Vestige Chapter 2 - They Aren't Real

Mother's real name is Sayako. She stands at the top of the staircase. She is tall with dark hair. Looming down upon me, her aura is that of fear and anxiety. Yet, her maid outfit makes her seem kind and caring like she once was.

As she walks down the staircase towards me, the kids crowding around me begin to fade and the distance between us grows shorter. The walls collapse around us and darkness is revealed behind them. Out of this darkness, tentacles of great length strangle and writhe. Too far away, they fail to reach me but grow closer with each second. Sayako approaches me, syringe in hand. "Good luck." She tells me.

When I came to, it was morning. I had overslept. Glenda is above me attempting to wake me up. My temperature is high, and my head is spinning. I get dressed and walk down the hall as normal. Nothing has changed. Full of screams and happiness the air doesn't fit me anymore though.

I set the tables and prepare breakfast. Nobody talks to me, not even Aurelia. Once I'm done, Aurelia, Gray and I sit down at our usual spot and dig in. I normally love the food here, but today it is stale and tasteless; disgusting even. I must look sad to the other children; my head is down and I'm not eating much. Aurelia and Gray look like that too. I want to talk to them, yet my mouth won't open.

Sayako enters the room. Her eyes avoid mine. In her hands, she holds a child, who has fair skin and bright red hair.

"Good morning everyone." Her voice booms.

"Good morning!" Everyone, except us, responds.

"It's a wonderful day, isn't it? So wonderful in fact, we have been blessed with a new child. This is your new sister Sharlotte. Please take care of her needs and make her feel at home here."

Sayako is strangling the baby. Her grip marks Sharlotte's skin and forces her eyes out of their sockets. Tainted and purple, Sharlotte is struggling to breathe. Her little limbs pull into her body and she begins to foam. Nauseous, I look away, but when my gaze returns she is a collective of black tentacles squirming in Sayako's arms.

And yet, Sayako doesn't notice it at all. In fact, she smiles and cuddles the child, as if it was her own. Radiant and jovial, she doesn't have a care in the world as she approaches me and hands me the monster.

"I'm placing her in your hands, Lulu. I know you can handle a task like this." She speaks to me and then comes close to my ear. "Don't let me down now."

I hold it in my hand. I stare up at Sayako's lifeless eyes before returning my gaze to the beast, yet in my arms sits a child, not an abomination. The baby giggles as I stroke it. Soft, it's skin feels normal. This thing is human, and yet it feels wrong.

I feed it breakfast slowly. It eats every bite without hesitation. Every single time I feed it, I pause and it tries to get my attention again. I apathetically feed it more, until finally it denies its food and it begins to peel off.

The beast's skin turns to wax and seeps on to the floor. Its bones and cartilage are the last that keep it intact. What was once food has been exported orally as a black sludge. Its eyes roll out of their holes and into the bowl below us. Fragile, it's skeleton breaks apart and turns to dust in my hands. Flesh falls out of my arms and into my lap. The monster is gone.

My skull begins to throb and my eyes burn. I close them to gain even a moment of relief. When I return, Sharlotte is human again. She has escaped my grasp and crawls on the floor. I reach down to pick her up, yet she continues to walk down the hall past me. I follow her down the stairs. I fall and stumble as I go down. The oak walls shake and tumble. My sense of direction fades and I forget where I am. Sharlotte stops at an open steel door. Light seeps out from within.

"Good work, Sayako." A radio static blares inside the room. I fall to the side out of sight of the room. Sharlotte giggles and tries to stroll into the room. I grab her and hold her in my hands.

"We ran some extra tests on the specimen you sent last night. Her physical prowess is nonexistent and her combat readiness has been determined to be lacking." The voice said.

"With that being said though, you were right on her skills in pleasure. The Overlord has already taken fondly to the sensations her body has provided him. You've done well to satisfy his unusual request. As for the other, ship him out anytime in the next month."

"Yes, sir." Sayako responds.

"We'll have a batch of newborns from Sector Perado for you soon. In the meanwhile, continue working." The radio shuts off and a chair slides back. Sayako stands up and begins walking. Grasping Sharlotte, I run up the stairs. I exit the basement and arrive in the dining room. It's quiet and empty. The other kids are all outside doing their daily training routines. They must have finished up breakfast while I was down there. I should have joined them some time ago, yet my legs won't exit this building. Sharlotte blissfully smiles and pokes at my face. Her face shines in happiness, yet it's rays don't reach me. My mind is glued to what I heard. "The Overlord has already taken fondly to the sensations her body has provided him."

Who is this Overlord that we pray to every day? Is he abusing Kata as we speak? Is he going to abuse all of us too? I look down upon Sharlotte's cheerful expression. One day, she is going to grow up and have the same fate as Kata. Like a toy, she will be grabbed, touched and rubbed. Her body will feel grimy, slimy hands cover it. She'll be violated and used up until they are satisfied. Then she'll be disposed of like a used tissue. She just heard everything the man on the radio said, yet she doesn't have a care in the world. It's like she has already accepted this as her destiny.

She squirms out of my hands and stumbles onto the empty dining table. She stumbles off and makes her way through the room and out of my sight.

"There you are!" A voice glares behind me. Sayako stands above me and pierces my cranium. "I have been looking for. You should have already started practicing and yet you haven't."

My mouth couldn't offer up a proper excuse.

"Come here, Lulu. Don't worry about it. Physical work like that must be hard on you right now. I know how tough it is when you first realize the truth. Trust me I've been there and I really do care for you, Lulu. How about this, I have some other work for you can do instead." Sayako beckons.

"Yes, Mother." My speech is slow and my step is equally so. I am led into the kitchen where Glenda is standing over the bubbly sink.

"Lulu, I want you to help Glenda with the dishes today. Is that alright?" Sayako tells me.

"Yes, Mother." I begin to wash the dishes and Sayako leaves the room.

Glenda stands beside me; her pile of clean dishes noticeably larger than mine. Her pace outmatches me.

"It's a great day isn't it?" She asks me.

"Yes."

"I'm really glad we got a new sister. She's such a cute child, isn't she? I bet she'll grow up to be a very strong and beautiful woman."

"Yes."

"Oh, I wonder what Kata is doing right now. She's probably outside the walls, eating good food and playing with all the other kids, I bet she has a better life now probably; this place is quite cramped, isn't it?"

I let go of the dish in my hand and it falls to the water below me. Something struck me right in the head and renewed my lips with vigor and anger.

"Glenda, Kata isn't-" My mouth holds itself. An unknown hand reaches over and grabs my wrist. It turns and distorts. My skin begins to rotate and roar in pain. I turn to my left.

"What were you saying about Kata, dear?" Sayako hovers over me and twists my wrist to the point of breaking it.

"You don't have time for useless chit chat. Get to work."

I hear a loud snap and fail to move my right arm.

"What do you think Mother would do if we told someone?" Aurelia pondered.

Gray and Aurelia sat alone on a bench outside. Training had been slow today; the energy was lacking. There was very little the two of them could accomplish by themselves.

"You saw what happened to Kata." Gray's baseball cap and dark gray hair covered his eyes.

Aurelia puts her head into her face. She is quiet, yet audibly displeased. Her discomfort plagues the air with sadness and hopelessness.

"Don't say that."

"Damnit, man. It's all a lie isn't! Everything about happy lives was all a lie! She just wanted to make us think that so we would quietly let this happen to us!"

"We're going to become monsters at aren't we?" She asked.

"All of our siblings who left did, right? Kata became a beast too. We're just next.'"

Aurelia struggles to find a response. The image of Kata's eyes reappears in her mind. They looked towards her like they were begging for help.

"Unless we do something that is. I don't know about you, but I want to get the hell out of this place. I'm going to find Jax and we are going to escape and never look back! We're going to find out the truth of what's behind the walls!"

With determination, Gray stands up and begins his search. He charges out past the gate and explores the forest He checks the fields and every inch of the house. In his mind sits the picture of a deformed Kata. The more he thinks about it, the faster he looks. Finally, he goes back one more time, to where it happened.

"Are you alright?" Glenda puts ice on my upper arm. She grabs some bandages and establishes a makeshift cast. My wrist is searing in pain. I'm laying down in bed. She is tending to my wounds and yet I hardly notice her. The form of Kata's disturbing presence resonates in my brain. Her transformation is enduring and I imagine the pain she must have felt during it. One day, Sharlotte is going to feel that pain. One day, soon, in fact, I'm also going to feel that pain. It shakes me to the bone, so much so I feel as if I can't move. Yet, something irks me on. Something convinces me to continue and to survive.

"Hold on, you're in no condition to go do stuff right now." I ignore Glenda and stand up.

"Can you do me a favor?" I ask her.

"No, not right now. Sit down, you need to rest."

"I'm fine. Just please do this for me. Gather everyone into the dining room, I have an announcement to make."

Jax stands in front of the tunnel peering in. Gray approaches him from behind. They look up and watch the forsaken corridor. The plants are quiet. It seems as if they act like nothing has happened. Mother nature has forgotten what took place last night.

"I've scouted the inside of the tunnel." Jax turns around and faces Gray.

"What? How? That door is steel. You couldn't get in, even if you tried." Gray asks.

"I did all that extra training for a reason, ya know." Jax approaches the door and pulls out a small clip. The door then swings open and darkness seeps out from within.

"I practiced things other than just combat for situations like this" Jax confidentially says. "We're going to find Kata!"

"Everyone!" Every kid from the orphanage, except Jax and Gray, who were nowhere to be seen, stood in the dining hall. All in confusion and anticipation they awaited my speech. Glenda had kept her promise even with her reluctance. It seems she even managed to ward off Sayako from attending. The crowd's eyes stabbed mine. They looked impatient. My jaw felt like stone and butterflies flew around inside my gut. Yet with those feelings, I continued on.

"Last night, Kata did not exit the walls and find a better life." I relieved. This must be said.

"Last night, Mother. No, Sayako. She took Kata out past the gate and she-"

"I did what now?" From inside the door, Sayako stands and stares at me. Her eyes glare and freeze me. My legs feet like stalagmites.

"By the way, Lulu. How is your arm?" Sayako laughs and begins to approach me. Her innocent walk couldn't be farther from the truth. Her face screams joyous malicious intent.

"Where's Sharlotte? Weren't you supposed to be watching her, dear?" My jaw wouldn't move. My body tensed up and stress coursed through it.

"Don't tell me you failed to watch and take care of Sharlotte. Failed to follow the simple task of cleaning dishes, so much so you broke your arm in the process and to make matters worse! You even tried to deflower and ruin Kata's sacred graduation twice!" My knees gave in and my vision blurred. The world around me came crashing down and the crowd in front me began to turn on me.

"Everyone. I am so very sorry for Lulu. She has been a very bad girl, hasn't she?"

I looked out into the crowd for Aurelia, yet she stood there as petrified as I. Truly I felt alone. I felt as if I had made a grave mistake and spent so much because of it. I felt as if my life's purpose had been soiled and lost.

"Do you know what we do to bad girls here, everyone?" Sayako shouts. The kids turn to her in glee.

"We punish them!" She chanted.