Lost Cyborg

Chapter 2.

She heard the man was kind and generous. And so was his son. His name was Alyaan Hadid. And the son's name was Iqyaan Hadid. Iqyaan was a year or two older than her father as he said. "Great man," he always said. "Taught me basketball when I was young."

People used to say and still say he was the perfect son anyone could wish for. Kind, smart, good looking, industrious. No one thought he was lacking a mother's care. Alyaan Hadid brought him up with everything he had. The house was always filled with happiness, people say. But all that changed when Iqyaan turned twenty and went to the capital for his college. He wanted to gain higher education than the town offered and Alyaan Hadid couldn't say no to his son's desire. After 20 years of living together, when Iqyaan left for college, Alyaan Hadid became seriously lonely.

According to people, he became so lifeless and stopped getting out of his house much. He shut himself down in the four walls of his house. Ellora remembered hearing about it from Eva's grandmother. "Couldn't believe it was that happy Alyaan," she always said whenever the subject arrived. "Hardly used to see him. Never have been the same again."

Somehow, Ellora could feel how miserable he must have been by the part ways from his son in his old days after twenty years of bringing him up alone. After four years of locking himself up in his house and avoiding all social contact, he became so sick and tired and there was no one to look after him. And when the neighbors didn't see him for three days in a row, not even to water his garden - which he had always done even in his worst days - they got worried and decided to check on him. Her mother says she was only two years old that day, when they found the body of Alyaan Hadid lying in his own living room, dead and cold.

They contacted his son, who came back from the capital immediately. He cried and cried for days. They later found out Alyaan died from a stroke. The grieve of his son leaving and socially isolating himself for four years finally led him to his death. They buried his body and one week later Iqyaan left for the capital again. He said there was no one here to live for him. And the reminders of his father in the town and the house was too much for him to bear. He never came back. No one had any contact with him anymore and no one knows what he is doing now.

Alyaan left the house and all the properties in his son's name. But he never took care of it. Since he never came back after leaving the town almost fifteen years ago, no one has invaded his property and thus the house has been abandoned for almost fifteen years now. And the thought that someone died inside it and his body was lying there uncared for three days, kept the towns people away from it too. The house gate was locked and so was all the inside. Slowly and gradually it changed. The flowers in the garden died, The blue paint of it peeled away. Happiness vanished and got replaced with silence and fear.

Ellora stopped walking abruptly. She was in Front of the house. The house with number 17 written on its platform. She stood in Front of the house gate and looked through it. No wonder everyone calls it The Dark House. It indeed looked like one.

She looked around at her. The closest house from here was at least a few hundred steps away. Although it meant that she was safe from being spotted by someone, it also meant she was completely alone by herself. She felt a cold weave of shiver go down her spine.

She looked at the rusty iron gate in front of her, surrounding the garden outside the house and blocking the whole area inside. There was a lock on the gate. It looked weirdly unmatched for the gate. It looked old and dirty but not as rusty as the iron gate it locked.

She thought for a moment how to get inside. She could use the hammer to break the lock but it would make unnecessary noise. What if someone heard it? So instead, she took out the paperclip from her hoodie pocket, which she had brought for specifically this purpose. Dipper's father had taught the four of them how to break a lock using a paper clip when they were in eighth grade. As a police officer, apparently, he needed to know these basic things. It was one of the most useful hacks Ellora had ever learned.