A/N: Welcome to my newest addiction! Didn't want to go do the movie, didn't care for the previews...went, loved it, obsessed over it, bought the soundtrack...I'm a gonner! Join me...if you dare. ;) Usual disclaimer applies - I own nothing of Sing and make no profit from writing this.
Where the Forgotten Go:
Chapter One
There comes a point in the lives of many who suffer from depression or trauma...a point where they take the person they used to be and bury them. They mentally sever themselves from who they used to be to become someone new, to grow and to get away from the burdens holding them back.
And they think that once those "other selves" are buried, they're gone for good.
But they're not.
What happens is so...absurdly surreal that the only way I can think to describe it is to tell you my story. To tell you the story of the day I was buried alive by myself and found a different life better suited for me, a new adventure I wasn't afraid of, an acceptance that had albeit abandoned me in my previous life and a reality that might have terrified the hell out of me at first...but I eventually embraced it, grew within it and realized that by letting go of myself, I'd been given a chance at a blissful freedom I would never take for granted.
And I would eventually forgive the new me because she what she gave up by getting rid of me set me far more free than being trapped within her would have.
Nails individually nailed with sharp finality.
One after another.
Even though it was being done mentally, it was still a deafening noise. One Karina couldn't help but flinch at. She decided that, out of all of the trauma's she had experienced, watching a determined mirror image of herself close her into a coffin was the most terrifying. Yet, she was helpless to stop it. Who she was now was determined. She was tired of depression, tired of being scared, tired of being helpless and determined to put an end to who she was to be someone new. Unfortunately, who she was wasn't just thoughts and dreams. It was a part of her that she sawed loose and was now attempting to shut away, running from everything ugly and flawed in hopes to find something better.
Karina hoped she would. She hoped to hell the girl would. With the extreme lengths she was going to, destroying and burying a part of herself had better be damn worth it.
The final nail went in, the light went out, and stillness fell thick and heavy around her.
With a sigh, Karina gave in and closed her eyes.
It was only a matter of time before the muffled noises of a future being lived without her faded into a mild annoyance. She would never be a part of it, so it mattered little to her.
She never noticed the day it shifted, that the lull of voices turned into the lull of water, accented by the gentle slap of waves against her prison. The shouts of men jostled her slightly, but not enough to pull her from the coma-like state she'd managed to fall under. The sudden lurch caused her brows to furrow, but nothing more.
Then there came the sound of metal slamming against wood.
With a gasp, Karina sat up, promptly knocking her head against the wooden slats of the coffin lid and yelping in pain.
Again, metal scraped against her confines and she pushed herself back as light permeated the darkness.
"There's someone in there!"
I'm in here, she thought, her mind fuzzy, blurred around the edges, lethargic from how long she'd been out.
I'm in here….
Why did that matter? She knew she was in there. What would it matter to her to think-.
Because now someone else knows you're in here!
Karina opened her mouth and attempted to speak but nothing came out beyond a pitiable croak. She lifted her hands, her arms weak from lack of use, and pushed against the lid, trying to help them.
Get me out of here! Let me out!
"Quick, call an ambulance. There's someone trapped in here!"
Her pulse tripped, pounding in her ears and hope surged to life. I am trapped! I was trapped! Help! Please…
The excitement was far more than she could handled. Her vision started to cloud and she swallowed the thick lump suddenly choking her. This time, when she succumbed to the darkness, she tried to fight it but eventually lost, slipping under the black curtain once more.
It was soft, methodical beeping that woke her much later.
Turning her head to the side, Karina tried to open her eyes, squinting at the intrusion of light. Light wasn't something she was used to. Not at all. Slowly, she adjusted to it and things came into focus. She was in a small hospital room under a powder blue quilt. From her hand extended a thin tube. Fluids more than likely. She looked up at the machine overhead, watching the monitors affirm her existence for a moment before turning her gaze to the one window looking out over a brilliant sunset that painted the sky hues of pink, blue and violet.
"Well, you're awake then-."
Karina turned towards the voice, not surprised that she wasn't alone. Of course she wouldn't be alone. Girl found alive in a coffin...not exactly something people would just walk away from without wanting several answers to several questions.
Sitting next to her, wrapped in gauzy violet fabric was a tall, willowy woman...with the face of a sheep.
Okay...that...I did not see coming.
Karina opened her mouth, attempting to speak. As before, nothing came out beyond a raspy attempt at a near-cough. She had the fleeting thought that perhaps there was something besides fluids dripping into her system. Something that provoked sheep-like hallucinations.
The sheep-lady reached over to her side and a moment later, a glass of ice water was in front of Karina's face. She grasped it, glancing skeptically at the woman, then took a sip. With as unused as her voice was, the water scratched it's way down, alleviating the dryness with a painful chill.
"Slowly, darling girl. Heaven forbid you end up sick all over yourself."
Oh good, the hallucination has sound advice.
She took another sip, grateful that the grating feeling was starting to fade, then handed it back with a nod of thanks.
The sheep-lady set the cup down before folding her hands...no...her hooves in her lap. "Did you want to attempt to say something again? I'm assuming you speak English."
It was a statement, not a question. With a faint smile, Karina nodded.
"Well, by all means then...do try."
Karina took a deep breath and again, attempted to say something. "Wh..where am I?" she managed, though her voice sounded horrible.
"Very good, dear. You are at Saint Andrew's Hospital. Some workmen at the dock found you washed ashore in a-," she pressed a cloven hoof to her chest and slightly inclined her nose, "coffin. At least, that is what they claimed it appeared to be. I must say...you look unlike anyone I have ever seen before."
Karina dropped her head, catching sight again of her hands as she did so. They looked brighter than normal but still like hands. Not hooves or paws. Just her hands. Carefully, she lifted the one not compromised by an IV and pressed it to her nose and cheek, happy to find that they seemed normal as well.
But she said I look unlike anyone…
The sheep-lady was not a hallucination.
The monitors registered her shock, the beeping coming more quickly. Karina took a deep breath, willing her heart rate back to normal. So she was in a room with a sheep. She seemed nice enough, genuinely concerned. And it was worlds better than being alone in a coffin.
"Do you know what happened to you?" the sheep-lady asked.
Karina paused, then shook her head. No one would believe the truth of how she'd ended up nailed in a coffin and washed up on the shore of some place she knew nothing about. And given the circumstances, she could pull off amnesia well enough. It seemed the safest route to go until she had a better idea of what was going on.
"Do you have a name?"
"My-." Amnesia...right. "I think...it's Karina."
"Very good. I'm Nana Noodleman."
The air of importance she spoke her name with indicated wealth and prominence. She sounded like someone who expected her name to be known and known well.
The door to her hospital room opened, admitting a gazelle looking woman in nurse scrubs. "Ah, you're awake," she said with a hesitate smile, taking the chart from the foot of the bed and looking it over. "How are we feeling."
"Fine, thank you," Karina replied. Her voice was slowly starting to sound like her own again. Still very much unused but now more like a raspy whisper than a nasty croak.
They sat in patient silence as the nurse checked over her vitals and Karina attempted to wrap her head around the reality she found herself in. She seemed...solid somehow. Not as she was before, not the part of someone larger cast aside but...real. She had her own heartbeat, her own skin, her own thoughts.
Maybe I actually died….
The nurse, seemingly satisfied with what she was seeing, cast one more surreptitious glance at Nana and left the room.
"Why are you here?" Karina asked once the door closed behind the nurse.
Nana stood, walking over to the window, her cape trailing behind her. "The hospital director is a good friend of mine. When you were brought in, it caused quite a stir. A Jane Doe looking the way you do-."
Karina couldn't tell if she should be insulted or not by the way the woman described her. There was an undercurrent to her words that left an uneasy feeling in Karina's stomach.
"There is no one in this town that comes close to having the wealth that I maintain, no one with as much power as I. That is a simple fact, not a statement made to boast, I assure you. A fact that you should be well aware of. Out of everyone in this community, it is I who could protect a phenomenon like you far better than anyone else, with intentions of doing just that - protecting you. Whatever you are-."
"Human."
Nana turned to her, arching one wooly brow. "Beg pardon?"
Karina twisted the quilt nervously between her fingers. "I'm a human."
Eyes narrowing, Nana studied her. It was unnerving and Karina felt a sudden, unexpected surge of anger. Pressing her lips together, she stared back, silently daring the woman to make a condescending remark.
It didn't come to that, however. If anything, the scrutiny melted away and admiration shone in the other woman's eyes. "Whatever that is, my dear, is not what exists here. Once you are well enough, you will return to my home with me and your appearance will become nothing more than a questionable shadow easily forgotten by anyone who had direct contact with you. I understand that sounds bleak, but you must understand that I am acting in your best interest. I doubt there's another person here who would offer you as much."
Karina frowned. "So I'm just...supposed to go into hiding with someone I don't even know?"
"Do you have a better idea? If so, I would love to hear it."
There wasn't a single one she could think of. She had no clothes, no money, and no idea what waited for her outside those doors. "Why would you do this? You don't even know me."
"No," Nana said with a smile. "But you intrigue me. And I may have ulterior motives. You are clearly in need of some support. And I am in need of companionship. I believe you and I can come to the agreement that this would benefit us both, yes?"
"By companionship you mean-." Karina asked hesitantly, not quite comfortable with the idea.
"I live in a very large house, Karina. It does tend to get a bit lonely. I could do with some interesting company - someone to have daily tea with, to play cribbage with. With wealth comes the knowledge that those around you will not see you for who you are, but what you have. You, my dear girl, know nothing of me, just as I know nothing of you. To me, that makes you the ideal companion." She returned to Karina's bedside, lowering herself gracefully into the chair once more and folding her hooves in her lap. "So, do we have an agreement?"
Karina managed a wry grin. "Do I have a choice?"
"You do not."
With a sigh, Karina shrugged. If anything, life would at least be interesting. There would be light and sound, someone she could talk to who seemed comfortable with her even though she was different. "Yes. We have an agreement."