Annette Santoni's Story

I wonder if it will rain today?

It was dark inside the small room that Annette seemed to found herself in more times than not. And it was cold. And dank. And it smelled weird.

"Can ... Can I please leave now?"

A loud crackle could be heard as a microphone button was pushed, and a female voice traversed throughout the wires that connected the microphone to the small brown box that hung in the top, right-hand corner of the room and emitted the noise. "You know that we can't let you leave until Dr. Brennan has a chance to speak with you. He'll be here soon." The static cut off quickly and left a ringing of white noise in her ears, and she patted at the left side of her head in an effort to rid herself of the noise.

"But I haven't even eaten breakfast yet, and I promise Atha-"

"Dr. Brennan will be here in a moment. For the time being, shut up and stop whining."

Annette looked down at the table, her eyes hooded and half-closed. Her nails tapped on the table for a few moments, before her fingers linked together. I don't want to be here ... Why won't they just let me go? I shouldn't even be here in the first place.

The door was eased open, and in walked one of the nurses.

"You're free to go, Annette. Something came up and Dr. Brennan is unable to meet you for your examination. It will be rescheduled for sometime later today." With a nod, Annette rose and made her way from the room, rubbing absently at her upper left arm. After being in the asylum so long, the doctors had basically decided to give her some free rein, and she was therefore allowed to wear whatever she wanted. Today she had chosen a simple blue dress with a belt, paired with light brown sandals and a wide-brimmed sun hat, and as she made her way down the hall towards the cafeteria, she could feel a slight smile begin to curl up her lips.

And then she slept.

---

Gesenia flipped her hair over her shoulders and down her back, a sly smile on her face. She cast a wink in the direction of a male orderly, whose eyes widened before a matching grin crossed his face. She did a small twirl as she passed him, her skirt flaring just a bit too high for most girl's comforts, but too low to please Gesenia. The orderly made sure to get an eye-full as she rounded the corner, her bosom bouncing with each step.

As she entered the cafeteria, she slowly looked around, absently running her fingers through her black tresses. When she spotted the one boy that she had been determined to snag since day one, she felt her lips curl into a coy smile "Perfect ..." she purred, already striding across the room towards him.

"Hello, Jasper," she said softly as she approached the table. A lithe and seductive movement that combined both her hips and thighs sent her into the chair beside him, and she leaned forward just enough to suit her tastes so that the curves between her breasts were obvious and seen. Her arms wound around one of his as she clutched his arm to her chest, ensuring that it was directly between her breasts, and she pressed them fully against his side. Batting her nearly-black eyes up at him, she smiled. "I was cooped up all day in my room and had absolutely no fun at all," she pouted, batting her lashes. "Can you make my day better for me?"

{NOTE: For those of you who have not read Annette's biography, she is one person. Gesenia is a separate personality from Annette entirely, but she still looks like Annette, who is the person in the gif. She has brown eyes and brown hair. Gesenia merely thinks that she has black eyes and black hair.}

It happened again. If Audrey wasn’t awake then she was dreaming. Imagining such vivid fantasies that they seemed, no, they felt real. For the first time in weeks Audrey had fallen asleep without the help of drowsy medications and stomach cramps. Somehow, by sheer miracle really, she had drifted off into her own world of recovery. There was a problem though, it happened again.

Most recently, her recurring dream has been the sweet touch of her beloved Danny and an all too happy ending where he comes back for her. That somehow, his death was all a lie and he is now coming back to whisk her back to happiness and to love and a lifetime of it. This dream, although innocent enough, is one of the most disturbing to her. Yes, she has dreamt over and over again the bloody mess of her fiance's body across the city streets, but somehow this childlike dream makes her on edge for days.

She woke up in a panic; disillusioned and confused. Both the reality of her dream and of her life were mixing up. No. Danny was dead. She would never leave. Her brown eyes trailed across the mockingly plain walls of her room. There was no color here, no imagination. Deep in her stomach she felt the pain of loneliness that she first felt when Danny died. The urge to sob, even four years later, was overwhelming. She held herself together though. For the sake of her roommate and for the her own sake. There was no need for another therapy or special cure just because of a couple of tears. Audrey had learned that quick; the less you give in the less you are tortured.

So swiftly she rose from her bed. A head rush sent her into a dizzied way of walking and she had to sturdy herself at the door before leaving. It was breakfast, but Audrey was still so uptight that her appetite had vanished. It would take her a good hour to even finish her toast. A lazy hand ran through her dark hair as she made her way to the cafeteria. She was dressed in the clothes she had slept in, which in reality were the clothes she normally wore. Audrey had on a loose grey sweater and a pair a nicely fitted blue jeans and an old pair of red keds she had been wearing the first day she was admitted. As she continued toward the social highlight if the morning a feeling of panic rushed over her. A hot flash of worry and doubt clouded her brain from normality. Audrey was one of the last people that wanted the attention. She was normal. She knew she was normal, aside from the long nights and dreadful mornings.

Before entering the cafeteria she took in a deep breath. A relaxing long breath that would help her get through breakfast. Then she would free from worry until the next meal. She needed constantly to remind herself that her friends were in there. That yes, she had friends and that they cared for her as much as she cared for them. What a strange concept this was, especially in an insane asylum.

Audrey was able to get through the line quickly, but she was not able to escape the two nurses that they tacked to her. It was a precaution; a way to make sure that she was eating. They couldn't be letting any of their patients die on them, could they? With mild annoyance Audrey went to sit with Jasper, who she wholeheartly admired. There was just something about him. Her deep eyes looked him over before creating him with a tired "Morning, Jaspy."

Her potential conversation was cut short though when Anette came over. She truly was a strange girl, split into four others. Audrey dropped her gaze to her food as Anette rubbed herself against him. Eggs and toast, toast and eggs. She needed some way to distract herself. The nurses stood behind her on either side, watching like hawks, waiting for some excuse to shove a tube down her throat. She had to eat. Needed to eat. Otherwise she would be gagging her food down by noon.

Frances Turner had woken up that morning in a relatively bubbly mood, which was saying something for the usually rough and tough young woman. Stretching her arms over her head, she looked around and noticed almost instantly that her roommate wasn't there. Pity, it was always fun to begin the day flirting with a heterosexual especially when their personality was always variable. "Like a nice big game of Russian Roulette," she remarked aloud, slowly standing up.

As she stretched again, she realized her shirt and pants clung awkwardly to her form...perhaps she should go shower before breakfast? Stepping out into the hall, Frankie hummed lightly under her breath to some random little tune she'd made up. But, as she entered the bathroom and began to strip down, a Beatles song came to her. "Listen...do you want to know a secret?" she sang softly in her light, soprano voice that contrasted her personality greatly. The song she sang, one from the Beatles in '64, held memories for her. It had come out before she'd been locked up here and played on so many stations that she'd even convinced the band to cover the song. How many times had she gotten a man or a woman to sleep with her just by singing the tune softly near them. "Do you promise not to tell? Whoa oh, oh..." By then, she was standing under the warm water of the shower. At least that was one of the benefits of the asylum; there was warm water in the showers even if the food tasted horrible.

She let the water run along her body slowly as she lathered with soap, still singing the tune gently. By the time she was cleaned completely, she'd run through both that song and a few more original songs her band had played back when she was "sane" enough to be in public. Once cleaned, Fran ran a towel slowly along her body, trying to make the action appear as sensual as possible, should someone walk into the bathroom. However, she was still along when she started to dress in a pair of pants and a shirt. The staff had finally caved last year and allowed her the pants and shirt when she refused to function at all in a dress or skirt. Rolling up the sleeves of the shirt to her shoulders, Frankie walked out of the bathroom and down toward the mess hall. As she entered, she took a mental catalog of everything going on.

Three figures were at a table themselves; Jasper, Audrey, and Frankie's dear roomie, Annette. She wondered briefly who Annette was today yet, she easily figured out it must have been the sexual one when the girl pressed up against Jasper. Then, there was the shy girl who Frankie had flirted with once to no avail, and a new male. Tall, tanned, and muscular, he was certainly quite attractive, even if she "batted for the other team", or whatever that damned idiom was. And, of course, at the head of the staff table sat the Monsignor himself, eating alone. As she walked past the staff table, she purposefully coughed so he would look up briefly. As he did so, she winked at him simply to annoy him, and let out a laugh as the priest's jaw clenched subtly.

Making her way to the food, she let the nuns serve her and then walked off with her plate toward a table by herself. Normally, she'd have gone to sit with one of the groups of patients, but they all seemed so into their current conversations that she didn't feel like intruding.

Alistiar rubbed his eyes as he walked into the Mess Hall, Daniel had kept him awake most of the night convinced that someone was going to come after him. So as usual Ali had to calm him down by talking to him the best he could without making the situation worse and Daniel harming Ali. He had woke up multiple times either in the corner of his room or under the bed, but he was yet to find any new cut on his arms or blood around the room so it was supposedly a good night. Aside from the lack of sleep.

He looked around the hall seeing who was around, Atha, Drusilla, Annette, Graham. Ali was sure he had saw the others somewhere but his mind and stomach was on food. Rubbing his hand over the rough bandages covering cuts from a few days ago, Ali felt a twinge in his head and Josh appeared tapping his hands together and walking over to the food he was given a plate and walked along as he was given eggs and toast. " Can't we ever have something other than eggs and toast?" He asked his head tilting to the side his voice high pitched " we could have eggs and bacon, yeah. Yeah eggs and bacon can we have that soon?" He asked as he got to the end of the line to a nurse who shook her head and carried on serving.

The switch back was as quick as anything Ali's posture changed as he walked over to a quiet table and began to eat slowly looking out the window watching everything go by. It was strange to Ali that at any time of day he could see the same situation three times in one day and he wouldn't even know about it.

Bored with being ignored by Jasper, Gesenia leaned back and looked over at Audrey and raised a brow, a slight smirk on her lips.

"Let me guess ... You want to get a little bit of this hunky specimen, don't you?" she teased, her dark eyes glinting with what seemed to be a mixture of jealousy, malice, and joking. "Ah, that's right, you wouldn't have the guts to. Such a shame ... What with that pretty face going to waste and all," she clucked her tongue, shaking her head. With a sly smile, she rose, casting a wink at the two. "Well, I'm going to go ahead and get some food. So ... I'll talk to you both later," she said with a cheerful wave. She turned and, with a slight skip in her first step, she started for the lunch line.



"Alistair! Alistair!"

Sarah bounded over to the man, her blonde pigtails bouncing on her shoulders. As soon as she reached him, she threw her arms around his neck and nearly tackled the poor man to the floor. She had a bright, happy glow in her eyes as she moved and dropped onto his lap, giggling.

"I got a new necklace. See it? It's a butterfly! My mom and dad sent it to me!" she exclaimed, lifting the purple butterfly charm that rest between her breasts. She held it up near his nose. "See? See? Isn't it pretty?" she breathed, attempting to look down at it herself. When she realized that her neck just wasn't designed like that, she burst into more giggles and kicked her legs, her mouth an open 'O', as if she had just thought of something.

"Hey! Hey! Can Danny come out to play? I was hoping he could all day, but a little while is also okay," she said, poking his chest. Her eyes widened and burst out into even more laughter. "I just rhymed, right? I just rhymed! I'm so silly! But can Danny play? I wanted to show him the dolly that one of the nice nurses gave me. She's really pretty! The doll, I mean. The nurse was all old and wrinkly," she said, scrunching up her nose as if she had tasted something bad. "But I wanna eat first! I'll get something yummy for Danny, promise!"

With that, the energetic little girl hopped up and darted to the line. On her way through, she bounced up and down where she stood, and several of the nurses laughed at her endless energy. One of them sneaked her two cookies that were supposed to be served during lunch, and she skipped off with a cheerful 'Thank you!' to the woman. By the time she reached Alistair's table, she was more than excited to play with her best friend.

"Say, are you Danny yet?" she asked, leaning in close to see if he was. "'Cause if not, I have a cookie, but it's only for Danny!" she insisted.

Ali shook his head as Annette, well Sarah came over and tried to convince Ali to let Daniel out with the promise of a cookie if he did. Shaking his head he sighed softly " not today Sarah. I had enough trouble calming him down last night, he doesn't feel up to coming out anyway. Go get some breakfast" Ali explained giving a soft smile as he finished his toast and started on his eggs.

His attention was drawn to a new person who walked in and looked around before going straight to the food line. Then he walked towards Ali and spoke "Hey man, please tell me you're not all 'One who Flew over the cuckoo's nest' that you are totally aware that I'm here right now"

Ali chuckled softly at the comment and spoke " don't worry I'm not that far along yet...ask me again in about half an hour when the meds kick in then the pink elephants start dancing around." He paused slightly and gave a smile " don't worry it's a joke, I'm Alistair call me Ali everyone else does. I don't like sounding like a 16th century English aristocrat" he placed his fork on his empty plate and stretched his arms out cracking his knuckles.

His habit of waking before the birds to come pray and then eat was certainly the reason Nathaniel usually spent his mornings alone until an orderly came to talk to him or a stack of bills were tossed on to his desk. The bills...dear God, the bills! How exactly was he expected to pay them when the state usually sent nothing more than what was needed for supplies and food for the patients? Did they just conveniently ignore the fact that you needed electricity and running water to run a successful institution? He pressed the edge of his fork against the eggs on his plate, cutting through them as he continued to think.

"There is not point worrying about it...nor is there any point in complaining," he thought aloud. "'The tendency to whining and complaining may be taken as the surest sign symptom of little souls and inferior intellects...'" He muttered the quote to himself under his breath before he chewed slowly and thoughtfully on a bite of food. He sighed and placed his napkin to his lips as his light hazel eyes scanned the room slowly. Jasper, Audrey, and Annette sat at one table with the last of the three, Annette, pressed against Jasper as she spoke. Nathan's gaze hardened slightly. He knew the poor girl couldn't help it, of course, but he still couldn't help but anger at the licentious ways of these patients. He shook his head slowly. If one of his superiors showed up, they might think he was running a whore-house!

By the time he'd looked up, Annette had moved away from the two figures and taken to Alistair, the other patient with more than one self. He watched the interaction closely. Sure, he wasn't a psychologist-- that was Thredson's job-- but he still was intrigued by the interactions of the patients. This time, as she spoke to the man, her actions were light and cheerful, like a child might be in a school yard. "Fascinating..." he remarked. "So very fascinating..." Someone coughed to one side of him and he looked up quickly to see Frances walking by, winking at him.

Jaw clenching instinctively, Nate gripped his fork tighter. Not only was this woman just as licentious as one of Annette's personalities, she was interested in woman. It disgusted him. Such things weren't natural. They were illusions of the mind, the spawn of the Devil. They must be, of course, for the Bible had said so. "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them." Leviticus 20:13. Of course, given the standards of today, the law prohibited a homosexual being put to death. So, instead, she would be locked up here for God knew how long.

By then, he'd finished his breakfast and stood with his plate and utensils in hand. The Monsignor flattened his pressed trousers with one hand and, clutching the plate, started toward the window that led to the kitchen. As he walked, he noticed Abigail to one side and stopped, smiling quickly at her.

"Breakfast was quite wonderful," he said, setting the plate down for a staff member to come and take it back for cleaning. "How are you this morning, Sister Abigail?" He watched closely as she continued serving food. "Have you eaten yet?" His voice seemed ever so slightly concerned, worried for her welfare. Of course, the patients needed to eat but, with her as his colleague and his locum tenens, he certainly wanted to make sure she had her needs met as well as the needs of those under her care.

“Annette, multiple personalities, unpredictable,” Jasper murmured to himself. His voice was middle pitched and lightly touched with a southern Irish accent that managed to sneak into his speech, even after two generations of family born in America before him. He examined the thin scrawl that now covered his left palm and fingers, scanning for places that would be hard to read later. On this day his writing wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Satisfied with the result, he put the cylindrical black pen back into his pocket and stood, glancing at his sleeping room-mate before deciding to make his way down to the mess hall for breakfast.

Upon arrival he noticed the amount of people here before him. He sighed, knowing that all of the best eggs would be gone, already scarfed down by some other orderly. Tomorrow he would have to come down sooner. He got into the line for breakfast, inhaling the pleasant odours of the food as he did. A few conversations buzzed quietly in the background, but the distance and acoustics of the room were too terrible for him to make out what anyone was saying. After receiving his meager excuse for a meal of toast and eggs, he scanned the room for an unoccupied seat. Eventually deciding upon the empty table in the south eastern corner of the room, he strode towards it and sat down.

A few minutes later, after he had partially finished his breakfast, a girl with impossibly deep brown eyes approached and sat down beside him. A bit of flowery perfume wafted towards him, caressing his nostrils with the gentle scent. He examined this girl and noted the tired look on her face, the bags beneath her eyes were nearly the size of saucers. Jasper glanced at his hand and matched her physical description with a name, Audrey.

“Morning, Jaspy,” she yawned. Her smile was welcoming and he could not help but admire her perseverance in this padded prison. He placed his fork down.

Almost immediately after doing so, a girl with rich brown hair and an unmistakeable scar entered, it was Annette. Jasper tilted his chin down, focusing his eyes upon his food. Hopefully she wouldn't approach him, it was too early in the morning to deal with someone who took so much energy out of him. He glanced up, recognizing the smirk she held today as one that could only belong to the girl inside her he hated most, the seductive one. Much to his dismay, she advanced towards him. He directed his focus back down and contemplated his next action. Sitting with her in one of her good personalities was awkward enough, when she was in this mood she was almost completely unmanageable. Jasper made eye contact with Audrey and motioned for her to ignore Annette.

“Hello, Jasper,” Annette murmured as she slid in the seat beside him. Jasper kept his eyes glued to his eggs, hoping that ignoring her would be enough to make her leave. Soft skin grazed against him as her arms encircled his, pulling him towards her. New skin graced his arm, surrounding it, glancing up he discovered it was her chest. She’s really determined today, he thought. He could feel the eyes of others around him boring into his skull, waiting for his reaction.

"I was cooped up all day in my room and had absolutely no fun at all, can you make my day better for me?" Her voice was now seductive. If she had been anyone else, he would have given in immediately and talked to her, but this was Annette and he would do no such thing.

"Let me guess ... You want to get a little bit of this hunky specimen, don't you?" Annette teased. "Ah, that's right, you wouldn't have the guts to. Such a shame ... What with that pretty face going to waste and all," she clucked her tongue, shaking her head. With a sly smile, she rose, casting a wink at the two. "Well, I'm going to go ahead and get some food. So ... I'll talk to you both later," and with that she skipped away. Jasper sighed in relief, she was finally gone. He lifted his head back to its normal position and re-examined Audrey. Her eyes seemed distant. He placed his index finger and thumb on her chin and tilted it towards him.

“Hey, don’t let her get to you, alright?” he spoke reassuringly.

"Let me guess ... You want to get a little bit of this hunky specimen, don't you?"

At first Audrey didn’t know that Annette was addressing her. The young insomniac had gotten so good at ignoring the goons in this insane asylum that her mind was almost completely blank. It wasn’t Annette’s fault that she was so deranged, there was just something wrong with her brain. Audrey had to constantly remind herself of that, especially since Annette was one of the few people that she genuinely disliked. The girl herself wasn’t so bad, it was her other personalities, and Audrey just didn’t have the patience or energy to deal with her.

Oh, she tried to hard to ignore everything that Annette’s other self was doing. When the personalities weren’t speaking directly to Audrey she could manage herself well. It was when Annette started attacking her directly that things got bad.

Don’t get me wrong, Audrey would never hurt anyone, not now at least. But there was definitely a spark of hatred in her, pent up and easily ignited. Audrey just knew better. She knew that if she were to get angry or in a fight with the fellow patients, that would just add another flaw to her extended list. Yes, there was physical reactions to her anger, but it was never anything major enough for the nurses to pick up on.

Slowly, her dark eyes looked up from her untouched food and starred, almost apathetically into the careless eyes of Annette. Did she really just say that? Audrey was just about to roll her eyes and return to stomaching the usual breakfast when Annette spoke again. "Ah, that's right, you wouldn't have the guts to. Such a shame ... What with that pretty face going to waste and all,", Audrey’s face crinkled in reaction, annoyed by the childish comment thrust at her. The grip on her fork tightened as a wave of anger flooded over her. Ignore her. Ignoring was the best thing she could do.

She wanted so badly to come back with a snappy jab, or an unexpected action, but she was too caught up. Maybe Annette had been right, she didn’t have the guts. Her anger subsided but her usual hollow place was now filling with anxiety. Her eyes glossed over as her brain worked at incredible speeds; worrying, nitpicking, analyzing, tearing, and destroying. And before she knew it, she was paralyzed by her own thoughts and Annette was gone. Off to disturb another patient’s morning.

It took Jasper physically touching her to snap Audrey out of it. His forefinger and his thumb were gently, and reassuringly tilting her head up toward him. Her eyes blinked furiously for a moment as she refocused herself and rediscovered her surroundings. Her heart was beating so quickly from the adrenaline of anxiety that she was woozy. When he spoke she let out a soft burst of air; she had been holding her breath for most of the conversation with Annette. It was nervous habit, a part of her anxious personality.

“I- “ Audrey wasn’t sure what to say at first. These days it seemed like most anything anyone said got to her. She figured it had to do with the lack of sleep. She blamed everything on that. “I can handle myself. Though I’m sure if I need your help I’ll holler.” She said, though she tried to be smooth with her words they were somewhat piled and uneven. She sounds much less grateful for his presence than she was. Perhaps she would never get her charm back.

“But thank you,” She started, trying to make things right, “really.” She lowed his hand from her chin and patted it a couple of times before glancing down at her food. It was getting cold, but her appetite was far from normal this morning. How was she supposed to eat this? Audrey sighed before looking back up at Jasper. She wasn’t even sure if he really remembered her.