Transformers ( Bayverse ) - I Bleed Into Darkness

41 - Chosen Blindness

        “I’m sorry. I’m not talking,” Carrie told Charlie for the first time today. She still had several stitches in her skin, ones Charlie had applied herself with the utmost care. Despite that, she refused to speak to the blonde girl. Carrie wouldn’t give up the secrets that she knew about Fay. Secrets that came from more than just that initial encounter she’d had with the brunette girl. Secrets that came from more than that first threat she’d received at the hands of an irate Farrah. Despite the terror she’d caused, Fay was to be protected. Carrie knew that Joshua would cause just as much trouble should they look to the young man for answers, but he would do it out of contempt and a hatred for them. Carrie refused to cooperate out of her need to protect Fay.

        “I didn’t ask you to,” Charlie replied evenly.

        “You didn’t have to,” Carrie told her, breathing slowly.

        “So you do know more than one set of words,” Charlie retorted as she changed the dressings on Carrie’s wounds. The redhead bit her tongue and went silent again, not out of irritation but because she assumed it was what the blonde wanted. If she wasn’t going to speak to them about Fay and what was going on here, then why should she speak at all? Certainly their kindness only extended so far.

        “Why is it that you refuse to talk about Fay?” Charlie asked, looking at the redhead who again sat in silence her focus having returned to the wall. Her curiosity was being run in circles about this girl. Fay had said she was important, but Fay didn’t know why that was. If she did, she wasn’t talking about it. Charlie couldn’t figure out what was so miraculous about this girl, or any of the others that shared this ‘institution’ with Fay.

        Again, Carrie said nothing. “Come on!” Charlie exclaimed, frustrated. “We could have a real problem here! Fay could be in trouble! We need to know anything that could help her! Why don’t you just talk to us? If you care about Fay then talking to us, telling us what you know, could be monumental! We’re trying to protect her!”

        “I will give you answers when you deserve them,” Carrie told her calmly, keeping her eyes averted. “And frankly, if you really want to know what’s going on, I suggest you take a good, long look at each of the residents. No one is here by accident. Everyone who left was unneeded. Everyone who remains is important. So look at them. Look at what they are, who they are. If it starts making sense, then ask me if you’re correct. If you are, I’ll let you know. If you’re wrong, then you’ll have to keep looking.”

        “That’s hardly a fair arrangement,” Charlie argued, crossing her arms. “What if Fay gets killed before I can figure out your damn riddle?”

        “Then you should know her better, shouldn’t you? You’re not inhibited the way she is.”

        Charlie’s breath caught for a moment. But it made sense. Carrie was part of Fay’s mind, just like anyone who wasn’t a visitor. “What do you know that you’re not telling us?”

        “I’m sorry,” Carrie whispered. “But I’m not talking. For Fay’s safety.”

        “But you know what I am to her,” Charlie hissed under her breath, gripping Carrie’s shirt. “Just fucking talk to me. I can help her! I will stop at nothing to help her!”

        “Then prove it to her.”

        ~~~

        No closer to finding answers than she had been days earlier, Charlie was frustrated as she walked around town. She’d called into work today, beside herself and utterly sick with worry. How could she possibly figure out the point of each the residents in Fay’s mind? How could she piece these things together and even begin to contemplate why Carrie refused to reveal anything? Truly, Carrie was part of Fay’s mind. She was, in a way, an extension of her friend. But she didn’t see how that tied into anything. It meant all the other residents were extensions as well, but just because Fay had fit the image that existed in her mind for what a mental institution was meant to be didn’t change anything. That didn’t make it different.