Ariadne and the Flaming Torch : The Quest

Book 1 : The Quest.

Chapter 2
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Divination; if only I had gleaned an iota of talent from the discipline, then perhaps I would have known that it would turn out like this.

But had I known, and had I had the strength, I probably would have killed myself long ago.

I walked down the hallways, humming under my breath and greeting everyone I came across.

"Hello, Harry. How was your day?"

"It was okay. Not much happening around here, though. How about you Doctor Novis?"

"Oh, I'm fine...I suppose. Beautiful night today, huh?", I asked sardonically.

"Oh, yeah. Beautiful.", snorted Harry.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the 201 ward?", I asked him.

"Shouldn't you be in the 333 ward?", he retorted.

I rolled my eyes and waved him off. He scoffed before walking off. What the fuck? Rude assed moron; I resumed my routine.
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Go into a room.
Check if the patient is still there.
State their condition.
Make small talk with them.
Ask them questions that contradict with their delusions.
Agree with them if their denial causes them to go catatonic or if they become potentially dangerous.
Say you believe in them and reassure them.
Inform them of their visitors (if they have any).
Tell them they are getting "better".
Say good bye and walk off.
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And the process starts again. Honestly it starts to get boring at some point. Ah, the tedium.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Room 333 was my last assignment before my shift finally ended. It was also the room I hated the most. It was scary, facing that room. It honestly was. The patient there was not only delusional, but she was also dangerous. I curse her uncle every time I was assigned with that room, which was more often than not... He had taught her to fight and fight she did.
The bitch nearly gave me a concussion the last time I saw her. And I couldn't even fight back or I would get fired. Besides, I didn't want to hurt her, not really.

She was scared. That was all. She shut herself off from all but her trusted friends. She shut me out. Every time! It honestly hurt how much she hated me. None of the other patients hated me. Watching my mother slowly go mad had really put my life into perspective. She hated it, my mom. She hated being treated like she was a fragile doll. She would slap me every time I looked at her with pity but then she would hug me and beg for forgiveness. She would tell me how much she hated it when people treated her like she did. Like she was broken... Because she wasn't! But then again what would she know? She was barking mad, as my grandmother called her.

I hated my Grandma, I really did. She was a bitch. I wanted a grandma like the ones they showed in the movies, what with the baking cookies and loving smile and what not. But then again, I should know all about people's desires and how they weren't always fulfilled. I was surrounded with people like them. Take my mother for instance. She wanted my safety. Nothing more, nothing less. She wanted to love me forever. But she couldn't do that. And it was my entire fault. Having your daughter being chased around by demons really takes a toll on someone.

Wait, what? Demons! What the hell am I talking about? She didn't die because of demons. She committed suicide because she was dissatisfied with life. Yep, that's it. She was dissatisfied with every word dad threw at her, every pound she gained, every nightmare she had, every comeback her wayward son gave her. Not to mention she was dissatisfied with and disappointed in her cry bay daughter who didn't know shit about how to protect herself. Protect myself from demons.

Again with the demons! What's up with me! Maybe being in the loony really bin WAS bad for me like Solis kept telling me...
I reached the door to room 333. I didn't want to go in there, I really didn't. Every time I went in there I would remember being shocked then scared. I would remember screaming something but I wouldn't what it was. I would remember screaming bloody hell. I would remember pain, unimaginable pain. And then I would remember nothing at all. It'd be a blank, and those blanks scared me. They scared the living hell out of me. It was how mom was right before she became mad. She'd disappear for a couple of hours and then she'd come back and say she didn't remember anything she did. Then she would act like the bitch she was. The bitch she turned into after I turned five.

That was the reason I didn't like going into this room. I was scared I was turning mad, just like my mother. And the fact that I was always in the hospital didn't help either. After every black out, I've always turned up at the hospital. I don't ever remember going back to my house. Most of the time I didn't even remember my name! I tried to avoid this room every day but my efforts were always futile. I would get assigned to this room every day, walk in, black out and then come back in this place with no memories of the previous day. Nothing at all... It was terrifying.
But orders were orders and I would fired for not obeying orders, so with a feeling of rising terror I took a deep breath and twisted the door knob.
"Hello...I'm so sorry. This must be some mistake. It says here your name is Ariadne but that can't be because my name is Ariadne and it's not such a common name..." I blabbered.

I heard a groan and turned to look for its source. A girl with black and red hair with silver strips stood with her back to me. She was easily as tall as I was. Her body was slim but curvy with her hair going down to her round muscular butt. Long, lean legs sheathed in black denim jeans and a graceful torso covered with a black T-shirt. With light honey skin with a creamy undertone and biker boots, she stood with her back to me.
"Shut up, you talk way too much!"

I snapped out of it and looked up at her, the sense of prolonging danger deep in my bones. The same honey skin, though with a slight tan, pink, pouty lips, a straight slightly wide nose and deep brown doe eyes stared back at me. I frowned, my lips turning down into a pout. She copied me, her lips too turning down into a frown. This Ariadne... There was something wrong about her. It was on the tip of my tongue, mocking me. I had to figure out what was wrong with her.

I inspected her again. The face, the nose, the lips, the high cheekbones, the curved eyebrows, the narrow chin, the rounded jaw...it was all familiar to me. All of it! All of it except...the eyes! That was it, her eyes shouldn't be like that.

"What do you mean my eyes shouldn't be like that?"
What? Oh, did I say that out loud. Oops, my bad.

"If they shouldn't be like that then what should they be like? Huh, Ariadne? You are the other Ariadne?"
What did she call me? The other Ariadne? She asked me how her eyes should be and I blurted out the answer before thinking.

"Red sandwiched between silver encircled between rings of violet with a sea of black around the edge."
What? Since when did I talk like that? Sea of black, rings of violet? Seriously; something is wrong with me.
Ariadne - the other one, not me - smirked and clapped. "Bingo."
Bingo? What's that supposed to mean?
Suddenly I felt the color drain from my face. That was strange. I touched my face and all I felt was coldness. "What?" I asked.

"Are you cold? You should be. You're not real, remember?"
What! Who was she to tell me if I was real or not! This girl had some nerve! Telling me I didn't exist when I so clearly stood before her! Barking mad, I tell, you! Barking mad! I do exist!

Suddenly I felt a jolt in my stomach and a little voice in the back of my mind whispered, "No you don't."
No I don't? What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Great, I'm going mad! I need a vacation! I really do! So this was why I didn't remember this room. Who would? I snorted. With hospitality like this, I'm glad I don't remember it!

"Who the hell are you to tell me whether I exist or not?" I voiced my thoughts.

She laughed with derision. It sounded mad, honestly. Her eyes were blazing as she answered me. "Denial... Look over in the mirror and then tell me you exist."

Mirror! What mirror? There wasn't a bloody mirror anywhere in the entire hospital! Seriously! What kind of game was she playing! Patients weren't aloud to have mirrors inside their rooms because they could accidentally or intentionally hurt themselves with it. The glass, they could commit suicide using the glass.

I was about to point out the flaws in her demand when there were a rush of air in the room. What? There were no windows in here. I turned around and sure enough, the entire wall was replaced with a giant mirror.

"Your mirror." she sneered but I couldn't hear her. I was staring at her, more precisely, her eyes. They weren't the chocolate brown anymore. They were exactly as I had described. Red sandwiched between silver encircled between rings of violet with a sea of black around the edge. Her tri-colored eyes were blazing with life and excitement. Why was she so bloody excited? She shouldn't be. There was no logical reason for it. In fact there should be no logical reason behind this entire meeting of ours. The wall simply couldn't be replaced by mirrors and the re simple couldn't be any "rush of air" as there were no windows. It was simple and logical; just how I wanted my life to be. Not to mention her eyes. The eyes that were currently boring into me.

"Come on. Stop staring at me and look in the mirror." she ordered me and, for some strange reason, I complied. There was an aura around her that demanded respect. It was the kind of unmistakable authority that made you cower. It was the kind of authority I had. I couldn't disobey her so I looked into the mirror again and felt myself go still with shock.

I wasn't there! There was no me! I was nothing but a tiny glowing circle of incorporeal light! What the hell1 I've finally gone mad. I looked down at myself and found a hand. A hand perfectly that was identical to hers. A hand that was completely transparent. I looked down at myself and I wasn't there. Only a shadow of me was standing. I was terrified. The emotions running through me were impossible to comprehend. Terror, anxiety, worry, astonishment and the most surprising of all, joy! What was I feeling joy for?
The scenery changed. It became my happy place. It was the forest of my dreams. The thick greenery created a canopy which sheltered us against the rough winds and cold rain. The rain was cold just like my body and the wind was raging, just like my emotions. The sky was exactly as I had imagined - conflicted.
It represented me but it also represented the person standing in front of me.

"Come on Ariadne, time to come home. We don't have much time left. If you don't come now, you'll be lost forever." her soft voice begged me urgently. Here, standing in the forest of my dreams, the cold rain passing through my incorporeal form, I had an epiphany. I had been running. For all of this time I had been running. And now I was home. The person standing in front of me was none other that me. I was a part of her and she was a part of me. We couldn't survive without each other. This strange loneliness I had been feeling for the past couple of weeks had been triggered by these. I had lost a part of my soul. Or rather, I was the soul she had lost. A part of it, I suppose. If I went to her, I would come home.

A putrid smell drifted from somewhere. It was like a wake-up call. We had to get out of here now. Time was running out. So, I walked slowly towards the other me standing there, the one that was speaking to me urgently and radiating warmth. I smiled and took her hands into mine, unprepared for the sudden rush of emotions that overcame me as I said these words, "I'm home."

She smiled at me and said, "Yes you are." And I was lost in blissful ignorance. Somewhere out there, the putrid smell came again, calling to us.
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The first thing I felt when I woke up was happiness. I hadn't felt this happy in a long time. I first thing I saw when I woke up was Solis standing over me with a worried expression on his face. The first thing I smelt when I woke up was....regrettably....Solis's socks. The smell was disgusting and I was suffocating. Didn't he wash these things?! Seriously, gross.

"Solis, get these socks out of my fucking face." I mumbled against the fabric. Oh my god, some of the fabric came in contact with my tongue. I tasted it! Fuck, now I'm going to have this godforsaken horrid taste in my mouth all day long. I'm going to have to wash my mouth out with bleach. Thank God, he removed it!

"Do you know how worried I was?" he asked urgently, nearly crushing my bones while he hugged me.
"You were out for a week! I tried everything and I mean everything, even bloody go-go dancing to loud music to wake you up! You came around a few times but then you fell asleep again. Do you know how fucking annoying that was? That stupid pantyhose nearly castrated me and you took one look at me, snorted and went back to fucking sleep! I mean what the fuck! I was even wearing the sodding feathery head piece and glittery leotard! And you went back to sleep!"

"Can you wear that outfit now? Please? I want to see how you look in-in-in fucking pantyhose!" I exploded into a bout of laughter. I laughed my ass off. Needless to say, imagining Solis in a go-go dancing outfit was amusing. I snorted and started laughing again. Solis rolled his eyes, smacked me upside the head and said, "Stop laughing, I nearly castrated myself for you. The least you can do is respect that!"

His demand made me laugh even more. Solis was looking at me funny. After some seconds, I started feeling self-conscious and asked him why he was staring at me. He shook his head and said, "It's nothing. It's just that...I haven't seen you laugh so much in a long time. Not after mom died."

That immediately sobered me up. I was going to have to tell him why I kept going in and out of consciousness and what I had found out. So I told him, "Solis, we're going to have to see uncle."

His eyes widened and he nodded.
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