Purona smelled in the oceanic air as she sat down. The sky was starting to set into a beautiful orange hue; she could tell the sun was already setting. Purona touched a particular looking shape she found on the sands. She picked it up and placed it in her pocket. The slight breeze was pushing her slightly messy, dark pink, yet short, hair off to the side. She heard someone walking on the sand, and turned around to see the familiar brown headed woman she’s known all of her life. Her eyes lit up, along with her body as she showed this woman the strange new object she found.
  “Hey! Bailie! What is this? It's so smooth inside of it, but it's really rough here” she expressed.
  “Well,” Bailie started to exaggerate the excitement “it appears to be solid material.”
  Purona frowned, she didn't like it when she knew Bailie knew the answer, but was holding off telling her just to excite her more. She can’t hold in her curiosity.
  “Soooo….. What is it?”
  Bailie gave a small smirk and held it closer to Purona. “It's a shell!”
  Purona scratched behind her head
  “A… shell?” she questioned
  “So, remember those sea creatures? Well, they are sometimes creatures that crawl around. They like to live in shells since the shells are hollow on the inside. It is like a sweet little house for them.” Purona’s eyes lit up. She held the shell and lifted it up high.
  “A home! A home!”
She let out a very toothy smile.
  “Bailie! Speaking of homes, let's go home!” She grabbed Bailie’s hand, Bailie nodded and they both started to walk home
  Bailie held onto Purona’s hand tightly, they were going back into the city but the city has changed since Bailie was a child. Purona was too young to know, but there was a time when the city was still normal. Years ago, Bailie would remember when the buildings were new looking and all shiny, there would always be these little stores that would sell exotic foods like ice cream and hamburgers. She remembered how people weren’t so dangerous and just wanted to go to their next location. She missed going to these places, and she missed going there with her dad. Then, she remembered a memory, the last memory of when the lands were still populated. Bailie was sitting next to her mom, eating a sandwich, she could still remember the mayo, ham and lettuce. Her mom’s mouth started to open, which made Bailie turn her head to hear what she had to say. This was when she saw explosions go off in the building next to her. This caused her to fly off the chair and into the ground. Screaming ensued. People were panicking, no one knew what was happening to themselves, she saw people with strange features forming on their bodies. Others were breaking into stores and attacking others with those strange features. Mutilated bodies covered the ground. Before Bailie could run, her mom gripped her arm, and ran. Bailie was dragged behind before her mother turned back at her and decided that her own daughter was just dead weight. She let go of her, and ran ahead, leaving Bailie. She wanted to cry for her mom to come back, but something inside her told her not to. She ran away from the scene and hid behind the city garbage box. She miserably ate the remnants of her sandwich, stifling tears. This was all back when she was purona’s age. That would be the last safe day, and the first many dangerous ones to come.
  As they were walking home, Bailie held Purona close. She heard a distant rustling, and immediately looked around for places to hide. Bailie always held a knife on her, she had  never used it on someone, but knew that fact wont last long. Their walking quickened, Purona’s breathing fastened, then they were running, Bailie held Purona’s hand tightly, and eventually they started sprinting, clearly making noise now. As they neared the entrance, Bailie held her knife in her free hand and turned around at the exit. No one was there. They made it out of the city safely. They both collapsed into the grass, breathing heavily. After they caught their breath, Bailie and Purona walked the rest of the way home. After some precious uneventful hours, both of them had arrived home, the outside was rather well hidden, you wouldn't know there was a room inside unless you were told about it. Inside were two beds which were stolen mattresses on the ground. Bailie started to set up the fireplace, which was a small hole in the wall of the room. She grabbed a pot next to the hole, poured in some water from the beach, and attached it to a hook above the fireplace.
  Purona sat on her bed and picked at some lint attached to the blankets, then she started to pick underneath her fingernails. Waiting for the water to get boiled always felt like forever, then Purona remembered the shell she found at the beach. She took it out and felt the smoothness of the inside. She looked at the beautiful colors, how they would blend from blue to pink, to yellow almost seamlessly. The shades were really unique as in how there were some darker hues of blue, yet light and almost white hues of yellow.
  “Purona! The water is done now”
This snapped her out of the trance of the shell.
“Huh? Oh! What are we eating?”
  Bailie put up a tired smile and took out a bag of ramen. “This one is your favorite!”
Purona held up her hands high, and let out an excited laughter. She spun around and quickly grabbed a bowl underneath her pillow. She held it out for Bailie to pour the boiling hot water in. Bailie took out the ramen and broke it in half, sharing between the both of them. Together, they both ate the ramen, plain and simple. After some time, the two of them went to bed, the quiet of the wind rustling being their only lullaby.
Bailie was still awake, even though the morning birds were chirping. Her smile has long since faded, and those intrusive thoughts would always consistently tap at her mind. Those thoughts would speak of disturbing, yet true things.
  “I can't be the only one to look after her. I can tell she wants to socialize, but I can’t be the only one she talks to”
  “She needs me, she wants to learn but how can I? I never finished middle school”
  “I cant protect her, it's just us versus the world. No one else is trustworthy”
  “If only I could find my dad… maybe he can help”
  “I’m glad I never saw my mom again”
  “But maybe she could’ve taken better care of this situation”
  “No… she would’ve controlled the both of us and used Purona against me”
  “Purona should’ve never have had to go through what I went through”
  “Dad… I’ll need to go look for him soon. He’ll be just as lost as before...”
  Eventually, she did manage to get those few precious hours. Bailie would’ve needed to leave this shack. She would’ve needed to look for her dad. It would’ve been years since she last spoke to him in her dreams. The last thing she told him was to meet her where they used to live, if their home still stood.
  Morning arrived. Purona was sitting outside the house. Bailie would’ve checked up on her every so often by peeking outside since their place clearly didn't have windows. She knew to warn Purona to never stray too far from the entrance and to at least stay close by where she could see her. The area they lived in was seemingly deserted. The forest they lived in was rather lush and didn't seem to have any signs of anyone, aside from them, entering the area for many years. Bailie was packing dried meat along with canned goods and multiple bottles of water. She peeked outside and still saw Purona, glad she still remained in view. Inside, Bailie was finished with packing, this time she was thinking of plans. The beaches would’ve been the safest road, of course, but getting there would be the biggest issue. She was going to need to carry a lot of heavy and possibly noisy things. Avoiding others would be another problem, she wouldn't know if they might’ve been interacting with others who could’ve been infected with curses. Curses... she hadn’t thought about that for a while. Bailie only started calling them curses due to how they would affect how people would live. She would sometimes see in the distance someone who would be infected, suddenly liquidate, or how others would feel their skin burn as they would suddenly conjure flames from their own hands. Some were more subtle as the curse would manifest as a small and easily hideable feature. These curses were like super powers in comic books, but with none of the benefits. Thankfully, Bailie never came into close contact with anyone with a curse, she was far too careful to the point where she didn’t interact with anyone. Bailie’s only time of weakness was when she saw baby Purona and initially thought she had a curse due to her pink hair. Purona… Bailie had been so lost in thought that the need to look outside hit her suddenly, she dropped everything and yanked the entrance open.
    All she saw was the forest greens.
  She didn’t see anyone.
  Purona was gone.

    Purona didn’t know where she was getting taken to. Everything was dark even though it should’ve been morning. Last thing she remembered before everything went dark was when she looked back at her home, thinking she should probably go back inside. Purona then heard sounds she didn’t recognize. One sound was vaguely like that of a motor but deeper sounding, she heard voices of all volumes, another was this monotonous yet high pitched noise being played in succession. Suddenly, everything was bright, aside from a window. The window didn’t seem to be very sound proof as Purona heard some noises coming from that direction and held an ear to the window, trying to listen to the sounds on the other side.
  “-Her hair is unlike any other pigmentation we’ve seen. It's much more prominent than the two others”
“how has she survived all of these years? She’s rather young and was found alone.”
  “That doesn't matter now, we got to understand, is she immune? To the curses, I mean”
“Possibly, her hair is much more warmer in color than those two, but first, we need to sterilize her clothes, she could’ve been living off of cursed people for all we know”
  Purona jumped back in fear as she heard some kind of mist fill the room. She covered her face as the mist made small scratches on her sting. After some time, the mist went away, and a door, hidden to Purona initially, opened. Purona was hesitant. She didn’t trust the place she found herself in, but staying in that room was not going to help her leave wherever she is. Purona got up and slowly walked towards the door. Past the door, and past the hallway, She found herself in a room where there was a person with bright orange hair, and a sea green dress of some sort who also had the sea green dress. There was another woman there who had this light yet grayish pigment of pink hair held in a ponytail, she was definitely taller than either herself or the other woman. Initially, they didn’t notice Purona at first, but the tallest woman noticed first and glared at the orange haired person.
  “They didn’t tell us that they found another person? What kind of ignorant little pieces of sh-” she paused before noticing that Purona was rather small and most likely a child. “Little, uh, sh…. Shiitake mushrooms do they think we are? They just dumped a freaking child onto us!”
“That is none of our concern” the orange haired woman spoke in a monotonous voice, “it is rude to talk about others as if they aren’t there.” she stood upright after staring at a piece of glass with a machine.
“My name is Galeta, I study our genetic makeup to find a cure to these curses that plague the world, and this-” she gestures their hand to the tall woman with a bored look on their face. “This is Olonda. I guess she helps me in the lab...” Olonda laughed and gave them a pat on the back.
“Oh you and your silly jokes, I help you with grabbing things off of the top shelf!” Olonda turned to face Purona. “So, anyways, what is your name?”
  Purona didn’t really know how to respond, she was put into a situation where she didn't know what to do, and was forced to meet people which she didn't recognize. Purona felt scared and no one seemed to be noticing. The overwhelming situation caused Purona’s emotions to swell up. Purona stood there, sniffling which then developed into snot filled crying.
“I-I M-mmmisss….” Purona stifled out. “M-mi-misss…. B-b-bailie”
This certainly put both Olonda and Galeta into an awkward situation, they might’ve been dating, but they surely didn’t know how to deal with a crying child. Olonda reacted first by trying to calmly say shhh. “Shhhh, shhh, don't cry! Don't worry, we’ll be taking care of you” Olonda glanced towards Galeta, shrugging her shoulders with a look of worry. Galeta really didn’t know what to do, but she did know of a possible solution.

    “Hey, what do we call you?” they consoled.
  “M….m-m-my...n-n-name???” Purona answered. “i-its...P-p-purona”
  “Purona is it? I see. Tell me, what is it that is bothering you?”
  Purona didn’t really know specifically what it was that was bothering her, but she still wanted to give an answer.
  “I-i d-don’t like i-it h-here…”
Olonda grabbed the edge of her sleeve and wiped Purona’s tears.
  “Breathe, child, breathe” she soothed. Olonda decided to follow Galeta’s footsteps. “Who is Bailie anyways?”
“Shes… s-someone who looks after me, m-my friend...”
The two looked at each other, unsure what to do.
“Did they really just steal a child off of the streets without further assessing the situation?” Olonda angriled whispered. “What a bunch of cold hearted idiots, after this, i'm giving them a piece of my mind”
Galeta sighed, “There is no need, we can just ask them to search around the area to see if this Bailie is still there”
Olonda hesitantly gave in “fineeeeee, but you go and ask them, you already know how i’ll deal with telling them to go search”
Galeta let out a smile towards Olonda, then got up and started to leave. Olonda held out her arms and held Purona softly. At this point, Purona’s tears were drying up.
  “Say, how about we go and get you something to eat?” Olonda said cheerfully to Purona. She slowly nodded yes.

Bailie frantically grabbed tools and took out food. She grabbed her knife, and ran outside with the supplies. Thankfully since there was rain recently, there were tracks left in the ground. Bailie had to assume it was a kind of car that was made to be silent, due to the lack of noise and the track’s shape. She would go on to follow it for a while until she ended up at the city. The car tracks stopped there due to the road. “Why would the car go through such a dangerous place?” Bailie had thought to herself. She entered the city and noticed some small patches of dirt that the tracks were barely visible in. The City was always unusually quiet. The only sound was the wind rustling and Bailie’s thundering heartbeats. She kept telling herself “stay calm… stay calm” repeatedly until the words lost their meaning. This place reminded her too much of her mom’s action. Wait, Is there anyone nearby? “Sh#t” Bailie forgot to pay attention, she lost track of the car prints. “No!” Bailie blurted, before realizing she just spoke out loud. She grasped her mouth, frantically looking around. Fear was paralyzing her legs. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement. Bailie spun around, knife in hand, to find the cause, only to see a youngish man with ink like hair. His skin was a dark purple and had this terrifying green gaze.
  “Hey! Don’t shoot! Er, or stab me”
  This confused Bailie, she was expecting the man to attack her. Then it hit her, the man was obviously trying to lure her into a false sense of security. She would need to pretend back to ensure her safety. She lowered her knife.
“Who are you?” Bailie questioned. “What is...uh... what’s with you here?”
Suddenly, the man stood upright and started to speak.
  “Look, I don't mean to cause any harm, you clearly appear scared.” He took out something out of his backpack. “Do you want any water? I got way too much of it” he chuckled.
  Bailie was not amused.
  “I don't visit this place all too often ‘cause I don’t need to, but I just needed to gather some medical supplies and water for a camp nearby. It’s a super chill place. I like to get a lot of water because my curse makes me thirsty from producing ink.” At first the man was confused why Bailie was so quiet until he opened his mouth into an “ooohhhhh” expression.
  “I should’ve mentioned, my name is Melano, whaddabout yours?”
  “It is… Jessica.” Bailie quickly lied.
“I knew a Jessica once, she rubbed me the wrong way” He said with a reminiscing smile. “Strange though, she seemed nice and all but I learned that I didn’t swing that way, so we broke it off. I think she started dating this guy named Liam but i'm not that sure”
  Bailie’s interest peaked, she lied that she had her mother’s name, and wanted to know more about her dad, but she felt a tugging at her gut to leave.
  “If you wanna, i can get you something i found earlier”
  “Yeah, uh, sure”
  Melano put up a chill peace sign before heading inside a building behind him. Bailie took this chance to run. She ran and ran, not even looking at the ground now. She just hoped that she made it out of the city in one piece.
Somehow, Bailie made it to the beach, she saw the tracks in the sand. She wished she could continue now, but she was already out of breath. Prepared, she exhaustively grabbed her camping supplies and took shelter for the night.

Purona was sitting still around a bunch of maskless strangers. The room looked very plain, there wasn’t much to focus on aside from a needle heading towards her shoulder.
  “Hold still.” the stranger asked with an emotionless voice
  The needle inserted into her arm, causing purona to wince.
  “You’re done now.” a tired voice said.
Purona looked at her arm, as they wiped a paper towel over the injection spot. She glanced over at the needle and noticed it filled with blood. It was a small syringe, very pencil-like. The fact that purona’s blood was out of her body bothered her. She’s only ever bled from small scratches like she accidentally grabbed something sharp, but even then, Bailie was always close by. Bailie was never too far behind her.
Suddenly, the stranger spoke up again, with a sudden frustration in their sounds.
  “You can go now, you know you’re keeping me busy, right??”
This prompted Purona to quickly stand up, “s-sory...” she apologized. She left the room to avoid further embarrassment. Purona was feeling rather… left out of the loop. No one seems to be telling her anything and she’s only been able to piece things together from what some of the strangers have said out loud. She knows that she’s important for something due to how these strangers seemed to really want to separate her from Galeta and Olonda. Purona walked along a hallway aimlessly until she saw Galeta pushing along a cart. They had some goggles on which made Purona nearly not recognize her.
“Where were you?” Galeta exclaimed.
  Purona just pointed towards the general direction she came from, which was enough for Galeta to sigh as they put a hand on their face.
“Ugh… they got her DNA… this isn’t good” Galeta muttered.
Purona raised an eyebrow. She didn’t know what DNA meant, but felt like asking the question might get a bad response somehow. Galeta perked up and held out her hand.
“Look, you can come with me real quick. I want to show you something.”
Purona’s eyes lit up at the sudden idea that she’s going to see something new aside from boring walls and strangers all day. She gratefully took her hand and walked with them to a secluded room. Inside the room were numerous objects that were cleaner and more vibrant than anything Purona used to have at her home. This made Purona homesick as all she wanted to do was to go home. She quietly sat down onto a purple looking blob, which made her lean very far back into it.
  “Woah… now this is really nice!” Purona announced.
  “Do you know what that is? The thing you’re sitting on.” Galeta questioned.
  Purona shook her head.
  “It's a bean bag. Bean bags got their name due to how they were literally a bag of beans”
  The sudden new found knowledge of the name to an object reminded her to ask a few questions of her own.
  “So, what is this room? What does DNA mean? And this place… what is going on at this place?”
  Galeta took a bean bag for themselves and sat down. Leaning forward as they would explain these questions.
  “This room is where you’re going to be staying for the time being, think of it as your bedroom. DNA is a shortened version of Deoxyribonucleic acid, but I doubt you’ll be able to pronounce that word any time soon. DNA is what all living things are made out of, to put it simply. As to what is going on in this place, I’m not allowed to tell you about some specifics as it is classified, but I will explain to you as much as I am legally allowed to.”
  “This place is called a lab, and there are numerous scientists here, myself included. We’re here to study the phenomena known as curses. Surely you’ve seen them when you were outside right?” Galeta explained.
  “Yeah, Bailie told me about those. She said that they were really dangerous and that you can get sick with one like the cold. She said that’s the reason why we couldn’t talk to anyone aside from us two, but I noticed that you and Olonda don’t really show to have a Curse.”
  Galeta looked confused, which made Purona want to retract her statement.
  “No no, you didn’t say anything wrong, but I just want to clarify that Curses aren’t all bad. You see, me and Olonda both have curses, but since we have this special enzyme in our body that appears in our hair, we are able to... “ Galeta’s face scrunched up as she was trying to figure out a way to explain this idea to a sheltered teenager. “Let's just say, co-exist. Curses appear different for everyone, but we have yet to determine their cause. My Curse appears as increased intelligence which helps me solve problems and have greater memory. Olonda’s Curse appears as increased strength, which is useful since she is in charge of the security around here. This does not mean that we aren’t the only ones that can learn to live with our Curses, but it is easier for us due to this enzyme. I predict that the enzyme will naturally mutate in everyone to help us control our curses, once a few generations have gone by."

    There was a lot to unpack for Purona mentally, but she seemed to get the general idea of what Galeta wanted to communicate. Curses aren’t actually bad, it seemed.
   “I just want to ask you about a few more things before I continue my work.” Galeta assured.
   “What does Bailie look like?”
   Purona sat still for a moment before answering.
   “Well, she’s got brown hair, she wears yellow and blue clothes a lot. Hmmm… her eye color is dark purple, oh and she’s nearly the same height as me!”
“What is Bailie like to you?”
“‘Bailie is like my caretaker. She seems to really care about me!”
Galeta raised an eyebrow.
“Like your mother?” Galeta wanted to clarify.
“I think so.” Purona concluded.
Galeta did the calculations in her mind, before she stood up.
“I don’t doubt that she’ll be here soon. I could even say that she’s traveling here as we speak” they maintained.
Purona stood up as well and took off her shoes as she prepared herself to sleep.
“I hope she comes here soon,” Purona worried.
Galeta looked at Purona before leaving the room, turning off the lights as she closed the door.
   Bailie sat down in her tent, and closed her eyes. She was ready to push away all of the negative thoughts that came too often into her mind. Instead, she was fast asleep, perhaps to exhaustion. Inside Bailie’s mind was a dream of a memory that would change her life forever. Bailie was young again, perhaps her mid teen years, when she heard a faint yet painful crying from an abandoned building next door. Bailie wanted to hold herself back and continue surviving on her own, but the painful feeling of being abandoned made her head towards the direction. Bailie feared that she was being lured into a trap, only to find an actual child as the source of the anguish. She held the crying child in her arms and gently cradled her. Bailie couldn’t leave a baby to fend for itself. She thought to herself that once she would find her dad, that Bailie wouldn’t need to care for the child anymore, and that soon, she’ll be able to be a child herself. Suddenly, time went fast, Bailie felt like she was aging by the second, she also saw the child she was once holding grow before her eyes. Suddenly, Baillie felt herself become frail, her back curving forward, fingers became boney, her eyesight became blurry until suddenly, she could see was a blurry figure. She knew this blurry figure was her dad, the way you know someone from a dream. Bailie tried to yell for him, but there was no sound. She tried to move towards her dad but her body withered from growing too old. She wanted nothing but to see her dad again, to be embraced in his hug, but all she felt was nothing. She woke up in a cold sweat. She saw the sun rise from the beach side. She had to find her dad soon, she wasn’t sure if she could find Purona without his help. Bailie took down the tent and continued on her way.
   Morning arrived, and Purona was being shown the area by Galeta. Apparently Galeta really needed a specific chemical that's only stored in a place that isn’t the main storage she was shown earlier. Galeta claimed it was a freezer, but wasn’t there already a freezer next to the cafeteria? Once they both arrived at the specific location, Galeta unfolded a bag from her arms and started grabbing things off the shelf.

    “Purona, you can look around if you want, I will be here for a while.” Galeta claimed.
   Galeta looked at a nearby hallway, before continuing on a tablet. Purona looked around the area and saw multiple shelves of gadgets and galore that Purona couldn’t hope to understand. There were even some objects that looked like they were floating. As Purona walked down the hallway, there seemed to be more and more unique looking objects. There was a fish fin, curly green strands of hair, an eyeball that was completely blue, even the veins, and a pair of horns that didn’t seem to belong to any animal that Purona heard of.  At the end of the hallway, there was a door that was left slightly ajar by a piece of paper. Next to the door was a 3 by 3 grid with numbers on each square. Purona peaked inside of the doorway and saw a sight she could only hope to forget. Purona saw a person inside of the dark room, with wires hooking into them. The room only had one light source, and it came from the flashing lights the person produced. Not only were there that one person, but Purona could see multiple other similar lights. The sight was horrifying to say the least, but there was a tank in the center of the room that made everything else seem smaller in comparison. Purona never really saw herself in the mirror all that often, or if she did see herself, it wasn’t in front of a mirror at all. This made Purona not too sure about her own looks, but there was something that Purona knew for sure about her appearance… She had dark pink hair, and this Figure in the center of the room had just the smallest amount of dark pink hair that told Purona everything to fear in the world and nothing to help her feel better. Galeta placed her hand on Purona’s shoulder. They had a look on their face like they wanted Purona to see the true horrors of the lab.
   “You shouldn’t enter doorways with number pads on them.” Galeta lied.
   Purona understood
   Galeta led Purona to her bedroom. Purona laid in bed, closing her eyes, but did not let go of consciousness. Galeta left the room to discuss specific matters. Olonda entered the hallway outside of Purona’s room, as planned. They both sat down on a bench and proceeded to speak quietly.
   “Purona is immune to curses, I confirmed this with the other scientists” Olonda first spoke.
   Galeta nodded. “It appears so, her pigmentation exceeds far past ours. Also, thank you for doing this for me, you know they dont like telling me the truth.” they scoffed “as if they don't know I easily look past their lies.”
   “If only I could just…. “ Olonda stammered “hit them where it hurts and have it be done and over with.”
   “Hey, hey now! You know you can't just talk like that out loud, be glad they don't suspect us, or at least think we can do anything against them, or else they would put recorders everywhere.”
   “I know, I know….” Olonda sighed, before looking at Purona inside. “But since they’re so focused on her…. What with her immunity….”
   “... they won't notice us maiming their resources.” Galeta finished. “They think they have their “cure” to everything, the “cure” to end all of these permanent curses, but I know her immunity doesn’t work that way. She can’t remove what’s already been changed, all her immunity does is prevent her from getting cursed.”
   Olonda sighed in admiration. “This is what I love about you. I fell in love with your fiery passion long ago, and you never cease to amaze me. I need this plan to happen so I can spend the rest of my life in your love.” Olonda slid her hand in Galeta’s hair, their lips pressed together before her hand reached the end of Galeta’s chin. They both stood up and walked to their respective bedroom.

    The sun came out and hit harder than expected. Bailie always kept a calendar and knew that it was already June, but she didn’t expect it to be this hot. The area around her just had this ambience of warmness that she couldn’t escape from, not even in the shade. Carrying all of the things that she had on her didn’t help the situation either. Bailie held a hand up over her eyes as she tried to see further. By now, the tracks were pretty faded, but she’d been keeping such a close eye on them for a long time now that she could recognize it, even at a distance. Bailie always had a capability to identify patterns easily, it was how she managed to help her dad escape limbo all those years ago. Her ability to suddenly focus on something and see details that others dont notice, made her feel like she was crazy, or even stupid. Bailie’s mother always told her she was lazy and seeing things whenever she saw these details. As she got older though, these details are what saved her and Purona. Bailie found food for the both of them, even if Purona herself couldn’t have seen it, and Purona did the same with Bailie. Bailie always gets lost in thought, as she was thinking about the past, and on purona, she forgot to focus on how dehydrated she was. Suddenly, Bailie collapsed.
   She didn’t know how long she spent unconsciousness, but when she woke up, Bailie found herself in a familiar place. The walls were familiar, the floors were a sight that Bailie quickly became accustomed to. This bed… this bed was something that she once slept in years ago. The memories came pouring back. She was at home. Her childhood home. Someone entered her bedroom, someone unfamiliar, yet familiar at the same time. This person had a fish-like curse. Bailie screamed, and threw her pillow at the intruder, she ran out of the room while the invader was still stunned. She ran into the hallway and looked for a way out before the intruder ran up behind her and sternly told her to stop. Bailie was stricken with fear, she slowly turned around to see the man behind her back. Her eyes met his eyes, initiating a silent understanding.
   “D…Dad…?” Bailie barely muttered.
   The familiar person hugged her tightly, allowing Bailie to finally let out years of trauma, isolation, and abuse in the form of ugly crying. Except it wasn't ugly to bailie. This was the most beautiful moment in her life. She didn’t care if she would get infected with a curse at this point, All she wanted to do was to keep her appearance as close as she could from when they first formally met. She looked back at her dad, her dad returning the favor.
   “We are home”

   Liam spoke first after Bailie cried for what felt like all the time in the world, and mere moments.
   “I’m sorry I never was able to find you again. When I came back, everything was chaos. People were running as they couldn’t control their curses. Years went by. There were lots of politicians and the like wanting to use our powers for their gain, but since there weren’t as many of us as there were in the past, most places became ghost towns and people traveled in nomadic groups, including myself. My group met several other groups working together despite the circumstances and I could tell that humanity was thriving. We became all rather close, but eventually, they had their own goals, and I had my own. I never once forgot about my goal to find you again...” His voice started to shake. “I was never there for you... You grew up without my help… What kind of a terrible father am i?”
Bailie hugged him, patting his back softly like she always did whenever Purona would cry.
“People can hurt even the ones they love most, but it is up to the person how they will minimize the pain.  I can tell that you did everything within your power to find me, there were too many things out of your control, I cannot blame you for that.” She comforted.
Her dad looked up and gave a subtle smile, “we’re here now, that's what matters most.”
   Bailie gave a relieved sigh before she gave a serious look at her dad. “Dad… I need you to help me find someone.”
   The sudden change in tone confused Liam for a second. “Hmm? What do they look like?”
   “She has got dark pink hair, and she is shorter than me. She also has these sweet green eyes”
Liam placed a hand on his chin. “You know, remember that storage place near our house? Me and several other people rumored that it was a laboratory where these scientists were planning on making a cure for curses. A cure might have sounded nice when curses were still new, but life had changed since then. There's this tall woman with incredible strength, who told us a pink haired girl was found and that she is immune to curses. There was lots of discussion that night about the rumors being true and what this girl’s immunity would’ve meant for us. I’ve seen so many communities thrive, and be so understanding than before curses… If I had to take a crack at it, the person you’re talking about might be in the lab. It just makes sense.”

    “It has to be her.”

    Olonda, Galeta and Purona were all in the same room. They looked nervous as they kept looking around to make sure there was no one in the room. A tense feeling was found in the air. Purona felt anxiety building up from what they had to say. Was it from their conversation last night? Or was it the horrifying sight Purona saw earlier that day? She would have her answer soon.
   “You two seem… tense?” Purona questioned.
Both Olonda and Galeta looked at each other before they spoke.
“Purona, remember the room?” Galeta hinted at.
Purona nodded with a scared look covering her face.
“I would’ve preferred that you never saw the true atrocities of this lab, but I needed to show you proof of it occurring. That is why I left that paper in the doorway so it wouldn’t get locked.” they explained.
“I’m sure you want to stop their suffering,” Olonda started, “We want to stop not only them from being used in the future, but others just like that person.”
Purona understood them.

   “Sadly, they’re not the only cursed person who is being used for other people’s gains,” Olonda angrilied uttered. “There are more buildings that use cursed people. We’re lucky it's still a relatively new phenomenon, but I can’t continue on allowing this to happen.”
   “I’ve heard my peers casually discuss finding a cure just to ‘fix’ those who don't benefit themselves.” Galeta subtly shivered. “It was disgusting hearing such disregard for human life.”
   “I never liked seeing people suffer in stories, and even if I rarely ever saw a cursed being like the one she saw that night, I wouldn’t want them to be hurt. But... wouldn’t a cure help them so they can’t be used anymore?” she pleaded. “I heard you talk about it last night.”
   Olonda looked uncomfortable, which made Galeta respond in her stead.
   “Yes, while curing them would technically make it so they can’t be used like that any more, there's no guarantee that there even will be a cure, trust me, I spent years researching it myself. The closest we ever got to a cure was you, and you’re only immune to curses, which isn’t a cure.” Galeta clarified. “We do however have a plan that we’ve been working on for a while now. We decided to initiate it today.”
Curiosity came to Purona easily. “How so?”
   “Just earlier today, Olonda was talking to your friend, Bailie….”
Olonda kept a close eye on the environment around the lab. There was a fenced off area where the guards are able to work out, or for people in general to get some fresh air from a safe area. It was not uncommon to see cursed or not cursed people outside of the lab as there was a local community nearby. Olonda knew the community and regularly talked to them. More recently however, she would give hints about what would happen at the lab. After Olonda spent some time lifting weights, she saw a woman standing next to an older man outside that fit the descriptions Galeta gave her. Brown hair, dark purple eyes, and nearly the same height as Purona. Olonda quickly grabbed a towel to wipe away the sweat, before leaving through the lab entrance. There were 2 guards at the entrance, which Olonda gave a nod to. They believed that Olonda would escort those who went near the lab away by just talking to the person. This method didn’t bring any attention to the place, or so they thought. When Olonda came closer to the two, the woman looked frightened, while the man looked back with a sense of familiarity. It made sense, this woman was a face Olonda hadn’t met yet. When the woman saw Olonda, she blushed for a second, before looking back at the older man.
“This is the woman I was talking about,” said the older man.
The woman looked at Olonda carefully before looking back at the older man.
“So, I would presume that your name is Bailie correct?” Olonda asked.
The woman looked at Olonda with careful eyes. She slowly nodded. This was great news
“My name is Liam by the way” the older man said while raising his arm for a handshake. She took the handshake.
“To return the favor, call me Olonda”
Bailie looked at Olonda suspiciously. Olonda took notice of her look.
“I know about Purona, she’s in the lab right now.”
Bailie’s eyes widened, and her mouth opened. This got Bailie’s attention.
“She’s not in any harm right now, but the people at the lab might do something to her soon, I-”
Suddenly, Bailie gripped Olonda’s shoulders tightly, with a pair of eyes that only a furious mother would have.
“Can you not stop them!? Break her out of there!”
Olonda looked back at Bailie and lightly pushed her away.
“She’s a sweet child and I can tell she loves you, like a child would towards their mother, but if I took her out of the lab right now, then the guards would know she’s missing soon after. The only way for her to escape would be for us to get rid of the lab.”
Bailie and Liam look at each other worriedly. How would they get to her now?
   “I’m sure you already both know about curses being incurable, but this lab wants to cure those curses. I want to get rid of this lab, but I can't destroy it because that’ll cause a bad outlook towards us cursed people. Thankfully, my girlfriend and I have a plan. So how about we work together?”
   Bailie is left to feel reluctant, Liam seems excited about this plan. For a large majority of her life, she spent hiding from curses because she always thought that they were all evil, or dangerous. Maybe it was like that at the beginning, but now? She finds her dad with a curse and there's an opportunity to destroy a lab dedicated to curing curses by working with someone who’s cursed. Bailie looks up at her dad, and pays closer attention to his curse related features. He was still her dad, he still cared for her and she knew that. He didn’t seem to mind his newfound fish fins, and seemed to want to protect the cursed community. Maybe other cursed people were just like him?
“So.” Bailie decided. “How do we take down this lab?”
   “We give those scientists a message, and we also give them a bad outlook."

The plan had to be simple. Olonda and Purona would go into the room to save the cursed people in there. While the two were away, there would be a distraction at the entrance of the lab. The distraction would be the local community protesting against the progression of a cure. With the cursed people brought to the entrance, they would speak up against the pain they had to endure. Galeta already had files of evidence prepared of the crimes so no one could deny their agony. If the plan was complicated, then there would be far more problems than what had occurred when they enacted this plan…
Bailie and Liam talked to the cursed community about the lab’s plan to cure curses, which sparked a large party of anger that traveled to the lab. Many guards went to the entrance to guarantee the protest wouldn’t try anything violent. Inside, Olonda and Purona were running towards the room where the two cursed humans were. They both made it to the door and Olonda swiped her badge at the keypad. The door remained locked. She uttered some curses before trying again to no avail. They could break the door open with Olonda’s strength, but that would spread an alert across the entire lab. Still though, there was no other option.
“Purona… stand back” she said sternly.
Purona took several steps back before Olonda readied a punch and threw it at the door, popping it open. Just as that took place, the alarms went off.
“Go pull the lever,” Olonda yelled.
   Purona ran inside, she wanted to ask what the lever looked like, but when she looked back, she saw Olonda sprinting after the armed guards. In the room were several gadgets, lights and other things that Purona didn’t understand. She wasn’t a technology person, and that fact was costing them time. She frantically looked around looking for anything that might resemble an important lever, but Purona worried about the what ifs. What if the lever she pulled would’ve killed them? Or what if the level would summon something to attack her? The sheer amount of options and opportunities for something terrible to happen, shook Purona to her core. Then, she looked at the tortured beings. Their pain was clear to her, it would’ve been clear to an ignorant person. She had to do something. Something was better than nothing. She saw a lever earlier, near the wall. She pulled it as hard as she possibly could, which stopped the machine whirring she didn’t notice was occurring. Everything became silent, and Purona could finally think. The doors to their prisons opened, and they both fell out, including the wires that pierced their skin. One opened their eyes, and spoke softly.
“..Th..Thank you…”
Purona looked at the other cursed being. They seemed to be able to stand upright. Olonda came back from fighting those guards, she held her hand to a few wounds on her side.
“Don’t worry,” She assured. “I’ve survived through worse with lesser odds. I’ll just get Galeta to patch me up.”
“Olonda, help me with this one, I think…” Purona started saying.
Olonda was already picking them both up, which made them both look weightless. They all made it outside of the room, then outside of the lab through a back door. The one who stood up first spoke.
“What's happening? Who are you guys?”
Purona responded back.
“We’re here to save you guys from being used like that, .”
The other one spoke with a hint of excitement.
“I always wanted to be an activist, now I’ll get my chance.”
All 4 of them made it to the location of the protest. Purona looked around for Bailie in the crowd, initially to no avail, until she saw her. The guards visibly looked like they were planning something, until the two cursed humans from inside the lab started to speak.
   “We will never stand for the things you did to us! You tortured us to feel endless agony, a hellish experience that not even Satan would allow. We will never allow ourselves to be used by you again and we’d rather die than to live another day just to be exploited by your greedy arses”
They both proceeded to show their scars to the protesters, which made them furious. Yelling insured, the guards tried to fight back, but they were no match for the cursed humans. And thus, the damage to the lab had been done, both physically and politically. Bailie ran to Purona and held her close. Galeta and Olonda held hands as they examined Olonda’s wounds. She will live. Liam hugged Bailie tightly, and the two cursed humans stood together outside knowing that they wont be used again. They all cried for the pain they’ve experienced they’ve been through to get to this point, but there were also tears of joy knowing the pain of future generations would be lessened.