Subject Zero: CONFIDENTIAL (Short Stories)

The Doctor (4)

Part Four (final): Chapter of Reflection

Tui's POV
Lately, the Doctor has been giving us more difficult tasks, such as learning to breathe in thin air, how to soften our landings... We've been meditating daily and have been learning not only how to sense our surroundings, but how to also sense people.

La and I have also learned how to use our abilities. I have a lot of light-related abilities, and the Doctor refers to me as a Luminess. Apparently I'm the only Luminess there is. And La has the opposite abilities as me; everything she can do relates to darkness. She's a Shade, and the Doctor says she'll most likely become one of, if not the strongest Shade to have ever lived.

He says it's because we are special. We are... important.

The Doctor told us about how Araneidans, Marshes, Hidebehinds, and Shades tend to act. They're vicious and sneaky, and are always up to no good. "There are no good creatures in this world," he said. La strongly doubts this and I'm not sure about it.

We don't believe there are no good creatures in this world, only because we heard about what happened to the 'Dark Horse' on Halloween last year — he was killed by the Jester and the Princess. The Dark Horse/Ryuk always came to visit the Manor whenever he needed something from Joplin. Joplin treated him like some puppet. And in the few weeks I knew him, I hated him. He treated La and I like little kids, and always spoke to us as if we were idiots. I don't even feel sorry that he was killed. In fact, I thank this Jester and Princess, and I don't even know who they are.

The Doctor is a great teacher and all, but I'm still suspicious of him. He's not like the group of humans we've been watching (those who go by Alio Niccals, Anne Stine, Jesper and LeAnna Olsen, Klaus Blythe, Naomi and Norman Snicket, Rei Veene, subject Zero, and Liam Smiles). None of them have the violet eyes he has. He just walks up to a door and when he opens it, it takes him somewhere the door didn't lead to before. He can just wave his hand over our wounds and they'll magically heal.
He's the only human the creatures in this world don't seem to be targeting — in fact, they seem intimidated by him.

I always ask him what he can do that makes him different from the humans we've been watching, and he simply replies, "That is an excellent question."

La's POV
Tui's been curious to know if there are any good people in this world. One thing I've noticed is that not a lot of the other Royals never come to the Manor.

Ares does, only because she has to — she's Joplin's literal puppet. He just uses her to do things he's not in the mood to do, such as looking for people, training us when we were first created, cleaning up around the Manor. She's just a servant rather than a Queen or former Princess.

Joplin dismisses any and all questions about the first Queen. We don't even know her name. He doesn't even look at us when we ask about her and only walks away... But he never forgets to dust her belongings and take care of her garden. I wonder what happened between them.

He only talks about the Jester in a way that makes it seem as if he hates him. "He's a sociopath that would do anything for the Princess," he says. Joplin says the Jester used to be cruel and even 'just like him', but then something happened. Something happened and Joplin won't tell us, and only says, "I had to remove his voice. That was the only thing I was able to do to him. I'm not done with him. He knows of his mistakes, but is framing it on the Prince. I'll make him pay for what he did."
(It's always weird when you ask a simple question like, "Who's the Jester?" and you get an essay in response.)