Far From Refuge [ACTIVE//OPEN]

[imitation0human]

Who: Rion Steiner, OPEN.
Where ICU.
When: Late afternoon, after Rion’s awakening.
Rating: Between PG-13 to R.
Summary: After a three-day coma, Rion Steiner is awake. Visitation to his room in the ICU is officially open, though under staff supervision.
the Story:

Comments

[love_debased]

The door creaked open slowly, just enough for the young woman's head to peek through. She paused, as if unsure, then slipped the rest of the way in and gingerly shut the door behind her. Hands to her chest, eyes quietly watching the other patient. He still had so many bruises...

"Rion," Furiae said timidly, "How are you feeling?" It seemed like a bad question right after she said it. He had been comatose for days, and he still had so many injuries--how good could he be feeling? Her gaze fell to the floor.

"...Have you been treated well?" She hoped he had let the doctors treat him, Rion had been so adamantly against it before.

[imitation0human]

He could be found resting on his bed, head laid back down on the soft ICU pillows. They were a little softer than the ones he had in his room, even. And when he heard a door sound, open and close, his head slowly turned. The motions of this made a sickening blur of edges, objects unclear until he saw a girl standing in the doorway.

‘Rion.’

A momentary pause of trying to remember... trying to remember.

Rion.

That was his name. And she was-

“Lilia...” The name blurted as the dusty haze unsettled, pulling apart and then he saw her. She wasn’t Lilia. Rion blinked hard. “No, Furiae.” He rolled his head over the pillows, back at the ceiling with a look of embarrassment. “They gave me something while I was out. I don’t know what.”

[born_of_blood]

Something about ICU spake BIRDMAN.

So he went to investigate. He wandered systematically until he his the ICU. He stepped inside, his eyes drif t e d over the contents until he found someone of relevance.

"Baby brother, you look unwell. What ever happened?"

He hadn't bothered to change since he arrived. They offered him soft cotton clothing to replace the vinyl thing, but he refused. He bathed at least, and a nurse sprayed the whole jumpsuit down with disinfectant while swearing to herself that the next time he showered she would steal and burn it.

"Rion."

He knew he was only standing there to psyche him out. He couldn't act yet. He saw the guard on his way in, and without even a drop of Red; he knew he would be powerless. What a shame.

"How are you feeling, baby brother?"

[imitation0human]

There wasn’t much hope for Rion getting out of bed. Not yet. He still had another day. And while earlier he had made an attempt to do so, things only changed.
Distorted.
Became something that they are yet
was not.

Baby brother, you look unwell.

The sound of his name in a voice that rang and rang and rang like little bells of a memory, yet it still didn’t quite register from the who what where when why HOW. The fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh of nausea and pain,
throbbing in his skull preoccupied him most.

Whatever it was, he heard voices. Must have.

“Fell down stairs.” Rion’s jaw tightened at the lie. He had come up with that in the past, with Furiae, despite it being obvious that his injures were inflicted, like hell it was an accident. But that was his story.

Hand covering his face, over his vision migraines. Like this was something new only it really, really wasn’t.

Still not registering the mirror image of a twin who entered, talking to him.

Just another dream.

Just another dream.

Doesn’t roll them.

[born_of_blood]

"What, was there a pile of broken glass and nails on those stairs?"

Laughter.

"Ehehehehehehheheheheheheheheheheheheh. Ohhh, Rion! You can't lie to me, I'm you!"

Cain swayed back and forth gently, the last bit of drug in his system wearing away. His head started throbbing, the usual pain. It was dull right now. But growing steadily.

Might as well just make the v e r y best of this.

"What really happened, baby brother."

Cain was dressed just as Rion might remember somewhere in the crevice somewhere. Strange black vinyl covered his torso and accented his pale-but-yellowing skin, contrasted the sleek with the rough, peeling skin.

If he didn't wear that weird little collar, you'd see a massive scar. It already had a bandage on it earlier. It was so very gross and infected. It was a wonder he didn't need his neck amputated. Ehehehehe. That's not supposed to be that amusing.

[imitation0human]

“That’s stairs for you, I g-” Rion started to say, but then was cut off by the sudden laughter. That
laugh,
growing louder and
louder so that even if he were to pinch himself he still wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between delusion and being awake.

I’m you! It sounded like some kind of riddle or something. But when Rion lowered his hand from his face and turned his head... oh but slowly. Slowly, so as not to cause the spinning world to change again but oh no, too late, too late- As the walls melted and the thin shreds of light from the windowpane blared into the room like radiation, radiating the room, there stood a shape familiar yet forgotten.

Now it just seemed more like a sick, sick joke.

A cruel game played by his own subconscious. Had

(they say that life is but a dream)

to be.

Eyes widened only slightly, and then squinted. A mirror image, but not quite. Grinning, cackling, saying things... Such strange things. Not him. Not.

“Go away.” The words were like instincts. There was something unsettling about this