I'm soso sorry for the huge delay! I went on vacation 3295874 miles away to see my extended family, and I forgot to save this file on a flash drive or something! D:
Well, anyway, a crap load of new people come in this chatper, and it seems really rushed... oh well.
Enjoy! :)
"Hey, hands off." The girl slapped one of her escort's hands and walked to the front desk herself. She had blue eyes, like Mitchell, and long, white-blond hair.
One of the men accompanying her told Nurse Graves that they were representing another psychiatric hospital in England and they had heard Thames' had a similar case to theirs. "We're hopin' you could take her as well." He had a thick Cockney accent.
The girl tapped him on the shoulder. "You talk like someone I know… I just can't… can't remember…" She held her hands over her ears, like she was trying to block out some horrible noise.
"Yes, of course." Graves said, taking out her notepad and uncapping a pen. "You will need to fill out this form, while I ask her some questions. Come here, love." Graves took her wrist and led her across the room to the chairs in the waiting area. "Name?"
"They," She pointed with her thumb at the two men, "tell me I'm Veronica Reynolds."
Nurse Graves wrote it down, before asking, "And I'm assuming you don't want to be called that?"
"Of course not. It's not my name." Veronica said. "My name is Victoria. Just like the queen."
"Yes, I see." Graves said, frowning slightly as she wrote down most of the other information.
X
Veronica Reynolds "Victoria"
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Birthday: October 5th
Height: 5' 4"
Hair: White-blond
Eyes: Blue
Along with the information Nurse Graves had gotten from the form that was required for Veronica's admission, she had completed a chart that was identical to Mitchell's.
Tucking the notepad under her arm, she took Veronica's arm and led her to Mitchell's room. They were going to share, since they had nearly identical delusions (dancing, strange names with no second part, personality change) and were around the same age.
When she opened the door, Veronica jumped in front of her, startling Mitchell. He turned, just as she said, "Is that really you?"
"Victoria?" He said in disbelief, standing up from the mattress. "Victoria, I never thought…!"
They ran towards each other and embraced, nuzzling strangely.
Displayed fondness for each other despite having no previous contact. Know each other's preferred names, instead of their normal names.
Animal-like tendencies.
"Okay, that's enough. Do you want me to move you two into different rooms?" Nurse Graves said after scribbling in her notepad. Veronica and Mitchell shyly moved apart. "Alright, that's better. Now, Veronica-"
"Don't call me that."
"Right, sorry, Victoria, you'll be sleeping in this bed. Breakfast is at nine, get up or don't eat. After that is group therapy until noon, when you will have lunch. At one, you'll go outside for forty-five minutes, then come inside to have individual therapy. When that's over at three, you can come inside the multi-purpose room until dinner. I'm sure Mitch… Quaxo can show you around."
"Mistoffelees."
"I don't mean to be rude, but how do I tell you apart?" Graves asked awkwardly.
"I'm hardly ever Quaxo." He replied, anger shadowing his face.
"So, then just Mistoffelees most of the time?" Nurse Graves confirmed.
"Most of the time. I don't like it when he's in control."
This statement left Graves uneasy, so she just smiled and left the room.
X
"Misto?" Victoria fiddled with her sheets, looking up at the ceiling. "Are you awake?"
Mistoffelees groaned, the springs in his bed creaking as he moved, and replied, "Am now."
"Sorry. It's just that… we're not crazy, are we?" She had obviously given this a lot of thought.
"Of course not, Tori. Everyone else just doesn't understand us." He sighed before adding, "It was weird, wasn't it?"
"I… what are you talking about?" Victoria asked, and edge of humor on her voice.
"It was like waking up from a long dream. You just… woke up, and you were in somebody else's bedroom, with their stuff, and their family and you felt so out of place and wrong."
"And they were calling you the wrong name, and… oh god, it was just horrible." She added, shuddering.
"But we're here now, together so at least that's better." Mistoffelees smiled, reaching his hand out toward her bed. "Hold my hand, will you?"
Victoria untangled her hand from the sheets and clasped it with his. She was still scared, no matter what, but this made it more bearable.
X
That night, Nurse Graves was sitting in front of her computer, the glare of the screen hurting her tired eyes.
She had received five other emails from psychiatric hospitals in England and one in Northern Ireland, all wanting to transport patients to Thames' because they matched Mitchell and Veronica. Mistoffelees and Victoria, her mind corrected automatically.
She sent an email to her boss, wanting to transport all the other patients into other wards to focus more on the delusional ones that seemed to recognize one another.
This is going to take a while.
X
Two more patients arrived on the same flight that morning. Nurse Graves checked them into a room and got their information from their escorts. One seemed somewhat grumpy, and the other was scolding her.
Emily Topher "Electra"
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Birthday: December 31st
Height: 5'3"
Hair: Dark Auburn
Eyes: Brown
Mark Stride "Munkustrap"
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Birthday: July 7th
Height: 5'8"
Hair: Black, graying
Eyes: Green
They were given the same room and sent to the group therapy that Mitchell and Veronica were attending at the moment.
Nurse Graves opened the door, and the instructor stopped talking.
"'Lec!" Mistoffelees said, turning around, just as Victoria shouted, "Munk!"
Emily and Mark both sat down next to them, talking ferociously, until the instructor quieted them down.
"Do I have to intervene? Thank you."
X
The four patients were outside when Graves got two more patients from the airport. They were identical twins, tall and very quiet.
Graves asked for their forms and showed them to their room, her pen scribbling away on her notepad.
Do not talk much.
Share little smiles, like they are communicating non-verbally.
Cole Patterson-Minks "Coricopat"
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Birthday: September 17th
Height: 5'9"
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Dark Brown
Trish Minks-Patterson "Tantomile"
Gender: Female
Age: 24
Birthday: September 17th
Height: 5'7"
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Dark Brown
"You two can go eat now, everyone else is having lunch." Nurse Graves said, opening the door for them and leading them down to the cafeteria, where the rest of the patients were having split pea soup.
When they entered, Graves expected the usual reunion that had always happened previously: shouting, hugging, nuzzling, ect. Instead, the four patients turned when the door opened, saw the two new additions and all gave different reactions.
Mitchell gave a small pity smile, Veronica raised an eyebrow and went back to her soup, Mark smiled reassuringly at the twins and Emily gave a wide grin and pointed at the two seats next to her.
Graves sighed at kneeled down next to Veronica. "Victoria, why didn't you greet them like Mistoffelees or Electra?"
She gave a sniff and said, "They're weird… they can totally talk in each other's minds, and it's really freaky. The rest of us don't really talk to them much. Electra does, as you can see, but that's because no one really talks to her much either. Except Mistoffelees. He pities her, I think."
"Why doesn't anyone like to talk to them?" Graves asked, perplexed.
"Every one of us is born with a talent, right? Like, I can dance, Misto can do magic, Munk can lead, but they don't really have any."
"Wouldn't mind reading, or whatever, be considered a talent?"
"Yes, but we don't want to celebrate it, mind-reading is a sign of evil. We don't acknowledge it so they don't use it for evil." Veronica looked at her like this was obvious.
Nurse Graves finished writing on her notepad and stood up. "I see."
The arrival of another pair of twins echoed in the hallways of the empty hospital. "We are heeeere!"