Maine

Yay! Welcome to my little universe! I'm glad you're enjoying them so much so far, and I hope you continue to enjoy them! Once you've done with the 'LittleFallenVerse' series, you may be interested in one of my individual stories, or even my more supernatural series. And I've noticed my stories tend to make people question things. Whether that's cracking a few eggs or bringing out people's little sides. Which makes me so happy that my stories can be that meaningful!

Chapter 50: Behind the Scenes Elysium – LittleFallenPrincess -------------------------------       June “What’s up, little ones?” Ceres asked, leaning slightly over the railing of the crib, looking down at Ella and I, who were snuggled up together, wearing matching patterned onesies. We had managed to get one of those nights where Ella gets to spend the night in my crib, giving Vesta just Maria to look after. But in return, Ceres was allowed to dress us up, and she opted for matching pink ‘magical girl’ onesies. And the whole snuggly night she couldn’t stop cooing and fussing over us looking adorable together. But for some reason, neither Ella nor I could sleep tonight. I don’t know about Ella, but I’ve gradually been taking longer to fall asleep each night. Sometimes I’m just laying there, eyes closed, pretending to sleep for up to an hour before finally succumbing to my tiredness. “I… can’t sleep,” I whined. “Me neither…” Ella added. “I’ve already tried the hypnosis music,” sighed Ceres. “You have?” I asked. “Sweetie, I’ve been sitting here for an hour, waiting for you to fall asleep. Usually it’s within 10 minutes of being read a story, but you’ve been cuddled up for an hour. Of course I’ve tried the hypnosis music.” “What’s the next step?” “See, the old handbook suggested using powerful sleep-inducing drugs to knock you out. But we don’t do that. We never actually did, thankfully, it was a thing we discussed during the first year.” “Why was it included in the first place?” I asked, feeling a little bit concerned. “As a last resort, I guess?” “What do we do now then? Just lay here… waiting to fall asleep?” “I could try and wear you out… maybe get you tired?” “I’m booooored!” I whined. “Me tooooo!” Ella joined in. We weren’t really that bored… Ella and I were enjoying our cuddles together, but it was frustrating sitting in silence in a very dimly lit room with nothing to do. I’d happily cuddle her forever… but I’d need something to watch or listen to whilst I do, just so I don’t get restless. “What do you want to do then? Sorry kiddos, I’m not used to this. Usually the hypnosis works and you’re out like a light. And by now you’re used to the sleep schedule of a baby. So you shouldn’t be up right now… so I really don’t know what to do.” “Why isn’t the hypnosis working?” “No idea. I’ll have to ask Joy.” “We should go see her and ask her!” Ella blurted out. “No sweetie… we ca-” “Yeah! We should go surprise her!” I added, interrupting Ceres. Ceres looked at us, then up at the doorway where the camera was… deep in thought. “You know what?” “What?” we both asked. “Screw it. Let’s go see Joy. She’ll still be here.  She doesn’t leave for home until late most nights.”   So dressed in the onesies still, Ceres carried Ella and I on both sides of her hip effortlessly, out of my nursery, out of the girls’ wing, and down the corridor that led to the backstage area of Elysium, where Joy’s office was located. Along the way, Vesta was walking in our direction with a puzzled look on her face. “Ceres…? What are you doing here with my baby?” “They can’t sleep. Hypnosis isn’t working. So I thought I’d go ask Joy. She’s the expert on it, after all…” “Really? She’s never had issues with sleep before…” “And… I figured it was time to give them a bit of a ‘behind the scenes’ tour…” Ceres said, grinning at her colleague. “Rachel…” The fact that Vesta used Ceres’ real name, along with the disapproving look on her face, meant that Rachel clearly wasn’t allowed to do this. Maybe if it was just me, she’d be allowed… but Ella is a different matter. Though honestly… I don’t know why. She’s a special intake, like me. I know she knows a bit of the truth of Elysium. Though… she doesn’t know as much about it as I do. “Don’t you ‘Rachel’ me… you know they both deserve this. I’ve been wanting to share this with them both for a while now…” “You have?” I asked my Nanny, surprised. “You trusted me. We gave you an out in the first year, and you chose to stay. If it wasn’t for you falling asleep before 7pm every night because of the hypnosis and rules… I would’ve shown you this during the first few months.” “What about Ella? She’s not privy to…” Vesta began speaking, but Ceres quickly cut her off. “She’s not privy to what? She’s not like the others. She’s like Rosie. Why can’t she know the truth behind Elysium?” At this point, I could see Ella was feeling uncomfortable and a little confused. So I spoke up. “She deserves to know how this place works. Honestly… she should’ve been given the same choice as I was…” I said. “Choice? What choice?” Ella asked. “Rosie… was allowed to leave Elysium,” Ceres answered. “Wait… what? Why?” “Because of her unique situation. Which ended up not being that unique as she’s not the only one here who isn’t here for behaviour… so again, Vesta… why can’t she know more?” Vesta didn’t say a word. She just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers. “Why didn’t you leave?” Ella asked me, confused. “They told me to give it a few months, and if I wanted to leave, I could. But… I saw the good this place could do for me… I saw the kindness in Ceres’ heart. And… I met you.” Ella’s cheeks turn bright red. “You… are not wrong, Rachel. I should’ve offered her an out. I was… selfish,” Vesta said, sighing. “No!” Ella cried out. “You helped me. If you offered me an out… I would’ve taken it. This place was nice… but it was scary at first. At least until I met Rosie. And I would’ve left before meeting her.” “I’m still sorry, sweetheart…” “Shush. But… you say there’s more to reveal? I thought I already knew everything about it?” “We’re going to get in so much shit for this…” Vesta sighed once more, before holding her arms out towards Ceres. “Give me her so you can carry Rosie a bit more comfortably, and let’s go give them the full tour…”   “Hi Ceres, hi Ves-taaahhhhh…” Joy looked at us, in shock. “Umm… What's up? Why are these two still up?” “Hypnosis isn’t working,” Ceres replied, shrugging, as we all stood there in Joy’s office, crowded around the door. “Fu… I mean fudge…” Joy said, holding her head in frustration. “What’s up?” “I had a feeling it would stop working eventually.” “For everyone? Is everyone awake?” “No… they should be fine. It’s you two,” Joy sighed, pointing at Ella and me. “What about us? Are we special?” I asked. “Both of you have different brain chemistry to the rest, due to your mental health. I knew you’d both become resistant to it eventually. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long. We didn’t even know if it’d work for you to begin with.” “Wait… how did you manage it with Ella before her surgery? She couldn’t hear anything, right?” “We used a visual method for her, until she had her surgery, then we switched to audio hypnosis. But it appears that the effectiveness has run out for both of them.” “So what do we do with them now?” asked Vesta, still holding Ella in her arms. “I guess… They just stay up now? I can try to make some tweaks to the hypnosis… give me a few days to work on it. This tech we inherited is amazing… but even this has its limits. And we may have reached them.” “So they get a normal amount of sleep from now on?” “I guess? Again, this is new. Ella and Rosie aren’t like most of our intakes. So yeah, unless I can fiddle with the program a bit to make it work for them again, it looks like these two will need a normal bedtime…” “So more time to cuddle?” Ella said, adorably. “Yes baby. More time to cuddle your girlfriend… or me!” Vesta replied, giggling at her friend, making Ella blush. “Well thanks for letting me know about this. Like I said, I’ll look into it and get back to you. For now you should get them back to their nurseries…” “It’s a sleepover night,” Ceres pointed out to the Doc. “Oh yes, well I guess you should return them to Rosie’s nursery then.” “Actually… Joy…” “Ceres… whenever you say my name like that, why do I feel like I’m going to regret asking…?” “Because you love me and I’m totally your favourite Nanny here?” Ceres laughed. “But no… we thought… seeing as they’re up… we’d give them the tour.” “Tour? What t-” Joy’s jaw dropped. Not literally, but you see the exact moment where her brain realised what Ceres meant. “You can’t be serious?” “Rosie knows everything pretty much already. They’re well over half way into their treatment and Rosie did choose to stay.” “And Ella?” “Ella should have been given the same choice as me…” I said, raising my voice a little. Doing the same sigh and pinching the bridge of her nose, just like Vesta, Joy gave in instantly. “Fine. But it’s on your head when Ella finds out about the girls.” “Girls? What girls?” Ella asked, even more confused at this point. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you… why don’t we go find them?” I suggested. “Baby?” Ceres said to me. “I swear, if I lose my job here because of you… I’m going to adopt you and keep you like this forever, got it?” “Is that supposed to be a threat?” I replied, grinning up at her. “And I’ll take your girlfriend!” “Can Vesta come too?” Ella replied, joining in on the joke. “Yes Ceres… can I come into this amazing sounding household you’re planning when we inevitably lose our jobs?” Vesta replied, smiling at her friend and colleague. “You’re lucky you’re all so damn cute…” she sighed, waving goodbye to Joy and walking out of the Doc’s office.   We walked around for a while, with Ceres and Vesta showing off the backstage area of Elysium. Most of it was boring. Just lots of storage areas full of baby stuff, an empty kitchen as the staff were off for the night, and the bathrooms. It wasn’t much really. There were some bunk areas for the staff to spend the night if they absolutely have to, but those too were empty right now. When we got to the staff room, there were only three Nannies in there, just Juno, Nyx, and some other Nanny who must be one for the first years, as I had never seen her before, and I know the basement Nannies tend not to appear above ground often. “Rachel… Danny… What’s going on and why are they not in their nursery?” Juno said, breaking the awkward silence as the other Nannies stared at us standing in the doorway. And she sounded unimpressed. Very unimpressed. None of the Nannies got up though, they all lounged about on these really comfy-looking sofas, in this really modern and cosy staff break room we had wandered into. At least Nyx was smiling over at me, they were clearly happy to see me. Must be a trans thing… “Giving them the tour,” Ceres answered. “There is no tour,” Juno sighed. “There is now. They couldn’t sleep. Hypnosis isn’t working on them like the others. Went to talk to Joy. Now these cute little munchkins are going to go get me fired, aren't you? You adorable little cuties…?” Ceres said to Ella and I, in a really cutesy condescending voice. “I know Rosie earned a lot of insider knowledge, thanks to her unique situ-” “Ella deserves it too,” I interrupted. “No, she deserved it. She should have been given the same out as me. Neither of us are here because we are threats to other people or dangerous to society.” “You’re… not wrong. The girls will probably end up agreeing with you too. In fact, we discussed opening up to you Ella…” Juno replied, taking me by surprise. I genuinely hadn’t expected her to agree with me. But then I keep forgetting everyone here is actually really nice, it’s just the facade of a shady organisation that makes me forget that. “You did?” she replied. “Yeah. But you were doing so well, we couldn’t think of a good way to bring it up without scaring you off, and you were making such good progress…” “You never told me you were discussing it,” Vesta replied. “We don’t always tell you everything…” Juno shrugged. “Clearly…” Vesta sounded pissed right now. “You better go see the girls. I assume you haven’t told Ella about them yet?” Juno asked. “No, they haven’t, but Rosie knows them, right?” Ella replied. “Yes. Just… don’t hate them. Please.” “Why would I ha-” “They’re in the security office, bothering Venus and Minnie,” Juno said to our Nannies, turning her attention away from Ella. “We better go save Venus and Minnie then…” Ceres laughed. “I’ll let you know if I lose my job or not…” “You’ll be fine. You know the girls are pushovers…”   “Girls?” Ceres called out, putting her finger to her mouth to the two Nannies on watch in the security office, clearly she didn’t want them giving Ella and I away. The two Nannies pointed towards the desks at the back of the room, the ones covered with a blanket. “Rachel? Is that you?” someone said from under the poorly made blanket fort. They couldn’t see us, but we also couldn’t see them. “Yup. And Danny.” “Yay!” came another voice from the blanket fort. “I see you two girls have made a little nest here. Any reason why?” Ceres asked. “Bored.” “Mummy was too tired to play, so she suggested we come play in here…” the other girl said. Minerva looked at us and sighed. Clearly she was expecting a quiet night watching the security cameras, instead she got the two infantile board members to look after. “Want a couple more people to play with?” Ceres asked them. “Oooooh yes please!” Clearly they assumed Ceres had meant Ceres and Vesta… but when Judy and Sarah popped their heads out of the blanket fort to see Ella and I in our Nannies arms… their jaws dropped. Actually dropped this time. “S…shit…”           ====================================================== Whoops! Forgot to update the title last time, silly me!   Don't forget I'm on Subscribestar! Subscribers get 2 weeks early access to chapters, and exclusive short stories (Nessa's Tale is currently the only available one). The next four chapters of my new story posted on my Subscribestar! ======================================================== I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! Please leave likes and comments and all that fun stuff, I love reading them! If you want to read the next 4 chapters, thanks to two weeks early access to my main story and also soon-to-be exclusive access to short stories, why don't you check out my SubscribeStar!  Thank you to all my subscribers for their support over the past few years! Seriously, your support means the world to me. New chapters of my latest story every Wednesday/Sunday!Also just a quick note: I don't mind people saving this story for personal reading. But I'd appreciate it if people didn't post it elsewhere, even if you're just suggesting it to other people. If you want to show others, please send them a link to the first page of this post. And it goes without saying, my story is not to be used in any way to create AI work. Thanks! 

Just sad.

Betterdry atm.  Hoping to get one more out of it. Still pretty warm for this late at night. I may have to go for a walk to cool off. 

4AM again. Slept a few hours but can't stay asleep.  Having some fruit punch sports drink in my sippy cup while battling the horde in a gamer diaper.