Melancholy Conton; Idle Quiet

[Jikial]

Suddenly the expression on Jeremy's face changed to something sinister, and his eyes sunk away to black holes.

"To get Hank back, I'm going to borrow you," spoke a thousand voices from the pit of flame deep in Jeremy's throat. He and the environment began to melt, and the thick black goo of his being puddled on Abbie's shoulders and slithered into her mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.

There was no pain, there was only fear. Darkness, and fear. As though Abbie felt what it was to be truly alone, not abandoned, not left, not last of a kind. But alone. As though there was never anything else and she was all that was and ever will be.

Her and fear.

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Chapter 3

Doleful Prelude

Abbie awoke in a hospital room. It was night, there was no one else in the room. She was wearing her normal clothing but was hooked up to several mundane vitals machines. Outside the door she could hear the slow goings of a hospital at night.  

[Admiral Frog]

The first thing that Abbie did upon waking up in her clean hospital room was claw at her throat and face. It was a late reaction to what had happened between her and Jeremy. Her breathing picked up and she knocked away her heart monitor which hit the floor with a thud. Of course all she could feel were the familiar pieces that made up the entirety of her face, not a single shred of evidence of what Jeremy had done to her.

The window in the hospital room gave the perfect view of the night sky, a great deal of time had passed by. Which in turn threw her into yet another panic. She ripped out the IV in her arm, groaning only slightly at the pain, and unhooked all the other random wires that were placed about her body. Abbie swung her legs over the bed and stepped down, her knees immediately giving out and she went tumbling to the floor. The heart rate monitor just above where her head use to be started to flat line and a loud beeping filled the room.

With all the strength she had in her, Abbie rose to her full height and hobbled over to the night stand and began opening and shutting doors, searching desperately for her purse. More specifically Hank's cell phone. How could Jeremy do that to her? All she wanted to do was help find Hank! She would have gone to the ends of the Earth if that was what it took. Abbie couldn't even fathom what he did. There was only one way to find out, she would get in contact with him the same way she had done so before. The thought of what happened to her rose in the back of her mind once more and she raced to the sink in the back and immediately forced herself to throw up. When it wasn't working, she began shoving her finger down her throat which forced her gag reflex to react. Abbie began emptying the contents of her stomach therein, but nothing of that weird black stuff could be seen.  

[Jikial]

Abbie, in her panic, failed to notice a nurse, a heavyset black man, casually walk into her room, and when he noticed her gagging herself, went to restrain her.

"Ms. Marcus, Ms. Marcus!" he grasped her wrists. "Come on, what's the matter with you?"  

[Admiral Frog]

Abbie wriggled her way through the nurse's grasp and fell against the bed she had been previously slumbering on. Though how she got there remained a mystery. She stared deep into the nurse's eyes, watching her awestruck reflection gape back at her. Her hair was riddled with tangles and the color in her skin, what little she had, had faded completely. For a second, she had no forward thought in her brain. Not the familiar voice of her forever faithful conscience telling her what to do. But that reflection was horrifying and that wasn't the person she needed to be at this time.

The important details bounced about in her head, Hank was gone, something took him, something terrible and alien. Abbie was certain, would bet her bottom dollar that she had contacted Jeremy, the missing boy from the papers. And that Jeremy had done something to her, what she couldn't explain yet. Whatever it was, it was enough to wipe her memory of the past few hours. Those were the details, piece by piece. But the next point, possibly the most important of all, was that she needed to get the hell out of here. That started, however, with her making all the right choices from here on out.

Abbie styled back her frazzled hair. She could feel the breath she was holding release from her screaming lungs, and her heart started it's slow decline in erratic beats. "I... I don't know. I..." She looked around uneasily. "I think I was having a nightmare." She lied, but it was the best she could do on the spot. "What... no. How did I get here?" Abbie asked, having to clear her voice mid sentence. "Where am I?"  

[Jikial]

Eying her cautiously, the male nurse answered one of Abbie's questions;

"You're at St. Nathaniel's..."

He paused, shifted his weight and looked at her again.

"There's someone here to talk to you. Would you be alright with that?"

She wasn't calming down, he noticed that, but she was forming sentences and didn't seem to be, apart from the initial episode, psychotic. The nurse silently cursed the lack of doctors at the hospital, and further cursed the police.  

[Admiral Frog]

St. Nathaniel's? Abbie wasn't sure where that was. Actually, she knew she was suppose to know where this was, but her hazy memory made it difficult to pinpoint exactly how. Abbie pulled herself on top of the bed when her legs begin to weaken, she was tired, stressed out and anxious to get back to finding Hank.

"How did I ge--" But Abbie wasn't allowed to finish before the nurse alerted her that someone was prepared to visit her. When she became a teacher she had a brother, sister and a mother and father. Few years after that, and Abbie stopped talking to her family all together. Their lives were taking different directions, and farm life just wasn't for her. Family or not, she doubted anyone from that branch, or any branch for that matter, would be visiting her.

"Who is it?"  

[Jikial]

Almost as if was listening in (he was) and as though he was waiting for the right moment (again) Detective Reynard Orson walked in. He cut a tall dark figure against the sanitary white of the hospital walls and if the nurse was black, Reynard was a dark chocolate brown.

His voice seemed to come from some hidden depth, adding a roundness to his lean-trench-coated figure, it was not unpleasant to hear; "Detective Orson, I've got a few questions to ask if you'd let me."

The nurse looked disdainful for a second then reigned it in, choosing to stare at Orson, who, in turn, stared past him and into Abbie's eyes. The nurse spoke anyway, his voice high-pitched in comparison, "Sir, you can't just walk in to see the patient..."

"I'll leave if she says go," Orson's response.  

[Admiral Frog]

Abbie had been fiddling with her medical ID bracelet strapped loosely around her wrist. It had her proper name, along with some other medical information, such as her allergen to nuts and iodine, in case other nurses need to tend to her when her nurse was out and about. There was also a list of medicinal cocktails they had put her on since her arrival at St. Nathaniel's. Most of them anti-psychotics, and Abbie found that unnervingly precise. For a moment it all seemed like a bad dream, all her years of teaching were just a front to the disillusioned psychopath laying dormant within her. That was of course, until the detective walked in.

She looked first at the nurse, then back at the detective. Whatever fear she was wearing on her face right at that one moment, he was seeing every single, monetary shred of it; and that is what terrified her the most. Abbie looked down at her bare legs and open night gown and threw the blanket over her legs as quickly as her reflexes would muster.

"It's okay nurse..." Abbie realized she never got his name, but it no longer mattered. "Nurse. I have a few questions I am sure only the detective can answer...." She trailed off, and eyed the door hoping that the nurse would take a hint and leave. She decided that leaving the entire incident involving Jeremy out of the equation would be in the best interest of everyone. This was a hospital after all, and any sign of odd stories was a quick way to end up with extra morphine and more doctor's visits.  

[Jikial]

The nurse held his hands up, defeated, "Alright, I'll be back later Ms. Marcus."

He slid out around the detective and was reabsorbed into the background of the hospital proper. The detective never took his gaze off Abbie and it was with his constant gaze that he spoke to her.

"You were catatonic, then you passed out."

He found himself the chair in the corner of the room to sit and continued speaking, "This was, of course, after you kidnapped Hank Oleander, and proceeded to find Jeremy Oleander, and take both of the Oleander sons back home. Only to pass out on the floor of the Oleander foyer." It was like he was playing with the word "Oleander".

"Naturally, the Oleanders aren't going to press charges for the kidnapping of Hank since you found Jeremy and brought them home." Orson shifted in his seat, moving forward to lower an intense stare into Abbie's eyes.

"They want to reward you. Now, you had questions for me?"  

[Admiral Frog]

"What?" Abbie nearly shouted. Her voice bounced furiously off of the alabaster walls of the hospital; she winced at the sound. As if done by reflex, she bit her lip, a nervous habit she decided then and there she must get rid of. In a poker game, she would be losing good hands left and right, as her poker face must be atrocious.

Abbie peered down at her fists, clasping tightly to the bed sheets she had thrown over her barren legs. She could almost feel her nails cutting through the linens and digging into the puffy flesh of her palms. Something in her was screaming at her, that all familiar voice of reason, to stop acting like the gavel had swung down. That she was guilty of the crimes she was being accused of. Pressing charges or not, everyone believed, without a doubt, that she had kidnapped one of her students.

Never in all her her years with children had she ever in her life wanted to abduct a child. Even when she was certain that the parents were less than fit, putting their child through the utmost hell, and though most wouldn't second guess her if she did, she would never under any circumstance. Kidnapping!? That is completely and utterly absurd!

"Jeremy? Jeremy is with them? But.." The flash back of Jeremy before she passed out appeared as if summoned. The sound of his voice, how it had altered and mangled as if many different people were speaking. The way he... melted, was the best word to describe it. Nothing about this made a lick of sense.

Abbie looked back at the detective, a glare marring the softer features of her face. "I didn't kidnap Hank..." She said, trying her hardest not to grit her teeth. Too many emotions to feel right now, but anger was definitely sitting smack dab at the top. And she wasn't about to collect a reward for anything, whatever was hanging out with the Oleander's right at this moment, it wasn't their son. She was damn sure about that. For a moment, she had forgotten all about her questions, and they didn't all that much matter.  

[Jikial]

"I can say that the evidence says you did. I can say that somehow your principal was in on it...a Mrs. Davis? We questioned her, she can only say she remembered telling you to take the boy home, but not why."

He leaned back, but the gaze would never break. It was becoming more telling that his gaze was just as empty as it was calculating. He wasn't really seeing Abbie but past her, deep past her, but at the same time the awareness was there for any real sign in her emotions he was looking for, whatever that may be.

"I can't, say, however, how you knew where Jeremy was, nor could I explain why you left school to go get him. I can't say why, though Jeremy's phone was found, destroyed, in the woods, he managed to text Hank while you were getting him." Orson sighed.

"I can't account for a lot of things Ms. Marcus, but I'm pretty sure you're not the one causing the disappearances around town. The department wants to bring the hammer down on someone and you're one of the few targets they've got now."

His gaze dropped for a moment.

"So you have to tell me everything you know, because I won't let that happen to you if I can help it."  

[Admiral Frog]

"I don't care what the evidence tells you Detective Orson." She said firmly, staring out the window just at the end of the room. It was a terrible view of the rest of the hospital. That means they were probably some where in the back of the building. "I would never under any circumstances kidnap one of my students."

"But it doesn't matter. Because no matter what I say to you, you wont ever believe me. No one will." Abbie sighed and turned her head back towards Orson, feeling his gaze eat away at her inner self. There was a feeling that perhaps he would believe her, that stare had said many things about him. As a detective he must have seen a million different things he couldn't understand nor explain. However, Abbie was not trying to convince a detective that she wasn't crazy, she was trying to convince the entire damn penal system. And that was a battle she wasn't going to win. She had watched enough Law and Order to know that kidnappers never win, even the innocent ones...

"I would rather take my chances against whatever storm is coming with my sanity still intact." And proceeded to stare back out the window.  

[Jikial]

Detective Orson stood up from the chair and went to look out the window with his hands behind his back.

"So you'd rather sit here in hospital scrubs and wait for people to come and diagnose you with a psychological disorder then put you away in an asylum, giving up your life, than tell me what you know?"

He made a huff, but as he was facing the outside it was unclear whether or not this was accompanied by a smile, or indeed any other indicator of an emotion.

"You can do that, I suppose. I wouldn't do it, but then again I'm not a teacher, I'm not a woman, and I'm not under fire from a police department for things I know I didn't do, so who knows what I'd do."

He turned to her, and the look on his face had changed, but this time to a more earnest expression.

"Why face music that isn't for you to hear Ms. Marcus?"  

[Admiral Frog]

She thought about that for a long time. Though it never bothered her before, this time however, she hated the fact that he was right. Abbie looked down at her sheets again and took in a deep breath, to let it out long and deep. After a long period of silence between them, Abbie lifted her head and spoke. "Abbie." She paused. "It's Abbie. Please. I never liked that name all that much." It was her proper name after all, and though a piece of her would always love her family, she no longer felt for them in an endearing way. Marcus was just a scar across her name she couldn't forget.

She had made up her mind. If she was going to tell anyone what she had seen while in Hank's presence, it might as well be this man. Though he could be playing her for a sap, trying desperately to seem enigmatic, and get her to spill the scoop; and then turn and be the first person to put the needle in her arm that sets her to la la land for an extended visit. Abbie got up, clutching her gown closed, and crossed the room in her bare feet, closing the door behind before she sat back down.

"I got the message from Jeremy when Hank said he wanted to go home..." She hesitated, still nervous as hell. "It was odd. Not just that I was reading messages from a missing kid. It just didn't feel right...." She shifted again. "Before I could... take him home. I got a call stating that his parents wanted him home and that I was the only person that could do it." Abbie left the principle's name out of it. They already knew, so what did it matter.

"We drove. We weren't far away from the Oleander's place when up ahead there was an accident. I grabbed Hank and we walked out. That's when..." More flashbacks summoned from the back of her memory, of that greying world warped around them. She explained in the fullest detail her memory would allow of the thing that had taken Hank from her grasp. How she had contacted Jeremy again and that he told her to hurry. All the way up to the house and before she passed out.

"I don't know what had taken Hank, or what happened to me at the end. I cannot.. I have no words. But that is it. You have the entire story inside and out. I know I sound crazy Detective. I know how absurd this all is, and if I was standing in your shoes, I would throw cuffs on me and throw me in prison right now. But I am telling the utter, virginal truth." Abbie gazed at the detective, her emotion as serious and sharp as a knife.  

[Jikial]

The detective absorbed it all unfaltering, never once letting anything show other than the occasional raise of the eyebrow and crease of the forehead. It was almost as if he heard this all a million times before. The alternate reality, everything. It glanced off of him and landed in the air around him only to dissipate like fumes from a busted sewer.

"The officer at the over-turned truck remembers you. He said you seemed very despondent after checking out. When you asked him about Hank he tried to tell you he was there in your car before you drove off."

A shift.

"After that, there are no other witnesses. You just showed up at the Oleander's just as Mrs. Oleander was getting home. There was Jeremy in the backseat and Hank in the front. Hank gave a hug to mom and Jeremy..."

This is when he decided to let her know, "He's been taken to another hospital. Jeremy was in a coma. You couldn't explain because you were catatonic. Mrs. Oleander, I heard, had quite the reaction."

"They are offering to pay for your hospital bills and want you to come over some time." He added quite off-handedly.

Detective Orson began trying to piece together this terrible puzzle. His silence was indicative of his thoughts, as deep and round as his voice, as though the air was emptier without him speaking.