Demon Lord Shapeshifting System

Chloe Jones was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit that same day. She was convulsing, frothing at the mouth and in grave condition.

Harker and his family remained waiting outside. He rubbed his face, so terrified and confused about his sister's sudden seizures. This wasn't part of her usual symptoms with lupus disease. It doesn't come as a random attack, and she seemed completely fine this morning.

Could it be that she had another illness? Harker would be extremely devastated if it was. Chloe was already fighting so hard for her life. She doesn't need to suffer more.

"Coffee?" A familiar soft voice suddenly came.

He looked up, and there Mina was. Roland accompanied her, and the both of them looked very much worried about him. Mina held out a cup of instant coffee to him with a reassuring smile.

"Thank you." Harker took it from her and forced himself to smile back. "Since when have you guys been here?"

"My family gets notified every time a member of your family gets hospitalized." Roland informed him. "We went here as soon as we could."

Howard Jones quickly beamed upon hearing his voice. "Roland…. You're here."

Roland smiled at him. "Hello, Mr. Jones. Would you like me to get you anything? Water? Biscuits?"

He shook his head and wore a soft smile. "No need. Thank you for coming."

His father's mood always completely brightened when Roland was around. Harker understood now. He thought it was simply because he had grown fond of him from being his personal driver….

But that twinkle in his eye was something else. Roland reminds him very much of the old friend he lost, G.G. Faust. Harker wondered if Roland was even aware of his uncle's existence, who might as well be his doppelganger. Or maybe the Faust family had hid this information from him. If he knew, Roland would have told him already that his uncle and his dad were best friends.

Mina sat by Harker's side while he was lost in thought about this.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry about your sister. I hope she gets well soon. You were having a picnic today, right?"

"Yeah…. She suddenly started convulsing and coughed out blood. The doctors said she had wounded her throat from too much coughing, but there was no bleeding anywhere else."

Harker slumped on his seat. "Chloe was doing so well…. The last time she had been in the hospital was 6 months ago…. And then this sudden seizure happened. It doesn't make any sense…."

"Lupus is a terrible, incurable disease." Roland informed Mina, sitting beside her.

Harker explained further. "It strikes the body's immunity and causes inflammation in the skin, joints, lungs, kidney, blood vessels, and the heart. Lupus means 'wolf' in Latin. And one possible origin of the name was that the symptom of having a butterfly rash on the face looked like the facial markings of wolves."

"Another was that the scratches and marks resemble wolf bites. Some say it may be because the body attacks itself from the inside out, like a beast that keeps on chasing the suffere's flesh."

Mina furrowed her brows. "That is so terrible…. Human ailments can be cruel."

"What do you mean 'human ailments'?" Samuel suddenly asked. "Are you not human yourself?"

"Gosh darn it, Sammy. It's just an expression!" Samson defended her. "And uh... Miss, I didn't seem to get yer name. I'm Samson Jones, by the way. But you can call me Sam."

He flashed a large smile at Mina, taking her hand to kiss it. Harker just smacked his face away.

"Your big sis is in danger, Sam." Harker reminded him.

Samson smacked his knee and laughed. " Hahaha! What? I was just tryna introduce myself…. Now I know this is actually Harker's girl. Not bad."

"Though she does have an uncanny resemblance to Roland. If I remember correctly, they were cousins, are they not?" Samuel said. "Strange…."

Harker frowned, taking a sip of his coffee. "What's so strange?"

"It's almost like dating your best friend through her."

Harker almost spat out his drink. "What the hell, Sammy!?"

Their father clicked his tongue. "You two boys come over and give the adults some space, I want to go check up on Chloe again. You shouldn't be making fun of people older than you."

Samson rolled his eyes. "Right, right. I was just teasin', Pa."

Samuel scoffed. "And I'm just asking very reasonable and valid questions."

But they still followed their dad's orders and pushed him to the ICU where Chloe was sleeping now.

So all that remained was the trio once more.

"Sorry about the boys, they're just really a pain in the neck sometimes." Harker told Mina.

The blond girl just chuckled. "I like them, actually. They remind me of you."

"Of me?"

Mina nodded. "Of two different sides of you. I think you are full of opposite things, Harker. There's a side of you that's brash and seemingly confident like Samson, but there's also something sensitive and skeptical like Samuel. I think that's what makes you interesting."

"I think all people are like that. Full of contradictions." Harker shrugged. "Otherwise, how are they people?"

"True." Mina agreed. "That's why it takes a long time to truly get to know someone. Figure out all their little contradictions."

Roland on the other hand, just observed them once more. Harker found that this was another person that was full of dichotomies that he couldn't read his mind.

On one hand, Roland seemed very supportive of him. On the other hand, he appeared to be easily upset over the choiced Harker makes. He was the cause of Harker's joy, but also his anxieties due to his debt from his family. He was someone Harker knew for a long time, yet also felt like an enigma, a mystery that he could never solve.

Who was Roland to him really? The answer was really a puzzle.

"I'll be going." Roland stood up. "Mina could stay, if she likes. I brought the flask just in case she planned to stay over watching Chloe's condition. Good night."

Harker stood up and grabbed his wrist. "Hey, Rol!"

"..... What is it?" Roland turned slowly, his expression unreadable.

Why does someone have to be so frustrating without even trying? That's all Harker could think. Roland was his friend, someone he trusted, someone he cares about. And yet this confusion from all the questions hanging around in his head was confusing him.

But Harker turned to Mina, and felt he had his answer.

"Nothing. Be careful when going home."

He let go of his hand.

"I will."

He left, and Harker was alone with Mina. They talked some more, and he shared his life experiences with the mermaid girl. Human experiences that were foreign to her, but she did her best to understand. It was not common for monsters that have superior cells to have ailments, but she did have an experience with a grandfather that succumbed to old age.

"He was already 2000 years old. I miss him dearly, as he was the most proper and noble person I have met. It was hard seeing him age, and forget about us, his family…. Forget about me, his granddaughter." Mina looked down. "And eventually, he just….. Got lost."

"Lost?"

"He doesn't talk anymore, doesn't listen to us. I knew then that he may be moving, but he's already dead. The grandfather I knew back then was no more." Mina sighed. "It's always a pain, isn't it? But I can't imagine the pain he suffers as well, slowly losing his mind and spirit before he loses his body."

Harker knew her grandfather must have experienced dementia. It was one of the things he feared the most, losing his memories and his sense of himself. And then all the people that loved and cared for him would suffer because of it…..

Just like how his family did when his mother died.

We often wished what we lost would come back to us. That was how regret and grief set its prickly thorns around our hearts, squeezing it so slowly as years go by.

Whether it was a mother, a wife, a grandfather….. or your dearest friend.

It would be always hard to let go of those you cherish.

Just as Harker thought of this, the lights at the hospital suddenly went out. All of them succumbed into total darkness like someone buried in a coffin, 6 feet under.

Wanting to rise and escape this underground cage.

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