Empty Shells (reader insert)

Chapter 4

As you get up to leave Mimi grabs your shirt and looks up at you. "Can (Fn) finish the story?"

The puppy dog eyes again! After feeling your will to leave and get some sleep yourself crumbles, you nod your head and sit on the edge of the bed with the book. As you open the book again to the page you left off on the door to Mimi's room opens.

You look up just in time to see the dark man that Mimi keeps calling her older brother walk in. A brief look of surprise at seeing you flashes across his face before being replaced with irritation. "Mimi, what is she doing in here?"

"Mimi was bored and lonely. Clare wouldn't play with Mimi so Mimi played with (Fn)." Mimi says while yawning, her eyes barely staying open. "Besides, (Fn) was lonely too. (Fn) read to Mimi from big brother's book."

He just sighs after hearing Mimi. "Mimi go to sleep. You, get back to your room. We're leaving early tomorrow."

"Did you get (Fn) some food big bro?" Mimi's small voice asks as she fights to stay awake.

"Yes I did Mimi, now say goodnight and let (Fn) get some sleep. Humans are weaker than us so they need more rest." He says back.

Mimi nods and wraps her arms around your from the back. "Good night (FN). Can we finish the story some time?"
You turn around with a small smile. Mimi's child behaviour had managed to help you relax for a couple hours. Mimi was also so cute, that you couldn't feel scared when with her. She reminded you of all the things you loved when you were a kid. Reading stories in bed, cuddling with Vulpes when you were little. You reach up and pat her on the head. "Sure thing Mimi-"

You freeze as your hand seizes up and a pain shoots up your arm. Your vision gets blurry and breathing becomes difficult. A small choked gasp escapes your lips and you feel the room around you spin. Somewhere you can here a scream and someone shaking your body, but it's so far away that you can't even focus on it. Everything gets so muffled that you can't hear or see anything. Only then do you realize what happened.

You had touched Mimi's head.
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"(Fn)?" Mimi asks when she feels a memory being sucked into her. She jumps right up and sees you fall to the ground without moving. "(Fn)!"

The dark man jumps forward and grabs you before you hits your head on the ground. He has his gloves on so he carefully checks for a pulse. There is one, but it's faint. He can also see a black spiderweb pattern of veins stretching out from your hand. "Mimi, go get the professor. Tell him that the girl fainted from hunger and to come now. Don't say anything else."

"But Mimi felt (Fn) touch Mimi. Does that mean that (Fn)'s dead?" Mimi asks, tears starting to well up in her eyes.

The dark man shakes his head. "No, she's alive. But don't say what happened, just get the professor here, now!" He stresses the last word signifying that his patience was running out.

Once Mimi runs out of the room the dark man turns you onto her side. He doesn't try touching you any more then that since he doesn't want to make things worse. "In three days." He mutters to himself alone. "In just three days you manage to kill yourself. I even went to the trouble of showing you what would happen if we touched you, but like an idiot you go and forget. If you die it's you're own faul-"

But you aren't dead. That doesn't make sense though. Even just a little touch would kill a human. There's no way that you could still be alive after touching Mimi.

The door being opened grabs the dark man's attention and he looks up. He stays calm and stoic even though the situation is starting to get serious. Before the professor can even ask he says. "She touched Mimi."

The professor doesn't waste any time. He puts on a thin pair of plastic gloves and checks your pulse. Still there, just weak. He then takes a small mirror and checks to see if you're breathing. The mirror fogs up and he relaxes. "The lie you gave Mimi was a good idea. The girl's still alive, she's just had her energy drained by Mimi. It is odd that she is alive though. I've never heard of a human surviving a wraith's touch before. It may be that she was lucky to only partially touch Mimi and therefore still has her soul. I can't guarantee her memory though."

"So long as her soul's alright, it doesn't matter what state her mind is in." The dark man shifts his eyes to your face. He was right to not kill you at first. There's something odd about you. "We tell the others she fainted from hunger. It's a usable cover." His eyes glare back up at the professor. "I trust your smart enough to keep this secret?"

The professor waves his hands to dismiss the idea. "Yes, I'll keep it between us. But you may need to be more persuasive with Mimi. She thinks that this is her fault that the girl's unconscious."

The dark man clicks his tongue and picks you up. "I'll deal with Mimi. You just keep an eye on her until she wakes up. I didn't want this to set back the schedual." As he speaks he carries you to your room and drops you on the bed. He glares at you sleeping for a minute before turning and setting a bag of sandwiches on the side table. "And make sure she eats. I'll get blamed if she doesn't."