The Unified Soul

He's here....

~~~~

The room was cold, as usual. There was nothing that Airis could do about it though, since she wasn't given much of a choice as to stay in there. The only thing she could use to keep warm was a thin blanket that was basically motheaten and barely holding itself together.

She gripped the blanket and wrapped it around her body to keep warm.

"This is simply horrible for you, child." The voice said to her.

"I know, but what can I do? I'm not strong enough to escape, you said so yourself."

"I understand my words, Airis. But I simply cannot stand to see you suffering so terribly. I wish I could have prevented this from happening."

"What's done is done." Airis replied and lay down to fall asleep for the night. But before she could close her eyes, a new voice echoed from behind the metal door.

"Hey there, sweetie. Are you awake?" It was a man's voice in a hushed tone so that no one would be able to hear him.

Airis recognized the voice barely. This man, this stranger, only spoke to her a couple of times before, at the most three or four times, while she was locked away in this prison. He spoke to her softly and kindly, and once he even gave her a piece of candy during dinner.

She sat up and crawled over to the door, leaning her back against it.

"You came back." She said.

"Yes, I am glad to hear that you are all right." The man said, "I heard that the experiments today were pretty bad this time."

"Then... you watched me go through all that?" Airis asked.

"I did."

"And yet you didn't do anything to help."

"You know I can't do anything against him."

"You can't, or you won't?" Airis asked. That question always ended the conversation, as the man's footsteps echoed behind the door. She was about to go back to sleep when a small red candy rolled under the door.

But Airis didn't take the candy. It was a bribe. That's all it was. She took the candy and crushed it in her hands, letting the flaky remains fall to the stone floor.

"Trust no one here. They'll hurt you more." Airis whispered to herself.

"There's a door for a reason!"

~~~~

Airis was jolted from her nap at the sound of her father's screaming.

"Papa!" She shouted and jumped from the bed, frantically looking around while tugging at the blankets wrapped around her.

"Airis!" A voice shouted. She looked over and saw that Katelyn and Travis where in the room as well as her parents, the latter being red in the face.

"Auntie Katelyn? Uncle Travis?" Airis asked yawning, "What are you doing here?"

"Sorry about the door." Travis said, "It was open so we... didn't think about privacy."

"And sorry for waking you up, Airis. We didn't think you would be napping." Katelyn added.

"Mm-hmm, well, next time please knock louder. I was enjoying that." Aaron muttered that last part.

"Oh, well, um anyway, Katelyn and I are here to--"

Travis was cut off by a loud smashing sound behind them. Everyone turned towards the door and saw Garroth standing on the splintered remains of what used to be the door to the room.