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༉˚*ೃ ᵒ⁵. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍!
𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐘 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐓 into the basement, nearly tripping over the final step as her toe caught on uneven carpet. Though she landed safely on her feet, her arm flung out to catch on the side of the wall. Frantically, her eyes searched the room. She'd half expected Dorotea to be sitting out in the open on the couch or something. Instead, she found the room seemingly empty. That struck a knife of worry into her chest. Some books were strewn on the ground alongside some discarded films, and the telephone receiver hung off its hook. It was beeping that it was disconnected as it dangled at the length of its chord. "Tea?" Nancy asked tentatively, stepping into the room. With fear creeping into her veins, she lifted the phone back onto the telephone's base—successfully silencing the noise.
There was a small amount of scuffling before Tea's pointed peered out from beneath the table, eyes searching. "Oh, Nancy," she said, and began to crawl out on her hands and knees. They were littered with tiny carpet burns—from having to scramble into hiding so quickly. "I thought you were your family." Her hair was a frizzy mess in front of her and her cheeks had grown hollow.
Sighing in relief, Nance shook her head and pulled her brown jacket off her body, "No, just me." She dropped the coat on the back of a chair, and smoothed down her short white dress as Tea got to her feet. Nancy Wheeler looked remarkably pretty in the dress, thought Tea to herself, glancing at the shorter girl with her mossy eyes.
"That's good," whispered Tea. But as Tea stood, Nancy recognised the worry in her eyes from nights before. Frightened, the girl kept sending glances around the room, as if waiting for anything to be hiding in the shadows of the corners. Perhaps she was. The way her teeth sunk into her lip was drawing blood. It bloomed bright and red on the shredded skin, which Nancy had only just noticed.
With careful precision, Nancy approached her. "Hey," she murmured, pushing some of her own perfectly curled hair behind her ear, "Is everything okay?" Cautiously, she reached a hand out to Tea, who was looking remarkably nervous. Tea's face had begun to pale as well, beginning to appear more ill than anything else.
As if startled by Nancy's comment, Tea's eyes darted back to Nance's face, dragging away from the corners of the room. "Oh," she said softly, in that low, shaky voice she had. "I'm..." What was she to say? That she was perfectly alright? That she hadn't been seeing terrible monsters everywhere that she turned? She bit deep into her tongue, until the faint taste of blood touched her tastebuds. She did that so often, now. She was sure that her tongue must be littered in tiny bite-scars. Instead, Tea decided to do what she did best, and tell the truth. Biting again on her lip—Nancy had the sudden urge to reach out and touch Tea's face to stop her from doing that—Tea spoke up once again, "I just... I keep having these... hallucinations?" It came out as a question, so Tea forced her eyes shut and forced herself to explain it better. "Like... these flashes in the room. Something that's not there. It's so... stupid." Her hand bunched up into her hair. Tugging at strands of her brown locks—in a way that looked borderline painful—she gave Nancy a slightly wounded expression. There were hint of frustration in her gaze: frustration at herself. "I feel insane and so stupid, all of this has all been so pointless, and now I'm feelings things that aren't there, and imagining things, and— and seeing stupid monsters everywhere."
