Mental (Slow updates)

Chapter 5

"Ok Lissa tell me everything you know about this place," Katrina whispered in a conspiratorial tone as she leaned towards the girl sitting across from her.
After the awkward introduction and the rude remark from Ash, Lissa had quickly ushered Katrina over to the end of the long banquet table, as far away from Ash and the others as she could get. Lissa knew what it felt like to be in Katrina's place, having arrived only six months earlier, and knew Katrina would probably needed some space away from prying eyes.
She startled at Katrina's sudden question. Katrina raised an eyebrow at her friend expecting a response. Lissa opened her mouth, then closed it, completely dumbstruck. It was the last thing she had expected Katrina to say. Hesitantly she responded, "I... I've already told you everything I know." Katrina responded with a look that said she did not believe her. Lissa tried again, "Seriously, I only arrived a few months ago, and there isn't that much to tell, no one really knows anything, at least that's what Maree told me." Her throat tightened with emotion at the mention of the older girl's name.

Sensing her friend's obvious distress at the mention of the girl, Katrina gently asked what had happened to the girl. Lissa hesitated before whispering under her breath, "she left."
Katrina brightened, "that's great she was able to leave, how did she do it? Did she escape or..."
Lissa cut her off, "No." She gritted her teeth before tensely replying, "she died." Katrina felt her breath leave her. She swallowed. As curious as she was to find out what had happened, she could see how much it pained Lissa to talk about it and decided to drop the matter. Katrina reached across the table and placed her hand upon Lissa's shoulder. The younger girl looked up, and Katrina put on what she hoped was a sympathetic expression. The two girls remained staring at one another in companionable silence.
After what could have been an hour, but was more likely only a few minutes, Katrina broke the contact and cleared her throat. "So what the story with Mr Grumpy over there" she said, sticking a thumb in Ash's direction, changing the topic. Lissa giggled, "his name is Ash, although at the moment, Mr Grumpy suits him better." She sobered up a little bit before continuing, "As I said, he was the first they brought in, and that's about all anyone knows about him as he keeps to himself. He looks after us, so he's kinda our de-facto leader."
"So he's the cliché silent, mysterious type." Katrina said in an overly dramatic tone. Lissa burst out laughing, earning a few curious looks from those closest to the pair. Seeing the curious looks, Lissa covered her mouth to try to contain her laughter. Katrina snickered.
Once Lissa had composed herself, Katrina asked another question, "So what's the deal with Mr Grumpy's little henchman," nudging her head in the direction of Mitch. Lissa shook her head in mock seriousness before responding. "His name is Mitch, not little henchman. He was one of the first brought in after Ash. Obviously Ash took a liking to him, now he's his, as you put it, 'little henchman'," Lissa replied putting air quotes around 'little henchman.' Katrina smirked, before wittily responding, "so he's a mini Mr Grumpy." The two girls collapsed into giggling fits. Mitch's head whipped round to stare disapprovingly at the two girls, before Ash called his name and raised a slim hand implying for him to ignore the girls. Begrudgingly Mitch turned away, causing the girls to laugh harder, clamping their hands over their mouths to smother the noise. Eventually the laughter died away and the girls wiped the tears that had formed in their eyes.
The conversation turned away from the two brooding boys to more trivial topics, mostly about the time before they entered the Gilded Cage.

Ash heard the girls giggling from across the room, deciding to not pay it any attention he turned his thoughts back to the conversation he and Mitch were having. Suddenly, Mitch's head whipped round to glare at the girls as the laughter reached him. Ash sighed, before calling Mitch's name and raising his hand in a gesture to get Mitch to drop it, his eyes pleading for him to let it go. The anger left Mitch and he turned back to Ash. The girls' giggling increased. Ash bit his lip as his hands curled into fists. He knew they were laughing at his and Mitch's expense, they had proven that by laughing harder after he got Mitch to drop his glare. While Ash did not feel like a dictator or tyrant, he could not stand his authority to be questioned. They did not understand that his authority was the only thing that was keeping them safe. His hand subconsciously moving to the fresh bandage on his side. "Stupid, naïve new girl," he muttered under his breath.
"She'll learn and learn quickly," Mitch responded. Ash's mouth quirked up into a small smile, he should know by now that Mitch could always pick up his quiet mumblings, before frowning again. Mitch sighed, "Ash, don't worry so much, everything will be fine... It always is," Ash looked up at his oldest friend to see him empathetically smiling at him. He returned the smile with a weak one of his own, before rising from the sofa. "I need some space," he whispered into Mitch's ear. Mitch nodded, his face twisted in concern for his friend.
Ash walked towards the opposite end of the dining table from the girls and pushed his back against the wall. He felt around the wall for a slight rise. Once his hand found the rise he curled his fingers around the risen edge and pulled it towards him, revealing a small door. Taking one look around the room to make sure no one was looking. He pulled the door opened and dashed inside, pulling the door shut quietly behind him.
The room Ash had entered was small and cosy, with two hospital beds connected together with sheets off a double bed taking up the whole length of the room, with only a small space along the right side of the bed which was completely overcome with perilously piled books, leaving only a very little space near the door where one entered the room. The room was lit with strings of LED fairy lights crisscrossing across the ceiling, while the walls displayed pictures from magazines of far off places.
Standing up from his crouch, Ash flopped down onto the makeshift double bed, disturbing the book and rechargeable torch balanced on the corner of the bed. Groaning, Ash lifted himself up to grab the book and torch that had fallen down the side of the bed. Grabbing both the corner of the book and the torch in one hand, he carefully rescued them from down the side of the bed and dropped them back onto the bed, a little further from the edge than last time. His eyes lifted to the hand written message above the bedhead, which read 'To my dear surrogate son, Ashton. Here's a safe place for you to escape to, until I manage to free you. With much love, James Cromwell (Dr Dad).' Ash raised one hand to rest on the writing. Tears formed in his eyes as he whispered, "I wish you were still here, dad." Removing his hand, Ash took off his top, throwing it onto the closest pile of books, before snuggling down into the bed. Once settled Ash grabbed the torch and book, with the intention of reading to calm his troubled mind, then let his head fall onto the pillow. As soon as his head relaxed upon the pillow, his eyes shut and he fell into a deep sleep as exhaustion overtook him.