Acceleration ✧ 4

I couldn't compute her words. End Aberrances? Who? Them? Why? How?

I couldn't answer those questions. There was no way I could make sense of such a thing. My eyes hopelessly sought for an answer within her tired, violet eyes.

“They gather kids, feed them all sorts of poison and conduct experiments on them. They believe that we, as Aberrants, are a burden on humanity. That we can't even be considered members of the human species. That we are the defective dregs of society that must be eliminated.”

My eyes started to blur. Was it the impact of learning the truth? Was it because of the hot tears of dejection forming and burning down their path? Was it the weight of such heavy insults towards our kind?

Roan got up from his seat, and despite his own agitated state, kneeled down in front of me, and gently held my hand. He squeezed it, attempting to calm me down.

“There, there. I know it's too much. I'm sorry… we are here. We are here… just hold my hand like this…”

This caring gesture made my tears fall down. Uncontrollably.

Director Emery walked behind my seat, and gently caressed my head and spoke with the most tender, soft tone I had heard from her so far. It felt like the comfort given by our mother at the end of a tough day.

“I'm sorry that I had to tell you, dear. You two… are special souls. Your assistance will prove to be most effective in our fight against them. I'm sure of it.”

They let me process my emotions and cry freely for a while. I couldn't believe it, I didn't want to believe it. Even Mimi was crying inside our mental realm.

As minutes passed, our feelings turned from sadness to anger. The more we thought about it, the more we wanted to fight back.

Dregs of society? How could anyone say that to us? Every single Aberrant I had met in my life was nothing less than incredible. We were beautiful. All of us. I wouldn't let anyone dare imply otherwise.

I raised my head. “Director Emery. Tell us what we can do. I refuse to believe their viewpoint, about us being…” My voice wavered. “Faulty.”

“It's a tough fight. Despite knowing all this, we cannot do anything about it yet. Their organization dates back as far as Aberrants themselves. They're tight-knit and have all the resources and support in the world. Governments have fallen for their false narrative and ‘research evidence’ concluding that we are too unstable for society.

But… we won't give up, we will surely make their masks fall down one day. We work day and night for this, to gather the needed evidence. We will expose their evil to the world.”

She went back to her seat, though Roan kept on holding my hand. Something told me that he needed a hand to hold, as well…

“As for why I called you here…” She held up a newspaper in her hand, but didn’t talk about the contents just yet.

“As our organization aims to truly accept and aid Aberrants, one could say that we are their natural enemy. Throughout the years, they have attempted attacks against FHN. Some indirect, some… very direct.”

Roan’s hand holding mine tensed up. The magazine I had read back in my aunt’s house flashed in my mind. How it said that “the generous spirit of the late Director had been carried over by Director Emery’s efforts”...

Could it be…?!

The Director swiftly pushed forward the newspaper, making it glide on her desk, until it reached my line of sight.

“...and this is their latest attempt.”

I took the newspaper to my hands, noticing that they were shaking. Roan went back to his seat, and carefully examined my reaction. When I unfolded the newspaper in order to see the contents fully, my eyes reacted almost immediately.

There was a picture of… Nilsu?!

“Rudi…?”

Looking to the side, I realized that there was a picture of Rudi as well, just like Mimi had pointed out. My stomach did a very uncomfortable twist. It was a photo of what I assumed to be the day he had broken his antlers, as he seemed to be intensely crying, and holding a broken branch of his inside his hand.

I hadn’t even seen him once since the incident, despite staying in the same place, just who could have taken this picture?

“...and submit to the newspaper. This is terrible, I can’t…”

My gaze went back to Nilsu’s photo. She was crying as well. When was this from…? What was she crying about? There were a few other photos of other members, and some people I didn’t recognize, possibly from shows of previously visited cities.

I was scared to read the contents of the article. But I knew I had to.

Despite my shaky hands and blurry vision, I did my best to read the small printed letters. The more I read, the more my hands lost to the tremor that had taken all over my body.

“What… what the hell is this—”

Mimi was furious. So was I. The article was full of lies, about how the FHN was taking advantage of Aberrants, making a profit off of them, and working them under terrible conditions, pushing ‘the already sensitive individuals to their breaking point’.

I remembered how I had wondered if the circus was indeed exploiting people before getting to know the Director herself. People without an idea would absolutely believe in these lies.

I put down the newspaper onto the desk, not wanting it in my field of vision for even a moment more. Exposing my dear friends' private matters, presenting them as ‘evidence’ for something that was not even relatively close to the truth… this was lowest of the low.

I took a few deep breaths. I genuinely wanted to throw up from the sheer disgust. I knew I had to recollect myself—I had to do something against this injustice against my loved ones. I rose from my seat, with my head held high and tall.

“Director Emery. Tell me what I can do.”

She nodded, and took away the wretched newspaper from me.

“You are indeed very strong. This is a triweekly newspaper, and it will be sold starting tomorrow morning. We were able to get our hands on this through one of our past members working there. I want you to ensure that this doesn’t spread between our performers, as I don’t want their morale to break. I will tell them about the slander article when I arrange a proper meeting between us. And…”

She walked towards the window, gazing up to the darkened sky.

“We tried searching for Nilsu, but couldn’t find her. Please, be her support. Poor girl will need it, a lot. It’s no easy thing for one to see their vulnerable state be published to the world like this… I am no mere stranger to such an incident. That being said, don’t you worry. Our lawyers are already preparing to counter this repulsive article. We will ensure that—hey!”

“Hey, Miss Rai?! Where are you—”

My legs had started running without my command, going on pure instinct. I had noticed before that Nilsu wasn’t in our building for a while. Despite wondering where she was, and getting worried, I didn’t want to bother her in case she needed some private time.

But now that I knew that she was not in her room, nor in the office, nor anywhere close by… my instinct that was bugging me the entire damn evening couldn’t be ignored no more. My intuition became my compass, telling me about where I could find her—no explanations, just a feeling. But if my nagging gut feeling happened to be correct, then…

I had to reach her. Quick.