Obsidian

Obsidian - Part 2

Sunday 5th December, 1886

By morning, Angelique was back in her cell. It took her a few hours to sit down and take back to writing down what had happened. From then on, she was afraid to fall asleep again. As the sun was rising, one of the nurses banged against the door 'Up! We don't wait here for no one. Be ready in 5 minutes or there'll be no breakfast for you t'day Miss.' Angelique had to gather her thoughts before she could stand up and straighten her skirts, dusting off the dirt on them. She was still in the same clothing as the day she had arrived there. She pulled out the papers she kept underneath her bed and quickly wrote: 'Why has nobody bothered to change my clothes for me? This place is strange on many more occasions than just one. I am sure they must have given me medication that caused the hallucinations last night. Still, one thought isn't leaving my mind: Why is Thomas not here? And my mother in law? Oh, my dearest Clara.' Clara was the sweetest and most kind person one could imagine and more than Angelique could have ever hoped for. She was convinced, if Clara knew they had brought her here, she would be with her in a second, suing the institution for wrongfully keeping her hostage in this abominable place. No, she couldn't possibly have known of her whereabouts.

When she had gotten up and somewhat ready - brushing her hair out with her fingers, putting it up into a bun without a needle (something Clara had taught her) and rearranging the dress - she stood by the door and softly knocked, not knowing how else she could leave the room, 'Excuse me? Miss?'. As she knocked, the door gave way and squeakingly swept open. At first, the blinding light from the hallway was stinging in her eyes, dark specks were swimming before them. When they had finally disappeared, she froze midstep. There was quiet muttering and bird chirping coming from outside, from the doorframe to her room you could see out through the tall windows on the other side of the hallway and into the garden beyond. It had palm trees, ferns and exotic looking tubular flowers in pinks and blues, red flowers with pistils reaching way beyond the petals and some orange, red and purple ones reminiscent of the shape of birds. People in all-white leisure suits were sitting and playing chess and dame on the benches and tables in the middle of this paradisiac setting. One man sitting to the far left from her view, suddenly flipped the chess board in front of him, the person opposite him jumping up and back in shock. However, the scene did not seem to be disturbed by this incident. On the contrary, a nurse shuffled over to him and started carefully collecting the pieces off the floor, while another gently, but firmly, grabbed the man's right upper arm and led him back into the building through one of many glass doors surrounding the garden and leading into the hallway. All around the garden, nurses and attendants were pacing up and down between the tables, some calming alerted patients, others bringing pills and water to the well-behaved ones. The imagery would seem so peaceful, if it wasn't for the giant black creatures covering their faces. The nurses' faces were covered by a black mass with six gleaming red eyes, following each and every movement of the patients. Eight legs, standing off to all sides, were twitching in response. The nurses didn't talk, but only made muffled moaning sounds, as if someone was cupping their mouths with one hand. These symbionts must be how they ensure their obedience, their silence about what is happening here. Angelique stepped out into the hallway without making a sound. As she looked to either side, her heart started racing. What if this was another dream? What if the shadow came back to chase her? And what would happen if, this time, he would catch her? But the hallways clearly ended on either side and led to other rooms. There was no shadow, no voice coming closer. Only the chirping of the birds outside and the muffled noises of the nurses with their giant face-spiders.

'What are you doing?' A young, malnourished nurse standing behind her ripped her out of her thoughts. She could clearly understand what she was saying, no muffling, no spider. Without answering my head snapped back around, looking out the windows and...the patients as well as the nurses were still there, but nothing was covering their faces. Angelique was convinced it must have been an aftermath of some type of medicine. The one they had given her, that had also caused her nightmare. Forcing a smile, she answered, 'Nothing. I was just going to get some breakfast and enjoyed the pretty view for a moment.'

The nurse squinted her eyes, Mhm...well if you want to eat, you will have to hurry', she said, pushing her along one side of the hallway and into a great hall. Inside, many round tables were arranged around the room with four stools each. Most of them were taken, but there was one on the far other side of the hall that had an empty chair left. Since the nurse now had stopped pushing her around, Angelique decided it was best to eat and crossed the room to sit down there. Approaching, she could see one of the women sitting there was not doing too well. Her skin was a pale yellow colour and her eyes were bulging out of her skull. She didn't eat, she only stared straight ahead with her mouth wide open, saliva swelling out of it and drool spoiling the meal in front of her. She was wearing a white jacket, closed by buckles in the front, her arms crossed over her chest involuntarily, never moving. When she approached, the woman started swaying back and forth, laughing maniacally without changing the shape of her mouth or facial expression. There were two more women sitting with her at the table. One of them looked rather tired, locks of auburn hair covering her face as she was poking around in her porridge with one of her fingers. 'Poison!', she suddenly screamed and shot up from her seat, her face still hidden behind the tendrils of her matted hair, 'If you want to kill us, you will need to find another way! We will not obey!', she shouted the last sentence even louder. The whole room must have heard her, as all the patients now imitated her, bumping their fists on the table as they screamed 'We will not obey! WE WILL NOT OBEY!' Meanwhile, the woman in the straightening jacket's laughter increased in volume, she did not join the crowd, but the laughter became louder and louder until it was unbearable, when one of the wooden framed glass doors was flung open and a cavalry of nurses and caretakers stormed in. Two men hieved the hair-covered woman up and away from the table, and proceeded to drag her out through a hidden door in the left back corner of the room, which before had merely looked like a wallpaper of multi-colored birds flying across a blue sky, but now showed a curious opening in the form of a black rectangle through which the three of them disappeared.

The last person sitting at the table, another woman with steel blue eyes and gorgeous, hip length dirty blonde hair that fell smoothly over her shoulders, almost completely covering the red marks on her upper arms, looked at Angelique as the crowd was finally calming down. 'Sit.', she motioned to the stool opposite her and continued eating as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. 'You will get used to it eventually', she said between taking bites of her toast.

'I'm not sure I want to', I answered, still puzzled, staring at the secret door in the corner, even long after it had been closed again. Still, I asked myself how she could be so calm about the incident that had just taken place. 'My name is Angelique.', She gave away. This woman's appearance felt strangely familiar and comforting to her. The young woman stopped for a moment, lay down the slice of toast onto her plate, wiped the crumbs off her hands and looked at Angelique puzzled. Then she quickly said, 'Uhm, yes...I mean, nice to meet you, my name is Bessie Grace'.