We entered the spa without thinking of anything bad that would happen. We walked inside towards the lounge, where there was a lady sitting alone behind the desk.
“Hello! Welcome to SPA-SM, where all your worries will be spasmed the moment you enjoy your time inside our exquisite Spa!” said the young lady, who seems to be in her 20s.
“(SPA-SM? What kinda naming convention is this? So bad!)” said me in my head.
*tap tap*
*?*
My mother taps on my left shoulder a few times, and I turn my head towards her. She begins whispering.
“Qu-kun! That girl is kinda cute! Are you interested in her? Why not ask her out on a date?” whispers her.
“(What on earth is my own mother saying to me about a stranger we barely met a few seconds ago?)”
“I am not here for any of that! My personal life choices stay secret within me! Just enjoy your spa time in the moment!” whispers me back at her.
“Aww! Qu-kun! I want to see you with a girl! I am in my forties already! I want to meet my grandchild soon, one day.” whispers my mother with a pouted mouth.
“That is still ages away! There’s no point in talking about it right now! Besides, I am still 20 years old, and I barely had a job for a week. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Muuuuu!! I think it’s fine to start thinking about the future from now on, Qu-kun!”
“Yeah, but not when someone is literally welcoming us in public places. . .”
*!*
Her mother just realized that we both left the young lady behind the desk hanging.
“I-I apologize! Yes, we both want to enjoy our time here!”
“Certainly, madam and mister! Please fill this form!”
The young lady put two papers on the desk and gave us both two pens to write them.
“What’s this for?” asks me.
“It’s formality! We need your identity for security reasons!” answers the young lady.
“I see.”
We both take the pen and start filling out the forms quickly.
The questionnaires are basic stuff like names, birthplace, birthdate, and such. There is also a question of whether we’re a Believer or not, which is a pretty normal question for security reasons, as she mentioned. They also requested us to write down a brief explanation of how our Faith power works for the Believers.
We quickly filled out the forms and gave them back to the young lady. She reads both forms quickly to check if there are any errors or not.
*!*
“Excuse me, Obaa-san! You’re a Believer?” asks the young lady.
“O-OBAA-SAN?!” said my mother, shocked.
I shove my mother’s side with my left elbow gently.
“Oh, c’mon! You’re at that age. No need to act that surprised.” whispers me.
“MUUUUUUUUUUU!!! QU-KUN, YOU MEANIEEEE!!!”
*PUK PUK PUK PUK PUK*
My mother starts hitting me gently with the bottom of both of her fists in succession.
“Alright, please stop this comedy setup. We’re going in!”
“We actually have a special service for our beautiful Madam Believer and her son!” said the young lady suddenly, interrupting us.
“EH? Special service? YAAY!! WE’RE SO LUCKY, QU-KUN!! THANK YOU, GOD!!”
“There is no God, mother! We’re just lucky, which is a chance or happenstance that happens constantly throughout all manners of actions and occurrences in the world!”
“What are you saying, Qu-kun? God does exist! Otherwise, all of existence wouldn’t have existed! He is the Creator of all things! Things that have been created were because there was a creator first, right? For example, a car was created by design. Its complex design and mechanism point to its creator! It’s the same way how buildings point to a builder, and paintings point to a painter. So how come a world this complex does not have a Creator? That mindset is the thoughtless one between us two!” said my mother firmly with a stern expression.
“. . .”
It has been quite a while since I saw my mother acting like this, like a proper mother with respect and integrity. I guess she has been doting on me for far too long that I forgot about this side of her. She is pretty laidback and leisurely regarding anything else, and she easily admits defeat whenever we argue about some silly topics, but when it comes to God’s existence, she has never once backed down, and I was the only one backing out of this topic. Her reasoning makes sense, yet somehow in my heart, I refuse to accept her reasons and always back out of the argument. This is very childish of me, and I have no idea why I acted this way.
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*Sigh*
I let out a sigh of defeat.
“Forget this for now! Let’s just enjoy our time in this place.”
“Oh, right! I almost forgot! Lead the way, young Missy!” said my mother enthusiastically.
And just like that, all of that bravado of hers went down the drain, and she acts the same way again. I genuinely don’t get this part of her. . .
“This way!”
The young lady leads us into a hallway next to the counter, and we follow her. I see my mother looks so excited to be here. I can’t help but smile a bit.
“This way!” said the young lady.
She leads us into a left turn, and we enter a room where there are only the three of us.
“Please wait here, you two, as we prepared the special service for you both!”
And then the young lady left the room rather in a hurry and closed the door behind her, which seems strange to me. We sat down in the two chairs at the center of the room.
“Qu-kun! What do you think is gonna happen next?”
“I have no clue. This is my first time going to places like this.”
“Same for me! All I know from the word Spa is some kinda beauty treatment of some sort.”
“Let’s just enjoy our time here, mother!”
“Yaaaayy!!” said my mother as she raised both of her hands with a big smile on her face.
I take a look at the room, and this room really is weird. For starters, the walls, floor, and ceilings are made of metal. It’s like we’re inside some kinda lab or something. There are small holes all around the top edges of the entire walls around us. Though the room itself is filled to the brim with shelves, lockers, a desk, two beds, and other stuff I have no clue about. Atmospherically, this still looks like a spa room to me; then again, I have no comparison to make since this is my first time.
“Mother, doesn’t this place seem weird to you?”
“Hm? What do you mean? I mean, I’ve never been here, so I wouldn’t know.”
“. . .I can’t help but shake the feeling that something is wrong.”
“Eh?? Aren’t you overthinking this, Qu-kun?? This is just a normal spa like any other, though it’s not like I know any other spas to begin with.”
*SSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
*!!!*
All of a sudden, there is a loud hissing noise inside this entire room.
“W-What is that noise?” said my mother with a concerned face.
I stand up quickly from the chair.
“What is going on now?”
I look at all the holes on the wall, and they are all spewing gas out, a very thin and barely visible gas with no colors and no smell.
“MOTHER!!”
“LET’S GET OUT OF HERE, QU-KUN!!”
We immediately bolted towards the only door to this room.
*!*
“It’s locked!”
“OH NO!! WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN TO US, QU-KUN?”
“I’ll break it!!”
I immediately turn around to take the chairs we both sat at to hit the door with it.
*!!*
But I did not expect that I would not be strong enough to lift such a light chair with my strength.
“(What is this?!)”
I can feel my body’s strength slowly sapping away from me.
*THUD*
My knees felt week and I immediately fell to the floor on my chest.
“QU-KUN!! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?”
*THUD*
My mother ran to me, but as soon as she reached me, she also fell to the floor, losing the strength in her two legs.
“What is. . . going on. . .?”
“Qu. . .kun. . .”
We both felt incredibly drowsy all of a sudden, and our eyes closed on their own from the heavy feelings of drowsiness. We both quickly fell asleep in the room.
.
.
.
“. . .”
I slowly open my eyes.
“Urgh. . .”
My vision is still blurry, and my hearing feels noisy; I couldn’t see or hear anything properly.
“(What is going on. . .? Why would anyone want to put us to sleep)”
After a few seconds, my vision and hearing returned to me. My head feels very light at the moment. Must be because of how deep my sleep was from that sleeping gas.
I finally get to take a look at my own body.
*!*
I have felt that my position is weird, and now I realized that I am being put to sit on a chair, with my arms and legs locked into the armrests and the legs of the chair.
“W-What is this?”
*GRRNG GRRNG*
I tried to break myself free from the bindings, and it was futile. I am pretty tall, but I am not exactly physically strong. My body is thin and slender, so it is impossible to break free with my physical capability against the steel bindings on my arms and legs.
*GRRNG GRRNG*
It doesn’t matter how many times I tried to break free. I am never gonna break these steel bindings, no matter how hard I try.
After realizing how in vain my actions were, I took a look at my surroundings.
“. . .”
I see that I am inside some kinda lab, but I’m not sure. I look to the far right, about two meters away, and see an operating table with my mom lying on top.
*!*
“MOTHER!!”
I shouted at the sight of my mother. She has been bound to the operating table as well. Her legs, her hands, her neck, and even her torso were bound by some kinda black belts.
“MOTHER!! ARE YOU AWAKE? MOTHER!!”
But my mother did not respond. She doesn’t seem to be awake, but I saw that her chest is still moving up and down slowly, signalling that she is still breathing normally.
“(At least she’s fine. Though I can’t really see her well-being from here. What should I do now? Who did this? Why would someone want to kidnap us like this? I don’t remember ever wronging someone this badly that they wanted revenge on me and even involving my mother!)”
I take a look at the surroundings once again, as I have not properly because of the sight of my mother.
“(This room feels like any other room inside a hospital! There are many pieces of operating equipment here, and the rooms are pretty clean with a minimal amount of dirt, filth, and blood. So this means, this room is being used regularly and they keep it clean almost every day!)”
I take a look at the many cabinets inside the room on the other side of where I was bound.
“(There are many more equipment of many kinds inside those cabinets. That’s normal.)”
But when I take a look at the lower cabinet, there are labels on each of them signalling what each shelf contains.
*!!!*
Brains, intestines, kidneys, bones, eyeballs, tongues, ears, hairs, batches of skins, nails, genitals, and many more. My mind quickly went astray with negative thoughts as I kept reading those labels.
“(S-Someone kidnapped us to take our organs? Are they gonna mutilate us and sell our body parts to, perhaps, the Underworld? DAMMIT!! WE MUST GET OUT OF HERE IMMEDIATELY!!)”
“. . .”
“(But how? I am not strong enough to break free. How are we gonna escape?? Where are we, right now? Are we even still inside that spa building?)”
*!!*
“(WAIT!! MY MOTHER’S FAITH POWER!! SHE CAN GET US OUT OF HERE!! I HAVE TO WAKE THEM UP QUICKLY!!)”
“MOTHER!! MOTHEEEERRRR!! WAKE UUUPP!!! PLEASE WAKE UP!!!”
I begin to shout loudly, calling out to my mother to disturb her ‘beauty’ sleep.
“MOTHEEERRR!! MOTHEEERRR!! WAKE UUUUUPPPPP!!! MOOTTTHHHEEEEEERRRRRR!!!”
I shout and shout and shout to the point that I can feel my throat vibrating, and my voice starts to crack. I’ve never been the type who talks much. I can’t believe my throat is already sore from shouting for only a few times.
“MOTHEEEEEEEEERRRRRR!!!”
“Oh, that won’t matter, my dear lab pig!”
*!!!*
Suddenly, I heard someone talking from my left as I kept my sight towards my mother all the time.
