It was comfortable... soft...
Peaceful. But something was wrong.
—Ahhh!
I woke up abruptly, sweating, and then... panic. I checked my body—nothing...
—I'm in...
My pupils scanned from top to bottom, from one end to the other. There was no doubt, it was my room.
—I came back...
My body felt lighter...
—I don't have anything...
All my belongings were gone.
—Was it a dream?
...
Doubt gnawed at me from within, but a strange sensation was present in one of my hands. Then... I saw it. With a stain of dried blood on the grip, it was my gun. The one I used at the zoo, the one that allowed me to survive, and it was in my hands... tightly held.
—Why?
—It was all a dream. It shouldn't be in my hands... ri... ght?
I couldn't keep asking... I didn't want to know. But then I heard laughter. Followed by a... song...
—"Little star, you'll return..."
I searched the room; however, I noticed that the music was coming from the apartment's living room.
—Not again...
—No...
I remembered it. It was the same song I heard in the apartment before ending up in that zoo.
—Hehehe
A laugh...
A baby...
When I reached the living room, there it was. A cradle rocking on its own while the song repeated over and over again...
—"Little star, here you are..."
—"Little star, you'll return..."
My body froze. I didn't dare get closer. I didn't dare look.
I didn't dare....
My hands gripped the gun tightly; not once did they let it go. They clung to it. Suddenly, moisture.
The moisture appeared on my face, running down until it fell to the floor. Then again, and again. It didn't stop; on the contrary, it was only the beginning of a complete outpouring.
—I can't do this anymore...
The gun slowly moved toward my head, with trembling and doubt. I had done it more than once before. But I could never get used to that feeling of standing on the edge of life. Alive and dead at the same time.
Without further pauses, without further doubt. I pulled the trigger...
...
Moisture...
—I'm... alive...
I checked my head; there was nothing. I checked the weapon; there wasn't a single bullet. It was empty.
!
—"Little star... where are you?"
The music returned... even with my body refusing to inspect that cradle, I approached.
—Bullets...
I expected to find a baby in the crib. But no... only seven bullets, accompanied by a ring. With my trembling hand, I grabbed a bullet and the ring.
It looked familiar. It was beautiful. White as snow, a brilliant diamond shining... it was impossible for me to describe it; I could only state the obvious.
—Beautiful
As I stared at the object, I heard it. A caw followed by a knocking sound...
—Shit...
My body tensed and my heart raced. My pupils darted around the apartment searching for the beast, and they found it... it was coming from the other side of the front door, the one that remained blocked. I looked through the peephole and there it was.
Still. Unmoving. The same monstrous bird. Staring directly at the wall, as if it knew I was watching it from the other side.
Suddenly, the creature lunged at the door, slamming into it violently.
—Aghh!
My body reacted quickly, backing away. Then, calm...
I moved closer to look again. It was still in the hallway...
But its appearance and behavior were different. It seemed to have changed slightly, though I couldn't tell how. Its entire body remained motionless and impassive, except for its head.
It jerked violently from side to side, nonstop, without rest, from one extreme to the other, from top to bottom. That movement began spreading to the rest of its body.
I couldn't even get a clear look at the beast. Then suddenly, the cawing and knocking returned, grotesquely accompanying the horrifying image on the other side of the door. I wasn't sure, but something was about to happen.
!
Suddenly, a noise. A wall collapsing. My body spun around completely to find... nothing...
—The crib... it's gone.
By the time I looked through the peephole again, there was nothing there. A note slid underneath the door...
"What do you think about buying a house for the new life we'll have together, darling?"
—What is this?
I had no idea what the note was referring to. A house? Who was it addressed to?
I put the note away and my attention shifted to the marks beside the door.
—Forty-five marks...
This time I didn't hesitate. I loaded the bullet into the pistol. But like a cruel joke of fate, the bathroom door slowly opened, releasing a macabre creak throughout the apartment.
It seemed to be calling me, urging me to enter. My body didn't hesitate, didn't think. It simply moved toward the bathroom. I went in.
Unlike previous experiences, there was nothing on the ceiling or in the sink now. Only that hole that had taken me to the zoo. But it was different, more perfect, more circular, with a larger ring of blood around it...
I refused to accept reality, but deep down, I knew what I had to do. Yet I resisted. I was determined to leave, but the door wouldn't budge.
—Damn it... Not again...
The same cursed situation as always, the doors won't open. It's as if something is preventing me, as if it wants to take me somewhere specific...
!
—Dad....
—Jsjsja
—You've... come back...
That voice... those pauses, that laugh...
I quickly aimed my gun at the sink. I knew that monster was there.
—You still... don't... remember...
My mind wanted to pull the trigger, and it would have if my hands hadn't opposed the act.
—Mom doesn't kill... she only wants you to remember...
Again, saliva dripped from the ceiling directly onto my head.
—I don't want to go back to the zoo, but I don't want to die here either.
My whole being no longer hesitated; there was no difference between my thoughts and my body now. They shared one thing in common: survival. I entered the hole, now larger and more spacious, and began moving at a quick pace.
From inside the tunnel, I heard a voice coming from the bathroom behind me.
—Do you accept?
I paid no attention to whatever that beast hidden on the ceiling had said. Step by step, I approached the faint light coming from the other side of the tunnel. Without a flashlight to guide me, all I could do was endure the intense and all-consuming darkness inside the passage.
...