15 - Collapse_In Search of a Protagonist

At the unknown entity command Adel, and everyone there, except the children of course, raised their arms, hands wide open, and began to chant something. The rhythm reminded me of music on the night that Drei was born.

An ethereal music. Beautiful sound. This is magic, I'm sure of it.

I'm looking around, not only to my Drei, and the other children are as mesmerized by the sight as I am. Fascinated with the show, they are all looking attentive to everything that is happening.

With the a cappella music being sung by hundreds, in perfect sync, small balls of light were surging from the moss on the floor, and floating towards the now not-so-bright ceiling. The tiny spheres of light are brighter than the ceiling, making it appear to be dimmed. The contrast with the now glowing orbs are too big.

When enough globes of light are floating in the air to illuminate the entire place, from ceiling to floor, from wall to wall. Side to side. Everything is bright like we are in plain day light. The chanting changes rhythm and the floating orbs start to lump on the raised hands of the woman.

Meanwhile my Drei's conscience starts to fade a little. She is still awake and watching everything, but her vision is a little blurry, she is reacting slowly, even in a state of euphoria. I'm not sure what is happening, my best guess is that she is somehow intoxicated, like in a drugged state.

I cannot feel the others like I can my Drei, so I cannot guarantee this, but the other children appear to be in a similar state. Their eyes are not focusing on the floating orbs anymore, they are a lot less responsive and no longer looking all around them. Every child is dazed.

None of the women are showing any sign of worry for this change of behavior from the children, I'm assuming this is to be expected. I sure hope it is.

The woman moved. How are they doing this? I noticed nothing different, nothing changed, no commands were given, no voice could be heard, but at some point all the women moved together. Like… they magically decided to move together like that? Impossible.

They raised their other arm, placed their hands together and slowly lowered their hands until they almost touched the center of their breasts, then opened it.

I noticed a small orb floating between their hands, it was not bright, it was actually the opposite. An incredibly dark, shadowy, and small orb was there. If I was not looking direct at Adel I would have not noticed it. She then took a step back, the new small orb stayed fixed on the air, floating.

They stopped singing. It was frighteningly silent now. Again, everyone in PERFECT sync.

The women kneeled on the floor, transformed one of their fingers in a pointy knife-like object and poked the other hand, a single drop of blood was dropped on the floor, right underneath the floating dark orb.

Their hands were back to normal even before the drop of blood touched the floor, but as soon as it did, I noticed a vine growing out of the spot. The vine grew fast. In a matter of one hour or so it was touching the shadow orb, and consumed it.

In the place that it devoured the orb, a bud started to form. Then it grew. Grew more. Changed colors to the same shade of dark as the orb, and it bloomed.

A pure dark flower was now in front of Drei. And it stayed there, for several minutes, the same thing was happening everywhere.

The vine, as if it was alive, began to move the shadow flower towards Drei, until it touched her chest. Once it did, Drei immediately fainted. Up until then she was conscious, barely. Not any more.

Soon the vine dried and perished, it's mission being completed and no longer needed.

The flower was fixated in Drei's chest, and something like roots began to grow from it. The roots were spreading fast, I could both see and feel roots on her arms, legs, chest, head… everywhere. It did not hurt, but it was very uncomfortable and scary.

When the roots were covering Drei's entire body the flower began to wither. After a while it scattered into thin air, but left a hole, a literal hole in Drei's left chest. With the dark orb now in the center of the hole. Rooted there.

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I'm glad Drei is not awake, I got those abilities that keep me from panicking, thank Alexa again for that. But Drei does not. Being used as a flower pot with a hole in the chest is nothing short of terrifying.

Only silence existed for some time. Then, again, the women began the chanting, yet a different one. How the hell do they know when to start singing? Seriously. How? Because... whatever they do, they start at the same time... It is too perfect in sync to be coincidence…

It's not like I will get an answer just by thinking about it, I'm sure I'll find out eventually.. But damn, I wish I knew.

…

The small glowing lights that were still floating everywhere were now approaching the children. More specific, the hole in the children's chest. They did not enter the hole but hang around it, and Drei's skin regenerated. It was not immediate, it took a bit of a time, but it did, and the skin covered the hole along with the dark orb inside it.

Not that I think the dark orb can be removed, no, it was literally rooted in Drei's body. It was visibly and physically part of her now. Her skin covering it up was just the final touch to make it part of her.

Once the skin was all healed up. I'm assuming the others were all the same. The chanting stopped. The glowing orbs began to dissipate in nothingness. Everywhere was the same, the ceiling starting to look more bright again. The moss, darker.

Yet, one source of light, aside from the ceiling could still be seen. The only bright light in the entire room. And it was extremely close to my Drei.

Looking more attentively, I could see that the light orbs from the girls next to me were not dissipating, on the contrary. It was getting bigger and brighter. The adult woman responsible for that specific child had a look of complete terror and confusion in her face.

The other women were paralyzed looking with almost horror in their faces. It is clear to anyone that wants to see that this is not a normal situation. It is definitely an emergency and no one seems to know how to act or react.

Were they not trained for this? I mean we can only come here with an adult… wasn't it to prevent situations like this? Or to solve IF a situation happened? Why are they doing nothing?