Vestige Chapter 15 - Jean Hauberg Pt.1

"Hey, Jean! Come take a look at this!" Julia ran up to me carrying a daffodil she had collected somewhere behind the house.

"Whatever, I've already seen it." I shrugged her off and continued what I was reading. Which was an interesting book written by an anonymous author. Snug in between the lines, hidden meanings appeared in its short stories. These truths were unlike any I had heard at that time, yet sitting there in that field they were just words on paper.

"Jean!" Julia yelled.

"Yeah? What do you want?"

"Hmph." Julia pouted. "You're being a meanie right now."

"Yeah, and what are you gonna do about it?"

"I'm gonna tell Christa! That's what!" She shouted as she ran off into the fields.

Looking back on it, so many of our interactions were like this. I feigned apathy to her attempts at fun and joy. Stuck in my own world I never really acknowledged her as much as I should of. That's one of the many things I really regret. I should have been a better brother to her.

Ring! I slammed the book shut and stood up. It was time for dinner. Heading inside, it was like any other day at the orphanage. Part of me wishes things stayed that way.

As I walked into the dining room the atmosphere was almost entirely jovial, that was except for Christa. While kids ran around and laughed playfully, She stood in the corner quietly speaking to Julia. Her face and body twitches illuminated her clearly distressed state and her constant side glances showed a sense of paranoia.

As I approached her, she quickly pulled me aside and into the hallway, away from Mom's sight. With trembling hands on our shoulders, she looked both of us in the eye and peered both ways. Confident we were alone she finally spoke to us.

"We need to get out of here, quick." Her voice was shaky and slow.

"The hell you talking about? I still got another few months before I graduate." I replied.

She stared me dead in the eye for a painfully long moment. "The graduations are a lie. Everything is a lie. This whole goddamn place is a lie!"

It was then, that I truly heard for the first time. The truth about the orphanages and the serums. Christa had known it all, yet I doubted her entirely.

In hindsight everything she told me that day was absolutely the truth. Nonetheless, whenever I'd ask her how she knew this stuff, she'd dodge the question. It made me suspicious of her. Simply put I didn't believe a thing she said, yet looking back at it now, whatever she saw the night before must have been truly horrifying.

"Haha!" I laughed sarcastically. "Christa, you've really stepped up your game since last time. Your nonsensical prank this time had some creativity put into it!" I quickly turned my back towards her and began heading out back to dinner. I was starving.

I never ended up eating dinner that night though. As I turned to leave the hallway, looming over me was the shadowy figure of Mom. Her eyes pierced down towards me. It was like she could see through my entire being.

"What were you talking about just now, dear?" I don't know how she snuck upon us. It was like her tiny eyes saw all.

"Oh, nothing, just another one of-"

Splosh! Before I could finish my sentence a liquid splashed onto my face. Reaching up and touching it revealed that blood now covered my face. Looking down before me, laid the petrified body of Mom. Her made dress soiled in red and elegant blond hair turned crimson. Sitting snugly inside of her body, a kitchen knife found it's way deep into her lifeless heart.

In fear and shock, I looked behind me. Christa stood there, the look of a crazed psychopath on her face, with several other knives in her hands at the ready.

"What have you done?" A chill coursed through my spine and left me paralyzed.

Christa stared fearfully back at me. "Fulfilling our promise." She said as she lifted Julia over the air and on to her shoulder.

I couldn't believe my eyes. The dead body of my Mother laying before me was an unnerving sight. Nonetheless, that wasn't the most important thing on my mind.

"Hold on-" Before I could act Christa bolted out of the hallway. With blood soaking in her clothes and Julia on her shoulder, she made way for the exit. Amidst the dinner still being served many had yet to notice what had just taken place.

Still, though I couldn't just sit by idly. I darted after her. "That's my sister!" I yelled as I charged out the room.

At that time, I was fueled by adrenaline and hatred. I thought I knew Christa. I grew up with her. I played with her all the time. I almost had thought of her as much of a sister to me as Julia was, yet now I loathed that psychotic girl.

I don't really know if psychotic is the best term, actually. I hated the actions she took, yet knowing what I know now, I probably would have taken the same ones.

Leaving the corpse of my Mother behind, I chased out the orphanage and into the field. Leaping through a large hole in the gate I followed Christa deep into the forest and all the way to the wall.

We stood at the tunnel that entered the wall. This tunnel was the one that left Orphanage 89 and went to the real world, yet none of that mattered to me then. All that mattered at that moment was defending what was dear to me. I was going to protect my sister no matter what.

As Christa delved deep into the labyrinth inside the wall, I kept close and chased after her. It wasn't long though until my stamina and breath ran out though and I had lost track of her. Stuck inside a maze and stressed out of my mind, I couldn't push any farther. My whole body told me to stop.

Yet still, I did. I was going to find her, whatever it takes me to do so. Having lost sight of Christa I crawled into a nearby air vent. The labyrinth was confusing and I wasn't getting anywhere running around. I had figured that the air vent could take me to a new part of the inner wall I hadn't searching yet.

I was extremely lucky in doing so. Soon, as I wandered the cramp ventilation system I came to an opening to another part of the tunnel. Below me, Christa and Julia rested there.

"It's going to be alright." Christa moved her hand through Julia's silky smooth brown hair.

"Are you sure?" Julia shook and trembled. It was clear her mind was still catching up to what had happened.

"Of course." Christa reassured. "You do remember what I said didn't I."

"No?"

"That promise I made years ago."

"Oh, that?"

"I'm going to fulfill that promise I made to Julia. Even if it kills me."

I banged and slammed on the air vent, attempting to get it open. This one was shut way harder than the other one. I screamed and yelled, yet I didn't know if my voice could reach them through the loud gushing air behind me.

So I went further ahead and found another opening, this time weaker, and dropped down into the corridor. Rushing as fast I could I ran towards Julia with all my being, yet I failed to make it there in time.

"Go! Quickly!" Christa shouted ahead of me.

"Oh! Now, what do we have here?!" A raspy disturbed voice called. As I turned the corner I identified this voice to be that of an older man with a cane.

Before him stood Christa, knife readied, hissing at the devious man. Julia had escaped her grasp and was nowhere to be seen.

I looked around me frantically yet her position eluded me.

Christa launched at Dreddian. She swung her knife back and forth, yet every swing missed Dreddian's nimble body.

"Got some spirit, do we?" Dreddian stabbed his cane straight into her abdomen.

Recoiling back, another strike to Christa's face marked blood. As tears rolled down her face she sent herself forward and attacked him.

Dodging her knife, he gripped her hand and took the blade out her possession. Swiftly Dreddian placed the knife in Christa's side, forcing blood out and onto the floor.

Christa reached down to her side to draw another, yet before she could she fell to the floor. Sweeping her to the ground, Dreddian unsheathed a sword from his side and tossed the cane away.

She held up her arms in defeat as his sword came down repeatedly on her body. He swung and sliced into her rapidly. Blood splattered and flesh flew as she slowly became mutilated. She cried in pain and screamed for help, yet to no avail. Christa didn't have the strength to beat Dreddian. She may have killed our young Mother yet against someone more skilled she was no match.

It wasn't soon before Christa stopped screaming. Blood and guts littered the floor. Her body became distorted and torn up and her face was no longer recognizable.

Throughout this all, I was powerless to do anything. My body just wouldn't move, so I stood there watching it in horror. I really regret not doing something to save Christa, yet in that moment I had to move forward. I couldn't sit and think about anything that was happening. I didn't have time for that. Instead, I had to act.

Laughing hysterically, Dreddian turned his attention towards me. Luckily when he looked my way, he saw nothing. I had already darted out into the rest of the labyrinth. Bolting with all the power I had left behind my feet I ran forward searching for Julia. She had to be here somewhere.

I jumped between the corridor and hallway. Charged through room and room. Climbed countless flights of stairs. All until I finally found her.

Lying their crying into her hands, Julia sat there on one of the top floors.

"Julia-" I approached her and placed my hand on her back.

My body ached with severe pain. My heart beated at intense speeds and my mind was overwhelmed with stress. Constant adrenaline running through me, I had finally found a moment of rest and my body nearly collapsed at that opportunity.

"It's all over now." I rubbed her back. "We can go home back now. Back to the orphanage."

"No!" Tearful eyes, she yelled back at me. "I won't become a monster like the others!"

"A monster? Nonsense I don't even know what you're talking about."

"You heard what Christa said! They're going to turn us into tentacle monsters if we don't make it outside of the wall!"

"I... that. Well... that just isn't true. It can't be."

"Christa saw it with her own eyes! She knew what we had to do to be free! She sacrificed herself so I could live on!"

"What...? I." I was at a loss of words at that moment. "Well... Christa she-"

"I already know what happened."

"Oh, you say" I tried my best to comfort her.

This was a moment in my life I had never experienced before. I didn't know what was the truth or a fallacy. I didn't know what to do or where to go. Everything had happened so fast, my brain couldn't process it all, yet still had to make a decision.

"I know Christa would be happy-" Julia stood up. "-if we escaped and were happy. Outside the walls."

"I just, I..."

It was then that I realized something. When I felt like I couldn't make a decision. When it felt like I didn't know what road to walk. When I was surrounded by death at everything corner and fearful for what's next, I reached a conclusion.

I really thought about everything that happened. Not critically. I didn't want to know the truth. I thought about my real values behind things. I figured out what was important to me.

I stood up and clasped Julia's small hands.

"Jean?"

It doesn't matter who's right and wrong. That man I saw might have been truly evil or rightfully jut, yet I don't care either way. Christa may have been doing the right thing in this situation and, but I don't give a fuck! All that really is important is what's in front of me. That's what matters to me.

"You're right Julia." I approached the door leading to the next hall. "We're gonna escape this hellhole and live happily."

I'm going to protect my little sister from everything in this world and nobody can stop me!