Ink Me Insane (Book One)

Thirty

He cannot be trusted.

I'm aware of that Karo, but we need answers.

A deep resonating growl filled her conscious, vibrating through her. A string plucked, it flowed and sent anger waves across her being. Well, Karo was certainly not shy about sharing his feelings. Rene could probably learn a thing or two about it from him. Not that she even knew what she was feeling right now. She everything was coursing through her. She knew she had overreacted to what Dr. Laurel said about Michael. She knew, logically, that she should get Michael's side of the story. She was also incredibly aware that she barely knew Michael. They had become surprising close over a short period of time. Yet, she hadn't told him everything about herself, so she had no right have expected something different from him when she didn't offer the same curtesy. So why did it feel like her insides were being pulled out and rearranged? Loyalty was always her pinnacle of friendship. She was the one who agreed with the novelty that a good friend comforts you when someone hurts you and a great friend gets a shovel. Were her and Michael even friends that something like that mattered? If not, then why did she care? Why did she break like that? Rene hardly ever cried until lately, which was another issue entirely. Sure, she had done it on occasion, but it was so useless that even when she cracked she would patch up the leaks quickly and move on. Yet this gut wrenching fissure that had formed refused to be just patched up. She wasn't emotionless. She wasn't the strong cold ice princess. She was just a crazy girl being bogged down by the emotions. Her server couldn't process. She choked on the thought. She couldn't crumble down. The wall had to hold.

"Start." Her voice cracked and croaked within her throat. It sounded worse than a frightened child, broken record, and nails on a chalkboard combined. Tremors ran across her nerves tugging at the frays pieces. Damn it.

Sweet calming cool swept through her fevered body. Together young one? Kai gently prodded.

Together...When had she become so accustomed to not being alone? When had she actually started to enjoy and rely on the people guarding her back? She supposed it was all Cassie's fault in the end. They would have to have a talk about friendship when this was all over. The thought gave her strength. Yes, when this was dealt with her and Cassie and even Danny would sit and talk about how Rene was expanding her social circle and they would tease her about her finally going soft.

"Start...start with what, what is this place? What is the asylum really?" Rene stuttered out.

Dr. Laurel smiled blue lines tracing the paths of his body's flow. He sat down on top of the desk, complete disregard for Miss Rachel and her order of things. Stuff slid and rolled off the sides clattering to the ground. Miss Rachel raised her eyes in surprise, but it was the only acknowledgement of the disrespect. Dr. Laurel carefully folded his legs to sit cross-legged. She wondered if those tubes ever got clogged up with all of his movement. It really couldn't be too hard to pinch them, now could it? Back-up plan note for later, they were probably important so stopping them would be beneficial. Now that was her, making plans and planning the game. At least, it was the her she wanted to always be. Karo's words found their way back to the surface. Humans were such fragile beings, both physically and mentally...perhaps that was true. She was fragile compared to some and strong compared to others. She was a contradiction of thoughts and emotions. She never really knew what to expect to find inside her own mind. It was worst then one of those Russian nesting dolls, and she couldn't ever seem to find the center doll. She was chaos and order, fighting internally in a way that could no one could call balanced like the dragons on her arms. She was lightning, something hot, destructive, bright, and quick to end. She was glass, breakable, fragile and able to be seen through more easily than she could ever admit to herself. Fulgurite, that's was what it was called, the lightning glass. Nothing like what was shone in movies, fulgurite was created when, by some rare occurrence in nature, lightning struck sand and discharged a heat high enough in the right minerals to fuse it into a structure. The structures could widely vary in appearance often branching out into little tree-like things. It was rough and rocky on the surface but smooth and hollow inside. Each was different, certainly not boring. They were considered something rare and to be valued. Petrified lightning that was another word for it. In a lot of ways it was similar to Rene, and in many others it was not.