Chapter 12

一人じゃない

Not Alone

Weeks passed. Weeks slowly turned into months. Soon it had been three months since Vanilla arrived. During that time, Narthex had not made any appearances. Not since the night she had arrived. During this time, five children had been adopted from the center: two boys and three girls. No children had been brought to stay at the center.

Jess and Tina still remained leaders of the girls. The leader of the boys changed from day to day except for one week when a boy was deemed "leader for all eternity." He was adopted at the end of that week. As a result, a new leader was selected but changed the very next day. However, despite everything that was going on around her, Vanilla still felt lonely. Other than Tina and Jess, the only friends that Vanilla really made were adopted. The center had slowly diminished over those three months from 17 children to 12.

One day, there was a knock on the front door.

Vanilla sat in the main room by the spiral staircase as she watched Shima move to the door to answer it.

"Akira-san?" Shima's voice said. "It's been three months since you've been here. No phone calls, no visits, no nothing. What's been keeping you?"

"Sorry. Lots of things are happening with Emperor Transbaal and his son. It's not looking very good right now, I'm afraid."

"Akira-san?" Vanilla said perking up. She stood from the steps and hurried over to the door. "Akira-san!" Vanilla said happily when she arrived at the door.

Akira looked down to her with a puzzled look on his face. "Who's this cute little girl?" Akira said to Shima.

Vanilla's eyes widened and her arms dropped to her side. "Akira-san?"

"This is Vanilla. She's been here about three months." Shima said putting her hand on Vanlla's shoulder.

"Oh. I see." Akira turned to Vanilla and knelt down to her. "Hi there. Do you mind if I call you Vanilla-chan?"

"Akira-san? Why don't you remember me?"

"Hm? Should I? I have a very good memory so if we've met before I would have remembered it."

"But we did meet before!" Vanilla said grabbing his sleeve. "You brought me here. Remember?"

Akira looked from Vanilla up to Shima who just looked back at him. "I'm sorry, Vanilla-chan. But you must be thinking of a different Akira." Akira stood up and turned to Shima. "Anyways, the reason I'm here is because…"

"I know." Shima said interrupting him. "Who is it?"

"This boy." Akira said bringing a short boy to his side. The boy had deep green hair with a red headband around his head. He wore swirl glasses and a brownish yellow shirt and pants. "His name is Vermouth Matin."

"Pleased to meet you." The boy said with a high-pitched voice.

"I hope you don't mind." Akira said.

"No, not at all. We've actually had some adoptions over the last few months so we have some room."

"Good. Well, I'll be going." Akira said turning around.

"Don't be a stranger, Akira-san." Shima said closing the door. "Now Vermouth, how old are you? "

"Seven and three quarters. But for my age, I'm quite the genius." Vermouth said adjusting his glasses.

"I see." Shima said with a bit of doubt in her voice. "Anyways, let get you settled in. Vanilla?"

Vanilla was still staring at the door where Akira was standing oblivious that Shima had called her name.

"Vanilla," Shima said louder. Vanilla jumped a bit and turned to Shima. "Would you mind showing Vermouth to the sleeping quarters."

Vanilla looked at Vermouth, who was intently looking at the surroundings, then looked back to Shima and nodded.

"Vermouth, This is Vanilla. She will show you where the sleeping quarters are."

"Vanilla, is it? Vermouth Matin." He said extending a hand. Vanilla flinched and then quickly moved around him to the spiral staircase and looked back towards him.

Vermouth looked at her puzzled and then followed her with his bag in hand.

"So Vanilla," Vermouth said when they began climbing the stairs, "how did you end up in here?"

Vanilla stopped climbing the stairs causing Vermouth to bump into her. "I'd rather not talk about it." She said softly and then continued walking.

"Oh, ok. Well then let me tell you why I'm here. So one day, actually two days ago, I was concocting something very interesting in my parent's basement. I must have done my calculations wrong cause when I put in the sodium, the stuff in the beaker shot straight up into the ceiling and burnt right through it. It was quite an amazing sight if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, my parents were in the room above me so it burned through them too." Vanilla shuddered at the thought but Vermouth wasn't even phased by this tragic event that apparently happened only two days ago.

"Aren't you sad?" Vanilla said softly.

"Sorry, what?" Vermouth said, "Can't hear you, speak louder."

"Aren't you sad?" Vanilla said again turning to him. "You don't have your parents anymore. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Who, me? Pfft. Not really. I mean I guess I was a little shaken up when it happened, but hey. Ya gotta move on. What happened happened." By now the two had reached the top of the stairs. Vanilla pointed to her left.

"That room is the boy's area." Vanilla said pointed to her left. "That's the girl's." She said pointing to her right. "Ahead is the bathroom. Everyone uses it so be sure to knock before you enter."

"I think I could get used to this place." Vermouth said moving to the boy's room.

"Dinner is at 6:30 tonight." Vanilla said. After Vermouth disappeared into the boy's quarters Vanilla quickly rushed downstairs.

"Shima!" Vanilla called running to Shima's room. Vanilla went through the door that Shima went through when Vanilla first arrived at the center. She moved down a small corridor to the door at the end of the hall and began knocking. "Shima! Shima I need to talk to you."

Shima opened the door and looked down to Vanilla. "What's wrong, Vanilla?"

"Akira-san. Why didn't he recognize me?"

Shima sighed. "Come in Vanilla."

Vanilla did as she was instructed. Inside Shima's room was a small desk with an overhead light on. Next to the desk was a bed with faded red sheets on it. At the foot of the bed was a small seat. Shima instructed Vanilla to sit there while she sat in the chair by the desk.

"Shima?" Vanilla said, "Is there something wrong with Akira-san?"

"No. There's nothing wrong with him."

"Then why didn't he remember me?"

"Because he didn't want to." Shima said quickly. "Akira-san, he's an android."

"An android? What's that?"

"A different kind of robot. However, he's programmed to act exactly like a person. As such, he develops feelings as well. Sometimes he believes that the emotions he develops interfere with his work. When he doesn't want to remember things because of this, he erases the memory that caused the feeling. Likely, Vanilla-chan, you we're a cause of something he didn't want to deal with."

Vanilla suddenly felt alone. "Akira-san… but why?"

"He doesn't care about you. No one does." Came a hauntingly familiar voice.

"I don't know Vanilla-chan." Shima said.

"It's simple, doll. He never gave shit. You were just a thorn in his side and when he dropped you off here, he forgot about you, just like the others did."

"No! It's not true!" Vanilla said dropping from the seat and running out of Shima's room.

"Vanilla!" Shima said standing up. But Vanilla was already running down the hall.

"It's not true!"

"Wana bet?" Narthex said appearing before her. "I'm back doll, and I sure have missed you." Vanilla ran straight through him. Vanilla entered the main area and dashed out the front door. She ran down the road Akira had left on in an attempt to catch up with him.

"The hell do you think your doing, doll?" Narthex said sitting on the fence that lined the road as Vanilla passed him. Vanilla ignored him and continued running.

"Seriously, doll. This is just plain stupid. You're not gonna catch him. And if your running from me, that ain't gonna work either."

"I don't care!" Vanilla yelled at him as she ran. "I don't care." Vanilla slowed to a stop and stared down the road.

"Vanilla-chan!" Came a voice from behind her. She turned to see Tina and Jess running after her.

When they caught up to her, Tina collapsed to her knees gasping for breath.

"What were you doing?" Jess said breathing heavily.

"You know… we were… worried about you." Tina managed to say in her exhaustion.

Vanilla looked to the ground and turned her face to the side. "I just… I don't want to be alone."

"Well running away from everyone back at Shima's isn't going to help that very much, is it?" Jess said bending over.

Vanilla shook her head.

"All right, lets go back." Jess said taking Vanilla's hand. "Dinner is at 6:30 tonight you know. It's nearly 6 now."

The three arrived back at the center at 6:05. Shima was waiting.

"Oh thank goodness your o.k. Vanilla." Shima said hugging her. "Don't ever do something like that again, understand?"

Vanilla remained silent but nodded her head as best she could.

"Your not alone, Vanilla. You'll never be alone."