BRAINSICK

Prologue

Beginning...

You were crouched near a tree, poking something in the dirt with a twig.

The rest of the children played in the courtyard of the L/n Orphanage. Whispers reached your ears from behind you in the distance, calling you the usual names you'd hear.

Sick-in-the-brain. A twisted witch. Sometimes, they'd get creative enough to call you the name of that serial killer in the interior from some stupid urban legend. Things that aimed to insult you, to hurt you, but you didn't feel that way at all.

None of them dared to play with you but still spent everyday talking about you when you didn't even know all of their names. That counted for something. It flattered you. Made you feel more important than you probably should.

A shadow loomed over yours on the ground. "That's disgusting."

You looked up. A boy with curious, teal eyes stared back at you. He wasn't one of the other orphans. "What? No, it's not."

"What? Look at it! Its guts are spilling out," he said, pointing at the corpse of the squirrel with a hole in its bloody stomach pried open by your stick.

"That's what it gets for taking my bread."

"You killed it?"

"I hit it with a rock. It's its own fault for falling to its death."

He said nothing afterwards. You carried on with poking open its organs, trying to spot the remnants of bread crumbs if it were possible.

"So did you get the bread back?"

You glanced back up at him at eye-level as he'd also crouched down. Unlike you, he avoided stepping on the bluebells sprouted across the dirt. "Yeah, most of it."

"I would've thrown a knife at it."

"You would?" You asked, your interest piqued. He nodded. "Do you always have a knife on you?"

"No, my mom would kill me."

He has a mom. "Then by the time you do get a knife, wouldn't it have already run away?"

He blinked. "Oh."

You snorted, which made him smile, which made the both of you laugh. If it were any of the other orphans, hearing you kill the squirrel would've been their deal-breaker already. But this boy seemed to understand your point. That the squirrel stole something from you, so you did what you had to do to get it back.

"Eren, there you are." You turned your head to Dr. Jaeger walking over. He'd been here at the orphanage for annual check-ups and he was already done with yours. "Oh, hello Y/n. I see you've made friends with my son. What are the two of you-"

Horror struck across his face when he saw the site.

"Hi Dr. Jaeger," you greeted. "Eren and I were talking about knives."

"Hey, don't put it like that! We were talking about squirrels, weren't we?"

"Only partly."

"Eren." Dr. Jaeger pushed up his glasses and extended a hand. "My business is done here. We should head on home."

"What? But dad, we were having fun!"

Your eyes followed him as he stood up. He thinks it's fun. Nobody ever had fun with you but you always had fun with them. Either you'd chase them until they cried like little babies or they'd try your temper until they'd find out just how hard you could punch.

"Y/n, I hope you have a fine day, but Eren and I must get going."

Eren groaned, annoyed, but took the hand of his father. "It was fun talking to you," he said, waving. "See you, Y/n."

You didn't say bye back but your eyes trailed behind him as he walked away with Dr. Jaeger. Once in class, the Mistress said that bidding farewell with someone meant that they were parting with each other for a while, or possibly, forever. So you were in no hurry to say it back.

The orphanage was small and therefore the minds of the orphans were even smaller. And if the kids outside who have seen bigger pictures could have fun with you just as this boy had, then you wanted to be a part of that world.

You were determined. You had to get yourself out of here. You were going to get yourself adopted.