Lucan was a bit confused, he didn't expect anyone to hand him gifts especially when it wasn't his birthday at least he didn't think it was 'This body doesn't have the same birthday as me'. An interesting fact he had taken note of during his regular checkups.
The sudden celebratory greeting had caught him so off guard that he had responded reflexively without thinking about it much. Still, he was curious. 'How strange, I wonder what they got me,' he thought.
He felt somewhat happy even in his previous world. His birthdays had been pretty quiet since almost no one really knew his birthday, he didn't receive many gifts from his parents either, He just enjoyed the festive nature of the whole thing, even if he was all by himself most of the time.
He opened the bag and found a folded note with the words "Read me". He arched an eyebrow and curiously unfolded the note and started to read through it with a rather serious expression after seeing the first sentence.
Return to your room and read alone.
It was his handwriting, Lucan scanned the paper earnestly, the bag seemed only to have his water bottle inside which he had been looking for but couldn't find 'What is this?'. He folded up the letter with a smile and walked towards his room. Even going as far as to whistle something to himself.
***
He locked the door and sat down, he had been avoiding opening this box for days now and it was starting to bother him. One of the few perks about having a room to yourself was that you could really be alone when you needed it. Pulling the paper out of his pocket he looked at the next sentence.
I imagine you are probably confused, if that is not the case then discard this letter.
Lucan rolled his eyes, this was certainly written in his style, so he was likely the one who had written it at some point, the problem therein was 'When did I do something like this? And why? Ah well whatever its kinda cool secret letter'. He controlled his curiosity for a bit and read further.
Now as you must be aware our cute little playmate Polly has been absent for a few months, and I decided to get to the bottom of it, I had a few worries after seeing the medical ward kids so I had myself write this note, a love letter from the Ghost of yesterday.
Lucan stared at the paper with a strange feeling, he was now very sure he had written the note, but he was wondering if there was really a need for him to write it in such a strange manner. He tended to become rather dramatic when he was feeling a little unsure of something, his eyes returned to the paper.
So, with introductions out of the way and you having read this far, it means your mind has been tampered with in some way shape or form just like the kids from the medical wing, if you are a zombie, then this spectacular plan of mine has failed and I was a bad judge of character, if you still have autonomy you'll find the rest of the note in the locker, change the code when you're done
10098
"What nonsense is this?". The letter cut off there and he was starting to feel a headache coming on, there was no reason to even be this thorough. Ideally, if he really were mind-controlled then this was all meaningless since he may as well be a sleeper agent. However he shook his head, they rewrote an entire day's worth of his memories, likely minor details like this will be overlooked.
He placed the key and tried to open the locker but it didn't budge, furrowing his brows he looked back at the paper and found a string of numbers attached to the paper's edge and frowned 'The password'. He quickly entered the combination and watched it open. 'Now that I think about it I never use the combination lock just the key'.
He grabbed the next folded piece of paper and read the words on it.
Now that we've established that my brain is still working normally, and that I am still likely reading this second note it must mean that I met whomever it was that's responsible for the brainwashing I can't predict whatever it is they would have done to my mind but just in case it's who I think it is, just remember that we have never lived in Gotham
Lucan chuckled as he felt his brain buzz 'This must be those episodes the doctor was telling me about, haven't I always been an orphan living in the orphanage?' he sighed but felt obligated to continue reading.
If for any reason you should doubt the above for any reason whatsoever then let's conduct a short test, we shouldn't be able to remember our parents' names, ever since we got to this world we haven't been able to recall either their names or their appearances so pop quiz, what is our father's name? Go on I dare you to answer, that should shake your brain up a bit.
He shook his head, at the letter's conclusion, even if he had become an orphan at a young age he was still old enough to remember his parents' names "....". He grabbed his head as his eyes widened in surprise. "No, something isn't right here, didn't I just say I was always an orphan?".
Lucan's head was throbbing and he felt like he should just ignore the topic for now and think about it later while also thinking that something wasn't right about his current actions, like something was trying to blindside him. And the more it nagged at him the more he felt like investigating.
Looking at the ground he quickly noticed something he hadn't before, the locker had been moved slightly, the locker was much too heavy for him to move, so it could only have been moved by someone much older.
He looked behind and found a crumpled note, and a flashlight. The space was a bit cramped for him so he went under his bed and reached out, taking hold of the note first he opened it. What greeted him was disorganised handwriting that looked like it didn't belong to him. 'I don't think I set this up'
Beware of the light
The note read, causing Lucan to purse his lips, click his tongue and crumple the note back up and toss it aside. Next, he reached out for the flashlight, as soon as he touched it the bright blinding light entered his eyes and he jumped reflexively falling to the ground.
"Argh my eyes, my head…" Lucan paused as his eyes widened in shock "...That girl's sneakier than I thought".
He slowly crawled out from under the bed and dusted himself off, flashlight in hand with a small note on it that read "You're welcome" The missing parts of his memories had been filled back in and he could properly recall what he had done which made him sigh in relief 'Thank you Polly, that would have taken way longer'
He had an extensive list of things he had asked people to help him with to get him back up to speed and goad him into reinvestigating, he had even prepared a whole scenario where he rediscovered Bradley's death Luckily, Polly had a much more reliable method 'How did she come up with that though'.
He shook his head feeling like that wasn't what he ought to be focused on at the moment.
***
"Thank you very much for the help". He thanked the girls who had gone along with his strange request who upon noticing his shift in persona exchanged looks before the oldest black-haired girl with freckles spoke.
"So, are you going to tell us what happened in your little adventure? Cause you sure took your time" She crossed her arms over her chest and Lucan just flashed her a charming smile.
"Where should I start?".
"How about we start from why you suddenly started acting weird". She asked, sitting down on her bed while Lucan slowly nodded his head in response, Lucan couldn't shake the feeling of suddenly becoming a henchman.
"I can do that" He quickly peeked outside and then closed the door "Well you probably already guessed this but the guys from the medical wing are under some mind manipulation". The freckled girl slowly nodded and gestured for him to continue. "But you see the staff also seem to be affected, at least some of them".
He then explained everything he saw and experienced when he was sneaking or at least attempting to sneak around and how the guards had responded to him
"So the reason they were acting strangely is probably that someone had tampered with their minds? Like how you completely forgot about an entire day?" She asked and Lucan just nodded "Well, alright that seems fair but any idea who's doing the brainwashing?"
Lucan fidgeted a bit in place, he wasn't exactly sure how they would respond to the piece of information he had for them, the people at the orphanage had mixed opinions about Polly when it came to her meta-human nature "Um, well it's Polly?".
The black-haired freckled girl arched an eyebrow and shot him a questioning glance "Are you sure?".
"Very, she was the one who wiped my memories personally". He then explained the state he had found her in and the words the guards had said which made her furrow her brows
"And there was no one else in the room?".
"There was but why do you ask?" Lucan remembered the distinct and unique pain of being tased in the back, he swore he would remember this pain and make sure to inflict it on the very individual the moment he found them. He paused and seemed to catch on to something.
Like she had just said there was in fact someone else in the room, someone who was directing how Polly used her powers and how they affected people. Lucan sighed, he felt a little dumb, no matter how smart Polly may be, what were the chances she would and could pull off such precise manipulation without being taught?
However he couldn't remember what the person looked like no matter how he tried, he hadn't actually seen them after all and what he remembered of their conversation was when he was basically knocked out.
The moment he pulled himself out of his thoughts the black-haired freckle girl was staring at him with interest "You are a very weird eight-year-old boy" She rose from her bed and walked to the door "I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing but do keep yourself safe".
He nodded and quickly left them alone in the room to their own thoughts, and with him gone she simply collapsed into her own bed and muttered into her pillow "Maybe I really should have died in her place".
***
He sat in the cafeteria poking at his food with his spoon, almost swearing he could see the food twitch. With his mind back in one piece, Lucan was in no hurry to get close to anything that might get hurriedly exposed, there was no way that Polly would be able to pull a stunt like that again, whoever is pulling her strings won't let them go twice.
They would be watching him closely now, making sure he remained just as clueless as they left him and not even a millimeter wiser, and that Polly wasn't setting any landmines for them to step on 'Which means I'll have to lay low for a bit and start seriously thinking of how I am going to escape this place, before it's too cold to run away'. He looked outside at the snow that was gradually piling up and shivered if it got any colder even if he never left the building he might just freeze to death before anyone got the chance to silence him
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.