“Dreaming about a snake symbolizes the fidelity of your friendships. If the snake in your dream bites you, watch out for ‘poisonous’ people trying to hurt you when you less expect.”

— What happened to you? — asked Doctor M.

— They thought I needed to learn a lesson and they put me in one of the closed empty rooms with no windows on the orphanage and left me there for some days. No good food, just bad leftovers… — π12-45 answered with a sad voice.

— That was something pretty bad for you. How have you reacted to that?

— I just tried to sleep in there. If I can’t do something, all I could’ve done was waiting.

— Have you slept at that time?

— No. At least, not enough to come back. That place was too close from where the kids were lead before being prepared for the beef stew. I could hear their screaming, how they tried to run away and how they struggled to get out, with no success. I heard him, I heard James there…

— I beg your pardon… Was he killed as well, I presume?

— No.

— No?

— No…

— Then he…

— Joined the cultists. James was trained to serve the tall shadow as a host. Every time I looked at him, he had a grim on his face and his eyes were glowing in this ghostly green color… — π12-45 was trying to avoid saying something. — Do you know what he said to me when he saw me?

— You can say it yourself.

— He said… — it was hard for π12-45 to say it. — He said… “Thank you” and he laughed at me. “That was all I needed to get control over him”. I did the wrong thing… and when he left me, for a moment, I heard James voice echoing in the hall claiming for help.

— You are getting stressed again.

— I can’t help it!

— It’s okay. We weren’t made perfect, just like any human. We are just able to do what we think we can do, we weren’t made to perform every single work possible. We were made to evolve and find our places in the universe. You are free to be simple, but not to be able to do everything you think you should be able to do. That’s how it works.

— I know… I’m not human and I have no soul… but yet, it makes me hopeless… I still want to save him.

— Have you tried to do anything about it?

— There was only one thing I could do it…

__________

After some years living there, when David was already fifteen years old, a new girl arrived at the orphanage. She was a little smaller than David was; she was skinny, dark skin, long straight hair, and dark eyes. She didn’t receive the common treatment to the others. Everyone who got there had his or her hair cut down to be pretty short, but not her. Her hair was long all the time she was there and I noticed she was able to make people obey her after talking to them.

One day, still looking how strange she was around everyone, she came to sit with me in the lunchtime.

— I heard you can see things… — she said and I noticed something within her hair. — Is it true?

— As true as the thing that is controlling you… — I said, seeing the thing moving.

— Hahah… — she laughed out loud. — No one is controlling me silly! I’m the one controlling them!

— Really? How you control them?

— Oh! No, no, no! I’m the one here making the questions! You will only obey me.

— That depends if you can help me with the shadow things I can see.

— I will take it as a yes… — she thought for a moment. — Which things you can see?

— Only the shadow things, I guess… They mostly appear randomly and they are always trying to kill or possess someone, making them do bad things.

— Hun… You can only see the shadow… Have you ever seen what’s behind the shadows?

— I guess I did it once… It looked… human… but twisted…

— Don’t you think they were… demonic? — She asked surprised with my reaction and then lowered her voice tone. — They aren’t… you know… humans…

— You don’t need to lower your voice here. Everyone else here, who can’t see them, can’t remember a thing about what we are talking about. So, yeah, no demoniac, just human. I don’t feel something that evil behind them and, for what I know, they seem to worship them here somehow.

— So… you know about the cult… that makes things simpler for us. I need you to pick their book for me. Then I can see if I can help you with anything.

— A book? Never heard about any book. How do you know about any book?

— Every religion has a book, don’t you know? Supposedly, in this book, there are spells that can teach you how to control them.

— Control them…! — I never thought about that subject before. — Do you really think you can control them?

— With the right book, I can do even what God doubts! I’m a witch!

— Witch? Wasn’t that supposed to be something… not real?

— I am, silly! You can see things; I can control them!

— I don’t think so…

— Are you doubting me?! How dare you! I can break your neck with my powers!

— You don’t have powers… It's the snakes in your head that makes you think that.

— No! I’m a witch! I control them!

— You can say whatever you want. I can hear them whispering exactly what you are saying to me before you say it…

And we said together:

— You are no one! I’m the witch here! Don’t you dare! That’s not possible! How are you doing that?!

— As I said, it’s the snake on your hair controlling you… — I answered. — Do you see that tall guy over there — I pointed to James. — It’s already more than two years since he was possessed by the tall shadow… and not only that, the shadow has a hunchback and he is getting one himself!

— Will you help me or not? — She shouted.

— I am inclined to do it, but what I want the most is to get rid of all those shadow things. They killed plenty of people around me and almost killed my cousin, taking his legs away instead.

— Is your cousin the boy without legs who lives upstairs, in your bedroom?

— Yes… I can say he is…

— What is this?

I was hearing the snakes talking with her and I just answered to them:

— No, I don’t have a soul.

— No! That’s not… That’s impossible!

— Well, you better hear your snakes; they are saying the truth…

— The voices in my head never told me lies… You can’t be… They are saying…

— I am from the future, yes… 3’5XX to be precise.

— How did you get here?

— I have no idea. No one ever saw something like this in history. A person turning into a machine, yes. The opposite, when an artificial conscience takes a human conscience’s place, that’s the first time. How do you know about that?

— The voices are saying it…

— Not you! The snakes! They are saying it! How they know about me without asking.

Then I heard them saying: “Shadows can talk and heard…”

— Oh… — I said. — Is that why, then? I guess I didn’t think about it clearly before, ‘cause no shadow have tried to talk to me before. I thought you were just some kind of killers.

“Need human energy to live…” I heard after that.

— That makes sense. I need energy to survive too in the future. Do you believe I’m from the future?

“No…” they simply said.

— Oh, I was hoping you all could. Well, do you know where the book is?

“No…” they said again.

— That’s a hard quest then… I will try to find it on my own. If you get any clue about it, let me hear it and I will try to help you. — Then I realize the girl had stopped talking and was staring into nothing. — Hello? Are you okay?

— Aaah! — She screamed. — Where am I?

— Oh… Sorry… You are at the orphanage for kids without parents… We were having our lunchtime. What’s your name?

— I’m Miriam… What I am doing here?

— I don’t know, but you probably lost your parents…

— No! They can’t have died!

— Or… they couldn’t take care of you properly, so they bring you here.

— No… but my mom… My dad… Where they are? I want my mom…

— I’m sorry Miriam, but I’m afraid you will be stuck here for some time.

— How long?

— If I’m not mistaken, you probably will get out of here only if you survive…

— No… this can’t be happening! This is a nightmare!

— It is, but please, don’t overthink it… There are some monsters around here and they may kill you if you try to misbehave…

— I want to get out of here… — She was starting to cry but kept it as a weep.

— We need to find a book to get out of here, Miriam. If the right book has the right answer for us, we will be able to get rid of those monsters. Now, try to think you are just a normal person.

She turned to be controlled again by the snakes and said:

— You are a good actor, after all…

— I’m not an actor; I’m just reacting the same way I learned to deal with the shadow things. No one believes in you, and those who could do it will ignore you. We have a deal. I will try to find the book and you can see what you can do about it. Just try to avoid the shadow thing in the backyard and any mirror on this place… At least they seem to be the source of their power, somehow.

— Good, good… — she stood up and left me alone.

I searched for the book the way I could. Some time had passed and I had no clue about it. That was until I realized the place where the kids should have been killed was hidden between the walls, as there was no way to enter there when I finally got around the area after entering the forbidden rooms. I asked Miriam if she could check anything around there without being noticed with her ‘magical’ powers.

— I can see darkness there… I can’t see any further.

— If there’s any book around here, it must be there. Well, if there is any book here…

— Don’t you believe in me?

— I may do, but that’s not the case… I was just wondering if we don’t find the book there; what we could do to escape from that place? If we really get in there, there’s probably no way to get out of it so easily and, before you start complaining about me saying it, if we can’t get out of it, we can’t bring the book with us.

— You need to get in there! — She demanded.

— Not without a plan! We need to figure it out before going there. I tried everything but…

— But…?

— There’s only one thing I can’t understand about the shadows. Normally I could see their shadow figure, but this one, the tall shadow man, I can’t. I could only see it on a mirror.

— Your eyes deceive you… — She held my head closer, looking into my eyes. — What are those things in your eyes?

— Do you mean the little marks in the format of a many-pointed star? They were made in surgery. My corneas were transplanted from my mom’s eyes.

— This can’t be… How I didn’t notice it? This energy from your eyes… they are witch eyes!

— Really? She has died before I started to live as a human… and, after a coma, I just wake up being David and seeing things.

— This is curious… but it’s of no use for us now. Well, maybe if the book has any incantation any normal human wouldn’t be able to see it… What did you say about mirrors again?

— I could only see the tall shadow guy through the mirror, not in person… Hum… That would make some sense… I will try to figure it out how they use the mirrors.

— Yes. Do that… — She grinned at me.

— I know you don’t like me, but really, you don’t just need to get rid of me after getting the book.

— Can you read my mind, little one? — She giggled.

— I was already expecting that… You have been a pretty good company, may I say. I will miss you when you run away with the book.

— Oh, but I will not run with the book. I need you…

— I mean, after trying to kill me. I believe it was pretty boring for you as it was for me just to be here, trying to find something we may not know if it is possible to find… — I stood up and got close to her. — Killing never was the answer… and I say that, ‘cause there’s no human living in the future anymore.

After some time, James took another kid with him in the middle of the night and I was able to follow him until the director’s office door. James got in with the kid, but the kid never got out. After he got out, I got close to the door when James was pretty far away and I tried to hear anything I could. I heard some weird noises as some footsteps were descending. I already had a copy of the director’s office key I stole in some occasion a long time ago to look for things inside the room, but I didn’t find anything at the time. It was too risky to keep looking for it, so I just let the ‘dust settle’.

That was the moment I was looking for and I should go and grab it. I found the place where they went right under the director’s desk, but I couldn’t find out how to enter. I was forced to wait for someone to get out and another poor soul to be consumed. I found I place where I could hide behind some cabinet with wheels in the corner. After some hours hiding there, I heard someone coming out and it was the director himself. For a moment, I thought he was about to find me, but someone knocked on the door before he could and I was safe for a moment. The small hatch was closing and I could run for it, entering a stair made with cement. Down there it was everything poorly illuminated, except for an area I knew it was under the kitchen. I felt there was something terrible there, something like the shadow from behind the window in David’s dad house, making similar loud chewing noises like the ones from the police officer incident. If I passed there unnoticed, I could at least survive for another day.

I tried to be as silent as I could, searching for anything there until reaching the lonely candle on the other side. I took it out of its place and searched a little more in the darkness, cautiously protecting the candle. I didn’t find anything there, besides lots of different old boxes with nothing I could use. I even tried to look inside a closed one and all I found were circular pendants with a hexagram pointing downwards on it. I kept one with me. I kept searching a little more, but the candle was about to end. Then I look for a second exit as fast as I could. The time was running and the noises never stopped. I discovered from where those noises that I heard before were coming from. They were coming from a meat grinder. I couldn’t believe it… I found a way to pass the machine, probably a maintenance passage, and I forced myself up. With a jump, I reached the top and I pulled myself up slipping sometimes.

Out of it, I reached the kitchen and found Miriam’s head on a plate over a table. I was ready to run for my life when the cook caught me there. I could escape her and run to the backyard after throwing Miriam’s head on her. In her fury, she kept the head in her hands and followed me. With nowhere else to hide, I entered the small room and hid in the corner.

The cook found a key to the small room among a bunch of keys she was always carrying with her and opened the lock pretty fast. She was about to find me, and she said, shaking Miriam’s head in the air, madly smiling at me:

— Look what will happen to you if you don’t come out…

It didn’t take long before the shadow from the small room had appeared and got her. After eating both Miriam’s head and the cook, the shadow thing dropped a small book on the floor.