Greeting Insanity

chapter nine

 

After returning from the coffee shop, Reyna had gone back to the institute. Why? There was no where else to go. She felt hollow. However, Reyna had read books where stuff like this would happen, and she vowed that night to keep herself upright and smiling. So, with this statement in mind, Reyna made her way back to the Home. The sudden realization of Henry's current hospitalization plagued after Reyna during her hike. She needed to keep going, needed to continue living. She refused to be swept into depression over the small boy she recently met. However, she felt the need to represent his current state, to show others what was happening to him. Wear a frown, scowl, cry in public. It needed to be worn yet hidden, creep out but also buried deep in her melting spirit. Nearing the doors, the crowds seemed more than usual. Not more in amount or in noise or smell, but more. She dodged more, out and in, through the screaming children and the furrowing brown of rushing adults. She needed to be at Home, needed. She finally pressed her trembling hand to the cool, dark brown door, pushing into the silent shop. Slipping into her forced habits, Reyna began to analyze her surroundings. People always did something, a tick. Every individual did something to describe them, separate them. Whether it be the nibbling of a young woman's lip, the scratching of a small boy's nails on flesh, the bounce of a grown man's knee. Glancing around, the shop was bare. The stillness, haunting. Reyna's glare slipped to the spot. The spot. Were it happened. Henry's...accident. Reyna could feel the lump in her throat, forcing it past the strained vocal cords where she had stretched with her screams. A step forward, Reyna swayed. Another gulp. The blonde reached the counter, the cool wood under her fingertips. Unsettling goosebumps traveled her arms, delicate skin hardening in the cold. Behind the counter, nobody stood. The workers, whomever worked at the time, was somewhere in the back. Reyna could check the time to see if Emma was working, she had memorized the schedule. She couldn't bother herself though, the pain in her heart forcing her body movements to slow, to stop, to deteriorate.

"Reyna?" The strained voice snapped Reyna from her miserable thoughts. Lifting her heavy head in a slow motion, the blonde met the brunet. Jason stood with red eyes, his thin lips pressed into a firm line. His previous purposely messy hair was now disheveled in a heap of stress.

"Jason." It wasn't an answer or a question, but a sigh. A sigh full of peace, something familiar.

"You look awful." In her defense, Reyna hadn't put too much sensitivity into her thoughts. She was drowning in her own self-pity. A dry chuckle left Jason's lips, returning to their pursed position.

"Yeah, you don't look to great either." It was only now that Reyna admitted to her own visual flaws. Her eyes were a clear crimson, golden locks falling into a knotted mess, tied at the back of her head. Reyna wore the same outfit as the day of....

"How have you been?" She could see the innocence in the question as it fell from Jason's mind. However, she squeezed her eyes shut, screwing the worrying thoughts. The boy is dying.

"Not so good. You?"

"Not so good." Reyna returned the raspy attempt at laughter.

"So, what do we do?" Jason looked to the floor, then to her. She recognized his gaze as her look of analyzation.

"Who knows?" It was meant rhetorical, she knew, but Reyna couldn't help but to think of writing a letter.

"Who knows." An echo. A promise. A wisp of oxygen swirling in the atmosphere.

Days had passed. Days Reyna had been laying on her plastic bed, staring at the decorated ceiling. It seemed her body had shut down. She had not even lifted from her position to use the lavatory. No eating. No drinking. Three days straight, she remained. Her actions were limited to breathing deeply and blinking slowly. The HTA, remarkably, were worried. Their fears adding, increasing the tests performed on the young adult. She had never undergone such a state, unmoving, unthinking, unliving, it frightened the doctors beyond comprehension. Despite her beliefs, the "teachers" had grown to care for and admire the blissful girl. Only few had the will to dislike the blonde, her bright smiles blinding many throughout the school. After her visit to the coffee shop, Reyna returned to her living quarters, refusing to call the bland building, home. Once she reached her wanted destination, she had been signed in, signaling her return to the organization. Passing the various standing guards, she wandered to her bedchamber, sat on her bed, and drifted.