Lucan put aside how dangerous this new friend of his seemed at the moment, while masterfully distancing himself from her. The lack of sleep was taking a toll on her; it was unlikely that her mind could take any more punishment.
'It's times like this that I miss Blondie, he would have fearlessly sacrificed himself for my curiosity' Sighing internally he escaped the muttering mess that was his conversation partner and went to think a bit more about his next course of action.
The girl soon started to itch adding new bleeding scratches to her arms, Lucan winced and muttered under his breath "That can't be healthy". He soon shook his head and turned away from her knowing she would be taken away soon, hopefully.
He later heard the sound of something falling, just as he turned his head to see what it was, he caught sight of her being restrained by orderlies and carried out of the cafeteria. She struggled, but her feeble attempts at resistance weren't quite successful.
The others felt bad for her, even if they didn't say anything. The orphanage's care may be declining but they still took care of the ones that seemed like they were about to break down, hauling them off to the medical ward 'She's like the third person so far now'.
***
It had been three months now, snow had set in and no one dared to go outside, nothing had changed, at least in regards to the state of the facilities, they had neither gotten better nor worse, as for the attitude of the caretakers, with a large majority of them gone the remaining few have been a nightmare.
Then there was something else as well, the children taken to the medical ward, those that came back were different somehow, 'They seem normal?' That was the peculiarity that had drawn his attention.
The people who had gone in had come back in a new state, at least mentally, Lucan was no doctor, so he had no idea if what he perceived as a mental change was even accurate and pushed it to the back of his mind. 'Who the heck is this?'
He stared in shock at the girl in the common room, it was the girl from the cafeteria, she looked nothing like how he remembered her, she was standing up straight, with no dark circles under her eyes and most importantly she looked completely calm. 'What did they do to her there?'
She was no longer the disheveled bundle of nerves she had been before; granted, she still looked poor, but it was already a clear upgrade from her previous appearance seeing her like this had made Lucan curious about some things.
"Hello, um excuse me?". She had been talking with her roommates, who had seemed quite shocked at her turnaround and had been discussing stuff with her. The girls all fell silent when he spoke, staring at him without uttering a single word.
'Wow tough crowd'
Sighing internally he was about to add a follow-up when the girl he had planned to question beamed at him, she had a grin so wide he thought her face might just tear off "I remember you, from the cafeteria right?"
"Yes?". Lucan wasn't expecting her to actually remember him, she hadn't been in a very ideal state of mind after all, so what were the chances she would remember some random dude asking her questions?
"How have you been?". She asked with the same familiar friendly tone as before which for some odd reason made him feel unsettled.
"I've been okay I guess? I was just about to ask about you though" Her friends gave him strange looks but he expected at least this much.
He was a stranger to them, at most they had exchanged a greeting of two when passing each other but his only real connection to them was that girl and frankly, she had been the Blondies' friend, not his.
"Aww that's sweet of you, but as you can see I'm completely fine". She did a small twirl which only made Lucan feel even more suspicious.
His first interaction with her had barely amounted to anything and while he wasn't really familiar with her he had seen her with Blondie, she wasn't the sad sort but she was never this peppy 'Was it really just the insomnia?'.
He scratched his head and decided to just accept it, at least for now, he wasn't sure what had happened to her but he was hoping she could better explain his worries.
"So um what happened there?". She tilted her head in confusion and asked in her uncharacteristically high-pitched voice.
"What happened?". Lucan furrowed his brows and specified.
"In the medical ward, you can't pretend like you don't remember okay?". She gave him a mischievous cat-like smirk which oddly reminded him of someone, in fact he could almost swear he had her name on the tip of his tongue.
"Well, they just gave me a bunch of medicine and had me repeat some stuff". Lucan waited for her to continue but she simply remained silent and continued to stare at him with a warm smile, as if she had just told him everything he needed to hear.
'Gods grant me patience, cause if you give me strength I'll wring her neck' He took a deep breath and smiled at her as innocently as he could, putting some fascination and excitement into his voice and asked "Did they make you watch anything? Is there a TV there? The one here's been boring lately".
"Yeah, I watched….". She fell silent, her eyes gradually unfocused and she simply stood still without saying anything else as if had suddenly spaced out, Lucan was confused and so were her roommates who looked between the two of them.
"What just happened?"
"Are you okay?"
"Did she break or something?" Lucan wasn't sure what had happened but he knew it didn't look very good. After the two had shaken their friend a bit and called out her name, she seemed to slowly pull herself out of the trance she was in and smiled at the two.
"Whoa, so close, and what's with the hands? Were we celebrating?". Lucan raised an eyebrow and her roommates looked equally stunned as they slowly let her go. She inspected her body for a bit almost like she was looking for something.
"Are you okay?". She nodded and made a peace sign with her hands and then walked past them, patting Lucan on the head just before she left, her roommates exchanged concerned glances before following closely behind her.
'What the fuck was that?'. He felt a shiver run down his spine, it was like watching a computer run into an error and freeze up. It had to be the strangest thing he had ever seen since coming here and that was saying a lot since there was someone with actual powers in the orphanage.
'Maybe I'm just being paranoid'. Lucan did not in fact feel he was paranoid, if anything he felt like he should be a bit more careful, regardless of what they had done to cure her of her predicament they had clearly broken something else about her.
***
Nighttime had come again and as expected Lucan had forgotten to get himself water. Now, usually, these days it wasn't that much of an issue, the weather was cold and the air was pretty humid, so thirst was very low on his list of problems.
Or it should have been, right now his throat was so dry he could light a match with it, which meant he would have to do something about it, "Hey Blondie….", he asked but quickly stopped himself "oh yeah, there's no one here"
He moved towards the door and quietly unlocked it. He slowly stuck his head out and looked to both sides before quietly slipping out of the room.
He shivered as he walked through the halls, it had gotten so cold in this place that it felt like he was going to freeze to death sometimes. Luckily, he had no plans of being outside for long 'cause I don't think I want to find out what happens when someone isn't in bed'
Back when Bradley was still in charge of the inspections, while he never really checked the rooms he did do a head count just before everyone slept, doing his patrols after dark to ensure no one extra was coming in or suddenly leaving their rooms.
This guy however did his head counts after everyone had fallen asleep checking if everyone was in their beds and doing so rather thoroughly 'More of a body count than a head count I guess. He snickered to himself in the silence of the orphanage 'That joke would have done numbers back home'
Sighing he made his way to the tap and after drinking quickly started to fill his canister, while trying to be as careful as possible not to make any loud noises, just as he was done he felt something crawl over his foot and jolted, dropping his water can on the floor. 'Oops'.
"Who's there?". A hoarse voice called out from the darkness, no beam of light, nothing of the sort, just the sound of heavy footsteps hitting the floor, shuffling in his direction, Lucan nearly leapt out of his skin as he started sprinting back towards his room.
'Man… I really don't like running'. He was already starting to feel sweat forming on his back, but he wasn't sure if he was sweating from the fear or sweating from his current physical activity that he was undertaking.
"Who's there?" The man's voice echoed slightly in the halls with the lights practically being nonexistent; he was feeling a bit of psychological pressure and was unable to tell just how far away the man was from him exactly.
The man's heavy footfalls were the only proper measurement, since they didn't echo quite as loudly, thus allowing him some measure of closure 'This bastard is doing everything to make sure he's heard except turning on a damn light'.
He ran up the stairs, trying to go as fast as he could when he tripped on the last one and hit the floor face first, he clutched at his mouth feeling something wet on his fingers "Ah Fuck". Lucan soon heard the man's footsteps coming up the stairs and while still a bit dizzy, panicked and just ran in whatever direction he was facing.
As he ran he suddenly felt someone grab his arm and pull him aside, placing a hand over his mouth, just as he was about to protest he saw the girl he had seen earlier today making a shush motion with her fingers.
When it seemed like he had settled she turned around and stepped outside. Raising his head to see who was holding him he saw the face of her other roommates, who seemed a bit worried seeing the blood on his nose.
He silently reassured the girls who had now let him go as he brought his head out to peak from the door in an attempt to see what was happening.
***
The nightwatch had followed him up the stairs and looked between the two spaces standing at his full height about to give chase in the direction of the boys dorm when he spotted someone walking out from the girls dorm "Who's there?" He asked again, this time receiving an answer.
"Hello Mister watchman~" the man shivered when he heard the girl's voice, which made Lucan furrow his brow, wondering if that was supposed to be an expression of fear… or perhaps excitement?
"Why are you wandering outside?". He asked her, the girls dorm was much brighter, due to how much moonlight was getting in so he could see pretty well now, however, with her back turned he couldn't see the other girls face but from the way the man was reacting it didn't seem to be pleasant.
She stepped forward and whispered something into the man's ears. He glanced sideways at her for a few seconds before sinking back into his slouched posture and simply turning around and leaving, while she happily skipped back to them as Lucan immediately asked.
"What did you tell him?" She gave him a mischievous cat-like smirk and placed a finger on her lips.
"Secret~" Lucan stared at her for a few seconds before his eyes widened in realization at that sense of familiarity he had been feeling since he met her.
'Polly?'
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.