The Secret Life of Inanimate Objects

Chapter Twenty

Sorry for the lack of updating this story. I must admit that I’ve had a little writer’s block in terms of this chapter. However, as you can see, that’s all sorted out ;) I might actually be happy with this chapter. Thanks for your patience! Enjoy!

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“Very good, Terra,” Robert Keller said brightly, staring deep into my eyes with those piercing eyes of his. “Ask me anything, Terra. I’m giving you my permission to do so, and that is an extreme privilege.”

I deeply despised the way he kept repeating my name, as if it was a mantra. What a freak, I thought, despite myself.

“Why am I here? Why are all of these kids here?” I asked, my voice surprisingly sturdy.

Keller stroked his chin. “But have you ever thought about why we’re all here? What our purpose on this Earth is?”

I shook my head slowly.

“It is very simple, Terra,” he said excitedly. “Each generation is put on Earth to look after the next generation, and so on and so forth. We are protectors, of each other, and of the world that we live in. That is our purpose. Isn’t it perfectly simple?” He paused, waiting for an answer, I supposed. When he didn’t get one, he ventured on. “Well, my dear, it should be simple. People should be programmed that way from birth, correct? Unfortunately, they’re not.”

“I’m… confused,” I whispered, glancing at the door. It might as well have been on another planet.

“Take a walk with me, Terra.” His glacial hand gripped mine tightly, and before I knew it, he was dragging me out the door behind him. For an old man, he had an iron grip, and I felt tears sting my eyes at the pain.

Keller moved swiftly, pulling me through mazes and mazes of corridors. They were eerily quiet, devoid of human presence and noise, yet there was something there; something that made the cells of my body rebel against me, pleading for me to turn back.

Keller finally pushed open a large, imposing door, pulling me in behind him and closing the door gently behind him. The room was completely empty; darkened and empty. A panoramic window looked into a room, an extremely familiar room. I stiffened involuntarily. Keller glanced down at me. In the emanating light from the room before us, I could see the look of kind concern on his face.

“Don’t worry, Terra,” he said softly, squeezing my hand in his. “This is not the same room you occupied days ago. They are all designed in this matter.”

“You…you were behind the window?” I choked out. “Watching me?”

“Observing,” Keller corrected. He nodded at the window. “Which is what you should be doing right now.”

I bit back a sob, aching to wrench my hand out of his. The room was relatively the same, save for the fact that there was more furniture and it was more or less bigger. I blinked in shock when I noticed the man cowering at the foot of the door.

“Who… who is he?” I asked softly, my heart dancing against my chest. The desperate scene was oh-so-familiar.

“Don’t feel pity for him, Terra Martins,” Keller said quietly. His eyes met mine. “This man raped two of his stepdaughters. One is seven-years-old. The other, a fifteen-year-old, fell pregnant and took her own life – and that of her unborn child. There was no court case. No punishment was served on this monster.

However, thanks to our hard work and dedication, he is the first real test subject we have… obtained, and are preparing to exterminate.”