Page 3 of Everdoll

New stories meant new truths to explore, after all.

As we stepped into the alleyway, I handed them the milk fries. Prisne took them gladly, but Silvia remained cold. I didn’t insist. Yet after a moment, of course, I began in a jovial tone.

“Well, Silvia… Any idea who sold your chip?”

Silvia stared into space for a moment. “I don’t know.”

“Hmm… How’s your treatment going?”

“Good, I think. I got past the dangerous phase. Lucky me, somehow I didn’t die again.”

She flashed a weak smile, but Prisne and I exchanged worried looks. She immediately raised her hands in surrender. “Just kidding, I was just kidding.”

“By the way, given the dose you took, your survival is a miracle.”

When I spoke with gravity, Silvia looked taken aback. The poor girl had likely pinned me as nothing more than a clingy reporter.

“Is that so?”

“I spoke to someone who used it. Let me show it.” I took my phone out of my jacket pocket, quickly pressed a few buttons. “He only used it twice, a week apart. Despite that, he ended up like this.”

There was a boy on the screen. Though it was hard to be sure he was a boy. His face was covered in large pimples resembling water bubbles, some areas had turned purple and peeled like cabbage. His skin was unrecognizable, with patches of redness, bloodstains, and tiny blue dots looked like drops of poison.

Silvia winced. She was more disturbed than sad. She gulped and looked away from the screen. I could see her weighing things up inside her head.

“How is he now?”

“He’s dead.”

After this blunt statement, a heavy silence fell over the street. It lasted until Silvia finally broke it.

“Fuck… They’re not secretly putting this pill in drinks or anything, right?”

“You’re paranoid.”

“I’m serious! I… I barely made it out alive. I can’t do this anymore. I won’t go! I need to know exactly how dangerous that place is.”

“And you think you have a choice, young lady? If you don’t get your chip back in a week, you’re getting deported. You’d be left to rot for the rest of your life in the very hell you’re trying to escape. Do you understand that? We get that chip back, no matter what.”

Prisne coldly listed her points, and Silvia pressed her lips together, turned away in frustration, quickening her steps. Oh, this is bad. If Prisne was the disciplined one, I had to be balance. Without thinking twice, I caught up and wrapped my arms around Silvia from behind.

“What? Go away!” She screamed, trying to break free, but I held her tight.

“I won’t write your story to become famous, little Silvia,” I said, refusing to let her go. “I’ll write it to give hope to people like you. So don’t worry, everything will be fine. No matter what, we’ll find your chip. You won’t have to go through those awful days again.”

“Oh, please. Stop pitying me. I’m okay.”

“Well, clearly, you’re not. But it’s okay, you have every right to be nervous and angry.”

“Now you’re a therapist too?”

“When you work in the field, you become everything, little Silvia.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“But you’re little!”

“I’m taller than you!”