Disbelief tagged alongside my haste to my bed. My depleted energy seemed to charge up by the dreading worry. I couldn't blink, my heart was hammering, and my mind was dreading for a logical reason for what I was seeing. Alas, reality rammed on me at the sight of the red tainting the cover. The raging crimson became a phantasm, awakening my horror. In the middle of the pool was Alfie's IV needle, and it was crooked as if it was forcefully ripped off him.

Still attached with calm, I looked around. Blood trails stopped next to my bed, and there wasn't anything out of place. I checked the kitchen, the bathroom, and I practically looked inside the wardrobe too. I checked my doors and windows, but all were appropriately locked. And lastly, I went to my backyard, but his shed was also empty.

How could it be possible?

Thinking someone or more alarming, HEROIN had taken him, I frantically ran barefoot outside. The uncontrollable mechanism of anxiety reeled me to my left then right, failing to decide on which direction to search.

A neighbour who happened to walk passed caught my attention. I stopped her. "What's wrong? Are you alright?" she asked.

My mouth flew open, but I didn't know what to say since Alfie was still my secret. "Nothing, I was just practising something," I lied to her, plastering a smile on my face.

She gave me a quizzical look but eventually continued her stroll. Realising I couldn't risk asking about Alfie to anyone left me with no other option than my mother. I rushed back to my house and grabbed my phone. My trembling fingers kept missing the right numbers. Tears were already falling down my cheeks uncontrollably.

Suddenly I heard something. It was a voice, like a whisper, hardly distinctive that it made me hold my breath so I could make out the sound. It was not like anything I'd heard before, it was deep, rough but low.

I put down my phone, forgetting it was on dial and traipsed following the sound's direction. It brought me back to my room, and soon I recognised the melody; it was a humming.

It was my song.

As I stood at the door, I realised I had missed looking somewhere; under the bed. I crouched down slowly, sweeping aside the ruffle covering it.

Nothing could prepare me for what I would see after. My eyes widened in shock after I got a fixed on the sight. The person I had spent hours searching was curling like a fetal on the floor, jerking back when he saw me.

My jaw dropped, releasing a gasp.

I witnessed with my bare eyes, the 'thing' that was taught to me just a vessel, was moving, and more than that; having the ability to feel. I watched him clutching his hand where the needle once was, with fear painted on his face.

Every time my hand almost reached him, he repelled further. My heart ached for him, and I wanted to give him comfort.

"Alfie, it's me. It's Charis," I cooed, smiling at him even though my face was wet with tears.

Somehow my voice calmed him. I took the chance and hurried to the other side of the bed where I had better access to him. He flinched at the first contact but he let me pull him out. The weight in my heart instantly diminished the second I wrapped my arms around him.

"I was so scared. I thought I'd lost you." I couldn't hold back anymore, tears of joy streamed down from my eyes.

He leaned his head to me as I rocked him and cried. I didn't know if he understood me at all, but I didn't care.

"They were wrong. You're human. You can feel."

I cupped his face and looked him in the eyes. "Do you know how much you mean to me? You are a piece of my heart Alfie."

I didn't realise my mother was already standing by the door until a clattering sound broke through the air. She stood there with a flabbergasted expression and her stuff scattered on the floor.

When Alfie turned to look at her, she held the door frame, like she was supporting herself from falling. "He's moving-" she said under her breath, "He is... he is... moving." Her words were stuttered. The sight might be hard for her to make sense of.

"Yes Ma, he is."

The next thing I knew, she was ambling towards my direction. But she didn't stop for me, she was closing the blinds to seal every possible view from outside.

"We have to hide him... No one can ever know this," she stated, the obvious unsettling in her voice made me worry.

"What's wrong? The world should know about this," I exhorted.

"They will experiment on him. They'll take him away from you," she proclaimed.

"How do you know this?" I asked, still persistent to know the reason.

My question resulted to her silence and a mass of emotions shown on her face. The spirited mother that I knew all my life, suddenly looked almost feeble at that moment. As she continued to mull over what was in her mind, a tear rolled down the bridge of her eyes.

"Before I work as a nurse. I worked with HEROIN. The things I did..." she hesitated as more tears dampen her face. "No matter what, we can't let them take him."

"But how? They'll eventually come to check on him."

Every pod given to a family was registered into the system. They had to be returned to HEROIN one way or another, even if they die.

I hadn't thought beyond his emerging and what would happen after. However, knowing his life in danger by something else than the force of nature suddenly became another issue.

"We have to leave this place."

To be continued...