CHAPTER 230: MOURNFUL CRIES.

Author’s note:

This Chapter might seem a bit confusing. So ask questions in areas that are hard to grasp.

**

The sounds of mournful cries filled the air, and even those who didn’t know Charles found themselves shedding a few tears after seeing his family members in such despair.

Meanwhile, behind the closed doors of the emergency room, the lifeless body of Charles lay motionless, a silk white cloth already draped over him from head to toe.

To the medical personnel, and even to his friends and relatives, he was gone and the silent, flat line on his heart monitor stood as undeniable proof.

But despite it all, Charles could still hear the cries of everyone outside.

He felt trapped... paralyzed and unable to move a single muscle.

His body refused him, yet his mind was painfully awake.

Deep down, Charles knew he was dead. The stillness, the weight, and the strange sense of release made it clear.

And yet... there was something else.

Charles felt himself surrounded by a blinding white light, warm and endless, as though it was calling him forward.

Charles breath caught... or whatever breath his soul still thought it had... became caught off guard when he heard a voice break through the silence.

"Charles," a voice called softly, rich and warm, wrapping around him like an embrace.

In that instant, Charles eyes fluttered open.

He wasn’t in the hospital anymore—he was surrounded by endless white light that threatened to blind his eyes.

’Am I in heaven?’ Charles asked himself, but the thought felt distant, as if his mind was too overwhelmed to form an answer.

Slowly, Charles ran the back of his hand across his eyes and then he rose from where he had been lying, only to freeze when he saw his own body still stretched out on the hospital bed.

He was now standing in front of his bed but still, he was seeing his body laying on the bed.

’Could this... could this be that my body is now divided into two?’ Charles inquired within himself.

His skin was pale, his frame motionless beneath the white sheet.

’Or could this mean... I’m already dead?’

Charles eyes widened as he stared at his lifeless form but deep down, he knew the truth: that the part of him which was currently standing is not flesh, but spirit.

"Charles... follow this voice..."

Once more, Charles heard the voice from earlier and the words drifted through Charles warm and calm surrounding, prompting tears to spilled down his face as he turned toward the sound.

And then... Charles froze in stunned disbelief.

To his left stood a glowing portal, spinning endlessly in circles, its light pulsing as if it were alive.

"What’s this? Am I in some kind of shitty dream?" Charles muttered, narrowing his eyes. "Or is this thing supposed to take me to heaven?" Charles once more questioned himself but the answer was quite far from his reach.

And then again, a warm, calm voice echoed in the entire place.

"Come on, Charles. Step inside the portal and it will all be over."

"What?" Charles scoffed, his tone sharp. "Whose voice is that? And where the hell am I?" Charles demand, his question also echoed through the white void, laced with both fear and anger.

"Charles, follow this voice."

Pftt...

Charles let out a frustrated sigh, folding his arms tightly across his chest. His brow furrowed deeply. "Why are you ignoring my question? I said, who the hell are you, and why do you want me to walk into that thing?"

The mysterious voice did not waver, repeating its call with the same unshaken calm:

"Charles, follow this voice."

Charles shoulders slumped in exhaustion, the fight slowly draining out of him. ’Since the voice wants me to get inside the portal, then it’s best that I do as I’m instructed.’ Charles mused.

With no other choice, he dragged his feet forward, each step echoing in the strange silence as he neared the swirling portal.

But then... just as Charles was about to cross the threshold, he heard another voice.

A familiar voice which belongs to Augustine.

"Charles, hang in there, okay? The doctors have given you a newly developed medicine that cures cancer, so please... just hold on," Augustine pleaded, his voice breaking with desperation.

Charles nodded slowly and turned his gaze toward the bed from earlier. "Since Augustine says I should hang in there, doesn’t that mean I should stay beside my body until he comes and—"

Charles words cut off as he felt a sudden, crushing grip tighten around his right leg.

Charles snapped his head back, only to see a massive black hand clawing out from the swirling portal, its fingers wrapped tightly around his ankle.

"Let go of me!" Charles shouted, thrashing violently as he kicked with all his might, and for a moment the grip on his leg loosened but before Charles could free himself completely, the monstrous hand tightened again, dragging him closer to the glowing portal.

"Wha... What the heck!"

Charles wrestled against the hand holding onto his legs which was now flailing in panic, but despite that... the pull grew stronger and stronger.

Meanwhile, back in the hospital room, the doctor stared anxiously at Charles’s still body, the heart monitor’s flatline echoing like a death sentence.

Suddenly... the doctor yelled.

"His heartbeat is rising!" the doctor barked, snatching a penlight and flashing it across Charles’s pupils. "The medicine is working!" He purred in excitement.

Even though Charles was trapped in the endless white void, wrestling against the monstrous black hand that clawed at his leg, he understood one thing clearly.

He has a great hunch that if the portal dragged him in, he would die. He had to get back. Back to the body lying on the hospital bed.

Charles could now hear Augustine’s frantic voice, the nurses and even the doctors shouting orders... but Charles couldn’t see them.

Still in the white void, Charles screamed, thrashing as the black hand tightened its grip on his leg.

"Come back to me, Charles!" Augustine’s voice thundered through the void.

With one final, desperate wrench, Charles kicked, clawed, and dragged himself toward the image of his lifeless body on the bed which he had just woke up from some minutes ago.

And what followed next was a loud, gasping breath......

"He’s back!" a nurse shouted as the heart monitor steadied into a rhythmic beep.

Charles had returned.