Chereads / Microscopic Leviathan / Chapter 2 - Welcome to Aachen

Chapter 2 - Welcome to Aachen

Aachen, a beautiful city in western Germany famed for its pristine gloss. Because of its modest size and low population, it is quite safe. If you ever visit Germany, it is truly a place worth exploring, even if only for one day. This is where JolandeEvi, a fifteen-year-old girl, was born and reared. It all begins with her wearing a face mask and walking down a street near her home. As people saw her wearing a face mask, they gave her an odd look...

"Excuse me, can you tell me where the nearest supermarket is?" a young lady in a classic, old-looking Volkswagen inquired. "Go straight for two minutes, then turn left after passing a barbershop; keep going straight and you should see one Carrefour." Jolande answered "And yeah, seems like your car is dripping water!" Jolande commented, she had taken note.

"The woman stated "Oh, I really need to get dispose of this old car. Thank you for taking the time to spot, but what's with the face mask? SARS was not even a pandemic at the time! And since it's summer, how are you keeping your cool?", and Jolande smartly says "I'm sick, and the mask is to safeguard other people from catching what I have." In Japan and China, ill persons would wear a face mask to keep the sickness from spreading and to protect others.

The woman smiled and asked Jolande to assist her by simply pressing and holding the gas pedal when she said so. They've completed the work, and the woman has confirmed that everything was in order; she then smiled and thanked her before proceeding on her way.

Jolande was heading back home two hours later that same day; in the summertime, most people wear comfy clothes and anything to remain cool, but Jolande refuses; she doesn't want to display her body to the extreme, so a t-shirt was sufficient for her. She despises the concept of wearing short shorts or clothing that exhibits her body.

After she was home, sweaty and tired from walking, she headed to the kitchen to grab something to eat. She smelled an odd scent in the kitchen, a food she never smelled before, what was it? "Hi mum" Jolande said, "Hi Jolande" replied her mum, Jolande asked her, "What are we eating today?" Later she knew her mum, Lisa Evi, ordered this sushi.

She arrived home, sweaty and exhausted after her walk, so went straight to the kitchen to get something to eat. She could smell that strange scent in the kitchen, a food she'd never smelled before, "Hi mama," Jolande said, "Hi Jolande," her mother responded. "What are we eating today?" Jolande inquired." Later, she realised that her mother, Lisa Evi, had ordered delicious sushi.

Her mother proceeded to watch the news and eat the sushi she had ordered with Jolande a short time later. Later on, And on the news, appeared a video of a young woman was aired on the news channel "... She is said to have inserted the salt-like granules into the sushi aisle products. Her actions were caught on film by security cameras."

"What the hell? This can't be," Jolande said, startledly. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" her mother inquired. In an evident liar's tone, Jolande made up a falsehood and stated, "How a-are CCTV cameras t-this clear?" Her mother sensed something was up when she went straight to her room without excuse...

Lisa chose to wait and see what happened instead of following her. "CCTV cameras are truly HD after all, this supermarket utilises CCTVs better than my Canon camera," she also reasoned, before her mind went blank for a few seconds... "The camera's clock indicated 12 o'clock, two hours before I ordered the sushi," she said.

"The woman headed to the least-visited but most-ordered food area. She chose to go to the sushi, which is located near semi-empty refrigerators and is visited less frequently," According to the reporter. "Sushi?? But that's exactly the same Bento I purchased! Is this why Jolande is locked up in her room? Is there something she knows?" She considered it once more.

Jolande sat in her room, engrossed in video games. She was perplexed, "Who's that woman? Isn't she the same woman I helped earlier today? It's puzzling "Jolande pondered her thoughts. But she had no idea the woman had crammed these white crystals into her Bento, thus she continued to eat, play, and think...

She later went to the bathroom to relax and take a bath. She was seeing vivid images meanwhile, and she was thinking deeply, solving issues, and making plans for the future. "It's annoying to be an overthinker, but I enjoy it" Jolande thought to herself.

The phone rings... "Who's calling, mum?" Jolande said, "It's your friends on your iPAQ" Lisa replied. "But I'm now fully naked, and can't go and answer" Jolande said, nor can Lisa bring her iPAQ to the bathroom, the water vapour becomes a problem when it condenses inside.

"I'm in the bath, I can't answer," she replied, "Don't pick it up, I'll call them back". Then she returned to daydreaming and she remembered the woman she helped. Inside the car, she saw two empty syringes and shattered glass on the floor in the back of her car, but she didn't mind this detail earlier, "What in the world was that"...

Jolande stayed in the bath for two hours, with water mixed with boiled vegetable waters and salts in equal proportions. After bathing she had to shower to remove the smell of the water and the crystalised salts on her body.

She was showering when all of a sudden, the hot water feels like it turned to a chilling 0 degrees Celsius and she screamed... "But the flipping switch is set to the hottest, and there is still steam in the bathroom!" which made the matters worse, she checked the thermometer and the reading is still 35 degrees Celsius! She kept on showering, not caring about the temperature, because it all seemed like an illusion.

The water gradually started turning hot, and the reading is still the same, she knew something's not right, but now she finished showering and started the normal girly routine afterwards, another hour in the bathroom drying her hair, applying creams, and making sure everything is in place.

19 o'clock:

It was time for her bedtime routine. Later, she knew her friends were planning a slumber party soon, at her friend's house. She would be going with her four besties, and they still haven't fully planned. What she wasn't planning for is what she ingested... What could that woman put in the Bento? Jolande doesn't know.

"I don't read books, but I read online articles, watch science videos and watch anime. I go stretch for 20 minutes, eat and tidy everything. I don't like dirty environments so I clean my room constantly. I now check for assignments if there is something I didn't complete, or notice" Jolande's night routine is this simple, she finds it the best routine for her. "I burry myself under a heavy blanket and put my pillow on my head because I like feeling stress when I'm sleeping. I leave the room window open and the temperatures drop cooling down the room"

The next day, she woke up at 5 in the morning, did her same regular routine; "I wake up this early because it's calm and I'd have enough time. I go cook my own breakfast. I would read the news and see the weather forecast, an hour later I stretch and exercise and do breathing exercises to reduce my stress levels", controlled breathing does make you calmer and reduce your stress levels - some people, while stressed, measure about 150 beats-per-minute and a very high blood pressure! This causes nausea and sometimes heart attacks for unhealthy ones, breathing deeply solves this problem and makes them stronger. Jolande cooked a lasagna, used the oven and forgot to turn it off.

The day was Saturday, a holiday, thus everyone's home. Jolande's mother went to the kitchen and suddenly felt heat rising from the oven, the oven has been on even after Jolande finished cooking.

"WHAT'S THIS JOLANDE?" Lisa screamed and immediately turned the oven off. Jolande was surprised, she didn't feel the heat at all! She was staring strangely at the oven with her eyes wide open, holding the plate from the oven that's unbelievably hot without safety gloves! She's not sensing temperatures at all...

Lisa looked at Jolande's hands, burnt and she didn't feel it at all. Jolande immediately put away the plate, went to the bathroom, and put her hands in cold water with ice cubes in it. She doesn't feel the striking temperature change from 70 degrees to 5 degrees. Her hands started changing in look, from hot red to pink and blue, she let them rest for 10 minutes in freezing cold water.

Jolande headed to her mum's room window where she has her little garden, broke a branch of the aloe vera, grinded it and mixed it with honey, she later covered her hands with it to speed up recovery and heal up. In a few hours she started getting better, so she started investigating on her own, why she doesn't feel temperature changes? "Is it the brain or the spinal cord? or a disease? People with diabetes type 1 don't feel pain... But I don't have diabetes!?", she was left baffled and thought probably her receptor cells in the skin stopped receiving signals about temperature changes, she needs more evidence.

Jolande was alone in the living room, in mid-day, observing the birds outside, in her underwear sitting on the couch, although she doesn't like to expose her body, she is ok with it at home, because it's only her parents who gave birth to her who are there. At 16 o'clock, roughly in four hours the party will start, so Jolande has to prepare clothes from now.

She wasn't feeling sick anymore, she took antibiotics and she's all good now so she didn't need to wear the face mask. Lisa suggested her to go out with shorts this time only, but Jolande still refused, she has decided to wear her gray pants and a t-shirt, then change at her friend's house and wear shorts and a t-shirt.

"What if they take a photo of me while sleeping?" she thought "Won't happen, I'm a light sleeper, I wake up to the slightest move". Jolande was ready to go, she had her backpack which has shorts, a shirt, perfume, creams, a tooth brush and toothpaste and some med kit items.

Jolande was wearing matching clothes, which match her personality. The distance is 3 kilometers and it was 14 o'clock, walking would take half an hour, running will only take a few minutes, and 3 minutes in car. Coincidentally, her mother had to make it to the groceries store to shop for some items, so Jolande didn't need to worry.

In her way there, she saw a young woman with a really nice familiar purse, wine-red coloured, reflective, and has good proportions, but she doesn't remember where she saw it. Anyway, she arrived at her friend's house, a nice building with 4 floors, 3 houses on each floor. On the entrance, a paper reads message:

"zweite Etage Einheit Nummer fünf. Die Tür hat ein Schild mit "Dieses"

"second floor unit number five. The door has a sign with "this one"

To Be Continued

----------------->