Past

Mary sat on her chair, looking at Lucius's writing.

I don't quite remember what my life was like before coming here. He wrote. But I do remember the time when I was made into an experiment.

Mary looked up, wanting to ask him about his experience.

"What was it like when-" Mary stopped.

She didn't want to continue asking. She saw Lucius wearing a sad expression on his face as if he had an experience he didn't want to recall.

Mary remained silent while Lucius turned his sight to Mary and gave her a confused hissed. Then, he wrote.

Do you want to know my experience?

Mary saw his words and shouted in disbelief.

"How...How did you know!?"

He smiled slightly and continued to write.

Do you remember that time when I told you, I didn't lose my sanity?

"Yea, I remember."

That was the part, I regretted the most.

Mary wanted to ask him more but she didn't dare to. She was worried about him telling her all this. The way he looked was so painful as if he was reminded of a miserable memory he wanted to erase. Even though he was sad, he didn't stop writing. His hands were trembling as he wrote.

"You don't have to say it if you don't want to."Mary said. She didn't want to see him forcing himself.

He shook his head and continued writing. I saw...His hands were trembling even more madly. I saw my brother ripping our mother apart, eating her flesh. Her blood dripped down onto the floor. My brother's clothes, mouth and hands were stained with her blood.

I ran towards him, wanting to stop him from eating our mother. But I was pinned down by the doctor's assistant, Peeves. I still remember the doctor's smile.

He looked at me, smiling and said."You are really special, I need to say. You're the first one to still stay conscious after that. But...you miss an important thing, I wanted." Then, he sat in a chair, looking at my brother ripping my mother's flesh, smiling.

My brother suddenly snapped out of it, he went back to consciousness. I could hear him, crying and shouting when he saw our mother's ripped and dead body. And that was when the doctor's smile turned even wider and he asked me. "How do you feel seeing such a scene? Don't you feel like wanting to join him?"

I didn't dare to answer him, I was scared. I was crying and screaming. I was-

Suddenly, a drop of tears landed on the book. Mary looked up at him and saw tears flowing down his face.

"Lucius..." Mary spoke, worriedly.

Lucius glanced at Mary and forced a smile on his face, wiping his tears away. His tears kept flowing down his face as he wipe.

"Lucius, are you alright?"

Lucius nodded.

Mary opened her mouth, wanting to comfort him but was stopped by Lucius. He held his hand up to stop her from talking to him and slithered away.

He slithered out of the door and vanished from behind.

"I knew it...I knew I shouldn't have asked that."Mary mumbled to herself." Now...He's sad because I reminded him of his past...I shouldn't have asked."

Mary placed her feet on her chair and curled up, her knees on her chest. She sat, waiting for Lucius to calm down and come back in.

She sat there for what felt like half an hour, suddenly, there were knocking sound coming from the door.

She glanced up and saw Lucius standing by the door. He shut the door behind him and slithered to a chair next to Mary.

His eyes were red from crying. He sat next to her quietly, staring at her. Mary stared back at him and said.

"Do you want to leave?"

Lucius nodded and looked back to his book.

He reached his hand out and closed the book. He took his pen and they both went out of the dining room.

Neither of them spoke to each other, Lucius wasn't in the mood to say anything. While Mary was afraid, she would accidentally bring up his horrible memory.

Suddenly, they heard several clacking sounds coming from the second floor. They both look up.

Unexpectedly, the spot on the ceiling, where Lucius was standing, broke and a huge centipede-like creature swished down. It was too quick for both of them to react.

It used its fangs to grab Lucius by the neck and snatched him away, leaving Mary behind.