Chapter 6 : Rat
Are you a cat person? Or a dog person? Are you an animal lover in general? Do you love it when they walk around you awaiting food? When you order them and they listen with cute gestures that make you feel powerful and good? Are dogs and cats truly in need of our care? Or is it because we endangered their habitat that they had to stand aside and stay behind our walls of ownership for protection? In that matter, what made it possible for us to gain that power? Was it a given the moment we had our entity proclaimed by the universe? Was it when we first came across the source of heat? Or was it because our mutations happened to be in favor of Earth's demands? Wouldn't that be one of the reasons why our species roamed as gods in the greek revolution?
The only competition that stays after evolving far beyond the favor of gods is ourselves. Each human will seek a way to be the one that makes up for everything else. Through being a good person, or through directing the sensitive part of our society to a miserable case, showcasing the wrongdoings of our past ancestors.
It is the way the world ask us to be, it gives us a set of choices and leaves the rules for us to craft. We give rules based on our experience with failures, or we give ingenious rules that defy the mechanisms of how we thought the game of choices works.
" One rule is all it takes, to lead a new path. "
Claire had this motto in her head since she got her first four by three apartment. Claire was the happiest person of her age, she bought a small studio and filled with jasmine and soft cushions. She never liked the hardwood as they were expensive in the market, plus a four by three would barely make room for her feet to stretch and lie down the bed on top of her desk. This is where she had believed that life is right when you commit to one single rule. " if you chose to do something stick with it no matter what "
This single line got her to one of the best universities on Earth. As far as her memory lasts, she had parents whom she loves very much, except her parents were never aware of her existence. She was thrown out of the house the moment they found out her on a pornographic website, with her legs describing the amount of time she put into it, as sixteen years old...
Claire didn't have affection for things, but she tried forcing her depression on sexuality. She had to go through her fear of death, by blowing guys whom she had seen bullying and tormenting during her high school days. And all these events happened right after one night when the lights all over the world switched off and on; The lights of the sun, as well as the lights of Claire's tears, that one night. She remembers clearly what happened that day, as she turns herself to face the window, a glimpse of a wave came towards her after she woke up, the furniture she had in pink was blue and slightly different, or old. It felt to Claire that she wasn't herself when she met her parents. She still wonders if those people were really speaking the truth. Something that day felt different since she doesn't remember having parents. She started facing the reality of things with a twist of heart. Her pleasure was: lusting the bullies and eating their hearts. Then eating them literally. Claire changed her identity but kept her name intact. She went to live in a four by three apartment with the money she saved with her clean hands. Ever since that light came through her eyes, whatever was in her mind as a thought, becomes a reality. All of the thoughts soon became realities, all because of that one rule.
Except, the reality is that when you force your own thoughts into the earth, there has to be something that goes away. You cannot have your way with life if life itself is defined as a cycle. Claire had to give her rule more power. She had to think of something that creates a loop over her rule...
Claire found joy in selling houses but she found more joy in selling them higher than a rocket's price. She loved torturing parents by making their children carve for the place. She liked looking at the depressed faces of humans and making sure those faces last longer. But her way was always right and clean, never had she sell something to the wrong customer, because to her, there was no wrong customer. A poor salaryman with a three-figure can buy a big house that fits his loan for generations. He gets happy because he's convinced that this is a lifetime opportunity and that all his money is guaranteed saved. And he keeps believing it till the last of his days because he cannot afford to look at it the bad way. Claire makes their loan faster and reliable, she even made a company specifically for loans with her clients. The amount of money she made from the depression of others was so high it became a boring thing to do. But she kept doing it because her rule was that. She kept torturing and milking away every penny. Her company grew and many competitors tried buying her off. They were trying to compete with Claire, and Claire didn't bat an eye on them. Claire's objectives were the priority, she wasn't motivated by greed or by lust for riches. In fact, she was motivated by nothing but keeping the rule. Eventually, she beat her competitors in the dog race. And the ideas of retail gotten more bright than ever. She bought hospitals and made them by her name then provided all the researches in the facility. And through this choice, she found out about how profitable pharmaceutical products are, especially in the black market. She moved half her worth into the domain and by the end of the year, she made ten times what she had initially expected to gain. Claire's authority was that most high figures slept with her and can be blackmailed at any moment. Claire was good at being the black shadow, but to her, the hardest part is to keep the rule and she kept it for fifteen years. That is, until the one day she looked at someone and felt horrified...
' Wake up! ' Eigrene's face is on Julie's tighs. Julie is struggling to wake up, her eyes are barely moving.
' wake up Julie! Its time to eat breakfast, we can't afford to be late ' Eigrene is hovering around Julie forcing her to wake up. Julie is walking but unconscious, she is still in confusion of what happened in the dream. Her legs hurt but there are no bruises except the feeling of being pushed. There were suddenly maids around the house, wearing red blouses with brown pants all the way to the knees. Some of the maids had blue shirts, but they all had white masks on, and Eigrene walked past them without even looking at them. Julie was going to the breakfast table outside the building. It was a garden terrace, fresh tomatoes and bananas being the main trees. And there was a gazebo in the center with sixteen chairs and a black round table. The table could move up or down with a slight push from the fingertip, and the chairs changed forms the moment Julie and Eigrene sat on them. They were lowered then adjusted the curves to suit the back of each, then pushed lightly to the table for a perfect alignment with the food in front of them. The food was a fantasy of its own, white zanjabeen with a fish straight from the oven cooked over charcoal with fresh tomatoes, onion rings, and ginger being sprinkled on top. The dessert was a flan made using oats milk combined with sugar, vanilla's spirit, and white cheese. The fish was sliced and had every bone and eye taken away from it. The softness of it was so tasty Julie forgot about how great that chair is. Eigrene was eating part of the desert but that was all. She looks down and stirr her spoon for a moment then get up and leave the table without speaking. Julie was squeaking in the meantime, she didn't enjoy a meal like this before, the bitterness, the sweetness being munched across her lungs, it made her satisfied. It made her feel like herself again, the beauty of the terrace gave her morning a joyful start but the anxiousness she grew while looking at Eigrene's character was worse. Julie finished up her meal in a hurry, she felt that so long as Eigrene did not like it, it would be that something's wrong with the meal. No matter how good the scene is, if Eigrene were not to enjoy it, Julie won't be able to. Julie has only one person that shares memories with her, and it feels weird how Eigrene's mood swings the moment she sits in a food table.
Eigrene suddenly disappeared...
Julie went to her room, then tried going upstairs, but there weren't any. There was no hallway with no doors, there was no glass-ical garden. None of what she dreamed of. Moreover, there was no Eigrene. Apparently, all the doors are locked except Julie's. Even the big front door is locked with no doorknob or door lock to open it. It felt strange, how Julie did not notice all the locked doors up until the disappearance of Eigrene. She went back to the gazebo, but it was also locked. The only place where she could possibly go to her room. It made Julie feel uneasy, she was locked with no one to talk to. There was no window other than the big one in the ceiling, that's far from her eyesight. What is going on? Where is she supposed to go to now? This feels like a rat box. Food opens up during a time, and then everything closes. If you try looking into things you dream of getting beaten up. Is Eigrene aware of this? Is this why she didn't like eating in the garden, and the dinner table? Is it because she knew about the cage? Is it because Claire is trying to protect us from going outside? aunt Claire is a nice person to me, she's probably worried that I would be harmed. The food is delicious, and the place isn't as gloomy, everything is neatly cleaned and I am free to roam around the room, read whatever I want. Where is Eigrene?
Where is Eigrene? ...
Julie remembers the time for dinner and the time for breakfast. She has to look a the clock, maybe Julie will know at least the time she might meet Eigrene again. Maybe Eigrene went to her room to sleep or study or do something of her business. Eigrene is a friendly person, and being in this cage for so long would make her carve for new things. Julie went around the Mansion for a while, she looked at every door to see how caged was she. The more she went around, the more she started noticing how the Mansion was carefully designed. Each door has a different shape and they somehow resemble the room they are in. downstairs is doorless, but there are doors across the end of each side of the Mansion. Upstairs, on the other hand, has doors with different shapes but with the same color, crimson. After a few inspections Julie gets back to her room, she was thinking of reading the books. They felt familiar, maybe they were hand-picked by Eigrene. As she enters her room, the door is automatically locked. She looks at the clock, and it was seven o'clock. The clock did not change from yesterday, and the time can't be right since she had breakfast not long ago. There was sunlight coming from the right time of breakfast. She did not notice it again, but her room was also without a doorknob. Her heart is beating harder and the feeling of a knife slicing it slowly wounding Julie with a blue liquid. She felt it slowly getting into her. What is happening? Julie tries to sit for a moment and remember how she got her, her conversation with Aunt Claire, Claire leaving, her meeting with Eigrene, Eigrene not talking when Claire was around, then at breakfast, then there is the dream she had.
Claire never talked about Eigrene. Why is that? Julie started making a stronger emotion block, the block of a doubt. Real doubt, when you question about the Other as an entity. Julie is full of questions at the moment, but no one is there to answer. Suddenly a phone rings, but it's outside her room. Julie turns around and finds the doorknob right behind her, in the usual place, attached to the door. What is going on? she opens the door and reaches for the phone with skips of her heartbeats. The slimy phone that rings with the tone of a dead toy.
' Julie my dear! I'm coming home today for dinner, be sure to be downstairs by eight ' Claire said the words and then hang up on Julie's slow breath. Julie was too stunned to understand, she put the phone in its place, rather she thought about taking it inside her room, but couldn't. There was a wire linking it to the wall, the wire is yellow. She couldn't go back to her room because it felt caged. The mansion became her freedom, and she felt that there is a way to answer all these questions, at dinner that is. She kept inspecting the door, touching the doorknob in and out, getting the feeling of reality, and the doubt of her own thoughts. Was it because she found out that most doors have no locks that she couldn't see this one? Maybe her agitation is what made her not see her own doorknob and she locked herself by her own speculations. Julie sat near the door with her hands pushing her lips.
Where is Eigrene?
Julie was asking this question to skip the previous subject, "Eigrene", because of the reassurance of the fact that she is not alone in the cage. She went back to her room while leaving one slipper at the edge of her door so that it won't get locked by itself. She wants to see if the clock is also just an imagination. The clock was not ticking, but there was a sound of it. It's not reasonable for Eigrene to look at the clock if it weren't working. How would she know the exact time for dinner yesterday? Was it accurate that we went to the dinner table at nine? It was night as far as Julie remembers at the moment, but the weird part is that Julie couldn't have spent hours before that just playing with Eigrene. Julie remembers the sunset when she was traveling in the limousine, but the sun was still up when they reached the mansion. Is it because It took more than a day to reach this place? But the sun at the time suggested that it was lunch time, this means that it really took hours to play with Eigrene, which makes no sense. The only way to confirm the loophole is through the existence of the lunchtime. If it exists and she meets Eigrene, then she was mistaken, but if it doesn't then something really is happening in this mansion. Julie has no choice but to wait in her room for Eigrene to come.
But where's Eigrene?
...