She startled awake rather suddenly and looked around.

As far as she could tell, she still remained in the crib. Sunlight streamed through a glass window above her head. Craning her neck, she tried to look through the window but found her view obscured by a series of geometric wooden bands that held the glass in place. But what she was able to see through the window was green, perhaps a tree of some sort.

A cloud seemed to cover the sun as the light dampened. The green colour outside of her window seemed to shimmer, and suddenly the tree was red. Not red like blood, but more of a gentle red a tree would turn in fall. It was actually quite beautiful, if weird.

The cloud moved on, and the colour shimmered again back to green.

She stared out the window at the colour-changing tree for a while, just basking in her new strange reality. But she couldn't just stare out the window all day. So she instead looked around the room.

Taking note of all the things she could see, she made a mental list.

She looked to the side at the three other cribs. Each crib was made of the same type of wood, but each of them had one difference. There was a plaque made of wood built into the crib above her head that had a series of symbols carved into it. Her crib symbols were different than the rest of the cribs. In fact, each crib had its own unique symbols.

Looking up at her own, maybe name, she tried to recognize the writing, but no dice. The writing was a combination of jagged and flowing lines. Quite odd to look at, in all honesty.

Suddenly she was scooped up by a pair of hands. She turned her head, expecting her father, but instead saw some woman. She had brown hair, green eyes, and freckles across her nose.

She thought this woman might be her mother, but There was no way. This girl was too young. She looked to be around 15 years of age. There was no way her father was that much of a scumbag, nope, she refused to believe it. Plus, aren't babies supposed to get a feeling for who their own mother is? This girl just felt like a stranger.

The babysitter, that was what she was calling her, carried her to a different room. The woman deposited her on a carpeted floor. Also on the floor were three other very strange-looking babies.

These other babies seemed very familiar for some reason. Were these her siblings?

One of the babies was playing with a silver disk that could act as a mirror. She tried her best to crawl toward he sibling, but it was useless. She was too weak. She couldn't even crawl!

She was almost on the verge of tears. But no. She gave herself one sniff and then forced back the tears.

Then the babysitter deposited a silver mirror on her chest.

Well, that was embarrassing.

But now that she had the mirror, she could look at herself. It was a struggle to grab the mirror with her useless short baby fingers, and absolutely impossible to lift it above her head. Instead, she pushed the mirror onto the ground next to her and then attempted to crane her neck to look at it.

What she saw confirmed it. These three others were indeed her sibling. She looked just like them, in fact. A goth baby. She was not goth, she was the opposite of goth. What is the opposite of goth? Summer? She didn't know.

It was the only thing she could do.

But getting back to her and her sibling's appearance, it was weird. Paperwhite skin, as she had seen before. Inky black hair, the darkest colour she had ever seen. Her lips were black and, she took a second to confirm that her whole mouth was black. That was the weird part. All the skin inside of her mouth was black. And her teeth were black. Black teeth. Who thinks of this? Finally, her eyes. They were completely white, except for what looked like a black splotch of ink in the middle.

She stuck out her tongue and marvelled at the wriggly black appendage.

Did her appearance have anything to do with that little psycho monster? Did that little psycho cause these changes? Interesting questions, that she currently had no answer for.

Perhaps she should instead turn her attention toward her siblings. She inspected them all with a critical eye. The three of them looked exactly the same. Their appearance was also very similar to her own. But that might have just been because all babies have fat faces, and it is quite difficult to tell them apart. The three others looked boyish, so most likely brothers? Again, she had no definite way to tell. They were all a bit larger than her, which was to be expected really, considering they hatched earlier.

So fucking weird. It would take some time to get over that.

As the day passed, she observed them. During this period, she made some observations. These babies were normal. Not in the sense of their appearance, no, but their minds. They acted like regular babies, playing around with their silver mirrors, trying to eat them. Normal stupid baby stuff.

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Meanwhile, she just sat there and stared. Which inadvertently seemed to make the babysitter anxious, which made perfect sense. If she saw some baby just silently staring and assessing other babies, she would also be a bit weirded out.

Sometime during the day, the four siblings were fed. During this time, she continued to inspect her brothers. What she saw just confirmed her theory. They were messy, spilt milk all over their faces.

She couldn't stand food messes. And she liked to believe that no self-respecting adult would spill that much food onto themselves. So there was no way these other babies were inhabited by reincarnated souls.

Soon enough, it was her turn to be fed. She did not spill one single drop of milk… Until near the end, when the cap came loose, and the last vestiges of milk spilled onto her face.

She tried to wipe the milk away with her hand but was ineffective. She just ended up smearing it more across her body.

The babysitter then cleaned her up while muttering gibberish under her breath.

She spent the rest of the day stewing in misery, waiting for her father to come home.

The sun moved across the sky, and soon the beams of light coming through the window began to cast longer and longer shadows. When the sun was just about to dip below the window and disappear from view, she heard a door open and then close with the sound of wood impacting wood.

Her father came into sight, wearing a drooping grey robe. The wide sleeves of the robe were tightened at the end with some kind of belt thing, making it look very odd. Kind of like parachute pants but for your arms. On his feet, he wore a pair of black shoes with a slightly curled tip that was shaded red. On his head sat the most ridiculous hat she had ever seen. The hat looked like what a pilgrim would wear, but instead of a belt on it, there was instead a red ribbon.

He talked with the babysitter for a bit. Then he dug into the pockets located somewhere inside that robe and pulled out what looked like copper coins. The babysitter collected the coins and then left.

It was confirmed. The girl was the babysitter.

After the girl left, her father removed his hat. He then walked over to us four and collected us all together to sit on his lap. It was a tight fit, having four babies on one lap, but he somehow made it work.

While in such close proximity to her siblings, she wanted to try one final test to find out if they were reincarnated. So, she raised her fist into the air and then let it fall onto one of her brother's heads.

He began crying. Then his foot kicked one of the others, and that started a chain reaction where everyone began to cry and hit one another with stray limbs. She was hit a couple of times herself but kept silent. After all, she used to be a grown-up, and grown-ups don't cry from pathetic hits.

Then a kick landed on her nose. In retaliation, she brought her foot down on her brother's stomach.

Above, she heard a sigh as her father put them down, separated from one another. He gave her a look with a raised eyebrow.

Of course, he couldn't understand her, so her father just shook his head.

All four of them were soon tucked under the blanket in their cribs. Her three brothers soon fell to sleep as their father read them a book. It was very difficult to stay awake during this period, especially with her eyes closed while trying to feign sleep. But soon enough, her father left. She opened her eyes and began to think.

The psycho monster had somehow created this space. Also, it managed the phase through flesh. That’s not a normal everyday kind of thing. Or perhaps it was, but she doubted it.

Now came the very confusing part, inspecting this space. To inspect the space, she was not exactly growing a third eye and visibly seeing it. Instead, when she thought about inspecting it, her mind was transported into the space, then she could see it.

What she saw when she was there was strange. It was a blank space. It didn't have any walls but just grew fuzzy after a certain distance. What was a bit concerning though, was that little psycho monster floating inside the clear space.

The sludge-like black and white mass in the middle were still trying to kill one another, creating a sense of disharmony. The rings surrounding the sludge were still, and unmoving. But it seemed like they should be moving. What if she pushed it?

Pushed it with what? As far as she knew, this was all in her mind, and the mind doesn't have hands. Perhaps she could will it to move? That might work.

Using her will, she wished really hard for the rings to move. But… They were stuck. Maybe a wish was the wrong way to go about it. She used her will and commanded the rings to move.

This time, something happened. The rings began to slowly move, but just as soon, they stopped. Her will somehow felt tapped out. She had zero motivation to do anything.

…

After an hour of staring at the ceiling, she finally blinked and breathed in a large breath.

That could be dangerous. It seemed that whatever this thing was, it was fueled by willpower. And apparently, willpower is a finite resource, which made no sense in her mind.

During that hour, she had only been shallowly breathing, barely enough to keep her alive. She didn't even have the motivation to blink. That did make her wonder, if she used every single drop of willpower, and just squeezed herself dry. Would she die? It was something to keep in mind.

Putting aside the risk of death, she inspected the area the psycho monster occupied. Nothing… Nothing seemed to have changed. There was something else in there. Whatever it was, it was moving fast. It zipped from one side to the other, bouncing off the walls like a squirrel who just drank condensed sugar.

Then, whatever it was, hit the psycho monster floating in the middle of the space. As the thing slowly sunk into the sludge, she was able to get a good look at it. The thing looked like a wisp of light if that made any sense. Then the thing sunk until it was no longer visible. She waited, wondering what would happen. Then the thing slowly made its way out the other side, noticeably reduced in size by about a half. Once the wisp of light was free from the sludge, it zipped away, going even faster this time.

The wisp bounced along the wall until it once again hit the sludge. But this time, the wisp did not sink in but merely bounced off it and continued zipping around.

She knew that something was happening here, but she had no idea what. She needed to know the language, then she could ask the question of what the fuck was going on. This world just got more and more confusing with every discovery she made. It's like her questions just lead to more questions.

Why did that wisp of light appear after she turned the rings? Why did that action consume her will? Why did the sludge only absorb half of the wisp?