The Babysitter

Teal

Walking through Mira HQ is scary when you're on your own. It's so big, and knowing that so many people had died here... what if there are ghosts?

Yeah, there's no doubt that this place is haunted now. Really badly.

Hey, does that mean... "hey, mommy?"

Silence. "If you're there, please give me a sign!"

Still nothing. I'm just being stupid, surely, but... it's worth another try.

"Please! Let me know you're here! I need you, mummy! It's scawy... I don't know where I am, and I have to find Scarlet."

I sigh in disappointment, sitting on the floor in the middle of the hallway. I don't care that I'm crying right now, nobody is here to see it anyway. But... I swear I feel something, just there, out of my reach, but definitely there. Suddenly I have an urge to get up and walk again.

That doorway, right there... something so weird about it... like it's pulling me in. Is this the sign I'd asked for?

I recognise it as the break room. But, I don't want to stop there. The decontamination doors open without me even pressing the button.

"Hey, mum? Is this you? ....... if it is, thank you"

As I step through, I hear faint sobbing. Coming from the vents.

"Scarlet?" I whisper, "Hey, it's me"

"Oh" she murmurs, lifting the cover of the vent with a loud creak, before hopping out.

She was... scarily close to me.
Was she dangerous? Nooo, of course she's not... Lime told me so.
But still...

"Do you think I deserve it? Are they right? Do I need to go too?" Scarlet asks me abruptly.

Uhhh... how do you answer this?? "Well, kinda..."

Scarlet looks offended, and on the verge of bursting into more tears.

"She killed MY mother, Scarlet!" I reason. "RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! How do I know you're safe?"

"Yeah," she bitterly mutters, "was what she did my fault? Did I kill your mother?"

"but you didn't say anything..." I whisper. "You didn't tell us that it was her. You could have saved so many of our parents, Scarlet."

"WELL WHAT ABOUT MY PARENT, HUH? DO YOU THINK I WANTED HER DEAD?" she yelled, getting increasingly loud, "SO YOU ALL DESERVE PARENTS, BUT I DON'T?"

"No... no I never meant..." I protest as she intimidatingly steps closer to me. Agh is she going to kill me too?

"You're my best friend, Teal" she whispered. "I just thought that maybe you'd understand... that you'd know how it felt"

"Well, I don't know how it felt" I snarl, "my mother didn't murder anyone, unlike yours did. But you don't know how it felt to have your mother stabbed by the person you trusted the most!"

Scarlet looks shocked and offended, but it's the truth. So I continue to let my emotions take control.

"My mother never saw it coming that Red was going to stab her. How do I know that you're not going to kill me, huh, huh? HOW DO I KNOW?"

"Because, Teal, I would never-" she whimpers, her voice softening. Nope - nope, this is all an act. She wants you to trust her so you're blind to the truth. She's just... trying to manipulate you.

Yet she looks so helpless, so crushed, so defeated as I step into decontamination, walking backwards so that I can keep my eyes on her at all times. She slips out of my view as the doors slide shut.
Nope. I'll never forgive you.

You have lost my trust.