The Birdcage

The Queen Of Crazy Town

"Hey, guess what?" Jayson said cheerily as Nyx sat down to breakfast.

"If it's another mud joke, no one will ever find your body."

"No." Ronnie chided, nudging Nyx's tray over to make room for her to sit down. "What he was going to say is, you're no longer the new kid on the block. New guy got brought in, just this morning." She gestured with her fork across the room, to where a young man was sitting, closely watched by two attendants. "Word is, he came in swinging. Clocked Doctor Johnson a good one. Major rage problems."

"He's an edgelord." Perry said, walking past with their own breakfast tray. "It's going to take five minutes for someone to squash him."

"How do you know?"

"Because I went over and checked it out, didn't I?" Perry said with a near eye-roll. "Edgelord written across his forehead."

"Now now, children. We're not being nasty to one another, are we?" Giggled a soft feminine voice.

Slowly turning her head, Nyx looked at the woman who'd come up to their table. She was short; barely taller than Nyx herself, although her red high heels gifted her several inches. Round-faced and rosy cheeked, with her strawberry blonde hair was cut into a soft bob at her jawline; she wore just a little too much lipstick in just too bright a shade. Under her doctors jacket could be seen the collar of a bold sunflower print blouse.

"We were just joking around, Doctor Hannan." Perry chimed innocently. "All sunshine and rainbows over here."

"Good, good." Doctor Hannan beamed. "We like it all being sunshine and rainbows. Keep it up, my darlings!"

"Sure." Jayson said flatly.

As she turned and walked away, Ronnie muttered jokingly to Nyx. "What's she on, and where do I get some?"

"Why, you not on strong enough pills already?" Mia snarked, having overheard their words as she squeezed past their table.

"Anything I'm on, you're on, Mia." Ronnie chimed. "Pot calling kettle."

Mia rounded on Ronnie, drawing close to her face with a snarl. "You know nothing about me."

"Mia!" Katherine snapped, rising from her seat. "Don't start shit in the canteen."

Mia looked rebellious, giving Ronnie's chair leg a kick; before slinking over to her seat at Katherine's side.

***

"So do you have Montgomery now, or are they handing you back to idiot Johnson?"

"Does it matter?" Nyx shrugged. "A shrink is a shrink."

"Yeah." Ronnie said. "But one is an idiot shrink, whilst the other is... not."

Nyx shivered despite herself; she knew Ronnie hadn't meant any more than that he was an old hat at this, but still, the thought made her uneasy. "Eh, what can he do, really?"

Walking into the hallway outside the Doctors offices, they saw another figure standing ahead of them. Immediately, they recognised him as the new guy they'd seen in the canteen that morning. He had either just come out of one of the Doctor's offices, or was waiting to go in; but whichever it was he seemed agitated, turned away from them and repeatedly kicking the wall with more and more anger. Upon further observation, it became evident that any guard he was supposed to have was not there.
Freezing in their tracks, the girls shared nervous looks with each other; only to practically jump out of their skins at the loud bang of him slamming his fist into the wall.

Suddenly, he rounded on them. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing." Nyx said quickly.
Seeing their fear, the man grinned; advancing on them, which forced them to back away. "Are you afraid of me?"

"No."

He lunged, and the girls scattered. He caught Ronnie as she fled, jerking her back and sending her crashing to the floor. Nyx ran to help her friend, and he grabbed her; fingers digging in to the tops of her arms as he shook her hard, making her head rattle. When he released her, she dropped like a stone; just missing landing on top of Ronnie. Feeling dizzy, Nyx pushed herself up on her hands, crawling towards the equally stunned Ronnie; only to scatter again as he came at them once more.
Nyx crawled backwards as he advanced on her, until her back hit the wall and she could go no further.

"Mouthy bitch." He snarled.

Nyx's eyes went wide with fear; it was only seconds later he realised she wasn't looking at him.

What looked like some kind of golden vine had looked up over his shoulder, the tip tickling softly along his shoulder. Turning his head, he looked at it in confusion; and then the clawed end opened wide, diving at his throat, the action slamming him back against the wall with inhuman strength.

Nyx screamed.

Her mind raced at a hundred miles a minute, a million thoughts bursting through her brain; from 'What the hell just happened?' to 'I'm going to die here!' to 'So Katherine has a tail...'

"See, what did you have to go and do that for?" Katherine told the heavily bludgeoned man as she pulled back her extra limb , dropping him on the floor. A thin trail of blood dribbled out from under his chin, and his neck was already showing signs of bruising. "Now I'm going to get shit for taking two minutes out of my day to put you in your place. Now, prove you inherited some intelligence; stay down if you know what's good for you."

Stepping over the legs of their severely dazed attacker,she walked towards Nyx with a slow, leisurely pace; oozing confidence as her flexible gold tail curled menacingly behind her. Then, surprisingly, she crouched down; offering Nyx her hand. "Are you alright?"