(Chapter unfolds:13"Ray's Dark Duty )
And so another night arrived. The calm sky and the clear, standing moonlight made nature seem as if anything could happen.
"Ray... drink this."
Ray's condition was worsening. Small sores had begun to appear all over his body; they were bursting, oozing water and pus.
His mother had him lying in a room. Now, only he and his mother were in the house.
He was unable to go outside; his body was deteriorating.
"What happened to you, Ray...?" his mother asked anxiously.
"The day you went missing, peace became just a dream for me. I waited for so long for your return, yet the very next moment you came back, I suffered another loss, didn't I..." She burst into tears.
Ray said nothing. Since the day he returned until now, Ray hadn't spoken to anyone. A strange mystery surrounded him.
"Who kidnapped you? Why did they take you...?" No matter how hard she tried, Ray wouldn't speak a single word to the woman.
"Ray... you were so sad, thinking no one understood you. I know the fault was ours. I will never abandon you again, my son."
After sitting there for a while, she got up and went out.
But something else was happening to the Ray within. He twisted and turned as if his sanity was slipping away.
Suddenly, he noticed it: someone was standing in the corner of the room. Their face was unclear. Seeing the person, Ray got up and fearfully retreated into the corner.
"Ray..." the person called out in a low voice.
Hearing this, Ray covered his ears and shut his eyes.
"Ray... I understand you... Why are you afraid of me?!" the person said.
"It is those who have no one to understand them on this earth who retreat, crying and afraid. I am here to understand you; you can trust me..."
The scared Ray slowly lifted his face and looked.
"It's still not too late. If you believe in me, I can give you the life you desired."
Ray slowly knelt before the person.
"Fear is a kind of parasite that eats away at a human being. It must be expelled in time. Otherwise, it will consume us.
I know how much pain you have endured. I came looking for you to put an end to that suffering, Ray... I understand you. You are not someone to be feared."
The person lifted Ray's face and spoke.
The moment Ray looked into the person's eyes, his own eyes turned the colour of the moonlight . The sores on his body began to heal.
"No one is anyone's slave, Ray... What value is there in waiting where there is no love? Vengeance for what they did to you is their fate, and you are the one who must execute it."
The person vanished into the darkness.
After the person left, Ray slowly got up and went out of the room.
His mother was there, writing something to give to someone.
"Mother."
Hearing Ray call from behind, the woman jumped up in shock.
"Ray... my son... are you... are you better?" she stammered in haste. He saw panic on her face.
"What is that??" he asked, pointing to the paper.
"That... that is me writing down the names of the medicines you need," she said.
"Is that so... But how did you get the medicines without knowing what my illness is?"
She was stunned by the question.
"That... that..." Before she could stammer out a reply, Ray raised his hand in the air, and the paper flew into the air, landing right in front of him. It wasn't the names of medicines; instead, it was a letter she had written to someone.
In it, she had written that her husband's death was a murder, and that the killer was her son who had returned, and that she suspected he might be a zek.
As Ray read it, the moonlight colour spread across his eyes.
"Do you know what hurts a human being the most, Mother?!" he asked with a terrifying gaze.
"Being betrayed by those who say they trust him, especially if they are his loved ones; there is nothing worse than that.
Why...?
Why are you acting like you love me?
Why are those who found joy in my pain still here?
How can you make another person's sorrow your happiness... Mother?"
The woman sat there, paralyzed by fear.
Ray slowly came closer and pressed the woman's face against his chest.
"We don't need lies or justifications here. Only the truth is needed.
A human being was given his life whole so that he may die knowing everything, not to forget his duty and hurt his own flesh and blood."
Nature began to change; a dark cloud covered the moon.
"Aren't all people the same, Mother... Feelings have no age."