Theodore knocked at the door.
The door opened with a dramatic and distorted smirk from Reji in a devilish grin. Theodore was taken aback by that.
"Eww…." Theodore replied in disgust.
Reji opened the door very majestically. "How was the role as his assistant, Driti?" he asked her. She looked at Theodore and then smiled. Then, looking at Reji, she said, "One was ontological destruction…. One Also, exceeding it…" she replied.
Reji looked at Theodore. He smiled, finding an excuse to go near Theodore. "Bro, did she fall for you?" Reji mused, which only Theodore could hear. Theodore looked at him in a blank stare. "No! What the fuck?! What do you mean by fall for me?" he whispered to Reji.
Meanwhile, Reji was smirking at Theodore. Then, suddenly, as Driti was near them, aware of that, he said, "Well, you guys freshen up. I made Porotta and we have Nilgiri Tahr cooked up for lunch. Now let's dig in." Reji said as he went to the kitchen to take care of the hot Porottas.
"How was your date, Ma Porcupine?" Theodore asked as he passed by him to apply hair oil in the kitchen. As Theodore put oil in his thick hair, he said, "Well, one day I am intentionally gonna put cooking oil and bathe. So, I may not have to sleep in your oily Porotta by myself." Reji replied quickly, "Bad joke. Plus, you don't even oil yourself." Theodore looked at Reji. "Joke of your standard. Now I need that most." he replied casually.
Reji smirked at him again. "I see…" he grinned dramatically. Theodore just smiled and entered the shower.
Reji was cooking the Porotta in the iron pan, then his mobile rang. He accepted the call. "Yes, dear… How are you?" he asked through the mobile, smiling; his tone was very enthusiastic.
It was his girlfriend. He talked to her while placing his mobile between his shoulder and ear, so he could cook the Porotta elegantly.
Then Driti approached him. "Want any help?" she asked. He nodded no at her; he talked on his phone, "Huh? Yeah, that is Driti. Yeah, here she is." Reji said.
Driti looked at Reji. He handed his mobile to her. "She is my girlfriend. Talk to her, I talked about you to her, she is a surgeon in the SCPO branch Ernakulam." Reji smiled.
"Hey there!" Driti spoke. "Um… Yeah, I am Driti…. What is your name? Oh… That's a beautiful name… No, we were about to have food… Yes, Reji is cooking Porotta, and I was hoping I could help him…" Driti smiled. She continued on the mobile, "Oh, ah, I see… That must be a tough schedule…. Not particularly, but I guess now, I am Theodore's assistant…" She listened.
"Yes, he is sure a…" Driti hesitated. "Kind guy… Yeah, that is right about him…" Her sounding became firm with interest. "Well… Oh, good night… Yeah, bye, take care…" She returned the phone to Reji. "Yes, well, I will call you later, darling… Yeah, sure, bye!" Reji replied to the phone call; he hung up.
"She is your girlfriend, right?" Driti asked. "Yeah, she is…" he replied, cooking Porotta.
Driti smiled. "That tells a lot…" Reji looked at her. "What do you possibly mean?" Reji asked. "Tsk, leave it…" she said, smiling at the crispy Porotta in front of her in the bowl.
Theodore came out of the shower, rubbing his residual wet hair with his towel, wearing a random black T-shirt with ONE PUNCH MAN in stylish writing with normal grey colored pants.
"Well, let me help you arrange the dinner," Driti said to Reji, and then she took the bowl of Nilgiri Tahr, which was already heated.
She barehandedly took them and placed them on the table while keeping them above a mold of fabric.
Reji brought the bowl of Porotta; Theodore took water from the fridge, then diluted it with normal water, and placed a jar of water on the table. They seated themselves.
While having Porotta and Nilgiri Tahr, Reji asked, "How was the espionage?" he asked them.
Theodore and Driti looked at each other, then at Reji. Theodore began explaining exactly what happened.
Reji was locked in, wanting to know exactly what happened to them. But Driti was surprised.
As Theodore explained everything that happened to them, she asked, "Hey, but how did you have the exact memories of what happened in the dimensions of perception and anticipation?" she asked him.
"You are right to ask, since those unconscious dimensions explicitly never even constrain to abstractness or superior qualitative, but also surpass them. It's not a very possible idea to have that memory. But I did something unnerving, I did some forceful repercussion. When you were corrupted by the dimensions of silence overriding the dimensions of anticipation, before that, I had already established my consciousness surrounding my external self. While I was just very clear, something would happen exactly as I planned, which would be enough for my oneness to just distort and throw out of my unconscious boundary into my consciousness. So, when I got that strip of memory of the Hill Palace Museum leading to Prakash, as I doubted about the IIB officer I met today, in that moment, you grabbed and punched me. I let you hit me, so my unconscious oneness would leak from me. But with my conscious control, I set up the dimension of doubting… Of course, it is dangerous as each doubt can cause exceeding qualities of infinities, including every infinity and inaccessibility that exists, existed, and will exist, surpassing absolute infinity, and analogies including ontological and metamorphic, rhetoric with self-exceeding itself. As you know, Driti, each doubt is self-exceedingly above superior qualitative, and also in every way. I just doubted if my oneness would leak, so I covered your anticipation dimension with my dimension of doubt, to balance it. Thus, when the consciousness caught my unconscious oneness, I even had your memory's compacted version, which I wondered if I should give you, but it was even overwhelming for me to read in conscious form. That's why I didn't let you pass that memory. Thus, I remembered everything." Theodore showed them the manifestation of Driti's unconscious oneness, a glowing red, thin, bloody thread, as he explained to them.
"Holy Yapper!" Reji commented.
"Fuck you! That was just a close call!" Theodore yelled at Reji suddenly.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, those dimensions are more messed up than the known cosmos's higher verses, yeah, you did good!" Reji said in acceptance and slight envy.
Driti became silent.
"What happened, Driti?" Theodore asked her.
"I now believe that we will catch that murderer Eldritch soon," Driti said with hope, looking at Theodore. Suddenly, Theodore broke eye contact, looking at the food, and murmured,
"Thanks… We will."
They had dinner, chatting about regular incidents. Now, they needed to decide where to sleep and where to allocate Driti to sleep, too.
"Well, Theodore and I will sleep in that room. You sleep here, Driti," Reji said. "Isn't it right, Theo?" Theodore, who was playing Minecraft on his mobile, nodded without listening to him. "Yeah!"
They marched to sleep. Theodore and Reji slept, hugging each other; hands on hands, legs tangled gently, while peace washed over them.
Meanwhile, far from that warm moment, Driti sat in silence, torn by a storm of conflicting thoughts. A replay of the day ran in her head; she couldn't believe it.
Because right now, at this time, in that faraway house where she used to be, she should've been crouched in despair… no voice to hear, no soul to speak to, buried in loneliness.
But then, a beam of light. A flicker in that eternal darkness that bound her. Tears rolled down her cheeks, not from sadness, but relief.
She hugged herself tight, smiling through the ache, eyes fluttering shut. For the first time in forever, she felt like she could sleep.
Driti woke up early. As she washed her face, her light brown silhouette glowed with the brilliance of a rising star, rivaling the sun itself. She took a deep breath and smiled at the open world.
"What a beautiful day, I will be the best aid for Theodore and Reji today. Stay strong, Driti! Stay shining!" she whispered, motivating herself. Unaware of the future awaiting her, she felt ready to face it and counter whatever challenges might come.
A sharp knock sounded at the door. When Driti opened it, the girl standing there with a milk can froze, stupefied. She watched as the curtains seemed to slide aside on their own; she felt a heavy presence in the room that made her skin crawl. Adrenaline surged as her instincts screamed at her to flee.
"Argh! Ghost! Ghost!" the girl screamed, dropping the milk and bolting down the hallway.
Watching her go, Driti's heart sank. Theodore stirred awake, though Reji remained asleep like a buffalo, likely exhausted from a late-night chat with his lover. When Theodore finally saw Driti, her face was dull, the light she woke with having vanished.
The milk can lay tipped on the floor. "I'm sorry… Theodore…" she said in a soft, breaking voice. Before he could respond, she vanished from existence.
Theodore picked up the can, set it on the table, and walked into the kitchen. He reached out, peeling back the layers of reality to find Driti crouching in a hidden dimension.
"Hey… Driti…" Theodore called out softly. He didn't have the heart to yell at her, though he knew she expected it. He stepped into her dimension, his calm presence signaling he meant no harm.
"Humans will never accept me…" she murmured. "You freed me, but at what cost?"
Theodore fell silent for a moment before placing a steady hand on her shoulder. "I am human, you know, despite all of this. And I can hear you."
Driti raised her chin to look at him. Her eyes glowed like a dying star and her ears burned with a deep, intense blush. Her body shimmered even brighter than it had the day before. Her tears stopped, but she was so flustered that she "ghosted" herself—her very being slipped past the normal rules of time and space.
To a normal person, Driti had become impossible to see. Her essence was vibrating at a depth that standard tools couldn't measure. She had essentially broken the laws of physics that govern how the smallest particles in the universe stick together. For Theodore to truly perceive her now, he would have to look beyond the physical world.
"This woman…" Theodore fidgeted. "She's literally quantum phasing from embarrassment. I guess I still got it."
He took a deep breath. "Driti, it's okay. Just be cool. Prepare yourself—we're going to SCPO Headquarters today," he said loudly, knowing she could still hear him.
The sun shone so brightly that it reflected off the glass, making Theodore flinch. He felt a sudden warmth spread through him. He looked out at the roadside where, amidst the rushing traffic and thick pollution, a single green plant grew from the concrete. He watched as a small girl approached the plant, poured a bit of water on it, and walked away with a smile.
Watching the scene, Theodore smiled. He stared out at the world. "Maybe this day ain't that ass!" he murmured.