Albino Child

Twenty Seven

Drowsiness hit me just as I left the guest room P lay in and as I twisted tight the many iron machine codes, I felt my limbs become lethargic and useless while my eyelids drooped and obscured half of my vision, the bruise-coloured capillaries were seen through the frail skin as I gingerly pushed the last lock in; I feverishly yawned as I struggled to keep myself upright, my spine curled over as if I were hanging over a bowl ready to empty my digestive tract as I stumbled to the my personal chamber, toppling onto the crisp, ironed sheets, a deep, sloping crater was sunk into the mattress that cradled my lifeless self. I deserved to rest for all of eternity - the sheer amount I had been through and my chaotic memories were much more vivid and terrifying compared to the average person, it was almost as if I had lived so many lives and had not yet crumbled under the responsibility; I hated how much people thought I was useless, the dull teachers in school monotonously repeating the same useless fact over and over again, expecting us to be interested when their lessons have no life or competition. My eyes were already shut as I murmured strings of text that were mere wisps of no order, I half-called out for Doll as Somnus breathed the winds of milky tranquility upon my body.

I slipped out of this world and began to fall into the next.

"Hello, it is me again," I heard the familiar but irritatingly loud voice, "Wake up you useless child."

I groaned as I propped myself up using my right elbow, my oyster white shirt riding up to reveal the delta of veins that snaked up my arm - the skin was mottled and clammy - as I sniffled in sick distaste, I had a throbbing headache and I needed not the advice of my alters. I saw Acne come over and sit on the cubic frosty slate blue pillow, the thread work reminded me of heather just like when N and I would be forced to go to wildlife walks with the school, I felt a nostalgic smile creep onto my face as Albino poked my shoulder to attempt to get my attention.

"Dolt, listen to me," Albino demanded flatly as he slapped my cheek with sharp force, the rusted iron ring with two peridot gems embedded into the jewelry struck my face and caused distinct red marks to appear onto my face, they stung as I tenderly placed my hand in protection; I was not expecting Albino to strike out like that and my defensive guards were put on alert as he rolled his eyes, "Stop gazing with that dazed expression of yours, N is dead there is no need to associate with her if she is dead; however, lucky for you we managed to get her back but not in a humane form."

"What do you mean? Your English skills are not up to the standard I can comprehend," I sneered at Albino who had set his sunken eyes onto my own, we had a silent battle with our gazes that intermingled to create a tension that could not be cut by anyone.

N began to talk again as his eyebrow twitched in clear irritation, "What I am trying to say is that, while you got stabbed, I managed to retrieve part N from a different dimension-"

"- Wait, you accessed the corridor and pulled her out from there, is that even possible? I thought that God had cut off the door and boarded it up in the freak accident back then, I thought that was the reason that the facility was ruined and ceases to fully function to the original standard." I began with a mixture of feelings - there was a heavy element of concern but curiosity had seeped into the mixture making want to know more but I knew such information was taboo.

"Well, Albino went to access the physical part but i was the one who did the mathematics and calculations alongside the mapping, it was a joint effort. I had to distract that frisky Rabbit, the corridor's official Gatekeeper and their apprentice, the Teddy; it was such a chore to have to play with pleasantries with them, it was such an exhausting task," Acne explained with a hint of whining ss he placed more emphasis on his role within the retrieval.

"But where is she, that is the most important issue we must address, that must be the reason you dragged me out of dreaming and into this internal management."

"Good question," Acne drawled out slowly, there was a hint of trembling misfortune that had creeped into his voice as he looked down onto the endlessly pale floor, Albino had done the same as his bangs hid his eyes almost as if he was in shame; they both looked somewhat apologetic as it they were reluctant to tell me the truth, "She is no longer like us, she has the memories of us but N are no longer a she and they have been reborn,"

"What do you mean," I started slowly, I felt as though I knew exactly what they mean but I did not want it to be true, "Are you saying that N is now a boy?"

"Yes, their gender has been reassigned and they are not our age anymore, N appears to be a child still, they have seen much and seems to recall what happened then but they do not recognise our language so we are uploading the program into them." Albino confirmed with resolute coldness.

"Program?" I asked, I was confused for as far as I knew people did not need to be programmed they just needed to learn information via books.

"Well, I will clarify the changes within N: they are a male, he is also a child roughly between the ages of nine and eleven in human years, he is also not a human but an aging android because the world he came out of has gotten to the point that these sorts of android are being made to satisfy the people of the deep society in strange ways that I assume are more typical of their dimension and the manual labour without realising that they have feelings and the ability to feel pain. These robots of sorts were not originally from this world, they were a scientific production created via the injection of this parasitic substance that changes the foetus drastically; which unfortunately does bring about some rather strange physical and mental side-effects that really warp the them.On a separate note, Ionically, we found N working at a train station helping with the cleaning of the under-sides of the trains and the tracks." Acne explained in a colourless tone, "Also, I would prefer you did not call me 'Acne' just because I have adolescent skin issues, it would be better if you addressed me by my actual name-"

"Hello Ana, miss me?" a head suddenly peered out of the far entrance on my left, "It's me N!"