Noremma Oneshot Collection

Never Alone {💔}

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CONTAINS MANGA SPOILERS
(POST-CHAPTER 74)
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The lights in the Lambda 7214 experimental farm had all gone dark for the night, save for the emergency light strips that lined the trim of the hallways. They remained glowing a cold, ambient blue against the blank and uninviting walls of the facility.

Most of the researchers and demon workers had retreated to their respective living quarters, after having secured each of the test subjects in their dorms.

Norman lay in his bed, staring up at the ceiling of his room in the dark.

It had been a long, uneventful day full of various tests that tried—but failed once again—to challenge his brilliant mind. A day just like any other that he's had lately.

And just like any other day, it comes to a close as he lies awake in the room that he has all to himself, thinking back to the better days he had at Gracefield farm.

Unlike in Lambda, his time at Gracefield was always exciting. Every day was filled with laughter, smiles, and quality time with his family. Even the last few weeks he had spent there, planning The Escape after having found out the horrifying nature of the farm were more fulfilling and fun compared to any of his time spent in this new farm.

He missed waking up and seeing the joyful faces of his many younger brothers in the morning.
No longer could he hear shrieks of laughter echoing through the hallways as children sped past him with stomping feet through the corridor.

There were no windows in Lambda, as opposed to Gracefield which had at least one in every room, making way for warm rays of sunshine to cast a cheery radiance all throughout the house. 
Norman didn't have to help prepare meals anymore, but he never got the chance to share them with anyone now either.
He's never been allowed to step outside the facility to feel the wind on his face, or run around in the fresh afternoon air like he did before, during their family's daily rounds of tag.

What he missed most about Gracefield, though, were his best friends, Emma and Ray.

The three of them had grown up together, Emma constantly pulling Norman excitedly along on her adventures as Ray trailed behind them, rolling his eyes at their silly antics.

Norman smiled to himself, remembering how he and Emma were always pestering Ray to come play with them, or how Emma frowned adorably as she pouted over games of chess that seemed so easy for the two boys.

They had spent practically every hour of the day together for almost twelve years. Sometimes though, Ray would disappear off on his own somewhere to meet with Mama or to be alone with his thoughts in the library. Because of this, it was most often Emma and Norman who were always found by each other's side.

And now, at Lambda, Norman woke up and went to sleep in a room all to his own, ate his meals there without anyone to talk to, did his tests alone as people on the other side of the mirrored walls observed him as if he were a lab rat.
He walked to and from these two rooms through a long, desolate hallway, all without the company of a certain orange-haired girl that always used to be right at his side, skipping along and offering him a heartwarming smile whenever he felt even the slightest bit upset.

Now that those days were gone, Norman has never felt so alone.

Even the time most comparable to this, when he was kept isolated in the Gracefield infirmary after coming down with a bad fever at age 6, and Mama had forbade the other kids to come see him, she had still somehow found a way to make him feel a little less lonely, like she always did.