Kill the Sun

For several seconds, nobody said anything.

Nick just raised an eyebrow. "Man, the atmosphere in here is gloomy. Did someone die?"

Jenny's expression became more worried.

Trevor took a deep breath.

Wyntor looked at the ground with furrowed brows.

"No, we're here to support you, boss!" Trevor said with a smile as he stepped forward.

"Support me?" Nick repeated in surprise. "With what?"

Trevor reached Nick and grabbed hold of the carpet, lifting it off Nick's shoulder. "With this, of course!" he said with a bright and casual smile. 

"You can leave this here. We're going to deal with the rest of this matter. Why don't you go back to Horua? He probably needs you right now."

Nick just looked at Trevor with surprise.

It felt strange.

The way Trevor was acting felt unfamiliar to Nick.

Trevor was acting like nothing was wrong and was talking to Nick like it was just any other day.

For some reason, Nick felt his insides shake, and he took a deep breath.

"Don't worry!" Jenny spoke loudly from behind Trevor. "We're going to take care of things here. You just go have a nice day, okay?"

Nick also looked at Jenny with a slightly confused look.

"You did well, Nick," Wyntor said, trying to portray a warm voice but failing. "We'll deal with everything else. Take the rest of the day off."

Nick looked between the three people with uncertainty.

He was not used to being treated like this.

Usually, he was the one that had to deal with the worst things.

And when he felt regret and pain, nobody was usually there to talk to him.

When he had killed that one woman, he hadn't talked to anyone for days, if not weeks.

When he had come into contact with the Nightmare in the sewers, he also had been alone.

When he had thrown Horua to the Dreamer, he also hadn't talked with anyone after.

Nick had expected that the same thing would be true today as well.

He would dump Pator's corpse in front of the Screaming Coffin, leave, stay in his room for a couple of hours, deal with Horua, stay in his room for a couple more hours, and then go to sleep.

And then, he would just return to work.

Like always.

But this time, Nick's three colleagues showed their support, and they would be dealing with the latter part of this event.

Even more, they were acting like nothing was wrong.

'They're acting like I didn't just kill a kid,' Nick thought as his insides shook.

'But am I not doing the same thing?'

Nick's gaze drifted towards the ground.

"Wanna go out for a drink later?"

Nick looked at Trevor.

"What?" he asked.

"Go out for a drink," Trevor said with a smirk. "I know this really good place that sells amazing drinks, and I feel like today is a good day for a couple of them."

Nick blinked a couple of times. "Drinks? Like water?"

"No, alcohol," Trevor answered with a laugh.

Nick had seen a couple of people drinking alcohol in the Dregs before, but it was more on the rare side since alcohol was so expensive.

He had only heard a couple of things about it, and he felt like it wasn't a good use of money.

"I really don't-"

"Oh, come on," Trevor said as he stepped forward to lightly hit Nick's shoulder. "Don't knock it till you try it! If you still don't like it after trying it, you can just stop drinking. Also, if it's that much of an issue, just view it as being polite to me."

"So, what do you say? You interested?" he asked with a smirk.

Nick just looked with a mix of absentmindedness and confusion at Trevor for a while.

Then, he just nodded without thinking about it.

"Great stuff!" Trevor said with a laugh, giving Nick's shoulder another hit. "I'll get you at three, okay?"

"Sure," Nick answered on instinct.

"Sounds great! Now, get out of here! You got some relaxing to do!" Trevor shouted as he pushed Nick towards the door.

Nick didn't resist, and before he knew it, he was outside the Screaming Coffin's Containment Unit.

The door behind him was closed, and he was alone.

For several seconds, Nick just looked forward, not focusing on anything.

Finally, he slowly walked forward toward his own room in the hotel.

Meanwhile, inside the Containment Unit, Trevor released a big breath he was holding and cleaned his head of some accumulated sweat.

After turning around, he saw Jenny and Wyntor looking at him.

"What?" Trevor asked. "I couldn't just leave the poor guy like this. He probably went through some rough shit today."

A smile appeared on Jenny's face. "Thank you," she said quietly. 

At this moment, Jenny felt useless.

Nick had dealt with Pator, and Trevor had supported Nick emotionally.

And she?

What had she done?

Nothing.

She just stood on the sidelines, watching.

Right now, Jenny wished that she could do something.

Her eyes went to the rug.

To her, the presence of the rug was more terrifying than the presence of the Screaming Coffin.

She knew exactly what was in there.

Maybe, she could…

But then, Wyntor stepped forward without saying anything and unfurled the rug himself.

Pator's body was revealed.

It was like a cold shudder went through the room.

The corpse looked like Pator, but Trevor and Jenny couldn't believe it was the actual Pator.

A corpse looked so very different from a living human.

"I'm a man of my word," Wyntor said, not sure whether he was talking to himself or his employees.

Silence.

"What do you-"

"Let's go," Trevor said in a quiet but urgent voice towards Jenny.

Jenny was confused, but she walked towards Trevor.

The two of them left the Containment Unit.

"What's going on?" Jenny asked Trevor.

Trevor furrowed his brows. "Don't you remember what he said to his brother before he left?"

The conversation between Wyntor and Ardum shot through Jenny's head.

Then, her eyes widened in realization.

Meanwhile, inside the Containment Unit, Wyntor pulled out a long and sharp knife.