Champion of the Bots ✔️

Chapter 18 ~ MARIOLA

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Mariola needed to get back up up up. She clawed and tried to jump up the smooth granite around her. She punched the wooden stage and only found stuffy dust. She screamed and screamed, but no one heard her. And when she finally gave up, she sat down and continued her descent.

It was quite peaceful, save for the slight screech of wood against granite and the thud-thud-thudding of her heart. Mariola took the moment to ponder—Who was that man? Why didn't Edie help her? What kind of introduction was that? Where was she descending to?

Wait. The caned man had said that she would remember the answers. What answers? What memories? Mariola fisted her hair into tufts—remember, remember, remember. Remember what?

Squeezing her eyes, Mariola seemed and dug through the shadowy remnants of her mind. She remembered waking up in that medical room. But what happened before that?

Hmm... The doctor (torturer) had claimed that they found her on...what? Mariola dug deeper into her mind. They found her on the gates of—of Eden, the man had said. With a deep gash on her back.

She gently touched her spine, flinching—but no pain came. She struggled to go under her dress to feel for a scar, but her arm was too short and her strength too low. Instead, she laid down on the cold stage and watched as the light above slowly vanished into a wink.

She closed her eyes—maybe I'll die peacefully, she thought.

The screeching grew louder, sparks of red spouting on the edges of the stage. The granite walls turned darker and slimier. The only light faded away into black mist. The descend stopped. The clammer in Mariola's heart sped up as the walls around her bloomed open like a flower and spewed her out into rain.

Piercing cold rain. Rain drops splattered onto her skin and sent shudders through her bones. The rain instantly flattened her hair and turned her dress into a mop. Mariola looked up the sky that only looked like the sky.

She cocked her head—Its a projection, Mariola confirmed. The sky too close and too perfect, what with the fluffy sheep clouds and twinkling stars. Where were the satellites? Where was the thunder? Where was the odd deformed cloud?

How do I know what the sky looks like? Mariola realized. The sudden picturesque vision of a not-perfect sky clouded into her memories. There was a time, Mariola thought, that I wandered about outside. But when was that? How did I live? Who did I live with?

Drenched by the millisecond, Mariola stayed there, not wanting to let go of the tingling feeling of a home, of a memory unclouded.

"Psst! Are you trying to catch hypothermia?" A high-pitched voice questioned. "Go get a shelter!"

Mariola's eyes squinted through the heavy veil of rain and only saw large trees branching up to the ceiling with bushes like hairy feet on the ground. She tried to find the source of the voice, the only person she encountered so far, the only help she could get.

But with a whisper of leaves, the person disappeared; and Mariola was left alone in a unbeknownst place to find shelter before she began shivering to death.

Well? Where did she go? Any ideas? Any suggestions at all?
Thank you for anyone reading this far—especially you two, PinkSky1105  and bydefinition 💖😁👌 I am so lucky to have you two as my dear and only readers so far. Thank you for always giving me the motivation to write! ❤️