When the little girl opened her eyes, the first thing she imagined doing was running to her brother's room and jumping on his bed. Then he would open his eyes with a helpless groan, turning his face into the pillow with an annoyed grunt.
She imagined dragging his hair, then running away with a satisfied giggle before he could catch her, or tickling her until she went weak with laughter.
But… when she opened her eyes, the world was unfamiliar.
So unfamiliar that even though she was still dazed from waking, her eyes widened in shock and dread. A swarm of dizzying emotions, too overwhelming for a nine-year-old, flooded through her.
The room was nothing like anything she had ever known. It was dark—or rather, the only source of light came from the walls around her, glowing like monitor screens. The bed beneath her was soft, softer than the one she had at home, even softer than her brother's.
A sound that rang out like a lullaby echoed through the room, or rather from the floor. It made her want to drift back to sleep again.
She looked down in confusion.
The floors were like dark glass, with numerous golden strings stretching from one end of the room to the other. They glowed faintly, and whenever they trembled across the surface, they rang out with that same sleepy sound.
She could feel her eyes growing heavy even now.
But the little girl still didn't dare to sleep.
She clung to the duvet, trying not to shiver from fear as she called out, her voice shaky and frightened.
"Mummy? Daddy?! Big weirdo brother?"
But nothing answered her except the lullaby echoing from the floor below.
The little girl could remember it all. She remembered ugly hands scratching at the ceiling above her, she remembered horrifying voices, she remembered her brother screaming, begging…
She remembered crying—and then she remembered nothing else.
Her eyes filled with tears now, her body trembling as she began to cry. Even then, she didn't dare to move, nor did she try to get up from the bed. She couldn't even imagine herself stepping onto the strange ground below her.
She wanted her big brother. She wanted her mummy and daddy.
But there was nothing and nobody to answer all her questions. So she remained still, trembling, staying awake even while the lullaby tried to drag her back into sleep.
She watched as, moments later, the automatic doors slid open and someone unfamiliar walked into the room.
She shrank back into the bed, pulling the duvet over her face, watching as the scary-looking person turned to look at her with surprise.
It was a man with the strangest eyes she had ever seen. They seemed to shift colors every now and then—turning blue, then red, and back again.
His clothes were something she couldn't describe or understand. They didn't look like clothes at all; rather, it felt like he wore stainless metal forged into a suit. Across his body, strapped to his outfit, were flashy-looking objects that glinted whenever they caught the light from the monitor-like walls.
And his face looked the scariest of all. There were multiple glowing lines running across it, blue and shifting, making him look alien—and terrifying.
She whimpered when he tried to walk toward her, watching as he stopped with a weary smile. The golden strings on the glass-like floor below seemed to part as he walked, even pulling away from the space around him as he came to a stop.
"Do I scare you, little girl?" he called, his voice amused. His unsettling eyes made her shiver.
"I don't remember inviting you here, Servious," another voice echoed from the doorway.
Another man dressed just like him walked into the room, but his face didn't have any of those blue glowing lines, and his eyes didn't shift colors either.
She recognized him.
He was the same oldie who had visited them back at home, right before those scary monsters came singing.
If he was here too, then maybe Mum and Dad… maybe Elias…
But she was too frightened to ask.
"Oh," the strange man with the unsettling eyes said, turning to look at him. "You seem to hold so much affection for such a little thing. That's quite unlike you, Ferborn."
Ferborn walked right in front of her, standing between her and the other man as he turned to face Servious with narrowed eyes.
Then he spoke, his voice firm and unyielding. "State your business and leave."
"Hm," Servious said, a smile curling across his lips. His eyes flicked briefly to her before returning to Ferborn.
Those eyes made her shiver again.
"The Grand Preceptor is in need of the circuit diagrams for the newly optimized master nodes," he said, his voice cold.
Then he began to walk out of the room, his voice cutting across the space again.
"This is a research center, Ferborn, not a place for babysitting a child. I will make sure to inform the Grand Preceptor of this… misstep."
Ferborn didn't spare him a glance; his eyes remained fixed on her instead, layered with an emotion she couldn't quite understand.
It pressed down on her, heavy and suffocating.
He tried to pat her hair, but she only shuddered, pulling further into the duvet.
He shook his head tiredly.
"Little girl, you have been asleep for quite a while. Your brother is alive and well—ridiculously so. Soon he will be coming to this city to see you. He… he is on his way here right now."
Her grip on the duvet loosened slightly, and she lifted her eyes to ask, a fragile hint of expectation forming in her mind.
"Mummy… da… daddy?"
His eyes dimmed, and he turned away from her with a bitter smile.
Right then, someone else walked into the room. It was a green-haired girl dressed just like him, her face pretty and her eyes shining like emeralds.
She looked at her affectionately, then turned toward the oldie standing in front of her.
"Master, is he gone for good now?" she asked.
He nodded impassively. "I believe so."
She shook her head. "Why is he such a creep? He's been scouting this area repeatedly like you're hiding some well-guarded secret. Is he that desperate to get involved in your business?"
The man turned to her. "Elisa, not now."
"Humph," she scoffed, then turned back to her with a smile. Lizzy found herself easing up at that smile without even knowing why.
Elisa walked toward her, kneeling beside the bed and leaning closer with a gentle smile.
"Hey," she waved.
"H… hi…" Lizzy raised her shaky hand and waved back.
"My name's Elisa. What's yours?" she asked.
"Li… Lizzy," she replied, slowly lowering the duvet that covered her face.
"Now, Lizzy, I have a lot of toys back at my place. Little tiny robot men and lots and lots of teddies. Do you want to go see them?" she asked.
Lizzy nodded, a little shy. "Okay."
"But first, we have to get you something to eat. You must be so hungry right now," she said, taking her hand and helping her down from the bed.
Lizzy felt her legs grow unsteady, the golden strings below her shifting away the moment her feet touched the ground.
"In fact, I have a lot of things to show you first. There are so many people who would want to see you. Do you know how many people have visited while you slept? Dozens of them. Some even sent you flowers, although we had to take them away…"
As the girl talked on, Lizzy caught sight of the man just before she left the room. His fists were clenched, and his face was turned toward the screen-like walls. Only then did she seem to realize that he had never answered her question.
But for some reason, she didn't dare ask again.