2nd Torment

Screams erupted from the rooms at the end of the corridor. Children's screams in fact. The horror caused the Asian branches newest exorcist to run down the hall to where the screaming came from.
Two guards stopped him. He tried to go past, but the guards were quite strong.
"Someone's in trouble in there ! You've got to let me stop it…!" Noise Marie cried. But he stopped as someone calmly touched his shoulder.
"Chang?" he asked as he saw the woman looking down at the ground as the screams went on.
"You Don't want to see what's going on in there Marie. You just don't. It would destroy you." she said solemnly as she took her hand away and then proceeded to walk into the room that was ringing with the god-awful sound. Marie shook his head in blind anguish as the screams went on- for the rest of the afternoon.
At lunch, the screams had finally stopped. Marie walked from the food window to the table where his friends sat.
"Alex, what on the living earth were those screams earlier coming from the lab rooms? You work in there- you know right? Chang-chan seemed upset about it too."
Alex chewed his food slowly before swallowing. "Those were the second exorcist experimentations going on. Poor kids." He said as he took another bite of his food. "they're only around six I think. Two boys and a single girl. Cute little guys they are too I tell ya. I don't know how the research department live with themselves doing that kind of stuff to little kids. It makes their poor, young, lives quite living-hellish. I refused to do it even, because I saw it once and was barfing for three weeks."
Marie was silent for a moment, shocked at what was just said.
"it's all that bad?" he asked quietly. Alex nodded. "well- what do they do? Does it hurt them? Is that why they're screaming like that?" he asked desperately.
"apparently its all top secret and stuff- But from what I know- they're trying to get the little kids to synchronize with innocence- but on a deep survival level. I don't really know much else- but I can tell you this. The amounts of blood that we clean up once they're done is soooo much- that if a grown man lost that much he'd be dead. They're tough little kids Marie. All of their wounds-" but the man stopped as some little kids came into the door at that moment. Two were boys, both with black hair. They were about the same height, but ones hair was longer than the others, and their eyes were different colors. The girl was in the middle, and had brown hair that went past her knees. They were all three wearing the same outfit of skin tight shorts and a loose shirt on top, and one could notice that some strange straps were hooked across their torsos underneath.
Marie then noticed that the girl was holding a piece of paper and that all three of them were staring at it intently. They were acting as if they had experienced nothing out of the ordinary- which broke Marie's heart. But then he noticed that one of them had written out in large letters a word that not even Marie could pronounce. He overheard them talking.
"Well there has to be some way to pronounce it! It's a word, therefore there is a pronunciation." The boy with shorter hair was saying, sounding like a really smart little kid.
"But that doesn't MEAN that we NEED to know. Jeez- What difference does it make Belle? Its not gonna affect your life. Or yours Alma" The boy with longer hair said with a small smile hidden in his stern face as he spoke.
"Well it would still be nice to know Yuu. Don't you think?" the little boy turned to the other boy. "Come on Yuu- curiosity only kills cats. We happened to find something interesting for once- why not take a chance and actually learn something?" the boy called Alma asked.
"Because one- curiosity killed the cat is just a saying, two? You two are Dorks and three? IT DOESN'T MATTER." The longer haired one was saying. "But if you two really want to know- ask someone. They know how to read better than us." He said with a shrug.
"Fine." The Alma boy took the paper, smoothed out his hair, and then was tugging on a sleeve -none the less. It was Marie's.
"Excuse me- what does this mean?" he asked holding up the impossibly long and confusing word.
"Oh that's paradichlorobenzene- they use it in moth balls." Alex said.
The three stared at him for a long moment. Then all at once in unison the two boys said-
                "Moths play with balls?"
Marie and Alex looked at each other before they began laughing like madmen. The little kids looked at each other for a moment and then stared at the two laughing men. The tallest- the boy with long hair and a stern gaze, then spoke up.
"what's so funny?" He asked. "you're the ones who said it." He said in an almost angry way.
"oh- it's just that moths don't actually play with balls… we make the balls out of a lot of chemicals to keep them away." Alex said with a warm smile. "Paradichlorobenzene is just one of them." He told them, patting the girl on the head, who was hiding behind the taller boy. She flinched unsurely, clutching at the boy. The other boy with shorter hair and – a now noticed- scar on his nose, put a hand to her shoulder. She calmed down a bit.
"hey- are you all right little girl?" Marie asked, leaning in closer to her and smiling gently. She hid her face a bit more. Marie frowned slightly, but then reached out kindly to her. "It's alright- I'm not gonna-" but the taller boy cut him off quite suddenly.
"I wouldn't do that if I were-" but the boy himself was cut off as Marie suddenly found himself up in the air and being slammed down to the ground with the force of a thousand tons, and his eyes went wide as he saw the girl holding his arm and slamming him down. A few cries of surprise were heard around the room. Marie stayed down for a moment- completely winded.
"Oh my Goodness!" The shorter boy cried. "are you alright sir?!" he asked, kneeling down next to the man on the ground. He helped him up- with surprising strength- and then looked up at the girl who had given the giant man the beating. "Belle! That was rude!" He said with a frown.
The girl nodded and looked at the man she had thrown on the floor. Her long brown hair curtained her face and she teared up a bit. Then she looked at the boys and had a look in her brown eyes that read along the lines of shame. The taller boy's face remained stoic, but the other's softened.
"Aww- Kanda! She says she's sorry! Mister- I hope you can forgive her, she's just always been easy to make nervous…. And she does that as kind of a reflex. She still does it to me sir… so I apologize for her." The boy said with a smile. Marie had caught his breath finally.
"It's all right. I was careless and insensitive. I'm the one who's sorry." Marie smiled at the little girl, who hesitantly smiled back.
"wow mister! I think she likes you! Don't you Belle?" The short-haired boy asked. The girl nodded only once. "haha! Yuu! She likes someone other than us!!!" the boy said happily. Yuu said nothing. The other boy turned to Marie again.
"My name is Alma Karma! This is Belle Shumway- and grumpy guy here is Yuu Kanda! Neither of them talk much… but Belle doesn't at all." Marie looked at the girl for a moment, and then the two boys.
"These poor kids…" He thought silently. "they go through hell every day and I-" He smiled at them with sadness in his eyes, and trying to hide it.
"Are you three going for lunch? I could take you somewhere… it's my day off and I would love to make up for scaring you." He said with a smile of utter kindness that the three had never seen before. Even little Yuu seemed interested.
"Yeah! I'd love to go!" Alma said excitedly, taking up Belle's hands and jumping up and down with excitement. "Hear that? We can finally see the outside world!" he said happily, wringing an almost there smile out of the other two- who both seemed to be quiet and un-opening people. "Yuu! We should take the chance and go somewhere before… y'know." Alma whispered into his friends ear.
"Fine. But Belle wants to know something-" He started.
"Oh? What's that?" Marie asked with a small frown.
"Who are you?" He asked simply. Marie blinked.
"oh- I'm Noise Marie… at your service. Sorry- I should've introduced myself in the first place." He said, scratching the back of his head. "nice to meet you three." He said, holding out his hand hesitantly for them to shake. Alma instantly oblidged, followed by Yuu and then by Belle. He noticed that their hands weren't even half the size of his own, and that they were cold. He then realized that it was the middle of winter, and they were wearing shorts and very rugged shirts. "do you three have any jackets or something to wear? It's cold."
"uhhh- yeah! Mr.Winter is visiting! I forgot! We'd better go see if our friends are okay later!" He said to the others, who both simply nodded.
"We'll be back in a minute Mr. Marie. And if your not still here for us- I will hunt you down for getting Belle's hopes up for getting out of this hell-hole- even if only for a little while. Got it?" Yuu asked. Marie nodded- almost nervously. The kid was serious too. Marie watched as the three ran off to go get some warmer clothing.
"wow Marie- your nicer than most. We always want to do something for them- but feel we have no right." Alex said. "I guess your their only chance." He said with a sad smile. "But make sure you get back soon. One of the inspectors are coming and he wont be happy if his lab-rats are gone. I don't' want you getting into trouble."
"I won't." Marie said with a smile. "I owe this much to them anyways. They helped me realize that my life isn't as bad as I make it out to be." Marie told him. "And I also feel like I'm supposed to know them well. It sounds weird- but I just feel like I'm all they've got."
"Hm- maybe your right- but it won't help much if you go getting forbidden to see them at all. Be careful and fast." Alex said as the children returned, wearing thin coats and pants with worn shoes.
"I will." Marie said.