Mermaid Effect

Rand watched the police car leave from the balcony.

He stood there in silence for a while and then went back into the room, went into the kitchen, and started pouring coffee beans into the coffee grinder.

Oh yes, of course he remembered the days when he was getting the vaccine, but he felt that he was beginning to be overwhelmed by the craving for cheap instant coffee that was sweet and hot.

It was rare because he hadn't wanted to drink anything like that since that night when he was 14.

Maybe it was just the unpleasant encounter with the police that brought back memories, Rand thought, but he found his hands were shaking so badly that dark brown coffee beans fell on the table and then on the gray frosted kitchen floor. superior.

I should clean this place up.

Rand seemed to be able to hear a voice in his body talking, muttering to himself, but all he could do was stand there numbly.

He found himself unable to move.

cold……

Under the high temperature of Kansas, Rand felt the kind of cold that seemed to freeze even the nerves in the kitchen of his home.He breathed in the warm air with big gulps, but the icy cold that seemed to spread from the depths of his body froze his whole body.

Rand felt a trance.

He seems to have returned to the night when he was 14 years old again. The lights in the police station were dim, there were all kinds of unexplainable stains on the walls, and the air was filled with turbidity - caused by those addicts, drunks and people with heavy Perfumed whores bring.

He was sitting on a hard chair, rocking back and forth uncontrollably.

Everything around him surrounded him like a viscous liquid, his mind went blank, someone came over and asked his name...

he does not know.

The past was a cloud of ignorance to him, everything was so chaotic, only a vague fear stayed behind that cloud of fog.

Then, the boy who was much thinner and paler than his peers lowered his head and saw his hands... There were black stains between the nails.

But Rand knew it wasn't a smudge, it was just dried blood.

The cold hit him at that moment, his heart was beating as if it was about to explode, he opened his mouth vigorously, desperately trying to breathe, but the air could not enter his lungs at all, as if there was an invisible His hand blocked his trachea.

The strange thing is that he can clearly picture the hand in his mind, dry and slender, with damp and cold skin.

Tens of seconds later, he lay on the ground with a livid face, and a female police officer noticed his strangeness (at that time he was rolling desperately on the ground, his legs kicking the ground feebly).

"My God, this kid has asthma..."

……

"Hey, calm down, calm down, look at me... Rand... look at me... puff... puff... puff... Rand..."

A voice spoke to him.

Rand instinctively followed his words, and it took a long time (perhaps only a moment, of course) before he realized that it was Rogers who had spoken.

In the blurred vision his brightly colored hair almost stings the eye.

He was kneeling on the ground, with one arm around Rand, and the other holding a brown brown paper bag over his nose and mouth.Rand looked at him at a very close distance, and found that Rogers had a pair of unusually light gray eyes.

From a certain angle, those eyes are like reptiles, without any emotions that should belong to human beings, making people feel shuddering instinctively-of course this is only a very short-lived feeling, even Rand He didn't even realize it, because another feeling was confusing him: familiarity.

Rand's consciousness faltered for a moment, as if the scene in front of him had happened many times before.

(Someone used to stare at him who was almost suffocated like a reptile without any emotion)

Rogers held Rand's neck with his hand. Compared with his anxious expression, his hand was unusually stable and extremely cold, like a dead man's hand that had been frozen in the freezer for a long time. Shrinking slightly under the action of the air-conditioning, it felt like crepe paper—but, damn it, what was he thinking!

Rand gave a jerk, and the whole world came back to him at last.

The air was warm, Rogers' voice was tense and loud, coffee beans were pressed under his body, and not far away, some messy daily necessities were scattered on the ground, obviously the leather bag in Rogers' hand was used to hold them.

"Hey, I think I'm all right."

Rand calmed down some breathing rhythms, and finally had the strength to slowly push away Rogers' hand.

Rogers blinked, tiny rhinestones on his false eyelashes and under his eyes, and glared at Rand.

"Dude, do you know one thing - if you have asthma, you should have that life-saving spray within easy reach!"

He screamed, and then, as if he had finally recovered, he sat down on the ground with his hands on the floor behind him.

"You're scaring people to death!"

After a moment he opened his hands and thumped his chest and added that, if one could ignore the resin roses on his nails, he did look terrified.

Rand couldn't help feeling sorry for his instinctive resistance to him at that moment. After all, Rogers seemed to be really worried about him now.

"I'm sorry," he said dryly, "I didn't think about it...it's just neurological asthma. I haven't had this problem for a long time, and I thought it would have been cured."

Rand slowly stood up while supporting the counter. His legs were still a little weak, but they were almost back to normal.

"Neurological...functional asthma?"

"Ah, yes, it's a kind of..." Rand struggled to find the exact words to explain in his still somewhat chaotic mind, "Psychological problems, I think."

Rogers looked straight at Rand, who blinked again (Rand couldn't ignore his blink because the rhinestones were too shiny), parted his lips, but finally said simply: "Oh. That sounds like trouble." Then he thought for a moment and added, "But everything will be fine, right?"

It was very obvious that he wanted to comfort Rand.

A wave of warmth swept over Rand, and for the first time he revealed a little weakness in front of a person he didn't know well—he asked Rogers to make him a cup of coffee that was very hot and heavily syrupy.

Rogers, who seemed so worried about his condition, forced Rand to eat some of his new treats: buttery biscuits filled with marshmallows and peanut butter, encased in a creamy chocolate crust.

Even though his physical and mental state were extremely fragile, Rand had to admit that this maybe a little too sweet snack would give people the illusion that everything was good.

Perhaps it was precisely this illusion that, when Rand sipped his last sip of coffee, he spoke in a strange way.

"Actually, the doctor said I might have been traumatized in some way."

he said to Rogers.

"I think you should know that I was...was..."

"I've been kidnapped." Rogers interrupted his hesitation. The next second, the man with heavy makeup showed an embarrassed expression. He covered his mouth, "Sorry, I just accidentally..."

"Ah, no, no, it's okay, after all, isn't it famous?" Rand relaxed instead, "I heard that my missing person announcement was broadcast throughout the United States at that time."

Rand was right.

Eighteen years ago, the kidnapping case about him can be said to have shocked the entire United States.

A female psychopath broke into Sievers' Los Angeles home during the daytime during a summer vacation, kidnapped Rand Sievers, who was only ten years old at the time, and left.At that time, Rand's parents were busy with a very important experiment in the company, and 16-year-old Vincent Sievers was at home with Rand.

However, Rand was still kidnapped.

If this is all it is, the whole story has not yet reached the point where people still pay attention to it 18 years later. The real incident happened a week after his disappearance, when four people were found brutally murdered in a luxury vacation home near Los Angeles The dead body—the dead body was the owner of the villa.

The unbelievable thing is that, according to the CCTV records in the villa, the victim was killed a week ago, the day Rand disappeared...

Then, a young woman took Rand and another child to spend a whole week luxuriously and happily in this villa as the owner.The woman even held a dance party, and almost everyone believed her statement that "the former owner failed to invest and mortgaged the villa to her". After all, she is so funny, humorous and charming.

Four bodies were rotting in the basement as people reveled in the outdoor swimming pool.

In the end the stench was almost unbearable, but when the body was found, the woman had disappeared with Rand and the other child without a trace.

This massacre was called the "Los Angeles Double Murder" by the media at the time-unfortunately, this was just the beginning.

Since that day, similar cases have occurred almost every once in a while.

Sometimes it is the owner of a luxurious villa, sometimes it is a happy middle class in a model community, and sometimes it is a poor but happy family in the RV area... The woman changed her appearance in various ways and killed the original owner of the house Then he took the two children and pretended to be the real owner of the house, lived a fantastic family life, and then disappeared quickly.

According to the very few materials released later by the FBI, the agency internally judged this woman as "unimaginably high IQ and cold-blooded".

She is simply the Lilith of the criminal world, completely playing with the law enforcement agencies at the time.The method of crime, appearance and whereabouts are impeccable. She has only one thing that has never changed, Rand.

She took Rand with her at all times.

until two years later.

"Lilith"'s criminal methods were too ostentatious and stereotyped. After spending a lot of manpower and material resources, the FBI finally caught her fox tail.

However, Rand and the boy called "The Other Man" were nowhere to be found in the cabin where she eventually killed herself.

People just found a large number of bloody boy's belongings in "Lilith"'s carry-on luggage, but according to the identification, those bloodstains did not belong to Rand.

With the death of "Lilith", Rand's whereabouts have almost become an eternal mystery.

In fact, after Rand returned to the Sievers family, if Vincent hadn't demonstrated the ability to make people feel frightened, using all the resources he could use to forcefully suppress the entire American media industry, Rand Sievers would have almost It is impossible to have this kind of peaceful life now.

At this point, Rand had to admit that he was extraordinarily grateful to Vincent.

"But, when you show up in two years, everyone should be able to notice, right?"

Rogers sat next to Rand and said in a relaxed manner.

Rand gave him a subtle smile.

"Oh, actually, when I reappeared, besides amnesia... there were some other changes," he said, "It's a very unbelievable thing to say. change, and my blood type has changed too. I don't think anyone would have thought that I was that Rand Sivers's if it wasn't for the final DNA test. In fact, I know that even now there are many People think I'm just a liar trying to divide up the Sievers family assets."

Rand said mockingly.

What was Rand like before he was ten years old?He had seen that child in pictures, on video.

The bad habit of close relatives in the Sievers family who came from Europe in the past directly led to the genetic disease of the whole family. Like Vincent, he has some mild albinism symptoms-almost exactly the same as his father.That kind of bloodless white, light-blond light-colored hair was even once the symbol of the Sievers family.However, when he appeared in front of the world again 14 years ago, he was a normal boy with black hair and green eyes.

At the same time, his blood also became a rare blood type.

So rare that Vincent strictly forbids him to reveal his blood problems to anyone.

……

In this conversation with Rogers, Rand actually didn't say much—after all, he was discussing a kidnapping that had no meaning at all, or a case that was so bloody that many senior detectives committed suicide... It's all very embarrassing.

Rand just said something about psychotherapy, he had a little problem, and the doctor was always making a fuss.Rodgers even echoes this — he was sent to a psychiatrist years ago simply because of the mascara.

"...Of course, the effect is not too bad. The doctor's stuff is incredible."

Rogers finally licked his lips and recalled that there was some flush on his cheeks, but Rand guessed it was just blush.

Well, aside from Rodgers' occasional remarks that made Rand feel a little uncomfortable, the conversation was mostly pleasant.

The conversation with him made Rand feel relaxed and happy, although at a certain moment, for a very short moment, he still felt a slight fear of Rogers.

Rand didn't know what the damn drawbridge theory or something was, or even just that abnormal mutation next to the Orml3 gene (which causes misregulation of sphingolipid production - a change that directly contributes to asthma) , he still felt that Rogers gave him a feeling like a friend.

As night fell, Rogers and Rand ended the encounter.When Rand sent Rogers away, he finally realized why he always felt that something was wrong.

The door lock of the apartment’s main door had obviously come off the side, and clear footprints could still be seen on the outside—no matter what it was like before, but the door that appeared in Rand’s sight now is undoubtedly useless .

God knows how hard Rogers used to kick the door open. Rand touched the door involuntarily, and found that the wooden boards there were almost completely cracked.

"I'm very sorry."

With his fingers stuck in his red hair, Rogers shrugged his shoulders and said with some embarrassment.

Obviously, the reason why he could appear next to Rand before was because he directly kicked Rand's door lock.

……

Rand didn't speak, he looked at him in confusion.

He had an asthma attack, and even breathing was a great difficulty, and he fell weak and soundless to the floor-theoretically, as a neighbor, Rogers should not and could not be aware of it.But Rogers broke into his room at the most critical moment and saved him.

This pattern may be difficult to explain by coincidence.

As a person who was driven to a mental breakdown by Vincent's desire for control, Rand's vigilance against such things has almost been carved into his genes.He sincerely hoped that Rogers could give him a reasonable explanation.

"I just didn't feel right at the time, so I didn't have the strength to control myself." Rogers took a step back and said to Rand, "Honestly, it's ridiculous, but when I passed by your door, I thought I heard There was a sound."

"sound?"

"Ah, yes, I don't know how to describe it. All in all, it's a very uncomfortable sound. I think it's a bit like white noise, but... no, it's different... the moment I heard that sound, I just It felt like something extremely bad was going on in your room, so I broke in."

He blinked again, and there was a touch of emotion that really belonged to him in his eyes—doubt, passing quickly.

Rogers knew he wasn't lying.

"Look, Rand, if you think there's something wrong with what I'm doing, I... well, I don't know how to explain it, but that's how it is."

Rogers looked very disturbed.

Rand lowered his head and smiled wryly.He had to admit that Rogers was a person who was very good at infecting others with himself. At least when faced with this kind of explanation that was almost like a joke, Rand found that he actually began to believe his statement.

"Well, maybe that was God's instruction."

he said to Rogers.

Rand was still baffled by the so-called "white noise" after calling a caretaker to fix the locks.

A voice that makes people feel uncomfortable and can render emotions just by hearing it?

You know, apart from him (who was lying on the ground convulsing like a madman), the only other creature in the room at the time was a fish.

Rand slowly approached the aquarium as he thought.

However, after seeing the state of the aquarium, Rand involuntarily opened his eyes wide.