14

Chapter 14

A few days had passed since the incident which Awerkok had mentioned to his son's and sister's mother, and after asking Awerkok numerous questions, she had given birth to a girl named Erika, whom the three of them adored. As for the incident in the alleyway, everyone agreed that it would be best if they stayed quiet about the whole thing for the time being. Even if someone did discover it, Awerkok's actions were justified, so no matter how hard the police would try to prove that he had attacked the old man and stolen his wallet, it would never change the fact that he had hurt the poor old man without any reason whatsoever. Besides, who else besides Awerkok would even believe it? It would be impossible for them to believe that there was a monster behind the bars that had attacked a helpless old man and killed his partner. And if anyone managed to find the monster in question and managed to catch it, well that was nothing unusual. What was surprising to everyone, however, were the results; the monster had been killed by none other than Dr. Awerkok himself.

That day, after waking up, he hadn't really slept that well. He had been dreaming about Erika and her mother and had dreamed that he had hurt them by attacking their neighbour without any justification. That night, while sleeping peacefully in bed, he dreamed that he was in the dream, and instead of attacking him, Erika had run towards him with tears in her eyes. She grabbed him by the hand and hugged him tightly, crying. However, he wasn't comforted by it; rather, he was annoyed by it. When the dream ended, he had realised that he actually enjoyed the warmth of her body, so he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her against his chest as she cried. He also realised that he liked the feeling of her arms around him; she felt safe, nice and secure. He then realised that he also liked holding her hand, so he tried it, but she pulled away from him. Although he wasn't sure why she was pulling away from him, he still went along with it, and the next thing he knew, she was standing in front of him, smiling happily at him. Then she said something, but she was too fast for him to understand, and before he could say anything, she disappeared from sight. He spent a few hours thinking about what she might have said, but then he realised that it wouldn't matter anymore. He had already told her that he was in love with her and that he planned to propose to her today. She was gone.

Now, although this was the most confusing dream ever, he felt happy. As he remembered the dream, he couldn't help but smile to himself as he closed his eyes once again and fell asleep.

Once Awerkok awoke in the middle of the night, he found that he wasn't quite comfortable enough to fall back asleep. Instead, he decided that it would be better to make some kind of breakfast and then continue the conversation that he had wanted to start with his son's children. After dressing up and putting some shoes on, he opened the door, not forgetting to lock it behind him as he made his way downstairs. As soon as he reached the kitchen, he was greeted with the sweet smell of pancakes and the sight of a freshly-cooked stack of pancakes in front of him. A quick glance at the clock confirmed that it was barely 6am, so it couldn't possibly have been his wife. But then again, he thought to himself with a chuckle, he had never known her to wake up early anyways.

Deciding that he should get some sleep and leave the rest of the house to its inhabitants, Awerkok began walking back upstairs to get ready for school, but he quickly decided against it when he saw a note written on the counter. Quickly, he picked it up and read:

Hi Dad, hope you slept well last night! Love you xx

Attached to the note was a small heart sticker.