" A hammer?! " Elian reacted with expressions of profound concern and sympathy, as though a member of his own family had been afflicted by an accident;

  he continued his discourse immediately:

  " The matter is truly grave, Madam; fret not, enter your domicile and contact the police, and I shall inquire for you later if any of the shopkeepers in the street have beheld anyone. "

  The lady appeared hesitant, yet with Elian’s insistence and the fact that he had seemingly descended the stairs to "inquire for her" about this unidentified individual,

  she had no choice but to enter her home in silence, securing it firmly while locking the fear within her heart so that panic would not overwhelm her.

  Unaware of all this, or perhaps indifferent,

  Elian completed his steps until he reached the third floor, to find in his reception Asser, his younger brother, who reached only half his height.

  " Where you been? What was all that screamin'? "

  " It is no concern of yours. Have you resolved your assignments for school tomorrow? If not, go and attend to them. "

  Elian had no choice but to evade the answer, as he could not inform his brother that their neighbor was delirious.

  ' My moronic brother; were I to tell him that, he would depart directly to inform our neighbor that I claim she is mad. But in all candor... she truly ought to present a more persuasive tale later, rather than speaking of specters that do not manifest on the camera.

  I was inclined to credit her, but when she spoke of a man who does not appear on the surveillance, I truly regretted the inquiry. '

  While Elian was reflecting upon what had just transpired, he suddenly felt his hand being hauled.

  " Gimme the stuff. "

  Asser interrupted his line of thought, clutching the bag of goods he had just purchased and pulling from it the bags of chips he had bought.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  " Wait, only one for you; the second is for your sister. "

  " Don't sweat it, I'll give it to her. "

  Directly after saying that, he dashed to his room with a look that did not suggest he intended to share anything.

  But this was the least of Elian’s concerns.

  ' Regardless, if it was my sister who requested it, I shall seek it out, and then it will not be my predicament whether it exists or not. '

  Attempting to remain composed, Elian headed to his room to change his raiment and complete his assignments.

  Of course, he necessitated evicting Asser first, who was residing in his room.

  And after much noise and quarreling with his mother—who arrived later, desiring to evict Elian from his room so that Asser might play via the phone—

  Elian finally managed to expel them, locked the door, and commenced his studies.

  Perhaps Elian is not exceptional in many things in his life, but he is exceedingly proficient in his studies.

  Were it not for the unfavorable academic circumstances that mandate he exhaust himself utterly throughout the day, leaving him with barely a few hours to study in a week,

  his marks would not have been of such poor quality.

  Thus, he usually studies abroad under the pretext that he still has lectures.

  But that is another matter.

  By the time he finished resolving his assignments, the time had approached midnight.

  He felt the pangs of hunger, but for fear that they would quarrel with him again should he venture out, he had no choice but to surrender to sleep, hoping to awaken early before their awakening.

  It was half-past eleven before midnight when he retired to bed; but being Elian, it was habitual for him to spend hours in bed before truly succumbing to sleep.

  During this time, he remained reflecting upon the vehicle that almost struck him in the morning, contemplating what would have occurred had that car struck him then and he had perished.

  Then he directed his thoughts to an earlier time, reflecting that had he merely died from inhaling the gas, it would have been exceedingly relieving.

  Thinking and much negative cogitation continued to revolve in Elian’s mind until, at some point, he finally succumbed to sleep.

  At eleven o'clock before noon, Elian awoke in his room feeling a headache.

  " Ugh, what manner of dream did I behold to feel such agony? "

  " What is the hour now? My God!!! "

  " 11! I have lectures since ten o'clock. "

  Directly, he arose to change his clothes and departed running, so that he might reach the university before missing too many lectures.

  Fortunately, the road was not excessively swarmed, and since his house was proximate to the university, he was able to arrive before twelve noon.

  The day was ordinary.

  He studied a lecture at the university regarding image transformation via one of the programming languages and modifying the image through codes.

  And the other subject he studied, which was good, pertained to modifying the programming codes of simple machines to give them commands and control them—

  such as a light-measuring tool that you can program autonomously and link to a lamp to make the lamp illuminate automatically upon the absence of light.

  This type of programmed usage for machines is the specialization that Elian loves.

  For this type of programming can be truly beneficial for people's lives and not merely recreational.

  Imagine, for instance, fabricating a specific shoe or specific raiment worn by a blind individual, and linking to it a machine that emits ultrasonic waves; after they reflect from the opposing surface, the programming codes measure the time the ultrasonic waves took to reflect and return.

  If it took a time less than $0.003$ seconds, this signifies there is an object or a solid material before the user.

  Something like this could have many usages for those who have lost the sense of sight, if it were developed and utilized in the proper manner.

  At any rate, the lectures ended early today, around half-past three.

  He was already on his way home, famished, when he received a call.

  " Cairn? Why is he calling now? "