Reflections of Light

Heart Monitor

Alysha walked purposefully down the hospital corridor in the early hours of the morning, just as the place was beginning to really wake up for the day.

Her shoes clacked rhythmically against the hard surface of the floor, echoing slightly in the almost empty hallways.

She scrunched up her nose distastefully.
The place was so... Sterile. It made her uncomfortable.
Stark and white, and oh so... Unnaturally Clean.
It lacked life, that's what it did.

She smiled politely at a passing man in medical scrubs, who smiled back, before continuing on her way, almost giggling with glee at how he just let her walk past, not even slightly suspicious.

People were so dense, sometimes.

Splitting off from the hall, she turned in to the wards, making a beeline for one in particular.

Gently, she tugged open the door to Maddie's room, slipping quietly inside.

The heart monitor attached to Maddie's prone form beeped steadily in the corner.

Alysha inspected it briefly, before turning back to the body on the bed, walking over and crouching by her head.

"My, my, you are an anomaly, aren't you?
Not your fault mind, you just got delt the short straw, I'm afraid.
Ah well,"
She said, pulling the shard of glowing blue rock out of her pocket, holding it up to eye level and running a finger almost lovingly over one of its rough-hewn facets.
"hopefully you'll be all sorted pretty soon. Here's to trying, eh?"

She chuckled, tossing her wild hair out of her face.

With slow, careful movements, she went to place the stone against Maddie's forehead.
"Now, bear with... And don't start a fuss..."

Maddie was wandering aimlessly around the misty world she'd become more familiar with than she'd have liked in the past... God knows how long.

Distantly, she could hear speaking, whispers trickling through the fog, but like usual in this place, she ignored them, not willing to trust.

Shapes flitted through the mist, unseen other than a flicker in the corner of your eye.

Here, nothing was real, and yet, anything could be.

"God, I've always hated this place. I mean, you think they'd at least make it a bit more comfortable around here, and less... Whatever the hell this is.
Anyway, we're not going to be here so long this time, are we, darling?"

Maddie whipped around, to see Alysha standing just over her shoulder, grinning smugly.

"What the hell did you do?" Maddie yelled accusingly at her.

"Hush, peace, lovely thoughts and all that jazz. Calm down. I'm getting you out of here, so it's in your best interest to be nice.
Everything will make sense soon."

"This better be good." Maddie growled.

Silently, she was trying to decide what was off about how Alysha looked here.

Well, Alysha always looked slightly off, especially if you knew Nyx, most likely as she somehow stemmed from Nyx's reflection, however, it was something else.

Nothing she could perceptibly see, but... Something.

Something in the eyes maybe? A kind of leaking energy, radiating from behind them, undetectable as to what it was.

It was as if the mask had worn thin, and if Maddie really tried, she could tear it off her, and see the true being beneath the surface.

Alysha's smile held wicked promise as she took a step towards Maddie.

"See you on the other side, Madeline."

And firmly shoved her backwards.

Gravity suddenly seemed to spring into existence, whereas before there had been no sense of up or down, yanking Maddie downwards from where she'd been suspended in the mist.

Was it down? Or was it sideways? Or upwards?

Maddie couldn't tell.

The glow of the most was beginning to increase, brighter and brighter and brighter, filling her eyes and her senses like water, drowning, pulling her under, she couldn't see, so bright, blinding...

Darkness.

And the steady beeping of a heart monitor.