damned_institute | Day 40: Recreational Field

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Day 40: Recreational Field

Kio's breakfast ended on a much happier note than it had started. However, for once the announcement truly surprised him. He blinked as his nurse came to pick him up. Recreational Field? But.. but if they had a greenhouse, he wanted to go there. The prospect of gardening was a truly liberating one, an island of joy in this hellhole. He thought about going to the Sun Room and lying down, but it occurred to him that he hadn't had proper fresh air since being here. With a cheery goodbye wave to Honey, he followed his torturer outside.

It was much better than he had expected. The sun wasn't too hot (what time of the year were they in, anyway?), so he walked slowly along the walls, fascinated by the size of the field. He wondered if Sou-chan was alright. He hadn't even checked the board. Well, if Soubi wanted to apologize, Kio would be willing to listen. The place was so crisp and clean. He had to think if anyone had ever gone over the walls. What was out there? Freedom? Or a different sort of monster?

Leaning against one of the walls, Kio took as much advantage of the sun as he could. He desperately wanted a lollipop. One was quietly nestled in his pocket, but he would need to wait until the nurses were busy with other patients before he tried anything. Soubi had gone to some trouble to get them, the least he could do was make sure they didn't get confiscated. So with bated breath, Kio waited for a shift in the mood. He was, for once, content. Not happy, but not going crazy either.

[Sou-chan! Team Loveless deploy!]

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If there was one good thing about this place, it was that what little sleep he imagined he got was completely devoid of dreams of any kind.

The nights themselves served as the nightmares, especially after what they'd run into. Kira woke up in his bed rather suddenly, fingers still clutching hard to his sword. It was morning, and he'd only accomplished half of what he'd intended and been ordered to do. Still, it was a partial success, and that alone he could live with. Tonight he would accomplish exactly what had been asked of him.

He stored his weapon under the bed just in time - the nurse came in shortly afterward and told him that he'd missed breakfast. Fine by him. He wasn't hungry, anyway. The encounter from the night previous was still weighing heavily in his mind. That woman's terrifying, bloodshot gaze was seared into his memory, as were her hands slowly crawling up his body. The stuff of nightmares. Unsent spirits, bound to the living world by a desire for revenge ... and yet not a Hollow. Had she died here, or ... ?

The recreation field was large and fairly empty when he arrived, and without any real desire to do ... whatever it was they were given (sports?), Kira found himself quietly near one of the institute's walls, just watching and trying to enjoy the pleasant outside world for the time being. It was cool and at the very least not raining. Try to focus on this, he told himself, eyes closing for a moment as he struggled to think about nothing.

... it didn't really work, but at least he wasn't remembering that icy grip and those dead -- oh.

While it was good to see so many people who were being active during their time outside, Peter didn't feel too compelled to join in. He got more than enough of a work-out after dark, so he was more partial to just finding a place to sit and enjoy the fresh air. The air was amazingly clear here, which he wasn't used to considering his hometown. In some of his family's vacation spots it had been like this, but that was so long ago now.

Speaking of family, it was mainly due to his parents that he had never been part of a team sport as a kid. He had wanted to try it, but his father in particular had always insisted that he focus on his studies. It had gotten him into a good school in the end, but not the right school in his father's eyes.

Either way, he felt like he'd missed out in some ways. As he watched the younger patients run laps or play games together, he came across another patient who looked like he'd seen a ghost.

It occurred to Peter that maybe he had.

He paused and cleared his throat. "Hey, you all right?"

Kira hadn't been thinking to talk to anyone until someone else came up to him - a man not that much older than him, probably. He looked a little wistful. Maybe of the other patients enjoying themselves out here in this open area? Or maybe just longing for the freedom to climb over the walls and finally get free, after all this time. Provided, of course, that he hadn't just arrived. It seemed like more people came in every day, but nobody that Kira particularly knew. Then again, he didn't want people he knew to arrive. The further from this place they were, the better.

"I'm fine," he said, feeling a slightly scratchy feeling in the back of his throat - almost like he had a cold or a sore throat. "Just had a bad encounter last night." A trial, he was sure, they could all share. Nobody could have avoided the trauma this place seemed bound and determined to put them through.

While the other patient didn't exactly sound fine, there wasn't much that Peter could do about that. Expressing concern was about as far as his nurturing tendencies could go with a stranger. Maybe it would be a good idea to see if he could put his nursing experience to work here...

"Let me guess. You ran into something you didn't even think could exist?" he asked. Peter didn't think that any of the patients could be completely ready for what this place had to offer. He hadn't met anyone yet who seemed completely unruffled by the situation, so he could understand the other man's shell-shocked demeanor.

The guy didn't come off as the most sociable person ever, but Peter figured he might do better with some company rather than dwelling on whatever had happened. He leaned himself against the wall a safe distance away from the man, suddenly remembering that the last time he had been here during the day was when he'd run into Mr. Bennet.

Back then, he'd felt like he had a fighting chance. Now, he wasn't so sure.

Did he think something like that woman could exist? Yes ... he knew she probably could. It was unusual, and there had certainly been parts about the encounter that he didn't want to think existed, but it shouldn't have come as such a shock in the aftermath. Even if all that contact still made him want to shudder, and even if those eyes were still seared into the back of his mind, making him wish he never had to blink. And Hanatarou ... the boy was probably doing all right, since he hadn't been caught directly by the woman. Hopefully. Their numbers were dwindling; they couldn't afford another loss.

"No, I knew it might have, but it wasn't pleasant." All that ... hair. Kira reached up to run his fingers through his own hair, to feel at the back of his neck where she'd first clutched at him. "Even if I did get away without lasting damage." Or so he could tell. There had been no bruises, no marks, no cuts. Maybe she was just there to worry them --

Except that he was feeling something in his hair that definitely wasn't his. Confused, he pulled his hand away and found long, dark strands wrapped around his fingers, looking exactly like what had tried to engulf him last night. Instinctively he pulled away from the wall to turn and look at it, in case she was there. She wasn't.

His unease grew. Kira felt the strands between his fingers before shaking them off and letting them fall to the floor.

If this stranger was at least aware of the sorts of monsters and other things that "haunted" this place, then he was probably from a world that was something like Roland's. Peter almost wished he'd had the advantage of being a little more prepared, since even now he got the feeling that he might come across something he wouldn't be ready to deal with.

"Well, that's good, at least," he replied when the blond explained that he hadn't been hurt. So what could have spooked him so bad without actually causing him any damage? Peter probably didn't want the answer, but he was debating asking about it anyway.

Before he could decide, though, he watched as the man pulled his hand away from his head and was suddenly holding some very black, very not-blond hair. Peter watched as he let it fall toward the grass and then glanced up at the other patient with a truly baffled expression. "What was...?"

"I think that was ... "

Kira paused and reached back up to his hair again, fingers catching in his own fairly short blond strands and then -- aha, yes, there it was again. Something coarser, longer, and what would inevitably be darker wrapped around his fingers. He drew his hand back in front of him again and stared at it. She wasn't around, and there was no explanation for it - so then why was this happening? Was she the kind of unsent spirit that clung to people, trying to drag them into the abyss of death with them?

"This is ... the hair of the monster that attacked us last night." And it had to have been her hair, because it was too familiar to be anything else. The scratching in the back of his throat got stronger, and Kira coughed into his arm. "I don't know why it's here."

When the guy started pulling even more of the strange black hair from his head, Peter wasn't sure what to do. It was downright creepy, especially since the blond didn't seem to know where it was coming from either.

And when he explained, Peter had to fight not to take a step back. Maybe the monster had shed on him somehow, but wouldn't he have noticed before? Usually there were no signs of what happened at night during the day (other than people's injuries), so what was this all about?

"Yeah, I... don't think I've ever heard of something like that before," he said with a frown, finally drawing forward so that he could get a better look at the hair. "How close did you get to the monster? What... was it, anyway?" Because that looked more like hair than fur, and yet the guy was calling it a monster, which meant it hadn't been someone who was brainwashed.

The idea that she had simply left hair on him from the night before was a theory Kira had come up with already, but dismissed fairly quickly. He'd run his hands through his hair, and it had come out, as if part of his own body. She hadn't shed on him. And he somehow doubted that she would have left that hair on him unless she meant it, in any case.

She was less of a monster, then ... but what else could he call her? 'Enemy' was too broad.

"She was a ghost, I think. Or a corpse." She certainly looked dead enough to serve as either, but corpses couldn't crawl out of the back of your skull. "She was basically on top of us - literally. I don't know how she did it, but she climbed out of ... me." It was difficult to explain, and Kira shook his head, letting the hairs fall again. "Out of the back of my head, almost. And then the entire hallway seemed like it was engulfed by her presence." But she hadn't done anything ... outright damaging, as far as he could tell. Hadn't she?

Kira coughed again, the scratching in his throat starting to hurt.

Peter's first reaction to the word "ghost" was disbelief, but he quickly stamped that out. Anything was possible, although he honestly hadn't known that there were spirits wandering around the institute. Monsters were a little easier to understand. Animals could be modified somehow - it didn't make much sense, but at least it made a little bit of sense.

Ghosts, though? That was supposed to be kid stuff, things that elementary school children talked about in dark closets while they held flashlights up to their faces.

Still, the guy was talking about this ghost with completely seriousness, and Peter had just seen that black hair with his own two eyes. If it was a ghost, then it was (sort of) understandable that she could be in him, since she wouldn't be solid, but...

Now Peter realized that his original impression when he'd first seen the other patient had actually been right. He'd seen a ghost.

"That's--" Although then Peter realized that the guy had been coughing a whole lot. "Hey, are you all right? Do you need some water or something?" He started to look around for a nearby nurse.

The recollection of the woman from last night was starting to consume him again, despite all his attempts, and he tried to shake it off again - but here, in the daytime, he didn't have as much to focus on. It was harder to get rid of something you didn't want to think about when you had nothing else to think about, and when that something was making itself prevalent, even in real life.

Kira coughed harder against his arm. It felt like he was choking, the scratching was getting so painful, but he still tried to wave off the other young man's question about water. He didn't want to impose --

Damn! There was something caught in his throat, he knew it at this point. He didn't dare try to swallow for fear of whatever it was getting into his stomach. Kira choked and coughed, and finally whatever it was managed to get into his mouth, and he reached in to yank it out. Too late he realized the sensation of it was familiar - thin and stringy and coarse.

He stared at the mess of dark hair he'd dragged out of his own throat with a numb sort of horror, barely able to comprehend what he was looking at.

When the man's coughing only got worse, Peter felt more and more compelled to look for someone who could help. But then the coughing sounds turned into choking sounds, and then he started going through the steps of the Heimlich maneuver in his head.

Just as he was starting to circle around the man so that he could properly perform it, the choking stopped and the blond was staring down at what he'd pulled out.

Had he really just hacked up a hairball? Ignoring the fact that it was gross, Peter didn't miss that the strands looked the same as what the man had found in his own hair. Maybe it being mixed in with his hair could be explained away, but this was ten times worse.

Maybe the ghost literally had been inside him. That was a disturbing thought, though, and Peter definitely wasn't going to say it out loud.

"I think you'd better sit down," he said with a frown, moving to the man's side despite the fact that it meant getting closer to the clump of hair he'd just coughed up. "Want me to get a nurse?"

Rarely in his life had Kira been so fundamentally and biologically disturbed. He knew she'd climbed out of him, somehow, but this was not what he'd ever thought. Was this the extent of her influence? Did she leave people with this kind of mess every time she touched them? In that case ... all the other people she ran into. Did they suffer the same sort of things?

He dropped the hair, unwilling to hold onto it any longer, and hurriedly rubbed his palm on the side of his shirt. The man with him was concerned - and who wouldn't be?

"I'm all right," he said, but his voice was a little shaky. There was still a light scratching in his throat, but it wasn't as bad as before. "I don't think it'll happen again." If it did, he would probably puke; as long as he didn't look a the discarded thing on the ground, he could probably avoid it. "Thank you, though, ah ... "

He hadn't ever caught the man's name, had he? Too caught up in the frankly disturbing business of someone else's hair appearing on and in his body.

It seemed wrong to act like that hadn't just happened, but maybe the blond would rather think about it as little as possible. Peter could understand that. If it had been him, he would have been trying his hardest to block it out too.

Keeping his eyes off the ground and instead on the other patient's face, he saw that the man was searching for a name and quickly helped him out. "Oh, I'm Peter. Sorry for not mentioning it earlier," he said as he extended his hand.

It as only after he'd made the gesture that he remembered that the blond had just been holding the hairball with one of his hands. Peter had to resist jerking his hand back. It wasn't like the guy was diseased...

Right?

"Oh, and I promise I'll stop asking you about it after this, but... what did this ghost look like? Just so I can stay as far away as possible." He was pretty sure the guy would understand that he didn't want to follow in his footsteps when it came to the coughing up ghost hair.

"Kira Izuru," Kira was quick to respond, realizing his own impoliteness pretty quickly. He saw Peter extend his hand and hesitated for a moment before wiping his hand off against the side of his shirt one more time and tentatively returning the gesture. A very Western greeting, but it wouldn't do to just ... ignore it. It was quick, anyway. And awkward.

As for the ghost ... Kira thought about her, keeping his eyes trained on the wall just beyond Peter's head.

"It was on the second floor, in the main hallway - near the banister over the sun room." The banister he had nearly been forced off of. "The ghost was female. She's very pale, with bloodshot eyes and very long, dark hair." Very long was almost an understatement. It seemed like it had been everywhere - curling around his body like a cocoon, stopped only when he tried to slice off her head. And hadn't Hanatarou been stopped by it, too? He couldn't recall - he'd been too busy trying to keep her off him at the time. "If you hear a rattling noise, that's probably an indication that she's coming."

Kira reached up to touch his throat, remembering the feel of that sound, like it had been coming from his own mouth. It was going to haunt his nightmares as much as her eyes.

So far, Peter had only been to the second floor once, but that one time had been under the pretense of following a very ominous trail of blood. Hearing that the creepy ghost who left some nasty after-effects on those who met her (it?) was also up there made him even less inclined to go return any time soon.

He got the feeling it would be necessary at some point, though. If that time came, he would just have to keep his ears open.

"All right, thanks for the information, Kira," he said with a nod. It was kind of difficult trying to steer the conversation to something else when Peter was pretty sure the ghost was the only thing on both of their minds, but he tried nonetheless.

"So, have you had therapy yet?" he asked. He was pretty sure that was far enough away from the previous topic, and it was also something he was genuinely curious about. He wanted to know if anyone else had gone through an experience similar to the one he'd had with Mohinder.

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Day 40: Recreational Field

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