The beeping sound of some sort of equipment echoed throughout the dark room, inside which Daniel lay on top of the bed utterly helpless… Where his fingers couldn't even move an inch but for quite some time, the poor boy’s eyelids fluttered as he kept his gaze fixed on the window pane to his left. Showing the lonely night sky with a hint of light from the street lamps lined up in the distance.

And only after that did his focus shift towards the small monitor to his right. With the number on the screen showing only a fact that Daniel survived whatever tragedy he had just gone through, before somehow ended up sleeping in such a dark chilly chamber, yet of course, the boy's thoughts still tied to nothing but his own absolute certainty of how at that moment from before, his chest was indeed pierced by the same blue magical sword that had also killed both his father and mother while still inside their burning house back then.

Made him unable to help but ask to no one, "How am I still alive?"

A soundless, reasonable question yet said by the boy only in his thoughts… Since his lips would not speak, he couldn't even actually feel a thing on his skin. Like how most parts of his body were indeed numb just by the moment he woke up, however… After five minutes had passed, a terrible pain slowly crept up around the boy’s back to his chest.

And as a result, he became scared and began breathing erratically… Which actually made the lungs feel even more as if they were being torn apart, so he decided just to groan. Letting out a pathetic sound to relieve the anguish inside his own head but it wasn't enough, hence he sought someone for help, from any nurse or doctor who might be outside of the room since Daniel understood one thing… That is, whatever the city or country he was at the very moment, the place had to be nowhere but a hospital.

Yet five minutes had passed and no one had come to at least turn on the light, while Daniel was consistently struggling with the pain which was slowly becoming even more pronounced… Until then he remembered that there should be something nearby the boy could use to call a nurse, a button that was usually embedded in the wall around the head of the bed. So he blindly stroked his fingertips over the cold surface of the pavement, eventually finding something worth pressing repeatedly. And when he finally heard the sound of footsteps slowly getting closer, he decided to relax his body. Trying to hold consciousness as long as possible, to overcome the fear of falling asleep and never waking up again that was starting to eat away at his soul. As he closed his eyes but could still tell that he was now surrounded by people who were doing something to him… Which was most likely the only reason to explain why he started to feel otherwise, that losing the struggle against the comfort of his sleep wasn't that bad of a thing, until he completely fell unconscious.

All so that then the chilly yet painful night might come to an end.

~~~~~

Daniel recalls just a few things that happened at the moment from before.

In which many people entered his room, carrying something that they used to temporarily fade Daniel's consciousness away, till the boy awoke in the next morning instead… But still the pain persisted.

Though this time, Daniel decided to try something different, to seal his lips while limiting his breathing for he was frightened that if only his lungs expanded too much, the pain would actually become much more piercing just like the night prior.

And it genuinely impressed someone beside him.

An adult woman with baggy eyes, while her make-up in the morning seemed to have been on her face since the whole day before. Who was wearing running shorts and a parachute jacket, leaned on a chair, her gaze fixed on her smartphone and not anything else.

Yet she suddenly asked the boy, “You up already?”

“......”

“If you're wondering, you've been unconscious for probably more than a month since the incident. And fear not, it's not a coincidence that I was here when you woke up. The doctor actually forced me to come, only because he said that you finally recovered last night. Oh… And also the last thing, with all the wide wounds on your back and a stab wound in your chest, they said that it was a miracle that you survived. Yes… What a fucking miracle indeed.”

The woman laughed a little cynically when she said words with her eyes still comfortably watching some kind of online news on her smartphone screen. But at the very least Daniel recognized the appearance and voice as it indeed was the boy’s aunt.

“Very tragic, isn't it?” She wondered.

“......”

“As if my brother and Melisa's suffering throughout their lives wasn't even enough, suddenly their most beloved child returned from a city far away, only with a cold body ready to be buried. And after facing it all without the slightest return for all their pain as God promised, it was the two of them who died at the end, instead of someone else who was more deserving of death… Resting here in the hospital by himself.”

While such long nonsense was being thrown at him, Daniel's gaze was instead focused on nothing but a large bag, lying beside a small table in the corner of the room with the zipper slightly open, revealing a lot of neatly folded clothes inside of it. Wondering about something else, somewhat less important, acting as if he cared the least about his own aunt's insults to the mere existence that he has. Or in fact, the boy didn't even seem to care about anything at the very moment, as he just really wanted to know who the bag full of clothes belonged to… Purposefully reduces himself to nothing more than the woman who behaved immorally through her harsh words, which actually made her even more annoyed, so she asked Daniel to confirm, “Don't you hear me, you little demon?”

“......”

“Oh boy, I’m not as stupid as you think I am... At least I know that Melisa's death was definitely because of your doing, so say something before I become sick of your face!”

Finally, the woman's gaze fell on the boy who was still lying helplessly on the hospital bed, while she even stood up to make sure Daniel could see the anger in her teary eyes as she shouted at him. And just by then she added, “If only you had done what I told you back then at that time, none of this would have ever happened!”

There was a brief silence between the two of them after the woman had finished contemplating, given that she was hesitant to speak one last statement that would actually clarify the meaning of her previous words to Daniel. But eventually her tongue moved as if the thing had its own consciousness, when it said, “If only six years ago you had…”

Suddenly the door to the inpatient room was opened by someone pushing a stainless steel hospital trolley, which naturally forced the boy's aunt to stop saying the full sentence and instead, the young woman's furious visage unexpectedly changed into a welcoming grin to greet the nurse when she asked her, “He's awake?”

“Yeah, he is. He just woke up a few minutes ago, actually.”

“I see… It will probably take around half an hour before the doctor arrives to assess Mr. Daniel's condition. So before that, I'll check his IV… Is that alright?”

Shifting her position to give the nurse a way to approach Daniel, the aunt nodded with a warm smile as she said, "Sure. Thank you for your hard work."

Only to then try to excuse herself as politely as possible, mentioning, "I haven't actually slept since yesterday. So maybe I'll just go home for now to get some rest."

To which, of course, the nurse did raise some concerns about her strange yet sudden decision to leave the boy alone in hospital… Especially since he had just woken up from a coma that she felt like she had such a responsibility to question the young woman, so she said, “Does Mr Daniel have other relatives who can accompany him to take your place?”

“Err…”

“You see, I think it would be better for Daniel to have someone beside him in this kind of situation… Besides, there is a sofa here that you can use to rest.”

“But I have work tonight.”

“Ah… Then I would suggest that you-”

“It’s okay, ma'am. I'm actually fine by myself.”

Daniel was a little surprised to realize that his own voice just now felt a little harder to get out than he ever thought it would. But still he continued the sentence with a bland look as if it wasn't even a problem at all.

“Well… If you insist.”

The nurse on the other hand, feeling that this was already beyond her right to give any more instructions, could only watch the young woman bow for the second time and leave the room where she was alone with the woman's own niece.

Nevertheless she kept working without saying anything, which actually made Daniel feel somewhat uncomfortable… So at least to not make the atmosphere just a little too gloomy, he then confirmed something to the nurse by saying, “I really thought that the bag in the corner belonged to her.”

“Oh… That big one?” The woman pointed with her finger, “No. It was brought a month ago by a young girl and a boy who said they were friends of yours. Those are the clothes the two of them bought for you to wear.”

“I see…”

“They are both such good people for you to have.”

“Yeah. Indeed.”

“So, uh… Anyway… Are you really okay for now?”

Such a query came out but sounded just a little more nervous than any of her words from before, that even Daniel himself was also aware of it… Understanding that some of his aunt's shouts must have been heard by this woman while she was still behind the door. Yet he believed in one thing whose truth still cannot be confirmed, as to how a nurse would not normally pose such personal questions to someone who's just been bereaved, given they had seen the same poor thing everyday… So maybe it wasn't actually a personal question the nurse was asking him after all.

That’s why he then played it cool as he answered, “I've actually been enduring pain somewhere around my back and lungs. And my stomach also feels a little sore.”

“......”

The woman noticed a restriction in the boy's response and instead chose to keep silent for at least just a moment... Although she couldn't be faulted, when considering Daniel's overly composed manner following the awful incident he endured over a month ago. Thus the nurse could only sigh, trying to excuse oneself from her patient as she said, “Got it. I will check with your doctor to see whether he is ready to assess your current condition, okay? I’ll be back in a minute.”

The boy then gave a slight smile before the nurse closed the room door from the outside… But only after a few seconds, his expression turned flat and his eyes gradually drifted downwards as the sound of crying could be barely heard. So Daniel slowly stroked his cheeks until no more wetness remained. And he even tried to look up to prevent yet another drop falling from his eyes, fearing that the doctor might arrive a little sooner than he once expected.

~~~~~