3 Tasty

Ryan clutched his head as he felt a mind-numbing headache surge through him. Something was happening to him. It was like his entire body was on fire. His throat was burning. His skin was burning. Everything was too painful.

He quickly took the jug of water and emptied it into his mouth. He wheeled himself to the bathroom in a mad dash and opened the shower knob, letting himself completely get drenched. However, nothing was helping at all.

And more importantly, he was not able to think clearly. There was only the pain in his mind and nothing else seemed to matter. The next second, even that stopped as Ryan completely blacked out right there in the bathroom under the running shower.

"What… what happened?" A few minutes later, he slowly stirred awake, regaining his consciousness. When he turned to look around, he was lying on the couch and his wheelchair was nowhere to be found.

"Mom? Mark? Sis?" He called out but no one answered. The only good thing was that at least his pain was gone now. He then heard the sound of the running water in the shower and remembered that he had turned it on.

"Shit! The water bill!" Ryan woke up in panic and confusion and rushed to the shower. There under the water, still getting drenched was his wheelchair. He looked at the wheelchair and he looked at himself. He was standing straight using his legs?

Before he could think about this, something else was also happening. The entire bathroom floor was red in color and it seemed to be coming from him. "What?"

He looked at himself to see that his shirt was fully covered in something red. He saw the couch and there was a small puddle of something red in color.

"What the hell is happening?" Ryan stood, utterly confused. He had completely blacked out so he did not remember anything. 

When he tried to, he could only remember flashes of some woman's face vaguely. He had never met this person before. Wait, this is not important. The important thing was that he was able to use his legs again? But how?

He was just about to jump and test it when suddenly he heard a loud knocking sound on his door. "Open up, this is the police."

Ryan's heart raced. What was this now? Why were the police here? The red liquid that was still washing off from his shirt caught his eye and suddenly a frightening thought popped up in his mind.

"No, it cannot be." Shaking his head, he tossed the shirt in the laundry basket, covered it up with some dirty clothes, and then threw some more clothes onto the puddle on the couch.

He then sat back down in his wheelchair and wheeled it to the door. "I am coming. I am coming." He nervously answered.

When Ryan opened the door, there were three policemen standing in front of him. He immediately became alarmed. "Sir?" He asked when the three men looked at him up and down.

"What happened to you?" One of them asked.

"Accident," Ryan replied. Inside, his heart was pounding against his ribcage but he tried to remain as calm as he could.

Luckily for him, one of the policemen seemed to recognize him. "Sir, it's this house. I remember this accident from a couple of months ago. This one lost his legs and his dad died I think."

"Yes." The other guy also nodded.

"Oh? Sorry, young man. I hope you are doing better now?"

Ryan could only bitterly smile. "We are somehow getting by, Sir."

"Alright. If you face any difficulty you can always call the local station. For now, we are actually investigating something else. Did you hear any disturbance from your house?"

"Huh? What disturbance, sir?"

"Did you hear someone shouting or screaming for help? Did you look out the window?"

"Sorry, I had taken my medication so I was asleep. I just woke up when you knocked on the door."

"Oh? That's alright then." The three policemen then looked at each other and started to walk away.

"Sir, if you don't mind, what happened?" Ryan called out. He wanted to know. He had a feeling that he was somehow related to this.

"A woman was killed in the next street. Don't worry. We will catch the killer soon." The officer replied and then moved on to question the next apartment on the floor.

And Ryan silently closed the door behind his back, slowly shock and realization gripping him from head to toe. He looked around the apartment in a daze and many small things came into his view.

The bloody hands on the window sill, the drops of blood on the ground, and the puddle on the couch that had now soaked through the clothes he had put on it to cover up.

He dazedly wheeled closer to the window and used his finger to wipe the red liquid away. He then stared at the thick red liquid on his index finger. Without meaning to, he directly placed this finger inside his mouth as if it was second nature to him.

Gudang! His heart dropped as the red liquid tasted exceedingly good.