Hey guys!
Sorry I didn't publish despite my plan to do it once a week. Christmas and real life got in my way.
So yeah, I'll just publish randomely but try to do it once a week xD
Short answer to the guest review, as I can't PM this guy (if you have an account of ffnet please use it to review, so that I'll be able to PM you next time): First of all thanks for your review, that's exactly the kind of constructive things I want to read. I'm here to share, but also to learn!
The problem with this fic is that it's a litteral translation from my French one, so it's hard for me to change the form. Also, another difficulty to the dialogues is that for now she hardly interacts with anyone.
For the part where you're saying she's three years old... The thing is that she has the body of the three years old, but her mind is older (17 to be precise). That's one of the two things in my fic that don't really have an explanation, with magic . With that I mean that there's an explanation, later, for how she can be alive. But I let alone how can her 17 years old mind work in a 3 years old brain.
In any case, I keep your explanations in a corner of my mind and will use it if I write a novel/an other fic in English, and I'll try to modify slightly my chapters later if I find an idea how to make it sound more "English".
Now, enjoy!
I start my researches as planned the day after. I wait for being alone (when Mrs Winston is busy cooking) to get closer to the computer that rests on a table in the living room. I climb clumsily the chair of the desk facing it and turn the computer on. I instantly run into an unplanned problem: I need to enter a password on the lock screen which I don't have. I try my first name, my birthsday date, my parents' name, qwerty, but nothing works. I guess that Mrs Winston will probably be done soon from the tantalizing smell spreading in the corridors. Containing my impatience I turn off the computer. Just on time, as the governess enters the room and tells me to come eat. I follow her, insisting again to walk without her holding my hand. If she really wants to keep me alive and preserve her physical integrity, she'd better leave me be and avoid any unnecessary physical contact with me.
Unaware of my thoughs, Mrs Winstons helps me, to my chagrin, to sit at the table. The meal at least is tasty, and I even make the effort of thanking her, which seems to make her overly happy. I can't get access to the computer any more this day, which definitively alters my mood, and I use my time snooping around trying to find the password.
In the evening, I finally "meet" my parents. My father comes home first. He wears a strict suit and tie and is still young but his features already look tired. He's probably in his thirties and work in a human resources company although I don't know what he does exactly. My mother arrives half an hour later, about 20:30. She also wears a strict outfit, like the modern and respectable business woman she is. She works as head of communications between her travel agency and its partners. She kisses me on the forehead before going in her room to change clothes, then I eventually have the opportunity to attend my first "family meal". Mrs Winston does the service diligently. My parents are quiet calm. They talk about their day, check with the governess that I didn't lack anything and that everything was fine. I doubt she told them about the truck… Even if she saved my life, it probably wouldn't sound good to admit there has been a situation where it was needed… I'm probably too cynical. Thinking about it, even if it's the case I don't give a shit.
Mrs Winston confirms that we spent a nice day together, and take this opportunity to boast my incredible progress, what am I saying? Mind-blowing! "She insists to walk without holding my hand, and she's even able to go to the toilets and wash without help!". My parents smile, and tell me that I'm a big girl and that they're proud of me. I have to restrain myself from hitting my head against the table until complete destruction from the table or my head. What the fuck am I doing here? Instead I just tell them that I can totally manage alone and I feel their discomfort, as well as Mrs Winston's. I am too calm, too poised, for the age they think I am. I am too mature.
« Mes parents… Des personnes avec qui je possède un lien que je n'ai ni choisi ni voulu, des étrangers. Des êtres dont je me demande parfois qui a eu l'idée folle de leur donner la possibilité de concevoir. Pour ce que ça a donné ! Si je pouvais ne jamais avoir existé, jamais. Il n'y a rien qui me relie à mes géniteurs. Une vague affection peut-être, mais jamais aussi forte que ma rancœur à l'idée de simplement exister. Est-ce qu'ils se sont posé la moindre question, avant de nous avoir, mon frère et moi ? Mon frère… Et maintenant il est mort, et ça n'a rien changé. Enfin, mes parents sont maintenant séparés. Je n'arrive même pas à les plaindre. C'est étrange, mais je ne me sens pas vraiment concernée. »
-Extract from a notebook of Aurore Berger, five months before her death-
*"My parents… People with whom I share a link I neither chose nor wanted, strangers. Beings whom I wonder who had the crazy idea to give them the possibility to conceive children. For what good it did! If I could have never existed, ever. There's nothing binding me to my progenitors. A vague affection maybe, but not as strong as the resentment at the simple idea of existing. Did they ask themselves a single question, before having us, my brother and I? My brother… And now he's dead, and it didn't change a thing. Well, my parents are now divorced. I'm not even able to pity them. It's strange, but I don't really feel concerned."
And that's it for this chapter already.
The chapters get longer later, and I know the story starts pretty slowly. I think about merging some of the latter chapters together, it'll probably be better.
See you soon,
Kuro