Chapter Text
When Doctor Roberts had met Kendra for the first time, she hadn’t been worried at all. Kendra seemed like a normal enough kid. She had asked questions, and Kendra had answered them all with a genuinely sorry smile, as if she knew why she was there.Yes, she had lots of friends at school. No, she didn't have a boyfriend or girlfriend. She was thinking about playing soccer on her school’s team and she wasn’t too sure about spending the summer at her grandparents’ house with her brother. Her answers had been precise, to the point, and perfectly normal.
Except her school didn’t have a soccer team, and all of her grandparents were long dead.
Mild delusions, she had explained to Marla and Scott, to cope with the loss. They would likely go away within the next few months. After all, coping mechanisms did work in the strangest ways. Doctor Roberts assured the Sorensons they could call at any time, anyway. It couldn’t hurt.
A few weeks later, she received a tearful call, and Marla and Scott drove to the New Western Hope Hospital with Kendra. Their daughter had been sent home from school, screaming about monsters that weren't there.
Two hours later, they left without her.
“Do you know why you’re here?” Doctor Roberts asks Kendra carefully. The girl seems more bothered than usual, her fingers playing with the tips of her long hair, her gaze turned towards the floor. She doesn’t respond.
“Kendra?" she asks quietly. The girl looks up at her quickly, meeting the doctor’s gaze. Her previously bright brown eyes seemed dimmer, and there were dark circles underneath them.
“I’m not supposed to go into the woods,” she mutters, dropping her gaze again. “Grandpa Sorenson told me not to.”
According to the family, her Grandpa Sorenson had died, three years prior, from a heart attack. He had left a large estate to Kendra’s father, Scott, who had promptly sold it. Kendra herself had never been on the property.
“Do you know why you’re not supposed to go into the woods?” Doctor Roberts questions. Usually, when her patients were trapped in their own worlds, it was best to talk them through it, and allow them to recognize it wasn’t the real world. Telling them the truth would be far too jarring, and besides, she wouldn’t believe her doctor anyway.
Kendra closes her eyes and slouched lower in her chair. “I don’t know!” she bursts out suddenly, “And now Seth wants to go see what’s in the woods! I can’t let him! What if he gets hurt? What’ll I tell Mom and Dad?”
“Easy, Kendra,” Doctor Roberts calms, holding out a hand, “Take a few deep breaths. Remember, you're in the hospital. Nothing can hurt you.”
Kendra gives her a fierce glare, the first real burst of emotion she has had so far that day.
“I am calm!” she says, taking a shuddering breath, “Really calm. Very calm.”
Doctor Roberts decides to end the session there for the day.
The aide with the big ears keeps slipping the kids chocolates. He’s one of the volunteers who seemed to have turned up to help in the Children’s Psych Ward one day and never left. He dotes on the kids, says they remind him of his younger brother, who’s all laid up in the hospital. Just two floors down, in fact.
After Doctor Roberts spends a lunch break with him, she learns that his name is Dale, and his brother is the handsome young coma patient who shows no sign of waking up. He and his brother are estranged from their parents. They’ve only got each other. And now, the poor man doesn’t even have that.
She makes it a point to invite him to staff game nights every week after that.
Dale hides his rose chocolates all over the ward, making it a game for the kids. Whoever finds the most chocolates, gets to win the prize of an old journal he’s found in his attic. The thing looks old and battered, like a true antique, but the moment Kendra sets eyes on it, a bit of the old light comes back into it.
It’s not a surprise she finds eleven out of the thirty chocolates before most of the other kids have even found one.
Kendra’s a brilliant kid, really. She’s calm and composed most of the time. Sitting here, munching on one of Dale’s chocolates, she seems happy. She even shared her chocolates with the children who hadn’t found any, and kept just two for herself. Now, though, she clutches the journal like it was her most valuable possession.
It’s some progress, though, and Doctor Roberts will take it.
“It’s the Journal of Secrets,” she explains to the doctor, flipping through the blank pages of the book, “I’ve got to figure it out.”
Doctor Roberts nods slowly. “Do you know where you are, Kendra?”
Kendra gives her a dazzling smile back.
“I’m in the attic bedroom. Me and Seth are stuck there since we got caught sneaking into the woods.” She lowers her voice conspiratorially. “Between you and me, he pretends to be bored, but he loves the painting.”
She glances towards the door, smiling fondly. A few children are doing arts and crafts outside, with one of the aides. Her name started with an L, maybe Laura? Does she think Seth is with them?
Doctor Roberts smiles softly back at the young girl, who turns back to the desk. “If you’re in the attic with your brother, then who am I?”
Kendra’s grin vanishes as she tried to puzzle that out.
One of the first things Doctor Roberts learned about Kendra was that she never wanted to cause any kind of trouble. The girl would go out of her way to be kind to all the other children, no matter how rude they were back. So she wasn’t worried when Kendra switched to calling the little girls “fairies”, instead of “butterflies”, like she had called them before.
Which is why Dale’s call from the cafeteria had been so unexpected.
"Doctor, Kendra had a bit of an issue today at lunch," he says without preamble, "You'll probably need to come check her out."
Doctor Roberts was already out her office door at that point. "Is she okay?" she asks, heart in her throat because she knows Kendra was getting better, she had known it, but now…
"You should come and see."
Dale is never purposefully this cryptic, so he really must not have known what was going on.
The cafeteria is cleared out, the kids already moving to their next activity, but only Kendra remains in the corner, muttering to herself. When she saw Doctor Roberts, her face broke into a relieved smile.
"Doctor!" she exclaims, "You're a real Doctor, right?"
Doctor Roberts winces, but before she can phrase a reply, Kendra waves her hands in front of herself, as if to erase her previous question.
"I mean, you can treat physical illnesses, too, right? Food poisoning, things like that?"
Doctor Roberts crouches until she's eye level with Kendra.
"Of course," she says calmly, meeting Kendra's panicked gaze, "Do you know someone that's sick? Are you feeling alright?"
"ItoldSethtodrinkthemilk." It comes out as one breath, and while it isn't the same as acknowledgement, and not even close to acceptance, Doctor Roberts can work with it.
"I told Seth to drink the milk," Kendra repeats in a slightly slower voice, " Even though I knew he could have gotten sick. And the fairies are beautiful but," she lowers her voice, until it's barely a whisper, "but I would take my brother over fairies any day."
Something in Doctor Roberts' heart twists, but all she does is help Kendra up.
"Does this make me a bad person?" the young girl asks plaintively, "He could have gotten sick."
"No," Doctor Roberts responds fiercely, "It doesn't."
There’s an meditation teacher that comes about once a week, and as far as Doctor Roberts can tell, Ms. Muriel from Mystical Therapy is the only person in the world that Kendra dislikes. Dislikes is a bit of a mild word. Hates seems to be more of the theme she’s going with. She’s not exactly sure what Muriel’s done to wrong Kendra, but during their sessions, Kendra’s talked about her as if she were a witch.
Somehow, though, that hate has turned into grudging respect and a little bit of fear. The doctor asks about it during their next meeting. From what she had understood, Muriel had helped Kendra calm down.
“And what do you think about Ms. Muriel now? She made you upset before, but you don’t seem to mind her now?”
“Grandpa told me to stay away from her,” Kendra explained, rubbing her eyes tiredly, “Plus, she did help, when- you know?”
“When did she help you, Kendra?”
Kendra gave an embarrassed little snort. “The walrus.”
Doctor Roberts raises an eyebrow as she dutifully marks that down. The only time a walrus was even mentioned was in art class, where there had been a plan to draw a few animals in the mural they were doing for the lobby.
The plan had been scrapped in the end, probably because the kids were more content to express themselves creatively rather than paint between the lines.
"Right," Doctor Roberts repeats, "The walrus."
Kendra's not getting better, and Doctor Roberts has to admit, she's at a professional loss. The girl is calm enough during activities and mealtimes, but she sleeps fitfully, and doesn't know where she is half the time.
Sometimes she doesn't even know when she is.
Last week, Doctor Fitzroy had convinced the hospital to let the ward go to supervised pumpkin picking. Kendra had spent hours picking the perfect size, watched Dale intently as he cut it, and gave it back to her. She had put it outside her door like the other kids, but filled it with as many LEDS as possible. (The ward didn't allow candles, for obvious reasons.)
"It's not as good as fairies, but it'll be enough," she had reassured the doctor, "Grandpa says festival nights aren't too bad anyway. If Seth stays quiet and doesn't look out, we'll be fine!"
The girl sounds stronger now, healthier, but she's not.
She's still putting on a front for the brother that isn't there.
It's been months since Kendra’s first arrived at the hospital, and three days since her last bad nightmare. Doctor Roberts had decided to stay late in the ward to finish a bit of paperwork, so she’s startled by frantic footsteps in the hall. Kendra came bolting in before the doctor could even stand up, ducking behind a chair. Doctor Roberts, who had almost yelped aloud herself, took a deep breath and regained her composure.
“Is everything alright, Kendra?” she asked carefully. It was protocol to ask that, but at this moment, in her dimly lit common room, it seems like the worst thing to say. Because things were obviously not alright.
“We heard a baby crying.” Kendra’s eyes are wide, pupils the size of dinner plates, and she looks terrified. She’s gripping the edge desk tightly and whispering, but Doctor Roberts still doesn’t miss her use of plural pronouns.
“Who’s with you?” Doctor Roberts crouched down next to her and sat with her back to the desk.
Kendra gave her a confused look. “Seth is right next to you.”
Doctor Roberts glanced to her right, exactly where Kendra was pointing. Her brother was not there.
Of course, that was to be expected.
"Kendra, this is a hospital," Doctor Roberts tried to explain, "We get lots of babies here. It's not really so unusual to hear a baby crying, is it?"
Kendra shook her head insistently.
"We heard it outside, " she stressed, "I mean- Get down, Seth!"
"What's happening?" Doctor Roberts asked urgently. It was always disconcerting when a patient went through an experience only they could see, but this was one of the worst hallucinations she had seen Kendra in.
"Seth, get back here right now! " she cried, not even bothering to keep her voice down. Doctor Roberts stepped in front of her line of sight, tried to reason with her, to calm her down, but she might as well have not been in the room. Kendra was lost to this world.
When she started screaming, Doctor Roberts hung her head and called in the orderlies.
She visits Kendra in isolation. The girl is swaying back and forth. She looks unwell, with tired, red rimmed eyes, and a hoarse voice. Before she steps in, Kendra's talking to someone only she can see quietly, but the second Doctor Roberts comes into the room, she stops.
Carefully, deliberately, the girl stands up, and tosses a packet of salt in her face.
"Kendra!" she can't suppress her exclamation, but she's more surprised than angry. She's going to be picking it out of her long hair for days, but it’s only salt. She waves off the orderly on duty, who had stood up at that, and tells her to send Dale for the next isolation shift. Maybe a familiar face can calm Kendra.
The isolation room is small, with curved, padded walls, and a high ceiling. The only way in and out was a metal door with a small window at the top. If children got in here, they either stared at the wall, or at the back of the orderly's head outside. Two cameras on opposite sides of the room make the cramped room feel even more constricting.
Kendra seemed apologetic about the salt, anyway.
"I had to check," she whispered, "Now that everyone's gone."
Doctor Roberts cursed under her breath. She had told them to put Kendra in isolation so she wouldn't hurt herself, but it seemed like it had done more harm than good.
“Nobody’s gone, Kendra. See? Dale’s right outside.”
The shift change had thankfully been quick.
Kendra turned to her mournfully and shook her head. “Dale’s turned to stone out there,” she said seriously, “Or lead, or something. We’re not really sure what it is.”
The use of plurals is back, and Doctor Roberts has to ask. “Is Seth with you?”
Kendra just sighed. “I mean, it kind of is his fault, but he couldn’t have known. He’s my brother, I’m not going to abandon him because he made a mistake.”
Doctor Roberts just shrugged and sat down next to Kendra, crossing her legs so she was facing the girl.
“What did Seth do?” she asked, holding her breath. Maybe, there was a chance Kendra would give them the right answer. Once they got to that, the only matter was acceptance.
Kendra looked at her with a perfectly neutral expression, as if she knew exactly what the doctor was thinking and was refusing to let it cross her mind.
“He opened a window during festival night,” she explained carefully, letting each word flow over her tongue, “Grandpa, and Lena are missing, and just look at poor Dale!”
Doctor Roberts paused. She had been about to tell Kendra to look at Dale again, force her to see the reality, but who in the world was Lena? Kendra had never mentioned her before, not in their usual counseling sessions, nor in group grief therapy. Her grandparents had been out of the picture for a long time, too.
Resisting the urge to run back to her office and grab her file, she asked, “Aren’t your grandparents dead, Kendra?”
Kendra’s brow furrowed, then relaxed. “You’re probably thinking of my mom’s parents. They’re the main reason Seth and I are at Fablehaven. I'm talking about the other ones. We have to go find them!”
Doctor Roberts’ heart started for a second. “Where did you say you were?” she asked, her mouth dry.
Kendra tilted her head and looked at her as if she had just asked about the most obvious thing in the world.
“We’re in Fablehaven, of course.”
For the first time in four years, Dr. Avery Roberts took a sick day. Lying on her bed with a trusty box of tissues, she pulled out her laptop and tried not to think about all the children she could have helped had she gone into work. Of course, the hospital had a very strict sick day, mainly because it was highly frowned upon making sick patients sicker. Doctor Roberts liked to think she had a strong constitution, but when she woke up in the middle of the night, shivering in her sweltering bedroom, she had to call in. Hopefully, it was just a quick bug that she could get over before work tomorrow. It felt a bit stupid, the doctor calling in sick, but the more she stayed at home, the sooner her temperature would level out and she could go back to work.
Taking a deep breath, she averted her glance from the empty side of the bed, and pulled up her search engine. Her tabs from last night seemed to be poking fun at her: "Missing person found after 12 hours", "Marriage Help Forum", and "John Doe Registry". Without giving any of them a second glance, she steadily closed them all and opened a new tab. Her fingers wavered over the missing person story, then closed it. It wasn't him. It never would be.
Instead, she searched up "Fablehaven". Not surprisingly, it showed nothing of importance. Fablehaven was the name of a small petting zoo in North Carolina, and a new fairy-tale theme park called "Fable Mania" was advertised as a "safe haven for kids and magical creatures of all ages". She snorted at that, relieved when her nose seemed to be back to full functionality.
One rule that Doctor Roberts had realized when first working with kids with delusions was to not discount anything they said. Adults already ignored kids for being young, but add delusions that kids knew were true, and the whole situation became a mess. Parents came into her office at their wits end, and their kids came in tears, losing interest in the real world around them. The first thing Doctor Roberts did was sit down and ask the child to describe what was going on. For some patients, all they needed was a listening ear, and their delusions cleared.
Although this wasn't the case for Kendra, whose delusions were ingrained in everything she thought or did, the name of the place she thought she was in must have some sort of importance. Kendra's parents had told her some of what had happened in the incident, but from what Doctor Roberts had understood, Kendra was the only one who knew what had happened. Well, Kendra... and Seth.
That was neither here nor there, though, and Doctor Roberts could do nothing about it.
Instead of poring through old news stories, Avery Roberts decided to drag herself out of bed and eat some lunch. Skipping a meal couldn't be good for her cold, and there was no one to remind her to eat.
Her large house, with so many vacant rooms, suddenly felt even emptier.
She ends up going to work at night, just to pick up a few files and talk with a few patients. In particular, there was a boy who had lost his parents in a fire earlier that week. The Head of the Children's Ward had wanted her to help the boy personally. Maybe if she hurried up, she could get to have a word before he went to sleep.
Instead, though, she crashes straight into Dale, who had been standing outside the corner room, pacing back and forth. As he offers her a sheepish hand with the papers she had dropped, she notices his smile seemed a bit brittle, and his eyes were red-rimmed.
"Everything alright?" Doctor Roberts asks, the words slipping from her mouth in surprise. She had never seen him in anything short of a cheery mood, and the orderly uniform. That uniform was now replaced by battered jeans and a worn flannel shirt, and there was a crease between his brow she hadn't noticed before.
"Of course," he says quietly, his voice hoarse and smile fading, "I didn't see you today in the ward."
It's a deflection, and a poor one at that, but she accepts it and shrugs, tapping her red nose slightly. "Came down with that bug that's going around. Thought I'd stop by and grab some stuff for home."
He nods politely and she takes that as her cue to leave. At the end of the hall, though, she pauses.
"Dale, this might seem random, but do you know anyone named Lena?"
Dale raises an eyebrow, his face impassive. "Is she in trouble?" Doctor Roberts backtracks a bit. It looks like he's close to her. His girlfriend, maybe? Or just a good friend?
"No, of course not. Kendra mentioned her, that's all."
At that, his expression clears and he gives her a small but genuine smile. Doctor Roberts has noticed that Kendra has that effect on a lot of people. They become fond of her quickly. She is more than her condition. People always are.
Dale clears his throat and explains, "Lena works with the art and kitchen staff. She's one of Kendra's closest friends here. I think she might be on vacation?"
Doctor Roberts nods in understanding. That must be why Kendra has imagined her as missing. Maybe if she came back, she would see everything come back to normal. She's tempted to ask Dale when this Lena returns from her trip, but the poor man looks so wrung out that she just heads down the hall.
She can't help but glance through the door Dale was pacing in front of. She catches a glimpse of milk white skin and light hair against a dark orange t-shirt before Dale shuts the door behind him. This is the brother she's heard so much about from the nurses, the handsome patient in a coma. Dale's brother. Suddenly, she feels a rush of shame for prying. She’s one of the one only people who can understand his pain in this hospital, anyway.
Another absent family member.
Two days later, Kendra's nervous, but she's out of the isolation room. She spent breakfast making a frankly disgusting mixture of milk, cranberry juice and who knows what else, but she drinks it in one gulp and faces Doctor Roberts over the cafeteria table without flinching. The Doctor, on the other hand, winces in sympathy and feels her stomach churn. Maybe she wasn’t quite over that bug after all.
She didn’t let that get to her, though. She had good news.
“Kendra, do you remember what I mentioned a few weeks ago?” Doctor Roberts asked, “About the less conventional treatment methods that you could try?”
Kendra stared at her blankly, then went back to stirring her drink. The red juice coagulated, spinning in the middle of the milk. The doctor looked away. She didn’t want to gag, so she just continued on as if Kendra had agreed.
“Well, you have a session with me in the afternoon, but there’s a service animal meeting in Common Room Three. Your parents told me you liked animals.”
She didn’t phrase it as a question, but Kendra nods anyway, meeting her gaze. She washes down her drink and stands, walking past the Doctor as if she’d never been there.
Later, she stops by to check on what the orderlies have dubbed “her favorite patient”. Dale, who's just as attached to the girl joked about it with her, but the doctor hasn't seen him in days. She hopes it's because he's taking a much needed break, but she has a sneaking suspicion she'll find him down two flights of stairs. Kendra's taken his disappearance into stride, integrating him as an abduction. The girl has a magnetic personality on her good days, and even though those are hard to find, people just tend to like her.
It doesn’t hurt that her case is absolutely fascinating. The technical name for it is fantasy prone personality, but Doctor Roberts has never met a case as comprehensive as Kendra’s. And she’s been in the field for a long time. Kendra integrates just about everything she sees into her magical world, a world where she and her brother can roam freely.
Another surprise, Kendra’s still in the common room. Doctor Roberts pauses in the doorway, surprised. Most children love spending time with the dogs, and the program occasionally brings other animals, but she’s never seen a comfort chicken .
Kendra glances up to see her standing there and smiles. “Meet Goldilocks!” she exclaims with a smile on her face, “He said she could stay in the hospital for a bit, as long as I put her back in her cage when I leave the room.”
Doctor Roberts smiled. “Is she a magical chicken?” she asked, slightly apprehensive.
Kendra gave her a confused look. “She’s just a chicken,” she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Maybe not all hope was lost after all.
Kendra seemed rather attached to Goldilocks. After only a few days, she was placed in charge of feeding and cleaning her, a job she did with remarkable regularity and care. Doctor Roberts did catch her talking to the chicken in a low voice on no fewer than three occurrences, though, so maybe Kendra’s perception of real was different than the normal.
But Goldilocks couldn't stay forever. After all, she was part of the emotional support brigade, and Kendra couldn't keep her. Doctor Roberts had been a bit afraid about the change that the transition would affect Kendra, but the girl seemed surprisingly upbeat after Goldilocks had left. Positively delighted, in fact.
Instead, she's developed a fascination with one of the security guards, a foreboding hulk of a man that calls himself Ned. Doctor Roberts isn't entirely sure that's his actual name, but the hospital lets it slide. They need dependable people to guard at night, and although Ned seems to physically dislike being at the hospital, he shows up to work every day, which is more than can be said for his colleagues. He patrols the kids wards twice a day, where he glowers at the cheerily colored walls for about an hour, then walks on.
Today, though, he walks directly to Doctor Roberts. She's a bit surprised, because she's never heard him talk before. His voice sounds like two rocks scratching against each other: gravelly and rude.
"That girl, Kendra, she's crazy, you know?"
Doctor Roberts gives him a glare that makes him take an actual step back, and gestures for him to follow her into her office. He cowers slightly, but follows after her.
She points to a chair and then plops down herself, trying to keep her anger under control.
"First of all, Ned, " she says his name as if it leaves a bad taste in her mouth, "if I hear you calling any of my patients rude names, you will find yourself losing your job immediately. I've worked here for years, I have no qualms with using my influence to fire you. Is that clear? "
Ned nods frantically, looking sufficiently cowed. Doctor Roberts sat back with a satisfied smirk on her face.
"Now, what's this about Kendra?"
"I have no idea what's wrong with her!" Ned burst out. Doctor Roberts gives him a look of warning.
"I won't ask you again, Ned. Refer to all my patients with respect, or I will have you removed."
Ned shrugs hurriedly.
"Yes, yes, of course. But that girl, she followed me up to the guard station, for absolutely no reason!"
The doctor cursed under her breath. The guard station was a tiny corridor up a rickety ladder with a few steps missing. Most guards avoided it, and patients definitely weren't allowed up there.
"How did she get up there?"
"Well, I helped her up, of course," Ned blusters, and then back-tracks, "I mean, once she got up a few stairs, it was better to come up that down, so I…"
"You should have brought her straight to me," Doctor Roberts says sternly, "Is she back now? Did she get hurt? Did anything happen?"
The guard shakes his head.
"She just asked me a bunch of questions. Rapid fire, kind of like you just did. Asked if I could check for people she couldn't find. Then she came back here. I walked her back, actually." He puffs up his chest, acting as if he deserved a medal.
"Check for who?" Doctor Roberts asks, tapping her desk with her pen rhythmically and steadfastly ignoring Ned's reactions, "How did you check?"
"Her family, apparently," Ned grumbles, "For some reason, she kept calling me Nero. Told me to check the CCTV."
"Nero?" the doctor asks, frowning, "Like the emperor?"
Ned shrugs again. "Don't ask me, Doc. She called the cameras the "scrying stone". Sounds like some sort of a cleaning agent, doesn't it?"
Doctor Roberts, who quickly began scribbling notes, gestures for him to continue. "Go on, what you tell her?"
Ned scratches his sparse beard for a second, then sighs.
"Well, I wasn't about just tell her, so I asked her how she was going to repay me-"
"You WHAT?" Doctor Roberts asks angrily, "That's it, I'm having a word with the head of security today!"
Ned flinches, but still defends himself. "It was just a bit of sarcasm, and if it makes you feel better, this is how she paid me."
He pulled out a wad of crumpled paper and dropped it on the desk in front of her. On closer inspection, it looks like old coupons, clipped from newspapers and magazines. Doctor Roberts picks up the top one carefully and stares at it in bewilderment. The title on the discount reads, 25% off next Massage at Massage Spa and Resort! Below, there's a tagline that reads, Not your Grandma's Masseur! Strangely enough, the word 'not' has been completely scribbled over with a black marker, so instead, the coupon reads, " your Grandma's Masseur!"
Doctor Roberts just raises an eyebrow at Ned, who shrugs guiltily.
"I've never had a massage before," he admits, a bit embarrassed.
Doctor Roberts resists the urge to bang her head against the wall and grits her teeth.
“Did you tell her anything else?”
Ned shrugs, “Just that she should go to the chapel. I mean, from the way she was talking, I assumed her grandpa was dead.”
“The chapel?” Doctor Roberts paused in her notes, “We have a chapel in the hospital? I thought they were adding a church next year. Not enough funding or something like that.”
Ned winced and made a big show of checking over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening. Of course, no one was, because they were in her office.
“It’s beyond your domain, Doc,” he said in a mock scary voice, “No one goes down there except the patients that can’t go out to church. It’s in the basement, by the boiler.”
Doctor Roberts gave the man a searching look. He had leaned back in his chair, trying to appear unconcerned.
“Get out of my office.”
Ned gives her a quick nod, thinks for a moment, then grabs the coupon and backs away from the desk. Doctor Roberts just rolls her eyes. She has half a mind to call Administration, but he seemed harmless enough. Besides, she has other things to worry about.
Fablehaven was coming to life in Kendra’s mind.
In Doctor Roberts’ opinion, there were many facts of life that were indisputable. It was always better to get stuck at home than to get stuck at work. Cherries were vastly superior to all other fruit. And Doren and Newel Fawni were massive troublemakers.
The twins had nearly grown out of the permanent children’s ward, at 17 years of age, but were every bit determined to make every day count. Which, in their opinion, meant stealing from the cafeteria, playing on the tennis court after hours, and spending hours on the TV. Their manic episodes lasted days, but they were showing good progress, and the doctor was confident that improvement was possible.
It was a wonder they hadn’t crossed paths with Kendra yet, but the meeting was practically waiting to happen, and when it did, Doctor Roberts was sure she would wish she had picked early retirement.
She was wrong.
It was much, much worse.
Gleeful laughter echoed down the hall as the twins sprinted down the hall with Kendra, each carrying a wide bowl of soup, miraculously keeping it unspilled. The cook from the cafeteria led a half-hearted chase, calling them hooligans and delinquents. Each name only made them laugh louder, and they had nearly run into her when she was walking down the hall. Moments later, Olga, the cook, burst through the same doorway, waving her ladle at them.
“They have stolen my stew!” she cries in a heavily accented voice, “My stew!”
The Doctor winces and looks around. Thankfully, she knows exactly where Doren and Newel will go, but first she has to calm down the cook.
Even though it was far easier said than done, she managed to extract herself from the kitchen and head downstairs, to the gated tennis courts. She wasn’t too worried about them escaping, because of the high fences, but she was pretty sure Newel and Doren climbed those all the time. She opens the door expecting a scene of chaos and disorder, with stew strewn all over the floor, and each of the kids having respective mental breakdowns.
That, she notes with no small amount of relief, was the exact opposite of what they were doing. They are sitting in a loose circle, in the left service box on the far side of the court, sharing the soup, which had been poured in paper bowls.
Doren is drinking his with a fork, somehow.
They are all so absorbed in conversation that they don’t even hear the sound of the door shut behind her.
“-and we knew we had to get them! You know they restrict television here, right?” Newel is emphatically gesturing with his spoon while Kendra stares at them, unimpressed.
She takes a sip of her soup before answering. “All electronics, too, and there’s got to be a reason for that. Besides, why would you want a TV if you’re here?” She gestures around them as if they’re in a grand palace, rather than a tennis court that hasn’t been regularly maintained since the 80’s. There’s even holes in the nets, but her eyes glaze right over them.
“It’s the fascination of it all, though,” Doren slurps, “We’ve been here for a while, we haven’t seen how televions work in years!”
“Televisions,” Kendra corrects, and glances slightly to her left, a smile playing on her lips. After a moment, she shakes her head, “We think you’re lying.”
“Fine!” Newel throws up his hands, “The soap operas and reality shows are engaging! I mean, when was the last time you watched a rerun of Days of our Lives ?” As Kendra considers this, he shakes his head in despair, “We can’t exactly get cable in here, so we gotta smuggle the batt-”
At that very moment, he catches sight of Doctor Roberts, who has given up all appearances of secrecy and was simply leaning on the net post, listening to their conversation.
“Hey, doc ,” he says, failing to keep the alarm out of his voice, “We were just showing Kendra the lovely fac-”
“Contraband batteries again?” she sighs and joins their circle, plopping down in between Doren and Kendra. The kids move over to make space for her.
Doren gives her a winning smile. “They wouldn’t be contraband if you just put them on the approved list, doc,” he points out, “And besides, what are we supposed to do?”
“Play tennis?” Kendra asks dubiously, looking around, “Also, Seth wants to know what you’d give him for the batteries.” Her tone is disapproving, yet fond, and her statement flows naturally into the conversation. The Fawni brothers exchange glances, but other than that, they go with the flow.
“Well, I’m sure we could make the exchange for some bee-” Doren cuts himself off and freezes.
“Some bee t-shirts,” Newel picks up, “And of course, watches, phones, gold-”
“What would I do with gold?” Kendra makes a face and scrapes the bottom of her soup bowl.
“ Gold ?” Doctor Roberts raised an eyebrow, “Where are you getting all this from?”
“We may… have looted the lost and found,” Doren admits, and Newel smacks him upside the head. Doctor Roberts gently separates them and commences a lecture about stealing that she decides to finish during their sessions rather than now. Thankfully, they haven’t eaten the whole pot of stew, just some of it, so she can salvage the cook’s meal.
No one’s quitting today, at least.
Doren and Newel say their goodbyes to Kendra as she goes to a session with Doctor Roberts, but she sends out a page to the nurse in charge to keep an eye out for them. Too much excitement is never a good thing for these kids.
They settle down in the common room, Doctor Roberts in her usual purple bean bag chair, and Kendra across from her in a blue one. Usually, Kendra waits for the Doctor to ask questions, but today, she seemed impatient.
“Doctor Roberts, have you been to the chapel?”
Mentally cursing Ned, the rude security guard, Doctor Roberts shakes her head. “There isn’t a chapel in the hospital.”
Kendra looks so crestfallen at this that the Doctor almost wants to take back her words. Instead, though, she keeps going.
“But, if you want a peaceful place to think, I would go to the garden.”
Kendra’s eyes widen. “But it’s not that bad yet,” she reasons, “I don’t need to go to the garden just yet.”
Doctor Roberts frowns. “So you’ve been to the garden before?”
“I know, I know it was dangerous to go there,” Kendra sighs, “Don’t worry, Grandpa’s already gone through this whole thing with me. Seth showed it to me before I knew the truth about Fablehaven, and we thought it was just a pretty garden.”
“It’s not,” Kendra whispers and leans closer, “Don’t you spend a lot of time there?”
The Doctor shrugs. “After my shift is over, it’s one of the places I can relax,” she admits, “But you should never go alone. After all, it is on the rooftop.”
The rooftop.
A week comes and goes. Kendra seems to be doing alright, but she’s spending more time by herself, ignoring most people that she had interacted with before, like Dale, Doren, and Newel. She’s begun muttering to herself during nights, but whenever Doctor Roberts comes around, she acts like everything’s okay.
The Doctor is skeptical.
After she’s heard Kendra talk about Hugo, the hulking man that comes over for speech therapy twice a week, for more than ten minutes, she forgets herself and lets out a sigh. Kendra tilts her head to the side and watches the Doctor carefully.
Doctor Roberts rubs her hand over her head. “I’m sorry...Kendra, you were looking for your family. Have you found them?”
The girl glances to her left and shakes her head. “I mean, Grandpa’s still missing, but Nero gave us the information we need.”
“And what’s that?”
“Well, there’s a reason the witch is taking Grandpa to the chapel,” Kendra answers matter-of-factly, “There’s a demon there.”
“A...demon?” Doctor Robert jots that down on her notepad. Kendra’s never mentioned anything about demons living in the world she had created, “And what about Seth?”
“Seth is being stupid as usual,” she answers, not missing a beat, “And besides, we’re planning on stopping the witch from releasing the demon.”
“Who’s we?”
“Seth, Grandma, and me.”
Doctor Roberts raises an eyebrow. “When did you meet your Grandma?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you!” Kendra looks positively delighted, “Grandma was Goldilocks! She’s back to help us now!”
“Goldilocks, the chicken?” Doctor Roberts frowns, “Did you forget anything else?”
Kendra shrugs, quite cheery. “No, I don’t think so. We’re going to g-” She stops herself, then shakes her head. “I mean, we’re doing great. That was what I meant to say.”
This bothers the Doctor, even after their session is over, and as she packs up for the evening. Kendra’s been here a long time, but she’s never lied.
She’s never lied about Fablehaven.
It bothers her so much that she takes a detour from her normal elevator ride downstairs, instead heading up two flights of stairs and down a hallway that ends in a bright green door. The door is always locked, because they can’t have patients getting up here alone, but after she checks both ways, she pulls out her key and unlocks it before she can second guess herself.
She steps through the door and lets the cool air run over her, clearing her mind. She’s always loved coming up to the roof garden, ever since she had come up here during break almost ten years ago and met-
Doctor Roberts shakes her head, freeing her hair from a tight ponytail and letting it fly in the wind. There’s even a small pond up here, with a bench that she used to spend every lunch break on. Now, she can’t remember the last time she came up here.
The hospital had created the garden, or rather “urban green space” for the patients to relax in, but only with nurse supervision. The high chain link fences did ruin some of the appeal of staring out into the skyline, but not enough that you feel trapped. There was a hole in the fencing near the area where the chain link met the awning above the pond, where birds snuck in and sheltered from the rain. Many of them settled down, creating nests in the eaves, and filling the area with music.
It’s never quiet here, but it always feels alive, and sometimes, that’s all she needs. She’s just about to sit down on her bench when the door slams open and frantic feet slap against the concrete. Doctor Roberts curses and stands quickly, getting ready to intercept whoever had run up. She must have forgotten to lock the door when she came in.
All thoughts of her stupid mistake vanish as soon as she sees who’s come into the room. Kendra is staring straight at her, an expression of indescribable panic on her face.
She opens her mouth and doesn’t seem to be able to speak, but takes a deep breath and tries again.
“Seth’s gone.”
Doctor Roberts stared at her dumbly for a second. “Kendra, what are you doing up here? You can-”
“Seth’s gone!” Kendra repeats, “And they’re after me, and I don’t know what to do!”
The Doctor helps Kendra sit down, leaning against the wall. “Who’s after you, Kendra?”
She points at the door, which as an answer, slams open again.
Two of the younger orderlies look around in absolute panic, as they should. Kendra, and any of the patients shouldn’t have been anywhere near the roof, but to be fair, she was the one who had forgotten to close the door to the roof. When they see her, their faces break into almost comical relief. She waves them downstairs with a slight frown while Kendra watches in awe. They’ll get a stern talking-to later.
When the door finally slams shut, Doctor Roberts to Kendra, eyebrow raised.
“How’s that?” she asks, “Now, you said that you know that Seth’s gone?”
Kendra doesn’t seem to hear anything of what she said.
“You… sent them away,” she whispers, “Just like that. All you had to do was look at them.”
“Yes, I did,” Doctor Roberts sits down gently beside Kendra, “What if we went back inside? We can talk about Seth being gone then.”
Kendra must have picked up something in her tone and starts shaking her head vehemently.
“Seth’s not dead,” she says forcefully, and Doctor Roberts’s heart sinks, “He’s in the chapel with Grandpa and Grandma and everyone else and I can still save him!” She looked at Doctor Roberts with imploring eyes. “ You can help me save him.”
The Doctor pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a breath. For a second, she had thought Kendra had accepted- But this was progress, she was sure of it. She just hoped it was in the right direction.
She could work with this.
“How can I help you save him?” she asks patiently. There’s still a hint of frustration in her voice, but Kendra doesn’t shrink back. She meets the Doctor’s gaze, determined.
“I need your help. With your power, we can make sure the witch doesn’t release the demon! We can stop the evil and save everyone!”
“Including your brother?”
“Especially Seth,” Kendra responds, without missing a beat.
Doctor Roberts frowned. “So what power do I have? I can help, but you need to tell me what I need to do.”
Kendra sighed and straightened up, brushing stray gravel pieces off the cuffs of her jeans.
“You take care of all the fairies, even though you’re never with everyone all the time,” she starts, “Everyone looks up to you, you’ve got power over everybody. If you just let me borrow some of that power, I can save everyone!”
Doctor Roberts watched Kendra carefully, her heart pounding.
“So who am I, in Fablehaven?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Kendra asks, turning towards her, the setting sun making her brown her turn golden, “You’re the Fairy Queen.”
You’re the Fairy Queen , the winds seem to whisper, above their heads.
Doctor Roberts swallows. In Kendra’s world, in Fablehaven, the rules are Kendra’s to create. She may not consciously be making them, but its her mind all the same. By placing Doctor Roberts in a powerful position, Kendra hasn’t just created a way for her to save her family from a demon.
She’s created a way for the Doctor to save her.
The barest outline of a plan has formed in her mind, and it’s nowhere near as straightforward and realistic as her patients’ plans normally are, but hey- She’s in a magical world. Maybe her problem before was that she was playing by the rules of the real world.
“Kendra, borrowing my power is not an easy task,” she says nervously, “To use it, you’ve got to be strong, but more importantly, you’ve got to see around illusions. You’ve got to know right from wrong, and you’ve got to think about everyone you love.”
Kendra nods, and her face twists in anguish. For a second, Doctor Roberts thinks it might have worked, but then the girl’s face smooths over.
Of course, it was never as easy as it seemed.
“I can do that,” Kendra confirmed, “Now I just need your blessing.”
Doctor Roberts hides the confusion on her face by turning and walking over to the small pond. Kendra trails behind her, her expression a mixture of anxiety and awe. When Doctor Roberts dips a finger in the pond, all the minnows scatter, as if pushed away by an invisible force. Feeling rather foolish, the Doctor presses her wet finger to Kendra’s forehead and drags it across. There’s barely any water on it, but Kendra looks like she has been given the world’s greatest gift.
“Thank you,” she manages to get out, “I won’t let you down!”
“Wait!” Doctor Roberts calls out before Kendra races back down the stairs, “Where are you going?”
Kendra nodded respectfully.
“I’m going to get all the fairies and then we’re going to go to the chapel and fight the demon.”
“All the fairies?” Doctor Roberts repeated, her mind racing. That meant the other kids, and there was no way she could let everyone go down to the chapel. Not only was the place old, it was also small. They couldn’t all fit in there. “What if we just give them our blessing?” she countered, “And then go get everyone from the chapel on our own?”
Kendra frowned, considered that, then nodded. “As long as we get everyone back.”
Kendra moves faster, with more urgency, as they move downstairs, but Doctor Roberts is still sure to lock the door behind her. She isn’t making any mistake twice. Now that she’s found a way to get through to Kendra, she needs to try to show her truth before she loses that connection.
The truth was never kind, and never wanted, but it needs to be accepted. It’s necessary. It’s why she tells herself that her children have gone off to live their own lives, and that her husband has just run away.
She can’t let herself dwell on these facts, can’t let herself investigate them.
Because what if the truth is so much worse than what she has barely accepted?
Kendra tells her that the fairies are all big and powerful now, thanks to her, and then walks to the elevator. Thankfully, when the Doctor peeps in, the children haven’t expanded or anything, they’re just playing amongst themselves.
The elevator at the end of the hall can only be opened by hospital staff; you have to scan your keycard. Doren and Newel have gotten around this a few times by swiping the cards, but none of the other kids did that. Surprisingly, though, when Doctor Roberts reaches the end of the hallway, Kendra is holding the door to the elevator open impatiently.
Doctor Roberts steps inside, checks her own keycard, then checks Kendra’s hands for any card shape object. There isn’t one. As Kendra presses the ‘B2’ button at the very bottom of the elevator panel, Doctor Roberts asks, “How’d you open the elevator, Kendra?”
“Hm?”
Doctor Roberts held up her card. “You can’t open the elevator without one of these. Do you have one?”
Kendra shakes her head and smiles airily.
“You gave me your power,” she says with determination, “I can open doors that you can open. I’ll use the power well, I promise.”
Doctor Roberts nods uneasily to herself, as the elevator descends further. It was probably a technical glitch, but it was still concerning.
The elevator plays calming music as they travel down, down, down, but it’s not doing much to calm Doctor Roberts down. Kendra looks like she feels much the same way. Her eyes glance from side to side, assessing the elevator buttons with each ding they made. She’s tense, but ready.
When the elevator doors finally do slide open, Doctor Roberts half expects something to come out and attack them. Instead, they’re met with a small plume of dust. It’s clear, no one’s been down here in a while. Their shoes accumulate dirt from the worn concrete floor, and now, Doctor Roberts can tell why Ned thought this was a place she would never go. She can’t imagine another doctor here.
Kendra has her back to the Doctor, looking around the room in wonder. What does she see? A wasteland, a castle?
“Are we there?” Doctor Roberts asked gently, “This doesn’t look like a chapel.”
Kendra points a finger to the other corner of the room, where a yellowed window filter the small amount of light that managed to seep through. Under the soft glow, all the Doctor could see were a few broken benches and torn pages.
It wasn’t until she steps closer that she realized she was standing amongst flipped pews and various religious texts. Kendra walks straight up to the front of the area, carefully stepping over the chaos on the floor.
“I think the fairies have got most of the demons!” she whispers back excitedly, “They’re almost all gone! And I see - Everyone’s safe!”
“Everyone?” Doctor Roberts frowns, “Kendra, do you see Seth?”
A shiver seemed to wrack its way through Kendra’s body, but just as quickly as it came, it went.
“I sure he’s around here somewhere,” Kendra assures herself, speaking in a normal voice now, “I mean, he was here, he was definitely here, so he’s got to be here now. I bet he’s just… watching the demon fight somewhere else.”
Her hands had begun shaking uncontrollably, and Doctor Roberts steps through the books to get to her. They’re close to the truth, she can feel it. Kendra just needs to let herself go, and allow herself to feel.
Allow herself to feel pain, sorrow, and grief. Allow herself to feel the emotions she had been avoiding since two months ago.
Since her brother, Seth, had died in front of her.
“Kendra, tell me more about Seth.”
From a medical standpoint, Doctor Roberts knows that the upturned pew their sitting at in the dusty chapel is hardly the best environment for a therapy session. But Kendra seems ready to talk, ready to think, and she’s so close to the real world, that for the first time, she looks like she can actually see the Doctor.
“Seth was- is a great brother,” she snorts, then shakes her head, “Well, he’s an annoying brother, which means he’s good at being a brother. Or something like that. Shouldn’t we be looking for him?”
“If you were looking for him, where would you look?”
The soft light illuminates the dust motes near their feet, and Kendra focuses her eyes on them as she speaks.
“He would hide in his closet, or on the roof, for some reason. He was never afraid of heights,” she seems to listen to her own words for a second, “Wait, I mean- we should look with the brownies, or maybe with the satyrs, at the tennis court, I bet he’d be there!” She moved to get up, but Doctor Roberts stood with her.
“Your brother’s never been to the tennis courts,” Doctor Roberts told her, quickly, urgently, “He’s never been here, and he’s never been to Fablehaven.”
Kendra shook her head again and took a step back, collapsing back onto the bench. “N-no, that doesn’t make sense, he was right here, he was right here in the chapel! He’s been with me since our parents dropped us off at Fablehaven!”
“Kendra, Fablehaven isn’t real.” Doctor Roberts almost winces at her own words, even though the tone is as careful and kind as possible.
Kendra swallows. “No, no, that’s not right, I’m in the chapel. In the chapel at the edge of Fablehaven, and…”
Her voice trails off as she blinks, hard. She looks up and stares at Doctor Roberts, her gaze absolutely present.
Her eyes began darting around the room, and she wraps her arms around herself, all while keeping her gaze pinned on the Doctor. With quick, startling breaths, she pushes her hair out of her face and clasps her hands together.
“Who are you?” she asks unsteadily, “You’re not the Fairy Queen, you can’t be.”
Doctor Roberts sucks in a breath. This is the breakthrough she had hoped for, but it doesn’t come without its issues. She needs to be careful about what she says to Kendra, or Kendra might be stuck in this state between two worlds forever.
The Doctor knows what its like, living in two worlds, two spheres, one as esteemed doctor, and other as worried wife and mother. She can’t let her patients down, but no matter how hard she’s tried, she has never been able to protect her own family, and that’s something she will never be able to forgive herself for.
She has accepted it, though, and that’s all Kendra needs to do. To say those two simple words.
It happened.
“Kendra, what is the last thing you remember doing with your family?” Doctor Roberts asks. Her heart is racing in her chest, and for a moment, she feels like they’re actually racing against a clock, struggling to save everyone before the demons get there.
“With, like, all four of us?” Kendra asks unsteadily. The Doctor nods.
Kendra shifts her weight uneasily. “We were driving to Connecticut, to our gra- No, that can’t be. Uh- I think we went to the park? Or maybe we ate dinner together?”
“What’s the last thing you remember doing with your brother?”
“We were-” Kendra freezes, her eyes going wide, “We were going on a walk. It wasn’t in Fablehaven, was it? We were never there.”
“Kendra-” the Doctor starts to speak, but Kendra waves a hand, cutting her off.
“No, I-” her face scrunched up as if she had a bad headache, her hands moving up to rub her temples, “Everything feels off, there are spaces filled where there should be gaps, and I just-” She let out a gasp. “Fablehaven isn’t real.”
There’s a pause, and Doctor Roberts leans forward, trying to gauge Kendra’s reactions. She needs to pull herself out of the fantasy she’s created. No one but Kendra can do that for herself.
“Fablehaven isn’t real,” she whispers again, “None of this- none of this makes sense! Where’s Seth?”
“Kendra, I need you to think about when you last spent time with Seth. Your little brother. What’s the last thing you did with him? A lot of the memories that are coming up are going to be related to Fablehaven. Just go ahead and push those aside for now. Don’t fight them. You need to remember exactly what happened. ”
“What happened,” Kendra whispers to herself, “What happened? I don’t know what happened. I don’t. I don’t I don’t I don’t I don’t I don’t.”
“Kendra, look at me,” Doctor Roberts nods, “Listen, I know it is hard, but every second after this, it will get a piece more easier. You need to remember what happened. You need to let you of Fablehaven, and come back.”
“ Come back? ” Kendra asks, tension coating her voice, “I can’t come back to this place.”
“Kendra, it will be difficult in a world that’s not Fablehaven, because you can’t control it, bu-”
“No, that’s not it,” Kendra says in a strangled voice, “I don’t care about being able to control a world, I don’t care about magic, I don’t care about fairies or demons or witches! I don’t care about naiads or dungeons or castles!”
She looks straight at the Doctor, eyes full of tears that she has refused to let fall.
“I just want my brother back.”
“It was weirdly bright that morning.”
Kendra is sitting in a chair, upstairs in the psychiatry ward. It’s been nearly a week since the chapel, so her eyes are bright, but dry. She focuses exclusively on the jar of jelly beans on Doctor Roberts’ desk.
“I mean, that was the first thing I remembered, because it was the first thing I thought of. Usually, it’s dark when me and-” she paused for a moment, swallowed and continued, “me and Seth go to catch the bus. The stop’s a bit more than a half a mile out, but we actually enjoyed the walk that day because it was bright outside. It was the end of winter, which according to Seth, meant it was basically summer. He was ready to go home and wear a t-shirt and shorts, but I convinced him that we were going to miss the bus.”
She lifts a shaking hand to push her hair out of her face.
“I should have let him go back. Then this never would have happened if I had just let him go change his stupid shirt.”
“Kendra, we don’t know that. Remember what we said about the ‘what ifs’?”
Kendra shrugs. “Yeah, they’ll cloud me with indecision and anxiety until I retreat back into Fablehaven, or something like that.”
Doctor Roberts blinks. “That’s not what I said, Kendra. They’re just going to make you feel worse. You need to grieve, but you can’t torture yourself over it.” Kendra looks like she wants to argue, but nods.
“Well, we were just talking, about random stuff or something. I don’t remember the exact conversation, but…” her voice trails off, frustrated.
The Doctor nods sympathetically, “Details will come soon. Right now, all I want you to do is tell me what happened. You don’t even have to tell me how or why, just what you remember.”
Kendra nods, and a single tear slips down her cheek and falls into her lap. She’s starting to feel the real world again. As painful as it is, it’s the world she’s got to live in for the rest of her life.
“We weren’t that far from the bus stop when a car that was passing by seemed to be following us closely. Seth was joking, saying it was the secret service or something. I think he was talking when the car just came out of nowhere and-” she shuddered, “And it just plowed over him! He was standing right next to me and-” A sob tears through her voice as she looks away with tearful eyes. Doctor Roberts winces, but watches Kendra closely. This is the moment. If Kendra shows any sign of regressing back into the world of Fablehaven, then whatever progress they had made would be all for naught.
“The police classified it as a hit and run, Kendra, there was nothing you could have done,” she responds gently, trying to gauge Kendra’s reaction.
At her words, Kendra looks back up at her and shakes her head determinedly.
“No, that’s not true. There’s no way it was a hit and run, Seth was standing on the sidewalk when the car came and hit him at an angle, I was already on the street and he was pushed onto the streets by the car! And that’s not all, weird things had been happening before that, we kept seeing this guy watching us at school, but he didn’t work there!”
Doctor Roberts jots notes down dutifully, then sets down her book. “Kendra, are you sure this is an event that happened in your real life, and not your fantasy life?” she asks in the kindest way possible. She knows she sounds dubious at best and critical at worst, but if this is true, Kendra’s going to have to experience a lot more questioning in the future.
“Yes,” Kendra answers, voice shaking, “I mean, I’m sure, but I might need a little more time to sort through everything. After that, I want to talk to the police.”
Doctor Roberts raises an eyebrow. “Kendra, I’m not sure that’s the best-”
“-Idea?” Kendra finishes, “Yeah, I know. And it’s going to be even worse if they think I’m crazy, but I have to try. For Seth. Doctor, this is one thing I can do to stay present, here. I need to figure out what happened to my little brother.”
Doctor Roberts nods, slowly, even though there’s a voice in the back of the mind screaming at her that this is a bad idea.
“And what happened to your brother?”
“He died, and I couldn’t stop it,” Kendra whispered softly, “He died, and someone else wanted it to happen.”
Murder is a difficult concept to discuss. That’s the first thing Doctor Roberts learns when she walks into the police station and asks to talk to the officer in charge of the Sorenson hit and run case. They direct her to a waiting room, where she waits for a reasonable amount of time, and then is ushered into an office by a receptionist.
She’s already informed Kendra’s parents about the improvement in her condition, as well as their daughter’s suspicions, and they’re coming to see her tomorrow. She can’t even imagine how they must be feeling, but she’ll be ready for them. All she needs to do is check one more thing.
“Ms. Roberts?” a tall, dark skinned man strode into the room, hands shoved into the pockets of his deep trench coat, “I’m sorry for all the wait time, I’m Detective Trask.”
“Doctor Roberts,” the Doctor corrects lightly, “I understand you’re in charge of the Sorenson case.”
The detective gave her an appraising look and sat down behind his desk, surveying her with unreadable eyes.
“You know, it’s interesting you say that. Before this morning, there barely was a Sorenson case.”
“I don’t understand,” Doctor Roberts frowned, “Was it not being investigated?”
Trask sighed. “It was, but there’s only so much we can do when the only witness of the accident has been traumatized, and no security cameras.”
“But…” Doctor Roberts starts, “There is a Sorenson case now, and it can’t be because I’m here, because I haven’t shared any information with you.”
Trask nods. “We received a tip, but beyond that, I can’t reveal any information to you. I hope you understand.”
Doctor Roberts nods, too, distractedly. “I’m coming here on behalf of my patient, whose brother was the victim in the incident. She believes there was some sort of foul play involved and would like to come in to give a statement.”
“I’m inclined to believe so,” Trask agrees seriously. The fluorescent bar lights on the ceiling reflect off his shaved head, making him look even more severe, “Is the girl prepared to withstand questioning? I understand that her mental stability is not a guarantee at the moment.”
“She is still traumatized, but she’s fully aware of the present and would like to give a statement,” Doctor Roberts answers crisply, “And if you wanted to do your job, you’d hear her out.”
Trask gives her another unreadable look, and for a moment she thinks she’s crossed a line.
“You know, when I saw you, I thought you’d be here asking about your husband. You used to come here a lot a few years ago.” He clearly doesn’t intend any malice from the statements, but Doctor Roberts still feels her face get hot, her stomach drops. “Any good news on that front?”
“I’m afraid not,” Doctor Roberts answers hurriedly, getting up, “I’ll call you tomorrow with the family to set up a date.”
Trask may have said something after that, but Doctor Roberts is out of the police station and onto the street before she can hear a thing.
Murder is always a difficult concept for people to discuss, most of all, her.
After all, murder is the first possibility your mind jumps to when a loved one goes missing.
There’s been an almost miraculous uptick in the number of patients showing steady improvements on their floor, and Doctor Roberts knows it can’t be anything more than a coincidence, but still, she wonders. Life in the ward goes on as usual, with a few changes. Muriel from the Mystic meditation company doesn’t come anymore (the Doctor heard she got fired for skimming funds), Lena, the orderly that Doctor Roberts had been meaning to meet, was transferred to a hospital near her hometown, and Dale kept working. The Doctor kept working. The world kept turning.
Kendra is discharged.
She’s still planning on coming to the hospital regularly for grief therapy, and to process her survivor’s guilt, but she’s not seeing demons at every turn. She’s going to go to the police soon. She’s going to get justice for her brother. She’s in this world now, and every day she fights to stay in it.
Because, even when she fights, Fablehaven is waiting for her in the back of her mind.
Notes:
If you read through that, whew! Thanks for reading! I really want this to have 5 chapters, one per book (and I've already started on the next one!), but they're probably going to take me a while! In the mean time, drop some kudos or a comment if you like the fic!
~S
Chapter Text
“Who’s on my schedule for today?” Doctor Roberts pushes her hair back into a tight ponytail, trying to force her life back into some semblance of normal. Some days like these made her feel like she was totally out of control, but she had to focus. Focus on her patients and projects, not on the police case that she had been looking into, or her own personal case that she had been obsessing over.
“Well, we’ve got your first appointment with one Casey Hancock, 16, Western Hope High School Sophomore, with paranoia, OCD, and a bad case of halitosis to cap it all off,” Shiara pipes up, striding along with the Doctor.
Shiara was a transfer Management had sent up to Doctor Roberts to help her manage her cases, now that the psychology ward has doubled in size. The Doctor still likes to focus on the children's cases, and even though she didn’t like to admit that she needed help with her caseload, it really did help her that someone could schedule for her and help with some of the paperwork. With her blue hair and silver earrings, she was always on hand for an encouraging word. All the interns loved her, but that might have been because she was closer to their age than most anyone working at the hospital.
“Halitosis?” Doctor Roberts askes, grabbing the tablet that Shiara had handed to her and swiping through the patient’s information, “I’m a psychologist for heaven’s sake, not a periodontist!”
Shaiara shrugs, wincing sympathetically. “Do you want a few minutes, or are you ready for him?”
“Any parents in there with him?” Maybe it was unprofessional, but Doctor Roberts wasn’t sure if she was ready to handle anyone over the age of 25 yet.
Shiara shakes her head and points to something on the tablet.
“He’s got an uncle, Errol Fisk, but no parents with him right now.”
Doctor Roberts frowned and tapped on the tablet. “When did he get checked in?”
“Two this morning,” Shiara said brightly, “Orderlies got him calmed down, but they’ve been waiting for you ever since.”
“Two?” Doctor Roberts exclaims, stopping in the middle of the hall as people around them glance up in alarm, “Sorry.” In a lower voice, she asks, “Doctor Khatri was on the night shift, she’s more than qualified to take this case! You could have paged. Why is he barely checked in? ”
“That’s the just thing. They insisted on waiting,” Shiara wrings her wrists nervously, “They asked for you specifically .”
Kendra hates the police station. It’s not for the reasons you might think, though. Sure, it’s loud, busy, and she’s coming there to be questioned, but the reason she hates it, is because every time she walks in, she thinks of Seth.
Seth, her stupid, obnoxious, little brother, who carried around an “survival kit” of various items in a cereal box, who would have loved going to a police station every day and meeting detectives and desk sergeants.
He would have loved it all.
But he’s not here.
And it’s not fair.
But that’s okay.
She takes a deep, calming breath through her nostrils, checking her phone as she settles in the uncomfortable seat in the police station waiting area. There are a few texts from her parents, which she replies to immediately, then she scrolls through Instagram, idly double-tapping on her friends’ photos. Before the incident, she had been somewhat of a loner, with a few friends, but no one that close. Now, a small community had banded around her, checking up on her, having fun with her, cheering her up.
She can’t really believe it, but she thinks she’s happy. There’s still a hole where Seth was, and it’ll never be filled up, but she’s built around it. Doctor Roberts had told her that the loss was never going to go away, but they still would be able to work through it, to overcome it. There are still breaks in Kendra’s memory from those hazy months after Seth’s death. She still has memories that she isn’t sure are true, too normal to be part of Fablehaven, but too strange to be in the real world.
The day of Seth’s death- Kendra has been calling it the Equinox, because saying the whole label every time rips her heart open- has been one of the most confusing days, meshed between her mind and reality, and she’s not sure if the things she’s seen were her imagination or the truth. The days before are almost as bad.
That’s another thing she hates. She hates not being able to trust herself with her mind. Ever since she was a little girl taking spelling tests in second grade, she’s always promised herself she’ll work hard, plan well, be the smartest in the room. And ever since then, she … basically has been. It’s not a matter of bragging, just a matter of willpower and time. And it’s not like her grades have been bad, it’s not like she’s having trouble in school, but it’s finals week and she just can’t concentrate like she used to.
And that’s the last thing she hates: herself. Because no matter how hard it is for her, she has to do it, has to get through it, for her little brother. For her little brother who’s not going to get any older.
“Kendra?” Elise, a policewoman with sleek red highlights in her hair, pokes his head into the waiting room, “Detective Trask is ready for you in his office.”
Elise and Kendra weren’t really friends, exactly, mostly because Kendra didn’t know her well enough for that, but they still fall into their same easy conversation on the way to the detective’s office.
“School going okay?”
Kendra nods, shifting her backpack on her shoulders, “Okay enough. Finals end soon, and I can’t wait until Friday, me and my friends are going to watch a movie.”
Elise raises an eyebrow, “I’ve heard Medal of Shame is being shown in theaters, I watched it yesterday and it was really good.”
“Isn’t that the one about the serial killer?” Kendra asks, wincing slightly. It had looked interesting enough, but she wasn’t one for watching thrillers at night.
“Yeah! It’s gri-” she pauses when she sees the expression on Kendra’s face, “On second thoughts, maybe watch something a lot more age appropriate.”
Kendra snorts as they reach Trask’s office, nestled close to the very center of the station. “I’ll keep that in mind!”
Elise smirks and waves a hand in passing. “Until tomorrow.”
She turns the corner before Kendra can say anything else, only left to blink after her. The door to Detective Trask’s office is closed firmly shut, and for a second, Kendra thinks about following Elise back down the halls, heading out, and walking home.
But this has to be done. Not just for her, but for Seth.
She knocks firmly against the door.
“It’s Casey, isn’t it? Can I call you Casey?” Doctor Roberts sits across the good-looking boy, who’s glancing around the room nervously. These waiting rooms are created with the specific purpose of causing the least mental anguish as possible. Every surface is soft, and the lighting is always dimmed to a soft glow. Casey is sitting in one of the beanbag chairs, while his uncle has opted for an armchair across the room. He smiled at her politely enough when she walked into the room, but he’s now tapping urgently on his phone, texting someone with startling speed.
Casey nods and watches her suspiciously. “I don’t get why I need to be here, Doctor.”
Doctor Roberts nods and gives him a reassuring smile. “How about this? I’m going to ask you a few questions, and you can answer them. If you don’t want to, your uncle can take them. Does that sound okay?”
Casey slumps down further in his beanbag. “I guess.” Casey’s uncle let out a breath and shoved his phone in his pocket. “Sorry, work has been- You know what, no excuses. I’m Errol Fisk, Casey’s uncle. You can call me Errol.”
“It’s good to meet you too, Errol,” she shakes his hand and settles back, tablet in hand. Sometimes she misses her old-fashioned pen and clipboard, but she can’t deny that it’s a lot more convenient to have all her files in the same place. There was some merit to the hospital’s technology initiative.
“Let’s start with a quick question. Was there a reason you asked for me specifically?”
Fisk shifts uncomfortably and glances at Casey, who shrugs. “Someone in my school came here, and they mentioned you in passing.”
Doctor Roberts nods encouragingly, “I’m glad your friends a-”
“Oh, she’s not my friend,” Casey corrects quickly. Errol gives him a long-suffering look that the boy misses, “I’m pretty sure she hates my guts. Kendra Sorenson?”
Doctor Roberts frowns, but otherwise, she doesn’t make any sign of outward recognition. “Sorry, I can’t confirm or deny anything about any possible patients. Can you tell me more about why you’re here today?”
Casey shrugs and stares at the floor. After a moment, Fisk begins to speak,
“Casey and I moved here from Bhutan. His parents disappeared in a hunting accident, and he’s not doing too well adjusting-”
“I can hear you!” Casey interrupts angrily, “I’m adjusting just fine!”
“We’re all speaking together,” Doctor Robert soothes, “Do you want to add anything, Casey?”
The boy scoffs but says nothing. Errol continues in a small voice.
“He’s also been hoarding things, small things that he got from his parents, and even presents from relatives, friends. The house is a mess.”
“You’re a mess,” Casey retorts under his breath, ignoring Errol as he flinches. He seems surprised when Doctor Roberts turns to him and asks, “What about you, Casey? Have you noticed anything about yourself recently?”
Casey looked away. “I’m not crazy.”
Doctor Roberts nods and gives him a sad smile. “You’re not,” she confirms, “You’re going through something scary right now, and I’m going to do my best to help you. You know when you get a cold?”
Casey nods, looking straight at Doctor Roberts for the first time.
“Well, this is exactly like that, except it’s the chemicals in your brain that are out of balance, instead of the chemicals in your body. I work on seeing what’s causing the changes, and if you decide to get a psychiatrist, they’ll use medicine to balance the chemicals. You’re not crazy at all.”
Casey nods slowly and lets out a breath. He looks pointedly at his uncle, who smiles encouragingly at him.
“Well, I don’t have trouble getting along with people,” Casey starts, “It’s just hard to relate to them sometimes. People want to be my friend, but I don’t know…”
“Just run through it for me, one more time,” Trak’s deep voice rings through the room as he settles down in his massive detective chair, a pen and pad at the ready. Kendra resists the urge to groan.
“We’ve already gone through it more than five times,” she says, careful not to let her frustration show in her voice. After all, Detective Trask was trying to help her, “And it’s been the same story each time. There’s just some stuff that’s not exactly clear yet.”
“And that’s why we’re going through it again, and again, until everything is absolutely clear.” Detective Trask frowns at the notebook in front of him, “You know what, let’s back up a bit. What about before the accident.”
“Before?” Kendra frowns, “What about before?”
“Well, along with your account and the anonymous tip we received the day the Doctor came in, we know this wasn’t some normal accident. There might have been something that motivated it, and running through your accounts will help us figure this out.”
“You still haven’t told me what the tip said,” Kendra points out, “Maybe if I read it, I could figure out who it’s from.”
“That would defeat the point of an anonymous tip,” Trask says slowly, his eyes flicking to the clock above the door. Kendra had noticed the placement the first few times she had come in. It was in an angle that the detective could see it quite easily, but the person in the chair would have to turn around completely to take a look at, and Kendra couldn’t exactly do that with the detective staring right at her.
She would be stuck here for the foreseeable future, until her parents came to pick her up. They had gotten kind of paranoid with her walking around the neighborhood, and Kendra honestly didn’t mind. She still got queasy when she saw a car passing while she was walking on the street. Some sort of latent PTSD, according to Doctor Roberts.
“Fine,” she took a deep breath, and forces herself to look up, "There had been a break-in, at the house, maybe a month before the accident, and Seth was really shaken up by it.”
Trask frowns and rifled through the file he had laying out on his desk. “That isn’t in here.”
“No, it wouldn’t be,” Kendra sighs, “Nothing was taken, and I think Mom and Dad just wanted to put it past us. It’s probably nothing related to this, but-”
“No,” the detective closes the file and folds his hands on top of it, giving Kendra his full attention, “Anything you say could be important. Anything could reveal a motive, so I need you to tell me everything.”
Kendra raises her eyebrows, but keeps going. “Well, like I said, nothing was taken. Mom and Dad took a night off, Seth and I were at home. I went to bed around ten, because I usually wake up and study anyway, but Seth stays-stayed up.” A fresh wave of grief passes through her, and she swallows past the lump in her throat, “He was the one who called our parents, I didn’t even wake up through it.”
“So Seth was awake when the accident happened? He didn’t call the police?”
Kendra shakes her head. “He went downstairs, and when he turned on the lights, the person going through our stuff just bolted. Broke a window in the process. We thought Seth had seen him before he stole anything.”
Trask smiles grimly. “And it wouldn’t have even occurred to you that he was going through your things.”
“Why should it?” Kendra’s voice trailed off, “Hang on, there was one other thing. Around that same time, there was a man, who used to pass us by at the bus stop. I only remember him because he was kind of good-looking, and passed us by at like, the exact same time every morning. I didn’t even mention him to Seth, but he stayed for like 3 weeks, and then vanished.”
Trask makes another note on his notepad and tears out the sheet.
“Do you think you could sit down with one of our sketch artists and make a picture of that man? I know you might think he doesn’t know anything, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.”
“Of course,” Kendra agrees unsurely, glancing at the door. She’s not sure this is a clear dismissal, but as she stands up, Trask looks at her, determination written all over his face.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of this, Kendra. I promise.”
It’s only 3 hours into her shift that Doctor Roberts calls her lunch break, but to be fair, it’s nearly 4 o’clock and she hadn’t really eaten much of a breakfast. Besides, she wasn’t taking a break for fun. No, she had a business meeting to attend to, but it would be too complicated to call it that. For now, she was just going to meet a friend over lunch. It didn’t matter that they were the leading clinical chemist for mood stabilizers, depressants, and a host of other things that Doctor Roberts worked with psychiatrists to give to patients.
It was time to meet Dr. Tanugatoa Dufu.
The Indian restaurant is practically deserted when she arrives, just after the normal lunch crowd. Tanu is hard to miss in the corner, though. His broad shoulders and infectious smile were the first things she had noticed about him when she had first met him, and it’s the first thing she sees every time she sees him.
After such a long day, it’s a welcome sight.
“Tanu!” she exclaims, “It’s so good to see you! I hope your travels have agreed with you?”
Tanu, who had nearly started in surprise when Doctor Roberts had arrived, grins.
“When has travel not agreed with me, Avery?” he counters in a deceptively soft, slightly accented voice. It’s not what someone would expect of a man of his build, but then again, no one would ever expect a man like Tanu. That wasn’t to say he wasn’t dangerous. If the stories were true, he had once fought off a bear- and won.
Well, if the last few months had taught her anything, it was that stories always had a vein of truth in them, hidden like gold in stone.
As their food is served, Doctor Roberts rubs her hand together. “So what have you found for me this time?”
Tanu dips a piece of flat bread in lentil soup, and takes his time chewing and swallowing. He grins at her, revealing the slight gap between his two front teeth. “Okay, so not all of it may be totally legal, but I acquired it all through legal practices, it’s just the exports and imports that are a bit tricky…”
Oh, she had almost forgotten about that part. Tanu’s a celebrated clinical chemist with more than one degree to his name, doubles as a medicine man in third world countries. The way he gets his components into the country, though, is, in the loosest sense of the word, unconventional .
Tanu’s a man of his word, though, and he gets all of his remedies through humane means.
“I know the drill,” she waves away his protests and lowers her voice, “I’m never going to use them for my patients, not until they’re approved, but it’s always nice to know what’s going to be coming in the next few years.”
Tanu nods slowly, and leans back, but Doctor Roberts can tell that he’s actually cataloguing the room and its occupants. Not only is this corner in the back of the area, their table is well hidden, and Tanu has a full view of the room. He opens up his satchel and pulls out a few vials, all stoppered with heavy glass corks. He runs through the first few, a vial that can manipulate your emotions (in any range!) , catching her eye in particular. It’s clear that he’s a bit distracted, though, and he keeps glancing at the door. In all the time Doctor Roberts has known Tanu, she’s never seen him as a nervous man, but right now, he’s doing an awfully good impression of one.
Doctor Roberts follows his gaze a few times, but as far as she can tell, he’s jumping at shadows. Finally, it grows too much. She holds up a hand, pausing him mid sentence, and raises an eyebrow.
“Well? What’s going on?”
Tanu sighs and runs a hand over his short hair. “What do you know about the Society of the Evening Star?”
Her stomach jumps into her throat.
Doctor Roberts has heard of the Society of the Evening Star before. It’s been whispers at the end of a telephone, never anything out in the open, but it’s connected to her husband’s disappearance, and her son’s false imprisonment. It’s enough for her to shake her head tightly and set her fork down.
“This conversation is over,” she mutters, and moves to stand up, glancing around nervously. Tanu stands up with her, shaking his head.
“I didn’t mean to make you upset,” he mutters sadly, regret crossing his face, “Walk with me out?”
Doctor Roberts hesitates for a second, then nods, once. It’s only a testament to how much she trusts Tanu that she stays. If he’s mixed up with the Evening Star, she’s done with him. Then again, if he’s mixed up with the Evening Star and he’s told her about it, that means she’s probably done with a lot of things. Her hands are trembling slightly, and she curses herself for it. She’s wanted to talk with the Evening Star for a long time, but now that it’s a possibility, she feels sick. All the rich food that she’s just eaten churns in her stomach.
She hands Tanu her credit card when the waiter comes with the bill and he’s smart enough to take it without a word and slide his own with it, telling the waiter that they’ll pay separately. By the time he comes back with the receipt, Doctor Roberts has catalogued every single escape route of the restaurant.
She’s damaged, but she’s not broken. Not yet.
And she won’t let the Evening Star do that to her.
Not this time.
They make it ten paces outside the door before Doctor Roberts whirls on Tanu, slipping a hand in her purse warningly. Before she can get a word out, though, he holds both hands up.
“I know what you’re thinking and it’s not it,” he says hurriedly, “I don’t have much time to explain, but I’m not part of the Society . I’m the opposite.”
“The opposite,” Doctor Roberts tilts her head, unimpressed, “There’s no such thing. You’re lying.”
“That’s what the Dawn wants you to think!” Tanu exclaims, “They also go by the Knights of Dawn sometimes, but that’s beside the point. It’s a secret group, made up of people who the Evening Star has harmed over the years, just people who want to stand up to them!”
“Then why haven’t they reached out to me yet?” Doctor Roberts shoots back, slightly bitter. They’re not even bothering to keep their voices down anymore. Someone’s going to notice them.
Tanu shakes his head. “Avery, this is me reaching out to you. The Knights of Dawn need your help. You know more about the Society than anyone!”
Suddenly, Doctor Roberts felt very, very tired. Tanu was young, still. His face was unlined, and his eyes were clear, not marked yet, by the shadows of despair.
“Well?” he asks expectantly, “Can you join us?”
He had gone through terrible things, Doctor Roberts didn’t deny that, but he wasn’t the first to come to her, and he undoubtedly wouldn’t be the last.
The Knights of Dawn would fail. It was inevitable.
She lets out a breath, almost a shudder, and shakes her head.
She knows better than to try to dam up the river. All she can do is latch on to a rock and hope to weather through the storm.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers to Tanu “I’m sorry, you’ll have to find someone else.”
“The Evening Star?” Kendra asks dubiously, “This is what you have so far? It sounds like something out of a children’s book.”
“I assure you, Kendra, it’s as real as it gets,” Trask said smoothly, “Our source gave us something that connected the two, and I was wondering if you had heard of it before, or heard Seth mention it.”
She thinks for a moment, trying to remember any conversation, anything at all that was out of the ordinary, but she always came up empty-handed though. This time, when she tossed the bait of the ‘Evening Star’ in her mind, she felt a tug on the line.
“Hang on a second,” she whispers, “Seth, he mentioned a few times, just a few, but months before the accident.”
Trask makes a note on his sheet. “The Evening Star is a secret society, he shouldn’t have heard of it at all. What did he say about it?”
“Um…” Kendra’s voice trails off as she shook her head, “I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember?” Trask asks, the faintest hint of frustration finally coloring his voice, “Try to think real hard, Kendra, this could be the connection we’ve been looking for.”
But Kendra just shakes her head and buries it into her hands. “I can’t, It’s just blank there. The only reason I remembered that he mentioned it was because he used the exact same words you did. ‘The Evening Star is a secret society.’”
“Of course,” Trask says immediately, shaking his head, “I apologize for showing annoyance, I know you’re trying as hard as you can. Just know, I’m doing everything in my power as well.”
Kendra nods and swallows a few times, trying to get her voice to work again.
“So what do you know about Evening Star anyway?”
Trask stares at her, clearly weighing whether or not to show her what he knew, so she adds,
“I mean, I’m not sure what fact could jog my memory, so I’m just trying to cover all my bases.”
The detective nods and pulls off the cord he’s always worn on his neck. Hanging at the bottom is a key, which he uses to open up the lowest desk drawer. He pulls out a file and places it flat on his desk.
When Kendra opens it, there’s only one sheet of printer paper in there. One piece of paper, 8 and a half by 11 inches, is all they know. In fact, the back doesn’t even have that much information on it. She skims it as fast as she can.
“The name of the leader is ‘Rhodes’?” she asks, perplexed. If they knew the leader’s name, then they should be well on their way to finding out more about the gang. But Trask was already shaking his head.
“It’s just a codename, but it’s a definitive piece of evidence. If we were looking at alleged crimes, the stack would be worth a hundred of those folders.”
A sudden gust of wind seems to come from the air vent, threatening to blow the paper off the desk, but Kendra presses her hand against it.
“I’ll try to remember more.”
It’s all she could do, now.
There’s a knock on Doctor Roberts’ office door. She’s had so many appointments scheduled for today that she doesn’t even check her schedule before calling “Come in!”
Shiara’s out on some errand, and the Doctor has to do a double-take when she says Dale in her doorway. He hovers awkwardly, but she waves him in, and double checks that she doesn’t have anywhere to be right now.
“Everything alright, Dale?” she asks, almost dreading the answer. He looks exhausted, with dark smudges under his eyes. She knows that something’s been going on with him, but she hasn’t had time to ask him about it.
In fact, she hasn’t spent much time with any of the orderlies lately, because of her suddenly busy schedule. That’s something she needs to fix. She’s made too many friends just to lose them over bad time management.
Dale opens his mouth, but no words come out. When he finally does speak, it’s in a whisper.
“I need your help.”
Doctor Roberts swallows hard as she follows Dale into the room. They’re still in the hospital, only a few floors down, but the air seems stiller here, and it’s quiet, other than the steady beeping of machines. The man in the bed is young, younger than she’d expected. Lying tucked in bed, he looks like he could be a child, barely older than her youngest. Late twenties, at most, with handsome features. His milk white skin is alarmingly close to the shade of the sheets, and his eyes stare blankly at the wall.
“They say he’s gone into a vegetative state,” Dale nods, pressing his palms to his eye sockets, “He won’t talk, won’t move on his own, barely eats. Everyone’s at a loss, and I know you’re not this kind of doctor, but I just thought - well, if you have time-”
“Of course,” Doctor Roberts shakes her head, “Of course, I can take a look. That’s not even something I have to think about.”
Dale lets out a breath and nods, sitting himself gently down in the chair on the right side of the bed, and rubbing his eyes.
“His doctors say he’s taking a turn for the worst, but honestly, there’s been no other change in his condition. He’s just barely living. I -I don’t know what to do.”
The Doctor frowns and checks the young man’s pulse again. It’s slowed to a crawl, barely discernible, but his eyes are open, and he’s blinking placidly into empty space. It’s the only motion in the room, but for some reason, it feels like it’s not there, not really .
“Why do the doctors think he’s declining?” she whispers to Dale. For some reason, whispering seems appropriate. Overall, his brother’s state looks bad, but it looks stable.
Dale keeps nodding to himself. “Every night, there’s a time when his pulse drops so low, the machines can barely detect it. When it comes back up, it’s always slightly less than it was, and his heart can’t take the stress-” He laughs, but it’s clear he doesn’t think there’s anything funny about this situation.
“You know, before all this,” he waves a hand in his brother’s general direction, “Warren, he would do anything. He was a private investigator, but I think he really just wanted to be an adventurer. He would go on all these stupid trips-” Dale’s voice broke, and he took a deep breath, “He was always dragging me around, trying to get me to go skydiving or hiking in the Andes, or backpacking across Spain, and now, all I can do is sit with him, and wait. Wait for his heart to give out. ”
Doctor Roberts nods once, the lump in her throat making it hard to speak. She wants to say she’s sorry, but what good would that do?
“How’d he get in this condition?”
Dale shrugged, placing his hand over Warren’s. There was no reaction.
“The police found him on the side of the road, all pale and unmoving like this. They sent him to the hospital, but it was days before they thought to check his phone contacts. He had been working a case earlier, but he wouldn’t tell anyone what it was about.”
“And was that normal?” Doctor Roberts checked.
“It’s usually like that,” Dale admits, “His clients expect a- well, they expected a certain level of discretion. The police went over to his apartment, but they couldn’t find anything. He keeps stuff hidden, but he’s damn good at his job, and I can’t imagine-” He sighs. “Sorry for going on about this.”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Doctor Roberts says, taken aback. She’s surprised to realize that means it. “My husband’s missing.”
There’s a pin drop silence in the room, and Doctor Roberts can’t believe the words have slipped out of her mouth.
She keeps talking before she loses the nerve. “He’s been missing for almost two year, and I know it’s not the same at all, and I couldn’t possibly know how you feel, but I’m sorry.”
Dale nods at her, a half-smile playing on his face as he turns to look at his brother. “We’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Kendra loves lingering at school at the end of the day. There’s something relaxing about walking through the halls, hearing snippets from other people’s conversations and plans for summer. She had already bid goodbye to her friends, and today had been the day of her last final.
She can’t ignore the small burst of pride that shoots through her. A lot of her teachers had thought that she was going to have to repeat the year, after missing so much school, but Seth probably wouldn’t have wanted her to fail, so this was her, working harder than ever. She would be lying if she said she had stopped hearing his voice completely (mostly when she forgot to take her meds), but she was doing good.
The first round of buses had left already, long before she had even reached the bus loop, so she resolves to walk home when a tall man wearing a strangely tailored suit and a long black coat catches her eye. He’s standing off to the side, where some teachers usually stand and direct traffic at the end of the day, but he definitely didn’t look like any teacher or parent that Kendra had seen before. When he notices her watching, he raises a gloved hand in greeting.
It was around 80 degrees outside, which made it all the more strange. Nobody around him seems to be paying any attention to him, which is strange, but could also mean nothing at all.
She turns around and walked a few paces, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder. Lucky for her, there were still plenty of students milling around. If the man was going to try anything, he hadn’t picked the right location for it.
Kendra shakes her head and turns around, making eye contact with the suspicious man again. He cocks and eyebrow at her and waves expectantly. Kendra racks her brain as to where she could have seen the man before, but she comes up with nothing. Unless he’s a family friend she’d forgotten, she’s never met him before.
The only problem is, she can’t deny that he’s familiar. He isn’t familiar, but the way he carries himself, the way he’s watching the crowds, that’s another story. She takes a deep breath, and asks herself, What would Seth do?
It’s a no brainer. Her brother had never been able to let go of mystery, and neither had she. Besides, if this did have something to do with- The Equinox , then at least she’d have more to tell Detective Trask.
Kendra pushes through the crowd and makes her way to the man. He holds out a hand, but she doesn’t take it. She might be taking a risk, but she isn’t about to be stupid.
“You got the time?” the man asks, pulling his hand back, “It’s good to see you, Kendra.”
Very subtle, she takes a step back. After a moment, she answers, “How do you know me?”
“I don’t,” he answers simply, shrugging his shoulders. His heavy coat shifts back slightly, and Kendra can see something cylindrical shoved into his belt. The world seems to go all wavy for a second, but she catches herself. She catches the last of what the man has been saying. “-only of you, but you know how it goes. I’m Errol Fisk.”
“Errol Fisk,” she tries the name out, but it isn’t familiar at all, “I’m sorry, I still don’t know you.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Errol sighed, “I’m sorry to hear about your brother.”
By now, Kendra’s already thumping heart is beating a steady rhythm out of her chest.
“How do you know my brother?” she presses, “Do you know about the Ev-”
“Not here!” Errol whispers suddenly, looking very, very afraid. Suddenly, Kendra is aware of the cars, buses, and people all around them. This is a very good place to talk, but it’s also a very, very bad place to talk. “I can meet you tonight, are you available?”
“Sure,” she responds without even thinking. Her exams are over, and this might be the best opportunity she gets to talk to someone about the Evening Star. Trask might not know much, but she doesn’t know how much the police are hiding from her. They still see her as a fragile little girl.
She’s a lot of things, but fragile isn’t one of them. Besides, if Errol knew Seth, he might know the reason, the reason behind all of this. It isn’t like she has much to lose anyway.
“What do you mean, he cancelled all the meetings?” Doctor Roberts has had a headache for most of the day, and this bombshell just before she was about to clock out was not helping it.
Shiara shrugs, looking just as weary as the Doctor felt.
“You said the session went well?”
Doctor Roberts nods. “He was a bit resistant to the idea at first, but I got through to him at the end! Casey and his uncle came in early and asked for me by name! Why would they withdraw from treatment after one session?”
“Sorry, boss,” Shiara pats her on the shoulder, then drops her tablet unceremoniously on her desk, “I’m clocking out for the day.”
“Sure,” Doctor Roberts nods distractedly, “I think I’ll-” she motions to her desk. There’s got to be something else behind this. She’s opening her laptop before her assistant leaves the room, but she catches Shiara shaking her head on the way out.
Well, she’s not going to think about that , so instead, she logs into their patient records and pulls up Casey’s file. It looks normal. Almost… empty. There are a few well-care visits from previous care-providers that have been signed off on, but nothing regular, and she hasn’t heard of any of the clinics.
There’s something so utterly strange about this that she gives in and plugs the provided home address into Google Maps. It’s a gross breach of confidentiality, and she’s never, ever looked up a patient on the internet, but there’s something about the way Casey Hancock and Errol Fisk had spoken. Not to mention the fact that Kendra had told her that she hadn’t even shown her friends which hospital she was going to.
She wants to be wrong. She wants to see a nice apartment complex, or a small suburban area. Instead, all she sees on the screen is a cluster of empty lots.
The Evening Star has found her again.
The last time Kendra snuck out of the house, it had been because of Seth. It was a stupid thought, really, not even anything related to the Evening Star or anything else dangerous. It had been because her little brother had gotten invited to a party, one that she hadn’t been. Their parents hadn’t let him go, after all, which parents would let a middle schooler go to a high school party?
He had snuck out the same way he always did, which meant she was awoken at 11 pm by the sound of her brother trying to slide down the elm tree behind their window in pitch darkness. She had ignored him bitterly, resolving to snitch on him in the morning, when he would be undoubtedly too tired to do anything else but confess.
Instead, her phone had buzzed less than two hours later, waking her up for a second time. She had picked up, because it was Seth. If Seth called her, that nearly always meant something was wrong, and she was his older sister. She’d complain and gripe about him all the time, but if he needed help, she’d drop everything.
After the short call, she had grabbed her wallet, opened the window, and slid down the elm tree herself. Seth was standing underneath, eyes slightly red, and looking exhausted. Kendra hadn’t said anything, just grabbed his arm and walked until they reached the strip mall two blocks down. They bought milkshakes at the 24 hour diner and got back home just before their parents noticed.
She had fallen asleep twice in class the next day and hadn’t regretted it a bit.
Now, sliding down the trunk of the elm tree, she feels like she should be meeting her brother down here. She’d never gotten it out from him what had happened, but middle schoolers could be startling mean. And Seth had gotten over it after they started guessing what the other people in the diner would order. Seth kept trying to convince her that the man in the corner booth with a sallow complexion had been ordering a blood smoothie instead of a cherry Slushy.
She had agreed to meet Errol at the gas station, only two stores down from the diner. After waiting a few minutes just in case the lights downstairs came back on, she slips into the night. She makes sure to stick to sidewalks and side yards, crossing roads only when she absolutely has to. She doesn’t really have anything to worry about, she knows; she hasn’t even seen a car out tonight. The wind picks up a bit, but her mind stays thankfully clear.
Errol’s waiting outside the gas station, looking decidedly nervous. Even from a distance, Kendra can tell he’s pacing back and forth. She has the sudden urge to turn around and run back home, climb that tree and wrap herself up in bed. Forget about everything that had happened.
Except, she had tried that once. She had forgotten everything once.
She knew it never worked.
She walks towards the gas station with more confidence now. This has got to be connected to the Society, which means it could give her a lead to what Seth was doing.
Maybe she could finish what he started.
He would be proud of her.
Doctor Roberts has packed her bags. She’s done this before and she’ll do it again, disappearing into the night. She’s bought three different plane tickets, all in the cheapest class. She’ll roll a dice at the airport, get on a random flight. She’ll take a four month leave of absence, her patients will miss her, but she can’t go through this again. She can’t .
She’s disappeared before, but she hates it.
Just before she steps outside, her phone vibrates in her pocket, and she pulls it out, staring at the screen. It’s a Withheld number.
She declines the call with shaking hands and gets into her car. She tosses her duffel bag in her back and just sits there for a moment. Her phone rings again.
It’s Detective Trask.
Something’s wrong.
“He knew something was going wrong.” Errol tells Kendra, looking her straight in the eye, “He wouldn’t even tell me what he had found out.”
“So he did know something?” Kendra checks, “About the Evening Star. Did he tell you what it was? Why would they kill him?”
Errol runs a hand through his and snaps his fingers. A card appears in his previously empty hand.
“That’s a neat trick.”
“Legerdemain,” Errol notes, flipping the card over in his gloved hand, “Just a bit of sleight of hand. It’s useful when you need to hide things.” He gives her a hint of a smile. “Seth found it amusing as well.”
“I bet he did,” Kendra smiles sadly. Seth had always had a better sense of humor, “What’s on the card?”
“An address,” Errol hands her the card, “Seth’s hidden his files there. I would go and fetch them for you, but the Society might be watching me. I’ll drop you off and you’ll be able to slip by unnoticed.”
Kendra turns the card over in her hands uncertainly. She recognizes the address, it’s a street only a few blocks down from here.
“Why not just hand it to the police?” she asks finally, looking up at Errol. The older man runs a hand through his hair.
“I already tried that,” he shrugs, glancing back towards his truck, “The detective in charge, Trask, said that they get too many leads on the Society every day. Besides, we can’t afford to have to have them get to the files first.”
There’s still a nagging sense of doubt in the back of Kendra’s mind, but she pushes it away. “Let’s do it now.”
Errol nods. “That’s probably the best idea.” He gestures to his car, a beat up Volkswagen. “Shall we?”
Kendra pulls open the door to the passenger seat, mildly relieved when it doesn’t fall off in her grip. She doesn’t dare get comfortable in the seat, but she feels better than she had on the road. Her right hand is gripping a can of pepper spray in her pocket, just in case.
Errol seems to pick up on the tense atmosphere and gives her a forced smile.
“Don’t worry,” he says, starting up the car, “Once the night is over, we’ll have more information on the Evening Star than ever.”
A blast of lukewarm air fills the car as the AC clicks on by itself before Errol leans over and turns it off.
“Some days, I wonder if this car is older than I am,” he grumbles, “Sorry about that.”
“It’s alright.” Kendra stares out the window quietly, trying to commit the route to memory. They take the exit ramp onto the highway and she looks away from the road after a few cars passed by them. They spent less than fifteen minutes on the highway when Errol turned on his indicator, merging into a side lane. Kendra had never noticed this particular offshoot before, but the man seemed to know exactly where he was going.
They make a few quick turns, and soon, they’re on a street with no lights, towering trees on either side. Errol pulls over on the side of the road, and all is quiet. She doesn’t even think she can hear any animals out here.
“Are you sure this is the right way?” Kendra asks nervously, speaking for the first time since they got off the highway. “It looks… dark.”
Errol turns a knob next to the wheel a few times, cursing under his breath until the high beam headlights finally turn on. They illuminate a sign in front of what looks to be a short driveway:
MAGNUM Funeral Home
Since 1955
“We’re going to break into a mortuary?” Kendra swallows hard, feeling more than a little creeped out.
“Oh, the funeral home has been out of business for ages,” Errol reassures her, “Seth apparently found the location on one of his school trips. I never did hear the story.”
Kendra considers this for a moment, then shrugs. That sounded like it could be true. “So, what am I supposed to do?”
“There’s a high chance the Society will be monitoring me, so we can’t stay long. You’d have to go in through the garage door and look for a statue that looks like a frog. That’s where I think Seth hid a flash drive of files.”
“Frog statue, flash drive, got it.” Kendra nods as she catalogues the information. “How do I get into the garage?”
“Almost forgot!” Errol ran a hand through his hair nervously, “The password’s 7109, then press enter.”
“7109, enter.” Kendra echoes. She’s about to get out of the car when another thought strikes her. “I’m not going to run into anyone inside, right? There isn’t going to be any security, or anything?”
“Oh, no, definitely not. I have to go, to be seen in town, just in case the Society is looking for me, but I’ll loop around here in exactly fifteen minutes, okay? You’ll be safe. I’ve scouted the location and there’s no hint of any Society activity. If anything, their attention will be focused on me.”
“Fifteen minutes, got it.” She takes a deep breath and steps out of the car, closing the door behind her soundlessly. Errol raised a hand and sped away, leaving her to hurry up the shadowy driveway. The yard itself was very well maintained, with a neatly trimmed lawn and tidily rounded hedges that came no higher than her knees. The house was another matter, though. Large potted plants crowded the shadowy porch and all the windows were dark and shuttered. It was the kind of house that Seth would pretend was haunted. Why would he hide information about the Society of the Evening Star here, of all places? Why not just hide it in his room, or give it to her for safe-keeping?
Glancing at the street, she pushes all other thoughts out of her mind, and just tries to focus . Her fingers mechanically flip open the garage door keypad and enter the numbers seven, one, zero, and nine. She pauses, before she hits enter, though. Somewhere in the distance, a siren is sounding, probably a police car on the highway. Quickly, she shakes herself out of it and presses the enter button.
The door opens, almost too loudly, and she winces before she hurries inside. Thankfully, the garage is brightened by an automatic light. She hadn’t thought to bring a flashlight, but hopefully, she won’t need one at all. There’s a dog bowl, covered in a layer of dust except for a few marks on the top, near the stoop of the door, and she steps over it, shivering slightly. Even though it’s summer, there’s a chill in the air tonight.
Kendra doesn’t waste any time, walking through the house methodically, keeping an eye out for any frogs, or hiding places. It hadn’t occurred to her to ask Errol how big the statue would be, but she had less than ten minutes to find it before he came back to the house to pick her up. She needed to find this. For Seth, for her mom and dad, for Errol, and for Trask.
Where would she hide something important? If Seth was here, where would he go? Kendra frowns, then retraces her steps. There had been a door in the entryway that she had skipped, because it had been locked, but she was out of options. She hadn’t seen keys anywhere in the house, but something else had been out of place. Every object in the house had been covered with a thick layer of dust, nothing moved or out of place. The only place where the dust had been disturbed was the dog bowl in the garage, which meant…
It took her less than a minute to retrieve the key from beneath the dog bowl, but her hands were shaking so badly that it took three times to fit it in the lock. She opens the door quietly, though, and is about to step into the dark hall, but then she hears voices.
Her heart stutters in her chest, and she ducks into the hall without thinking, whirling around frantically. The centerpiece of the room is a large coffin, ornately designed. She closes her eyes and takes five deep breaths. In through her nose, out through her mouth. She couldn’t panic, not now.
Five things she could see. There were dark tapestries on the wall. The floor was made of some sort of dark wood. The key, glinting dully in her hand. The door behind her. Seth, next to h- No. No, Seth wasn’t here. He wasn’t. He wasn’t.
Her breath caught in her throat again as she forced her eyes open. She didn’t remember closing them. She needed to find one more thing she could see, that was how this grounding exercise worked. She had come this far, and she needed to calm down, and get out, now. Her eyes fell on an oddly shaped statue, set on the table right next to the door.
She had walked right past it when she had come into the room, but it was dark green and looked somewhat like a frog.
Kendra reaches for it, and all hell breaks loose.
Notes:
It took a while to update, sorry about that! D:
We're getting into the plot now, feel free to share your theories in the comments! I'm interested to know what you guys think...
I think I'm going to split the second book, at least, into multiple parts, just to make it easier to update. In the next part, we'll get to see Tanu, Vanessa, and Coulter!
Thanks for reading! Drop some kudos or a comment if you like the fic! <33
~S
Brindah (Guest) on Chapter 1 Mon 02 Mar 2020 04:57AM UTC
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