Nicholas and the others kept walking in silence, their footsteps groaning under the piled snow. Behind them, the village's outlines were fading away into the cold fog.
Jenny hugged her shoulders with arms that trembled from the cold, exhaustion beginning to show on her face, and said in a shaky voice: "Why didn't we take that thing called a car? It would have been better for us."
Nicholas took a moment before answering. "I wanted to take it, but I found it half wrecked. It must have something to do with that truck."
Jenny felt a wave of irritation and covered her whole face except her eyes to stay warm.
Nicholas turned to Joseph, who had recovered a little of his strength. "How long will it take us to get there?"
Joseph answered, a note of fear in his voice: "Two days, most likely."
Nicholas sighed slowly, then said wearily, with an anger and impatience inside him like no other: "Two days... damn it, that's a long time... Isn't there a shortcut?"
Joseph answered, mockery mixed with worry: "Heh, what I told you is the shortcut. You'd better be patient, because we're still on day zero."
Nicholas turned to face forward again without a word, worry and anger plain on his face.
After a while, Jenny grew bored and fed up with all of it. She moved quietly closer to Ethan and whispered to him, shivering: "Do you have any plan to talk Nicholas out of this stupidity?"
Ethan looked at her, tiredness in his eyes, and shook his head: no.
Jenny stared at him for a few seconds before trying to strike up a conversation. "S-so you can't talk?"
Ethan answered by pointing with his finger: yes.
Then she said, interest showing on her face: "Strange!.. I've never met anyone like you before... But why? Don't you have a tongue? I remember my father told me we can speak using our tongues."
Ethan looked at her in confusion, then stuck out his tongue and wiggled it comically, as if to say: "Here it is. What's wrong with it?"
Jenny's eyes widened for a moment, and then she burst out laughing despite all the exhaustion and cold, clapping a hand over her mouth so Nicholas wouldn't hear her.
She whispered playfully: "Stop that, you look ridiculous, hahahaha."
A small smile appeared on Ethan's face, and he began to laugh without a sound, sharing her joy.
Nicholas interrupted them, turning gravely to Joseph. "Aren't there any old buildings or any livable place near here?"
Joseph answered mockingly, fatigue on his face: "We won't find any shelter until we reach the city. Just keep walking. You've still got a looooong road ahead to enjoy this dead whiteness everywhere."
Nicholas looked at him with cold eyes but didn't answer. He only exhaled hard and kept walking.
Minutes and hours passed very slowly. The snow never stopped falling, and no matter how far they advanced, nobody noticed any change in the road, just a nearly flat road full of snow, repeating over and over.
Suddenly Jenny pointed at something far off in the fog, saying in a hoarse voice: "L-look."
Everyone turned toward the spot she was pointing at and was surprised to see the outline of a cabin in the distance.
Nicholas asked Joseph, anger and surprise in his voice: "Didn't you tell me there were no buildings anywhere near here?"
Joseph answered, bewilderment on his own face: "Yes, I did. And I have no memory of this thing."
Nicholas turned toward the cabin. "Hurry. We'll spend tonight in that cabin."
They began walking toward the cabin, hoping it would be a safe place to stay.
After several minutes of walking, the building slowly came into view: an old wooden cabin, half buried under snow, its windows covered with rotten boards.
Joseph said, panting: "I don't remember ever seeing this place."
Nicholas answered: "That means you're an idiot. Come on, this will be where we spend the night."
They all exchanged exhausted looks and then walked together toward the cabin, the cold wind trailing behind them as though refusing to grant them a moment's rest.
Nicholas shoved the door with his shoulder. It creaked unpleasantly before slowly swinging open, revealing a dark interior thick with dust.
Jenny said as she hurried inside: "Haaaa, finally, a warm place."
Nicholas shut the door with difficulty, then said, picking up a piece of wood: "Gather wood so we can light a fire."
Without much talk, everyone began searching for anything that would burn. Wood. Broken chairs. Plastic bottles.
They piled it all together beneath a small opening in the roof, where the smoke could escape without filling the cabin.
Nicholas took his bag off his back and opened it, pulled out a small lighter, went up to the pile of material, and lit the fire, lighting up the dark place and driving the chill from the air around them.
Everyone sat before the flames, comfort and calm spreading across their cheerful faces.
Jenny sat close to the fire, stretching out her hands toward it. "Ahhh... an indescribable feeling."
Joseph said after stretching out fully on the floor, clutching his stomach in discomfort: "Damn you, that punch is still hurting my stomach."
Nicholas answered dryly: "You're the one who refused in the first place. Not my problem."
Joseph answered irritably: "Damn you."
Nicholas leaned against the wall and said before closing his eyes: "Go to sleep. You'll need every drop of your energy for walking tomorrow."
Everyone slowly closed their eyes, the sound of the fierce wind seeping in through the cracks of the old cabin.
But sleep did not come easily for some.
While everyone slept, sitting in his own world, Jenny was walking carefully around the cabin, trying not to make any noise.
"Where can I find a gap or something like that... The moon promised me he'd visit me today. I can't abandon him, especially at a time like this."
She searched everywhere, every inch, as seconds and minutes ticked by, but found nothing except small gaps between the walls.
Despair and resignation washed over her at the thought that she wouldn't be able to meet the moon tonight. She stopped suddenly in one of the rooms that seemed to have been a bathroom. It was narrow, and a foul smell rose from a filthy squat toilet. On one wall hung a medium-sized mirror with a few cracks, though you could still see your reflection fairly clearly in it.
Jenny approached the mirror quietly, looking at her reflection while playing with her hair.
Then she whispered, a faint smile on her face: "I look pretty today, hahahaha." She stayed like that for a while.
Unexpectedly, Jenny caught sight in her reflection of a faint light appearing on the wall in front of her, and she spun toward it in alarm, fear and bewilderment on her face.
The light formed as a thin thread, slender as a hair, running vertically down the middle of the cracked wall, then began to widen slowly downward as if it were a gateway to another dimension, emitting a faint sound as it expanded, like the whisper of glass cracking.
Within moments, it had become a complete window, its edges glowing faintly, and inside it a darkness full of stars, as though it were a gateway to outer space.
Jenny stayed frozen in place, astonishment spread across her features. She looked right, then left, before beginning to walk toward the window with slow steps.
She didn't touch it. She only looked at it from different angles, curiosity and wonder dominating her feelings.
And as she stared into that star-filled darkness, something she hadn't expected happened.
In the depths of that window, the stars began to scatter slowly, as though making room for something greater.
The point of light she had glimpsed from afar began to grow... and grow... until its round, luminous, majestic shape could no longer be ignored.
Jenny said, happiness and amazement painting her face: "The moon!!"
He answered in his majestic voice from behind the window:
"Oh, Jenny, light of my eye, I thought you had forgotten me."
Jenny answered, a smile splitting her face: "Of course I wouldn't forget you. How could I?"
"And because I know what is in your heart, there is no need for excuses in my presence. I only ask, humbly, after the state of my little star."
She answered: "I'm fine as long as I see you're fine... Now that you're here, what was it you wanted to show me?"
The moon stayed silent for a moment, then began to tap lightly on the glass of the window.
"Forgive me for troubling you, but could you open the window for me? I cannot open it from here."
Jenny didn't hesitate for a second and quickly opened the window.
The moment the window opened, the moon said in a tone full of respect and courtesy:
"I hope you don't mind."
Then he began to transform into a beam of captivating white light, drawing himself toward the left side of Jenny's face.
The moment that light touched Jenny's face, she began to feel a strange blurring on the left side of her face. She slowly began to lose her balance, clutching the blurred side of her face.
Jenny slowly fell to her knees, her eyes flickering unsteadily while the white light was still being drawn into her face.
She whispered in a trembling voice, barely audible: "W-what's happening to me??"
But no one answered her, only a silence that filled the place, leaving the light to do what it was doing.
After several seconds the light began to fade quickly, taking the window with it.
Jenny knelt there on her knees, clutching the left part of her face, her heart pounding as though it were about to leave its place.
She rose with difficulty, panting from exhaustion, and looked toward where the window had been, only to find the wall back to normal.
She turned wearily to the mirror, trying to understand exactly what had happened to her.
The side she was covering with her hand was glowing with a strange light, which surprised her. She began to lift her hand slowly from her face as the light grew stronger and stronger until...
A mask, white as snow and luminous as the stars, covering half of her face and leaving the other half bare, and in the place of her eye, whose black had turned a captivating blue.
Jenny stayed petrified in place from the shock, touching the mask in bewilderment and astonishment. "W-what is this thing?"
Suddenly she heard a voice in her head with the same qualities as the moon's voice:
"I express my deep regret for surprising you like this, for I thought you were ready to receive the gift."
Jenny answered, confusion on her face: "What have you done to me? What is this mask?"
"I know that threads of worry are tightening around your heart, and that a thousand questions dance in your mind, but set your heart at ease, for I have given you my eye as a gift for our everlasting friendship. From now on you will see what I see, and I will see what you see."
She felt a mixture of worry and tension at his words, but her trust in him eased those feelings.
She said to him calmly: "I don't understand how you see what I see and I see what you see. There's no change."
The moon answered 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, drawing her to cover her right eye.
Jenny raised her hand hesitantly before placing it over her right eye.
The moment her hand touched her eye, the sound of the wind went out and the world fell silent around her, as though time had stopped.
In that moment she found herself in a strange world: green hills as far as the eye could see, and the sky unusually blue. The colors were faded and the vision blurred, and far off stood what looked like an ancient cave in the middle of the place.
Jenny looked around in amazement, a feeling of strangeness and comfort creeping into her chest.
She said in wonder: "Beautifuuuuuuul."
Suddenly she heard the moon's voice, but it was not in front of her and clear as usual. It came from the mask, as though he had merged with her and become the mask itself:
"Welcome to the Lands of Memory, here where your happy memories gather, here where you find comfort and happiness through its widest gates."
Jenny advanced through the fields, stepping lightly as if the earth itself were whispering beneath her feet.
A smile split her face at the beauty of the scene, and then she dropped onto the warm, grassy ground, rolling right and left, savoring the warmth and beauty of the grass.
She said, joy and relaxation mixed in her voice: "I've never enjoyed myself like this in my whole life... This is the best gift I've received since I was born, hahahahaha."
"I gave you only what your heart deserved, my little star."
Jenny closed her eyes, feeling as though the breeze were caressing her soul and not just her body, and lay relaxed for a while.
Jenny rolled onto her right side, opening her eyes slowly, and found the cave facing her in the distance.
She stayed focused on it for a while before saying in shock, once something had dawned on her: "Wait a second! That's my home!"
The moon confirmed her words:
"Yes... that is your home, as your memory wove it, everything your heart ever loved, embodied in this place."
Jenny rose from the ground and began running swiftly toward the cave, her hair streaming in the cold wind and a smile splitting her face.
At the threshold of the cave, she quietly opened the door, revealing the entrance of the house.
It was a spacious place with stone walls and a floor spread with old cloth, a table and chairs in the middle, and two openings at the edges of the cave, one covered with a light cloth and the other with a door of its own, and a bed at the far end. A small place, but one that seemed vast to Jenny.
Jenny stepped inside with hesitant steps, her eyes roaming the place, recalling her most intimate memories.
She said in a tone full of tenderness: "It hasn't been long since I left home, but I've missed it..."
The moon whispered from the mask, his voice brushing her ears:
"Everything that slips from your hands, your heart will be drawn back to it like mad."
Jenny kept walking around the room, pausing now and then to recall her memories of the place.
She reached her bed and leaned on it, a look of puzzlement and a little frown on her face.
The moon noticed and said in surprise:
"Why is there sorrow in your eyes? Has the memory hurt you, or is longing a weight too heavy to bear?"
She answered in a faint voice, her eyes studying the ceiling of the cave: "Everything is beautiful, as I told you, but... if this place holds all my happy memories, then where is my father?"
...The moon stayed silent for several moments, as though words had failed him, which surprised Jenny, who went on: "W-what's wrong?"
Then he sighed lightly and began to speak as though trying to avoid her question:
"Alas for the heart, not everything we hope for is granted, for in this world there can be no people here other than ourselves."
Sorrow spread across her face, but the moon tried to make her forget the subject, saying quickly:
"Oh my! Isn't that the poetry book you read?!"
Jenny turned toward the table and found a new book on it. She rose from her place and began walking toward it, until she passed the wooden door in the wall.
She stepped back a few paces, looking at it with a mix of curiosity and bewilderment. "That's my father's room. I don't remember going in there since he left."
She reached out to open the door, but in an instant the moon shouted in an angry tone:
"Take your hand off the door."
Jenny pulled her hand back in fright as her heart began to pound.
The moon cleared his throat lightly, embarrassed with himself, and began to speak in an ordinary tone, far from his usual manner:
"Forgive me, please. It would have been dangerous for you... I forgot to tell you that this door is a gateway to the Land of Oblivion, your forgotten memories. Every bad memory you wanted to forget, or didn't want to forget, you will find there. So you must avoid entering it."
Jenny kept staring at the door as if it were calling to her, then whispered softly: "The Land of Oblivion..."
Then, after an idea struck her, she said: "If all my deleted memories are in there, then the first memory must still exist, and it's my mother's form, of course."
And before the moon could answer, Jenny kicked the door open, driven by a curiosity she couldn't hold back. In an instant she was pulled by a mysterious force into a dark void, falling through the emptiness as her screams rang out.
After several minutes of falling, she hit the ground hard, but she didn't suffer serious injury.
She tried to stand up while clutching her head in pain.
She looked ahead from the ground and then opened her eyes, finding herself in a narrow corridor whose walls were of the same stone as the cave where she lived. Eyes watched her from every wall, and every meter of the corridor held a numbered door. She realized at once that she had finally arrived.
At the Land of Oblivion.
Jenny began advancing along the corridor with steady steps, studying the numbered doors with focus, and glancing anxiously at the eyes.
The numbers were completely random: one door might read 4, and the next 20.
The moon spoke nervously after realizing they had reached the place:
"Jenny, please, let us go back. This place is not safe."
But Jenny paid no attention to his words. All that mattered to her at the moment was one thing: finding any memory of her mother.
She opened the first door in front of her firmly, only to find herself back inside the very same cave, which surprised her, and she asked the moon: "What?... We're back in the same place. These are supposed to be forgotten memories."
The moon stayed silent for a while before saying sorrowfully:
"Just look closely at the place."
Suddenly Jenny noticed a copy of herself as a child, sitting on the bed playing with some old toys.
Jenny looked at her in amazement and said: "Isn't that me!?"
No one answered her. Even though she spoke loudly, her younger self seemed not to hear her.
Abruptly, the door of the room that had brought Jenny into this world in the first place opened, and out of it came a thin man in summer clothes, balding on the top of his head, with red eyes as though he had been crying for hours.
The moment she saw him, Jenny said joyfully: "Father!"
She tried to step forward and hug him, but she simply passed through him, like an invisible ghost to them.
The moon spoke calmly, his poetic flourishes gone from his mouth:
"We are intruders upon this memory. Its events have already happened, and nothing can be changed. We are merely spectators."
Suddenly, without warning, the father drove a violent punch into his daughter, knocking her to the floor, which sent Jenny into a panic.
The father said in a tone full of sorrow and madness: "Why? Why did you leave me, my beloved wife? Why. Why. Why. Why."
He continued in his madness under the gaze of Jenny, shocked at what she was seeing, and her weeping younger self thrown into the corner.
The father put his hands over his face, trying to calm himself, but his madness was plain to everyone.
Jenny said in terror: "That's not my father!! My father never did anything like this in his life!"
The moon answered with regret:
"If only."
The father went on, striking the wall in crazed fury and saying in a broken voice: "We were supposed to raise her together. You were the one who wanted her with all your depths, and I helped you fulfill your wish. You shouldn't have died... not because of your own wish."
Then he took a deep breath and began walking out of the cave, leaving the little Jenny crying bitterly in the corner.
Jenny stood staring at the scene, her face frozen at the horror of what she had seen. This was not the gentle father she had always remembered.
Then she said, full of shock and disbelief: "That's not my father. I don't remember my father being like that at all! I'm sure there's been a mistake."
The moon answered her in a calm but serious tone as a tear streamed from the mask:
"Everything we remember is not necessarily the truth. Sometimes we try to forget the bad things in our lives so that we can go on, and you, my little star, have succeeded at that admirably."
Jenny answered, looking at her younger self: "D-don't be silly. It must have been just one memory in which my father was angry, and that's why I forgot it. If it were recurring, I surely wouldn't have forgotten it."
Then she turned back and went out into the corridor again, shutting the door hard behind her.
She stood for a moment, gathering her trembling breaths, before walking down the corridor again, unsure which door to enter, while the moon tried to convince her to go back.
She stopped in front of a worn wooden door with a faint light behind it. On it was written the number 0.
She put her hand on the handle and opened it slowly, revealing the same place as before, which surprised her. She said: "Are we going back to the same memory, or what?"
The moon answered her with a trace of sorrow and a little of his old poetic tone:
"Was not your home the place of your memories? How do you expect other memories to exist elsewhere when you lived in it for most of your life?"
The father sat on the same chair in front of the small wooden table, hands clasped tightly, his face weary and his eyes sunken. Then came the sound of screaming from far off, her own voice... small.
The young Jenny ran toward her father holding a drawing she had made, saying excitedly: "Father! Father! Look, I drew Mama!"
The father slowly raised his eyes to her. There was no warmth and no tenderness in them, only exhaustion... 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 floor.
The older Jenny gasped softly as she watched the little one stare at the torn drawing, her eyes filling with tears without crying...
Jenny said in a tone full of anguish: "Why is he doing this?! What's wrong with this man!?"
The moon answered, trying to calm her:
"This is the effect of the new world, Jenny... Sorrow... and madness. He had great ambitions, a life to live, but he was not prepared for it all to shatter at any moment, and that is what drove him to madness, especially with his life changing so suddenly..."
Suddenly, for no reason, the father struck the little girl, knocking her to the floor, saying in a tone full of fury and madness: "Don't you dare disfigure my darling's face again with your drawing, do you hear me?"
Jenny couldn't believe what she was seeing. She didn't want to believe any of it.
She rushed out the door, then began entering one room after another, hysterically, searching frantically for a single memory... just one, that would prove her father hadn't been a monster.
But behind every door, in every memory, the father was nothing but a crazed, sick man possessed by madness.
By the time Jenny opened another door, sweat was pouring from every part of her body, and sorrow and shock dominated her features.
It was the cave again, like every memory, and her sixteen-year-old self stood in the middle of the house looking at the floor, her face hidden, while her father stood before her screaming madly as usual. Jenny assumed it was another memory of her father's madness and turned toward the door to try another... but this time was different.
The moon spoke, complete seriousness in his voice:
"Stop... this memory is important."
Jenny turned back with interest, thinking it might be a good memory of her father.
After the father's usual screaming had gone on for a while, he turned away in anger, trying to return to his room.
The sixteen-year-old Jenny raised her gaze toward him, revealing her face covered in bruises, and her eyes full of hatred and rage.
And in a single moment, she seized a knife that had been left on the table.
And without hesitation, she began stabbing her father in the back, several times.
One after another.
Before the eyes of the real Jenny, who froze in place completely, the pupils of her eyes shrinking to two tiny dots from the intensity of shock and stupefaction.
She couldn't move, or even breathe steadily... as though her heart had forgotten how to beat for a few moments.
The father fell to the floor, drowning in his blood, and breathed his last.
Meanwhile the memory-Jenny looked at her father with contempt, her face smeared with blood, her smile growing bit by bit until she began to laugh hysterically, full of madness.
The moon commented on the scene:
"And here you reached your limit, and the curse of the world took hold of you, if only for moments."
Suddenly the memory-Jenny stopped laughing and looked at her father's body lying on the floor, her face empty of any expression, before tears began pouring down her face, as though she had just grasped what she had done.
She threw the knife to the floor and began dragging her father's corpse toward his room. She opened the door, left him lying on the ground, and locked the door behind her.
She cleaned the place of blood, then cleaned herself. Afterward she sat on her bed staring at the floor, her face empty of any expression.
At the same time, the real Jenny sat on the floor with a hand on her head, shock dominating every inch of her face, unable to process everything that was happening.
She whispered in a faint voice, barely audible: "I... killed him...?"
Long moments of silence passed, with no sound but the beating of her heart, which had grown heavy and painful, as though each beat knocked on her conscience.
The moon spoke, trying to ease her:
"There is no need for sorrow, my little star. He was already a dead man. This world had consumed him, and it would have consumed you had you not done what you did to him in that moment. What you did was the right choice."
Jenny answered him in a hesitant voice full of bewilderment: "But... but I remember that he went out to the city and disappeared. I remember that night so well. How? How?"
Her younger self interrupted their conversation, speaking to herself in a puzzled tone: "Hmmmm, Father is late coming back... I'm starting to worry about him."
The moment Jenny heard her younger self's words, her eyes widened in shock as she finally understood, and she said in a daze mixed with bewilderment: "I forgot? Seriously, how could that be possible?!"
The moon answered her in a calm but deep tone, heavy with the weight of secrets:
"You went through a great shock, my little star, so great that your brain could not contain it. With so many shocks and madness drawing close to overtaking you, your brain made a defensive move. It forgot every bad moment in your life and tried to replace them with happy ones for the sake of psychological stability. And this place, as you see... is the Land of Oblivion, the place that was created to protect you from madness."
Jenny stayed seated where she was, her body slack, staring at the floor, the shock plain on her face.
Silence filled the place for a time.
The moon sighed deeply before speaking, trying to make Jenny forget all of this:
"Oh, I almost forgot. I think I found a memory of your mother's face. Would you like to go and see it?"
Jenny stayed silent for a moment, but she whispered in a voice barely audible: "Yes..."
She rose from the floor and left the room, returning to the corridor with a frown, weighed down by the truth.
She kept walking without looking around, leaving the moon to lead her toward the memory he meant.
She suddenly stopped walking and raised her eyes ahead, and found a door as white as snow, in good condition, with the number 7 at its center.
Jenny reached for the handle and opened the door quietly, and sunlight hit her directly.
She put her hand over her eyes to shield herself from the sun's rays before looking at the place.
...It was the rooftop of a building, somewhat dirty, covered with a thin layer of dust and dry leaves carried by the wind from somewhere far away. The walls around the roof were short and old, their white paint peeling as though time had bitten into them with its teeth and left them to crumble slowly.
And in the middle of the place... was her mother, lying on the ground beside her father, while infant Jenny sat in front of her mother, crying bitterly.
Jenny's eyes widened in astonishment, unable to take in what she was seeing.
She kept advancing slowly and hesitantly toward her mother lying on the ground, her heartbeat growing stronger and stronger with every step.
At last... Jenny stood before her mother lying on the ground. She was a beautiful woman whose features resembled Jenny's to a degree that sent a shiver through her... as if time had decided to restore the mother's face in her daughter. Her hair was long and thick, the color of a warm night, laced with soft, wavy strands that scattered around her face like a halo, just like Jenny's hair, but in a deeper shade.
When Jenny saw her mother for the first time, mixed emotions flooded her body like a storm.
Her eyes widened completely, then began to tremble, as though her mind could not believe the scene before her. Her eyes filled with tears, not out of sorrow but from sudden joy.
Her face was a mixture of shock, stupefaction, and a longing that had never been given a chance to show itself. She sank to the ground beside her mother, right where her infant self sat.
She looked at her mother's smiling face, so happy at Jenny's birth.
Then the mother said in a tired voice, full of happiness: "My dear child... you've only just been born and you're already the most beautiful thing my eyes have ever seen."
The moment Jenny heard these words, her eyes overflowed with joy, as though those words had touched her heart deeply, planting a feeling of belonging and love in her.
Jenny sank into a long silence, trying to absorb all the emotions that had swept over her at once. She felt a strange warmth emanating from her mother's words, as if for the first time in a very long while she were hearing a voice that loved her sincerely.
She looked at her mother with a broken smile, and Jenny whispered hesitantly: "How much I wanted to see you, Mother. I always hoped for a chance to meet you, but I thought it was impossible. But now the impossible has come true, and I see you now, and I know completely that you loved me truly."
The mother and daughter closed their eyes, sleeping their last sleep together, grateful for this gift... even if only for a short while.
In the midst of 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 many pains and torments fill your life, a single happy memory is enough to content you and plant a smile on your lips..."
Suddenly Jenny began to hear a loud calling voice: "Jenny! Jennyyyyyy!"
Jenny opened her eyes slowly and found herself in the middle of the old cabin with everyone gathered around her.
Joseph spoke, worry in his voice: "Girl, what happened to you? We found you passed out in the bathroom. You were about to die of cold in there."
Jenny stayed silent for a moment as she wiped the tears from her eyes, looking at her hand stained with her tears, before saying calmly: "Don't worry, I'm fine... I just received a beautiful gift."
(Back to the village)
In front of one of the cabins, in an empty corner away from people.
It was the man who had been selling that strange mushroom (the mushroom Jenny ate in earlier chapters).
He lay on the ground, covered in bruises, while Marcus stood over him, holding one of the mushrooms the man had been selling.
Then he said in a calm tone: "I don't remember seeing this thing sold around here, and I haven't seen you either."
The man answered, a big smile on his face: "What's with you, man? I'm just a humble sal—"
Before he could finish, Marcus dealt a hard blow to his head and said in the same tone: "I didn't ask who you are. I asked what this mushroom does."
The man answered, turning his gaze back to Marcus: "I've told you several times, man. It's just a mushroom that brings you happiness and grants your wishes, but you keep hitting me."
Marcus answered: "That's because I can tell your truth from your lies, and I know you're lying through your teeth."
The man took a deep breath and then answered: "Fine, fine, I'll tell you... This thing in your hand isn't a mushroom... It's a parasite."
Marcus cut in: "How so?"
The man went on: "Let me finish, you fool. (He sighed.) When you eat this mushroom, it doesn't go to your stomach. It goes to your nervous system... It plants itself deep in your brain, and when it arrives, since it has no thoughts or feelings of its own, it takes on an imaginary form in your brain, another personality in the same body, and it turns into the thing you're most obsessed with, whether good or bad. Or, to put it plainly, a conscious hallucination. And here comes the fun part. If the host is obsessed with something toxic and harmful to them, the parasite slowly devours their mind until it controls it completely. On the other hand, if the person's obsession is something good, or something they love so excessively they wish it existed, the hallucination takes on its form, forming it inside your brain."
Marcus stayed silent for a moment, then threw the mushroom down and crushed it under his feet, saying coldly: "Interesting. After hearing this, you remind me of someone... But the most important and obvious point here is that you're not human, are you?"
The man answered, feigned shock on his face: "What are you talking about?"
Marcus answered: "What do you think I'm talking about? You sell parasites, you create conscious hallucinations in people, with the possibility that they can take control of their brains... But the thing you didn't mention is what they do after taking over the host. And that, of course, like every living thing in this world... is spread. And that's exactly what you're doing."
The smile vanished from the man's face, replaced by a look of worry: "I didn't expect you to figure it out this fast..."
Marcus didn't waste any more words. He simply drove a powerful blow at the man's head, shattering his skull completely and killing him on the spot.
The man's head split open, revealing his ruined brain, wrapped in something blue and luminous like plant roots.
Marcus calmly wiped his hand, then picked up the bag of mushrooms the man had been carrying and walked away from the place in silence.
(The End)