They had some humanity left, as looking at the thing for what it actually was, the weight on their shoulders returned. It was not as beautiful as they had thought it to be, and as human as they were— some of them— they did not reserve such sympathy for those hung up on the walls like picture frames.

They sought to give their sympathy to an otherworldly being, an imitation of youth and innocence. I’d berate them to there and no more still, as I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the slightest bit of sympathy for it.

It was laying on the floor, flat on its stomach, and with crayons in its hand, it drew on the parchment it had been given. A young girl, a child, deathly pale with hair like fire and eyes like a foggy mirror.

It hummed to itself as it drew, as for what it was drawing, pictures of people and animals. It wasn’t that simple still, because even though she knew of the outside, her drawings were crooked.

The dogs she had drew, mimicked the body types of men, but with fur and many faces. As for the rest of the animals, they were amalgamations of all different types, having hooves, claws, faces and even no faces at all. There were some with wings and some without, birds with beaks and some with snouts. It meant nothing to her I suppose.

There was a realization for all who were present though, the place was a prison. It seemed to make sense a floor up, but it was just a misunderstanding.

The rift in space hovered above the little girl, stories tall, and as she moved, it moved with her. The hovering impossibility would prove itself otherworldly, as looking at it from any angle, it looked the exact same.

It seemed as if they had lost their ability to articulate their thoughts once again, because all they did was stare, and there was a lot to look at.

The place she was in was a pure white padded room, and it was just as tall as the rest of the structure. Yet, as small as she was, her drawings were all over the walls, even on the ceiling.

She’d finish her drawing, that of a golden man, pulling a monster into the deep, and then she’d find somewhere to put it. She seemed to miss the on lookers, even as her eyes glossed over them, and looking at the ceiling, she’d measure it, her drawing.

She’d hoist it above her head, and closing one of her strange eyes, she smiled realizing that it would fit.

They’d then watch as the girl floated up into the room, as if gravity was no more, the anomaly shifting in relation to her, turning upside down. She would then place the drawing on an empty space, and without any reason, it stayed.

She would then return to the ground, an tip toeing around her drawings, she found new parchment and started drawing once again. She was genuinely happy and content doing what she was, what monsters humans still were.

“…They… w-why would they do this…?” Bob would be the one to break the silence, a pain in his chest and a tear in his eye.

As he spoke, he’d almost touch the glass, as if reaching for the girl.

“Don’t… Uncle Jack says touching the glass is off limits…” The girl spoke, and she was British, and her accent was old, real old, from before the modern world, old.

They did understand her though, for some odd reason. The understanding didn’t help them much still, and it did not put any of them at ease. She knew they were there the whole time, yet she had said nothing, and they did not know why.

“You can see us…?” May would back away from the enclosure, even as she sought conversation.

“I can hear you too… loud! Sooo loud! What were you even doing out there…? The place was shaking soo much…! I thought it was going to keel over and fall on top me…” Her face shifted to pointed brows and crumpled lips, yet she never looked at them.

“S-sorry… it was an earthquake…” May kept the conversation going, it was just a child after all.

“…Liar…? You’d lie to me…? Do you know where you are…?” The girl would stop drawing.

The child would look up for the first time, and though she wasn’t turned to them, when she did look up, May was standing in front of her, behind the glass. It was then they realized where they truly were, in her playground.

“Why would you lie to me… everyone knows not to do that… I hate liars you know…?” The place began to shake as the child asked her question.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…?” May, even as her heart did laps around her, tried her best to stay calm.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“…Your brother is fighting that lovecraftian horror because he stole something from it…? ‘Stole...?’ Is that not the case…? Well… I suppose it isn’t that simple…” The small girl would continue her drawing, her happiness returning with her hums and the shaking coming to a standstill.

“How… how do you know that…?” May thought to make distance between them, even if it was useless.

“My drawings! Stop!” The girl would scream, the place shaking once more, an actual earthquake that time. “Haaaa…. 100... 99…98… 97… 96…” She’d begin counting down, or rather, backwards, the shaking stopping again.

At that point May had fallen because of no fault of her own, along with everyone else.

“Why are you people here… are you with ‘them’…?” The child would slump herself as her face shifted to disinterest.

“’T-them’…?” Bob would not even hesitate.

“Yes… the council…? Messengers…? What more do you want from me… and when will I get to see father…?” The child’s eyes would well up.

“N-no… we aren’t with the council, a-and were not messengers either…b-but… father, w-who are you?” A splendid opportunity to be taken, and Bob took it.

“Oh…” She’d wipe her tears. “Well… I’m Sonata… Aunt Lizabeth said that if I behaved myself then I’d get to see father… I couldn’t tell if she was lying though… I’m not allowed to study them…” The child squeezed her crayon, and eventually it popped. It did put itself back together in her hand though.

“S-study…?” A question too far, even for a genius.

“Yes… I’m not allowed to tell you what that means… you’re not one of ‘them’ after all… it would be especially bad if I let something slip… about those two…” Sonata did not need to move her eyes to see Brody and Kim, even as she drew. “Big brother August wouldn’t like that… not one bit…”

“A-August…?” Perhaps Bob should have spent more time with people in his past life.

“What do you want? Answer me.” Sonata was basically shouting.

“T-the island is destroyed… a-and we need to get to the mainland… s-so we thought—” Bob wouldn’t get a chance.

“Ahahaha!” The child fell flat on her back, wheezing as she rolled from side to side. “The mainland! Ahahaha… have you any idea! Ahahaha… have any of you even ever been there… that place… that wasteland…? Why in God’s name would Brother August—” She sprung back up, sitting, her mouth wide with confusion. “Big brother August… Why would big brother send you here… he knows my limits… and—…It must have been worse than we thought… he probably threw a fit before realizing I was really the only option…” The girl would sigh as she stood up.

Sonata would look at the three outside her enclosure, and the glass would shatter between them, it fell like rain, yet it didn’t flow into her box. Needless to say, no one moved.

“… I—… Whatever plan big brother sold you on was just a means of getting you here… what you know about me… or rather… the ‘Anomaly’ is nearly all fabricated… it is true that you’ll have to traverse the Abstract to get to the mainland… but there’s nothing of use there… May… your parents are dead… and they’ve been for a while now... so all those stories August told you... I’m afraid he was lying… I’m sorry... but when you get there… you’ll be on your own in that God forsaken world…” She’d attempt to leave the glowing white box.

“W-what…. What’s that supposed to mean!?” May would scramble towards Sonata, not even recognizing her own tears, but she’d freeze only inches away.

“You can’t touch me… that is unless you want to be obliterated… potentially…” The girl would look at all the crumpled and wet parchment May had caused. “My poor drawings… I suppose I have no more use for them…” She would look into May’s glossy eyes. “… I am sorry… but we just weren’t allowed to tell you… it’s not like we wanted to keep it a secret…”

She’d let May go, and she’d fall to the ground, curling up like a sad little wet ball.

“W-what…? That w-would—” Bob’s question was obvious.

“Yes… your family is dead as well. And so is everyone that has ever ‘ventured’ to the mainland… that was also a lie. The only time we enter that place is by accident, to fight Ideas and to become more... and the only one that has ever survived apart from me… is big brother… and look what it did to me… and him… psychopath my ass… they did that to him… She did this to both of us…!” She held her elbow, squeezed it. “I knew Lizabeth was lying… but I couldn’t help but hold out hope that this was ‘that future’… it’s not that I couldn’t find out the truth… I didn’t want to know… I’ve been alive for thousands of years… of course father’s dead… he wasn’t as lucky as I was after all… I saw it…” Tears rolled down her cheek, but they soon evaporated. “How cruel… these eyes that see always…”

“Y-you’re not j-just going t-to gloss over that… w-what do you mean d-dead!?” Bob wanted to move, but he found himself stuck where he stood.

“What do you want from me…?! I can’t bring back the dead… so what do you want me to do?! The journey through the Abstract is dangerous on its own, and the mainland isn’t— much better… see all those monsters that attacked you… they’re in droves over there… and in the Abstract… they were using your families as live bait… disposable soldiers… and they went as willing sacrifices… some of them did anyway… big brother only wanted revenge, and I only wanted to live… That thing—” Sonata would look up at the anomaly. “It might have done this to me… and held me here for all these centuries… but I wasn’t always like this… I just… I just wanted to save father… I should never have trusted her… her words of gradure… these powers have been useless…! Useless… Until now…”

The place began to shake once again, and even the towers began to explode one after the other. The frames would also break away from the walls, the bodies tumbling to be piled and splattered on the floor. As for the impossible structure that hung from the void, it would begin to break away in parts, its wires snapping and its veil of water overflowing into the place.

“I-is this your doing!” Bob had misplaced his emotions.

“Nope… but I can tell you that it’s about to get a whole lot worse.” Sonata would leave the floor once more, floating.

The anomaly pulled closer to her back, like wings, and her white sundress warped into a full boy suit. The shaking would intensify until cracks ran through the place and water poured in, threating to drown them.

Their fate was once again twisted, as the water seemed to flow around them. All that was really only the beginning though, and it would get worse, a whole lot worse.