Striation City's Killer

Chapter 8

Basement Chili's point of view!

I stare at the spot where I saw where it was. It. That person reassembling me. Same hair style, the restaurant uniform, everything. Their eyes, though. They were red, the same hue and shade as mine, but they were... normal. It's the first time in a while I've been this interested in something, and it's actually keeping me awake, somehow. My arms are throbbing and aching, along with my jaw. My muscles have all wasted away by this point, and I'm freezing... I'm pretty much alive from these shots from what must be food scraps I keep getting at around what I feel like is midday and late afternoon. I think I'm used to them by now, although I wish I could actually eat something.

Ah well. I can't do much at the moment... I may as well sleep.

I shut my eyes and immediately find myself falling asleep...

I shut my eyes in reality and open them in my mind.

I wake up in a sunny field. The sun is shining down, warming my skin. The grass is dry and warm. There are a few white fluffy clouds that look like ice cream. Or cotton puffs. I'm not sure.

I get up and start running around. My dreams change rather quickly, and for me, this is really the equivalent of life. A very trippy psychedelic life. If I dream for long enough though, I keep going to the same place over and over. The clouds. Then I see this girl, she's always staring at me. Her hair is long, straight, yet messy and spiked at the ends. Her hair is like mine, red, but with a rose tint to it. She's always... staring. Then I just wake up.

But, for the time being... I'm in this field. The wind blows silently, ruffling my hair. I wonder if I'll see that girl again. Cress, however comes to mind.

You see... Actually, this is going to take a bit to explain.

Me, Cress, and Cilan were found somewhere outside Striation. Cress the oldest, looking around 10, Cilan being around 5 and I was still a baby. Cress and Cilan can't remember anything from before that point, and only remember just... one day being in Striation. A DNA test proved absolutely nothing and seemed to be gibberish. I still have no idea what that means.

Don't feel bad about us having no parents, I don't really know what it's like so I don't care.

But recently, Cress started going out with a girl named Amanda. She had long blonde hair and was a really pretty girl, and Cress actually proposed to her. She said yes, and when he came home that night he told me and Cilan.

The next morning me and Cress both woke up in this blasted chamber for Cilan to come down and torture daily, draining the blood out of our arms... He hasn't come down for a while, though. Wonder what happened...

But anyway.

I've been dreaming for a while, and the ground below my feet has turned to clouds.

Here we go.

Oddly enough, shaky shapes are forming around me in clouds. That's when she appears.

She's standing on the clouds, with the straight reddish rose hair and black eyes. A red dress to go along with it. My dream isn't ending.

I start running towards her, my feet landing softly on the clouds, yet somehow not making it any harder to run. Finally, I manage to get up to her. Finally. I can finally talk to her...! The blue sky and the sun seems to shine even brighter.

"Miss?" I ask.

She turns around, staring.

"Yes?"

"My name is Chili! Chili Dent. Yours?"

The girl appears overly confident in her posture, she's taller than me.

"My name is Loyalty. I have no last name." She says calmly.

Alright. Here goes.

"I... I keep seeing you in this dream over and over! Who are you?" I ask nervously.

"Chili..." Loyalty says. "I'm just a fragment of your memory. A face in your subconscious. Your mind just thinks I'm your mother. Whether that's true or not... I don't know."

...that must explain it...

As I open my mouth, my eyes snap open in reality again.

Cold, harsh reality where my body continues to throb in agony.