'I don't think bringing this with me is the right choice…' Tyel had just finished getting ready to go to the prison, and he looked at the paper of Project Seamstress he had left on the table the night he had returned to his home.
'I mean, I could have done it if I could have killed myself, so if they find out about this, I have to restart everything from the Seamstress…' This thought sent a huge shiver down Tyel's spine. 'It was hard to make a decision in such a short amount of time… I hope it doesn't happen another time… or it might end really badly.' With this thought, Tyel left his home and headed towards the prison to start a new day.
As Tyel headed towards the changing room, he found both Martheel and Chud changing into their uniforms to start the day too. "I told you, whenever we're not with you, you should not go and drink by yourself… ahhh, it's a miracle that you've returned home safely," said Martheel as he grabbed his uniform from his locker.
Tyel at first didn't interact with the two of them; he simply headed towards his locker, which wasn't far from Chud's, and started to change too.
"But I always tell you… I can do it by myself…" As Chud started to speak, he lowered his voice. With his uniform still unbuttoned, he walked slowly towards Tyel, who hadn't noticed him yet. Martheel, looking at that, sighed and walked closer.
"Hey, Tyel, you shou—" Martheel started to speak, but Chud jumped behind Tyel, wrapping his arm around his body.
"You won't escape from me!!!" shouted Chud while laughing. Tyel, caught by surprise, couldn't help but open his eyes in fear and immediately turn around. "Why didn't you come and greet us, Tyel?" asked Chud, a bit annoyed that his friend hadn't come to him once he entered the changing room.
"Oh, sorry guys… it's just that I haven't slept well today," said Tyel as he grabbed his uniform. As Chud understood that something was wrong with Tyel, he removed his arms from around his body and walked near Martheel, who had just reached them.
"Are you doing alright, Tyel? Did something happen tonight?" asked Martheel as he walked slowly towards Tyel and positioned a hand over his shoulder. Chud took some steps forward and spoke with a reassuring face. "Yeah, Tyel, if something happened, you can try to tell it to us," added he.
'Yeah, there's a lot wrong…' thought Tyel as he started to change into his uniform without answering them. 'Dying over and over again hurts like hell… putting myself under that pressure of saving everyone in the Seamstress room… that isn't anything a normal human can go through. Not even Timehors has ever felt like this, and I wanted to be like him… I wanted to save everyone like he always does, with his smile…' Tyel looked at himself inside the small mirror and looked at the sad look on his face.
'But this is much harder than I thought… it's too much for someone like me… What do you have differently, my hero? Why can you save everyone always with your smile… while I need to have this look on my face…' Suddenly, as Tyel looked at himself once again in the mirror, he saw for a moment the reflection of his favorite hero, Timehors, smiling and laughing happily. Then, reality appeared once again, and Tyel saw himself in the mirror with a sad look on his face.
He had just finished dressing, and as he turned around, he noticed his friends still had their eyes on him with a worried look on their faces. In fact, every second that passed in which Tyel didn't answer, the look on their faces became more and more worried.
"Don't worry… it's just that I passed a bad night, simple." Tyel didn't answer normally with a smile on his face, trying to reassure his friends that he was actually doing alright; instead, he simply walked away and answered dryly, closing the door behind him and leaving his two friends alone in the changing room, unable to say anything.
"Martheel, do you remember what we talked about?" asked Chud as he started to button his uniform. Martheel nodded his head silently.
Martheel and Chud, not many days ago, had just gone away from Tyel. The whole group had just finished drinking, and Martheel was bringing the drunk Chud back to his home.
"Hey, Martheel… you've seen how strange Tyel was today?" asked Chud as he looked at the ground, thinking that he was doing something wrong, but he couldn't understand what it was.
"Yeah… but we can't interfere with his private life… maybe he's going through something bad?" proposed Martheel as he stopped walking. Chud then raised his head and looked towards the stars.
"I know, I know… still, what are we supposed to do to help him? Always seeing him like that makes me feel strange… we have been friends for many years, but I've never seen him like that," said Chud.
"And when he was feeling sad, he would always tell us what was wrong…" added Martheel. Chud nodded his head.
"That's what is getting me worried… what should we do? Should we make him speak so we can help him, or should we just wait for things to resolve by themselves?" asked Chud. Martheel answered without hesitating.
"I've told you, we can't interfere with his private life…" Martheel suddenly looked at the sky with a serious look on his face. "Whenever he decides to speak with us, we will hear him, but for now, let's just see how the situation grows. Let's not put any pressure on him, and let's keep things like they've been since we've become friends, alright? Asking to drink like usual, and if he doesn't want to come, that's completely fine. But if he decides to come like today, we will have to make him smile non-stop. You agree with me, no?" asked Martheel. Chud, hearing these words, felt some tears falling from his eyes. Martheel couldn't tell if it was because he was about to throw up and was holding everything inside or because of what he had said; still, he will never forget the face that Chud made in that moment.
"I completely agree… let's treat him like we've always done, making him feel like he's still our friend and we haven't abandoned him yet," answered he.
"I'm about to break the promise we made that day," added he. Martheel nodded his head. "Are you asking him what's wrong like we've done now?" asked Martheel. Chud closed his locker, as he had just finished dressing up.
"No, I'm directly going to follow him. I want to know what happens once he gets outside of work… what is happening that he is feeling like this," said Chud with a decisive tone. "Are you with me, Martheel? Or you're just going to wait for your friend to break down?"
"You can count me in… I can't stand seeing him like this," answered Martheel as they both came out of the changing room, knowing only one sure thing: once Tyel went out of the prison, they would start to follow him.
'Ohh, finally it's lunch time…' thought Tyel. This working day had started to feel heavier than usual. As he sat down in the canteen, he ate his usual burger. Tyel during this day couldn't stop thinking about what he had done this morning to his friends, how he treated them and how he answered them.
Since that moment, he hadn't been able to speak again with them, and this gave a sort of strange feeling to Tyel. 'I know them well… they've surely understood that something was wrong,' thought Tyel as he took another bite of the burger in his hands.
'But I couldn't start the day again… that would mean going back into that place… and escaping once again from the Seamstress.' Tyel was so horrified at the idea of returning to that place that he decided to not make any mistakes today, so that he wouldn't have to restart the day.
'I mean, if Zrelekai discovers me, I'm still going to restart it… but if it isn't anything dangerous… let me live normally for once, please…' With that, Tyel kept eating his burger normally, avoiding any type of contact with his other colleagues.
"Hey, guys… I'm sorry for today. I was just really tired," said Tyel as he noticed Chud and Martheel talking to each other at the entrance of the prison. Both of them had gone out earlier than Tyel so they could wait.
"Oh, you don't have to worry, Tyel. And if I understand correctly, you don't even want to drink together, right?" asked Chud. Tyel nodded his head.
"Yeah, sorry. I just want to rest at home without any worries… I promise that I'll come next time," said Tyel when Chud positioned a hand over his shoulder. "And tomorrow you've got another of your days off… man, promise me that the next day you're on duty, you're coming with us, alright??" said Chud as he smiled happily. Tyel now didn't answer dryly, but he let out a weak smile.
"Yeah, yeah, I promise that." With that, Tyel removed Chud's hand from his shoulder and began to walk away, leaving his friends with just a weak smile.
'I can't let the others see that I'm sad… a hero is not allowed to break down, and just like Timehors defends everyone with a smile… I'll have to do the same.'
But Tyel hadn't noticed it yet, but since he had discovered his power and the days passed, his smile had become gradually weaker, and it gave less hope to the people looking at it.
"So? You don't want to lazy around after what we've said this morning," said Martheel as he looked over at Tyel, who was going away.
"Don't worry… let's go, we have a person to follow," said Chud with a serious tone. With that, he and Martheel started to follow Tyel, who hadn't noticed them yet.
"It feels like he's going towards his house… it was around here, right?" whispered Chud with an extremely low voice tone that was hard for Martheel to hear.
"What? Oh, yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, his house is nearby…" Martheel and Chud kept walking until Tyel arrived at his home and entered his house.
"We haven't discovered anything… maybe he has just got a strong depression?" said Chud sadly. "I don't know if I should feel happy that he isn't involved with anything dangerous or sad that we haven't been able to discover the problem behind his sadness," added he.
"Then he's simply depressed? Like, not that it is something small… but at least it isn't anything dangerous? We can be safe that he's doing alri—" said Martheel, when suddenly Chud positioned his finger over Martheel's mouth.
"Wait, he has come out of his house," said Chud. Martheel opened his eyes in surprise and focused on Tyel going down from his house.
"Where is he going now?" whispered Martheel, confused. "Don't know… but we can't stop now, we might discover something more about him," answered Chud. The two of them didn't stop now; they kept tailing Tyel until where he was going felt strange.
"Hey, Martheel… what even is this place?" whispered Chud. He had never been to this place, as it was a really old part of the city. "I don't know either… I'm just curious to see where he's going."
After a moment, Tyel entered a weird old alley. Chud and Martheel positioned themselves near the corner. "What's he doing there?" asked Chud as he noticed Tyel standing in front of some old boxes.
As Tyel glanced around, Chud and Martheel were able to move their faces in time, not getting spotted by Tyel. "I don't kn— he disappeared." The first one to peek again into the alley was Martheel, and the moment he didn't spot Tyel, he got worried that something might have happened to him.
"What? How did he disappear?" asked Chud, confused. As he looked back into the alley and realized that Tyel wasn't there anymore, he entered, followed by Martheel.
"He was standing in front of these boxes, right?" whispered Chud as he returned to the same position Tyel was in last time. "I don't know… but it surely is strange…" answered Martheel. As he walked near the boxes, he heard some voices.
"Oh, so that was the thing you took in the Seamstress room, Tyel?"
"What's that voice…" Martheel couldn't recognize that voice; he had never heard anything like that, and he was confused.
"Should we try to enter?" asked Chud as he realized that there was something hidden behind these boxes. "Let's knock first…" Martheel and Chud looked directly at the boxes. Realizing that their friend was behind these boxes made their hearts beat faster, and in a complete state of fear, they knocked on the boxes.