Chereads / CENTERED: Project Atlas / Chapter 7 - ACT VI.II: REPHRASED

Chapter 7 - ACT VI.II: REPHRASED

_"Come nearer, my beloved. I will to..take care of you!"-

Edgar exited the vehicle and went inside the big hallway of the Cumber home accompanied by their butler, Ishmael. Four woman wearing blue maid dresses was bowing in greeting for him. The timid boy just looked at their blank faces.

Edgar and Ishmael proceeded upstairs where his father's room was located but before he entered his butler stopped him, pulled Edgar's ears toward his mouth and whispered, "Remember! You are still here. Don't forget her. Find her."

"W...hat do you mean?", Edgar looked at the butler but his blank expressionless face left him ignored. Ishmael knocked at the mahogany door designed with the Aztec gods Tlaloc at the top, Tezcatlipoca in the middle and Centeotl at the bottom.

"Come in!", the deep voice resonated through the thick door.

Ishmael opened the door bowed and left without one word. Edgar went beside the man in the wheelchair. His white hair sparkles as the light from the sum strike him, his face was full of wrinkles.

The old man looked at Edgar with his sharp silver eyes grabbed Edgar's hand and let out a very deep sigh.

Edgar's hand felt the thick calluses in the old man's hand saying an old tale about a young hard working man. "Grandfather, what's wrong?" the little boy inquired, worrying.

"I'm sorry, grandson but I think you need to transfer from your school. It's not safe here anymore."

"Why grandpa?"

"Your father's coming home. Anytime he can barge there and take you. I don't want him taking you and making you his guinea pig again for his crazy experiments. He is a lunatic that even I can't stop him.", the man muttered.

"Why, where is he?", Edgar asked reclaiming his present self and body.

Edgar still holding the frail hand of the elderly felt him suddenly shaking and just staring at the distance in the forest beside the mansion. A man walked out the deep forest covered with dark fog. He stopped at the seesaw near the forest, he looked up grinning at them and waved his left hand.

"I'm so..." The old man said in a low tone trembling more wildly. Edgar knelt and looked at the weary face of the old man. Tears are dripping in the old man's face saying the words, "I'm so sorry.", repeatedly with his trembling voice.

Gripping his grandfather's hand tightly he asked the old man fearful of something. "Grandpa, what's wrong?" The old man looked at his grandson and pulled Edgar toward him whispering, "Save her. Get your self out of here before he finds you."

Henry pushed his grandson away with his meager strength. Edgar was confused about how his grandfather acted and tried to approach him again.

"What's wrong, grandfather? Who is that man?"

"It's him that lunatic. He escaped." He looked at Edgar with red teary eyes and shouted, "What are you still doing here! GO! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!"

The room began to quake and rumble. Edgar tried to grab his grandfather's wheelchair to stop him from falling in the collapsed floor but his hand just passed through like he was just grabbing air and the old man continued falling.

Edgar looked at his grandfather's bloody corpse staked in the chest by the wooden sword of the statue at the front of the mansion's garden and once again he became full of fear and erased of all hope. He cried and shouted at the distance blaming himself for his grandfather.

"Don't forget his will. Save her! Escape from this torture! You will meet him again.", a soft voice of a woman whispered.

Edgar looked inside the room but he can see no one but destruction, and broken trophies and snow globes scattered in the floor. He tried to open the wardrobes and the comfort room but only found bloodied coats, shirt and broken ceramics covering the brown tiles.

"He is near! Hurry, get out of here!", the woman whispered again.

"Who are you? Show yourself!", Edgar shouted at the air but didn't get any response again. The doorbell in the hallway rang and filled the silence in the house and it continued for a few minutes but then stopped when the door creaked open. Heavy footstep can be heard from the wooden floor at the hallway. Edgar opened the door and entered the hallway and looked at both directions but only the blank stares of the people in the portrait are what he sees and a dead end at the right.

He proceeded forward and through the hallway lined with portraits that seemed to follow him with their eyes. Fifteen minutes have passed but he can neither see a door nor the end of the unending hallway, he tried to run but it only left him breathless. Continuing to traverse forward he sees a metal door at the right side of the door with a green light at the top and a camera at its right.

Inspecting the bottom of the camera there is a card slot with a card inserted in it. Edgar took the black card that then turned the green light to red and the blank display to . Edgar who is now drained of energy and becoming dizzier as the minutes pass reinserted the card. The camera shutter clicked signifying it that it took an image of the inserter of the card.

Green light coming from the lens traversed Edgar's body then just below the display saying , a shutter opened.

Desperate to escape the unending loophole and stares of the portraits, he inserted his right thumb in the square hole and felt a slight prick. The light turned green again and the metal door slowly opened.

He entered the brightly lit room lined with metal walls at the south and west, another metal door at the east and a glass wall at the north. Anyone inside the room can see a room only lit by the monitors displaying blueprints of a rocket, 'GEMINI', and its flight plan going to the Pirate Cove Bay in Manila.

The hydraulic pumps hissed as the metal door at the other side of the room opened rapidly. A silhouette of a man appeared and as he walked in, he looked and smiled creepily toward Edgar.

"Edgar! What are you doing here?", The man inquired.

"Why are you here, father?"

"I'm just checking on my little boy but it seems we have a little gokiburi problem in our research team.", He approached and attempted to hug Edgar but he pushed Adolphos back.

"Hmmm... It seems you still despise your old man. Well, I can't do anything anymore since you will experience a rebirth. You will learn to love me, natus! Well toodles! I will be seeing you soon!", Adolphos muttered as he disappears in the wind.

The alarms blurted an ear-piercing sound that Edgar need to cover his ears to avoid his ruining his hearing. The rooms turned red and the speaker at the ceiling repeatedly saying, "Server will be disconnected. Please log out immediately."

Edgar tried to escape through the metal door but it keeps displaying access denied he repeatedly punches the metal door but to no vain, it was not enough. Everything glitches out, every image shattered like glass. A big fury hand punches through the metal door and with its red bloody claw, it tried reaching Edgar's face filled with anger, sadness, fear, hatred, and hopelessness.

The rooms continue to shake as Edgar's tries to escape from the hand and claws that are burying in his stomach. He did not feel pain but he still felt fear, fear that he will never escape the torment.

"Fear. FEAR!" a moaning voice shouted through the speakers.

The hand disappeared and the blood oozing from his stomach made him dizzy, nauseous and made his heart stop. He can only see the red light, the shaking building, the debris falling and only hearing the rattling robotic voice of FAQA, slowly fading away with his consciousness.

"BRAIN ACTIVITY DOWN T-20…"