The Chimeras In The Library (NaNoWriMo)

Day 89 & 90 & 91 - Inpatient

The bedsheets smelt wrong. 

That was her first conscious thought. Admittedly, the library was much more diligent about changing the bedding than she was at home (a fact she was very glad of, as she loved the feel of clean sheets, but had to psych herself up in order to actually strip and change the bed), and she was familiar with the soft clean linen smell that they used. She was also familiar with the faintly floral laundry liquid her Mum used at home, and these sheets smelt like neither. They smelt wrong. Very clean, but with a distinct smell of disinfectant, and were slightly more scratchy.

As that thought ambled through her head, another one tripped after it. She wasn't wearing her own clothes either. She definitely wasn't wearing a bra, that much was plainly obvious, but she wasn't wearing her normal night things either. Kyrtle usually wore a tshirt and underwear to bed, occasionally with a pair of pyjama bottoms when it was cold, but she never wore button up pyjamas like the ones she could feel now, especially not the old fashioned ones with a collar. Another thing drifted across her mind - since when did she sleep on her back?

She cracked her eyes open. They moved unwillingly like it wasn't something they were used to. The sight that met her just further disorientated her. The ceiling seemed to be a very long way away, and there was a definite sense of big-ness to the room that her library bedroom, while spacious, definitely didn't have. That and the bed she was lying in was much narrower than her double at the library, and had a cast iron frame. 

She slowly and carefully sat up, taking it cautiously, and while everything felt slightly tender and strangely stiff like it wasn't used to moving, everything still seemed to be functional. Once she'd made it to sitting position, she looked around her again. There were folding fabric screens to either side of her, but opposite was another bed, also apparently occupied. She could hear soft heavy breathing and a few distinct snores, which told her that she was definitely not on her own. Beyond that was a huge set of curtains hanging on the wall and slightly to her right, she could see an empty desk, with a set of bells sat on it. Those bells definitely prompted a memory.

She was still at St. Jude's. 

That brought back a lot of thoughts and memories, but her first instinct was to check her watch, which she usually wore on her left wrist and rarely remembered to take off. It had been removed, but looking around, she saw it, along with her stylus and Rúna's silver coin had been carefully placed a bedside table. She reached for the watch and automatically buckled it back on.

The movement drew her attention back to her right hand. She paused to scrutinise it. Well, some-one had fixed it, she realised grimly, flexing the fingers and wiggling them around to check the range of motion, poking the healthy-looking brown skin with the fingers of her other hand. It was weirdly hairless, like the hair on the back of her arm had been singed away, and her nails were weirdly short, just enough to cover the nailbeds, like they'd been trimmed right down to the quick. Asides from that, it was indeed her hand, back to full fighting form. 

She glanced back at her watch and gave an involuntary yelp of surprise. She pushed back the covers and swung herself so she was sat on the edge of the bed, bare feet on the floor, scooping up her stylus and coin, then paused, wondering where her clothes had actually got to, especially she shoes. She might make it back to the library in 'jamas, especially if she teleported, but she didn't want to risk standing on something sharp...

There was the sound of brisk footsteps from nearby, rapidly approaching. She looked up at a dazzle of light, and saw a tall figure holding a lamp. As her eyes adjusted, she could tell from the shape that they were a minotaur, and as the light from the lamp fell on them, saw they were wearing a set of navy scrubs. They paused at Kyrtle's bed and gazed at her in apparent surprise. Kyrtle waved at them awkwardly.