Chapter Two: Cry for Help
X X X
Waking up felt like she was coming back from the dead. She could still taste yesterday in her mouth and she almost threw up once again. Opening her eyes she blinked and waited for them to adjust, the room was too bright and she wondered if she had left the curtains open again.
This was not her hotel suite.
The wallpaper was worn but decadent. Dark wood paneling. Stained glass windows. Shaking, she tried to push herself out of bed but felt her shoulder strain and she cried out in pain. Someone had bound her shoulder tightly, trying to keep it in place. What?
The events of the day creeped into her mind, her toes and her fingers grew numb and her heart began slamming into her chest and her lungs were on fire. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe.
You're a monster, she thought as her eyes filled with tears. A disgusting monster. Pressing her hands to her eyes she crumpled onto the floor. She was dying. She was dying and it hurt so badly it hurts so bad God make it stop just let me die.
God can't help you. Why would God help someone like you? Someone who lets innocent people die? She tried to take deep breaths, think of what the guidance counselor told her, but she couldn't see everything was so blurred and she was such a terrible person and why should it stop. Every breath was like a gasp.
Through her tears she saw something red flash by her and out the door. Don't leave. She couldn't bring herself to speak, she just had to focus on trying to breathe.
It felt like hours before she heard someone thumping up the stairs.
"You accursed cloak! Unhand me this instant or I will have Wong turn you into a floormat!"
At least she wouldn't die alone. That thought wasn't as comforting as it should have been. She looked up to see the Doctor being spun and thrown into the room, the red cloak floated by the door, as if trying to prevent him from leaving it.
"My word," he said. "Cecilia."
He approached her cautiously, before kneeling down next to her.
"I-I can't breathe," she managed.
"You will be alright. Just breathe with me. Two in, two out." The Doctor offered her a hand, which she took shakily. "You will be alright."
Slowly, so slowly, her heart began to steady and feeling began to return. She couldn't believe he had sat next to her the whole time. Normally she was just left alone. She used her uninjured arm to help push herself to the bedpost, and took deep breaths.
"Can you tell me anything you need?" She heard him ask.
"Are they dead?" She looked up at the ceiling, it was high and ended in a point at the top. Where was she? A church? "They're dead, aren't they?"
X X X
Getting into her dress was one of the hardest things she had ever accomplished. She had skipped the shower and just took a bath, it was easier, and more comforting. Her muscles ached as she managed to sit down, trying to get clean with one arm and keeping the other as dry as possible.
The cloak was laid across the bed like a blanket, as if resting.
She had already struggled to get a bra on, which was the hardest thing she had ever accomplished. Getting a dress on was a close second. After struggling across the bedroom she managed to get it on. Shoes were easier.
One step at a time.
She was surprised that her suitcase had traveled with her. 'Wong' had apparently made all the necessary arrangements and had her things taken out of her hotel room.
The fire had taken care of most of her possessions.
The Doctor, or Mr. Strange, had been hesitant to leave her alone. She had assured him she wouldn't be having another one in the bathtub, so there was no risk of her drowning on his watch.
"Meet me downstairs after you finish," he had insisted. "Do not look long at the corners. Avoid talking to any creatures you may find. Do not wander, if you do it may take me some time to find you again."
She thought he had moved her to his home for her safety. It appeared to her that she was of more danger here than anywhere else. Looking around the room, she hoped a distraction would appear that would prevent her from having to go downstairs.
Unpacking was pointless, it wasn't as if she was staying after her display. There wasn't anything in the set of drawers and she couldn't guess the wi-fi password for her laptop. Sighing, she left the room. Before she could shut the door behind her she heard the swish of a cloak, and knew the thing was following behind her.
She did not expect it to wrap around her neck and hang, like a cloak.
"Okay, not happening. Get off." Cecilia struggled to get the cloak off her. It wouldn't budge and simply slid out of her fingers whenever she managed to grab on. "Seriously, this is ridiculous."
She spent quite a few minutes attempting to get the damn thing off of her. She nearly tripped and fell once before she gave up. "Fine! You win! Just know that I'm helping Stephen turn you into a floormat!"
Turning to find the stairs, she realized that she had gotten off track in her struggle.
"Oh, hell." She had wandered, she was screwed. "Retrace. Retrace."
Backing out of the room she had wandered into, it looked like one that someone actually lived in. Looking around she spotted her bedroom door almost closed, unlike the other rooms that were completely open.
"Okay," she said. "Where do I need to go?" I must be crazy.
The cloak drifted further down the hall, passing by doorways that displayed objects beyond her imagination. Bedrooms that had glass cases with shields, crystals and was that a ham radio? The cloak delicately pulling her along until she reached a large set of stairs. Looking down she spotted a set of double doors leading to a library, and several more rooms that contained a sort of dining and lounge room.
"Up or down?" Cecilia whispered. This house was huge, there seemed to be no end to how many rooms it contained. She could only imagine what was upstairs. Probably a second ballroom. The cloak tugged her upstairs, and then laid still as she ran up the stairs two at a time. That was when the smell of candles hit her. There was a heavy feeling in the air as she stood at the top of the stairs, it felt like walking into a swamp and it made her freeze.
"Are you sure we're supposed to be up here?" She felt a delicate push on the small of her back, and she took this as a 'yes.' Every other step was easier than the last, and she soon found herself in front of a set of double doors. Letting out a deep breath she knocked twice.
Nothing.
"Okay," she looked around the floor. All the other doors were shut and she wasn't sure she wanted to know what was in them. "Mr. Strange? I'm coming in."
Nothing.
"Hope he's not naked," she muttered as she turned the knob. "Holy crap."
The room was almost black, the only light was hundreds of candles placed around the room. Hanging from the ceiling, placed on books, set in candelabras. The light coming out of the large window was a dark red, giving the room an eerie light. On another day she would have been fascinated by this place, she walked slowly by stacks of books in multiple colors and languages she didn't even recognize. Artifacts were sitting beside candles or placed in small glass cases along the wall. There were even weapons, axes and swords mounted and protected behind glass.
"Mr. Strange," she called out. "Hello?"
The cloak slid off from around her neck and zipped across the room, past several stacks of books. She walked after it, turning to see the back of the Doctor. He was sitting, cross legged, atop a mat. The cloak slid onto his shoulders and the collar popped up, obscuring him in red and gold fabric. She stood where she was, unsure of what to do next.
"Doctor Strange?" Cecilia tried. She approached him as loudly as she could without knocking anything over. As she reached within a foot of him she reached out her arm, letting it hang loosely in the air for a moment before tapping his shoulder once.
The effect was immediate, one second she was feeling normal and the next her body froze. Her mind still conscious, she could only blink as she saw Doctor Strange turn with a glare in his eye. In his hands a sword.
X X X
Author's Note:
'Sup kids. It took me awhile to get this chapter down. I rewrote it after I saw that I didn't like how my original chapter was going. Too cliche. Anyway, I hope that you like my OC. I've tried to make her a little less typical OC and brought some trauma into the mix. It always bothered me how some characters would face deathly situations and never mention it again.
Read and Review!