Morbus smmed his bag onto the floor of his room.

  Bastard. How dare he?

  He had run nonstop from the park all the way home. The man's story had only made his hurting worse.

  I should probably follow the same fate as his son. But I don't deserve eternal rest.

  He took the pass from his desk and dragged its point in long, deep scratches over his bare arm. The pain was sharp, but it barely cut through the storm inside him. His hand moved on its own, trag lier liil his entire arm was red. Theher. His breath came ragged, chest rising and falling in uneven gasps. The room felt distant, like he was watg himself from somewhere else.

  Everyone go to hell. Father. School. Tomou. Mora. Aquinox. But most of all: me.

  Now that he could remember everything, he remembered getting a sermon from his father every week. And also that he had fotten every single one of them the day after. Horatio wanted him to feel only ohing:

  I'm a terrible person.

  Out of the er of his eye, something glinted on the floor. He turned a down.

  It was Horatio's half wedding amulet, perfectly sliced in half with the same ser pin that had scorched Morbus's back the previous evening. On one side was a half logo of Aquinox, the other side held President Previs's face—or just the left side, in this case.

  Father must have dropped it when he came in st night, he thought numbly. After all, he'd had it around his he whole day. Makes sense, as yesterday was Memorial Day.

  He grabbed the amulet and pressed the jagged edge against his forearm, where there was still space. A sharp sting, a warmth trailing after it. His grip tightehe burn on his back, the sting on his arms—it all blurred together into something he couldn't name.

  His body cried out for rest, but he kept going, an aimless, feverish pulsion driving him forward. The world shrank to red lines and shaking hands.

  His breath hitched. His vision blurred. He barely noticed the tears slipping down his cheeks.

  Dude, Tomou's voice sounded in his head. Why are you doin' this to yours—

  "LEAVE ME ALONE!" he shouted aloud, dragging the amulet down harder. "I'll do whatever I want with myself. I'm doalking to you."

  His thoughts turo Tomou, to the messages he had igo the unknown hat had called him. For a moment, the fog lifted. Who could that be?

  His whole body ached. The room spun around him. He slumped against the wall a his head fall back, gasping for breath. The unknown number could wait. Right now, he o breathe.

  * * *

  Curiousity eventually won from his exhaustion. He pulled his phone from his bag. His fingers hovered over the s, but his hands were still trembling when he opehe chat from the unknown number. When the blur from his eyes vanished and his visiourned, he read it.

  Hey Morbus,What happehis m? I saw you run off in a panic after ou was worried about you, and so lease let me know or call me back asapMora As soon as his braiered the sender's name, something pletely ged in him. All the anger a-up aggression he had felt suddenly disappeared, like snow melting in the sun. It was as if he had been sitting for hours, freezing in cold water, and could finally dive into a warm bed.

  It was like Horatio's tortures faded into the background as he absorbed the message's meaning.

  Why would she suddenly pay attention to me?

  He sat ba the bed and reread the message. His heart raced at the words call me back.

  Should I do it? Am I really going to do this? After h his thumb over the call i for a full minute, he pressed it. The ph a few times before someone picked up.

  "Morbus?" Mora's voice came from the other side.

  "Yeah"

  "H-hey, are you alright? I-I..." Her voice was genuinely emotional. "I don't know what was going on today, but...it didn't look good. It looked like something was really b you."

  Morbus stayed silent. He didn't know if it was because he was surprised that she wao talk to him or because of his gut feeling.

  "I-I... I also wao say I really enjoyed yesterday afternoon," she tinued. "I uand things now that I was stu for so long, and it's thanks to you."

  Morbus was sure his cheeks were burning red. pliments never sat well with him.

  "Why did you call me?" he asked.

  "Tomou asked me to," she said immediately. "He couldn't reach you after css and wondered if I might be able to."

  Of course. That bastard.

  "B-but don't get me wrong. I really did enjoy yesterday. That's why I'd like to do something for you too, if you're tired of Tomou. Really, you trust me."

  For a long time, her of them said anythiually, Morbus had an answer ready.

  "I'm fine, really," he lied. "Just a bad day."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Why would I lie to you?"

  Silence fell again. "Well, if you say so, I believe you. But if anything does e up, you always talk to me. Alright?"

  "Sure."

  Another awkward silence.

  Is this the moment to hang up?

  "Um... I-I wao ask you something else," her voice sounded suddenly, almost shy. "Would you like to help me with math again this weekend?"

  All at once, Morbus's heart raced as it had yesterday.

  Is this for real?

  "Sorry...B-but it's really not my strong suit. And you're so good at expining things, at making hard stuff simple."

  Morbus felt a mix of total disbelief and pure happiness. He didn't hesitate to answer.

  "S-sure," he stammered cautiously. "Great," he added as rally as he could. "When are you free?"

  "S-Saturday? One o'clock at my pce?"

  "Okay."

  Is this really happening, or am I dreaming?

  "Well, see you tom- Thursday," Mora said, almost fetting that Wednesday was their weekly study day off. "You'll be back at school then, right?"

  Morbus's voice sped up suddenly. "Yeah, I think so."

  "Alright, see you. Bye."

  "Bye."

  And with those final words, she hung up.

  Morbus eechless. His hands had turned into pools of sweat, making the phone so slippery it slipped right out and fell onto the bed.

  Holy shit! This isn't real. This really isn't real.

  He rolled onto his bed. His arms and chest were still marked with zebra stripes from the amulet. The pain still lingered. He haden sihat m, but hunger wasn't even on his mind.

  Mora had e into his life like an angel from heaven, as if God himself was nudging him in the right dire.

  He closed his eyes, sav the rush of emotions flowing through him. He hadn't expected her to care even a little about him, to find him useful in any way. A, she wao meet up.

  While he looked forward to Saturday, his breathing became calm, and with a smile on his face, he drifted off.

  * * *

  He woke up after what felt like a very deep sleep.

  I feel amazing, was his first thought.

  He looked at his phone: 9:02 am.

  "Mr. Horatioo-o?" came a voice from somewhere. "It's me. Would you kindly open the door?"

  Shit. Lia is here already.

  "Hulloo-o? Anyone home?"

  Quickly, he threw on his pajamas, ran out of his room, and opehe front door.

  Standing at the entrance of their apartment was an older woman around sixty, with ly bed, graying hair. Wrinkles lined her face, but her sparkling blue eyes still shoh youthful brightness. She wore the standard homecare uniform, a white outfit with a logo indig the service of individual care. Although this service art of the Category of Ma, they had bee a sizable anization.

  "Morbus," Lia greeted him with a friendly, crag voice. "Is your father home? I rang the bell several times."

  "Sorry, I was still in bed," Morbus replied quickly. "Day off," he added with a slight apology.

  "Oh, of course, dear." She ruffled his dark curls with her knobby hand—she had to stand ooes to reach, as Morbus was at least a head taller.

  "e in, ma'am." He held the door open for her like a true gentleman. "Would you like something to drink?"

  "You know you just call me Lia," she replied. "Always so unnecessarily formal, you." She stepped into the hallway with brisk steps. "I'll skip the coffee today, though; I have a busy day ahead. But thanks for the offer."

  Morbus closed the door and followed her toward the living room.

  "Good m, Mr. Hora—" Her voice cut off as she ehe living room. Morbus peered over her head.

  Normally, his father would have been lying on the couch, watg TV or reading a book. But today, he wasn't in the living room.

  Morbus frowned. Strange. Dad knows full well that Lia always es on Wednesday ms.

  As a heart patient, alcoholid jobless man, his father hadn't had an easy time. Sihe flood disaster, Lia had been assigo visit him once a week to che his well-being, measuring his blood pressure a rate, among other things. His father had never objected to this, even though he insisted he could manage on his own.

  "Well, well," Lia said, puzzled. She turo Morbus. "Usually, your father's ready for Wednesday ms."

  Morbus nodded. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him yesterday, either."

  Though, to be fair, I was out all day yesterday. Literally and figuratively.

  "Maybe he went somewhere?" Lia suggested.

  "Where would he go? You know full well he's unemployed. And it's not like he's going to suddenly get a job at the car factain in these straimes."

  "Or he might still be in his room."

  Lia went back to the hallway and knocked on the door to the left. "Mr. Horatio? Are you there? May we e in?"

  No response.

  Lia tried the hahe door isn't locked," she whispered. She knocked again. "If you don't say anything, we're ing in."

  Still nothing. Morbus had a feeling something was wrong. His father had always been grumpy and irritable, even without the tless mistreatments Morbus had endured and fotten. But he never ignored people.

  Lia pressed down on the hahe door opened inward.

  Horatio's room reeked of sweat and alcohol. Clothes were scattered all over the floor. To the left, his desk was a mess of stray papers. At the back of the room stood his reer. Beside it, a small table with a half-empty wine gss and a stack of thick books. In the ter of the room was his rge double bed, where Horatio had half-pulled the b over himself.

  "Oh," Lia said. "He's still asleep. Shall we wake him up, Morbus?"

  Without waiting for an answer, she k beside the bed. "Wake up, Mr. Horatio," she said sweetly. "It's me, Lia, from homecare."

  Horatio didn't stir. He seemed deeply lost in dreams.

  Lia gnced up at Morbus. "Does he often have these sleep-ins?"

  Morbus shrugged. "No idea. To be ho, I'm more of a te riser than he is."

  Lia couldn't suppress a smile. "Mr. Horatio," she tried again, shaking his arm. "It's past nine o'clock. It's time for—"

  "Maybe it's best to wait until he wakes up on his own," Morbus suggested.

  Lia suddenly froze. She still held Horatio's arm.

  "Oh heavens," she said. "T-this is… this is…"

  "What?"

  "His arm. You o feel this. This isn't normal!"

  Morbus stood beside her ahe arm of the man who had treated him so poorly for so long.

  What the hell?

  His father's arm was scorg hot, at least two degrees above normal body temperature.

  "He has a fever!" Lia excimed in panie by one, she tested several reflexes, none of which responded. "And he seems unscious. Oh no."

  Morbus let go of his arm. He had never been fond of physical tact, aainly not now.

  Lia immediately went into a, feeling his pulse and ting slowly. "Owo…"

  A mier, she stopped at forty-two. Horatio's heartbeat was unnaturally slow.

  "Oh dear heavens," she began again. "This isn't good!" She took off her backpad pulled out a case filled with various tools.

  Lia had always been kind, but whenever Horatio's health faltered—something that hadn't happened in a long time—she'd get pletely flustered. With trembling hands, she picked up a stethoscope and listeo his father's chest.

  "It's far too slow," she muttered. She grabbed a blood pressure monitor, and when she read the results, her expression worsened. "His blood pressure is also below average." Her face turned red. "These… symptoms… could it be…"

  Now she took a cotton swab and collected some mucus from his nose. She put it into a small vial with liquid, stirred it, and pced a few drops in the partment of a test strip.

  Morbus watched attentively as the liquid moved up the window of the tester. Letters were printed along the side. At the top was the d below that, various options indig possible diseases.

  After a while, the e appeared oester. Lia now seemed even more nervous. "I'm hoping for the best for your father. I really hope he doesn't have—"

  A faint, thin line appeared at the letters CB.

  "Speak of the devil," Lia whispered as she saw the lioo. "Oh, Morbus," she pced the tester on the bed and covered her face with her hands. "I don't wish this on you. I really don't."

  But the test strip didn't lie. The sed line grew thicker and thicker, and the CB seemed to mock them.

  Morbus's emotions were a tangled mess. He didn't know whether to feel sad that his father had cold bloom or to feel happy that he was finally being justly punished for his sinful as. Either way, he didn't feel hatred toward him anymore, strangely enough. All the anger from yesterday had dissipated after Mora's phone call. The thought of seeing her soon lifted his spirits, eliminating all automatiegative thoughts in an instant.

  Who ied mood swings? he heard himself think.

  Lia looked at him, tears in her eyes. "Would you please leave us alone for a moment, Morbus?" she asked. "I o run a few more tests to make sure it's really the cold bloom bacteria. I'll be done soon, I promise."

  Morbus nodded. He tried to look genuinely sad. Telling Lia about everything his father had done could wait.

  He went to the living room and opehe fridge.

  Time to eat.

  * * *

  After half an hour, Lia ehe living room. "Morbus?"

  Morbus lowered his fork with the pieelet. "And?"

  Lia's eyes were red. "This is the first time I've ever tested someone positive for cold bloom," she said, sniffling, showing him the result of the multitester. "I'm... I'm so sorry."

  Morbus remembered reading an article online a few weeks back about the notorious illness in Aquinox. But he never guessed it would enter his own life.

  "When do you thi it?"

  "I holy have no idea," Lia said sadly.

  Morbus shifted in his chair. "So this means my father should go to—"

  "Teically, as his home nurse, I should be the oo take him there," Lia interrupted. "But that's not going to happen."

  Morbus looked at her in surprise.

  "Listen," Lia began. "There have been more and more cases of cold bloom tely. As you know, all victims are sent straight to the isotion cell at the CCB without exception."

  Morbus he ter for Cold Bloom, located in the middle of the distria. A brand-new boratory where they studied this new, mysterious illness.

  "Something strange is going on," she tinued. "New cases e in every week, but no one ever says what exactly happens ihe CCB. They say it has to be kept secret because of the Asroan spies. But I don't believe that at all." Lia raised a sturdy finger in the air to emphasize her words. "I think it's just an excuse from Ma to keep curious people at a distance."

  "Why would they lie about that?" Morbus asked. "They also have something like doctor-patient fidentiality, right?"

  Lia crossed her arms. "Then how do you expin that no cold bloom patient has ever been discharged from the CCB?"

  The questio him speechless.

  "I've asked them that multiple times," she said with for her voice. "Every time, they had no answer and ighe question. In other words: if you sent your father there, you'll very likely never see him again. To the doctors there, he'll just be another b rat. No, Morbus, there's something fually off about that CCB. I don't know what, but I do know an alternative."

  "And that is?"

  "I have a good friend, named Misabelle. She also knows a lot about unusual diseases and ailments. But she doesn't treat her patients with all that chemical junk like those CCB hacks. No, she only prescribes Ayurvedid herbal remedies that e directly from nature. Since your father 't e along, and we shouldn't let them know of his cold bloom diagnosis, I'll go visit her myself. I'll ask her if she'll examine your father's blood sample. I hope she has holistic, alternative treatments for cold bloom."

  "Where exactly is this Misabelle?"

  "She does resear the eastern part of Aquinox, at the Agricultural Lab."

  That's all the way oher side of the city.

  He felt a strange impulse awaken in him and stood up. "Let me go," he said.

  Lia looked at him in surprise.

  "I have the day off anyway," he tinued. "Besides, he's my father. I want to do what I to save him..."

  For a sed, Morbus didn't know what had just left his mouth. What the hell am I even saying? Do I seriously mean this?

  Lia seemed touched. "Oh, you're so brave." She handed him a tiny vial of liquid. "This is a sample of your father's blood with cold bloom in it," she said. "Show this to Misabelle, and tell her Lia sent you. She analyze it, and who knows, there might be an actual antidote."

  Morbus examihe vial carefully and nodded.

  "Are you sure you don't need any help?" Lia asked.

  "I'm sure. I'm not a kid anymore."

  "Certainly not," Lia agreed.

  After staring at the ground for a few seds, she broke the silehen I'll be on my way. I have a few other patients today."

  She gathered her things from Horatio's room. After o g the sleeping Horatio, Morbus led her to the door.

  WTF is going on today?, he thought when he was alone again.

  He was surprised at himself for suddenly wanting to make an effort for the maill didn't know how to feel about. Or was it out of courtesy toward Lia?

  I better go now. I don't have time to waste.

  He quickly put ur clothes—since he was still in his pajamas—and stepped into his shoes. He grabbed a small pauesli bars from the kit.

  Fet the egg. This'll do for the road.