Letter Addressed To The Fire

Poppy Contract: Mother Heidi's Office

I sob.

Mother Heidi freezes.

I mumble gibberish while sobbing, acting overwhelmed with the world and so now everything is overflowing.

"Wha...?" Mother Heidi clears her throat, blinks, and smooths her expression. "Azure, dear, please tell me what makes you feel like this."

"I..." I break into another sob.

Mother Heidi walks from her seat to mine and puts an arm over my shoulders. "There, there. I assure you, despite being banished here, you are still valuable to the Pope. Like everyone says, we're all bound to face the Pope's temper one way or another."

I nod while wiping my tears. I breathe hard and try to collect myself. "I'm so sorry for—" I cough and continue, "—for breaking down like that. I just... I don't really know what to think now. I just feel like... like a failure."

"Dear, there's nothing to apologize for." Mother Heidi smiles at me sympathetically. She rubs my arms and says, "I understand how you feel. You've been in so much pressure to perform well and now it seems like everything's been in vain, right?"

I nod and start to tear up.

"Ohh." She pats my head. "Why don't I get you a glass of milk from the kitchen?"

Of course, I have to deny this. "Oh, please, there's no need for that." I sheepishly smile.

"No, no. Let me." She leaves the office so I cannot reject her offer.

I sit on my chair for a few minutes, head down and breathing raggedly, in case she thinks to observe me before actually heading to the kitchen. When I hear a faraway door open and close, I lift my head. I scan the whole office in a few seconds and decide nothing is really amiss. So I go behind her desk and look through the drawers.

Of course, the bottommost drawer is locked. If I open this, I have to lock it before she comes back.

I can do it anyway, so I do. I take one paperclip from her box, unbend it, and pick the lock. In no more than 10 seconds, the drawer opens. I quickly rummage through the papers and take what I believe to be important. Then, I look through her stack of unorganized documents on her desk and take the ones in the middle, fold them like how the papers I took are folded, and place them accordingly.

I hear footsteps.

I quickly close the drawer and try to lock it.

Fuck.

I stab the paper clip in the keyhole and pick it continuously until I feel it move.

The footsteps draw nearer.

FUCK.

I try to pull the drawer.

YES.

It's locked, so I slip the paper clip in my left shoe and tuck the papers I took at the waistline of my pants on my back. I return to my sit, head resting on my palm while I my elbow is on the desk.

The door opens and I look at her.

"Here," she hands me a glass of milk and a plate of cookies.

"Thank you, Mother Heidi." I take them and shyly place them on the desk.

"I hope you feel better." She returns to her seat behind the desk. "You'll only be here for three days. Maybe you need to rest here more."

"With your milk and cookies, I might just feel better tomorrow when I wake up."

I smile at her and she laughs. "That's the spirit!"

I look at the milk and cookies, and debate whether these would kill me or not.

"Go on," she urges me with a smile.

The milk, she could easily spike. The cookies, they're solid, so if she put anything on them, it would show. Powder would contrast in color, liquid would make it wet. Plus, she couldn't have made it in a few minutes; it must've been preprepared.

I casually take a cookie and bite. Oh, it's good.

"Did you make these? They're tasty!" I beam at her.

"Oh, it's the chef!" She proudly says.

"If I live here, I would eat so much every day."

Mother Heidi laughs, eyeing the milk and cookies.

"Mother Heidi," I take her attention after taking time to finish the cookie, "Are all nuns always here?"

Mother Heidi looks surprised by my question, but she answers anyway, "Not always, but this is all the nuns' home. Even when they go away for a mission or something else, they'll always return here after."

I nod, "So that's why this place looks so peaceful even when I thought there should be so much more people here."

She smiles and nods, "Precisely."

So where's Waterlily the Nun?

I finish one more cookie and I stand. "Thank you so much, Mother Heidi. I'll head out for air for a while, then I'll sleep soon."

"Of course, Azure. I hope you feel better."

I nod and exit her office.

In the yard, I take my time wandering and observing the place. There's no bookshelf in her office, so it's unlikely she has any hidden rooms there.

I face the entrance gate of the nunnery and my eyes slide to the underground dining area.

But there wasn't any unusual floorboard or tile...

After an hour of wondering and wandering, I head back to my room. When I close the door behind me, I hear a faint shattering of a glass from the opposite side of the nunnery.

I smirk.

Oh, well.

I sit on my bed beside the window to observe anymovement and change. I take the documents from my back and study them. Intotal, I have five documents with me and they seem to be of the same timeline.