[Jaykobell]

The day had gone relatively well. The woman wasn't as frightening as the husband, but she certainly wasn't any less lenient. Unless she got something right the first time, Eunice had to start all over again until she got it right, or until the woman was too exasperated to keep on trying the same thing. In a single day, Eunice had been shown where to find all the tools to clean the house — which she would have to do every day — she knew how to prepare basic meals, and she knew how to wash clothes according to colors and other factors.

She was back in the barn, the day over and the night already pitch-black outside. While being escorted back to the barn by the wife, Eunice had noticed Denzil still working in the field, husband watching over him. She wanted to help him out, somehow, but before she had the chance to even move, the woman had already thrown her back into the barn. She'd left the girl with some food — obviously, it would become a problem if the kids starved. It really wasn't much; a small glass of milk, a slice of bread, and an egg. The woman had left the girl with a fork to eat it all, and with that, left the child in the barn for the night.

By herself, she managed to bring the small plate up to the second floor, along with the fork. She went down the ladder to get the glass of milk, and then back up again to bring everything together by the little hay-bed. Now that she'd had to go up and down the ladder, she, too, agreed that it was actually pretty easy to go up and down, once you got the hang of it.

But speaking of Denzil, Eunice got worried when the boy still wasn't back from the field. She left her food to the side of the bed as she made her way to the edge of the second floor, peeking down at the first floor below. Not long after, she heard some noise coming from outside, and soon after, the farmer barged into the barn and dropped Denzil on the ground. Eunice noticed the boy looking exhausted, if not on the verge of passing out.

"That doesn't even deserve a piece of bread," the farmer complained as he started heading out of the barn, and eventually the doors closed and the light coming from his oil lamp faded in the distance.

Once it was clear to move about the barn, Eunice climbed down the ladder and headed straight for Denzil, whom hadn't moved since the farmer had dropped him down. "Denzil?" Eunice called out as she got down on her knees and hands to take a closer look at him. "A-are you okay?"

To her relief, the boy did move when she called out to him, propping himself up a little so he could look at her. His red eyes looked dull and exhausted from the seemingly endless day he'd gone through. "You can go down the ladder," was the first thing he said after a few seconds of silence.

[Jaykobell]

Eunice blinked when Denzil pointed out that she could go down the ladder. She looked away and nodded shyly at his comment. "I... I had to go up and down a lot, so... I-I guess it's easy now."

"Told you," the boy said, although he didn't have the strength really say or do much more. He groaned before he started pushing himself up from the ground, arms shaking from the extra energy he had to use just to be able to get up.

Seeing how he was struggling so much, Eunice wrapped her arms around him so she could help the boy get up. And she thought her day had been long and tedious; looking at Denzil, it looked like his had been beyond what she could even imagine. "I'll help you up the ladder," the girl said as she first helped the boy get to the ladder. Afterwards, she let Denzil go up the ladder first while she followed after him, to make sure he didn't fall.

Denzil let himself drop down when the two kids reached the small bed, the boy exhausted and barely capable of keeping his eyes open. His eyes were blank and seemingly uncaring, as his stomach made things even worse by rumbling louder than that godforsaken rooster. The boy grumbled, since he knew that he wasn't getting anything to eat until the next morning because of his unsatisfying performance in the field.

That was until he saw a slice of bread pop right into his face. He looked next to him to see Eunice handing over the food she'd gotten, to him. He stared at her for a little while, curious as to why she was sharing the minuscule amount of food she had.

"My... my day was okay," she lied a little, looking away shyly as she held the bread in front of the boy. "I already ate the egg, but you can have the bread." She'd found her day to be tedious, and that wasn't even the real work she would have to do starting the next day. Looking at the exhausted boy, though, told her that he needed the food much more than she did.

[Jaykobell]

For a moment, Eunice thought Denzil wouldn't take the bread from her, even though he was already eating it with his eyes hungrily. The boy eventually took the bread from the girl, and before Eunice could say or do anything, the boy had already swallowed the food completely. She blinked, surprised by how hungry the boy was. She had only been here a day, so she was still okay in terms of food, but she knew that soon enough, her body would start suffering from a lack of food.

"We should go to bed," she said as she got up and got on the small bed and shuffled under the little blanket. She was also tired, despite her day going better than Denzil's. She knew, however, that the boy just wanted to sleep, most likely, and trying to stay up with the light wouldn't be fair to him. Eunice, herself, wanted to go to bed, since her previous night hadn't been all that refreshing due to the nightmares.

She eventually heard Denzil shuffling about as he went for the oil lamp to turn it off. Eunice curled up in a ball to get the blanket to cover as much of her little body as possible. She heard Denzil walking over, and at first, she thought he would just lie down besides her; but when the boy came closer, she eventually felt him slip behind her. At first, she thought that maybe he wasn't so friendly, after all; but soon enough, her fear disappeared when the boy simply wanted to wrap his arms around her to embrace her in a hug. "Thank you," she heard him say, and even then, he didn't let go of her.

The two eventually fell asleep in the same position, the boy hugging the girl.

[Jaykobell]

Life on the farm was basically the same thing every day.

For Eunice, the days were all alike. She would get up earlier than Denzil, since she had to cook breakfast for the couple. After that, she got to eat her own breakfast from the leftovers, if there were any. Afterwards, her job was to clean the entire house, from top to bottom. She had to vacuum, dust, clean the windows, and do any other necessary cleaning tasks, if needed. Once she was done with that, she had to start cooking lunch for the couple, after which she got food if, again, there were any leftovers.

Her afternoons were often occupied with tasks like sewing, washing, or other housekeeping task. Whatever the wife wanted her to do, Eunice had to do without uttering a single word. Finally, she had to prepare dinner for the couple. She could keep the scraps, if any, and she then also got her own minuscule portion of food, which she got to eat back in the barn outside. Most of her work was extremely repetitive, and some days proved to be tedious simply for the fact that they were always identical and uneventful.

As for Denzil, his job involved a lot more physical work. If he wasn't working out in the field, his job was to take care of the animals in the other barns. He had to brush and wash the horses, he had to feed the pigs and the chickens, he had to pick up the eggs from the chickens, he had to gather the sheep and shave them for the wool, and even more. He could somewhat enjoy it when he was working with the animals; they seemed to appreciate his work a lot — and he meant a lot — more than the farmer did. If he proved to be good enough at the end of the day, he could get food. If his performance had been unsatisfying, the farmer didn't give him anything, in order to teach him a lesson.

Every time the old man did that, the boy's hate towards that old farmer would grow even more.

During the evening, when the two kids had some time to themselves, when they could talk to each other and even play, if any of them had any idea for a small game they could play.

As time went on, the two children got closer and closer by the day, and they continued to grow together.

[Jaykobell]

When she was lucky, Eunice got to find a few forgotten items in the house of the caretakers. She'd found old books, and even a few broken toys that, despite being broken, were still really enjoyable for the two kids who had nothing besides each other. Eunice wasn't as rebellious as Denzil was, so she always asked the wife if she could take the items she found. She would sometimes get the evil eye for even asking, but other times scored the two kids with a brand new toy or book. Eunice and Denzil weren't so young that they didn't know how to read, so while books could be challenging depending on the vocabulary, they could still manage to read most of them. Eunice had even managed to get her hands on an old dictionary, which the two kids sometimes read together to learn new words.

"Bread," Denzil read aloud, flat on his belly and kicking his feet idly in the air behind him, "'food made of flour, water, and yeast or another leavening agent, mixed together and baked.'" Denzil wasn't the bookworm between the two kids — that was Eunice, whom could easily spend her days reading — but he did like reading about the words themselves, just to know what they meant. There were things the old farmer told him that he didn't always understand, so trying to find the words to find out what they meant helped the boy understand the situations better. "What's 'yeast'?" he mused quietly, half-expecting Eunice to answer him, since she was the nerd between the two of them. When she didn't say anything, Denzil looked up from the dictionary. He saw Eunice taking a look outside the window, seemingly keeping watch for something.

By now, the two kids had grown a couple of years and were older. Denzil was now a few inches taller than Eunice, and he was occasionally strong enough to even lift her from the ground a little, since she was still small. They were now perhaps close to ten years of age, give or take one year. They were both used to their routines, and the occasional abuse by the two caretakers. They had also grown much closer, where the two considered each other to be more than just friends, but almost siblings, despite not being related by blood.

He had a feeling as to what she was watching out for. Denzil got up and walked over to Eunice, tilting his head so he could see outside. "Are you worried about the wild animals?"

[Jaykobell]

Eunice was so caught up in her watcher's duty that she jumped slightly when Denzil approached her from behind. "Eep! Don't do that," she said as she turned around, sighing when she saw him there. The boy didn't add anything to his question, and so Eunice turned back to the window. "Yeah. Do you think they could get inside?"

During their stay, the two kids had eventually learned that there were wild animals roaming around the farm. They weren't docile and approachable like the farm animals; those animals were vicious and cruel, as well as dangerous. That was what the caretakers said, anyway. They sometimes threatened to kick both kids out to those animals for food when they disobeyed or didn't work hard enough to their liking. Ever since the animals had been mentioned — and even heard — Eunice had been particularly insecure about staying in the barn. She was always afraid that those animals could barge inside the barn uninvited and ready to attack the both of them.

Despite that, the little girl that was previously unable to even climb a ladder when she'd first arrived, had grown a lot. Being a girl, the caretakers didn't let Eunice cut her hair very often, and even when they did cut her hair, they still kept it fairly long. Denzil got a lot of haircuts over the years to make sure that, as a boy, his hair never outgrew the boy standards. Eunice had also changed in terms of personality; she wasn't as skittish anymore, nor was she as afraid to take risks. She'd returned to the barn with bruises and small injuries from the caretakers because she'd stood up to them and struggled against them. While she wasn't as outspoken as Denzil, it was still a huge improvement from the little girl who'd first complained about going up a small wooden ladder.

"It's okay. I don't think they can get in here," Denzil eventually replied, looking over his shoulder back at the hay-bed. "Hey, Eunice. Can I ask you something?"

[Jaykobell]

When she heard Denzil ask her a question, Eunice turned back around to look up at him. "What?"

"I can't go in their house, but you can." He sat down besides her, facing her with his legs crossed. "You know how we have a different look from them?"

"A different look?" Eunice echoed, tilting her head to the side in confusion, until it suddenly dawned on her. She blinked and then pointed at her eyes. "Oh, you mean the black eyes?"

"And the symbol under the eye," Denzil added as he, too, pointed at what he meant. Ever since the very beginning, he'd noticed that he was the same as the caretakers. They had white eyes and no symbols under their eyes, or even anywhere on their bodies that looked even remotely like the symbol he and Eunice had.

"What about them?" Eunice questioned, tilting her head to the side again. She didn't mind him asking about that, but neither of them knew what the different facial traits meant, nor could she understand what that had to do with her being able to go in the main house.

"That old farmer throws every kind of insult he can think of at me. I remember he slipped once and he called me something specific."

"Something specific? Like what? What did he say?" Eunice couldn't personally remember the wife calling her anything specific. She was actually fairly polite to Eunice; whenever the girl made a mistake, it was always the farmer calling her out on it, and not the wife. That wasn't to say she wasn't any less terrifying, but she at least refrained from calling the girl every name under the sun.

"I don't remember," Denzil said, groaning as he narrowed his eyes and tried to remember. "There was something... shape in it," he eventually replied awkwardly as he tried to put a word to a memory that was more of an image than an actual conversation. The farmer had been talking to his wife when he slipped the word in a conversation, so Denzil had only overheard it. "Anyway, the old caretakers have a lot of books, right? Do you think you could try to find out what he called me? I tried to find it in the dictionary, but it's not in it."

Eunice blinked at his request. It was the first time that either of them were after something specific in the house of the two caretakers, so the girl was a little nervous. Still, she nodded at Denzil's idea. "The wife has a big library in the master's bedroom. It's on the second floor, so I might be able to look at the books there without her catching me. I'll try to find something."

Denzil beamed and grinned a little at her before grabbing her hands into his own, which had also grown bigger than hers with time. "Great. I'm counting on you, then?"

[Jaykobell]

She still had the intention to check out the library in the master's bedroom.

She saw the clock ticking six in the morning. The couple were done eating their breakfast and had even left her some leftovers that she could eat if she wanted — which she always wanted, considering the pathetic amount of food she got daily every evening. She ate the few remains of eggs and the one French toast hungrily before the wife reminded her to get started with the cleaning. Eunice finished the leftovers and brought the plates over to the counter, where she left them for now until she was ready to wash the dishes. With that, the girl took the vacuum cleaner and headed upstairs to the master's bedroom. Despite it being a fairly easy task, her heart was still beating faster than ever. If the wife caught her red-handed... the girl didn't even want to think about it too much.

Once upstairs, Eunice plugged the vacuum cleaner in and turned it on. It started whirring with that loud, painful noise, as it always did, and while she usually hated the noise, Eunice got to use it to her advantage. While the wife was fooled to think the girl was vacuuming, Eunice would quickly scan the library in their bedroom to find out anything about what Denzil had mentioned the night before.

With the vacuum cleaner rumbling louder than ever, Eunice started scanning the library. She tried to keep her eyes open for books that looked more informative and educational than the ones with corny titles like "The Last Sweet Kiss" or "A Girl and The Forgotten Lore". She understood that those particular books were stories and didn't actually contain anything relevant to what she was looking for. The small shelf itself wasn't very tall or large, so Eunice should have enough time to scan through it and then vacuum quickly.

[Jaykobell]

After scanning the shelf quickly, Eunice did manage to spy a few books that were intriguing. She found a book that described a variety of different things, including different human "species". Scanning through that book, Eunice eventually saw a few pictures of the subjects they were describing.

She gasped quietly when she saw a picture of someone whom looked just like her and Denzil: black scleras with that same recognizable symbol under their eye. She read the blurb quickly and found the word the farmer had probably called Denzil: shapeshifter, a species of human capable of changing their appearance to theoretically anything they wanted. That was exactly what Denzil had been looking for. Sneakily, Eunice pulled the rim of her pants out and stuck the book between her skin and the rim of her pants. This library was so thick with books that some were hard to even take out of their row. The caretakers probably wouldn't notice it was missing. While she usually asked about taking something, this was different since the book wasn't just lying around on the ground, pages ripped and covers damaged.

She was about to start vacuuming for real when her eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of another book. Recklessly, she let go of the vacuum cleaner to check it out quickly. The book spoke of legendary beasts called "dragons", which, supposedly, were the Gods responsible for the many seasons that came and went, such as spring and winter. Overly curious, Eunice unknowingly started reading almost the entire thing from the very start.

She probably would've kept on reading if she hadn't felt a hard blow to her head.

Eunice shrieked with surprise as she was knocked to the ground, and suddenly, she heard the vacuum cleaner stop. She quickly realized that she'd taken too long in her task and that the wife had started doubting something. With the book still in her hand, Eunice felt goosebumps going through her entire body as the female caretaker glared at her. "I'll teach you for touching things while on the job!"

[Jaykobell]

"Eunice! Eunice, what happened?"

Denzil held the girl by her shoulders as he took a good look at what the wife had done to her. He had had a good enough day, since it was one of those days when he got to work with the animals. However, he'd come back to the barn to see that Eunice was almost missing an eye. The eyelids were swollen and an ugly blue-purple color, and the girl complained that she couldn't open it. "What happened?"

Eunice winced a little and whined. "I... I took too long, and she caught me reading the books in her library," the girl explained, shivering a little at the thought of it. The wife had caught her reading the books while she was supposed to be vacuuming the house. Seeing that Eunice had particularly enjoyed the book, the wife caretaker had literally tried punching the girl's eye out. It was probably because the girl needed to see that she'd left Eunice with her second eye intact. Otherwise, the woman would've probably injured both of Eunice's eyes.

Despite that, the girl grinned a little. "It's fine... I did find what you wanted," she said as she shuffled with her pants to eventually reveal the book that she'd taken from the library. "Here," she offered as she handed the book over to Denzil. "According to the book, we're a species called 'shapeshifter'." The girl grinned again, this time a little more prominently. "Not... not too bad, huh?" she asked, with respect to her finding the book and actually sneaking it out of the main house.

[Jaykobell]

Denzil stared at the book in surprise as he took it from Eunice's hands and started turning the pages. He eventually did find the same blurb of information that Eunice had, explaining that the two of them were a species of human called "shapeshifters", beings capable of changing their appearance, and characterized by the black scleras and the recognizable symbol under their eye. "That's great," the boy whispered as he read more of the blurb before his expression changed from curious excitement to guilt. "Sorry," he mumbled quietly, looking down at the ground.

Eunice blinked — and winced as her injured eye didn't cooperate — and tilted her head. "Sorry for what?" she replied curiously, genuinely wondering what he was apologizing for.

"It's my fault," Denzil added, lifting his head so he could look at her. "You got hurt because I asked you to do it. I'm sorry," he apologized as he lowered his head again. Denzil was used to the whip and to the regular treatments the farmer did to him because really, the boy often asked for it by deliberately disobeying his orders. He had no one to blame but himself for foolishly trying to get the upper hand against those heartless caretakers.

Eunice, however, wasn't as rebellious and outspoken as he was. She was certainly gutsy now, he wouldn't deny that she was pretty cool for a girl — sneaking out that book without even thinking twice about it, and even despite the fact that woman had beaten her up for just reading the other one. Still, she often got beaten up or bruised because of stupidities, like cooking their steaks to well when they wanted them medium-raw, or for not vacuuming or dusting perfectly enough. He hated hearing Eunice tell him how the wife had beaten her up for stupidities. To think that, this time, it had been because of him, it made the boy feel terrible inside for causing pain to his one and only friend.

[Jaykobell]

"Oh..." the girl replied quietly, unsure what to do or answer to that. Eunice had willingly agreed to help Denzil, since he never got to step inside the main house. She had agreed to do it of her own accord; she was sure that, had she declined Denzil's request, that the boy would've dropped it entirely. She could imagine him maybe insisting a little, considering she was the only one who could go in the main house, but she was sure that he would've understood had she insisted that she didn't want to do it.

Unsure of what to say, Eunice figured that doing something might get her message across better. She moved forward and made her way to Denzil, where she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "I said I would do it, so I did," she told him as she snuggled against him. "I'm not upset. It... it hurt, but I'm okay now," she assured him, although without letting go of him. She wanted him to get the message that she really wasn't upset because of what had happened.

Denzil froze in place when Eunice hugged him, still holding the open book in his hands. While unsure at first, the fact that she wasn't letting go made him understand that she really wasn't angry at him. He let the book down so that he could return the gesture and hug her as well, as tightly as he could. Ever since the first night she'd been brought here, ever since the first time he'd spoken to her, Denzil had been happier than ever before to have a friend, to have someone with him through this whole thing. If he lost Eunice now, the boy couldn't even begin to imagine what he would do. "I love you, Eunice," he whispered to her, ignorant of the true meaning behind the phrase "I love you". In his mind, "like" just didn't sound strong enough to really express what he wanted to say.

Eunice smiled at his words as the two just continued to hug each other. "I'm glad we're together, and that we're not alone in this whole thing," she replied to him, any potential hidden meaning behind "I love you" completely going over her head. It was the same childish logic as Denzil, where the girl figured "like" was just too little, so the next best choice was "love".

The girl was the first to break the hug after a while. "We should go to bed," she proposed, receiving a nod from the boy, whom agreed with her statement.

[Jaykobell]

Something wasn't quite right the next morning.

Eunice always woke up earlier than Denzil, since she had to cook breakfast for the caretakers. Denzil was usually sound asleep when she awoke, since he still had a little over an hour of sleep until he had to wake up and start working. Eunice always did her best to be as quiet as possible every morning to make sure that she didn't wake him up.

Up until that morning, she had always managed to slip away unnoticed; but that specific morning, she felt Denzil weakly grab her wrist. "Eunice..." he called out with a raspy voice before coughing a little. "I... I don't feel good..." he added weakly when the coughing died down enough that he could speak again.

Worried, Eunice slipped back on the bed and got closer to Denzil. "What do you mean? You were okay last night, weren't you?" Was it something she'd done? Had she just not noticed that he hadn't been feeling well at all last night? Hearing him cough and sneeze, Eunice could only guess that the boy had caught a cold.

"My throat kind of hurt yesterday night," he admitted as he coughed some more. "I can't... I can't breath through my nose," the boy complained, sounding groggy from lack of sleep and nasal from his nose being completely clogged with mucus. "I... didn't sleep at all because I kept coughing and sniffling."

"Do... do you want me to stay here?" Eunice asked instinctively, but then she remembered that she couldn't stay in the barn. If she didn't show up at the right time and if she didn't prepare breakfast for the caretakers like she was supposed to, they would punish her.

As if he had read her mind, Denzil shook his head and tried to push her away, albeit weakly. "They'll hurt you if you don't go... I'll be okay," he whispered groggily as he coughed some again. She'd already gotten a black eye the day before because of him. If they beat Eunice because of her staying beside him because he didn't feel well, he would end up feeling even worse.

While she felt bad for just leaving him, Eunice eventually nodded. "Be careful, okay?" she said as she slipped out of the bed so she could go down the ladder and then out the barn.

[Jaykobell]

Eunice had to admit that working with a black eye and worrying over Denzil's health didn't quite help with productivity. Now that she had only one eye that could actually see — until the other healed — it was harder to do the tasks she'd been doing every single day for a few years. She'd bumped her feet and elbows and knees against furniture or the edge of the bed while vacuuming because she couldn't see everything correctly. While she had a feeling she was fine from what she could see with her one good eye, she often ended up being too far or too close to something.

She was done vacuuming the second floor and it was almost time to start preparing lunch when she suddenly heard the door open downstairs. To her knowledge, the wife always stayed inside the house, so the person who'd come in could only be the husband. However, Eunice knew that he basically never left Denzil unattended. Why was he here?

"Fuck! Woman, get me something! That stupid kid got sick or some shit," Eunice heard the husband yell loudly, and immediately she felt her heart sinking. The clock almost indicated twelve, so Denzil had already been working in the field, meaning the boy had been forced to work while he wasn't feeling well. Eunice was dying to just dash downstairs to go to the boy, but she knew better. If she tried to skip her tasks, the wife would beat her again, just like she'd done the day before.

Things turned out for the best, though, when the wife seemed to take their side. "Leave him in the barn, he'll just get worse if you make him work while he's sick. And take the girl while you're here. She sleeps with him and if she's contaminated, she's going to get germs all over the house!"

[Jaykobell]

"Useless piece of shit," the farmer called the boy as he just dropped Denzil on the ground once they'd reached the barn. Eunice had been following along quietly, resisting to urge to stand between Denzil and the farmer. If the boy was already sick and not feeling well, the caretaker really didn't need to add salt to injury.

"The older you're getting, the more you sit on your ass and don't do shit. You're getting it off today, but you better get your shit together tomorrow morning!" the farmer threatened as he stormed out of the barn, not even uttering a single word or giving a single glance at the girl. Once that unpleasant man was out of the picture, Eunice dashed towards Denzil to give the boy support. She was about to apologize for not staying with him this morning, but before she could say anything, Eunice noticed something about Denzil, and she found herself unable to say anything.

"I... I-I'm so s-sick of them," the boy whined as he looked up at his friends, sniffling and crying all the tears of his body. As if history were repeating itself, but in reverse, Denzil is the one who latched onto Eunice as he started crying and sobbing loudly. The girl didn't know if it was out of exasperation or because Denzil's head a little groggy from lack of sleep and the sickness, but Eunice certainly didn't reject him and instead hugged him tightly as he cried in her arms.

"I... I-I want to l-leave, Eunice," he blurted out awkwardly in-between sobs and shaky breaths. "I c-can't stand it a-anymore." All these years that he'd poured all the energy he had into those chores, that he'd really, genuinely done his very best to please that godforsaken farmer. And yet, despite Denzil complaining that he wasn't feeling well enough to work, despite telling the farmer that he really was sick, that old man had just insulted him and forced him to do more work on the field, under the sun and under the endless crackling of that whip.

Unsure what to answer, Eunice just listened to Denzil pouring his heart to her and sobbing all the tears his body could muster. After a while, the boy calmed down a little, and Eunice broke out of their hug just a little. "We... We'll escape, one day," the girl said, hoping that there was a little bit of truth in that statement. "For now, you need to rest. You didn't sleep at all last night. I'll help you up the ladder, okay?"

The boy wiped his years away with his arm and sniffled a little before nodding quietly.