The Extra of The Lunerra-Chapter 88 Volume III - 9: Caretaker for the Day

"Hey... Now that I look at it, is that... blood on the curtain?"

Sue turned to me quickly, but I wasn't paying much attention to her.

I am what you are; you are what I am.

The thing's words echoed in my head. A burning sensation rose in my throat and without a moment's hesitation, I ran to the bathroom.

"Aiden?!"

I heard Sue running after me but I continued to ignore her. 𝒃𝙚𝒅𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒆𝒍．𝙘𝒐𝙢

That thing... it can control me.

It can play with my thoughts, make me do things I don't even remember.

Can I say that I'm really in control of my body?

I remembered the scene where he tugged at the curtain. And then the fact that it was actually my doing.

I felt the need to vomit again, but this time the feeling went away as slowly as it came. Absolute Mind kicked in, I felt my mind start to clear and I felt a little bit calmer.

I splashed my face full of cold water and finally took a deep breath.

"Aiden... Wh- what happened? Can I... help you?"

Ah...

"No, it's just-"

I was going to make up something about the mana technique I had mentioned earlier, but I was interrupted by a sudden blurring of my vision.

The world suddenly started spinning. All the colors and sounds and everything else seemed to blend into each other.

I lost my balance and just collapsed on the floor, dizzy and without the slightest idea of what was happening. I felt my lungs straining against my rib cage, I tried to cough but I couldn't.

Finally, in the midst of all this confusion, in the midst of all the things that were interfering with each other, I vaguely heard something.

'What do you think you're doing?!'

I heard a child's voice echoing in my head, it sounded angry. I could hear a little bit of emotion in the tone of his voice.

My breathing became more difficult. I started to feel my heartbeat, it felt like it was going to jump out of my chest.

'She is only three years old! You...'

A pain shot through my head as if it would crack my skull. It got worse and worse and worse. I wanted to bang my head against the walls, but I didn't even know if I was awake.

Strange images flashed before my eyes, then changed and seemed to… shatter.

The images were all blurry, but when I could make out two figures in front of me, one short and thin, the other tall and slightly more built, I couldn't help but focus on them.

'You are just crazy...'

The image changed again, this time I found the same two people in another place. In the midst of all this turmoil, the boy's voice echoing in my head was not angry or worried this time.

It was cold, calm.

'I'll do what I have to do from now on, that's... enough.'

I thought the image would change, just like the ones before. This time, though, it didn't happen.

Time seemed to stop in an instant. I felt something hot coursing through my body, something that traveled almost to the depths of my soul and intensified.

All those images and sounds that filled my head and made it feel like it was going to explode slowly began to fade. The warm feeling began to slowly devour each and every one of them.

The darkness slowly descended on me and finally, my heartbeat began to calm down. The warmth I had felt also slowly faded away, though it did one last thing before it disappeared completely.

It consumed something else, something I wasn't sure what it was, but I didn't really care. When I found myself in the darkness, the things that could mix together had also disappeared. I didn't see anything, I didn't hear anything, so it didn't matter.

I was finally at peace again.

*******

I felt a shaking force on me.

First, a great pain spread through my whole body, then the feeling returned to my limbs.

The pitch blackness suddenly brightened and my eyes opened quickly. I sat up sharply because of the sudden pain and the light, then I noticed something falling from my forehead.

I was confused for a moment, after waking up I had a hard time quickly grasping where I was, but when I looked around I understood.

I was in my room, on my bed.

It was already dark, and a slightly soaked towel had fallen from my forehead to the floor.

"Ah! Aiden!"

I saw a shadow approaching me from my right, and just as I turned to face it, I felt a hand on my forehead.

It was Sue, with a worried look on her face.

"Sue?"

"After you threw up, you passed out and had a fever. Now... it seems to have finally subsided again."

Sue let out a deep sigh, then let herself drop to the floor with a deep sigh. She looked exhausted.

"I didn't know what to do... I thought about calling academy security at first, but I didn't want you to draw attention to yourself when you'd just testified. Still, with each passing hour, your fever got worse, your body shook more violently. I... I was just scared."

She looked relieved, like a weight had really been lifted off her shoulders.

I think I really scared her...

"I'm sorry."

"You scared the shit out of me, Aiden! Your fever got so high, you shivered so much, you mumbled so much that I thought you were going to die..."

"Did I mumble? What did I hum?"

I don't have much to mumble when I'm sick, what could it be?

"They were meaningless, or rather incoherent, so I didn't pay much attention. I don't remember..."

Sue paused, her worried eyes back on me.

"How are you now? If you want, I can get you some medicine or something, I can cook you dinner or something. You've been really bad."

She doesn't ask me any questions about why I'm like this...

It's not because she's not curious, she doesn't want to bombard me with questions. She wants to help me because I have helped her before.

"I'm fine, at least for now... Don't worry about me, you should focus on your own life while you're still recovering."

Sue sighed without saying anything, a slightly sad expression on her face. She must have been upset that I was avoiding her, but there was nothing I could do.

I didn't want to cause her any trouble when she already had enough problems and was just getting rid of them. Besides... what could she do if I told her there was a maniac in my head talking to me? It's not like she's going to miraculously heal me.

"That mana technique thing gone wrong probably fucked up my body. I drank a few healing potions before you came, it should get better soon. Well... I guess."

"Okay..."

She didn't believe me, I could see it on her face.

I'm sorry... I don't want to lie, but I have to do it.

"If you're sick, then rest as you should."

Even though she knew I was lying to her, she jumped up and put a smile on her face that I had never seen before.

She might have been an ordinary girl, she might not have been extremely beautiful like Lucia or Celine, but the smile suited her.

"Is there anything you like to eat?"

"I just need a little rest-"

"I'm your caretaker for the day! Do you have one or not?"

"Haa... I'm not picky, you'll hardly find food I don't like. Suit yourself."

Sue didn't say or ask anything else, she just turned her back and headed toward my kitchen. I buried my head back into the pillow, unable to argue with her. Finally, alone, I began to think.

That thing, the other half of my soul or whatever it is, is not something simple. If I think about everything that has happened from the moment it first appeared until now...

He can manipulate my thoughts without me even realizing it, he can control my body to a certain extent, he has an inexplicable ability over caora, he is somehow connected to the '???' statistic that appears in my status window and he is a maniac obsessed with 'having fun'. A very scary maniac... So much so that when I see him, my body literally refuses to move, I can't even speak because I'm shaking.

So, if I think about all this...

I don't stand a chance against him. He can twist me around his finger as he wants but so far he has only been 'visible' to me twice and twice he has taken full control of my body.

So there is something restricting him. I'm not exactly sure what it is but he's definitely not as 'free' as I thought he was and that's why I'm not hopeless.

There is a solution for everything in this world. Nothing is really 'impossible' no matter how difficult it is. So there must be a way for me to get rid of him.

"Aiden! Don't you have any spices?"

And yet... I'm scared.

"There should be some on the right side of the cabinet above the drawer with the spoons and forks, but I'm not sure if they're what you want."

The last time he called out to me, I was caught off guard. He manipulated me, toyed with me with his sweet tongue.

"Okay, I found it."

What if people close to me get hurt while he's busy having fun? What if he uses my body to hurt my friends, to hurt Clara? What can I... what can I do if that happens?