Forbidden Link

03. The Website Link

The atmosphere turned gloomy as soon as Alex and his three friends found out that Alex's sister, Kaira Donati, had been in a coma for a month. Alex still couldn't believe that he just found out about this fact from the news he accidentally saw on the internet. To prove the validity of the news, Alex immediately went out of the restaurant to contact anyone who could give him an answer.

The number of people in the corner of the room was reduced from four to three. It had been fifteen minutes since Alex left his three friends and there was no sign of Alex coming back. All the food was placed on the table, in front of each person's seat, in the corner of the room. But there was one food that was not touched at all because it was left by the owner. It could be that the food was left just like that because the owner had already forgotten that he had ordered it.

"Leona, I'll catch up with him," said Farrell, after staring at the empty seat across from him for a moment.

After opening the restaurant door, Farrell immediately found what he was looking for. Alex was staring at the highway in front of him with his cell phone to his ear. A few moments later, Alex lowered the phone and pressed the screen while grumbling.

"What the hell!"

Alex had tried to contact someone who knew about his sister's condition almost twenty times but had not yet got an answer. This time Alex tried to return for the twenty-first time. And just as he was about to press the green phone-shaped symbol on the screen, Alex felt a light tap on his shoulder. Feeling that he had tried his best, Alex canceled the last phone call and responded to his friend.

"I haven't heard from Kaira since a month ago. I thought it was because of that bastard who prevented me from communicating with Kaira. I've tried contacting all the employees in the house. There's no one available."

"Why didn't you ask your father directly? With the news on the internet that we saw earlier, they must be overwhelmed to receive question after question from people. The only one you can call is your father's private number."

There was no response whatsoever from Alex to Farrell's idea. Even though he already knew that Farrell's idea was the most sensible idea he knew, Alex's mind still kept him from taking action.

"I don't know what to say to Mother if she hasn't already known this," said Alex, changing the subject as if he hadn't heard what Farrell had just said.

"Your father..."

"I won't call that jerk, Farrell!"

Alex's appetite was completely gone after Farrell mentioned his father. After saying goodbye to Farrell, he chose to leave the restaurant and walk home.

That night was the worst night of his life for Alex. After not being able to hear news from his sister, Alex got a call from a friend that he was one of the people affected by the layoff at the factory where he worked. And when he returned home, his mother was sleeping in the living room with her head resting on her left hand and her right hand holding a bottle of liquor.

Alex sat next to his mother with a sad smile. While releasing the bottle from the hands of the woman who was muttering in her dream, Alex told his mother all his problems. Alex deliberately told his mother who was unconscious, because he would not do it when his mother was awake.

“You two really got me into trouble tonight. What should I do? Looking for work to cover your debt or find out about Kaira?”

Alex slowly lowered his head onto the table and leaned on his right hand. After a moment of staring at his mother's messy-looking face with disheveled hair, Alex closed his eyes. Trying to rest his mind like the people in front of him were doing right now.

After a night full of questions in his life, the next morning didn't get any better for Alex. Alex's focus, which initially wanted to find a job, was immediately dispersed after receiving dozens of messages and phone calls on his cellphone to simply ask questions about his sister. Alex was forced to turn off his cellphone and choose to search for information from the computer. But again, there were other things that made Alex unable to concentrate on what he wanted to do.

"Crash!"

A sound of glass breaking could be heard clearly from the next room because Alex's room, kitchen and living room were only limited by a cupboard and curtains. Alex wiped the curtains, passed the kitchen which was only less than two and a half square meters, then he saw his mother who was still silent in the living room trembling. The direction of Alex's eyes, which initially focused on the broken glass beside his mother's feet, now followed the direction of his mother's gaze.

Alex was silent for a while after knowing what his mother was seeing on television. Once again, Kaira's face was exposed in the mass media as seen by Alex last night. The news was not very different. It was just that the news on television provided more information that sounded more convincing.

"You'd better go to your room first, Mom. I'll clean up the shards."

All morning, Alex couldn't help but listen to the news on television, which kept on commenting on website links that could put people into a coma. Alex's mother refused to rest and continued to watch the news. So Alex was sitting to accompany his mother after he finished cleaning up the broken glass on the floor.

It didn't take long for Alex to find out information about the viral website link and about his sister. One day after Alex's meeting with his three friends at the restaurant, news of the website link had spread all over the television channels. Those who initially doubted the news have now revised their opinion based on other validated information.

Cases of patients in a coma have increased by about thirteen percent -with eighty-seven percent of the patients being from twenty to thirty years old- since yesterday. Of course, this condition was an unnatural condition. The condition of the hospital was filled with people who went into a coma unnaturally. Even in some small cities, many patients couldn’t be treated because hospital rooms were full. In the end, the patient's family were forced to keep the patient in their house unconscious and without treatment.

The increase in the number of comatose patients was not only a calculation in one country, but has taken into account the increase in the worldwide average. There were a lot of rumors saying that this strange condition had actually been going on for several months, but the government was trying to cover it up because of unreasonable information. Efforts to close the link were not a joke. The world's best intelligence agencies have deployed a special team to deal with it, but so far there has been no result. Anyway, if there were already results, then there shouldn't be any horrendous news like this morning.

The number of people who were unconscious was increasing day by day, so the government finally gave a strong warning against the dangers of such website links. This morning, the president banned his people from using the website link for any purpose. Anyone who spreads it will be caught and punished. But Alex just laughed sadly at the solution. All these things only led to preventive efforts, but there was no single solution that could be given to patients who were still in a coma.

“Have…have you contacted your sister?” asked Alex's mother, without looking at the face of the person she was talking to.

Alex turned to the side and saw his mother's lifeless face. Even Alex wasn't sure that the bombardment of information being shown on the television could reach his mother's mind. Alex didn't answer his mother's question, so the woman beside him glanced sharply at him.

"Alexandre?!"

"She's unreachable, Mom."

"You're her brother! Why didn't you know that your sister disappeared for a month?!”

“You are also her mother!”

Shout after shout filled the space of the flat which was too small for two adults to fit in. Loud noises from Alex and his mother made their neighbors hit the wall as a signal to shut them up. Even though no sound was released after that, the intense gaze between Alex and his mother continued. With lips trembling with anger, finally Alex's mother averted her eyes from her son.

"I'll call Kaira's father."

"Mom!" Alex's sentence was stopped because his mother immediately entered her bedroom holding her cellphone. Alex knew what his mother was going to do, so he banged on his mother's door and tried to speak from outside. “Please, Mom! He dumped us both. You must not contact him…”

“Hey, stop screaming!”

The sound of the neighbors yelling at Alex had cut his conversation off. Before Alex could reply to his neighbor’s yell, the door had been opened. Alex's mother stared at her son sharply while she took a deep breath and exhaled through her mouth.

"It's better for you to find out about your sister than to fight with your neighbors."

"I'll look for her again. In the meantime, you mustn't contact that bastard."

Alex's solution wasn't something his mother would be relieved of. But Alex's mother nodded weakly and then left Alex to stare at the door, which she immediately closed.