Three days later, after attending several sessions that were essentially group therapy and exchanging thoughts with a few other recent wake-ups, Clyde walked back to his room, his face still somber; even after three days, he still hadn’t received a proper explanation about the world. The therapy sessions he attended focused entirely on accepting reality and sharing impressions of their time in the simulation, guiding participants’ minds back to reality by releasing their feelings of loss, grief, heartbreak, and other negative emotions so they could move forward together through mutual support.
Clyde returned to his room; as he stepped inside, he glanced toward the corner of the ceiling where a security camera looked out over the entire room. Clyde walked over to his bed and lay down, "whistle... whistle," summoning his status screen to look at it once more; though his heart tightened as he stared at the readout before him, he tried his absolute best to understand himself, accept who he was, and refrain from complaining. As he lay in contemplation staring at his status,
"Knock... knock,"
Clyde whistled to dismiss his status screen and sat up; he climbed down from his bed and walked toward the door, opening it to find Mary standing in the hallway,
"Hey... all done with your session?" Mary asked, raising her hand in greeting.
"Yeah, I am. Come on in," Clyde answered, swinging the door wide open.
Mary stepped inside, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and looking around the room; Clyde grabbed the chair and sat down in front of Mary,
"How are you holding up, Clyde?" Mary asked.
"Well... same as usual. I still don’t really understand this world," Clyde answered.
"Take it slow. The most important thing is that you come to terms with reality first," Mary replied, leaning forward to take Clyde’s hand.
"I get it... but I really can’t leave this place until a month has passed?" Clyde asked, squeezing Mary’s hand in return.
"Not yet. Our rules are a bit strict right now, once, there was a man who woke up and claimed he understood and accepted reality, only to escape and head straight back to the farm... thankfully he didn’t lead any Nephilim back here since he just climbed right back into a pod. That’s what we’re trying to prevent. At least after a month, we can tell if someone truly understands or if they’ll be a danger to themselves and the rest of us going forward," Mary answered.
"I see," Clyde replied, lowering his head.
"A month isn’t that long, just try to make the best of it... I know... it sucks being monitored like this," Mary said with a smile, attempting to cheer him up, though the effort fell flat.
"Yeah... I understand," Clyde replied with a resigned nod.
"Besides, there are plenty of amenities inside the facility, a chapel, a recreation room, a movie room, and a swimming pool... even if it’s on the small side," Mary added.
"I suppose... but I don’t really feel like going to any of those," Clyde replied with a weak smile.
"Fair enough... I get it. As long as you’re doing okay for now... oh, I have to run. Look at the time," Mary said, checking her watch.
"Heading out again?" Clyde asked.
"Yeah... patrol duty near the south gate where we came in. Anyway, I’m off, I’ll drop by again tomorrow," Mary said, standing up.
"All right. Thanks for visiting me every day," Clyde replied, rising to his feet as well.
"You’re welcome," Mary replied.
Mary stepped out of the room, and Clyde closed the door behind her. "Sigh," he let out a heavy breath and stared up at the camera overhead.
"Feels just like a prison," he thought to himself.
He whistled to open his status screen once more, scanning the transformation notes that explained he could activate his combat mode by whistling a specific section of that long melody; he then cast a glance toward the camera,
Doesn’t look like I can test it in here, Clyde thought to himself.
Clyde turned around and opened his door, stepping out into the corridor; he walked down the hallway toward the quiet restroom at the far end, when suddenly,
"Teng... ting... tang,"
"Na... na... na,"
Clyde froze in his tracks, his body going rigid as an astonished look washed over his face; he closed his eyes, trying to discern whether that flowing melody was playing strictly inside his head or not, but it wasn’t. The sound echoed directly down the hallway where he stood; without hesitation, he moved to track down the source of the melody, descending the stairs to the second floor where the recreation room and chapel were located.
He pushed open the door to the recreation room, seeing a crowd of people inside, but the melody wasn’t coming from there. He shut the door again and crossed over to the opposite side, closing his eyes as his hand rested on the door handle. He was certain the sound was coming from inside; he opened the door, and the melody swelled clearly into the open air, beyond the threshold lay a miniature chapel, complete with an altar and a grand piano.
Clyde’s eyes locked instantly onto a girl seated at the piano bench from behind, her long hair falling over a black jacket,
"Who... is she? How does she know this melody?" Clyde asked in his head.
He stepped forward, intending to greet the girl, but she seemed to sense his presence; the girl halted her piano playing and turned around. Clyde gasped, the girl before him looked frail and gaunt, though her face was beautiful, her skin pale without turning gray; she stared back at him with an equally stunned expression, but before either of them could utter a word,
"Na... na... na,"
This time, the melody reverberated directly inside Clyde’s mind, striking him with an instant, blinding headache identical to the sensation he had felt back in the classroom,
"N... no... why is this happening again?" Clyde thought in his head.
He dropped to his knees, doubling over as severe pain racked his head, his hands clutching his skull; looking up, he gasped in shock, the girl before him was suffering the exact same fate, collapsed on her knees and slumping face-down onto the floor while clutching her head. Clyde’s consciousness began to slip away, and before his eyes closed completely, he managed one last glance at the girl lying motionless face-down before him, before everything faded to black.
***
"Bzzzzzz,"
"Krsssssssk,"
"W... what are you doing? Get back!"
Clyde looked down at his hands, which had turned pitch-black; he felt himself moving forward toward a young woman who looked to be around twenty-five, dressed like a schoolteacher inside a classroom. The woman was cornered, pressed flat against the whiteboard with nowhere to run, consumed by sheer terror. He glanced around and saw four children his age alongside him, all of them sporting gray skin, glowing red eyes, and bodies encased in pitch-black biological armor, their helmet-like faces splitting open to reveal jagged, sharp teeth.
"P... please don’t... p... please don’t kill me!" the woman whimpered.
"La... la... la,"
The woman chanted the song in a trembling voice, but "graaaah," Clyde felt himself leap and pounce on her body, tearing into her flesh and devouring it; the sensation and taste rushed back vividly into his mind. He turned to look at a little girl roughly his age beside him, who bore a long tail behind her and horns crowning her head above long black hair; she was voraciously feeding on the woman’s corpse beside him, turning to smile at him with her mouth smeared in blood.
"It’s delicious, right, Big Brother Clyde?" she asked in a raspy voice, chewing on the meat.
"Yeah... Casca," Clyde replied in a raspy voice, biting into the woman’s flesh.
"Bzzzzzzz,"
"Krssssssk," everything suddenly blurred, plunging back into darkness in an instant.
***
"Whoaaaah!"
Clyde snapped his eyes open and sat bolt upright; he glanced around, realizing he was lying in a bed inside what appeared to be an infirmary. He turned to his side and saw Mary sitting in a chair beside his bed, her head slumped forward, fast asleep; Clyde sat in stunned silence, bringing a hand up to rest against his forehead,
W... what was... that just now... What kind of dream was that... Was I... eating a human? Clyde asked in his head, recalling the terrifyingly vivid dream.
Then he remembered the little girl beside him who looked as if she were wearing a mask, bearing horns and a long tail behind her, and a name surfaced in his mind,
"Casca,"
Following that, his memory rushed back to the incident in the chapel and the girl who had stood before him.
"Casca... yeah, that’s right... Casca," Clyde thought to himself.
Without a moment’s delay, he swung his legs off the bed and walked toward the door, leaving Mary sleeping in the chair beside him; as he opened the door, "gasp," he froze in shock as the girl from the chapel stood right outside his threshold, with a visibly anxious Julia standing behind her. The girl’s face was a storm of fear, loneliness, and astonishment, tears brimming at the corners of her eyes; Clyde stood equally spellbound, staring intently at the girl’s face before him,
"Big Brother Clyde!"
"Casca!"
The two pulled each other into a desperate, crushing embrace; the girl, Casca, clung to Clyde so tightly that her knuckles turned white, while Clyde wrapped his arms around Casca, burying his face into her shoulder. Watching them, Julia smiled, brushing away a tear at the corner of her eye, while Mary woke up inside from the sound of Clyde and Casca crying out each other’s names. Though confused, a look of deep emotion crossed Mary’s face as she witnessed the emotional reunion between Clyde and Casca.