The Birdcage

We All Fall Down

Compared to the events of the day, Nyx's night was uneventful. Surprisingly so, even; she'd become almost used to the strange visits. Well, she figured the experience in the hideout was more than enough compensation for the lack of one.

Getting dressed, she found the piece of paper with the words from the ouija board tucked away in with her underwear where she'd put it. It still made as much sense now as it did yesterday; to say, not at all. Putting it in her pocket, she planned to talk further about it with Ronnie and Perry later.

Walking into the dining hall, she was quickly greeted by Jayson. "I take back my good opinion on the replacement meals. We have muesli."

"Yeah, I'm suddenly not hungry." Nyx agreed.

"Come sit by me." Perry said, gesturing to the seat besides them. "You can have my strawberries if you want. I don't really like them."
Nyx smiled gratefully, sitting next to her friend and taking a piece of the fruit out of the bowl of cereal. It was milky and dehydrated, but a much nicer treat than a whole bowlful of the stuff.

"Favouritism." Jayson teased.

Perry ignored him. "So how are you fairing after yesterday?"

"I think I'm alright." Nyx said, nodding slowly. "Slept alright. I still have that piece of paper, actually."  Drawing the page out of her pocket, she passed it to Perry to look at.

Perry frowned at the words on the paper. "This doesn't make any sense."

"Well, there's got to be some kind of rhyme or reason to it." Nyx said, looking at the words. Tulip, Pansy, Daisy, Rose, Red, Door, M, 5, th. "The first four are flowers."

"Perhaps it's something to do with the garden?" Perry suggested.

"What's this?" Jayson asked. "Some kind of word puzzle or something?"

"Uh... Something like that." Nyx said vaguely. Then, she thought for a moment. "... Do you want to have a look?" Perry shot her a questioning glance, but said nothing. An outside opinion would be interesting.

Coming around behind them, Jayson looked at the paper. "Well, that's nonsensical."

"No shit." Perry scoffed.

Jayson considered the problem. "There's a severe lack of punctuation. I know it's not a sentence, but are the words definitely all seperate? For example, is it definitely rose-comma-red, or could it be rose red?"

"Huh." Nyx said thoughtfully. "I guess that's not impossible. Rose red- Or red door, even."

"Yeah, red door could work too."

Suddenly they were interrupted by Ronnie running up to their table, clearly in a state of alarm. "Ronnie, what's-" Nyx was cut off as Ronnie seized her arm, pulling her from her chair.
"You have to come quick! It's Mia!"

***

Mia was dead.

As they arrived on the scene, Nyx was faced with the sight of Mia's limp body laying haphazardly across her bed, skin deathly pale and hair tossed across her face as not a breath passed here cold lips. Nyx barely had time to gasp before she was jostled away by the amassing crowd; two orderlies struggling to manoeuvre Mia onto a stretcher as Doctor Montgomery fought to control the onlookers. "There's nothing to see here, go about your business."

"Poor girl." Jayson said beside Nyx, craning his neck to try and get a better look over the crowd. "She always did have problems."

"Did she kill herself?" Someone asked loudly.

"Did something kill her?" Another yelled.

"Was it the Whisperer?" Ronnie piped up, before being shushed by a well-placed elbow in the side from Perry. The hubbub was rising in the crowd, a mix of fear and fascination as to what was going on; something was brewing and it felt as if the dam was going to burst any second.
Ducking into the throng, Nyx wove through the crowd, trying to get a better view. It was hard to believe this had happened, it didn't seem real; it was only two days ago she had been in that room talking with Mia. She couldn't help thinking about how she might have missed the signs right under her nose; here she'd been following the Shadowhunters around on a wild goose chase, and Mia had been suffering. And then they'd gone and provoked the monster, and this had happened.
She was sure it was the creature; but she couldn't get a clear enough view to see what it had done.

"That's enough!" Doctor Montgomery snapped sharply, the strength of his voice quelling the crowd almost immediately into silence. "Move along now. Any important information will be relayed to you shortly."
There was some rebellious grumbling, but the crowd quickly began to disperse. Nyx and a handful of others were soon the last people left. "Come on, even you." Montgomery encouraged. As he barred them with his arm and gestured for them to move back, Nyx noticed something; a long, black smudge peeking out from his sleeve. She couldn't make out what it was before he moved his arm away and it was covered up again.

The familiar clacking of high heels heralded the arrival of Doctor Hannan. "Come along, my darlings! Away you come! It's a bit too morbid to be hanging about here." Realising there wasn't anything she could do here, Nyx allowed herself to be hearded away, catching up with Ronnie as she did so.

"Oh my God." Ronnie whispered when they had gone a short way away. "Do you think this was because of us? Because of yesterday?"

"I don't know." Nyx said in a dull tone. "Smile, or the Whisperer will get you." She wasn't really paying attention to the conversation; instead she was focused on a certain dyed red-head leaning against the wall a short while away.
Breaking off from the group, she crossed over to Katherine, placing a friendly hand on her shoulder. "Hey."

So, what do you think? A lot has happened in the last four chapters, that's for sure. (The nursery rhyme was Ring-a-ring-O'roses, in case you hadn't guessed. I wonder what one I'll use as a theme next!) XD