It smells amazing~

  My tiny body poked out amid the bush of flowers thanks to my face being stuffed into the petals; sniffing them like my life depended on it, the intoxicating smells obliterated the dreary canvas of my heart.

  It looks amazing~

  My pale-white eyes burned this picture into my retinas. I'll probably dream of flowers tonight. The haze of white, simir to my eyes and my sister's hair, fluttered between my eyes like bashful butterflies, teasing me.

  Like a man having gone days without water in the Sahara desert, my thirst was being quenched.

  I almost thought it was unquenchable a month ago.

  I thought I might die in the bliss of colours, but I underestimated myself; I don't want to die in this bliss, I want to live in it forever.

  Be with it forever.

  "Careful sweetie, we don't want you getting stuck in those bushes~" A pair of arms csped my waist to pull me out, but-

  "Agyoo!"

  My body twisted and turned in an attempt to escape her grasp.

  Let go of me!

  Those grubby little fingers of mine reached for the flowers, for the haze, the colours-!

  "Nope, that's enough." But mother's grip was too tough to break out of, or more accurately speaking, I was too weak to break out of an already weak grip. To my dismay, I was inevitably separated from the tiny bundles of ecstasy.

  Yet, even when separated; even when I was in the endlessly peaceful embrace of my mother's arms.

  Put me back.

  Put me back.

  Put me back.

  ...

  I repeated inwardly with my pale eyes dazedly lingering on the euphoric garden.

  "Let's go to the stream this time, py with the fishies."

  Apparently having noticed my childish tantrum, she redirected my attention using a powerful word:

  Py.

  I can py with fish?

  There's more?

  Just like that, my obsession with the flowers dissipated. Like a cloud driven by wind, I naturally migrated to the following best location, completely disregarding the old.

  ...Alora herself couldn't notice it, but when the Mistress gazed down at the petite bundle of cuteness, the light in her oceanic eyes churned with amusement. She had already noticed her obsession, her drive for something to entertain herself with.

  With that in mind, she drove her onwards:

  Along her inescapable road.

  ---

  Fishies!!!

  Spshing in the delicious freshwater stream, the waters reached the top of my chest, but that didn't deter my enthusiasm; I chased after the slippery, carp-like marine creatures.

  Dunking my head beneath the waters, I ignored all the warnings my mother gave me moments ago. Drenching my golden hair and allowing my clothes to stick tightly to my skin, I flourished in the stream.

  While I did fail to catch the fish, the chase-

  The chase is fucking fun.

  I was like a wild animal, sticking my maniacal gaze onto each target I id my eyes upon.

  "Gyou."

  Bubbling my mouth beneath the hazy water's surface, I tasted the scintilting scent of the white, ever-present fog on the tip of my tongue. The water itself was nothing special, but the white fog refreshed my brain into its purest state.

  Naturally absorbing the white fog, the foggy state clouding my 6-month-old deteriorated brain receded by a small amount.

  Enough to return control over my body.

  And once that control returned...

  ...

  What was I doing just now?

  Shame bsted me from all angles; embracing me in an inescapable grip of these 'dark ages'. I wanted to delete every memory from my brain, but...

  This is too embarrassing to forget.

  Casting a hesitant, sideways gnce at the mature dy seated sideways on the grass patch beside the stream, I re-honed myself on the fish.

  But now that I've acted like this:

  "Agyoo!"

  A forceful cry escaped my lips as I plunged into the waters once more.

  I have to continue the act now. It would be too unnatural to change my actions within a split second.

  Although that does sound like something a kid would do.

  But would a normal kid be isoted for 6 months?

  Would a normal kid be starved overnight?

  And would a normal kid be so obsessed over some entertainment?

  The answer to that is a gring no.

  Submerged beneath the stream, in a position preventing my face from being seen, I secretly scrutinized my situation.

  Mother is with me.

  She left me overnight starving.

  They separated me from my sister.

  My sister hasn't been mentioned since our separation.

  And I...

  I might not be my normal self.

  A nagging feeling in my heart tells me so. Have I ever been normal in that room in the past few months?

  ...I'm not sure.

  "Haaa~!"

  Jumping out of the water once my breath ran out, I gulped in more air and the white, hazy mist. The crity in my brain jumpstarted for a split second, but before I realised it, I was already back to normal.

  This then sparked a new curiosity in me.

  What is this white stuff?

  And why am I seeing so much of it?

  With the decision to quietly explore the secrets of the white stuff pced in my mind, I plunged back into the stream.

  Better safe, away from prying eyes, than sorry.

  I'll set my primary goal of reuniting with my sister and figuring out what the personification of madness has in store for us; I can't trust anything in this pce.

  I resisted the urge to gnce back at my mother.

  To thrust myself into that bundle of peace.

  ...Not even my mother.

  -----

  That day was a week ago, or two?

  I'm not entirely sure. Some days passed too quickly and others too slowly, and my sense of time is skewed even when the sun shines before my eyes. Having that calendar and clock was more useful than trying to keep track of time manually through the day-and-night cycles.

  I'm not entirely confident that the ck of a calendar is to bme.

  The nagging feeling won't leave; a prying, consistent nagging, like a pounding in the back of my chest-

  I'm not sure what it is though.

  I have my suspicions, but suspicions aren't enough.

  Leaning back into mother's arms, I gnced up at the distant, setting sun.

  The scenery was the same as my first night here, but now it's the nth night; nothing has changed. I still can't leave, my sister still isn't here, and my days are filled with either staying in my mother's embrace or semi-consciously roaming the gardens.

  "Look, sweetie, the aurora is the same colour as your eyes." My mother commented, wrapping her arms around my small body and pointing at the sun.

  Or, as she called it:

  Aurora.

  It's not the sun, it's the aurora.

  With each passing day, I learn something new about this world. One thing I find curious though, is that water is called water, air is called air, oxygen is oxygen, and everything is exactly as I remembered it;

  All the words in this nguage point to the words I know from my old nguage.

  So why is the sun called the aurora instead?

  Why does the word 'aurora' not point at the word 'sun'?

  With another question added to the collection, I nestled into my nest; it was time to sleep the starving night away, again, for the nth time.

  I'm not sure why she's doing this, but she is. Our mother isn't feeding me overnight when I'm hungriest. Even though she cimed to have forgotten the first morning after, and then cimed it again the second day, the third, and so on-

  I don't believe it.

  And, almost as though the stars had aligned; although there are no stars during the night, as far as I could tell from the innards of the bedroom, by the way.

  Ouch!

  A sharp pain slipped the back of my neck.

  "Sorry! I'm so sorry sweetie!"

  Hurriedly rubbing my cut neck, my mother profusely apologised for the injury, again.

  For the nth time.

  There's a pattern;

  Once is happenstance.

  Twice is a coincidence.

  Thrice...

  Thrice is enemy action.

  I vividly remember this quote from back on Earth.

  Whilst she doesn't scream 'enemy' from her repetitive actions, it does raise other worrying signs; such as:

  Why is she repeating the same 'mistakes' whilst retaining all other high levels of intelligence?

  It's too suspicious.

  However, until something concrete happens, or I get the opportunity to sneak out of this dreaded bedroom and go beyond that repeating corridor and the familiar gardens: I have to accept it as is, I'm not even a year old yet... Or I might be?

  Forget fighting back, I can't even eat solids yet.

  "Agyoo!"

  "Yes, yes, I know sweetie, sorry..."

  Receiving the nth apology since my arrival here, I sighed inwardly in comfort knowing that this won't happen again till tomorrow. Giving in to the sleepiness, I rested my eyes and drifted off to another sleep.

  Sleeping in the embrace of peace is a thousand times better than sleeping alone on that bed.

  Thus, I slept.

  The night began to pass by.

  Alora's chest gently rose with each breath, lifting the thin bnket covering her each time. The faint light from outside drifted in, vaguely illuminating the edges of her rounded, cute face.

  And, as she slept, as the craving of hunger crept in-

  Her eyes shot open.

  "Agyoo?"

  Terror tched onto those white eyes as they darted left and right, seemingly searching for something.

  But the room was quiet.

  Nothing could be seen or heard.

  Yet.

  With each passing moment.

  "Agya?!"

  The trepidation embedded in her pupils grew.

  Her arms filed and eventually nded on her ears, csping them shut. But after shutting her ears, the horror abruptly exited her eyes; peace had returned to her out of nowhere.

  Yet, what she had heard remained utterly real.

  ...And utterly horrifying.