Turning the doorknob, a familiar yet unfamiliar figure stood before the door.
She looked at herself, her gaze shifted from shock to excitement, and she hugged herself tightly. A faint sound of crying could be heard as she repeatedly uttered.
"Alice, is that you? Alice."
I didn’t understand at all, and soon the other person realized something was wrong. They began arguing with him, and during the argument, I learned that the visitor’s name was Belli Yiyeta and she called him Teacher. In her excitement, Belli even shouted the name Teda Yazhede.
I watched the argument, and then Belli left. Before leaving, she looked at me reluctantly. In the silent house, he suddenly seemed much older. I walked over and softly asked.
"What is Belli? And Teda?"
I had read in books that everyone is referred to by a certain word, and that’s a name. It was only then that I realized I didn’t have a name, and he had never told me his name.
"Then... what am I?" I asked again.
Teda fell silent for a long time and then replied coldly.
Through layers of illusions, moving down the rust-stained corridor, past twisted and bizarre structures, Aimou walked deeper into the Great Rift until the beam of light was close at hand.
She tried not to hear those voices, but the arguing and clamor gradually intensified until it was deafening.
The mist almost covered her entire vision, the corridor faintly visible in the chaotic gray and white, and then another door appeared in the fog.
Aimou remembered this door.
In the days that followed, Aimou often wondered if everything would be different if she hadn’t opened that door.
But she always had to push it open; it was her destiny.
So she pushed open the door and saw another self lying on the bed.
She had thought she was unique.
"What are you doing?" Teda was always gentle, but this time he was full of anger.
"She is..." She didn’t understand, her expression flustered and uneasy.
Teda’s anger suddenly extinguished, and he stood for a long time, giving his explanation.
"Alice Yazhede, she is my daughter."
The false game of playing house was over, and Teda felt it was time to explain everything and draw a line.
She couldn’t process these issues all at once, her mind a jumbled mess, almost about to explode.
Looking at the sleeping figure on the bed, at the body identical to her own, she looked down at her hands, a fear beyond words erupted from within.
She staggered backward, sat against the wall, and let out a shriek of fear and anguish.
"No... this isn’t right..."
She muttered, she was supposed to be herself, that’s how it should be...
Teda said nothing, he simply picked her up and pushed her through another door, throwing her inside.
She was thrown into a pile of garbage, not understanding why Teda had become so cruel; he wasn’t like that before... Was he sick? She knew humans were fragile, they could get sick, and some people’s personalities changed when they were ill.
Yes, Teda was sick, and once he recovered, he would return to the way she knew.
"As you see, she is my daughter."
Without emotion, Teda explained to her everything about his resurrection plan.
Those words were like the ravings of a demon, the glow of Ether flickered continually on her surface, and she felt she was on the verge of an overload.
She shook her head forcefully, denying it all.
"I am your daughter?"
Teda looked at her coldly, then said, "Look around you."
She turned her head, saw one discarded puppet after another piled up, their eye sockets empty, resembling death itself, densely packing the darkness.
When the fear reached its peak, her emotions became unbearably numb. She remembered those beautiful memories, everything seemed so real, but the current pain was just as sharp.
She didn’t understand why Teda, who had been so kind to her, was now so cruel, only because of her different identity?
Teda slowly closed the door, and all the light vanished as well. She scrambled over, but couldn’t stop the door from closing.
Pounding on the door with force, her pleas went unanswered.
Afraid, she shrank into a corner, and at this point, Aimou walked over and sat beside her.
Nobody knew that Aimou was not as obedient as she seemed, quite the contrary, she was a deceitful, habitually lying child.
The pitiful identity of the Alchemy Puppet made everyone who knew her feel a touch of sympathy, while her expressionless face and cold tone made her lies seamless.
Bologue had heard this story from both Aimou and Teda, but neither told the truth about what actually happened that day; only they themselves knew.
"It was that day, you appeared," Aimou said softly.
Alice stood aside, her hands behind her back, "You needed me, so I came, didn’t I?"
Aimou did not respond; she heard footsteps approaching.
When Teda opened the door again, it was already the next day. She sat quietly atop the puppets’ corpses, like another puppet herself.
Teda asked, "Do you understand your place now?"