Drinking It Down, Taking It In

There's only two showers in this house. [somewhat unsurprising.] When you get into the shower, the water is not cold, and is actually quite warm, [a good type of surprising]. There's soap that the kid told you to use, so you decide that you will.

You finish showering and get out of the shower. [I forgot to get a...towel?] You wrap yourself with a towel that was hanging on a rack, and you suppose is for you, and dry yourself off. As you do, you look down at the floor, at the place where you had thrown your wet clothing, but they're not there. [where did they go? What am I suppose to wear?] Then you look up ahead and notice that there are clothes laid out for you on the sink. You walk up to them and see what's there: A black short sleeved shirt and some dark blue shorts. Some underwear as well. You lift up the black shirt and notice that beneath it there's a plain white, mid-length sleeve shirt. You are deciding which one to wear, and decide to just wear both, you still feel a bit cold anyway. [layering helps.]

You quickly finish putting the clothes on and wrap your wet hair in the towel before walking towards to door frame to exit the bathroom. The door frame is covered with another light curtain, a bit similar to the one that had been covering the beds, but this one had two layers, and it's a different color.

As you part the curtains, you hear a voice to your right say, "You're finally out, I need to shower too you know."

It's the kid named Bain, and he's sitting down on a waiting seat to your right. "But hey, thanks for saving me," he says.

Then he motions on something on your left, so you look to your left, and it seems he was pointing at what seem to be four different pairs of footwear placed in front of another waiting seat. He hands you a pair of black socks and motions towards the footwear again, "Pick one you like and then wear them. I just picked some that were gently worn and small, they're my mom's old shoes. Granny wouldn't want you to be walking around without shoes on," he explains.

You're still wondering where your clothes went though, and start to question him, "Do you know where-"

"Oh, your clothes? I put them in the laundry bin in the washing room over there at the end of the hallway," he says as he motions with his hand to his right. "I see you're wearing the clothes I picked for you," he adds. "By the way," he starts, "Are you a girl or a boy?"

"huh? uhmmm...I'm..not quite sure," you sound out.

"...What? ...do you have boobs?" he questions.

You give him a confused look. [boobs?]

"Like lumps on your chests," he says as he makes a curve motion with his hands on his chest.

You think about it. "Then I'm probably a girl," you respond.

"Granny is a girl and wears bra's, if you're a girl, we probably don't have any in your size. But since it seems you have small boobs, you might not need a bra. You weren't even wearing one before, since I put your laundry in the basket..., but I still wanted to make sure," he explains, "When Granny comes back, if you want, she can take you shopping with the other sitter's tomorrow."

"Okay, thank you," you say.

"Yeah, your welcome. And you're welcome for also getting that towel for you. But for future showers, make sure you bring a towel with you. The towels are located in the first white cabinet with the letters labeled: T-O-W-E-L-S," he says.

"Thanks," you reply with a smile.

"You should head to the kitchen. The guy sitter told me to tell you that, he finished showering already."

"Oh okay. Where?" you ask, not knowing where the kitchen is.

"Just go down a floor, take the stairs, and when you come to a split in the hallway, make a right turn...you know what a kitchen looks like right? Or do I need to guide you there?" Bain questions.

"No, it's fine," you reply. [of course you know what a kitchen looks like.]

"Great! Now move out of the doorway so I can take a shower," he says as he grabs a towel, a neatly folded change of clothes, and a different bow then the one he had been wearing before, (it's a lighter shade of pink), that had been next to him. [...now that I think about it, why's he wearing a bow?]

You quickly move out of the way, allowing him to pass and go into the bathroom. "...enjoy your shower," you say.

"yeah okay weirdo. Get to the kitchen. Oh, and don't forget to put on a pair of shoes," he replies.

You give a slight nod and take a seat on the waiting seat to your left. You slip the black socks you were holding onto your feet and then glance down at the shoes. You try them on, but only one pair fits you. They're white sandals with tan bottoms. They're in good condition and clean. It does seem weird to wear them with socks, but you don't really care, and you put them on. [it's whatever...doesn't look too bad I guess.]

You get off the seat and stand yourself up. Then you head towards the spiral stairs on your left, at the end of the hallway. You descend and make it onto the floor below the showers. As you make your way to the kitchen, you look at the photos hanging in the hallway, and the doorways to rooms covered with other curtains, making sure to not look down at the hollowed out flooring below you. You stick close to the wall, with your left foot touching the small amount of normal flooring.

You make it to the kitchen, and as you go through the kitchen entrance, you see that the boy Eloy is at the stove pouring what looks to be smoking water into some cups. He turns around when he hear's your footsteps and motions to the wooden table in front of you.

"Sit down. Lemonade, hot chocolate, or tea?" he asks.

"Ummm...," you say as you make your way to the table.

"Just decide. I already asked my sister and the kid what they wanted to drink," he says.

You sit down in a seat at the table that faces the counter and you watch him. [lemonade? hot chocolate?? tea???] You don't know what these "drinks" he's talking about are.

You hear him loudly mutter, "This old lady, only putting out three cups. Where is her cupboard...?" As he opens another cabinet, he turns to you, "made up your mind yet?" he asks sarcastically.

"I'll have all three," you say. You figure that since you don't know what they taste like, you can figure it out whether you like them and which one you prefer by tasting all three of them.

"...okay?" he says as he gives you a weird look. Then he turns back to continue opening cabinets. "Where the fuck-...oh, here they are," he says. [guess he found the cups.]

You just sit and watch until he brings the cups filled with the "drinks" over. He places three cups in front of you, and goes to get other cups. He places two cups in front of one empty chair, and one large cup in front of another empty chair. He places the fourth cup in front of himself and takes a seat at the table.

You're still staring at the different colored liquids in the cups, trying to figure out which is which, and not really sure if you even want to drink them. Apparently you were staring at the cups to long, and Eloy was watching you.

"What are you doing?" he says, startling you a bit, causing you to do a little jump in your seat. You were staring too intently at the cups and had been completely focused on observing the cups. "Drink your drinks before one of them gets warm, and the other two of them get cold," he says as he drinks his drink.

You look back down at the three cups in front of you and then back at him.

"What? What is it?" he says as he places his cup down onto the table.

"uh...which is which?" you say pointing at the cups.

"What?" he asks again.

You give a brief sigh and say, "so uh,...which one is hot chocolate, which one is tea, and which one is the lemonade?" as you point to the cups again.

"Are you serious? You're not kidding me right now are you?" he says as he takes another gulp of his drink.

"uh, no?" you say back.

"You can't be serious," he says as he starts laughing, almost spitting out his drink.

"What's going on?" a voice says. The girl walks in with a confused look on her face as she heads towards the table. "Also, the kid's still showering, but he'll be out soon," she says as she takes a seat in the empty chair with the large smoking cup.

"Sis, get this. This dude seriously doesn't know what drinks these are," Eloy says as he motions towards the cups in front of you.

"No way! Are you sure?" she says as she faces him. He just nods and keeps laughing, and then she turns to you. "Hey, what drinks do you know then, you do know what water is right?" she asks looking concerned.

"Yes, of course I know what 'water' is, and I even know what 'ice' is for your information. I know 'milk' as well and I also like 'juice'," you say and then point to one of the steaming cups, "it's usually this color, but it doesn't smoke like this...," you end your explanation.

Now Eloy is laughing even harder, and the girl is trying to hold her laughter in, but is clearly chuckling, so you pout at them.

"What? Whatever these drinks are, I've never heard of them before or tasted them either!" you say exasperatedly.

The siblings keep laughing, and then the kid walks into the kitchen, walks towards the table and turns to you before taking the seat next to you with two cups. "What's up with those two?" Bain asks you.

You give a small sigh and start to explain, "They started laughing when I asked them to tell me what drinks were in front of me," waving to the siblings and then to the cups in front of you. "I told them what drinks I did know, but they're still laughing," and you give an upset look and pout, then turn to the siblings and glare at them.

"Oh, I got it," Bain exclaims, smiling widely. "I get why they're laughing, but don't worry, I'll tell you. This first cup with the yellow liquid and ice..., those cubes there-" and at this the siblings are laughing louder. [probably because Bain just tried to explain 'ice' to me like I'm an idiot.]

"Hey! Calm down a bit!" Bain tells them. Eloy and his sister are still laughing, but now at low levels and have enough time to catch their breaths and watch Bain explain the drinks to you.

"So, this first one is lemonade, it tastes slightly sour, but also sweet. This second cup has hot chocolate in it, it's a rich brown color and it tastes sweet like chocolate. This one here with the orange-ish clear tone is tea, it seems to be honey tea from the smell," Bain tells you.

"Oh okay...so what's with the smoke?" you ask, as it's been bothering you for a while and was part of the reason why you didn't feel like drinking two out of the three drinks.

"Smoke?? Oh, you mean 'steam', that's just how you can tell when the drink is hot or warm. The lemonade is cold since it has ice, so it doesn't steam," he replies while smiling.

"Good to know," you reply as you begin to taste each drink.

"How do they taste? You like them?" Bain asks. "I'm pretty sure I saw some apple juice in one of their cabinets if you want to drink that instead," Eloy adds on.

"They taste good, I like them," you say excitedly. "But...I don't think it tastes very good to drink them all together," you say as you swish your head.

"Which one do you want to drink then? We can drink the rest of the other's for you," the girl says.

"hmm..., I like the hot chocolate one," you say.

"Okay then," the girl says as she takes the lemonade and pushes it towards Bain, "you like lemonade right," she says to him. He doesn't refuse, and drinks it. That would be Bain's third cup of lemonade.

And then she takes the cup of tea and pushes it towards her brother. He pushes it back towards her, "Yeah no. I don't drink what others have taken a sip from," he says to her. "You said you would take care of it, so you drink it," he tells her.

"...you know I don't like or drink tea," she tells him.

"Not my problem," he responds.

"It's fine," you say and take the cup back. "I can drink it, I finished drinking the hot chocolate drink anyway."

"Problem solved," Eloy says, as his sister visibly jabs his shoulder with her elbow.

"Now then," Eloy begins, "back to what we were discussing before when you almost drowned and the kid almost died, do you have any questions...uh...what's your name?"

You think about it for a bit. As far as you remember, most people have only called you "you" or "it", but you're pretty sure those aren't actual names. Then you remember a line you had repeated multiple times: 'I will serve you till death do us part.'

"I, my name is I," you tell Eloy.

"...like the single letter 'I'?" he questions you, while his sister and Bain are now just staring at you in disbelief. "That can't really be your name right?" Bain asks.

"It could be," you tell them. " 'I will serve you till death do us part', and the 'I' is me, isn't it?" you ask.

The three of them stare at you, and then the girl speaks, "...that's...that isn't a real name. That's a bit...uh, different," she says as she holds one of your hands, like she's about to tell you some heartbreaking news.

Then, Eloy's face get's another shocked look, like he's realized something. "You. You aren't a sitter are you?" He says. "You must be one of those kids! You only drink water, milk, and sometimes juice...you don't know what types of monsters are here, and you think it's fine to sleep at night!"

"There's no way!" Bain chimes in, "She couldn't be?"

"Yeah, I think she's a...wait....She?" Eloy pauses. He gives a confused look.

"Oh my gosh how could I have not thought of it," Bain continues, "you look like a girl and a boy, but there are other people who also look like that, so I just thought of it was nothing, but now that I think about it, most of them look like they are both genders!"

"No way, you couldn't be," the girl says as she clasps your hands tighter. "You're not a substitute, are you?" she asks you.

"A substitute?" you ask, "what's that?"

"No no no, this can't be happening! Substitutes don't know they're substitutes, and that "I serve to death verse or whatever is how they keep them loyal!" Bain exclaims, "we learn about this in school!"

You give them confused looks as you don't know what's going on.

"What do we do now? You aren't an escape are you?" Bain asks you worriedly.

"Are we suppose to report this?" Eloy asks Bain and then turns to his sister.

"Okay everyone quiet!" the girl exclaims, and the boys settle down. "...now that I think about it, how did you get here? Into the house. The old lady didn't hire you as a sitter, so how did you get permission to stay?" she asks you.

"Well-" you start until Eloy interrupts you, "she didn't know...,the old lady didn't know! She only put out three cups! You! You are an escape! Ray, let go of her!" he says as he tries to pull his sister's hands off yours.

"Shut up!" she yells, causing Eloy to stop pulling. "Let her speak," she says, and then she turns to you, "we'll listen."

"Woke up...I woke up underneath a tree near the bushes close to this house. I saw the elderly woman and the cow, and I saw you guys go into the house. It was hot outside, so...I followed you guys into the house...," you say as you look down at the table, avoiding their gazes.

"No way, how did we not notice someone follow us?" Eloy starts to say, and then he's shushed by Bain.

"Do you remember how you got under the tree?" Eloy's sister, Ray, asks.

"uhmm...," you say as you try to think. "I can't really remember. It was cold and dark, and then something even darker came. I sat there and waited. I'm sure it got me. But I woke up underneath a tree instead." you try to explain.

"...so you're not an escape," Ray says in awe as she finally loosens her grip on your hands and let's go.

"You're a substitute who was finally sacrificed, but survived somehow!" Bain relishes, "That's so cool!"

"...at least we don't have to turn you in then...since whoever owned you thinks your dead now," Eloy comments.

"yeah, great," you say sourly as you rub your hands, which are now red and actually ache a bit. [talk about strong grip.] "Just so you guys know, I have no idea what's going on," you say, "someone needs to explain."

"Leave it to me!" Bain says, "I'll convince Granny to let you stay, and then I'll tell you all you need to know!" he exclaims happily as he hugs you and then turns to look at a clock.

"It's almost afternoon, so she'll be back soon, Granny is always on time!" Bain says excitedly. "You saved me, so now I'll save you!"