Annoying like a Curse

Aurora and Schäfer entered the room, the tension palpable. It was dim, the dim glow of a flickering lamp just enough to make out the rough outlines of the room. In the middle stood two men—the same ones who had ambushed them in their home a few hours earlier.

"Glad you found it," said one of the men with a wicked grin. "You're tougher than you look."

"And you're dumber than I thought," Schäfer retorted, his gun aimed at the speaker.

But before anyone could pull the trigger, one of the men lunged forward, an iron bar in his hand, and the fight began.

Schäfer dodged the first blow and countered with a punch that sent the man staggering. Aurora drew her taser and fired at the second attacker, but he deftly dodged and lunged at her.

"You don't stand a chance against us!" one of the men yelled as he pulled Schäfer to the ground. But Schäfer pushed him back with a powerful kick and got back to his feet.

"Chance? You're in the lion's den," Schäfer growled as he landed a well-aimed blow to the man's ribs.

Meanwhile, Aurora wrestled with her attacker, who tried to rip the taser from her hand. With a deft twist, she freed herself and elbowed him in the face. "You picked the wrong family," she hissed as the man staggered back.

"We picked exactly the right one," he snarled back, pulling a knife from his belt.

The next few minutes were a chaos of punches, kicks, and throws. Schäfer grabbed one of the men and threw him against the wall, but he got up, his teeth gritted. "You're going to lose!"

"Say that again when you're down," Schäfer mocked, lunging at him again. Aurora fought fiercely with her attacker, who was pinning her against an old table. She grabbed a broken bottle and slashed with it, momentarily incapacitating him. "I don't have time for your bullshit," she snarled, turning to Schäfer, who was still wrestling with the other man.

"Aurora, now would be a good time for a brainwave!" Schäfer shouted as his opponent nearly pinned him to the ground.

"Working on it!" she replied, searching for a way to end the fight.

The tension in the room continued to rise as the fight reached its climax. The sounds of blows and heavy breathing filled the air.

The air in the room seemed to thicken as one of the masked men raised his hands and took a hesitant step forward. "You... you..." he stammered, his voice shaky and laced with a strange mixture of fear and tension. "Do you know... what happened to your children?"

Schäfer froze for a moment, then something broke inside him. Without hesitation, he raised his gun and yelled, "Silence!" But his finger was already pulling the trigger.

The bang echoed through the abandoned house as the man collapsed. Blood seeped onto the floor, and the silence that followed was oppressive.

"No! Max!" The second man screamed, dropped his gun, and rushed to the lifeless body. His voice was filled with pain as he pressed his hands against the dead man as if he could bring him back to life.

Aurora stood frozen, her eyes fixed on the scene. "What... what did you do?" she whispered, her voice barely above a breath.

Schäfer, still holding the gun, gasped heavily. "He knew... he knew something about our children!" His voice was rough and brittle, but he, too, was beginning to understand what had happened.

The second man slowly stood up, his hands bloody, as he grabbed the mask on his face with trembling fingers. With a single tug, he pulled it off.

"You... shot your own son!" he cried, his eyes filled with tears and anger. "How could you?"

Aurora gasped as she looked into the face she once knew so well. "Lukas?" she whispered, unable to comprehend the truth.

Schäfer's gun slipped from his hands. He stumbled back a step, his son's words echoing through his mind.

"Why... why did you do this?" Aurora finally asked, her voice trembling.

Lukas, his eyes still filled with tears, stared at her coldly. "That man who took us back then," he began, his voice low and full of bitterness, "he thought you knew who we were. But when you beat us bloody... we knew this wasn't fun anymore."

Aurora's legs gave way, and she sank to the floor. "No... that can't be..."

Schäfer stared at his living son and the lifeless body on the floor. The full extent of what had happened hit him like a blow.

"You were... they weren't just men... they were teenagers... they were our children..." he finally managed, his voice barely above a whisper.

Lukas' cold smile only sent them both spiraling deeper into their abyss. "You lost us, the day you didn't recognize us anymore."

Aurora stared at Lukas, tears streaming incessantly down her face. Her voice trembled as she tried to get the words out, but it came out more like a stutter. "No... no, that can't be you. That... that can't be true. Lukas... Lukas would never... never say something like that. No, that... that's not you!"

Her eyes opened wide, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her voice broke repeatedly, and she stammered, "That's not you, Lukas. You would never do something like that... something like that to us."

In that moment, she was completely torn apart, the pain in her voice clearly audible. Her heart raced as she tried to process the shock, but Lukas's words echoed in her head. She refused to accept what he had said.

Suddenly, a gunshot ripped through the air. Lukas's head exploded in a brutal, bloody shower. His skull shattered, and brain matter flew in all directions as Aurora and Schäfer were struck by the debris with a horrified cry. The warm blood and gray matter splashed onto them as Lukas's dead body crumpled in on itself.

A moment of complete silence, followed by the cold, almost contemptuous voice of a man slowly stepping out of the shadows.

"He was a little nobody, like the other one," the man said with a slightly contemptuous grin. "Should have just kept going. But you messed up."

He looked at the dead bodies of Lukas and Max, now only silent witnesses to the failure.

"Idiots who imagined they could stop us. Life is far more brutal than your little world. You were just too soft." The man let out a light, humorless laugh. "But this... this won't help you anymore." He continued walking with calm steps, as if he had the situation completely under control, while staring at the chaos with a withering glare.

The man slowly raised his head, looked wryly at the bloody chaos surrounding him, and a cool, mocking smile appeared on his lips. "Hmm, well, that's a shame," he murmured calmly. "Have to go."

He turned around with a casual movement, as if he were doing nothing more than taking an ordinary stroll.

At that moment, the doors burst open, and special forces, police, and the military poured into the building with full force. Their footsteps echoed through the room as they scoured the area for the threat, but the man was long gone. The exit was empty, and only the lifeless bodies of Lukas and Max lay behind.

There was a tense, strained silence in the room as everyone gathered around the remnants of what had happened.

Then a number appeared on the screen:

22:12:26

As the building continued to be searched by police, special forces, and the military, Schäfer and Aurora were trapped in a state of shock. Their gazes were blank, the horrors they had witnessed completely unhinged. The bloody sight of Lukas's exploding head and the revelation of the dead woman's true identity shook them to their core.

Aurora crouched on the floor, her hands shaking, staring wordlessly at the bloody stain where Lukas's head had once been. Schäfer sat in a corner, his face contorted in pain and rage. With a strangled scream, he repeatedly beat his head with his hands, as if trying to drive the horror out of his mind.

"No, no... that can't be..." Aurora stammered over and over, spiraling into a state of despair. "Lukas, that... that can't be..."

But the pain was too great. Reality caught up with her, and it felt as if everything was falling apart. In her confusion and despair, Aurora grabbed a nearby piece of shard and held it in her hand, as if trying to free herself.

Schäfer, also overwhelmed by the events, tried to maintain his composure, but he too began to hurt himself, as if he could banish the pain and guilt that way.

"We've... we've lost her," he whispered desperately.

When the police recognized them, they reacted quickly and took them into custody. It was clear they desperately needed help. In a state of utter confusion and grief, both were admitted to a psychiatric hospital while the investigation continued and the city continued to reel from the horrific events.

There was an oppressive silence in the psychiatric ward, except for the occasional screams from Aurora and Schäfer as they tossed and turned in their cells. Both were in a state of utter confusion, their nerves frayed and their thoughts chaotic. They refused to sleep, as if sleep would only lead them deeper into their nightmares. Their screams echoed through the corridors, a terrible echo of the destruction they had witnessed.

At one point, a nurse entered the cell with a glass of water. She placed it in front of them, but neither Aurora nor Schäfer moved. Their eyes were glazed over, and they stared into space, as if removed from the world. After a long moment, Aurora finally reached for the glass, drank quickly, and felt the cool water on her throat. Schäfer followed suit, both in a silent agreement, as if the water would make them human again.

Slowly, as if by an invisible force, they sank into a restless sleep that brought them no rest. The darkness of the night wrapped around them, and their bodies rested, while their minds were still caught in a whirl of events.

When they finally awoke, it was quiet. Too quiet.

The cell was darker than before, the pale light from the corridors only dimly illuminating it. But what they saw there made their blood run cold. On the floor lay a nurse, lifeless, her eyes wide open, staring into the room. She was dead, a horrific sight that burned into their minds. And on her desk lay a black telephone, which now suddenly began to ring.

Aurora and Schäfer stared simultaneously at the nurse's nameplate, which drew their eyes. "Lina," it read, the name that hung over them like an evil shadow. Their eyes met, filled with shock and fear, but before they could react, the shrill sound of the telephone rang out even louder.

The image of the dead nurse and the ringing phone froze them, and suddenly they realized that their past had never truly left them.

Then, in the gloomy silence of the cell, the ringing echoed through the room.

Aurora and Schäfer stared at the telephone, which, in the silence of the cell, pierced the room with its monotonous ringing. The sound ran through their nerves like a wire, tearing their skin apart. They couldn't move, couldn't react, their gazes fixed on the device as if it meant something to them they couldn't yet comprehend.

The ringing continued, incessant, agonizing, until it finally ended in an abrupt halt. The silence that followed was almost more intense than the sound of the ringing. They both took a deep breath, trying to compose themselves, but the oppressive feeling the moment had left behind remained.

Suddenly, without warning, the ringing sounded again. It was like a second blow to their senses, and this time neither of them could resist the urge to ignore the phone. They both simply stared at it, their bodies frozen, as the ringing echoed through the room once more.

It continued to ring, and although both knew there was nothing they could do but wait, a strange, inexplicable tension remained between them. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, it abruptly stopped.

But then, just when they thought it was over, it rang again. Abruptly. Loudly. Time seemed to stand still as they heard it again, and this time neither of them could stop themselves from reacting. The air in the cell grew thicker, the tension unbearable.

The third ring, like an electric shock through their senses, left them frozen in complete shock. Finally, with trembling hands, Aurora picked up the receiver. The sound that then emerged from the device was the answer to everything they couldn't comprehend.

"12:09:21."

The words echoed in their heads as the receiver slipped from their fingers and the phone suddenly became a silent, lifeless object in the cell.

Suddenly, the commanding words sounded through the psychiatric ward's loudspeakers: "Turn off." The voice was cold and insistent, as if echoing directly in their heads. It wasn't the same voice from the phone, but they carried the same threatening edge. Aurora and Schäfer stared at each other, their gazes blank and tinged with a new, inexplicable shock.

The sound of the order broke through the murky atmosphere of the cell. In an instant, as if the room had been crushed by an invisible weight, several government officials entered the cell, their footsteps precise and cold. They entered without a word, began to move, and ordered Aurora and Schäfer to come with them. Both were quickly escorted from the cell and taken to a nearby hotel. There was a strange, almost eerie calm that surrounded them as they were taken to the hotel room and the door closed behind them.

As soon as they entered, one of the government officials picked up his radio and spoke to one of his colleagues. "Have we been able to locate the terrorist over the phone?" His voice was calm, but there was an edge to it.

The colleague on the other end of the line responded with a sigh. "No. The tracking attempt failed. We have no leads."

A moment of silence followed before the first official spoke again, this time more to himself than to his colleague. "It's not over yet."

The sky had already darkened when Schäfer and Aurora were brought to the hotel. The oppressive silence in the room was broken by a deep rumble rising in the distance outside. Shortly after, the first raindrops began to patter against the window, softly and steadily, until they turned into an incessant drumming.

Schäfer sat on the edge of the bed, his head bowed, his shoulders slumped. The darkness in the room made his eyes look like black holes, empty and lost. "Lukas is dead," he murmured suddenly, his voice barely above a whisper.

Aurora sat beside him, staring into space, her hands nervously tugging at the covers. Her lips trembled as she tried to speak, but the words stuck. Finally, she broke the silence: "Max is dead... Lukas is dead..." She shook her head slowly, as if she herself couldn't believe what she was saying.

Schäfer raised his head, his face contorted with pain. "And the curse?" He snorted bitterly, almost hysterically. "The curse is dead too, isn't it? So why does it still haunt us?"

Aurora looked at him, her eyes filled with tears, and whispered, "What have we done?"

The rain outside grew heavier, pounding against the window in a relentless rhythm, as if reflecting the despair in the room.

An uncomfortable silence fell in the psychiatric ward. The cold, clinical smell of disinfectant hung over the room, mixed with the dull sound of rain lashing against the windows. A few floors below them, a group of government officials had gathered in a glass-paned room, discussing their next steps. Their discussion was calm but tense, each sentence seeming to carry the weight of a decision they could no longer avoid.

"We have no choice. We must hand over the artifact," said one of the officers with a neutral expression, his hands folded on the table.