Wandering Package

You open your eyes. Your head is throbbing with pain. It feels as if you're in a bed. The room is too bright, you have a hard time opening your eyes. So you just stay there for a little while.

After a few minutes, you finally were able to at least sit and look around. You seem to be in a medical room, but it doesn't look like you're in a hospital. The technology is too advanced. One quick look at yourself shows that you seem to be fine. Every limbs are responding correctly. You feel a bit weak, but it seems you'd be at least alright enough to walk.

There's no one else in the room, and aside from medical items, it doesn't seem like anything of value is lying around you. You seem to have the same clothes you had before... You do not seem to recall what happened exactly. However, there's a strange piece of paper attached to your shirt.
You were quite curious about the paper strapped to your shirt, so you took it off and took a quick peek at it. It seems to be a... Delivery receipt? You read it. It's from Zelma Labella, to be sent to a certain "Neloshama" delivered by some shady group named SJ. The content was Emilia Labella...

Wait that was your name! And Zelma, that's the name of your mother. What's the meaning of this? Your mom was trying to ship you off to some unknown person? You don't quite understand...

You decide to try and recall what happened before you got here. Your memory is a bit foggy, but you vaguely remember your mother trying to comfort you from something, while some strange girl was trying to restrain you. And then.... Nothing. Your memories suddenly stop there. You remember the girl was tall with pale skin, had long black hair and green eyes. She also had only one arm, yet was managing to restrain you with it. You don't remember why you were trying to fight back either. Maybe it's related to the strange receipt in your hands...

You try to force your memory more, but it just hurts, so you stop. There's no point in trying to remember anymore than that.

While you were busy working your brains, the door suddenly opened, and a woman walked in. You stayed on your guard... But it wasn't the girl from your memories. She had brown hair, was shorter than the other one, along with red eyes... which were honestly a bit creepy. She was wearing bandages around her forehead for some reasons. She wore a brown trenchcoat, with a black shirt under it, blue jeans and large brown boots. But... She was also a bit tall. And quite intimidating.

She approached your bed "Finally awake I see. How are you feeling?" she asked with a deep female voice.
"Who... are you?" You muttered. You had some trouble speaking. Might be due to that terrible headache.
"I see you haven't fully recovered yet..." she stated, looking at you with her arms crossed. "My name is Kitiara. You can call me Kit. As for who I am... Well I'm the boss of this place."

"...This place?" you asked, tilting your head to the side a bit.
"That's a bit complicated..." she raised her head, thoughtful. "I guess you could say we're an organization of sorts...” But, I can assure you we're not bad people." she said, looking back at you. She didn't seem to be lying, but... You still had your suspicions.

"I can't remember what happened..." you announced, rubbing your head a bit. Just trying to remember was a hard task right now...
"I imagined that was the case..." she said to herself, looking away and holding her chin. She seemed to be a person easily lost in thought.
"What happened?" you finally asked. You couldn't bear not knowing. So many things were unclear...
"I'm afraid I don't exactly know the details. All I do know is that we were urgently called to collect you and ship you off to a magician alchemist named Neloshama. Howevent, I was told not to tell you the reason why..."
"But you can't hide that from me...!" you suddenly shouted. You had to know.
"Sorry. Orders are orders, I can't betray my clients..."

What kind of organization was this? Taking such shady requests...

"But I should be going now. I should let you rest. Anything else you want to ask before I go?" asked Kit.
"Nah, I guess that's it." You said to the woman. She looked at you for a bit...

And finally said "Alright then. I'll send someone to pick you up in a few hours. Be sure to take some rest until then."

She then left the room, closing the door behind her.

Once Kit left, you decided to take a look at yourself in a mirror. After all, maybe you have some injury you couldn't see by yourself. You looked around a bit... But there are no mirrors nearby. Luckily, the room was clean, and there were a few things which you could see your reflection from. Namely, glass. You looked at yourself that way.

You had shoulder-length blue hair. They were a bit messy, but it's true that you never quite had the chance to comb them. Your skin was pale. You weren't too sure if it had always been this pale though... Actually, you weren't sure if your eyes had always been that color either. Yellow. Quite pale, as well. You were wearing a shirt, and pants. They both were boy clothing. You never really liked wearing dresses and skirts after all... And besides, you had nothing to show off either. Your chest was close to inexistent. You can still hear the voices of your nagging friends as they were making fun of you because of that...

Besides the oddities about your skin tone and eyes, you saw nothing out of the ordinary. And maybe all of that had to do with what happened back then. But how? There were too many mysteries to solve, and you were in no condition of keeping that thinking cap for very long.
Just to be on safe side, you decided to look around the room a bit more thoroughly. You went through medications and medical tools... There wasn't really much around. Though you did find a stethoscope... It has always been everyone's dream to wear one... But you restrained yourself.

Aside from the temptations given by the medical tools, you found nothing of value, as you originally thought. It seems there's no clue about anything in this room, so...

You walked to the door. You took the doorknob, turned it... And it was surprisingly unlocked. You got out and looked around a bit. The area was technological alright... At least, it seemed to be. However, there were no windows. No way to know where you are. You walked around carefully... There didn't seem to be guards around. Maybe it wasn't a big organization? Either way, the lights around here were much brighter than inside the medical room. It was hurting your head a bit.

You decided not to go too far. You opened some doors, but none of them seemed to be anything important. One room seemed to be some kind of audio/visual room. Another was some kind of loft... You actually looked around a bit inside, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.

As you were about to open another door... A hand suddenly grabbed your shoulder. You looked back quickly.

"What are you doing around here...?" said the girl behind you... You recognized her. It was that one armed girl!
You shoved her aside with one arm, and ran away as quickly as your legs permitted you to. You didn't look back at her, you just concentrated on running.

You didn't know WHERE you were running to either. Just as long as you could get away from that girl...

Meeting that girl left quite a shock on you. Back then...

***

"Don't resist, dear... It'll only make things harder..." said your mother. Her voice was filled with sorrow
"Mom! Why?!"
"It's for your own good! If we don't do that, you'll..."

You tried to hit the woman trying to hold you down, but she quickly took and twisted your arm. You fell down to your knees under the pain, grunting.

"P-please don't hurt her!" pleaded your mom. You could see tears forming up in her eyes. You were about to cry too.
"Then make her stop struggling..." said the girl.

Your head started to throb with pain, quickly intensifying. You screamed and then...

***

Your memories stop suddenly there. No matter how hard you try, you don't even have a single clue as to what comes next, as if someone had erased that part of your memory. As for what came before, the memories are still pretty vague. You still can't understand why your mother tried to send you away.

You stopped running... you were out of breath. A quick look around showed that the place.... Was not much different than where you were. You were officially lost. A bit farther away, there was another girl (you were starting to doubt that there were any boys in this place). She was sitting on the ground, legs crossed, working on something. From behind, you could see she had long red hair and kinda skimpy clothes... And wolf ears and tail?
You tried to take a better look at the girl. She has dark skin and blue eyes. Her hair reached about her butt, and were quite messy. Even messier than yours. Oh and her breasts were a bit large. She also had quite a silly air about her... And she was holding some kind small machine. It had a radar feel to it, and she was goofing around with the buttons. Maybe she broke it?

You decided to introduce yourself. She was perhaps in the same group as that other girl... But she had a friendly feel to her. "Excuse me..." you called out to her. She let out a smalll scream and looked back at you. She looked completely freaked out. "A g-ghost! Please don't eat me...." she turned around, pleading for her life.

"Erm... I'm not exactly a ghost..." you tried to explain.
"Huh? Not a ghost? But what about those..." her eyes suddenly widened "O-oh! Sorry! I know you're not a ghost, hehehe..." She got on her feet and scratched her head, smiling stupidly.

Those? Something strange was going on again.

"Those?" you asked her
"Never mind that! I'm Ruby! You're that Emilia gal, right? T'was written on you! Nice to meet ya!" she sure sounded cheerful now.
"Um... Nice to meet you too." you replied, giving up about the question. Still, that was going to take hours off your sleep...

"Well then..." started Ruby, turning around "I've got work to do!"

After she turned, you eyed her tail. It was wagging left and right happily... It had a kind of mysterious charm to it. You couldn't resist the temptations...

And you tugged on it lightly.

"Waaaah!" she suddenly screamed, turning around quickly "What are you doing?!"
"I-I'm sorry I... I just..." you were at loss for words. What came over you just now?
"Eeeh... You're a weird girl, you know? Look, I really gotta go now. No more mischief, alright?"

She seemed like quite the mischievous girl herself, but you nodded. She started walking away.
You decided to follow her. You did for a while, but... She suddenly turned around. You tried to hide, but there was just no time.

"Hey! No following me around!" she said angrily. She quickly regained her smile, though. "You know, my nose is awesome! I can smell you from a mile away, girly!"

You just realized... She DOES have wolf ears and tail. Their natural habitat is the nature. Tracking them in an open space like this would be impossible at best.

"I-I'm sorry" you managed to say, bowing slightly, thinking about what you should do next...
"Nah it's alright! Just don't do it again!"
You thought about that other girl... Maybe being with that Ruby girl could hide you from her.

“Is it ok if I come with you?” you asked, hopeful.

She seems to think for a moment. But then they she starts to nod happily.

“Yes! It's fine! You're new around here, so it's our chance to become friends!” Ruby exclaimed with a warm smiled.

Grabbing your hand, she started dragging you along. She brought you to a room, which was much more lively than the other rooms. The decorations were brightly colored and looked to be nature-themed.

“Here we are! Make yourself at home!”

Saying that, the wolf girl dropped herself on her bed and started fiddling around with that machine again.
“What exactly is that thing you're working on?” you asked her out of curiosity.

She happily showed you the defective device.

“That's a radar! And hi-tech one, too! It shows stuff like allies, destinations, targets, etc... Most of the stuff shown on it is programmed in this facility by a professional from afar. Since the info is human controlled, it can't glitch or bug and show the wrong stuff!”
“Targets?”
“Well, you know... What we must do in a mission.”

She scratched her head a bit.

It hit you that you could give it a try as well.

“Can I see it?” you asked

She nodded and handed it to you. You took a quick look at it but... the technology used in that machine was beyond anything you saw in your everyday life. It looked like something some kind of advanced organization might own, which you start to suspect is what's inside this building. There were a few buttons, but pressing them did nothing. After trying out a few things, you finally gave up and handed it back to Ruby.

“Can't figure out how it's done, heh?” said Ruby, almost proudly. “That thing there is something we made ourselves in this place. I was supposed to go on a mission earlier, but because I broke it, someone else was sent instead...”

She frowned upon finishing that sentence. You were about to ask how she broke it in the first place, but seeing how hyperactive she is and how clumsy she seems to be, you decided not to.

Not too long after, the door opened behind you.

“Ruby, give that radar back so I can get it to Hacker...” said a familiar voice.

You turned around. It was her! That girl with the missing arm!

“Aww, but Jade, I want to try and repair it myself...” whined Ruby.

Finally, she noticed you,

“Oh, so that's where you ran off to...”

She was standing in front of the door... There was no escape now.

You quickly snatched the machine back from Ruby and held it high, ready to slam it into the ground. You looked into Jade's eyes.

“D-don't approach me... Or I'll break it!”

You were scared and sweating a bit.

“... What are you doing?” asked Jade, putting her hand on her hip with a sigh.
“HEY!” screamed Ruby, swiftly snatching her radar back from you and hiding it from your sight. “That's mine! Get your own to break!”

You were desperate. This girl was scaring you... So you just ran for it, arms forward to try and get past anyway. However, as soon as you were close, Jade threw you down with unbelievable speed.

“Will you stop that? I don't want to hurt you or anything.”
You looked at the intimidating woman, and finally decided to ask her...

“What's your purpose...?”
“Me?” asked Jade. “I'm just Kit's right hand woman. I manage the place with her, and do the hardest missions.”

You sighed of relief slightly. That means she wasn't out to get you... So she was only listening to orders. Still, was kidnapping you such a hard mission? It seemed easy enough... Yet there is a part of your memory missing, so you might as well ask.

“What am I doing here anyway?”
“As you probably already figured out, you were to be sent to someone. An... Accident occured during the retrieval, however, and now Neloshama is nowhere to be found. We would've let you with your mother... Was she still alive.”
“Jade!” screamed Ruby, obviously concerned.

You couldn't believe what you just heard. ‘Was she still alive’? Your mother... Is dead?

“That's a lie... Right? Mother can't be dead... She can't...”
“Sorry.” simply said Jade.

Her blunt, emotionless tone wasn't helping one bit. She was telling you this as if it was nothing!

“What happened?!”
“I'm not at liberty to say.”

Tears slowly started rolling down your cheeks. Could this situation get any worse? You started hoping it was all just a bad dream... Suddenly, a voice echoed across the halls and in the room. It was Kit's.

“Black Jade, go get the girl. We're having a meeting about her now. Everyone else should come as well.”

A click was heard afterwards, meaning her message had ended. Jade approached you, crouching in front of you.

“Sorry, we have to go. Will you be alright?”

She held her hand out for you to grab.
You looked at her hand for a bit. You reached out as well and grabbed her hand. It was warm... Jade helped you up to your feet in a gentle manner.

You quickly approached Jade and hugged her. You were lost... You lost the only family you knew. And she was one of the people who picked you up and brought you to their home to take care of you. Jade looked surprised, but she hugged you back with her lone arm. After a short while, she let go of you.

"Let's go." she said.

For the first time, her voice didn't sound like a glacier to your ears. She left, and you followed closely behind. So did Ruby, actually. No one said a word while walking. The atmosphere was heavy. After walking through corridors and down stairs for a minute or two (you still didn't know if you were high up or underground), you finally reached your destinations. It was what seems to be a meeting room... Except more comfy. There were sofas on one side of the room, with a table surrounded by chairs in the middle. Kit had a chair of her own in the back of the room, right below a huge screen.

Ruby jumped on a sofa and got comfy as soon as she came in, as Jade accompanied you to a chair, making you sit directly in front of Kit. She then joined her boss by standing at her side. There were a few other people around. There was a gray-haired girl in a school girl uniform sitting on a chair. She had a serene, yet playful look. She seemed to be trying to get serious, though, compared to a certain someone else. Sitting a bit farther away, a young looking boy with long green hair, wearing only a large shirt and shorts. He had a bit of a sleepy look... And seemed like a serious person. The only boy you saw this far. Facing the two, there was a child; a little girl with shoulder-length blond hair with strangely long and large sleeves.

The meeting didn't start immediately. A few minutes later, one other person came in. Still yawning, it was an adult woman with long white hair and a red pajama; she probably just woke up. Her skin was very pale, and she had red eyes, too. As soon as she took place on a sofa, Kit cleared her throat to bring the attention back to herself.

"Now that everyone currently present in the base is here, I'd like to start the meeting. I want to discuss the matter of our... Unfortunate package. For very specific reasons, which will be mentioned here, Emilia was to be sent to renowned mage, alchemist, thaumaturge and seer Neloshama. However, things took a turn for the worst. An unfortunate event caused Emilia's mother's death, and Neloshama is now nowhere to be found."
"We've already sent Kiro to search for her. She should contact us with news soon; be they good or bad." added Jade.
"Emilia," continued Kit "you must be very confused right now. Why your mother sent you as a package, why you're here, why you must see Neloshama... Would you like to hear everything now?"

You nodded. You had been waiting for this for a long while... You had to know the mystery now.

"Very well..." replied Kit. "Jade, if you may."
"Yes sir. I'll make it blunt. Emilia, you're right now infected. You were infected by demonic energy... And are slowly turning into a demon. Your body has already started changing. Your pale skin and yellow eyes are proof. But the changes are not only physical. Your mind is being twisted. What killed your mother was you. As I tried to restrain you, you went mad and attacked me. After I backed off, you went after your mother. She didn't stand a chance... I knocked you out while you were destroying your home. Your mother was trying to send you to Neloshama to remove the infection."

Once she finished, the room grew silent once again. You were having a hard time assimilating what was said in this room... It was too much for your mind to take at once. You remained silent, taking it like a kick while you're down. You had killed your mother.... Yourself. With your own two hands. Is that why you lost your memory? Because you lost control? You were turning into... A demon?

"If I may," started the boy, breaking the silence. "I have something to announce. After hearing about her case, I've starting searching for info on the infection. Without Neloshama, we'll never be able to get rid of it. But I've made something to restrain it's mind twisting effects, and slow down the infection."

He presented a metal collar to everyone in the room. It seemed to be a machine of sort.

"Normally, I'd have her take shots to keep her mind stable. But instead I came up with this. It'll inject her the shots directly as needed. The process will be painless; she'll hardly notice it herself. I have a device of my own which I will use to keep track of her collar's status. When to refill it, when to repair it, etc. We'll need to refill it about once every week."

He stood up and walked up to you. You held your hair up for him, and he put on the collar around your neck. You didn't really have a choice but to accept... It was necessary. A few seconds after he installed it, you felt a little something on your neck. It stopped a second or so after. It was probably the first shot. The boy went back to his seat.

"Thank you, Hacker." said Kit. "So, for now, we'll have to wait for Kiro's report and decide what to do from here on out. For now, Jade, would you accompany our guest to the room we’ve prepared for her?"
"Yes sir."

Jade approached as you stood up. You walked together with her again, and she led you to your room. It looked comfy at least. There was another door leading to a private bathroom.

"We'll come pick you up if anything comes up. You must be tired... You should get some rest." Jade said with her hand on your shoulder.

i'm saving this on my phone,

Keep it up!