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“So, you’re the little gremlin that Cecilia fell in love with…? Wie lächerlich.”
At the dead of night, in her own room, on her own bed, Gigi finds herself trapped between the arms of an automaton. One hand slowly tracing the outline of her face, the other’s palm lightly pressing her heart.
Metallic, ball-jointed fingers, once carried a sense of warmth and love. Now they feel as cold as any other metal. A pair of eyes, the color of rose red, stares deep into her. The same red streaked through white hair. A calm smile, ever so slightly warped by the sadism behind it.
“Cecilia”. Her supposed friend.
“Come on. At least put up a fight. Or are you too scared of waking the others up?”
Still, Gigi doesn’t say a single word. She still fixes her eyes on “Cecilia”, as if she believes she can bring her friend back with enough conviction.
“*sigh* Seriously?” Her mouth is stretched open by the fingers. “All this bark, not a single bite. Even my teeth can do more harm.”
Compared to Gigi’s sharp, jagged teeth, “Cecilia” has two rows of perfectly lined and polished metal teeth. While they lack any pointed bits to puncture through someone’s skin…
… as long as there’s enough force applied –
“…!”
“Ah, so you’re not mute after all.” The red eyes shift right back to Gigi’s mouth the moment she heard the whimper. Just a second ago, it was looking at the fresh new rows of indents on Gigi’s nape.
“Come on, don’t you have anything to say about me? How I’m talking and smiling with your friend’s face? How I’m using your precious friend’s body to hurt you? Nothing at all?”
A rise in her tone. Her smile starts to lower.
“Scheiße… Maybe you don’t like her as much as I thought… That can’t be true. I had to watch you two clinging and flirting to each other soooooo many times…”
“…”
“…Or…”
A spark in her eyes. Her whole body leans in.
“I get it. Maybe you just really hate me!” She shouts so confidently.
“Hahaha! It’s so obvious! You’re so obviously disgusted at me puppeteering your friend’s dead body that you wouldn’t even waste a word on me! Isn’t that right? Oh, aren’t you adorable!”
“…”
“…But… If you continue to stay shut like this…”
She takes out the green spear that’s been under the bed this whole time, and aims downward. Is it aiming for her neck, her ribcage, or her stomach?
“It wouldn’t be any fun, would it?”
It’ll decide soon.
“…”
“Alright, alright! I’ll speak, geez!”
“Oh?” The spear stops. “Finally decides to croak, hmm?”
Gigi takes a deep breath, the sharp, stinging pain next to her neck still cuts her breath.
“…You…”
“Hmm? Yeah? What is it? Tell me, tell me!”
“…Do you really want to be hated so much?”
“…”
Those red eyes, widen with excitement just a moment ago… now shrink back in shock.
“Cecilia” thought she had mentally prepared herself for whatever little Gigi could have thrown back at her.
If she wanted to fight back or call for help, she would fight her.
If she tried to call for her precious Cecilia back, she would mock her.
If she continues to stay silent, then it’s just the matter of prying her mouth open until she makes another yelp.
That reply wasn’t any of them.
“What?”
“Do you really want me to hate you?”
“I heard you the first time. Repeating it won’t make it any less ridiculous. What are you getting at here?”
“…”
Gigi tries to wiggle a bit to make herself comfortable, but “Cecilia” immediately points the spear back down. She gives up, and sighs.
“Ceci told me about you. When she was placed inside this body and became Cecilia… You were the soul that’s left behind, right? That’s why you wanted to use her body…”
“…Anything else she told you?”
“Mmm… Just what you do to her body while she’s trapped, like going for coffee or sneaking into Nerissa’s performance… I thought that, maybe you just want to have some fun…”
“…”
It took a while for “Cecilia” to continue. Gigi could see those red eyes, that were so full of anger, that were branding itself onto her face…
…slowly retreating from her sight.
“Right… So when you’re cowering below me, not saying a single word…”
“You weren’t angry at me. You were just scared. Confused. Confused as to why a seemingly harmless soul like me, who spent my little precious time for a cup of coffee and a song, would do this to you. Is that it?”
Gigi nods.
“…You know… I did have fun. I did enjoy having a body of my own, however heavy it was to move around. I did enjoy the taste of coffee lingering in my mouth, the sound of that raven’s voice going through my ears, the warmth of the sunlight spreading itself on my skin…”
“…It felt great.”
“…”
“…But after Cecilia returns, I came to realize something.”
“None of this is meant for me. I don’t deserve any of this.”
“…”
“When Cecilia came to life… I wasn’t needed anymore. There was no use for me. I was discarded, locked away, nothing to do but watching her carrying out her duty as a maid, watching them praising her for doing simply just as she was told. I had thought that, one day, maybe they’ll make a body for me as well…”
“But they never did. Their perfect creation continued her work day by day all by herself. The imperfect bodies that I could’ve at least used have all been crushed up or recycled.”
“And when they eventually deem her imperfect, and turn her off… I was left behind as well. …I don’t know why I was so surprised. Thousands of years. Nothing to do but watching her sleep peacefully within the trees.”
“…And then… When I’m finally free, when I finally got the chance… to take over the body that should’ve been mine… to live the life I should’ve had…”
Her entire body begins to shake. A tiny, bitter smile that was swallowed up before the eye could see.
“I got locked up again. By you people. In an even smaller, tighter jar than what contained me all those years! Forced to watch her be showered with love over her every movement again, while I can’t even do as much as shout, or scream, or even feel a breeze blowing through me! All over again!”
The red soul shouted. The red soul trembles.
“…”
“So yeah, I hate you. I hate Cecilia, I hate those creators, and I hate all of you. I really hate you all. It’s the only reason that I’m still alive.”
She raises the spear once more, holding it firm with both hands. Even such a sturdy spear looks like it’s about to break under the pressure.
“So, to answer the question…”
“Yes, I want you to hate me. I want to destroy everything and everyone that Cecilia holds dear to her, so that you will come to curse me in your dying breaths. All this hate I’ve harbored… I will exhaust it all.”
“Hahahahahahahaha… When I put it like that… don’t I sound like a villain right now?”
She smiles again, she laughs again, she’s putting on the same mask again. But it’s as clear as day how strained it all is.
“Noble heroes like you… won’t ignore a last request like this, would you?”
“…”
Gigi grabs the tip of the spear with both her bare hands as well.
“Okay. If this is what you want.”
Much to the shock of the “villain”, all the strength she is exerting, all that she can muster, is being pushed back, and shifted to the side.
“I’ll put an end to this… before you hurt yourself any further.”
It wasn’t long before she was being held back by the strength of one arm.
“From the bottom of my heart… I hate you.”
It was the hardest punch that Gigi had to give in her life.
.
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The lonely red soul still remains.
“…”
“…”
She thought she had finally died. That the “hero” had finally put her out of her misery.
“…Cecilia?”
But it wasn’t her that received the punch. The green soul that stood in front of her at the last second fell to her knees inside the headspace.
“Why… Why!? Why did you take the hit!? I thought I put you to sleep when I took over your body!” She shouted, grabbing Cecilia’s soul like she’s about to tear her apart. But Cecilia still smiles back, even when she’s shaking from the pain.
“…Do you still think… that you freed yourself on your own? I was the one that broke the jar and let you in.”
“What!?”
“Yeah. This whole time, I was still aware. Aware of what you said, what you did, how you threatened to kill Gigi –”
A right hook sends Cecilia tumbling before she could continue.
“Then… Then you know why I hate you, with every last bit of my being!” The red soul screamed in agony as she lunged towards Cecilia. Punch after punch after punch, she was chipping away at Cecilia’s soul with everything she has.
Except… it didn’t take long before the punches really begin to weaken, aiming further and further away from her chest and face. It soon look like the attacker is far more worn out than she is.
It gave her a few seconds to look through her own empty eyes in the real world.
Raora’s eyes frantically scanning her whole body up and down, trying to total the amount of damage dealt to her body.
Gigi curled up into a ball in her room, crying her heart out as she calls her name to no end.
Elizabeth desperately running back and forth between consoling her team members and grabbing any tools she could find to fix her.
“…”
Cecilia’s lips quiver. Enough is enough.
“Would you say something already!? I am sick to my core of the silence! Hate me, resent me, pity me, just say it to my face!”
“You’re right! I’m sorry!”
“…”
“…What?” For the second time today, she was stunned.
“I’m sorry…! I’m sorry that I came to forget you! I’m sorry that I didn’t ask for another body for you! I’m sorry that I didn’t take you along with me when I woke up again! I’m sorry that I trapped you again when I got my body back! I’m sorry!”
“Stop throwing your apologies at me! No matter how many times you apologize now, it won’t solve anything!”
“I know that!”
“…”
Cecilia finally stopped… but that’s when her voice really begins to crack.
“…I know that…! I know that… I can never make it up to you! I can never get rid of all the hate I made you harbor inside of you!”
“Stop it…”
“If I had known about this from the beginning… I would’ve loved to be your friend! I would’ve loved to give you a new name, and a new body!”
“Stop it…!”
“I’d never want to see you like this, thinking that your life never has any value –”
“I said STOP IT! Stop making all of this about yourself and just die already!”
The red soul pushes Cecilia away one last time. Only by now does she realizes…
…how much of herself was fading away.
“Why…Why can’t you just die…? Why do I have to be the one dying…?”
“Why can’t I have anything, even when I die… Do I really deserve nothing, even in the end…?”
Tears. Something that she never knew she could possess. It’s falling down from her eyes in streams.
She looks over to Cecilia. She’s crying as well. Even now, she’s reaching her hand out, as if it’s one last futile attempt to connect to her.
...
…She doesn’t want to take her hand. She doesn’t want to do anything but disappear along with her hatred. She just wants all of this to be over.
…
…But as all of her memories, thousands of years, flood back to her in her last moment…
…She came to a realization.
Perhaps what the lonely red soul wanted the most… wasn’t death.
.
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Everything returned to normal relatively quickly after that night.
Cecilia was quickly repaired and returned to duty. Gigi, however, spent an entire day apologizing to Cecilia nonstop before she could even begin to be consoled by the rest of her team.
Gigi’s punch also caused a noticeable dent on the hallway wall, due to Cecilia’s body colliding with it. Out of concern for the team’s budget, it was unanimously agreed to be covered with a poster.
But the main issue remains – Cecilia’s past. Since she had forgotten about that detail herself, the team cannot be sure if that was the only soul that was neglected, and if that’s not the case, then how many souls are out there harboring the same hatred?
One thing is for sure: While the rest of the team are looking to investigate further…
…every few days, they’ll come across an automaton sitting by herself, with a cup of coffee on the table and a Nerissa Ravencroft playlist in her headphones…
…sleeping quietly under the warm sunlight.