A famous bounty hunter like Bob asks for forgiveness, a scene no one would believe if it hadn't happened in front of his eyes.

The noise of the place stops for a second, more than a second; a strange silence spreads as everyone holds their breaths for this new visitor.

Some faces turn red while others take a second to understand what will happen next, and as they make space for him to pass through, you can tell that this event is rare on Behemoth's street and may not have occurred since the queen's disappearance.

Step after step, this unwanted visitor headed in Bob's direction.

His silver hat shows he has a respectable place in society; the grey vest on his shoulders looks expensive.

Sweat finds its way to Bob as he watches a young gentleman get closer. Although the man is younger than him, Bob looks at him like a scared child, like the boy he was about to kill a few moments earlier.

"Haven't you heard me enough!" the man said as he stared at Bob.

"Forgive me, sir." Bob hesitated and answered in a voice quieter than usual.

"Are you deaf?" the man yelled at Bob, who put his head down while his loyal partner John did the same.

"How dare you? You raise a weapon in front of me?" the man said, a threatening expression appearing.

Bob rushed to hide the knife he had in his hand as fast as he could.

"Mercy, sir." Bob repeated, but the young man interrupted him, not with words but with gestures. Meanwhile, pain starts to find its way into the boy's little body as the memory of his long-time escape flashes through his eyes.

...

Way back into the past.

"The way to the giant entrance is way too far ahead of us," Kosie thought.

We are now in a room filled with dead corpses back in the past, where the two kids are staring at the lantern ahead of them.

A sound of a bird fluttering cut the strange silence in the room as Kosie and Horras stood up from their places in a rush.

"Quick, hide," Horras whispered, and just as he did, the fluttering got closer, followed by a gentle echo of footsteps.

The cracked door is slowly opened as a shadow of a woman emerges from it.

Soon after, a blue honey bird flew through the door and settled on the dirty floor of the room while the lantern reflects the shadow of both the woman and the bird. Kosie could think of one thing only:
"They found us," Kosie thought as he observed the lantern, the only evidence of their existence in this room.

"Who's there?" the woman demanded in a low voice.
No answer, not even a sound; both kids hold their breaths surrounded by hundreds of bodies, and from a small hole between the remains, Kosie took a glimpse at the woman.

Her red hat was adorned with green pearls, and long brown hair stretched under the hat. The upper part of her clothing was a black costume suitable for a man more than a woman, while the lower part of her body was a white dress filled with roses.

Admirable! That's the word Kosie would use to describe this woman if he had the chance.
"So, rats, huh?" the woman said while she observed the dead bodies around her.
"You know what we do to rats, right, Odigos?" She talked to the bird, then with a smirk, she said a familiar sentence Kosie had heard before.
"Tréla deíxte ton eaftó sas," the woman said.
"It can't be," Kosie thought while his friend Horras shuddered as his eyeballs turned white.

And in a second, a huge movement was heard all around; the tongues of all the dead bodies in the room twisted horizontally.
"What in hell?" Kosie murmured in fear...

...

Back to the present day at Behemoth street, where silence hits the scene.

"Are you okay?" a voice brought Kosie back from the sad memory he was in.

"What?" Kosie said, then looked around him; all eyes were on him.

"What's wrong!" Kosie thinks as he realizes people aren't staring at him; no, it's the strange man in front of him.

"Ahh," Kosie yelled a bit, then checked his shoulder.

"Bl...blood!" Kosie opened his eyes wide.

It's a weird condition our friend has had since birth; sometimes, when he has a huge trauma, his sense of pain stops temporarily, but the pain catches up with him later.

"What? What happened?" Kosie asks.

"I'm the one who is supposed to ask this, boy!" the gentleman said as he observed Kosie's injury.

The child took a look around him; a few moments passed before he could talk.

Bob had his hat on his chest, showing a different face from the one he used to have.

"Aren't you scared?" a voice spoke to Kosie.
The boy looked at the man again and then replied, "Scared! Of what?"

Just the second he heard the boy's answer, the strange man took off his hat, waved his hand over his head, and scratched his golden hair for a second just before a calm smile rested on his cheek.

"Stupid child, he looks right into my eyes?" the young man thinks as he gives Kosie a cold expression.

Eyes filled with fear and concern, a few men sneak away while some women act busy and escape; everyone starts to excuse themselves to leave the damn street behind them. When this happens in ITEFE city, only trouble can be expected; you can tell that everyone is thinking of themselves at that moment.

"For...forgive him, sir Merny; he's just a boy," an old homeless man from the crowd said as he got close to Kosie.

It was hilarious that the only one who had the courage to interact in this situation was a hopeless man, maybe because he had nothing to lose!

"Sir?" Kosie thinks as he observes Merny again.

"Have you lost your mind? The man in front of us is Sir Merny, Merny Rockefeller." The man whispers in Kosie's ear.

"Rock...Rockefeller?" Kosie thinks; the name had crossed his mind before, but where?

As soon as Merny's eyes met his, the old man gathered his half-torn clothes and sneaked away silently. After all, he is a human being and surely has something to lose-his life, maybe!
As soon as the man disappears, Merny moves his sight to the boy three yards away from him.

"What's this? His injury is bad, but he's not crying," Merny thinks as he checks Kosie's clothes.

"Could he? No, of course not," Merny thinks as he puts down a small bag he had inside his vest.

"Come here!" Merny yelled at Kosie.
The kid didn't move at all.

"Rockefeller, huh?" Kosie thinks.

"It's the family that started all this slum thing, but why?" Kosie thinks; this question was not only in the mind of our boy-no! It was in the mind of every single citizen in ITEFE city. As much as everyone could remember, there were more nuthouses being built than houses. In fact, there have been no new houses in the area since the queen's disappearance, but since deaths outnumber births here, it wasn't actually a problem to talk about.

"So this is why everyone is so calm," Kosie thinks as he starts to understand the situation he's in right now. Who would dare to make a sound in front of a member of this family? One order, and they'll all have a small visit to execution if Merny feels bored and wants a small show.

"Kid, he has called you," John said as he rushed to catch Kosie's arm and help him, but the kid stepped aside and looked at him.

"No thanks a lot, saint!" Kosie said as he waved his hand in the air.
John realized what the kid meant; now he tries to help? Where was all this kindness moments earlier? John could see all these words in Kosie's eyes. The man hid his face with his hat out of shame. John knew what would have happened if Merny hadn't arrived; they would have taken a dead body to the slums today. Yes, believe it or not, all dead bodies go straight to the nuthouse. No one had a funeral in years, except for the highest classes, of course. What do they do with all those dead people? Nobody knows about this place except for two simple facts:

First, all remains are moved from the slums in a closed horse-drawn vehicle to a fifty-mile hole located outside "ITEFE," where there are almost a thousand soldiers guarding it-<The Hole of Sickness>-that's the name they chose for this undiscovered area.

Second, the man with the silver cane, Merny Rockefeller, is one of the few people who know what lies deep inside the dark hole.

Back to the events where Kosie responded to Merny, who placed a green bottle and a small piece of cloth on the ground.

"You're a doctor?" Kosie asks.

"No, but if you insist, I'll make you swallow this bottle until death; how about it!" Merny said, then smiled at Kosie.

A few minutes passed, and Merny has cleaned the injury and covered it with the piece of cloth. At this moment, Kosie wonders,

"Why did he help me?"
It was a good question: why would a high-class person like Merny save a kid he never knew?

"It's not free, you know," Merny said as he looked at Kosie.

"Of course, hah!" Kosie thinks, then took a breath. Hearing that this isn't free calmed him a bit; at least this gentleman is acting as he's supposed to, greedy and abusive.

"What happened here?" Merny demands as he stands up and looks at Bob, who replies.

"Sir Merny, your humble servant was about to do his job and take this kid to Louis's slums, and-"

"Shut it." Merny said, then put his hat back on.

"Carry on then," the young man said, then walked away.

"I've wasted my time on a crazy kid," Merny thinks. On the other hand, Bob's face showed his usual angry expression as he looks at Kosie again.

The noise in the street starts again as Bob murmured,

"No one will save you this time, kid."

As he walked slowly to leave the poor child to his fate, Merny picked up a small watch from his pocket.

"Stupid me, what am I doing? I can't look at it or-huh," Merny thinks, and he was right; the watch he's looking at right now is cursed. Still, Merny always keeps it with him wherever he goes. It is the last remnant of the Rockefeller family. From father to son, this little piece of silver traveled for almost five generations until it rests here, in Merny's hand.

...

Just a few months from this exact day, a silver roof decorated with beautiful pieces of art by Michelangelo; this artistic roof was one of a kind for it was made of pure silver, melted and shaped at the palace's own foundation. Yes, we are now at the Rockefeller palace and, to be exact, in the northwest of a city called Mulysa.
Blue candles attached to the roof; the smell of lemon perfume filled the heavy air of the whole place. The room was wide and open as if it almost had no end-well, almost...
Two green doors from both sides of the place marked the limits of this limitless room.
A man stood in the middle of the room, wondering,

"How much time do I still have before I lose my mind like my father did?" Merny asked as he observed the white clock in his hand, a cursed clock that caused a lot of horrible events for his family-sorry, his past family; for now, Merny is the last surviving member. Irony, isn't it? How things can go wrong for rich people.

"Maybe a year or less," an old priest answered. He had a grey mustache and a black tall uniform.

"Ask not what great power you'll have as a Rockefeller; ask what sort of hell you'll live in before you lose it, boy." Those were the words that Merny's grandfather George told him in his last moments. In the exact same room we saw earlier, Merny's grandfather was chained to the bed like an animal while his body jumped up and down, yelling in a strange language. At last, Merny decided to finish the man's life before things got worse. He killed him, yes he did!
He pulled the pillow and hanged the man to death while his father observed this scene with cold blood. Not even a single hair moved on his head while he watched his own son murdering his father, George!
"Will this happen to me one day?" the father thought to himself.

"Son," the old priest touched Merny's shoulder for a second before he added, "Don't worry; we'll find a cure."
"Right! That's what you told Victoria before she lost it," Merny thought while he got back from the horrible memory of killing his grandfather and then his father afterward.

He turned to the priest and a slight smile appeared. "I hope so, Mr. Hemingway; I hope," he said, swallowing all his anger for a second. After all, it's not Hemingway's fault that his family was infected by this...

...

Back to the present day at the filthy street of Behemoth.

"It won't happen to me; it won't!" Merny thinks while he holds the cursed clock tight in his hands, and for a moment, just a small second, fate intervened.

Kosie looked at Merny's hand and took a glance at the silver lines etched on the clock's side.

"Beware the reflections," Kosie read in his head.

"Beware the reflections; this is it!" Kosie thinks.
.............................................................
. . .
{...chapter four ends...}

Note: Try to read the city's name (Mulysa) backward.

"tréla deíxte ton eaftó sas" it means "madness show yourself"in Greek.