Chapter Text
Waves could be heard distantly hitting against rocks and receding with mesmerising, swishing sighs. Distant gulls filled the sky with their cries of songs, birds that always seemed to remain unseen, hiding within the thick fog that hid the distant world from view. Never setting foot upon their paradise. Then, the rise of chatter all around which dragged the mind from its slumber, which marked the start of a new day.
The sleeping form of a girl stirred, a groggy sigh escaping her throat as she fought against the new day’s call. Yet the world only grew more loud. Cheers and calls, giggles and laughs, all filling the previous void of calmness and relaxation to the drowsy one’s dismay.
She continued to fight it for a while, rolling over in attempt to hide from the noise. However, there’s no hiding from the sensation of another body roughly crashing into your own.
“Wake up Six! It’s morning!”
A voice cried out as previously non-compliant eyes shot open. The girl, Six, groaned as she came face to face with the culprit of the rude awakening. A younger kid, a scruffy one with bandages covering his eyes decorated with a feather and their uniform alway askew. Not that she was a perfect princess either mind you, far from it.
She huffed as she shoved the kid perched upon her bed away from her face, she was quite used to this one acting as her personal alarm clock. She was sitting up by now but even with the departure of the toddler, who had quickly taken off running down the halls after her awakening, she was still very reluctant to move from the comfort of her bed until the echoing rings of a bell came from down the hall. That got her moving. That bell promised a meal.
Quickly dragging herself out of bed, Six rushed out into the hall and through to the dining room where the rest of the children had already gathered. By scanning the rows of tables as she entered she soon spotted another child waving her over between all the other yapping kids , a girl with thick, long brown hair braided beautifully and held together by a red ribbon. She began weaving her way around chairs and the more energetic younger ones, who dashed around without a care in the world, only to be intercepted only mere feet from her goal by a taller, slender figure stepping into her way.
“Now children! settle down and take your seats, would you dears?”
The Lady called out in her elegant yet authoritative voice, yielding almost immediate results with her appearance. Children rushed to take their places. They all sat in the same places each day, any change to this on the rare occasion would seem to cause great confusion amongst them. Six, in an attempt to blend in with the rest of them, moved to swerve around their caretaker but was halted once more by a hand hidden by a long, brown kimono sleeve cutting off her path. The pristine white porcelain mask The Lady wore peered down at her, officially singling her out.
That was the only name they knew their parental figure as, The Lady. Despite having lived under her care for so long she was still shrouded in mystery. None knew of her real name, nor why she wore that mask every day without fail to where not even the oldest of the kids, a group in which Six was a part of, had ever seen her face.
But that was ok, despite how painfully curious Six was about it, they didn’t need to know. So what if she wanted to wear a mask all the time? It wouldn’t change how anything worked around here. The Lady loved them, took care of them, gave them everything they could have ever wanted. They were happy here, thanks to her.
“Now, now six. Where do you think you’re going?”
The smooth, calm voice of the lady sounded out once more. The girl glared up at her with a defiant huff, pointing bluntly over to where her seat was waiting for her. A light sigh sounded from the adult towering above her, shaking her head.
“Must we go through this routine every day? You won’t be getting anything to eat until you make yourself presentable, little one.”
The hand indicated vaguely to Six’s entire self as she stood there, still in her nightwear with what could be mistaken for a bird's nest atop her head. Resigning in defeat, she trudged back to the children’s shared bedroom to somewhat sort herself out. Trust her, she’d tried refusing before. It doesn’t tend to fly with The Lady. She wasn’t in the mood for such a protest right now anyways. Right now, she was starving.
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A dainty bell chimed, held delicately between a finger and thumb as though it were made of wafer thin glass. The room fell silent in an instant, small hands linking into long chains across their rows with heads down and eyes closed.
“Good morning, my children. Before we may enjoy this meal together, we must always show our appreciation. For each meal, for each other, and for this safe haven.”
“Thank you for all we have, great eyes above!”
The children recited in unison. Practiced to perfection, to where only one tired voice could be heard vaguely below it. Another precise chime later and the children were permitted to separate.
Six practically yanked her hand away from the boy next to her, gagging and wiping her hand on her now semi-neatly worn uniform dramatically. All the while in comparison oh so carefully untangling her other one from the Raine’s, the braided girl. The boy, RK as he was nicknamed, simply rolled his eyes dismissively. He had grown quite used to her antics. He has been stuck dealing with her for a long while now after all.
Said girl’s attention hadn’t stayed on him for long however as the sound of a door opening and the screeching of tired, metal wheels rang out. The metal trolley whined out in protest as it was dragged into view with its precious, delicious cargo. A pale greyish brown, crooked hand had emerged well before the trolley, or even the body it was attached to- could be seen. It had reached forwards, trailing across the floor unnaturally far until it made contact with a chair leg, to which it then planted itself palm down against the ground. The child occupying the chair seemed not to notice at all, simply continuing to wrap his red scarf around his neck. It was always the same after all, always his chair getting nudged.
Then, the arm’s owner emerged, Another adult. Much bigger than them, but shorter than The Lady. What looked to be either bandages or cloth covered the bottom half of his head all the way down to over his neck, almost appearing as though it were really a part of his body, like grotesque, saggy white skin. He trudged forwards on his disproportionately stubby legs until he reached roughly the middle between the two tables, letting go of the trolley as it ceased it’s cries. The adult raised his head, moving his jaw and cracking it with a sickening sound in a way Six wouldn’t deem possible if it weren’t for having witnessed it many times by now, and sniffed the air between heavy, laboured breaths.
Long arms reached over the heads of the children as The Janitor, as he was only known by, placed their meals down roughly in front of them with his by now well memorised layout of the tables. Once the trolley had been emptied, no more plates to be felt, it was grabbed once more as the man headed back the way he came. Once more obscured by the shadows of the other room, six believed the weirdo spent half his time sitting in the dark inside there, the door quietly closed behind him.
Six was already ripping the food off her plate with her bare hands before it had even made contact with the tablecloth, gnawing at two strips of bacon at once like an animal- ignoring the spent sigh from her friend next to her, she’d learned quickly that convincing Six to use cutlery was a lost cause- even the oh-so graceful Lady had given up!
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Six is always the first to finish eating. It didn’t matter what time of day it was, or what they were eating… Unless it was like- salad or something- because ew, no, she’ll pass- she is always the first one to clear her plate of all non-vegetable material, and thus always the first to be allowed the freedom to go outside.
The girl had flopped herself onto the grass, laid on her back and splayed out as she stared up at the vast sky above. This was the only issue with her extremely impressive skill. She often had to wait a good while for the other slowpokes to finish. And so, she’d have to keep herself entertained for that time, but it at least gave her some of the only alone time she gets in a day.
Gazing upwards, she fixated on the clouds. Seeking out and finding the patterns in them, listening to mesmerising, swishing sighs of the waves…an invisible choir of seagulls singing their ancestral songs…it was enough to make a girl almost drift off…
…the soft but rushed pattering of sets of feet against grass…distant calls of high-pitched voices…
…ah, it seems they’ve finally finished too.
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