THE DELIVERY

There was an old mother in desperate need of support. Her son, however, treated her with nothing but contempt. How long could he live like this? Wasting away on drugs, stealing, and weaving a web of lies? He survived on his late father’s pension—money that belonged to his mother.

But the day finally came. The mother passed away, leaving him alone. Now what? How would he eat?A friend told him about a job, and a week later, he started. It was a delivery job. One morning, as he headed out, his boss barked at him for being late."Sorry sir, it won't happen again," the boy replied, though he cursed the man under his breath.That night, he returned home exhausted, took his drugs, and fell into a deep sleep.### The OmenThe next morning at work, a call came in for a package delivery.**Time: 5:45 PM**Only 15 minutes were left in his shift. "What a nuisance!" he grumbled. "They had to call right now?"He set off on his scooter. The world around him was noisy—a busy, chaotic atmosphere filled with the cawing of crows. Suddenly, a crow flew directly in front of him. For a split second, he lost his balance, and his scooter veered into the oncoming lane. A massive truck was speeding toward him.His mind went numb. His entire life flashed before his eyes, but there was no time to react. The truck struck him with a deafening thud.With a gasp, he bolted upright in bed. He was drenched in sweat, his heart racing. It was a nightmare—a terrifying, vivid dream. But his head throbbed with a piercing pain. He had to get to work. He noticed his watch had stopped, so he dropped it off at a mechanic on his way.As he rode, he saw a child in tattered clothes, standing barefoot, glaring at him with intense anger.*Who is he? Why is he looking at me like that?* The boy stopped the scooter and tried to scold him: "What are you looking at? Get lost!"The child didn't move; he just stared. Suddenly, the pain in the man's head intensified. He closed his eyes in agony for a moment, and when he opened them, the child was gone.### The Loop BeginsHe reached work. There were no orders all day, and he felt relieved.**Time: 5:45 PM**The telephone rang."What rubbish!" he shouted. The relief turned into dread as he remembered the dream. He didn't want to go, but he had no choice. As he approached the delivery location, the fear of death gripped him. The surroundings were identical to his dream, but instead of noise, there was a haunting silence. No crows.At the exact same spot, the scooter hit something. He lost balance. *Is this it? Am I going to die?***No.** He managed to stop. He survived. Shaking, he wiped his sweat and moved forward, feeling a mix of joy and lingering fear.The address led to a mansion, but the landscape felt wrong. In the silence, he heard a faint scream—a cry for help from a distance. It was strange; the voice sounded exactly like his own. He dismissed it as a hallucination.He encountered an old man with eerie eyes."Old man, what time is it?""Time?" the man replied. "There is no time. Time does not move here."The old man walked away, leaving the boy thinking he was mad.Further ahead, he saw a woman staring at him with pity and shock. He showed her the address. Without looking at the paper, she stared into his eyes and pointed. There stood the mansion. Had he missed it before, or had it just appeared?### The Mansion of HorrorsHe entered the cold, silent building. It was getting dark. He climbed the stairs, searching for the room.*Knock, knock.*An old woman opened the door with a smile that felt like a hidden warning."Stay a while, son," she said. "How will you leave now? It’s raining, it’s dark, and the roads are dangerous.""Rain? You’re mistaken, ma'am. The weather is clear. I’m late, I must go."But when he stepped outside, he was stunned. A violent storm was raging. His scooter had a flat tire. Frustrated and confused, he went back upstairs.*Knock, knock.*"Can I stay the night?" he asked."Of course, come in and eat," she offered.He refused, disgusted by the filth in the house. But as the night went on, hunger gnawed at him. He crept into the kitchen, cursing the "old woman" under his breath because he couldn't find food.Suddenly, he heard a chewing sound from a nearby room. He peeked inside. A man was hunched over like an animal, devouring something. Driven by a sick curiosity, he stepped in. The man was chewing on the head of a crow.Terrified, the boy began to shake and sob, but the man didn't even look at him. The boy ran downstairs to escape, opened the front door, and found himself... **back in the same room.**There was no way out. He heard another scream from behind a closed door. With no other choice, he opened it. Inside, he saw **himself**. His doppelgänger looked at him with agonizing pain and whispered:"Save me."The boy collapsed, losing consciousness from the shock.### The RealizationHe woke up in bed again. *Another dream?* He was starving, a hunger so deep it felt like he was hollow. He began to bite his own flesh in desperation. He ran to the kitchen and found a plate of meat. He ate like a beast.When the plate was empty, he saw a pot. He lifted the lid and froze. Inside was a human hand. On that hand was a tattoo—the exact same tattoo he had on his own arm.He had eaten his own flesh.Screaming, he ran into another room. There, he saw someone lying on a bed under a white sheet, hooked to a ventilator. He pulled back the sheet. It was his mother. She grabbed his hand, pulled off her mask, and whispered:"**I HAVE NOT FORGIVEN YOU.**"He broke free and ran into the hall, where the old woman from the delivery was waiting. She smiled as she watched him."Who are you?!" he screamed.Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his hand. When he looked down, words were burning into his skin:**"YOUR TIME HAS COME, AND IT ISN'T LEAVING."**He was knocked unconscious from behind.### The Final JudgmentHe woke up tied to a chair. Standing before him was a creature that wasn't human—skin as red as blood, horns on his head, yellow eyes, and no nose. The creature began hammering nails into the boy's hands. He screamed for mercy, but no one heard him. The creature just smiled at his helplessness.Somehow, he managed to break free and ran outside. This time, he found himself in a vast, empty field. In the center was a building with a massive clock.The time was fixed at **5:45**.A voice called his name. He turned to see a pregnant girl holding a weapon. He remembered her—the girl he had betrayed and abandoned, who had taken her own life. He ran from her until he reached a familiar spot: the site of the accident from his "dream."He saw a crowd gathered around something on the ground. He pushed through to see what they were looking at.It was his own corpse. On its wrist was the watch he had dropped off at the mechanic. The time on the watch was **5:45**.It wasn't a dream. He had died at 5:45 PM.The old woman stood over his body, removing her hood."Who are you?" he wept."I am your host to Hell," she replied, smiling.The package he was supposed to deliver was in her hand. It contained his own soul.Beside her stood the tattered, barefoot child. The child was no longer angry; he was smiling.**That child was his conscience.**He was now trapped in this eternal loop. He would be taken back to the mansion, and he would go willingly, for he was dead, and there was no escape from himself.### The Moral:Honesty, truth, and kindness are the food for your conscience. If you nourish your conscience with good deeds, it will stand by you. But if you treat it like a beggar and keep it hungry, it will testify against you after death and find joy in your suffering.**THE END.**