(Calliope)

Life always has brought a lot of changes. Some days there were a lot of friends in the play room, sometimes there were just a few. Somedays I was not allowed to go to the playroom because it was experiment day. Those days are never fun; they usually involve eating or touching things that hurt. The days after, however, I got more food, so it was not that bad.

No, what always felt bad was when a friend did not show up for a while because that meant that they would never really come back. So, when Mom showed up when the playroom went yellow, and my skin was hurting, it just felt like another change.

But somehow this change was different. It felt more permanent. Even though I was not sent to the playroom anymore, I was not sent to the experiment room, either, just to a place with my own room and stuff. Is this what happened to all my friends who disappeared? Were they also sent to places like this?

All those changes are nothing in comparison to the change I see before me right now, Mom. The lady with the same eyes as me who has been giving me constant hugs and good food, has somehow turned into three different ladies.

Then one of the moms starts walking towards the door and trips. “Too many legs,” she says as she stands up and leaves.

“That was weird, right?” the new lady asks the one with pink hair.

“Yep,” one of the moms says. “Probably will be fine though?”

“How do we have too many legs, getting stuff done with just one leg sounds hard?” the other mom continues.

“Well, how many legs you have is a problem for later.” The last lady says, nodding at me.

I quickly turn back to the TV thing where there is a little baby Daisy playing with her friends. I do my best to seem interested and not like I was listening in on the adults. They never liked that, and I would always get punished for it when I did.

Someone sits down next to me and pats my head. “Cali, are you enjoying the show?" Mom asks from next to me.

I nod my head vigorously. “Yes, the little Daisies seem to have a lot of fun.”

“Right, they are cute, aren’t they? Maybe we can go see some in real life sometimes.” Mom continues.

“When?” I ask, wanting to know how long I was staying here.

“Ahh, I don’t know, kiddo. I am in contact with someone in Africa called Lion Spirit, but his reply time is leaving something to be desired, so it might take a while. Like a year or so if we are unlucky.” Mom explains.

“A year?” I ask, not sure what that was.

“A year is three hundred sixty-four days,” she answers.

That was a lot. I did know what a day was, and that was a lot, making me smile brightly. I got to stay here for such a long time and eat good food that made me happy.

“Anyway, can we pause the program for a bit? We still need to get some stuff done today?” Mom says,

I freeze, so it was punishment after all. That was okay; I would still get good food, right? The screen pauses, and I turn to look at Mom, who gives me a strange look.

“Are you okay? You look a bit... White, are you feeling sick?” She asks, lightly touching my forehead. "It does not feel like a fever.”

“I am fine,” I say, looking at the other mom, who is standing a bit behind the one sitting next to me. “Just confused”

Mom looks behind her at the other Mom and nods. “Right, that, we should probably explain that. So we had, let's say, a bad experience that kind of split our minds into three parts, creating three people with one body. Does that make sense?”

I glance back and forth between the two moms. “But?”

“Right, so at home we have a body for everyone, but when we are not at home, we only have one.” She adds.

I nod along, not understanding any of it. But I don’t really understand most of what Mom says, and she always seems happy when I nod along, so I just keep doing that.

“Dear, it might help if the two of you actually look different from each other.” The other lady tells Mom.

They both nod, and something seems to flash in front of their eyes for a second. Then both of them start to change. One of them has the wide mask appear on the side of her head as the tips of her hair turn green and pieces of metal appear on her face. The other mom just changes her hair to be slightly more pink and makes some wires appear on her face.

“Better?” Pink Mom asks.

“Uhm,” the lady says, looking between both Moms, her face quickly turning redder.

“Well, we succeed in something at least.” The green mom says.

“Anyway,” Pink Mom says as she plays with my hair, “Should we go and set up your room?”

“My room?” I ask, feeling a bit lost and confused.

Mom nods. “Yeah, you remember the tablet you had yesterday where you could pick out things for your room?”

I nod. I did remember that it was fun, just clicking on everything that looked pretty had given me lots of ideas.

“So let's get you that stuff.” She says, standing up from the couch.

I blink in confusion, not understanding it at all. Get the stuff like I can have it for real, and it was not another experiment? That was weird, right? I look over at the other girl, who is staring at me, just as confused.

Mom reaches out her hand. “Are you coming?”

I nod, taking Mom's hand.

She takes me to my bedroom, picks up the tablet from where I left it and starts scrolling through it. Then she chuckles as she looks at me. “Are you sure this is everything?”

Is it too much stuff? Should I have asked for less? “Uhm, we can remove some...”

“No, honey, that is not what I meant,” Mom says, kneeling down to look at me. “You have not chosen a bed or a closet to store your clothes in. So you should probably choose some more items.”

I nod in surprise. I had chosen too little items? how? that... huh?

Mom turns the tablet towards me, showing me a bed that stands on tall leggies. “How about this? We can attach it to the jungle gym you have selected so you can climb into bed.”

I look at the bed for a bit, then look back at Mom.

“You don’t like it?” she asks.

“No I… confused.” Then, I look at the bed already in the room.

Mom also looks at the bed then nods. “I guess you can keep that bed if you want, just, you know, you can pick whatever you want.”

I nod slowly, taking the tablet from her and looking through the options for beds and closets. Mom smiles at me for a bit before sitting down on the ground next to me. “Maybe get comfortable chairs as well.”

After a while, I think I have a new bed and dresser that look nice. And walk up to Mom to show them. Mom smiles, taking the tablet from me to look through it.

“Dragons, huh? That is nice.” She reaches out a hand. “Okay, honey, come stand here and let me cast some magic.”

I follow Mom to the door, where she holds me.

“Okay, abo cadoodle or something,” she says, and with a flash, things appear. My lizard bed, which apparently is a dragon, shows up with the climbing toy attached to it. The orange and yellow closet appears next, fitting underneath the tall bed. Next, the toys and dolls appear all around the room and, lastly, the big red chair that had decorations in the same colours.

“So what do you think?” Mom asks.

I slowly walk forward, touching a soft pink bear. Then, I just sink into it, fully enjoying the soft feeling against my skin.

I hear Mom chuckle and turn around to see her smiling at me. “I will be going to help Cierra for a bit now. You have fun, okay?” She says, before leaving the room, leaving me all alone to play with my new things.

I never had things before, just a cold bed and food. I look around the room, the room that is filled with things that are all mine. Where was the trap? The trick? The experiment. Something was wrong here, and I need to figure out what.

I slowly leave my room and knock on the door next to mine to the girl that is supposed to be my sister. She slowly opens the doors and looks at me, confused. “What is it?”

“I uhm… Don’t understand.” I say.

“Understand what?”

I gesture around wildly “All you know this.”

My sister slowly nods and opens the door wider. I slowly walk into her room, which is now filled with a lot of different plushies.

“That is a lot,” I say.

Sister nods. "The lady did not like that I picked so little, so she just added all of this.” She gestures around.

I nod. “I forgot a bed, so that was added.” I look at my sister. “Weird, right?”

Sister nods again. “Yeah.”

“So what are we going to do?” I ask, feeling scared.

My sister looks around and then slumps. “I don’t know, I failed my mission. I should be dead. But this does not feel like death or a punishment. I am scared.”

I nod, slumping down as well, some days were not that bad, some days were good even. But those never lasted, so in the next few days, something would happen. “So what now? Should we run?”

My sister looks at the door. “Maybe, but this place is big; I am not sure if we can.”

I feel tears start to prickle my eyes as I try to figure out what to do.

“Girls, dinner is ready. Come, eat with us.” The voice of the other lady echoes through the hall.

I take a slow breath and turn to my sister. “Food?”

My sister nods, and we walk out together towards the kitchen, where Mom is putting up plates on the table, with the help of the wicked witch. The other lady is further in the kitchen, messing with something that creates a lot of steam.

When Mom spots us, she smiles and pulls back a chair that looks different from the rest. “Look, Jason recommended these chairs. They should be the perfect height for you to sit at the table.”

I nod slowly and go and sit on the chair. The next thing I know, there is a plate with hot food in front of me.

“Now, Cali, I need you to listen to me,” Mom says in a serious voice. “If all the food is gone and you want to have more, I need you to ask for it and not eat the plate, okay? You think you can do that?”

I nod. That makes sense, so I just need to eat the plate first. I could do that.