Forbidden Link

08. Unconscious Man

The shocking incident that afternoon reached the cafe manager's ears. After getting news from his subordinates, the male cafe manager who was checking the condition of the room immediately ran from inside the cafe to outside the cafe. Seeing Alex who was trying to move from his position -which was beside the unconscious man-, the cafe manager immediately came to help Alex. Meanwhile, Farrell delegated the task of calling an ambulance to Leona and helping Alex, who was accompanied by the cafe manager.

"His pulse is still normal. We don't know if he fainted from the impact, but we heard a pretty loud crash and he was already in that position when we looked at him,” said Alex, trying to provide as complete information as possible to the cafe manager.

"We've also called an ambulance," added Farrell.

"Okay. We should move this customer inside to make it more comfortable. It's possible that the sun today made him faint."

Alex glanced at the unconscious man and doubted that the person had fainted from the heat. There was no sweat dripping from the person's forehead. But Alex did not argue and nodded at the suggestion of the cafe manager.

Alex, Farrell and the cafe manager started lifting the unconscious man on their respective heads, backs and legs after Alex gave the signal on the count of three. The unconscious man was carried from his original seat into the cafe through the door that had just been opened. The waiter who opened the door immediately followed the group of people who took the unconscious man to direct the way to a seat in the corner of the room. A long sofa that was quite comfortable to use. With little coordination from Alex, the unconscious man was laid on the sofa in a supine position.

"We'd better loosen up the clothes," said the cafe manager.

The man who gave the order immediately looked at the patient's hand and took off his watch. Alex unfastened the belt the patient was wearing. Farrell removed the shoes hanging over the arm of the sofa.

"The ambulance should be here in a minute," said Farrell to the cafe manager who was looking at him and Alex.

"Thank you for helping our customers. Later we will take care of this customer.”

Alex walked out of the cafe with his mind full of questions: why did this person pass out? If he has a heart attack, his pulse should be abnormal, either too fast or not there at all. There was no significant trigger that could render the person suddenly unconscious with his head hitting the table. Even the side of his head also hit the cellphone he was holding. It was as if there wasn't even a split second to dodge the blow. A light tap on the shoulder made Alex retreat from his thoughts and realize that he was already outside the cafe, in front of his seat before he left.

"As if he had pressed that weird link."

Alex made Farrell and Leona immediately glance at him. While Leona's face immediately refused Alex's statement, Farrell just looked at Alex, then looked at the empty scene where an unconscious man was there and nodded.

"Impossible…"

"It seems possible..."

Two different opinions of the two twins. Farrell and Leona looked at each other with different eyes that represented their respective thoughts.

"I had time to think about the image of a person's soul that seemed to be sucked into the link. And that incident really represented what I was thinking."

"Besides, I had time to look at him while discussing with you guys before. The person looks healthy. Although his face looks quite stressful," said Alex, adding a statement from Farrell.

The sound of the ambulance stopped conversation about the strange link between the three friends at a cafe. Thinking that the ambulance would be parked in front of him, Alex got up from his seat with the aim of telling the position of the person the ambulance was going to take. But the ambulance just passed the cafe at high speed. There was no sign that the ambulance would slow down to park.

Another ambulance indicated that there was another incident beside the man who had suddenly fainted. Alex suddenly remembered that he had seen several ambulances on his way towards the cafe. The quantity was quite strange enough that could be remembered by Alex. And that weird situation made Alex assume that there were many people who had also fainted somewhere.

Just as Alex had put his ass back on the seat, the sound of another ambulance was heard in the distance. This time Alex remained seated watching a van with its headlights on the hood speeding toward him. The size of the van was getting bigger according to the perspective of the field and the siren sound was getting louder as a function of distance. For the second time, an ambulance was in front of the cafe where Alex was, but this time the ambulance actually stopped in front of him.

No need to move from his seat, Alex just watched the cafe manager who ran to the ambulance and gave directions to the ambulance staff to carry a stretcher into the cafe. Two ambulance officers -wearing dark green uniforms- immediately pulled out a stretcher from the back of the van. The officer swiftly entered the cafe, lifted the patient who was lying on the sofa and carried him out of the cafe to be put into the ambulance. The cafe manager tried to follow the movements of the ambulance workers until he finally got into the ambulance to accompany the patient.

Besides the waiters who were busy calming the customers, a woman in a blazer and knee-length skirt came out of the cafe and saw the customers who looked confused. Including looking at Alex and Farrell as people helping the patient.

"I would like to thank you for the well-controlled condition this afternoon. Especially for those of you who have helped our customers to get the best treatment." The woman who was supposed to be the owner of the cafe looked at Alex and Farrell with a smile and slightly bowed politely. "But we're sorry we had to ask at least three of the people who were here to be interviewed as witnesses from different groups of what happened."

In the midst of chatting with cafe customers to become volunteer witnesses, Alex heard a phone call from his cellphone. Lakelynn's name was on it and Alex immediately pressed the red button. Just as Alex was about to join in the conversation between Farrell and Leona, a phone call came back. Causing Alex to take a deep breath.

"I'll be the witness alone. You can go to Kaira's house, Al."

"But a manager like you left the office too long..."

Farrell cut Alex's sentence and immediately pressed the green button on Alex's cellphone screen so that a vague sound came from the speaker. Alex spontaneously took his ear to the cellphone screen to reply to the sound.

"Yes, Lakelynn..." Alex looked at Farrell who was making an "okay" sign with his index finger and thumb forming an "o" plus the other three fingers left standing. Farrell tried to convince Alex not to worry about his condition. "Okay. I'll be going there in a bit… See you soon."

"Hopefully you can actually see how your sister is," said Farrell, after Alex had hung up the phone.

"I'll report back to you when I get home from Kaira's house. I hope the interrogation doesn't take long."

Alex patted Farrell's upper arm while forcing a smile. Then Alex showed a wider smile at the woman beside Farrell who was looking at him intently.

"If you watch me like this continuously, Mio could get jealous of me."

"What… ah never mind… even if I forbid you to go, someone like you won't care."

"I always care about what other people say..."

"You just go quickly and let us know when you're done dealing with that witch."

Leona interrupted Alex's words and made Alex chuckle when he heard the nickname of someone he would meet soon. Although Alex felt that Lakelynn was not like a witch, Lakelynn's strangeness might indeed be categorized as an abnormal person and a witch was not a normal human. Alex wanted to discuss the matter a little longer. However, the closing words Leona just said made Alex give up and choose to leave right then and there.

"Bye, Gypsyworth siblings."

Alex walked over to his bright green vehicle, put on a helmet of the same color as was a package when he got the prize, then started the engine of his moped. With a fifty cc vehicle, casual t-shirt, parachute jacket, three quarter pants and sneakers, Alex intended to enter the most elite housing in Quintice city.