Chapter 8

As soon as they got back home, the old woman went on to prepare their food, while he went to explore around the house as he waited for their dinner to be served.

He returned to the room and observed the black luggage, the clothes, and the wooden furniture.

Everything felt odd to him.

It feels like something was telling him that the room and the situation he's in is supposed to be off and unnatural, but nothing comes to mind when he thinks of it.

Of course, he knew it was unnatural to begin with because of his lost memories and getting thrown off at a rural place.

But something beyond that was being foretold by his instincts. His nerves became sensitive as if he's sneaking through the house.

As soon as he heard a sound approaching, his adrenaline spiked up through his body and when he looked back, calmness melted in.

It was only the little, white puppy trying to walk up to him.

He breathed a sigh of relief and kneeled down to meet the tiny creature with his arms.

He ruffled its furs and showered it with heaps of pecks.

After playing with it for a few minutes, he had completely relaxed himself and was finally called down for dinner.

It was quite a chatty meal, since the old woman continued talking about random things. It was as if that was her way to stall time before he finally opened up and spoke to her properly.

He wanted to, all this time. He also wanted to do something about his walled up trust issues that seemed all over the place, but he couldn't do anything about it.

Not with all the things that's bothering his head and the voices and suspicions.

Nothing was adding up or making sense to him.

It might mean that he was still shocked and confused with his memory loss and he just wanted to get it over with.

Before the old woman could stand up to wash the dishes, Uriel gathered up the courage to finally ask her.

"Uhm... C-Can I perhaps go to a hospital?" He stammered. "I was wondering if doctors could look into me, so they could fix my problem."

The old woman's forehead creased. "Problem? What's the problem here, young boy?"

Uriel shyly looked down and gulped in nervousness. "This – the, uh, memory loss. Besides, I was really sick as soon as I woke up, so they might need to check something with my body to see if there's some problem too. Right?"

Olia Isema breathed out a sigh as if she just heard something really problematic and absurd. "My dear, Uriel, as far as I'm concerned, that was just a normal fever. It eventually went away, didn't it? Besides, what were you gonna tell the doctors? What if you purposely ran away and suddenly lost memories? Your efforts would've been wasted if they had to make you return to where you ran away from! Didn't you think of that?"

"H-Honestly, I don't care anymore. I just wanna go home."

The old woman neared him and cupped his face. "Are you sincerely saying that or are you giving up already? A man shouldn't be a coward with his decisions whether you lose a memory or an arm or something else!"

Uriel peeked at her eyes and he got lost in fear.

He was wondering what this old woman is even talking about or if she's aware of the words coming out of her mouth.

He was afraid to ask if she's really serious about it, so he just kept his mouth shut.

He thought that it might actually be wise to figure things out on his own before going out to seek help from others.

When things had been agreed on and everything was settled, the old woman began washing the dishes while he prepared to sleep.

Few hours later, midnight came and Uriel woke up.

He glanced around the house and saw no one else.

The old woman must've been sound asleep upstairs in her room, so he took the chance to go out.

This time, instead of stealing some money and running away, he grabbed a kerosene lamp and explored the fields beyond the house, which piqued his curiosity from the very beginning.