Sin of Lust

CHAPTER 35

Yet, instead of humming, she sang her heart out hoping this will reach her. “Dear my child, my lullaby. Here’s a song for you. Don’t you cry when you ever feel scared, I want you to look up and see the sky above. Love, can I hold your hand one last time, please let me do. Let me hold you so tight where you can dream. So, hold me tight one more time but don’t kiss me goodbye. We will see each other at the end of night sky. With every lie I am crumbling and dying inside, I want to steal you away from the night. But the world is against me, I cannot fight. Only in my dreams, you’ll be in my arms~”

“Nunna, this is the first time I hear lyrics of your song.” Istella skipped excitedly.

“Is that so?” Mary Jane held her hand tighter.

“Hmm! I feel so special. But…”

“But what?”

“I can’t understand your song, why is the world against you, Nunna?” she looked up to her Nunna’s taller figure. “Why do you want to steal me from the night?”

Mary Jane let out a gentle laugh as she looked at the starless night sky, “That’s nothing dear. Just a song I came up with.”

For the last time, she wrapped her arms around. “Please, be safe.”

“Mary Jane, you should just let that brat go. It’s not your business anymore.” A man, the same man who brought Blanche here yanks the little girl away from her and literally throws her to the wagon.

“Nunna!” Istella called her from the wagon, her hurt expression is more painful than thousands of needles piercing her body all at once.

“Please don’t hurt her…” she mumbled with a tone so low.

“What?” he scoffed at her, “don’t act like you care about these livestock. You have no attachment to these items; you are nothing to them but a mere servant and they are nothing to you but a bunch of shipments.” He growled. “Know your place, Mary Jane.”

The said nun clasped her hand on her chest and let her façade falls down, “Yes, sir.”

“Nunna, where are they taking me?” Istella’s soft voice is like a hammer, shattering her walls of defense.

Caddil scoffs at the innocent question, “You want to know that bad?”

“Mr. Caddil—” Mary Jane wanted to stop him from doing so but Istella already nodded her head.

“If you insist, I am going to take you to a family, a family that you will serve for your entire life. They can do whatever they want to you. They can pull your eyes out of your eye sockets and eat it up, uh no… they will grill it first before dipping it into a sauce.” He said with his tone menacingly and every word he spouted makes Istella’s eyes brim with tears, “You are going to be a slave forever.” He grinned ominously before shutting the wagon’s solid, metal door on her face, and for Mary Jane to hear her child’s endless cries.

“Very well, now take care of the higher quality shipments, they should be at the top condition when the mayor decided to pluck them. Do your job, Nunna.”

Mary Jane reaches for her child as she called her but, the wagon starts to move and she was held back. “I know this is impossible but, please be safe.” It feels like everything happens in just a blink of an eye. But that moment was enough to torment those who saw what happened.

“Stephen, Lino, where have you been?” Blanche asked them as she saw them, but now that their faces were hit by the candle light she knew something was up. “Are you two alright?” she went closer to them but Stephen steps back as if he’s scared, but he still tried to refrain himself from being obvious.

“Their doomed! Haha!”

“Yes, we are.” Lino said with a believable smile that perfectly hides everything inside him. “We… uh… we will go up now, goodnight sister.” He beads her with goodnights, but even though he has done everything perfectly, Stephen wasn’t able to hide his stoic reaction.

“See you tomorrow, sister.” Lino said, pulling his friend up, but unbeknownst to them Blanche made her way up and followed them. She saw them went to the linen area and they lock the door, she leaned in to listen to even the slightest sound she could hear.

“Oi, Oi, Oi… you’ve got to be kidding me.” Stephen growled as he banged his head on the cabinet’s door. “What the hell is that?! tell me I’m dreaming!” his eyes are shut, as if he’s hoping that if he opens his eyes again, he’s going to see that everything is fine. “Please, tell me this isn’t real.”

“Calm down, Stephen.” Lino tried to calm him down by patting his shoulder but Stephen just swats his hand away. “We—"

“How can I calm down after we what we saw?! How can you remain calm after all of these? You did hear them, right? We are just a shipment, items, livestock!” he pulled Lino and shakes him back and forth, “Istella… where are they taking Istella? She’s getting a new family, right?! She’s not a shipment, right?! Come on, please tell me… what we heard was just a joke right?! She will never be a slave… right?”

But Lino can’t help but take his eyes off of Stephen’s worried expression.

“Tell me!”

“She… she’s being sold off and that’s for sure,” Lino told him and at this point the obvious truth that he doesn’t want to believe as well. At this point, Stephen broke down into tears, making him fall on the wooden floor of the linen room.

Lino kneeled beside him and pats his shoulder, “Stephen, calm down. At this point, only the two of us knows the truth, we are the only ones our siblings can rely on. If we want to get them out of here, then we should be strong.”

“But Nunna? What about her? She’s the one selling us off.” He muttered; his eyes are still watery.

“I don’t know for sure, but by looking at her reaction, she seems against by the idea of taking Istella away.”

“She’s not an enemy?”

“We don’t know. For now, we have to hold our heads above our shoulder. We can’t tell this to anyone.”

“What do you mean?” Lino asked with bewildered expression, “Are you going to hide from our siblings that those who were adopted were actually sold?”

“That’s the best thing we can do for now, or else havoc will occur. We will tell them all about it when the time is ripe. But for now, we have to take it slow. One huge step will make us trip.”

Stephen wiped his tears and held a determined stare. “We’re going to save all of them.”

Meanwhile, Blanche on the other side of the door, “What are you going to do now?”

She went back to her room and stared at the wooden ceiling, contemplating on the things she will do and have to do, planning everything in her head on how she will fight those people alone while protecting all of them without getting anyone hurt.

“What should I do?” she let out a sigh. In the middle of her rumination, her eyes shoot wide open.

“Why don’t you just kill them all?” a male voice suddenly spoke which immediately send her seating up. The voice is bubbly as he spoke those words, as if killing is the only thing it knows. “If you kill them, you will never have to think all about the problems. You will be free; free as a bird.” The voice chuckled.

“Who are you?” she asked, trying to be brave even though she’s shaking inside. “What do you want from me?”

“Come on, girl. I just didn’t talk to you for a few months you already forget about me? That’s just so rude of you.” The voice only laughs harder, “I don’t want anything from you. But I assure you I can help you.”

“I don’t want you help.” Blanche stated firmly because this is the of demons luring people into sinning.

“Oh, really? Are you sure about that? because as far as I’ve known, you needed me on that night.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because it’s fun…?” he said hesitantly.

Blanche grew furious from his answer, she stands up and pull the necklace away from her neck, and pulling it closer to her face, shouting on it as if it’s a person, “Do you think killing people are fun? Is that the only thing you know? Is that the only reason why you’re here?”

But the voice only laughs louder, “You’re interesting, you know? I think I was right choosing you.”

“What—”

“That’s for tonight, I am tired and I am going back to sleep so please lessen the loudness of your voice.” the voice yawned before leaving Blanche in a dead silence.

“What the hell was that?!” her frustration was interrupted when all of a sudden, she heard a knock on her door.

“Blanche? Are you alright? I can hear you’re shouting all the way to the common area.” Mary Jane spoke, “Is something wrong? Who are you talking with?”

“Uh… Wait… I’m fine, sister!” Blanche stuttered behind the close door, “I am just talking to myself, things serious!”

“Are you sure?”

“Y-Yeah!”

“Well then, please sleep if there’s nothing wrong. You will wake the children up.” Mary Jane told her.

“Y-Yes, sister. Sorry.”

Morning has come and the children are still cheerful and active early in the morning, to which made Blanche think that they really kept their words that they are not going to tell anyone about what they witnessed at the gates. But that’s not the actual problem, Stephen has still had the same stoic, scared, and confuse look on his face, and by the looks of the dark circles around his eyes, anyone can tell he wasn’t able to sleep properly last night.

“Stephen, are you alright? You look pale, have you gotten enough sleep?” Blanche asked him as she held his forehead to feel if his temperature is high. “Your temperature is actually low; do you need anything? A warm cup of milk? Chocolate perhaps? I’ve made a chocolate bar from scratch! Do you like some?” she bombarded him with questions while she tried to cheer him up.

“I… I can’t,” his voice crack.

“Huh? You can’t? of course, you can!”

“No…” he whispered, “I don’t think… I can keep this up…”

“What?”

But then Lino went to help his friend out, slipping in between him and the sister. “Is sister our enemy too? But she’s hasn’t been here for a year. Does she know about everything? Is she an enemy? Or an ally? Which one? Was she lying when she told me that she’s on our side?”

“What’s wrong with you, Stephen? Is there any spider under your bed again?” Lino joked around to ease the tension between them, and clearing interrupting the momentum where it seems like Stephen is about to tell the sister.

“Spider?”

“Yes, sister. Last night he was kissed by a spider that’s why he’s so gloomy.” Lino lied through the skin of his teeth, “and the spider seems to follow him here.” He chuckled menacingly.

“Hey! Stop that, you know how scary that thing is.” Stephen whined at his statement, since he knew that he’s just literally saving him from her company. “That’s just so disgusting and creepy!”

“Oh, really~ but it seems like you like it though.” Lino teased him for the last time before he runs off, to which the Stephen followed with the list of things on why the spider is scary.

Blanche could only sigh at the thought that even though how intelligent they are, they are still children who are afraid of something. While those two runs off, she decided to join the game to start observing and familiarizing the route and the whole place.

While she’s on it, she was interrupted by the same voice she heard last night, “Did you really believe those brats?”

“Shut up.” She lowly growled.

“You know if you just kill them, there’s no point of thinking about them.”

“I’ve told you…”

“Brat’s coming.”

Blanche looked around to see if anyone witnessed her talking to herself, but when she found none, the voice laughs loudly. “You should see the dumb look on your face! HAHA!”

“You bastard…” she growled.

“But if you really want to save those children…”

“What? What about it?”

“Nothing, don’t mind it.”

“What the hell?! Say it!”

Meanwhile, children are going to start to play but they can’t because they are still waiting for someone.

“Mildred!” Kim called out the said girl, “are we about to start?”

“Let’s wait for a few more moments, I think they’ll be here sooner.”

“Who are we waiting?”

“Technically, Stephen because I’m sure, he’ll join us. And about Lino, I don’t know. But I feel bothered that he still hasn’t here.” Mildred said with a curious expression, because the two were usually not gone when they start to play.

“Okay, I’ll just go with the rest, and tell us when they arrived.” Kim beads her goodbyes and went to the others and started to play small games while they’re waiting.

The rest of the children are all playing outside, but Mildred couldn’t find the certain boys, “Huh? where are they? We are now going to start the game but they’re not here yet.” She pouted, until she saw Blanche and went towards her, “Hey, sister. Have you seen Stephen? I haven’t seen him all this morning.”

Blanche looked at the child curiously, “Now that you mentioned them, I haven’t seen them after we eat.”

“Is that so? Where would they be?” the kid asked out of nowhere. “Well then, sister, if you see them, please tell them that we are going to start the game with or without them, okay?” she sends her a grin. “But they can still join us, okay?”

“Okay.”

When the little girl went back to others, Blanche’s smiling face turns serious and decided to cancel her plan to play and instead look for the two boys. She went inside the house to search for them, and just like what she has expected, they are in the linen area.

“Lino, why do you think happened to our siblings when they got out? Are they--”

“I don’t know, but from what we have saw, they are far from being safe.”

Stephen countenance immediately fell down, “So, the only thing we can do as of now, is to pray that they are somehow alive.” He mumbled.

“I don’t know about that, but I think it’s better for them to be dead if they are just going to be a slave or be at worst.”

“Please, don’t say that! they are still our siblings!” Stephen lashed out, he’s not angry to what he just said but he can’t take it when he imagines of their siblings being dead. “Please, don’t say that.” He begged.

“Stephen, we have to prepare for the worst. I know that you know that they are better being dead if they’re just going to be slave. To be tortured, to be taken-advantage.” Lino firmly stated, “you know that better than anyone else.”

“But still…” he whispered, with her fists clenching on his sides. “But still…” he repeated bitterly.

“Stephen, we have to be strong…” Lino pats his shoulder, “many of our siblings needs us.”

“I know that…” Stephen mumbled.

“Enough of that. We are here to talk things out so this would never happen again.”

Stephen pinched his cheeks and straighten his posture, “Right… I’m sorry.”

“So, as far as we have gathered, they are being sold off to someone or somewhere, but what and who would that be? But that’s none of our business. For now, what we have to know is the order on how we are being shipped out. There’s something that we need to do, because if it’s random, one of us—the three of us—have been shipped out already. They wouldn’t have to wait for us to be this old before getting ship out.”

“You remember them saying about high quality shipments, right? What do you think that means?”

“What do you think?” Lino returned the question.

“Higher qualities are special, but who are the special ones? There are so many variables, is it the age? the height? The weight? Our scores? Is it our gender?”

“We have to narrow it down; we have to look on the patterns. Istella was just shipped out,” when Lino said the last words, he saw Stephen flinched but immediately straighten out, “there was Dimming, and before that is Minson.”

“Both of them were nine years old and Istella is just six, so we have to cancel the variable that the shipment’s order is the age,” Lino grin internally as the Stephen he knew starts to move his gears. “And about the gender, they are all girls.” He cupped his chin to think, but his brows furrowed because he doesn’t want to think about the possibility.

“Girls at that age, or at any age are prone to slavery.” Lino spoke the things that made Stephen falter.

Stephen swallowed the lump forming in his throat, “Y-Yeah.”

“So, gender could be a reason. The height and weight are out off the list as well.”

“Yes, because Dimming is taller than Minson but Minson is heavier than Dimming so that’s too vague. The gender could be one of the reasons too, but we can’t be sure, that’s still vague, because if girls are in demand, then this orphanage should be filled with more girls, but it isn’t.”

“Do you think our---” they were cut off when all of a sudden, they heard the bell rang, indication that there’s something important happened. “Let’s investigate sister, perhaps she knew something.” Lino said.

But Stephen pulled him before he got out, “Please, don’t fully trust her. She could be one of them.” He warned him to which the boy nod.

All of the households are in the common area, where Nunna has called them, and there she is holding a baby on her arms, “Everyone, meet your new baby sister, Mila!” she cheered.

The rest of the children were happy to see another sibling was added to their number, but a certain two were not happy at all.

“I totally forgot, there are babies that are being supplied here.” Stephen muttered and Lino only clicked his tongue. “We can’t escape a baby that young; she has special needs.”

“We have to make it through, we have to gather enough information, supply, any help we can get. We still have six months before the next shipment, that’s enough time.” Stephen spoke, “We have to make it through. No matter what happen we have to end this cycle.”

After the introduction, the simple game has begun and Blanche has joined once again. But during her hiding, Lino found her up the tree, “Lino? What are you doing here?” she asked as she jumps down from the tree, “I thought you don’t like these games?”

“Well, I do. But there are times like these that I would like to join,” he simply responded. “Hey, sister. Who do you think Stephen will find first?” he asked, Blanche knew in that instant that he’s making a move to investigate.

“I think the little ones, because they are not that fast enough to get away from him and they don’t know where to go?” she responded unsure. “Like some horror nobles or the game of survival, the smart ones usually survive.”

“That’s correct—” Lino was cut off from what he just realized, “the smart ones usually survive.”

“Sister, another question? With the horror theme. What would happen to those who knows the secret of the evil antagonist? And how would you save the victims waiting in the line?” at this point, Lino is asking what would happen to them.

“If I am the one who knew the evil secret, I would be very careful on who I will talk about it with and what would be my next move.” She spoke. “And for the saving part, that depends on how many of them.”

“Last question, who would you trust?”

“I don’t know who will I trust.” She responded with serious expression. “But for sure, I can’t trust even the one I trust the most.”

“Ah! I found Sister and Lino!” Dean shouted, “Wow! I found Lino! I thought you’re a germophobic.”

Lino and Stephen once again meet in the forest, for this is where they can talk things without having to worry about their siblings walking to them or listening to them. Stephen is waiting for Lino to arrive since it would be suspicious for the both of them to gone there.

“What have you gathered?” Stephen asked.

Lino spoke with seriousness in his tone, “I think you’re right.”

“About what?”

“About the scores.” Lino went to fully face him. “The scores are our orders.”

Stephen knew it, “Please explain.”

“Do you remember the scores of our siblings who were shipped out?” Lino queried him.

Stephen cup his chin and rubs it as he thinks of the time where their Nunna reveal their total scores. “If I am not mistake, Minson was just 69%, that’s below average, and Istella is just two percent above that.”

“Dimming is just in between them.” Lino pointed his finger up. “That’s the only thing that makes it believable, there is no other basis I can see on which the order of shipment was based.”

“And I believe that, that’s probably the soul reason.” Stephen agreed to him. “Because looking at it, Max is just seven years old but his grades are about 89%, clearly above passing grades. That’s why he’s still here even though most of his age are already gone.”

“Yeah.” Lino replied, but with a single thought, “If it all goes down to it, the next shipment will be Pand.”

“We have to make it sure that we’re not here before that happens.” Stephen firmly stated his contradiction to the next shipment, “I don’t want any more of our siblings be the victim.”

Lino nodded at him, but his curiosity only intensifies, “But why our grades though? There could more than that, there’s a reason why grades are the basis of shipment because if we are just items like what they said, weight and age should be enough for them to ship us out.”

“That’s right,” Stephen agreed. “But I don’t have any conclusion on why the grades, because you can’t transplant a brain, isn’t it?”

“As far as I know, they can’t. But with magic, we can’t be too sure. This place is lacking with erudition about magics, mostly books of ordinary knowledge, probably because we are weeds that’s why we don’t need anything that’s related to magics.”

Both of them think of a reason on why they are being taken based on the grades, but none of them can think of any that only leads both of them to sighing.

“My head hurts just thinking about that.” Lino rubs his temple and sigh.

“What are we going to do now? Where are we going to escape? We don’t know what route is safe and what is not.”

“We will surely be found out if we go out through the gates.”

“That’s what I thought so too.”

“I’m sure there are a lot more going outside the gate.” Lino spoke. “I’ll just try to gain more from sister Blanche about it.”

“So, if the gates are out of the list. That only leaves one option.”

“Through the forest.” They both stated.

“That only leaves us escaping through the forest.” Stephen spoke, and they nodded together. They speedily run to the forest where they usually play, and as they went farther, things are getting unfamiliar and the plants and trees are going thicker, indication that, that part is not yet touched. But still, both of them keep going. They explored beyond the forest, and when they finally reach the end of the dark forest, they find out that there’s a wall of huge thorns that’s hindering them, and the thorns are too sharp to climb.