Nightmare Asylum

[Wannatripbaby]

Well then I guess your Mommy is at least partially to thank for the amazing, lovely, beautiful, creative, precious gift from the Angels you turned out to be.

[Sarah Penguin]

[SGTbaby]

Wow more twists and turns!! Love it! 

[Sophie ♥]

17.)

I was better.  I felt better.  Soren and I were playing in the library with huge walls covered in books.  We were playing hide and seek, which was great because there were tons of places to hide.  And Kori was reading a book in the corner.  Trudie had just left for something, but I wasn't paying much attention.  Anyway, there was no way Soren would find me under this desk.

"Hi, Ria." The librarian, Trudie, had fetched me from the cell I'd been in, dressed me in something more appropriate for my age, and brought me to see my best friend. What I saw, though... felt foreign. My best friend, my Ria, hiding under a desk with a bandage on her head, a pacifier in her lips, a dress similar to mine, and eyes that swirled darkly... so darkly. I cleared my throat. Ria told me to shush and tugged me under the desk. I tried to talk again, but she shushed me again, like I was the idiot.

"Why are-" "Found you!" Soren reached under the table and tagged me and I pouted, glaring at Bridget.  Hadn't we just seen each other for breakfast?  No, I had that horrible dream, about being a grown up, about losing her... I sucked on my pacifier and got over my frustration as quickly as it came on.  I hugged Ria tight. "Dun go nowhere..."

"Well, we're gonna get out of here still, but it's not like I'm going to go without you." I smirked and rolled my eyes and she shook her head quick and then closed her eyes. What're you doing?" "You gots go hide, duh." "Ria, it's not really any time to play games..." "Bidgy, it’s hide and seek time!”

Bridget gave me a weird look and I closed my eyes again. "One.  Two.  Three..." But when I finished counting to ten, Bridget was still sitting in front of me.  Soren, on the other hand, had gone to hide.  I looked around the room in confusion. "You dun know how to play?  But we played it as kids all the time..."

"Yes. Played as kids. As in, when we were kids. Which we're not anymore." I pulled the pacifier out of her mouth in frustration and frowned. "Come on, we have to get the key and get out of here, remember? We're not supposed to be here?" I was getting worked up, but Ria knew from her surgeries about my overactive imagination and how I was here to have it fixed.

I pouted when she took my pacifier away from me and crossed my arms over my chest. "If you dun wanna play you don't gotta but I thought it would be fun." But Bridget just stared at me, bewildered, and shook her head.  She was... was... mm.  What was the word I was looking for? "What?" I finally asked her, when she couldn't get her thought out.

"You're acting like Soren, or that other girl that crapped her pants when I was locked in the room with her." I frowned with a little sigh that followed. "You wanna get out of here, right? Go back to our school, our dorm rooms, our lives?" Lives. Plural. Like we existed separately. Everything else made her look confused, but hearing me say that just seemed to fill her darkening eyes with resolve behind the pout she flashed as she shook her head.

"I dun know what you're talking about, Bridget.  You're just sick.  But they're gonna make it better and then we can go home with Momma and Daddy.  Okay?" But she just kept staring.  What was that word... exasperated!  That's what it was.  Like she didn't believe what was in front of her. "Juss be good and let them help."

Okay, so I boiled over. "What the fuck, Ria?! No. We're not sisters, okay? You know that, right? We're not sisters, we're best friends, we're adults and we're not kids with a..a... 'Momma and Daddy'. I.." Instead of getting upset when I yelled at her, though, Ria did something unexpected -- she shoved the pacifier between my lips and started to call out for Miss Trudie.

"Miss Trudie!  Miss Trudie, she's doing it again..." Bridget spit out the pacifier and grabbed me by the wrist, pulling me back under the table with panic in her eyes.  Her bright green eyes.  She was so pretty.  I smiled warmly up at her. "It's okay.  You don't gotta be scared.  They're helping."

"Nope, nope, nope! I don't know what they did to you but this isn't real, this isn't the real world, this is... we went into this fucked up little haunted basement remember? We found girls who'd been missing for months? This isn't real, Ria!." "Is there a problem, Bridget?" Trudie asked. “Yes there's a fucking problem!" "You know the rules about coarse language here, do you want to be soaped again?" "Fuck you!"

Trudie grabbed Bridget's arm and pulled her up out from under the desk.  I hurried to get up after them, but when Bridget tugged away from her she fell backwards, she knocked us both straight to the ground. "Ow..." But then I realized how high my dress had flipped up and I quickly shoved it back between my legs.  My cheeks turned crimson as Bridget and Trudie both stared down at me.

"I'll be back to deal with you once I change your sister’s diaper, Bridget." Trudie let go of me and picked up my best friend, like she weighed nothing, and carried her away from the desk, talking to her and saying things I couldn't hear. Soren peered up from the other side of the desk, curiously, and I frowned at her. What the fuck was going on here!

"Why is she wearing those?" Soren shrugged. "She's a baby." "She is not a baby," Bridget said defensively, but to Soren, Ria really was a little girl.  Definitely littler than her, anyway.  Soren only wore diapers at bedtimes!  Of course, Kori was another story entirely. "Wan play hide and seek now?"
 

[Wannatripbaby]

So their escape was all an illusion after all. I totally called it!

Things are not looking good for our Dynamic Duo. I have no idea how you're going to turn this around. It's hard to root for the Protagonists when you can't see a single possible way for them to win. Ria tried fighting & it just drove her further into the Enemy's grasp. How can Bridget possibly combat an enemy like that?

Wait... could it... No... it can't be! Is Sophie doing the same thing to Us that Trudie is doing to Ria? Think about it: the more Ria fought, they more power she gave them. And the more we read, the deeper into Sophie's spiderweb we fall. It all makes sense! Sophie is an evil mastermind! But by now we've all fallen under her wicked spell, it's too late to turn back now.

We are at your mercy, Sophie. Although I alone now see the light, alas I am to enraptured by your magic to resist. What is thy bidding, Master?

[SGTbaby]

This is a great story

[Sarah Penguin]

Needs more ticklehugs *ticklehugs da authorybabies*)

[Sophie ♥]

18.)

"She wasn't supposed to see that!" Trudie rolled her dark, dark eyes and I kicked and huffed until she finally had to put me down, in the hallway outside the library. "You said she wouldn't have to know!  You said!" "Is it better than having an accident?" "I don't have accidents!" I did have accidents.  I just... was so embarrassed about it.

"She's your sister, Ria, and she's always taken care of you. Don't you think she's going to be more proud of you to know that you're taking measures to contain your accidents? She's always cleaning up after you, isn't she now? I bet she is quite proud of you, in fact. I'm proud of you. We all are.” Words were easy to wrangle, easy to represent just the way they needed to be.

"I dun care!  I'm not a little girl!" I knew I wasn't very big.  I was still having accidents.  I still had a pacifier that calmed me down.  But I knew I shouldn't!  I knew I was too old for this stuff.  I just... couldn't... quite remember how old... "I dun wanna wear these anymore, that's that." I followed her into the next room, with the changing table.  I'd been in here too often recently...

"Remember you told me about your bad dream? The one where you kept wetting your sisters bed? I'm not an expert, Miss Hemmingslee, but doesn't that sound like you're worried about this?" Trudie always had a tone that was midway between annoyed, and tender, and she sat the wet girl down on a chair next to the changing table with a peach pie slice in front of her. "Have some pie, and think about it, while I fetch the Madam.  Maybe you'll change your mind by the time you're done?"

I loved Trudie's pie.  She always made the best pie.  But it made me sleepy and dizzy, and before I knew what was going on, Bridget was shaking me. "Hey.  We gotta get out of here.  Now.  I don't know what is going on.  I don't know what they're doing to you." I rubbed my eyes. "Wanna take a nap..." "No, Ria.  Please come with me.  You're not safe here." Bridget pulled me by the wrist out the door, down the hall.  Every few steps, I'd feel my eyes close.

"I don't know what they did to you, but I've seen what happened to Soren and Kori, and it's not going to happen to you or to me." The problem was that the further we got from where I found her, the more options the halls seemed to expand out into it, and my best friend kept closing her eyes... then closing her eyes and stumbling... and then out right falling asleep! "Ria! Dammit, Ria, wake up, alright, wake up. What are you... are you drunk? Did they drug you?"

"Drug... me?" And then Bridget realized she was probably right with that question.  She pulled me into one of the side-rooms.  It was out of use, whatever it was.  Storage.  But there was an old sink on the far side.  She filled her hands with water and splashed it on my face.  I blinked. "...huh?" Okay, so I was a little more awake now.

I snapped my fingers. Click. Click. She looked at me and I looked at her earnestly. "What's your name?" Snap. Snap. "Hey. Pay attention. Focus. What's your name. How old are you?" We didn't have much time, they were going to find us, and with what they'd done to Ria already, I didn't know if we were going to get another chance to get out of here.

"Name... Ria Hemmingslee." "Hemmingslee?  No.  Ria Calloway." "...um..." Why did that name sound so familiar?  Was she right?  But I swear… I felt my eyes drooping closed again, then I was hit with another splash of water.  Jeeze.  "How old are you?" "Five years old." Wasn't I?  I was... I swear I was.  But why did it sound wrong?

Five years old... "What? No, you're not five you're..." I lifted up her dress to prove my point, obtusely, pointing to the thick padding between her legs. "A five year old wouldn't be in diapers anyway, so that's how you know this is just a game, they're just fucking with you, Ria. Alright? You can trust me, right? I'm your best friend, you trust me don't you?" Jesus we had to get out of here...

I winced every time she swore, but she didn't seem to notice.  I didn't understand what she was saying.  A five year old wouldn't be in diapers?  Of course not.  I blushed furiously and looked at my feet, holding my dress down.  I shouldn't be wearing these... "'course I trust you..."

"Oh thank God. Good. Okay, look. Hey. Don't make me splash you again. Hey. Focus. You wanna get outta here, right? You wanna leave, right?" But she looked dazed and conflicted, like that very obvious question I asked didn't have a very obvious answer. "We need to get back to our real life, Ria."And although she nodded, I wasn't sold on the idea that we believed in the same real life as each other right now. Still, we walked. Or ran. And my suspicion was about to be proven tragically true, because my best friend started to shrilly scream out down the hall as we ran past a junction, that I was "being crazy”.

"TRUDIE!  I DUNNO WHERE WE ARE!  TRU--" She covered my mouth again, but my eyes were closed.  I leaned up against the wall and immediately fell asleep.  And no matter what my sister was doing, she couldn't wake me up.  That pie was really good though...
 

[SGTbaby]

Hehehe. I love the confusion in this story and how you keep playing with us. Love love love it. 

[Sophie ♥]

Thank you everyone for all the wonderful words.   I'll try to get another chapter out tomorrow but actually I'm working on a short Christmas story for DD!  More to come!

[Sophie ♥]

19.)

When I woke up, we were in another room.  It was old.  Dusty.  Everything was dark.  I grumbled and tried to push my way through the clothes that surrounded me, but I felt a hand grab me and pull me back.  How long had it been?  An hour?  A day?  I rubbed my eyes. "What's going on...?  I dun understand..." And what was worse, I'd been sitting in this soggy diaper the whole time.  Ugh, I had to change...

"Shh." I put my finger to her lips and spoke very quietly. "People are looking for us. More people. Orderlies, I guess..." I hadn't seen any kind of security here before, as though things here were just this big game until now, and now they really didn't want to lose us. It made me feel, though, for the first time, like we could actually escape. "I think the way we came in is that way, but I'm not really sure..."

I didn't know where we were.  I didn’t know what room we were in.  But something was wrong.  Bridget was still sick.  But I wasn't sick anymore.  I saw how things were.  I had to help her, didn't I?  So we could go home together.  That's what I wanted.  That's what she wanted too.  So I took her hand and pulled her up slowly. "Come on.  We gotta go." I winced.  But this diaper had to come off first.  I turned away from my sister and lifted the dress, fumbling with the pins.  But I couldn't figure them out.  Memories of my sister changing me flashed in my head, but it only made me blush deeper.

"Can you take care of that when we're out of here?" I didn't mean to be unempathetic, but like, we were girls, we'd been through puberty; a cloying wet dampness feeling sucked, but it wasn't worth sacrificing freedom for. She shook her head, so I lifted her dress for her and unfastened the pins one at a time, dropping the thick soaking yellowed cloth to the floor at her feet. For the first time, I realized my best friend was completely bare when it came to hair down there. Huh...

I hurried out of the room, unable to look Bridget in the eye.  Jeeze.  I couldn't believe this.  I couldn't believe I was stuck in diapers again!  Was I ever out of them?  But I felt too old.  I pouted.  Sometimes things just didn't add up... why was that?  But I had a more pressing question. "Um... Bridget.  You... don't remember us being sisters?  Or Momma and Daddy?"

"No, of course not. I'm an orphan, remember? I was adopted when I was twelve, I never even had a 'Momma and Daddy'" Which, admittedly, probably sounded like exactly what someone who was confused would have said, too, but I couldn't focus too much on that. "We're not sisters. We're friends. You didn't even want to come explore down here, remember? And then you whined because it was wet." Where was she leading me? "You know the way out?"

"I think so..." I had no idea where we were.  But if I kept walking I'd recognize something, I knew I would.  I knew the Library had three doors... I'd been through two of them. "You aren't an orphan though.  We grew up together!  We're gonna keep growing up together.  Doesn't that sound better than being an orphan?  Spending all that time with me instead...?"

"...I'm already grown up, Ria. I'm an adult, you're an adult. You don't actually think you're five years old do you? Or that I'm... what? Eight?" I didn't know how old she thought I was. Older or younger even! I just knew that this place was poison and we had to get out of here. "I don't think this is the way out, I'm sure it's back that way and..." Shit! I tugged her hand and pulled her into an empty room with a bed, ducking down as two orderlies went by.

Who were those people?  I never saw anybody like that before... I bit my lip and peeked out of the crack in the door.  It looked like the coast was clear... "I think you're just sick," I mumbled. "That life is just a bad dream.  This ones better." "This is better?" Bridget asked, halfway between bewildered and angry.  She was just about to yell at me when I went on: "At least I'm not alone... I got you.  Dun gotta wait around for you to call.  And you dun gotta hate me.  And we can always be together." The truth was, I didn't have many friends.  I wasn't popular like Bridget.  I wasn't social or outgoing.  I mostly just sat around and waited for her to want me somewhere.  But she didn't know that, I guess.

It was, if nothing else, reassuring that she knew to some degree that this wasn't real, or that we weren't from here. Maybe this was real, maybe we went through some time portal or something. Gosh I hoped not. The longer we were here, the worse it got: first there was the librarian, and then there was the man and woman, and now this place seemed to have gotten so much bigger all of a sudden, and there were orderlies, and... "We don't belong here, Ria..." She had to see that, right? We slipped back into the hall and I followed her. How did she know where the exit was?

"Why not?" She just stared at me, but I looked straight ahead.  My cheeks were warm.  I kept remembering things.  About her changing my diapers.  About our parents.  Our lives together before this place.  I was only five years old... wasn't I? "We can belong here.  We can be happy together.  We don't gotta go back to that bad dream place.  It was so much work.  And I had so much time all alone, and..." I hesitated outside one of the doors.  The library.  I pointed at it. "That way."

"Are you sure? I don't recognize this as being the exit, I think we might have went the wrong way..." She nodded quickly, but only after hesitating. I frowned and pulled my hand away from the door. "Ria…”  But she pushed it open instead and tugged me inside with her, shouting something at the top of her lungs to get attention. What was she doing?!

"Trudie!" I dragged her into the library.  I caught her off guard.  Even if she was the big sister, she couldn’t help but tumble in after me.  She was sick.  She needed help.  She could get better just like I did!  Kori looked up from her place on the sofa, then looked back down at her book.  Soren came running over, or waddling over.  But Trudie wasn't here.
 

[kerry]

This story is such fun: it has as many twists and turns as that asylum's weird hallways. :-)

[bobindiapers]

I'm really enjoying this story, but should I know the meaning behind "Hemmingslee"?  The name suddenly popped up when talking to the police and has come up again a few times in the last couple of chapters.  I assume it's another tactic the ghosts are using try to trick them into thinking they're sisters  - if they both think their last name is Hemminglsee then obviously they must be sisters instead of friends.

I just want to make sure I didn't miss something.

Great story, I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out.

[SGTbaby]

So many twists I can’t take it sometimes but love it as well. 

[Wannatripbaby]

Yup, Ria has Stockholm-syndrome. Or maybe like, Turbo-Stockholm-syndrome. Is that a thing? Who knows. I've given up on trying to understand what's going on. You broke me, Sophie. Are you happy now?

[Sophie ♥]

11 hours ago, bobindiapers said:

I just want to make sure I didn't miss something.

Nope!  You got the gist of it.  Hemmingslee is just a common last name between the two of them.  And if they were sisters, obviously they would have the same last name!  

Thanks for all the kind words everyone.  I hope people are enjoying it.  After the fake-escape and Ria's surrender, Bridget has become the main character.  She's got a lot to figure out still, what's real and what isn't.  And as readers, you have to do the same!  In the upcoming chapters your perceptions of things might be tested, and I hope everyone has fun forming their own opinions and theories!  We're about two-thirds done with the story.

I'll try to get another chapter up today.  In the meantime, check out this short holiday story Pudding and I wrote! 

[Sophie ♥]

20.)

"What are you doing?!" It took a few seconds for the stunned feeling of being betrayed by my best friend to hit me, and by then Soren had come over with a giggle and grabbed my other hand, grinning. "Yous are going to stay wif us?" She giggled and I shook my head, trying to pull free of the two of them. "What is wrong with you both! This isn't even real, this is just some hallucination and we're probably laying in icky water in that basement!" But Soren had been missing a long time, Kori maybe even longer… and they were both alive. Weren't they? Or were they ghosts too...

With a sharp tug, I felt Bridget's wrist slip out of my hands and she ran for the door.  But when she got there, it wouldn't budge.  Actually it looked like the door had never been opened in years.  Bridget looked back at me with anger and confusion.  I felt a sinking in my stomach as she stormed up to me. "It's for the best, Bridget," I mumbled.

"What about college? What about our future? We're not kids, we're not..." I went to lift her dress, to point out that she'd only recently been wearing a fucking diaper, but she pulled away. "We're not babies! If you wanna go home and pretend to be a baby or something, then fine, I'll play along, but we cant stay here, this isn't real, they... they tricked you, they gave you memories that aren't even real!"

"You're just sick," I mumbled, trying to explain it to her, but she slapped me hard across the cheek.  I blinked.  I looked up at her bewildered, tears filling my eyes.  Ow... "You're just lonely!" she yelled at me.  I felt the sinking feeling get worse and I looked down at my feet. "Not lonely," I mumbled, trying not to cry. "Got you..." But I only had her here. She was my sister.  We were always together, right?  This was the real world... the thought of us being lovers, the feeling of us kissing, none of it ever crossed my mind anymore.

"Look..." I breathed deeply, trying to calm myself, and pointed at Soren, and then over at Kori. "This is what they wanna do to you, to us. They wanna hollow us out and make us into little kids, but there's nothing more than this... there's no 'home' there's no 'our parents', it's all a lie, a trick." Which I believed less and less with how much bigger this place had gotten, and honestly my resolve was based purely on momentum more than anything - I was afraid to stop and think about it.

"It's not a lie... we are gonna get better... we're gonna go home together..." But Soren and Kori were still here.  How long had they been here?  Neither had any idea.  But Soren was here for six months, wasn't she?  Since she dropped out of school?  I shook my head.  No, that was a fake memory... my head as spinning and it was clear to Bridget that her words were getting to me.

I put my hand on her cheek and I did something I shouldn't have, against all sanity and reason: I kissed her. We'd kissed already, or at least I thought we had. But sisters wouldn't kiss, and she clearly had a crush on me. In a contest between physical kissing and conflicted memories, I knew which direction I'd favor.

She put her lips to mine.  I remembered times when we'd kiss.  I remembered when we escaped, when I was kissing her.  I remembered then we were drunk and our lips would touch.  She pulled away and I felt my chest flutter.  I felt butterflies all up inside me.  How has I forgotten how much I loved her?  How much I... "That is enough of that," the woman said.  The woman who always talked to me in my dreams.  She stood in the library, near another door. "We won't have that sinful behavior here."

"Sinful behavior?" I scoffed defiantly and crossed my arms. "See, that's how I know how fake you are, because nobody nowadays would say that except for batshit crazy republicans." The woman stayed stern, though, and the way she spoke made every bit of my body tingle in ways I wasn't really sure I liked the feeling of. Like I was afraid. "You two are here at your parents wishes to be corrected for your hysterical behaviors, and Miss Ria has been doing exceptionally well. Your parents informed us that she would be the problematic one, so we've not felt the need to take drastic measures on you, Miss Bridget. That will certainly have to change; clearly you are the source of your sisters problems."

I shook my head and stepped between Bridget and the woman.  How long had I been here?  I still didn't know her name... or what to call her. "She didn't do nothin' wrong!  She's not a problem!  She's my best f--" I blinked.  I shook my head. "My sister..." And before I had a moment to think about the slip of the tongue, I felt my thighs grow warm and wet as a puddle formed around my feet.  My cheeks went crimson.  I wet myself?  I never did that... or had I always done that?  After that kiss, my memory felt less reliable...

"No best friend, or sister, would have let you be without your protection, Miss Ria. Clearly you both need some time apart and some work to help make you better." "You're not separating us." Although it was hard to be defiant when my college age friend had just peed down her thighs, sniffling, about to start bawling her eyes out. "We just want to go home, we're done with your games. Fix what you did to Ria, and let us go. Or when we escape, we'll burn this building to the fucking ground, you hear me?"

I winced at the swear word.  I didn't understand any of this.  I didn't know why I was so confused.  A moment ago, I was so sure, but that kiss... I could still taste her on my lips.  And the woman was very unhappy.  Unhappy with the wet carpet.  Unhappy with Bridget's intervention. "Please don't take her away," I cried, standing over the dark patch on the carpet. "I'm sorry, I'll be good, I'll be a good girl..."

"I..." I puffed out my cheeks and grabbed her hand. "NO! No she won't be a good girl and neither will I, we'll fight you every step of the way and make it miserable for you here so you might as well just let us go!" Yeah. Like that would work. "Let you go? Why? Why do you want to leave do desperately? How are you so sure you're not sick? Wouldn't a sick girl think she wasn't sick? Use your pretty little head, children. Would a healthy girl wet herself like that?"

I looked up at Bridget.  A healthy girl wouldn't.  I'd had accidents.  I had to be here.  I had to belong here... and I'd get better.  We both would.  We could leave together and-- "Ria, don't listen to her.  She's just messing with your head." But it sure was hard to argue, wasn't it?  I just remembered that kiss, and... I blushed and looked down at my feet.  The woman was unimpressed.

"A sick girl would wet herself. A sick girl would kiss her sister. A sick girl would have fantasies of other worlds, and fight against getting better. How do you know you're well? How do you know this isn't all just your fantasy acting out? How do you know what's real and what's not?" I balled up my fists and stomped my foot in the wet puddle my best friend left on the floor. "Shut up!"

"Your overactive imaginations are causing developmental problems," the woman said, almost sounding caring. "It has always stunted Ria's development and--" "I said shut up!" I held onto my sister's arm as she yelled at the woman.  Soren looked at us.  Kori didn't look up from her book.  It was a stressful moment.  The woman sighed.

"You're only setting back your own recovery, and that of your sister. Look at her, Bridget. Does she look like she wants to continue this flight of fancy? Does it look like you're doing her any good at all?" I did look at her, I looked at Ria and I hesitated because she was sobbing, biting on her lip and sobbing and trying not to let me see it. I balled up my fists tighter, but my chest hurt. "This is just a trick you're trying to play, it's just a trick Ria." "Come on Ria, let me get you cleaned up and put in a fresh diaper, okay? Remember how happy your diapers make you, how safe they make you feel? You told me last time, didn't you?"

A blush came over my cheeks.  They had always made me feel safe.  It was something I never talked to my sister about.  I was embarrassed.  But I liked the diapers.  I liked how they made my pants dry.  But when I had to start school and I couldn't wear-- "Ria.  Stay here with me." I looked up at my sister, then at the woman.  Who was right?  What was right?  I didn't understand...

"Don't listen to her, she's trying to trick you, you're an adult and you know you are. You don't fucking wear diapers!" She flinched when I swore again, and the woman held out her hand, calmly. "You've been making such good progress, Ria, your sister needs a little more help before she comes to realize the truth, but you can help her. We just need to keep you focused on what's real and true, and you could maybe be home for Christmas like your Momma and Daddy wanted. In time for Santa Claus. You've been such a good girl, too."

I took a step toward the woman, her hand outstretched, until Bridget grabbed my wrist.  She was getting overwhelmed.  She was frustrated.  She was so lost in this world she made up.  Or the real one?  I didn't know.  And she needed me there with her.  Had she caused these feelings in me?  Had she made me believe in that place?  I shook my head. "I... I dun wanna cause trouble, I should--" "No!  You aren't sick!  You aren't a baby!" "Ria.  Come." I felt so sick...

"Ria, I can't believe you're..." I pulled her hard, because I couldn't handle this anymore, I'd take her and we'd run! We'd run until we found the way out! I tugged her across the library to a far door, but halfway there she tripped and stumbled, grazed her knees on the carpet and began wailing, and I knelt down next to her, shaking her shoulders. "Snap out of it!!  You're not a little girl!  Jesus we're going to end up like those broken dolls, Kori and Soren!"

Within a minute, those two broken dolls were at my aid, checking out the rug burn on my knees.  Tears poured down my cheeks.  I couldn't stop crying. "Can't you just get over yourself?" Kori asked Bridget. "Can't you just see that you're hurting her?" Bridget shook her head, her heart full of panic and fear, and ran to the door, but it wouldn't open.  She was going to leave me again...?

I tried to find a door to open, I tried to find a way out, but nothing opened, nothing worked! This place was going to take us from our real lives and trap us, kill who we were the way it had to Kori and Soren. I felt a burning pain in my neck and then the library went black. "Please don't worry, Ria, we're going to help Bridget get better the way we helped you get better. She won't leave you ever again, we're going to fix her so she won't ever want to."

~~~~~

Chapters 21-29 are now available on Patreon!  Please consider supporting us!  

[Wannatripbaby]

I CAN'T TAKE THIS EMOTIONAL ROLLER-COASTER!

[kerry]

AAAAARRRRGHGHGGHGHGHHGGGHH!

You're killing me!

(In a very, very good way.)

[Sarah Penguin]

[SGTbaby]

I agree. Killing me in a good way. So many more chapters...it soo looking forward to it. 

[Sophie ♥]

21.)

I was in a bed in a small room off the library corridor.  It wasn't fancy, and it didn't have a lot going on, but Bridget had been asleep on the other bunk for over an hour.  I kicked my feet and waited for her to wake up.  I hadn't seen her in so long.  A day?  Or maybe just a few hours.  I was never good with time, and there was no sunlight down here.  I just wanted her to be better.  I wanted us to get better together.  But the thought of that kiss constantly lingered.  It was eating away at the dream.

I felt awful and sick when I came to, my head pounded like I'd been ran over by a semi and my stomach was doing all sorts of complicated knots and angry motions when I tried to sit up. Where was I? The light was dim and my throat felt dry and I looked around; I was in the bottom bunk? The blankets felt gigantic, the bed felt huge. Or did I feel small? Was I smaller? No that was impossible. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, and things felt the right size. I squealed childishly when a head plopped down from the top bunk though, before realizing it was my sister peering down at me. Sister? Sister. Right.. sister..

"Did you take any pills?  Or did they do the surgery?" She didn't have a bandage on her head but I remembered the way things were sometimes.  If they talked about something we didn't like, they'd take us to surgery.  They'd mess with our brains.  I felt a blush on my cheeks.  It was to help us.  It was to fix us... right? "How do you feel…?”

"Dizzy..." I admitted, although my sister was the one who was upside down so I couldn't imagine how she wasn't the dizzy one! "When I woke up, I felt like the blankets were burying me, I felt so small and tiny, and then I woke up again and things were back to..." Normal, right? Normal. This was normal. This size. This me.  "What did they do to me? I don't remember anything, did they operate...?" I put my hand to my head, but didn't feel a bandage.

"I dunno, that doctor lady took you away." Doctor lady.  That was what I called her, even though she never wore a lab coat.  I didn't know what else to say. "When she brought you back she said things would be better or at least a little bit... I..." I climbed down from the top bunk, the bottom of my diaper flashing my sister.  My cheeks were pink.  I remembered what the doctor lady told her - about how I liked to wear them.  Ugh, why did she have to say that?!

"My head feels fuzzy. I dreamed about Christmas... do you remember the Christmas before last, before we were here? Momma got you the pony but you were allergic to its mane..." Gosh why did I remember that? Why did it feel so real and vivid? It wasn't like a dream, it was like...a real memory. As real as the girl who'd flashed her padded behind to me when she climbed down from the bunks. It was a small pony, too small for any grown person tho...

“Uh huh, Teacup!  It sounds like you're doing better," I said with a sincere, sweet smile.  My sister... maybe she was finally over these silly make-believes.  Maybe we could go home soon!  I sat next to her on the bed and kicked my feet... "Y-you know... what that doctor lady said about me liking diapers... it's not true.  I'm not a baby." I'm not a baby.  It reminded both of us of the make-believe world.  Of being adults...

"I know you're not a baby, you just like feeling safe." Right. I remembered being told that, but I didn't remember when and where. Why did I know that? It was explained to me in detail, but it was a piece of data with no ties to a memory of it happening. I blinked. Sister. Not sister. Friend. Not baby. Adult. I gripped my stomach and groaned intensely, frowning in pain that broke the spell of memory for a moment. "Feel sick..."

"Trudie has something to help if you aren't feeling well, come on." I pulled her up from the bed and led her out into the hall, then toward the library.  I remembered my first few treatments.  I'd always feel a little sick.  Trudie helped.  

"I feel like something's wrong, stuff doesn't feel right..." It didn't help that I kept getting dizzy spells, that I kept tripping on my own feet. I didn't remember getting to the library, I barely remembered sitting down. My sister held out a spoon of peach pie with a smile that flashed between her being a little girl and my adult friend. Adult. "We have to leave..."

"No, nuh uh, you're getting better!  Stop talking about stuff like that!  Everything is getting better." I smiled happily at my sister and fed her the pie.  After that, her sickness started to go away.  I remembered how helpful the pie was.  I remembered how it made me feel better. "Um... sis, I gotta go, but I'll be right back." Trudie was reading to Kori in the corner.  I went over to her and had a short conversation before she took me by the hand and led me out of the room.  Kori looked up from her book at Bridget.  They were alone.

"This pie is pretty good..." I didn't know what else to say to Kori. She was Asian, an anomaly where we lived, and I didn't know that I'd ever heard her speak. Had I? Could she speak English at all? I tried to focus on that, to differentiate real memories from fake ones, to tell what was true from what was made up. But made up by who? Ria seemed so happy here. Kori sat next to me and took a bite of the pie, smiling at me. She smelled funny, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. "She’s so excited to go home. Focus on getting better for her?" I blinked. No weird baby voice. No strange accent. I licked peach off my lip and then bit it. Where had Ria even gone...

"She'll be back in a moment," Kori said quietly, eating the pie.  She was very mature, very quiet, for someone in a diaper.  She was nothing like Soren or Ria. "And don't trust Soren.  She'll lie." That was all Kori had to say, though.
 

[Wannatripbaby]

Soren? Could Soren be the true antagonist in this story? Maybe Bridget & Ria really are sisters and Soren is the one messing with their heads? Ugh, I don't know who to root for & who to hate! How are you doing this, Sophie?

[Sophie ♥]

I'm an evil mastermind, obviously.  

[Wannatripbaby]

Oh yeah I keep forgetting. It's hard to remember you're Evil when you're also So damn cute!