"A soulless husk?" To those words, my eyes opened to a scandalous sight.
Above me was a woman of deep blue skin, her face obscured in the darkness around me. Her hips swayed against mine, and her hasty breaths resounded throughout the place. I could feel myself in her, captured by her warmth. With each sway, her breasts rose and fell, while I writhed around barely holding back the urge to grab her.
Leaning closer, she looked into my eyes. The only thing in them was an aching hunger for more and more until nothing was left behind.
"Wake up," she whispered, slowly pressing her lips against mine.
In that moment a sense of relief washed over me, but it also made me realize something haunting. The hoarse voice by which I'd been awoken was that of a man, and yet the one lying on top of me was a woman I think I knew. Breaking away from the kiss, I decided to confront her.
"Senya, w-what are you doing?" My lips didn't move and my words came to form.
"Shhh…" She hushed, pressing a finger against my lips.
Forcing herself to smile, a silver glint appeared in her eyes. Reaching out to her face, I pressed my hand against her cheek. Washing the rolling tears from down her eyes, I was made to wonder what was going on inside her head. Seconds ago, she was ecstatic as our bodies joined together, but now that joy was gone, replaced with something else that saddened her deeply.
Grabbing my hand, she took it off of her face. Placing it right over my head, she gave a light peck on my cheeks before whispering to me again.
"Wake up," and this time, my eyes opened to the real world and not just to a dream.
Laying on my own bed, I found myself staring at the ceiling. The exquisite chandelier loomed above my bed, an ill-mannered placement if you asked me. Turning to my sides, I noticed Maiko lying on my left with loose blood-stained bandages trailing out of her arms down to my bandaged belly.
"My eye?" Surprisingly enough, it took me a moment to realize that I was missing half of my sight as it was taped under a bandage as well.
Pulling it off, I hoped my eye was still there and what Ophelia did was nothing more than a bad dream. Anxiously cracking my eyelids open, I was left bewildered as my left pupil began dilating from the passage of light. Looking around once more I tried to make sense of what was happening and how in the hell did I even get my eye back?
"You awake?" Senya's voice called to me from the other side of the bed.
Turning to her, I saw her sitting upright on the bed right beside me. Her legs curled up near her chest, she had her head lying sideways over her knees. Her gaze stuck on me; a hint of melancholy lingered in her eyes.
"How did I–"
"Maiko healed you, while I helped you regain consciousness," she answered even before I could finish the question.
A bit confused still; I tilted my head to the side while looking at her.
"Is something wrong? Is Ophelia still here? What about the Advisor and the girls?" There were too many questions in my head, but I doubt even she could answer all of them.
Turning her head to look at the front, she took a deep breath before pressing her lips shut. Staring at thin air for a while, she heaved a sigh and turned back to me.
"Ophelia told us we're free to continue work. She also took the advisor's body, and the twins are still with us," stretching her legs forward, she slid them off of the bed. "As for why you're still alive after that monster spilled your innards all over the carpet? That I don't have the courage to tell you."
"What?" I uttered, baffled by her reluctance.
Getting off the bed entirely, she began to walk towards the room's exit. Her bare feet echoed in the room as silence otherwise lingered. I ached for her word, an explanation for my undying, but she kept shush and was about to leave without giving me the comfort of knowing. Coming to a halt by the door, however, she turned around to speak but a few words.
"A rat that hangs by the tail squeals," looking at me from over her shoulders, she gave a weak smile. "But I'm not that rat for you, it's the tails of the people from your past that you need to be grabbing for the truth."
"But why?" Sliding off the bed, I was ready to chase after her.
"Because they changed you into something that shouldn't exist," through her eyes downcast, I could see the pain seeping right out. "I'm sorry, I like you and this place just as much as I did before, but it's precisely because of that love that I can't subject you to the cruel truth."
Reaching for the doorknob, she opened the door and stepped out. Listening to her footsteps in the distance, I was lost in thought trying to figure out what she meant. Something that shouldn't exist? Like that monster, Ophelia? No! I had blood in my belly, not oil and grease! But then what was it that she couldn't tell me? Why did it pain her so much even though she chose to hide it?
'The people from my past, huh?' It could only mean one thing, the nuns back the orphanage but what could they have to do with my inability to die from those wounds? 'Damn it! Just when I thought that things had begun to go my way, that everything was on the path to be better…'
Cursing my luck, I wondered what to do next. Then, I was reminded of the words that awoke me, not in reality but in that dream.
"A soulless husk?" I muttered out loud, pondering what it meant.
But alas, the only way to find out was to dig up the past that I've so desperately tried to forget about. The nuns, the orphanage, the carnage they spew, the children sold into labor and other heinous crimes, and the reason why they spared me. For a long time, I thought it was because I was useful, however now, I couldn't be so sure.
Not long after waking up, I met with the others to check on them. Apart from me, they didn't incur any wounds, but their morale had shattered, and that glimmer of hope for revenge against the embassy was lost like a fleeting memory.
'If I can't die, then there must be something I can do to turn the favor back into our hands.' Clinging on to hope, I was willing to re-establish some trust with Ophelia before planning our next move.