Nightmare Asylum

[bobindiapers]

I thought for sure Bridget was going to grab the key out of Trudie's dress when she was across her lap getting spanked.

[SGTbaby]

Wow...poor Soren...looking forward to the next phase!

[Sophie ♥]

28.)

It was just me now and as the minutes ticked into hours and those I trusted turned to the grasps to these horrible ghastly captors of ours, my doubts got ever louder. Not doubts about escaping, but doubts about who I'd escape with. Was there any way to bring them back from this? Maybe they were dead, maybe they were dead and I was the only one still alive, and if I kept trying so hard to save them, I'd wind up dead too. I grew increasingly restless, moving from activity to activity; hearing one line from the book, stacking two blocks on each other, walking through the archived books with words I didn't recognize on the spine. Were we even in America? Maybe this ghostly haunted place had taken us to a different country in the illusion. I couldn't stay still, and I realized only after giggling, that I'd been muttering to myself out loud all afternoon. I had to get out of here.

"Where are you taking Ria?" Trudie looked down at the not-so-big sister.  She patted Bridget on the head. "She has a session with the doctor.  It will be over very soon though." I gave my sister a strange look behind my black eyes and forced a smile.  I felt sleepy.  But after yesterday, after she started taking those pills... Bridget and I weren't getting along at all.  It made me sad...

I watched and waited as Trudie led Ria to the edge of the room and then dashed across the library to the door, catching it only barely before it clicked closed behind the two of them. I panted softly and paused as though the whole world might end because of what I did.  But the only thing that happened was Soren and Kori started to yell after me.  I turned to them.  “I’m sorry, I can't help you two. I don't know if I can help Ria either. I want to, but if I don't get out of here I'm gonna end up broken like you all are…” I cracked the door to look into the hall outside, and then smiled at my two fellow captives. "I'll try to send help if you're still alive..."

Kori immediately got up from the floor, where she had been reading, and ran over to the library door to stop Bridget.  Soren just stared in awe from the other side of her castle. "Bridget don't you dare!  Bridget you are finally--" But the door clicked shut just before she got to it.  Bridget could hear the banging on the other side of the door.  Why the library was locked today but it wasn't yesterday was a question lost to the ages.  And again, Bridget was alone.  But this time, without any prying eyes.

I remembered Mommy telling me about mazes, about putting one hand on the left wall and keeping it there and eventually I'd be able to make my way out... only... only I remembered that when she was reading us a bedtime story and that life wasn't the real one... so I put my hand on the other wall and began to walk, muttering to myself again. "Just find the way out... find the way out and go home, go home and don't look back... I'm sorry Ria, I'm sorry Ria I don't wanna leave you.  I'm a good girl, I'm just a bad sister, you're a good sister, you're a good girl..." That door looked familiar, that was the way out!! I flung it open excitedly and... saw the library again. What?! HOW?! I'd only made turns in one direction that should have worked!! I clicked the door shut again before the girls inside could catch up with me and held the side of my head; I was so dizzy.

"Bridget..." Trudie stood at the end of the hall, but I was halfway between her and Bridget.  I walked carefully over to my sister, slowly.  She looked scared.  Was she still having trouble?  I thought everything was better, but... "Hey, it's alright.  I'm here!  No worries, sis.  They are gonna fix us.  They are gonna make us better... come here."

I shook my head, I shook my head quicker and quicker and tried to avoid looking at my sisters eyes, her black eyes, cold and unfamiliar.  I stepped back slowly. "Don't come near me, Ria... they... they poisoned you, they made you like them, they made you believe this lie." Any pretense of my acceptance of being here went way out the window and I held the side of my head again. "I'm leaving and if you don't wanna leave then fine you can stay here and die like the rest of them, if you're not already dead, I don't fucking know."

"Language," I heard from behind me.  Trudie stood with her arms crossed.  I looked back at my sister, but she was still so out of it.  I thought she was better?  I thought we were better... but these past two days had been so empty between us.  I missed her... was she really so unhappy in this world?  Was she really so desperate for her make believe one?  I opened my mouth, but I didn't know what to say.  I was like them.  I was healthy?  I was back to normal?  But she didn't want me to be normal... "Sis... please..."

"I'm not your sister!! I'm not, I'm a grown-up, I'm..." I stumbled dizzily and leaned up against the wall, feeling something on my face; tears? Why was I crying, I didn't cry. The world spun for a moment and the two of them got far away and big and then closer and normal sized and I blinked until they were clear which only made my tears worse. "Soren knew, she knew..." I was sniffling. "And then they got to her and now she's broken too..."

I bit my lip.  She was still playing.  She was still lost in that make-believe world.  I thought she was better, but... "Bridget...?" I didn't call her sis.  I called her by her name.  But when I got too close, she pushed me away and ran past me.  But Trudie caught her in her arms.  It was easy when the girl was so small. "You need to see the doctor," Trudie said simply.

"No I don't!! I don't need to, I don't, why are you doing this! We didn't do anything wrong, we didn't do nuffin' wrong, we're just kids!!" Trudie held me in impossibly strong arms, and my feet wouldn't touch the ground no matter how much I kicked. "You tricked Ria but you're not going to trick me, I'm not taking your stupid pills!  They make you forget, Ria, they make you forget what's real.." I was bawling now, barely comprehensible. "Pumme down..."

"I knew that Soren was going to be trouble," Trudie sighed and picked up my sister in her arms.  But when she tried to walk away, I chased after her.  I wouldn't leave her alone anymore.  I wouldn't leave Bridget with them.  She was scared!  She just needed to know that I was on her side. "Ria," Trudie said. "Go back to the library." "Nuh uh, nuh uh..." But she couldn't make me, not while holding Bridget in her arms.

"Help me, Ria, help me, we can still get outta here, we can still go home, you can have your blue eyes back..." Blue eyes. Right. Right? Right. We both had crystal blue eyes, but hers were black now. Contrary to encouraging her, though, that comment only made Ria pause in place in confusion. "Ria! Help me! Come on it's not too late, it's not too late, you might still be alive!" I kicked weakly, squirmed, struggled, to no avail.

Black eyes?  I looked up at my sister as she squirmed in the woman's arms, but she was soon deposited on the ground in the large white room, with only the chair and the sofa.  The doctor woman wasn't there.  I shoved past Trudie into the room, and when she tried to pick me up I ran to the other side.  Bridget bolted for the door and I ran out after her.  With a click of the door, Trudie was sealed in.  We heard her fumbling for keys.  My skin felt prickly... "Bridget, we can't do this..."

"Yes we can!" I grinned and held up what Trudie wasn't going to find as she searched desperately: a ring of keys that I'd taken from her pocket when she held me. "Remember and focus okay, remember we came downstairs and the basement was flooded, okay? Remember that okay? 'cause when we get out that's gonna be the first thing you see and then all this will go away, I promise." I put my hand in hers tight, fingers interlocked, and ran down the hall with the keys in my other hand. This felt right, this felt like the right way, with freedom so close at hand I was clear and focused, I could visualize the way out. I tugged Ria out of the way of some big scary orderlies chatting with one another, and we turned left, and right, and left again, until we were in a room with plush red velvet carpet and a very ornate and heavy looking door at the other end. Freedom. "See! See, I told you, and now we have the keys too!!"

"Bridget, I don't know about this..." The room wasn't empty.  A woman sat at the front desk, looking over paperwork with thick reading glasses.  When Bridget went to step out from behind the counter, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down.  I pointed up at the woman and dropped my voice to a whisper. "She's gonna see us..." And then a feeling of nervousness overwhelmed me.  We were getting better here.  She was getting better here... "Please, let's go back... please Bridget?  For me?" But then she did something I didn't expect.  She kissed me.  Kissed me like when we were playing.  I fell back on my diapered bottom and she climbed on top of me.  Hidden by the counter, she held down my wrists and smashed her lips onto mine.  Oh.....

I didn't know what she was talking about, I didn't know who she was talking about, I just knew we were so close to escaping and if she kept talking, we were going to get caught by someone. It was weird knowing she was wearing a diaper at her age, but that didn't make her any less attractive to me; she was still the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world, and that's why we were girlfriends. Wait. Girlfriends? Sisters? Best friends...? One of them had to be right, right? And she loved it when I kissed her, she moaned and she mumbled and she melted and she was mine and this place wasn't going to keep her. And it wasn't like I didn't like kissing her, too... "Now shush." I whispered, breaking the kiss. "We're going home. Back to our school. Together. Right through that door, and there's nobody who's even gonna see us go."

I looked up at my sister.  No, Bridget wasn't my sister.  She was my best friend.  I had a crush on her.  And when she kissed me like that, it brought back all the memories of make-believe.  Or what I thought was make-believe.  Memories of us at school.  Memories of sitting too close at the movie theater.  Memories of kissing when we were drunk.  I bit hard on my bottom lip.  But that world... did I want it more than this one?  Before I could think of anything, Bridget pulled my wrist and tugged me toward the door.  The woman wasn't at the desk anymore - she went into another room to find something.  I was still so out of breath. "...what's it gonna be like?  When we leave?"

"Just like we remember it!" I put the keys into the door, one after another, trembling, trying to find the right one... one key... five keys... my fingers weren't working right, but then like magic one of the keys turned, the door opened and I was blinded. Blinded. Brightness. The smell of... of not a dank, flooded basement. I smelled flowers, I smelled grass, I smelled... salt water, the ocean? I realized after a few moments that I wasn't blind, that I hadn't been caught and punished. We were still in the doorway, the hospital behind us and in front of us a field of grass and tiny daisies, with the far off sound of the waves washing on a shore. "I..." What…?
 

[Wannatripbaby]

Whoa. Something tells me Bridget used the wrong key. Although I'm sure whatever world they just found will be a lot better than the one they've been trapped in. This might be my favorite chapter so far.

[SGTbaby]

Woohoo!

[Sophie ♥]

29.)

"...where's the basement?" But before either of us could come up with an answer, Bridget pulled the doors shut, leaving the keys jingling on the inside.  She took my wrist and pulled me off to the side, into the bushes.  It was so bright out here, it hurt my head.  Bridget wasn't faring any better. "I dun remember this, si--" I caught myself. "Bridget."

"It's just a trick, it's just another trick they're playing." But we were in a basement.  We’d come down stairs, the hospital we'd come to was down in a valley... right? The air here though smelled like the ocean, and part of me felt like I knew we were on a hill. "Just a trick..." Her eyes, though... her eyes were still pitch as black could be, dark and unfamiliar, cold and horrible. "Maybe I took the wrong door..." I didn't though, did I? I didn't, I knew we came in that way... I was about to ask her something else when we heard the sound of voices. "...I do think it will help them to see you, but Bridget more so. Ria's had wonderful progress, but if this doesn't work we may need to consider sending Bridget upstate." What...? I recognized the voice I guess, maybe it was the woman? Who was she talking to...

"I never thought..." But the new voice faded out.  A familiar voice.  I blinked.  I knew that voice.  I knew that person!  I ran out of the bush and pushed my face against the bottom of one of the windows.  It was opened, just a crack.  Inside, I saw the doctor woman talking to two adults.  My adults.  Momma and Daddy!  I was just about to scream for their attention when Bridget covered my mouth and dragged me down to the grass.  I wrestled in her arms until she let me go.  My face was red with frustration. "Momma and Daddy are in there!" I said in an annoyed whisper.

"They're not real.  It’s a trick, Ria." I hissed at her, right in her ear, holding her close as I could with my arms around her. They couldn't be trusted anyway, they're the ones who sent us here! Wait, no, they... "We're not sisters, remember? So we can't have the same parents, that's how you know it's a trick." I couldn't believe the lengths they were going to try and fuck with us; how far did this ghostly world go? Still... the voices inside the room... my chest ached. Momma and Daddy...?

There was a knock on the door.  I heard something quiet.  I fumbled out of my sister's grip and peeked through the window again.  Trudie.  And the doctor woman looked very concerned.  I slid back down to the grass. "They know we left.  They are gonna look for us." They'd find the keys.  They would know we were outside.  Outside... "What if this isn't a trick, Bridget..." But then again, the last time I'd left through those big oak doors, it was a trick too.  That woman made me think I had escaped, but I hadn't.  I pouted.  Was all this really a lie?  Was it just another illusion?

"We have to get out of here." But I was... scared. I was frightened to leave the edge of the building, like what if I fell out of reality altogether?! "We have to go, we have to." "Bridget...?" I knew that voice, I recognized Momma's perfect tones over a thousand voices and I began to panic because she'd heard me, because we'd been too loud. "Come on, hurry!" I pulled Ria to her feet and began to move away from the building, muttering to myself again and looking around; nothing looked familiar, nothing was right, nothing was right... the ocean got louder and louder but something rang out through the air that made us both freeze. "Bridget! Ria!" Momma... we couldn't help but look, we couldn't help but stare back at the entrance to the hospital at the woman, at the man who was our Daddy, at the doctor lady and Trudie and the orderlies that spilled out behind them.

Bridget pulled me into the woods.  We ran together through the trees, hand in hand.  Our lungs hurt.  Our legs hurt.  And all the while, voices called after us.  Bridget.  Ria.  I felt tears on my cheeks.  This wasn't right.  It wasn't.  Finally, we spilled out of the trees onto a cliff face, overlooking the ocean.  it went out so far, I wasn't even sure where it ended and where the sky began.  It was so beautiful, so remarkable, that I almost forgot it wasn't real.  I looked down at the rocks below us.  We had nowhere else to run... "It's a trick," my sister repeated, looking scared.  I took her hand. "If it is," I said softly, "then one of us is still in that room.  Trudie locked us in and the doctor woman is making us dream it." She had orchestrated this whole thing.  She made us see things, she made us feel things.  She changed us.  How?  What was she?  A ghost?  A sorceress?  An alien?

"Then..." I looked down at the rock below, the white foam of the waves washing up over top of them. "If it's a dream then we need to force us to wake up..." I didn't know if she thought about it the same time I did, but we were both quiet, both focused on the rocks below. It was such a long fall, nobody could survive it... there'd be no way we could dream through something like that. "If we jump, we'll wake up. It's um. It's one of those leap of faith things, you know, like in stories?"

When I looked at Bridget, she was eight years old.  She was my beautiful sister, the same girl I had always looked up to.  She wore a pretty dress and had her hair pulled back in a clip.  And she had that same certain smile, even though every part of her mind was wavering.  No matter what was real, no matter this world or the other, one constant was fact.  I trusted her.  When Bridget looked at me, I was not five years old.  I was a grown woman, in a cloth diaper, taller than her.  I wore a silly dress and I had my hair in pigtails.  And I had the same look in my eyes, no matter how dark they were.  I would follow her until the end of the Earth.  And here we were, at the end of it. "I trust you," I told her with a smile.  Whatever happened, it would be us together.  That's all that mattered.

I thought for a moment that I fell, that the wind carried me away from this lie and the sadness of who we were, that my sister glowed like an ethereal messenger to bring me the truth. But I didn't fall, did I? The wind I felt rush past me was the wind from the ocean washing upwards, and the girl just behind me was still bathed in halation from the colored sunlight, but she was no angel. She was my sister. I think. My feet brushed against the edge of the cliff, where grass had surrendered to a sudden and inevitable end, and beyond the sound of tumbling pebbles and loose rock, over the ghostly whisper of the wind, there were voices calling out to us both. "Bridget... please... please listen." I didn't look back, not at first. Not until Ria squeezed my hand, like she was telling me she wanted me to. I was sobbing. "This isn't real..."

"Ria, please come here, darling, please, please..." Momma begged me, with tears in her eyes.  She was standing in front of Daddy and the doctor woman and two men in white clothes, just on the edge of the tree line, no more than ten feet away.  She was so sad.  She was so scared.  I missed her so much, and... "Momma..." I felt my foot inch toward her, but I stopped myself.  No.  I was going to stay with Bridget, no matter what.  I took my sister's hand and hugged tightly against her.  She would keep me safe... she would... "Girls, please, please stop this, ple--" The doctor cut her off.

"Bridget, you're going to get hurt, you're going to hurt your sister the way that..." I wasn't sure why she stopped. Maybe she finally realized tht she couldn't make me feel any worse than I already did. Or maybe she was worried that she could. Once again, there was quiet, but I couldn't look up at any of them. I couldn't look at the doctor, I couldn't stand the disappointment she'd have in me. I couldn't look at our parents, if that's even who they were... they weren't, were they? They couldn't be... "Ria..." I whispered, softly. "Ria do you trust me...?"

"Uh huh," I said with a smile.  I never stopped trusting her.  I always knew she wanted what was best for me.  Even if she was selfish or mean sometimes, she didn't mean to be.  I didn't want to be in a world without her, no matter what.  If this world was fake, then we'd wake up together.  And if it wasn't?  Well, I wouldn't have to suffer without her. "Even when you got us in trouble, I always had so much fun with you.  I dun think that's a bad thing, no matter what." Trouble happens.  Sisters like Bridget - or best friends like Bridget? - or both? - that doesn't happen.  That's worth believing in.

~~~~~

Which world is real?  Which one would make Bridget and Ria happier?  You get to decide the end of the story!  Should Bridget jump off the cliff in an attempt to return to the world in her make-believe games?  Or should she accept that the hospital is real and she needs help?

PLEASE VOTE HERE
(Polls close in one week - 2/9/18)

Pudding and I wrote both endings.  Whatever wins the vote will be canon.  The non-canon ending will be available as a Patreon exclusive!

[Wannatripbaby]

Wow. Just wow.

I don't have a patreon account, so I can't vote. And in any case I'm sure whichever one you decide will be amazing.

I will say I hope they jump. I'm sure they could be happy in this reality, but I still don't think it's real. My evidence? Soren. If the other reality is made up how does Soren remember it? That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

[Sophie ♥]

Do you need a Patreon account to vote? ;_;  I made it open to the public... mm.  I wonder if there's a switch that allows anonymous voting?  Probably not, since that wouldn't be fair voting.  People could just vote over and over...

But Pudding and I will probably do more polls for future content!  So even for people who aren't supporters or don't want to spend money, making a free account could be worth the trouble!  

[Wannatripbaby]

Alright you convinced me.  I made a patreon account & voted for them to jump. Currently the vote is:

4 Jump

3 don't jump.

It's neck & neck! If anyone's still on the fence about voting, look at my argument for why they should jump. Don't let them get trapped in a world of lies!

[SGTbaby]

I could honestly see this story going either way and I would be satisfied with it! I love it and look forward to whatever the votes decided. 

[Lil_Eevee]

I cant voooote... I vote Jump! Someone vote jump for meeee.... And why cant you post them both and let the reader decide which to believe is canon? Pleeeeaaase

[Sophie ♥]

Hiya Eevee!  I've missed you!

We honestly couldn't decide which ending to pick! o_o Pudding planned for one thing and I planned for another and we'd both built up our version of "reality" so well that not even we could tell them apart anymore. But no matter which ending you pick, all the pieces fall into place.  Wanna's concern with Soren is addressed too - something Pudding came up with early in the story.

Honestly, we don't care which one is canon.  They're both really good endings!  The reader can pick whatever one they want to be canon tbh. But we do want to reward our patrons for their continued support with some more exclusive content.  Pudding and I are adamant about keeping our stories free for the community, but an alternate ending seems like a nice offer to our supporters.   

Right now the vote is at 4/4   Scary!

[Wannatripbaby]

9 hours ago, Lil_Eevee said:

I cant voooote... I vote Jump! Someone vote jump for meeee.... And why cant you post them both and let the reader decide which to believe is canon? Pleeeeaaase

Is there some reason you can't vote? You don't have to pay or link your bank account to create a patreon account. All it asks for is your Email address, same as DD.

It took me literally 5 minutes to create an account and vote & 3 minutes of that was skimming through the Terms of Use thing that every website has.

[Lil_Eevee]

Its because of my location and lack of connection (assumptions).. It takes me an eternity to do anything online while im here, and after setting the phone aside for a little while, still nothing had happened :/ 

Its because of my location and lack of connection (assumptions).. It takes me an eternity to do anything online while im here, and after setting the phone aside for a little while, still nothing had happened :/ 

[Sophie ♥]

Hm.  It looks like I can use my vote.  I can vote for you Eevee, since you tried so hard! (Unfortunately I can only do this once so I can't help anyone else out ;_;)

[Lil_Eevee]

Thank you sooooo much Sophie!! And i absolutely love this story, no matter how it ends! Its been one of my favorites thus far lol... And go team Bridget!! *cheering*

 

 

...... Anyone? 

[Sophie ♥]

30.)

I jumped. The freedom of the air, the rush against my skin, the certainty of our freedom and their inability to trick us. I'd freed us, I'd saved us from their lies, their mistruths, their tricks. I remembered falling and I remembered laughing, and I remembered being together with my sister. My sister. Oh no, my sister... and I was alone, I was falling alone and my sister was above me, flying, silhouetted by the light of the sun behind her, screaming down at me. Flying. Like an angel. She wasn't flying, though, was she? She was floating, being held, held like a little girl in our Daddy's big strong arms, caught at the last moment.  A moment too late to catch me too. I remembered being free, for the first time. Being certain of only one truth, one reality. One world.

I remembered a lot after that day.  I remembered everything with us, growing up, sharing our five short years together.  I remembered all of her stories.  The world she built.  I remembered playing make believe with her.  I'd never had so much fun in my entire life.  I'd never wanted it to stop.  But it did.  I remembered our first day in the hospital.  I remembered slipping and falling, and being bandaged up by a doctor.  I remembered all the blood.  But I never had a single cut on my body.  The surgery was just more make believe.  Soren was destroyed.  It was just a joke, she kept saying.  It was a game.  She didn't mean to make it happen.  She just wanted attention.  She just wanted to keep playing in our make believe world.  She wanted to be a part of us.  Kori left the hospital a few days later.  She had always had trouble using the bathroom, since she was in a car crash at a very young age.  She had been there for anxiety.  The doctor told me I was there for anxiety too.  But after that day, I was there for something else.  I was there because I was very sad.  The doctor woman and I talked every day.  I talked to Trudie every night.  She told me stories about Bridget.  That she was an oracle or something.  She knew things about the future, or was very good at expecting them.  That kind of creativity isn't normal, Trudie told me.  But when I talked to the doctor woman about it, she said Trudie liked to believe in mysterious things.  That it made her feel better.  Well, it made me feel better too.  I'd look outside my window at night -- I'd been moved up to a wing upstairs, away from Soren and the library -- and looked up at the stars.  I didn't know why, but I felt like Bridget was okay somewhere.  Maybe that's Heaven.  Or maybe that's just how outer space is.  But whenever I closed my eyes, all I ever saw were those rocks.

I'm eight now.  I'm Bridget's age, and tomorrow I'm going home.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to turn nine or if I'm going to try to find Bridget.  Before, I was sure this world wasn't real, but I wanted it to be.  Now, I'm sure it is, but I really hope it isn't.  A world without my sister... that's just not a very good world at all.

It's weird when you remember dying, because you are never meant to remember. But I fell to my death, I fell because I jumped and when I woke up I wasn't dead. But I remembered dying and I remembered waking up. I remembered the smell of the foul water, and dragging my unconscious best friend up the stairs and up the hill to the car as well. And I remembered yelling at the stupid woman at the hospital, the real hospital, that my friend needed help and could she not be a total bitch for just a second and go find a doctor. I also remembered the three weeks before Ria woke up, because they were the longest three weeks of my life.

I sat up with a start, like I'd been having a bad dream or something was chasing me.  But I wasn't in my bed.  I was on an uncomfortable, stiff mattress.  I was looking up at dizzying fluorescents.  It smelled too clean.  It looked too bright.  I was supposed to leave today, wasn't I?  Momma and Daddy were coming to pick me up after lunch.  Weren't they?  Where was I?

"Ria?" I dropped the plate of cafeteria food I'd been holding and it clattered on the floor loudly, but by the time it did I'd dived on her in the bed and thrown my arms around her. She'd been in a coma, she'd been out.  She was so frail and so cold but she was awake!!

Bridget.  No, not my Bridget.  A different Bridget.  The one from the game we played?  Had I fallen asleep?  Had I gone to bed on that last night and started dreaming?  Or had I left with my parents and walked right off that cliff?  Was I... back?  Was this... was this real?  No it couldn't be.  But it had to be.  It was so vivid, so potent, so... familiar.  I felt on a blush on my cheeks when she hugged me and I hugged her back like I'd just brought my sister back from the dead.  I had.  I had her back... "Bridget..."

"Ria! Oh shit dude they said you were in a coma and there was nothing medically wrong with you but it's been so fucking long and now you're awake and.. and.." I wiped my eyes. "Fuck I'm crying, I'm sorry, I'm just so messed up over this, it was all my fault, I took you to that stupid spooky nightmare asylum."

Every time she swore, I winced.  I looked up at her in awe, in... bewilderment.  That was the word.  I was bewildered.  She was here.  She was... but that meant I was... I looked down at my body.  A grown girl.  I was taller than her, wasn't I?  I had a different last name, and I had a crush on her.  But when I looked at her now, all I remembered was... I closed my eyes tight. "I... um... w-when... w-what..." My throat hurt.  Everything made me nauseas.

"When? Oh, how long? It's been like... three weeks? Maybe more. Hey wait here," I laughed, "I mean like, don’t try and move okay, I'm gonna get you some real food because you've been eating out of a drip for almost a month." Oh I was giddy, I was so excited, we'd made it out alive!

I ate quietly.  I felt big.  I felt lumbering.  I felt sick.  The food was delicious, but it wasn't what I was used to.  It wasn't the pie.  It wasn't the meals in the hospital.  This was all packaged junk. "So... they said... it was some hallucination?" "Spores or something," she tried to explain again.  I didn't understand. "But we can't both hallucinate the same thing, can we?" I didn't know anything about hallucinating or drugs or anything.  I didn't know what to believe.  That was real, wasn't it?  It had to have been real...

"I dunno, I spoke to Cat a lot, you remember Cat, right? That had a crush on me? Anyway she said that like brainwaves can theoretically sync up when you're dreaming, so maybe thats what happened. Or maybe we had completely different hallucinations, and there're just some coincidental commonality. Who knows? Who cares, though, right? We're safe now."

"You... don't... believe it?" She shrugged.  She did, didn't she?  She had to.  My head was spinning.  I pushed the tray of food away from me. "We... you're my... were my... sister, and... and..." And now it sounded silly, in the voice of an adult.  Like a dream that had gone by.  But it lingered, haunting me.  And she was, truly, my sister still... "I... um.  Sorry... forget it..."

I did what I did in the dream to prove things to her, I did the most adult thing I could think of, and I crawled onto her lap gently in the bed and pressed my hands to her cheeks and my lips to her lips, because sisters didn’t do that.  And to be fair, after everything we’d been through… spending a life with her didn’t seem so bad.

I shied and pushed her away, blushing furiously at her forward act.  I'd learned about girls loving each other - it wasn't right.  I had talked to that woman so many times about my affections in my dreams, but they weren't real.  Just a cry for attention.  I looked away, ashamed, and pulled my blanket up to my neck. "You can't do that," I said without thinking, and looked away in embarrassment. "It's... y-you just can't."

"Oh, but I want to... don't try and tell me you don't have a crush on me, because I know you do!" Well. Hallucination her did. Maybe I was barking up the wrong tree. "What's gotten into you? Oh, like... you're still having trouble telling whats real and what isn't, right? That awful place felt pretty real, huh..."

"Y-yeah, I guess..." She gave me a soft look and I melted into it.  She was always the best sister to me... she always took care of me.  She made me safe.  Until she left.  But I had her back!  I had Bridget back.  I dressed myself in some scrubs they had on hand and went for a walk around the hospital.  The doctors said I couldn't leave until they'd done a full evaluation, but everything looked good.  My sis-- Bridget... walked alongside me.  It was impossible to stop calling her that in my head. "You know where we are?" "Fairmont?" "Yeah, see.  You remember.  You got stiches here last year." "Yeah..." Last year I'd stopped having daytime accidents.  Last year I'd learned basic subtraction...

"Look... I know it seemed real. It was hard when I first woke up, too, dragging you out of that basement up the hill on my own, I felt like I'd died... remember, I jumped? Shit I don’t know what you remember. Anyway..." It was good for her to walk, it was good for her to get back on her feet. Maybe she'd be back in school by next semester...

I didn't want to tell her the truth.  That she'd left me there for three years.  That I'd grown up knowing a life without her.  I had her here now.  I was her best friend.  Even if we weren't sisters, I had Bridget.  That was what was important... right? "Yeah.  I remember all that.  I... I'm glad you were right.  About jumping.  I wish I'd trusted you sooner..." It was my fault anyway, being stuck there.  We rounded a corner and walked by the vending machines.

"Are you kidding me? You trusted me the whole time we were there. It's not your fault they kept like chopping up your brain. At least you weren't like shitting yourself like that asian chick, right?" I reached in my pocket for some singles and began to select items. Buffalo Combos. Flaming Hot Cheetos. Snickers. All her favorites...

"She was a nice girl," I mumbled after wincing at the swear word.  Her tone was so vulgar here.  Her words.  I remembered those last few days, how scared she was.  How much she swore.  I felt sick all over again. "I... c-can we talk about something else?" But as if fate was against me, I felt the light blue pants between my legs warm up and darken.  And with a feeling I hadn't felt in a very, very, very long time, the heat started to drip down my legs in warm spurts.  I stared at my feet as I wet myself, absolutely mortified.  W-what...?  I...

"Oh...um..." I looked around for a nurse or something, but found a cart of white sheets and towels, and like the big sister she'd seen me as when we were in the hospital, I wrapped her up in one of the sheets, doubled over like a skirt, like I'd done it a thousand times. "Let's get you into the bathroom to get you cleaned up sis." Sis. Right. Ugh. "You know what I mean, no big deal..." I mean she was recently cathed right..? That explained this..

I felt tears start filling my eyes.  Shame washed over me.  I remembered Momma and Daddy talking about my bedwetting.  I remembered being in diapers at seven years old.  I still had accidents at night.  And when Bridget called me sis I hugged her as tight as I could.  But she was so much shorter and everything felt wrong. "Dun tell anybody, please, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it..."

"Hey its cool, uh, don't sweat it alright?  It's cool, everything is just the same as always.” I couldn't help but feel off center, though, like something was different, like we'd been changed. That we weren't the same as when we went down those stairs that day. A lot didn't make sense, like Soren and Kori; I'd gone back there to search for them but never found any sign of their bodies. And I still had dreams... dreams about falling. Dreams about what would have happened if I didn't. She sucked her thumb, and I cleaned her up in the hospital bathroom. "It's alright sis, I'm here..."

[END]

~~~

Thanks everyone who stuck with us through this tale!  The vote came in at 7 to 5 in favor of Bridget jumping off the cliff.  If you want to know the alternate ending - where Bridget doesn't jump - please subscribe to our Patreon and download the full ePub or PDF copy of the story!!  Thank you all for your comments, love, and support!

[Wannatripbaby]

10/10 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

This has been an intense ride. You never manage to disappoint. I could go on gushing about how amazing you two are, but I think I've gotten my point across.

So, have you come up with any ideas for what you're going to do next?

[Lil_Eevee]

Omg im so happy to see them both out and free.. But poor Ria! Three years there and only three weeks in a coma?! How long had they been both been there? And Ria's body was just laying unconscious in the basement? If that were the case, what could possibly have happened to Soren and Kori?? So many questions! No possible answers! But i loved this, every twist, every turn, every minute. 

[Sophie ♥]

I'm so glad everyone enjoyed it!  

Pudding and I are working on a story called Small Frosty that I might start posting?  It's a slow regression story with a lot of realism and a bit of a love triangle.  It has been really fun to write!  We've also been writing a story called Evil Lolita Club, modeled after a $1 caption of the same name on our Patreon.  That one is much more intense!   But it's not as far as Small Frosty in development.

 

[Wannatripbaby]

Small frosty sounds fun. I look forward to reading it. But please, take your time. You & Pudding have earned a break after completing such a masterpiece.

[kerry]

You two have definitely outdone yourselves. It is a great story with either ending. :-)

[Lil_Eevee]

I agree with all the other praise you two get ^^ i would love to see both those stories developed but yeah! Take a well deserved break! Be it next week or next year, ill always read a new S&P story

[Sarah Penguin]

[SGTbaby]

Bravo! I like even the ending had some twists!! Such an awesome job!