'This is so weird' Lucan felt strange, he couldn't help but feel strange really, it had been easy to overlook before, but now that he had noticed it there was no way that he could unsee it, this girl wasn't the person he had met in the cafeteria, but she clearly wasn't who he thought she was.
Lucan took a step back from her, he didn't feel very sure of how safe this individual was anymore. He still looked the same, but someone had painted another persona over the original or maybe forcefully merged the two, resulting in this thing he was looking at.
"So, what has got you wandering these dark halls so late, Lucan?" She took a step forward and could see him flinch slightly; her eyes narrowed and she smiled mischievously "Are you afraid ?"
Her friends looked between us awkwardly before the older-looking one, with raven-black hair and freckles, stepped between us with a frown. "What is all this ?" She spared him a short glance and then turned her attention towards her friend who didn't change her expression whatsoever "You've been acting strange since you came back from the medical ward".
The girl tilted her head sideways, a hint of confusion on her face. "I am not sure what you mean, I have always been like this, yes?"
"No". The girl argued firmly, not explaining, a refusal that was clearly causing the girl discomfort. "I don't remember you like this".
The girl's mischievous smile had turned into a frown. Correcting her posture, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked the girl straight in the eye. "I am surprised you remember anything at all".
The older girl's face twitched, a flash of guilt ran through her features before she calmly exhaled "This isn't about me"
The other girl rolled her eyes at her roommate "I am sure it's not". There was clearly friction between the two; likely, something had happened to them in the past.
'I don't think I need to be here for this' Lucan shifted uncomfortably, only to realize at some point that one of the other girls had been holding him 'Am I a teddy bear now?'.
Wriggling himself free of their grasp he walked towards the door and opened it. The moment he did so, all their eyes fell on him and he could only scratch the back of his head.
"Uh.. thanks for the help, but I think I should be going back now". They all remained silent for a moment before they all let out a small sigh.
"Sorry, I almost forgot about you, be more careful next time". The older freckled one said while waving him off.
"Yes yes try not to get caught next time" she nodded enthusiastically and Lucan offered them a sweet smile while he kept a complaint in his heart.
'I didn't get caught though' he grumbled, he wasn't shameless enough to tell them that he thought he could have escaped on his own, he had quite literally tripped over his own two feet. 'That said there are some stranger things to address'.
He hadn't said anything while he was there but that girl behaved very similarly to Polly, and the more she talked the harder it was not to notice the similarities but something about the way she talked'.
It had been gradual but while her manners weren't exactly aligned with Polly her speech did not show any contradictions as well.
This wasn't really something major, that is if it wasn't for the fact she had never done so before, no perhaps the right way to describe it was that her speech had gradually been leaning in that direction, ever since she came back from the infirmary.
Having returned to his room he tossed himself on his bed and allowed his tension to melt away, after a few minutes staring blankly at the ceiling he placed his hands on his head and screamed internally 'I dropped my water bottle'.
He had completely forgotten about the very item which had led him on his rather exciting adventure and couldn't help but lament now that he had calmed down enough to center himself. Once he was done panicking he shrugged and lay back in his bed 'There's nothing I can do'
Whether it was the weirdness of the orphanage or the people acting strangely he was rather powerless against these kinds of things, which did not in fact mean that he was willing to simply let himself get wrapped up in whatever this was trying to be.
***
Later in the morning he had gotten up just as the bell rang and wandered the halls for a bit, he didn't go near the medical wing but was carefully looking and inspecting each place he passed by like he was looking for something.
Lucan had two objectives in this place, one, was to see how many good hiding spots he could get himself into and his second was to find his water bottle, with the weather as it was lately and the food tasting a little better than baked sand now, getting up to the morning bell was more of a formality, no one wanted to waste energy unnecessarily.
"Well I suppose that's the best I can do" Going through the orphanage with a different goal certainly made things feel a lot different, maybe it was because no one was really looking after the place as much but there was surprisingly a good number of spaces he could fit his small body.
Feeling rather satisfied with himself he walked back to the main hall and found that everyone had gathered around to see something quite peculiar, children were leaving the medical ward, ones who people thought were adopted and even those they thought they would never see again.
Their face full of smiles as they greeted those they were familiar with their greetings, everyone was overjoyed, everyone except Lucan that is, he could not spot Polly in this crowd and in a way he wasn't really searching for her in the hopes of actually finding her, she was clumsy, yes that much is true, but she could be very good at hiding if she tried.
No, he was trying to see if she would notice him looking for her, but rather than finding Polly what he did find were the eyes of the children from the medical ward following him, he had thought it was a coincidence before but now he was very sure of it 'This is…unsettling'
He distanced himself from the crowd and decided to spend some time under the dorm's staircase, at the very least he wouldn't be bothered there.
He leaned against the wall and could feel his head spinning, something was wrong, 'Those people weren't normal, no well I suppose they wouldn't be in the medical wing if they were. He mused wondering if perhaps it was time for him to take a long stroll out of the orphanage.
He quickly shook his head and dismissed the idea, he was more likely to freeze to death out there than he was to actually get anywhere decent and it wasn't like they were doing anything particularly strange 'yet'.
The returned children had been virtually the same as their former selves and at the very least their roommates didn't seem bothered by them, if he were to put aside the curious glances and expressionless stares he would occasionally receive when he passed them by then there was nothing wrong.
"How do you spend all your days just reading and reading? Doesn't it get boring?". This was the only variable so far, the cafeteria girl, whom Lucan had mentally assigned the tag V, had told him her name, but Lucan forgot it just as often as he was told, it was long and annoying so he just called her V.
She had been the only one among the returned children who had approached him, and she was the only one whose personality had differed so greatly from how she usually was, Lucan was most cautious of her and would preferably not like to interact with her further.
***
She had followed him everywhere and now they sat in the common room more or less doing nothing.
"Do you have a favorite food?". Lucan sighed and shook his head, taking a spoonful of the cafeteria's slop and swallowing the tasteless thing with determination "How come, surely you must like something".
He was tired of her, all she did was talk endlessly asking him small, meaningless questions, it made him feel like he was going to go insane Where the fuck are her roommates goddammit'. But alas no one came to save him and as such he spent the entire day with her..
"Okay, I've had enough, what do you want from me?". Lucan asked in frustration, V appeared surprised for a moment and then laughed for a few seconds before abruptly stopping, the smile fading from her face replaced by a neutral expression.
"Finally done pretending to be a normal eight-year-old?". Lucan frowned, he hadn't been trying to pretend, well he wasn't trying very hard anyway.
All he had to do was talk a certain way and people would ignore the rest of the inconsistencies on their own, he already looked the part so he wasn't doing anything particularly special to make his act more believable. 'That said , how does she know that I'm not normal?'.
He narrowed his eyes at her, while she simply kept smiling at him, and Lucan was starting to feel just a little bit more afraid. As he adjusted himself away from her.
"Ah well, whatever". Lucan shrugged and slouched in his seat, he felt like he had wasted his entire day doing nothing.
The thought of simply asking her what she wanted hadn't occurred to him until just now and even then he had blurted it out more in frustration than anything.
Seeing his frustration V giggled and patted him on the back "See? It feels much better to be honest doesn't it?" She flashed him a warm smile whilst he just rolled his eyes at her.
"I thought I said I was done with this whole nice guy act".
"No need to be hostile Lucan, or no, is being hostile your true nature? How shocking" With every sentence he drew ever closer to punching her in the mouth, so he took a deep breath and calmly set aside his book. "Oh, seriously are we?"
He didn't answer and the girl simply continued "I was sent to deliver a message, I can't remember who it was that sent me but I know I'm supposed to tell you something".
"That thing being?". The girl's expression went blank and her tone became flat and mechanical causing a shiver to run through his spine.
She opened her mouth to speak and just as she was about to speak a news broadcast had come in "It's too late" Her jaw then clamped shut causing her teeth to clack against each other as her expression shifted flashing him a pitying glance before turning towards the tv.
Lucan furrowed his brows and looked at V with a strange expression. 'What sort of horror film is this? What exactly is late ?' Lucan couldn't help but sigh and turn his attention to the broadcast and his eyes widened in shock he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
He felt like he had just received a wake up call, he had almost forgotten where this place was, madness was supposed to be the order of the day here, he had been lucky so far but it seemed he wouldn't be so blessed anymore.
And this was only the beginning.
***
In an alley in central east Gotham a tall, pale skinned man was dragging a corpse behind him, leaving a bloody trail behind him, his clothes torn in several places and his clothes stained crimson with the red liquid of life.
"Must…get help…must help". He regarded the corpse with disgust and then thrust a hand inside the corpse's bleeding wound and began to draw something on one of the walls, using the blood as ink.
"Must.." he coughed, clearly in pain, his eyes clouding over as he seemed on the verge of falling over.
He smacked his forehead against the wall forcing himself awake "Focus…Focus, remain Focused you must".
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.