Winter
⋘ ──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙
Emma and Gilda gripped your arms. "Join forces?" Gilda asked.
Norman walked forward. "Don't worry, everyone. Everything's fine." He reassured smiling gently at you all. He turned back to Sister Krone. "We'll hear you out."
Sister smiled. "That's right. We should cooperate together so we can achieve our goals." She clapped her hands together and pointed at you, "You all want to escape. I want to become Mama of this House. I want to drag Isabella down her position as Mama, and seize that position for myself." She revealed.
'A Mama? I don't see her becoming someone like that.' You thought judging from everything she had done so far. Her behavior, her mental health and her way with children.'
"Just to clarify, those are my true intentions. I also want to break free from this situation." She said, pulling her collar to the side and revealing the tattooed number on her neck. Emma and Gilda gasped in surprise.
'She was one of us? Then....' It dawned onto you what the adults had to go through. '... Mama... they're all just like us...'
"Do you know about the management system here?" Krone asked. Everyone blinked in confusion. "Girls who fulfill certain conditions and live until 12 years old are presented with two paths when they're about to be shipped. To continue and die, or aim to become a Mama." She reveals as she walks around the five of you.
"What are the conditions?" Don asked.
"Scores above a certain number and the Mama's recommendation. If you can meet these two requirements you can survive without escaping." She answered.
"If you're a girl. But I don't recommend it." She smiled sadly, unbuttoning her blouse a little and pulling it aside, revealing a large scar.
"What is that?" Emma asked.
"There's a chip inside. If an adult steps one foot outside of the farm, an electrical current will be sent through this and their hearts will stop. At the same time, if something else makes their heart stop, then it acts as a transmitter that notifies the higher-ups."
"So we couldn't kill the adults after all." Norman muttered.
You started to feel bad for the adults. They can't escape their hell. You wouldn't have been capable of saving anyone in the first place.
"There's also apparently a different special farm. Where both boys and girls are transferred to when they turn 12. But no one knows the requirements for that and they all are given task to complete outside the walls after their training. It is said that those children are only chosen by one higher-up and they are informed at the age of 9. And they're all immune to getting shipped earlier than 12. However, those kids are chosen very rarely." Krone said.
Your heart dropped. 'I'm one of those children. Thy don't even know anything about what's going to happen to me...?' You thought sadly.
"Are they also forced to have a chip in their heart?" Don asked.
Sister Krone shook her head, "No. Unlike them, I can only live inside the farms. That's why I want to live the best possible life here. The special kids are at the risk of dying everyday. I want to live as a Mama. Even if it's fake, it's a life for humans. But to get to that, Isabella is in the way. If you all escape, she will be blamed." Krone smiled. "I won't get in your way. Escape. That will become a benefit for me."
"You're not going to ship us out?" Gilda whispered.
"Of course not." Krone threw her hands up. "So let's cooperate!"
Krone held her hand out to Norman. "Let's work together." Norman was about to shake her hand when Emma stopped them.
"Let me verify one more thing with Sister." She told Norman.
"What is it?"
"What's your guarantee that you won't betray us?" Emma asked.
Sister grinned, "you won't trust me?"
"Just answer!"
"It's Ray. If Ray tells this to Mama, you can crush me. But if I tell Mama that Ray's been a double agent, I can crush him. That's why neither of us will betray each other. We can't. That's fine, right?"
Emma was silent for a moment. "Okay."
"Then we have a deal." Krone said, shaking Normans hand. "I'll also share any other information that only I know about. It's proof of my friendship." She said dancing a little and walking away.
—
You didn't tag along with Emma when they went to talk to Ray, instead you went into your room and hid behind your bed, pulling out the pen your demon had gave you that night. You didn't have an opportunity to play around with it and you figured now was the best time.
You twirled it around in your hands. 'It looks like an ordinary pen. What's so different about this one?' You wondered.
You reached for the pen cap to see if you could remove it. You were surprised when you couldn't. 'Huh?' You wondered twisting the cap.
You heard a click before a screen appeared above the pen. The screen showed one of the owls on the William Minerva's books.
There was a blank space underneath the familiar logo and when you touched it, it showed a keypad. 'A password?' You assumed.
After you thought about what you should write you just wrote your identification code, not really expecting anything to happen.
But the screen glitched a little before it changed its theme. The owl changed into a butterfly and the blank space started typing out words.
Welcome, 73194, [Y/N]
Touch me...
'That's a strange way to say that.' You thought humorously, pushing your finger to the screen. You were met with a butterfly icon and an owl one.
You pressed the butterfly and it showed you a bunch of files. When you pressed the first one it showed you profiles. Profiles of different children, their demons and which farms they were from.
'There's so many.' You thought scrolling through. You stopped when suddenly, multiple icons turned dark and the words 'dead' appeared next to them.
You eyes widened in alarm. 'Did they just die?!'
Disturbed, you moved on. The next file had a map of The House. There were small glowing dots moving around. 'It's the tracking devices.' You thought staring at everyone. 'It's just like Mama's one. But it's more complex...' You thought tapping on the dot you assumed was you.
A separate section appeared showing your name. 'Oh.'
You noticed a different file labelled Grace Field. Pressing it, you were met with children that had stayed in the house and got shipped out.
You saw Mama's name and silently read through her information. When you found nothing interesting you moved onto someone named Leslie— he was mentioned in Mama's daily routine.
You saw that Leslie was shipped out and wondered how your mother would react if you had mentioned the boy to her.
You were a little creeped out so, you exited from the file. The next part was about your demon. But before you could read anything written, you started hearing footsteps so you closed the pen, hid it and quickly sat on your bed.
The door opened and Phil walked in, giving you his usual cheerful smile. "Big Sis! Can you read me a bed time story?" He asked, waddling to your bed.
You chuckled softly, nodding in agreement. "Of course! But before that...."
—
You heard a click go off. Confused you turned to Ray, only to see him holding up a camera that was facing you. A small Polaroid coming out of its slot.
He smiled at you before turning around to the group. "Let's go over the plan again, when we start free time after lunch, I'll distract Mama. Norman, Emma and [Y/N] will climb the wall to inspect the vicinity. Dona and Gilda, stay outside where you can see the south window on the house's second floor. Just in case I fail to distract Mama, I'll signal you. Let [Y/N], Emma and Norman know to cancel the inspection immediately. We have six days until we escape, but at least until January, we have two and a half months until it's time for me to be shipped out. Everything needs to be done secretly. We need to pretend to be controllable." Ray said.
"Okay, but, what if something happens to you? What then?" You asked.
Ray blinked. "Don't worry about me, [Y/N]. It'll be fine."
You sighed but turned around and walked off while Norman and Emma went to talk to Ray about Sister Krone.
—
When you walked up to the wall you noticed a figure standing there. They had their eyes covered with a blindfold like material. You both stared at each other before you tapped your foot on the ground three times causing your demon to appear next to you.
In a quick motion it pulled you over the wall so you were standing next to the mysterious person. You noticed that they had chocolate skin. It reminded you of Don in a way.
You looked past the wall and your breath hitched. What you saw was something you wouldn't have guessed.
"You're one of us, huh?" The boy mumbled. He still sounded a little young. "I'm Winter."
"[Y/N]." You introduced yourself, peeling your eyes away from the sight past the wall.
Winter nodded. "See you soon, [Y/N]." He waved before turning around and disappearing into thin air. You got back down from the wall and decided not to speak a word about the strange encounter.
'What was he doing at the wall, and where did he come from?'
⋘ ──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙
It's Winter but I drew this a long time ago and I haven't done another visual for him yet 🥲