Salvation | nier: automata reader insert

.𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐧

In the past, she was often told that things wouldn't always go her way. She was by no means a spoiled child, in fact, she was quite the opposite. She thought herself independent from her parents, though it wasn't by choice.

Her mother, the wife of a political figure, was never home. Neither was her father. In their absence, they left the task of raising their only daughter to the various nannies they'd hire. But the women [name] would go on to associate as her 'second mothers', could never be on par with the real thing. What she longed for more than anything as a child, was the presence of her parents.

Nightmares came often, waking her in the middle of the night and frightening her into staying up until the early hours of the morning. She was quick to learn the silence of her empty home would always greet her instead of the whispered affirmations she sought from her absent mother. Over the years her nightmares and tears never stopped, but her cries for her mother did.

[name] was five when her mother pulled her aside and repeated the accursed words to the young girl who would then go on to uttering them every time she felt saddened at the lack of her parent's presence. To her, they were like a mantra meant to ward off her loneliness, a reminder that her parent's absence was in no way their fault. Though, unknowingly, they also became the words that plunged her deeper into the depths of her solitude.

"You can't always get what you want, so make the best of what you have."

At five years old, the girl understood what her mother meant with the lesson in selflessness. Her father, along with the rest of the government, were busy finding a cure for a vicious disease ravaging the planet. The rare times that he was home, he always brought home a present for her as if that were to make up for his extended absence. Her mother was no different. The nights that she did decide to come home, she always smelt of alcohol and cigarette mixed perfume. Sometimes she came in alone and other times [name] could hear the murmured whispers of an unfamiliar man.

Despite their obvious shortcomings as parents, [name] still loved them to bits. She cherished the time they spent with her no matter how long or short it was. She was a good girl, an obedient girl, who refused to cry when her parents would leave her alone at home and not return for days on end. There were better things to waste her tears on and she decided her selfish desires would not be one of them.

༻✦༺

There was a painful ringing in her head as she forced her eyes open. It was possibly the worst headache she's ever had and as she slowly regained consciousness, it was apparent her pain was due to a blaring alarm. It was loud enough that she could feel its sound vibrate throughout the length of her body and it echoed within the confines of her head.

Her fingers dove into unruly tresses, clenching tightly at the strands as a soft groan escaped her lips. Her eyes blinked rapidly in a vain attempt to whisk away the drowsiness she felt overcoming her senses. While her thoughts were like a blank slate, filled with nothing other than the sound of that horrid alarm, she still had enough awareness to recognize that the place she awoke in was not at all familiar.

White surrounded her, encompassing her senses in a color far too bright for her taste. She slightly winced, closing her eyes briefly before slowly opening them as they adjusted. Aside from the unfamiliar white room, she was also puzzled to find herself sleeping in not a bed, but an odd chamber. There was a thin glass door that separated her from the outside which she experimentally pressed her hands against. With surprising ease, the door gave away with a high-pitched hiss. Her hands reached forward to grapple the sides of the metal chamber, the pulsating in the back of her head dulled as she pulled herself out and into the empty room. The alarms that were blaring unintelligible words just moments earlier had silenced as soon as the glass door opened. It was a detail she couldn't focus too much on, not when her head felt like it was spinning and not one coherent thought could be formed.