Chapter 20 : The Truth Behind the Red Siren

This morning will go down as the most impressive morning of my life. I've written about it before on the day I was chased by a wild boar while hunting with my father. But now that experience was less crazy, though tense, than this morning.

I wasn't expecting much for the mornings to come, but I would prepare myself for any craziness Gerard might throw at me during practice.

Dawn was breaking when I arrived at the third floor and as I looked back I saw orange light shining on the eastern horizon pushing away the darkness above. Apparently the sun couldn't wait to show itself. It took less than a minute for the rays to hit my face. It was warm and dazzling, but it brought a pleasant feeling.

Having a feeling like this in the morning feels even better. No, very good. It's as if the world is rooting for you to do whatever you're going to do today. I wonder if this is the kind of feeling Gerald has every day and it motivates him to get up early and train until the sun comes up.

After enjoying the warmth of the sun I decided to go in. I was a bit surprised when I opened the door that the room was dark, darker than outside at the moment. I just remembered that the wake-up siren had not yet sounded which meant that the room lights would not be on yet.

I closed the door again slowly worried about waking Sam up. He needed a well needed rest after going out last night.

Two steps into the room, the siren sounded and the lights came on. I gasped as I looked at the bed, there was Sam lying on the sideways with his eyes open.

"Oh God. You almost made my heart fall out of its place." , I said while holding my left chest to make sure something ticking was still in place, "When did you wake up? Why didn't you make a sound?"

He didn't answer. He pushed himself out of bed and staggered towards the bathroom, passing me by.

The curious me immediately held his hand, "hey," I called out and pulled his hand so that his body was facing me.

My eyes widened to see Sam's face. his face was fine, no injuries at all. it's just that his eye bags looked so big and his eyes were a little red. his gaze at me was unfocused.

"Sam, did you not sleep all night? What's wrong? Don't just stare at me like that. You're scaring me." I said worriedly.

I waited patiently for him to speak, but Sam really didn't budge.

"Looks like you need a shower. Hurry up before the hot water runs out. I heard our breakfast today is...", before I could finish, Sam had already gone into the bathroom.

Something seems to really have happened last night.

We had 30 minutes for breakfast. Before taking a shower, I had told him to have breakfast with me, but when I came out of the bathroom, he was already gone. He didn't wait for me. So I ended up enjoying my breakfast alone, with no one to talk to.

I sat with 10 other people at the same table, but none of them engaged me in conversation. I understood it, they must have heard about the rumors. The rumor was that I had a mental disorder in the form of hallucinations because I mentioned hearing a song before the appearance of the werewolf.

"Hey, hey, have you heard what happened last night, guys?", asked a man with an oval shaped face with thin lips in a slightly whispered voice.

It seemed he only intended to share this information with his table mates. Of course I wasn't among his friends despite being in the same table.

They looked at each other wonderingly. Some of them also looked at me before they finally leaned towards the informant man to hear the rest. I was curious so I shifted a little slowly to hear him more clearly.

"Some of our troops were killed in last night's attack." , The man's whisper startled his friends, including me.

Those of us who were listening, suddenly took a breath and held it in our chests, not expecting to hear bad news so soon.

"Hey you, freak. Were you eavesdropping?", they all turned to look at me, "I heard he shares a room with Gerard, it would be a problem if he ratted us all out."

Oh no they're already suspicious even though I haven't listened to all the information.

"What> What kind of eavesdropping? I just heard a song in my head, didn't you guys hear it?" , I thought I'd take advantage of the rumor for a while.

Some of them smirked, " She is a freak. How did you get in here? You should be locked up underground and doused in holy water!", others mocked.

"That's it, that's it. Just let her alone." , said another and they agreed to ignore me.

"I heard this from the troops' conversation in the common toilet. Do you remember the warning siren with the red light last night? They released it after getting a report that there was an attack on one of the farms near the forest. Not only did dozens of cows die, the owner of the farm was said to have died a horrible death. You know what I mean? His guts were all splattered and his body was very pale when he was found. Based on that, they assumed the incident had taken place a few hours earlier, which means before the full moon appeared. Isn't this crazy? The full moon hasn't even appeared yet, so what if the werewolf acted when the full moon appeared?"

I shuddered in fear. The meal that was already in my mouth was no longer able to be swallowed.

When I saw the grilled meat that was the side dish for breakfast today, my head imagined the rancher's body being torn apart like what was said earlier. Suddenly my stomach felt nauseous and wanted to spit out the meal that had entered my mouth.

Before I had time to do so, we were all startled by the sound of someone screaming behind us. Everyone turned their heads towards the source of the sound and saw a woman standing backwards because the person in front of her had just vomited his food. I looked closely at the person and what surprised me even more was that it was Sam who vomited.

I immediately forced myself to swallow the mouthful of food that had entered my mouth and rushed over to Sam while the others were avoiding him.

"Sam! Are you okay? Goodness, your face is so pale!", I was shaken and immediately carried him away from there by carrying him.

It was a bit difficult for me to help carry someone bigger than me while looking for the infirmary. The infirmary was in the same building as Mr. Wymond's room. It was right behind Mr. Wymond's room. We took a detour instead of going through the Vigilante Union's headquarters room.

"Doctor! Help! Help my friend! He hasn't been feeling well since...", I was stunned to see Gerard sitting on a bed with a doctor in front of him doing something with Gerard's right hand.

"You've almost fully recovered. It's truly a miracle. Your body is healing well. However, keep taking the medicine to prevent infection and reduce strenuous activities that use your hands, like riding for instance, or you wound will open up again." , said the doctor.

Gerard and I stared at each other for a while until he stood up and thanked the doctor.

"Well, who's here this time?" the doctor asked, turning to me, "Oh? What happened to your friend? Fell off the horse? Trampled by a horse? Got into a fight? Or slipped in the bath? Lay him down here."

"Oh actually nothing bad. I've noticed he's been pale since morning and at breakfast he spit out all his food." , I explained while helping me to lie down.

"You're a new trooper here, huh? Maybe he's just not used to the food here. I admit it's not as good as the food outside. But let's try to check if there are other possibilities."

I backed away to make room for the doctor to check Sam. Gerard hadn't left yet, he was still standing by the doctor's desk busy doing something with his hands. I wanted to ask him how he was doing but seeing him just standing there, not even reprimanding me, made me uncomfortable.

I kept walking backwards until I accidentally passed by another bed and made a grinding noise from the wheels of the bed's legs. I reflexively turned over and saw that it was covered with a white cloth with blood seeping through. I took a step back, and realized there were several beds lined up beside it in the same state. I swallowed my saliva heavily.

"Stay away from that. I don't want any organs falling out of there." , said the doctor calmly.

I was shocked to hear that. My heart was buzzing rapidly and I could smell the faint odor of blood. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was shocked by that, Sam who was lying on his bed suddenly screamed, as if he had just seen something very horrible in front of him.