It had been two weeks since she'd been brought to the hospital against her will, two weeks since she'd seen daylight, two weeks since she'd spoken a word.

Lydia stared blankly at the wall trying hard not to listen to what the doctor was saying, this was supposed to be her daily therapy session, but it was not like any therapy she'd been to before.
The man still set off her need to run and hide. There was something about him that wasn't right. Her mouth was dry as she tried to read the spines of the bookshelf behind the doctor… anything to keep her mind off of what he was saying.

Today's sessions had started off with the; "I think that we need to adjust your medication again, you don't seem to be responding to it just yet."

Lydia didn't know how he could tell that she wasn't responding to them, everything seemed to be muted and she was numb. She wished that she could just think straight… everything was blurring together.

"Now that is out of the way I want to start today's session with talking about what happened to your mother."

Lydia bit back a sharp breath that threatened to escape as a gasp. She closed her eyes not wanting to think about it. She'd buried all of that away. It didn't stop the doctor from continuing to speak.

"From what your father has said it seems that you feel that you are responsible for what had happened."

She was trying hard not to think about it, but there was something in the man's voice that started to send her tumbling into her memories, her mind holding no resistance with the drugs coursing through her veins.

"You were seven years old. Your father had left for work and it was just you and your mother."
Lydia tried to block out his voice, she pulled her hands up to her ears to block it out when she felt the two attendants that were always in the room pull her hands down and fasten them to the arms of the chair.

"Someone came to door of your house that you didn't know, you opened the door for him did you not?"

Lydia heard the question and frowned, that wasn't right. Her mother had committed suicide, had taken too many pills and overdosed. Supposedly after an argument with her father before he had left for work. She'd been home, but asleep… an unnatural force started pressing against her mind and she started to slip into her subconsciousness, back to the day her mother had died, memories long suppressed finally erasing the manipulated ones, now coming to the forefront of her mind for the first time in 10 years.

Lydia was sitting on the floor of the sitting room playing with a doll and tea set when she heard someone knock on the door. Her mother was in the kitchen making them lunch, so she stood up slowly and walked toward the door. She was too short to look out the half crescent window at the top of the door, so she slowly turned the lock hearing the click of it unlocking. The knocking stopped abruptly, and she felt herself turning the knob of the door slowly till it released and the door creaked open.

The first thing that Lydia saw was black shiny shoes, not a speck of dirt on them. She looked up seeing it was a very tall man with long black hair pulled back at the nape of his neck. She tipped her head to the side looking up at him. His face was sharp, tense as he looked down at her a wave of danger slammed into her and she felt an erupting bubble of fear blooming in her chest. Before she could do anything, the man swooped into her space and wrapped his hand around her mouth to keep her from screaming.
She could feel herself being picked up and the door kicked shut. He carried her toward the kitchen where her mother was. Her eyes were filled with tears as she fought to get out of this man's arms. He was too strong for her.

Lydia watched helplessly as her mother turned around and saw this strange man holding her with his hand over her mouth and could see the anger and fear wash over her face.

"Azrael, put her down, she's done nothing." Lydia heard her mother beg.

The man laughed; Lydia had been able to feel the vibrations of his laughter through her whole body. The hair on the back of her neck rose up. It was an unnatural laugh.

"You know what I am here for, and it's not this child. You betrayed Samael, married that mortal man, the proof is right here, I won't take her…" He whispered, his voice low and had something in it that made Lydia stop moving all together, her heart pounding out of her chest. "Not yet at least." He smirked and looked down at Lydia. "You are to remain quiet." He said and as he removed his hand from her mouth

Lydia tried to scream but nothing came out.
He had stolen her voice!

"Azrael!" her mother had screamed at the man, she scrambled away from him the second that he dropped her to the floor. She tried to get to her mother, but something stopped her from crossing some invisible line that separated the two of them. All she could hear was her mother pleading with this man to not hurt her. Begging him and pleading with him that she hadn't done anything wrong.

She watched helplessly, her voice taken from her as her mother was forced to her knees, the man's hand gripping her chin as she was forced to look up at him, his other hand moving to her forehead.

Lydia screamed silently, the tears streaming down her face as she beat against an invisible barrier to try and get to her mother. It was mere seconds after the man had put his hand on her mother's head that she was blown backwards, some sort of wave of blackness that erupted from her mother as she screamed pushed through and broke the barrier.

Huddling against the wall she watched helplessly as her mother slumped forward to the ground. Lydia knew that her mother was dead.

Her eyes were instantly on the man walking toward her, he made no noise as he made his way over to her crouching down to her level. She wrapped her arms around her knees as she tried to curl herself into a smaller ball to get away from him. She felt him touch her head and the sound of her own voice echoed in her head as her voice came back.

"Be glad that it was I that came and not another." He said his voice void of all emotions and disappeared in the blink of an eye leaving a blistering silence that threatened to overtake her. She looked over at her mother's body and screamed.

Lydia kept screaming as she was brought out of her mind by the feel of a prick of a needle in her arm. She could feel the burn and heat of the sedative that was pushed through the needle into her body, her head lulled back in the chair as it started to hit her, her screaming stopped. She could feel the tears still wet on her cheeks, her brain refusing to acknowledge what she had just remembered.

Lydia could hear the doctor walking toward her just as her eyes slipped closed. She could still hear him as he started to speak, she fought through the drugs addling her mind to hear what he was saying.

"Things are going to plan, return her to her room. Up the meds, it won't be long now I believe."

Darkness took her just as she felt the buckles on the straps around her wrists loosen and she was picked up to be carried back to her room.

Betelgeuse had been flicking pieces of paper across his room when he felt it. That sliver of a bond that connected him to Lydia sizzled to life sending a wave of pure terror anguish and pain through him.

Terror that wasn't his.
Anguish and Pain that he hadn't caused.
He sat up slowly closing his eyes he tried to follow the connection, but there was something there stopping it. Maybe he was just too far away, or she was blocking it.

Frustrated he stood up stomping as he paced back and forth in the small room, his own hell. He muttered under his breath. "What the fuck is the point of all this, what is going on that I can't get to her." He was angry and still had no answers to anything that had happened. He stopped pacing and an idea was slowly starting to form.

He wasn't finding anything out by stalking the Netherworld… maybe he needed to make a trip topside. All the way to the top that is… not the mortal world.

See what the shmucks were doing on the light side, he wasn't getting any answers from the Netherworld.

He just hoped that his new invisibility trick continued to hold out and he wasn't caught.

Closing his eyes Betelgeuse drew in all the power that he had been conserving, concentrating where he wanted to go and snapped his fingers. He felt like he was getting sucked through a vacuum and was spat out suddenly in a cold sterile hallway. Looking to his left and then his right he could see that the hallway extended either way with no end in sight either way. He tried to think of about what he knew of this place. It had been hundreds of years since he'd had to think of the way that they had their offices.

Levels… planets… doorways to each. "Fucking lily-white pansy bastards thinking they have to be organized." He muttered to himself. He could see a door to his right and started for it to see what the placard said.

1- Moon

Betelgeuse shook his head rubbing the back of his neck. He needed to find where the 'office workers' were… something about stars. He groaned and started walking the other way. He didn't need to go to the different levels where the assholes were at. That would be a one-way ticket to the lost souls room for sure.

He saw that there was another door coming up and hoped that this would be it.

Fixed Stars- Office of the 7

"Bingo… let's see what's going on now that has everyone up in arms." He whispered to himself and slowly pushed himself through the door thankful that he still was incorporeal. He was taken back by the chaos that was going on around him.

Not so organized after all.

He could hear bits and pieces of questions being thrown around. The same thing coming back to his ear repeatedly as he walked along the outer wall taking it all in.

"They sent Daniel."

"Daniel is taking care of it"

"Daniel says he has it under control"

Betelgeuse frowned and knew that the only Daniel they could be talking about was one of the archangels in charge of all the creepy bastard watchers.

This was getting more and more interesting, why oh why had Daniel been sent and where had he been sent. Last he knew he was a lackey of that bastard Samael.

Good for nothing archangels.

He wandered toward the stack of folders sitting on the floor next to an overflowing desk where the worker was sitting desperately going through a folder in front of them.
That was till something caught his eye and he stopped cold in his tracks.

One of the folders next to the workers hand had a label that read

Winter River

Now that could not be a coincidence.

He tried to get closer to see what was in the folder, it was shut just as he got a glimpse of something that made his nonexistent heart stop.

Lydia Deetz(?) Patient 1901 Rm 333…

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