The Fox and The Forest (EDITING)

Project: Synthesis (0.3)

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The next time she woke up, things felt different. Foreign. Drowned in darkness. Though the room was still sterile white.

In front of Kate, an unknown woman with a sweet voice glided into the room. "Hi love. I've brought you some food," said she.

"What food? It's a bit early isn't it?" Kate rubbed her temples, disorientated and feeling like there was a thunderstorm in her brain. It felt as if she'd had one of the worst sleeps of her life. Yet she had slept- hadn't she? So she must be at home. 

Kate examined the woman as best she could through partially blurred vision. She had the same green eyes as her mother. 

So was it just a dream? The image of a needle piercing her skin was just a mirage? A hologram of the heart? She started to panic in her confusion. Kate reached out to her mother for comfort, but as the woman came closer Kate's vision corrected itself, and presented to her a woman that wasn't Kate's mother at all.

Before the lady could take hold of her hand, Kate flinched and moved away.Her hands were no longer shackled.

"Nothing to worry about. It's just the usual meal- chicken." Liar, Kate thought to herself, chicken meat had been contaminated months ago...or maybe it was weeks ago... She wasn't sure anymore.

The only thing she did know was that the amount of questions circulating her brain were growing fast like a tumor, making it hard for her to focus on anything at all.  

The lady stared at Kate, both expectant and concerned.

I need to find out where I am.

Eyes scanning the room, Kate noted its bareness. As well as the button in the corner which flickered red- the colour of one of those danger signs you see on the roadside. 

In a flash, the memory of the doctor shifted back into her temporal lobe. The way he threatened her with his sharp words and an even sharper needle . His speech echoed definitively in her ears, like shouts in the darkened damp cave of her skull. 

"So would you like the chicken?" 

Kate shook her head, quickly saying "No," then adding a contrived "Thanks," as she realised this was a sort of game the lady must've been playing, in pretending that this room and what had happened was normal.

"Have the water then, dear. My name is Melantho. I'll be your unit carer." Kate felt stupid for thinking this woman was her mother. Melantho's voice was as cloudy as the green mist covering her eyes. 

Kate sniffed the water and pretended to drink it. She had no reason to trust anyone.

"I'm Kate," she mumbled through the glass cup as a matter of courtesy. The nurse smiled knowingly behind her oxygen mask, her figure became distorted through the curves of Kate's glass as she held it against her dry lips. Distorted and disgusting, thought Kate in spite. 

Finally she realised what she had been missing. The glass slipped from her hand, tumbling through the air with the aim of shattering. But the Nurse caught in unsuspected skill.

Where was her oxygen mask?  

Her lungs were burning before, when she had first awoken. It was a harsh but nevertheless real pain. 

Now Kate couldn't feel her body working to sustain her. The rise and fall of her chest had flattened. No air tickled her cupid bow lips. Though her heart throbbed violently, as if mocking her, saying: at least I'm still alive. Now look what you've become.