When Secrets Persevere

Part 3

A single droplet of sweat rolled down Roya's dampened forehead as she tossed and turned in between the heavy sheets. The blanket not only felt like it weighed a ton, but like molten lava burning her skin. And when she went to kick it off completely, chilly goosebumps began to form on her arms. Her restlessness grew by the second, and she strained her ears to check if the faint footsteps from across the hall could be heard once again.

Her mother had been checking up on her every hour or so since Roya announced she'll go to bed, some three hours ago. But sleep was the last thing she planned to do tonight.

When another half an hour past the expected check-up time had passed, Roya concluded that her mother must have finally, by some miracle, fallen asleep. Heaving out an angry sigh, she shoved the blanket off her body and jumped out of bed, the light fabric of her sleeping pajama sticking to her clammy back. She ignored the uncomfortable feeling and headed straight to the cardboard box with the dark scribbling on its front reading "books".

She pulled out the thick school books that she'd placed at the top and front, and below them she found what she'd been so eager to go through all day - her father's diary. Barely containing her excitement, Roya snatched the leather-bound journal out of its hidden spot and put her school books back in their place, and she marched to the door. Peaking her head out into the dark and quiet hallway, she made sure it was empty and that no sounds came from the room her mother occupied, and then she shut the door entirely.

Roya didn't know why she felt the need to be so secretive about the journal when she didn't even have a clue about its contents. But all she could think was that this would probably be the only thing she could share with her father, privately.

To have it be their thing.

Her fingers were nearly trembling with excitement and anticipation to the words her dad noted down. Tucking herself back under the blanket, she leaned back against the firm headboard and unwrapped the long rope from around the sealed journal. She took a quick skim through the hundreds of pages with black scribbling, graphs and data numbers that indicated perhaps the journal was for more than just noting down her father's daily thoughts.

Returning to the very first page of the diary, Roya zoned out all external noises and focused all her senses on the words written across the lightly creased pages...

"It exists.

The place like no other. My heaven.

I was told I couldn't find it. She told me it was fruitless, that my ways to finding it were unethical. But now that I know it exists, and not just for me, but for anyone who's too pure to exist in the broken reality of this world - I cannot stop.

When you receive a taste of paradise, it doesn't satiate your hunger. It only amplifies it.

And I'm ravenous."

Roya's heartbeat could be felt all across her chest, beating too loudly and quickly, anticipating the next words.

He speaks of a paradise as if he's seen something the rest of the world hasn't. And that was only intensifying her curiosity to a dangerous degree.

Flipping the pages to the next journal entry, Roya continues reading on...

"Test Subject #002

002 has seen all that I've seen. Experienced all that I've felt, and then perhaps some more.

He asked me what it was, and I told him I didn't know yet, but I promised I would find out.

He asked me if he could go there again, and I said until we know more, I'm not sure we should.

But he begged. He said he'd never seen such magnificence, nor ever felt such bliss. He said the creatures asked him to return; they said he'd be happy there.