Unreality

6. Outside Interference

'...Who do you think you are, interrupting us like this?'

Having made his way towards the cage in the dark, Virgil stopped a few steps short of the young boy standing between him and the girl inside, with the latter almost unaffected by his presence, as if her fate had already been determined and nothing in the world could possibly make it better or worse.

'Go away,' resumed the child, his voice harsh beyond his years. 'You are not welcome here. This is between the two of us, the only ones capable of understanding one another.'

Virgil glanced at the distraught Ariadne, before staring back at the image of her brother.

'And why would someone who claims to understand another inflict this much suffering upon them?' questioned the Ethos agent.

The child scoffed, 'See, this is what I mean... of course an outsider such as yourself would see it that way. However... if you knew her as well as I do, you'd be able to tell — I'm only doing what she desires.'

'...You're wrong.'

Virgil's matter-of-fact tone appeared to irritate the young boy.

'Presumptuous, aren't we? Very well then, why don't we get confirmation from the sufferer herself?' proposed the child, turning to the girl inside the cage. 'Am I wrong, dear sister? Do I not know what's best for you? Or would you prefer to leave your fate in the hands of this... stranger here?'

Ariadne glanced anxiously at her brother, before finally gazing directly into the man outside. It was hard to tell whether she even recognized him as the one she had fled from before, so vacant and lifeless was her expression now.

'Go away...' she murmured eventually, letting her head hang towards the floor, as if her heavy heart prevented her from looking forward and past the steel bars around her, 'I have nowhere else to go... no place to go back to. Not after this.'

After a short moment's hesitation, Virgil responded by taking another step forward, closing in on the cage, only to be stopped in his tracks by its prisoner.

'Stay away!' she screamed out suddenly, her voice shivering relentlessly, 'Stay away from me... Don't come any closer... if you do, I don't know what I'll... I... I... I'm not... good for people. If you come near me, I'm bound to... ruin you too. So please... just leave me alone.'

Losing her speech to a growing whimper, Ariadne soon dissolved into tears once more, as her frail figure arched into a fetal position.

As Virgil stood in silence, the young boy glanced at his sister with a pleased expression.

'And there you have it,' he said, turning back to the outsider, 'she knows her place. We both know her place — better than you ever could. She belongs here... with me. After all she did to me, it's the least she can do.'

'I...' cut in Ariadne, to the young boy's surprise, 'I never wanted to hurt you, brother... I just... I-I'm sorry... I couldn't...'

The child scoffed once more, turning to his sister, 'Couldn't what? Love me when I needed you most? Yes, that is why you are here now — you left me when I was at my lowest... and you shut me out. I extended my hand for you to grasp and save me from drowning... but you just made me sink deeper. Deeper into the abyss. That is why... it is only fair that you now share it with me.'

With her hopes of attaining forgiveness continuously crushed, Ariadne sunk back into the floor of the cage, as if wholly resigned to her misery.