Chapter 238 Arrival
"It's all my fault."
“I shouldn’t have left Black Goat Mental Illness with you like that.”
"This foolish characteristic... is a curse. It's a delusion that you can achieve a certain probability of accomplishing something each time. While you'll always get the goal, the process will never be perfect."
"That tunnel is extremely, extremely dangerous."
“I died there once.”
“We absolutely cannot go in there… It’s a crossroads between nightmare and reality; you can’t imagine what might be waiting inside.”
Sheen rubbed his forehead, and Bell Hera in the back seat even looked at him with a pleading gaze.
It's truly rare, she thought. This was the first time she'd seen someone gaze at her with such intense emotion, though he seemed to be still in a hazy state, unable to engage in much conversation.
The madwoman tried to open the door, but it was obviously useless. Even if Sheen did unlock the car door and let Hera escape—it was over twenty degrees below zero outside, and besides, she had to wait for the next use of that ability, and who knew if she would die halfway through—thinking about it another way, it was probably impossible, since it was a conceptual ability.
“Since you’ve put it that way, I think the only one who needs to worry about safety right now is me.” Sheen glanced at the fuel gauge again; the needle was pointing at a position that was enough to make anyone irritable. “Your goal is for us to leave Block N23, so no matter how disheveled we are, we’ll get out eventually, won’t we?”
“I know you don’t trust me, but the situation is different now. You can’t expect someone better than me to come to this godforsaken place and fawn over you like a babysitter,” Sheen continued. “As for nightmares, I live in my own mental prison every day. The nightmares you’re describing are probably just a pile of shit to me. There’s no need for that—”
She stopped, suddenly realizing how stupid she had been to say so much, that she was being used as a comedic tool, while Bel Hera kept trying to pry open the car door, acting like an idiot.
So she had no choice but to pull out an inhibitor from her pocket—and drag the other woman over—the crazy woman was a little frightened and struggled desperately, but she wasn't very strong, and Sheen easily injected the thing into her.
"Now, try to control your emotions."
"You can continue sleeping by the car window, or you can yell at me, or you can play the good boy/girl role."
Sheen commanded, stepping on the gas pedal: "We must go to Sunset Hill, and then maybe, as you said, we'll encounter some... indescribable monsters and nightmares, but I'll take care of them all."
As if by design, the snow suddenly lessened considerably, and visibility improved. A fork in the road appeared ahead; it was narrow, but just wide enough for an off-road vehicle to pass through.
Without hesitation, Sheen turned directly and sped up.
Bel Hera fell silent, as if resigned to her fate. She curled up on one side of the seat, pressed tightly against the car door, as if that thing could provide some kind of security. The suppressant had taken effect; she was very quiet, her skin pale, her figure slender, and her appearance at this moment was incredibly cold and aloof.
How pitiful.
Sheen thought to herself, feeling both annoyed by the man's loud and boisterous manner and sympathetic—after all, he was just a soul trapped in a dream after death, who thought he had found peace but was inexplicably dragged into this stage play. Once you become Eoubs's dog, even a good death is priceless. She didn't know how long Hera had been in that mental hospital, or what kind of calm and rational role she played. Perhaps she hadn't been insane before, but everyone has a day when they break down.
She softened her voice considerably and asked, "If it's convenient, could you tell me some information? About Sunset Hill?"
The madman looked up at her, laughed hysterically, and tugged at his hair as he replied, "The key... under certain circumstances, we are the key to opening that tunnel."
"It's all my fault... I should have activated the feature later. I thought it wouldn't appear. It is indeed an exit from N23 block, but it's only one of them."
"You're an outsider, and it doesn't like outsiders taking their things away, so we became the key to starting that nightmare, a test, and also... nothing at all, damn it! You have no idea how disgusting that place is!"
Without warning, Bel Hera began to go berserk.
“I shouldn’t have relaxed, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep halfway through… It’s always been so stable, how could it suddenly wake up? I thought I could escape its gaze. I was so stupid… so stupid. How could anyone leave unscathed? There’s always a price to pay.”
"You're making it too complicated, Dean." Sheen sighed. She knew she couldn't rely on this bastard.
The person in the back seat shrank back into the corner, muttering to himself, completely ignoring what she was saying.
Sheen was genuinely starting to get a headache. These kinds of situations were just so difficult to handle; anyone who lost their temper would find themselves in a dilemma. She didn't like this feeling, not at all, so she could only treat this like any other task she'd solved in the past few years… Damn, she was kidding herself.
They simply can't withstand it. It would be better to have a strong man instantly kill them all, and then it would be over.
"I really regret it now."
“I should stay in the mental hospital. Can we go back now? No… how could we possibly have a chance to go back? It’s ridiculous.”
"Black Goat is actually quite nice. There are three free meals a day, uninterrupted heating and hallucinogens. It's quiet there, suitable for retirement, and there's nothing to distract me."
"It took me a long time to tell myself... I'm living in a perfectly normal world now, but it's warm in your car, and I haven't slept so well in a long time... Damn sleep, if I hadn't fallen asleep, I would have definitely discovered its intentions, and then we wouldn't have suffered the suffering that followed."
“I even had a dream. I dreamt that when I first joined Eoubs, I saw the founder that day. He was quite handsome, but he died young.”
Bell Hera continued muttering to herself.
"You've lived a long time, I can't believe it," Sheen replied irritably. What a bunch of founders, those guys were different on every continent, but they all died around the same time. It's strange, and maybe there really is some kind of conspiracy involved.
“Sunset Hill.” Bell looked up at her again, murmuring, “You won’t have a good ending, neither will we.”
Sheen wanted to refute this further, but just then, she saw a flashing light in front of her.
They arrived.
Secrets come at a price, but I can't afford it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
