Spirit Animal Ficlets

Please Don't Let Them Look Through The Curtain

Azalea sat in a cage, across from her mentor. The older man was sitting down, he had given up on trying to find away to escape. They were trapped until Zelia selected what they would become. It had been 3 weeks since she had changed Shang. He visited them to discuss escape plans. That was until Ollie had walked in on them talking.

Azalea didn't hate him. Not like how the others were mildly uncomfortable around Ollie. He was confused, trying to figure out himself in a world where he had been killed and brough back again.

When Ollie had shown himself. He was crying, Azalea thought it wasn't possible but Ollie had tear stained cheeks. Shang had tried to lie himself out but Ollie had told him to leave if he wanted to so bad.

"Mama is making you better yet all you want is to leave and hurt her more! Go away! Leave us! We don't want you- you jerked face meanie!" Ollie had said before storming out of the lab.

Zelia had been fretting over her son's disappearance for three days before he came back. She had hugged him and tried reassuring him nobody was ever leaving. Since then, Ollie had barely shown up in the lab.

Azalea stretched out her legs. A person sat down in front of her cage. Ollie stared at her with his multi colored eyes "Why are you so mean to mama?" He asked.

Azalea raised an eyebrow "What do you mean?" She asked.

Ollie tapped a bar "You and your friends are mean to mama, she's just helping you," he replied.

Azalea shook her head "It might seem like 'helping' to you Ollie but what Mama is doing is hurting us," she countered.

He bit his lip for a second as if thinking over the words "I don't... I don't understand? I don't understand."  He stood up and backed away. His eyes were wild and frantic. He kept muttering the phrase over and over, his voice cracking becoming less like Ollie and more like multiple people were speaking.

Azalea felt fear raise up in her "Ollie I didn't-"

His hands covered his ears "NO! NO! NO! NOT RIGHT! NOT ME!" The voices screamed. They screamed louder and higher. Azalea covered her ears when the noise grew painful. Somebody busted into the room. A boy in a smiling mask, an axe strapped on his back and behind him was Zelia. The boy had taken up to calming Ollie while Zelia stormed over to her.

The cage door rattled as it was thrown open. Zelia grabbed Azalea, her nails digging into the girl's skin. The woman pushed her into a separate room "Normally, I would take the time needed for the process," she said. Zelia picked up a needle with an odd chunky fluid inside. She grabbed Azalea's arms again "But you hurt my son, so I'll hurt you," she hissed.

Azalea wanted to protest but she couldn't pull her arm back nor could she think of anything to say. The needle sent a sharp pain in her arm and the fluid was pushed down by the plunger.

Azalea gasped as pain wracked her body in waves. Just wave after wave like it wasn't going ever stop. Was this what it felt like for her friends? A jarring wave of death?

She passed out before the worst of the pain began.

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Ollie paced across the floor. His mind was reeling as he tried to solve a puzzle to complicated for his very broken mind to piece.

They weren't being hurt. Yes the change hurt but after that they weren't hurt anymore.

Tobi swung down from the ceiling with his mask on "Stop thinking so hard, I can feel it too," he complained.

Ollie went to his bed and sat down. His head was starting hurt from the headache forming. Nothing was easy for him, he couldn't piece everything properly since his brain was still putting itself back together.

Tobi say next to Ollie "Honestly what that girl was jabbering about was totally a lie," he said.

Ollie huffed "No she was right, Mama does hurt," he muttered.

Tobi gasped and put his hand to his chest "Oliver Osman! How dare you speak of your mother like that! She's a purser of the arts and madness! The darkest parts of the human soul! So what if a few kids got hurt? People always get hurt," he explained.

Ollie frowned "Yes but why? What about those people's people?" He asked.

Tobi looked at him curiously "You mean Family?" He asked.

Ollie snapped his fingers "Yes, family! What about your family?" He asked.

The boy frowned "I don't know, I can't remember them," he replied.

There it was. Even as much as Ollie loved his mama there was times when they both knew that she did bad things. She would hurt people even if she didn't mean to do it.

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Everyone in the bedroom jumped as Zelia entered the room. She shoved a wooden doll onto the floor. Her expression seldom and not hinting towards how she felt. The niloan woman left the room.

The wooden doll weakly pushed herself up, Daphne and Shang went to help it up. The doll looked exactly like Azalea which wasnt a surprise to any of them. It was Azalea. Her joints creaked and popped as she moved them to loosen the stiffness.

Arin lifted his head "What happened?" He asked.

Arin, Daphne, and Shang had heard yelling but didn't know the finer details. Azalea looked ashamed "I had said something and it broke Ollie. Zelia got mad at me for it," she replied.

The room was silent. It was for best after all, nobody wanted to anger the scientist. She was more dangerous to them than they were to her.