Haytham looked at Sebastian with a pitiful look in his eyes. He looked like he was in a state of shock. Such a betrayal would leave any sane man vulnerable. As he was thinking that, his surroundings again started to distort. He looked at his grandfather in puzzlement and asked, "What's happening now?"
"Hmmm, it seems this wasn't his bottom point. I must say I am surprised, I thought he was broken but it seems like he is yet to break more." said Robert with surprise evident on his face.
Their surroundings finally stabilised; Haytham looked around and realised he was standing in someone's bedroom. There were few furniture indicating the minimalistic nature of the owner. There was a single bed, a TV, a dresser bedside and a few shelves on the wall. On one of the shelves was a photo of Sebastian and on both of his sides were standing an old man and an old woman; presumably his parents.
Haytham looked towards the picture and noticed happiness filling each of their faces. And then he looked back at the same man sitting on the bed with a grim expression. The man was Sebastian, who had hit rock bottom.
He was sitting on the bed with his body slouching; in his left hand was a photo of him kissing a woman happily and in his right hand was his phone while beside him were two bottles; one of the bottles was rat poison while the other was bleach.
Haytham observed Sebastian with concern and then he looked towards his grandfather, curious to know his reaction. However, what he saw surprised him greatly, as Robert's face was calm and it looked like he was slowly getting impatient.
"Why aren't you sad? How can you stay so unaffected?" asked Haytham with worry.
"Hmpf, child I've seen scenarios like these thousands of times, I have seen and lived through worse things than this and some of them have scared me for life." said Robert with a scoff, "When you do something like this long enough, it numbs you to the pain of others." The last line carrying a hint of sadness.
Haytham realised his naivety and the vast distance between his and his grandfather's experience. He focused his attention back on Sebastian, who was dialing a number with very slow fingers. His thumb hovering over the call button for a few seconds before finally touching it gently.
He put the phone on speaker mode. After a few beeps, a monotone voice resounded the room saying, "The number you have dialed does not exist." The voice repeated the same sentence a few times before Sebastian cut the call. His phone slipped from his hand as if his hands had lost all the energy.
Haytham looked at Sebastian's face and he noticed his eyes were red and were now filling with tears. Finally, Sebastian let himself go and started crying like a man who had lost everything. Loud cries of an adult man filled the room. Haytham couldn't stand this sight and looked away.
After a few moments, the crying voice slowly started to diminish. Only then did Haytham manage to look back at Sebastian. His face was a mess filled with snot and tears. He had calmed down; suddenly he reached for the rat poison beside him and opened the bottle, but suddenly everything came to a stop.
"Huh! What happened?" asked Haytham.
"It seems like that is the end of his memory." answered Robert.
"But did he consume the poison? We have to know." said a distraught Haytham.
"Well he came to us living-breathing so I'd say the answer is obvious." said Robert while looking at Haytham as if he was looking at someone dumb.
"Ooh" said Haytham after realising his mistake, "So, what now?"
"This was the moment the host hit his rock bottom which means he was the most vulnerable and thus is also the moment when a nightmare demon decided to haunt him." said Robert.
"What is a nightmare demon?"
"Nightmare demons are a demonic entity which infiltrates a person's subconsciousness at their most vulnerable moment. They are like viruses who invade and lay rest in a subconscious; feeding on a person's fear, hatred but most importantly their sleep."
Robert paused in mid explanation, he looked at Haytham straight in his eyes and continued in a heavy tone.
"When a person loses his sleep, they slowly but steadily start going insane. With a broken mind and insanity galore; the nightmare demon becomes free to take over that person's body and their identity."
Haytham was stupefied by what he had just heard. He had never heard or read about anything like this before.
"So, is that what has happened to Mr. Sebastian?" asked Haytham.
"Yes, fortunately it hasn't been that long since the demonic invasion, we can fix this." After saying so, Robert walked towards Sebastian and placed his right hand on his forehead. A white light glowed from his palm and their surroundings started to change again; only this time everything was changing very quickly.
"Listen Haytham, from now on you will do only one thing and that is stand behind me. You will not speak and you will under no condition move away from me unless I say so." said Robert in a serious tone, he grabbed Sebastian's shoulder and said, "It is about to get dangerous."
Haytham nodded and replied, "Yes sir."
Judging from his grandfather's tone, something serious was about to happen. So he did as he was instructed without any further questions.
Their surroundings stabilised. Haytham looked around and realised that they were back in the office; the only difference was that it was now completely empty and the atmosphere was extremely bleak. The air was filled with a bad pungent smell.
Suddenly a hoarse demonic voice resounded in the entire space.
"Huhh, What is this? I sense a different presence ."
"WHO DARES ENTER MY TERRITORY?"
Heavy footsteps could be heard echoing through the office. Suddenly one of the cabin doors opened and a familiar face walked in. Haytham instantly recognized the man as Armstrong. However something was different about him compared to earlier.
Although Armstrong was wearing the same suit as earlier, his physical appearance was changed a lot. He had two black horns growing out of his forehead, his nails were now black, long and claw-like, his eyes were completely black while his ears had turned pointy. His body size was also visibly grown. But the most eye catching thing about him was the black smoke that was coming out of his body. Overall he resembled a demon more than a human.
"Ho Ho Ho, I feel so lucky; I am standing in the presence of a Mind Walker." said the demonic Armstrong in a menacing voice.