Un-Chain

Although Uteu had wanted to simply burst into the white metal sphere to save his little sister, as he turned the handle of the hatch to open it, he felt an extreme sense of foreboding. His hands felt clammy and everything in his being told him to not open the door.

However, all of these warnings came a little too late, the door was already cracked open. A cold sweat broke out at the back of his neck and the air began to feel thin. He started to feel dizzy and everything around him began to spin.

Just then, like a warm fluttering spark, he felt something tug at his heart. He could feel a desperate plea calling out for help. The cry was very weak, but strangely enough, concentrated.

He could sense that the plea was being directed specifically to him and him alone. This was likely the only reason he could feel it over all of the ominous feelings he received.

Uteu was forced to breathe in deeply to bring air into his lungs. Along the edges of his eyes he began to see dark spots.

"Uteu?"

Harvet called out to him in worry, snapping him out of his daze. He stared at her with wide eyes and realized that everything was no longer spinning.

Was he the only one to have felt all of that?

Judith's and Harvet's concerned stares suggested to him that it was highly likely.

Could it have been a hallucination?

No... his deep instinctive feelings have never lied to him ever since becoming a Chained One. If this was a more shallow feeling or a mere thought he would have doubted himself far more.

This... this feeling, it was just too strong to ignore. The air still felt far too thin, regardless of the fact that he could now suck in air into his lungs without trouble.

Getting a grasp on his bearings, he sent Harvet a weary look and then dropped down onto his knees to talk to Judith. She was no longer looking at him.

"We... aren't going to like what's behind this door, are we Judith?"

Judith remained quiet, and he followed her line of sight. Her brown eyes were blown wide and had drifted back to the cracked open white hatch door. She wrung her hands over her shorts repeatedly in restlessness despite being unable to see into the darkness through the door.

Her eyes flickered back at Uteu and she darted forward to clutch onto his hand with both of her's. He softly closed his hand over her smaller, shivering ones.

Moving his dark grey eyes back over towards Harvet, he was forced to make a decision.

The call for help broke into a heart wrenching desperation. Uteu felt anxious, he had to move immediately before it was too late. He gently but swiftly picked up Judith and passed her to Harvet. Harvet rose an eyebrow at Uteu but didn't push Judith away as the little girl wrapped her arms around her neck tightly.

"I can't even begin to explain, but I don't want her going in there this time, . There's something terrible and horrifying, please take her away from here, keep each other safe."

"Are you crazy? You don't even know what's in there. I promised my little brother!"

Harvet's hazel eyes narrowed in determination, "Let me stay and help you."

Uteu shook his head and he couldn't stop glancing at the open hatch. Itching to get in there to get to Uti.

"Look I can't. Please! You'll help me by staying safe. I'll need the two of you, alive and able to send your abilities through our link. Haven't you felt me pull for your abilities already? You should know the feeling. This is the best kind of help you can give me for whatever is in there."

Harvet looked glum but Uteu stayed resolute, his eyes looked straight into her own and didn't waver. He couldn't let them inside of this metal sphere, with whatever it was that gave him such a dreadful reaction, he just couldn't risk the two of them.

"We're staying right here then. At the very least we can stop anyone else from going in there with you."

Judith lifted her head from Harvet and nodded. She and Harvet both sent Uteu a powerful look, one of determination and pleading. Seeing the two so earnest, he couldn't help but agree.

He still motioned for them to back up in precaution regardless.

Staring at the hatch and into the unknown darkness, Uteu's hands trembled as he opened the hatch door fully. As if something grabbed onto him, he found himself being pulled into the pitch black darkness.

He could hear Harvet and Judith's outcries just before the hatch slammed shut and clicked into place. Surrounded by darkness, Uteu reached his hands out. They roamed all around the door, unable to feel a handle on this side of the door. He was locked within.

It was completely silent except for the sound of his own furiously beating heart and heavy breathing. Uteu gritted his teeth and ignored the insistent alarm at the back of his head telling him to leave.

He took a step forward, blindly into the darkness. His foot made a loud noise as it made contact with the floor and suddenly bright lights flashed on from either side of him. Uteu had to squint to readjust to the light. More lights flickered on one at a time with every loud step he took forward.

As his eyes adjusted he was drawn to the glass floors below him. Underneath the glass squares was a dark red jelly like substance. Beneath the bright lights, it gave off a red eerie glow.

The call for help rang out to him once again, much louder.

"Uti!" He cried out as he ran straight forward.

The lights followed him, brightening his path as he went, and the further he went, the clearer he could feel that warm spark. He could now say with certainty that the cries for help were from his little sister.

"I'm here, Uti!" He tried to convey back to her, to let her know he had heard her and was here to rescue her.

He suddenly choked down his next set of words as he heard a response.

Except, it wasn't from Uti.

The unknown, formless despair lashed at the back of his mind angrily and knocked him down onto the glass floor.

Uteu tried to get back up only to find himself unable to look away from the glass, or more specifically from the things floating within it.

Children.

Several dozens of children were submerged inside of that red substance.

And-

Every single one of them had a wide circular opening in their skull. The inside had been hallowed out, clean.

The brain had been taken out of every single child that he could see in the lighting.

Bile crawled up Uteu's throat as his stared on in horror.