Volume 3 Hello, Eri Chapter 185 Death of the Black Swan (V)
The iron door was covered in rust and had a heavy lock on it, making it feel like there was some monster locked up inside.
Renata gently stroked the lock. She was not ready to open the door to see what was inside. She couldn't open it anyway. In her imagination, there must be a monster raised by the nurses living inside, because when they beat the children who made mistakes, they often roared and said that the thing in room zero should come out and eat you, so that it would not cause them any more trouble. It seemed that even in the eyes of the nurses, the monster was locked in room zero.
Monster... When Renata thought of this word, she lowered her head and stared at her toes.
She never told anyone that she was actually a monster too, able to see things that others couldn't see.
There is a big sister in Black Swan Harbor that only Renata can see. The first time I saw her was in the cafeteria. There were only children eating, so a big sister sitting there was very eye-catching. She had a good figure, liked to wear a light blue sweater, and had a sun-shaped pendant around her neck. In Renata's opinion, there was no one more beautiful than this sister in the entire Black Swan Harbor. Her biggest feature was her pride. Even that thick sweater could be held up high. When she looked at Renata, she always showed a kind smile.
Because she kept looking at her and smiling, Renata thought she must be a very kind person, so she sat next to her with her plate and asked her why she was looking at her. She said because she thought she was cute.
Renata thought it must be a lie. She had many freckles on her face and she didn't like herself even when she looked in the mirror. The cutest girl here was Khorkina, because she was the oldest and had developed very well. She was tall, thin and graceful. Every boy and girl liked to watch her dancing ballet in a skirt.
Khorkina was sitting on the other side of the long table eating. From the perspective of this older sister, she was not invisible, but she really never looked at Khorkina more than once. Whenever Renata came, she would wave her hand, smile softly and say "Hi Renata".
Of course, I only found out about this later. At least when they met on the first day, Renata was still wary of this older sister. She thought she was lying and had no intention of continuing the conversation with her.
Renata knew that only she could see this big sister . One day, when Khorkina was leaving with a plate of food, she curiously asked her, "Renata, why do you always talk to the air? Do you have an imaginary friend living in your head?" It was not until then that Renata realized that the existence of the big sister was invisible to others. There were nurses following and supervising during meals, but they never asked Renata about talking to the air. The children here were given too many drugs, and it was common for them to be confused and have hallucinations.
From a book in the library, Renata learned that there is a disease called multiple personality in the world. People with this disease can imagine one, two, or even more personalities. They can have different identities, ages, and genders. They can only communicate in the patient's sight and mind, and have daily life and quarrels with emotions and logic.
Renata felt that she might have this disease, and the older sister who always sat in the cafeteria was an imaginary personality of hers, so only she could speak.
But she didn't care. Living in a place like this for a long time would make her feel that everything had lost its color. Even if that person didn't exist , Renata could talk to her a lot and chat secretly about things that only they knew, which made her very satisfied.
Later, Renata gradually realized that something was wrong, because this older sister could tell her many things that Renata didn't know. For example, she claimed that she was from another race, a race that was much more powerful than humans. For example, she said that the place where Renata lived was called Siberia, which was part of the Soviet Union. If you go east, you will cross the Bering Strait to North America, and if you go south, you can see Mongolia and China.
Multiple personality is based on the patient's knowledge and daily impressions. It is impossible to fabricate a character without relevant knowledge. This is what the book says. Suppose a male multiple personality patient has lived on an isolated island since childhood and is a castaway. His mother died when giving birth to him. He has never seen a woman, and his father has never mentioned a woman. Then there will definitely be no opposite sex in his imaginary personality because he does not know.
This made Renata begin to wonder what this big sister was. Was she a ghost who only lived in the cafeteria? Or was she a demon who tried to manipulate human souls?
As if she noticed that Renata had been a little cold towards her recently, one day the elder sister told Renata her name.
She said her name was Chaochao, which means the rise and fall of the sea water that rushes onto the coast during the day is a natural phenomenon. It is called tide during the day and is called tide at night.
Asashio told Renata not to be afraid of what she might do to her, she just wanted to chat with Renata more because they were both lonely and isolated.
She didn't smile when she said this, and her eyes seemed to have lost their luster, which reminded Renata of the sled dog pups born in Black Swan Harbor. They were such mature big sisters now, but they still showed a small, heart-wrenching expression.
Renata thought that Asashio meant that she was also a monster, so they could know each other.
Since then, Renata was relieved to be friends with Asashio. Gradually, Asashio was no longer limited to appearing in the cafeteria. She could come to Renata at any time and any place. Sometimes she would suddenly stick her head out from under the bed to scare Renata. Sometimes she would lie on top of the nurse's head when she scolded Renata, and poke the nurse's head hard with a bad look on her face. The connection between her and Renata was one-sided. Only she came to find Renata, but Renata could never find her.
So Renata often strolled out in the middle of the night. In addition to patrolling Black Swan Harbor, which seemed to belong to her territory, she was more looking for Asashio to see where she would hide when she was not around.
Could it be behind this iron gate?
Just as she was thinking this, the padlock snapped open and fell straight down! If such a heavy padlock fell to the ground, it would definitely alert the nurses in the duty room, and Renata would be doomed! She rushed over to catch the padlock.
The strange thing was that when the padlock fell into her cupped palm, she found that the lock was still fastened. Could it be that the sudden opening she saw just now was just an illusion?
Without the restraint of the padlock, the old rusty door slowly opened a crack, as if inviting someone to come in.
Renata bravely pushed open the door of Room 0. The room was dark and empty, with a slight smell of decay. The white curtains slowly rose and fell, stained with some kind of black stain. The light of the searchlight shone through the gaps in the wooden bars, and vaguely saw rows of iron racks piled with glass medicine bottles on the left, and a cast iron operating table covered with yellow rust on the right.
This is an operating room. Renata has been to similar facilities before, but the operating rooms used by children are very clean and tidy, and they are designed to avoid bacterial infection to the greatest extent possible. But this place is full of dirt and oldness. If you dare to perform surgery in such a place, the surgeon probably doesn't have to think about the end, and just let the patient die on the operating table, otherwise the injuries and infections will kill him.
Renata suddenly heard faint breathing sounds, accompanied by the rattling of chains, and in the dark corner where the light could not reach, there was a mass of things wriggling.
She reached out and groped along the wall, found the light switch, and after turning it on, she finally saw clearly that it was a person, a girl about her age.
There was not a single piece of intact skin on the girl's body. She looked like a patient with severe burns, but in fact, those were scars from surgery. It was hard to imagine that a child of this age would have so many scars on her body. Perhaps only the cruel punishment of being cut into pieces could describe this situation. The wounds were of different sizes, from new to old. If it were an ordinary person, they would have died of wound ulceration and infection in such a dirty environment. However, most of the girl's wounds were scabbed, leaving a large red scar around them, making her look like a bloody person.
But she actually had beautiful long hair that covered her buttocks when she sat down. It was very clean and slender, like the girls who appeared in those colorful picture books, who were usually princesses, counts, or some lady living in Moscow.
In comparison, Renata's hair was very dry...even when she tied her hair into a braid, it was frizzy, rough and dull, and Renata was very envious.
The girl seemed to be asleep and unaware of someone coming. Renata bent down carefully and reached out to gently lift her hair.
It was an Asian face. Although it was smeared with blood and looked a bit dirty, it was still delicate and almost weak, as if she would fall if touched. Renata thought she was prettier than any little girl in Black Swan Harbor, even Khorkina. She was not that age yet, but she was already better than Khorkina. She would definitely be a beautiful lady in the future, just like the fairy-tale princesses in the books.
Suddenly Renata felt sad. The simple word "future" should not appear in her dictionary. No matter she or other children in Black Swan Port, no one had a future. Most of them were brought here when they were very young and never saw their parents again. Some were simply born here. Black Swan Port was all they had. Siberia and distant Moscow were just words in a book. They seemed to be in front of them, but they could never be touched.
One day, I will die, right? Black Swan Harbor will not build a grave for anyone. Just carry it out and throw it into the snow. Soon, the wind and snow will bury everything. It will be easy to deal with. This may be the best ending for Renata.
Just when Renata was filled with sadness, the girl suddenly opened her eyes. The dazzling golden light almost blinded Renata's eyes. She covered her face and stepped back in horror, feeling like she had encountered some cold-blooded animal.
The girl was stunned for a second, obviously not expecting that she would make such a low-level mistake, and she smiled a little awkwardly.
"I'm sorry, Renata, I thought you wouldn't be scared." She called out Renata's name accurately, but she never left the room.
"You...you know me?" Renata was surprised. She had not yet recovered from the shock, but the girl calling her name gave her a sense of familiarity. Maybe they had met each other at some time she didn't know, such as in the cafeteria or the library. Among the 38 children, there were still some that Renata was not very familiar with.
"I also know a lot of things about you. You are very famous." The girl stuck out her tongue. With so many wounds, she must be in pain even if many of them were healing. But her face exuded intimacy and friendliness. She was really cute when she smiled.
But cuteness is not a meal in Black Swan Harbor. Renata and Khorkina do not have a very good relationship because Renata knows some of Khorkina's secrets. Those older nurses are no longer young and they have to take care of children, most of whom are relatively pretty girls.
As the best among them, Khorkina stood out. The nurses often picked on her, took her out of the room in private, and abused her with various things that would hurt but leave few marks. For example, very thin but very hard fishing wire, after being tied up and locked tightly, would leave very thin bloody marks on the body. As long as it was on the thighs or shoulders, which were not very eye-catching and could be covered by clothes, there was no need to worry about being discovered by others. Another example was a red-hot needle, which was the best weapon for stabbing people, because the marks it left were not even visible to the naked eye.
When Renata was bathing together, she accidentally discovered the secret of Khorkina being abused alone, and Khorkina also noticed her. Renata wanted to tell Dr. Herzog, who was relatively caring for the children and specifically ordered to prohibit the abuse. But Khorkina stopped Renata and warned her not to tell anyone.
Renata asked why, and Khorkina said that you will understand in the future, this is the territory of those nurses , they will not be fired easily, even if you tell the professor and they get a temporary punishment, they will still work here, and there will be plenty of opportunities to retaliate against you in the future. At least what you encounter now can be tolerated, but if you annoy them, it will not be so simple.
Khorkina's example taught Renata a lot about how to deal with people in Black Swan Harbor. She gradually became cunning and acted cute when she appeared in front of people. In her opinion, beauty and cuteness were a sin here, so she never thought about wearing better clothes or learning to put on makeup. The girl now looked much worse than Khorkina, probably because she was prettier.
