Collections of Embellished Fictions, Philosophies, and Poetry

Count to Six [Edited] - Soeurs des Oubliés

November 8. 2019.

Rain spotted the bleak sidewalks of Rue du Sergent Bauchat. The Hôpital des Diaconesses lay further down the street, the wind chill lowering in temperature every minute. Aliyah's footsteps all but echoed over the walls of the buildings surrounding the street, the drizzle covering up any sound at all. As she neared the hospital, she checked her reflection in the windows around her. All seemed well; was it too obvious she hadn't slept? No matter, Madeleine surely wouldn't notice. Hopefully. Twisting her hair into a braid and laying it on her shoulder, she stepped inside the halfway-obsolete hospital. She snuck around the receptionist, unwilling to deal with her perky attitude. She rushed up the stairs, stopping at the third floor. Staring at door sixteen up and down, she entered, her steps much less hurried than before. She smiled at the young woman sitting on the bed.

"Greetings and salutations," said Madeleine, turning her attention from her lap to the ombre-haired girl in front of her. "Hello, Madeleine Hamish," Aliyah smiled, walking closer to Madeleine. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Not at all."

And so Aliyah sat at the end of Madeleine's bed, her hands folded neatly in her lap, staring at her dry and cracked fingers. She turned her head, looking at Madeleine momentarily before focusing on her fingers again. "So..." she started, hoping some sort of sentence would form itself before she said anything she would regret. Though it wasn't what she expected, saying nothing was another pleasant solution. "So..." Madeleine murmured, smiling slightly. "How are you feeling?" she asked, coming as a surprise to Aliyah. "Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" she grinned. Oh, how she missed this. The conversations, the sleepovers, the warming and soothing voice that reminded her of sweet Daturas, and with the same effect. Hearing her was like a fever dream, her voice a hallucinogen, a deliriant, and she could stumble for hours in ignorant bliss in her own little closed reality. Madeleine truly was a night-blooming flower, a deadly Datura, a lure tainted with a bit of sadness and pent up anger, the leaves to her beauty.

"I'm doing fine, thank you," Madeleine said, her jet-black hair falling from behind her ear, her messy chignon unraveling in the slightest. She hadn't had time to properly set her hair up, but with the knowledge that Aliyah would be visiting, she did what she could in the lack of a mirror. Emmeline had phoned her earlier, saying that she would be pleasantly surprised. Madeleine had scoffed, originally deducing Emmeline had meant she had found something concerning the police report following her hospitalization. Later dwelling on it, she slapped herself for her stupidity. What would Emmeline care about a police report? Well, she would, thought Madeleine. But Emmeline had no reason to tell her, it was obvious she didn't want to concern her in any way. The pleasant surprise had to be Aliyah. Her boss wouldn't have time to visit her, she had enough to deal with. She woke up late that morning, realizing that Aliyah would be visiting her. In her sleep-filled mind, she thought she had heard Aliyah outside the door and panicked. Throwing her unruly hair into a chignon as fast as she could, she sighed in disappointment and relief when she found that it had only been a nurse passing outside her door.

"Are you sure?" Aliyah asked, snapping Madeleine out of her memories. She smiled. "Yeah, I'm sure. Just a bit tired here and there is all. Sometimes they find minor internal bleeding but that's usually fixed up real fast, so there's nothing really going wrong. I just..." she trailed off, twiddling her bandaged thumbs. "You just what?"

"It's just really... lonely here, I suppose," Madeleine said, glancing out the window. Aliyah frowned, motioning for Madeleine to go on. "The nurses are nice, really, they are, but... I don't know, I'm just being silly... There's just no one here, you know? I sit here all day in this bed, my heart rate 'worryingly' low, and... there's not much to do. I want to be out there, feel the wind on my face, but I can't..." The ombre-haired girl nodded, and took Madeleine's hand in hers, a giddy sensation forming in her stomach. "I... do you know when you'll be discharged?" At that, Madeleine chuckled darkly, and the swirling lovey feeling vanished from Aliyah, replaced by an impending fear. "Who knows," she said, her now-grey eyes darkening ever so slightly. She looked down at her lap, smiling - or was it grimacing? "I might never leave."

"You will, soon. You'll be all better soon, okay?" Aliyah exclaimed, clutching her hand tighter, tears forming in her eyes. She tried to force the tears down, a throbbing pain forming in her throat. Madeleine laughed. "Don't talk like that," she whispered, "unless you want to sound like the nurses here." She laughed louder, Aliyah joining her, unease seeping through, showing in her voice. She snuck a glance at the monitor. Madeleine's heart rate was at 42. Madeleine truly was a Datura.

Perhaps she should stay away.