The Child: Entry 37

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'You're not as plain and simple as you lead yourself to be, you know that Emery?' Emily whispered into my ear as we walked through the front doors. My mind was in other places like what was going to happen to Emmanuel and even worse, me, if I ended up screwing this little thing I had for me. I was never one to be sworn in secrecy or living a lie, I have never had to because people have been limited but now people and friends come hand in hand with everyday living and I'm not exactly sure if I really am ready for that. 'You are not as vanilla as you say you are.' She continued. 'You are something very special, I know it and very soon you are going to be able to express it. I will help you do it all Emery. You hear me?' She stopped and looked at me directly into my eyes. 'You will become something great and you will shape the world with your hands.' I cleared my throat. 

'You, you really think so?'

'I know so!' She yelled. 'And I will be with you every step of the way Emery. I won't let you fail.' She grabbed the attention of several others that were in the lobby and they stained at us intently. Even though this was a more stable area in the city I still saw the poor and blind laying on the floor with their cardboard boxes and wool blankets and for a split second I could almost say that I was disgusted with what I saw. Like they weren't people that should be treated like actual people. I delighted in the thought and thought about spitting on one person particular, young and covered with dirt but I stopped myself. 

'Lets go.' Emily dragged me away from the crowd and into the elevator and pushed the highest number that was on the panel. I looked through the doors to see all the dirt and grime that covered the once nice tile floors. Smears from one door to another crawled in-between people and I felt like throwing up until the doors closed. Emily turned to look at me and smiled as she stepped closer to me and began to whisper into my ear. 

'You are so much more different than all the guys in this city and I want you to know that.' She then leaned in to kiss me. I was speechless and I didn't know what to do so I returned the favour. I could of thought of anything as I was kissing her; flowers, a carnival, a forest but something stood out from the rest. As I look back to it now it was not just some meaningless thought that put no significance to everyday life but a turning point to what I once was. I thought of the man who was being dragged on the floor when I was imprisoned by The Family. Lips were sewn shut with metal wires and I couldn't help but feel lost in his pitch black eyes but then his wrists. His wrists had symbols carved on them, the same exact symbols I saw when I was with Ville's father. 

Was he one of the Coram Morte? If so then why did he carve those symbols in his arms or was that done by The Family? Darkness rushed over my heart and my thoughts were covered in violence. I thought about the young man I saw seconds prior and how I wanted to destroy him and everything that was owned by him. I began to smile and I felt Emily smile along with me but I think her reasons were different then it was like something hit me but not actually but instead was a thought. A rude awakening in its reality but it pushed me back away from Emily and she looked at me. I began to brush the saliva off of my lips with my arm and I thought of evil. Pure darkness that pushed itself into me and I'm sure that I looked scared but Emily looked at me as if nothing was wrong. 

'I knew you were weak but not that weak.' Emily laughed to herself. 'I know this is all new to you but you really need to catch up with the world. If you want to survive here then you are going to have to endulge with what I have to offer.' She minced over towards me and brushed her body against mine. 'I have what you need to move on. You need to figure out what the box wants from you but you need to be able to communicate with it and I know how you can.' The elevator dinged as the doors opened to reveal a dirty hallway full of boxes and dirt. 'Let me show you where your going to hide out.'

She tugged on my hand lightly and I followed her as she led me around various corners. She pointed to one door in particular and this one varied from the others. Other doors were wooden and white to black colored--depended on the amount of dirt on them--but this one was steel and painted in a deep purple. I felt something press into my hand and as I looked down I noticed that Emily placed a set of keys into my hand. I looked back up to her and she nodded to the door and said a soft 'Go'.

Up next in The Child: 

Entry 38

Remember me

The Child: Entry 36

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Entry 35

An odd looking hermit tried to sell me some even odder-looking bird. Feathers of every color lined the pink skin of the body and face but it looked rather sickly. He was hanging it upside down with his hands holding its feet, head nearly falling off I looked at its face and it looked as if it had some serious physical problems. Eyes bugging out, blue tongue, and a sick complexion like it was dipped in oil. 

'Rule number one.' Emmanuel spoke boldly. 'You are never to eat anything that the merchants try to sell to you. There food is contaminated by raw sewage and blood.'

'It looks disgusting anyway' I responded while keeping direct eye contact with the merchant with a lazy eye. 'There not necessarily with a trustworthy look.' Emily smiled a bit. 

'Rule two. Never and I mean never tell a single soul that you are a Delacroix, or even mention that you are from out of town. You were born and raised here and that's the end of it. I'm sure that I don't need to warn you about the box. Keep it on you at all times but never show it to anyone.'

'Obviously.' I said under my breath. Emily looked up to me and chuckled a little bit. 

'You’re cute.' She whispered into my ear, I couldn't help but smile a little as well. Our shoulders bumped with some merchants that gave us long stairs as we passed them due to the lack of space in the bustling alleyways. I turned my gaze to look inside one of the open buildings and all I could see was fist fighting. Being surrounded by several others, two men fought in the center as the spectators around them threw in paper money and coins into the center. Savages. 

Blood splattered on the floor and all over everyone in the room as one man got an advantage over the other. Some sick game in my opinion; scarring each other faces. The man who lost the upper hand fell to the floor as the other jumped on top of him, loosing control of his human nature. I heard the men around him chant 'finish him, finish him' making every syllable a distinct complete word. The victor put his foot on the skull of the looser and he stomped down to cave his skull in. I looked away with astonishment but curiosity compelled me to turn back around. The victor yelled to the crowd—for big some primal scream—and showed off his bloody knuckles to everyone around him. Emmanuel cleared her throat and continued. 

'Rule number three.' She emphasized 'rule' to get my complete attention 'Try to remain inside the safe house as much as possible. We don't want any disgusting vermin following you home looking for a place to stay.'

'When you say vermin, I'm guessing that you are talking about people?' I asked. 

'No.' Emmanuel stopped in her tracks and looked at me. 'These things aren't people. There just some disgusting creatures who have learned to live off the more fortunate.'

'That’s a cruel outlook on other people.' I responded. Emmanuel started to pull me forward again. 

'But it's true.' I looked up and to my amazement I could no longer see the sun. Black smog and skyscrapers cluttered whatever was left of the horizon. Clothes on wire lines and boards from building to building cluttered the sky above me. Several people sat in their window seals smoking there cigarettes and several others were people looking down and up and yelling at each other. 'But you're not going to live here emery. Me and Emily always have bodyguards following us but they never dare go into the slums so were using the slums as cover till we get you home. Mother can't know where you are.'

Turning corners upon corners, we passed through several alleyways and buildings. Some had better keep than others and many were bustling full of people. No matter where we were however, I felt as if people were burning holes at the back of my head. Gradually the alleyways grew wider and less people covered the remaining space. Shops were run more ethically and the upkeep improved greatly. Buildings grew taller in the distance and the slime and smog on them became lighter till there was none that could be found. I didn't notice how tight Emily was holding onto me till she began to lighten the grip on my arm, she was feeling more safe to the surroundings, as was I. 

Soon as streets began to be paved with road and sidewalks Emmanuel stopped and looked up at the building in front of us. Glass sliding doors, columns, a modern yet Victorian era looking building. It towered at least eight stories into the sky as conjoining buildings to the left and right towered at least five and seven stories. These side buildings looked as if they were apart of the main one in front of me but I couldn't be for sure. Emmanuel walked a few steps in front of me and Emily then turned around to face us. 

'Well?' Emmanuel asked. 'What do you think Emery? Is it fitting for you?' I had already looked the building up and down and structurally it stood like a rock, architecturally it looked beautiful but one couldn't determine the quality of a building just by judging the outside so I shrugged towards her. Emmanuel's glow of excitement dimmed down to a slight afterglow and turned her head to her right. Almost instantly she ducked down and pointed to my left showing several people walking around the corner with suits and badges on there hips. 

'They are trying to cut us off from the other side of the slums.' Whispered Emily. 

'Em, take Emery inside and settle him in his room, I'll get them to follow me. Emily nodded and pulled me forward as I grabbed my bag when we passed Emmanuel as we rushed inside. Looking back I could see Emmanuel turn a corner with her high heels in her hands and began to run. 

'She will be ok Emery.' Emily turned my head towards her. 'There here to protect us not kill us.’ For a second I thought that what she said was true but only for a moment. They are immortal. It's plain and simple that they can't die but people can sure make them to want to die through pain, shame and god knows what else.

I could only imagine Emmanuel being beaten by her security detail, carving in her face, making her wish that she was never born. The entire trauma that will pass through her eyes and not just physical trauma but mental, emotional, even sexual. She's a woman, it's not like its a taboo that no one can acknowledge, this is something that is very real and not some little game that would be forgotten but the Halstein's in the flesh seem very strong and violent. She will get her revenge by tearing off their limbs and desecrating their body's with teeth and nails. This, of course, is all hypothetical. I'm sure that she is perfectly fine; she's a big girl. 

Up next in The Child: 

Entry 37

Remember me

The Child: Entry 35

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Entry 34

She might as well have cut all the way through her arm; white shined from the open gashes and it only took moments to realize that the white was bone. I looked back up to her and I noticed that she started to cry as her mascara and eyeliner began to smudge further down her face. She never returned her gaze to me though; her eyes were fixed on her open cuts. Even though it was very deep I couldn’t see any fresh blood pumping through her veins, everything was dry and empty, maybe her soul was too. 

'I never meant to cut this deep, it just felt so good.' She sighed. 

'Why aren't you healing up? Ville can do that. ' I asked. 

'The whole immaculation process is different for a woman than it is a man. A man has to make massive cuts through the center of the body but immaculation consumes men more than a woman. A woman only has to make a few smaller cuts because it doesn't consume us, it's more like a companion but since it doesn't fill our body, we don't heal as fast but we do heal faster than someone who isn't immaculated.'

'Why is it different like that?'

'There are many theories. Many say that when they see Wretched it appears that it's a woman and its kinder to her own gender but others say its because its a tolerance in our genes so we can have a natural childbirth. I'm not sure exactly.' I was staring at her wrists as she was talking and I could see muscles weave in and out of her arms covering up her bones. I responded. 

'Its not so bad, you don't have to cry, you're healing just fine.' 

'Its not that I won't heal it's that I promised my father not to go overboard. He warns me all the time that going to far will only get wretched inside of you that much more. I can't help it.' I heard a thump behind me and I turned around to see Emily's sister with a big piece of luggage right beside her. 

'You’re twins?' I asked. Both of them laughed as Emmanuel walked around me while placing her hands on my shoulders. 

'Of course we are sweetie, we couldn't have it any other way.' Emmanuel had a slight deeper voice than her sister and it looked like she was wearing the same kind of dress but it was red instead of white. Small cuts covered her cheeks all the way down her arms to her legs. 'You checking me out Emery?' Emmanuel giggled. 'You know. I like a man who knows what he likes and takes it.' Emily straightened out her back and started to walk towards me to grab my hand and pull me away from her sister.  

'We must hurry, before mother is finished with Ville. We need to get out before its to late.' Emmanuel sighed and nodded towards her sister and pointed to the luggage. 

'That’s for you Emery, it contains some clothes and various other objects.' I grabbed it and picked it up with my free hand as Emily was tugging on my other hand with all her strength. She stopped back at the elevator and pushed a button, which opened the doors immediately. Emmanuel followed us and took her position near my other arm in which was carrying the luggage. She pried it out of my hand to sit it on the ground next to her as she wrapped her body around my arm and pushed up against me—the same thing Emily was doing to my other arm and the elevator doors closed. 

When the doors opened again I realized that we were back on the main floor to see various vaulted ceilings and flying buttresses and red ribbons hanging from the ceiling. Both Emily and Emmanuel pushed me forward with their latches to my arms as Emmanuel grabbed my luggage but kept a tight grip on me. They both leaned into me as if they were trying to crush my core but as the time passed I could only feel homely. Passing several people they gave us odd glances and murmured with each other, for a second I could hear the word 'victim'.

These two beautiful girls could not have been leading me to my death but I can see why they think that way according to the Halstein's past. They were taking me to a place somewhere safe. Somewhere where nobody could find me. The floor turned into precise diamond shaped marble tiles and one of the girls feet echoed through the halls. Emily was barefooted but as I looked down to Emmanuel's feet, I noticed that she was wearing some fine black high heels. 

The place was well guarded from what I could tell, we passed several guard checkpoints before I even had the chance to see the front doors to the outside but as we grew near to one of the checkpoints the guards looked at us not even moving a step towards us. I guess if you are with family you aren't considered a threat. An entire wall of glass was now in front of us and I could tell that on the other side was the outside world. The sun busted through the panes and all I could see on the other side of the windows was white, the brightness of the sun. 

The air inside of the building smelt damp and rotten but when I was able to reach my head outside I could smell flowers and nice spring air. It was the end of winter when I first left my father, the ride on his Triumph was blistering with the ice-cold winds but now, now everything was warm and soft to the touch. Fine stone blocks lined the outside of the building and columns reached up a hundred feet high, water fountains and little rivers flowed around the tower and the grass was as green as anyone could imagine. Someone takes care of this place very well, like it was his only daughter, he loved it with every beat of his heart. 

We continued forward to cross over a concrete bridge and into a plaza, on the other side everything that was once vast and open crunched down to narrow alleyways of markets and tall business buildings. I could see that from nearly almost every building smoke and steam raised up to the sky and the greatness of industry took over. I looked behind me to see several tall skyscrapers towering up into the sky and long grass fields passed in between them and in front of me laid everything but peace.

'Nobody will find you in here Emery.' Said Emily. 'We will take care of you now and you will have a place to call your own I just ask you to do one thing.'

'What’s that?' I asked

'Never return to the capitol building no matter the cost, if you ever do it will become your grave.'

Up next in The Child:

Entry 36

Remember me

The Child: Entry 34

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Entry 33

The elevator dinged telling me that I was on floor 61 B and though I was expecting everything to be dark and black, I wasn't surprised to see many shades of red and blue instead. Right out of the elevator was a rather large round room with twelve-foot ceilings with scattered ribbons on the walls above me. Directly in front of me on the other side of the room was an arched hallway that went on for several feet into another room. To my left and right were two more identical hallways leading to other rooms as well. Lining the hallways were various stone statues of scantily clad women; some didn't even have clothes but all were wearing similar looking masks. 

Old renascence Venetian masks covered the faces of these statues. Some were square, others round but nearly all of them were blank, covered in white and that was it. It seemed peaceful but I could only feel chaos in my mind; the eyes that were carved in stone were something else. Looking closely at one of the statues I realized that nothing was done to the pupils of the eyes so the entirety of the eye was just one solid shape. This made me think of Ville and the thing that he could do with his own eyes, to turn them into a vacuum of nothing, pitch black. The masks weren't stone though, porcelain for most, paper mâché for the rest, all of which were painted white. 

I remained on my toes as I headed down the central hallway that laid directly in front of the elevator. The main round room was fairly well lighted but the hallways steadied themselves with a low glow of light. As I made myself midway between the first round room and the next I could begin to make out what was in the room I was heading to. On top of a rather large table that sit—from what it appeared to be—in the center of the oncoming room I noticed that something large was laying on it. My first thought was a body—it's what I have seen in the past and nothing has changed—but it could have been an animal. It was smaller than an average person would be but from the lights that stood only a few feet above it I couldn't make out anything definitive. 

Like a patient ready for surgery, something was waiting patiently on the operation table; waiting to be cut open or even worse, just to die. A few steps closer and I began to hear a slight melody; it took me a few seconds to realize that someone was humming it from around the corner of the room. Now that I was only a few feet away from the entrance I could see within the room and distinguish what was on the table. There were a few spotlights pointing up the walls to illuminate the rest of the room and the sight wasn't greeting me with hospitality. The walls looked like white paneling that segregated every eight feet and large pieces of paper hanged from every corner of the room. On these papers that covered the walls were charcoal drawings of buildings, people—naked and clothed—scenery and the most unsettling of all, me. With all the shades of black and grey, another colour stained the paper. It was red and my only assumption could be blood, that is the nature of these people and it would only seem fitting. 

On top of the table was a petite woman that could have been twenty. Long dark brown hair stretched past her shoulders towards her waist and a small skimpy white dress rested on her shoulders and down her body. Before I stepped into the room the humming of another stopped and a loud bang echoed through the halls. Looking at the woman in the table no flinching occurred and a smile began on her face. Even though it was bright on the small woman I could tell one other colour on the woman, more red. She was bleeding and my best guess would be her arms and wrists but with her palms down and to the sides of her I couldn't be for sure. 

'My daddy told me you were coming, I'm sorry I wasn't able to clean myself up, everything happened last minute.' She turned her head towards me and black filled her eyes as mascara and eyeliner smeared down her cheeks. 'I'm sorry where's my manners, I'm Emily. My sister, Emmanuel, just left the room to clean herself up. You look scared Emery, I'm not going to hurt you.' She sat up and twisted her legs over the table to dangle them down towards me. 'Here. Let me fix something.' She closed her eyes, looked up and breathed in heavy. After a few seconds she opened her eyes and looked at me. Soft green with a mix of brown. She looked so innocent with her stare and her eyes being as such, everything else gleamed. Bright red lips, simply pale skin but rosy cheeks, she was beautiful. 

‘See? I'm not so bad.' She got up onto her feet and walked a few steps towards me. A blood trail followed her and dropped from her arms to down her legs and she whispered. 'Look, I'm bleeding.' She raised her arms directly in front of her to show me with her arms fully extended. I broke my gaze from into her eyes and on her arms. It was traumatic. 

Up next in The Child

Entry 35

Remember me