Mary was walking as calmly as ever between the crowd of people that flooded the streets. Normally she'd stick out like a sore thumb due to her fiery red hair, but with all the interesting figures around she blended right in.

What I found weird was her attire. I've only ever seen Mary inside the mansion, so I've never seen her wearing casual clothing. She was wearing a red blouse, black pants and black ballet flats. Her long hair, which was usually just down, was tied up into a singular ponytail. Compared to her normal maid attire, I had to admit she was a lot more attractive.

My instincts told me to follow her, as creepy as it sounded. My instincts, unlike my brain, don't overthink and are usually right. I usually don't get what it wants me to do, but it pretty much always benefits me in some manner.

I blended in with the crowd of people and made sure to stay a certain distance away from her. She had really good eyes and would probably spot me if I got to close to her, even with all of these people.

I followed Mary as she turned block after block. She never broke stride nor did it appear like she was in a hurry. She walked around for what was at least five minutes. At least, I think it was five minutes. I was scared that if I checked my phone for the time, when I looked up Mary would be gone.

I figured she reached her destination when she stopped at a building. She stopped initially and just looked at it for a second. Although I couldn't see her face from here, it was a pretty safe bet she was as poker faced as always. She walked through the glass motion sensor doors and disappeared.

I looked up to see that the building only actually consisted of a few floors. But it more than made it up for its lack of upwards floors with its width. The building stretched seemingly endlessly on both the left and right side of the entrance, which appeared to be the center of the building. Above the entrance were the words: "Ánesia General Hospital" in white blocky letters.

I became more confused. Why is Mary in the hospital? From how she was walking she seemed fine. Is there a medical condition that she's hiding from everyone? Or did something happen when she fought Ms. Myala?

Well standing here wasn't going to get me anywhere so I waited for about a minute and then walked into the building. The ceiling lights were bright and there were semi-comfortable looking chairs all around with several people who appeared to be waiting. Like all hospitals I've been to, the walls were white with a decorated marble floor. Near the back of the room was a brown desk with a woman behind it and two doors behind her.

I walked up to the woman, who was intently staring at the monitor on her right. She looked up at me and flashed a fake smile so genuine looking that I probably wouldn't even know if I didn't grow up being met with them so often. She straightened her back and dropped her hands behind the desk. A lock of her blonde hair got in her face and she quickly moved it out the way before returning to her professional posture and locking eye contact with me.

"Yes, sir, how may I help you?" She said, flashing her perfect pearly whites.

Ah, how was I going to get out of this? There's no way they would let me through.

"Ah yes, umm, did a girl with red hair come through here?" I asked as nervously as I could so I didn't sound suspicious.

Luckily her expression didn't change but her smile did get slightly wider, which probably meant she was a little annoyed just by my question.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to disclose such information." She said, still in a polite tone, although you could vaguely hear the irritation.

"Please," I tried to sound as sincere as I could. "I need to see my friend Mary."

Although she was still professional, her irritation was slowly being replaced with a sense of worry.

"As I said before, disclosing information about a patient or a visitor isn't allowed. Especially to a stranger."

Her hands, which were previously by her sides, rose as she began fiddling with a pencil on her desk while waiting for a response. I took this opportunity to grab and clasp one of her hands with both of mine, which must've surprised her as she hopped out of her seat a little. I put on my most sincere face and looked her in the eyes.

"You don't understand," I cried. "Mary is my dear friend and I don't want anything bad to happen to her. She's been avoiding her friends recently and I fear she is planning to do something dangerous. Please let me through so I can talk to her."

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I could tell she was flustered. "S-surely the police could offer more assistance than I could. Have you tried talking to them?" She said looking into my eyes, which were now watering.

"I have," I said sadly. "But they can't do anything as she hasn't actually done anything yet. Please, I just need to talk to her to get her to understand that we care about her and to talk her out of the mess she could be putting herself in. Please help me Ms. Renee," I pleaded as I read her name tag.

I could tell she was fighting between which is more important between her morals and the job's rules. It wasn't until she relaxed her shoulders that I knew her morals had won.

She looked at me, defeated. "..Mary should be in room 341 on the third floor."

She pointed to the hallway on the left. "There will be an elevator down the hall on your right."

I let go of her other hand as I gave her a radiant smile. "Thank you very much ma'am. I will not forget your kindness."

"Just make sure you save her," she said.

I nodded. "I promise I will."

"And one more thing," She said.

"Yes?"

She handed me a Kleenex. "Please wipe the tears off your eyes. I don't think Mary would want to see you were crying."

"Thank you very much ma'am."

I walked away and down while wiping my tears from my cheek. I used my arm to wipe my eyes clear of any extra tears. I turned right like she said and pressed the elevator button.

I didn't want to trick that nice lady, I thought. But my instincts were practically screaming at me to follow Mary.

I walked into the elevator and pressed the button. After a few seconds of no one coming, the doors closed and it started.

I know I lied to the receptionist about it but I hope nothing bad is actually happening to Mary or someone she knows.

The doors opened without me knowing and it took a man tapping me on the shoulder to snap me out of my trance-like state of thinking.

He was a tall lanky man with a black top hat. He had a large overcoat and gray boots on. Aside from his purple eyes, no other features about him stood out, although it was hard to distinguish any features from him as he had everything covered up. He reminded me of the shady men you see in old black and white tv shows.

"Oh thank you." I said

"Are you alright there?" he said softly. "It looks like you've been crying."

"I'm fine. I'm just here to check up on a friend."

"I see. Well take care of yourself young man."

"You too, sir."

I walked out of the elevator and turned the corner to find a corridor. It wasn't busy like I thought it would be, and the hallway was fairly silent. The first room I found was labeled: 323. I decided to walk down the white hall and felt comfortable that I was going the right way once I saw the numbers were going up. Many of the doors were either closed or the people inside were just lying in the hospital beds watching television. After about a minute of walking I found the room which had the numbers: 341.

I figured it might be dangerous to randomly peak inside so I decided to walk past the room casually to see if Mary was in there. I walked past to see a red haired girl, who couldn't have been anyone but Mary, talking to a patient lying in a bed. It didn't seem either one had their eyes on the door when I passed, which meant it was safe to peek.

I peeked in through the entrance just barely enough to see and hear without revealing too much to where the patient could see me.

Mary's back was to me so I couldn't see her face, but by her posture it was safe to assume she was as stoic as always. The woman in the bed had similar hair to Mary except her hair was more auburn. She looked tired and strung out, which made it hard to tell how old she was. She had IVs in her arm and the bed covers which hid the rest of her body. She was sitting up, with the remote in her hands. Although, whatever she was watching, was probably muted as I couldn't hear anything. I tried hard to listen to what they were saying.

"Would you prefer a new book?" I heard Mary say in a deadpan tone.

"...I've already read and reread all of my favorite series'." The woman said.

"And puzzle books?"

"I've finished them all."

"I'll buy you some more puzzle books," Mary said.

"Please stop.."

"I'll give you them on my next day off."

"Please.."

"And I'll try to find you a new book series to read."

"I said stop!" the woman yelled.

Mary stopped talking and didn't move at all as the woman yelled.

The woman, who looked noticeably devoid of life before, became enraged.

"Why! Why! Why do you visit me on every one of your only off days!? Why do you buy me anything I need without hesitation even if I don't ask for it? Ask about how I'm doing? See if the nurses are treating me okay? Sneak me my favorite treats? Why do you...love me?"

She grabbed her pillow and flung it at Mary. However, Mary didn't budge as the pillow that was going as fast as a bullet missed her and landed on the counter where a sink was located.

"You should hate me!" she continued. "I'm the reason you'll never see your dad! Why you're forced to be a maid for the rest of your life! Why you don't have friends! Why you'll never have a regular life. You're like you are because of me! I messed up your life! So why!? Why...don't you hate me?"

Mary walked over to the counter and picked up the pillow. She walked over to the woman and put her pillow below the woman's head and gently pushed her down to a comfortable position. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped the tears that had seeped out of the woman's eyes.

The woman looked at Mary with somber eyes. "Why Rosemary, why do you love me?"

Mary put her hand on the woman's cheek. "Because you are a wonderful mother," Mary said.

Mary kissed her forehead and grabbed her handbag, which had been resting on the counter and placed it over her shoulder.

"I'll be back in a few days. Call me if you need me."

Mary slid her handbag's strap up her shoulder as she prepared to leave. Because I was so mesmerized watching, I didn't realize until now that I had nowhere to hide from Mary when she left the room. I turned around to walk away when before she saw me when, for the third time today, someone had grabbed my hand and stopped me.

I stopped in my tracks. I turned around to see Mary's apathetic gaze cast upon me.

That didn't make sense...I didn't even hear her footsteps, I thought.

"Young Master," she started, "why are you following me?"