Empty Shells (reader insert)

Chapter 4

"At least three days." You say, your voice dry.

"Three days? Then how are you hungry?" Mimi says making a puzzled face and tapping her chin with her finger. She stops, making a 'eureka' face. "Oh yeah! Human food doesn't last as long as humans do as food for us! You guys need to eat and drink everyday. Are you also thirsty?"

You nod your head and Mimi gets up and leaves the room. You consider getting up to follow but you decide against it, not wanting to run into anyone else from the group.

Group. They're not people. They're wraith. Why can't you get that straight? But they seem so normal, except for the whole sucking the life out of people part. Mimi said that humans as food can last as fuel for wraiths for longer than humans on normal food can. How long can they last? Can they control when they eat people and when they can't? Do they wear gloves because they can't control that soul sucking power?

Again your thoughts fly everywhere while Mimi is gone. They get chased out again when you hear the door opening and Mimi walks back in with a cup. She kneels in front of you and holds the cup out to you. You flinch back, staring at her hand holding the cup. Mimi pulls back looking hurt by your action. She looks at the cup and almost jumps. She forgot to put her glove back on her hand.

"Mimi's bad! Sorry (Fn)!" Mimi puts the cup down on the ground and moves back from the cup. She waves towards the cup for you to drink. You pick up the cup and almost gulp down the whole thing in one go. Once you're done you sigh, feeling much better.

"Thank you, Mimi." You say, smiling for the first time in days. Mimi hums happily and puts her white gloves on. After five more trips for water you feel much better and the hunger has become less. "Thank you. I feel much better now."

"Mimi's glad to help." Mimi says giving a childish salute. "Mimi's sorry there's no food though. Mimi asked big bro to get some food for you to eat soon. Until then, do you want to play with Mimi?"

Play? Do wraiths play? But, Mimi seems like a normal little girl. She's also been nice to you, almost like a friend to you since you've been here. What's wrong with paying her back? "Ok. What do you want play Mimi?"

Mimi squeals in joy and drags you across the hall to her room. As you walk you can see light coming from the staircase and voices leading downstars. The others must be down there somewhere.

Once in Mimi's room she runs over to a bag filled with stuffed toys and other kid things. She starts searching around in the bag looking for something. You take the chance to look around the room. It's also mostly bare like yours. "How do you guys have this house when we just got to this town today?"

"Big brothers been around for a long time, so he has houses in almost every town so we never have to worry about where we're going to stay or sleep." Mimi answers looking around in the bag. "Big bros been around for so long that he's got a lot of money so we don't have to worry about needing anything. But we can't really stay in any place for too long so big bro has to take care of us."

As Mimi talks she grabs a book from her bag and pushes it into your hands. From what you can see its a story book about fairy tales. "Can (Fn) please read to Mimi?"

"Sure. There's a lot in here. Which one do you want?"

"(Fn) pick! (Fn) pick!" Mimi says sitting on the ground and patting for you to sit beside her. As you sit you open to the first page. You decide to start from the beginning and go in order of stories in the book. As you get to about halfway through the third story Mimi starts yawning. You can't help but smile and laugh a little at the face Mimi makes as she yawns.

"It's getting late. You should probably get some sleep." You say softly, not wanting to be loud in front of the little girl. She nods and climbs into the bed still wearing her summer dress.