Page 91 of Madness

“Hi, excuse me,” a voice whispers into the room, waking me from my sleep.

A woman with long brown hair and glasses creeps into my room.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Yasmine. I’m Bander and Hare’s friend,” she says, stepping closer, “I promised them I would come check on you.”

“Oh. I’ve not seen you around here before,” I reply.

“That’s because I’m neighbours with Bander,” she chuckles at her joke, and I smile in response.

“Have the others come down?” I ask hopefully, though I know it’s no use.

She shakes her head sadly, “Red took not well. Threw up all over the floor in the cafeteria, would you believe it?”

I try to sit up, forgetting the restraints and fall back onto the mattress, “Sick, how? Is she ok?”

“Oh, she’s fine…” she looks around the room, “but, if you believe in rumours…”

“I don’t.”

“Well, if you do… there’s a rumour going around Wonderland that she’s pregnant.”

I shake my head, trying to sit up again, “She can’t be. Not in here.”

“Will you stop that? The restraints aren’t going to move, no matter how much you struggle.”

“But she’s pregnant!” I exclaim.

“No, she might be, but you know what the flowers are like. It’s either an eating disorder, pregnant or she’s got some flesh-eating disease that’s eating her from the inside out,” Yasmine laughs again, “it’s ridiculous.”

“If the baby is yours, it’s going to be mad just like you.”

“Mad baby, mad baby, mad baby.”

If Red is pregnant, then she needs to get out of here, and all I can do is hope that the others will help her and go with her.

“Can you get me out of here?” I ask Yasmine, who’s watching me with wide eyes.

“I can’t. I’m already risking too much coming in here, but I can never say no to Hare,” she explains, “he’s far too cute.”

“Well, thank you.”

“Anytime,” she whispers again, slipping back out the door and leaving me with the silence once again.

“If she’s pregnant, you cannot go with her. Look at what you did to Alice.”

“Off, off, off!”

I don’t reply, but the voices have a point.

I’m far too much of a danger to her to leave with them, and I’m terrified that I would do to her what I did to Alice.

No… it’s safer if I stay here in solitary, where I belong.

I can’t hurt anyone here, and Wonderland may be the only chance I have at being normal.

Chapter Thirty-One

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