Amidst the fog, Anas made his way to an old apartment, thirty meters away from the center of the city, and next to a local park. He ascended the emergency stairs while his mind was occupied with different matters and preparations for things that did not happen, and would not happen no matter what. Still, he readied himself for them either way.
The white door seemed as though it faced a century of time and changed drastically over these few days from a distance, the corners started growing mold and showing signs of decay, the iron handle stayed in place but seemed to have its lock put out of order, and so the door appeared as if its locked and shut but it produced little cracks in all corners despite that, as though a little gust of wind is all it would take to push it ever so slightly and unintentionally get it wide open.
With what Anas knew as of now, he seemed to think of himself capable of facing that scene at this point, and since he came to experience the roots himself, there might be a chance, no matter how miniscule of a hope in that there is, to alter the situation. Although the smell only got sharper to his head this time, as if it wasn't worried any longer to mask its presence, but Anas stayed composed and determined to see it through.
As Anas walked slowly through the hall leading to the apartment, he had to cover his face with his arm all the way until he stood by the door, as the smell was forcing its way through his nostrils and into his lungs whether he chose to breathe it in or not as he got closer to the source.
He let his hand rest on the handle, and he noticed how unstable it became, like it could fall off under any pressure, but at the moment he intended to twist it and get in he heard a voice coming from behind him, one which belonged to an old lady with her cane who came rushing down the hall, perhaps by intuition, "What do you think yourself doing here?" Anas threw a glance backwards over his shoulder, and although he did not find the will to speak at that moment, he hoped to get a few words out despite that, "Just visiting a friend, is there a problem with that?" The old lady seemed skeptical at best and brushed his words right over her head, "Does a visitor just invite themself in without even knocking? I'll call the police if you don't go away right this instant." Anas froze in place, while his hand kept a hold of the handle all the same without changing position, he thought of forcing himself to talk and explain, but as though his ability to talk at this point has diminished, he chose to ignore her and carry on in disregard to her threats.
He pushed the door open, and all sorts of smells pushed him right back in disgust, but he covered the lower part of his face again and powered through it. The old lady followed him right into it despite the smell and kept trying to expell him while moving with curiosity as though she had never seen the place from the inside.
By the corner in the darkness, the same place where he saw his friend resting, a large tree has taken roots and made the place its home. Anas' ears started ringing, and while he tried to think of some words that might shake him off and bring him back, under the old lady's coughing and yelling voice, he started losing focus, as his vision was deteriorating and a sharp pain breathed behind his left eye. But as he took a knee down from the pain, he found himself closer to the tree, and maybe it was due to the darkness, and maybe it was due to his vision not being at its best at the moment, but he finally noticed the tree core being hollow.
A sound of heavy steps came from the main door behind them, which grabbed the attention of the old lady right away, while Anas was still fixated on the tree.
"Not even the police dared to investigate what happened or come any close to the place, yet all kinds of thieves and crackheads come in and go like it belongs to them."
The voice sounded familiar to Anas for a minute, but before he could completely turn around and look, something came flying at him which he barely managed to dodge, though it destroyed the hollow tree and shattered it to pieces.
Rayan stood out from within the dust after he jumped straight at Anas. He sighed and let a weird laugh escape his mouth, "I didn't think you would evade that. Maybe you also have something similar. This would explain everything." Rayan legs got softer and compressed into itself, making him shorter, then hardened again launching him at Anas, which he couldn't manage to dodge but rather block the kick with both of his arms, and yet thorns started growing out of Rayan's leg at the point of impact, and penetrated his arms.
The old lady fell on her back and her eyes widened in shock while she started crying and mumbling things about the devil, and when Rayan noticed her, he clicked his tongue and went straight at her, but before he could land a hit Anas had jumped over his back and got him in a chokehold, as they both went over the old lady's head and fell back to the ground.
At that point, with deep wounds on both his arms, Anas couldn't hope to hold on for much, but despite that he managed to forget about the pain for a second and push at the back of Rayan's neck with his knee in order to break it while his face was against the ground, all with nothing in his back pocket but the rush of adrenaline.
Suddenly, Rayan's legs softened completely and went under and in between his thighs and the ground. From such a position, Anas couldn't see anything that was happening, but as soon as Rayan began moving he finally realized, although it was too late to do anything. Rayan had compressed his legs between his body and the ground already, and when he hardened his legs back they both launched to the ceiling while using Anas' body as a cushion, and as they were about to fall Rayan disengaged while Anas fell straight on his head, at that point, the double impact drove out any will to fight back left in him.
Rayan threw a frown in his direction, then went past him to the old lady who was frozen in place in order to finish her off, and for a split second there, he thought he heard Anas saying something so he turned his head back in order to make sure, but as soon as his vision was laid on Anas' motionless body, he found a knife directed at his throat coming from the back, "Don't move." said the person holding the knife. As Rayan gave up on looking back at who it was, he decided to ask instead, "Who are you? I didn't hear you come in." The person behind him laughed, a casual laugh that doesn't fit the situation they're in, "right? My ability is very useful. Though it's not as powerful as those legs of yours, I still get the job done."
Anas started moving from between the rubble and tried to get back up as he stopped bleeding for some reason, "Don't kill him, Maj."
Maj made an annoyed expression in response, "Don't give my name casually to strangers. Wait, whoa... you're alive? Aha ha ha, that's good, that's great." As his expression changed and got more serious, Rayan on the other hand had a complicated expression, one that made Anas feel as though he won't forgive him no matter what, as Maj whispered "Sorry buddy, mother's orders."
Rayan's head flew in the air with a single slice, as he held the same expression on his face, while Anas watched as his friend's head fell back to the ground and rolled in front of him.
In her secret lab, as an internal part of her office, Aurora held an empty basket around to some desk. She gathered different documents she had readied for some while to be disposed of and threw them all in the basket. She took a cigarette that had been resting for some time behind her ear and pulled out a lighter she sticked under the desk. She took her time lighting the cigarette, took a in a few puffs slowly, and, with roughly the same speed of motion, blowed all the smoke away. Finally, she threw half the cigarette in the basket and watched as the documents were being eaten by the fire. She walked back some distance, then came back and threw an apple, which had been laying around the lab, into the fire as well.