She pulled me along the corridor, her thin white hand closed around my little wrist with an iron grip. I hit her, kicked and shouted, tears streaming down my face as I fought to go back to Daddy. He was the only one who fought for me, and now she was taking him away. I begged to see him, all the time screaming Daddy in between sobs and pleas. It felt so wretchedly wrong to be separated from him; she was pulling me away so fast, I couldn't mourn for him. She took no notice, and yanked me along the ugly corridor with the one surviving splicer at hand to keep me from escaping. My shoes scraped against the beaten floor, my teary eyes unable to relax into their Little Sister sight from grief. My memories were not normally clear, but one memory stood out; our special sight would not fade unless we were afraid or gathering. I suppose grief is enough of a stimulant to replace fear. Finally Miss Lamb stopped, took my shoulders, and looked me in the eyes.
"Stop this," she ordered coldly. "He is not your father. I am your mother, and your only other family is the Rapture Family."
"No," I sobbed, trying to twist away from her grip. "No, he's my daddy. You're not my-" I hiccuped and coughed, unable to say the word. "I need to be with Daddy! I wanna see my daddy!"
"He is not your father!" she took my hand again and began leading me through the hallway, and I continued to kick and sob as she dragged me along. The hallways went by in a blur; the dripping water from leaks in the ceiling would splatter around me, slightly dampening my dress and mixing with the tears staining my cheeks. We passed through several doorways, and soon I began to notice Miss Lamb was doing something strange. Though my Little Sister sight had come back, I could see she was staying against the walls, and whenever a person came by we would move through another doorway. My tears continued to fall, but I could see we were trying not to be seen, for whatever reason. After walking awhile, Miss Lamb sighed, and kneeled by me, never loosening her grip.
"I thought I wouldn't need this, but your sobbing is making you a nuisance," She pulled out a syringe and my eyes widened as I tried to break away. "Struggling will only make it worse," she murmured coldly, and she pulled up my hand and poked it with the needle, squirting it with the clear substance in the syringe.
I staggered, and she caught me in her arms, picking my small form up easily as I fought sleep. "Daddy..." I whispered. The world began to swirl, exhaustion making my mind numb. For a moment, I felt like I was in Daddy's arms again. "T-time to go to the hidey-hole, da..." I breathed.
Everything went black.
I felt as though I was lying in my old room. I was lying there with no sense of time, my eyes fluttering open occasionally to see the world in almost a dream-like state. The walls looked pink and pleasant, and a few toys were lying in one corner, giving me a fleeting sensation of familiarity. I could see large windows in front of me, the lights soft and blurry when I got a fleeting glance at the golden window sills. Occasionally Miss Lamb would stand before me, her features gentle and clothing beautiful in my sleepy, calm gaze. But most of all, I dreamed.
Of the dreams I had, I could only remember three. They were very similar, but grew worse each time I had them.
The first dream I remember, I was Gathering with my Daddy. He stood behind me, golden gun ready to chase away baddies and leave behind rose petals for when I had finished. For some reason, when I bent down to pierce the Angel's neck with my needle, my special vision didn't fade. The angel was smiling as she stayed asleep, and no one came after me. I drank the tasty ADAM-filled blood, smiling as I licked my lips. It seemed this was the most delicious Gather we had ever been on. Daddy took my hand and pulled me up on his back, and he began walking along the beautiful corridor littered with Angels.
The second time, I was Gathering in the same place. Everything seemed normal, my special vision fading when I began to harvest, and when the splicers came, Daddy shot them all down. I finished and gave Daddy his ADAM, and he allowed me to walk through the hallway. My Little Sister sight returned, and we began moving on to the next corpses. However, when I began working on the second one, more baddies came, and my father fought them bravely. They tried approaching me, their bulging, deformed faces sneering at me as they tried to persuade me to go with them. None frightened me as much as the women, their touch like electricity through my skin, the feeling so real that I could scarcely have thought it a dream. Finally my Daddy fought them all off, and he picked me up and carried me away from the glowing Angels.
The third time was the worst. We were certainly in the same place, but I could see everything with icy clarity. The underwater light casting an eerie, blue glow in the hall, the rose petals gone and replaced by dark patches of blood, some of it shining grossly. I sat by the first Angel, stabbing its neck for the third time in the course of these dreams, and the splicers came immediately. They all had guns, and were shooting at Daddy mercilessly. He flicked flames at them, and they burned to death grotesquely, skin boiling and clothing singed. Others he would zap, the bodies convulsing as the terrible energy shot through them. Never had I seen their plight so, even during a Gather they would not die so wretchedly. Their blood splattered the walls as Daddy shot them down, and I quickly finished Gathering, gagging as the blood tasted strangely metallic, at which point my Daddy picked me up. Though I was not very afraid, my Little Sister vision would not come, and I watched my Daddy shoot down baddie after baddie, making his way through the dark, dingy hallway slowly and surely. Then the unthinkable happened.
A stray bullet from one of the splicers hit my leg. There was terrible moment of pain before my leg healed itself, the ADAM in my system patching up the wound, but my light grunt of pain was enough to distract Daddy for a second. The splicers took this time to rush him, firing their guns relentlessly. He fell to the ground and I was flung off his back. I screamed, but couldn't hear anything but the guns, my voice empty in the chaos. They were beating him, killing him, and I was helpless and terrified. The blood I saw horrified me like never before, blood that could be my Daddy's, and was unable to do anything but stare with my eyes wide. One of the splicers finally noticed I was alone, and motioned for others to grab me. I screamed, finally able to hear my high, purely little-girl shriek as they grabbed my arms an legs. Two women grabbed my legs, and it felt like my flesh was melting at their touch, like when Daddy had used Incinerate! before. I kicked and twisted, trying to wrench one of my limbs from their grasp, but they dragged me away into the shadows of the hallway where there weren't windows. I managed to turn around and see my daddy lying on the ground, his armor dull and bloodstained. I screamed for him, my voice hoarse, but he did not move. The splicers quickly retreated into the darkness, the four that were carrying me moving in slow motion. I screamed for my daddy one last time, and then I was consumed by darkness.