Little One (Bioshock)

chapter eight

1960

The lights poured from the girl's eyes and out her mouth, her body falling from the man's grasp as the light did eventually fade away. In it's place laid the little girl, sprawled out on the cold tile floor. Her skin no longer tinted in that deathly hue, her veins no longer overexposed. The child was lifted up into the man's strong looking, yet gentle arms. Her eyes carefully opened just as he led her to a vent opening. She yawned, looked from the man to the vent and smiled. She reached upwards and whispered ever so faintly, "Thank you mister." Then climbed into the vent, with his help, and descended down into the tunnels below.

Claire watched all play out before her, taking refuge in her own vent opening. She had no idea what to think of this but she knew never to allow herself to be near that man. He wore dark slacks and a tan sweater. His arm lit up in a white glow when he touched the little girl, then cooled down to a bright blue. His hands made little zzzp noises as he walked over to the girl's dead Big Daddy and searched him for parts or weapons, even ADAM. Claire shrank back into the darkness as he walked past although he didn't even notice her spying. He walked out of the Farmer's Market with a shotgun in his tight grip.

Claire crawled out of the vent once she knew the coast was safe. Quickly, she dashed from her safety vent and over to the Big Daddy. Luckily it wasn't hers, so she had nothing to worry about. She still lacked any protection - she needed to make this quick. Thinking about it, his own Little Sister didn't even appear sad at his demise. She cried but when that man touched her head with his glow-y hand... she was fine. She even thanked him. Did she care about her protector at all? Claire lifted his hand with much effort and underneath found a drawing his Sister must've made for him. It saddened Claire to think that she didn't care about him as much as he cared about her. She kissed his helmet and wished him happy dreams.

Afterwards she ran back into her vent, where her harvester patiently waited, and crawled back in. Claire made her way to one of the break rooms the vents led to, where no Splicers could reach them and they could rest. It is also where the girls went to talk and chat with each other. Most of the time it was babbles about their journeys in Rapture, other times it was new songs to sing. The girls also went into these rooms to color and share drawings. Once Claire slipped out of the vent opening and landed, a few girls greeted her in a happy hello. Claire waved back but patted down her dress, huffing as she did so. A few girls looked over.

"What's wrong, Sister?" One girl asked.

"Is your tummy too full of angels?" Another asked.

She shook her head no and then answered them, "I saw another Helper."

'Helper' is what the girls called Tenenbaum's partners who healed them for about a year now. More and more girls were being healed of their sickness and the worm in their stomachs that now, the girls were scared to even talk to people. They avoid anyone who comes near them. They were even timid around each other, but they realized only girls with peachy skin couldn't be trusted.

"Who was it?" They asked, assuming it was another cured Little Sister. However Claire shook her head.

"It was a he," Claire said. Her words were responded with gasps. "He wasn't a meanie but... he killed her Daddy. With a big boom. And I saw him light up her with his hand! And she fell down and said 'thank you.' I don't know why."

The younger girls, ages two to four, were too young to understand any of this. The older ones knew, though. The oldest Little Sister Claire knew of was nine years old, and she was sadly killed a few months ago. At her words, the older girls told the rest to tell their Daddies of this new man, to tell him to be very, very careful. Claire immediately jumped up into the vents and scurried to the vent she last left him, her Daddy. The very thought of him not being there scared her to her very core. She couldn't imagine her life without her protector, and as much as it scared her to think about it, she still did. It motivated her to trudge on and find her Daddy, to tell him of the danger they now faced until this sweater man left Rapture - for good.