He was inside a tight tunnel, pitch-black and damp enough to cause discomfort. The tunnel was just as wide as his shoulders, maybe less, because his body was rendered immobile here. Other than twitching his fingers and knocking his knees against the tunnel, he couldn't do anything at all.
The texture of the wall felt mushy, the sort of feedback one would recieve upon trying to grope a pit of rotten food. He could almost picture himself here, stuffed inside a pipeline filled with stinking, decayed garbage, unable to see, unable to scream, unable to figure out the whys and hows.
He couldn't even recall his own name. All he knew was that he wanted to get out of this hellhole. He'd do anything for a speck of light, anything for one more inch of room around him.
And then he heard the voice, resonant and soulful like a hymn.
"Do you seek release?"
'Of course I do!' He wanted to scream, but no words came out. Yet, even his silent imploring seemed to reach the divine consciousness speaking to him.
"Then do as I say."
The commands that followed the declaration were somewhat incomprehensible in their original, raw form. But his mind managed to interpret certain simple instructions out of those commands. He could follow these, as he only needed to answer some questions, repeat certain sentences, recall specific memories that seemed fresh but familiar, and move his body up and down like a worm inside the tunnel.
He did not know how long it took, but eventually, the voice declared, "Good job. Now forget-"
Bang!
Bang!
The darkness faded. The sensation of being pressed from all sides disappeared. And the mind-numbing urgency forcing him to listen to every word reaching his ears also suddenly seemed to be absent.
Mir opened his eyes and found himself standing in front of his house. For a moment, he felt as if his mind had been disconnected from reality. Then the absurdity of the situation quickly set in, and Mir's brain went on overdrive.
He was not actually alone. The customer who had tricked him into falling for a mutant ability was also here, but not in a good state. There was one bullet hole on his left shoulder and another in his right knee. He lay on the porch, bleeding and groaning from the pain. The shooter turned out to be the last person Mir had expected.
Officer Orwen calmly put away his revolver and cuffed the injured man with an electronic band that had the function of neutralizing Mutant abilities. Sirens could be heard in the distance, sending a wave of panic through the crowd that had just formed upon hearing the gunshots.
Piece by piece, the clues fell into a larger picture in Mir's mind.
The Nightmare Goat mutation was famous for its spiritually destructive capabilities. A Transcender with this mutation could simply make a prey look into one of his six new eyes and fall into a nightmare designed by the prey's own mind and controlled by him.
Ordinary humans didn't really stand a chance against this mutation. From the current situation, Mir could glean that he had been hypnotized by this 'customer' at the shop, and then made to follow his orders through the nightmarish hypnosis. The commands that had seemed so incomprehensible during that time became clear now.
This guy had first interrogated Mir about Murray and the red diary! From what Murray had told him about the diary to how he had utilized it to purify himself, every piece of information had been meticulously extracted from Mir's mind. Then the man had made Mir leave the shop with a believable excuse so that Mir could show him where exactly the diary was inside his home.
It was a great plan, and it would have been a successful one too had it not been for Officer Orwen's timely intervention.
Coming back to his senses, Mir noticed that the red diary was now grasped in the Officer's palm. His heart nearly leapt out of its ribcage as he watched the officer sift through the pages, examine the leather cover closely, and then clamp it shut.
Their eyes met, and Officer Orwen threw the diary over to him derisively.
"Didn't expect these cultists to go through so much trouble for this worthless piece of junk. Here you go, boy."
Mir caught the diary, but his eyes didn't leave Orwen's face. Rather, the intensity of his focus only increased.
"Officer Orwen, back when we were at the station and you used your mutant ability to examine whether I am being followed by anybody, you lied to me. This lie not only put me in danger, but also fooled your superior, Captain Galloway," he said in a placid tone, no different from narrating a paragraph from a book.
Orwen's haughty expression froze, but only for a moment. Recovering immediately, he said, "Are you slandering me, young man? Badmouthing a law enforcer? Do you know the penalty for doing so?"
Unperturbed, Mir shook his head. "I'm just stating the truth as it appears to be. Even if you took me to court, I can explain myself. Not sure you can do the same, though."
"Oh?" Orwen looked intrigued and insulted simultaneously. "Let's hear it, then! Why did you reach such a scandalous and absurd conclusion?"
Mir glanced at the crowd outside the small yard of his home. The entire population of the narrow alley was gathering here. The sirens were growing louder too. He didn't have much time.
"I was paying attention when Officer Galloway made you submit to his authority using something called a contribution list. I looked it up online after leaving the station and came to learn that enforcers on probation have to earn a certain amount of merits by performing well in their temporary posts. If you revealed at the station that I was being followed by someone, your contribution to his eventual arrest would be minimal. But now, you've managed to hoodwink your superior with a simple lie, made me perform the part of a bait, and waited until the miscreant stalking me attacked so that you have a valid excuse to protect me and arrest this guy singlehandedly. Surely, your contribution points today will flourish! At least the amount will be much higher than what the truth would have gotten you."
The young officer laughed, rolling his eyes in mock amusement. "That's it? You're relying on an outcome-based analysis? Let me correct your mistake, simpleton. Captain Galloway made me visit this street because he took your complaint seriously. I've been waiting here for half an hour now, and only after I noticed this guy sneakily following you into your house did I act. I eavesdropped on you two and realized that he was using a hypnosis ability on you to steal that artifact from your house."
Mir nodded along until this part. "Then you shot the criminal, and to hide the fact that you've virtually orchestrated the entire incident, decided to act as if you don't know how precious this sacred artifact is. You do have a perfect story set up, and I doubt I can pick out a flaw in it. So can you guess what I could do to make you regret using me as a bait and putting my life on the line?"
Orwen smiled coldly and took a step forward, casting a shadow over Mir. "Even if everything you said was true, there is nothing you could do about it. It's not safe for peasants to act so self-important all the time. Know your place."
Mir looked up at him and smiled back just as coldly. "It's because I know my place that I initiated this conversation, Officer. I think you're forgetting a very crucial component common to both of our narratives– You 'failed', intentionally or otherwise, to detect that I was being followed the whole time. Officer Galloway told me that you were the best officer in the station for that job, especially so due to your mutations. So filing a complaint against you for your sloppy performance should be pretty easy. I wonder how that's going to affect your contribution list, or the future cases that you'll have to handle. Pick a side, now. Did you lie to me and Galloway, or are you just bad at your job?"