Dead Bodies

"Die? I — I will die? Ha. Hahha. You can't be serious, right?"

"I am," she said without a hint of hesitation.

"But —"

"Of course, if you break your words, that is."

"But how will you know if I ever ditched my promise on you? Not like you'll be by my side, right?" I don't understand why am I even testing her. I'm just spouting whatever that gets in my mind. Not that I am getting anything out of it either. Heh! A death sentence, maybe?

"There's no need. You will die either way the moment you broke your promise."

"..." She can't be serious.

"Not that you have any choice either. Do you really think you can get out of this place as easily as you got in? Don't be naive!"

"What — What do you mean by that?"

"Simply put. It's easy to get in. But don't expect you can leave just as easily. Don't tell me you actually thought you could just walk into somebody else's property and walk away as if it's no big deal at all. Don't joke around, Sean." She's not joking. "But if you don't believe me, you're free to look what's outside that door," she added as she pointed to the rusted metal door behind me. And just like the walls, it was riddled with incomprehensible words and sentences.

I stared at her for a while. Trying to gauge her intentions but all I can see was a poor woman in very poor condition. And it's as though she too, just like me, was conflicted with her own emotions.

I slowly approached the door all while being cautious with her in case she attacks me from behind. Silly how can I even have such thoughts after seeing her condition.

And so, I pushed the door open. It gave out a nasty screech. And as soon I opened it, pastel-colored smoke immediately entered the room. They hovered around the place but they stayed below our knees.

I almost let out a scream when I saw what was behind the door — stupified. For there were bodies. Human bodies. Lots of them. Some were hanged. Some were just on the dirty floor. The others were stacked clumsily on the side as if they were tossed. And all of them have something in common. They have numbers tattooed under their left collarbones.

Watching all the bodies, my body went numb. As though a thousand spiders are crawling from my scalp down to my body.

And the door slammed closed. I craned my neck to my back and saw Iksha pointing her right palm to the door.

"Wha—What was that?"

"Can't you see? They're dead. All of them." she said. She's not even showing any emotion while saying that. As if it was none of her business.

"That's it? Hey, woman! You're telling me there are human bodies. DEAD HUMAN BODIES behind that door, and you're fine with that? Huh? You're fine with that?"

"Heh! That's the first you've truly expressed yourself since you arrived here, Sean. I'm happy for you."

"Stop fooling around!" I don't know but I'm angry right now. From the government killing the peculiars mercilessly and this woman. Nothing's gone right since the day I arrived here. Everything's messed up. This world is messed up. "Stop messing with me."

"But I'm not though. I just wanted to show you that," she said as she walked toward me. "You can stop this from continuing, you know? As we speak, who knows how many of them are killed."

"Promise that you will learn the history of this place no matter what and become a peculiar. And you will be able to stop this from happening."

"But why? Of all things, why history? Shouldn't you be aware of that already? Huh? Were you just messing with me? Are you mocking me, woman? F*ck! Don't insult me!" I don't understand it. Usually, I'm not easily angered. But my emotion seemed to be heightened tonight. Was it the drinks?

"You're misunderstanding something, Sean. I'm not messing around and I am not mocking you. And of course, I'm very much aware of the history of this damned place. How could I not? But I — I wanted other people to learn it themselves. I wanted them to discover it themselves. And when they do, I wanted to ask them a question. I wanted to know if I did the right thing after all."

There was a long silence after she said that. Honestly, I still don't get her intentions. But if I think about it calmly, it's not that what she's asking me to do is hard or anything. Besides, becoming a peculiar is what I came here for in the first place.

Sigh!

"If I do that, will you make me a peculiar?"

She smiled as soon as I said that and said, "Of course."