As Kiya stepped into the room, he stood in front of the curtains. He felt his heart throbbing with regret and anxiety.
He wondered why someone he had hurt so much would even forgive him. He was confused as to why Hitleck would even take the attack.
Kiya stabbed Hitleck along with restraining him with ropes. He tortured Hitleck. He made a fool out of him. He even openly displayed his friend's betrayal, but what he gave Thomas was a death penalty.
When Hitleck's spirit was visibly down, no one was there to help him except Frederick. Hitleck's sacrifice would be for Frederick; Kiya's thoughts drifted into this topic.
Snapping back, he saw a vague figure through the curtains whom he assumed was Hitleck. He gulped, and he slowly reached his hand out to hold one end of the curtain. He then slowly moved the curtain to one side.
The figure was round, resembling a big circular object, like a ball resting on the bed, which Kiya assumed was blankets.
He slowly moved the curtain; he stopped, pressing the curtain inwards with his hands.
"Ok, is this going to go on all day?" Frederick asked as he slightly pushed Kiya and opened the curtains.
The curtains moved across the iron rod on the ceiling, revealing Hitleck.
"Yo."
Hitleck, whom everyone thought was bedridden, was sitting on the bed waiting for the group to arrive. He was swinging his legs back and forth.
They were surprised by this predicament. They all took a step back from amazement.
"If I was kicked like that, I would have long been dead." Genzo said.
Cameron looked at Hitleck with a smile, happy that his friend was fine.
"Are you fine?" Frederick asked.
"Hitleck… I…" Kiya was reluctant to say anything.
"How are you ALIVE?" The guard said, his expression conveying that he saw a ghost, like he saw a dead man.
The guard's expression was justified, because who would survive from getting kicked like that? Even if they did, would they have a normal life? No.
"Hey Kiya, don't worry. I am fine, and you don't have to apologize. I know you did it for a reason."
"I am sorry. I knew Thomas was the murderer and deduced that the point of the bugs was that the warden wanted the killer to confess; he wanted to see."
"It is okay. You did it for our own good." Hitleck stood up, placing his hands on Kiya's shoulders, and looked at him with a face of comfort.
Kiya smiled slightly, looking at Hitleck's face; he couldn't do anything but smile. Hit patted Kiya's shoulders. Kiya's eyes got wet.
Although Kiya's emotional intelligence was far worse than an average human being, he understood what to do when the time arrived. Kiya felt empathetic after witnessing Hitleck getting kicked by Reminor; he had never felt this emotion, or if he had, it was a long time ago.
"Go back to the room." The guard said, whom Frederick gazed at with a threatening aura.
"Uhh… Umm, should we go back to the room?" The guard spoke, loosening his shoulders and rubbing his hands together.
"I think we should." Frederick said, strengthening his last word.
After a while, they reached the room. Hitleck, Frederick, Cameron, Kiya, Genzo, and the guard-in-charge—these were the remaining survivors of the whole journey.
At that time, a question suddenly rose up from the depths of Kiya's mind. He was lost in thought but snapped right back and then turned to Hitleck.
Kiya felt comfortable speaking to Hitleck since everything was behind them.
"Hit, how did you even get this durable?" Kiya asked, with a curious expression.
"I don't know; I… guess it was genetics, you know. My family was filled with swordsmen, so yeah."
"Huh, but this type of body isn't attainable without some form of training… Whatever, I guess it is your genetics."
"Yeah, guess."
Hitleck's expression was suspicious; Kiya's mind kept circling this thought. Hitleck was excellent at acting too. Kiya had a thought at first that Hitleck was the killer but quickly scrapped it because of Thomas.
'Ahhh, I'm probably overthinking it; I need to go to sleep.'
He tried to sleep but could not because of this idea ringing in his mind like a mosquito.
"Nights out." The guard spoke, searching for the missing revolver. It went missing right before Frederick threatened him—a reason for not defending himself.
The lights were out, snakes rushed to their burrows, and birds got into their nests as the moonlight caressed everyone outside. But Kiya's mind was wide awake like the sun. He could not sleep in any position; the thought lingered, and there was nothing Kiya could do about it.
'What if Hitleck did kill Unith? What if Hitleck was the traitor? What if he was an assassin? That explains why his body is so refined.'
The thoughts flooded into his mind. He has had an urge to turn around to see if Hitleck was there for quite a while. He turned around and looked at the bed where Hitleck was sleeping. But Hitleck was not present there. At that moment, many emotions rushed into Kiya's mind.
'What? Where is he? Did he go to the toilet?'
He got up slowly and checked to see if he was there. He slowly walked towards the bathroom; it was dark, but he built up the courage, gulped, and crept up to the bathroom. He reached the bathroom door, suddenly jumping in front of it to test his courage; fortunately, no one was present.
Kiya wondered where he had gone and wished for his intuition to not be true.
He looked at the front door, slowly walking towards it; it was open. His eyes widened with a sense of excitement and curiosity; looking at the door, he could only deduce one thing: Hitleck had gone out.
The same thing had occurred when they were still at the prison, but who did it was unknown.
With a racing heart, he stepped forward, little by little, until he reached the door, from where he faced right and went on. Although Kiya did not understand emotions as much as an average human, he did understand what courage, excitement, and curiosity were.
His pace was slow, then fast, until he started jogging and then running. He was filled with curiosity as to why Hitleck got out.
His curiosity's reach was as long as the sharp-tailed serpent.