Seeing the unexpected turn of events, the boys froze in response to being caught, while Alan's own heart stopped for a second in finally having karma catch up to them. With sweat running down their foreheads, the trio couldn't believe their eyes from what they're witnessing.
In front of their very own eyes stood another three individuals—grownups, to be precise. The surprised man and horrified young woman stood beside a humanoid person who doesn't appear to be human in any way whatsoever.
"Christ..." Eyes widening, Menes couldn't believe what he was looking at. "Why are you kids doing this?" He was rather flabbergasted to witness these youngsters committing such an evil act. However, it wasn't common for natural psychopaths to appear out of nowhere unless they were either severely traumatized by the event they were in or genuinely sick in the mind.
As the question was asked, the youngest of the group worriedly whispered to his friends, "Guys, we have to go." Jody quietly said to them, "before they tell our parents what we did!" He was the first one to look at the leader in disagreement, shaking his head quickly in utter panic over their current situation.
Hesitantly, the fat child disagreed, "Okay!" Whispered loudly, "We came here to have our fun and were not wasting it!" With quick thinking, he proposed the idea, "grab it while we run; that way we didn't our precious moments in getting this dumb animal." He replied under his breath to ensure their words wouldn't reach the strangers.
Alan, however, became conflicted about this. On the one hand, apologizing his actions to these strangers, who are presumably the owners of this cat, is no doubt a futile matter after taking part in the heinous crimes of tormenting those who they can subject to their sadist ways.
If he were to reject the request and stay here to take responsibility for his cowardice, who's to say his so-called 'friends' won't hesitate to call him a traitor and also torture him as well? There were two choices, but not one of them was ideal for him to pick.
Deep down, he greatly despises the things they were doing but has no choice but to do so. Unlike his friends, he truly believed they were eventually reached at the point where their evil deeds would come falling apart like sandcastles built during the low tide.
As he continued in these difficult thoughts, the two boys wasted no time in turning around and running away while leaving the conflicted Alan alone. "Come on, Alan!" The youngest of them said, briefly turning his head to him, "Let's get out of here!" Said the panicked Jody as he still firmly gripped the cat's back neck.
Witnessing this speechless scene, Janus wasted no time in raising his spear and aiming, directing it toward the one who was holding Schrodinger in a painful grip. But as he did so, Saomi and Menes tried to reason with their companion.
"Don't—"
She was too late. Janus threw his weapon towards the boy's skull with pin-point accuracy and speed. A crack sound emitted across the damp alleyway, then the dull thud of a body hitting the ground reverberated throughout the scene before them while the unconscious cat lay coldly on the floor at his side.
Menes clenched his fists, looking away, ashamed of having to see this, before muttering, "Poor kid..." Regretting not stopping Janus despite understanding the circumstances of why their companion had done something like this in the first place.
Saomi became more horrified, gasping in shock before putting her hand over her mouth and saying, "No." She felt as if the world had begun to crumble around her and that nothing made sense anymore. There was silence for a long while, broken only by Janus, who casually approached the dead boy.
In any circumstances, a living being would be distraught or frozen in both sadness and fear from witnessing a loved one's demise. However, Eriksen only took a glimpse at his now-dead friend and snickered at the sight. "Oh well," he said as he continued running further away from the place until vanishing out of trace.
Reaching to the body of this kid, he took out his weapon, pulling out the spear from his as his own eyes were still glued onto him. "You made this choice..." A sigh of disappointment escaped from the nonexistent lips of Janus.
Taking a brief moment of observation at the body, he decides to see what the future would be like if this unfortunate boy were alive and well. Putting aside what happened earlier, he had already expected the obvious reasons why.
Dwelling in the future of Jody, he witnesses the boy becoming an infamous serial killer who secretly hunts unsuspecting families and kills them by chopping off their limbs just to burn them alive before selling them to other willing clients who want to buy them for reasons beyond him.
Realizing this, he wondered if preventing further tragedy by killing a monster in the form of a child was the right thing to do. Although some children in Jody's age never went so far as to harm others just to satisfy their desires or needs, to the point that even those who were raised in terrible environments didn't end up growing up as wicked men or women.
But what to say? Is this his place to judge who lives or dies? He does not care about any moral values in this world other than his own, for his only reason for doing this was simply to get his companion back from these would-be psychopaths.
"His dead, isn't he?" Menes said, walking with distraught Saomi, who remained silent for a moment, "Do you think it was the right call?" He questioned Janus disappointingly, looking at Janus with a stern expression while standing beside the young woman.
Only to receive an uncaring shrug from him, "I don't care," were his words. "If someone tries to steal or harm something I own, I kill them if need be," he added without much thought behind other than just getting this over with, "although whether I did was morally correct is up to debate."
Saomi had to take a step back and take a deep breath before she said anything. She felt ill at the thought of having to see someone's murder and, more importantly, a child so young. "Still, he' a kid and has life still ahead of him," she said calmly, yet she sounded desperate for him to reconsider.
Looking back at her with cold eyes, Janus shook his head. "If he were alive to this day, he would grow up as one of the most infamous serial killers known to man," he stated in a casual tone of voice. "Take it as you will; I just want to get this over with and leave this place.
"Why do some people do these types of things?" She wanted to know desperately. For all her years, she never understood any person who would go to any lengths just to physically harm someone. "Just...why?" Her sad, teary eyes completely caught Janus attention.
By the look of her gloomy face, he can't help but feel pity for what she is feeling. It is the nature of animals, especially humans, to care for and protect newborns in any way possible. So it's no surprise that any human, in particular, would react this way.
"They were bullies," Alan announced out of the blue, clenching his fists as he turned around with a determined expression. "Those guys were always like ever since I decided to join them." A tone of regret and sadness were evident in his voice.
The three turned around as Menes and Saomi almost forgot about him. "Were they your friends?" The man asked sympathetically, hoping to know the true answer from the child, who in turn responded with scoff from even thinking of it.
"Friends?" He almost wanted to laugh at this ridiculous question: "Not a chance." There was a bitterness in his voice as he answered. Seeing how the trio reacted to what he said, he sighed in frustration, slowly trying to explain himself: "I only became friends with them because I wouldn't want to get targeted and possibly killed."
His answer was fair, to the point that even Janus couldn't deny nor agree to it. "You are still an accomplice," the god of time said to him, wondering how the boy would take it if he knew what kind of person his supposed 'friends' were in reality.
Alan glanced at Janus for a second before averting his gaze again as he stood silently with his shoulders slumping lowly, knowing how wrong it was. "I...I just...just," he paused, uncertain of what he had to say other than tears beginning to fall from his cheeks.
It is a guilt that he harbors over his whole life that he has done this many times over with countless individuals, having no choice but to play along. Was he evil enough to partake in those terrible actions because he was afraid of getting hurt? Is it fair to say he is innocent just because he is forced to do it, or does he have the choice to stop it?
Becoming disheartened by the sight of a crying boy, Saomi went over to him and kneeled down before placing her hands on his shoulders. "It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong, sweetie," she kindly assured him, softly encouraging him to stay strong.
However, he let out a sniffle. "No, I am not!" Shouting while shaking off her hands, the boy stepped back with an angry glare at the three adults. Taking a few deep breaths, he told himself not to be swayed by her kind words: "I am a terrible person for allowing it to happen throughout the years, and I deserve death," glancing at the god, "can you kill me?"
Menes became surprised by the request: "Wait a minute! You are seriously not thinking of killing him!?" The man asked, almost baffled that Janus would suggest such a thing: "He is a child, for god sake; have mercy on the poor boy!" Desperately pleading with him to change his mind, it was enough to cause the god to release an irritated groan.
"Kill you?" His voice was directed to the boy. "I have no reason to," he replied with cold indifference. Honestly, Janus had no intention to even kill anyone, much less a kid who was begging to die for unknown reasons unless they stood against him. "Besides, I think it's better for you to go home and forget—"
But he persisted: "You don't understand!" Alan screamed at the top of his lungs, tears dripping now more than ever, "If you let me, Eriksen would call more of his friends to target me for the simple mistake of not running with him!" The very idea of dying the same way as their victims had endured was utterly horrifying, yet at the same time, it felt poetic for him: "At least if I die in the hands of someone, then maybe—I..."
The boy gasped when the young woman stood up and shook her head. "What's your name?" Saomi asked suddenly, not wanting to hear his pleas of death anymore, as it was becoming too much for her to bear seeing such a child cry to themselves.
He lowered his head, wiping his tears with both of his sleeves. "I don't deserve to tell my own name," he said while trembling. "I need to die because karma requests me so." unable to look at her or even face her directly, the boy didn't want her to see his face. "Can't you see? I deserve this!"
"NO!"
She firmly announced, her expression gripped with anger, "What you deserve is forgiveness!" The young woman had heard enough of his nonsense and decided that she should teach him a lesson in good measure: "You are loved dearly by those who you consider to be true friends." Her words begin to hit hard on his chest: "Do they not matter to you!?"
Janus watched the interaction with great interest. He had expected that she would lash out at him and strike him for learning what they had done to someone whom she considered to be a friend, but what is to say that Schrodinger is the woman's loved one in the first place?
"My parents..." Alan loved them very much, and one of the main reasons aside from his own fear of dying is what made him befriend those bullies: "I was raised in a loving household that takes care of me and does what a family should be like...but it still doesn't change what I did!" Refusing to turn his head up to her, the boy had already accepted his fate while remembering their smiles of joy every time he returned home. "That is why they can't know who I truly am!"
Suddenly, she leaped towards him with open arms and hugged him tight. "You are forgive you for what you've done!" The moment they collided with one another, the boy cried in shame for himself and the things he had done as he hugged back in this kind gesture.
"I'm sorry, ma! Pa!" Alan cried harder while tightly embracing the woman, finding it impossible to stop. "Please forgive me for what I have done!" He continued to shed tears for his own actions, fearing how they would react if his parents found out.
Departing from the embrace, she held his hand and said, "Everything is fine; everything is fine now." Saomi tried to comfort him by gently stroking his wet cheek. "Forgive yourself, Alan and learn to become a better person from now on," Saomi told him in a motherly tone while putting her own forehead to his own.
Taking a step forward to her side, Janus took this opportunity to speak out on his own behalf. "Worrying about the past or future isn't productive," he reminded the boy in a solemn tone. "When you start focusing yourself on these issues, expecting a terrible outcome from them, then nothing will come out of it and leave you stagnant instead of moving on from them."
Then, the generous god offered the boy his own left hand and said, "enough with the useless self-loathing and accept responsibility for what you have done in preparation for what comes next from that point on." As the boy stared at the extended hand, Janus encouraged him in his own way: "It might seem difficult at the moment with the uncertainties and obstacles life throws at you; all we can do now is take it one step at a time and try again whenever we fail," he said, his gentle tone slowly cracking through Alan's inner pain.
"No matter how many times you stumble, no matter how many times you fall, if you keep trying, then one day you'll succeed." He told him softly, knowing that what he said was not empty words but wisdom learned from his own experience: "sometimes even to live is an act of courage."
With eyes wide open, Alan nodded in determination, "I will." A smile formed on the corner of his lips while finally reaching to him in acceptance of this kindness before embracing the now shocked Janus, who was taken off guard by this action. "I never knew I got to meet very good people."
Janus was conflicted about this; he didn't really expect his words to actually encourage or change the way this boy is. He only...pitied him in a way. But why was he feeling this way as the boy continued to embrace him for the unexpected kindness he had shown?
His own heart is...beating slowly?
Out of nowhere, blue tears escaped from his eyes, watching it drop down on the ground as Saomi stood and watched the scene with a satisfied conclusion. "Thank you for helping him, Janus," she said while walking to them as the three embraced together like one big family.
Menes almost wanted to join them until he heard a groan from his side: "Ugh..." It seems someone is awake, he thought. "Look whose up," cheekily said to the dazed cat, "after that beating you took, I thought you died, but it turns out you're made of sterner stuff than I first assumed."
Schrodinger slowly got up in all fours and said, "My head hurts..." Forcing himself to stand up while observing the surroundings, it seems he is still alive. "Took you long enough to rescue me," puffed his cheeks in annoyance. "I was getting worried about not having my rescue party," resulting in a friendly laughter escaping from Menes mouth.
"Yeah, right!"
