[ UNWRITTEN #6 - TRANSCRIPTIONS, PART 3 ]

"I understand that you will be taking care of this case?" The military officer says, and I could only nod as I stare at the nine people upon the other side of the interrogation room. 

Even if they look prim and proper, I could not help but be lost in their eyes that tell of the horror they experienced in a city they once called home, now burning away like a wasteland. 

Etereo. 

It is a city that holds a lot of secrets. 

Those secrets are buried under fire and thousands of undead burning away, but my military officer tells me that these nine had uncovered the truth before they were rescued. 

These nine are the only survivors of Etereo. 

These nine are more than enough. 

I hope so. 

"A little tip?" my officer says, sending me one more piece of advice before sending me inside the room and uncovering every wound and pain and hurt I know they desperately want to hide away. 

"Tell them your name." he says, and I raise my brow at that. 

"Why?" I ask, and he smiles patiently at me.

"To trust you, of course. So you'll be their confidant, and not just someone in the uniform." 

Pursing my lips, I open the door and stiffen as their eyes immediately all focus upon me, following my every move as I sit down upon the table in front of them. 

"My name…" I trailed off, unnaturally nervous even if I've done this a lot of times before.

"My name is Zane Clyde Evermonte," I say, a small smile upon my lips. 

"Nice to meet you all." 

My brother is a bright man. 

He's always been unique and passionate, but I always wondered why he hated that city so much and still stays in it like he doesn't even have a choice to leave. 

I always wondered why he'd disappear into his small room, hiding away morning and night and then smile at me like he isn't paler than usual or that I didn't see him cough up blood that one time. 

I always wondered why he worked so endlessly into something he never showed me. 

Lucius Ezekiel Evermonte is an angry man. 

His hatred of Etereo burns bright and endless that I wonder why he did not come with us when we left the city when I was still a teenager. I wonder why he stayed stubbornly like it could kill him if he ever stepped foot outside its borders. 

I always wondered why he chose to study the human immune system when no one else ever did. 

I wondered how he could be passionate about something I could not quite understand, or how he continued working despite our careful mother begging him to stop. 

I always wondered why he made that face when I told him that Etereo is a beautiful city filled with warmth and hope. 

"Pinatay ng Etereo ang tatay natin Zane," he would always say, but I did not understand what it meant and our mother would chastise him for saying those things to me. 

My brother, Lucius, is a good man. 

I believed it to be true, because I knew he was. 

So why would Loren and Reia tell me that he's the one behind it all? 

"No," I would tell her. "Hindi kayang gawin ni Lucius iyon." 

"You look like you know him so much," Reia would say. "Do you know him, Zane?" 

To which I would answer, "I'm the one asking questions here, not you." 

But the smile on her face knows the answer to her own question, especially with the surname I had given them some months before. 

Evermonte. 

Somehow, I carry the burden of whatever it is he's done. 

Somehow, I believed that Etereo deserved to burn. 

"I'm sorry that you had to learn this way," Loren says, but there is no pity or empathy in her eyes. 

Only pain. 

Etereo had taken something away from them, after all. 

"No," I said, pushing the button at the side to stop recording. "I don't believe Lucius would do any of these… these monstrosities, Reia—" 

"You'll know soon enough," Reia says, leaning upon her chair and folding her arms. "When you pry upo