A sharp electronic beep shattered the silence.
The sound echoed through the hospital room before fading into the steady rhythm of a monitor beside the bed.
Hakiten's eyes opened.
For a brief moment he remained motionless.
Then he sat upright.
The movement caused several loose bandages to slide from his shoulders.
Beside him, a nurse calmly continued her work.
One by one she removed the old wrappings and dropped them into a nearby dustbin.
The room smelled faintly of disinfectant.
Outside the window the afternoon sky remained hidden behind grey clouds.
Hakiten barely noticed.
His attention remained fixed somewhere far away.
Lost.
The nurse finished her task without speaking.
Perhaps she had already grown accustomed to his silence.
Within seconds she walked toward the doorway and left.
The door remained open behind her.
Wide open.
Almost deliberately.
As though she expected someone else to enter.
Hakiten turned his gaze toward the window.
The glass reflected part of his face.
He hated looking at it.
Even now.
Especially now.
The blue patches had spread further.
They covered large sections of his body.
What had once been normal skin now resembled damaged stone.
The colour looked wrong.
Unnatural.
Alive.
For several seconds he stared at his reflection.
Then movement appeared near the doorway.
Only a slight motion.
Yet enough.
Hakiten turned immediately.
Someone stood there.
Juson.
Neither of them spoke.
The silence between them felt familiar.
Old.
Almost comforting.
Juson slowly stepped into the room.
As he moved closer his eyes settled upon Hakiten's exposed skin.
The damage was impossible to ignore.
More than half of Hakiten's face had changed colour.
Blue veins stretched beneath the surface.
The rest of his body remained covered with scars and patched areas where the bandages had been removed.
Juson stopped.
His expression changed.
Not fear.
Not disgust.
Something else.
Recognition.
Hakiten noticed it immediately.
For a strange moment both of them simply stared at each other.
The feeling reminded him of something.
A memory.
A forgotten conversation.
A distant day.
Déjà vu.
The sensation lingered between them.
Eventually Hakiten broke the silence.
"Sit."
Juson nodded.
A chair stood beside the bed.
He lowered himself onto it.
For several seconds neither of them spoke.
The monitor continued its rhythmic beeping.
Outside, distant footsteps passed through the corridor.
Hakiten leaned back slightly.
"You waited outside for a long time."
Juson didn't answer.
His attention remained fixed on the blue patches.
Something about them bothered him.
The colour.
The texture.
The shape.
He had seen something similar before.
Not here.
Not on Hakiten.
On someone else.
The memory remained frustratingly distant.
Close enough to feel.
Too far to remember.
Finally he spoke.
"What happened to you?"
The question hung in the room.
Hakiten's expression changed instantly.
His eyes drifted away.
Toward the wall.
Toward anywhere except Juson.
Several seconds passed.
No answer came.
The silence grew heavier.
Juson waited.
Eventually Hakiten exhaled slowly.
The words escaped before he could stop them.
"Out of Control."
Juson's eyebrows narrowed.
"What?"
Hakiten remained silent.
The phrase itself meant nothing.
Yet something about it struck a nerve.
A connection formed somewhere inside Juson's mind.
Blue sand. Red sand .Expansion. Control.
The strange demonstration from earlier.
The memory surfaced immediately.
But blurry.
"What are you talking about?"
Hakiten finally looked back at him.
His expression had become serious.
Far more serious than before.
"Do you really want to know?"
The question felt strange.
Almost like a warning.
Juson nodded.
Hakiten stared at him for several seconds.
Then he began speaking.
Slowly.
Carefully.
As though every word carried weight.
Outside the room, life continued normally.
Doctors walked through corridors.
Patients spoke quietly.
Machines hummed.
No one realised how important the conversation inside that room might become.
No one except one person.
A figure moved through the corridor.
Carrying a suitcase.
The man passed the doorway without stopping.
Neither Juson nor Hakiten noticed him.
Their attention remained locked on each other.
The figure continued walking.
Toward the stairwell.
Toward the upper floors.
Toward a destination hidden from almost everyone inside the hospital.
Genido.
The suitcase remained firmly in his grip.
His pace was steady.
Purposeful.
Yet as he approached the stairs another person intercepted him.
A nurse.
She greeted him politely.
Genido responded automatically.
Then her eyes shifted downward.
Toward the suitcase.
A simple question followed.
"What is inside?"
For the briefest moment Genido froze.
A harmless question.
An ordinary question.
Yet something about it immediately made him uncomfortable.
The nurse noticed.
His hesitation lasted less than a second.
But she noticed.
Genido forced a smile.
"Blood samples."
The answer arrived quickly.
Too quickly.
Yet it sounded believable enough.
The nurse accepted it.
After all, this was a hospital.
Blood samples were nothing unusual.
The conversation ended there.
But as Genido continued walking upstairs, one thought remained inside his head.
If she had asked one more question...
Everything might have become far more complicated.