I don't own House of Anubis or any of the characters.

Rescue

"Fabian?"

"Shh. I'll come back for you. Promise." I smiled and nodded. I had a lot of questions I was too weak to ask. He gently touched my cheek with the back of his hand. "And you promise to eat. Gain some strength, okay?"

"Promise," I whispered.

He leaned down and kissed my forehead, "Good girl. Don't take any medicine they give you. I have to go." With that he left.

I reached for the apple on the tray and started chewing on it. I was still pretty drugged from whatever they have given me that even eating was exhausting. I couldn't really think straight. For all I knew, Fabian could have been a hallucination. I couldn't process how he could have known how to find me, let alone what had happened to me. I was too sedated to figure it out. Halfway through finishing the apple, my eyelids were too heavy to continue. I set it down and fell in a long deep dreamless sleep.

I slowly woke to a bright day. I looked at the clock next to me and it says it was almost half past noon. My body was sore from inactivity. My stomach was achingly empty. And my throat was extremely dry. I sat up on the bed and my head swam slightly. I was more alert today than last night, but I was still very weak. I reached for some food and ate. All I had was half an apple, watered down soup and some bread and water. It was disgusting but I didn't care. I was starving. When I finished, I still needed more.

I looked around the room and it was empty and depressing. Mental institutions really shouldn't be kept bare. The place was dead. No wonder the sick patients never healed. There was not a single flower present in my room. It was either not allowed or they just didn't visit yet to send me any. The latter was not surprising in the least.

I heard someone outside so I laid back down on the bed and pretended to be faint. I stared lifelessly at the walls. After a few minutes, the mousy nurse finally entered. "Oh, you've been eating I see. Good good." She replaced the tray with a new one. I had to hide my smile of gratitude. This lady could not be trusted. She took my temperature and did some tests. "You seem to be getting better, although you look very weak," She mumbled as she wrote down on her clip board. "Swallow this for me please, Ms Martin." She placed a giant yellow pill on my mouth and brought the water to me. I took a gulp but I bit down on the pill so I don't swallow it. "Eat. I'll be back in a few minutes." When I was sure she was gone, I took the pill from my mouth and placed it under my pillow.

As I went through the new batch of food on the try, the nurse knocked in again. "Visitors for you, Nina," She said cheerfully. I saw a girl with stingy black hair and sunglasses on a wheelchair being pushed in by... Amber? "It your cousin Betty and Grace!" I didn't show my confusion. I just kept on staring into space. When I saw the nurse wasn't looking, I saw the nametag on Amber's chest that says 'Betty.' She gave me a wink. "Well, I shall leave you to it then." She gave us a smile and walked away.

When we were out of earshot, Amber spoke hesitantly, "Nina?"

I kept my act of being oblivious, "Cousin Betty." She looked worried. I gave her a wink. She sighed in relief and smiled.

"Thank goodness. For a second there I thought you were a gonner," She rambled on as she pushed the stranger closer to my bed. I put my finger to my lips to silence her. She mouthed an apology. She took the seat from the corner and sat near me.

"Why is cousin Grace here?"

For a moment, she was confused. I gestured to the stranger. "We were just worried about you and wanted to pay a visit." She then came closer to me and whispered, "We're here to rescue you. We have a plan," She said with a giggle.

I was still lost. "But who is she? Is she even conscious?"

"Oh, no. We found her outside. Patricia gave her a little pinch, then I took her with me. Don't worry. You'll see. It's super genius," She said, matter-of-factly. I stared at her wide-eyed.

"You kidnapped someone? Do you even realize how much danger your putting this poor girl though!" I breathed.

"This is no one more or less. You know that. Look, Nins. We'll do whatever it takes to get you out of here. Now be quite and finish your food." She instructed. Her face was very serious. But then she took a deep breath and smiled. "This stress is not good for me. I've lost so much beauty sleep worrying about you."

A warmth rushed through my chest, and I had to stop the tears that were forming in my eyes. I busied myself by reaching for the lukewarm soup. I took a sip and tried very not to spit it out. "Why would you even do that for me? You hardly know me." I kept my eyes down as I mumbled in between sips. "I mean, how did you know what happened and where to find me?"

"Nina... I don't know why. You're right, I don't know you very well. For some reason though, I feel like I do. I'm not sure why, but I know that I love you." She held my hand and smiled. I couldn't hold back the tears now. All I could do now was hold her hand back. She explained further, "And Fabian decided to walk back to your house then he heard you and your fake-mom arguing. So he crept back into your room. Thankfully you left the window open. He listened in and saw that they took you. So he found your things and called us. We've been writing to your other friends ever since planning how to get you out."

"Wow." I had no other words.

"Yeah. That looks really disgusting by the way," She pointed out to my soup, changing the subject to lift the mood.

I snickered, "It really is."

The door suddenly open and Patricia entered. "We ready?" Amber asked her.

Patricia raised her hand to her right eye, "Sibuna."