A dark and eerie corridor stretched out before our eyes. Whispers, screams, shouts echoed the dissonance. There was a flicker of light at the end of the corridor, caught by the sapphire eyes of a young man. The wider it gets, the darker it gets. The faint sound of running footsteps, its rhythm like a wave that sweeps away all kinds of sounds along the corridor. The young man's sapphire-eyed steps chased a glimmer of light.
The light instantly vanished, and the young man's steps stopped. The next thing he knew, he was inside a construction building. Dust coated the sturdy materials. There was no light there, only the glimmer of a full moon enthroned at the top of the sky, sneaking in from the small cracks in the air vents.
Suddenly in the distance came the sound of footsteps and something being dragged, the steps getting closer. Noel wanted to hide to take a peek at who was coming, however, just as he was about to move his legs, his body felt stiff and immovable, as if it was made of steel wire covered in cement. Fear began to envelop Noel. His heart beat faster, his whole body trembled, he couldn't escape.
In the darkness, the figure could be seen with the naked eye. The figure of a man was wearing a worn black duffel coat, while a white rabbit mask covered his face. The man walked leisurely while humming a melody through whistling. His left hand was dragging a person with a rope around his neck. The expletive I was about to spew at the man in the rabbit mask caught in my throat. The man's arms and legs were motionless or rather immobilized. On both elbows and knees of the legs, there were clearly visible bone fragments coming out of the torn skin. A little blood was oozing out, although the bleeding had stopped. The more one looked, the more one could see bone marrow in the cracks of the broken bones, as well as red flesh poking out of the skin. Apparently, before the man was dragged away by a rope, both his elbows and knees had been broken with a hard, blunt object.
The man's steps stopped, picking up an object not far from where he stood. It was a long, pointed iron that was covered in blood. The man screamed again as the iron pierced his right eye. The heartbreaking sound echoed back into the room. A slightly viscous red liquid with a rancid odor wafted after the pointed iron pierced the man's eyelid, destroying it from the inside. Killer Rabbit twisted the embedded iron, making the puncture deeper and pulled out the iron roughly. Blood spurted out onto the duffel coat he was wearing, accompanied by an eyeball that was no longer in one piece, pulled out along with a red nerve vein like a dangling thread.
Noel witnessed the torture with his own eyes, also feeling the pain. Blood continued to seep out relentlessly from where the eyeball had been pulled out. Like a small river, it left a horrible hole filled with blood. Not satisfied with just the eye, Killer Rabbit's prick moved on to other parts of the man's body. One of Killer Rabbit's hands strangled the man's neck, while the other picked up the long iron. A stifled scream as the iron rod pierced into the mouth, pressing into the base of the throat until it made the sound of bones breaking, timed with the man's last breath.
"Dying so quickly, how boring."
Slightly annoyed, Killer Rabbit kicked the lifeless body to the dark side of the room. Then turned to Noel who was trembling with fear. Killer Rabbit smiled wryly, he let go of the iron in his grip, approaching Noel step by step.
Noel who felt that he had been caught in his heart kept muttering, "Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!!!" He closed his eyes, his hands clenched tightly until his fingernails turned white, while his head was bowed afraid to look up.
"Noel!" Killer Rabbit called out to him, his words flat as if he had no emotion.
Noel forced himself to look up with his heart shrouded in fear. "Nate?" His lips unconsciously said the man's name.
"We meet now." Nate removed the mask that had been faithfully placed on his face.
Surprised, Noel's eyes rounded. Amazed and amazed at the creature in front of him. Behind the bunny-faced mask, there was a mesmerizingly handsome face. The face of a man who looked innocent and pure, fooling everyone who didn't know him like a wolf in sheep's clothing. However, those blue eyes could not mask everything. The sharp, cold eyes seemed to say everything about him. Dark blue, like an endless trough.
"Why, why do you kill people?" Noel ventured to ask.
The question managed to make one side of Nate's lips lift. "Me, kill? Didn't we kill him," he replied calmly.
"No," Noel immediately denied, "I ... I wouldn't be able to do that, and I never will."
Noel defended himself for what he didn't do. However, in an instant the iron lying on the floor was now in his grasp. The blood spots on Nate's clothes and hands had also transferred to Noel's hands and the white short-sleeved t-shirt he was wearing.
Noel quickly threw the metal away, tossing it in a random direction. He trembled as he looked down at his bloodied hands, who knows whose blood. A terrified Noel stepped back, as Nate continued to approach him.
"W-what happened, why is this?" Noel forced the words out from between his clenched teeth.
Nate chuckled. "Look, someday, you're definitely going to kill someone for me, on your own terms," Nate said flatly and firmly at the same time.
"Why? Why me?" Noel couldn't keep the hysteria out of his voice.
"You want to know why?" Nate brought his face closer to Noel's, their distance now only a few centimeters. Nate could feel Noel's ragged breathing, panic, fear, horror all mixed together.
Noel widened his eyes when he felt strong fingers wrap around his neck, choking him until his breath caught. "Let ... go...!"
Instead of letting go, Nate's fingers that were choking Noel's neck grew stronger. The pain Noel felt was incredible. His hands grabbed Nate's fingers to release the man's stranglehold, but in vain, his strength seemed to vanish due to fear. Even more so when Noel tried to catch his breath, stabbing pain in the lungs. And then came the stinging. Nate dug a fingernail into the skin of Noel's neck, drawing a little fresh blood. Noel couldn't stem his tears, he couldn't even swallow. Without intending to break Noel's neck directly, Nate the Killer Rabbit seemed to want to torture the young man before his death.
Noel couldn't take it anymore, all he could think about now was life and death. Wait, isn't he already dead?
"Poor dumb rabbit, are you okay? Ahahahaha!!!"
"Arrgghh!!!"
Noel opened his eyes with a frantic cry of fear, his whole body trembling, cold sweat dripping down his temples. Anyone could see his terrified expression at this moment. Without him realizing it, his hands moved on their own holding his neck, fingering the place where Nate had strangled him. Noel vaguely remembers how much it hurt when Nate's steel-hard fingers broke his neck.
"Nate, Nate are you awake? What's wrong with you?" A man with wavy brown hair approached Noel while throwing questions in a row. His brown eyes stared intently at the man who was sitting on the bed breathing hard like someone who had run a marathon.
Realizing there was someone in the room besides him, Noel stared at the man for a moment. He remembered something before fainting. He frantically asked without any intention of answering the many questions posed by the man with wavy brown hair and warm ivory skin.
"Police, where did they go?" asked Noel, his voice shaking unbearably. He didn't even realize he had just spoken fluent American-accented English.
The unnamed man raised one eyebrow. "Which police?"
"The police from earlier, who knocked on the door." Noel struggled to finish his sentence. He closed his mouth when he realized afterwards.
"Police? Do you believe there are police?" The man's brown eyes rounded in surprise. "You're so funny today Nate, ahahaha ...!" A sarcastic laugh escaped his mouth.
"So, the police ..."
"It was me," the man confessed.
And afterward Noel breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."
Noel was so scared to death. What would happen if it was a real police? Noel didn't know how to explain the gun in his hand and the few blood stains on the clothes he had been wearing.
"Since when is Nate the Killer Rabbit afraid of the police?" The man scoffed in jest.
True, the brown-haired man with the same eye color beside him did not seem to realize that the man he was talking to now was not the Nate he knew.
"I-I... I'm not Nate!" Noel replied quietly, seemingly unsure whether the man believed him or not.
"Ahahaha if you're not Nate, then I'm not Gregory."
His laughter sounded contrived to Noel's ears. As expected, the white man who claimed not to be Gregory did not easily believe his confession. Therefore, Noel said, "I don't care if you're Gregory or not, but I'm not Nate."
"Don't joke, it's not funny!"
"I'm not kidding!" Noel snapped back. His mind was thinking of some words that could convince this man he knew was Gregory.
"Your jokes are bad, I've known you for a long time."
"If I'm kidding, what part of me looks like Nate?" Noel asked insistently.
"Everything," Gregory replied simply.
That's right, I'm wearing his body, Noel thought.
His words weren't quite right. He asked again, "You said you've known Nate for a long time, right? Did the old Nate act like the one you just saw?"
Gregory was silent. After a few minutes of silence, a believing expression began to appear on his face. "What happened? It can't be his body ...."
Noel was now at a loss as to how to explain. "I don't know what happened either, after waking up, I found myself already in this body, I... I was shaken, I was scared and ..." Noel could not finish his words.
Gregory now believed, this person in front of him was really not the Nate he had known all along. Then where was the real Nate? If his body was being possessed, there was a possibility that his soul was still in his original body right now.
"So, what happened before you woke up in this body?"
Noel shook his head. "Sorry, I really don't remember at all."
"Other than that, do you remember anything else? Like your name or where you live for example?" Gregory asked in detail, this issue could not be taken for granted considering who Nate really was.
Noel let out a long sigh. "I still remember, my name is Noel, I live in Moscow Arbat District, don't remember the details of the address, and here..." Noel cast a quick glance around the room.
"Details, inside the apartment building 752 West End Ave, Manhattan, New York City."
"I can hardly believe this, the last time I was unconscious in Moscow and woke up back in New York. And I'm so fluent in English." Noel smiled bitterly, his lips trembling. While Gregory winced at the last three words, he knew instantly that the young man in Nate's body was currently Russian.
Unnoticed, tears pooled around his eyelids, his vision blurred. when Noel tried to recall, a flash of the tragic events of one night in mid-winter came back to terrorize his mind, making him afraid to think about it again. "Sorry, I can't remember everything yet." Noel hastily wiped away the rough tears that were about to spill.
Gregory froze, he stared at Noel who covered his face with his hands to hide the tears. The man began to conclude that Noel might have lost some of his memories in the short term.
"It's okay, you'll remember it in the not too distant future." Slowly, Gregory's hand reached out to pat Noel's back. He could see that Nate's pair of eyes revealed a clear sadness in Noel's heart that already explained how bad the situation was for Noel.
The treatment Gregory gave him showed the attitude of a friend. This was because the owner of this body had been friends with this man named Gregory for a long time. So, no matter who occupies Nate's body now, Gregory still treats him like a friend who has known each other for a long time.
Noel didn't know why, but he trusted this man. Gregory was clearly a stranger. Yet, Noel had trusted him within minutes.
"Umm, are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" asked Gregory, breaking the silence as neither of them said a word for several minutes. Getting no response from Noel, Gregory tapped him lightly on the shoulder "Hey! You hungry?" Gregory asked once again.
"I'm not hungry—"
Noel's answer was cut short by the roar of his stomach. Gregory giggled softly. "Wait a minute, I'll bring you something to eat."
Shortly after, Gregory came with a plate of sandwiches and a carton of milk on a tray, he placed them on the bedside table.
"Eat up!"
Noel got up and approached the table, a little reluctantly, he took a piece of the tuna sandwich, starting to put it into his mouth.
"I only have a tuna sandwich right now."
"That's okay, it's more than enough," Noel replied, an embarrassed look appearing on his face.
Gregory smiled. "Would you like juice or milk?" he asked again, setting down a bottle of strawberry juice and a carton of vanilla-flavored milk.
"I'll take the milk." Noel took the carton of milk, pouring it into the empty glass Gregory had brought.
"If you need anything else, or don't feel well, I can call the doctor."
The vibrating sound of the cell phone cut off Gregory's speech, immediately he picked up the sprawling object that lay not far from the empty tray. The man gasped slightly when he realized it was a video call.
"It's a video." Gregory looked at Noel who was also looking at him; through an expression that the previous owner of the body, Nate, had never shown.
"Let me answer," Gregory suggested. Noel nodded.
As soon as the screen was swiped, the smart phone immediately displayed the figure of a person from the other side.
"What's wrong?" Gregory asked matter-of-factly.
"Why are you answering instead?" The person on the other side showed a look of displeasure when it wasn't the person he expected to receive his video call.
Gregory looked apathetic at the man's protest. "So what?"
"Where's Nate?"
"He's sleeping."
"Sleeping, at this hour?"
"You don't believe me?" Gregory signaled Noel to lie back down and close his eyes. Noel understood, he quickly did so. "Look!" Gregory pointed the phone screen towards a person lying on the bed with his eyes closed.
Then there was a rude bundle over the audio.
"You believe it, right?"
"Fine, I believe it. I warn you, be careful, someone might be tracking you, especially Nate."
"What do you mean?"
"It looks like 'they' are starting to move."
Gregory immediately understood what the man in the video call meant by 'they'. "Alright I got it," he replied shortly, before the video call ended.
Noel immediately got up and asked, "What's going on?"
"Something complicated."
Noel still didn't understand the situation. He wanted to ask for an explanation. But ahead of Gregory, the man said, "I'll explain later, I have to take care of something for you."
"For me?"
"I mean for Nate." Gregory was wearing a duffel coat similar to Nate's, only the color was a little brighter. Then Gregory and picked up the bag that was pinned near the closet. "Are you still not feeling well, want me to call a doctor?" Gregory asked again while pinning the backpack on the left shoulder.
"No need, isn't your business more important? I just need to rest again." Of course Noel didn't want to inconvenience Gregory, especially after the man had some sudden business.
"Alright, I'm off, you're not going anywhere!" he ordered, then left in a hurry before disappearing out the door.
After Gregory's departure, Noel lay on the bed. His gaze wandered to the ceiling of the room. His mind churned through the memories he had; snippets of some of the memories that Noel couldn't remember at the moment. At the very least, tonight Noel needed sleep to rest his heart and mind. Tomorrow was a new day, and a new life too.
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