The Contract

Chapter 10 - Everything

September 5th, 10:07

It was seven minutes in the class and there still wasn't a lecturer attending to the tiny amount of people who signed up for the course. To be expected, of course; it was only a little later that someone else entered this class - my wounded, bleeding father running away from the individual known as Adro. What made me so confused about this entire situation was not attributed to the reason why Adro started his hot pursuit of my father, but rather it was the strange phenomenon - that even though this day repeated three times, all three were different scenarios with dissimilar factors and events.

Tapping her feet beside me was Melia, the girl that I was currently sharing all the thoughts in my crammed head with, lest I go insane. My impression of her had changed from each time I met her; the first was that of awe in her natural beauty and charm, the second was that of suspicion when she gazed intently at the emerald amulet in my pocket, and the third was now - she gave me strange vibes because she treated me like a long lost friend when we were strangers.

For some odd reason, after we had discussed and talked about this entire scenario for a short bit in the shadows of the area where science students performed experiments at, she was suddenly putting on a cold mask for her demeanor toward me. I tried to inquire further on what exactly was her position throughout all this. What exactly was her involvement with Satan, and how did she know I had been communicating with him had been the most prominent thought throughout the entire duration since we left the science lab area?

To be honest, the notion of witnessing a murder that I was expecting was just as bad as spectating it for the first time originally. Every sound that emanated and echoed over from the corridor into the nearly vacant lecture hall I was sitting in sent jolts of electrical impulse up and down the nerves scattered throughout my body. I would be lying if I said my eyes didn't linger over at the door where I was expecting my father to burst through, with injuries covering his body and Adro, the translucent being hot on his tail.

It would be difficult to predict what sort of thing would happen over the next few moments as the previous two times I repeated today differed in their own unusual, respective ways. There were a few kids discussing quite audibly on some massive multiplayer online role playing game sitting at the front row. I remembered trying to get their attention when my father was bleeding out on the floor, after Adro stabbed him, only to have my cries ignored. As though I didn't exist to them; as though they couldn't see or hear anything that was happening in front of me.

The noise of a door creaking caused me to whip around sharply at the doorway as I attempted to force the bubbling nausea and fear down at what I would see. Holding my breath, I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief when it was merely just a skinny, average dude with thick nerdy glasses who waltzed over to the guys at the front engrossed in their discussion. But I didn't feel the heavy load lift off my shoulders. If anything, the longer this dragged out, the more stressed and anxious I would become.

Melia was still tapping her feet rhythmically on the edge of the plastic desk in front of her. Her gaze was directed to outside the window of the lecture hall, where it looked rather cloudy - almost as if a downpour could take place just about any second. The sky was grey and one could tell the gusts of wind outside were strong due to the leaves and branches of several trees swaying from right to left. I really wanted to ask her something; to break the awkward tension that lingered in the air ever since we departed from the science lab area. But the brooding, slightly irritated expression plastered upon her face caused me to reject the notion of shattering the silence between us.

"Have you ever wondered what's out there?" She spoke up all of a sudden, eyes rooted to what was beyond our campus. To say I was at a loss for words would be an understatement; there were plenty of questions I wanted to inquire about but I had to take it step by step and consider which questions were more important before I asked. She did not seem to be in a good mood - quite the opposite, in fact. The corners of her mouth were curled downward in a rather grim frown.

"Well, all the time, I suppose. I've always wondered what's out there after college. But to be fair, I've already fixated on my decision to become a professional basketball player. What about you?" I replied as I took a quick peek at the doorway before staring out of the window together with Melia.

She shook her head. "I've honestly never wondered what's out there. Probably because I haven't had the luxury to think outside of this box I'm trapped in."

The way she had narrated out the response she crafted suddenly caused the temperature of the hall we were in to drop a few notches. It was the tone someone used when they were mourning the death of someone they knew - solemn, grave and sad to put it precisely. She probably might have been feeling rather down now; probably an empty, insatiable void filled by the uncertainties of what the future may hold. I knew because that was a thought that consistently crossed my mind on a regular basis when I was younger and wasn't sure if I was able to make it to the professional scene in basketball.

Well, to be fair, I was not a hundred percent reassured of my chances to go pro in the national basketball league. There was the injury bug to be concerned with of course. Also, I wasn't sure if I could even resolve this whole situation properly; what if I didn't manage to? My family would be severed in an instant, shattering like glass from a dropped light bulb because of the villain named Adro - who was a worse threat than the financial problem of poverty that plagued us ever since my parents eloped together. I balled up my fists instinctively at the thought of that transparent, freakish entity Adro. The feeling I got when he popped up in my head was two times worse than when I had been knocked down by the stowaway truck at the age of seven.

As much as I tried not to think about it, the scary possibilities of a future without my parents dawned upon me like day wrestling against night vigorously at six o'clock in the morning; day ultimately taking control of the fight and shedding rays of light over the stunned, defeated darkness of night. How would I survive without a job? I suppose I could continue studying with my scholarship, but I was still heavily dependent on my parents for lots of things in my life right now. Melia's expression mirrored the stony-faced expression that was etched upon her face; if you looked hard enough, you could see that she was close to her breaking point.

It wasn't exactly clear what was the cause of her sudden and current state of pensiveness. A part of me wanted to pat her on her shoulder to comfort her, but what I really wanted to know what her involvement with the Devil. Surely something must've happened between her and him before, judging by how cold she started to get towards me after I confirmed the fact that I had signed a contract with Satan.

I might as well decide to take the leap of courage now and ask a question to Melia; one that I felt may seem very prying. But I steeled my nerves and made up my mind about asking anyway, as there was always the reassuring thought that today would just repeat again if something screwed up.

"Melia, what exactly did you involve yourself in with the Devil?"

Her gaze didn't meet mine, and she remained as quiet as she currently was still. I really wanted to know all the knowledge she had on the Devil - her involvement, her relationship, everything. Instead, here I was, waiting for something to happen as I chewed my fingernails in an act of uneasy nerves.

The sharp, piercing ring of my phone's ringtone interrupted the somewhat peaceful ambiance that covered the room like a fog on a rainy day. I couldn't contain my immense surprise at the ringing; it had to be an emergency definitely, and because I wasn't expecting a phone call one bit, I jerked up in my seat involuntarily due to shock and impulse. My fingers stumbled with the phone; I struggled to properly get a firm hold of it to accept the call.

When I finally managed to secure a better hold of my phone, I planted it beside my left ear and braced myself for the words that were coming next. I recognized the voice on the other side of the phone; it was the panicked voice of my mother. It felt as though there was a small lump forming in my stomach, and my throat tightened as I tried to process what I just heard.

"Bradley, you need to come to the hospital right next to your college right now! There's been an emergency, and your father needs you here as soon as possible!" Her frenzied, desperate emotions traveled straight through the electric signal that connected our phones, and the line went dead after she dropped the bomb on me. I leaped out of my seat and sprinted urgently out of the door as fast as possible.

If there was one word to describe each and every one of the emotions descending on me as fast as light itself, it would be: shock, distress, fear, anger, anger. Shock at the sudden enormity of how this situation had swelled up to; I had expected my father to burst through the door just like the first time I repeated today. Distress at the unknown, uncanny condition my father had sustained because I was now wondering what sort of emergency he was in. Fear, to describe all the thoughts I had been harboring when I had been sitting beside Melia. Anger toward the cause of the dire situation. Anger at Adro, as though he had been the one behind all this. I just had a feeling.

The rage that was coursing through my veins threatened to make my already erratic breathing even more turbulent and volatile as I left campus grounds, heading toward Toren hospital - which was located a couple resident blocks away from Toren campus.

The inside of the hospital was packed like sardines; it was almost never deserted. To explain why it was almost always teeming with people would be like asking a fish to communicate with a cat; it would impossible to explain, and you could only have a hunch as to why. In my opinion, it was probably because people never stopped getting sick and injured that the hospital was always crowded.

The long queue leading up to the receptionist's desk didn't deter my hysterical delirium as I pushed past a few people instinctively, effectively cutting the queue to the receptionist.

Panting due to the physical exertion by sprinting all the way here, I drew a deep breath to recollect myself. "Excuse me, sir, could you tell me which room Andrew Oliver Porter is in?"

Looking at me with a bored expression plastered upon his face, he spoke with a cold, impassive tone, pointing to the elevator. "You know, normally you're not supposed to be cutting queues and creating chaos -" He stopped to look behind at the distinctly annoyed crowd behind us who were glaring daggers at me; none of them bothering to approach me directly likely due to the helpful fact that I towered over them at six feet and seven inches of height with shoes on. It wasn't like me to just barge in and force my way through people - ultimately cutting a queue.

"- but because I don't want to make a scene, the man you mentioned is in room four on the fourth floor. Now get lost - I have people that have been queuing up for close to an hour in the lines you see back there!"

I dashed straight toward the elevator; I couldn't even be bothered to give the receptionist a nod as a sign of gratitude because a million thoughts were racing in my head like ants who had just lost their queen bee to death. After getting into one of the elevators that were still packed like tin food and pressing the button of the destination floor I had in mind, I stood in the middle of the lift. My eyes were darting from left and right uncontrollably, and my fingers were twitching in extreme anxiety.

How bad was the situation my father was in? To be honest, I already somewhat knew how dire the scenario was. We had a rule in my family - devised by both my father and mother - to only call each other when there was something serious going on. I knew the established axiom that held firm in my family till date, but I didn't know what exactly happened. And that was what scared me.

What should've been mere moments of passing as our elevator moved up three floors instead felt like an eternity in purgatory to me. A picture painted vividly in my head as everyone around me started to look like demons; their faces twisted in grotesque smirks and horns poking out on the edges of their skulls. My knees felt weak and I blinked my eyes - hard and tight. When my field of vision opened, the fleeting moment had gone, and the lift doors open to reveal the fourth floor.

"Excuse me," I muttered as I pushed past a couple of elderly women, alighting the nerve wracking elevator experience I had sustained just now. For whatever reason, the fourth floor of the hospital was completely void of people except for me. It was also unnaturally dark even though it was the morning. The fluorescent light on the ceiling flickered not once, not twice, then finally resumed shining dimly after three times of flickering. There was a loud, thumping sound resonating throughout the corridor. It took me a few seconds to realize that those were the sounds of my heart palpitating - similar to the noises made of a freight train at full speed.

I swallowed nervously and started walking. The sound of my shoes tapping against the hallway echoed about; the light glinting above me cast a shadow of me that stretched larger and larger until it started looking like the frame of a behemoth's - gargantuan and misshapen. The door of room number four looked like a plain, regular door fashioned out of oak wood. But what resided behind the door was unknown. If this was something out of a dream or a movie, there would be a fully different, unexpected interior on the other side of the door. There would be something strange going on.

Every fiber of my being was reacting to the notion of opening the door in a negative way; whatever was on the other side of that door made my whole body feel as though the energy was being slowly sapped away joule by joule. While I was busy mustering up the courage to burst into the room to see what was on the other side, the door opened.

Hands pulled me inside the room roughly, and I saw my family sitting with stoic expressions on each of their faces around the man on the bed - my father. No one was saying anything; the silence was close to deafening. There wasn't any visible signs of a serious injury, but he lay on the bed without drawing any breath. Even when asleep, a living person's chest would rise slowly and fall while they respired. But this wasn't the case - not at all. I realized I was having difficulties breathing as the pulse monitor beside the bed was a mere horizontal straight line.

A short, pudgy man wearing blue medical attire walked inside the room with a grave expression on his face as he beckoned for my mother to come outside with him to talk. Layla was trying to hold back her tears; I could tell from the way she was chewing on her lip - she chewed so hard that blood was dripping down onto her chin. Steve's sober demeanor was even more grim than usual. He was staring down at the floor blankly.

"No," I muttered in disbelief as I observed the man laying lifelessly on the hospital bed. The man who had been struggling to support my family for the span of his entire thirty-eight years of age. His face was a hue of pale, ghostly white and he looked as though he was drained of something.

Outside, words were exchanged frantically; I recognized my mother's shrieks that vibrated in the corridor.

"- what do you mean he's dead? He's not even forty yet!"

"I know, Mrs. Porter, but I'm gonna need you to calm down -"

"Calm down, my ass! What the hell am I supposed to do now? I got my kids to feed. I got to pay for their education. And if my husband's dead, how the hell are we going to make it?!"

My legs felt like lead and my brain felt weightless as the reality dawned upon me all of a sudden. The foreboding that I had thought of had come true too soon. I wanted to know what the cause was that killed off my father. I wanted today to repeat again so I could warn him; warn my mother and siblings too for what would come. So that maybe, just maybe I could stop all this from happening before it even began.

Why wasn't today repeating? Did this day not reset whenever something bad happened - like the death of my father and the death of me?

"Those sons of bitches..." I mumbled aloud to both Adro and the Devil. The fact that my father was dead proved that I had been set up this whole time. That contract I had signed with the devil - all lies and bullshit. It was stupid of me, really, to believe that I could actually trust the Devil for something major like this. Stupid.

And Adro. Just where in the world was he? Didn't he say he would kill my father right before my eyes? There wasn't a single visible s***h or wound on my father. Not one.

"f**k!" Droplets of blood started to form on my knuckles as I breathed heavily. The pain from punching the wall did little to soothe my rage and ail my sorrow. Revenge and vengeance were the concepts that harbored in my thoughts as I burst out of the door, with the need to find out the truth.

Then I turned and ran.

It was an urge, an insatiable lust for the truth I coveted. The odds were that even when I knew what the truth was exactly, it wouldn't make everything the way it was. It didn't make everything all right. Only an urge. Something insignificant to the eyes of the immortals who peered at us from their respective domains. Something that could barely even pass off as one ant in the midst of a million.

But I'd accept this emotion with my arms widespread and open. Because when you've made your mind up to do something, you must go through with it all the way and see it completed.

I ran. The lactic acid in my muscles tried to stop me; to tell me that I wasn't thinking like I usually did. But I didn't care. Not one bit. I ran as the air resistance slapped at my face, with the intention to find Melia, and force out all the information she possessed in her.

Everything.