Colors in the Dark

[28] Desperation

A/N: Oh boy... I hope you can see from the title (and the chapter length) that things are going down. Be prepared for blow after blow after blow with hardly the chance to rest between. This chapter takes the phrase "there's no rest for the wicked" up to eleven.

Ayami landed harshly, a lot harder than usual, seeing as she was shell-shocked from the sight in front of her. She had seen the front of the building countless times in her childhood, but she never looked back once she had taken Yori's hand and jumped out the broken window to see the aftermath.

The entire right side had caved in, both front windows devoid of glass; instead, the shards littered the ground around the abandoned street, lone, faded strings of yellow police tape blowing in the breeze. The door was slightly ajar, and debris was everywhere, even inside, from the limited area she could see through the long shadows cast over it.

She slowly walked forward, noticing the sign that once sat proudly- almost smugly- above the door was now in two uneven pieces, lying against the steps up to the front. They read in cracked letters, Kamino Ward Orphanage, just as they always had, though there was a gap between the kanji from the sign being split and broken.

Her hands were on the verge of trembling as Hecate returned to her place in Headspace, and the ginger realized she had left her purse-like messenger bag at the hospital, along with her phone.

Not to mention the temperature was rapidly falling, and she was in nothing but a t-shirt and sweats, along with socks, and she'd soon be walking over debris and glass.

Ayami wrapped her arms around herself as she took shaky steps forward. She managed to avoid stepping on anything sharp or particularly jarring as she pushed the door- hinges rusty and handle faded and worn- open with a loud creaking.

Dust was heavy in the air as her eyes adjusted to the sight. The front desk had been showered in pieces of the ceiling, though it was still intact. She passed it and entered the large main room.

Memories surged over Ayami as she looked around the place she had once had to call "home."

Kids she grew up with, sitting around a bed as the oldest male- a boy named Ataeru- read them stories before Mother Kaibutsu ordered them to sleep. The one other worker there, a sickly old woman that had shown them brief kindness before Mother Kaibutsu had her fired and a name came to mind- Sister Kokoro.

Waking up in her thin cot on the corner, being yelled at by a copper-haired woman just for silver-haired, grey-violet-eyed girl to step in between her, arms outstretched. The orphanage's big-sister-figure, the motherly and almost martyr-like Kana, who would allow herself to be subjected to Torment a million times with a weak smile on her face to keep the others safe. She was the only orphan ever locked up in solitary for more than Ayami was, much to her younger sister, Aru's, and everyone else's dismay.

The place was in ruins, parts of the ceiling and roof having caved in, allowing some of the dry, mildew-stench-scented air to escape, though it still clung to everything. The smell of metal and mold was also present, forcing Ayami to scrunch her nose up.

I wonder where everyone is now... Kana's in the mental hospital and Aru's... with her, but Kana said the others were all moving on across the country. I hope they're alright, adopted into good homes or living well on their own... Ataeru, Hayako, Tomomi, Naizen; really all the older kids that had dreams for the future... Not to mention the little ones, like Yori and Io...

Then, after ducking under the fallen wall that had nearly crushed her and Yori a few years earlier, Ayami reached it. The foreboding, dark brown door leading down. Down to a pure white room with another door, white, to solitary. However, the steps leading down to it were anything but.