Your Mind // 001 // ST4 SPOILERS

005 - Secrets

His face looked worn and stressed, his wrinkled even deeper. His hair seemed greyer, his thin strands meeting his pale cheeks.

"Daughter, you seem quite the early bird this morning."

He turns his whole body to me, though his eyes seem to hover on Peter, who was still standing exactly the same, his eyes still on yours. His face was thinner and more defined, but he still looked like any other Orderly, which was the thing. He wasn't like any other Orderly.

"Peter, why don't you go prepare Room 108 for us."

He shifts his focus back to me as I watch Peter head for the double doors behind me, his face flat and empty, like everyone else in this goddamn lab. Just when I thought I'd finally met the most human person here.

"Josephine, let us talk."

I walk closer to the man I call my father, although he's now this distant aging man who barely acknowledges my existence. Funny, how everyone other than his own daughter calls him Papa.

"You know that everything I do is what is best for you," he starts, pacing back and forth, his feet following the rainbow path painted on the floor.

"I want you to grow and learn in this lab, and be just as successful as I am. You can use your powers... for good."

My eyes dart up into his cloudy irises, full of mystery and thought.

"But in order for us to achieve that..." he freezes, his feet remaining solid on the ground. "-you musn't be distracted."

I raise my head slowly, not entirely sure what he meant.

"I want you to stay away from Peter."

I feel my breathing get caught with my saliva, my heart stopping for a second. Coughs fly out of me and I look up at him with widened eyes.

"...What?"

"I'm not oblivious, Josephine. There is something so very obvious going on between the two of you."

Rage builds up inside of me, the same rage I'd felt nearly ten years ago.

"What, so I'm not allowed to have friends anymore? First Henry is taken from me, and now Peter? Are you afraid of your oh-so-precious daughter falling in love with a boy? Is that it?"

His face fails to hide the shock from me talking back, but it doesn't take long for that shock to distort into irritation.

"Don't be ridiculous," he snares. "This is different. Henry's fate was inevitable, so why don't you stop bringing him up. He's dead, Josephine."

The words in my throat get stuck, my breathing faltering. Of course, I've been told this many times. But every time, the words feel like bullets to my skin.

He's dead.

He's dead.

He's dead.

But I didn't know why.

Or how.

He slicked back his white hair and took a deep breath. My eyes fall to my feet, which were perfectly aligned on the rainbow stripes beneath me. The floor was spotless, as always. There were no scuff marks from the toys or the children. Papa  always made sure of it.

The man that had raised and loved me until he found his love for science.

He swiftly walks out of the room, unbothering to say another word. The ticking of the clock was the only sound heard in the room. Its echo rings in my ears, blocking my mind from thinking straightforwardly.