"Are you crazy?" Loralai asked in a bored tone upon seeing Acheros kneeling on the floor while crying. "I think the best place to cry is the room in our house, not in the hospital." Loralai got herself a bottle of water before sitting in her hospital bed.
Acheros stilled after hearing Loralai. He immediately raised her head only to see Loralai walking to her bed, alive and undead. He wiped his tears in shame as he sat beside Loralai. That was embarrassing. Acheros faked a cough to lessen the embarrassment he's feeling at the moment. 'Why did I even do that?' He doesn't know why he suddenly broke down and cried. He didn't even hesitate and checked the comfort room where Loralai came from. He panicked. After seeing the dead body outside the hospital, all he could think is the safety of the girl. And thankfully, Loralai is safe, and is already awake, which he didn't expected.
"I'm sorry, that was embarrassing," He said, still ashamed.
"Yeah, no problem," Loralai replied and pointed the cellphone she seldomly used on the table just beside her bed. "That was on video, so yeah, no problem." Acheros' mouth parted open, and before he could even grab the phone and delete the video, Loralai had a grab on it, saved the video, and turned off the phone. He sighed. How could he even trust Loralai now that she has a video of him in an unusual situation. Crying out of context, that's odd.
"Don't dare post that anywhere," Acheros warned.
"Like I'm scared."
"You are not, I know," He immediately admit defeat. He knew he can't scare Loralai easily, especially knowing that the woman has experienced extreme pain – she has nothing to be scared of. She won't even scream out of pain every time Dayanara is hitting her. She screams for more. Now that's weird. "How are you?" Acheros asked, picking a fruit from the basket he brought and giving it to Loralai.
"I'm fine, I guess," the girl shrugged, not really interested about what happened to her yesterday. "I'm good, let's go home."
"Nope," Acheros pulled Loralai's hand when she tried to stood up, trying to leave. "You'll stay here until the doctor said so. I can't risk your life."
"What about my life?" Loralai suddenly asked. "Do you even care about me?"
"Of course!" Acheros exclaimed. "Why do you even thought that we don't care about you?"
Loralai shrugged. "If you care about me, maybe you should've searched for my parents rather than adopting me."
"Are you not happy in our family?" He calmly asked, slightly peeking Loralai's face which is covered by her hair. "Do you want me to find your parents? Tell me."
"No."
"Then what?"
"My parents are dead," Loralai stated, shocking Acheros. He can't even digest what he heard from Loralai's mouth. "They died when I was young so you won't have anyone to search for."
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"It's fine," Loralai replied like it's just nothing. When in fact, Loralai misses her parents very much. It's been ages since she saw them, and if she has the slightest chance to see them, she will give everything she has just to have a moment with them together. "That will happen to everyone. Death is everyone's destination. Maybe my parents' journey is just faster than the others."
Acheros became quiet, not knowing the right words to say. He hasn't experienced something like that so maybe, his lack of knowledge about comforting someone in that kind of situation is acceptable. Instead, he moved closer to Loralai and encircled his left hand to Loralai's shoulders. The girl didn't ask him to stop, but she also didn't say anything about him hugging her. But in the end, Acheros kept his arms encircled on Loralai's until the latter told him she's okay.
The next day, they were able to go home as the doctor allowed Loralai to. But she still isn't able to go to school to make sure that if ever something happens to her, she's in the house and someone can attend to her needs. The night before they went home, thankfully and miraculously, no murder incident was reported. But many banks were robbed. Still, they didn't consider it as connected to each other.
"Take some good rest," Acheros told Loralai before leaving her room. She had nothing to do in their house other than sleep, eat, and play with her phone. Since she was lacking sleep, even if its still early in the morning, she decided to close her eyes and sleep. When she woke up, it's already noon, and food was placed in her bedside table.
She stayed in the bed, staring at the ceiling. She doesn't know why but she doesn't feel like moving. Loralai's mind was full of thoughts about the shadows that she saw in the woods – if they are real, and their possible connection to the murder cases. That's so many, and she thinks that a single person can't be behind all of that – a group of killers. But what agenda? Revenge? Power? Justice? She can't even think of one. She's nervous about what might happen in the future, added the thought that she saw them. It's possible that they saw her too, and it's not sure if those people won't hunt for her.
For the whole day, she stayed on the bed, only standing up when needed to go to the comfort room and eat. That was her routine for almost a week until she is allowed to go to school again. Nothing much changed about school. It's just that, the school added more security since they aren't sure if the villain won't attack in broad daylight. There's a big possibility so they need to be cautious.
Days went by, and as soon as everything felt alright, as soon as the majority felt relieved, the killings came back much worse than ever. Reports have been established about dead people all around the country. They all have the same way of death, probably the same motives too. The general public started to panic. And before they could even bother to act, the 'culprit' surrendered himself and carried all the blame for the incidents.