Divulgence ✹ Septicgab

Seven

Everything made sense one second, and then as soon as we started to progress, it blew up in everyone's faces. Amelia was our child. The very first intimate night we spent together was all that was needed, and Evelien started to show the second time we were in Yharnam. The doppelgängers that seemed to be the physical representation of the negative aspects of our personalities.. they would show, regardless of whether or not we died in that world. That explained how Mark swore he saw Evelien, but not the real Evelien.. She had already died and was at St. Luke's, bleeding out in her hospital bed. Reynolds knew Evelien was pregnant for certain, and she wanted a baby for herself.

Iosefka tried to warn all of the hunters in Yharnam. There was a great evil surrounding the decimated territory, and that evil had escaped. Reynolds wasn't exactly human in the time we all knew her, but as it turned out, she wasn't at all.

It had been over a week, and Amelia was still out there. The police had their leads, but none of them stuck for long. One detective kept pushing for Evelien and me to file a missing person's report.

"We can't do that," she said, starting to cry. "What if... What if that psychopath... sees the information from this and knows we're looking for her? What if she... wh-what if she k--" She started to hyperventilate, so I helped her calm down as we found two chairs to rest on. "What if Amelia gets hurt out there? I'd never forgive myself."

"It wouldn't be your fault," I held my fiancée close, brushing my hand over her head. "It's Reynolds. She did this."

~

She made the mistake of leaving me alone. It was typical of her to do so, however, she did not know I had devised a plan. Reynolds would tie my arms behind the back of the chair she had me sit on, and my legs she would do the same. She thought a six year old girl, beaten and terrorised all this time wouldn't be able to escape, but the bitch had it coming.

"My name.. is Amelia Gabrielle McLoughlin. I am six years old.. born on the twentieth of November. My parents are alive and looking for me. Their friends are alive and looking for me," I whispered under my breath as I focused on splitting the threads of the twine rope that held my wrists together. "I'm an eleven year old girl.. born in Yharnam. Evelien is my real mother. Seán is my real father... my name is Amelia Gabrielle McLoughlin." I untied my ankles and stood up slowly. The blood flow to my legs had been halted by the inactivity, but with the cut in my thigh, I was able to feel something. Reynolds thought she could keep me locked away. "I'm not your baby, Reynolds."

-

It was approximately 12:00am, and Reynolds was still nowhere to be seen. I wrapped my open wound in just enough time to hide before I heard any noise. 12:02am..
12:03am

I held onto the pocket watch I found in Yharnam before I died there. It was engraved with a message: "May you find your worth in the waking world." This message was the only thing that kept me alive until I learned the truth of who I am.

12:15am...
A loud crash rattled through the dark room. It was Reynolds. She saw I had gotten out of the chair and noticed a missing roll of gauze from her, almost medieval looking, medicine cabinet. She was irate, throwing things across the room until she walked out and screamed. It was time for the escape.

I had mentally mapped out the entire room I was held in after each sunrise. I was trapped for at least a week. The room was all I knew, but after spending most of my life in Yharnam, I had learned a lot about survival. Reynolds kidnapped me from my mother, directly after I was born. She tried to raise me into believing I was hers, but I never looked like her. It wasn't until Rae saw me there... that it made sense.

Rae saw me hiding in a corner from one of those beasts, and she saved me. She helped me get up and out of there, and when we were safe, we talked. Each day I spent trapped by Reynolds, I remembered the words Rae spoke.

"You may be young and small, but you're stronger than anyone I've ever met," I smiled, remembering how kind she was to me. I only wished to see her again. I wished to see everyone again, but first, I had to get out. There was a small opening in the wall where I could chip away at until it would bust, but that would take too much time, and make too much noise. I noticed a metal vent I could unscrew with something as simple as a coin, but I didn't know where the tunnel would take me. My only other escape was the door Reynolds used to get in and out, and that was the worst possible choice. At least with the air ducts I would be concealed.

~

"Okay... are we all set on the plan?" Seán asked the group after we met up in person the following week. "Amelia has been missing for about two weeks, and we have no idea where she's being held."

"We don't even know why she was kidnapped, other than the theory that Reynolds is really a beast from Yharnam," Rae spoke next. "Amelia was born in Yharnam, so there's a chance she's been taken back there. We just need to figure out how.."

"What were we all doing before we wound up there in the first place?" Mark asked. No one had any recollection of time immediately before Yharnam. Rae became extremely quiet. "Rae?"

"I think I remember hearing something..." she said. "Reynolds wouldn't stop talking about this... ceremony?" Rae explained the feeling she went through when going to Yharnam. She wasn't fully unconscious when she first arrived, but passed out immediately after seeing a lantern emerge from the ground below her. The mummy-like beasts that surrounded her had scared her unconscious, and when she woke, she was in Iosefka's clinic. "Reynolds kept talking about a rune... wait... Seán.." He looked confused. "Your arm." He held out his right arm, showing the scar. "That's the rune. That's a Bold Hunter's mark.... that's what she kept talking about."

"Okay," I said. "But how's that going to help us?" My fiancé wrapped his arm around me as I started to tear up. "What the hell are we gonna do?"

"Let's all get some rest for now," Amy suggested. "No one will be able to think straight in this fatigue."

-

The last thing I remembered from that night was the feeling of Seán's embrace. His arms wrapped around me, holding me close, and our hearts beat as one, pounding out of our chests....but when the night was over, it was a completely different story.

"Seán!" I sat up. "Oh my god.." he woke up next to me, stretching dramatically. "Seán!" I said again, and he jumped at the sight of where we were.

"How.." He said. "How the fuck?" We sat there, startled by how easily we returned to this place of unimaginable hell, but snapped out of it when we heard a high pitched shriek.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Help!" The voice screamed.

"That.. that sounded like.." Seán started to speak.

"Amelia," I finished his sentence. "Come on!"