Hey...! Open the door, what's going on...?" An angry shout came from the front door. A few more knocks made me curse irritably and move to open it.

Several men in casual clothes, loose t-shirts and shorts, clicked their tongues in annoyance as they stared at me.

"Do you know what time it is...? Crazy making noise in the middle of the night." A man with almost bald hair scolded me.

"There's a thief." I answered quickly.

"Huhhh, really...?" Incredulous eyes scanned the inside of my flat.

"Yes, on the ceiling, he just ran away after I poked him with a broom," I explained impatiently, pulling a nearby man into the flat and pointing towards the ceiling.

The others immediately followed the direction of my pointing finger.

"Let's check the ceiling," someone suggested.

The skinniest and tallest man decided to climb onto a chair and inspect the ceiling I pointed to. He knocked, pushed, and firmly slid his hand across it to make sure there were no gaps for a thief to enter.

"Safe! No signs of forced entry or loose ceiling tiles. Are you sure you heard someone up there...?" the skinny man asked doubtfully.

"In the decades I've lived here, there's never been a case of a thief breaking in," replied the man with a pot belly.

Even if I said 'For God's sake,' would they believe me? I sighed in defeat, feeling increasingly disturbed by the growing number of curious neighbors arriving.

"I don't know!" I replied. "Hopefully, I'm wrong."

"Alright, we'll help check the ceiling tomorrow to see if anything's amiss. That's enough, let's not make a fuss anymore, everyone, let's go back to sleep...!" The skinny man shooed away the other neighbors, and for a moment he turned back and patted my shoulder gently as if worried. "Get some rest, you just moved in? Maybe you're just tired."

I nodded nervously, thanked him and apologized before closing the door tightly. I remained silent until the sound of footsteps faded away from my room.

This first day and this misfortune continues. What else could possibly happen next?

Damn!!!