She opened her heavy bloodshot eyes, as her mind began to guess what day was it today that she had woke up.
She had lost track of which is day and which is night, she had long forgot when was the last time she had seen the light of the day or the light of the bluecorn moon.
Looking back, she can't tell how long was it that she had been living alone in such a place.
Just then a sound was heard somewhere that a blurry light have appeared in her vision.
"Who's.......who's there?" She asked.
"Relax, I'm not your enemy."
She heard that voice that had been familiar to her that it made her relieved to that fact.
"How long do I have to stay here, doctor?" she asked that she had neglected the reminders in her head that she should never ask that question, but her hunger was killing her already.
The one she called doctor continues to arrange things in her room that made her annoyed.
"Relax, you just got your operation on your digestive system just a night ago," the doctor says much to her irritation.
"But what have you told me before that I could eat whatever I want after the surgery!"
"Also, don't stress your face too or everything I have attached to you will come off." Calm and collected, it replied to her.
Her words had slapped her virtually that made her remember the advices and what she have brought herself into.
"Your skin isn't used to your flesh yet, considering how much fat we had removed to it. And I don't think you like the thought of the stitch guts would get torn."
She turned her eyes to the doctor who was coming towards her for her meal.
"I'll be staying here for the next two days. And on that two days, you won't expect a heavy meal. I'll serve you only soup and yeah, be vegetarian," She says, setting the plate on the table beside her bed. "But if you know what's good for you, after I leave, you can eat whatever you want, but if you want to live before you can savor a new life, restrain from dried or dehydrated foods, processed foods, cheese and dairy products, red meats and sweets until you are fully healed from the surgery."
She didn't said a thing to responded to the doctor and immediately crawled to get to the table. She's starving, and she couldn't bear it much longer to just stare at it.
"Well, I guess we'll meet again later at lunch time."
That was it, and the doctor left her on her room that she wouldn't care anyway.
After slurping everything in her bowl that she still feels uncontended for only having a small portion to eat for one meal. She craves for more that it she was not on her mind.
But a thought had made her snap and then she realized, she was liking the bowl on her face.
She brought down the bowl on the table as she was trying to again make her realize that, she had promised herself that after the surgery that she had hoped that it would work magic, she would also change.
Bullied. Hated. Weak.
She will change all that.
When she had the urge to eat more, she tried distracting herself by reading books. When if it's not enough, she tried to drink a lot of water or lick a pint of salt to cheat with her grumbling stomach.
After the two days, the doctor had told her final advise then left that she doesn't know if they'll meet each other again.
She was vigilant on following the what was told her to do.
She had learned herself to meditate as part to which she thought of helping herself from tempted on going on with her own body demands to.
After two months, she had seen her own face for the first time in the mirror.
"My face," she utters, reaching out to touch the mirror. Her lips trembled, not because of fear or sadness. She's happy, but there was also a part of her regret her decision.
Her face was never the same as the old one.
But her happiness had only lasted for days.
She always went on the mirror to see herself, but to only cure her brokenness temporarily.
She tried to convince herself that everything will be fine after she get the command that she's able to go out.
Another day had passed, that she had again remembered what was she doing with her life as she was sweeping the floor.
She got the face and the body she had ever dreamed of, but her time was wasted on just staying inside a room with only a fluorescent light that it can't even tell if it's night or day.
She had never seen the sunlight for a long time than she could remember. She tried peering into the windows on the hallway, but the view on the outside only looked like there are not just one level underground and where she is was probably not the first level of underground hideout.
She also wondered how did an underground floor would have a circular space in the middle that was able to put windows in it. You could literally see what's above the floor and down next to it by looking on the window.
Every lights in rooms and the hallway was lighted in white fluorescent and every rooms are lighted standby. Which is made her more lonely than it is, with such an environment that supposed to be lively.
And another day had passed, she hear a tapings in the hallway that she doesn't have to guess that it was a footsteps that had been echoing to the hallway.
An image popped out of her mind, the doctor.
But judging on the footsteps, there was a sound that follows through it that it doesn't quite sounded like a footsteps.
But will come into the hideout when it's not her? She wonders.
She have thought that it can be a raid, but the footsteps doesn't sound like on a rush.
It was very careful and wasn't stopping by in every rooms just to check if anyone was there.
She gathered all her courage and stepped out of her room to see who might be it.
The doctor was wounded, that's why she's on her clutches. That's what her final guess, but it made her more surprised to see an old man. And the sound that was following the footsteps was coming from his cane.
Her grip on her weapon went tighter.
"Who are you?" she asked and tried to act more sternly to pose an intimidation.
The old man stopped on his tracts and lifted his chin to see straight in front of him. "I see, so it must be you whom she had talked about," the man says that only made him more suspicious to her.
"No need to get frightened, my child. Even if you kill me here, not a thing that would benefit you. You see, I was an old man who can't even stand straight with a my spine was this curved from the old age."
The man's words confused her and questioned herself what he said was true and why on the second there she felt fear.
"My, you're such a beautiful young lady."
His words made her flustered.
It maybe came from an old man, but it was the first time she had heard someone to give her such compliment.
"T-thank you," embarrassed, that she had said it while looking on the other way.
"Now, don't think I was plotting you. I was sent here to take you out," he said and turned his back on her. "Come now, as I'll tell you everything on our way."
She didn't said a word and just followed the old man who showed up to her and offered her to get out of her room and the some kind of place that looks like an eternal loop of underground dungeon. Her mind was filled of excitement and also anxiety for seeing the outside world for the first time in a long time that she can't tell how long that actually is.
"Before I can forget, wear this." The man passed her a white mask with a mouth that looks like beak of a bird with magenta markings on the eyes and man to emphasize those parts.
"By the way, what was your name?"
"My name is, Shiori."
"I don't want to do that to you, but you leave me no choice. I would love to see how will be my death would look like, but not right now, alright?" she says, writing something in the scroll.
In the cold late night, and the room that only filled with silence that only the tacking of her brush was barely even make a noise. It was serenity and yet giving off a bad omen to which she think that was all in her head.
She bit her brush in thought then glance to him who was sitting silently in the corner of the room who stares his dull eyes towards her that she couldn't help it but to sigh.
"I had something to do, two days from now and you're coming with me no matter what happens," but not in a demanding tone as her mind wanders to the accidents might happen when she take him with her. She brought her sights again to him who wasn't as responsive as she should be expecting, "oh, right. I remember it was my fault," she laughed before composing herself back to get serious.
"It'll be a problem if you start behaving abnormally in front of the others, but don't you worry. I assure you, I'm not going to do you any harm and I can promise you that you can kill me anytime. But that's only going to happen after I had finished everything in place." She says then continued to jot down the supposed notes in the scroll.
------
A/N: Based on the comments, so this is the page where I originally wrote for the 50th chapter.
A/N Update: Now I moved it to Chapter 50 again XD