Above All, Faith

Chapter Five

She woke up to the subtle sound of padding footsteps and soft murmurs. The sound of metal clanging and soft click of a door opening and closing. She kept her eyes closed and let them lift her wrists and pull off the devices closed around her limbs. She was wary and wondered how long before they noticed she was conscious? 

"Pass the antibiotics." A cold monotonous voice, a tone deeper than the average female. Fingertips brush the hem of her shirt, raising to her ribcage. She goes stiff and hurriedly sits up, about to throw a punch at the wide-eyed woman in front of her. But the wide eyes and startled demeanor doesn't last very long before the woman narrows her eyes to slits and pulls off her gloves.

"We're done here." She says to the younger boy with round-frame glasses and big doe eyes screaming pure admiration for the woman, who Mercedes suspects is his senior. The boy stands up and starts to put all the tools back in place.

"Make sure to leave behind the antibiotics, bandages and the acne cream." She says whilst ticking off the supplies on her fingertips. The boy only nods and places the said objects on the drawer beside Mercedes' bed.

"What were you gonna do?" Mercedes asks the woman fixing her watch. She removes her glasses and face mask. Steel grey eyes that were closer to pale blue and a hint of green dancing in the corners. A button nose with the faintest freckles sprinkled like glitter across her cheeks and a few stray spots above her brows. A cupid's bow red as the rose and skin white as snow that was complimented by her waist long black noodle curls. 

"Nothing that would've been out of your benefit." She answers and nods to the boy. "C'mon, there are other patients to attend to." She says in a rushed manner and turns her back on the suspecting criminal watching her with intensity. Mercedes only bites her inner cheek and plants her bare feet on the soft carpeted floor.

"I need to speak to someone." She states. Eyes focused on the older woman in a white coat.

"Word of advice. Once you're in here, there's no going out." The door shuts, and it is only Mercedes in this unfamiliar room of swirls of pale pink and beige. The floor was of wood, Mercedes guesses acacia. Beside her bed were two tables. On the left was a tray with untouched food, and the supplies the boy had left earlier. To the right, a pair of neatly folded clothes and an identification card with only a name that was not hers. 

She picked up the card and read the name: Morgani Shayne. The numbers 812 written just below it. Her mind drifted to the stranger from earlier. Not Elysander nor the doctor and her assistant. No , she thought of the boy with the bleeding hand and desperate eyes. She thought of the boy who said he would 'help' her.

'Help with what?' She wondered. 'Help me escape? Help me find my parents?'  Or it could have simply been a way out of the situation. She couldn't possibly believe a stranger would help her when she's given nothing for him to do so. 

Word of advice. Once you're in here, there's no going out.

But then there's that. That statement that forces Mercedes to use her brain and plot her next move in case he didn't actually mean it. She has no clue what these people are going to do to her. If she had not woken up earlier, what would become of her? Be that as it may she cannot understand why she should not stay in this alien place.

If she escaped, where would she go? How long before her hands are chained to her back and the King orders for her death? 

How long before he finds her?

First she will have a talk with the blue-eyed boy from earlier. But how? 

She bites her nails and brainstorms different ideas before she gives up with a huff and hugs her knees. It isn't long before her knees start to ache and she spreads her body on the floor. She stares up at the ceiling and takes deep heavy breaths. She wonders how Kaleighna is doing, If Atticus is well, and if....and if Nigel forgives her.