Hanna woke with a migraine the like of which she’d never had before. When Nurse Aema came in, she brought Hanna some pain medication and water. She even dimmed the lights until the migraine ebbed away. “It’s the medication,” she said softly. “It does that. You’ll be okay.” She paused, and Hanna thought her eyes might have flicked to the mirror, but Nurse Aema continued, “You’ll..get used to it,” she finished hesitantly before she stood, loaded her things back on the silver cart, and told Hanna she would be back with breakfast. “If you’re lucky, they’ll have your oatmeal today,” she chirped merrily.
They did not.
Later that morning, Hanna was escorted back into the Lounge. As Cris had instructed, despite her obvious reservations about his sanity, she looked for the clay table and took a seat. With nothing better to do, she began to manipulate the clay, taking care to observe as much of the room and its occupants as possible. She looked around for the orderly she recognized as her former Leader, Pipe. She didn’t see Pipe, but she saw the orderly who had her back to her room the day before, a new nurse—thankfully not Nurse Sasha—at the Nurse’s Station, looking quite pleasant, and only a handful of other patients, none of which she recognized.
When lunch arrived, she had to give up her spy’s nest for a bit to sit at an adjacent table and pick at her food, returning the clay of her misshapen cup to its home. Today was mixed vegetables and some kind of broth soup with a roll. While the steamed side vegetables had that same frozen food vibe, the broth, which looked like brown water to Hanna, turned out to be the best part of the meal. She soaked part of her roll into it and popped it into her mouth. It was like heaven.
“Who did the cooking today, Joe?” she overheard one orderly call to another. “Not sure. Hey, Anna!” Hanna froze for a second. “Who did the cooking today?” She relaxed as the day nurse called out “I think Isis did the soup today! Corrianne did the rest.”
“Ugh, good ol’ Coriander,” one of the orderlies muttered to the other. Hanna tuned out of their conversation. Isis. Who was Isis? A cook? A nurse? She pondered this as she devoured the soup. She was pretty sure that, in spite of the heavy presence of herb and vegetable flavors, this was definitely a beef broth. Since none of the meat in this place could possibly even qualify as meat, she gave Isis points for being able to smuggle that in.
After her soup bowl was empty, Hanna unceremoniously dumped the rest of her meal contents into the garbage and headed over to the Nurse’s Station for her medication, unsure of how to get out of it this time.
As she approached, Nurse Anna smiled at her. “Ready for your pills, honey?” she asked sweetly. Unlike the stiff, yellow-haired Nurse Sasha, everything about Nurse Anna was sincere, from her sunny disposition to her gentle tone. Even her fluffy, chin-length chestnut hair seemed to exude a softness, sligtly curling at the ends. Hanna tried not to look shocked. “Uh, yes, thank you.”
The Nurse got Hanna’s little cup of pills and brought it over, hesitating. “Oh, I’m sorry! You’ll probably need a cup of water with those, won’t you?” The woman smiled an apology and practically bounced to the cooler.
Without hesitation, Hanna palmed the pills and slid them into the band of her gray pants, eyes darting to make sure the orderlies weren’t watching. When the woman returned, she smiled and offered Hanna the cup of water. Hanna made a quick show of downing the pill cup and then gratefully accepted the water cup to rinse them down. Nurse Anna just smiled a dimpled smile, her subdued hazel eyes sparkling, and went back to her busy work.
Hanna tried to casually walk back to the hall that took her to her room. Meeting an orderly at the start of the hallway, she was terrified he could hear her heart pounding in her chest. She tried to control her breathing as she was led to her room. She felt as though any moment she would be caught, and it took everything not to run to her room as fast as her legs would carry her.
Once she was inside, Hanna pushed the door closed with a click and leaned against it, exhaling in relief. Her eyes carefully slid to inspect the mirror on the wall. Anyone watching would suspect her behavior. How would she get rid of the pills without being seen?
Carefully she made her way to her bed and sat, paying close attention to the light pressure of the pills in her waistband. At least now she knew she could avoid these pills on Anna’s shift, but on Nurse bitch-face Sasha’s shift, how could she get around it?
Hanna dragged her hands through her hair, feeling frustrated. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there in thought before a light tap on her door, followed by the click of it opening caught her attention. Nurse Aema peeked in and offered a smile. “Hey, there, Hanna,” she said with a hint of excitement. “I’ve got some good news for you.” Her voice was almost a sing-song and Hanna grinned despite herself.
“They’ve made a mistake and I’m being released now?”
Nurse Aema bit back a laugh, and Hanna was sure this time her eyes had darted towards the mirror, but she recovered with a shake of her head. “Well, you know better than that,” she scolded insincerely. “No, but it’s something you’re gonna love,” she trailed off, raising her eyebrows at Hanna.
Hanna stared expectantly until Nurse Aema shrugged and pulled in the silver cart from the doorway. “Tomorrow,” she began, picking up a bundle of clothing from the middle shelf of the cart, “You’ll finally be able to go back to your old room,” she finished warmly, handing Hanna the fresh clothes. “And your room has its own shower,” she added with a wink.
-
Later that night, after the dinner Nurse Aema brought her in her room—which was actually not bad—Hanna managed to drop the pills in the toilet when she was allowed to go. She was pretty sure Nurse Aema was supposed to observe her, but she always turned her back and gave Hanna privacy. It made her feel a little less like a prisoner, and at least a little bit more like a person.
Before she left, Nurse Aema handed her a cup. “Your medicine for tonight. The last few nights you slept right through dinner and meds, so I’m glad to see you up and about tonight.” The words were simple, but Hanna felt something loaded in them. A message unsaid. She thought back to the song Cris mentioned. The pills that mother gives, she thought, accepting them and the glass of water. Even as Nurse Aema was just beginning to take the cart out, Hanna already felt sleepy, her eyelids heavy faster than when she had to take the colored pills from Nurse Sasha. But, before she could decide if she’d made a mistake in who to trust, Hanna was curled up on her side, slipping deeply into sleep.
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-
Hanna was groggy when she awoke. Too groggy. As the room came in to blurry focus, she found herself in her fancy bed in her nice, big room. The balcony doors were closed, but Hanna still felt a chill. Her thoughts were muddled, slow and clumsy and she let out a groan as her stomach swirled. Someone sprang up from the nearby chair. “Hanna! You’re awake!” Candace cried. “I’ll go tell Aema—”
“Wait,” Hanna croaked, weakly holding up a hand. “Sol. Get Sol first.” Candace stared at Hanna a moment and blinked, as though Hanna had said something completely nonsensical that she was trying to make sense of, then she shook her head and smiled brightly. “I’m so glad you’re up! I’m going to go tell everyone! We were pretty worried!”
As Candace bounced from the room, Hanna took in the early morning light, barely beginning to lighten the sky. Why was Candace there? Was she watching over Hanna all night?
Hanna hadn’t even heard the door push open slightly. She was jarred by the sudden soft voice in the room. “She’s not going to find her.”
Hanna jerked her head towards the door and felt a flood of relief. Soohae! “Soohae ,what—” Her throat tightened suddenly as Soohae pushed in the door, silently padding on unbalanced bare feet, dark rings around her eyes, her face pale. “Soo, what the h—”
“They won’t find her,” Soohae interrupted, her voice so soft Hanna strained to hear her, even in the deafening silence. “Sol’s gone. Gone. Gone where? It’s hard to say. Nothing makes sense anymore. There’s no point to anything.”
Hanna stared at her friend, dumbfounded. Soohae reached the bed and sank down onto the edge, looking completely worn out from the journey from the bedroom door. “Something’s wrong here,” she continued softly, her cold hand weakly groping for Hanna’s warm one. “And they keep giving me the medicine. What’s in the medicine? I feel so weak. I’m so tired, Banana,” she murmured, using the nickname that had been given to her more by Chaos than by anyone.
“Medicine? What medicine?”
Before Soohae could answer, the door swung open and Aema rushed to the bed, Candace close behind. “Soohae? What are you doing out of bed! You’re still sick, you should be resting! I’m sorry, Hanna, she hasn’t been herself lately, not since she caught this bug. Let me help you back to bed first, Soohae," Aema said, taking the girl in her arms and supporting her weight. “I’ll help!” Candace chimed in, taking Soohae’s other side.
Within moments, they were gone. In the dim of the dark bedroom, Hanna sat, having had no idea what had just happened, but feeling very sure she hadn’t imagined Soohae’s flinch at Aema’s touch.
-
For the longest time, Hanna sat and waited in the dim room. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep. It felt like a blink. She blinked and daylight streamed into her spacious room. She began to wonder if everything had been a dream. Soohae. The mental hospital. The pills. All of it. If it wasn’t a dream, was she going crazy? Was it true that Soohae was sick? Could Hanna have what she had?
The thoughts continued to tumble around her head until Aema knocked softly at the door. “Hey, you’re awake. Good. I was wondering when you’d be up!” Aema carried a silver tray carefully to the small table beside the bed. “I’ve brought you some breakfast,” she offered, lifting a lid off of a plate. “I hope you can keep it all down. Just eat what you can. There’s no rush.”
Hanna spied the sausages first. Real sausages. She shook her head, wondering if the institution, with its fake meat, was even real. Deciding to load up just in case, Hanna all but inhaled the sausages, buttery pancakes with syrup, and cinnamon tea. Then she asked for more sausage. And a croissant with jam. Aema just laughed, commenting that it was as if Hanna hadn’t eaten properly for days, and disappeared to get the second helping of food.
Hanna felt a slight chill run up her spine. What if she really had eaten poorly for days?
The rest of the morning went well enough. Hanna managed to wave off Aema’s help to the bathroom, where she relieved herself and soaked into the most luxurious feeling bath she’d had in longer than she could recall, then Aema rushed her right back into bed, citing that she was still on bedrest. Hanna flipped boredly through books, chatted with Candace, and ate lunch in bed like a pampered Queen. By the time lunch was over, she’d had enough. She was feeling very restless and wanted to just get up and do jumping jacks if it got her out of this bed! Aema promised her a walk in the gardens after dinner if she was well-behaved. Hanna made a gruff sound of displeasure, but sat back down in the bed.
She had inquired, and failed to gleam, any information on both Sol and Soohae. Soo was still sick, supposedly, and Sol was either 'gone’ or ‘out’ and no one seemed to have any answers of when she left or how long til she returned. Finally, it dawned on her those weren’t the only ones she could inquire on.
“Hey, Candace,” she asked casually. “Is Legacy around? I thought maybe I could chat with her.” Something odd seemed to pass on Candace’s face, then she tilted her head at Hanna in confusion. “Who? Legacy? Did we have someone like that in the manor?”
Hanna tried to ignore the ice water in her veins and forced an awkward smile. “Maybe I just dreamt it,” she laughed, and Candace visually relaxed. After a while, Hanna said she needed a nap and Candace excused herself. But what Hanna really wanted was to find out what the hell was going on here.
-
The nice thing about having a good-sized manor with no servants is that nobody ever bothered with the servants’ passageways. Hanna made good time, and managed to do so silently, without tipping anyone off. She had to be careful in a few places, but she finally managed to make her way to the one place she swore she’d never go again.
The basement was awash in light from the windows. In the light, it wasn’t so scary. A washing area for clothing here, creepy dressing mannequins there, boxes and crates scattered around and stacked. Those luscious barrels of delicious wines and ales were hidden in a windowless alcove surrounded by carefully placed wooden walls. Finally, a little past the center of the basement, Hanna found what she was looking for, and froze.
A little dusty desk with a simple chair sat next to a shelf. Swirls of fingerprints in the dust told Hanna the scraping and scratching sounds were two things: One, someone trying to find matches in the dark, as a box filled with matches sat askew with disturbed swipes of dust all around, and Two, the scratches were someone writing at the desk. A flashlight and an unlit candle with a burnt wick sat on the desk next do a dried inkwell and blank parchment. A quill rested lazily on the parchment and a dark stain on the desk indicated that someone had been writing at one point, but the ink had spilled. But it wasn’t the disturbed dust or the missing pages of writing that gave Hanna a horrible pause. It was the reddish-brown stains on the cold, stone floor.
Hanna stumbled backward, falling into a stack of boxes, knocking some over. Her flashlight, the one from that night, on the desk. Those stains.. Those could be anything, right? They couldn’t possibly be…blood.. Right?
“Oh, Hanna,” a voice sighed behind her. She spun and found Aema looking at her with concern. “I really wish you hadn’t come down here.”
“Where’s Sol?” Hanna demanded, her voice sounding shrill and panicked in her own ears.
“Hanna,” Aema began softly, holding up her hands as if to show she meant no harm. “Let’s go upstairs. We can have some tea. We can talk about this.”
Hanna shook her head, her heart pounding between her ears. The migraine came on fast and she let out a weak cry. “No..”
“Hanna—”
“NO!” she shouted, grabbing onto her head. “No, I wouldn’t do that! I’m not—she’s not—I’m NOT a murderer!”
Hanna began to cry, giving into the arms that wrapped around her and burying her face into Aema’s chest. “I’m not,” she sobbed.
“Shhh. I know,” Aema crooned, as if comforting a child. “I know.” Hanna felt a sharp pinch in her neck and pulled her head up, Aema’s face already becoming blurry. “It’ll be okay, Hanna,” Aema’s disembodied voice said as she slid into the darkness. The last thing Hanna recalled before it consumed her was Soohae’s drawn face, and her soft words: “What’s in the medicine?”