My Four Other Selves

"Was it because of this?" Zhang Yong asked no one in particular. He again traced his sword with hands and soon he saw a little symbol from where he usually held the sword. 

"What is this?" 

He traced it for some time. The symbol felt like it was a lion but there were two triangles over it opposite to each other. 

Zhang Yong had a big frown on his face as he tried to get what that symbol meant but then he shrugged it off thinking that it was just a random symbol and nothing else. 

"What else could this mean? A lion and two triangles over it? Hmm, I think I am just overthinking."

With this thought, Zhang Yong was about to put the sword back when suddenly he heard Senior Zhang Yong's voice. "Okay! Tell me now what happened when you left? I know something happened because it's written all over your face so just tell me already."

Zhang Yong was shocked to hear from Senior Zhang Yong that he had already known Zhang Yong was hiding something from him.

"Wait, how do you know this?"

"Well, it was obvious. Whenever I asked you where you were, your expressions would always change and that just made it more obvious."

"Ohhhh. Whatever"

Zhang Yong rolled his eyes. 

"Okay, so the thing is....."

He stopped for a minute to maintain his curiosity and then finally told him, "When I went away from here, I started to look for Fuzzy everywhere but he was nowhere to be found. That's when I decided to go a little far away from here. I went a little far and was searching for Fuzzy there when suddenly a big gorilla came in front of me. I got really scared at first but then I saw Fuzzy just behind him but there was another Gorilla in front of him. As soon as I was about to go near Fuzzy, a gorilla attacked me. Anyhow, I ran over to Fuzzy and sat over him. Then I pulled out my sword and aimed at those gorillas. Just when I did it they got scared and bowed their heads. Still one of the Gorillas attacked Fuzzy when he was going away. I got angry at that and hit him with my sword on his wrist. He winced with pain and then soon left. Then we were coming back when I felt sleepy and just slept over Fuzzy but not before telling Fuzzy not to stop and go straight to you but he didn't listen to me. I....I am just sorry for not coming to you right away."

Zhang Yong narrated the whole story in one go and after he finished narrating it, he sighed and looked down feeling embarrassed because of his behavior but the next words of Senior Zhang Yong made him feel better.

"It's okay. Just don't do something like this again."

Zhang Yong hurriedly nodded his head even though Senior Zhang Yong wasn't seeing him because his face was above, he still nodded and felt a little better.

"But I am just confused about one thing, why did those Gorillas get scared as soon as you pulled out your sword? Is there something special about it?"

This thing again caught Zhang Yong's attention.

"Yeah! Always about this That's why I was checking my sword just now but except for a symbol, I didn't see anything suspicious about it. Maybe it's true something is weird with that sword of mine?...."

He stopped for a minute before again saying, "Or maybe we are just assuming?"

"Hmmm can't say anything. Everything's just getting more messed up and we don't know anything about all this."

Zhang Yong sighed out loud at that and then said, "We can only hurry up and go to that center."

"Yeah, you are right."

After that both of them stopped talking and just kept quiet, now analyzing the surroundings. Zhang Yong always loved to see and analyze the surroundings. He just loved to look at that greenery, those animals, those birds. Everything around him in that jungle just made him feel more real. 

He felt alive now, he felt like he never got this much courage inside him to breathe freely but in this jungle, he was doing that. No one was here to bully him like those people. Even though Senior Zhang Yong's words made him feel bad sometimes, he still knew he said all those words only so that he could improve and get better. 

He never meant to hurt him or make him feel low, instead, he only wanted to motivate him, and today after hearing that he was worried for him his respect for Senior Zhang only increased more. 

They were just moving when suddenly Senior Zhang Yong said, "Wait! What is that?"

"What?" Zhang Yong asked in confusion. 

But the next moment Senior Zhang Yong pointed towards somewhere. Zhang Yong turned a little to get a better view of the area and the next thing which he saw made him shocked. 

"Is…... Is that a house?" Zhang Yong asked in confusion and made a weird face. He just wasn't believing his eyes. 

He was seeing a house in that area where he never thought of meeting a person. 

"I bet it is. Let's go check it out." This time it was Senior Zhang Yong who said that. 

He moved a little closer to Fuzzy's face and bent down before saying, "Fuzzy let's go there."

This time Fuzzy just obeyed them and started to walk towards the house. Both of them didn't even recover from the shock of finding a house there and now this just shocked them more.

"Did he just agree?"

"I think yeah?"

Zhang Yong was still shocked to see that big house in front of them. He still wasn't believing and if he were to see that house by himself he wouldn't even believe it in the first place but Senior Zhang Yong was the one who saw it first so one thing was sure that the house in front of them was real and not an illusion. 

Fuzzy went towards it and soon they were in front of the house. Both of them got down from over Fuzzy with a big jump and now we're standing in front of the house. 

"Let's go inside." Zhang Yong said. 

Senior Zhang Yong nodded his head and started to walk towards the door of the house now. 

They walked a little and soon finally reached there. Senior Zhang Yong kicked the main door of the house and the door opened with a creaking sound. 

The brightly painted door was half off its hinges, it was still a shiny knocker dangling with gravity. 

The path going inside the house was still perfect brickwork, the mortar holding back the weeds that have overtaken the neighboring paths with ease. Usually, that was a bad sign, if someone was taking care of the place it would have been better. 

But the path like everything else about the house reeks of the recent renovation. Nobody had been there in a while, one could tell that, not for some weeks or more. 

Once inside he let him analyze everything, though he was getting a little scared because of his surroundings he decided not to show any of that on his face.

"I think we should look around." 

Senior Zhang Yong nodded his head and moved from there to look around the house. 

Zhang Yong just stood there seeing Senior Zhang Yong moving away and looking around. He was looking at him when he heard a creaking sound coming from a room. 

His eyes instantly went towards the place where he heard that voice from. He moved a little to see who was there. 

He was just about to go to that room when he heard Senior Zhang Yong calling him from behind. 

'Whatever.' Zhang Yong told himself and moved back towards Senior Zhang Yong.

"I think we can try and see if we could find someone here." 

Zhang Yong nodded his head and so everyone now went in the opposite direction with the hope of finding someone there. 

Both of them scattered. Senior Zhang Yong went towards the kitchen. 

Zhang Yong decided to go up and see if he could find someone there and so he went there. 

The stairs would always make a creaking sound whenever he would step on it and because of that sound Zhang Yong just couldn't help but feel a little bit scared. 

He decided to put his foot more slowly and politely so that the voice could be less but this still didn't work. 

He just ignored it and went upstairs. He looked here and there as he realized there were three to four doors on that floor. 

He decided to open all of them one by one and see if he could find anyone there. 

He went to his left side first and opened the first door. He went inside the room and then to the washroom where he opened the tap and waited for the water to come but it never came. 

Zhang Yong sighed and closed the tap before walking out of the room….