Warm encounter (I)

I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling; the moment I tried to get up, I felt extreme pain running through my body.

"Oh, you're awake! Dad, he's awake!" 

An angelic voice screamed at the top of its lungs before running away.

Where am I? What happened?

My blurry vision prevented me from properly seeing and understanding the situation. My vision was limited to a gray ceiling, a nightstand, and numerous blood bags transfusing blood into me.

Did someone come to rescue me? Or is this yet another illusion? Am I really safe?

As I looked down, I saw some bandages all over my body.

"Where am I?"

I was still in a dazed state; I could barely lift my head, but this time my voice seemed to work just fine; my ears and my body were feeling a bit sensitive, but apart from that, I seemed to be doing fine.

The man who came to check how I was was someone with a disfigured face; the right side of his face was covered in a nasty burn scar, and his right eye was also blind.

He walked using a cane as a support; along with him was a small kid; she was smiling, happily dragging her father into the room to check up on me. Short hair up to her shoulders, wearing a white sweater with a bunny sewed in the middle of the shirt.

"Let's see, let's see."

The man then rummaged among the furniture in the room to get a mask to cover the disfigured half of his face. Probably in order to put me at ease, but after what I had been through, nothing could've scared me anymore.

"Thanks!"

That was all I could say. My heart was already beating out of my chest; I didn't know if I was rescued or captured once again; my eyes were already filled with tears, desperately holding on to a thin thread in fear that I would break down if I even so much as exhaled.

"It must've been scary for someone like you; thankfully, we managed to get you out of the Weeping Abyss before it could force you into becoming its host. We've also sent a letter to both your parents telling them what happened; I'm sure they'll get here in less than a month."

As if he could read my mind, he put my worries at ease; all the while, he rummaged through the various drawers in search of something.

The man then began taking out strange tools and quickly began inspecting me, opening wide my eyes, using a thermometer to check my temperature, checking my mouth and ears, then he helped me sit on the bed and began checking my heartbeat.

"What I've been trying to say is that everything is fine; you can relax now; you're safe. Now, when I tell you to, why don't you take a couple of deep breaths for me?"

"Why is his hair so bright now? What color is that?" The girl asked while intently staring at me with wide eyes.

"That's the symbol of his family. Only the Scarlet Devil and her family possess bright red hair. He's her son," he explained while carefully removing my bandages to put in new ones.

That's when I saw my body covered in scars and stitches. A lot of the minor injuries had healed on their own. I didn't realize how bad I was until I saw it with my own eyes.

Ouch, ouch! What the hell?

Just looking at them is bad enough, but even breathing the wrong felt extremely painful.

"Do you feel anything weird? Maybe some headache, other kinds of pain, maybe some lightheadedness?" 

The kid beside the man smiled at me when she noticed that I was staring at her. She had chubby cheeks, light-colored eyes, a round face, and a short body; her eyes were gleaming with curiosity.

"Hey, hey, where do you come from?" She asked me.

The child seemed unbothered by my scars, talking as if nothing happened. On the other hand, I could still see the many glass shards stuck within them. I could still feel the burning pain and the slimy feel of blood dripping down my body.

"Where am I? Who are you? Do you know who I am? If so, you better treat me well or…" My voice couldn't come out of my body; after a couple of attempts, I simply remained in silence. So I was moving my mouth for nothing.

"All done here. You can use the bell on the nightstand in case you need anything."

After removing his bloody plastic gloves, the man rapidly cleaned his hands and went to trash the dirty bandages, leaving the girl alone with me.

"You're the son of the Scarlet Devil, right? That means you come from the surface, right? How is it compared to down here? I heard that everything is colorful, so colorful you can even see other shades of color other than the primary colors! Is that true?"

I could barely hear her voice; all that I could see was the incident, over and over again. The memory of it had just returned to me. It was a premeditated attack.

The group was guiding through an empty road. We had to take a large detour because apparently, that day, lots of soldiers had appeared, claiming that now the land belonged to a king of sorts and were doing inspections on everyone.

Those two were discussing the news they heard on the radio about the powerful demons that appeared in the city of Litua; apparently after stirring quite the ruckus, the demons disappeared without leaving a trace of their presence, all the buildings they had destroyed returned to normal, and everyone was puzzled by it.

Then a pipe shot at an unimaginable speed, broke through one of the windows on the right side, and pierced the skull of the driver; a bullet pierced the skull of the guy with the red bandana, making his head explode, and a bunch of hands emerged from the steering wheel, forcing the car to steer off the cliff.

Why would anyone work here? If all you will ever accomplish here is die like that at the hands of those monsters…

I wanted to puke. The smell of blood was only bringing back horrible memories that only kept getting stronger over time.

"Heeey! Yoooooo! Can you hear me?"

The cheerful kid took my right hand into hers and handed me a small gummy bear.

"The food here sucks, so here's a small treat to cheer you up."

Then she took out a remote hidden beneath the bed and turned on the TV standing on a table across the room, rapidly scrolling through the many channels in search of something to watch.

"Elena! You're not bothering the guest, right? He's still recovering from his injuries; you shouldn't bother him too much!" The doctor shouted from the other room.

"I know, I know!" she shouted back while putting the remote in my hands.

"Are you not going to eat it?"

I didn't know what to do; a part of me wanted to shout at her to go away, but I was simply in too much pain to even bother raising my voice. When she pushed me to the side, she tried to be careful with her hands, but she still pressed a myriad of injuries left on my arm.

Before I could open my mouth, she grabbed my hand and put it over my mouth so that I could eat the candy she had given me.

???

"Sweet, right? Is there anything you usually watch, or can I put there anything I like?"

The smug look she had on her face was starting to annoy me; moreover, I couldn't feel anything in my mouth other than the disgusting taste of blood. I almost immediately gagged the moment I tried to chew on the gummy bear and almost puked.

Then, when I felt the bile traveling towards my mouth, I was reminded of when I almost suffocated on my own vomit and puked all over the bed.

The doctor from before came running to the room as soon as he heard the sound of me puking; the girl next to me was panicking, pleading with her father while he was yelling at her to get out of the room, repeatedly until she ran out in tears.

Everything slowly became covered in a fog, dulling my senses, washing away the bad memories off my body, and singing a lullaby so soothing it made me feel as if I was resting over a cloud.