Amanita: Poison Shot

Chapter 118: Finn

"I can't see Sigi ever again," I whispered while bitter tears were staining my cheeks. "Or any of you guys. Or Eros either. It's over. Agape's orders. I have to dissolve into anonymity and never contact any of you ever again. I'm sorry I have been such a pain in the arse for nothing."

I had never felt so dejected in my entire life. I gave the baby dodo to Eros while I noticed that none of the three people present felt at ease, but putting words to that feeling would only make me feel worse, and they knew it.

"I'm glad I met you, Eros. Take care of it for me, will you?" I softly asked him.

I exited the bathroom with a forlorn expression on my face while drying my tears with the backs of my hands. The baby dodo escaped from Eros' hands and followed me into the bedroom. By the time I was getting my backpack, it was clinging to my feet while tweeting with a needy tone.

"T-take it w-with you," Eros said softly but with sadness. He was standing and leaning on the bathroom doorframe for support. "It c-considers you its m-mother. Your f-face was the first it s-saw, that's why. B-besides, it hates me. A-and I c-can't b-bear to see it."

I squatted down to let it jump on my palms.

"So, we will n-never s-see you again?" Eros asked me with teary eyes. "For r-real?"

"I'm afraid so." I got up with the baby dodo tweeting with satisfaction. As I did so, the round, metal pieces of the top that K8 had been forced to lend me jingled.

"Where will you go?" K8 asked with sadness.

"I... It's better if you don't know. By the way, thanks for the clothes, K8. I hadn't properly thanked you." The sweetness in my voice was tainted with the sudden greed to keep talking to her for a while longer before I would be forced to stay away from her forever.

"Well, almost everything you owned got burnt. It's nothing, really. You can keep it, D." She drew a bittersweet smile then.

"But... you can't go out there. It's curfew time, Daphne," Kono said with worry. "You'll get in trouble with the clones!"

"I don't care." I turned my back to them and crossed the threshold of Eros' bedroom. It felt like an inflexion point, as if there was no going back.

"Won't you wait for Sigi at least, D?" K8 asked with sad, glowing eyes. I stopped dead in my tracks. The mere mention of his name made my heart dry and break into smithereens. "He's about to arrive, I'm sure. If you can't see each other ever again, then this could be your last chance to..."

"No," I replied curtly. "It would only make things worse."

Either I wouldn't be strong enough to stay away from him and obey Agape's orders, or he would throw a fit and drag me back to Amanita. Either way, Agape would be pissed off at me. Again.

I wasn't cut out to be a rebel, regardless of changing. If anything, changing had only made it more clear that Sigi might have made a mistake the day he had hacked my chip.