Bleeding Innocence

All the years spent under the thumbs of her parents, Adelais learned skills that most people would disregard as useless. Among those was sleeping in some of the most uncomfortable conditions. She had slept on the stone-cold concrete of the basement floor, nothing to soften the surface or keep her warm. The drafty space of the attic where she encountered a disturbing number of bugs, only a moldy rug between her and the wood. Forced to stand in one place that would result in punishment if they found she had moved come morning.

Sitting propped against the wall is far from the worst sleeping spot she had encountered so far.

When her eyes opened the sight that greeted her was Claire and Marcia spooned together on one bed and Casey stretched out on the other. It must have been early; she woke at 4 in the morning like she was on a damned wind-up clock. But this was different. She hadn't woken from the routine she had built up over the years, something had woken her.

That's when she noticed there was more lighting in the room than there should have been. Only the small lights on the backwall were on, leaving just the faintest glow above the heads of the other girls.

Casting her eyes to her left, she kept herself carefully emotionless when she came face to face with the body of Dennis and Patricia—because it was clearly not them—smiling at her almost manically. Wearing what seemed to be a black and yellow tracksuit, the zipper of the coat undone enough to show a plain white shirt beneath. Legs were crossed and he rested his back against the doorframe so he could face her.

"Hello," she greeted quietly, trying not to wake the other three.

How many personalities did this person have? Which was the original?

"I'm Hedwig," he responded. The lisp that altered his words slightly caused her a moment of shock—a child? "How do you sleep like that?" he inquired a moment later, tipping his head to the side as he regarded how she was sitting against the wall—actually quite similar to him, since her legs were crossed, and her hands were tucked together in her lap.

His voice was slightly louder than hers. Doubtless enough to wake the others soon. "Practice," was her calm response.

Before he even opened his mouth, Adelais lifted a finger to her lips to convey his need to be quiet. He paused at the commend, his smile dimming as his expressed became a mix of a frown and a pout.

"You'll wake them up," she explained quietly, using the same finger she had shushed him with to point over to Marcia and Claire.

The scoff he released as more like air pushed between his bottom lip and his top teeth, like someone blowing a raspberry. "So?"

Ducking her head closer to him, like a secret was being shared, Adelais kept her eyes carefully trained on his. "I don't want to wake them; they're mean to me." His expression hardened, finally looking similar to Dennis. "They say I'm crazy."

Hedwig sucked on his lip, maintaining the sour look on his face. "The others used to be mean to me," he responded in a much quieter tone. "But Miss. Patricia and Mr. Dennis keep the others away. Now, Miss. Patricia sings to me sometimes—she's not mad at me anymore." He smiled, but it wobbled slightly as he tried to mask the turmoil of emotions welling to the surface.

Adelais's answering smile was sad. "It must be nice to have someone who takes care of you."

"Who-who takes care of you?" Hedwig shuffled forward, separating from the doorframe to put less space between them.

She shook her head. "No one, I take care of myself."

With the innocence only a child could have, he frowned at her words. "That sounds lonely."

"It is. Mr. Dennis has been keeping me company. When he can. I'm sure he's very busy so he usually has to leave. Does he know you're here?"

A look of panic came to his face and Adelais knew she had asked the wrong question. "No-no…no, he'll be angry if he knows I took the light." Pulling back abruptly, the shifting of the keys next to him on the floor was enough to alert Marcia and Claire, who jerked up with dual gasps of fright.

Hedwig looks over at them, panicked again.

"I was quiet!" he declared to Adelais, his voice still in a whisper. He looked upset, afraid—it was how she used to look when she was younger and had displeased her mother. Waiting for the yelling or lashing to start, punishment for disobedience. "I-I was quiet!"

Nodding her head calmly, she hoped she conveyed assurance with the small smile she allowed. "You were. It's okay. You did nothing wrong." Thankfully, the devastated look on his face softened before there was the threat of tears.

Marcia and Claire were whispering Casey's name, trying to wake up the other girl as well. It drowned out what Hedwig and Adelais were saying to one another, keeping the quiet assurance between the two of them. She half expected Hedwig to leave now that the girls were awake—Casey jolted up with a gasp once she realized there was someone else in the room—but he just turned himself around to lean on the side of the doorframe closest to her.

The upset already forgotten.

Silence stretched for a moment as he smiled at the others. "I'm Hedwig," he finally declared, so similar to his introduction to her. "I have red socks."

The simplicity of youthful minds.

His expression shifted then, the smile disappearing as he bit at his lip like someone dying to tell a secret. "He's on the move." Looking over his shoulder to where Adelais was still leaning against the wall, the manic smile returned as he ducked his head while supressing a laugh.

Casey's voice was raspy from sleep. "What?"

The giggle escaped, Hedwig turning his head away. Excited to know something they didn't. "He's…on…the…move," he repeated slowly, drawing out the last word like the last note of a song.

"Mr. Dennis?" Adelais asked quietly, though she already suspected he was talking about someone quite different.

"Nope," he responded, popping the 'p' as grinned at her. Ducking his head, he turned the grin on the other three. "Someone's coming for you, and you're not gunna like it." Next, he faced Adelais. "They make noises in their sleep. I thought you were dead."

Marcia interrupted quietly, "Tell us."

He looked like he wanted to, opening and closing his mouth like he couldn't quite decide what he wanted to say. Instead, he declared "I'm not supposed to say" while turning his head to look out into the other room, where Dennis and Adelais would stand for the few minutes of quiet. "But!" he continued, turning back, "He's done awful things to people and he'll do awful things to you. I have blue socks, too."

"We're his food?"

Hedwig extended his arms in an 'I dunno' gesture, making a face while doing so. He nearly smacked Adelais with his hand as he stretched back but she quickly lifted her leg until her knee was drawn up to her chest. The rush of blood back into her feet set them aflame with pins and needles. She dutifully ignored the sensations.

Casey leaned forward, dawning with realization. "How old are you?"

"Nine," he declared proudly.

"So you're not the guy that took us?"

She's as hopeless as the other two.

Adelais resisted the urge to roll her eyes as Hedwig scoffed at her. When she confirmed that he wasn't Patricia, either, he made a face. "What are you, blind?" Then to Adelais, slightly quieter, "Is she?"

"No, just ignorant," she answered just as quietly. "But be careful, she's smarter than the others." Hedwig leaned closer to her, nearly falling from against the doorframe, as he met her gaze. Her whispered warning was so quiet, she knew the others couldn't understand her. He frowned with concentration. "She lies."

Casey spoke over her, almost drowning out Adelais's whispered warnings. "You don't know how they think?"

"No, they don't tell me much. I just had a hot-dog." Adelais wasn't sure if it was the shortness of his attention, or a smart trick to throw someone off the current topic, but the random bits of information was actually clever. Not enough to deter the three teens, but still clever.

"Could you help us, Hedwig?"

Similar to her question earlier, Hedwig recoiled. "No, I'm…I'm not even supposed to be here. I stole the light from Mr. Dennis, but he'll be back real soon and…I can't steal the light for too long for he'll know and get angry." His concern was real; he knew he would get in trouble for doing someone he was told not to. Yet, the curiosity of a nine-year-old was a powerful thing. "Et cetera."

Looking between the three on the cots, his eyes darting back and forth, he suddenly reached back and gave Adelais's leg a playful shove—it was stronger than that of a child, using the strength housed in the adult body he lived within. "See ya!"

"Wait," Casey blurted out. Hedwig stopped while still crouched at the door, reaching back to grab the doorhandle as he prepared to close it behind him. His attention was caught, however, as he glanced back at Casey.

"Be careful, she's smarter than the others."

Looking first at Casey, his eyes eventually drifted over to Adelais. The green of her eyes caught slightly in the light spilling into the room, constricting her pupils to show the ring of hazel around their center. Her lips were slightly thinned, one of the small shows of emotion she allowed. "We heard something," Casey continued while he was paused in the doorway. "We didn't understand it before, but now we do."

Carefully sliding off the cot, she situated herself in the center of the room. Still far from the door, but now in Hedwig's direct path. The child noticed when Adelais's eyebrows twitched down—such a small motion it was almost unseen—and remembered Dennis's face doing the same thing when there was something he didn't like.

"Do you know what we heard?" Casey asked quietly, baiting him forward.

Adelais knew what she was doing. Hedwig was a child, more easily manipulated when compared to Dennis or Patricia. Dennis scared them too much, and they had only had one encounter with Patricia. Therefore, the nine-year-old made the easier target. It was a sound strategy to try and escape, but the thought of manipulating a child made her stomach clench with discomfort.

He wasn't just someone pretending to be a child, this was a personality that knew nothing else. It was the same as if she had actually manipulated a little boy that had the body to match the personality. It was clear that he feared the anger of both of the adult personalities, and Casey was setting him up to take the brunt of that anger.

The only reprieve was that they shared a body, there was no way to physically punish him.

But she knew all about emotional and mental torture.

Unfortunately, Hedwig was too young to see those signs and his attention was caught. "What'd you hear?"

"Come here," Casey prompted. "I'll whisper it to you."

Giggling to himself, Hedwig cast one last glance at Adelais before he released the doorhandle. "Okay." Keeping himself crouched down, he waddled forward on his feet while his hands cradled his knees. Adelais wanted to call him back, to stop what Casey was planning, but perhaps this could be to her advantage as well.

Hedwig stopped just shy of Casey, ducking his head down so she could whisper into his ear.

She couldn't be sure if it was done on purpose, but Casey's whisper was too low for Adelais to hear. She was probably mimicking what Adelais had done just a minute before, whispered to Hedwig about Casey. Green eyes keenly watched Casey's face—trying to read her lips unsuccessfully—and Hedwig's back. Whatever she whispered was short and prompted Hedwig to lean back.

"You're a big fibber," he accused, the playfulness gone from his tone.

"I never lie, Hedwig."

"She lies."

His panic was back, bringing with it the slight stutter in his words. "But…but Mr. Dennis said that he followed those two girls for four days, and he said that he knew that they were the ones that-that-that he would want."

Adelais knew exactly what Casey had told him. It was risky. Casey continued to whisper to him, her voice low and staying between her and Hedwig. But he wasn't as subtle; listening to Hedwig's reactions allowed Adelais to piece together what was whispered to him. What lies were spread.

How to counter them.

With the same low, waddling steps, Hedwig backed up a few paces. Putting distance between him and Casey. "N-no…Miss….Miss. Patricia said she's not mad anymore!" His voice rose with the swell of emotion Casey's words caused. "She-she sings to me!" Looking to Adelais caused an abrupt swell of anger at Casey to almost choke her. His face was broken and distraught, a tear tracking down his cheek. She wanted to console him.

How often had she cried alone because she had displeased her mother? As a child, she could never understand why they hated her so much.

"I was quiet!" He was yelling now, emotions getting the best of him. "I-I didn't wake them, you said-you said I did nothing wrong!"

Her body moved before she made the decision, lifting her hands toward him. He waddled forward, still babbling about being quiet, and being good, until Adelais's chilled fingers gently stroked across his cheeks to collect the tears that fell. She shushed him softly, meant more as a calming sound than to warn him he was being loud. Sniffling strongly, he leaned into her hands as she continued to stroke her thumbs across his cheeks.

"You're okay, Hedwig. Don't cry. She's lying."

Casey wasn't about to give up, assuming that the emotional response from him meant that he believed her lie. "I think Miss. Patricia's still a little mad at you. But if we hurry, we can all get out."

He pulled from her hands so suddenly they remained in front of her, holding only air. "You lie," he accused. "She said you lie, you lie!" Adelais only hoped the girls assumed he was talking about Patricia. If they knew she had put the idea in his head, the tension between them would come to a breaking point. "Mr. Dennis made this room safe—it took forever without those nosey-bodies who work here finding out. You can't get out of here!"

The upset had turned to panic again.

"I have to blow my nose," he announced before rushing from the small room with the door slamming behind him. Adelais retracted her hands as Casey called out for him, desperately trying to stop him so they could escape. But the lock clicked into place, sealing them inside. She beat Casey to the door, having been right next to it, and watched as Hedwig rushed to the other door and used the set of keys he had been carrying to unlock that one as well.

"Who's coming?" Marcia was the first to ask, she and Claire getting up from their cot as Casey came up behind Adelais to watch him disappear out the other door.

"No one's coming," Claire tried to assure.

"Oh, shut up," Adelais snapped, glancing over her shoulder as Casey started to pace to the wall near the bathroom. "Clearly someone is going to come here, why else would he follow you two for four days? This wasn't spur of the moment."

Claire looked ready to argue again, though there was a distinct hesitation after Adelais's last enraged reaction. "He said something," Casey interrupted first, placing her hand on the bare drywall. "He said something about making the room safe."

Finally understanding Casey's train of thought, Claire looked around the room. The wall of the bathroom and the ceiling were both covered in bare slabs of drywall, the screws holding them in place still visible. "This is all new drywall."