Anne's Diary (3)
Another hellish day had passed.
In fact, there was no way to know the exact time, but it felt like that roughly based on her senses.
Irene sat there, holding her breath.
She didn't move in that state.
Even when the cold air rising from the floor gnawed at her body temperature, even when the thick darkness grew mold in her heart.
She was sprawled out like a puppet with its strings cut.
-Uwaaaaaaaa-Don't, don't···!
-I don't want to die!! I don't want to die, stop it!!
-No, no, no, no, don't tear it off!!
Perhaps it was because her will had been broken.
The screams echoing from the end of the hallway never stopped, even for a moment, and the Fox had no choice but to listen to them helplessly.
Despair overflows.
It was a terrible feeling.
A space that wears people down.
Even in such a setting, the only reason Irene could maintain her sanity was.
It was thanks to the voice that spoke to her through the bars.
The girl chirps brightly.
"Fox Sister!"
"······Yes."
"We're still alive today! I was worried that we might be dragged to the lab while we were sleeping."
"You can be taken away while you're sleeping···?"
"It happens sometimes. That's why I need to prepare myself every morning. It would be so scary if I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the operating table."
"······."
"······Did I say something I shouldn't have?"
Irene's expression hardens.
Anne hesitates and observes her.
Seeing the girl's cautious attitude, the Fox soon relaxed and shook her head.
"It's okay··· I was just lost in thought."
"That's a relief."
The girl smiles bashfully.
It was a pure smile.
At fifteen, she was old enough to start preparing for adulthood, but she was still young.
The Fox repeats to herself inwardly.
'I wonder if they're doing well···.'
She's thinking of her younger siblings.
Her beloved little foxes. They must be having fun in that suspicious hideout right now.
Irene murmurs unconsciously.
'······Would my sisters be like this when they grow up a little more?'
Looking at Anne, she couldn't help but think that.
A bitter taste spreads in her mouth.
A fleeting moment of regret.
Sorrow for her sisters falls upon her.
I'll never see them again.
Now, all that awaits the Fox is a cold ending.
Her chest aches faintly.
She wanted to be there for them at least until they became adults, but even that was not allowed by fate.
Irene was submerged in her thoughts.
Just then.
"You know, Sister."
"······."
"I, you see. When I get out of here, I want to write a book."
"A book? Suddenly···?"
"Yes! A book!"
Anne smiles bashfully when their eyes meet.
The girl, who had been squatting in the corner, soon jumps up and answers.
"It's been my dream since I was little."
"You're still little now."
"Hey! I'm talking about when I was even younger! And fifteen is old enough to know everything, right?"
"Is that so···?"
"Of course!"
Anne flaps her arms as if to say it's unfair.
She was trying to refute the statement that she was young, but even that looked childish to Irene.
Only children hate being called young.
"Anyway! I want to write a great story."
"What's it about?"
"I'm going to write about everything I've been through. Like weaving together a diary written day by day!"
"······Wouldn't that just be a diary then?"
"Hey! Is there a rule that says a diary can't become a book?"
A straightforward answer comes back.
The girl confidently speaks of her dream.
She must know that it's a wish that will never come true, but the light in her eyes doesn't fade.
Perhaps it was hope.
"I know too. That it's unrealistic."
"······."
"Maybe I'm hoping for a ridiculous miracle. If the devil outside heard my story, he'd laugh at it and call it a happy delusion."
Yes, it was just a delusion.
It was no different from a girl hanging on the edge of a cliff praying for a convenient miracle.
But.
"But sometimes··· wouldn't it be okay for such a convenient thing to happen?"
The girl smiles bashfully.
It's a smile with the purity unique to childhood.
"We have to be brave, especially in difficult times. Life becomes beautiful as much as we worry."
She was a little surprised.
To be able to still sing of hope after going through all sorts of horrible things as an experimental subject.
To be able to speak of courage, not despair, hatred, resentment, or anger.
"Am I being too naive?"
"······Well."
The Fox looks at the girl without answering.
Should she say it's admirable?
Or should she say it's pitiful?
Irene couldn't give an answer.
She just gently held the hand that was sticking out through the bars.
"Heehee!"
"What's so good about a hand full of calluses?"
"My mom said calluses are the marks of hard work. So your hands are pretty hands."
"······Think what you want."
The Fox turns her head indifferently.
The warmth of the girl's hand kneading her palm.
She tries hard to ignore the hope.
Irene simply closed her heavy eyelids.
***
Two more days passed.
It had been six days since the Fox entered the lab.
She was getting used to it.
The screams echoing from the end of the hallway, the smell of blood that brushed past her nose, the damp air.
Things that were once disgusting were becoming familiar one by one.
It didn't mean that the souls that died every day became a matter of course, though.
'It's two days from now, isn't it··· being dragged to the end of that hallway.'
The week's grace period the devil had given her.
It was a life with only two days left.
Whether the experiment succeeded or failed··· she would no longer be able to remain human.
There was only a difference in the method.
The proposition of death was no different.
Irene waits for her execution.
However, there was a girl who would stand at the threshold of life one step ahead of the Fox.
It was none other than Anne.
-It's your turn next, kid.
-You seem to have survived by luck··· but that's over tomorrow.
-The director himself ordered it.
That was the news a passing guard had delivered.
He said to be prepared because there would be an experiment tomorrow, and he also mocked her, saying he would let her meet her mother soon.
A death sentence dropped out of the blue.
Anne simply nodded.
"I understand."
It was a calm reaction.
She didn't cower, cry and beg, or faint on the spot.
She just smiled as usual.
The girl waited until the guards left, then continued the story she had been talking about until just before.
As if nothing had happened.
"Where were we··· Ah, the place I really wanted to visit in my life!"
Anne chatters on.
She had heard the news that she would die tomorrow. It might be something even more horrible than dying.
But even at this moment, the girl was at peace.
Irene gazes intently at the figure reflected beyond the bars.
"I really wanted to go to the Academy! It must be a wonderful place, right?"
"Anne."
"My mom said that only great people go to the Academy. When I get out of here, I'll definitely······."
"Aren't you scared of tomorrow?"
"······."
She blurted out the question without thinking.
The noisy girl's mouth closes. It was the first silence that had come.
A void lingers between the thick iron bars.
Neither of them could speak for a while.
Neither the Fox nor the girl.
Both of them were quiet.
A voice was heard again after a long time.
Anne called out softly.
"Sister."
"Yes."
"Sister."
"Speak."
"Actually."
The girl squats down next to the bars.
Lost in thought, she soon puts on a complicated smile.
She timidly hugs her knees.
"Actually, I'm scared too."
"······."
A simple statement.
Although it wasn't a long sentence, there was an immeasurable depth beyond it.
The girl's voice continues calmly.
"I'm scared. I'm sad, anxious, and resentful."
"······."
"I can't sleep because I feel like I'll wake up on the operating table, and I hold my breath as much as possible when the guards pass by. I've never been free from fear for a single moment."
In the end, she was the same.
She was still a young lamb who needed someone's protection, not even an adult yet.
"But the reason I smile··· is because there's nothing else I can do."
The girl was powerless.
Faced with unreasonable misfortune, the girl could only embrace hope.
Perhaps it was the sadness of life.
Her delicate voice gradually becomes watery.
"Actually, I'm scared."
It was a particularly pitiful plea.
"I miss my mom, my dad, my sister··· I miss my family so much."
Tears fall.
She seemed to be holding back her tears, but sobs she couldn't hide leaked out.
The Fox listened silently.
"I wish I had told my family I loved them more······."
A common regret.
A common sadness.
A common wish.
"I don't want to die."
"······."
"I want to live."
"······."
Irene bit her lip tightly.
It was a damn pain.
Her fists clenched involuntarily.
After a while, Anne, who had calmed down somewhat, murmured.
"Sob, I'm sorry. I don't usually do this··· I just wanted to lean on you a little because you're the only one here."
"It's okay."
"Thank you."
"As if I did anything."
"I thought I would die alone and lonely. But thanks to talking to you, I don't think I'll be lonely."
"Don't worry too much. I'll follow you soon."
"······Is that supposed to be comforting?"
"I don't know."
Irene answers indifferently.
The Fox holds the hand through the bars.
Anne smiles tearfully.
"Sniffle, hehe··· Your hand is warm, Sister."
"Is it?"
"Yes!"
The two of them sat like that.
Separated by the cold iron bars, they waited for the tomorrow they didn't want to come.
***
A day passed.
As soon as Anne opened her eyes, she had to leave the cell.
The girl, dragged away by the guards, turned around and smiled faintly.
Leaving behind a short phrase.
"I'll be back."
Naturally.
Anne didn't come back.
***
Anne's screams that filled the hallway last night.
The voice that cried out in pain until dawn.
She wanted to cover her ears, but the Fox couldn't bring herself to do it.
She wanted to share her pain, even a little.
The terrible screams faded with time, and eventually disappeared into a handful of silence.
It meant only one thing.
Anne was dead.
"······."
There was no time to grieve.
It was her turn next. The guards immediately walked towards Irene's cell.
Clank, the sound of the key turning as the door opens.
"The director is waiting."
"Grab them all so they can't resist. Carry them carefully, they're valuable materials."
"Move and you die, got it? Don't even think about doing anything stupid."
As many as five people clung to her.
All of them were high-ranking dark mages. They weren't as strong as the devil, but they were skilled enough to easily subdue someone like Irene.
There was no hope until the very end.
The Fox simply takes lifeless steps.
Thud, thud-.
The sound of several footsteps echoes through the chilly air.
Thinking about last night, which still lingers in her ears, she becomes afraid of the future that is about to come.
A hollow laugh escapes her lips.
"Haha···."
Was she just a child in the end?
She wanted to collapse on the floor right then and there.
She wanted to cry pathetically, calling for her master.
No, anyone would do.
She was hoping for someone to get her out of here.
-You never know! Maybe someone will appear like a prince on a white horse and save us.
She needed those words she had dismissed as delusional back then.
If her life really ended like this, there would be too many regrets left in the world.
A prince on a white horse.
She yearns for a dream she didn't even wish for as a child, only after death is close at hand.
Her churning stomach made it hard to stand.
"······Save me."
She swallows the words that won't reach anyone.
She's almost at the end of the hallway.
If she opens the door and goes down the stairs like this, she'll fall into an irreversible reality.
The Fox's shoulders trembled.
Thud-.
Her long strides stop.
One of the guards grabs the doorknob leading to the lab.
At that moment of despair.
"Stop right there."
Slash-!
The guards' heads all levitate at once.
Following the belated sound of cutting, the cleanly severed necks of the dark mages roll on the floor.
Thud-!
"······?!"
Irene is startled by the sudden scene.
Just as she's about to lose her balance and fall, someone's arms appear from behind and catch her.
It's a gentle movement that envelops her body.
"I finally found you."
Afamiliar voice rings in her ears.
The Fox thinks it can't be true, but she raises her head and looks at the face.
There, she sees deep blonde hair.
White eyes smile gently.
"Miss Irene."
"······."
Is she dreaming?
The person she least expected appears in her sight.
"I've come to save you."
The boy whispers sweetly.
Irene stares blankly.
At the same time, an inexplicable sense of relief washes over her.
The despair that had just painted the world black disappears, and a new light fills the canvas with color.
It's a breathtaking scene.
"You."
Irene, who had been in a daze, soon entrusts her body entirely to the Snake.
Her voice is wet with tears.
"······Why did you come so late?"
"I'm sorry."
Hot tears fall.
The boy gently wipes them away. Every time his hand touches her, his warm body temperature stains the Fox's cheeks.
It's endlessly tender.
"It's all okay now."
"······."
"You really held on well. I'll take care of the rest."
In the darkening hallway.
Irene hugs the boy tightly. As if she'll never let him go.
She buries her face in his warm embrace.
The Snake quietly accepts the Fox.
"I'm so glad you're safe."
"······."
The two of them stood there for a long time.
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Happy reading!
Anne will survive ppl, she must! Anyway, thx for the chapter!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chapter!
ReplyDeleteWell, I for one, feel like shit
ReplyDeleteSame
DeleteWtf is the point of this chapter. And why parody Anne Frank from the Holocaust??
ReplyDelete