[IC] Nobody Will Believe It [SporkoBug and Calle]

[SporkoBug]

Dia nodded and lead Benjamin along, grabbing his hand as she did so.
She stood behind him as he pushed the door open and narrowed her eyes at the sight of Rays body.

'Ray' was lying down, still on the floor. She seemed dazed and confused, but also in pain.
Her eyes were closed until the door opened, she looked over towards Dia and Benjamin with a puzzled look.
_{"Dia! Benjam...in!"} Ari's voice came from the body, moving to slowly sit up before doubling over from the pain. _{"No, no, ow. Breathing... Hurts."}

---

Sara listened to Marc as he spoke. When he mentioned work, her smile wavered.
"I guess." She said with a small shrug and gave a small smile, "I... wouldn't know. I never really had another job." She hesitated as she looked at the table, "It doesn't really feel like a job for me for the most part... It's just kind of... Home."

[Loksfjoer]

Benjamin looked at Ray, speaking with Ari's voice, and then at Ray who was no longer in her body. He rubbed his forehead, the headache was getting annoying. "Ari..." he said as he held her, but he soon looked back at Dia. "If she gets trouble breathing we have to get someone from the staff, it could be an adverse or allergic reaction to the meds and they have things that can save her life."

---

"Yeah, of course," Marc said, feeling instant regret for his words. "You've lived there for a long time, haven't you? When I started working here you were already helping as staff. I worked at a nursing home before, first a regular floor, then I moved to the closed department. I worked there for a couple of years and then I moved to this city and took a job here."

[SporkoBug]

Ray's spirit was just sitting on the bed, staring off at the wall as if she wasn't out her body. Everything just seemed off with her.
Ari shook her head, _{"No no. Don't get those fucks."} She groaned, Dia shook her head.
"If we tell them you're having an allergic reaction, they can take Ray off them." She said, she looked at Benjamin before she moved to lift Ari up and move her to the bed, "Go get someone. I'll..." She looked around, there was no where to hide. "I'll hide under the bed."

Dia moved to push herself against the floor, sliding herself under the bed without worry. She looked around as she felt the weight of the mattress weigh down on her, the sheets covering the sides underneath.

---

Sara gave a small nod, "I've been there since I was 6." She started, "Thats when everything started happening. When the beast showed up." She sighed as she stared at the middle of the table, her hands still wrapped around her empty tea cup. "I attacked a class mate, Mum and Dad were terrified and didn't know what to do. They tried therapy but it didn't seem to work, She just kept taking control. Aunt Viv ended up talking to Mum, ask she asked Dad, her brother, if she could try to help... Ever since then I've been in her care..." Tears welled at her eyes.

"I haven't seen my parents since." She choked, "They... Used to write to me, and I thought I wrote back but... some of the letters stated they hadn't heard from me." She breathed in and moved to wipe her eyes.
"Nursing home sounds interesting." She said with a weak smile, tilting her head as she looked up to Marc, trying to completely ignore what she had just said.

[Loksfjoer]

Benjamin frowned at Ray, it was odd she was so unresponsive. But first things first, Ari needed help. He went to the emergency button and pressed it. It didn't take long for the first nurse to arrive, it was Tiffany again. A doctor arrived soon after.
"Oh, hey," Benjamin said. "Ray is having difficulties breathing, she says it hurts. It could be the meds."

As the doctor moved in to examine Ray, Tiffany looked at Benjamin. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Headache," he said.
"And have you been seeing anything since you took them?"
He glanced at Ray, sitting on the bed. "Check my file, I never said I saw things all the time. But right now I don't see things I'm not supposed to see."

---

Marc got the hint of not going deeper into what Sara had said and nodded. "It was nice working there, the regular department was a blessing. Working with older people was a joy. The closed department was tough though, I worked with old people with dementia or other mental illnesses. I got shouted at, hit, mistaken for a son or a grandson. It never got easy, but it was fulfilling in a way." He paused as he drank from the tea. "But it was always the end of the line, we took care of them to make their last years as pleasant as possible. I hope that where I work now I can contribute to getting people back to health and see them leave through the front door."

[SporkoBug]

Ari couldn't really move Rays' body. She froze up when the doctor got close to her, _{"Please don't hurt me."} She croaked, trying her best to keep to Ray's voice, [b][sub]"I...It's hard to breathe and I can't move."[/b][/sub]

Dia held her breath, she didn't know how this would work. Could she turn back to a spirit at any moment? Or was she trapped like this??
Ray on the other hand seemed to suddenly look down from the ceiling and looked straight towards Benjamin with a dreamy look in her eyes. She seemed to know he was there, and she looked to her body as her smile seemed to fade slightly.
She tilted her head slightly and moved to stand up off the bed, swaying as she did so, stepping towards her body before she looked at the doctor.

---

Sara almost gave a laugh when he mentioned about the closed department.
"So, essentially what you're working in now is much like end department." She said as she winced at him saying about getting people back to health and get them out the front door.
She was reminded about what Ray and Benjamin had talked to her about. She hesitated on asking a question before she looked to Marc, "What..." She started, "What if, we're not helping them? What if we're harming them and we don't know it?"

[Loksfjoer]

The doctor examined Ray's lungs and heart rate. "Looks like side-effects," he said. "She'll need oxygen. Get a stretcher and get her into the infirmary. I'll administer new medicine there."
One nurse rushed out of the room to get a stretcher.

Benjamin looked at Ray, she finally woke up from whatever apathetic state she had been in. "Will she be okay?" he asked.

"Don't worry," the doctor said as he turned to Benjamin. "She is in good hands."

That was something Benjamin doubted, but Ari really was having diffulties and maybe the doctor could really help her. He glanced to Ray to see what she was doing, while trying to make sure no-one noticed he was looking at nothing again. He rubbed his head.

"Are you okay?" the doctor asked.

"Headache. Took my medicine for the first time."

"Good. You'll feel better with it."

Benjamin flashed a smile, he doubted it, but if the docteo wanted to believe that, that was fine with him.

---

Marc stared at Sara when she shared her concern. "That would be bad, but we are trying to make them better, right? We follow the treatment plan of the psychiatrist..." his voice trailed off, Susanna hadn't been catatonic when he had arrived. The psychiatrist had assured him she had been on the path of becoming catatonic, but Sara's words made him doubt. That male patient, Simon, that had gone home so abruptly... "I mean," he continued, "doctors do want their patients to get better, right?" He sounded as if he wanted to believe that and he looked at Sara in the hopes to get a confirmation.

[SporkoBug]

Ari wheezed slightly, when the doctor said that he'd help, she wanted to protest, she wanted to fight.
_{"Please don't kill me."} She mumbled. Her eyes moved towards Benjamin, almost with a pleading look. She looked towards Ray on the bed and anger just flooded through her eyes.

Ray seemed to catch Ari's look, watching her before looking back to the doctor and moved to stand beside him. She stood slightly straighter as she watched him, moving to playfully mimic his words as he spoke, before she suddenly fell to the ground, falling through the doctor.
Her eyes widened as she hit the ground after going through the doctor, she had felt his own spirit as she went through him.

---

"I'd only hope they do." Sara said to Marc's question, her mind wanted to pester him more, but she stayed quiet. She looked down at the book she held.
"We can... Buy these, yeah?" She asked with a tilt of her head, "I have... a very small amount of money, maybe it's enough for this book." She trailed off as she frowned, 'working' for the ward didn't really pay too much, considering she was also a patient.
"I'm sorry." She started, frowning slightly, "I didn't mean to make the conversation turn dark. I'm sorry... I'll just shut up."

[Loksfjoer]

"Of course not," the doctor said to Ray, not knowing it wasn't really Ray in that body. "I'm here to help."

Benjamin watched the real Ray standing beside the doctor and mimicking him. "Ray!" he said with a hint of anger in his voice. Ari was in pain and she was goofing around with the doctor?

The doctor turned to Benjamin. "Is there a problem?" he asked.

"Well..." Benjamin began, not knowing what he could say that would make his outburst less suspicious, "her asking not to kill her is preposterous, isn't it? What doctor would kill their patients?"

The doctor seemed pleased with the answer and nodded. He turned his attention to the door when a stretcher was rolled in and two nurses took Ray's body to move her from the bed to the stretcher, so she could be treated for her breathing difficulties in the infirmary.

---

"You can buy the books," Marc said. "And if you don't have enough I'll buy it for you." He seemed to be elsewhere with his mind though and after a moment he looked at Sara. "Sara... I'm not a doctor, I'm a nurse, but I learned a bit about medicine and illnesses too. And Carol's case... it's odd. Don't you think?"

[SporkoBug]

Ari trembled as she was lifted up to the stretcher, but she didn't have enough energy to fight back. She looked to Benjamin as she was whisked off to the infirmary. She looked towards one of the nurses, _{"Please don't hurt me."} She asked with a small frown. _{"I won't fight back, I can't move."}

Ray jolted as she heard Benjamin yell at her, her eyes moving to watch him with a mix of anger and confusion. She went back to watching the nurses take Ari away and gave a rather nonchalant wave, she turned her head towards the bed with a narrowed stare, standing up slowly to walk towards it and crossed her arm as she looked down at the bed. She tapped her foot for a second, as if she was thinking before she hopped onto the bed, dropping through the bed AND Dia.

Dia held her breath and held in a gasp as Ray fell right through her, both of them stared at each other before Ray rolled out from under the bed and pinned herself against the wall in fear.

---

Sara was about to ask if Marc could by her book and she would pay him back before she paused at his next words.
She hesitated, looking to the floor for a moment before she looked back to Marc and shook her head.
"I wouldn't say so, no." She started, "Not that I know much but... Simons' case wasn't either." She hesitated on mentioning about Benjamin, and even Ray and her spirits, but she knew Marc still wouldn't believe her.

"You say we're trying to get them healthy and out of the door." She started, breathing in as she closed her eyes. "It'll sound crazy, and I don't want you to tell Vivian, but I don't believe it."

[Loksfjoer]

Benjamin watched Ray drop through the bed and moments later roll out from under it. What had made her so afraid? He watched the doctor and nurses leave with Ari in Ray's body and once the last one left the room, he quickly closed the door.
"Ray, pull yourself together," he said, looking at her and he stepped closer to her. "What happened?"

---

Marc remembered Benjamin asking about Simon and seeing the notification he had gone home. He had assumed it had happened after his shift, but the fact Sara mentioned it as an odd case made him think about it again.
"Well, I mean, some treatments take a long time," he said, although he sounded unsure. "This is the first time I'm working at a place like this, but the others told me they have long-term treatments there..." He finished his tea and looked at his book. "How many people have you seen get released from the facility? Seen, not just heard about."

[SporkoBug]

Ray looked to Benjamin as he stepped forward towards her. She stepped away from him, almost in fear.
"Go away." She hissed towards Benjamin, "B...Back off!" She closed her eyes and slid down the wall in fear.

Dia dropped from under the bed and rolled out quietly. She stood up and sighed slightly as she looked towards Benjamin and Ray.
"I don't think she knows she's out of her body." She started quietly, "Maybe she thinks we're the spirits?"

---

Sara hesitated on the answer to the question. She frowned slowly before she looked up towards Marc, "Honestly?" She asked, "I've never seen anyone walk out the front door. I've never seen anyone leave at all."
She fell silent as she waited for Marcs' response.

[Loksfjoer]

"And why would she be afraid of spirits? She has always been surrounded by them." Benjamin frowned at Ray. "Come on, Ray. Ari needs you."
What kind of meds did she get? He had taken his, but aside from a headache he hadn't felt anything from them. He did remember the sedative he had gotten the previous day, but that hadn't messed him up like this either.

---

The bed with Ari on it had arrived in the infirmary and the doctor put a mouthpiece over her mouth to help her breath. He checked the file and filled a syringe. "I'm going to give you something that will relax the muscles," he told her. "It should make it easier to breathe again."
He approached her and took an arm so he could inject the substance.

---

Marc stared at Sara and didn't reply at first. If Sara really hadn't seen anyone leave, with the time she had spent there, that was weird. It would make sense people would talk about going home or going elsewhere with other patients. "And how often did you hear patients talk about going home or getting replaced to another place?" he asked her. "I've seen several files with that reason listed."

[SporkoBug]

Dia frowned as Benjamin mentioned why she'd be afraid of them. She stayed away from Ray, allowing Benjamin to handle this situation.
Ray trembled at Benjamin's words, "P...Please don't hurt me... s...sir." Her voice was different, almost childlike.

Dia paused, tilting her head slightly before she realized what was happening.
"Maybe... She thinks she's a kid again? Before everything happened?" She asked.
"W...Who is Ari?" Ray added quietly, "I...I don't think I can help sir."

---

Ari almost struggled when something was put over her face, but as soon as it was on she seemed to relax and breath in. The sudden ability to breath seemed to help her calm down for a second. At the mention of muscle relaxant, she almost pulled her arm away from him in fear.

Something about the needle made Ari start to panic, her breathing picked back up and her heartbeat accelerated again.

---

Sara looked back down as Marc didn't seem to speak, as he asked the question she dropped her shoulders as she sighed.
"...None." She admitted, "I heard things from them talking about wanting to go home, the more... lucid ones at least." She closed her eyes again and seemed to relax to show defeat.
"I'm sorry, I'm probably not helpful." She said as she looked away, "I could be wrong, I... don't think I'm remembering anything wrong but..." She trailed off as she winced slightly.

[Loksfjoer]

Benjamin rubbed his face. How could this have happened? What medicine had this effect on people? But they had to deal with this. There wasn't anything they could do for Ari, except hope the doctor really did want to help her breath again.
"Hello Ray," Benjamin said to her. "I'm Benjamin. I'm a friend, so you don't have to be afraid of me, okay? This is Dia, she's a friend too, just like Ari is. I just want to know what you remember, about yourself and this place."

---

The doctor noticed the changes and lowered the needle. "Calm down," he said to Ari. "Are you feeling okay with just the extra oxygen? Are you experiencing any other side-effects from your pills?"
He took a stethoscope to listen to her heart and lungs.

---

"No, you are helpful. Thanks for telling me." Marc flashed a smile and looked at the book. "So, were you planning on buying that?" he asked her.
That was what the conversation was about before it had turned into the dark possibility people never got better in the asylum, a thought that made him shudder, and he was more than happy to return to that and more light-hearted topics of conversations. He did promise himself one thing: the next day he would look more closely into the files of the people that were listed as discharged for transfer or returning home.

[SporkoBug]

Ray watched Benjamin with fear in her eyes, she listened to his words, trying to find any sort of lie or deceit.
"A...A friend?" She asked quietly, she seemed to relax before she looked at her hands. "Am... I dead?"
"No, you've just been pulled from your body." Dia said, moving to sit down on the floor with Ray, motioning for Benjamin to follow suit.

"W...How?" She squeaked before she looked up to Benjamin again, "I'm... Imprisoned. I... Remember that much. I like... Art. I draw, occasionally?" She almost questioned.

---

Ari tried to relax herself, closing her eyes to ensure she didn't see the needle.
_{"M...My body is weakened... My joints ache."} She focused on everything that made her hurt, everything that was specifically from the medicine and not the fact she forced the main soul out of its' body. _{"I have a strong headache."} Her heartbeat was starting to relax, but her breathing was still slightly strained.

---

When Marc smiled at her, Sara's seemed to straighten up and her smile grew a little bit. His positivity was starting to rub off on her, she enjoyed his company. When he asked about the book she looked down at it.
"O-oh!" She started before she fumbled through her things to find her wallet, getting more anxious by the second. "Oh no. Where... where is it?" She started to panic, "Oh no, did I... Fuck I think I left it... no no..." She sighed and looked at the book before she stood up to grab it.
"I guess I'll just put it back and hope no one buys it before the next time I come here, which probably won't happen again for a while."

[Loksfjoer]

"I was told you've taken medication. Do you recall that?" Benjamin asked Ray as he sat down next to her. While she seemed confused, at least she seemed to remember things about her situation. That was good, it meant it would come back to her sooner or later. He glanced at Dia, but he couldn't help think about Dia too - he hoped she would be okay.

---

"Okay," the doctor said, looking from the mask to the monitor he had hooked Dia on. "If your oxygen saturation gets too low, I will need to do more, but right now we'll see if the extra oxygen will be enough."
He turned away to check something in the computer and another nurse came to write down some data from the screen before she too went to another patient who was in the infirmary.

---

Marc reached out to gently take Sara's arm. "If you want it, I can buy it for it. You can pay me back if that makes you feel better; I'm not a bank so you can pay whatever you can, for as long as it takes, without interest." He winked. "Or you can accept it as a gift. I don't mind, I can afford it."

Why wouldn't he help her out by buying it for her? Her story didn't sound like she got an actual paycheck as he did.

[SporkoBug]

Dia watched Ray quietly, moving her head to look towards Benjamin as he asked the questions, she turned her head back towards Ray again.
Ray seemed to tremble every second minute, she listened to Benjamin as he spoke and looked to the ground when he asked about the medication. She narrowed her eyes as she tried to think about what had happened, "I..." She started slowly, "I remember talking to... an older woman. She said I could draw more if I took my medication..."

Dia's brow furrowed more, she looked to the doorway quietly and spun around to face it as she sat. She mulled over everything that had happened, her mind moved to the subject of Ari, hoping she was dealing okay with things.

---

Ari only nodded to the doctors words, watching as he walked off, before her eyes went towards the nurse who came back. She moved to ask who she was but her voice only came out as a croaky squeak.
She almost recoiled at her own squeak, moving to trying to sit up to get a better look of things. She had never been into this part, and she wasn't sure if Ray had been in here either.

---

Sara froze when Marc touched her, she almost flinched at the touch. She reopened her eyes and looked towards Marc as he mentioned buying it for her.
"I...I would be ex...extremely grateful if...if you did buy it for me." She started, "I...I can try to pay you back b...but I don't know if.. I'd be able to." She said with a bigger frown.

"You never will be able to." The voice whispered in Sara's mind. She didn't engage it this time, if she did, she'd break down again and then Marc wouldn't want to hang out with her.

[Loksfjoer]

Benjamin nodded. That had to be someone of the staff, but who? Just about every nurse he had talked with talked about taking his meds. At least it was narrowed down to 'an older woman'. It didn't matter much though, they would surely try again and there was nothing to be done about that.
"Did you know this would happen?" he asked Dia as he turned to face her. "Would her medicine have effected you too if you were with her?"

---

"Don't try to talk," the nurse told Ari. "Just relax and breath, okay Ray? That is all you have to do right now. You'll feel better once the medication wears off and the doctor will consult with the psychiatrist to alter your medication."
She checked to see if the mask was covering her mouth as it should and left again, leaving Ari by herself.

---

"Don't worry about it, okay?" Marc said. "It will be my gift to you." He pushed back his chair and rose. "I will go pay for the book and the consumptions," he said as he gently grabbed the book. "I'll be back soon."
He walked with the book to the counter and asked if he could pay. As he waited for the person behind the bar to enter everything into the cash register, he glanced over his shoulder to Sara.
A nice girl, he was glad he had taken the time to get to know her better. Although she had said some troubling things about the asylum they worked. He decided he'd look into it the next day.

[SporkoBug]

Dia shook her head at Benjamin's words, "No, she's never taken her meds before." She said with a worried look on her face, she looked to Benjamin before she looked towards Ray again. "I don't know if this would have happened to me if I was with her, considering Ari was a small whisp I can only assume that it would have been the same for me." She said with a frown.

Ray watched the two people in front of her, they were talking but she wasn't sure what about. She pulled her legs in slowly and rested her chin against her knees as they talked. Her mind wandered when she looked at Dia, for some reason she was incredibly familiar to her but she couldn't pinpoint what.

---

Ari nodded at the nurse, she almost said that she wasn't Ray, but she hesitated. She watched the nurse leave after fixing up the oxygen mask and closed her eyes.
I'm stuck here. She thought to herself, I have control of the body. I'm fine. We're gonna survive this. For Ray.

---

Sara watched Marc leave with a small sigh, she leaned her head down to her arms as she stared off into the distance.
"He doesn't like you. He pities you." A voice echoed in Sara's head, she closed her eyes almost in fear as the voice appeared.
"Go away." She whispered to the voice, only a small laugh in reply.

[Loksfjoer]

"We really need the input of someone who knows about medication," Benjamin said. "To have this effect on people with multiple spirits... Unless it's not the effect the medicine has on the brain, but how it affects her perception of you and Ari... maybe she needs to know you and accept you in order for you to co-exist with her."
It was just guessing at this point; he didn't know much about how it all worked and it wasn't something to could ask the psychiatrist.

He looked at Ray, what could they do with her? Wait it out? Help her get back in her body? When would Ari get back. He closed his eyes and he rubbed his temples. That damned head-ache didn't help him either.

---

After Marc paid for everything he returned to the table and gave the book to Sara. "It's yours now," he said. "Shall we walk a bit through this part of the town before going to the restaurant? This part of the town has some of the oldest houses."
He almost asked if everything was okay, she seemed down, but he decided not to. Did she have mood swings? He realized he didn't know much about her diagnosis, but it didn't matter.