If they told me my future now, I wouldn't be able to believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.
***
Ren let out a long, forced yawn.
"Yes… I think you spoke to me. I don't know."
Miya approached without making a sound and sat beside him on the bed. The mattress sank slightly.
"I called you. I wanted to give you this pill. It's very good so you can sleep."
Ren rubbed his eyes, pretending heaviness.
He had to find some way out of where he was trapped.
"Will it really help me?"
"Yes… it will make your body feel light."
Miya placed a red pill into Ren's hand.
The color was not innocent at all in this circumstance, and Ren knew it very well.
Perhaps excessively well.
"You'll sleep like an angel," she whispered.
Ren raised his gaze and gave her that clean smile Miya adored.
Carefully, he took the glass she was offering and brought the pill to his mouth.
Miya watched him attentively, without blinking.
Then she adjusted the blanket over Ren with an almost maternal delicacy so he could rest.
"Sleep… my beautiful prince," Miya said while stroking his chest.
Carefully, Miya got up from the bed after seeing Ren's eyes grow heavy.
"Aren't you coming to sleep?" Ren asked with a drowsy voice.
Miya stopped at the door. She barely turned her face.
"Yes… I just have something to do. Wait for me a few minutes."
With careful steps, Miya left.
This time she truly went out. But Ren, for safety, waited a few seconds, attentive in case she was hidden there. When he was sure she was no longer nearby, he slightly turned his face and took out the red pill he had kept hidden under his tongue.
Ren silently observed the crimson color now resting in his hand.
He no longer trusted.
He didn't.
***
The night Ren spent was not the best of his life. Not because of something that had happened, but because of what he did not understand. Ignorance weighed more than any nightmare. Even so, he could not allow that to show on his face. So, like every morning, he followed his routine.
But something was different.
Miya was not asleep.
Suddenly, as Ren was going down the stairs, he was called by a soft music that traveled through the house. When he reached the first floor, he felt a sweet aroma coming from the kitchen.
Ren swallowed before approaching. From the entrance he saw Miya finishing preparing breakfast.
"Hello, Ren. Sit down, please," she said with a serene smile. "The pancakes will be ready in a few minutes."
Ren nodded without saying much and walked toward the table, but he stopped.
There was only one chair.
For a moment, Ren thought that maybe the other one was somewhere else, but the table was clear and arranged for one.
Ren felt a slight pressure in his chest.
There should be two, right?
He said nothing, ignored the detail, and prepared to eat what Miya had made.
"It's been a while since I cooked something like this for you," Miya commented calmly. "Today I wanted to spoil you."
Carefully, each bite Ren brought to his mouth was exaggeratedly delicious. It had been a long time since he remembered Miya cooking with that almost perfect precision.
"It's delicious… very delicious," he said while still chewing, encouraged.
"I'm glad you like it," Miya replied without looking away.
She wasn't eating. She was only watching him.
The loneliness Ren felt while eating such good dishes made him ask,
"Why aren't you eating?"
Miya slightly tilted her head.
"No, Ren. That is only for you. Besides, you must eat well… so you can do what you have to do."
Ren held the last bite for a few seconds before eating it.
"What do I have to do?"
Miya smiled.
It was not a wide smile, contained and confident. It was empty, without any emotion, not only on her face but also in her words.
"You know very well."
Suddenly, the atmosphere seemed to compress into a deep black that had no observable limit.
The smile Miya showed now was the same one he had seen the night before next to the door.
Ren felt the words get stuck in his throat, but even so he answered,
"I don't know."
Miya did not blink for several seconds before responding.
"You must go to the basement, to the basement, Ren."
At that moment, Ren's pale eyes fixed forward.
There was a white door.
Simple.
Like any other house.
And yet, different.
Without understanding, Ren had begun to move his hand toward the handle. He felt no will of his own in his action.
When he was about to turn that metal thing, a hand rested on his shoulder.
That touch, so familiar to him, made his eyes fill with tears without him being able to avoid it.
"Don't do it, son. Don't open it."
Ren pulled his hand back abruptly upon hearing those words. Then he looked at his hand in confusion and afterward at the closed door. At that moment, a black silhouette, like condensed smoke, passed through his body from one side to the other.
Feeling the ghost pass through his chest, fear took hold of Ren, making his body begin to freeze little by little like an ice statue while he screamed in desperation.
***
A torn scream broke the silence of the house.
Ren woke up startled, gasping, on the floor beside the bed, where seconds earlier he had been lying down.
He looked around with his pulse racing.
The room was in its place. The door closed. The dim morning light filtering through the window.
Everything was fine.
"Was it just… a dream?" he murmured, still unconvinced.
Ren looked for Miya in the bed and saw that she was not there, nor anywhere in the room.
Suddenly, Ren's quick ears caught a familiar melody, a string melody he already knew, the same one that existed in his nightmare and now did not.
Chapter 33: Basement