“She already woke up? She wasn’t due for another two hours.” Doctor Thin needle pointed out the obvious. “Just in case, we should check on our anesthetics. Please make a note of that in the system.”
“Of course, doctor.” Nurse Sleepy Leave quickly wrote down a personal reminder to do that later.
“So, how is our patient fairing?” the doctor asked.
“Well, Miss Gleam appears to be stable and calm. She apologized for the broken mirror and asked for something to eat. I provided her something already, so she’s eating right as we speak. Else she had complains about headaches and muttered something about how she was never going to drink again.” The nurse smiled wryly, knowing that her patient would not be able to uphold that promise.
“That’s good to hear. Did she say something on how she got the wound?”
The nurse shook her head. “No and I didn’t ask for that matter. I didn’t want to put too much stress on her, doctor.”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right. All that’s left for us to do is to call her parents and see that there is no permanent damage. If nothing goes wrong, we should be able to release her tomorrow. Please prepare the papers. I’ll go and talk to her later.”
“Of course, doctor.”
Thin Needle nodded at the nurse, before leaving the office, placing his empty coffee mug on the table. So far his day had been the usual fair, with only Miss Gleam being the one unusual patients. But they appeared every now and then, so yes, so far a very average day. Entering his patient’s room, he found her desperately chewing on a steak, while simultaneously watching TV. He didn’t envy the girl. There was rarely anything in the cafeteria that was good in any sense of the matter.
“Hello, miss Gleam.”
The head of the girl turned towards the doctor. With all her might, she swallowed the piece of meat in her mouth, before answering. “Hey doctor. Sorry ‘bout the freak out. I...don’t really know what came over me…” she grinned nervously.
“Ah, it’s no problem. I can only imagine how it is, waking up in a place you don’t know and having no memory of moving there. I came here to ask on how you feel and if you can remember anything.”
“How I feel, huh?” The expression on the girl suddenly became very serious. “Well I do have the occasional headache, but it’s fine now. Everything else seems to be in order.” She said, raising her arms and turning them a few times, before placing them back on her lap. “As for what I was doing...well, I was partying the whole night, no need to hide that. There’s also something you should know doc.”
“And what would that be?” he asked.
Fantasia took in a deep breath. The doctor noticed her hands were shaking a little.
“You see…oh god, this is embarrassing...urgh, I can’t pay for this.”
The doctor blinked. “Pay for what? Oh, you mean the hospital?”
“Yes, you see, not only do I not have the money” she took in another breath “I….I...I also...I don’t have any legal papers whatsoever.”
The doctor blinked again. “Pardon?”
“I have nothing, okay? No birth certificate, no ID, no passport, I don’t even have enough money to buy myself a pair of socks.” the girl counted everything with her fingers.
“So…” the doctor trailed off, not sure on how to proceed. It happened from time to time that a patient had no means of paying, but there was a law in place, in which the state would take over. However for this to happen, you needed to be able to identify yourself. There was the occasional guy from the street who couldn’t do so, but normally they had some sort of record somewhere. It was the first time that a teenager couldn’t identify herself, but that could actually be easily explained.
“So you ran away from home.” the doctor concluded.
The girl looked down to the side, making the doctor belief he was right.
“No...I...I don’t have any parents. Or any other family for that matter.” She suppressed a sob.
He didn’t believe her for one second. For starters her clothes were in an exceptional well condition for someone who lived her entire life on the streets. But Thin Needle knew better than to distress a patient. She had just arrived here and woken up after a sedative had been forcefully injected into her. He would leave the questions to the police.
“You are aware that I will have to contact the police about this?”
Fantasia shrugged, acting like she didn’t care. “I guess. Since I’m still underage I’ll probably end up in an orphanage anyway. Might actually be an improvement…” she muttered the last part.
“I...see. Well then, I’ll leave you to it. And don’t worry, we won’t kick you out or anything like this.”
“If you say so…” the girl replied carefully, watching the doctor leave. Once he was outside, she looked down on her food, thinking.
“Dead, huh? He might as well be…”
The following day, Twilight Velvet was waiting in front of the room this Fantasia Gleam was staying in. According to the nurse, the girl momentarily had visitors and had asked Velvet to wait outside. She waited for a good of twenty minutes until two police officers stepped out.
“Man, that’s not exactly how I expected my first case would be.” the younger officer sighed.
“Get used to it, kid. Crime rate is on an all time low and honestly, I’d rather dealing with a runaway girl, than a murdered one.” The older one spoke as they went down the hallway. “Anyways, this way I can properly show you how to access our different databases…”
Velvet looked after them, until they were out of sight and entered the room. She found the girl, fully dressed and staring out of the window. Upon hearing the footsteps, the girl let out a grown.
“Look, I answered your questions about a thousand times” she turned around “and I’m not gonna change- oh, it’s you.” She blushed embarrassed. “Sorry, those officers were getting really annoying. I know they were just doing their job, but still....really annoying, I tell you.”
She looked down at her, still blushing. “So...uh...I wanted to say, I’m sorry about the other day…”
“Oh...it’s alright, really.”
Fantasia let out a dry laugh. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me.”
“Then it has to be the truth.” Velvet stated. “I hope you don’t mind me visiting.”
“No, no, it’s fine, really!” The girl waved with her arms. “But, why are you here? I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I’m a complete stranger to you.” Gleam pointed out.
Velvet looked at the girl for a second. Fantasia was unable to read that expression or even take a guess. The writer proceeded to rummage in her purse, until she took out a yellow muffler.
“I found this one lying next to you. I guess it’s yours.”
“Er….uh….thanks? I guess…” Fantasia accepted the scarf and rubbed it with her fingers. The fabric felt really nice and she had no doubt it would be comfortable wearing that thing.
“It isn’t yours?” the author asked.
“Er...it is. I think…” the girl muttered the last part. She put the scarf over a chair, before turning back to the woman.
“So...uh...thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Velvet smiled. “I hope the doctor releases you soon. That looked like one nasty head injury.”
“Er, the doctor said it was only on the surface. Third time it happened, actually.” the girl chuckled. Velvet titled her head, frowning.
“When I party, I party really hard.” the girl smiled a guilty smile. Velvet understood the implications immediately. Her frown deepened.
“Well, I’m normally not one to judge another one’s behaviours, but if this really happens regularly, you will end up damaging your liver permanently.”
Fantasia rolled her eyes, but didn’t comment on it. She knew the woman was right, but she made sure not to party too often. Normally only Saturday and Sunday. “Mhm. Are you going now?”
“Oh! Am I annoying you?”
“Not at all.” Fantasia Gleam shook her head, causing her head to fly around like crazy. “I just thought you were here to bring me the scarf and that’s it.”
“Actually, I hoped we could talk a little. Since you seem to know about me, I assume you have read at least one of my books.”
“Know about you?” Fantasia blinked. A moment later her eyes widened in realization. “Oh, Oooooooh...ehehehe, I’m afraid I have to disappoint you.” she tapped her two pointy fingers together, looking to the side and blushing. “I….just saw your picture somewhere...and read your name….a magazine...or something…*ahem*.”
It didn’t take a detective to see that the girl was lying. Twilight Velvet just wondered as to why the girl was lying. Maybe it was because Velvet was, as the girl said, almost a complete stranger to Fantasia.
“I see…” Velvet spoke carefully. “In that case, can I interest you in one of my novels?” the woman asked, taking out a book from her purse. “I imagine it gets pretty boring inside the hospital?”
“Depends really.” Fantasia shrugged. “Haven’t checked out the TV as of today. Though I would love to take a little stroll outside, but the doctors won’t let me. Said they wanted to observe me for a little longer.”
“Well, it is better to be safe than sorry.” Velvet replied. “We don’t want you to fall unconscious all of the sudden, now do we?”
“Exactly what the nurse told me.” the girl answered with a wry grin. “Makes me wish I was a unicorn, so I could teleport outside.” She crossed her arms. “Well, I would need to ask another unicorn to teach me how to teleport first of course. Luckily I know where I can find one.” She finished the last sentence with a wink.
Twilight Velvet blinked a couple of times, before she began laughing very loudly at the seemingly random comment from the girl. “A unicorn, hahaha, oh this gives me such a good idea for a book. Hahaha.” The woman took in some deep breaths before continuing. “Normally I don’t write stories in the fantasy genre. I mostly write crime novels.”
“Really?” Fantasia blinked. “Huh, I write mostly fantasy and completely nonsense slice of life.”
“You write?” Velvet asked, surprised.
The girl in return smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. “Only fanfiction. You know, the stuff where you take someone’s idea of a story and write your own stuff about it? Like an alternate universe story, reinterpretations, funny situations, the list goes on.”
“Hmm...can’t say I have heard about it. I did hear about a website, where young people can put up their own stories. Is it that?”
“Nah, that’s whole ‘nother thing. Belief me, I checked the site out. Sorry for the vulgar vocabulary, but on the site you mean are way less assholes than on fanfiction websites (except for fimfiction).” She muttered the last part. “Some fanfiction sites allow you to upload your completely own story, but most don’t have a category where you can upload it. Most sites focus on Anime, Comics, Cartoons, Games, TV-Series and sometimes even mythology.”
“Mythology?” Velvet asked, now clearly interested. “Maybe I should have a look at some point.”
“Don’t.” Fantasia deadpanned. “Seriously don’t. Most attempts of any story are either half-baked or have so many grammar and spelling errors in them, they’re a pain to read. Especially for professionals.”
“Huh? Oh, come on. Are you really expecting me to throw a fit, after looking at some badly written works?”
“I have seen it happening. And it wasn’t pretty.” the girl replied in a low tone, her hair covering her eyes all of the sudden, casting a dark shadow over the entire face.
Velvet blinked in surprise, but smiled only a second later, thinking the girl was exaggerating on purpose. Heck, when Velvet got a writing blockade, she tended to write the most random things that came to mind, not really caring about grammar, structure and sometimes even right spelling. She even saved up some of these “works”, thinking they might make good story ideas at one point or another. Every time she rereads those texts, she would only smile wryly and go on with her work. And some of those texts were really awful to say the least.
“I’ll manage. But now I am interested. What kind of stories did you write in the past? What were they about?”
“Uh...uff…” Fantasia sat down on her bed. “I normally only read fanfiction from time to time, not write. Though, if I had to choose, I think it would be the one where a unicorn, a dragon, a human, a gryphon and a chicken go on a road trip.”
…
…
“Why the chicken?” Velvet asked eventually.
“Er…...I thought about a vampony, basically a vampire pony, but that would have been two ponies already. I wanted some variety, you know.” the girl grinned sheepishly.
“Okay...so...the group...is going on a road trip…”
“Yeah, but soon they notice that the government is after the chicken, because the government thinks the chicken can talk. The thing is, it’s the only thing in the bus that can’t talk.”
Velvet couldn’t hold it in anymore. She completely lost it, the picture of the human, gryphon, dragon, unicorn and chicken sitting in the bus, driving on a sandy road, while being chased by police cars. She lost her balance, falling back on a chair, while holding her sides.
“Oh...oh dear...AHAHAHAHA! A CHICKEN! WHY?! WHY?! AHAHAHAHA!!!”
Her laughter was contagious, as soon enough Fantasia Gleam herself started laughing herself, falling back on the bed the hospital staff had provided her with for the entirety of her stay. It took an entirety of five minutes, until both had released their final giggles and two more, until the oxygen supply had been restored in their bodies.
“Oh...wow.” the older woman breathed out. “I imagine you must have gotten quite the reviews from a story like this.”
“Er...not really.” Fantasia shrugged, looking up to the ceiling. “I only uploaded five chapters and hell, I thought I was only able to write three.”
“Hmm? Why did you stop?”
“Lack of caring, if I’m honest.” the girl stroked the hair away from her eyes. “I just wrote it for fun. Also the like, dislike ratio was almost 50/50. If I remember correctly I only had one more like than dislike and it might have even been my own.” she chuckled dryly.
“You know, you shouldn’t just give up on a story, no matter if it a serious attempt or not.” Velvet stood up, walking over to the bed, Fantasia was lying in. The girl looked up to the writer, who had a pretty serious expression on her face.
“You never know. It might just be the breakthrough you need to start your career as a writer.”
“My career?” Fantasia asked with a raised eyebrow. She wanted to say even more, but her stomach beat her to it. “Er...I agree with my stomach on this one.” Fantasia said with a blush on her face. “Right now I want to rather think about food than my career.” she giggled a little. “Guess I’m gonna need to call the “room service”.”
Velvet raised an eyebrow at this. “Why don’t we just go to the cafeteria downstairs? I’m sure the doctors would allow it.”
“Truth is, they already did. But truth also is that I’m flat out broke.” Fantasia grinned for an entirety of three seconds, before her face became very stern. “And don’t even think about paying for my food. You’ve done enough as it is.”
Velvet was taken aback by the statement, especially after hearing the seriousness in her ways. It was a completely 180 to the carefree attitude the girl had shown the writer all day. However Velvet quickly found her composure back. A reaction like this one was completely normal after all. The girl just didn’t want to be a burden to the woman, but said woman would have none of it.
“Nonsense. Come on. I once heard the cook working here, once was chef at a really good restaurant.”
“Hey, whatcha doing?! H-HEY! At least let me put my clothes on!”