I chose... Rapture. [Faith/ Dream]

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Welcome to Rapture. A city where the artist can roam freely, the scientist can create with the sky as the limit, and the power is with the people. Such a place could never exist on land therefore it was literally built on the bottom of the ocean, as far away from the governing powers as possible. Out of every jurisdiction. The extreme of extremes. It is a massive place with buildings that tower over head and long walkways that link different areas of the city together.
Everything you could ever want you can find in Rapture. There are stores, restaurants, hotels, spas, housing units, art galleries, markets, sports centers and for those who enjoy a little bit of nighttime excitement there are bars and love-houses. Everyone is welcome in Rapture! There are no minorities. Everyone is equal. Everyone gets a fair share.
All of this is thanks to to the hard work and dedication of our founder Andrew Ryan!

At least..that's how things used to be. Before the revolution. On New Year's Eve, at 12:00 on the dot, just as the clocks were ticking down and the champagne bottles were about to be popped, explosions rang through the entire city. The whole foundation of Rapture was shaken to its very core. Those explosions marked the beginning of what would be a long battle throughout the streets between those who supported Andrew Ryan and those who supported a man named Frank Fontaine. Soon blood coated every wall on every corner of the city. The year 1959 was off to a great start.

Hundreds died and those that didn't die..were left to slowly go insane. Driven only further to insanity by their addiction to Adam; the genetical stimulant that once kept the wheels of Rapture turning.
The side-effect of this drug was both an overwhelming addiction to it and a range of horrible disfigurations due to the way the drug affected the human body. Those addicted where named Splicers and those Splicers are all that are left in this city. They do whatever they can to get their hands on Adam..even if it means killing each other. Many have banded together in order to overpower those who are weak, making them even more dangerous.

The revolution was two years ago. There are now those who are merely trying to get by and those who are trying to escape. But to escape means going through hell and back again...straight through the center of the city. Can you make it out?
Let's see, shall we?

I can’t help but watch her in an awestruck stupor. I had never seen so many emotions pass through her, and she was completely oblivious, at least for a short amount of time, that I was even watching her. I had never seen her so emotional and yet, so utterly calm. The emotions weren’t evoked through reactions and actions, but they shifted through her eyes as the thoughts ran through her.

When I am able to call her out of her trance, she looks at me for a moment as if she had almost forgotten I had been with her. She says that it would be better if we stayed in this room, and I can only nod my head quietly. I didn’t like being here. It erected so much emotional stress. I much would have rather found someplace else. I wasn’t exactly sure where else would have been an option at this point. If we pressed on we might have found something to hide in while we rested up. It was just a chance that we did though, and if we didn’t take this chance then we might not have the chance. I still didn’t like it though.

There is a slight hesitation in her actions. I’m not sure now if I’m actually seeing what I see or if I’m simply being over-paranoid about these things. Her hand pulls down on the lever and without hesitation she pushes the door open. I keep myself outside for a moment or two after she steps in. I wanted her to at least get acclimated to the room before I walked in and sat down.

After a few moments of waiting, I take a few small steps inside the door. I look around, trying to take in the room all at once. This is where she had lived pretty much all of her life? I take in a short breath, taking a few more steps inside. I look around for a few moments before deciding that I should at least take a place. I would relax for a bit before wandering off. I wanted to make sure that she was comfortable and okay with everything before I just kind of left.

Where I had come to stop in the room is where I sat. I didn’t want to intrude on her personal space and I didn’t want to make her feel like she was obligated to give me or offer me anything. This was her place and I would not intrude on her. I don’t say anything for a while. Really, I’m not exactly sure what I should say. Such a place as this was putting me in an unfamiliar spot. I didn’t want to make things worse by saying something that could trigger something. She had been more than gracious in my home, not asking about memories and not really dwelling on them. I would do the same. I take in another breath before smiling.

“It’s a nice place you’ve got here, Doll.” I give her a soft smile that matches my tone. I look behind me, making sure that there’s a wall nearby before leaning back in silence.

(I'm kind of passing out hard core right now too. I'll be here in the morning. G'night.)

The moment my eyes moved across all of the pieces of furniture that lay, undisturbed by time, in my room I could not stop some of the emotions that filled me. I could remember many nights I stayed up quietly reading one of my books until I fell asleep with it on my chest. The nights I stared up at the roof wondering if I was ever going to be allowed outside. The nights I laid on my side crying because of how painful the day's experiments had been.
I brought both my hands together in front of me as I struggled to take in all of the memories. It was then that I noticed I was alone and when I turned my head I found that Mira had not followed me inside immediately. She was giving me time and for that I was thankful.
Very quickly I composed myself just as she stepped inside.

"It's not like they kept us in cages or anything..but thank you." I replied with a smile and a short laugh. They probably could have kept us in cages if they wanted to but they had known better than that, especially because they had been dealing with creatures more powerful than anything that walked the streets of Rapture at the time including the Big Daddies they used as protectors of the little ones.
"The people who worked here were never mean to us but they never got close to us either. At least in this part of this place. The men in white coats were the ones who did all of the experimenting on us.." I trailed off at this thought but before the memory could come to my I shook it out of my head.

I turned my gaze towards Mira to find that she had settled herself down on the floor. I frowned slightly and shook my head as if I did not approve of where she chose to sit. After untying my bag from around my waist where it hang and setting it on the ground, I sat down on the bed pushed into the corner.
It was just as soft as I remembered it being and although it was nothing like the bed Mira had allowed me to sleep in, it was pleasantly familiar.
My eyes focused on my companion yet again.
"We can share to bed you know. I don't take up all that much space and it'd be better for us both. The last thing we need is for one of us to get sick from the cold..and believe me, this place gets cold." I felt an almost hopeful smile come to my lips as I waited for her reply.

There was a secret motive behind my inviting her to share the bed with me, one that I was not sure how to describe, but it was also due to the fact that we only had one thick blanket to share between us and that was the one on the bed.
I had not been making up what I said about the temperature in the facility. The main heating had long stopped working so the rooms were a little more than chilly but not quite bitterly cold either just somewhere in the middle. Enough to make a person sick if they weren't careful and that was not something I wanted Mira to experience.
With all these factors though it was still up to her to decide whether she wanted to share a bed with me. If she did not I was not going to force her.

I watch her a moment after her comments. I felt bad for saying that’s actually what everyone had thought of them. Since they had been made in labs it was assumed that the Sisters were put in cages since it was obvious they were so dangerous. There were rumors that hadn’t been the case by a few people, but who was going to believe a few when everyone thought different? I wasn’t going to tell her that’s what I had thought, but an embarrassed tint of pink danced around my cheeks.

I watch her, listening to very syllable that crosses her lips. I am very curious to know about her passed life, but at the same time, I don’t want to know. There were things from my past that I wasn’t telling her. There were things in my past that I didn’t want to feel obligated to tell her. It wasn’t that I didn’t’ trust her-no- I just wanted to keep them to myself. The least amount bad memories that were floating in the air, the better it would be for both of us.

“You don’t have to tell me those kinds of things if you don’t want to. Don’t punish yourself over something that you had no control over.” I brush a hand through my hair, trying to get it out of the nappy mess it had achieved the last few hours or…well days. I wasn’t exactly sure how long we had been traveling around. No matter how long, it still took a toll on both of us.

She turns toward me on the floor as I’ve been staring at her. I can’t help but look away. I pull the pack off my back so the wall would be a little more comfortable, crossing my legs in front of me. Somehow, I knew she was going to say something about me being on the floor. I sigh, my eyes glued to my hands. The bed did sound nice, but what was the point? She had definitely done enough this past trip to deserve the bed all to herself.


“I wouldn’t want to intrude…” It’s the nicest way of telling her that I didn’t want to get in her space. For her, I knew that could probably be weird. After all, she didn’t feel the same way about me as I did about her. I can’t help but turn my head slightly to look at the ground. Hell, I wasn’t even sure how I felt about this girl. We were both just a big ball of emotions that we weren’t sure what to do with. I wanted to protect her—it was my job to do that, but at the same time, I felt a different kind of calling for her. I felt the need to keep her warm and comfortable. Safe and comfortable were on opposite ends of the spectrum in Rapture. That was my dilemma right there.

I look up to her now, the silence spreading across the room. The bed was inviting and I wanted to accept her offer, but…I take in another slow breath, watching her a moment. I didn’t want to be another memory just plastered across her walls. There were already enough bag memories to haunt her here. I can’t keep from looking away. I wanted to be a good memory to her if I was killed by something in our path. I wanted her to remember me for the little things and the nice things. I had been playing with my hands almost the entire time. I wasn’t going to deny her, I wasn’t sure I could at this point.

“If you promise you’ll take the heap of the covers…then I will share the bed with you…You have proven that you deserve the entire bed tonight for getting us out of Fairgrounds, but if you insist that I intrude on your personal space…” I smile at her, giving a quiet wink before pulling myself up off the floor. It took me a moment to do so from where I had been sitting. I had gotten used, even in that short time, to sitting in the cramped way that I had. My body had grown used to getting comfortable any chance that it got simply because there weren’t many times I got to sit in one place for too long.

I give her another completely over exaggerated sigh before walking over to the bed, stamping my feet a little as I did so. I sit down, folding my arms over my chest. I tried to keep the smile off my lips, but it was hard. I was close to her again, I could almost feel her warmth radiating off her.

“I hope you’re happy, Echo” With the punctuation of her name I lean in to poke her in the stomach. It does very little because of her armor and my finger sort of bends in on itself. I look at it a moment with a frown before leaning backwards, crossing my legs were I sat silently. I tried my best to act like I wasn’t happy about being on the bed, but with the soft feeling under me, I wasn’t doing a very good job. It was just Mira, being her show pony self. I shake my head; it had been so long since I had thought of that. There hadn’t really been time to be a show pony lately. Really, I hadn’t been being myself at all since Rapture went bad. There wasn’t time to be yourself when you were trying not to die.


(Sorry about the delay. I slept much longer than I had meant to)

With the silence that followed I expected Mira to turn down my offer the way she would have on the very first night we met. It had been such a long time since then. Our relationship, if you could call the mess that we were a relationship, had come a very long way. From being untrusting of me she had slowly begun to understand that there was not the same depth to me as there was to the others she had met before. As much as I hated to admit it, everyone was right when they said I was just a machine.
I had my own personality, feelings, and opinions, but I also lacked the ability to actively betray someone else or hurt them emotionally. Those were things I had lost with my conditioning.
I also had a terrible habit of trusting others too quickly and that was a side effect of the time I had spent as a mindless Little Sister. The trust we had been conditioned with so that we would trust the Big Daddies never fully went away with time.

She surprised me though by going back on the words she spoke and told me that she would share the bed so long as I took the majority of the covers. Claiming I had more of a right to the bed than she did seeing as I had gotten us out of the Fairgrounds. I wanted to protest but I realized that there wasn't anything to protest. She was coming to join me and that was all that mattered.
I felt a joyful smile come to rest on my lips as she made theatrics of getting up off the ground and coming to sit next to me on the bed with many a sigh and shake of her head.
Once she had joined me though I immediately felt the warmth from her body being so close to mine. A warmth I had come to cherish with her company and a part of me longed to be closer to. That part of me was something I did not quite understand and so I kept it hidden, knowing that Mira would probably think of me as strange if I told her that I wanted to be close to her.

The emotions I felt for her were often like that though. As of late I caught myself looking at her more and more. I admired her strength, fearlessness, wit, but most of all I admired her as a person. In a way I wished that I could be more like her.
Perhaps not more like her.
As I had said before I had a very strong urge to watch over her and protect her but there was more to it than just that. I wanted to comfort her, keep her warm, hold her head in my lap the way she had held mine.. All these things that passed beyond the things that were conditioned into me.
My thoughts were interrupted though by her voice.

Mira spoke and made to poke my stomach only my armor rendered the touch practically pointless. I still felt the pressure though and I let out a short little giggle. Quickly settling down I could then turn my attention to what she had said.
"Happy?" I repeated the word as if I had never really been asked that question before, which really was the truth. No-one had ever really bothered themselves with my wellbeing much less whether I was happy or not.
In fact the question was so very difficult to answer that I took a few moments of hesitation before I could really formulate any kind of an answer. Was I happy? What was happiness? Did I ever really know what happiness was? As I asked myself these questions I turned my gaze towards the woman who was sitting next to me now, regarding me with an expression of warm care. Or at least I thought that she seemed to be looking at me like she genuinely cared about me.

My gaze came back down to my gloved hands and I slowly began to pull them off, setting the gloves down on the bed next to me. My mind was swimming with thoughts but soon I settled on an answer to give my companion.
Slowly I allowed my body to slide down along the bed until my legs hung over the edge of the bed and I was shoulder level with her. I let out a quiet sigh before leaning my head down against her shoulder, resting my head there gently.
"I'm not exactly sure what it's like to be happy.. but I have the feeling that since I met you, I've been happier than ever before in my life." I whispered softly as my finger gently pressed against her stomach the way she had poked mine.


(That's alright, I'm glad you got some rest)

My mind started buzzing, but I kept still. Actually, I tense up as she got nearer to me. Not because I was afraid of her, but the action was so instant, like she hadn’t thought about it before she just leaned her head onto my shoulder. I feel the warmth of her face on my neck and I can’t help but let out a stifled giggle as she pokes me. It was the same kind of poke she had given me, but I wasn’t wearing armor, and if she had poked anymore, she would have found out that I was extremely ticklish. My eyes stay closed though as I sit there a moment, taking in what’s happening. I feel one of my hands going up to brush through her hair. The idea of not knowing what happy was seemed to befuddle me for a while. Had she really no knowing what her emotions were? We had this conversation already, but it hadn’t really locked as well into place as I had hoped. Now I realized what she meant completely and I can’t help but pull my other arm around to her other side.

“I’m glad a prune like me can make you happy” I whisper the words back to her quietly. It was times like this that made me forget that want I had for Adam. That tugging in my mind was just lost by the way she acted. She was the distraction I needed to keep my mind off of it. Those distractions didn’t come around often. She didn’t always keep my mind off the glorious red liquid, but when she did it was moments like this that were most effective. For that, I would bask in these moments—I wasn’t controlled by that damn liquid.

Another deep breath fills my lungs and I turn my head towards the one that still on my shoulder. I watch her a moment in silence. We had been through so much since we had met. I had in fact been thinking about killing her the first time we met. I feel my teeth clench at the thought, but I know that I’m happy that I hadn’t made that decision. From the first night of being together, it was obvious that we were a great match. Yes, she was much bigger than I was and much stronger, but when one of us faltered, there was the other one there to help or to kill whatever it was in our way.

“Do you think Finn will come looking for us?” The words come crashing out of my mouth before I have a chance to stop them. I sigh quietly, wanting to reach up and smack myself. It probably wasn’t the best question to be asking right now, but the worry of that one thing we couldn’t kill was still in my mind. “Do you think he’ll get someone to try and find us I mean…” My voice quiets down drastically. I had already begun asking my questions and it would have been stupid to just stop in the middle of my question, even if I had just had another socially awkward Mira moment.

When I shifted positions and my head came to rest on her shoulder I could feel her tense up just a little bit. The same way she had tensed up when I hugged her back at the apartment. This time though the tenseness was only temporary and she seemed to ease into the new warmth that came from our closeness. After a moment I felt her fingers find my hair yet again and a smile came to my lips as she began to play with it.
What truly surprised me though was the moment when she shifted, a movement I immediately assumed was to move away, but instead she wrapped her arm around my body just lightly in a sort of half-embrace. Whatever it was, I found myself reveling in the sensation.
I had never been embraced like this before. Not that I could remember anyway.

She replied to my words but when she called herself a prune I couldn't help but let out a little laugh. I didn't know why she called herself that. The probably the very last thing on earth she could call herself was a prune. Sure she had moments of being distant and cold but those moments were often countered with moments of warmth and comfort. Like the moment we shared now.
As I lay there with her, closer to her than ever before, I realized how important she had become to me. Not only because I cared about her but also because she was the one who had kept me going. Mira was the reason I had gotten this far. She gave me hope and a reason to fight for survival. Because if I could get us both to the surface than I would have saved a beautiful person from the hell that was Rapture.
I could give new life to a person who deserved it much more than I did.
I knew that even if she did not want me to stay with her once we got to the surface, I would be able to live the rest of my life knowing she was going to live the rest of her life happy and free.

Mira's question brought a new question into the thousands that were flying through my head but this one took priority over those trying to figure out my emotions. It was a very good question to ask because it meant possible trouble down the road.
I tilted my head back slightly so I could look up at her before I let it come back down, my body shuffling just the tiniest bit closer to her warmth.
"It'd surprise me if he didn't send someone after us but at the same time it would surprise me if he stepped out of his little castle to find us himself. We can only hope that he doesn't try to cut us off further down the line because I'd hate to find myself face to face with someone who's been humiliated the way he was.. " I couldn't help but smile at the last of my words. Finn Wood had gotten what was long coming to him. I would have loved to have been there when he tried to explain to his followers that he was still the most powerful person in Rapture even though he had let measly women slip from his grasp.

I drew my legs up onto the bed and started to unclasp the buckles that lined the framework of my lower armor. All of a minute later I was letting the padding and metal fall to the floor next to the bed leaving me in my under armor. I would have gotten up to take off my breastplate and the rest but the position I was in was just too comfortable and I did not want to give up the warmth of Mira's body.
Hell, I probably could have fallen asleep right then and there if I allowed myself to.
I kept myself awake however because I wanted to enjoy the company of my companion as much as I possibly could.
"Are.. are you happy, Mira?" I suddenly asked quietly while tilting my head yet again so I could look up at her.

The moments are lost to the feeling of her right next to me. I wonder if what she’s doing is real. What was making her show such affection towards me? Or was this affection? Maybe this was a way of comforting herself through all the bad memories of this place. Maybe this was just a reaction she had. I didn’t mind comforting her, but for a moment, a small frown falls on my lips. If that was the case then I was taking this all wrong. As I had told myself before in The Drop, I knew I was getting too involved with this girl. Every second I was doing more to help her and protect her. I should have kept her at distance in the first place, but something took over. Being human took over more than it had in years. So many times had I denied myself to feel emotion before I met this girl, and soon after she arrived, there was very little I could do to stop the rush of emotions and social connections that we had both been denied for so long.

I had been thinking what as she answered my question, drawing me very far from my thoughts. She was right. With his ego bruised, Finn would set his priority on finding us. What else did he really have to do besides catching the measly wanderer or splicer that made the mistake of entering his territory? He had enough men to send some of them into Rapture looking for us. He let on that he knew where we were going. Now whether he would think about that through his rage, we weren’t sure. I could smile knowing that we had caused that man more problems than any other splicer could ever imagine.

I watch her silently as she begins unbuckling her armor and pulling it off. I wonder if I should move over to give her more room, but I decide by the way she acts, she doesn’t want me to move away. She doesn’t even bother taking her chest plate off and I can only assume it’s because she’s comfortable where she is. I watch her another moment before turning back to look ahead of me.

The only thing that could make this any better would be Adam. The thought swirls around in my head for a moment. I could feel the lack of Adam in me taking its toll. I was weaker than I normally would be, and my head was clearer when I wasn’t thinking about the damn drug. It was like Heroine or Opium really and down in Rapture, Adam was three times more desired. It worked over your mind until that’s all you could think about. That’s why I took small doses, so I could deny that want that I had. After a while, the want wasn’t deniable anymore and I was slowly starting to reach that point. Every moment I waited and every plasmid I used wore down that time more and more. Words flit out of her mouth and into the air. They call me out of my thoughts, but really only for a moment. They catch me a little by surprise and I turn to look at her quietly a moment before I respond.

“If course I’m happy; I’m livin’ aren’t I?” I give her a light wink with the simple answer. I pull my arms away from her and raise my hands up over my head to stretch. My back pops quietly as I move and shift slightly. My hands come to fall on both sides of the bed. I decided that, as much as I wanted to stay here, there were other things on my mind. I look to her a moment before tilting my head.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where the bathroom is, would you?” I give her a small smile, pulling myself up. “Directions will be fine since it looks like you need to get some of your armor off." The warmness was gone from my body as I stood there a moment. I pull the pack back on my back, situating it so that it’s comfortable.

Mira's answer to my question made a slight smile come to my lips. I was happy to know that she was happy even though she did not specify that I was a part of the reason that she was happy. It was probably pretentious of me to assume that I had anything to do with her happiness but a girl could always dream, couldn't she?
So I contented myself with knowing that she was happy and just allowed myself to enjoy the feeling of her being so close to me. A few more minutes passed before I felt her begin to shift beneath me, drawing her arm from around me. I opened my eyes slowly, realizing only then that I had been lightly dozing, and turned to look at her as she stretched herself out.
I leaned forward allowing her to stand up from the bed. The cold was suddenly very harsh against my body without her there to warm me but I could not protest her moving. I was not sure what she would think of me if I told her that I wanted her to stay with me.

"Bathroom..bathroom.. Uhm.. There should be a bathroom a few rooms down, to the left." I answered her request while sitting up and stretching the way she had before she stood up. As much as I hated to see her go I wasn't exactly going to keep her from going to the bathroom now was I?
So I smiled and watched as she left the room heading towards the bathroom I had pointed her towards. I just hoped that she was going to find it all right. I had no reason to doubt her nor did I have a reason to think that anything was going to happen to her.
None of the rooms or hallways showed signs of life. The dust that had settled on the floor lay undisturbed as if no-one had passed through in months which was probably the case.

Now that I was alone in my room I took a moment to focus on everything that surrounded me. Without Mira there to distract me my mind was flying back to all of the memories that haunted this place. Some were pleasant while others were horrifying. Like the time one of the girls had fallen and broken her arm but because of her healing ability they had to break the bone three or four times to get it set in the right place.
Her screaming could be heard throughout the entire facility. Even now a shudder ran down along my spine at the mere thought.
Quickly I pushed my mind away from memories and on to the task at hand. I stood, undoing all the clasps that lined my armor, and pulled it off piece by piece. Soon I set my armor aside in the corner of the room and I was left in my under-armor.

Slowly I came back to my place on the bed and I sat there quietly with my eyes closed. With nothing but my own breathing to listen to I could not help but find myself trapped in the thought that I was alone. Alone the same way I had been during my time as a subject in the facility.
My legs came up to rest against my chest and I wrapped my arms around them, resting my head on my knees. For just a few moments I allowed my mind to fly through all of the memories that this place was bringing back to me.
I just wanted Mira to come back as quickly as possible. Her company was the one thing that could keep these memories away.

She doesn’t seem to particularly happy with the fact that I get up and start moving around. I don’t blame her really. The loss of warmth wasn’t something I was particularly fond of, but I could not stand this little tick any longer. She thinks about my question, having to reach far back into her memory to think of where the bathroom is. It takes her a few moments, but soon I’ve gotten a location for the bathroom. I give her a small smile before turning and starting towards the door.

“I’ll be back soon” I speak quietly, pulling the door closed behind me as I come into the hallway. The darkness of this place wasn’t as harsh as it had seemed at first. There were a few lights in the floor that would light up or flicker every few moments, lighting my way. I follow her directions, turning left and walking down the hallway. The door to the bathroom is very obvious, and I look at it for a moment. I was very careful in sneaking away from her. I pull the door open, closing it after a few moments. If she had been listening, which I highly doubted she was, she would hear the sound of the door in the hallway. Now, if she came looking for me, she wouldn’t find me. I didn’t want her walking in on me while I was enjoying what little bit of Adam I had left.

I look around a moment before choosing to continue down the hallway. The doors were changing. There were many doors still labeled with names, but once I turned the corner, the doors were different. After making it to the end of the hallway, I stop at the last door. I pull on the handle to see that it’s unlocked. I turn it slowly, pushing the door open. My eyes meet what seems to be a somewhat normal doctor’s examination area. A metal table sat in the center of the room and the walls were covered by computers and other machines with flashing lights. The light over examination table was on, which caused a bright shine to bleed into the hallway for a few moments. I take a few steps inside, making sure to close the door behind me. I don’t bother locking it since I really don’t expect to be in here for very long.

I don’t waste time looking around at all the machines, I walk to the dusty examination table, running my hand across its surface to get at least some of the dirt off. It wouldn’t matter since my dress had already seen enough dirt to probably be ruined. I pull myself onto the table, my feet hanging loosely over the edge. I pull my bag off my shoulders quickly. I drop it beside me on the table and almost immediately start fishing through the large pocket for the smaller pocket that held my Adam.

I pull it out, setting it on the metal table. Then, I search around until I find another hypodermic needle that I can use. I pull it out of my bag, tearing the plastic apart to pull the needle from its protective covering. I let the plastic drop to the floor as I start moving. My Adam is right there and it’s almost hard to keep from moving too fast. I am careful and soon I’ve pulled the cork out of the small vial. I stick the needle inside, pulling out all of the Red liquid in the container. I smile quietly to myself. I’ve been waiting so long for this fix. My breathing is slow as I ready myself, taking all the necessary precautions and preparations.

It wasn’t really the high I was looking for out of Adam. I wasn’t some sort of drug head that got her fix whenever she felt like it. I usually had a schedule and with the events of the past week, my schedule had just gotten much more out of hand than I had intended. I was looking for the power; the regeneration of the cells that every splicer needed from the Adam they received. If I didn’t take it, I would slowly deteriorate until there was nothing left. It was a simple act of self-preservation.

I take in a small breath before sticking the needle into my arm. I can’t help the quiet groan that escapes my lips as the liquid makes my veins glow. The feeling of Adam is almost indescribable. You’re on cloud nine; you can feel the power coursing through you. It plays tricks with your mind giving you this immense feeling like you’re floating. I barely take the time to pull the needle out of my arm before I lean back and just feel all of the feelings coursing through me. I sit there for at least five minutes just being there.

Then however, after a moment of just sitting there with my eyes closed, I hear the sound of someone crying. The sounds of a small girl fill my ears and I pull myself slowly up from my place. I open my eyes, looking around for the source of the noise.

“Please, Papa Suchong! I don’t wanna go on the table!” The voice is loud in my ears and I stumble up, looking around until I see something that is very much known to me. The see-through white color of the girl, hiding in a ball in the corner of the room was enough to tell me that I was seeing ghosts. I take in a deep breath shaking my head before leaning against the table. “No!” The sounds of the memory playing out nearby are loud, but I’m the only one around the hear them. I pick up my things, and walk towards the door. I can still feel the Adam in the way I had before, but to enjoy it, I needed to find somewhere quieter.

I make it back out into the hallway, just for more memories to be forced on me. I had not thought out taking Adam in a place where there had been so many girls, filled with so much Adam…When I start out into the hallway, the sounds of screaming and crying and laughing and shouting and playing all just force on me at once. I groan quietly, feeling my hands start to shake. I had dealt with a few ghouls at once before, but not as many as were here now with me. I have to stop, walking to the wall, and letting myself drop to the floor. I pull my head down into my knees.

“Just stop!” My voice rings out, louder than I had expected. They don’t stop. They fill my ears even louder it seems. I just let my head fall; I knew it was my fault really. I had gone away to do something I probably shouldn’t have been doing in the first place. I close my eyes, feeling the high I had been on slowly be snuffed out by the little girls that surrounded me.

The silence of the room was deafening to me but what was worse than the silence was the pain that came with the memories of this silence. It seemed like my entire life revolved around silence. In childhood I had been quiet and often left in silence, while I was supposedly a Little Sister my life had been in silence, as a subject in this facility I was often left to the silence of this very room with little more than my own breathing to keep me company, and after I became a full-fledged Big Sister there was nothing but silence within the iron sphere I wore on my head.
Mira's arrival had been the only thing that broke the silence that was my life. She was the disturbance that brought back my humanity. Through her I remembered what it felt like to be human..or as human as a creature like me possibly could feel.

Soon my memories enveloped me in a shroud of darkness and I fell onto my side. It was only then that my eyes opened and I found myself alone in the semi-darkness of the room. I had lost track of time but it was clear that Mira had not gotten back yet.
A part of me wanted to leave the room to see if she had gotten lost or anything like that but at the same time I knew better than to doubt her directional sense. She was not a child. If anything she was taking a moment to explore her surroundings on her way back. There was nothing wrong with that whatsoever.
So I decided to just keep waiting for her in the room.

I shifted myself around a little bit and pressed back against the wall before climbing under the covers. That way Mira would have space to join me when she got back from her trip to the bathroom. When my head settled against the pillow I immediately felt my eyes grow heavy with fatigue. All of the events of the day had taken much more of a toll on me than I felt at first. The fatigue hit me suddenly now that I was comfortable and somewhat warm and before long I was struggling to fight the sleep that was slowly consuming me.
A few minutes later the battle was lost and I was sleeping softly in the silence of the room.

--

Though most of the memories she experienced were the sounds of the ghosts that roamed the hallway, the transparent blue figure of a young girl appeared a few feet away from her. The girl stood silently for a few seconds and as if to make room for her, the other sounds faded into echoes in the distance.
Her face was hidden by the long strands of hair that fell to well below her shoulders. Gradually her head rose however and soon she was looking directly at Mira though really she was looking straight through her. It was a memory and the person being spoken to was invisible.
The girl's green eyes shone softly in the semi-darkness of the hallway and around her neck she wore a necklace with her name engraved into the tag. A simple name. Four letters; E-c-h-o.
Her face was soft and young but her expression was cold and desperate. Then she spoke in a voice that was like satin against the skin.
"Am I ever going to see my mommy and daddy ever again?" She asked to which she got a silent reply.
"I will? When?" The girl asked with a spark of excitement in her voice but that excitement was quickly smothered by another silent answer.
"You don't know? ...I would very much like to see them again." She said as a single tear ran down along her cheek. The appearance then turned and began to walk down the hallway towards the direction of the room Mira had left what must have been an hour ago. The shape flickering softly as the memory began to fade.


(I hope you don't mind my butting into those memories, do you?
Also, I thought I'd let you know that we're going out for dinner but we shouldn't be gone too long. I'll post when I get back )

I set there for a long time. The words of the girls all mushed into one big ball of sounds for the longest time. I felt myself start dozing at one point for a moment simply because my mind had gone completely numb. I had been out here for quite a while and it was a wonder that Echo hadn't come looking for me. I could assume that she fell asleep waiting for my return. I had to say that it was good she was sleeping. She needed her rest.

After a while of just sitting there I hear the sounds of the girls all die out. One by one they are gone like little flames being put out. I look up, a curiosity filling my eyes. When my eyes open I see that all of the small white shadow figures have all but disappeared. The only one that remains is an oddly colored blue one. My head tilts slightly as I pull myself around onto my knees.

I lean forward to look at the figure that is standing across from me. It seems almost that she is looking right at me, but I know that she can't be. I can't help but look her over. This ghost is an odd one and draws me towards it so I can look her over.

She is quite the sight. The girl is small and her hair falls all over the place. When I lean in to look at her more closely I notice a necklace on her neck. I can't help but turn my eyes away, closing my eyes a moment when I see it. The girl that was standing in front of me was the woman that was now my companion. It's a heartache to see her like this.

"Echo" My voice speaks over hers, but she doesn't hear me. She questions whoever she's speaking to about her parents. It had been awhile since I thought about her past in such detail. I had never asked her about her parents nor had I actually thought about how she was taken from them.

"Echo" I speak again, looking to her. I reach out a hand to touch her, but my hand goes through her. I let it fall to the ground as her excitement quirks up as the silent person tells her something. I can only assume that they promise the small girl that shell see her parents again. I can't help but sigh quietly as I watch her. She believed whoever it was that was lying to her. It was sickening that anyone could lie to a child like that.

"Echo" Each time I speak I get louder now, I'm simply yelling and my voice travels down the hallway. I want to comforter her and tell her that it's going to be okay. Still, the small girl continues to ignore me.The girl wants to see her family again. I don't blame her. I couldn't imagine what it was like for a little girl being taken away from her family by strange people. A tear falls from her cheek and I can't help but reach forward to wipe her tears away. My hand just goes through her. The tear stays as she turns starting down the hallway.

"No. Wait! Come back!" My voice echoes through the hallways as I call for the girl.I am much louder than I was the time before. Even with my words she continues on. I take a few movements forward. Crawling forward on my knees for a few feet until the girl starts to flicker and I realize that I've been chasing a shadow. I was chasing a simple memory. I stop where I am, letting my head fall, looking at the ground.

Most of the high that I got with Adam was gone. While the feeling of power still pulsed through me, I had gotten used to it mostly and I was now almost back to normal. My veins still glowed their oddly red color and they would for a while. They would probably stop when the majority of these ghosts stopped. With the new bit of Adam in me now I knew that they wouldn't be going away for a while. They would be there to remind me how much of a freak I was.

I wasn't sure if I was ready to go back. If I did, the flowing of my arms would very obviously tell her why I had been gone so long. Wasn't that the reason that I had ran off in the first place? I wanted to sleep in a bed. I would wait here only a little while longer before heading off.

I pull my head up, looking down the hall. The blue form was gone now, and I was left in a dreary silence. I pulled myself back onto just my knees before leaning farther back. I pull my legs out from under me before getting settled once more on the ground. The girls weren't here for now. I had a feeling that they would be back soon. I lean my head back on the wall, closing my eyes and blending with the silence of the hallway.


(It's totally okay. I don't mind. I went to eat a little after you. I was in the middle of my post so I didn't get to actually put it up here. Sorry for the delay.)

Although I had fought it at first, sleep was very welcome in my mind. My body had been taken beyond its limit during our encounter with Finn Wood. Had it not been for my healing abilities I never would have been able to walk off those grounds much less bring Mira along with me.
So the moment that it became comfortable my body simply shut down on me, telling me that I needed rest more than anything else. As I slept there was no dream at first, which was a miracle incarnate, however that was not to be. Soon enough my mind began to feed off of the memories of the area we now found ourselves in.

I was looking up at a man in a white coat as he stood above me. I could only see directly in front of me as my peripherals were hazy and white. Like I was looking through fogged glass at the events unfolding in front of me. The man worked quietly moving this way and that with small vials and syringes of various colored liquids. He walked away out of my view only to be replaced by another man on the other side of me. He carried a syringe with a glowing red liquid in it.
My voice broke the silence but it was not the same voice I remembered. It was much younger and much more innocent than the voice I spoke with now. I recognized it as my voice from many years ago just after I was brought into the Big Sister program.
"What is that stuff, mister?" I asked to which I received no answer. There was a pause before my gaze came down to watch as the man prepared the syringe with a needle for injection. My body matched the age of my voice, small and frail compared to many. For some reason I laid still when he brought the needle to my arm and slid it in painlessly.
"It feels kinda warm" My voice commented before suddenly the world began to spin violently. Every turned around and around until finally my vision darkened into an abyss of black. In the back of my mind I could hear someone calling my name. It was distant first but grew into a yell loud enough to wake even the deepest of sleepers.

Which is exactly what it did.
My eyes flew open as the very last echo of my name flowed through the hallways in a voice that I knew was Mira's. Immediately I pulled myself out of bed and without even thinking of putting on my armor I burst through the door out into the corridor.
I had not heard which direction the yell had come from but my body told me to run so that's what I did. I ran in the direction of the bathrooms knowing that that was the last place she was going to when I spoke to her but when she was nowhere to be found there I began to really panic.
I started in one direction searching the hallways for her but then stopped and went the opposite way wondering whether perhaps she had gotten lost.
I finally took the last possibly route away from the bathrooms and that's where I found her.

She was leaned against the wall and there was nothing but silence. I feared the worst. As such I rushed to her side as quickly as I possibly could and drew her into my arms gently, looking over her body frantically. Searching for some kind of injury or anything that could have made her cry my name out the way she had.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did something attack you?" I asked quickly as my gaze searched the rest of the empty hallway. From my point of view anything could have happened to her.
Although her lack of apparent injury confused me somewhat. What exactly happened?

My head was once again buried in my knees. My eyes were closed and I simply sat there in the silence. I wasn’t sure why that one memory had forced all the others away. I wasn’t sure why it had to be a memory of Echo’s that did it. The quiet doesn’t last for long though. Soon I hear the sounds of feet on the ground and a quiet panting as someone is running through the halls. It must have been a later memory or something. I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t bother to lift my head.

Before I know what has happened, I feel someone pull against me and I jump. That wasn’t a memory. No—my calls to the child had called the elder to my side. I hadn’t thought of what I was doing when I had done it. I had been mesmerized by the child. She searches me frantically for any sort of wound that would have me crouched over myself and silence. She stars pouncing on me with questions. Was I hurt? No. Did someone attack me? No. Was I okay? No. The answers were simple and I knew them all, but I didn’t speak for a moment, I just looked to the girl as she searched me over, trying to figure out what had caused me to cry out like I had.

“I’m fine” I push her away from me as lightly as I can before shoving my arms behind my back, pressing them into the wall. I don’t want to be mean, that had never been my intentions, but I didn’t want her looking me over. I didn’t want her to see the obvious signs of what I had done. My hands, which had been shaking, were quiet still now. I was silent for a moment before pulling myself to my feet.

“I’m sorry that I woke you” My words are simple as I look at her. I take another look down the hallway. The girl had been gone for a while, but for some reason I expected her to come back through, like I was going completely nuts. It was ghost episodes like this that drove people over the edge. I look back to Echo a moment, a small soft smile on my lips. I was half able to think in the state I was in. I can’t help but reach my hand up to her face, brushing my thumb over the same cheek the small girl had the single tear fall. I shake my head knowing that she was much different now.

“You never saw your parents again. They lied to you.” My words are simple as I pull myself off the wall. I take my time, standing up. I give her a halfway glance back before shaking my head. What I had just seen was still giving me chills. I was much more docile now than what I had been before. My mind was moving over at many thoughts it could muster in the state my brain was currently in.

“They let you cry, and you never saw your parents again” I shake my head lightly before starting back down the hall and toward the room that we had set up camp at. I hold my glowing forearms to the purple dress as I walk, even though there have been enough chances for her to see my arms. “Just come with me, back to bed. We’ll tuck you in and you can sleep.” My words sound much creepier than I had intended as they echo off the empty corridor. It would take me awhile to get over what I had just seen. It would take sleep to get rid of the fogginess in my head.

My mind was filled with panic when she did not reply but some of it was abated by the fact that she showed signs of life. There was not a single injury on her body that could have caused her to fall to the ground the way she had but the reasoning behind the way I found her was not nearly as important as her wellbeing. I just needed to know that she hadn't been hurt by anything. Both because it would mean having to move on to find a safer area and because I had promised to protect her.
I never would have been able to forgive myself if she ended up getting hurt while I could have done something to prevent it. Thankfully she did not seem hurt in the slightest.

I was a little bit surprised by her answer and the way she gently pushed me away as if I had done something wrong. It was not a rough push but it was a push that told me she did not want me close to her. I took the hint and merely looked at her with worry in my gaze.
My heart was still racing in my chest from the panicked run as well as the shock of having found her on the ground. Slowly those things were fading though and I was left with the relief of knowing that she was fine.
Nothing had hurt her. I had not failed and broken the promise I made to her.

My eyes did not even come close to focusing on her arms, which she tired her best to hide, as they were too focused on her face. When she stood I stood with her. I was not quite sure of what to think of what had just happened but the only thing I knew for sure was that I was glad my fears had not been the reality.
I was just about to begin on our short walk back to the room when she stopped me with a hand against my cheek. The touch was sudden and I was surprised by it. Until now I had not noticed how cold my cheek was but when I felt the warmth of her touch I realized the hallway was much colder than the room was.

Then Mira spoke and my breathing stopped altogether. A slight frown came to my face as I watched her silently. That was not something I had ever told her. In fact I had never told her anything about this place, my parents, or the many memories this place was bringing back to me.
"How.." I began but I trailed off.
There was simply no way for her to have known yet there was even less of a chance that she had guessed correctly.
in fact I could remember very clearly the exact moment she was referring to with her words. I had been speaking with one of the wardens about seeing my parents when he told me that if I was good, I would see them again but he did not know when.

I merely nodded my head in response to her suggestion of heading back to the room and I began slowly down along the hallway the way I had come running. Now that my mind had been brought back to that moment I was reminded of how often my thoughts had focused on my parents back then. How much I had missed them back when I convinced myself that I was actually going to see them again.
That one day they were going to come and pick me up like the wardens promised.
As we walked I took a slow breath.
"They told me my parents would pick me up..but they never told me when. Every time I asked I just got the same reply over and over until I just gave up. I realized that I was never going to see them again and I never did." I said in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
With such memories in my head the very last thing I wanted to do was sleep, out of fear of another dream disturbing it, but the fatigue I felt was going to overwhelm me soon enough.

I could tell that she was a little hurt that I pushed her away from me like I had. At the moment, I didn’t want her searching around me for bumps or bruises. I just wanted her to be out of my space. It wasn’t anything that she would take personal, and I hoped that in the future she wouldn’t be so hurt by my actions. I was simply trying to get some room. As I speak, she gasps quietly. She is very surprised with what I say. I take in a slow breath, but I don’t respond to the question she began, but never finished. She was more upset that I knew. It seemed that she was more upset with the fact that I brought it up in the first place. I hadn’t meant to bring it up in a hurtful way, but the memory that I shared with her now had shaken me to my core. Deep breaths filled my chest as I tried to keep myself from saying anything that might upset her further.

We were already walking back to the room when she starts to explain to me the situation. This wasn’t what I had wanted. If anything, I pitied the girl simply forgot being able to see her parents again. Hell, she didn’t even get to say goodbye.

My feet are slow as they carry me back to my room. I look over to her a moment. Now that I was up and she wasn’t looking around, I try to smile up at her. I probably should have been more grateful to her. She had run to find me, thinking that I had been attacked in the hallways. I can’t help myself as I pull my arm around her waist as we walk. I look to her a moment before looking back ahead of me.

“Thanks” I mutter the words quietly as we walk, coming to the first turn to go down the hallways. Our feet are quiet as we walk. We start to pass doors with names on them, but none of them are Echo’s door. I don’t want to rush her into bed, since it’s apparently she’s still pretty high strung about the whole situation. “I’m sorry” I speak quietly, the frown forming on my face. I was just fall enough that I could lean my head on her shoulder as we walked. “I really didn’t mean to wake you” My words are all whispers into the cold air in the hall

I was starting to get my thinking back a little better. Normally I didn’t have such a bad reaction with Adam, but this time had just been wrong. Being in just a highly concentrated area that had produced and moved Adam around was enough to fry my senses pretty much. That was the reason people went crazy and I told myself I wouldn’t let that happen. If I lost it, I would be hurting Echo. I would leave her to herself again and I wasn’t going to do that to her. Hell, it seemed that the kid had already been alone most of her life anyway.

I had sort of been leading us back to the room. Half-way paying attention, I turn the handle to her room, pushing the door open. With my hand still around our waist, I pull her into the bedroom silently. It seems to be pretty much unchanged since I had left, except the covers on the bed had been taken off the bed and were now on the floor. That must have happened in her hurry to find me earlier.

“I’m sorry” I whisper the words again as I pull away from her to take my place back on the floor.

Thoughts of my parents or rather the lack thereof dominated the majority of my thoughts as we started walking back towards our room. My mind strained hard to remember ever detail about them that my memory contained but in the end I couldn't even come up with their names. I had long forgotten what they looked like, what they sounded like, and what their names were. I couldn't even remember what my own real name was.. I had lived so many years as Echo, it had become the only name I answered to.
As sad as it seemed, I had forgotten how it felt to miss them.

I was drawn out of my thoughts by a light pressure against my waist. I blinked and glanced down only to find that Mira had draped her arm around my waist and we were walking closely together through the long hallways towards our destination. I was both surprised by this gesture and comforted by it.
The slight frown all but disappeared only to be replaced by a small smile.
Her voice broke the silence between us and I turned my head to look at her, shaking it when she apologized for having woken me up. There was nothing for her to apologize for. I had only been lightly dozing anyway.

"There's nothing to apologize for. I was having a nightmare anyway so if anything I should be thanking you for pulling me out of that." I replied to her apology and turned my head to look at her just as she leaned her head against my shoulder. All of the sudden I was glad to be the height that I was.
I blinked.
What had been the event that sparked all of this sudden affection? Or was it something other than affection? Whatever it was, I liked it. And she continued to walk with me this way until we reached the room that was just the same as we had left it save for the blanket that had been thrown to the ground.

Once inside I headed for the bed but I noticed that she had pulled away from me.
I reached out to catch her hand before she could get down onto the ground where she seemed to be going. I looked down into her eyes and shook my head slightly, a bit of a pouty frown on my lips.
"You promised you'd share the bed with me.. " I reminded her quietly and before she could argue with me I gently pulled her fully back to her feet. I practically dragged her back towards the bed before climbing into it, giving her hand a little tug as if asking her to join me on it.
I looked up at her with the best puppy eyes I could muster though I probably looked more sad than I did hopeful.

There were a couple reasons why I was fighting so hard to share the bed with her. I knew that if she was close to me the bad memories were much less likely to disturb my sleep as I would have the comfort she made me feel to keep them away. Another reason was because the room was cold and the floor was no place for her. The final and most selfish reason was because I wanted to be close to her in general and I wanted to be as close to her as I had been earlier when we were just leaned against the wall quietly speaking to one another.
That had been eye-openingly pleasant for me. I longed to feel the same sensation again.

I find it very unreasonable that she should even think about thanking me for awakening her. If she had been having a nightmare it was no excuse for the yelling. If she knew what I had been yelling at I doubted that she would have been so forgiving. That was another thing that was bothering me about all of this. It seemed that she hadn’t even been worried what the uproar was about. She hadn’t asked me what I had been freaking out about and gotten an answer yet. She didn’t pressure me about it at all actually. It was like she had tunnel vision right now. All she could see was the walkway in front of her and my face. She didn’t look and wonder why my dress was covered in dirt or why my arms glowed. She didn’t look anywhere than my eyes when she did turn to talk to me. It was almost like she didn’t want to see it and really, I was fine with that.

“I don’t care if you were having a nightmare or not. It’s inexcusable for me to be waking you up” I nod simply. I knew that she didn’t believe that. It seemed that she kept me from being in the wrong, even when I deserved it. Really, sometimes I felt that she needed to be mad at me. She was very passive about the things I did and it wasn’t the best way to be. Maybe it was because she was used to only being around children that knew no better, but I wasn’t a child. I wasn’t sure that she realized that she could get angry with me. She came up with an excuse in her mind as to why there was no reason to be mad. She saw the sunshine of everything when there was no sun down here.

As we’ve made it into the room and she heads to the bed, I head for the floor, like I had been before. She stops me before I can get sat down at all. She shook her head, giving me a frown, her lips stuck out as if she was trying to pout. She mentions that I promised her and I sigh quietly.
“If you keep making that face, it’ll get stuck like that” I grumble the words knowing that I had been beaten. She knew that I didn’t break promises. No matter what it was, she knew damn well that if I promised it, I would break it. When it came to getting what she wanted out of me, the girl was no fool.

I shake my head, pulling myself up off my feet. Before I really have a chance to tell her no or yes or really anything, she’s pulling me to the bed. I can’t help but chuckle, only lightly at her. I wasn’t sure why she wanted a bed partner besides maybe keeping warmer in the chill of the room. The only other reasons I could come up with didn’t seem to fit her. She tugs on my hand after she has gotten into bed. I follow, sitting on the edge. I shake my head to her, pulling my hand away from hers.

“Let me get my shoes off, since you’re so adamant” I speak, more to myself than to her. It wasn’t aggravating having her right there with me. I sort of found it cute that she wanted me in bed so badly. I lean down, pulling on the laces on my shoes. It doesn’t take me long before I’ve gotten both of my shoes off and my backpack on the ground beside them. I pull myself back up where I’ve bent at the waist, turning slightly to look behind her. I pull my legs up, on at a time, into the bed before turning the rest of my body to face her. “There…are you happy again?” I smile to her, trying to clear my mind of all my thoughts. I look over her a moment before shaking my head. “You should get some sleep, Doll. You look tired” She really didn’t look tired. Of course, I knew that her body was probably worn out form all the running and teleporting and fighting and electrocutions, but she didn’t look tired. I just wanted a reason for her to sleep so it wouldn’t be so obvious that I was still pretty strung out on Adam.

Mira seemed to focus on the fact that she had woken me up from my sleep and was very keen on apologizing to me about it. When I thanked her for having woken me up from the nightmare she immediately dismissed the thanks by telling me that there was no excuse for having disturbed my rest. I felt a mixture of frustration at her not accepting the fact that I did not mind that she had disturbed me as well as a kind of warmth at the fact that she cared about something that seemed so insignificant.
So I allowed her the last word and merely nodded my head to let her know that I understood what she meant.
Of course she was right with everything that she said but in my eyes, there was no way I could have gotten angry over something so small. Disturbing my sleep was not something that would anger me.

I couldn't help but giggle excitedly when I found out that I was going to get what I wanted from her. Perhaps I was being far too enthusiastic about her joining me but it seemed to be rubbing off on her too. A smile came to her lips and she told me to slow myself down so she could get her shoes off before climbing into bed.
I nodded my head quickly and just focused my gaze on her movements as she readied herself for bed. Once her shoes were on the floor she asked me whether I was happy and I quickly nodded my head happily.
She told me that I should get some rest and almost as if on cue I yawned widely.

I settled myself down beneath the covers more or less in the same position I had been in the first time I fell asleep when she had been out of the room. Only this time I knew I was going to have her company in bed with me. Which really sounded a lot less innocent than it was, for the most part anyway.
There was a tiny part of me that wished there was more to our relationship than just the camaraderie we shared as two people fighting for our survival.
But at the same time that thought scared me. How would I know what to do? I had only ever read books about such things.

Quickly I pushed the thought out of my head and I let myself settle down, trying not to focus on anything in particular. My eyes started to get heavy as I laid there waiting but soon enough she joined me under the covers and I was immediately greeted with a rush of warmth. The bed that once had been lonely and cold was now warm and comfortable.
My eyes opened slowly to look up at Mira for a few seconds before they started to close again, fatigue settling down over my senses yet again. I was getting very tired very quickly and with my drowsiness came a lack of control over my emotions as well as my thoughts.
"Hey Mira?" I whispered and hesitated before continuing on with my thought.
"What's it like to fall in love?" I asked her quietly like it was some kind of magical phenomenon. Which really to me it was.

She was greatly enthusiastic about being able to persuade me into sleeping in the same bed as her. She giggled enthusiastically which made me smile. I couldn’t help but thing that she was cute when she did that-- Even if it was wrong for me to think that way. Hell, she was a kid. Well, I was pretty sure that she was still a kid. I didn’t actually know how old she was, just like she didn’t know for me. I felt bad now, calling her a kid when I didn’t even know her age. Yes, she acted like a woman but there were differences in the way I acted and the way she did. It was very hard to explain and sometimes, I thought the roles were switched. Maybe it was that sister part of her coming through that made her seem like a child to me. I sigh quietly, not knowing whether or not it was the chemical part of her. Sometimes I just wanted to know what was chemical and what was real, just so I knew that she was being her without the help of something else. I shake my head, what was I thinking? Adam. I was on a chemical to. I sigh, letting my head fall back on the pillow. What a hypocrite I was turning out to be.

As I tell her that she needed rest, she yawned. I smirk quietly at her. Her eyes were already beginning to grow heavy with sleep. I knew that soon, my would be too, but right now I was enjoying simply watching her slowly fall into a drowsy state. When she got tired, she began getting a little more loose lipped. She catches me off guard as she asks me what it was like to fall in love. I turn slightly towards her a moment before looking back up to the ceiling. It took me a moment before I came up with something that was half-way right.

“Well…It’s happy I guess. At first you start out as just friends and at some point you realize how you feel about that person. You get butterflies in your stomach when they’re around; You want to lay in the crook of their neck to keep warm. They’re the person you’re happiest around all the time and nothing they say could ever make you mad. When you hold hands, you don’t want to let go, even when you know that you’ve got to… I don’t know why you’re asking me. I’ve never fallen in love before.” I halfway look at her as I finish. Really, I never actually claimed to falling ever falling in love with anyone. It was sort of just a mash up of things that I had felt before. I shake my head. “I’m not an expert on love Echo” I shake my head quietly, looking her over a moment. I was probably the last one she wanted to ask about love. Hell, my own father hadn’t loved me and my mother wasn’t really allowed to show me any affection. What did I know about any kind of love?

My body wanted to fall asleep and my mind wanted to get away from the memories that haunted it but at the same time both my body and my mind wanted to stay awake for their own respective reasons that had to do with Mira. My mind wanted to speak to her and learn more about her, or as with my question to her about love, learn more from her experience out in the real world. A world I was not familiar with.
While my body wanted to press closer to her to take in all of her warmth while reveling in the comfort her touch gave me. Even from something as small as a brush of the hand I was able to find comfort in her. Despite the fact that it probably wasn't the best of things to feel.
What would she say if she knew that was how I felt?

That's what had led me on to ask her the question that I did, which seemed to surprise her quite a bit, in the hopes that I would be able to make some sense out of the emotions I was feeling both about her and about everything else around us.
The reason I had chosen to ask her was because I saw her as my elder if not in age then certainly in experience with the workings of the world. While I had been trapped in this very facility, she had been out living the life she lived before everything went to hell. She knew so much this was something I thought she would have experienced.

After a long pause she finally started to explain to me the concept of love as best as she possibly could with what experience she had in the matter. Throughout her explanation my drowsiness brought me in and out of being conscious but I got most of what she said. It took me at least a minute to fully process everything but once I had, I let out another little yawn and I shuffled closer to her, placing a hand on her arm lightly while turning onto my side facing her. Everything she had mentioned sounded very closely to the way I felt about her but I knew there was no way I could be..in love. That was not an emotion I was sure I was capable of. Or was I? Perhaps..perhaps I was. My mind was too woozy to decide at this point though.
"That sounds like fun..let's do that some time." I murmured sleepily before another yawn drew me out of my drowsiness just long enough for me to look up at my companion with a small smile.
"You deserved to be loved.." I added quietly as my eyes began to close on me yet again.

This time they were quite keen on staying shut and my mind once again began the dance of being asleep and begin somewhat awake. I wanted to listen to her reply or whatever kind of response she had to offer me but I was so teetering so close to the edge of sleep I probably could have heard her reply but it would have made its way into a dream.
I was in that state of limbo where I couldn't tell whether I was in a dream or if I was conscious in bed. I only hoped that Mira was going to get some rest as well despite everything that had happened today.

I doubt that the girl hears half of what I’m saying. With every word that I say she falls more and more into her dreamy state. She would open her eyes to look at me a moment or to yawn but that was the only time that she would. At some points I thought that she might have been asleep. It doesn’t seem like she wants to give up on what I’m saying, but at the same time, her body is forcing her to relax further and further.

Soon, she’s stopped yawning and she presses herself close to me. For a moment, I don’t think that she comprehend what she’s doing. She wouldn’t have been pressing so close to me had she known. The words that cross her lips are the last ones she says. I shake my head she said I deserved to be loved. I couldn’t help but smile. Now I knew that she was sleeping. There was no way that those words would cross anyone’s lips directed towards me.

Soon enough, her breathing has softened further and I know that she is asleep. I’m not going to stay up. Even though I know that light fog of Adam had begun to wear off, I wanted to sleep. My body was tired and ached from the long day we had just gone through. Right now, I needed to rest, just like Echo was doing. Without anyone to talk to it was much easier.

I make sure to scoot myself down in the bed a little more. Pulling the covers mainly over Echo, I lay my head on the pillow. I close my eyes, hoping that dreams would not come to me tonight. I didn’t want to be awakened by stupid dreams. After a few minutes, my mind starts to wander until I’m no longer conscious. Sleep fills my vision, and there’s nothing more than darkness for the longest of times.

(I'm sort of getting a little too tired to post. I'm sorry for how lame this one turned out. I'm going to go to bed and sleep and I'll reply in the morning. Sorry!)

Thankfully this time around there were no nightmares, there were no yells, but most of all there were no memories either. My mind must have been too tired to conjure up even the simplest of dreams and just left me to sleep undisturbed for the longest of times. Perhaps it was the fact that everything around me made for the perfect sleeping environment.
I was exhausted from the huge distance we had covered the day before, the bed was amazingly comfortable even after many months of not being used at all, and I was warmed by the person laying next to me whom, at some point in the night, I ended up snuggling into quite closely in my sleep.
Whatever the reason was though I was very thankful for it. I needed rest especially in order to get over the physical strain my body had gone through.

---

By the time I was slowly drawn out of my deep slumber it must have been late afternoon of the following day though that was very hard to determine without a clock of some kind. The very object the people in the facility had done their very best to keep anyone from getting their hands on. They did not want their subjects to know what time, day, or year it was so that everything could go on their schedule and they would not get questions about any of it.
And so I was left to simply guess how long we had been asleep for as my senses slowly came back to me and I opened my eyes after I had mustered up the strength to do so. It was then that I found that my face had been buried in Mira's shoulder and that both my arms had come to wrap around her arm like it was a stuffed animal that comforted me during the night.
I would have blushed with embarrassment had it not been for the fact that she had not caught me cuddling her. Which was something I was not sure she would have been happy with.

I let out a quiet little yawn and tried to rest my eyes some more. One could never rest too much especially when the other was not showing any signs of life just yet. There was no reason to wake her either. Hell, we were probably going to end up staying in this place for at least another day to resupply and rest some more before moving on for the remainder of our journey. What was probably going to be the more difficult half of the trek.
I had just begun to drift back into a light doze when I heard something that made my eyes snap open again. It was faint but somewhere in the distance I had heard something. In the silence of the room it had been hard to miss which was what made it stand out.

I strained my ears to listen for the sound. At first it seemed like my mind was playing tricks on me but then the sound made its way into the room from out in the long hallway. It was hard to tell what the sound was but whatever it was, it was getting closer.
Slowly I detangled myself from the comfort of Mira's side and I sat up, focusing my gaze on the door of my room. About a minute passed before the sound was heard again and this time it was even closer.
My eyes widened and I turned, giving Mira a gentle but urgent shake in an attempt to wake her up as quietly as possible.
"Something's coming.." I whispered in explanation the moment I saw signs of her waking up.

(I understand completely! I was pretty much falling asleep while waiting for your reply. I'm surprised I managed to write one back. I'll see you tomorrow)

When sleep finally came, it was welcomed. The warmth of our two bodies mixed into a nice comfortable sphere that we both took shelter in. At some time during the night, we mingled until we were closer together than we had ever been before. The warmth was just so inviting. Naturally, we couldn’t keep away. No nightmares came, and for that I was very thankful. I wondered, just before I had fallen asleep whether or not those girls from the hallway would come to visit me. Maybe something thought I had enough torture for one day, so during the simple movements of sleep, I was allowed to rest without consequences.

I sleep longer than Echo, and I do not wake up through the night. My body does not want me to be pulled out of sleep for anything. I am disturbed though by two hands pushing against me. I am awake now, but I swat the movements away and turn over. It takes my mind a minute to roll over what she’s saying, but once it’s sunk in I jolt up, looking at the door and listening. It’s only a few seconds before I look to her a moment, shaking my head. I didn’t hear anything. I look back towards the door in wait. I pull myself out of bed, one foot planting on the cold ground at a time. I reach for my weapon, pulling up into my arms. It’s only then that I hear the noise. It’s much less than I would have expected and I look back to her for a moment. Was she sure that it wasn’t just a rat? I shook my head, looking at the door for a moment. No—something told me that she was right, as was per usual.

I wasn’t sure if I should wait in bed, gun trained on the door in waiting for whatever it was to come through. Really, we had a good enough point of view that when whoever it was opened the door, they would be blasted away in a second. I look back to her before shuffling myself out of the warm welcoming bed and into the cold world that had surrounded us. There is no speaking out in the hallway, and I wonder if it’s a simple traveling splicer. We could never be too careful though.

I stop only a few steps from the bed before turning around and leaning in to her. My weapon was trained on the door, but it something walked in, I wouldn’t have the time to turn around and fire before someone else got to it first.

“Stay here. I’ll go look. If anything comes in that isn’t me, kill them” My words are quiet as I look at her. I didn’t want her going out there and ending up getting hurt. Yes, it was probably better for her to go out since she could regenerate, but at the moment I felt like it was my time to protect us.

I take slow steps toward the door. For being so forcefully woken up from my slumber, I wasn’t drowsy and I wasn’t tired. My mind was focused on the one thing ahead of me. I was still debating whether or not I should just stay in here. If there were more than one of whatever it was, I stood no chance against them unless they were just rats, but I had heard a door open. They couldn’t have been rats.

Whatever the sound was it was very distant but I knew that it was more than just some little rodent skittering through the hallways. No. It was the soft sound of metal touching metal and the sound of someone passing through one or two of the many doors that lined the hallways of the containment sector where we had taken refuge.
There was no telling how large or small the person moving around was but whoever it was, they were clearly searching for something. It was like they had sensed our presence and they were looking for the people who had wandered into their territory.
A lone Splicer perhaps? It was always possible.

It took Mira a moment or two to wake up fully but once my words had sunken in, she practically jumped from being asleep to being completely awake. At first I saw a look of doubt in her eyes when there was nothing but silence in the hallways. Then the sound came yet again and the expression changed to concern and worry.
No words needed to be spoken. We were both thinking the very same thing. Something was coming our way.

Mira grabbed her weapon and pulled herself out of bed, carefully moving towards the door that was the only way in or out of the room. She told me to stay where I was and to kill anything that came in through the door that wasn't her.
I parted my lips to protest but then I realized that I was more vulnerable than she was. In my under armor I was neither protected nor did I have full access to my powers. She was much more fit to fight at this very moment than I was. So I nodded my head slightly though I prepared myself for anything,

The last sound came from right outside the door and then there was a long silence. A terrifying silence. The kind of silence where a person could count their own heart beats as well as those of the person next to them. For a moment I even considered the possibility of it being our imaginations and it just so happened that we were hearing the same hallucination.
Then there was an explosion of noise and movement. The door was flung open, it's hinges breaking free from the wall with a loud crack, and a figure flew through the sudden opening straight towards the closest person to the door which was Mira.
It pounced on her, knocking the gun away from its direction with its hand preventing her from getting a direct shot off, while pinning her to the ground. In the darkness all of this was just a blur of motion.

"Mira!" I cried before throwing myself at the creature from my place on the bed, tackling it off her and onto the ground next to her. Immediately I felt cold fingers wrap around my neck cutting off my air-supply while a fist connected with the side of my chin.
I struggled with the creature on the ground, rolling back and forth, sometimes getting the advantage while others I found myself on the bottom being trashed about like a rag doll. It seemed like no matter what I did, the creature took no damage from my attempts to fight back.
Suddenly in the complete darkness a red glow began to appear in the form of a circle that illuminated the room just enough to reveal the creature we were fighting.

I found myself staring straight up into the glowing red porthole visor of a Big Sister. Immediately my entire body froze and I felt a mixture of emotions move through me. Fear for my life, as I now knew what I was fighting, but also a strange kind of excitement, because for the first time I found myself face to face with one of my own kind.
"Mira, freeze it!" I grunted as I struggled with the Sister to keep its hand from finding my neck yet again. I did not want her to kill the Sister, just stun it.

It stood right outside the door now. Whatever it was made no attempts to his the quiet noises it made. Then, the noise stops. I watch the door a moment, wondering if whatever it was could have just left, but I doubted it. There was something in my stomach telling me that this was going to get very bad, very quickly. I take another slow step towards the door.

In the moments that pass before me, I’m not exactly sure what happens. The door is thrust off its hinges with such a force, and something comes barreling through the door at me. It knocks me to the ground, whatever it is, causing me to hit my head on the ground. My vision blurs a little bit but I’m able to keep conscious. I hear my name being called out as I try to get out from under the thing that was now attempting to pin me to the ground. Soon the form is gone and I’m left with nothing but air on top of me.

I can barely see anything in the darkness and I scramble up, feeling for the weapon that had been knocked out of my hand with the sudden movement. I can hear Echo and the creature struggling behind me. I start charging my plasmids as I look around for the weapon that I still couldn’t find. My veins began to glow again as the plasmid gained power. It was stronger today than yesterday since I had taken in my bit of Adam. By the time I find the weapon, I hear Echo screaming for me to freeze it.

I could have killed it easily with the weapon that I now gripped in my hand, but I did what I was told. Holding out my left hand, I release the powerful plasmid I had been charging. It had been just enough to freeze the creature where it was on top of Echo. Normally, it would have taken a lot longer charging to freeze a creature so large, and as I make my way closer to it, I see why she had me freeze it. I take in a short breath, pulling Echo out from under the creature.

“Let’s kill her and take her-“ I stop myself, watching the ice sculpture that I had made. Really, I had to watch what I said around her. Now that I knew what it was, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to easily do what I normally one to a sister that had attacked me. The Adam in the sister was valuable, and really, it was more important than a machine. This was a machine. Unlike Echo, it couldn’t differentiate from enemy and friend. I pull my hand up to the back of my head where it had made contact with the ground. I feel around for any blood or tender spots, but the hit had only left me with a nasty headache.

“What do you suppose we do?”