damned_institute | Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

Okita hadn't been expecting it when his nurse suddenly appeared in the Game Room. He'd expected to be left alone like last week, but instead she gently took him by the arm and told him he needed to say goodbye to Kaden for now. Okita assumed it was time for his visitor and waved goodbye to him, only to be led off himself. The swordsman had followed obediently into the Sun Room, but when he tried to go off to another room, she stopped him. "Not today, Julian."

Not today? Something about his nurse's demeanor seemed off, almost as if she were worried about something. It wasn't until she led him out of the Sun Room that he understood what was going on. He had a visitor. There were only so many people that would come to visit him in a place like this. His sisters, Tetsu, Kondou or... Okita didn't want to think about the last option.

Taking a step into the waiting room, he stopped at the door and turned to look at his nurse. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?" he asked, feeling actual fear for the first time in a long while. If this wasn't some strange punishment/joke for behaving poorly in the chapel, he didn't know what to do. Badou's graffiti was still on his hand and he quickly slipped that hand into his pocket. He could feel the pen there, clipped to the inside of his waistband. The nurse shook her head and moved to the side of the room, keeping a close watch on him as he stayed by the door, trying to hide his anxiety by feigning interest in the strange magazines on a table nearby.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"What?" Norman said to Harry with a look of surprise and disbelief. He spoke into the phone, although his eyes were looking at Harry now. "I'll need to call you back, Joe. Give me five, ten minutes tops. Ciao."

He hung up the phone and put it in his coat pocket. "What this about me being dead, Harry?"

Harry fidgeted uncomfortably under the scrutiny, almost wishing he'd kept his mouth shut.

"You- I thought you were dead," he repeated numbly. "You were gone Dad. I haven't seen you for over a year and now you just show up here? What's going on?"

Harry knew he was getting emotional, that it wouldn't help him getting answers, but he couldn't help it. The shock of seeing Norman, alive and acting like nothing had happened, like he hadn't gone crazy and being flying around the city killing people, was too much to cope with right now.

"You were dead. I remember finding you," he mumbled uncertainly.

"Harry," Norman said, his face stern. "Do I look dead to you? Now, I know, it's been a year since I checked up on you, but you don't have to go making up stories about me being dead. You're a man now, you should leave all of these nightmares and problems with losing your mother behind you. I still find it hard to believe you're still here. I hoped you were better than this."

What was he talking about? A year? Surely he'd remember being here that long. It was too much to think he could've forgotten a whole year of his life, wasn't it?

"Dad, I've only been here a few days, I swear. And- Mom? She died years ago, what are you talking about?"

Shaking his head, he said, "Don't you remember what happened Dad? With Spiderman and-" here he hesitated, worried he might set Norman off. "And the Goblin? On the bridge?"

Norman was about to say something about his mother again, but talk of Spiderman and the Goblin cut him short. "What is this," he asked. "Cartoons? Wrestling? What stories have these nurses been feeding you to make you think you live in a world where people walk around with names like 'Spiderman?' Is this that imaginary character you talked about before? The one who dressed in spandex and flew around the city saving people? I really thought you were smarter than to give into your own delusions." The weight of his disappointment was evident.

Flinching at the disappointment radiating from his father, Harry looked away, trying to process what he was saying. He didn't remember being the Goblin? Or was he trying to pretend that had never happened? But-

"Then, what happened to me?" he asked, indicating the scars marring his face.

Norman frowned. "Do we really have to go over that story again, Harry? It's bad enough that you very nearly killed yourself and that friend of yours in the fire you caused, but does that need to be the source of our conversation every time I come here to visit with you? Grow up. You messed up big time, and now you're here."

Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject