Prologue: Freed

Samatha urged herself to run faster. She knew she was never the athlete. Compared to the other survivors, she was the weakest overall. She wasn't as smart as the others, wasn't as fast or as tough. She wasn't a fighter. Still, she couldn't stand not being able to do anything, so she decided to sneak into the Vault. She and the other orphans promised not to go and break anything out of there but, it was the only thing she can do. The orphanage they were at, Saint Delfin Orphanage, was secretly an experiment. Run by who, the orphans don't know, but they do know what they do here. They make monsters. They create viruses. They make biological weapons here, and the orphans were the test subjects. It took some time, two years to be precise, until the truth finally came to light. But, even after learning the truth, there was nothing the orphans could do. They are still given food and they are still kept alive by the staff, but the staff members that know what is going on don't bother hiding what they are going to do. Every now and then at night, armored guards come in and take one of the orphans away. The orphans have only escaped twice. Now, they were down from twenty-four to nine.

Samatha has had enough of it. One night when the guards came in, she snuck past them and booked it. They saw her and luckily missed her with their guns. Samatha knew where she had to go. After evading the guards and grabbing the right keys, she made her way down to the Vault, the place where the orphanage keeps their most dangerous monsters that, by what the orphans heard, can end the world. Even if Samatha ends up dooming the world, she'll do it just to get back at the orphanage. She won't survive what she lets out, Samatha knows that. But, hopefully, with the monster or virus released, it will cause enough mayhem to allow her friends to escape.

So Samatha ran. She ran and ran down the dark hallway leading to the Vault. Once she got to the locked wooden door, she unlocked the four key locks on it and ran inside. Inside, there were multiple doors on the left and right. She ran past them, deciding what door she will open. When she got near the end, her eyes caught something. To her right there was another set of stairs, only they were white. She turned and went down there. Down the stairs was another hallway and cell door, only the entire thing was white. There were no screws or loose tools here. There was nothing here except that white cell.

Nervous, Samatha made her way slowly towards the cell door. It only had two locks on it, one pink and one blue. Samatha got the pink key but has no idea where she could have found the blue key. It was after a painful minute did Samatha remember the blue key she found when she arrived at the orphanage in the clock. She has been using it to hold up her hair. She pulled it out and inserted the blue and pink key, her heart throbbing in her chest. Before she could turn the lock completely, she heard the sounds of heavy footsteps up above.

'The Guards!'

Sucking up the fact that she was about to die, Samatha unlocked the locks and jumped through the door. Instead of instant death like she was expecting, she instead fell flat on the padded floor. Samatha got up and looked around, expecting to see some hideous monster seconds away from killing her or something containing a virus. Instead, she saw the blue and white sneakers of someone. She looked up to her right and saw a girl, probably a little younger than her, sitting down, watching her with an amused but curious expression.

The girl wore a light blue jacket with a tan sailor uniform underneath. Her socks were thigh-highs and dark blue in color, like her sneakers. The girl had short light pink hair that ended shortly after reaching her shoulders with two small twintails and matching light red eyes to boot. If one were to look at her eyes, they would think they were pink. She was very pretty.

The girl looked at Samatha for a bit longer before she sprang up, her eyes narrowed. She quickly closed the gap between Samatha and herself and before Samatha could do anything, grabbed her and pulled the rest of her into the room. She quickly slammed Samatha into the wall, holding her up by her collar.

"Who are you?" The girl asked, no emotion in her voice. Samatha chided herself mentally for thinking the girl was harmless. She was clearly locked in here after all. She clearly isn't normal.

"M-My name is S-Samatha and I-I'm an orphan," Samatha told the strange girl, just barely managing to get the words out. She was taller and larger than the girl yet she was effortlessly lifting her into the air and while she wasn't choking Samatha, Samatha was still having trouble breathing.

The girl held up Samatha a bit longer, studying her face, before abruptly dropping her when she heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching fast. She had not heard them before but she definitely hears them now.

"Do you have a weapon with you?" She asked Samatha, who was on the floor coughing. Samatha met her eyes and quickly looked away, scared. She did have her blue and grey dotted bag but she didn't bring any weapon with her. She didn't want to harm her friends further if she was killed.

"N-no, I don't have any weapon on me," Samatha told the girl, opening her bag to show her.

The girl, instead of saying something, plunged her hand into Samatha's bag and searched around for a bit before pulling out a spoon. Samatha had kept that soon since she found it outside a year and a half back. She thought the spoon had a nice design on it so she kept it.

"This will do," The girl said out loud. Samatha gave the girl a look of total confusion. What good would a spoon do?

"What good would a spoon do you?" Samatha asked, voicing her thoughts. Instead of answering the girl looked outside her cell door. After waiting a bit, she went back in and closed the door most of the way.

"Hide behind the door," The girl barked at Samatha, who meekly nodded and did as she was told. The girl jumped up on the door and, surprisingly, climbed up it and perched herself up there, using the door and corner as support. Soon, the heavy footsteps got closer and closer until they stopped.

"Hey, she clearly went in there, right?" One male voice asked.

"Yeah, she did," Another male voice responded.

"We should get backup, right?" The first voice asked.

"No. If it was a monster we would have seen the blood by now or heard her screams. Besides, it isn't showing itself," The second voice responded once again.

"What if the monster is smart or could turn invisible?"

"There would be a sign for those two. As I said, there was no screaming or any sign of a monster. There aren't even any signs on this cell. This probably has some virus in it. We can just shoot the girl and then call it in."

Now that Samatha thought about it, the cells she ran by in the Vault did have signs next to their doors with strange symbols on them but this cell had no signs on it.

The guards got closer, the sounds of their footsteps causing Samatha's heart to beat louder and louder. She was scared. Once they see that Samatha didn't have any virus in her, they might not shoot her and instead, take her in to be experimented on or fed to some monster like the other orphans were.

The moment one of the guards peaked their heads through, the girl on top of the door jumped down and stabbed the spoon right through the helmet of the guard, bringing him to the ground. When they landed, the girl stabbed the guard once more through the head with the spoon before ripping it out and stabbing the other guard in his hip multiple times. The other guard groaned in pain and fell to his knees where the girl lifted the bloodied spoon up and stabbed him right where his left eye should be. When the girl ripped the spoon out, it broke in half. That didn't stop the girl from stabbing the spoon into the top of the helmet. Though it didn't pierce as deeply as before, the girl had a fix for that. She lifted her foot up and slammed it on the tip of the spoon, driving the spoon deep into the guard's head, killing him.

With a sigh, the girl crouched down and took a knife out of the dead guard's pocket and stood up and walked over to the first guard she stabbed, who was still alive and moaning in pain.

"It's safe to come out now," The girl told Samatha who, after a couple of seconds of calming herself down, peeked behind the door. The moment she did, the girl brought the knife in her hand down into the head of the moaning guard. She quickly pulled the knife out, causing blood to splatter on Samatha's face. Samatha blinks and watched as the girl stabbed the guard again, sinking the knife deeply into the guard's head. She didn't pull it out.

The girl stood up and walked into the middle of her cell, letting out a sigh.

"The spoon you got was indeed good like I thought it was. If it wasn't for that, I would have to use another weapon," The girl informed Samatha without meeting her eyes.

"Y-you did all that with my spoon?" Samatha asked, shakily pointing at the guards' bodies.

"Killed one with a spoon, finished the other one off with the knife. Was quite easy since I got the drop on them," The girl confirmed. Samatha tried to get up but couldn't. She was too stunned at what had happened.

"Question. Who runs this orphanage?"

Samatha turned to look at the girl, who was now making eye contact with her even if her back was facing Samatha.

"Aunt Ravean, why?"

The girl was silent for a couple of seconds before a wide and dangerous grin formed on her face, her emotionless eyes full of a manic spark. The look was quickly gone but Samatha knew what she saw.

"Alright, Samatha. Do you need help?" The girl asked in a bright voice, spinning around. Her eyes weren't emotionless like before and she had a bright smile on her face. She looked like a normal really bright and happy girl. It was such a complete turn-around from her attitude and expression from before that Samatha was confused and could say nothing for a couple of seconds.

"U-um, y-yes. Me and the others need help," Samatha admitted. The girl's smile grew and she offered her a hand, which Samatha took.

"My name is Kallie, and I'll be in your care!"

The girl, Kallie, pointed up in the far corner of the room at a white shelf that was so high up that Samatha didn't notice it before.

"But first, we need to get what is up there."

........

Patience is a skill that isn't to be relied upon.

........

"So, what is up there that is so important?" Samatha asked, watching the surreal sight in front of her.

The girl, Kallie, looked down at Samatha. She was currently standing on the two guards she has killed. Their bodies were put on top of each other and laid in the corner below the small white platform. Samatha had tried to free the knife from the one guard's head but couldn't rip it out so it was still in there. Kallie didn't seem to mind the fact that she was using bodies as a ladder, nor did she seem to mind the stench of blood.

"Oh! Something very personal of mine. Let's just say, it can help me fight better," Kallie answered in the same happy voice she used before. Honestly, it was creeping Samatha out a little. So, with a sigh, Samatha met Kallie's eyes.

"Hey, can you speak normally? I find your...fake voice kinda creepy after knowing what you're really like," Samatha admitted shyly.

Kallie was still after that, looking at Samatha with a blank expression, before she started laughing. When she finally stopped, she still had a smile on her face but her eyes no longer were all happy. They had a certain smugness and cold in them that made Samatha shiver...though Samatha was grateful that her eyes weren't emotionless like before.

"Sorry. I used to sound like that but, honestly, after being here for so long I think I've lost my soul."

Kallie didn't speak in a monotone voice which Samatha found herself being grateful for. Kallie, despite reaching with all her might with a gun while standing on top of the corpses, she still couldn't reach the platform. It was then that Samatha remembered something she had in her bag. After digging around a bit, she pulled it out with an "Ah ha!", causing Kallie to turn around again.

In Samatha's hand was a blue umbrella. Samatha went up to the make-shift ladder and handed the umbrella to a beaming Kallie who took it and dropped the gun. Samatha noted that Kallie was wearing gloves when she used the gun which she got from the guards which Samatha had brought with her in her bag. Why she put on gloves was a question Samatha hoped Kallie would answer soon.

Kallie reached the platform with the umbrella but the moment the umbrella hilt brushed against the platform, Kallie jumped off the makeshift ladder. A buzzsaw popped out of the padded walls right where Kallie was. Kallie had just barely dodged the saw. Unfortunately, the umbrella wasn't so lucky. It was cut in half. Kallie landed on her feet and instantly pulled out the knife the other guard was carrying. Before the buzz saw could go back in, Kallie threw the knife into the hole it came from, jamming the trap. Kallie looked at the broken umbrella and clicked her tongue. She studied the wall for a bit before a determined glint shone in her eyes and she quickly ran back her makeshift ladder and jumped up, using the end with the umbrella on it to stab the wall, though the sharp end of the umbrella failed to pierce through entirely, and the other end, the end with the hook-like base, to grab and knock whatever was on top of the platform off.

While she succeeded, she now had no place to safely get back down as the sharp umbrella end fell out of the padded wall and the corpses have moved below her, falling over. Since Kallie wasn't above gravity, she started to fall down. Samatha wasted no time and jumped over there, just barely catching the silent Kallie before she hit the ground. Padded or not, Samatha could see that at the angle she was falling, Kallie would have either hurt her right leg badly or twisted it, which is something they both don't want if they want to escape this place.

Kallie was silent for a couple of seconds before her eyes met Samatha's. Her expression was blank which caused Samatha to feel nervous. After a bit of nothing happening, Kallie carefully and slowly got up from Samatha's embrace and walked over to what had fallen off the platform.

"Sorry about your umbrella. Luckily, now that I have my precious weapon, we can go!" Kallie informed Samatha, showing her the weapon Kallie worked so hard for.

"Your precious weapon is a comb?" Samatha asked in disbelief. In Kallie's hand was a metal comb with a weird handle.

Kallie frowned and flipped the weapon in her hand, hiding the comb and revealing a sharp blade.

"No, this is a butterfly knife with two blades instead of the normal one."

"One of those "blades" is a comb," Samatha told Kallie, failing to see any second blade. Kallie let out a sigh.

"Here. Watch," Kallie told Samath with a sly grin before walking over to the two bodies. She flipped her knife back to the comb and struck atone guard's neck and-

RIP

Samatha knew her mouth was hanging open but she didn't close it. Kallie just decapitated the guard with a comb.

"The teeth of the comb are all blades," Kallie informed Samatha, whipping her comb around to try and get off the blood that was now on it.

"Now, Samatha. We should get going. Aunt Ravean isn't just going to sit still after you released me."

Kallie started walking out her cell door but stopped when Samatha cried out her name.

"Kallie! Wait!"

Kallie turned around, surprising Samatha.

"What is it?" Kallie asked, getting a little nervous now. She didn't want to be here any longer.

"Why were you locked in here?"

Kallie thought about that for a moment before answering.

"Quite simple. I'm a monster."

Samatha was stunned. Kallie just casually admitted that she was a monster. That can't be right.

"What do you mean by that? I've seen my fair share of monsters, believe it or not, and-"

Samatha was cut off when Kallie put a finger on her lips.

"Don't get the wrong idea. I am a monster. One that nearly killed Aunt Ravean. To her and the orphanage, I am the scariest thing they ever saw and as such, I am a monster. Plain and simple."

Kallie's voice was low and emotionless again. After a bit of silence, Kallie turned around and started walking out of her cell and down the white hallway.

"Now hurry up before more than ten guards come in here to get us."

With that, Samatha quickly followed after Kallie, still thinking about what Kallie had told her.

'Well, there is no use thinking about it now. She said she was going to help us. Hopefully, she'll keep her word...and hopefully I didn't make a mistake.'