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“Kate-Sama, are you human?”
Kate was still thinking about that question Emiliko had asked her before, the room was completely dark, she could say it was quite early, there was still some time before Emiliko would arrive, but Kate had woken up a while ago. She didn't need to look around to know that everything in her room was stained with soot, from the soot that came out of her body. “Shadows emit soot when they feel negative emotions” now she was a shadow, something that although it looks like a human, it is not a human, she is not human, she was no longer.
“Kate-Sama, are you human?”
Kate had asked a similar question in the past, when she stopped being human.
…
A while ago, Kate lived quietly like any other girl, a while ago, she still had a face, at least that was how it had been, until she turned 12 years old. Gradually, her body began to blacken. At first it was easy to cover it with bandages, while her grandmother tried to find some medicine that could help her.
But nothing worked.
In less than a month, Kate had taken on an appearance that no longer allowed her to be seen by other people, her entire body had darkened, emanating soot and staining everything she touched.
“Am I human?...am I not human?”
She was no longer human.
She had been raised as a human, she looked like a human, but she was no longer…and maybe she will never be human again. Kate looked down at her nightclothes, which were already stained with soot, everything around her was dirty, and although that was normal every morning, she was more anxious than usual, and consequently, she emitted more soot than usual.
Every morning, waking up to a room dirty with soot was a reminder of what she had become, a reminder that she was no longer human. She clenched the sheets of her bed tightly as those feelings grew stronger, a mix of frustration, sadness… and even guilt. Kate knew that she had come to the Shadow’s house with the purpose of finding out what she was, and even finding a solution to her situation. It had been naive to think that she would easily find an answer. She never imagined finding herself in that twisted house full of lies, of what was once the Mirror’s house.
What was she thinking when she left home without a plan in mind? She left home with only the name of “Mirror’s house”. She didn’t even know if she would find someone who could help her, or at least someone she could trust.
Had she thought about how her grandmother felt when she found out that she had left?
The person who had taken care of her with so much love, even when she became that thing, her grandmother never stopped loving her, but still, she would only cause her trouble, and deep down, she felt that she could no longer stay there, after all, she could no longer live a normal life as a human.
"Good morning Kate-Sama!"
Kate stopped thinking about all that for a moment, she turned to see Emiliko who greeted her with a smile while opening the curtains to allow sunlight into the dark room, the blonde girl spread a comforting joy wherever she went, and Kate could not help but feel happy seeing that Emiliko still maintained the same lovely smile, that she had when they met at the circus, before arriving at the Shadow’s house.
Her purpose had changed, the moment she discovered the truth of the house of shadows, she needed to find a way to free the shadows and the "living dolls" from that prison, that was the only thing that mattered to her now. She had to accept that she would no longer have the life she had before she became a shadow.
She was no longer human.
"Good morning, Emiliko"
And there was nothing she could do to change it.