Zach sat at the back of the driver's seat in a daze.
Yesterday, in a panic, Zach had attempted to clean the surrounding symbols, for fear of being sent to a mental asylum.
The moment he touched the strange symbols, he felt like his psyche got pulled into an unknown realm.
He stood in what looked like an ancient palace suspended in the expanse of the universe; from it, he could see the stars, planets, and nebulae.
But the most striking thing about the scene of this ancient place was the huge shadow moving just beyond the veil. It looked like the universe in his sights was just a curtain, covering something unfathomable and even more horrifying.
...
He glanced at his hands and fingers, which were covered in bandages—the pain prevented him from thinking that wasn't real.
The drive was silent. Walter, the driver with soft facial features and brown hair, knowing Zach well, didn't bother to engage in small talk when Zach suddenly spoke.
"What are your insights on the supernatural?"
Walter instinctively raised a brow before returning to his original posture.
"Oh..?"
He glanced at the youngster through the side mirror.
"I never took you for the superstitious type," Walter sounded surprised.
Zach just shrugged. "I encountered things recently that.... 'rattled' my beliefs." Zach kept staring into the window, seemingly in a daze.
"Might I ask what you encountered?"
Zach glanced at the middle-aged man in contemplation. After a while, he said,
"I had a strange dream."
His driver was at a loss for words for a moment before speaking. "We Christians believe dreams hold deeper meaning; it can be a revelation of goodwill, or a warning of disasters." He paused, then added, "If this dream really rattled you like you said it did, it's best you see a priest or a bishop and discuss it with him. It 'could' be of help."
Zach looked at the driver for a moment.
"Do you believe that people with supernatural powers exist?"
Walter was taken aback by such a sudden question from his young master before replying, "Of course I do. The Bible says that we humans do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, the rulers of darkness and the vessels of wickedness in high places. There are also witches," Walter added.
The old man was a devout Christian, and Zach normally wouldn't take his ramblings to heart, but today's case 'was' rather special.
"Principalities and powers, huh..." Zach repeated.
Soon enough, the car screeched to a halt in front of his lodging.
The driver got out and helped the young master onto his wheelchair.
"I'll take it from here." Zach grabbed his little suitcase and placed it on his lap.
"Don't forget to contact me through the telegraph if you need my service," Walter yelled through the window as howling winds blew past, signalling it was going to rain soon.
Zach rolled his suitcase in. He was the only one living in his two-bedroom apartment. It was one of the privileges of the nobles in these parts.
Education was quite expensive to begin with, and those who could afford it were considered above upper middle class.
If this house had staircases, he would have had no choice but to agree to his father's request of bringing in a maid.
Zach got to his familiar bed and crawled onto it, feeling the cushion underneath him. He stressed over another matter.
Zach stood up and unwrapped the bandages on his hands one by one, revealing a series of symbols that oozed with a black fog.
Yeah.. he could walk, but there was no way to explain that to the doctors and physicians of the family.
Zach too didn't quite understand it, but he had to be low-key.
He didn't mention that once he 'escaped' from this divine kingdom, the strange symbols all over the room crept off their positions from the walls to the floor and up Zach's feet, where they shrank and formed complicated patterns on his hands.
Zach looked at the symbols closely. It looked like a 'c' on the right and an inverted 'c' on the left. Each symbol looked identical collectively, but upon close inspection, they were mildly different from one another.
His fingers were totally healed; the pain had faded at some point in time.
Zach had a theory—that he only healed subconsciously. If he's aware of the injury, it won't heal. The same thing happened with his legs. Zach suspected that was the reason he wasn't totally paralysed by the accident in the first place.
Slowly, Zach started to believe it was an accident.
But that begs the question:
Why was I the only one that wasn't affected?
Everyone's memories got wiped out, but Zach's still remained.
At this moment, his mind was brought to something.
The ritual..
That's where this all began.
Zach began pondering what happened to the residences of the deceased. Would he find clues at their residencies?
Zach had the theory, but he wasn't in a rush to check it out.
The next clue was those red-clothed individuals that intercepted the monster before they would send him to the embrace of the Creator, as well as their leader, Miss Veil.
"Heh.. am I now a detective..?" Zach chuckled inwardly.
This faction seemed to be hidden somewhere in the state. Zach wasn't sure if they were humans or monsters, but that doesn't eliminate the fact that they could lead him to discover more about this 'hidden' world.
No matter how secretive they are, they must be confident in their abilities and the phenomenon that everyone's memory will be wiped afterwards. This can be a great boon for me.
What do I call these organisations...
Zach remembered what Walter said.
Covens.. yes, witches use covens.
Other areas that need investigation are the various supernatural books—the Christian Bible, the Quran, and any other ancient text he could get his hands on.
At this moment, Zach heard a knock on his door.
He quickly got into his wheelchair and rolled over.
Opening the door, he saw no one on the front porch, but a white piece of wood-based paper was in front of him.
Zach picked it up and opened it.
His pupils constricted.
On the paper was written in clear Russian:
"Curiosity kills the cat.."
"What—how did they discover me..?" Zach's mind spiralled. He felt dizzy and exposed.
He hadn't even started his investigations, and he was already receiving warnings from sources he knew nothing about.
He doesn't know who they are or what their motives were, but he was sure of one thing—they knew who he was, where he lived, and it wouldn't be surprising if they knew where his family lived.
Zach just folded the piece of paper and strolled inside as though nothing happened. But he was sure, now more than ever, that he was on the right track.
...
Outside Zach's lodging, a figure stood atop the roof, looking on at his lodge.
"I hope the letter I sent leaves a deep impression. If he begins prying into secrets, even 'I'M' not sure if I would be able to protect him."
The figure wore a look of worry before vanishing, like he was never there in the first place.