– What are you looking at me for? Sitting there like nothing happened… You'll never understand my grief! Do you want to know how she died? – Lars glared at his son with anger in his eyes, taking a few more sips from his flask.
– YOU killed her! She had dreamed for years that we would have a child. And then you came along and finished her off! You shameless little demon who drank all the life out of his mother and drove her to her grave! – Lars shrieked at Theodore, rising from the table and tilting his head upwards, gulping greedily down the liquor container, literally sucking every last drop out of it. Theodore turned away and shrank back, as if trying to blend in with the table so as to be invisible to his father. Lars scrambled back and forth, clutching his head as if trying to quiet the voices inside him.
– And now, ha ha…how ironic…now you've taken on me too. You want me to go to my grave! But you know what? I won't let you do to me what you did to my wife! No, you don't have to try… – Lars, thinking hysterically and gesticulating impulsively, looked like an uncontrollable lunatic, ready to snap at any moment, which couldn't help but frighten Theodore. The boy got off the bench and climbed under the table, trying to hide from his father. He noticed this and went after him, cursing at his son and trying to drag him out of hiding. The clumsy, tipsy man bumped his head on the table, which the child took advantage of, quickly crawling out and heading for the door.
While Lars was on his feet, the boy had already managed to open the door, which was difficult to open, and run out of the room. At that moment Ted did not realise that he would have to return to his parents' house. He just wanted to get away from his angry father. When he saw the corridor in front of him, he forgot where the lift was and headed in the opposite direction. Trying to run as fast as possible, Ted tried to find an open door where he could get in and hide from his father for a while, hoping that after a while he would sober up and behave more appropriately. When Theodore saw the metal door ajar, he pushed it open and stepped inside. What he saw there was not a pleasant sight. So he froze, in one position, without moving from his seat.
In the elongated small room there were several metal gurneys on which several corpses lay. Against the back wall was an oven with a giant screen, and near it, a crematorium employee was bent over one of the corpses, preparing the body for incineration. He was wearing a black hooded cape and medical latex disposable gloves. The man was using a brush to treat the face and hands of the deceased with an odourous solution. Having finished the preparatory procedure, he put on the heat-protective gloves and opened the flap of the furnace. A huge flame emerged, ready to devour its next soulless victim. Lars appeared in the doorway. He spotted his frightened son standing there in bewilderment and shouted to him in a rough voice: ‘Theodore, come here at once.’