Chapter 15: Regret (4)

“If this was a minor hacking device, I wouldn’t have given you a new phone. It’s a much more major problem than that,” Robert replied.

“What is it then?”

DUR DUR DUR DUR

Suddenly the door to Xaviel’s house was constantly slammed.

“Espionage.”[1]

The situation at hand made Xaviel quite nervous. Someone really does seem to be spying on him. This made him doubt every person he met before moving to this neighborhood. He began to breathe heavily out of sheer pressure.

Realizing that overthinking the situation was quite useless. He took short interval breathing, calming himself down against the situation. Composure is really the only way he could get through this.

“Everything would be fine. As long as I keep calm and decide carefully,” Xaviel plays with his hair. After a few seconds, he opened the front door to see that there was no longer someone there. What was left was a pink brochure lying on the floor.

“Huft. After all that, it was just a brochure guy? Talk about a turn of events,” Xaviel openly states his amazement.

Even so, Xaviel eyes began to scour the area. His neighborhood was quite secluded. Around this time, there can’t really be anyone giving out brochures, much less to slam his door. The ones who lived here were many middle-aged people and old folks. Doesn’t make quite a sense as to why anyone would do an obscene thing like slamming doors.

Xaviel, while still scouring the area, began to think about every possibility. He wonders if this was the sign of espionage or was this some sort of prank by someone. Was there something this spy needed to make sure of? Or was this brochure from someone who isn’t even concerned with him?

(Calm down, Xaviel, This situation… It’s making you overprocess some details. It’s making you paranoid..)

Without any more thought, Xaviel took the brochure and quickly went inside. As he closed and locked the door behind him, he began walking towards his room while reading the brochure's contents.

It was an advertisement for a new application called ‘Relaxeat.’ Relaxing Binaural Beat. “Wow, how dumb,” Xaviel muttered.

Beforehand, Xaviel had quite a round and diverse knowledge of technologies. Sadly binaural beat and its use were things that he can’t really relate to. His suspicions of binaural beat went as far as straight-up dissing anyone nor anything related to it. Regardless of his discredits, something about the brochure piqued his interest. Since it mentioned, “Taste the sensation! Out of this world!!”.

“It can’t really be that good, right?”

DING-DONG

Xaviel’s doorbell suddenly rang again. As he went for a check by opening the door, it was revealed that Greg, Xaviel’s stepfather, had visited him accompanied by a paper bag labeled McDls.

“Surprise!! How are you, my boy?” Greg said with glee.

“Hehe... You know same old same old, I guess,” Xaviel replied. His hand opened the door wide, gesturing his stepfather to enter the house.

Greg put down his coat in the sofa and take a seat as they went inside. While Xaviel went to the kitchen to make tea. Opening his cupboard, Xaviel murmurs, “Does Greg like green tea or chamomile tea?”. He promptly closed the cupboard and went back to the living room. There, Greg was holding his phone, examining it, seemingly surprised.

As Greg notices Xaviel’s figure, he looks towards him and says, “It can’t be the new….”

“PEAR PHONE XX!!” Xaviel and Greg said in unison, both laughing at their own antics.

Greg then hands Xaviel back his phone, to which Xaviel thanks him.

“Would you like Chamomile or Green?”

“I’ll take Chamomile!”

“Alright” Xaviel went back to the kitchen, preparing the tea.

After the tea has been adequately made, Xaviel returns to the room, respectably presenting their drinks. Greg took a sip and commended Xaviel’s tea.

“This is really delish, Xaviel.”

“Thanks a lot, Dad... I MEANT Greg…”

“It’s okay, son. I told you before, right? Call me ‘Dad’ anytime you want.”

“Hehe, Thanks..”

Those words to Xaviel were the most precious memory of Greg. The way he cared for him even though Xaviel wasn’t even his son but a product of an affair. It shows how kind and caring Greg really is. Prompting disbelief even more at the evidence presented upon him by his ‘real’ father regarding his role in Xaviel’s down bringing.

“Ah right!” Xaviel said as he hurriedly went upstairs to his bedroom. He ran swiftly from the stairs and searched hastily across the room.

“There it is!” Xaviel grabbed the broken old phone of his. The phone was originally a gift from Greg to him when he graduated from Middle School with merit. It has been cared for by him ever since.

As Xaviel returns, Greg is smiling, looking at his phone. He managed to see that the scenery was filled with relief and happiness that a man with this smile. The best smile was the guy he is proud to call a ‘father.’

As he walked to the living room, he quickly apologized to Greg because of the broken phone. Greg smiled and pat the young man’s head gently.

“Hey, no worries about it, champ. I’m glad you kept it for all this time. Even though your mother sometimes offered you a new one. You always wanted to keep that phone. I really felt appreciated.”

As Xaviel calmed down, he sat down on his original seat. Calmly sipping his cup of green tea. A weird taste filled his mouth. It tastes like ‘Zolpidem [2]’?.

“Is this... No, it can’t be? Right?”

As Xaviel examines the world around him, the universe begins to crumble. His vision of Greg began to de-intensifies. Every scenery he saw began to crush onto each other like glass. Revealing the eternal darkness. Xaviel desperately tries to regain consciousness by looking down on his hands. Though he can’t see anything anymore. Nothing except a massive object resembling a wormhole.

Then a familiar sound plays out. The sound of a trumpet.

Tutt----Tutt

Vibrations appeared around him as Xaviel's consciousness began to fade.

***

*Click

“Yes, this is Gregory,”

“I have done what you asked. I put the newly developed drug and the proper program on his phone.”

“No. He didn’t retaliate. He just fell asleep just now.”

“I’ll make sure to monitor his actions from now on.”

Greg ends the phone call.

“Sorry, Xav. It’s the only way. Please understand.”

[1] Espionage: Spying or using spies, typically by governments, to obtain political and military information.

[2]Zolpidem: A type of sleeping pills.