--Vocal Recording 66400--Cell 84--
21:47pm
[click]
[pause 19s]
"I dreamed last night. A nightmare. Not one of the ones I had as a kid, not the Mapmen one, but a new one."
[pause 11.5s]
"In the dream, I was climbing a spiral staircase up a huge white tower. There were... dead leaves, falling down past me. In the distance, I could hear... voices. Happy voices. Laughing. They sounded like... me."
[pause 16.5s]
"And then... I was standing at the top of the tower, and there were trees, white trees all around. And then... Close up to me, there was... Eight. Smiling at me. And the thing is, Eight never actually smiled, when I knew him. He had... sort of a way of... smiling without moving his mouth..."
[pause 17s]
"As soon as I saw Eight, in the dream, everything was alright... well, I thought it was. But then, just as he was about to speak, there was a noise, and... from the top of the tower, I could see a... thing... moving across the horizon. It was huge, and greyish - white, and it looked... sort of... streched. Huge, long arms and legs. I couldn't see its face. It was moving so slowly, and as it walked, it... reached out across the sky..."
[pause 18.5s]
"I don't know why, but it was so... frightening. So disturbing. I screamed and screamed, and then... I woke up. Still screaming."
[pause 13s]
"Eight..."
[whispering 7s, almost too quiet to be discerned but possibly "Eight... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I love you." final three words are repeated several times before lapsing into indescernable whispering]
[click]
***
[click]
[pause 7s]
"If a dream is a wish then what is a promise?" I read that somewhere, the title of a book chapter, I think."
[pause 20.5s]
"How come you're letting me say this, anyway? This isn't the kind of thing you usually..."
[pause 29.5s, voices]
"Oh, I see. OK, sure, fine..."
[pause 12.5s]
"I remember... after Eight knocked me out with the kreiglight, the next thing I knew... I was waking up, in a dark room. A tiny room, but I could tell that there were a lot of people in there."
[pause 7s]
"Eight... was standing above me. Bowed over me, hands in his jacket pockets, and... smiling without smiling, like he did. When he saw I was awake, he said, "ah, good, you're still alive. Thought I might have killed you."
[pause 13s]
"I sat up, then, and I saw around the room. We were still in London, but... right on the outskirts. I could tell because there was no traffic noise..."
[pause 18.5s]
"All of the D.E.M were there. Twelve was with them. It's terrible, but... I'd sort of hoped the Mapmen might have killed her. She was watching Eight very closely, she looked really angry."
[pause 16.5s]
"Eight said to me, "sorry about the kreiglight in your eyes, but I didn't want you seeing the route here yet."
Twelve said, then, "so really, then, you're not sorry at all?".
Eight said back to her, without looking around, "no, I really am, actually."
[pause 23s]
"And then... Eight reached out with his hand open, I guess to help me up..."
[pause 17s]
"... Then and there... It was... I got so angry, all of a sudden, and I just screamed at him, as loudly as I could, "get away from me, I hate you!"
[pause 19.5s]
"There was total silence. I remember realising that that was the first time they'd heard me say anything."
[pause 11.5s]
"I felt like I was going to cry, but... I never cry. I make it a point never to cry about anything, apart from after I killed my mum and dad. I had to try quite hard, after I'd yelled at Eight, but I managed."
[pause 21s]
"After I shouted, Eight stepped back, and then shrugged. He said, "well, whatever. Your choice, I suppose",
and walked out."
[pause 20.5s]
"OK, can we stop here? I need some time to think about this next part."
[click]
***
[click]
[pause 8.5s]
"Right... OK. After Eight had left, I sat there without saying anything... I kept thinking... I ought to try and escape, but... I couldn't. I'd just... lost all my energy. Anyway, there'd have been no point. Where would I have gone?"
[pause 16s]
"After quite a long time... Twelve... came over to me. At that point, I was still terrified of her, so I just, just moved away from her until my back was right up against the wall, and I hid my face."
[pause 8s]
"I thought she was going to try and kill me again. But... When she spoke next, she... even her voice seemed so... different. She said something like, "Hey, new girl. Thanks for helping us out back there. They would've caught Eight if you hadn't killed that bastard."
[pause 11.5s]
It actually took me a moment to remember... about the Mapman. I guess... I don't know, maybe I was subconsiously trying to forget it or something. But then... when I did remember... the blood, the smell of it... I threw up again. I was still hiding my face, so most of it went over my hands."
[pause 4s]
"Twelve... didn't say anything. She just waited 'till I'd finished, then... she said "OK now?"
I was still scared of her, but... I nodded. I suppose was glad that someone cared.
After that, Twelve said ... she told me that... she said..."
[pause 15s]
"I don't know why she did what she did next. To reassure me, to calm me down, or just to tell me... I don't know."
[pause 17s, voices]
"I'm getting to that. The reason Eight told her to kill me... It won't make sense if I tell you now. Leave it 'till later."
"OK... Twelve said that...she told me that, after she killed someone for the first time, she'd cried for a week. She said... what?"
[pause 9.5s, voices]
"No. She told me later that the first person she killed was a member of the M.C.P, the Manuductive Civil Police. The normal police, not the Mapmen."
[pause 12]
"Yeah, so... she told me that, about the crying for a week thing, then she... after I'd cleaned the worst of the vomit off of myself, and stopped hiding my face, she told me... how she'd ended up with the Deus Ex Machina."
[pause 27.5s]
"OK... Twelve... she never knew her mum and dad. They'd been executed after the Manuductive first got into power, something to do with being members of one of the parties that opposed it during its election. She was 18 months old when they died. Afterwards, she was taken in by... by her aunt and uncle. She lived with them for seven years, and then... oh, what is it?"
[pause 13.5s, voices]
"Look. Listen... I... do... not... care. OK? I know that I'm supposed to be telling my story.... story, what a stupid way of putting it... but, now, I want to talk about Twelve, OK? I'm never going to see her again, probably. I want to say this."
[pause 20s, voices]
"Thanks. OK, after Twelve turned 7 years old, she... she ran away. From where she lived. She never said why, but... anyway, she lived on the streets for years after that, right up until she was 17. Living on what she could find. And then, one day, she was looking for food around the streets, and... she was caught... by Mapmen. She... they..."
[pause 11s]
"The Mapmen can get away with anything. Certainly, those ones got away with... what they did to Twelve."
[pause 24s]
"Afterwards, they just left her to die. But... Two - back then, he was one if the only members of that chapter D.E.M - he found her, and looked after her, and... well, the rest is obvious."
[pause 19.5s]
"And that's Twelve's "story". That's why she was with the D.E.M."
[pause 17.5s]
"When you think about what happened next... but I'm getting ahead of myself again, aren't I?"
[pause 19s]
"Look, it's been a long session. Can we stop, please?"
[click]
Chapter 11 onnnn the way guys!! hope u liked this 1, I wanted to do a calmer, more thoughtful 1 than chapter 10.
comment pleeeeeeeeeeez!!!
P.S. @Nicollettenikki: did u notice?