Zan_kouv
|• Thank you for being my teacher of great MOTAI •|

"I want to do it," Lyra whispered.

Lincoln was astonished but mostly happy. He wanted to leave this simulation more than anyone, more than anything, he wanted to be free. "You sure?" He knew he had been pressurising her, but he also knew he couldn't last any longer. The world seemed to be closing unto him and he was becoming claustrophobic.

"I am." Lyra leaned into the wall and let it hover over the patterns along with it. They were hiding in another storage cabinet under the stairwell. She knew what she had done to Jude, it made her hate herself. At least he lived, that's what Lincoln said to her, but it wasn't enough. Jude never told anyone anything, but Lyra knew that Jude knew it was her; that she was a monster.

Hidden monsters can't hide too long.

—

Lyra bit the inside of her cheek as she pushed the bloody images out of her head. She tried to concentrate on the keypad in front of her but it seemed almost impossible.

"Lyra..." an infant with a gauged-out eye whispered, the bloody hole entrapping Lyra, accelerating her heartbeat. "Sinners lose their eyes."

"Concentrate." Lyra's own voice trembled as she entered the digit zero onto the keypad.

"Lyra..." an elderly lady with blood and pus smeared on her face whispered. The lady wiped away a tendril of blood from the bullet wound on her forehead and gave Lyra a deformed smile. "Liars lose their smiles."

"Not real," Lyra said shakily and then gasped as Jupiter placed a hand on her shoulder. "Not real." She pressed the digit eight and heard the keypad beep.

"Lyra..." a middle-aged man snarled at her. He lifted his arm in the air, blood gushed from the hole where the hand belonged. "Thieves lose their hands."

"I'm here," Juniper said as Lyra whimpered. "Press three." Lyra blindly followed Juniper's instructions.

"Lyra." Her own reflection said as it observed her. The Lyra in the reflection had colourless eyes, the vibrant green nonexistent. She lifted her hand, the hand holding a claw-like weapon. "We are the same monsters," said her reflection.

"No." Lyra wiped away a tear. "We chose to be monsters." Her reflection shook its head as Lyra blinked back tears and pressed the next digit, zero.

It started with a circle, it ended with one too. A zero for a zero, an eye for an eye.

Lyra pushed the thought out of her head and pressed enter. She expected a blinding light or cacophonous screams, but all that happened was, a slip of white paper slid out from a slot above the keypad.

She pulled it out with trembling hands and read it out loud, "Only when you're together, you'll see the other side." Lyra turned it around and read the coordinates at the back.

"What does that mean?" Juniper asked.

"It means we go together, to the same place, the coordinates were always right, just who went wasn't." Lyra breathed as she closed the slip and stuffed it into her pocket.

"Why should I believe you? You killed Croy." Dianne sneered at her, her complexions cold and wrath-filled.

"Because this time she's not blindly guiding us, she has evidence that shows us where we are going." Lincoln advanced towards her and jabbed a finger at Dianne. "For once just shut up and give Lyra a break. And if you say one more thing, watch me rip you into bits." He hissed under his breath.

Dianne found herself digging into the wall, she had never met the intimidating Lincoln, but being trapped within can bring out the hidden. Dianne understood how he felt. "Sorry." She fumbled with her hands. "I want to go home like you too. B-but I'm scared."

"I know," Lyra whispered, "so am I."

"We don't have time to be scared. We need to get out of here. We need to find that psychopath who put us in here. We need to escape." Juniper deadpanned. "I will get them all prepared. You, Lyra, get the warriors ready. We need to leave before nightfall." Juniper ran out as soon as she gave the instructions.

"Lincoln and Dianne, prepare some resources; weapons and food. We don't know the journey ahead," Lyra commanded as she left too.

"Let's get to work then, Linc."

—

"Guys, Lyra did it! She found the way out. We are finally free!" Juniper let out a cry. "Let's hurry and get ready, we need to leave in approximately twenty minutes." She smiled widely, expecting the room to erupt with happiness, but she only heard silence.

"What if we don't want to go?" Alice stood up and asked. "What if we want to stay here?"

"Why on earth would you want to be here?" Jupiter was taken aback, she was telling them about a way to leave this demonic simulation, but they wanted to stay? Where they out of their minds?

Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Whoever put us in here, was dangerous. Every night I go to bed, I see her face floating above me, telling me that fear is non-existent, that whatever experiment she was going to do to me was only going to make my life better, but look where she left me!"

"That's Candace." Lyra advanced towards Juniper, the warriors following behind her. "She put us here, she is to blame for the pain we went through, for all the people we lost."

Liar, you are to blame for that.

Lyra pressed a finger against her wrist to balance herself. "She did this to us. We can't let her get away."

"But don't you see!?" Alice trotted towards Lyra. "She already got away! She put us in here without anyone realising. One flipping hundred of us, yet no one came to rescue us. She got away." Alice dropped her raised hands. "She's already won."

"Alice, I see your views—"

"No you don't!" We are better of here! At least we are alive and—"

"For how long?" Lyra interrupted Alice. "Last time I checked, there's a beast running wild, one we can't hunt or kill. Believe me, I would kill it but it would be suicide." She bitterly laughed at the irony. "And I don't want to die." A stray tear rolled down to her neck. "I don't want to watch you die." Lyra took hold of Alice's tiny fingers. "I can't bear the pain of losing another friend."

Alice began to cry. "But I don't want to see that evil bitch again. I don't want to watch her play with my head. I don't want to live in the darkness she put me in." Alive squeezed Lyra's hand. "And I don't want to lose another friend."

"She can't beat us this time. This time, we will go together, it'll be one against all of us. She can't beat us all. Please, Alice, everyone is waiting for your decision. They believe in you. Guide them home, guide them to justice, back to their parents." Lyra hugged her and whispered so only Alice could hear her, "Help me kill that bitch."

Alice chuckled as she let go of Lyra. "Okay, Lyra, take us home."

"Thank you."

Lyra couldn't be happier, she was exuberant, her heart was dancing after so long. She just had one question: will they regret searching for their homes?

Not everyone has a home.

—

Yikes, my characters are swearing before me. XD

I hope you're ready to go home, it was fun being out in the wild, but at the end of the day, home is where the heart is.

Thoughts?