𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕕 ℝ𝕠𝕤𝕖 {ʀᴀʏxᴍ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ}

3:Mama...

"Conny?" I called out, I held onto little Bernie tightly as I walked through the dark curtains.

There she laid on a plate, surrounding her were forks, knives, bottles of wine and beer.

"Conny?"

I stared at her lifeless eyes. I felt something big on my shoulder, I turned my head slowly.

'Oh shit...'

"Good morning!" Phil yelled happily.

I yawned. As I headed to the dining area. "Y/N." I turned and saw mama. 'Act normal!'

"Good morning mama!" I smiled.

"Good morning to you too, could you help me arrange the plates on the tables?"

"Sure, no problem!" She handed me the plates and I went to arrange them.

"Good morning Emma." Norman greeted. I turned and saw her, she had a sad-like expression on her face but immediately smiled. "Good morning Norman!"

"Listen, we have to act normal, we broke the rules and went to the gate. We have to pretend we saw nothing."

"Thank you for the food!"

I'll make sure I'll find a way for all of us to get out of here!

"Did you sleep at all?" I asked.

"Yeah but I woke up earlier than usual." Emma replied. "This morning, I noticed something for the first time. The houses latticed windows, the screen attachment points can't be reached from inside and on top of that, the screw heads have been stripped. That place is a cage."

Small signs here and there, hidden in our daily lives.
Tasty food that never fails to satisfy
The Snow White uniforms that get easily dirty
And our rigorously structured lives...
Their all to preserve the quality of us goods.

"But the tests?"

"We're live stock aren't we? So why is there a need for us to be educated. Even more, educating us will be dangerous to the monsters." I questioned.

"Six years old again. Just the usual."
"Prepare the 4 with full scores for imminent plucking."

"It's not like getting good scores would make our meat taste better right?" Emma wondered.

"I don't know."

"The house... the world... we thought we knew it all but in reality, we knew nothing. Isn't it strange that it's now the 21st century, yet there are no signs of radios or television sets in this house. The inside of this cage is a manufactured anachronism." Norman explained.

I gasped. "What if they're after our brains."

Emma stared at me in confusion.

"Probably. Let's determine what we know first. Before Conny, Hao left and before Hao left, Cedi left. Based on the dates those three were taken, we can assume that the next shipment will be two months earliest. That's the amount of time we have to get out of this place." Norman grabbed a random stick and began drawing something on the ground.

"If I were to draw a diagram, the house would be in the middle, the gate over here and then the forest surrounding us. The next question is what exit will we use?"

"Definitely the forest. The gate is closed outside of shipping hours." Emma answered.

"Yeah and when it opens, there will be monsters there." I nodded in agreement.

"The next question is when. It'll either be during the night of shipment when mama is gone or when we're allowed to play freely outside during day-time."

"The night of shipment is out of the question since we'll end up sacrificing someone. Another worry is that the younger ones won't be able to stay up for long enough during the night." Norman and Emma giggled.

"Y/N... I'm tired..."

I giggled as I imagined them falling asleep while we're making our escape.

"Cute but dangerous."

"That settles it." We stood up and walked towards the fence, blocking us from the other side of the forest. "We'll escape during the daytime using the forest."

"Wether or not, that'll be possible. It depends on what is beyond this forest." Norman answered.

"Let's go! I want to check it out." I replied.

We hopped over the fence and sprinted as fast as we could.

When Norman said those words, his hand was shaking. He's far from being alright. It's no wonder really. To us, mama was the only mother we had.

This morning was nothing different, she had that warm smile on her face.

"Good morning to you too, could you help me arrange the plates?"

We ran and ran, passing by it.

"Mama?" The 9 year old h/c-nette called out.

"Yes, Y/N?"

"Do you have a rose seed?"

"Why do you need a rose seed?"

He smiled. "I read in a book that roses symbolise passion, desire, commitment, love and romance! Especially red ones! And I want to give it to Ray as a gift!"

She thought for a bit. "Well... you're going to have a lot of patience if you really want to grow a rose."

"I promise i'll take care of it, mama!"

She giggled, patting his head. "I'm sure Ray will love the gift."

Just how many kids has that smile, that led to their deaths.

I looked up at the large concrete in front of me.

Just why would you be so kind and gentle to us mama...?