Hanna yawned and stretched her arms over her head, a cold breeze sending goosebumps across her stomach until she lowered her arms and adjusted her jacket. Her workday had flown by quickly and her boss had even let her leave an hour early, so instead of her normal route home she decided to stop by a park a mile away from her apartment and walk around there.
For such a chilly day there were quite a few people jogging or being dragged down the walking paths by their overly excited dogs. Hanna had made her way around the small park once and found a bench by a bus stop to sit on, only having to push a few pieces of newspaper off to the side to make some room.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she fished it out.
"Hello?"
"I have a surprise for you!"
"Hey Hedwig," Hanna said, smiling when all that answered her was a giddy laugh. "What's up?"
"I have a surprise for you. But, you can't get the surprise over the phone."
"So, how am I supposed to get this surprise?" Hanna leaned back into the bench and crossed her legs.
"You can come over. Nobody else is here and I can make sure they don't see." His voice had dropped and he was whispering into the phone. "I can open the gate and you can come in and I can give you your surprise."
Hanna glanced around. She was pretty sure the bus she took to the zoo stopped by an intersection not too far away. Plus, what else was she really planning on doing tonight besides wandering around the park and going straight home? Hanna briefly wondered if this would be another thing that Dennis would get angry over, but she told herself firmly that she wasn't taking Hedwig anywhere.
"Sure," Hanna said and Hedwig let out a loud breath that he had been holding in.
"Awesome! When will you get here? I can meet you at the gate right now!"
"Well I need to take a bus over there." Hanna pulled her phone away from her ear long enough to get a glance at the time. "I can be there in just over a half an hour?"
"Awesome! Okay. I'll be at the gate in a half an hour and then you can have your surprise."
"Cool, I'll see you there. Bye." Hanna flipped her phone shut and stood, slipping it and her hands into her jacket pockets and finding her way to the other bus line.
"You made it!" Hedwig said before Hanna had even made it to the gate. His fingers fumbled through the keys and after a few attempts he found the right one and the door swung open just as she approached him. "Come on!"
"Hey," Hanna said, smiling at the excited boy as he carefully shut the gate and locked it again.
"I have a surprise for you." Hedwig spun back towards Hanna and bit his lip, rocking back and forth on his feet and trying desperately not to yell out what it was.
"What is it?" Hanna asked and he let out a loud bark of a laugh.
"It's a surprise! Duh," Hedwig said, rolling his eyes in exaggeration and scoffed before his face broke into that toothy grin again. "I'm not gonna tell you what it is until I show you!"
"Okay," Hanna said, chuckling at his enthusiasm.
His hand shot out and he grabbed her wrist tightly, turning down the path and whispering for Hanna to hurry up. She was getting more and more used to walking around the zoo at night, and finally had figured out the pathways they used to get to the large gray building and around the back.
Hedwig took a second to flip through the keys and finding the right one, letting out a long breath and relaxing as soon as the door creaked shut behind them. He lead Hanna through the hallway and slipped off his jacket, throwing it over the back of the couch and skipping across the room to flip the light on.
He took large bouncy steps back to Hanna as her eyes were adjusting to the light.
"I'll be right back. I have the surprise in my room. Stay here though, okay? Don't leave. You gotta stay here and wait." He suddenly looked unsure and nervous, eyebrows drawn together.
"I won't leave," Hanna said, repeating herself firmly before Hedwig seemed to believe that she wouldn't turn and run the moment he left. He darted down the hallway, his footsteps heavy and echoing into the room until a door shut somewhere farther away.
Hanna stuffed her hands in her pockets and glanced around.
The room was brighter this time and she could see more than the small couch and table, which was all she remembered from the place besides the small bedroom and kitchen. A long table lined one of the walls and Hanna stepped over to see what the piles of paper stacked on it were. A floor lamp was stuffed into the corner and Hanna reached over to pull the cord, and a shockingly bright light flooded the papers.
Blinking, Hanna waited for her eyes to adjust before taking a closer look. They looked like fashion designs and she smiled; she must have found Barry's workspace. Hanna was cautious as she snooped, reaching down and handling one of the pieces with careful fingers. It was headed with 'Winter Line' and sharp geometric shapes of different colors adorned the shockingly tall and thin model wearing a knee-length coat. A wide hat spread wide over the woman's shoulders and Hanna imagined the artistic man hunched over his desk and working on his pieces. They didn't make much sense to her, but they looked beautiful nonetheless and she wondered if he ever brought any of his pieces to life.
She set the paper back on the desk and turned the light back off, taking a moment to let her eyes adjust to the room again before glancing around. A tall bookshelf stood in the corner, almost reaching the ceiling with books lining each shelf and even more stacked on the floor beside it in disorganized piles. Someone was a bookworm.
Hanna made her way over and glanced at some of the titles. Some looked like history books, others like philosophy and other oddball topics that Hanna expected to see tucked inside an old library.
She reached out to pick up one of the books.
"You must be Hanna."
She jumped at the feminine voice and spun around, her hand snapping back to her side as soon as her fingertips brushed the spine. Her heart felt like it had jumped up into her throat...she had expected to hear Hedwig's loud galloping steps to warn her that he was coming back.
"I didn't mean to startle you." Hedwig – well, the body of Hedwig – stood in the doorway, back straight and hands clasped in front of him. At first Hanna thought of Dennis, perhaps it was the posture she remembered from the glances she stole when he was in her apartment...but the voice was more like a womans.
"We haven't met," she said, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips and she stepped into the room. Everything from their clipped words to the way their body moved screamed control and it put Hanna on edge, though she tried hard to hide it with a smile. She had expected this new person to ask her to leave, to yell at her for coming in, or join Dennis in the let's ban Hanna club so their courtesy caught her off guard.
"We haven't, I'm Hanna." She thought about attempting a hand-shake but they stood at opposite ends of the room and Hanna liked that distance.
"I know, I've seen you before at the art show and in Dr. Fletcher's waiting room. I'm Patricia." Again, the corner of lips on the familiar face lifted just a fraction of an inch and their eyes seemed to smile without the same sparkle that Hedwig or Barry had.
Hanna wasn't sure if this new person was amused at her discomfort or not. It was unnerving realizing again and again that while she might be talking to one alter others could be watching through those same eyes; was anyone else watching her now?
Patricia move to the other side of the room, her steps short and precise and just as she was about to go into the kitchen she tilted their head and asked Hanna to follow.
Hanna did slowly, feeling like a mouse caught rummaging through a house they had broken into and waiting for this cat-like person to pounce. She had turned the light on in the kitchen and stood by the sink until Hanna had made her way to the door.
"Come on, I'm not going to bite. You can come in. Take off your jacket." Their tone was teasing but their teeth flashed with their predacious smile and Hanna wondered if she should be more cautious than she already was as she slipped her jacket off and laid it over the back of the kitchen chairs. She tried to force herself to let go of her panic...if one of the alters was truly dangerous to her surely Barry or Hedwig would have warned her by now.
"You're not mad?" Hanna asked and she cleared her throat when she realized her quiet voice made her out like the mouse in the trap that she felt.
"No, I'm not mad," Patricia said chuckling, turning to pull two coffee mugs down from a cupboard. "Hedwig really shouldn't be encouraging people to come inside but Barry does seem to trust you. And I trust his judgment. So, are you a jasmine person or a camomile person?"
Hanna blinked and realized that she was holding up two different boxes of tea.
"You strike me as a camomile person," Patricia said slowly, eyes narrowed as if studying her for a moment before turning and putting one of the boxes back in the cupboard.
"Oh, yeah. Camomile sounds fine, thank you." Hanna tried to make sure her voice sounded firmer and more confident but that wasn't something that came naturally to her so she wasn't sure how it came across.
"Should only take a few minutes for the water to heat up," Patricia said, having filled a large red tea kettle with water and set it on the stove. "Are you hungry?"
"No," Hanna said, picking at the corner of her fingernail. "I already had dinner."
That was a lie, Hanna hadn't made it into her apartment after work, but the discomfort and wariness of meeting this new person made her stomach flip.
"It is quite late, I suppose," Patricia said, stepping over to look at the clock on the wall.
"Sorry, I can go," Hanna said quickly. "I didn't know it was so late-"
"No, no," Patricia said, her voice quiet but shushing Hanna. "Hedwig asked you over for a reason, it would be rude to let you leave without your surprise."
Hanna smiled uneasily. It felt like she had already gotten a surprise, more than what she was expecting. Before Hanna could form a good excuse to duck out quickly Patricia was asking her another question.
"Do you take sugar in your tea?" Patricia pulled two spoons and a box of sugar cubes out of a drawer and shook the box when Hanna didn't answer right away.
"Sure." It had been a long time since Hanna had made any tea, usually having coffee for the energy rush instead but she always added sugar to her coffees.
"One cube or two?"
"One's fine."
"I heard that Barry took you to look at the animals here," Patricia said, her voice light but Hanna felt herself go even more on edge than before...like she was a teenager getting interrogated by her boyfriends parents under this persons sharp, unwavering eyes. "Do you have a favorite?"
"I liked the hippos," Hanna said after a moment of thinking them over. "And the tigers. Do you?"
"My favorite seems to change with the seasons. At the moment I've been enjoying watching the meerkats. They're so social and playful, but they're sneaky too. You never quite know what they're up to. They'll run around and disappear down their little holes and then-" She made a sudden loud popping sound that made Hanna jump. "-they appear where you least expect them."
Hanna tried to smile but she was certain her lips didn't move much and she let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in when Patricia's perusing eyes moved off of her to the counter. Hanna watched the womans movements carefully as she took a bag of camomile tea out for each of them.
"Oh," Patricia said sharply, making Hanna jump again as she spun around. "I can't forget your surprise and I won't hear the end of it if Hedwig finds out you never got it. Please excuse me, I'll be right back."
Hanna stepped to the side as Patricia left the room quickly, her short fast steps very different from Hedwig's clumsy stomps. She took a deep breath in when Patricia disappeared down the hallway and held it in her chest, willing her uneasiness to pass so she could relax and her heartbeat could calm down.
If this new alter really wanted to hurt her or push her away or ban her from ever entering their home again, surely they would have done it already...not wait until after tea and well-mannered interrogation.
Hanna took a few steps around the kitchen but decided not to look around too much, and instead took a seat at the small two-person table and waited until Patricia returned.
"Here we are," Patricia said, a folded up piece of paper in her hands. She placed it on the table in front of Hanna and tapped it with a long finger. "I do believe he worked very hard on this, so I hope you appreciate his workmanship."
Hanna smiled, grabbing the paper when Patricia went back to the stove to set up their tea and unfolded it. She let out a quiet laugh when she saw what Hedwig had been so excited to give her.
It was a picture, hand-drawn and Crayola-colorful. A boy with blond hair and messy penciled freckles sat on a bench next to a taller woman with a bar across their laps. Wide smiles took up half of their faces and multi-colored dots littered the bottom of the page; he had drawn the two of them on the Ferris wheel...and at the bottom the name "Hedwig" written in bulky letters.
"I love this," Hanna said, her heart feeling like it could melt right out of her chest. "Please let him know this is going on my fridge."
"He'll be very pleased to hear that."
Hanna carefully folded the paper back up and pulled her jacket off of the chair to slip it into the pocket, taking note not to wrinkle it on her walk home. Patricia set a cup of steaming tea in front of Hanna before returning to the stove, grabbing her own cup and leaning against the counter.
"I do have a question for you," Patricia said slowly, taking a sip of her tea and watching Hanna test her own cup over the rim. She closed her eyes as if savoring the taste before Hanna was met with the same studying gaze as before. "What are your intentions?"
Hanna lowered her own cup, gulping her own tea hard and wiping a drop from the rim with her thumb. "My intentions with...?"
"With Barry. And by extension of course, the rest of us." Patricia offered a kind smile but Hanna felt like she was watching a mother bear flashing sharp teeth again.
"I just like being around him," Hanna said slowly, watching Patricia's face for any signs that what she was saying was wrong but the tight-lipped smile gave her very little to read. "I like Hedwig too, and Samuel. I haven't met many more yet, I know there's quite a few more."
"Yes, there are. You have met Dennis too, if my memory serves correct."
Hanna nodded and took another drink from her cup. So this person had been watching them when they had been standing in her apartment, her dressed in her pajamas and sick as a dog. Her cheeks felt red and she took another quick sip of her cup, thinking over how she would respond but Patricia spoke up again before she could.
"I apologize on his behalf if he came across as unpleasant."
"No, it's okay," Hanna said quickly. "I know he was just protecting Hedwig."
"He protects us all and sometimes that means he may lash out if he feels it's in our interest. I hope that doesn't soil your view of the rest of us."
"No." Hanna adjusted the hot cup in her hands. "It doesn't."
"Good," Patricia said, her smile a little more relaxed. Her eyes narrowed for a moment as she looked Hanna up and down. "You seem like an honest person. I can see why they like you."
Hanna felt embarrassed under Patricia's gaze again, but she smiled back.