After that sudden vision, the boy closed his eyes and opened them again in hopes of the dark lady disappearing, but she was still there. The lady was waving at the kid, looking with his bright red eyes. Even when the bus started moving, the lady waved at the young boy until finally, she disappeared. The young boy sighed in relief. But the boy felt uneasy; there was something off in the atmosphere. The boy looked at the time (2:10 pm); only 15 minutes had passed; he felt it was longer.
"What's wrong?"
Mr. Nikolai asked in concern.
"Nothing, Mr. Nikolai."
"Are you sure? You are shaking again."
"It's probably because of the cold."
"Okay, here, I brought an extra jacket; wear it right now."
"Thank you, Mr. Nikolai."
The young boy looked out of the window again and saw many military trucks parked at the street as well as moving on the road. The boy checked the time again, becoming nervous (2:17 pm). _"It's so slow,"_ the boy thought to himself. The boy felt sleepy again and couldn't contain it. After a few minutes, the boy slept at the shoulders of Mr. Nikolai. "Poor kid," Mr. Nikolai said while looking at the kid.
Many minutes went by, and the bus was near the station but was stuck in traffic, and the bus was suddenly stopped by an army truck. An inspection was going on again; 5 soldiers went inside the bus while 8 surrounded it. The soldiers inspected every baggage that the passengers carried. Many people were angered by this, but they couldn't do anything about it. One by one, every passenger was under inspection. But after a few minutes, nothing was found, and the bus continued on.
The time was 3:04 pm, and the bus reached the bus stop. Mr. Nikolai woke up the young boy and whispered,
"We are here, we are here."
The boy then opened his eyes and said,
"Wai- what?"
"We are here," Mr. Nikolai said.
"Okay, okay, let's go."
The two of them stood up and walked down the aisle. Then suddenly, the young boy felt that same coldness, that night when he was running away. After getting off the bus, the young boy led Mr. Nikolai in front of his house. Mr. Nikolai observed the house and noticed a broken wooden fence, broken windows with shattered glass on the floor. The mailbox was on the floor, and the rooftop had cracks. When both approached the door, surprisingly, it was unlocked.
When they both went inside, Mr. Nikolai saw what a mess was in the house. Broken plates, mugs, and the kitchen table was tipped to its side. Vases were cracked, and cabinets were wide open. Mr. Nikolai couldn't believe his eyes. He then approached a table full of picture frames. It had pictures of the young boy, his dad, and his mom.
There was a big picture of the whole family, but the face of the mom was erased with a black marker, while the dad's face was scribbled with red markers. He thought this through. While Mr. Nikolai was looking through the pictures, the young boy looked at his room and his parents' room. Until the boy was horrified at what he saw.
"DO NOT FORGET..." written all over the wall in black ink. The young boy screamed, and Mr. Nikolai immediately ran towards the young boy. Until he too saw the writings. The boy was horrified; the visions and the memories came back, but not as flashes, but long scenes. He now remembers different parts of what happened that night. And then he heard someone whisper,
"Always remember what happened to me and to your father."
The boy was shocked to his core. Another one whispered to him,
"Remember what he did."
The boy is slowly remembering each piece of memory. He began to see everything that happened but not in order. He watched with his tearful eyes, with the image of the dark lady appearing in those memories, her eyes glowed red even in the dark. The boy lay there speechless as the events started to haunt him.
Even the quote that he was questioning about started to disappear: "Aus der Dunkelheit vergangener Erinnerungen müssen wir uns erheben, um die wahre Herrlichkeit zu suchen." (From the darkness of past memories, we must rise to seek true glory.)
As the darkness started to surround him, Mr. Nikolai couldn't do anything but stand there worriedly. "Something had happened to him," Mr. Nikolai said while he bent down on his knees, holding in his chest the head of the crying boy. The trauma and pain that he had experienced saddened Mr. Nikolai, and he couldn't comprehend what's happening to the little boy. He thought to himself, it went from teaching the kid basic science and morals to helping him overcome difficult, very difficult life choices while his parents is not around.
The kid began to unravel each vision he saw and piecing them together. He couldn't think of any of this happening, and yet they're here. All of these memories, it's like chasing him, throughout these days. Every shard of vision fit together perfectly like puzzle pieces. All of this to see a full cut scene of what happened, and what he saw. The blurriness, he then saw what really happened.
The young boy saw his mother and father arguing about something. Shouting and shouting, it just wouldn't stop. Then the fight went physical, and this is where the young boy went to the closet and hid in their parents' room. Then someone went inside the room, grabbed something from the closet, and went outside. A woman's voice was heard talking while screaming,
"YOU DONT WANT TO DO THIS."
Someone said,
crying and yelling could be heard, while the young boy stood up and went outside to see what's happening, and...
BANG!
A shot was fired, but who could it be? Then the young boy was told to run, but who could it be? It was his mother kneeling on the floor, crying. The young boy was scared, and it's a very traumatic incident for him. But he obliged what he was told. Finally, the whole story was unwound. With a few details missing, but the story's meaning was true. The boy cried and cried, for what happened to his family. He finally knew what truly happened. For what was haunting him had arrived here. He thinks that his mother was shot because of his father, and he wants to give him back on what he did, but how could he do it, he's just a kid.
But finally, he hugged Mr. Nikolai, gripping tightly around his body. The atmosphere was cool yet in heat. The weather outside was snowing, in the cold January bliss. Nothing but sadness and comfort could be seen throughout the house, nothing more.