Codes
===
Do you like my cookies?
They're made just for you!
A little bit of sugar... But lots of poison too.
===
You're weak.
"This one says, 'run'," Norman deciphered as he traced his finger over the bookplate, he frowned in concentration. Ray stood beside him, also reading the code carefully. The albino pointed at the next one.
"That one says 'doubt'." [Name] called, reading the message so quickly that it didn't give Norman a chance to decipher it himself, the boy tilted his head in confusion.
"Hey let me finish," he whined, a slight pout on his lips, the boy shook his head indignantly, she yawned while stretching her arms, a sly smirk on her face, Norman sighed and continued reading the bookplates.
"This one says 'danger' and this one says 'truth'."
Emma came back with two books, she let them drop softly on the table, the books landed with a small thud.
"What about these two?" she asked.
"These are 'harvest', and this one is.... 'monster', and finally
'farm'... This is-"
"It's a message from the outside, hidden from the adults and the demons, I think we can at least trust that." Ray concluded arms crossed, poker-faced as usual.
"At least?" Norman repeated.
"I tend to be more suspicious," he said, and patted Emma's head rather harshly, he ruffled her hair making her squeak, he then pulled a strand of her orange, the girl let out a yelp that Ray chose to ignore, "Unlike Emma, so yeah."
"It's possible this Minerva man could be an ally to us," [Name] added, her eyes set on Norman, he was looking down, reading one of the codes with a concentrated look on his face, his ocean eyes in a relaxed state, something the girl hasn't seen in a while.
"It is possible that this Minerva guy is an ally," [Name] admitted promptly. "But we don't know whether he's dead or alive."
"Exactly," agreed Ray "So we shouldn't get our hopes up too much."
"You're always so negative," Emma told Ray, as she pouted, the raven-nette rolled his eyes and proceeded to mock her, repeating what she said in a higher pitched childish voice, [Name] laughed, Emma huffed.
"William Minerva. This man is outside and knows about this farm, And while indirectly, he is trying to help us..." Norman said thoughtfully,
His three friends surrounded him as he sat down.
"That's right!"
"There's an ally on the outside, and he might still be out there, in that case then there could be a society of humans outside!"
"Exactly!" Emma exclaimed, she sat down, and grabbed a book, running through the pages.
"These messages are only in Minerva's books and it's exactly hard to tell when these labels were attached... But at least we know this one was attached after the year 2015."
"I see... is there anything else we can't figure out? Like, do the books have something in common?" Norman asked.
"Nope." Ray answered bluntly, "The genres are varied. The publishers and the years are different too."
"But what about that thing?" Emma interrupted, "Uhhh, which one was it?"
She searched through the stacks of books, trying to find one in specific until she got hold of two different-looking books, the first book's cover was a dark forest green and the other one was lilac mixed with a slightly pinkish shade.
"We didn't understand the Morse code on these books," Emma said as [Name] nodded in agreement.
"One is a typical adventure novel, the other is a completely different mythology book that I really didn't understand," Ray explained as Norman examined the green book.
"There's no Morse code in this one," he said, pointing at the dark green book's owl label, He went on and examined the next one.
"Promise," [Name] read, standing behind Norman. "What does that mean?"
"I'm pretty sure there's some kind of meaning," Emma said softly, analyzing the whole situation. "Like how this one doesn't have Morse code and has some pages ripped out, and the other has the message 'promise.'"
"So you think these two books are special," [Name] asked, a slightly amused tone in her voice, Emma nodded determinedly
"Yeah, I feel like... these will become some kind of special guide for us," she concluded.
"What's your reasoning?" Ray asked.
"A hunch!" she exclaimed happily, then followed by that, Ray gave her the most desperately annoyed look- 'Are you serious?' written all over his face.
"Don't give me that look!" the orange-haired girl retorted, a pout on her lips, [Name] giggled softly, as she stood beside Ray, who leaned against a bookshelf, the [h/c] glanced at him, he was looking up at the ceiling with various strands of his black hair covering his right eye.
Ray wrapped his arm around [Name's] shoulder, she looked at him with a tired look on her face.
"I'm sleepy," she whined.
"You haven't eaten yet," he rolled his eyes.
"I think this is worth looking into," Norman spoke up, catching [Name's] attention. "Mr Minerva and his books."
"Let's learn more about him," [Name] proposed.
"We are not just escaping, right? We are going to find a way to a way to survive in this world!" Emma exclaimed, Ray glanced at her quietly, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
"No matter what the world is like, let's live." Norman added, a smile on his face.
♡----★♪•♡•♪☆----♡
The quartet walked down the stairs, on their way to the dining hall, [Name] chuckled softly as Emma almost fell down the stairs, she tripped and was saved by Norman who caught her arm just in time.
"I'm kinda surprised," the albino started, now waking down the hall, "I expected Ray to find the bookplates since he reads a lot, how the hell did you find it, Emma?"
"Oh, it wasn't me who noticed them," she explained, somehow not offended, "It was Phil who showed them,"
"Really?"
"Yeah. He was reading a children's book and it happened to be Minerva's."
They arrived at the dining hall, where the kids were still setting the tables, Gilda and Don were nowhere to be found.
The quartet stopped by the entrance, a confused look on their faces, [Name's] eyes wandered around, searching for the duo, a scowl on her face, Ray's jaw clenched.
Norman ran off to search for them, and Emma ran off to the pantry, [Name] stood there, frozen.... she knew what Krone and Isabella were capable of.
"They're not here either!" Emma exclaimed, as she emerged from the pantry.
"They can't be..." [Name] whispered.
"They're not here either!" Norman exclaimed as he came back
♡----★♪•♡•♪☆----♡
Isabella sat in her office, doing her usual paperwork, no longer needing to supervise the small kids in the kitchen since Krone was there, she was calm and for once not alert at her surroundings, until she heard a faint noise coming from her secret room.
Her eyes widened for a second, gazing at her bookshelf that was used to hide her secret room, she sighed and stood up then slowly walked towards it.
Gilda and Don could hear Isabella walking, the green-haired girl covered her mouth with her hand, as she clung on to Don with the other, the brunette wrapped her arms around her in a protective manner, although he was shaking too.
Isabella stood right in front of the shelf, preparing to slide the door open as usual, she squinted her eyes suspiciously, her breath slightly heavier.
But her actions were interrupted by the creaking of her door, making her jump in surprise, she turned her head to look at Eugene who stood on his tiptoes to reach the door knob, a cheeky smile on his face.
The little boy entered the room, oblivious to the tense atmosphere around the room, the boy giggled.
"Mom!" he exclaimed happily.
"Oh. What's wrong Eugene?" she asked, putting her usual act of the sweet caring mother.
"This was on the floor!" he explained, his brown-ish hair slightly covering his eyes, the woman felt her heart drop faintly at the sight of what the boy was showing her, she knelt to his height, patting his head sweetly as she smiled.
"Why, thank you!" she exclaimed softly as he handed her the secret room's key.
Long story short, Isabella left the office, making it possible for Gilda and Don to leave the room without getting caught, they were lucky.
The duo walked towards the dining hall, Emma waving happily as soon as she caught sight of them, although she frowned at the extremely guilty look on Gilda's face, and at Don's face, which was full of rage. Norman and Ray noticed, and walked towards Emma, also noticing the duo.
Ray immediately marched towards them, his jaw clenched angrily.
"Where were you!?" he asked harshly, pushing Don softly, Norman immediately grabbed Ray, restraining him from doing something stupid.
"See?" [Name] spoke up, behind the duo, making Gilda jump up in surprise, the [h/c]-nette smirked, although her anger was still visible. "I was right, they went into her office. Eugene told me he found a key and gave it back.
So now, mind explaining why the fuck you were there?"
Norman held his hand up, telling the [h/c] to cool down, the girl scoffed but listened.
"Not now, they can hear us," Norman explains, crossing his arms.
♡----★♪•♡•♪☆----♡
The clock at the dining hall ticked and echoed through the place, it was late and all the other kids had gone to sleep, the place was dark and eerie and its only source of light was the moonlight that reflected from the windows and two lanterns that rested on one of the tables.
[Name] tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for anyone to say something.
Don and Gilda sat down by the table with Emma sitting in front of them, [Name] stood behind Norman, Ray leaned against the wall, Norman stood next to the carrot top.
Ray frowned, his arms crossed as his hair covered his eye, the boy tch'ed. "Well?" he asked loudly, annoyed at the unnecessary silence. Don scoffed, refusing to look at him.
"We went to Mom's secret room," he admitted.
[Name] clenched her fists.
"But how!?" Emma asked in panic.
"Don stole the key, like [Name] taught him," Gilda explained making the [h/c]-nette scoffed in surprise.
"Are you serious, Don?" [Name] spoke up, looking at Don, the brunette huffed. "If I'd known you were going to pull this off I would've never taught you to steal the pantry's key."
She had taught him that so they could sneak into the pantry at night, after Isabella started to lock it because she noticed stuff went missing.
"And, did Mom find out?" Norman asked shakily
"I don't think she noticed," the green-haired said softly as if that would make it any better. "And we already put it back, so-"
"That was a stupid move!" Ray snapped, "Did you not even stop to think that the room could've had either a camera, bugs or an alarm!?
What would you have done then!? If Mother or Krone found out you two... no, we all would be-"
"Tell us what would happen, Ray!" Don finally snapped, pushing his chair back as he stood up. Ray clenched his jaw.
"Would we all be... killed?"
Emma staggered, her eyes widening at the boy's words.
"...Guess what we found in Mom's secret room... Little Bunny!" he slammed his fist on the table, "You kept us hopeful! 'I don't know' and 'Let's go save them' it was all bullshit!
But we can't save them, can't we!? 'Cause they're all-"
"I'm sorry!" Emma exclaimed, bowing her head so low that her forehead touched the table, the brunette scoffed.
"T-then they're really..." Gilda said, not even able to finish her own sentence. Emma gasped, she sold herself out.
"See? I told you Gilda." Don said venomously, with a sarcastic angry smile, he knelt down, now face-to-face with Emma. "Now, what the fuck are you hiding?"
♡----★♪•♡•♪☆----♡
"....Demons, a farm?" Don staggered, eyes wide in horror, cold sweat running down his forehead, he looked at Gilda, who had the same terrified look on her face.
"Just to be eaten?" Gilda whispered, trying to convince herself otherwise.
Don looked at [Name] and Ray, both had a cold look on their face. "Those two were spies? This whole time?"
"They did it for us," Norman said putting his arm in front of [Name] protectively as Don stood up.
"Then, you two knew what was going to happen to Conny that day?" he asked, walking towards the albino, the blue eyed boy pushed [Name] behind him. "Emma and Norman... you guys tried to trick us and take us out into a world full of demons!?"
Don gritted his teeth, then he relaxed his posture, a sigh escaping his lips, he covered his face with his hand, as he giggled, his giggles slowly turned into a fit of laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Gilda covered her hands in terror, she had never seen her best friend like that.
"FUCK YOU!" he yelled as he punched Norman unexpectedly, sending him to the ground. Gilda and Emma stood up immediately, [Name] widened her eyes.
"SERIOUSLY!?" he spat.
"Wait! Don stop!" Ray yelled, sprinting towards him, pushing the [h/c] of the way, only for him to be punched too, sending him to the ground, he hit the floor with a loud thud.
[Name] walked towards Don, his back was facing her so he didn't realize she was approaching him until he felt the girl's nails dig harshly into his shoulder, the brunette made a very harsh movement as he pushed her away, his action was followed by a loud curse.
He turned around, [Name] yelped back... Don had slapped her, very hard. [Name] rubbed her cheek, Don gritted his teeth as he approached [Name] and yanked her by the wrist, the [h/c] pushed him away, hitting his chest.
"Fuck you," she muttered, she smirked angrily, as it only made Don even angrier, the next thing was a blur, in the blink of an eye, Don was yanking Emma by the collar, lifting his fist, threatening to punch her.
Emma whimpered, shutting her eyes as she waited for Don to hit her, but nothing happened, Don knew hurting [Name] wouldn't affect her, but hurting someone she loved...
She scoffed, rolling her eyes at him.
Don looked at her in disbelief.
"Don't you dare touch her." she said.
He let Emma go, then walked towards [Name], she chuckled at him as he grabbed her by her shoulders, shaking her harshly.
Then grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, slightly lifting her in the air, as he was much taller than she was.
"Go ahead, hit me." she gasped for breath. Don shut his eyes, his fist already clenched...
He took a deep breath, and gently let go of her, catching her by surprise. She blinked, as she fixed her shirt.
Suddenly, Norman pulled her by her sleeve, Norman gripped on her arm, he knew more than anyone else that provoking Don was not a smart move. The albino stood in front of her, protectively.
"Don..." Gilda muttered.
"Are we that much of a burden?" he asked softly, breathing heavily, "Do you think Gilda and I are that weak and useless to you that you felt the need to protect us?"
[Name] looked away.
"That time, when you asked us to help you, I thought you were relying on us. Was that a lie?"
Emma whimpered as she looked at him, with guilt written all over her face, Norman and Ray watched as Don spoke, their cheeks now bruised, the raven-nette sat on the floor.
"We're not as smart as you guys... but we're family..." he took a deep breath, "Aren't we!? We're siblings, right!?"
[Name's] face softened, she couldn't help to, so she moved Norman aside and then walked towards Don.
"I just want you to have a little faith in us!" he yelled at the [h/c], the girl looked at him, she had no idea what to say... seeing as he got little to no reaction from [Name], Don sighed and looked away.
"....Sorry, I'm acting a little weird, I'm going to cool off now," he said coldly, purposely shoving on [Name's] shoulder as he walked off. Gilda trailing behind him.
"....Did I, not have faith in them?" Emma asked herself.
"You didn't." [Name] answered bluntly, earning a slap on the back of her head, by none other than Ray.
-
Gilda placed her hand on Don's shoulder, as he knelt on the grass, glancing at the moon and the stars.
"Honestly," he stated, "That was just me taking it out on them... I have no right to be mad, I made them lie 'cause I'm weak..."
He whimpered, tears threatening to fall at any moment.
"....I couldn't do anything for Conny or the others," he cried, covering his face with his palms, "I'm so ignorant and powerless! I'm frustrated 'cause I really am a weakling! Damn it! I hate this!"
He sobbed, the green-haired girl's eyes softened, as she walked towards Don, she sat down next to him, hugging him tightly.
"I want to become stronger! Fuck!"
Emma ran out of the house, a lantern in her hand and a determined look on her face, her three best friends trailing behind her.
"Don! Gilda!" she called, the duo stood up.
"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't understand! I was way too naive... I was ready to be resented, but I didn't have enough courage to believe in you!"
"I'm sorry too..." Norman apologized, standing next to Emma, Don gasped and smiled.
"No, well, I'm sorry for punching you," he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Are you okay? You're not hurt?"
"Nah, I'll be alright," the albino chuckled.
"I'm sorry for acting on our own," Gilda apologized, looking down.
"Yeah, Ray and that psycho had every right to be mad," Don added.
"What did you call me?" a voice spoke up, making the boy jump in surprise, as he hadn't noticed the [h/c] standing a few steps away, next to Ray.
"Well?" said Norman as he looked at Ray, the raven-nette looked away, grunting, he sighed in defeat.
"Geez, fine, I forgive them..." he said, "If the worst happens I'll take care of it somehow."
Now, their eyes were on [Name], the [h/c] blinked.
"What?" she asked, Ray pushed her softly, making her groan in exasperation. "...Yeah, I forgive you."
Don pouted in awe, he genuinely looked like Christmas had come up earlier. [Name] couldn't help it, she smiled.
"Don't look at her like that, you look dumb," Ray rolled his eyes. "I think I also should apologize, sorry,"
"Oi Don," [Name] called, walking towards him.
"Yeah?"
"OUCH!"
In a matter of seconds, [Name] was being held back by Ray and Norman, she had slapped Don across the face.
"Geez! Let go of me!" she struggled.
[Name] sighed as they let go of her, smiling at Don, who looked at her in shock, she caressed his cheek, as if it'd ease the pain away.
"Now we're even!" she said happily, Don blinked in utter confusion, a sheepish smile on his face. The others couldn't help but laugh at their weird interaction.
"...Now that you two know the truth," Emma spoke up, there's no more lying so let me ask again...
The outside is a world full of demons, we mess up, we die, even so, will you two still run away with us?"
The duo looked at each other.
"Of course, we will!" they paid in sync, the orange-haired cheered happily.
Emma hugged Gilda, thanking both her and Don, Ray watched the scene unfold, a smile on his lips.
Until...
Ray felt a shiver down his spine, making him tense up. "[Name]." he called, not looking at her, the [h/c]-nette's smile.
"I know, Ray."
♡----★♪•♡•♪☆----♡
IM BACK HELLO
SORRY, I TOOK SO LONG!
I hope you like this chapter, im actually satisfied with how it turned out, please let me know if there are any errors.