Prologue - Nothingness Erased

The knocking door was the only thing Andreas could hear. He began hiding in his basement immediately upon hearing the knocks on the door. Thankfully he was already close to the staircase that leads down to the basement. He locked the metal door quickly and efficiently.

They were quick. Although he anticipated them reacting quickly, he didn’t think they would react this fast. They were also very quick in finding his location, which he found very odd, knowing that he took every precaution to hide his location from anyone and everyone.

Should’ve been more cautious, he thought, thinking about many ways where he may have failed, and how someone could have found a way to discover his location. He knew that it didn’t matter that much at this point, but he just couldn’t stop thinking about it, courtesy of his need for knowledge.

His thoughts abruptly stopped when he heard his door to the building being broken. Immediately after he heard multiple quick, rough footsteps all over the building he chose as a base. He could already hear voices but he couldn’t discern what they were saying, although he noticed the loud, commanding voice is of coming from a man. Not that it would help Andreas much knowing the fact.

Knowing he didn’t have much time, Andreas immediately went to work. He checked the drawers and grabbed a bunch of documents and papers and put them on the table. He didn’t like how they were left unorganized in his drawers, but due to the nature of his work, he never had time to neatly put them on the order they were meant to be in.

Heh, how ironic, considering what I am about to do, he thought as he took a gasoline bottle from under the table and opened it. Immediately after, he emptied the bottle by splashing all of the gasoline on the table where the papers and the documents were. After a few short seconds, the whole table with its contents along with the majority of the basement was full of gasoline, which worked perfectly for him, something which doesn’t happen very often for him, as sad as it sounds.

Well, I can’t complain, I brought this upon myself, after all, he thought as he pulled out his box of matchsticks from his box. After opening it he took one matchstick and lighted it. He then held it on his left hand as he started hearing knocks shortly after.

The knocking stopped for a moment, but it quickly turned into the sound reminiscent of someone kicking the door with their full strength, which was indeed what was going on. Unknowingly to them, it would take a long time to break through the metal door, unless they brought a literal bazooka, which he doubted that was the case.

“Heh… I guess I deserve it, huh…” he said, thinking about many things he has done, be it justifiable or not. Andreas knew he screwed up the moment he got that letter many years ago. That was precisely when he got involved in this whole mess…

Urgh, stop thinking about it, Andreas… It’s over, they got to you and outplayed you… 

He again looked at the matchstick on his hand. It was still burning, which was perfect for him because he didn’t want to waste any more time… Like I will have any time after I do this…

Heh, funny now that I think about it. It is so weird how I am welcoming the thought of taking my life… At least those motherfuckers won’t get me… he thought as his life flashed through his mind, still sad somewhere deep that he would have to leave it all behind. Perhaps the only thing that he feared was the pain this will cause, but there is nothing he could do about that, sadly.

After that line of thought, he finally dropped the burning matchstick. It was as if time itself started slowing down as Andreas watched the matchstick slowly but surely fall to the ground.

Although it took less than a second for it to fall realistically, for him it looked like a whole decade has passed, yet it didn’t at the same time. All of that didn’t matter at the grander scale of things though. His fate was sealed the moment he dropped that matchstick. 

No… It was sealed the moment I got the letter… and I still don’t know who that “U” person was who sent me the lette-

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His thought abruptly stopped as the matchstick landed and ignited the pool of gasoline under him. He immediately felt agonizing pain as he screamed. The pain was nothin like he ever felt before, as if his very own soul is being burned alongside his own body. The worst thing was that the pain increased as flames started to spread faster and faster throughout his body.

Very shortly after, his throat started burning up, and it got so damaged that he couldn’t even scream anymore. Not that it mattered since he still could feel the unimaginable pain, both through his body and his mind.

Andreas slowly collapsed on the floor, his head now in flames. They quickly burned through his skin and bones through his body. Although he couldn’t feel it due to immense pain, flames reached his exposed brain. Shortly after he stopped feeling anything, hearing, and seeing anything, his fragmented thoughts the only thing that remained with him this whole time.

Sadly though, his mind would be taken away from him, making him truly unable to feel anything anymore. His body stopped thrashing around slowly, and after a while, he finally stopped moving. His body was still burning, ash slowly pilling on the floor.

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Finally, Tomy thought, knowing that he and his team would finally break through the metal door. They were trying to break it open, slice it open, tear it open and who knows how much things they tried, just so they could finally get this motherfucker and bring him to justice.

They were trying to catch him for four years now, and every time they think they are on his tracks and are about to get him, he either isn’t where they deduced he is or he ran away just in time.

What was different this time though, was that they knew where the motherfucker was, information obtained by the trustful source within the government that had multiple connections. There was even more information related to that but due to his position, he couldn’t get much. He tried to get more information through his sources in the organization, but none wanted to answer his question, although he suspects that they couldn’t answer it, probably due to importance regarding man only known by one alias.

“Sir, it is estimated that we will break through the metal door in less than two minutes,” said Frederick. 

“What about the screams? Have they ever been heard again for the past four hours?” he asked. It was a rather mysterious occurrence. He knew that the man did horrible things, but he never heard of anything related to torture, although he wouldn’t put it past him. Maybe he kidnapped someone and got desperate for information? Tomy thought, but still, it felt wrong to think that the man would do that.

“No sir, rather, no sound waves or life sings have been detected for the past four hours.”

“And you are sure those screams were human, right?”

“Yes sir, I was there myself when I heard them.”

Interesting “What can you deduce then, with information that we have right now?” he asked, as he picked up his machine gun that was on the table beside his cup of tea Top product, made in Britain ironically as well.

“I believe, whoever was behind that door, be it the man we are hunting down or someone he trapped down here. Sadly that is what I can deduce with the information that I have.” Frederick said as he checked his clock “ I believe we should go now, sir.”

“...Alright, lead the way.” Tomy said as he thought over the words of the young recruit. In my opinion, he is both right and wrong. It is either the man or someone completely unrelated to him. But I shall see, he thought as they finally started climbing down the staircase that led to the door.

To the surprise of both, the door was already open, as for the other side of it, it left both Frederick and Tomy baffled.

“Smoke? But then how didn’t the house burn down as well?” Tomy asked out loud as he started running towards the basement. The recruit was still shocked but got back his composure seconds later as he started running behind the head investigator.

Shortly after, Tomy entered the basement. It was full of smoke but you could still able to make sense of the surroundings. Metal walls were protecting the facility-like room So that’s why the house didn’t burn down as well he thought, but that was not the most striking of features.

He noticed that ash was abundant, both on the lone table in the middle of the room and on the floor. Although he didn’t pay too much attention to them, the group that was responsible for breaking the door were also there, checking through every drawer that was on the wall, along with checking the lone computer on the other side of the room, but he doubted that it survived whatever happened here.

He heard Frederick behind him, coughing slightly as he also looked around the basement. He quickly noticed the ash on the floor and was startled a little.

“...Is t-that…” he tried to say but was abruptly stopped by the head investigator.

“We don’t know yet, but there is a high possibility,”  he said as he went quiet for a short second, but right after started speaking again “Tell the forensic team to check every single millimeter of this place. Tell them also to pick up the ashes and also analyze them thoroughly.”

“Y-Yes, sir !” Frederick said as he immediately runs off towards the staircase and beyond, while Tomy still watched the ashes on the floor, with an uncertain look in his eyes.

You couldn’t have died with that mistake, it would completely tarnish the nickname so many gave you, which you yourself accepted. I refuse to believe that.

He again looked around the room, seeing that the drawers were empty As expected, he thought. The only remains of them probably being in the form of ash on the table.

As he checked everything again in the short five minutes, he told the team that was already there along with other teams that enter the basement to check everything as much as possible. After that, he started to climb the basements, with many thoughts going through his mind.

What happened, Andreas?