The Devils in the Fruits

15- Artificial

I... I don't understand...

What's going on? Where am I?

...What am I?

I woke up trapped in a confined space. It was so dark...

Ah, but I could hear things outside of my confines. Things I didn't want to hear.

What does 'failure' mean?

What does it mean to destroy something?

'Preserve'? What's that? Why is everything so confusing?

I gripped my head and closed my eyes, trying to block out the the voices.

But the dark just pressed against me further, bringing with it even more voices; ones far more sinister than what I've heard recently.

They weren't coming from the outside, though.

Where were they coming from? Whispering things like 'failure' into my ears...

Make them stop! Make the voices stop!

I was so lost in trying to block out the voices, that I didn't notice the hand grabbing my prison until it was too late.

My eyes snapped open as I was violently exiled from my confines by a small child who devoured my prison with a sort of starved zeal.

I felt invisible chains clamp around me and link my very being to the small boy, who still had yet to acknowledge my existence.

The harsh whispers of the voices in my head never faltered as I tried to get his attention.

No... He couldn't hear me. He couldn't see me waving my hands in his face. I tried to touch him but my hands just passed right through.

Another small child entered the dark room and this time the boy acknowledged her. The talked of plans to.... escape?

What does 'escape' mean?

The voices started up again in my head, louder than before and speaking a language I couldn't understand.

The girl said something about guards and ran away, but I paid no attention as the voices began to fill my head with pain to the point of bursting.

I doubled in on myself and screamed, clutching my hands over my ears.

As I screamed, the boy's appearance began to change.

His body grew longer and his flesh scaly and pink.

What's going on?! What's happening?!

He was scared, probably as much as I was, seeing how he ran out of the room and barreling past other larger things in yellow. Guards?

I couldn't bear to tear my hands away from my head even while my body was dragged after the boy-turned-thing.

For some reason the word 'dragon' came to mind, whatever that means

The voices came in full force again and I screamed once more, cold sweat dripping down my calmmy skin.

We passed a room where a man with black hair that went all the way down his back and strange horns stood.

Above his shoulders another man floated.

His eyes caught mine and I felt his gaze on my pained form.

The only one who can see me...

The man's expression softened into something. Sadness... Pitty...

"I'm sorry..." He breathed. "I'm so, so sorry...! You were supposed to have been a failure...!"

That word again.

The voices began to shout it in my ears.

Failure!

Failure!

Failure!!

FAILURE!!

I didn't have time to do anything do anything but scream in pain again as the boy-dragon-thing began to run again and I was forcefully dragged along by invisible chains.

He ran to an opening in a wall and thew himself and me down into it.

We fell down, down down down... until there was nowhere left to fall and we collapsed into a pile of gross smelling stuff.

I screamed once more before sweet darkness overtook me, briefly silencing the voices in my head and sending me into bliss.

I was woken to the voices again and something squeezing my shoulders tightly.

I winced and whimpered at the pain and pressure threatening to cave in my skull.

Everything hurt, as if I was burning. Whatever burning meant...

"Oh my god..." A voice said from above me.

I opened my eyes to find myself in the hold of another man, this one with black hair. He was staring at me with the same saddened and pitting look as the other one, along with something else. Horror?

I opened my mouth to say something, but all that came out was another scream of pain and I clutched my head.

Immediately I was pulled onto the stranger's lap and his arms wrapped securely around my form.

It hurt.

Why did it hurt?

Why did everything hurt?

Over his shoulder I noticed the boy-dragon speaking with a boy in red with a straw thing on his head and a big grin on his face.

They didn't notice us...

"Oh my god..." The man breathed again, then began rocking back and fourth, petting my head as he did so.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...!"

He was speaking the words of the other man...

"You shouldn't exist... I can't even begin to imagine what sort of pain you're feeling...!"

Shouldn't... exist?

"Damn that Vegapunk!" He snarled. "He should know that artificial devils can't survive without living in agony!"

I looked up at him with eyes filled with tears of pain, not really understanding.

"Make them... Make them go away..." I pleaded, grasping at his loosely fitting shirt. "Make them stop... Make the voices stop...!"

His eyes widened down at me and I began to cry.

"Bring the dark back! Don't let me wake up!" I sobbed, barely able to hear myself over the shouting in my head.

After a moment, he went back to stroaking my head and holding me tightly.

"I'm sorry..." He breathed. "I'm sorry..."