When Grey finally came to, he found himself kneeling on the floor of the bathroom. His hands were deeply embedded into his hair, as a lingering feeling of migraine pervaded his mind. He felt a dull pain originating from his right hand. Unlatching it from his hair, he saw it bloodied, with tiny shards of glass embedded in his knuckles. A sharp pain shot up from there when he tried to move his fingers. Shocked, he scrutinized his surroundings; there were numerous mirror fragments surrounding him, with a little blood splattered on some of them. Looking at his front, he saw an empty frame with jagged mirror shards sticking out of its edge like a monster's maw. He finally recalled how he ended up like this.
'Heh, it seems even my body can't stand looking at me.... at least we both agree on something.'
Looking at the clock beside the bed, he realized he had only been out for about 30 minutes.
' There's less than an hour left; I can't waste any more time.'
Grey stood up, gently making his way towards the sink, careful not to step on any shards. He removed the glass from his knuckles, leaving the bloodied shards in the sink. He poured some disinfectant he found in a medicine cabinet on the wound, before finally taking a shower. After showering, he disinfected it again before wrapping some gauze around his knuckles. It was at times like this that he was thankful for attending first aid class back in school.
He quickly put on the police-issued clothing. It was a black hooded jumpsuit with white outlines running along its sleeves and a grey turtleneck inner. There was also a pair of black gloves, socks, and a dark facemask.
' I guess he wasn't kidding when he said they don't trust me.'
After donning everything, the only visible part of Grey's body were his eyes.
Grey checked the clock again, he had less than 20 minutes left. He went back to the sink, and turned on the tap,
flushing his blood away from the glass shards.
'The cleaning bot should finish the rest, besides.....I don't plan on coming back here.'
His eyes shone with grim resolve.
Leaving the room, Grey stepped into a small corridor. He was too exhausted to examine it last night, but now he could see that, apart from his room, there were six other rooms, making a total of seven. There were three to the right and left, with the last one being at the end of the corridor. The last door was slightly ajar, with a pair of shoes in front of it.
' It seems I'm not the only guest they have.'
Grey thought as he headed for the elevator. Entering the contraption, he selected the tenth floor of the building as his destination. There was a button glowing between his current floor and the 10th. He had to make a stop before getting to his drop point.
'Tsk... I should have expected it, it is a working day after all.'
The door slowly opened as the officer from yesterday entered the elevator.
"oh kid, thank goodness you're here. I was just about to send someone to fetch you. Hope you rested well.?"
Grey responded with a nod.
The elevator's door opened. Stepping down from the elevator, the officer continued.
"By the way, I never got your name?"
Grey rolled his eyes under the hood, he could already tell the officer was lying. He was just trying to start a conversation, there was no way the CP didn't have any records on him.
" It's Grey, Grey Ash."
His voice sounded muffled due to the mask he had on.
"That's quite the unique name you have there. You ain't alone though, I have quite a unique name myself. Wanna hear it?" The officer said looking a bit happy.
"...."
Grey kept silent, he wasn't in the mood for a conversation.
Clearing his throat awkwardly, the officer walked a little more before finally stopping.
" We're here....by the way, the name's Storm, Storm Chaser."
Grey nodded his head.
Looking at the number on top of the door, it showed 105. They were finally here, he felt guilty staring at the door.
' If only I'd been more observant....none...none of this would have...'
Grey shook himself out of that train of thought. What had happened had happened, he couldn't go back. Plus this was the last time he was going to see his parents in this world. He couldn't meet them like that.
Stepping inside, he felt the temperature rise as a faint smell of ash slowly invaded his nostrils. The room was dimly lit with a furnace-like chamber resting in the middle of the room. Three officers wearing hazmat suits were chatting by the right side of the room, as two body bags with hazard warning signs on them lay in front of them.
Upon seeing the newcomers, the officer's hands immediately moved towards the guns in their hosters.
" Chill out guys, it's us." Storm tried to calm the situation down.
" No can do, sir, orders are orders." One of the men spoke up, his voice sounded static coming from the suit.
" Come on, he's just a kid." Storm sighed.
The men didn't shift, their hands tightly gripping their gun holsters.
"Alright...alright, can we get this thing started."
The men finally moved, slowly lifting the two bodies and placing them in the chamber.
" Don't take it to heart, kid, they are actually really nice guys. Their just doing their jobs."
" I can understand that."
Grey replied half-heartedly, he never really cared about that. He had been trying not to think about his parents, but unfortunately, that didn't seem to work. His mind kept finding its way back to his parents.
" We're done." The distorted voice of one of the suited men, knocked Grey out of his thoughts.
" Alright, I guess that's good. Kid, you got anything you wanna say?"
Storm looked at Grey.
Grey thought a bit before replying him.
" If it's ok with you, C-can I get some alone time with them."
Grey stuttered as he asked.
" Sure kid." Storm patted Grey's shoulders as he looked at the suited men.
The men hesitated, and Storm changed his stare to a glare.
" Tsk... You got 3 minutes, kid."
Their leader said as they frustratedly stomped out of the room.
"Alright, Grey, you've heard them. I'll be outside." Storm removed his hand from Grey's shoulder as he too stepped out.
Finally, he was alone again.
" Heh... I know it's quite selfish of me to come here."
He moved toward the chamber in the center.
" After all, murderers aren't meant to be present at their victim's funeral."
Grey sighed, touching the cold shell of the machine as his ghostly eyes gazed at the body bags resting within the cool furnace.
" Mom...Dad if you can hear me, I want you to know I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. You raised me, fed me, and protected me, but in the end, I only brought you to ruin"
His gaze rested on the motionless body bags lying in the chamber.
. "If only I hadn't been so oblivious, none...none of this would've happened." Grey choked on his word, as tears started streaming down his eyes.
" I guess dad wasn't kidding when he said I'd be the death of him." letting out a gloomy chuckle, Grey's hand slowly moved towards a red button with the words ' ignite' on it.
" I don't have much time left, so I guess this is goodbye for now...."
Grey pushed the button, causing blue flames to erupt in the furnace, devouring the body bags within seconds.
".....hopefully you won't wait too long."
The deadly blue flames reflected in his eyes, as he turned his back, leaving the room.