Four faces?
My husband?
Are these two the same person?
The vision trembling before me lost its clarity. One of my eyelashes stung my eye like a thorn. I felt a sharp pain in my left temple as if I'd taken a bullet. While my skin grew cold as if wrapped in ice cubes, my fingernails, clenched tight in my palms, sliced my skin like knives. The echo of the voice repeated several times more in the dead waters of my mind.
The accident photos of Tarık's death, the divine light in the tunnel, the masked man I encountered there… Everything seemed unrelated, yet they were bound together in a terrifying way.
On my first day here, after the chip was implanted, they had handed me over to a masked man. There was an 'A' on the necklace hanging from his neck, but I could never read the rest of the inscription. And now, every time I went to that red-haired woman's laundry room, it was that child standing by the door playing with his toys who caused the unease.
Fine, so far so good. But my husband? What was his connection to all this?
I felt a giant letter 'A' being carved right into the center of my forehead.
I met the scent of disinfectant radiating from the doctor with revulsion. My tension rose from being restrained in some places. "Did you get the answer to the question in the bomb?" he asked, his lips pulling back on both sides. He stood up from over me, tucked his hands comfortably into his pockets, and straightened his spine.
"I need to tell them," I murmured in agony. "The code... I need to tell them the code for the bomb."
If I were kept locked up here, I couldn't give them the answer.
But what if... what if the doctor was lying? What business did my husband have with them?
It defied all reason.
In the doctor's eyes, I could discern his utter indifference toward me. "Someone is coming shortly," he said in a sharp voice.
Breathless, I nodded.
Someone? From the outside?
The idea didn't seem so bad.
Maybe I really was hallucinating, just as those in the Mechanism said.
It was all about that chip implanted in the back of my neck.
This answer seemed to soothe me. If that were the case, no further explanation would be needed.
"Are you curious about who is coming?" asked the doctor, crossing his arms over his chest.
I locked eyes with the green light still glowing on the recorder atop the table.
I gave a slight nod.
"Good," he said with a mischievous smile on his lips. "People who aren't curious are boring."
"Will you allow it?" I asked, with a bitter taste in my throat.
"Allow what?"
Right, I hadn't even mentioned what it was.
I was on the verge of losing my courage. "To give them... the code."
"Ah," he said, moving toward the table.
Suddenly, he pressed the record button.
I held my breath.
The green light turned red. "Don't be ridiculous... What fun would the game be if you just told them like that? Besides—" A phone rang from the box right on the table. The box was likely obstructing the phone; that's why I hadn't seen it.
The doctor picked up the phone and brought it to his ear. "Of course, sir!"
He slammed the receiver back down with a sharp "THUD."
He went to the door, inserted the key, and turned it with a clicking sound.
Then, I seemed to hear a strange voice.
I focused all my attention on the door. I stared in that direction from my horizontal position without blinking for a single second.
Before long, the rusty iron door creaked open.
My heart felt as though it would leap out of my chest.
The doctor's shadow completely obscured the person arriving.
All sounds fell silent, as if wanting me to hear only my own inner voice.
In that moment, I felt as if I were facing the whole world alone.
Taking a deep breath, I braced myself for anything I might see. Even the worst-case scenario!
I focused on the light reflecting off the doctor's white coat. He stepped aside, the door opened a bit further. I had already seen everything I wasn't supposed to see. I gnawed at my lips like a frightened mouse. Right there, I saw the tips of black leather shoes touching the floor. They looked like the hide of a cursed animal. Slowly, I began to drag my eyes upward from the shoes. Perhaps I shouldn't have deigned to look, but I did. I didn't dare look the person in the face at a single glance. Every part of me froze.
I wanted to part my lips and say something, but I failed.
I wanted to stay silent, but I couldn't manage that either.
Only the intensity of the light increased, forcing me to squint in pain. My wrist suddenly trembled like a fragile figurine.
The door slammed, the shoes took a step inside. I couldn't help it; I opened my eyes.
Whatever happened, happened.
In the most painful stage of that fear-filled moment, a face appeared. A bare, stark face. A stranger's face. I was utterly paralyzed. Before— no. A face I hadn't seen before. That's how it was supposed to be. But what about the things I saw? Were they lying? My thoughts completely flipped. This face had crossed my path before. It hadn't just crossed my path; it had appeared to me up close.
Involuntarily, the words spilled from my lips: "Je-nan."
I couldn't swallow, as if a piece of flesh were stuck in my throat.
He was... Tarık's uncle.