Moonscorn

Chapter Ten

The pains, both inside and outside, mercifully subsided by four in the morning. Her head still throbbing from the effort to contain her feral side, Hysteria fell into a troubled sleep still clothed. From the dark recesses of her mind, a black figure constantly emerged to taunt her fantastic visions before slipping back into the murk once more.

Her alarm blared at half past eight. She raised a sleepy fist and brought it down on her phone, which rocketed across the room and cracked its case against the floor. Hysteria didn't even remember doing it. When the knock on the door came at nine, she didn't hear that either. It took shouting and banging and the TV being switched on for her to finally wake up.

"Hysteria Scorn. Get your filthy ass out of that bed, now."

The bedroom door was open enough for Hysteria to raise a weary head and look with blurry eyes through to the TV in the next room. Persephone had her grumpy face on, which was a specific expression of annoyance saved for special occasions. Her eyebrows were locked together like two arm wrestlers, and the top of her upper lip twitched on the right-hand side.

Hysteria propped herself up on an elbow. "What time is it?"

"Time for meds and bloods. Five past nine."

She looked across the room and eventually found the phone where it had been launched, cowering in fear looking up at her like an abandoned child wondering what it had done wrong to deserve the punishment it had been dealt.

"Alright. Yeah. Give me five. But apologise to them for my stinking to high hell. The night was bad, the Lunoxine supply was low, and I obviously haven't showered."

The grumpy face dropped a little. "Bad one?"

"She's being a real bitch at the moment, pun intended. Worse the last few nights."

On the TV screen Persephone nodded and turned to one side. She was sat at her office desk and appeared to be jotting something down on a notepad by her side. Like any interviewee on the BBC News, she had a full bookcase behind her, but unlike those professors and experts the news gets on the show, Hysteria knew that her boss had actually read them all. Cover to cover. Like any high school teacher, they might complain about their job and look forward to the glass of wine that night before setting foot through the front doors at the beginning of the day, but they would still die defending the cause.

"That's all fine, Hysteria. Make it fifteen minutes and get a shower. I'll hold off Dr Sawbones from his schedule for you. After bloods I need you in Saturn's office at 11."

Now it was Hysteria's turn to frown. A meeting with Saturn meant a briefing. As in, an out-of-base briefing. "I thought I was grounded."

"Indeed you did."

"You grounded me."

"I did."

"So what's changed?"

"We'll tell you at eleven. Now hurry up. One minute gone. Fourteen more and they break the door down and carry you off, whether you're dressed and sparkly or still naked in the shower."

The TV screen went off. Hysteria sat there and thought about testing Persephone's theory to see if they actually would break in and carry off a young woman to the lab still dripping wet and nude. After that moment of thought, she decided she didn't want to find out, and lethargically swung her legs out of bed.

***

Dr Sawbones was in an even worse mood than Persephone. The old man in the white coat whose real name Hysteria didn't even know was fussing around more than usual, and strapped her to the chair tighter than he had ever done before.