"It's you."
I respond and look at the little girl from yesterday. She looks desperate to know what I talked with the professor about. Or maybe she doesn't want to know the exact details, but more likely if her mother will be free.
"Did you talk to the professor about my mom?"
Suddenly I began to realize something, that should have been obvious for me since the beginning. Since she talked with me in this place. How the hell did she get in here? You normally only can open the door to the monitor room with the keycard of the professor. Did she steal it? There is no way.
"Before I tell you what the professor said. Answer me one question: How the hell did you get in here?"
She looked at me surprised as I ask that question. Almost as if I caught her. She clearly has a secret.
"The door was open?"
She is lying.
"I'm sure that's not true. Even if the door was open, there are guards waiting outside of the room."
She sighs. I'm sure she knows that she can't hide whatever her secret is. Now she pulls out a card, with the name Ria on it. Is that... Her own keycard?
"I am supposed to watch the monitors, when the professor isn't here. That's why I have to be able to enter the room at any time. I watched you talking with it. Did you know you can't hear the conversation through the monitors? It sure looked funny when this thing suddenly got mad. I thought he is going to kill you."
She saw everything? She has an own keycard? What the hell is going on here? I thought I am the professor's biggest lab rat, but I guess he has more secrets than I thought. Now he has hired a little girl to watch us talk or what? That makes me mad. Especially because she referred to a human being as "thing".
"His name is Shinda."
She looks surprised and confused as I say that.
"I just told you that I am some kind of spy from the professor and you correct me in the name of the number 0? Don't you bother at all that I lied to you?"
"He is a human being, just like you and me. Why do you all say 'it' and 'the thing'?"
I say offended.
"Because he is different, Jinsei. He isn't one of us. We aren't humans. We are Coras and nothing ever will change that. Just accept it."
How am I supposed to accept something that isn't true at all? Why is everyone like that? Why does no one ever say that we are also humans? We aren't animals. We are Coras, yes, but Coras ARE humans. We are humans where the virus activated with our blood cells.
"If you can't speak the truth then don't talk to me about it. Don't you dare talk about Coras or Shin like that."
She looks at me with wide eyes.
"What? 'Shin'? You even gave it a nickname? Maybe you should stop visiting it, before you get too attached to it. I think I have to snitch that to the professor."
I didn't even realize that I used his nickname, until she said so. I wouldn't use it at all, if he didn't tell me I shouldn't call him Shinda.
I grab the arm of the girl, before she could run away. I know she is just 10 or 11, so basically a child, but I can't afford her snitching to the professor.
"Don't you dare."
I sound more mad than I thought. I wasn't really mad, just a little maybe.
"I am the one who can tell the professor to not let your mother free. I made a deal with him, only for you, because you went crying to my room at night, telling me you want your mom back. But if you don't want you mother back anymore, I can tell him that it's not necessary to let your mom free."
She turns around with a surprised- no, rather shocked expression.
"Don't... I promise I won't snitch, okay? Let my mom out of that."
I nod and let go of her arm.
"If that's so. I talked with him about your mother, and he said he will let her free. So don't worry about it. She will be free by tonight."
She looks happy to hear that. So happy, that she even hugs me. I don't know where to put my hands, so I just let them in the air, to not touch her. I really can't deal with children.
"Thank you so much!"
She says and let go of me.
"I will go home then. Maybe she is already waiting for me. See you around, Jin."
Jin? That's also what he called me. I said I don't like nicknames.
"It's Jinsei. Don't call me Jin."
She just smiles, waves at me for a few seconds and then runs off. What a child..
Now it's silent. It's just me and the monitors.
I look at the monitors to search for Shinda, but I can't find him anywhere. As I looked at the last screen, I saw him lying in a corner of the room.
He wasn't moving at all.