"Hello, Juliett, how are you feeling?" Topher looked down upon the ginger haired girl, who looked around, rather bewildered.
"Did I fall asleep?" She asked, looking around, her head supposedly empty, as it always was. Topher smiled,
"For a little while."
"Shall I go now?" She asked and Topher moved away from the chair, nodding towards the door.
"If you like?" He said. She smiled at him softly and got out of the chair, walking away. She walked down the stairs and to the ground floor. She passed the other dolls, smiling softly at them, the light was comforting and the air was warm.
"Hello, Juliett, where do you want to go?" A woman smiled at Juliett, who smiled back at the kind face.
"I want to go for a swim." She said, softly. The woman smiled, guiding the ginger haired girl into the changing rooms before stepping outside once more. Juliett picked up a bathing suit and tried it on. She frowned at the sudden pain, the pinching sensation that surrounded her. Her walk was a little bit stilted and odd, but she knew if she found one of the others, she could be helped. She approached a man, who, like the woman from earlier, had a kind smile.
"Hello, Juliett." He greeted her. She looked at him for a moment before looking down at her body.
"It doesn't fit." She said, frowning slightly, trying to think of the words to describe what was happening, "It…. Hurts." She was uncertain, this feeling being new to her. The man waved over another woman who led Juliett into the change rooms. She helped Juliett find the correct swimsuit and subsequently left the change rooms.
She dived into the still blue water, something flickered through her mind, swimming, once more, but with much more urgency. There was blood in the water around her and someone was screaming above the water.
The flashback was gone and Juliett gasped in surprise and she sunk to the bottom, coughing and spluttering and more water filled her lungs. Her head was spinning and everything was just too much, darkness overtook her.
When she came to, there was a face above her and someone was crying her name. "Juliett! Juliett! Is she OK?" She recognised the voice as Doctor Sanders and the face as Alibrandi, her handler. She smiled, seeing the friendly face and bushy, blonde hair, before she coughed and water poured from her lungs into her mouth and she began to choke once more.
The rest of the evening was spent in fits of panic, water oozing from her mouth and nose, coughs and sobs wrecking her lungs and throat, blacking out was a sweet mercy she was allowed at random intervals.
It was almost midnight when she woke up, still slightly sore but no longer coughing, crying or vomiting water. She looked up, trying to find Doctor Saunders, but instead, saw Echo.
"Hello, Juliett." She said, watching the ginger with interest.
"Echo…" Juliett looked at her hands before looking up, "I'm sad." She mewled. Echo looked around, before her eyes fell back on Juliett.
"Where is Doctor Saunders?" She asked, to which Juliett smiled.
"Doctor Saunders is nice." She smiled, yawning. "I would like to sleep now."
"Shall we go together?" Asked Echo, smiling vacantly at Juliett, who smiled vacantly back, as all dolls did.
"I would like that." She stood up, her head no longer hurting. Just as she did, Doctor Saunders walked in.
"Juliett, how are you feeling?" She asked.
"Better. I would like to sleep now." She said, smiling at the Doctor who nodded.
"Can you remember anything from the pool? Why you panicked?" She asked, carefully. Juliett thought about it, but her mind was clean, she didn't understand why she panicked.
"No." She said, smiling slightly.
"You may go, be careful." Doctor Saunders said, her eyes slightly wary. As Juliett exited, someone stood, from the corner of the room.
"Is she OK?" It was Alibrandi, her cold blue eyes focused on Saunders, who had an odd look on her face.
"Something about that incident isn't right. None of the other actives have had trouble whilst swimming… Why her?" She asked, almost to herself. Alibrandi rubbed the back of her own neck, sighing.
"Maybe she's starting to composite… Wasn't Echo acting odd lately?" She asked. Saunders frowned.
"This isn't the first time she's freaked out when she was swimming. My guess that it is a memory so deep that it could bypass Topher's walls. This isn't good, however. If it gets worse, she will be taken to the Attic." Saunders said, to which Alibrandi nodded, dejectedly.
Echo smiled at Juliett as they walked, who smiled back. The two of them went silently through the house, through to the bedding area, getting to their individual pods. Juliett smiled at Sierra and Victor who were already laying down, waiting for Juliett and Echo to get settled. As she lay in her bed, a single stanza escaped through her lips:
"Civil blood makes civil hands unclean."
The world blanked out and she remembered no more.