7. Rats Below

The silence in the lobby makes me wonder if I haven’t suddenly gone deaf.
The banners of each Petal float, making the only sound heard, aside from our footsteps.

This year’s ceremony seems to have been hard for every orphan.
The groups are half the size they were when we arrived; although they were still few in the beginning.

“ To think their brothers and sisters were traded too. “
Mary quietly mumbles.

“ There aren’t any trades, Mary, the two men we met… were lying to get their hands on Decy… “

“ How would you know! “

I face her, my nerves break.

“ BECAUSE I SEE THEM DIE EVERY YEAR! FOR FUCK’S SAKE! “
I catch my breath.

“ There’s nothing like auctions or trades or WHATEVER THE FUCK you believe there is!

Only half of us return to the orphanage each year because we DIE during the trips!
From hunger, exhaustion, or even just murder!

Oh, you were shaking at the sight of the Tailor stripping Nolvem naked in front of us, Mary?
Two years ago he STRANGLED JUDE TO DEATH! I saw her eyes bleed out as he did and I couldn’t do shit about it!

And you wanna know the best part?

How you reacted when you saw she wasn’t with us anymore when we returned?

You were FUCKING SMILING!
Happy that she had been traded and could liv- “

“ENOUGH!”
Apry shouts.

“Stop it. I think she got your point. “

I try to calm down; my vision, blurred by rage, clears.

Mary is in tears.

She struggles to breathe correctly, her arms holding her shoulders, and even drool escapes her mouth.

I grab her in my arms; she’s shaking so much…

“ I…. I’m sorry, Mary, I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to… “

What’s wrong with me.

Apry is looking at me like a mother looking at her failure of a son.

We swore to hide the truth about the rumor of the trades from the weaker ones…
To let them believe hope was a real thing, to have something to hang on to.

I failed miserably.

The fact that those two psychos used a story that was supposed to give us hope against one of us… I just… couldn’t bear it.

I feel Mary’s face bury in my chest.
It’s burning.

From behind I hear Nolvem cry as well.
I’m a bit surprised, I thought she knew all that by now.
Perhaps she convinced herself otherwise to have something to believe in.

The Tailor comes back from the register counter of the lobby and points his cane at a transport cabin.
We get inside, heads bowed to the ground.

Mary is holding my arm firmly; after all I’ve said, I’m not allowed to refuse her anything for a while, for the better, I think.

I feel like I’ve been a jerk with her since the day we met, and now I’ve stolen the only bit of hope she had left.
The best I can do is to lend her a shoulder to cry on from time to time…
I’m not good with those kinds of things, but I’ll try my best, for all it’s worth.

The cabin’s engine starts, and it rises over the lobby, then the constructions, and over the White Plaza.
We’re all at the windows, looking at Harebell.

“ It managed to swallow Mayth… Even this shithead didn’t make it. “
I say after sighing.

“ Callin’ me a shithead now? Look yaself in a mirror would ya “

My heart skips a beat; I turn to see if my mind did not trick me.
The others also turn and are witnessing the same bullshit I am.

I grab Mayth’s shoulders and pin her against the window, making our cabin shake.

“ w- ww- WHAT. How- FUCK! “
My voice trembles and tears of anger escape my eyes.

“ Calm yaself would ya? Get ya hands off me too. “
Mayth asks, absurdly calm.

“ So you can disappear again? Where the FUCK were you? You’d better have the best excuse in the damn world, or the next thing I do is rip your other eye off. “
I tell her with all the seriousness I can speak with.

“ Did the white city blind ya so much’ ya didn’t see me? I never left ya. “
She says while glancing around the cabin.

I nervously laugh at what she just said.
This is the shittiest shit she could ever brag about, and yet she did.

The Tailor pushes me away from Mayth with his cane; Apry catches me before I hit the other side’s window.

“ Ok ‘nough fooling around where’s Decy? “
She dares to ask.

“ Where is Febry?! “
Apry says almost immediately; gritting her teeth, holding back her wish to hit Mayth as hard as she possibly can.

“ That ain’t what I asked, where in the Noise Dent is Dec’ what happened? “

“ QUIT MESSING WITH US! “
I scream at her.

“ You just disappeared like that, with Febry, and now you pop out of NOWHERE asking where Decy is while you perfectly know! You FOOLED us! You’re just like them! You lie and you betray our trust like our lives are just toys you can play with! “
I continue.

“ Ya don’t know a fucking thing Jur’, Febry was planned but not Dec- “

The cabin violently shakes with a loud low-pitched sound. The windows tremble heavily, at the edge of shattering.
Mayth falls onto the Tailor while the others and I are brought to the floor.

“ Argh! DAMNIT! “

I fall on my arm and feel a deep pain coursing through it.

The Tailor gets Mayth away from him.
He quickly rips off a metallic panel from the ceiling and breaks a glass under it.
Some shards it made get on me and inside my clothes; I can feel them cut my back with every movement the cabin makes.

The loud sound doesn’t stop; large cracks now grow on the windows, and they are seconds from shattering.

The Tailor pulls a handle from behind the glass he broke;
large translucent curtains roll down the cracked windows rapidly, stopping the sound we were hearing as they cover them entirely.

I get up to prevent the glass on the ground from cutting me and to shake the remaining shards off me.
The cabin vibrates violently again but we do not hear a thing this time; it moves me against the left window.

Apry and Mayth are helping Mary to get up; at every shake, they take turns carrying her, preventing her from hurting herself.

The Tailor then rushes to a funnel-looking device, like the Box Overseer’s, and plays his note.

“ Tailor from the cabin for the Northern Petal, critical situation. Current state of the cabin: windows cracked, curtains unfolded, the Dent Rats are sending soundwaves at it; they’ve found the right frequency of the windows, and they were about to break. Pistils are safe, but one broke his arm. We are halfway to our destination, it would be careless to turn back now. The guidance socket isn’t damaged; we can still reach the landing post. “
He says inside the device.

After finishing, he puts another small device to his ear.

“ Understood. Engaging procedure. “
He talks inside the funnel looking object before dropping it.

Through the back window, I see the wall far behind us flickering; the lightbulbs are blinking at an insane pace.
The big machines on top of the walls are also beginning to move.

Smoke, sparks, and soundwaves bending the air everywhere I look; nothing is heard where we are, our cabin is protected and isolated from the chaos outside.

Curiosity takes the lead and I look down:
The mist covering the pit has multiple clear holes in it.
From a mist-covered part beneath our cabin, one very large hole forms, pushing the mist away. I have a bad feeli-

“ Sh-! “

The inside of the cabin turns deafening; it’s as if a thunderbolt had just struck inside.
The windows and the soundproof curtains break open, allowing the outside sounds to enter again.

The Tailor’s body hits the side I’m at; something falls on the ground from him and slides towards Mayth and the others.

The cabin starts to accelerate.

Explosions, low-pitched and high-pitched strident shrieks and howls produced by who knows what are overlapping.
Our throat boxes hurt; their protective glass violently trembles from the sounds.

I can catch a quick glimpse at the others; Apry has blood over the sleeves of her dress, her whole body covering Mary’s.
Nolvem and Mayth are both in opposite corners, trying to grab onto something to prevent a fall or worse.

The Tailor grabs the device he spoke into earlier.
Before talking, he detaches a panel from the front of the cabin, revealing multiple devices and symbols I don’t understand.
The majority of them are broken.

“ Uh…I… We lost the guidance caniste…er and the bre- brakes. We- we are accelerating exponentially… “
He’s out of breath.

He puts the device on his ear and seems defeated.
In a last attempt, he takes the funnel-looking thing to his mouth.

“ We- we’re going blind. “
He concludes before tearing apart the whole speaking machine.
Lots of strings and various bits jut out.

With the cords, he attaches some sort of lever by making a solid knot.
He reaches for a hidden handle at his right and pulls it with all his might.

The outside sounds stop abruptly again and light also ceases to enter; Heavy metal curtains replace the glass ones.
Only a faint, blinking bulb lights the surroundings in sequence.

It’s hard to make sense of what’s happening.

I feel the cabin pulling us harder and harder to its back.

The light blinks.

“ We’re going to DIE here! “
Mary screams.

A blink

She’s in Mayth’s arms, I think…

A blink

Or Apry’s?

A blink

“ It’s alright, we’re here, just grab onto me and never let go. We’ll be alright. “
Apry reassures her.

A blink

Apry’s arms are drenched in blood now!

A blink

Her arms have cuts everywhere!

“ Mayth, take her, please! I can’t hold her anymore, my arms are failing me! “
Apry cries.

A blink

Apry is putting everything she has to drag Mary to Mayth.

A blink

“ A..aight grab mah hand Mary c’mon.”

Mayth stretches her arm, trying to catch Mary’s hand.

A blink

The cabin sways forth before pulling us back again.
The light’s blinking cadence slows, letting us see longer but less often.

Is that Nolv-

“ HAND IT TO ME! “
Nolvem screams, using the sway to jump on Mayth.

The light turns off.

“ Get the FUCK off m- “

I hear a loud thud.

The light turns back on.

Nolvem’s fists have blood on them; Mayth’s mouth spits a large amout of it on the ground.
Apry catches Mary, whom Mayth had to let go.

“ Ya fuckin’ didn’t just do that princess. “
Mayth says.

“ RGhhhhAAA! “
Nolvem howls and catches the side of the cabin to climb to Mayth.

The lights turn off again.

I hear someone trip and fall loudly on the metal ground.

“ Eat! THE FUCKING GROUND! “
Mayth shouts.

The light turns on again.

Apry is the one who tripped, Mary in her arms.

Mayth kicks Nolvem in the chest;
she gets projected to the front of the cabin, but the force of the sudden acceleration brings her back onto our wall, and her head bangs on it.

Blood escapes her nose; I think she’s-

The cabin violently moves again and the lightbulb breaks.

Damn! I can’t see shit!

I’d say that the Tailor is preparing something…
He’s moving everywhere in the cabin; his footsteps are quick and loud.

The sound of metal being bent fills the interior.
Light finally enters the cabin again when a rush of wind blows fiercely on us; the glass shards fly everywhere in the cabin.

The Tailor forced open the front doors!

We’re near the platform; our speed is absurd!

I take a look at the others’ situation.
Apry successfully brought Mary to Mayth’s level;
she seems exhausted and on the edge of collapsing but Mayth holds them how she can, I can feel her struggle through the expression on her face.
She won’t drop them for anything in the world.

I try to walk to them but I’m pinned to the back wall now, unable to move.

It’s impressive that the Tailor can still act.

Still unsteady and his hat off his face, he moves to face us.
The cables he knotted to the lever are in his mouth now; his face is tainted red and his eyes are filled with blood.
His long arms grab each side of the cabin, acting as a barrier between the outside and us.

I can see the landing platform; the impact is imminent.

“ Mary, CLOSE YOUR EYES! “
I scream, trying to be heard amidst the wind.

A loud grunt from the Tailor gets through the wind:

“ HRGGGGGG…HHH! “

He pulls the cables with his teeth tearing away some of them out of his mouth in the process;
A horrid strident metal sound pierces our ears as the cabin slows harshly.

We’re sent flying into the Tailor’s arms.

I feel the bones in mine twist, it’s hurting horribly, glass has also lodged in my back when some were sent outside through the door.

I look at the breached door;

Th- the platform is near…

f…F..FUCK!

WE’RE CR-