Cygnet 1.3

{Name for a young swan.}

The door closed behind me and I breathed a heartfelt sigh. I was medicated up and locked in for the night without disaster. A victory.

But, standing in the center of the floor, my room felt emptier and smaller than I remembered it. The peace and quiet was welcome; but being out, being able to walk around and meet new people… I hadn't realized how lonely I had been.

Benny and Heather, with all their energy. Nick, shyly hanging onto Heather's every word- kind and helpful to me at all times. Charnel, silent unless I spoke to her, until Heather took her silence as a challenge and swung an arm about her shoulders too enthusiastically- they nearly toppled to the floor.

It seemed… so empty now, without them.

My cell was in the medium security wing. I would be transferred to new quarters tomorrow in the low security wing. In the meantime, I had a long night ahead of me.

There was a bed, but I wasn't going to be using it much. I headed for my desk in the corner. My computer was recessed into the wall behind thick shatterproof glass. The keyboard was affixed directly to the desk. There would be no moving it with only my hands to work with- which was annoying, but I couldn't complain. At least the screen was fairly wide.

I tapped the spacebar and waited for it to boot up.

There was a glowing digital clock set into the wall above the screen, behind another sheet of glass. It read nine seventeen. A bit less than eleven hours until breakfast to kill. It still felt unnatural with three months to adjust to it. The dots hadn't connected for almost a month, not after I'd shut down after the hospital. Closed off for days from everything and everyone. But there were a lot of hours in the day, more so now that I didn't need to sleep any more.

I logged in to my coursework and checked my grades. There was an educational program set up for the patients able to take classes. Having an extra eight hours a day meant I would be graduating from Highschool next year, if I could keep up this pace. Maybe earlier. I could also take college courses.

The program was… not very challenging. I didn't know if it was a facet of my power that sped things up, or if it was simply the short list of things I could actually do right now that helped me make progress the way I did. Or maybe not needing sleep and not getting drowsy had an effect on my ability to focus.

The constant quiet was unnerving, though.

Math. English. Social studies… Napoleon Bonaparte and his ego ravaged Europe and I read about it hundreds of years later.

Of course, not needing to sleep was not the same as not needing rest. The human body wasn't designed for it.

I felt my neck seizing and took a break, I still got tired. I didn't have any Brute powers bolstering my endurance. I hadn't gained super strength or a healing factor, and if I took weeks on wholesale without actual rest periods the little aches and pains would pile up. So I needed to make sure I spent an hour or so a day lying down and resting.

I did so, laying down on my bed and grabbing a book from its spot beside the pillow. Oliver Twist, and Dickens with dystopian perspective of nineteenth century London.

A chapter after 'please, sir, I want some more' there was a chime from the computer.

I glanced at the clock. Just past midnight. Sleeplessness and Alchemilla's long nights had given me a new appreciation of time. I only knew one patient that would try messaging me at this hour. She still needed to sleep, but she had frequent nightmares and kept odd hours.

The patient-access computers in the isolation wing had a self-contained electronic messaging system. It was intended primarily to allow certain patients that could not interact with the general population a healthy social outlet. Doctor Yamada had suggested it midway through my second week, and had even introduced me.

The camera window came up immediately, and Sveta's fretful expression filled it.

"Hey, Sveta."

She tried to smile, purple-red lips pulling back with a lot of hesitance. "Hi, T-Taylor, how was your first day out?"

I thought about that. How would I describe it? "I liked it." I said, because it felt wrong to say I didn't like it. Sveta was a parahuman- but unlike Mimi, Nick, and Heather, or even Carnal, she was profoundly mutated by her power to the point where she was almost unrecognizable as ever being human. Worse, her power was uncontrolled and indiscriminate, she was lethal to those around her. She could not leave isolation except under extremely controlled circumstances.

But, as I said it, I realized that it was true. I had actually, honestly, liked it.

"I did like it. Huh."

It had been thrilling, to meet Mimi, even with that close call. And, I think I had traveled through the nervousness and come out the other side by that point. Heather and Nick had been interesting and fun. And Carnal had been… strange. But, she'd been interesting to talk too.

"What was your group like?" Sveta asked. "Who did you have?"

Like a child asking about a faraway land she would never see, but that they wanted to know everything about. Everything.

"It was… a little weird, to be around so many people with powers. I grew up with the idea that capes are… above it. You know? They go out and stop crime or fight villains and that's all, I never thought about what their lives were like outside that."

The doctor in charge had been a nervous intern that my power assured me had less than a year of residency. He'd kept smiling this terrified smile.

In addition to Heather, Nick, Charnel, and myself, two others joined us. One was the woman with the bird familiar, who turned out to have once been a fairly famous independent hero from new Jersey named Falconer and who told me I could call her Lethe. The other was a burly man that I actually recognized, Fusor. He was from the Chicago branch of the Protectorate. He'd not featured prominently for years though.

I guess I knew why, now.

"It's weird, or... no, that's not the right way to put it." I leaned back, "Surreal maybe. It just doesn't seem very real." Like a dream, almost.

...

I talked to Sveta for about an hour. She was full of questions, and when they were exhausted she told me about her painting. One wall of her room was covered in a mural that she was steadily expanding, but I couldn't see it, since her camera was fixed to the wall, just like mine. I promised to ask Doctor Yamada or Doctor Selmy if I could see it.

Sveta was about the most normal person I had encountered at Alchemilla, ironic considering how she looked. Which just highlighted a theme- most patients were not here primarily, or certainly only, due to mental illness. Most has some element of their powers that made them inadvertently and generally dangerous to themselves or others. Mimi, for example, had an element of her powers that drove her to use them, and induced chemical changes in her brain to encourage that behavior until it grew dangerous and indiscriminate.

Sveta was worse.

Sveta's power transformed her into a mass of prehensile fibers, stronger than steel and more elastic than rubber bands. These fibers would attack anything that arrested her attention, independent of her will, unless she actively suppressed the effect, and sometimes even then.

Worse, while she slept they would move her- and hunt.

Doctor Yamada had been sparse on the details, citing Doctor-Patient confidentiality, but my power had hinted at a horrific death toll. It was amazing that she hadn't been sent to the Birdcage.

It was doubly tragic because she was so nice and polite, I'd even say shy.

But, unlike me, Sveta did need to sleep. She eventually signed off, and left me to my silent cell until I was called down for breakfast by one of the Doctors I didn't know well, Doctor Jenkins.

He was hard-eyed but not otherwise unpleasant, his brown hair was threaded with grey. His manner was a bit brusque but otherwise polite, and looked a little harassed; his coat was rumpled. I had met him only once before, when Doctor Yamada had explained my schedule for the first two days in medium security. I was surprised, I'd thought that Doctor Yamada would have been available. She had said her schedule was basically clear for the next week. Doctor Jenkins explained there had been an emergency in another block and she'd been needed on short notice.

I tried not to take it personally.

I had my one box, just a shoebox and some notebooks filled with scribbles and a set of colored pencils. I hadn't drawn much. I liked drawing, but an empty cell did not lend itself well to creativity. I was glad to leave it behind. I didn't have clothes or anything else to bring. Patients only wore scrubs and I hadn't been given much. Just my socks and slippers.

We retraced my path from the day before, passing by the cafeteria and instead entering the residential wing. The rooms looked identical from outside, all metal plates with small windows; identical six-inch squares of safety glass reinforced with black wire. Doctor Jenkins opened one and stepped in for a moment. There was a tiny, tiny placard above it, squinting I made out 108.

The room was a bed, and a small bedside shelf recessed into the wall… and what looked like a sink that was also a toilet, and nothing else. It was a little nicer looking than the one I had in isolation, but also smaller, and the walls were still padded. The absence of a computer was a little more jarring. That was probably a concession to patients in isolation.

But that was not… too important. I wouldn't be stuck in it all the time now. Still, I hoped there was some allowance to patients that didn't need sleep. Maybe I'd take up painting, like Sveta, that could be fun.

Doctor Jenkins closed the door, and gave me a card. If I locked myself out by accident, I would need to find a staff member to unlock it for me.

"If you lose it, report it to a staff member." He said, "The doors are automatically locked after curfew, but staff can unlock them. Understand?"

"Yes sir."

I was on rotation three, which was important because apparently there was a maximum number of patients allowed in the cafeteria at one time. If I missed a meal, I would need to let one of the staff know.

I wilted a little and wished Doctor Yamada had been available.

...

Breakfast immediately felt different when I arrived. The room was holding its breath, tensed and taunt. If it had been quiet at lunch yesterday, this was some kind of calm in the hurricane. It was obvious, even without my power.

I could feel the eyes on my back like a physical presence, tracking me as I moved down the line. I hesitated then relaxed my mental grip- and it felt like needles dragging over the back of my head, poised to jab at any moment. At least five steady watchers, but there was attention coming from all over the room. I was in a cold sweat before I reached the end of the line, there was a lot of attention on me. There were more guards on the catwalks above us too. What was going on?

I got my tray without seeing it, filled it in autopilot hardly aware of moving, all I could feel was the attention on me. My stomach started cramping with the tension and I clenched my fists and I tried to control my stomach.

I took deep breaths, tamping down of my power entirely. Deep breaths, I loosened my fists, and then pushed out with my power like I'd done with Mimi and raised my head.

I surveyed the room, and was disappointed when I didn't see anyone I recognized, which was disappointing and unnerving with that weight on me. There were a few empty places, and one table that was kind of packed, five patients together. That was where the constant pressure on the back of my head originated from.

Reading them was difficult, they were halfway across the room, and I'd never seen them before. My power worked better with things, people, situations I was closer to. I still didn't know all the rules.

I closed my eyes.

Why was I in danger? Was it because I'd talked to Mimi? Did she have enemies, someone who bore her a grudge? Was it a hazing ritual of some kind? I didn't know my power well enough, was it blaring so urgently because there was more than one of them, and the actual danger was minimal?

"Some of us here have names you'd better remember."

I walked to a seat as far from the five as I could. It wasn't very far- they were in the center of the room. I took a deep breath and opened the floodgates to their fullest.

There were eight guards on the catwalks, and two more at the doors. Plus, cameras, like spotlights in the corners of the room. There were sprinklers on the ceiling, and my power hinted they dispensed more than water or fire retardant.

I narrowed my focus to the five points of aggression, but it was no good, they were too far away. I turned slowly and looked over my shoulder.

They were a knot of two blue scrubs and three oranges. I had a quick second take. Two of them… no, one had gigantic, staring, lidless eyes. Another, a girl with bright red hair so thick I wanted to compare it to yarn, she had a what looked like a quilt of cloth and flesh squares for skin. Another of them, a girl, she had strange rubbery tendrils hanging from her head in place of hair.

Monster capes.

I blinked and touched on my power. They were the cause of the disturbance, but that was the most I could pull off them. The aggression directed at me was… unfocused, less malicious and more curious. I was new, and they were restless.

I… I just couldn't pick any more off of them from where I was.

I turned back to my food and took another deep breath. These five where out of place. Mimi had been out of place yesterday…had Mimi been a transfer from another meal schedule? She had been the only real danger yesterday. Where had these patients come from? What had changed today? What had happened?

By the time breakfast was over my stomach was cramping in earnest, but they hadn't moved. It was nerve-wracking. I had a session with Doctor Yamada scheduled after breakfast, I was supposed to meet her at her actual office this time, but now I wasn't sure if that was still going to happen.

I discarded my tray and hurried out the door. Nobody tried to stop me, but once outside I was at a loss. The section station was a flurry of frantic activity, with both stationed nurses working the phone and a large binder of what I guessed was some kind of procedure manual. I was definitely picking up urgency, just short of panic from them. I waited, feeling a little awkward, until one of them was free and I was directed to Doctor Yamada's office, a wooden door in the same block of offices that had housed my group meeting yesterday, next to several more. The placard read Jessica A. Yamada, PhD, LPCMH, LCPP, but knocking yielded no response.

There was a line of chairs arranged against the wall opposite the offices, I took one of these and watched the clock.

I… was not apprehensive about talking to Yamada. But I definitely had some lingering nerves, I think. Doctor Yamada had always been on time to all of our sessions before, it was unsettling that she hadn't shown up. That… thing at breakfast had been unnerving. I did not feel safe the way I had yesterday.

Overhead, the PA system gave a cheery chime.

"Attention staff. Code 3E in residential wing two. Repeat, code 3E in residential wing two. Be advised, faculty status has been elevated."

Hmm.

A couple security passed me wordlessly, moving at a brisk pace down the hallway. The feeling I pulled off them was wariness…this was connected to whatever had changed the atmosphere at breakfast.

It had happened again, and the staff where being redirected to deal with it. Not quite a crisis of some kind.

I waited. I had begun to wonder how long I would need to wait; I did not have an outline for the rest of the day. That was when I heard a squeak.

"Andrew!"

Someone blindsided me- there was no time to react. Arms wrapped around me, picked me up and twirled me around and, oh, fast; I felt like a ragdoll in the arms of an energetic two-year-old. "Andrew, Andrew, Andrew!" Someone was saying, "Oh, Andrew, I missed you so much!"

I must have been too preoccupied… What good was this power anyway?

The twirling stopped and I was set back on my feet. She wasn't a two-year-old; she was actually a curly-headed woman that looked about twenty-five, wearing blue scrubs. She was very baby-faced and dark, sporting a grin from ear to ear. She did not recognize my poleaxed expression for what it was, and was off spouting words a mile a minute.

"Andrew, where have you been? I've looked everywhere for you! Nobody would tell me where you went, they kept saying such strange things." She frowned a moment, then the smile was back, "But I got away, and of course I found you!" she hugged me again.

"I-"

The woman let go and took a step back, peering at me very closely, "Don't… don't you recognize me?" she asked, a little hesitantly.

"I- No, I don't. My name isn't Andrew."

"It is, it is!" She said, "Not again… Do- do you remember my name, at least?"

I, well. My power wasn't telling me she was dangerous, I had no idea what to do, "No."

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "Okay, okay. That's all right, you do that a lot, you'll remember, eventually!" She opened her eyes and smiled- a shallow, slightly vacant smile. Her eyes were unfocused, "My name is Yuliana… do you remember anything, does that help?" She started hesitantly patting my shoulder. She sounded like it was meant to reassure herself.

Her face crumpled miserably, "Don't you remember?"

"No, I don't." I said.

"I… I can help you remember."

I shook my head slowly. She was… I was not sure. My power was reading her as sincere. And harmless. I didn't think she'd get violent if I suggested we go somewhere, somewhere I could find a staff member for help.

"… Um. Let's go and… uh, sit down and… talk?"

"But we've got to go, before they catch me." She protested weakly and blinked without focus. I took her sleeve and led her back up the hall. The library was just around the corner, I steered her towards it. Maybe there would be some staff…

Inside, a man was pacing along the back wall, but the stations were empty.

"Hungry... hungry... so hungry. What? No. I'm not hungry. The worm is hungry. Hungry for me, for you, and for fire. Hungry."

I cleared my throat, "Hello?" Wasn't there supposed to be a nurse in here with the patients… or something?

"…Anyone?"

"Andrew?"

I glanced at the woman. She looked… confused. That vacant look was still there, but the focus she had before was gone. She wandered, looking from me to the mumbling man.

"Andrew. Andrew, I…" She blinked, "I don't understand."

Can't distinguish faces between individuals. Dementia.

I took a deep, deep breath.

"Why don't you sit down…" I didn't know her name. I guided her to a bench. Secretly, I was beginning to feel a little alarmed- truly, honestly alarmed. Where the hell was the staff?

(Along the back wall, the man kept pacing.

"The sun! It burns! Why does it burn? Why have we put the sun into a jar? And what did we do with that jar? We broke it all over our little world... And now the Worm eats the sun, tunneling, tunneling in the dirt."

The man's mad babbling continued as he paced the wall, from one end to the other and back with uneven steps, wringing his hands.)

I felt helpless, what was I supposed to do with her?

"Andrew, Andrew… I'm confused. The Doctor told me you were dead, the doctor said." The woman said tearfully. "But you're here aren't you?"

"Yuliana," I patted her hand comfortingly, only to recoil, burned. Her skin.

Parasitic leeching effect through contact- my power supplied. Host-body nutrients stripped from whoever she touches. Induces thinned blood- anemia -brittle bones, fatigue; receives a Brute-like recovery from injury and exhaustion.

I breathed deeply, I hadn't been paying attention. Of course she had powers, I hadn't been looking for what her power was, my power had picked it up, supplied it. But I was so used to tuning it that I hadn't recognized it for what it was until I touched her, and my power screamed the danger.

I couldn't afford to keep ignoring it like that. Another deep breath. All right, I needed to pay attention. Yuliana's power could cause permanent injury.

She was still blinking at me vaguely and expectantly.

"Yuliana," I tried again, patting her shoulder, the jumpsuit, this time. "We need to find a doctor. There's something wrong with… something wrong."

Yuliana started crying softly, "Do I have to go back in the hole?"

"The hole?"

"The… the hole." Yuliana said, "We fell in. It was so dark and I couldn't get out." She sniffled.

She was… lonely. Lonely, confused, unfocused.

Power encouraged confusing friend and foe. Has lived in a fugue state for years.

I glanced back at the babbling man, he was moving back in our direction, shuffling along the wall; wringing his hands and shaking his head.

"-Now the bad days have a way out, to make us remember they're still here! Forever here! Staining the parlor carpet, no matter the furniture we drag over it. Why does it want the tears and blood?" He said, "Never known but hurt, before the Worms. Drank of every life lived. Carrying all of us into eternity. Why does it have to last forever, forever?"

He deviated from his circuit, wobbling his way towards us, and my power began to prickle. Oh no.

He was… thin, his head was shorn very short, and his face was covered in thick stubble. He had a receding chin. The man did not look very dangerous, but that didn't mean much for a parahuman. He almost passed us when his head whipped around, staring wild-eyed and bloodshot and surprised, like he was seeing us for the first time. My power spiked as he opened his mouth and roared.

"Back! Not one step further! Not one! Come no closer! I'll blow us all to hell! All of us! Me, you, and you... and the Worm..." He raised his hands, glowing and sparking red.

Oh, damn it.

He was some kind of Blaster- hints at pressure and a Thinker power that helped him aim. And unlike Yuliana he was definitely violent.

"Beware, Worm, I shall destroy you with the fire of this small sun. I'll do it, I will! Beware, worm!"

I edged towards the door as he continued to shout, tugging Yuliana along behind me by her sleeve. No way was I leaving her alone with him.

"And they shall weep. Weep! Weep! Tears of salt and earth and dirt!"

The library door closed behind us, cutting him off.

"Okay."

The hall was quiet, but not deserted, two patients were having a conversation around the corner. "Come on Yuliana, we need to find someone who knows what's going on."

There were checkpoints, there were security at the cafeteria and a checkpoint on the way. There would be security. There had to be security. But the closest checkpoint was empty- just a locked gate and booth. I detoured back to the nursing station and found it reduced to a single man, who looked both frazzled and grimly determined to remain upbeat.

His nametag read 'Davis' and looked new.

"Um," I ventured, "I think this is Yuliana, and I think she's…"

The man was balancing a clipboard in one hand and a phone in the other, and when he looked over his entire face lit up, he definitely recognized Yuliana. "-hang on, just found one." He set the phone down and looked up, and flashed me a smile. "You, little lady, are a lifesaver."

"Ah." I glanced at Yuliana, who was squinting at the nurse, "I found her- she found me back in the offices. I think she's, um… a little confused."

"Yes, thank you. Thank you very much, miss. There was an accident this morning. The whole faculty is in an uproar. Some patients in specialized care slipped away in the mess. Could you please escort her to the Operations Center? It's further up towards the Cafeteria, it'll have a bunch of stressed security guards"

That… that wasn't my job. But I could tell he was desperate.

"Uh, I guess. Before I go, could… I was supposed to meet Doctor Yamada for a therapy session, is that canceled?"

Davis just shook his head, "I don't know if she'll have any sessions today."

So that was that.

I took Yuliana's sleeve and set out towards the recreation wing. About twenty yards further the hallway forked again. I drew on what I remembered of the layout- but I hadn't been paying attention yesterday as much as I wished. We passed security cams, I made a point of walking in front of them, in case it prompted security to intervene. I should have been using my power to map the halls!

Another branch, a T, with one branch I was fairly sure led to one of the residential blocks, the other ran back towards the cafeteria. I stopped at the crossing- my power pinging… familiarity- there was something headed our way, I could feel it, and had a general direction. I was fairly sure it was in front of us, the hall leading towards what I hoped was the Operations Center. It didn't feel like Nick or Heather, or Yamada. I was fairly certain there were more than two. A moment later the prickle of danger accompanied their approach.

"Yuliana," I said, "We're going to need to be quiet for a bit, okay?"

"I," she blinked a little unsteadily.

Seeing multiple people together disorients her.

There was a bench on hand, and I steered her to it, glad there was somewhere for us to sit while I concentrated on the impressions. It didn't feel like Nick or Heather… who else would it be? The prickle of danger accompanied their approach and increased as they drew nearer. I was fairly sure there were more than two.

"Come on." I pulled Yuliana down the fork. Maybe I could just let them pass us by. The prickling grew worse.

I heard footsteps and then I saw them, turning the corner and headed right towards us- for a moment they slowed, seeing us. Then they picked up the pace, five patients, three of them in orange. The five from the morning, at breakfast- the ones my power had flagged as dangerous, the girls with the hair and the man with the huge eyes. They were moving quickly, arms filled with plastic bags.

I thought about running, but that seemed unwise. They didn't have any particular reason to be interested in either of us, if I didn't do anything to attract their attention maybe they'd just leave us alone.

Then they drew even with us and slowed, tentacle girl stopped. But one of them- the man with the huge eyes -missed a step with their attention divided and bumped into her, and the cloth girl behind him bumped into him in turn. The bags they were carrying rattled, and some clinked.

A couple pill bottles fell to the floor and prompted round of muttered cursing as they untangled and picked up their loot.

Drugs?

The girl with the tendrils in place of hair caught my stare; her hair was… eye-catching- long flat things, dark purple- they hung to her waist, long and rubbery and they twitched. Her eyes narrowed, they were odd too, really weird with four-pointed pupils.

"Who're you looking at?" she demanded.

"Leave them, let's get out of here." That was the… cloth-girl? There were two others: the guy with gigantic, staring, lidless eyes… and no mouth or nose. A cat-man, with too many teeth and strange, flat, pebbly growths on his arms.

And the patchwork girl. Her mouth was a tear in the cloth.

Then someone pushed me, at knee height. That might have been the strangest of the lot, it was a little girl. But her wrists were attached to her hands with… ball sockets? Her hair was in perfect brown ringlets, like a fancy china doll. The texture of her face reminded me of Charnel- that same odd, artificial texture.

She stood in front of me, head level with my knees, glaring up at me.

"Staring with your jaw hanging open like a caveman. You are incredibly rude, and stupid."

"Um, sorry." I said. What else could I say?

"Can we go now?" That was the cat man with the weird arms. His arms were full of bags too, all of them, bags with pill bottles and alcohol.

The girl with the tentacles cocked her head, she'd seen me looking. Tentacle girl sniffed and gave me a shove, sending me bumping up against the wall and Yuliana, "I don't think she's sorry enough."

I blinked, adrenaline peaking. My eyes darted between them.

"Hey, I'm talking to you." Yuliana gave a dismayed shout when she shoved me again, hard.

I tried to stand and stumbled, sending me sprawling. My hands flew out as I fell, trying to stop me. I my head hit the bench on the way down. Stars danced behind my eyes as I tried to gather myself up.

Tentacle girl's bags hit the floor, and pill bottles and boxes spilled everywhere. I wasn't very familiar with them, and the drugs themselves locked away in their bottles made the hints of use and effect a vague blur. Those ones raised heart rate and produced a rush of endorphins- happy drugs. Those made you sleepy. There were tranquilizers and anti-psychotics, drugs for anxiety, anticonvulsants, antidepressants… I couldn't process them all, it was a vague mess.

A hand seized my hair and pulled my head back, dragging me away from the wall and into the center of the hallway. The girl with tentacle hair pulled me up into a kneeling position, and I looked up into a boy's face.

He was pale, maybe three or four years older than me- with longish black hair. He looked mostly normal, but his eyes were a strange, cat eyed, slit and yellow, watching. And my sense screamed danger.

The girls with the tentacles for hair giggled.

For a moment I was somewhere else.

The dumpster smelled of wet cardboard and alcohol. The asphalt glittered with broken glass. It was strange; I could swear I heard a clock ticking somewhere, and a bell tolling along with my racing heart. Metal in my hands-

I breathed, that wasn't now, but I was in danger. Visualize an outcome. What assets did I have? I couldn't leave Yuliana, I couldn't run. I could not, did not want, to hurt them or kill them.

But she was touching me.

My hair in her hands, her right hand in front of her left. She was left handed. I knew exactly how her weight was distributed, how her feet were spaced. How she would move if I leaned this way- how she would act if I pulled that way.

I stepped to my left, back and into her, upsetting her balance -and reached up, grabbed the wrist holding my hair. I pressed my thumbnail into the underside of her wrist as hard as I could, in to the long tendons attaching to larger muscles in her arm, she immediately let go with a squawk. She tried to re-capture me, reaching back with her left hand.

She was left handed. I guided her arm away from my hair, going right, dodging her first wild swipe. She kept trying to grab left and I kept going right. I turned, neatly sliding out of her grasp as I stood. I brought my elbow up under her arm, jabbing her ribs. She let out a grunt and stumbled back a step as I rose to my feet.

I was breathing heavily. Keeping control. But my danger sense wasn't prickling any more, even from the tentacle girl- who was rubbing her ribs with mild annoyance and nothing more.

Curiosity. They were bored, antsy, looking for something new, and I was new.

I rubbed my head with one hand, a bump was forming and I think the stickiness was a bit of blood, and there were four of them. Even without that doll-thing. Yuliana wouldn't be any good if I had to fight. She was sitting against the wall, rocking gently and muttering into her knees.

"Sorry about Inkling." The boy said, "It's how we do things here. Scoping out the fresh meat. Seeing where we stand." and… he smiled, "Welcome, to Alchemilla."

He was playing with me, used to being in control. I met his yellow-slitted eyes. Sociopath.

"Wow, don't you look scared. Want me to squirt her?" Tentacle Girl asked. She had only three teeth, weird teeth, big interlocked triangles. Two on the roof of her mouth, one in her jaw. It gave her an odd lisp.

"Nah, Ink, hang on." The boy across from me shifted from one foot to the other. "What do the head shrinks call you?"

"… Auspice."

"Oh, well. I apologize." he said. "I am Lizard Prince, and king of Alchemilla. These are Inkling," he nodded towards the girl with the tentacle hair "And these are Prowler, Frog, and Quilt." The cat man, the man with huge eyes, and the girl made of cloth. "And Marionette." He patted the short Doll-thing on the head.

I nodded slowly.

"I see you found one of the Chronic patients."

I glanced at Yuliana, "Chronic?"

"The ones that don't get better." He replied, "Actual crazies. They aren't considered for release. Too unstable."

"She talked Burnscar down from a blowup." Quilt replied, she was standing a little further back.

My power pinged that. Burnscar is a chronic patient too.

Quilt looked a little out of place. I had the impression she wasn't as comfortable with this- she didn't like direct confrontation the way the others did.

"Oh?" Lizard Prince looked delighted, "That sounds interesting, fascinating. I'm sure to keep an eye on you. You have the makings of a… troublemaker."

Lizard Prince gave me a nod, still smiling thinly, and turned. The rest of his gang fell in behind him as he walked off.

I didn't relax. I didn't breathe a sigh of relief, and waited until I started having difficulty tracking them with my power before leaning against the wall and bracing my hands on my knees to still their trembling as I came down from the adrenaline.

Okay. I was okay.

"I… I'm sorry." Yuliana muttered faintly.

I looked at her, my nerves were starting to feel frayed and a tension headache was coming on. But she blinked at me- still dazed, still confused. I didn't have it in me to be annoyed.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand." She said.

I sighed, "Come on, Yuliana, let's go find someone who knows what to do with you."