I got no author's note. Just ask to READ and REVIEW which is the least being done in this fanfic. But still, I NEVER force readers.
Chapter 4, "Paranoid?"
Previously, the book then fell onto the floor revealing a red ink sentence under Taufan's sentences.
"Glad you finally noticed it, Taufan..."
DENG! Shocked, that it was written on Taufan's face. Well, more scared than shock to be exact. He knew there was something but he did not take it so seriously. He thought that it was silly after he wrote that sentence, but apparently it was the answer to all of this that was happening. Well, maybe most of the questions were answered.
The crucial question was, how on earth did this thing-no-person in him? Did he get this after the car accident or maybe it was before?
He stumbled back, falling his back to the wall and sank down. He could not believe it. There was actually a person in him.
Was he possessed? He slapped himself to make sure if it was not a dream. A sting was felt from his cheek. So, it was not a dream nor he was possessed. Everything was just so real.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
The door suddenly opened, startled Taufan with a shriek as his body automatically pushed back more to the wall like a cat who was afraid. He saw his second brother, Halilintar, who was the one who opened the door. Halilintar gave him a confused face.
"Taufan? Is everything okay? I heard you screamed just now and why are you posing like that?"
Taufan was flustered, slowly processing what was going on. After he did. "W-what? Y-yeah! Of-course! Why would I? Ah, this posing? I just freaked out because uhhh...there was a cockroach flying just now!"
BANG!
The door got slammed, making Taufan flinched again. After hearing about the 'cockroach' flying, Halilintar immediately freaked out, smashing the poor door.
"W-where?! Eww! So gross! Get away from me!" disgusted Halilintar, protecting himself using his arms. Taufan could only blinked his eyes, shocked due to his brother's sudden act.
"Uhh...Hali? You freaked out like a girl just now."
"N-no! I'm not!" Halilintar's face is now red as a tomato.
.
.
.
.
They both walked down the stairs with an awkward atmosphere between them. Halilintar was still embarrassed about what happened, however, Taufan was still thinking about that red ink sentence.
After their feet landed onto the last step, they glanced at each other and Halilintar immediately grabbed Taufan by the collar!
"Eek!" yelped Taufan.
Halilintar stared at him with a deadly stare. "Whatever you do, don't you dare tell them about what happened just now!"
"W-what?! I wasn't trying to!"
"I said don't you dare! Wait, what did you just say?" surprised Halilintar. He thought he heard him wrong.
"I said I wasn't trying to. Now, would you let go of me?" repeated Taufan softly, trying not to pick up a fight. Halilintar just stood in shock. It was unlikely of Taufan to not tease him.
"Uhhh...Hali? You okay?" wondered Taufan, waving his hand in front of his brother's face but there was no reaction.
After a minute of silence, Taufan just has to leave him. "Well, I'm going to the kitchen. See ya~".
Ugh. I'm sorry about that Hali. I understand why you're being so shocked. It's unlikely for me too.
As he walked into the kitchen he didn't notice there was Gempa, chopping up some vegetables. He was still facing from where he was, thinking about Halilintar. While, Gempa realised Taufan was walking towards him.
"Oh! Taufan! Good timing! It's your turn to cook for today, remember?" reminded Gempa as he passed a knife to Taufan. But instead of passing in a safe way, he somehow aimed the knife in front of Taufan. With Taufan still not paying attention, when he turned his head back, the sight of the knife literally in front of him, made him screamed.
"Aarrgghh!"
"Huh? What's wrong?" clueless Gempa.
"Don't point the knife like that! It's dangerous!" horrified Taufan pushing the knife away from his range.
"Ahh...So sorry. I should be more careful."
"Yes! You should! You almost give me a heart attack!"
"Alright, alright. Just calm down."
After he calmed down a bit, he wondered something. "Huft! I'm okay now. Oh, yeah. Why did you pass the knife just now?"
"Looks like you didn't hear what I said. I said, today it's your turn to cook. Don't you remember?" said Gempa again and this time he passed the knife gently.
Taufan facepalm himself due to forgetting. "Oh, yeah! I forgot it's my turn today! Alright then, I'll get cooking!"
But, as he was about to chop, a flash of memory hit him! A reminder that he had the 'something-someone' inside him that caused the mischievous destruction in the house. So holding a sharp object was not a good idea right now. He was afraid that 'the inner him' would unexpectedly show up to do some dangerous things. He immediately dropped the knife.
"Eh? Are you okay, Taufan?" surprised Gempa with the sudden act. Taufan was having a cold sweat and his right hand was shaking so much.
"Taufan?" called Gempa again and this time Taufan reacted. He holds his shaking hand, trying to force it to stop. He faced Gempa. "Y-yeah?"
"What's wrong? You're shaking so much," worried Gempa, holding Taufan's hands.
"I-I'm f-fine. D-don't worry a-about it."
"And you shuttered so much. What is it? You can tell me."
(Author: Mother alert!)
"I-I'm just not f-feeling well. I-I'm sorry. C-can you cook for t-today instead? I'll p-promise to make it up t-tomorrow," excused Taufan. He seriously wants to run away right now.
Gempa patting his little brother's head softly. "Well. You do look so pale. Okay then, I'll cook instead. Now, go to your room, okay?" soothed him. It does make Taufan calm a bit.
"T-thank you. See you later," waved Taufan as he went.
As he left the kitchen and passed Halilintar who was still in shock, he heard someone calling his name. He turned to the living room area and saw his youngest brother waving his hand at him. He and the rest of the family were gathering around the table.
"Y-yeah?" questioned Taufan by the call.
"Big brother Taufan! Come and join us! We're making pinwheels origami! It's so much fun!" squealed Thorn.
"It's not that challenging for an origami by the way," said Solar bluntly as he read an origami book.
"Oh, sound fun, Thorn but I-" But before he could finish saying, Thorn was about to hand him a colored paper and a pair of scissors to him. The sight of scissors shrieked him.
"Argh!"
Everyone just stared at him. "Umm...Taufan? What's with you? It's just a scissors," questioned Blaze.
Ugh! I want to run away so bad right now!
Before he could give any excuse, Gempa came to the rescue!
"Guys. Can some of you guys do some errands after breakfast?" asked him as he walked out from the kitchen. He saw Taufan was standing there. He continued, "Umm...why are you still here, Taufan?" This made Taufan immediately go up to his room.
"What was that all about?" flabbergasted Gempa and the others just shrugged don't know. Then, Solar raises his hand. "I want to do the errands. I was planning to go out to buy some new books to study."
"Ohh! Can I join you?!" squeaked Thorn.
"Sure." At the background of Thorn's squeal of happiness, Gempa just realised Halilintar was standing there, frozen. "Why are you standing like a statue?" asked Gempa, making Halilintar snap back to reality.
"Huh?"
In Taufan's room, he was on the floor, trying to stop himself from shivering. The whole situation really hit him. Having a 'thing' no person or whatever it was, was not something everyone ever wanted in their life. He slowly closed his eyes and let himself fall into his grief. As he opened his eyes back, he saw that book, still lying on the floor. He slowly stood up and grabbed the book.
Am I the only one in the world who is experiencing this?
He clutched the book even harder.
Should I find out and possibly learn something about this? But where to start? Solar, Thorn room? But how do I sneak in without them noticing?
Coincidentally, he heard Solar's voice calling Thorn's name to hurry up so they can do their errands.
Looks like I don't have to think how.
.
.
.
.
Alone in Solar's room, Taufan was at the bookshelves area, trying to find some psychology books. Man, there are a lot of books to search! After an hour of searching, finally, he found some!
Good, now I'll just have to leave like nothing happened.
But before he could go, a scary voice was heard, startling him.
"What are you doing in my room?" said the voice. It was Solar standing in the room, not far from the front door and he was tapping his foot. Yup, Taufan was busted alright.
"Eek! Oh, h-hey Solar. I was just uhh..." panicked Taufan. Solar just gave him a look, a stern look that is. He was not that happy to see him in his and Thorn's room.
"Mmm...Are those my psychology books?" pointing Solar to the books Taufan was holding. "Why are you holding it?"
"I was uhh just borrowing?" it was more of a question than a statement he said.
"Why? You're not taking psychology."
"And how about you? Why do you have this book? You're in elementary," bombarded Taufan with some questions as a distraction for Solar.
"Taufan. Don't try to compare me. I like studying. Why do you think I have so many books in different levels of subjects? Hey, wait? Are you trying to change the subject here?" realised Solar where this was going. He was not that easy to fool.
He was busted for the second time. "What?! No! Now w-why would I do that?!"
"Taufan. Is there something you're not telling?" asked Solar with a now softer voice. There was silence for a while before Taufan could speak up. "Uhh...No?" Taufan deniable was making Solar more annoyed.
"Ermm...Alright then. Why are you borrowing that then?" asking the main question again, making Taufan become more frustrated. "Err! I just want to study it!"
"Why? You're not that type of person who is willing to learn that's not even learned at school."
"Stop asking so many questions!" Looks like Taufan's patience just blew up.
"Why? Why are you so scared to tell us? What's going on? Why are you behaving like this? What happened to you after that accident? You're different. Or maybe you already changed before that."
Taufan couldn't take it anymore. "I said stop asking so many questions!"
Just stop! Stop I tell you!
But Solar didn't want to listen. "Then tell me why?!"
"I can't!" burst Taufan into a yell.
"What?" stunned Solar.
"I-I just can't. I don't even understand what's going on about myself and by telling it is not helping! It won't solve my problem. I'm sorry," explained Taufan as he faced away from Solar, feeling foolish.
However, what Solar saw on Taufan's expression was so different. He could feel a sense of sadness in him. A depression that was held for a really long time. But he knew that Taufan really wanted to keep it to himself.
He can't help but to give a long sigh. "Why do you have to keep it to yourself, Taufan? Won't that hurt you even more? Won't that hurt us too? Do you even want us to be worried?"
Taufan answered him softly, "I thought all this time I had tried my best not to make you guys worried. But I guess it was all useless."
"All of us knew, Taufan. You are being so underestimating us."
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't tell you guys just yet. This problem is just...*silent*...too complicated. I want myself to understand first."
Solar couldn't stand with his brother's stubbornness. He rolled his eyes and lazily waved his hand. "Fine, fine. Go ahead, borrow my books. If that makes you satisfied."
Taufan's face immediately lit up! "Really? Thank you so much Solar! You're the best!" thanking him as he quickly ran out from Solar's room.
Solar can only sigh again as he was walking to his table, placing his newly bought books. Suddenly, Thorn popped out from outside peeking Solar. "Hey, big brother! What are you doing?"
"Did you hear what he said just now?" asked Solar, still thinking about Taufan's mixed expressions.
Thorn walked near him and said, "I only heard half of it. Why?"
"Why do I feel there is another reason why he won't tell us?"
.
.
.
.
In the middle of night, in Taufan's room again. He was sitting at his front desk with his laptop as the only source of light. It had been 5 hours already since he started searching for all the symptoms he had. With many piles of research papers and books lying everywhere, the result was still none.
Ugh...what am I gonna do? I don't have enough points to find out what is going on with me. All the researches that I found were useless. Amnesia? No. I admit that I can't remember but that's not it. Someone in me? I didn't get possessed!
He leaned back to a chair and began stretching his body. He was really tired but he didn't want to sleep. Not because he wanted to keep searching but he was afraid. Afraid that 'the inner him' would appear again since he knew about it now.
But again his eyes didn't listen and he ended up falling asleep on his desk like the previous chapter.
2 hours later, Gempa was outside his room, couldn't fall asleep so he decided to drink some milk. He was going to pass Taufan's room but instead he stopped at the door. He was still thinking of why Taufan was shivering so bad this morning and Taufan didn't even join dinner with them after skipping breakfast and lunch. Hence, he decided to check on him.
After he did, he saw many papers that were crumble or not on the floor, also, he saw his brother sleeping on his desk surrounded with all books, papers and his laptop.
"What with the papers and stuff?" wondered Gempa as he picked some papers. "All the papers are articles and journals. What is he up to? There's no way this is school work. Wait? Psychology? Why is he learning this?"
He slowly approached Taufan and surprisingly he saw him sleeping with an expression of fears until his tears fell down. Feeling panic Gempa quickly shook his brother to wake him up. Taufan immediately jolted up in a panic, like the nightmare was automatically stopped with a sudden surprise.
"Taufan! Are you okay? You had a nightmare," worried Gempa but Taufan didn't respond. He was still processing what happened. His eyes were staring at his desk, not blinking yet also crying. After a while, he finally answered, "Y-yeah. A nightmare."
Gempa realised that Taufan can't stop crying. That nightmare was really affecting him. He slowly hugged him to calm down, but Taufan flinched.
"There, there. It was just a dream. It's okay. You can let it go. If you wanna cry just cry."
Taufan was still surprised with the hug. His tears were starting to form again but he gently pushed Gempa away. He stood up and faced Gempa.
"Umm...do you mind getting out of my room?" said Taufan with a stern voice, wiping his tears.
"What? But why? I'm-I'm trying to help here. You're my little brother," stunned Gempa.
"T-thank you but you don't have to. Please, leave me," pleading Taufan.
"Sigh. Alright then." After Gempa finally went out, Taufan slowly fell onto his knees hugging himself as more tears fell down.
"Ugh...I don't even know anymore. Why? Why is this happening?"
The fact was, Gempa could hear what Taufan just said. "Taufan. What is wrong with you?"
Except...
How could they?
~ TO BE CONTINUE
I told you guys. I'm not letting the other brothers being so idiotic in not realising Taufan having problems. Well then, hope you enjoyed this unexpected long chapter. Seriously, I was just hoping to get 1K words only but got 2K words instead. Also, I hope the title is related to this chapter. I was unsure at first.
REVIEW, COMMENT and VOTE everyone. But I don't force ya.