The hours dragged on, slow and heavy like molten lead. I couldn't shake Arceus's strange reaction or Mama's look from my mind. Curiosity gnawed at me like an unrelenting acid.
Finally, when everyone was distracted with their daily tasks, I slipped out of the orphanage without anyone noticing. I knew I risked severe punishment, but I needed to see with my own eyes those mysterious sponsors coming to pick up our beloved Lulu.
«Even if they punish me for weeks, it'll be worth it,» I told myself as I ran across the vast terrain surrounding our home.
After all, I too had a sponsor somewhere, but I had never managed to learn what they were like or who they might be. This was my chance.
I swiftly crossed the gardens, venturing into areas I barely knew. Unlike the orphanage, always brightly lit, a disturbing darkness reigned here, growing thicker with every step.
My eyes scanned the landscape, searching for any revealing detail among the rocky formations surrounding us, with their countless blind spots, and the barren earth speckled with debris stretching in all directions.
I kept walking southeast until I stopped before a narrow ravine that cut through the terrain like an ancient wound.
—What is this? —I murmured, cautiously approaching the edge.
I ran my fingers gently over a faint crease etched into the rocky wall, skillfully camouflaged to look like a natural crack in the steep cliff. But it wasn't just a crack.
It was a door. Intrigued, I tried pushing it again, but the hidden entrance remained as immobile as the mountain itself.
«There must be a way to open it. I'm missing something crucial.»
I knelt after reaching this conclusion, determined not to give up. I ran my hands over the rocky wall again, carefully brushing aside the bush covering much of the lower half of the secret door.
After several minutes of meticulous searching—for a handle, a button, a lever, any mechanism that could unlock the door—I finally found it. At about a meter and a half from the ground, near the top of the door, my left hand sank into the cliff as if passing through butter. At first, I felt I had touched some sticky substance, but as I traced patterns with my fingers, the wall's viscosity subtly changed.
Each time I erred in the pattern and tried to push my hand deeper into the lock's opening, the earth around my fingers grew stickier and pushed my hand outward.
—Damn it —I muttered through gritted teeth after my twentieth failed attempt.
Still not giving up and aware that every second was precious, I focused intensely on the area where the invisible lock was located.
When I finally traced the correct pattern, the area briefly glowed with a bluish light, allowing me to sink my hand deeper into the hole. My fingers closed around a sort of handle embedded in the lock's mechanism. I pulled it firmly, and with a satisfying click, the wall trembled slightly before beginning to open.
I sprang to my feet and stepped without hesitation into the narrow passage that unfolded before me.
The corridor, about two meters wide and so low that it nearly grazed the top of my head even as I hunched over, resembled a rudimentary tunnel more than a proper hallway.
The place had an oddly unsettling appearance. Fortunately, small candles placed in niches carved into both sides of the walls cast a flickering light that allowed me to move forward without stumbling.
I could feel the warmth emanating from those flames, and after enduring the icy winds outside, I welcomed it as a blessing. I stayed pressed against the left wall of the passage, trying to remain hidden; the last thing I wanted was for Mama to catch me there.
I continued advancing through the dimly lit tunnel until I spotted a different light in the distance, brighter and steadier than the candles' flicker. Without a second thought, I headed toward it, my heart pounding wildly in my chest.
The tunnel curved slightly, and as I approached the light source, my ears caught distant echoes of sounds I couldn't identify. The noises grew louder with each step, but they were too muddled to discern voices or specific words.
There were intermingled conversations, strange echoes, and multiple heavy footsteps resonating against the stone walls. Finally, after a few more minutes of cautious progress, the tunnel's exit appeared before me like a promise of answers.
I moved with extreme stealth, avoiding kicking any loose stones or making the slightest sound that could betray my presence. I detected no signs of surveillance at the exit, so I quickly moved to the tunnel's edge, where the darkness concealed me from prying eyes.
What I saw then left me paralyzed, unable to grasp the magnitude of the discovery I had just made.
The passage opened into a colossal cavern with a vaulted ceiling so perfect that, for a moment, I doubted whether I was still underground. Instead of the tunnel's small candles, enormous torches strategically placed on the walls revealed the true dimensions of that subterranean space and, most importantly, who occupied it.
I stifled a gasp as my gaze dropped to the center of the cavern, about two stories below. There stood an enormous circular stone wall rising to a hole through which a white, brilliant light filtered. According to the books in our library, only the sky could look like that, with its clouds floating like cotton ships on a sea of blue.
The stone walls, rough and uneven, with small rocks protruding from their surface and cracks running through them like scars, rose to dizzying heights.
Below them, I made out the dark silhouettes of figures I couldn't initially recognize. Fearing discovery, I instinctively retreated, hiding in the shadows as I sharpened my vision to capture every detail.
«Wow! Are those Lulu's parents? They're huge!» I thought naively as I continued observing.
But when the silhouette came fully into focus, illuminated by the reddish light of the torches, my blood froze in my veins. What stood before me wasn't the sweet vision of loving parents but a nightmare made flesh.
The being I beheld had an elongated, cadaverous white face from which four vertical eyes protruded, looking in opposite directions: two upward, two downward. At the center of that monstrous face opened a gaping mouth filled with hundreds of dagger-sharp teeth and a thick, disproportionately long tongue dripping with a viscous, transparent substance.
The creature, with dark, scaly skin, stood on its hind legs, easily reaching three meters in height. Its arms, disproportionately long and thin compared to its massive torso, ended in sharp claws that seemed capable of tearing through steel. Two small but menacing horns crowned the sides of its head, completing that infernal vision.
The sight of such a monstrosity made my eyes widen excessively and my jaw drop in a grimace of absolute horror. Instinctively, I began to back away, but my legs seemed to have turned to stone.
Yet, what truly chilled my blood wasn't the creature's size or terrifying appearance but the object it held nonchalantly in one of its enormous claws.
Little Lulu, the same girl who hours earlier had smiled and hugged me with tenderness, lay trapped face-down inside a transparent container, her body contorted in an unnatural position no living human could adopt.
The girl floated lifeless in a crystalline liquid that enveloped her completely, her face frozen in an expression of indescribable pain, her eyes open in a silent scream that would never be heard.
I had to cover my mouth with both hands to keep from screaming as a violent tremor shook my body from head to toe. Chills ran through me like icy needles piercing every inch of my skin.
"This can't be happening. It's not real. It's a nightmare."
But my eyes, open to their physical limit, captured every detail with ruthless clarity, and nausea surged up my throat like acid, burning the walls of my esophagus.
What was happening?! What were those… things?!
All the air trapped in my lungs escaped in a rush, forming a small cloud of vapor before my face. I pressed my hands against my mouth so hard I tasted the metallic tang of blood, but I couldn't afford to make the slightest sound. And as much as I tried to tear my gaze from that macabre scene, my eyes remained fixed, as if bewitched by the horror.
—Don't move —an inner voice commanded as I struggled to keep my heart from bursting in my chest.
I wasn't even aware of how my body had begun to tremble uncontrollably. My lips quivered, and an unnatural cold invaded every cell of my being, as if death itself had touched me with its icy finger. My hands shook violently, and my teeth chattered faintly, causing a dull pain in my jaw.
—Children aren't my favorite dish —the guttural voice of the monster holding the container boomed through the cavern, jolting my senses, numbed by panic.
—Idiot, handle the container carefully. That girl is valuable merchandise, not something to devour —replied another similar but deeper, more authoritative voice.
What were they talking about? I dug my nails into my cheeks, trying to grasp the hidden meaning behind those monstrous words.
—The human flesh from this shelter is for the preservation of our species —the first creature continued, its tone suggesting boredom or perhaps resignation.
—That's right, leave it all in our hands —Emilia's voice, my mother's, rang out like a poisoned dagger piercing my heart.
A violent shudder ran down my spine. It was impossible… it couldn't be her… and yet, I would recognize that voice among millions.
An invisible sword sliced through my brain as I began to comprehend the terrible truth…
God, it couldn't be…
My skin bristled like a frightened cat's, and I felt my soul split in two before the magnitude of the betrayal…