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I'm pretty sure I'm going to absolutely humor myself with the bewildered expressions of all the kids once they see a child who would be a year away from getting shipped out is arriving at the house. It's a good thing I can act and lie so damn well otherwise I'd be laughing my ass off trying to pretend to be blind.
I was told to wait in the mess hall with Krone as Isabella went to ring the bell to gather all the kids with her. Once all the kids enter I choose to lower my head. Though keeping an eye on the oldest, like I was asked to.
They're all staring at me.
Stop looking at me like that it's gonna make me laugh goddamnit.
"Let me introduce them." Isabella started.
"These are your new siblings, Y/n and Carol." she rested a hand on my shoulder and I involuntarily tensed up.
"And next to me is Sister Krone, she will be helping me out." Isabella left it at that. Leaving the kids to talk amongst themselves, I gripped onto the silver walking stick, in my other hand, I hold Cuddles by his right paw.
Now thinking about it, the stick doesn't actually look like a walking stick for a blind person. It's silver all the way down but does have a nubby end.
There's a small compartment on one end and a button to alert Isabella to my location since it has been hooked up to her tracker beforehand. It's also foldable.
This was the best they could do, huh?
"Why does Y/n have a fancy stick?" one of the kids asked.
Isabella lifted her hand off of my shoulder and I relaxed.
"Ah, I'm glad you asked that. You see, your new sister is actually blind, meaning she is unable to see as if her eyes are closed all the time without control. So she needs this stick to help her move around." A few little kids asked questions since the concept of being blind seemed like it was new to them.
There are three kids in the back, one with bright orange and short hair with green eyes, why does he keep looking at me like I'm some sort of gold mine? Or maybe he is just excited to see a new kid around his age.
Next to him is another boy with white hair and blue eyes. He isn't displaying any emotions, but his eyebrows are pressed together.
He looks boring.
Another boy next to the ginger has black hair draped over one eye and triangular dark green eyes.
Wow, edgy much?
He looks annoyed, not really looking at anything in particular. When Isabella dismisses all the kids the ginger runs up to me. It is only now I realize he is wearing a skirt.
Oh, it's a girl.
Whoops.
"Hi! I'm Emma! Nice to meet you Y/n!" she said energetically. I raised my head up but didn't say anything.
"Let me help you around, I'll show you where the beds are!" this girl, Emma immediately took my hand and dragged me forward. Accidentally leading me into a wall that I fully knew was there, but pretending I didn't, I rammed right into it and fell down, my walking stick rolling away from me.
It felt like the world spun for a few seconds as I tried to get my head to stop hurting, attempting to sit up failed. That's kind of embarrassing.
Wall + Head = Not compatible
I patted the floor around me pretending I didn't know where the stick was in a frantic manner while still holding tightly to my stuffed bear, the boy with platinum hair gave it back to me as I scrambled back up onto my feet.
"Emma, you're frightening her." the boy with platinum hair said with a chuckle. He looks at me. "Can you hear me? My name is Norman." blue eyes, err, Norman told me.
"I know, I'm blind, not deaf." maybe that was a stupid thing to say, but at least my sarcasm sticks with me like glue better than anything else about me.
"Haha, right. Anyways," the boy with one eye walks up beside him. "This is Ray."
One eye raises his hand with a stoic expression. "Yo."
Norman continues, "And you already know Emma. Would you like a tour? At least, the best one we can provide?" I nod.
He seems nice.
Not sure about the one-eyed emo boy over there, but hopefully he'll talk to me sometime.
Emma takes my hand again and almost keeps "accidentally" leading me into wall corners or doors.
"Ah, Emma, maybe Ray and I should take it from here." Norman offers as he takes my hand and they lead me through the rest of the house.
Why are his hands so cold?
Did he deep soak his hands in ice water or something?
Their version of giving a blind person a tour was bringing me to a room and letting me touch all around that room to get a familiar sense of the room and its surroundings. I made sure to trail my hand along all of the walls to sense any bumps or imperfections so I can use that to my advantage later.
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By the time the day ends, I visit Isabella in her office after the kids go to bed. Once I close the door to her office, I throw the stick aside and walk to her mini closet. I open it and find the box full of mints she told me about. I rummage through before finding my all-time favourite kind of minty sweet.
A candy cane.
With the candy cane already unwrapped and in my mouth I sit on her office couch.
"How was your first day here?" Isabella spoke in a hushed voice.
"It would have been fine if Emma didn't keep accidentally ramming me into wall corners. Do you know how hard it is to not correct myself when walking with her?"
Isabella chuckled at my words, I couldn't tell if she thought I was joking or not. I bit down on the icy treat, already half finished.
"Well, Emma is quite spirited." Isabella's eyes darkened when the candle lighting lowered from the breeze.
"I can definitely tell." I let the taste of the strong peppermint like flavour coat my tongue. I hum in satisfaction as I bite down again.
"I want you to find a way to get close to them, it shouldn't be too hard. Seems like Emma already takes pity on you." I scoffed at her statement.
"What do I get out of this again?" I rolled her eyes.
"Your card to freedom. No more shackles from the farm. No shackles to anybody. Keep working for us and give me every piece of information, or go out into the world. Nobody really doesn't care either way." Isabella shrugs.
"Around the kids, you address me as mom." I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing and lowered it to stifled giggles.
"My card to freedom huh? You remember where I come from right?" I ask. Looking Isabella dead in the eyes. "There is no freedom for me. Only dishonor and shame. Try again."
"Don't get prissy. I need your help and this was the only help I could get-" I snapped my fingers once to hush Isabella, I tuned into my hearing and heard footsteps from down the hall. They stopped at the door, then eventually walked away.
"I heard from Sarah that you already have a child helping you, so why do you need me?"
"You're more skilled than any other that headquarters has ever seen. Isn't it obvious?" we were whispering even lower now.
I sighed and grabbed my stick, giving up on the conversation as I scarf up the remains of the candy cane.
"Oh, by the way, Y/n. Make sure to report to me. Not Krone, please." I only hummed in response and went back to my room slowly, in the middle of my slow walk back someone tapped my shoulder, startling me and almost making me drop my bear.
"Sorry," the person said. I turned to see Ray. "What are you doing up?" he asked.
I decided to tell him the half truth. "Mama wanted to check on me, see how my first day here was." he nodded, his gas lamp undertoning his face.
"Do you want help to get to bed faster?" Ray asked, his voice sounded more dead than mine on a bad day. I nodded, he took one of my hands and almost shuddered from the sudden warmth they gave off.
Why was he so warm?
It's normal for people to have different body temperatures right?
Well, there definitely is a difference between Norman and him.
"So, where did you come from? You know, before you came here." he asked me.
We were walking at a slow pace so I didn't run into anything, going up the stairs was an agonizingly slow process.
"Hm? Oh, yeah I come from another place, maybe an orphanage or a school, but I was never told the name, or much at all." I told him in a soft voice.
I usually wasn't allowed to inform the kids I spied on that there were other farms disguised as orphanages, so I pretended I didn't know.
"Why did you move here?" he asked.
Time to bullshit my way through a conversation it seems.
"I was told the caretaker at the other place was fired for not doing a good job. But I dunno why they were fired, they were very kind and helped me learn to read, but I heard that something also happened to the other place, that made it unable to be lived in." I responded.
"How do you read if you're blind?"
"I read braille, it's an assorted dot system that sticks out of the page so I can read it with my hands," I explained.
"That's cool,"
Ray comments.
We get to the room, I am able to pat my way to the bed so it isn't awkward.
"Thank you," I whisper, kind of embarrassed since I'm not really blind, adding we basically just held hands the entire way there.
But at least he doesn't know that.
"You're welcome. See you tomorrow." he closes the door and I try to drift asleep.
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My sleep doesn't last that long because at around 3 am I woke up feeling the same vomit type of feeling. I silently run all the way to the bathroom and try to cough out the blood as silently as can be possible.
There was more this time, probably because I didn't need to vomit earlier.
I quickly and quietly cleaned up, I wonder how much my vomiting is going to last after the end of my experiments.
Oh well, at least I can do some cool things thanks to the very painful experiments.
I brought my stick just in case I ran into someone again, sure enough, I did.
It was Ray again with a book and a lantern.
"What are you doing up?" he asked, he sounded like he was testing me.
Oh my god did he hear me vomit?
"I had to use the bathroom," I said.
"You sounded like you were vomiting, are you sure you're okay?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
He didn't look like he bought it, but then he sighed.
"Alright. Come on." he took my arm again and brought me back to the bedroom.
"You know I have a walking stick, I can walk." I whispered. I couldn't tell if I was annoyed or embarrassed.
You know what? We'll go with both.
"If I help you, it'll go by faster." he responded back.
"Why are you up anyway?"
"I like to read in the library a lot."
"Geez, do you ever sleep?"
He scoffs as if it was a stupid question. "Of course I do." I roll my eyes.
Don't lie to me, I see those subtle eyebags.
I get back to the room and I finally am able to fall asleep.
Sweet, sweet nightmares. Here I come...
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fun fact: the North Star is the brightest star (it's also called the Polaris, which lies in the Ursa Minor)