She brought Keith to Alma's house. She wasn't able to wake him up and was scared of his condition. He had multiples traces of dried blood in his nose and in his right ear.
Raima was called and she stayed by his side for the whole day. She was relieved and under surveillance since the beginning of her wandering. She slowly caressed Keith's front and kissed it plenty of times. She whispered next to him.
"Where were you? Why were you away?"
She cried and her shaking hands were itchy to touch her son every time she stopped brushing his hair. Alma forcibly opened his eyes and she noticed their non-reaction to light and their deep dark colour engulfing her thoughts. She was tired of bad news falling upon Raima's shoulders and she refused the idea of telling her Keith might have gone blind.
Picco came to visit her and to question her, even if he knew she was innocent, he couldn't connect any dot and report nothing to Leton.
"Do you have any idea where he went five days ago? Why would he escape your room?"
"No. I don't know."
Even though she had teary eyes, they were both staring in front of her, devoid of light.
She answered. But Picco's question was double edged. He knew Keith had been sleeping at his neighbour's house for a few days because of her violent behaviour. He assumed she was calmer but her sanity hadn't improved. But he was surprised by her sudden focused gaze.
"Do you know? Do you have any idea were he was? Why would your wife find him at your house?"
The tension on her face let a part of her teeth visible, they were mostly dark and with the heavy breath she took, Picco could smell the rotten air she ejected out of her lungs. Her expression was odd, with a fast thinking, he understood she was looking for a culprit.
He clenched his teeth and lied.
"I have been looking around the village for a quarter of moon, if I could've find him under my nose I wouldn't have spent so much energy finding your precious son. I am currently helping you, not hiding behind the bush."
She was relieved. She needed words to calm her down and Picco found the right ones.
Another day passed. Nothing changed, Keith's breath was still low and weak. His mother attempted to wake him up. He was somewhere else.
In the explanation, there was a little boy with a fuming head. Sitting on an invisible wall, he stared in front of him. His eyes were locked on the same position since Show munched his skull.
Under the smoke orbiting around his head, there was a round shaped organ forming. Hours passed and the smoke thickened. The particles became flies, a swarm of insects of all shapes. The more detail they had, the more the organ healed and soon, it was covered of a soft bubble. His skull was reconstructing little by little.
Keith had a new question.
"Did I sleep this much time because of Randi's hit, or because of the cat?"
But Show had no idea. He did not answer and played with Keith's shadow, changing its shape and disappearing in it.
"Say, what's happening outside? Am I still attached?"
In a few minutes, Show explained the situation, he spoke about his mother with her pouncing heart in the throat, ready to explode at any shake. He told the boy about Randi's behaviour and made hypothesis around his doing.
"... And so you ended up under the healer's care. That's were we are currently."
Keith's ability to look around came back. When he got up, he noticed the size of his tummy. It was more than full. Its shape was round like a wheel on his tights, making it was more difficult to find his own balance.
He patted it but it was all soft, just filled with air.
"I feel angry. Can I eat here?"
Show pulled out one of Keith's hair. It had grown back, but the one pulled did not detach. Instead it extended. Transforming little by little in a silver thread.
"Maybe."
Show said.
The kid tried to exhale the air in his stomach first to no avail, and then followed the thread. Its colour was harder to see, His world was entirely white and the brightness of the silver was more difficult to spot.
With a new activity to work on, his mood was brighter, it had been a long time since he could do what he wanted.
The neighbourhood of his house came out of the ground, plank by plank. Many things had an older look. The houses and the crops were abandoned. That did not bother Keith too much.
His eyes and limbs moved according to his will, his coordination was back too. The atmosphere was extremely noisy to him. The insects were covering many buildings. Those who could shine in the dark shone. Those who could sing an hymn sang. The whole sky was red and behind Keith stood Show.
The silver thread thickened more and more, and its brightness had red shades, it blinded Keith from the details around him. Many shapes distorted, most of them melt down and left only their shadow behind them.
Then he found it. The sleeping dinner. The next animal he could feed on. I did not look like anything he saw before, yet he seemed familiar with its traits. Simple two eyes and a mouth weren't enough to decipher what it was.
The thread extended around its body like eels feast on a carcass.
"This one's claws aren't sharp enough to wound you deeply. Go ahead."
With the memory he had from the cat, he jumped on the animal's neck and clenched his jaw on its throat, preventing air from coming out, and filling his mouth with immeasurable joy.
The poor animal vanished under a few minutes, it was bigger than the last one but lasted for less time. Keith turned around to face Show.
"It seems I li-"
But he was interrupted
"You could scream as loud as possible, no one may hear you here. Don't whisper."
"I liked this one more. It felt wonderful."
Show was happy to hear the kid admitting his strong emotions during his meal. The kid patted his stomach to notice its toughness.
"I can't wait for the next one. But I don't feel hungry any more."
The place he stood was very dark, yet there were rays of red light coming from the outside that guided him to exit the place he was. He felt lighter, he stared the red moon an instant.
He did not walk much, a few step away from him, there was his front door. Sharp wooden splinters entered his bare feet as the wood creaked under his weight. The wood was rotten to its core, moss had grown on walls, insects crawled on every corner of his home.
The second he crossed the door, he was lifted up from the ground.
"You're here! Good gods, many thanks!"
This voice was Raima's, it was the sweetest Keith had ever heard. His mother looked beautiful. There were no traces of famine nor fatigue on her face. No marks of hard labour and no dirt under cracked nails. Her expression was plain. Keith could not touch the ground until she put her into their shared bed.
"You can rest. We must rest. You want to eat something?"
She asked.
"I feel good mother. Let's sleep together."
Warm tears fell from her eyes, wetting her round cheeks on their way down.
They both left plenty of space on both side of the bed to be as close as possible.
Everything was sticky. The bedsheet were mouldy and full of tiny parasites. The place under his spot was deep dark. The decaying wood had become supple and could be mistaken with old abandoned fruits, making it almost comfortable.
But his mother's embrace was overwhelming. She would not let him escape any more.
Keith could compare her to a snake. Coiling around his tiny body, leaving him helpless for this night.
He scanned the inside of his mouth with his tongue, hoping to find a little something to play with a few minutes before he fell in the arms of Morpheus.
He delicately woke up to his mother's light voice the next morning.
"Wake up, we have a lot to do today."
After slowly opening his eyes, he washed his head with the bucket filled with stagnant water next to the room's window. His hazy mind brought him to the kitchen were he did not met his mother.
"Mother?"
No one answered.
'She might be on the field already. Has the sun reached its peak yet?'
He looked around to remark nothing was rotten. No insect around, but a new far away buzzing echoed. Those were voices arguing.
'Everything is back to normal!'
He was sitting in the middle of the kitchen, shoving a piece of fruit in his mouth when Show appeared in front of him.
"Kid, I know we've talked a lot lately, but. I'm pretty sure you noticed a few things off. Such as..."
"You here under broad daylight! You speak sentences now? Here? Not there?"
Keith asked while touching repeatedly his temples, wide eyed.
"You are not as smart as I thought. I'll give you a hint. Do you know what sleepwalking is?"
The buzzing sound became louder and louder by the second. Keith could hear Show's low laugh and he pondered on his question. Someone repeatedly knocked on his door, his pace became faster.
'Why did I wake up here?'
Images flashed between his eyes and the sound was soon too loud to be ignored.
An enraged cry resounded.
"RAIMA?!"