Day 26: Intercom, Dawn
As the sun rose up into the blue, cloudless sky, it seemed as if this day would be a particularly warm one. The Head Doctor, at least, seemed happy about it as the intercom clicked on and he began his first announcement on a cheery note
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Though her senses seemed strangely hindered, her brain was not and it did not take long for her to realize that all things were not well. Sitting up quickly, it felt as if a heavy load had been lifted from her shoulders and as she turned her head, she realized that one had.
She inhaled slowly and then exhaled. It was the first sign of panic she had allowed herself. Already knowing what she would find, she slid a dark hand over her head and continued the movement until she reached the back of her neck without hindrance.
Nothing.
One perfectly formed human foot touched the ground, followed by another. Watching them intensely, she lifted her heels off the cold floor and then slowly lowered them again. Lifting them once again, she stood and quickly learned the error of her ways as she lost her balance and only managed to regain it by falling flat onto her heels again. She tried standing on her toes once more and this time was rewarded with more success as she steadily took a few steps forward.
“How fate likes to jest,” she murmured under her breath, even though no one was there to hear her. Her sister Jote would have said it was what she had always wanted, wasn’t it? That she had abandoned her sisters to be with them. The Humes.
She knew not what manner of magick could have caused this, but even without a mirror present, Fran knew her transformation was absolute. Gone were her ears, replaced instead by strange fleshy shells that could hear nothing but her own movements within the room. Gone were her claw-like nails, her long feet and her tail.
Her surroundings were only a secondary concern. If this was a prison, it was far nicer than any she had been in recently. No, this looked far more like… a hospital.
Normally she would have torn the room apart already, looking for anything that could possibly benefit her. In her distracted state of mind, she had only begun to slide the dresser drawer open when she heard the doorknob turn behind her.
She turned on her toes and tensed, ready to spring at whatever came through the door, whether or not she had anything to fight with but herself. When she was greeted by a smiling nurse carrying a clipboard, she did not relax.
The nurse’s smile faltered somewhat as she set eyes on the tall dark-skinned woman who, like many before her, seemed eager to attack, but unlike many before her, also seemed insistent upon standing on her tip-toes.
“Elisabeth Stevens?” The nurse continued to smile, but Fran could not guess what she was so happy about.
Seeing the woman meant no harm, at least for the time being, Fran relaxed and replied with her characteristic heavy accent, “You are mistaken.” She did not elaborate further.
The nurse resisted the urge to roll her eyes and continued, “Ms. Stevens, I’m here to welcome you to Landel’s Institute. You’re not well.”
The nurse’s words seemed to trigger a memory and Fran’s brow creased as she tried to think back to the moments before she was awakened.
She had been with Balthier inside of the Bahamut trying to stop it from falling into the city of Rabanastre. It had practically been a suicide mission.
Maybe it had been.
“A tall attractive man who speaks a great deal. Was he with me when I arrived?” she asked suddenly.
The nurse frowned, “You were alone, Ms. Stevens. You-”
“I see,” Fran cut her off before she could continue. She could hear his voice in her head: ”I’m the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.”
She could only hope.
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