(Continued)
Nicholas and the rest continued walking in silence, their steps groaning under the weight of the accumulated snow. Behind them, the village's features began to fade amidst the cold fog.
Jenny hugged her shoulders with her trembling arms from the cold, and fatigue began to show on her features, then she said in a trembling voice, "Why didn't we take that thing called a car? It would have been better for us."
Nicholas took some time before answering her, saying, "I wanted to take it, but I found it almost destroyed. It must have something to do with that truck."
Jenny felt annoyed, and then proceeded to cover her face completely except for the area around her eyes to stay warm.
Nicholas turned towards Joseph, who had regained some of his strength, saying, "How long will it take us to get there?"
Joseph replied to him, with a tone of fear in his voice, "Two days, most likely."
Nicholas sighed slowly, then said with annoyance and with unparalleled anger and impatience in his heart, "Two days... Damn, that's a long time... Isn't there a shortcut?"
Joseph replied to him with sarcasm mixed with anxiety, "Haha, what I told you is the actual shortcut. You'd better be patient a little because we are still on day 0."
Nicholas turned forward again without uttering a word, with anxiety and anger clear on his face.
After a period of time, Jenny felt bored and fed up with all this. She approached Ethan quietly and said to him in a trembling whisper, "Ethan, do you have any plan to convince Nicholas about his foolishness?"
Ethan looked at her, with fatigue in his eyes, shaking his head with a "No."
Jenny kept staring at him for a few seconds before speaking to him, trying to start a conversation, "S-so you can't speak?"
Ethan replied to her, pointing with his finger, "Yes."
To which she then said, with signs of interest on her face, "Strange!.. I've never met anyone like you before... but why? Don't you have a tongue? Because I remember my father told me that we can speak using our tongues."
Ethan looked at her in surprise, before sticking out his tongue and playing with it in a funny way as if saying, "Here it is, what's the problem with it?"
Jenny's eyes widened for a moment, before she burst out laughing despite all the fatigue and cold, putting her hand over her mouth so Nicholas wouldn't hear her.
She said, whispering playfully, "Stop that, you look ridiculous, hehehehehe."
A small smile appeared on Ethan's face, before he started laughing without sound, sharing her joy.
Nicholas interrupted them, saying in a serious tone towards Joseph, asking him, "Aren't there any old buildings or a habitable place near here?"
Joseph replied to him in a sarcastic tone and with fatigue on his face, "We won't find any shelter until we reach the city. Just keep walking; a longgggg road still awaits you to enjoy this dead whiteness everywhere."
Nicholas looked at him with cold eyes, but did not reply. He just exhaled forcefully and continued walking.
Minutes and hours passed very slowly, and the snow did not stop falling. No matter how much they advanced, none of them noticed any change in the road; just a semi-flat road full of snow, repeating over and over again.
Suddenly, Jenny pointed at something distant in the fog, saying in a hoarse voice, "L-look!"
Everyone turned towards the place she pointed to, to be surprised by the features of a hut in the distance.
Nicholas asked Joseph, with a mixture of anger and astonishment in his voice, "Didn't you tell me there weren't any buildings near here?"
Joseph replied to him, also with features of astonishment on his face, "Yes, I did say that, and I have no memory of this thing."
Nicholas turned towards the hut, saying, "Quickly, we will stay in that hut tonight."
They began walking towards the hut, hoping it would be a safe place to stay.
After minutes of walking, the features of the building slowly became clear to them.
An old wooden hut, half buried under snow, and its windows covered with tattered planks.
Joseph said, panting, "I don't remember seeing this place before."
Nicholas replied to him, "That means you're stupid. Come on, this will be our lodging for the night."
They all exchanged tired glances, then walked together towards the hut, followed by the cold winds as if refusing to give them a moment of rest.
Nicholas pushed the door with his shoulder, the door creaked annoyingly before slowly opening, revealing the dark interior, faded with dust.
Jenny said as she hurried inside, "Hahaaaa, finally, a warm place."
Nicholas closed the door with difficulty, then said after picking up a piece of wood, "Go gather wood to light a fire."
And without much talk, everyone started searching for anything combustible. Wood. Broken chairs. Plastic bottles.
They gathered them together under a small opening in the roof, where the smoke could exit without filling the hut.
Nicholas took his backpack off his back, opening it, then took out a small lighter. He approached the pile of combustibles and lit the fire. Illuminating the darkness of the place, and dispelling the coldness of the surroundings.
Everyone sat in front of the fire, with relief and tranquility showing on their cheerful faces.
Jenny sat near the fire, stretching her hands towards it, saying, "Ah... an indescribable feeling."
Joseph said after stretching out completely on the ground, holding his stomach in discomfort, "Damn you, that punch still hurts my stomach."
Nicholas replied to him in a dry tone, "You're the one who refused in the first place, not my problem."
Joseph replied to him in annoyance, "Damn you."
Nicholas leaned against the wall, saying before closing his eyes, "Go to sleep, you will need every drop of your energy for walking tomorrow."
Everyone closed their eyes slowly, and the sounds of the raging winds sneaked through the cracks of the old hut.
But sleep did not come easily for some people.
While everyone was sleeping, lost in his own world, Jenny was walking carefully in the hut, trying not to make any noise.
"Where can I find an opening or something like that... The moon promised me he would visit me today, I can't leave him, especially at this time."
She searched everywhere, every inch, as seconds and minutes passed, but she found nothing except small gaps between the walls.
She felt despair and surrender, as she wouldn't be able to meet the moon that night. She suddenly stopped in one of the rooms that seemed to have been a bathroom previously. It was narrow and emitted a foul smell coming from the dirty squat toilet. On one of its walls, there was a medium-sized mirror, with some cracks but you could still see your reflection clearly in it.
Jenny approached the mirror quietly, looking at her reflection while playing with her hair.
Then she whispered, with a slight smile on her face, "I look beautiful today, hehehehehe," remaining in the same state for some time.
Unexpectedly, Jenny noticed from her reflection the appearance of a faint light from the wall in front of her. She turned around quickly in fright towards it, with signs of terror and astonishment on her face.
The light formed as a thin thread, delicate as a hair, extending vertically in the middle of the cracked wall before it began to slowly expand downwards as if it were a portal to another dimension, emitting a faint sound accompanying the expansion, akin to the whisper of glass cracking.
Within moments, it turned into a window completely, its edges glowing faintly, inside it a darkness full of stars, as if it were a portal to outer space.
Jenny remained frozen in her place with astonishment shaped on her features. She looked to the right, then to the left before starting to walk with slow steps towards the window.
She didn't touch it, but contented herself with looking at it from different angles, with curiosity and astonishment dominating her feelings.
And while she was staring into that darkness full of stars, something unexpected happened.
In the depths of that window, the stars began to scatter slowly, as if making way for something greater.
The point of light she was glimpsing from afar began to grow... and grow... until its circular, luminous, and majestic shape could no longer be ignored.
Jenny said, with happiness and amazement drawn on her face, "The moon!!"
He replied to her in his majestic voice from behind the window, *"Oh, Jenny, the apple of my eye, I thought you had forgotten me."*
Jenny replied to him, with a smile splitting her face, "Of course I wouldn't forget you, how could I do that?"
The moon replied to her, *"And because I know what is in your heart, there is no need for excuses in my presence, and I humbly ask you about the condition of my little star."*
She replied, "I am fine as long as I see you are fine... Since you are here, what is the thing you wanted to show me?"
The moon remained silent for a moment before starting to tap the window glass lightly, saying, *"Sorry for troubling you, but can you open the window for me? Because I cannot open it from here."*
Jenny did not hesitate for a second, and quickly opened the window.
As soon as the window opened, the moon said in a tone full of respect and politeness, *"I hope you don't mind"*
Before it began to transform into a beam of attractive white light, pulling itself towards the left side of Jenny's face.
As soon as that light touched Jenny's face, she began to feel a strange fuzziness on the left side of her face, and began to slowly lose her balance while holding the fuzzy part of her face.
Jenny fell to her knees slowly, her eyes flashing unsteadily, while the white light was still being pulled towards her face.
She whispered in a trembling voice, barely audible, "Wh-what is happening to me??"
But no one answered her, only silence dominated the place, leaving the light to do what it was doing.
After a few seconds, the light began to fade quickly, hiding the window behind it.
At the time, Jenny was sitting on her knees holding the left part of her face, and her heart was beating as if it was about to come out of its place.
She got up from her place with difficulty, while panting from exhaustion. She looked towards the place of the window to find the wall had returned to its normal state.
She turned towards the mirror in exhaustion, trying to find out what exactly happened to her.
The part she was covering with her hand was glowing with a strange light, which aroused her astonishment. She began to lift her hand slowly from her face and the light became stronger and stronger until...
A white mask like snow, glowing like stars, covering half the face and leaving the other half exposed, and in the place of her eye, its blackness had turned into a captivating blue color.
Jenny remained petrified in her place from the shock, touching the mask in astonishment and bewilderment, "Wh-what is this thing?"
Suddenly, she heard a voice in her head with the same characteristics as the moon's voice, *"I express my deep apologies to you, for surprising you like this, for I thought you were ready to receive the gift."*
Jenny replied to him, with astonishment on her face, "What did you do to me? What is this mask?"
The moon replied to her, *"I know that threads of anxiety are pulling on your heart, and that there are a thousand questions dancing in your mind, but let your heart rest, for I have given you my eye as a gift for our eternal friendship. From now on, you will see what I see and I will see what you see."*
She felt a mixture of anxiety and tension from his words, but her trust in him alleviated those feelings.
She said to him quietly, "I didn't understand how you see what I see and I see what you see? There is no change."
The moon replied to her in a tender tone, *"Close the eye of reality, so that you may see through my eye..."*
Jenny didn't understand what he meant by the eye of reality, but there was a strange feeling inside her, attracting her to cover her right eye.
Jenny raised her hand hesitantly, before placing it on her right eye.
The moment her hand touched the eye, the sound of the wind went out, and the world around her fell silent as if time had stopped.
At that moment, she found herself in a strange world, green hills visible as far as the eye could see, the sky was unusually blue, the colors were pale, and the vision was blurry, and from afar there was a cave that seemed ancient in the middle of the place.
Jenny looked around in amazement, and a feeling of strangeness and comfort crept into her chest.
She said in astonishment, "Beautifullllllllll"
Suddenly, she heard the moon's voice but it wasn't clearly in front of her as usual, but from the mask, as if it had merged with her and became the mask, *"Welcome to my lands of memory, here where your happy memories gather, here where you find comfort and happiness from its widest doors."*
Jenny advanced through the fields, stepping lightly as if the earth itself was whispering under her feet.
A smile split Jenny's face from the splendor of the scene, then she fell on the warm grassy ground while looking right and left, enjoying the warmth of the grass and its beauty.
She said, with a mixture of happiness and relaxation in her voice, "I have never enjoyed myself like this in my life... This is the best gift I have received since my birth, hehehehehe."
The moon replied to her, *"I gave you what your heart deserved, my little star."*
Jenny closed her eyes, feeling as if the breeze was caressing her soul, not just her body, relaxing for a period of time.
Jenny rolled over to her right, opening her eyes quietly, to find the cave opposite her from afar.
She kept focusing on it for a while before saying in shock after realizing something, "Wait a moment! That's my home!"
The moon replied to her, confirming her words, *"Yes... that is your home, as your memory wove it. Everything your heart loved, embodied in this place."*
Jenny got up from the ground, and started running quickly towards the cave, her hair flying with the cold winds and a smile splitting her face.
At the threshold of the cave, she opened the door quietly, revealing the entrance to the house.
It was a spacious place with stone walls and a floor covered with an old cloth, a table and chairs in the middle and entrances to two different places at the edges of the cave, one covered with a light cloth, and the other had its own door, and a bed at the end of the place, a small place but spacious from Jenny's perspective.
Jenny stepped inside with hesitant steps, her eyes wandering around the place, recalling her intimate memories.
She said in a tone with hints of tenderness, "It hasn't been long since I left home, but I miss it..."
The moon whispered from the mask, his voice touching her ears, *"Everything that slips from your hands, your heart will be drawn to it like a madman."*
Jenny kept walking around the room, while stopping from time to time, recalling her memories of the place.
She reached her bed and leaned on it, with expressions of astonishment and a little frowning on her face.
The moon noticed that and said in surprise, *"Why is there sadness in your eyes? Did the memory hurt you, or is longing an unbearable burden?"*
She replied in a faint voice, and her eyes contemplating the ceiling of the cave, "Everything is beautiful as I told you, but... if this place has all my happy memories, then where is my father?"
...The moon remained silent for several moments, as if words failed him, which aroused Jenny's astonishment, who continued her speech, saying, "Wh-what's the matter?"
Then he sighed lightly, then began to speak as if trying to avoid her question, *"Oh, the regret of the heart, not everything we hope for is answered, for in this world, no people other than us can exist here."*
Signs of sadness were drawn on her face, but the moon tried to make her forget the topic, saying quickly, *"Oh my god! Isn't that the poetry book you read!?"*
Jenny turned towards the table, to find a new book on it. She got up from her place and started walking towards it, but she passed by the wooden door in the wall.
She took a few steps back, looking at it with a kind of curiosity and astonishment, "It's my father's room, I don't remember entering it since he left."
She extended her hand to open the door, but in one moment the moon shouted in an angry tone, *"Remove your hand from the door."*
Jenny withdrew her hand in terror, while her heart began to beat strongly.
The moon cleared his throat lightly, embarrassed by himself, to begin speaking in a normal tone away from his habit, *"Excuse me, please, for it would have been dangerous for you... I forgot to tell you that this door is a portal to the Land of Forgetting, your forgotten memories, every bad memory you wanted to forget or didn't want to forget, you will find them there, so you must avoid entering it."*
Jenny kept staring at the door, as if it was calling her, then she whispered lightly, "Land of Forgetting..."
Then she said after an idea came to her mind, "If there are all my deleted memories, then the first memory must still exist, and it is the image of my mother, of course."
And before the moon could respond to her, Jenny pushed the door quickly, driven by a curiosity she couldn't curb. And in a moment, she was pulled by a mysterious force into a dark void, while falling into the void and her screams echoed through the place.
After several minutes of falling, she hit the ground hard, but she did not receive significant damage.
She tried to stand on her feet while holding her head in pain.
She looked forward while on the ground, then opened her eyes, to find herself in a narrow corridor, its walls made of the same stone as the cave she lived in, with eyes watching her on every wall, and every meter of the corridor there was a numbered door, making her realize immediately that she had finally arrived.
To the Land of Forgetting.
Jenny began to advance through the corridor with steady steps while looking at the numbered doors with concentration, and the eyes with anxiety.
The numbers were completely random, a door with the number 4, and the next one number 20.
The moon spoke anxiously after realizing they had reached the place, *"Jenny, please, let's go back, this place is not safe."*
But Jenny didn't care about his words. All that mattered to her at the moment was one thing, which was finding any memory of her mother.
She opened the first door in front of her firmly, to find herself back inside the same cave, which surprised her, asking the moon, "What?... We returned to the same place. It's supposed to be forgotten memories."
The moon remained silent for a while before uttering sadly, *"Just look carefully at the place."*
Suddenly, Jenny noticed a copy of herself as a child, sitting on the bed while playing with some old toys.
She looked at her in amazement, saying, "Isn't that me!?".
No one answered her, even though she spoke loudly, the copy seemed as if it hadn't heard her.
All of a sudden, the door of the room that Jenny entered to get into this world at the beginning opened, and a thin-built man came out, with summer clothes, bald on the upper part of his head, with red eyes as if he had been crying for hours.
Jenny said immediately after seeing him with joy, "Dad!"
She tried to approach and hug him, but she just passed through him, as if she were an invisible ghost to them.
The moon spoke quietly, losing his poetic flair from his mouth, *"We are intruders upon this memory, for its events have already happened, and nothing can be changed. We are mere spectators."*
Suddenly and without preamble, the father delivered a violent punch to his daughter, knocking her to the ground, which alarmed Jenny.
The father said in a tone full of sadness and madness, "Why? Why did you leave me, my dear wife? Why. Why. Why. Why"
He continued in his madness under the watchful eyes of Jenny, who was shocked by what she saw, and her crying copy thrown in the corner.
The father put his hands on his face, trying to calm himself, but his madness was clear to everyone.
Jenny said in terror, "This is not my father!! My father never did anything like this in his life."
The moon replied to her with regret, *"I wish."*
The father continued his speech while hitting the wall nervously like a madman, saying in a broken tone, "We were supposed to raise her together, you wanted her with all your depths, and I helped you achieve your wish, you shouldn't have died... not because of your very wish."
He then took a deep breath and started walking out of the hut, with little Jenny crying bitterly in the corner.
Jenny stood staring at the scene, with a frozen face from the horror of what she had seen, for this was not her tender father that she always remembered.
Then she said, filled with shock and disbelief, "This is not my father, I don't remember anything about my father being like this! I'm sure there's a mistake."
The moon replied to her in a calm but serious tone, while a tear streamed from the mask, *"Not everything we remember necessarily is the truth. For sometimes we try to forget the bad things in our lives so we can continue, and you, my little star, have succeeded in that with success."*
Jenny replied to him while looking at her younger self, "D-don't be silly, it must be just one memory where my father was angry, that's why I forgot it. If it were repeated, I certainly wouldn't have forgotten it."
Then she turned back, to the corridor again, slamming the door forcefully.
She stood for a moment, gathering her trembling breath, before starting to walk again in the corridor, perplexed about which door she would enter, while the moon tried to convince her to return.
She stopped in front of a dilapidated wooden door with a faint light behind it, with the number 0 written on it.
She put her hand on the doorknob, then opened it slowly, revealing the same previous place, which surprised her, saying, "Are we returning to the same memory or what?"
The moon replied to her in a tone with a little sadness and a little of his old poetic tone, *"Wasn't your home the place of your memories? So how do you expect the existence of memories other than it when you lived in it most of your life?"*
The father was sitting on the same chair, in front of the small wooden table, clasping his hands tightly, with a tired face, and sunken eyes, then a scream came from afar, her voice... small.
Little Jenny ran towards her father holding a drawing she had made, saying enthusiastically, "Dad! Dad! Look, I drew mom!"
The father raised his eyes slowly towards her, there was no warmth nor tenderness, only tiredness... then he muttered in a sharp tone, "It doesn't look like her... Look how you drew her, she's ugly unlike your real mother."
He tore the paper from her hand without thinking, and threw it on the ground.
Big Jenny gasped softly as she saw the little one staring at the torn drawing, and her eyes filling with tears without crying...
Jenny spoke in a tone full of regret, "Why is he doing this?! What's wrong with this person!?"
The moon replied to her, trying to calm her down, *"This is the effect of the new world, Jenny... Sadness... and madness. He had great ambitions, a life to live, but he wasn't ready for them to be shattered at any time, and this is what led to his madness, especially with his life changing suddenly.. "*
Suddenly and for no reason, the father directed a blow to the child, knocking her to the ground while speaking in a tone full of nervousness and madness, "Don't you dare distort the face of my dear with your drawing again, do you hear me?"
Jenny couldn't believe what she was seeing. She didn't want to believe anything of this.
She exited the door quickly, then began entering various rooms, one after the other hysterically, searching frantically for one memory... just one that proved that her father was not a monster.
But in every door, and in every memory, the father was nothing but a lunatic, a sick person controlled by madness.
Until Jenny opened one of the doors, sweat was pouring from all over her body, and sadness and shock dominated her features.
It was the cave again, like all the memories, and her 16-year-old copy standing in the middle of the house looking at the ground without showing her features, at the time the father was in front of her screaming madly as usual, which made Jenny think it was another memory of her father's madness, which made her turn towards the door to try another door... but this time it was different.
The moon spoke, and in his tone was complete seriousness, *"Stop... this memory is important."*
Jenny turned with interest, thinking it might be a good memory of her father.
After a period of the father's usual screaming, he turned nervously, trying to return to his room.
Her copy raised her gaze towards him, showing her face full of bruises, and her eyes full of hatred and anger.
And in one moment, she grabbed a knife that was lying on the table.
And without hesitation, she began stabbing the father several times in the back.
One after the other.
Under the watch of the original Jenny, who froze completely in her place, and her pupils contracted until they became two small dots, from the intensity of the shock and astonishment.
She couldn't move, nor even breathe regularly... as if her heart forgot how to beat for moments.
The father fell to the ground, drowning in his blood after passing away completely.
At the time when the copy of Jenny was looking at the father with contempt, her face splattered with blood, while her smile gradually widened, to start laughing hysterically, full of madness.
The moon commented on this scene, saying, *"And here you reached your limits, and the curse of the world took over you, even if for moments."*
Suddenly, the copy stopped laughing, and looked towards her father's corpse lying on the ground, with an expressionless face, before tears began to pour from her face, as if she realized what she had just done.
She threw the knife on the ground, and started dragging her father's body towards his room. She opened the room door, and left him thrown on the ground, closing the door behind her.
She cleaned the place of blood, and cleaned herself after that. Then she sat on her bed looking at the ground with an expressionless face.
And at the same time, Jenny was sitting on the ground putting her hands over her head, with shock controlling every inch of her face, not comprehending everything that was happening.
She whispered in a faint voice barely audible, "I... killed him...?"
Long moments of silence passed, no sound but the beats of her heart, which became heavy and painful, as if each one was knocking on her conscience.
The moon spoke, trying to alleviate her distress, *"There is no need for sadness, my little star, he was a dead man already. This world had consumed him, and it would have consumed you had you not done what you did to him at that moment. What you did was the right choice."*
Jenny replied to him in a hesitant voice full of astonishment and hesitation, "B-but, I remember he went out to the city and disappeared, I remember that night well, how? how?"
Then her copy interrupted their talk, speaking to herself in a tone of astonishment, "Hmmmm, my father is late returning... I'm starting to worry about him."
Upon hearing her copy's words, Jenny's eyes widened in astonishment, finally understanding the matter, then she said in astonishment mixed with disbelief, "I forgot? Seriously, how is this possible?!"
The moon replied to her in a quiet but deep tone, full of the weight of secrets, *"You went through a great shock, my little star, to the point that your brain could not contain it. With the multitude of shocks and the approach of madness taking control of you, your brain made a defensive move, and forgot every bad moment in your life, and tried to replace them with happy moments in order to achieve psychological stability. And this place as you see... is the Land of Forgetting, the place created to protect you from madness."*
Jenny remained sitting in her place, relaxing her body while looking at the ground and shock evident on her face.
Silence prevailed in the place for a period of time.
The moon sighed deeply before starting to speak, trying to make Jenny forget all this, *"Oh, I almost forgot, I think I found a memory of your mother's face, do you want to go see it?"*
Jenny remained silent for a moment but whispered in an almost inaudible voice, "Yes..."
She got up from the ground, and left the room, returning to the corridor, with a frowning face, shaken by the truth.
She continued walking, without looking around, leaving the moon to guide her to the intended memory.
She suddenly stopped walking and raised her eyes forward, to find a door white as snow, in good condition and with the number 7 in its middle.
Jenny extended her hand towards the knob, opening the door quietly, to be met directly by sunlight.
She put her hand over her eyes to protect herself from the sun's rays, before looking at the place.
...It was the roof of one of the buildings, somewhat dirty, covered with a light layer of dust and dry leaves that the air carried from a faraway place. The walls surrounding the roof were short, old, with white paints peeling off as if time had bitten them with its teeth, leaving them to collapse slowly.
And in the middle of the place... was her, her mother lying on the ground next to her father, while infant Jenny in front of her mother, crying bitterly.
Jenny's eyes widened in astonishment, not comprehending what she was seeing.
She kept advancing slowly and hesitantly towards her mother lying on the ground, and with every step, her heartbeats grew stronger and stronger.
Finally... Jenny stood in front of her mother lying on the ground. She was a beautiful woman, with features resembling Jenny to an extent that was startling... as if time had decided to recreate the mother's face in her daughter. Her hair was long, thick with the color of a warm night, interspersed with soft, wavy strands, scattered around her face like a halo, exactly like Jenny's hair, but with a deeper color.
When Jenny saw her mother for the first time, mixed feelings flooded her body like a storm.
Her eyes widened completely, then began to tremble, as if the scene before her was something her mind could not believe. Her eyes flooded with tears, not out of sadness but because of the sudden joy.
The features of her face were a mixture of shock, astonishment, and a longing that was never given a chance to appear. She fell to the ground next to her mother, precisely in the place of her infant copy.
Looking at her mother's smiling face, happy with Jenny's birth.
Then the mother said in a tired but happy tone, "My dear child... you were just born and you are already the most beautiful thing my eyes have ever seen."
Upon hearing these words, Jenny's eyes overflowed with joy, as if those words touched her heart deeply, instilling a feeling of belonging and love in her.
Jenny sank into a long silence, trying to comprehend all those feelings that swept over her at once. She felt a strange warmth emanating from her mother's words, as if for the first time in a long time, she was hearing a sincerely loving voice.
She looked at the mother with a broken smile, and Jenny whispered in a hesitant voice, "How I wanted to see you, Mom. I always wished I had a chance to meet you, but I thought that was impossible. But now that impossibility has come true, and I am now seeing you, and I know completely, that you loved me sincerely."
The mother and daughter closed their eyes, sleeping their final sleep together, grateful for this gift... even if for a short period.
Amidst all this, the moon whispered in a voice inaudible even to Jenny, *"This is what I love about you, my little star, no matter how much pain and suffering increases in your life, one happy memory is enough to satisfy you and plant a smile on your lips..."*
Suddenly, Jenny began to hear a strong calling voice, "Jenny! Jennyyyyyy!"
Jenny opened her eyes quietly, to find herself in the middle of the old hut, with everyone gathered around her.
Joseph spoke, with a tone of worry in his voice, "Girl, what happened to you? We found you fainted in the bathroom, you were about to die from the cold there."
Jenny remained silent for a moment, while wiping the tears from her eyes, looking towards her hand stained with her tears, before saying in a quiet tone, "Don't worry, I'm fine... I just received a beautiful gift."
(Return to the Village)
In front of one of the huts, in an empty corner of people.
Was the man who was selling that strange mushroom (the mushroom that Jenny ate in previous chapters).
Lying on the ground, full of bruises, at the time Marcus was standing in front of him, holding one of the mushrooms he was selling.
Then he said in a quiet tone, "I don't remember seeing this thing sold around here, nor have I seen you before."
The man replied to him with a big smile on his face, "What's wrong with you, man? I'm just a simple sell_"
And before he could finish his speech, Marcus delivered a strong blow to his head, before saying to him in the same tone, "I didn't ask you who you are, I asked you what this mushroom does."
The man replied to him while returning his gaze towards Marcus, "I told you, man, several times, it's just a mushroom that brings you happiness and fulfills your wishes, but you keep hitting me."
Marcus replied to him, "That's because I can tell your truth from your lies, and I know you are a big liar."
The man took a deep breath then replied to him, "Well, well, I'll tell you... This thing in your hand is not a mushroom... it's a parasite."
Marcus interrupted him, saying, "How so?"
The man continued his speech, "Let me finish, you fool. (Sigh) When you eat this mushroom, it doesn't go directly to your stomach, but to your nervous system... It implants itself deep in your brain and upon reaching it, and due to its lack of thoughts or feelings, it will take on an illusory form in your brain, another personality in the same body, and then it will transform into the thing you are most obsessed with, whether good or bad, or more clearly, a conscious hallucination. And here comes the fun part: if the host is obsessed with something toxic and harmful to him, the parasite slowly consumes his mind, until it completely controls his mind. On the other hand, if the person's obsession is something good, or he loves it excessively to the point of wishing for its existence, the hallucination takes its form, forming it inside your brain."
Marcus remained silent for a moment, before throwing the mushroom and crushing it under his feet, saying coldly, "Strange, after hearing your words, you reminded me of someone... But the most important and obvious part here is that you are not human, right?"
The man replied to him, with expressions of fake shock on his face, "What are you saying?"
Marcus replied to him, "What do you think I'm saying? You sell parasites, create conscious hallucinations for people, with the possibility that they can control their brains... But the thing you didn't address is what will they do after controlling the host? ... And it is, of course, like every living creature in this world... Spreading, and this is what you are doing."
The smile disappeared from the man's face and signs of anxiety appeared on his face, "I didn't expect you to figure it out this quickly..."
Marcus didn't pay attention to the speech, but was content with delivering a strong blow towards the man's head, completely smashing his skull, killing him instantly.
The man's head opened, revealing his destroyed brain, coated with something blue and glowing like plant roots.
Marcus cleaned his hand quietly, before picking up the bag of mushrooms that the man was carrying, walking away from the place in silence.
(The End)