The alarm stopped. Thank god the alarm stopped. She felt as if the damned thing was reaching down inside her throat and pushing against her lungs. It quickly receded its pressure inside her, but she now was quivering like a leaf in a storm from how deafening the siren in her holding cell had been. Palms remained clamped over her head, waves of dizziness crashing and rolling over her as if she had been tossed into the sea. Cold. It was a feverish sensation, burning frost that crept over her skin, bled into her pores, wanted to tear her apart by vein and muscle and sinew. Near hyperventilation. On the brink of fainting, she weakly drifted to the edge of her cot again and fell into it, tears new and hot rushing down her cheeks and into the bare mattress and disappearing into darkening spots below her face. Swallowing dry air. She needed to collect herself again before the doctors or orderlies saw her like this. She needed to appear mentally better than she was, or at least what they expected her to be. But how she shook and cried and felt like bones barely held together by pallid skin. Breathe, remember that. Just breathe ------
“You’re going to be alright, Snow White!” A chorus of voices began its chanting, the rounds of cheers in their loving way, the little men she could envision in her mind’s eye were encouraging her to stability again. They all had different voices, ones she could tell apart by sound alone, and it was all of them coaxing her, wanting her to come back around. Shaking, shaking, she stilled slightly as they continued to speak to her. As her breathing eased, slowed, she hummed a soft tune and the dwarfs sang along with her, joining her fragile, quiet melody and furthered her into a sense of calm. She was still cold, but that didn’t have much to do with the alarm. Arms wrapped around her body, legs drew up to her chest in a slow motion. Still. Heart calm. She felt better, as well as she could right now. A little shivers. But better.
When she finally could, she pulled herself back up into a sitting position, legs out against the plastic-like bed, narrow and white as undisturbed snow. The hem of her gown, a basic outfit given by the Institute, was not even as white as her own skin, lying against her bone-thin thighs. Her hands traveled from the fabric of her clothing to the tops of her legs, hands just as thin, skeletal almost if not for the food they at the hospital had been able to get her to eat. She was so.. Weak. She knew these about herself, and she hated it. Nothing she could do. A thing of light, nearly nonexistent, a shaft of moonshine in the vast night. Either this, or painful, slow death. Who knew when it might come, that fatal last bite? Her stomach grumbled, her heart was tight.
“Check the halls again, princess.” Edgar again. It was as if he were just at her ear, a tone hushed and insistent yet gentle. Another voice. “Make sure it’s safe. There’s crazy people all around!” Martin, the man with the growly words. He was defensive but it was of her that he was, quick to be protective. “There goes one now!” She didn’t understand. Confusion taut to porcelain features. Standing slowly, making sure she could do so without crumpling to her knees, she moved cautiously to the door again. She hadn’t even made it to the little window before a gold and tan blur dashed by her cell, disappearing from view. Blinks in surprise. Who could that have been? Was that what the alarm had been about? Faster she walked, peeked through the barred slot, and saw Peter Banning running in gleeful abandon down the corridors. A gasp, the delicate hand flew over her open mouth. He had gotten out. Was he.. Escaping? Was it happening? Could… she too escape?
There was really no moment of actual calm for Diana here in this place. She hadn’t known true calm since she was a very young child. It seemed every instant there was something else going on. Peter Banning had escaped and she was now afraid of what reprimands she and the other patients would face because of his erratic behavior. That hope faded immediately to fear. Why did this have to be her life?