Chapter 3 pt2
“Why are you lying, Ace? Joker told me the news, how everyone’s planning to abandon me! You know why I can't play as much!” I stared up at him and pointedly shook the bindings that lay unused at my sides.
My eyes welled up with tears, but he was giving me a quizzical, confused look. He sat back, his butt landing between my ankles with a plop. When he saw a tear slip down my cheek, he started to cry himself.
“Abandon you, Emily? What are you talking about? Jack adores you; he’d kill any card that said something like that!” He wiped his nose, looking hurt that I suggested such a thing to him. I glanced at Joker who seemed to be vibrating in the corner. It all clicked into place, and I looked for something to pelt him with, but the only thing I had were my cards, and they were too precious to pelt objects with—even if that object was a lying bastard.
“JOKER!” I yelled, and he burst into a fit of laughter.
He fell on the floor and rolled around like an animal. Ace’s mouth dropped as he realized what happened, and he jumped up to stand on my bed swiftly. He flung a sword out of its scabbard on his belt and aimed it at Joker.
“On guard, you boisterous fool! I will run you through! How dare you lie to Lady Emily?”
I reached up quickly and clutched Ace’s robes, I looked into his face pleadingly. “Quiet! Both of you!” I whispered. “The orderlies will hear you!”
Both quieted instantly and Ace sank to his knees. He sighed and crawled next to my side to lie beside me, his golden hair pooling over my hospital gown. Joker even moved to perch on the edge of my bed, both of their eyes staring at me with such sadness that for a moment I couldn’t breathe.
“Tell me again what these horrid orderlies are?” Ace whimpered.
“Yes, do tell. This treatment…” Joker picked up a bruised wrist and dropped it. It fell like a rock and he glared at what had become of my once glorious body. “…This treatment is inexcusable,” he finished.
I knew he was only going along with Ace to avoid being punished for his heinous joke, but it didn’t matter now that I knew it to be false. I was foolish to fall for it in the first place.
“Orderlies are…” My voice was small and my eyes focused on nothing as I searched for the best description. “Orderlies are like…the King of Spade’s soldiers; harsh, cruel, merciless, and always shouting orders as if they are royalty themselves. They are paid to feed, bathe, and medicate me every day as I rot in this room.” It was as good as any comparison I could come up with. The cards were medieval, they wouldn’t understand me if I gave them the proper description.
“I don’t understand why they keep you here, I hate them for it!” Ace declared and pounded a fist on my stomach.
I grunted but showed no other sign of pain for fear that he’d burst into tears again. “They keep me here because of the King of Spades. He lured me to that place…to do what I did…and then the lawyer flipped his card in court and it was ruled that I was insane. But who wouldn’t have screamed and tried to run from the courtroom? He came at me with an ax!” I rubbed my arms to get rid of the gooseflesh that popped up as I remembered that day.
“Oh…” Ace muttered. I got the feeling that he didn’t truly want an answer, but he had wanted me to comfort him.
Joker jumped up and began to sing a ballad about the defeat of the King that would never happen; but in his wake and booming voice, both Ace and I were forced off the side of the bed in a crash that people in Antarctica could likely hear. My ankles were twisting but I was too panicked to feel the pain.
“Hide! Hide!” I screamed at them.
Both moved to do so; Ace slid under my bed and Joker jumped up and clung to the roof…somehow… I had no time to ask him. I forced myself back up into my bed, snatched the first card in a pile of my ruined game, and shoved it under my pillow just as the orderlies burst into my room. Heidi and Mark.
Gods help me…
They took one look at my cards and lunged for them, gathering them as I screamed and clawed at their flesh.
“GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!” I demanded as tears streamed down my face. I could feel the only people who ever meant anything to me vanishing with the cards. Mark hissed in anger as my nails ripped four long scratches across his cheek. He raised a two-way radio to his mouth and spoke briskly.
“It happened again, Doctor Pottervine. She was screaming ‘hide’ before we entered.” He straightened his scrubs and watched the overweight Heidi inspect my body. The bitch found the bruises from Ace in no time and gave Mark a meaningful glance.
“She’s been hitting herself—” Mark started
“I have NOT!” I cut Mark off and clawed at Heidi’s face. She jumped back from me and glared, but crushed my wrists in her meaty hands as she bound them too tight in the straps on the bed; I could feel my circulation being cut off.
“—gain,” Mark finished, looking annoyed.
“Ace was just excited to see me! STOP TOUCHING ME, BITCH!” I screamed and lunged at her, getting the fat of her cheek between my teeth and biting down hard.
She screamed, but before I could wrench skin from bone, there was a sharp stab in my shoulder. Instantly I had no strength to fight and I fell back onto my bed. Mark had injected me with something, and rendered me capable of nothing else, I listened to them talk.
“She bit me, Mark! The bitch bit me!”
“She is hopeless…we should put her out of her misery.” He tapped the needle and chuckled. Heidi groaned and yanked the needle from his hand, shutting him up. She looked down at me and I loathed the feel of her bulging eyes on my face.
“Twenty-two and she still has imaginary friends,” she muttered.
“Too bad she killed that man; she could have been one nice piece of ass.”
“No, Mark. Not her. No one will ever want her. ”
There was silence after that. Once again, I was forced into sleep in my own personal hell. My meds had begun to kick in and were escalated by the injection—whatever it was— and my world melted into blackness.
I woke to genuine darkness, the night’s dose of medications had been given through an I.V. that still dripped annoyingly somewhere to my right. My waist was strapped down now, as were my shoulders, knees, and even my forehead. The fight must have continued…
“Don’t move, Emily, please? You could hurt yourself…all those tubes… I’m so very sorry…” Groaning, I turned my eyes towards the sound of the voice. An Asian man dressed in fine silk robes sat pin-straight at the end of my bed. His face was solemn but tear-stained, and as he stared at me he pushed his long black hair behind his ear. I sighed, his beautiful visage made the gray of my room all but disappear.
“Hello, Seven,” I greeted.
“Hello, dear.” He leaned forward slowly and kissed the corner of my mouth with unbelievable gentleness. “Too bad you didn’t draw Crazy Eight.” He forced himself to chuckle. “He would have been able to stop them from hurting you altogether.” He sighed. “Ace is beside himself with worry, blames himself, you know? He’s started questioning his bravery. Joker, on the other hand, has not stopped laughing.” Seven frowned deeply and caressed my face as I began to slip into the medicated night again.
“Jack sends his love,” he whispered. And I slipped back into my nightmares.
