Stolen - part 10

No one here cared if she cried. No one here cared about her at all. Why couldn't she go home? Why wasn't she allowed to see Mother or Father, Dustil... or Griff? Why did she have to stay here, with bad people who didn't like her? Why, why, why.

Mariah didn't like asking 'why', but it seemed to be the only question she could ask. Nothing she did helped at all; if any thing, she just made things worse. When she had only wanted to find someone who'd be friendly to her, alarms had screeched at her and she had been so scared that she'd just run. The hollow man didn't notice her until someone started yelling, then he ran after her and scooped her up and took her back. But she hadn't wanted to go back. The people were mean, and something just didn't feel right in there.

She'd seen something in the woods. It looked like Mother, except everything was wrong. The hair was short and black, the face was too long, and the body was too thin and too tall. But the look was like Mother, the look that Mother would give her after a bad dream or if something bad had happened. It was a look that said 'everything's alright, you're safe and nothing is going to hurt you'.

Mother and Father had often given her that look. Dustil had given her that look, too. And everyone else she knew had given that same look sometime in her life. How she missed them all...

Then the hollow man had tripped, or that little dart thing had pushed him over. He went tumbling and it felt like he was crushing her. She had screamed and cried, but no one seemed to care; they were all shooting at the lady who was like Mother but not Mother. Only when the woman was gone did they come to help.

Mariah had never been beaten like that before. Mother and Father had tapped the top of her legs several times when she'd been naughty, but it had never really hurt, she just didn't like it happening. These people, however, grabbed her arms and pulled her away from the hollow man, and then slapped her. They slapped her hard, right across the face. She was sure that her cheek had gone red, maybe it was bleeding, but she didn't really care.

She had screamed. She screamed and pulled away from those people, cowering with her hands around her face. Her ears were deafened with her own voice, her eyes blinded by tears. Her mind went numb, but she could only just feel, barely, someone's hand on her shoulder, guiding her back into the dome.

They were now in the med bay, whatever a med bay was. They had placed her on a bed and were now yelling at each other. They had laid the hollow man on another bed, he wasn't moving but she could see his chest go up and down. By now, she had stopped crying, and was sitting glumly on the foot of the bed.

Mariah went through in her mind everything she knew. She thought about Mother's smile and Father's warm 'good night' hug. She thought about Dustil and how he cleaned her hands whenever she fell down. She thought about Cander and his friends on... what was it called? Duxn! Cander and his friend on Duxn. She missed them all, and then she wondered if they missed her too. Then, a completely new thought came to her little mind. Would they like how these people were treating her?

Mariah pouted as soon as she realised that they wouldn't; they would be really angry, and they would punish these people. After all, it had been a month and these people hadn't even asked Mariah what she wanted to eat or drink; they'd just given stuff to her and told her to eat. Mother had always said that doing that was rude.

Mariah then looked at the yelling man. She was going to ask for something and she would get it, or he'd have to answer to Mother. She slid off the bed, walked proudly up to him, and gave his top a good, hard yank. Doing that instantly got people's attention.

"Can I have some honeycrust?" Mariah asked sweetly enough. "Please," she added hastily; Mother had always told her to be polite when asking for something.

"Get lost, brat," the man waved his hand in front of Mariah's face, causing her to step back.

Mariah frowned. She had been polite and had asked for something. That man hadn't even said no. Undeterred, Mariah stepped forward and yanked his top again.

"Can I have some honeycrust, please?" she asked again, trying not to sound too annoyed at being ignored.

"I said get lost!"

The man pushed her away, and then turned back to continue talking about something unimportant. Little did he see, Mariah glared at him, furious with not even getting an answer.

"Can I have some honeycrust?!" she demanded, not stepping towards, but instead raising her voice to attract his attention.

The entire room went deathly silent.

The man turned round, very, very slowly. He stared down at Mariah, who had appeared to have lost all her confidence. He stepped towards her, his hand raised. Seeing and recognising the gesture, Mariah reminded herself of what Mother would do, and she puffed up her chest.

"If you hit me, Mother will be really angry at you. Mother will come and she'll bring Father with her. They'll hit you worse than when you ever hit me. And Mother will tell Cander that you hit me, and Cander will come and tell you off. Him and all his friends on Duxn! They'll all tell you off and you'll never hit anyone again!" Mariah shouted out to him, all in one breath.

The man lowered his hand and rubbed his chin, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. He began to smile a sly smile that made Mariah's skin crawl, though she didn't know why. Then, without a word, the man turned to his subordinate.

"I believe the child asked for some honeycrust. Go and see if you can find some for her. After all..." he forced his head round to look at Mariah, without moving the rest of his body. "Children should always be rewarded for good behaviour..."

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Out of phase, into phase, and back out again. The floor went from tiles, to carpet, to tiles, and back to carpet again. Too bright, too dark. Far away, far too close. Shifting here, then shifting there. Always shifting.

"Excuse me, sir? Are you alright?" A young medic, maybe not, looked concernedly at him. Her blue eyes seemed very strange in the shifting world.

"I'm fine, dammit! Go coo over someone else."

The young lady blinked, surprised. She didn't leave him, however. She was determined to stay. She moved her blonde head to be more firmly situated in his line of sight. Damn woman.

"Sir, are you on medication? Have you taken your next dose?" she asked kindly, but it seemed like mockery.

"I said I'm fine! Go away, dammit. No staring at the old man, that's what the sign says," Jolee suddenly remembered that he had said the same thing to Terra once. But it seemed that it didn't have the same desired affect on this young medic.

The medic straightened herself and walked over to the reception desk. Jolee could vaguely hear her mentioning medication and '053A226', which was the identification code on that damn hospital bracelet on his wrist. She didn't look like she got the information she had been hoping for. At any rate, she walked slowly back to him.

"Sir, why don't you sit down? I can bring you a glass of water, if you'd like," her voice was so patronising, and he'd heard it all before.

"What I'd like is some peace and quiet. Now go on now, shoo!"

A quiet, purring laughter erupted from his right. Turning to look at they who found his situation so funny, he found himself staring straight into the eyes of Juhani.

"Still as stubborn as ever I see," Juhani purred. "I hope you are not troubling that poor medic too much."

"Stubborn? Me? Pah! Who ever thought of such a thing?" Jolee scoffed, playfully, lightly.

Juhani smiled and laughed quietly. She touched the arm of the medic and nodded to her, letting her know that she could leave. When the young woman was gone, she turned towards Jolee.

"You should not be overdoing, though. Perhaps you should get some rest. I doubt anyone will think less of you."

Jolee stared at her for a while before sighing gruffly and grumbling something under his breath. He allowed Juhani to take him by the arm and steer him to the nearest chair.

After two steps, however, something started to feel tight in his chest. His lungs didn't want to work, and his heart was thumping hard against his ribs. His fingers went cold and his toes went numb. The world started spinning, noises grew incomprehensible. Then, everything went black.