When Time Doesn’t Exist

Chapter 9

The metal door creaks suddenly echoed around the room, and Enjo’s mother came into the room to weekly help him clean the room. She brought a cloth and a basin, full of water. His mother really doesn’t want their maids to do the cleaning since they are hiding some important projects here. It includes the experiments that they are doing. Since they are one of the wealthiest and important families in their world, they have a lot of responsibilities and a reputation to take good care of.

“Mom, it seems like you already helped us clean this room a few days ago,” said Enjo as he looked at his side using his peripheral vision so at least he knows that they already shifted.

“Well, I don’t have the stuff to do, so why couldn’t I?” she asked while examining the experiments they made to ensure that they have progress every week.

Her mother took off the cloth from one of the collections on the shelf. She started to wipe off the dust that was on the shelf. Even though the collections that look like a mini-incubator have a cloth on them, she still wants to clean them so she could also take a look at the experiments that they have made so far.

“Why is Benji not helping you?” asked Elisa, his mom, as she wipes and cleans every corner and debris that she saw on top of the shelf.

“Oh, h-he went with…” he stuttered as he said it. While he was finding his words, he avoided his eye contact with her mother and he tried to clean something. “I told him to have some research in the library,” said Enjo quickly.

“He went with whom?” his mother asked him as she gently put down the mini-collections of their experiments to completely clean the shelf. “Also, I was in the library earlier but I didn’t even have a chance to see a glimpse of his shadow,” she said confidently.

It was pure silence. Enjo couldn’t even answer her first question. He really messed it up because he didn’t prepare for this question. It was awkward for him to stay in this room for so long so he had no choice. He tried to think of any excuses but he still doesn’t know if he could tell it to her without stuttering. Enjo knows that he is confident and he already said a lot of lies but he didn’t know why he messed up this time.

“Something is bothering you,” said Elisa, her mom.

“Absolutely nothing,” he replied while still trying to think of excuses.

A minute has passed. Enjo decided to take a look at the experiments that he and his brother did on the other side of the room to reduce the awkwardness. He also hasn’t tried to do some experiments on the blood that they took from Lyn. It was in the small bottle with a chain so it could be worn as a necklace but Enjo didn’t wear it. Instead, he put it inside of his secret pocket so her mother won’t see it since he doesn’t know what to answer if his mother asked another question about it.

The door that automatically closed earlier was opened by Benji. He was so loud and he welcomed Enjo inside of the room with excitement since he has something to say to him about what they encountered. Lyn was with Benji but Benji came inside the room first. Enjo’s eyes widen as he looked at Benji with Lyn beside her. Benji slowly stepped backward while his other hand was pushing Lyn backward so their mother won’t find out about Lyn.

“Queen Elisa,” uttered Benji as he bows down slowly to pay respect.

Elisa doesn’t really treat Benji as her own son since he was never his son so she wants him to say queen before his name, instead of mom like Enjo used to call her. Benji’s energy and vibe are different when he is in front of her and when he is in front of her brother. He could switch his energy instantly since Elisa doesn’t like how energetic and loud Benji is.

“I’m sorry,” said Benji simply to her while avoiding her contact since he couldn’t look at her eyes straightly and he was too afraid to even look at her shadow. Elisa’s voice and appearance were enough to make Benji afraid of her since she was too strict with him ever since he was still a kid.

Benji slowly closed the door while his heart was still pumping because of nervousness and scaredness. He was stunned and surprised since he didn’t know that Elisa would be inside the room. Benji thought that she would just greet Enjo. While he was still staring at the door, Lyn was looking at him confusedly. She hasn’t had a chance to take a look inside the room since Benji slightly pushed her back when she was still outside of the room.

“Mom, I’ve got something to discuss with Benji,” told Enjo to his mom.

His mom didn’t say anything about it since she was busy wiping and cleaning the shelves by herself. She just simply nodded to him so he could go out with Benji now. Enjo was surprised that she didn’t ask anything. He thought that he could’ve said it earlier since any reason would work just for him to go out from this room.

As soon as Enjo closed the door, Elisa looked at the door to ensure that it is already closed. She had a bad feeling that Enjo and Benji messed up in one of their experiments so she decided to clean up the room even though she already cleaned it a few days ago. Also, the way that Enjo acted in front of her is enough to know that they did something suspicious. She really doesn’t want her son to make mistakes since living creatures are limited in their world and they were experimenting the exotic ones.

“I never thought that my son could stutter,” she whispered as she picked up the basin full of water to move to a different place.

She stopped when she looked at something unusual laying on the white tile. It was a strand of brown hair. Elisa put the basin down and she picked up the long hair. She thought that it was impossible to have a strand of long brown wavy hair since she and her son has short white hair and Benji’s hair is deep black. It is also impossible that it came from the creatures that they were experimenting with because she has never seen one here.

Elisa looked at the hair strand closely and she tried to feel its texture to ensure that it really is a strand of hair. In the end, she knew that it really is a hair strand of someone.