Folie á Deux

Chapter 2

"And then I walloped him and he fell right back down again."

Yang laughed, her feet propped up onto the side of the bed. The ghost of a smile flickered across Neo's lips at the story of how Yang beat up a creep that tried to touch her at the bus stop a couple of weeks ago.

Yang had been her volunteered carer for approximately three hours now, and she was making Neo almost-smile more than she had ever done in her life.

She'd learned that the blonde girl was funny, energetic, and loved to fight. In fact,  she had attended Beacon Academy, and now taught a hardcore self-defence class here in Vale. She'd told Neo many stories of how she went out to clubs with her friends and had tons of slimy guys hit on her, only to run away with their tails between their legs when she put them in a chokehold.

She said she couldn't stand those types of guys. She said she preferred 'civilised individuals' - or girls (and here she'd winked, only to have Neo roll her eyes).

Yang was like an open flame - she brought Neo out of her shell and made her emotions start to spark.

"You're pretty small, you know that?"

Neo narrowed her eyes, making Yang laugh.

"Oh, so you're touchy about your height?"

Neo turned away, giving Yang her answer.

"Sorry. I was just going to say that you remind me of my sister."

Neo turned to look at her, just in time to see Yang's face fall a little before her usual bright expression returned.

"Yeah, I have a sister. Haven't I mentioned her before?"

Neo shook her head.

"Well, my bad. Her name was Ruby."

Was. Neo looked at Yang, a sympathetic look in her eyes. The other girl sighed softly before saying,

"Yeah. She died."

Neo wanted to say she was sorry, but she couldn't. So instead she put a hand on Yang's foot, her pale fingers resting on the leather of her boot. The movement was gentle and hesitant. Yang smiled softly, her eyes warm.

Neo couldn't remember the last time she touched someone without meaning to harm them. She couldn't even remember the last time she tried to comfort someone. Or if anyone even tried to comfort her.

Before her hands began to shake, she pulled them back into her lap and looked away.

"So, anyway. I was talking about how you remind me of Ruby." Yang said, her voice light again. "She was tiny too. Not as tiny as you, though, you set the bar."

Neo turned to look at the teasing smile on the other girl's face and willed herself to loosen up.

"Ofcourse she was only 11 when she..."

They fell silent again. Neo wondered what had happened - why she had been that young. Too young.

"I always used to pull her into these huge hugs, because she could never get away. I just used to squeeze and listen to her squeal." Yang laughed, mimicking the movement with her arms.

Neo wondered if she imagined her sister was there when she embraced the air. She looked down at her hands and noticed her fingernails were digging into her palms. Her breathing turned shallow.

"Do you have any siblings?"

Neo shook her head once.

"You know, everyone always says siblings are so annoying. In any other situation I would tell you you're lucky. But it's true what they say - you don't know what you have until you lose it."

Neo blinked hard, trying to control herself. She could feel an attack coming on. Something about Yang, about her little sister, about death, about all these emotions swimming around inside her head made it harder to control.

She had to tell Yang to get out.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Neo looked up, shaking her head quickly. She pointed towards the door.

"What? Why are your eyes..."

Neo pointed again, her chest rising and falling as she gulped down air.

"Are you okay? Neo?"

Neo reached over to the bedside table and pressed her panic button, pointing again to the door.

"Neo?"

Neo could feel herself losing control.

She backed up into the corner of the bed, pulling her legs up with her.

"What's wrong?" Yang asked, her voice louder and panicked. Neo held out a hand to stop her from coming closer.

Suddenly two carers came in the door, pushing Yang to the side and going straight to the girl curled up on the bed.

"What's going on? What's wrong with her?" Yang asked. One of them, the man, turned around and spoke to her.

"I need you to leave."

"What?"

"Please, I need you to leave for your own safety." He began to push her out of the door.

"Don't touch me! I want to know what's wrong!" Yang shouted over the sounds of struggle coming from the bed. She tried to see what was going on, but the carers blocked her view.

"Please calm down. We can talk later and -"

"She needs help. I want to help!"

Neo let out a strangled noise from the bed.

"You're hurting her!"

"We're not -"

The lamp and bedside table crashed to the floor. Both of the carers rushed to Neo, who was thrashing and kicking. Yang stood still in shock. Another person pushed past her and went to help them.

Just as Neo kicked one of the carers in the stomach, Ren appeared at her side, lightly pulling her out of the room and closing the door.

"Come with me, Yang. I'll explain."

*

Thank you for reading! x