The Lost Ones Book 2: Welcome Home

Chapter 28

A while later there was a knock at the door.

He glanced over.

Jason looked over at Stampy. There seemed to be the smallest speck of hope in his eyes.

Stampy hesitated before standing up and opening the door. "Hello-"

"It's not polite to keep a lady, much less, a queen, waiting." Penelope greeted him though it didn't sound angry. "May I come in?"

Stampy glanced back at Jason.

Jason froze, that last ounce of hope shattering as his stomach dropped. His eyes widened in fear as he stared right at her.

"I would like to speak to you, Starlight." She glanced at Stampy. "Alone."

Stampy frowned and glanced at Jason again.

Jason opened his mouth to objects but couldn't find his words, so he remained silent.

"You may wait outside, Kitten."

Stampy hesitated but knew better than to test her and stepped outside, letting Penelope step inside and the door close.

Jason moved to the side of the bed furthest to her, shaking slightly.

"Starlight, do you know why I'm here?" She asked.

"Y-you here to guilt me some more?" He nervously asked.

"Perhaps." She answered. "But mostly to tell you what you've found yourself involved with now." She sighed. "What do you know about Stella?"

It pained Jason to think about her again. "S-she was just an AI... I took her from the ship and then she somehow became an android..." He spoke in-between sniffles.

Penelope simply smiled faintly. "Well... that's kind of true..." She sighed again. "Stella isn't an AI. She never was supposed to be put in that position..." She told him.

"What...?"

"Stella's name isn't even Stella... Though she took on the name, along with many others, when she started her little... Rebellion against us..." She saw his confusion.

"Allow me to start more towards the beginning." She sat down before letting the room change around them. "Stella isn't an AI, or an Android.... Or a human for that matter. She is one of us."

A mirage of Stella as Jason had seen her in her android form stood before them, still and unmoving before shifting into the woman he had seen earlier.

"She worked with us before she rebelled. She made the shadows and played the roles of those whoever she was with held dear..."

"She's o-one on you...?!" Jason's eyes widened, darting around the room at the many changes before settling on the mirage. He could barely even look at the fake version of Stella without breaking back down.

Penelope nodded. "Yes. Her name is Phoebe." She explained. She watched the mirage. "When she was working on one of our... Guests, she discovered he had no one close to him anymore. So... She made someone for him to get close to... a human version of herself."

She let the mirage change into what she looked like. Fair skin, a dress with sleeves on her upper arm exposing her shoulders. Her hair braided in a crown and left to flow down her back. She had a kind smile and those bright purple eyes.

"She seduced him and he fell for her..." A mirage of the man but very fuzzy and faded appeared next to her. "But... She never expected to return the feelings..."

They looked at each other with smiles though the man's face was otherwise obscured.

Jason closely watched the mirages. His eyes were wide and breathing heavily, but he did not say a word.