Chapter 38: To Heal the Wounds

After riding the Ferris Wheel, Alicia went to an empty tent and took a long rest there. Camille accompanied her inside to keep the nightmares from consuming her.

Meanwhile, Haru and Ali waited for the night parade. Soon, it arrived with the same aesthetics with the glowing train, cartoon characters, and a carriage.

"The devil must've rushed this part, didn't it?" Haru grinned at Ali. "Just look at the night parade, it keeps on repeating and it doesn't even have an originality. And then, that dangerous tunnel. That was so clumsy."

Ali nodded. "Y-Yeah."

"Oh? You're even starting to respond to me!"

Ali just looked away, feeling embarrassed. Haru obtained the jewel at the night parade and went back to his tent to rest.

While lying down on his bed with Ali beside him, he asked, "Do you think the devil that brought us here is just lonely? The journal seems to be real, but I don't think it's being completely honest with itself."

"The devil… must be stupid."

Haru laughed at Ali's response. "Hahaha! I didn't expect that! You really think so?"

Ali just nodded and closed his eyes, leaning on Haru. Haru's mind was still clear as day and so, Alicia's memory flowed unkindly to him.

--

It took a few weeks after the whole funeral ceremony before Alicia could barely get herself together again.

She restrained drinking alcohol for a while and began cleaning up herself. She also started tidying up the house and her room, then neatly organized and maintained her son's room. She attempted to try recovering.

On her groceries, she picked healthy foods and beverages to eat and drink. She took her time relaxing by staying home all day, watching television and doing cross-stitch and baking.

But sometimes, during the night, she couldn't help but weep for her lost son.

It was just too much that she often slept after crying or praying. The idea to commit suicide by taking up pills to overdose herself never left from her system during her grieving.

But she also never acted on it because she was too scared.

Soon, tried to settle things in her life to make it better by quitting some of the jobs she had.

She was able to pay her debts and peacefully walk away from the things she did out of desperation. And soon, she began wanting to have a dream and a goal.

And she decided that it would be perfect to pursue her son's dream—to be a doctor. Ever since Eugene met Dr. Reyes back then, Eugene kept on mentioning that he wanted to be a doctor someday because he thinks it's cool.

Alicia always remembers how enthusiastic and excited Eugene was, talking about his dream.

And so, she applied to a university as if she's starting all over again. She took up studying medicine by applying for an undergraduate nursing program.

Alicia made sure to prepare everything and worked hard to enter into a good university. She was admitted and she happily attended her classes.

But soon, she began having doubts as Alicia was met with plenty of criticisms and discriminations. She was far too old compared to her classmates and she had no peers to fit in.

And so, her life in the university became more difficult than some of her jobs back then.

Because she was trying to fulfil her deceased son's dream this time and she didn't want to give it up just because of the subtle harassments she was receiving.