Inside the window at the middle of the white building, the curtains trembled, slamming themselves on the fragile metals at the edges of the window, covering the face of the bird clutching the obsidian sword under its beak.

Vaporised air gushed out of Kai's forehead, drying the sweat on his face and on the wet bed. His eyes flickered, remaining in the opening and closing sequence and making the light seeping out of them also blink.

In his dream world, purple light snaked at the back of his palms as they calmly rested on the head of the bird hovering in front of him, while he remained standing at the centre of the bone-filled land.

For two hours, he remained in the same position, allowing the visions reeling in his eyes to take over. But at the last second left for the country's to reach three o'clock in the morning, the vision stopped, leaving him stumbling back with wide eyes as if seeing a ghost rise to the living.

"Haaa!... Haaa!... Haaa!" he panted, tilting his eyes from the bed and glancing at the bones which he crunched under his boots.

For every step he took, the bird, both with him in the dream and at the stool of the window in real life, moved, closing in.

The glowing purple light snaking on his arms channelled to both sides of his shoulders, the back of his palms, and the left side of his chest.

Fear surged in him so hard he stumbled and fell, letting the bird close in and loom over him like a soldier keeping guard of a prisoner.

In the bird's eyes, Kai saw two faces; one having short blue hair and eyes that seemed to dim like a ghost, while the other face was a face he knew nothing of and wouldn't want to meet again if he had.

Though he knew nothing of it, he still felt the same love he had had for his mother, even after her death.

At where he screeched his arms against, white-hot pain stirred in him so hard he tightened his jaw, almost breaking his teeth as if the blood seeping out of the centre of his palms was his soul.

Shortly after two droplets of blood touched the bones, the ground shook as if his blood was a heavenly curse held in custody for a century.

As the ground shook like an earthquake, the bird opened its wings, spread them wide, and covered Kai with them. Under the wings of the bird, Kai heard countless movements around him, but could not find anyone. All he could see was a thick black space filled with nothing.

Being under the wings, Kai saw himself like an ant chained and placed under the closed wings of a petrified, mighty eagle.

Not only did he feel that in the dream, but he felt everything in his veins. His situation in the dream was nothing compared to how his skin began peeling on its own whenever the bird slowly moving on his bed tapped the obsidian sword on his skin.

When the tip of the sword touched the centre of Kai's right palm, he jolted from his bed, panting heavily as if being pulled from the depths of the ocean.

And when his eyes fell on the bird and the sword, his heart began to pound with the same speed as a turbine, causing his chest to arch and turn reddish.

Before he could move, a high-pitched scream erupted from his throat, flowed from his room through the narrow paths under and beside the door, filling the hallway and the entire barracks at large.

And in that same moment, the droplets of rain that had been hanging began to shake, and when the deafening sound died down, they fell, slamming the ground, the roofs, and the canopies of the trees like fire.

Though no one saw the rain unfreezing themselves, the sound never escaped them, not even the cats that stayed still and let the rain whip them whole.

…

In the morning, as cars began emerging from garages and basements to continue their daily activities, the four chubby young ladies who had been going to the potato trucks first moved, wearing the same outfit they wore every day as if that were the only dresses they had in their entire lives.

Looking at the sun and brushing her soft arms across her scattered hair, pulling them back, the yellow-clothed lady smiled, inhaled deeply, and exhaled like a bird that had freshly learned to fly.

The other three ladies paused and stared at her with amazement before joining her.

"We can see he visited you like he promised."

The same statement came from the sweet, kissable lips of all three of them at the same time, licking their lips in unison as if they had practised it over and over.

Bella, who wore the yellow dress, tore her gaze at them, one after another, smiled, then shook her head.

"He…?!" she said, her voice sounding more like honey and sugar mixed together. "If you say he, you've downgraded it. Say they…"

The moment her words ended, the ladies stopped, forgetfully loosening their grips on the basket handle and letting them fall on the ground. They stared at Bella, each of them having their own illusion of how they imagined her between two guys on a freezing cold night.

"Do you mean… you… You spent the night with two men…? Why didn't you call one of us…?!" Fatima, the blue-clothed lady, said, placing a hand on the shoulder of Bella and turning her to look eye to eye with her.

The two who still couldn't believe their ears stood there, their arms crossed on their chests and stared at Bella as if she were now a goddess in disguise.

"Cut the crap, guys… that's no news to you. What I did can't be compared to the number of men you all take whenever you feel horny." Bella said, laughing and leaving the three who still couldn't believe what they were hearing from the one they taught was holy.

Taking five steps forward, she hesitated on the sixth and turned, hurling the air forward as she gestured to them to hurry up.

Though their minds were still struggling to imagine how a virgin like her could do such a thing in her first trial, their actions showed different emotions.

Black polyethene bags rolled, moving past the ladies and past the space at the front of the barracks gate, but got slammed by a black boot that hesitated not and slammed on them.

An arm moved toward the polyethene, raised it from under the boots, and folded it back.

As the ladies reached the side where a young man with small eyes stood, holding the folded black polyethene bag, Bella smiled, brushed her fingers through her hair, and wiggled at the guy.

The guy also smiled, letting all the ladies smile back, handed the polyethene to the lady in blue, and leaned against the wall, staring at the raised asses of the ladies as they walked and shook them unintentionally.

"Hackman, did you see the lady?" a guy with an arc on his left cheek said, opening the door of the building closer to the gate and stopping beside Hackman, smiling.

Hackman pointed a finger at the ladies almost vanishing from his sight, and exiting the alley.

"Yeah, she was among the ladies exiting from the alley…" he said, turning a cunning eye at the new guy, smiling.

"We better taste the other three like we did yesterday. But for real, I can't forget how good that lady tasted as you stood thrust from her back and I thrust from the front." He said, licking his lips and pushing Hackman's shoulder.

He joined Hackman at the gate, leaned beside him, and stared at the last lady he saw before the ladies walking in the direction Hackman pointed to vanished.

At the second floor of the white building, chattering echoed in the hallway as young men and ladies walked by. Per every door they passed they stared at it, but before nearing the door of the room the new boy occupied, everyone kept their eyes straight.

Not one looked at Kai's door as if it was now a curse to look at it. For minutes, no one neared or even moved a meter to it, but as a lady descended from the staircase of the third floor and entered the second floor, all eyes fell on her as they noticed she was heading toward the door they all tore their gaze from.

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