I know this will sound kind of weird but I will tell my backstory first. Because, the author can’t unravel it little by little and telling it will help prevent any misunderstandings. Everyone is gathered here. All the related and unrelated people are here.So where to begin? I think and I should start from the very beginning. Of course not everyday but a summary from my past would be better. I will be the narrator.My birth was normal. I think it was normal. The earliest memories I have are of my parents. But that’s not something so memorable.My parents more or less unqualified to raise a child. Why did they decide to give birth is a mystery? Even I haven’t figured it out.It was probably when I was four, my father hit me. And not just hit, he HIT me. Imagine, a four year old being slapped at full force by an adult. It wasn’t so nice. Worse than that was that my mother was cheering him on.My mistake was that I had eaten a candy. I got that candy from someone but I can’t remember who
There are some inconsistencies in my memory. I can’t put it together but I feel that my memories are a mess. So where was I? Ah…the mystery lunchbox.I started getting a second lunchbox from someone other than Ariel. Just having one lunchbox was enough to give me strength but the extra one boosted my strength.I started feeling even better. Probably because I got twice the food. I never tried searching for the person who gave me the other one. If someone is helping you discreetly, just accept it. Don’t be a jerk and try to find the person.My first year of middle school wasn’t very exciting. I ate only at lunch. Because no food was waiting for me at home. My studies were not going well. Probably because I am an idiot. I never tried to study for once.I barely got the passing marks and continued. But many things changed. The once prim and proper Ariel is now a delinquent. And yet, she cooks me those meals.How did I understand? The taste changed midway through. The lunchbox I used to g
I won’t bore you saying anything about how my parents ran off on me. They just ran off with my every single penny. I was penniless in every sense. When I was wondering what to do next, the loan sharks came. And I was taken to their boss.Some crazy things happened and I was to be married to his daughter. I tried to delay it and possibly break it however Mona spilled cold water on my plans.I thought she would flat out reject me and I will be free to leave on the condition that I pay the money. I was fine with paying the loan back yet Mona chose to marry me which made things even more complicated.After the registration, I handed the registration papers to Mona. She is free to do whatever she wants with it. I only kept the plant that we got. It was a Cherry tree. I can’t let the tree die.We were taken to our new house but I didn’t feel like sleeping in that house. I used a tree branch as my bed.I know I skipped a little there. But it really was nothing more than Mona’s mother and me
A month had passed since I came to Egypt. One thing I understood is that this place has mainly two sides. But that’s true for every country. However the day and night of this country is totally different. The daytime is busy. Everyone has something to do. They are always rushing to places. But the night is different. Those very same people go out and enjoy themselves. The night is awfully colorful. I found a work.I work as a porter at the port. It’s physically challenging. But the pay is decent if you know. The next job I have is during night.I work as a server at a local bar. That job is for information gathering. You find a collection of people at the bar. If you hear everything, you will know many things.I was barely going by. I had a room to myself and I cooked for myself. It was fulfilling. Facing many people and getting to know many people. But one day, it all changed.That day was like any other day. However the night was different. The bar owner was on edge that night.“O
It has been 2 weeks since I became a captive. Every day has been full of torture. Not day but night.I was treated normally during daytime and was given free meals. I even became friends with the macho dudes. But at night, they helped Margaret torture me.The torture methods varied. The first day was light torture. And it kept escalating. Last night, I was shocked for two hours. The tingling sensation made my body numb. I would have died if the voltage was higher.Before that, they beat the living hell out of me with metal bats. My ribs were almost broken. But my bones are cracked more or less.I was able heal pretty quickly and my pain tolerance has improved. They stabbed me and gouged my body with knives as well.Looking back at those, I feel that I have grown. I didn’t even scream which made Margaret kind of mad. “Dude, are you really human?” One of the macho dudes asked. “I am a bonafide human.”“You don’t seem human to me. No one has survived more than two days. But you are in
My new journey began with Masato. It had only been a few months but I experienced so many things. It took a month to fully recover. But the scars were permanent. My body looked like a chopping board.“Akito, what will you do now?” (Masato)“I did say that I will go with you. So anywhere is fine. Just take me with you.” “Fine. Let’s go deep into the continent. We are in Egypt now. But you will not be safe here. Especially because Margaret is here.” (Masato)“She sure is a nutcase. But tell me, why exactly everyone obeys her?” “She wasn’t like this. But everything changed when she volunteered in an experiment. After that, she changed. Her mental condition worsened by the day and she became what you saw today. Her husband sent her here because she could hurt her children.” (Masato)“She has children?” I knew she was married from her ring but for her to have children…her husband must he something.“Yes. Her son is two years younger than you. Her daughter is 7 years younger than you.” (
(Mona POV)Akito, my husband, is telling us his past experiences. How he was and how his fate was a joke. He told us all of his misfortunes and it sounded like self-mockery.It is true that his life was not easy. His parents didn’t love him. He had to fend for himself and then he was sold to the government to be a Guinea pig. I can’t say I sympathize with him or feel his pain but his experiences are not normal. How can one man suffer this much?After his survival from that experiment, he started working only to find himself knee deep is debt. His debt became the reason for our marriage. My father was the lender and his family, unbeknownst to him, was the debtor. After our kind of one sidedly forced marriage, he left. My mother drove him away like she was afraid of him. It was all a mystery until he started to reveal the truth.His experiences only get worse. He went to Egypt in a cargo container. He survived there by eating garbage. He was finally settling down when he was targeted
(Akito POV)I do not consider myself as a good person. I have done many wrong things. I have lied, I have cheated people, I have killed people, stolen, swindled and the list goes on. Even now, I am lying. No, my past story is true. There is nothing false about it. I am not Akito, that is also true. I am a survivor of the now scrapped project, code named: Serus. I was telling everyone my past experiences. But suddenly Margaret called me. She is the one who tortured me the most while I was in Egypt. But I don’t hate. Rather, I sympathized with her. I offered to kill her but she didn’t die.She was also a modified human, modified to be the same as me. Due to the strenuous modifications, her psyche took the hit and she became mentally unstable.During her unstable days, she did many things which got the ire of many people. I tried to kill her using poison but her immunity was improved so it became harder to kill her using toxins.Monga and I were originally there when I gave her poison.
(Mona POV)The self proclaimed vampire Seina gave us an explanation. His explanation was a bit hard to follow since I prefer to think logically. It took me a few moments to truly understand what he was saying.“Anyway, as long as Serus doesn’t do anything, he should be fine.” (Seina)I was about to ask him something but someone got a message on their phone.It turned out to be Mr. Sakai. He looked at his phone and suddenly dropped his phone.“What happened, dad?” (Akito)He couldn’t say anything. He just kept pointing at his phone. When Akito picked it up, his face distorted. What did he see?“What is the matter, Akito?” (Masato)“It seems that Serus is in trouble.” (Akito)How can that guy be in trouble? Didn’t he escape from the troubles?“What happened?” (Masato)Akito passed the phone to Masato. But he didn’t let me or other girls see.“This is serious. At this rate, Serus will die before he will normally die.” (Masato)What’s happening? How can Serus be in life threatening situati
A week has passed since Frank made contact with me. I have sent my package to Masato and I have already requested Akito to not help Ratri.I know that she is trying to save me. But there’s no saving me. I am beyond redemption. I have my death planned out. It will be a Viking style death. I will sit on a raft and set sail and then light that raft on fire.My remains would be too damaged to be analyzed. That way, I won’t have to worry about me being cloned.I am sitting in my room. Ratri is helping Ma with cooking. Papa is busy in his office. This house has a lot of people living here. The members of the group all live here. I have no shortage of people. I have been playing chess and cards. But I do play video games as well. It’s really fun. It has been a while since I was able to play video games.I remember my time in France. After leaving Africa, we made our way to England. It wasn’t a bad country. But I have to say that food wasn’t exactly stellar. So we made our way to France with
(Mona POV)In the last few days, my reality has been shattered. What I knew to be real seems fake now. Ever since my not so married husband returned, my reality has changed. His connections were too unusual.He is not with me anymore. And I am having a hard time describing my feelings for him. I am not sure what I feel for him. I was told that he is an artificial human created by my mother and Masato. And he is to die in a few months. But suddenly I am being told that there exists a vampire in our country.What’s the next thing? Are they gonna tell me that aliens are real? Nessie actually exists? I am having a hard time keeping up with this crazy situation.But I focus on the current situation. Akito and his father, Mr. Sakai are visiting Masato. Masato called me, Ariel and Shizuka to his house before they arrived.We all are here. Serus, my not so married husband, had sent a letter to Akito. It’s an apology letter from him and he has requested Akito to not help Ratri. By the way, R
(Mona POV)Masato suddenly got a call from his friend, Sakai who is Akito’s father and a victim of Masato. But why did he call Masato now of all times?Masato takes his phone and leaves. I think he will call him back and ask. After a minute or so he came back. “What happened? What did he say?” I ask Masato. And he isn’t looking very cheerful.“Sakai said that he and Akito are coming here.” (Masato)“Here? Now of all times? Why would he come here?” (Ariel)Ariel has a harsh tone. Maybe she doesn’t like Mr. Sakai. Well, considering what he has done to Serus, he can be called a person with questionable morals.“He didn’t elaborate on why he is coming. He said that he will explain it face to face.” (Masato)I am a bit curious. Ariel seems plainly annoyed. Tsubasa and Shizuka have disinterested faces. Half an hour later, we hear the doorbell. Masato leaves to check. “This will be the first time we are meeting him. I wonder what kind of a person he is!” I am positive that he isn’t that
(Mona POV)Masato has left the room to search for something. Me, Ariel and Shizuka are left here. But Masato came back soon with a laptop.He boots the laptop and starts typing aggressively. Why is he clicking so fast?“What are you doing?”“Well, I should send something to Serus as well.” (Masato)“What do you have in mind?” (Shizuka)“Serus likes chocolates. I am thinking of buying him an assortment of chocolates.” (Masato)“I didn’t know he likes chocolates.” (Ariel)“Yeah. He took a liking to it when he got some during his childhood. That’s probably the only thing Sakai ever gave him. And when he became independent, he started buying chocolates on his own.” (Masato)A side of him that no one knew. Makes me wonder how much we actually knew about him.“That reminds me, you never gave him any chocolate on Valentine’s Day?” I ask Ariel. Because she has known him the longest after Masato.“I thought he didn’t like sweets. So I didn’t give him any chocolates. But I did make him somethi
(Mona POV)A week has passed since Serus fled. This whole week was one thing after another. We had to explain the entire situation to both my father and Mr. Kanehaya. My father knew some of it but the rest was still too shocking for him.And Mr. Kanehaya had no idea. Must have been a pretty big blow. I am still uncertain. Tsubasa and Ariel have pulled themselves together. Now only a fire of revenge remains in them.But I don’t know what Shizuka is thinking. She has been working on something but I don’t know what. And the African mafia has retreated. Rachel stayed behind as her studies weren’t finished. Masato has been restless since then. Akito visits him everyday. On the other hand, me and Shizuka have the duty of supervising the chapel project.Ariel is working normally too. But suddenly Masato called all of us to his house. “What could it be now?” “What did he say?” (Shizuka)“To go to his house. With you and Ariel. What is he planning this time?” I wonder what he is thinking.
(Akito POV)Ever since I have stepped foot in India, I have been a bit dramatic. I am feeling like my emotions aren’t in control. On a sudden impulse, I came here to watch a movie. The movie is supposed to be good. I heard good things about this movie. I bought two tickets and got us some popcorn to munch on with some cola. Our seats were at a corner of the theater. The movie is about to begin.“You like this actor if I remember correctly, don’t you?” I asked Ratri. “Yes. I have been a fan of him since childhood. I find it hard to believe that he is the same age as my father.” (Ratri)“Well, he takes good care of himself. See, the movie is about to begin.” The lights were off and the movie began. Very typical for a movie opening. It took about 5 minutes just to get to a movie scene. The beginning is full of sponsor names and stuff like that.Anyway, I won’t describe the movie word for word. It’s a good movie. The story is a spy thriller. Two countries at odds with each other. One
(Mona POV)Everything has become complicated. Serus or whatever his name is, has totally messed up our lives. Masato said that Akito is coming here with my mother. I patiently wait for them to arrive. Ariel and Tsubasa did wake up. They started throwing a fit about wanting to see Akito. We had no choice but to make them remember. They were present when Serus revealed everything.One thing is still bothering me. Why are their memories so jumbled? They were supposed to have gone to the same elementary school. But what Serus said doesn’t match with Ariel’s memories.I guess only one way to find out. It’s usually our parents who raise us. So they remember things we forget. My mother has a lot to explain.Currently, we are all sitting in the hall room. With a grim look on her face, Ariel is silent. She has been that way ever since we made her remember what Serus said.Tsubasa is also the same. How is she so attached to Serus?I feel like nothing has changed. We still don’t know anything.
(Mona POV)The last thing I remember is my husband saying some incomprehensible words. They exactly weren’t incomprehensible but I couldn’t make anything out of them. I had signaled others to take the initiative and capture my husband. I know that they also harbor some sort of feelings for him but he moved before us.I passed out after the white smoke hit me. Waking up, I found myself on a mattress. Ariel and Tsubasa are on my each sides. I sit up and try to assess the situation. The floor has tatami mats. It seems like the house which my husband had recently bought. “What time is it?” I asked myself expecting no one to answer it for me.“It’s evening. You were conked out for more than 5 hours.” I heard an answer. It came from behind me. I look back as well. There, I find a seated Shizuka. “What are you doing?” “Meditating. His actions made me do something that I wasn’t accustomed to do. I have to recompose my mind.” (Shizuka)She sits normally. I also sit facing her. “What e