Prologue

Prologue

It was currently nigh time in 1855 London. Most people were already fast asleep. But not everyone. 

Currently Lord Ascot and his friends were talking with Charles Kingsley about his new venture that he wanted to go on. Though everyone disagreed that this was a good idea because of the many dangers made it seem impossible. Though Charles didn't believe anything could be impossible. As he said "For some the only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it's possible." 

Their discussion had to cut short however because of Charles's two younger daughters, Alice and Scarlet, were in the doorway having just woken up from a nightmare. Charles excused himself as he took his daughters back to their shared room, listening to them explaining their dream with utmost seriousness. Not judging them, making fun of them or dismissing their fear and worry. 

"Do you think we've gone round the bend?" Scarlet asked looking up at her dad with a gentle look. Charles put his hand on both of their foreheads as if feeling for a fever. "I'm so. You're mad. Bonkers. Off your head. But I'll tell you a secret...all the best are." he said which made both of them giggle happily. "It's only a dream. Nothing can hurt you there" he said taking his hand off their foreheads. "But if you do ever get too frightened you can always wake up, like this" he said before gently pinching their arms causing them to scream quickly before pinching him themselves. 

But they would eventually find out the truth about their dreams. 

Experiment with feelings

Chapter 1

Throughout most of the factory you could hear the screams and please of the experiments no matter where you went. Only a few areas had the luxury of being soundproof; those areas being the break room, the dorm rooms, the experiment rooms and the office rooms. For the rest of the factory you just had to get used to the screams. Most workers still have a moment here and there where they shudder because of the screams. But one worker in the whole factory hasn’t even shown a slight bit of emotion regarding those screams. Hasn’t shown any emotions at all actually. And that’s Walden Darling’s assistant Lunaria. No one knows her surname and no one bothers to ask her. Actually, no one bothers her at all unless it has something to do with work. She acts weird to them and many people stay away whenever she is nearby. They don’t want anything to do with her but Lunaria doesn’t care about that. She’s just here to get her job done and that’s it.

Speaking of work, Lunaria is currently walking down the hallway with a cup of fresh hot coffee in her right hand and a pile of documents in her left. She walks at a fast pace with a blank expression on her face. She knows where she’s going and for what and she’s not going to waste any time. Seeing the door to her boss’s office, she knocked to signal that she’s here. A sharp “Come here” was heard from the other side causing her to open the door with her elbow. 

“I got you your coffee boss. As well as the documents about the colour extraction experiment that happened yesterday that you asked for” Lunaria said in her usual monotone voice as she put down the coffee and the documents next to him. Walden nodded and took a sip of his coffee without looking at her or thanking her. This was normal between them, they only talked to each other when needed and they were both fine with that. Walden did occasionally wonder why Lunaria acted so emotionless but he didn’t question it. He just thought that she was being tough and seeing as they kill people in the factory, it was a good skill to have. Walden took a look at the documents and only hummed here and there in acknowledgment of the results.  

Walden put down the documents after reading them and finally turned to face his assistant.”I want you to take part in the experiment in room 180 today. It’s an aggressive subject that we will be testing and I want you to be there and make sure that nothing gets out of hand.” Walden said in a serious tone and the look in his eyes showed that there will be consequences if this experiment is screwed up. Lunaria nodded understanding his order and wasn’t planning on messing it up. “Yes sir” she said before leaving his office and heading to room 180. 

When she got there, she put on her gloves and read the file about the subject. The subject was a male in his late 30s and was frequently aggressive in his cell and during all of the tests and had to frequently be sedated because of that. A crash and the sound of chains caught Lunaria’s attention. As she looked up she could see at least 5 guards plus the rest of the workers bringing in the test subject and strapping him onto the chair. 

“Let go of me you dirty fucking bastard! I will kill you all!” the male yelled causing some of the workers to flinch and move away from him. Lunaria wasn’t affected by it and got the sedative ready as well as the syringe with the colour formula that they’re testing. The main point of this experiment is to see how injecting someone with multiple colours would affect them. “Hold him down whilst I inject him” Lunaria ordered the guards and that’s what they did without any hesitation. This only angered the subject more but now he had more movement restriction. 

“Don’t you fucking dare come close to me with that needle!” The subject yelled out even louder but as always Lunaria wasn’t affected. That was the thing that probably made her scarier than Walden- she didn’t show any emotion so no one knew what she was thinking or what she would do next. “Scream all you want but you’ll just be wasting your breath and voice and we’re not going to nurse your voice back into health” Lunaria replied as she approached the subject. The way she acted scared him but he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of seeing him scared because of a girl that was playing tough. Lunaria injected the colour formula into his right arm without any hesitation causing the subject to scream in pain. “What the fuck did you inject me with you bitch?!” the subject yelled, feeling a burning sensation on his arm and inside of it.

“Now we just wait and write down the results,” Lunaria told the workers in the room. Every worker in the room nodded and made sure to note down every single thing, even if it was just a slight change. They all knew just how much information their boss wanted for each experiment and his assistant wasn’t any different. And none of them wanted to end up in the grinder or the next test subject. They may have chosen to work here but they sure as hell didn’t want to die here. 

The subject experienced things such as extreme pain, vomitting, burning sensation as well as sudden waves of calm and sadness before passing out from exhaustion. The guards unstrapped him from the chair and took him back to his cell where he would stay until his next experiment or until it was time for him to die. No one knows their fate once they enter this factory and that includes the workers. “Get one of the janitors to clean this mess up” Lunaria said to no one in particular before leaving the room. 

🍜🍥🍜

Chapter 1

It's been 10 years and both of the girls have grown up into beautiful woman. Alice being 19 and Scarlet being 18. They have grown to be very much like their father, ahead of their time and unlike what others would expect them to be. Both wanted to be independent and disliked a lot of the expectations that were put on them. However, Scarlet was more open and blunt about her opinions compared to Alice. Alice knew mostly when to keep quiet and when to not speak her mind but Scarlet struggled with that. 

Currently they were both in a carriage with their mother being driven to a party. Neither Alice nor Scarlet wanted to go because they weren't in the best mood but their mother forced them to go. Their mother was nervously fiddling with Alice's mane of unruly blond hair trying to make it look as good as possible. Alice's hair got very wavy sometimes causing it to be a mess. Scarlet's black hair did that as well but because her hair was darker it wasn't as noticeable nor did it look as bad as Alice's. 

"Must we go? I doubt they'll notice if we arrive or not" Alice asked trying one last time to convince her mother to turn back. Neither of the sisters wanted to go to this party and have tried multiple times to persuade their mom to turn back. None of those attempts were successful. "They will notice" their mother, Helen, said brusquely as she abandoned Alice's hair to focus on her outfit. Scarlet rolled her eyes annoyed but didn't say anything. Her mother always was fussy about their appearances and today she was especially fussy about how Alice looked. Scarlet had a few ideas as to why. 

Helen re-tied Alice's waist stash before feeling for her coreset but found nothing. "Where's your corset?" she asked with a sigh already knowing the answer to that. "Mother you know very well how much we don't like them. Don't ask questions you already have the answer to" Scarlet said looking out of the window. Helen sighed looking over at her daughters who were just like their father. "Scarlet, don't start today, please" she pleaded with an almost tired look. She than pulled up the skirt of Alice's blue dress to expose her knees, "And no stockings!" 

"I'm against them." Alice said plainly, bored of this conversation and the fussing already. "But you're not properly dressed!" Helen argued back. "We are we to say what's proper and what's not? Everyone likes what they like to wear and they shouldn't be judged for it because it's not 'proper'. It's not like it's a rule of the world or something" Scarlet argued back, so that her sister didn't have to. She hated how controlling their mother was, to the way the dress to the way they talk and think. 

"Alice, Scarlet" Helen said in a warning tone. She didn't want an argument to break out between them. "To me a corset is like a codfish" Alice asserted agreeing with her sister and thankful that she said what she did. "Please." Helen implored, "Not today" she let out a quiet sigh as her daughters huffed looking away from her. "Father would have laughed" Alice said. 

This caused Helen to have a heartful expression on her face as memories of her husband flooded back. "Sorry mother, we just didn't sleep well" Alice said genially feeling upset about what she said. The loss of their father and Helen's husband affected them all greatly. Helen grasped and squeezed her daughters hands in unspoken forgiveness. Since their father's death last year, Helen has been trying to usher Alice into adulthood as a 'respectable, young woman' first since Scarlet was more stubborn and difficult to deal with. Helen always told them that she wanted the best for them- stability, a good reputation, a husband. But the two siblings reasoned that their views on what makes a good life must be different because every act of love from their mother felt more like a shackle that they couldn't get out of. 

"Did you have bad dreams again?" Helen asked knowing that their dreams kept them up at night most of the time. Each of their dreams got weirder and weirder, must be one of the reasons why they are the way they are. "We both did.  The same one as always...is that normal? Don't people have separate dreams?" Scarlet asked still not looking at her mother. She has been wondering for a long time if the dreams that she and Alice were having were some sort of weird sign. They clearly weren't normal. 

Helen swallowed not knowing what to say. She busied herself by unclasping her necklace around her neck. "I don't know darling" she said before she put the necklace on Alice. Alice looked down at the necklace and smiled a bit. "There you are. You're beautiful and you finally managed a smile" Helen said smiling as well. Alice felt herself deflate slightly as the Ascot Estate came into view. By ordinary standards it was a perfectly lovely home. Sweeping manicured lawns, occasionally dotted with a neatly trimmed evergreen tree surrounding the centre piece of the estate- the house itself.  The Ascot house was three storeys high, a wide and blocky grey-bricked building with tall, narrowed windows and stout chimneys- a dearly typical home. 

The carriage trundled along the straight, gravelled path up towards the house and Alice's focus shifted from the looming estate to the clouds leisurely rolling past in the sky. She felt a smile tugging at her face as she noticed a cloud that resembled a turtle drifting over the roof. She followed it with her eyes until her mother urged her and Scarlet to get out of the carriage. 

Helen grabbed her daughter's hands as she tugged them along, setting up a brisk pace towards the estate. The older woman hardly had time to appreciate the part itself, her heart thumping in her chest and her breath coming out quicker and quicker. She passed the lawn where gentleman were playing croquet as their wives chatted among one another. 

A woman named Lady Ascot soon saw the trio arriving and walked over to them. "Finally! We thought you would never arrive. Alice, Hamish is waiting to dance with you. Go." she said as she pushed Alice in the direction of where her son was before turning back to Helen. Scarlet could only give Alice a sympathetic look as she walked off. She knew that her sister didn't like Hamish but there was nothing she could do currently. 

"You do realise it's well past four!" Lady Ascot told Helen off as soon as Alice was out of earshot. "Now everything will have to be rushed!" she added clearly unhappy. "I'm sorry" Helen murmured quietly "We-" she started but got cut off. "Never mind!" Lady Ascot huffed as she took her skirts in her hands as she descended the stairs after Alice. Lord Henry Ascot could only give a sympathetic look towards Helen. 

"Forgive my wife. She's been planning this affair for the last 20 years" Lord Ascot said sympathetically towards Helen. "If only father was here..." Scarlet muttered to herself. She always had mixed feelings about the Ascots. She was friends with their oldest son William but she didn't get along with Hamish at all. "My condolences Helena, Scarlet." Henry's gaze dropped. "I think of your husband and father often. He was truly a man of vison"

"Thank you" Helen replied automatically, like a robot. "I hope you don't think I have taken advantage of your misfortune," Henry continued his blue eyes searching for a reaction from either of them. "Of course not" the woman reassured him, "I'm pleased that you've purchased the company." A warm smile took over Lord Ascot's face then, a fondness in his eyes at the memories. "I was a full for not investing in his mad venture when I had the chance." Helen could only respond with a genuine smile of her own. "Father would have thought the same thing." Scarlet said with her arms crossed over her chest, staring off into the distance but still paying attention to the conversation. She wasn't really interested in the conversation or even the party but she stayed behind anyway. There wasn't much for her to do here. Lord Ascot turned to look at Scarlet like a fatherly figure would with a smile on his face. "So Scarlet have you decided or found your betrothed yet?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. He knew that she wasn't interested in marriage but she would have to marry someone eventually. 

Scarlet shock her head. "I haven't and I don't plan on finding him soon. I'm only 18, I still have a whole life ahead of me" she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Lord Ascot nodded, humming in thought. "Of course Scarlet, why don't you go and enjoy the party for a bit? I'm sure there are many quiet delicious drinks to have" he offered kindly, motioning her to go and have fun. Scarlet nod, gladly accepting the offer to get out of this conversation. She excused herself before going to the drinks table. 

Labyrinth 1986

My oc