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WARNING! This chapter Contains strong language and violence that may not be suitable for some users
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"Ugh..."
A soft grunt escaped my lips, I opened my eyes, my vision blurred for a second before everything became clear, I looked around to observe my surroundings and as suspected, I'm in a hospital ward.
~Click~
Just then the door clicked open as my doctor walked in, unlike his usually cheerful demeanor he was drooping in sadness, too gloomy for my liking.
"Good day Mr. Gideon." He greeted.
"Good day doctor Ben." I replied as I sat up, suppressing my curiosity on his gloominess. Since it was probably going to be bad news on my health I better not ask.
He did some body check-up on me and then scribbled something down.
"Your name" he demanded
"Gideon Lukeshaw,"
"Your age"
"I'm eighteen years old"
"Status"
"I'm a single young handsome man." I cringed at me calling myself handsome, but he insisted I did, in his words "Always stay positive."
Just as I finished answering his questions he threw a bitter smile at me. Finding the need to ask, I finally spoke up.
"How is things looking?"
"Sigh...not good." He said. The doctor Ben I know never says 'not good' he always says something positive to avoid giving it to me straight, looks like my situation has gotten really bad.
I grabbed a mirror close to me and I looked at my reflection, there was a short black haired young man with bandage around his head, a well chiseled face and a pair of ocean blue eyes staring back at me, but beneath the good looks lies a pair of tired and troubled eyes.
' I guess I went crazy again ' I muttered to myself, seeing that my head is bandaged.
I dropped back the mirror, moved my stiff body, as soon as I got the feel I asked him if I could get discharged for the day, but first I need to know how long I've been out.
"Doc, how long have I been out?"
"Two days." He said, shaking his head. I understood why, I wasn't getting any better. And I was getting uneasy from his reaction, which made me wonder if I am going to die soon. I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared, or I won't miss my family, but I guess it's a good thing, I'll lessen the burden of my mom. I felt to tired to think...or should I say I didn't want to think about it.
I wanted to meet my elder sister and my mother, even if I'm dying I'd like to spend my last minutes with them.
"Well, can I go home now?"
"Sigh... Sorry Gideon, but you'll no longer have the permission to go out of the hospital, until you're completely healthy." Doctor Ben said, it was obvious he was hiding something.
"What happened?" I asked with an emotionless voice, he opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out, I must have done something really bad, but if he can't tell me at least my mom and my sister will.
"But can I get a visit from my mom and my sister?" I asked reading his unwillingness to answer me.
"...right now might not be the perfect time to..."
"I want to see my brother!" Just as he was about to finish, a lady outside shouted, her voice sounding broke with a mixture of anger and sadness.
"Ma'am please you can't go in" there was a protest but despite the chaos I could recognize the voice immediately, it was Emelia's voice, my elder sister, the last time I heard her sounding like that was when my dad died, what could have happened to make her sound so broken, is mom ok? I worried and just as doctor Ben read my worry, he gave me a signal that he's going to let her in.
I nodded to him, a sign of my approval, he then went to the door spoke with the security officials and let her in, he left but my sister was escorted into the ward by two hefty security men.
"Hey sis...uh, I don't see mom, where's she" I asked forcing a smile as I noticed my mom's absence, she already got me worried from her reaction so I had to ask.
She stood some feet away from me, as if avoiding me, looked at my smile in disgust, I could literally hear her grinning her teeth in anger, before she calmed herself down. It was weird, everything that has happened was weird and out of character, first doctor Ben and now my big sister.
Feeling that I said something that pissed her off, I decided to liven the mood
"Ok, I understand what's going on, mom's making our favorite food again and said I'd have it all, don't worry I'll give you half of my share..."
"Monster"
"Huh?" Just as I was about to finish my sentence, she said something I couldn't quite make out.
"Did you say something big sis?"
"Y...you killed mom." She said, this time she was loud but I'm sure I misheard her.
"Emma... I'm sorry but I couldn't get that." As the words left my mouth, she clenched her fist in anger and burst out
"You monster! You killed mom! Why? What did mom ever do to you?" She yelled as she lunged at me only to be held back by the security who escorted her inside, her face red with anger as tears rolled down her eyes.
The sight alone tore my heart to pieces but the words, were on a whole new level that for a moment my brain refused to process the information, but once it did I felt complete emptiness as if the whole functionality of my body was frozen for a second.
"W-what's going on?"
At that moment the only thing I wished for was that I was having a nightmare, I wished to wake up from this nightmare and back to the time when my family was perfect. Back to my mom's embrace.
I looked around me and I noticed the serious atmosphere, although, I had no strength in any of my body parts, I managed to pinch myself, and to my horror I wasn't dreaming.
I couldn't breathe, my heart was heavy, the air was heavy, even keeping my consciousness was becoming a burden, I looked at my sister again and opened my mouth to speak but it only came out as a whisper.
"Where is my mother" she finally lost it, bit the hands of the security men, and when they released their hands, she grabbed me by my hospital gown's collar shaking me in anger and shouting. I couldn't make sense of what she was saying because I was loosing my consciousness, but I know that the security seized her once, just as she left me, I fell back to my bed unconscious.
...
Flashback
My name is Gideon Lukeshaw, a highschool graduate, who once had a perfect middle class family, until my dad was murdered just a day before his retirement as a government driver, he was shot by some unidentified men.
His death broke everyone of us but my mom kept us strong, hiding her own brokenness and patching us up, she tried her best to fill his role but it clearly wasn't easy. It still hurt her because, every night she cried in her sleep calling out my father's name and asking why he left us. I did the only thing I felt that I could do: hugging her to sleep.
My mom is a shop owner, she runs a grocery store, not far from our house. She had me and my elder sister at a young age, so she was not exactly old, she could easily remarry and give birth to a child but she swore that she wouldn't do such a thing even after we suggested it to her, the suggestion only angered her.
That day, I grew to over respect my mom; the strongest woman I have ever seen.
How about me you ask? I'm just an unfortunate boy who was subject to an unauthorized scientific experiment. This is how it happened: after my graduation from highschool, I wrote an exam hoping to get a scholarship to one of the best universities where I stayed.
When I was called over for the practical aspect of the exam, we were all required to get injected with a vaccine, their reason was vague but none of us—about 200 students questioned them because we all felt they were doing us a favor.
My plan was simple, pass the scholarship exam, get into school, make connections with influential and become rich to make mother enjoy for the rest of her life, even if it had to stress me. That was the least I could do for the strongest woman I know.
Alas, things didn't go as planned, hell, they were far from what I planned. It turns out that we were used as test subjects by a group of scientists running some illegal experiments, the injection that they gave us was a newly developed but untested drug that either killed or gave some other crazy side effects that scars life and the worst part is...it had no antidote.
The next day, I heard from news that the experiment was disguised under the official university program, the school was shut down and the school authorities arrested.
They became mass murderers as a lot of students who took the medications died, some had other side effects like being crippled, loosing some of their five senses and just like me—loose consciousness for days.
Scared, I confessed to my mom and my sister, luckily I didn't die, but lost consciousness for days....at least that's what I thought until I found out that I loose my senses and go on rampage, like a mad man, destroying things and harming myself.
I was at first detained and wasn't let out, but as the effects started to reduce to hours— we were hopeful because the hurriedly made antidotes were beginning to take effects—I was allowed to visit my mom, but only for some time and with escorts. I decided to visit instead of her coming because I missed the feel of my home, so I was granted permission.
Mom didn't go to work everytime I was coming to visit so she could make a feast for me, but I preferred cooking alongside her. She and my older sister are the best thing I can ever ask for in my life and I'll kill whoever harms any of them.
But unfortunately, I'm the murderer. The antidote didn't heal me it instead reduced the duration but strengthened the effectiveness like I was in a berserker mode, it was torture for me.
....
"You killed mother Gideon! You went crazy when you both were cooking and stabbed mother in the heart....mo...mom is dead." The echo of my sister's voice in my dream woke me up. I looked around and saw no one.
I requested for doctor Ben who explained that I stabbed my mother when I suddenly went on rampage and the security men weren't able to stop me as they were too late and it the fact that I rarely went on rampage made them reluctant feeling that I had been healed.
It all downed on me that I had KILLED MY MOM.
I killed my world. I destroyed it all.
"Haaa, so it's true." I couldn't help it, the tears where already rolling down my eyes. I knew my sister wasn't the type to prank me about things like this.
The doctor left and I stood to look through the window, then my sister came in and as usual she was escorted by the security men.
This time she was crying, she knelt down and held my hand as she apologized.
"I... I'm sorry Gideon. I'm sorry I lashed out at you, please forgive me, you know that you're now my only family, I wouldn't want to loose you too, please don't hate me." She apologized sincerely, I could feel how scared, angry and lost she was. She never liked horror movies, and experiencing a tragic story like this was too much for her.
"It's ok sis," I said, I couldn't look at her because I was trying so hard to suppress my tears, I wanted her to see me as the villian so she won't have much regret when she looses me.
"I don't hate you. No need to apologize, I killed mom, with my own two hands, if you don't mind can you give me some time alone?" I said. She understood, wiped her tears and left.
That day, the doctor had told me that I'd be detained and put under watch once I got a bit better, soI stayed in my ward writing a letter and once I was done I called for my doctor, ready to put a paise to my problems. He came rushing in, my sister was standing behind him and I was standing in the window ready to jump off.
"Doctor Ben, please promise to honor my wishes in the letter, I can't live with myself and sis... don't feel so bad ok, you're the best sister I could ever ask for."
"Gideon nooo! Please don't I'll never forgive you if you do." My sister yelled desperately as she tried to rush in but was held back by the police, they understood that her rushing in wasn't going to be of help, if there was anyway to save me, it was talking me out of it and I wasn't going to oblige even if they did.
"I'm sorry sis, I can't live with the guilt. It should have been me, I should have died long ago. Stay well sis, we'll be watching over you."
"Gideon we can talk about this, please don't..."
"Sorry doc," I cut him in "Just honor my last wishes" I said before letting myself fall backward.
I could hear the scream of my sister, the doc and others. Just before I closed my eyes I saw my sister trying to jump to save me but she was luckily held back.
In that moment, I could do nothing but regret, I should have taken things easy. I wished for a second chance but knowing that no way in hell that was possible, like it is in anime, I left a bitter smile.
It wasn't long before a sharp pain shot up through my whole body and almost immediately, it stopped. I started to slowly loose my senses, my fear from beginning and just like that, my heart sounded it's last beat.