Heidi Brandt

Huff... finally I'm here... Huff...

While panting from exhaustion, he was kneeling with his hands on his knees. Rash finally arrives at his destination. Nightmare gave him an accurate GPS-like a map in his head, and he didn't have to look for the location. With this place it was far from its location and it required him to spend another hour from leaving Brandt's house until he reached here.

The plastic doll was in his hand, wrapped in a piece of cloth. The task this time is relatively easy, and he did not have to fight anyone, but it is a mission to break into another house.

After pausing for a few moments to regain his breath. Rash stood up straight and adjusted his clothes slightly. Every time he saw the change in color of the outfit, he felt more bitter.

"Really... what with all the break-in quests? Does he really want to make me a hero? Maybe a burglar?" Rash sighed while mourning his bad luck. He agreed to the mission without thinking when he saw the reward, so Nightmare gave him a quest to infiltrate another house in disguise.

The problem did not lie here, but the mission forced him to infiltrate at a specific time, and there were only 55-minute left for the period to end. He does not know much about the house and its surroundings, and in the short time it is impossible to come up with a plan to enter or observe more. Should he just trust Nightmare and run into the danger?

Whatever he thinks about it, Rash finds that this is his only solution now and even if he got caught. There is always an excuse that he is not yet fully sane because of the coma matter.

He convinced himself to get more courage and do the quest.

The goal is in his eyes now, and there are some pedestrians walking in the street in their different aspects. All the homes on this street are in normal and medium condition, which made him feel more comfortable. He searched the area for any potential threat, whether police vehicles, surveillance cameras... When he felt that an opportunity was available, he went straight to the front entrance of the house.

Sometimes acting natural is the ultimate in stealth. That's what Rash set out to do to feel the pulse. But he was surprised when he stood in front of the door, because there was a piece of paper hanging on it.

"Strange.... no one is at home now?" In the normal case, no one will leave a note stating that the house was empty and leave their phone number in case it is necessary, which is what he found written on the note in front of him.

[Julia Brandt, I'll be outside until nine o'clock, for any emergency matter contact me. Number: 012 XXXXXXXXXX]

The note is obvious and perhaps normal as well, but Rash's quest stating there is someone in the house who should he meet. This note made him raise the degree of caution more and more.

He cast his eyes on the lock. Normal type, no alarm systems, no automatic shutdowns. This can be expected given the external condition of the house. Rash predicts that the residents of the house are in financial difficulty, at least for Julia to be outside until nine o'clock, as she is probably still at work.

Rash felt more comfortable and with a high agility he started to open the door calmly and cautiously. Pretending to be waiting for people from the inside to open the door and hiding his hand movements with his body. It took him about two minutes to open the lock from the outside, using the usual method. He is now grateful for all the additional skills he learned from all the situations he faced in the past.

After checking again, he entered the house on tiptoe. The lights are off inside and there do not seem to be any people there. However, he didn't get reckless, and by using the appraisal skill, he slipped around the house.

The house is small on the inside, and it doesn't have a lot of things. The living room directly in front of the entrance contains a bed in place of the sofa, the size of which fills a fifth of the place and a small table in front of it. The bathroom and kitchen are on the right side, and there is locked door in the opposite direction.

Rash did not stop to examine the place. He is now in a criminal position. The tension and the constant sweating made him feel that the blood had stopped flowing in his veins. That is why he went straight to the closed door from the first moment he stepped inside the house.

He turned the doorknob quietly to catch a glimpse inside. There is a soft light and a spacious bed with a girl sleeping on it. Only then was Rash sure that Nightmare had not cheated on him, and that the house had people inside as in the mission.

This completely surprised him, as he did not expect that the target would be a paralyzed girl. Not only that, but her face and head were so distorted to where Rash found it difficult to distinguish her gender had it not been for his appraisal skill.

...

"Mom... you came early today, did something happen?" That's what the girl uttered only seconds after Rash opened the door. What made him stiffen in place, he thought she was asleep. Her voice was so weak, as if she was having difficulty speaking.

Rash got into a difficult situation, and for several seconds lost the ability to respond from tension. What made the girl ask again in uncertainty this time, "Mom...?" As if not sure of her hearing.

Heidi is a blind girl, so her hearing was stronger. This made her even more confused, because she felt someone opened the door quietly, which is usually her mother's habit, so as not to disturb her comfort. When she felt it was strange, she asked again, this time she wasn't talking to Rash, who was still stiff in his place, "Luna, didn't the door just open." She decided to make sure.

Rash felt perplexed and baffled. He is 100% sure that no one else is in the house, so who is Luna? Then he remembered an important thing he had overlooked, he searched quickly in the room before hearing Luna's voice, "Yes, a little..." Rash did not give her a chance to complete her words before he took off his coat and sent it towards Luna, who was on the table next to the girl.

Directly activating the skill of the hero steps to jump near the device and crush it to pieces with one punch. Part of the table was also destroyed, so that everything on it fell to the ground.

When he sensed the threat, his body moved automatically. In order not to complicate the matters, he had to do something towards the artificial intelligence device, and the shortest way is to turn it off, but unfortunately he is not very sure of the method and decided not to risk too much. So destroying it on the spot.

The girl, Heidi, couldn't see what was happening, but she heard everything clearly, especially the loud bang. The panic on her trembling lips is enough to tell about her condition. Yet the head is the only spot that can move and her voice is weak, which hardly emerges from between her lips, "Who... who is there? ...someone..."

Rash stopped her from screaming by closing her mouth with his hand. He was also alarmed, "Stop it, little girl. I'm not here to harm you…" Logically, it was nonsense to claim this while his hand closing her mouth. Despite her age, being similar to him, her body is very skinny, like a little girl.

His words did not make the girl calm down, instead it made matters worse when she heard a strange voice that doesn't belong to her acquaintances. Her lips did not stop shivering, and her disfigured skin turned white from dread. "Relax… calm down…" He wasn't able to do much to ease her anxiety. He only wanted to complete the mission, but he never expected this scenario and Nightmare had not told him of the girl's condition in advance.

Rash softened his voice a little, "Listen, Heidi... I'm just here to talk, no more. I'm going to raise my hand slowly, and we can talk for a while... OK?" He's not good at picking soft words, but he tried. Slowly, he raised his palm from her mouth, while staring carefully at the details of her face.

Few of her features remained intact except for her jaw to her lower lip. The burns completely deformed the upper part of her face, the upper lip, the nose tilted to the side and there were small lines where the eyes were. She could not open them anymore. Rash did not know if she was completely blind or if the problem was due to those distortions.

Even though she covers her head in a soft and thin hat, Rash can see that she has no hair. Most of the deformities reached a large extent of her body.

Yet the room is the only thing in the house that can be called a stylish place. The girl's bed is comfortable, luxurious, and soft to the touch. The place is clean and tidy, before Rash turns it into a mess. There is a wheelchair beside the bed and a locker next to it.

The girl Heidi did not make a sound for some time when Rash left her mouth. She is not young and can understand the topic to some extent. There is no doubt that she is terrified, the thoughts in her head are chaotic, and her inability to see anything makes it worse. Even Luna did not complete her sentence, which means that she is alone to face of the intruder.

"Who… Who are you?… why do you do that…" Whatever her thought, she did not reach a conclusion, but the person knows her name and wants to talk to her? These are not characteristics of a thief at all.

"Who am I, I'll tell you this later. I came from your old house. Your plastic doll has caused me a lot of trouble, so I came to bring it back to you." He placed the wrapped doll on the still-intact of the table. There on the ground he noticed the photo frame with a picture of the family inside. In the picture, the girl Heidi of four to five years old, she was standing between her parents, carrying her little doll in her hand while holding her mother's hand. The same plastic doll.

The background of the photo is the same old house when it was in its prime. And the silent picture expresses many things and how the family's condition has changed to reach this point.

"Our old house... my plastic doll?" Heidi didn't understand his words accurately and found it more strange because they sold the house and moved about two years ago. Rash continues to speak again, "Well, that's not important anymore. I just want to know what happened to you in the last two years."

Knowing the details was one of the conditions of the mission, and although he knew that the cause was the Ex-Gallus Monster, Nightmare had his other goals and wanted him to interact through this conversation.