Atha Jane Nielsen's Story

It was absolutely frightening how quickly one's life could go from blissful to nightmarish in a matter of less than twenty-four hours.

Just two weeks ago, Raymond Smith had been watching the news with his wife on the couch while his only son played with a set of blocks on the carpet. He could still imagine his lips brushing against his wife's cheek before he knelt on the floor beside Parker and built a small tower beside the one already being constructed. Parker had smiled gleefully and grabbed at a diecast Boeing 707 that had been purchased with the money Ray had earned repairing the side of his neighbor's chimney. Parker made a soft humming sound with his lips, mimicking the planes he'd heard flying over head as he flew the airplane above his head.

Raymond watched the boy closely, he smiled in amusement. Just as the child looked over at his father, his hand slipped and the plane came down into the tower of blocks, hitting it at the base. The tower fell, the blocks splaying everywhere, and Parker's brow creased in sadness. Eliza stood up quickly then and scooped up their son in her arms, holding him to her chest as she shushed him softly, cooing words gently in his ear. Raymond himself had begun to stand up by then and Eliza looked over, a smile on her lips. He matched the smile and coupled it with a gentle laugh. It would be the last time he'd see his wife and child. Or, at least, it would be the last time he'd see them alive. The next time he'd see them would be in a pool of their own blood while the authorities fired questions at him. Whatever happened between those two moments was something he couldn't explain. In fact, he had not a clue what had happened. And, as much as he wanted to know, he was terrified of finding out what had happened.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Raymond hadn't been sure of really anything when he'd arrived at St. Dymphna's. He remembered struggling against the staff, fighting to break free from a few orderlies who had his gripped by the arms. Ray had freed himself from their grip and had begun to flee...only to feel a sharp pain in his neck and then feel sleepy. He didn't realize it then, but being alone for so long, he'd realized they'd knocked him out. When he woke, he was in a box-like room with just about nothing except a small cot, a toilet, and a door with a flap. For the past week, his only human contact was the slipping of food under the flap and into the room where he sat alone. Even then, as he screamed out to the person giving him food, he heard no sounds.

For the past week, he'd tried to peace together what had happened in his mind. He was living a nightmare now and he just wanted to wake up. He wanted Eliza and Parker and his mother, but he knew they were all dead. Why? Why him? And now, he was locked up in a box like in the movies where he'd never be let out to see the sunlight. They'd assumed he was a murderer and simply locked him up, that must be it.

He waited for his food that morning, sitting against the wall as he stared up at the light bulb, swinging back and forth on the ceiling and casting ominous shadows. It was later than usual...why was that? Just as he had begun to assume the world had officially forgotten him, the door started to open. Ray staggered to his feet, standing at his full six feet height.

"Who's there?" he asked, Southern drawl quite evident on his voice. His fists balled tightly and he held them up, ready to use them if needed. A figure stepped into the room, a young female nurse who eerily reminded him of his wife. However, when she spoke, he knew it wasn't her. "...well, you certainly aren't breakfast,"

"Mr. Smith? You're allowed to go socialize with the other patients now," she said as softly as possible in a Boston accent. Her voice was too chipper to be Eliza's. Eliza's voice was soft and high-pitched, gentle and kind. It sounded fragile like a piece of china and broke just as easily. Ray slowly nodded, running a hand through his unruly hair quickly. He must have looked horrible at that point, having not shaved or bathed for a week. "You'll be staying in Room 2 for now." Again, Ray nodded and started to the door, walking past the nurse toward the male rooms.

The bathroom caught his eye and he showered quickly, using the scentless soap provided which felt rough against his skin. Piles of clean clothing, all the same, sat in another corner and he pulled out a shirt and pants from this pile, hesitantly pulling them on. It was like a prison...

No razors were present, but he wasn't really surprised. It was an asylum after all, wasn't it? Hands in his pockets, he started toward the scent of food which was obviously down the set of stairs near the rooms. As he opened the door, the mess hall grew temporarily quiet. He must have stood out in the room, since he was a brand new face. Ray continued in, despite the silence, and ducked his head to try and avoid attention. He never liked attention anyway. It had always made him uncomfortable, even as a boy. By the time conversation had struck up again, he was looking for a friendly face to talk to. There were quite a few patients that sat alone, but he still felt apprehensive. Finally, his gaze settled on a young girl who couldn't have been far older than a teenager, if anything. He'd probably intimidate her...but, he hoped he wouldn't.

Slowly, Ray wandered over to the girl and cleared his throat lightly. "Er...hi," he said, forcing a smile. "I'm...new here. Well, 'new' being a week or so, I think." He stumbled over his words like a child and that brought a slight blush to his cheeks. "I was hoping you knew how things worked 'round here?" Suddenly, he held out his right hand. "My name's Ray, by the way. Ray Smith."

Atha sat in the corner of one of the tables, not paying attention to the things around her, only really etching little sketches into the wood of the table. The entire table she sat at was littered with carvings, things ranging from ponies to girls cut up and missing eyes or limbs. They were all done by her, and either nobody noticed or nobody cared enough to mention it, but she had a feeling one day she'd get in trouble for it. The girl sighed softly, she was only out here to avoid going back to her room and being all alone. Although, her room wasn't any better when Drusilla was around either, she was like her a lot. Both girls acted like children constantly, it was good sometimes. But then she talked about hurting people so much, and she was so cryptic.. Sometimes Drusilla acted just like.. Her. Atha couldn't bear to think the girls name. She hadn't even realized until she thought about Her that she had been digging further and further into the wood of the table, a gash about an inch long and half an inch deep sitting in front of her hands.

Atha bit her lip in shame, looking down nervously. She just had a few little things to get straight, then she would be back home with her mother. She had gotten used to being away by now, but her first few months were terrible. Every day consisted of sobbing uncontrollably without end, and frequent panic attacks whenever she was touched. Now she was only afraid of a few things, like the women.. She was scared to be around them, even if they were nice and acted nothing like Her.

When the room went silent was the only time Atha bothered looked up, glancing around and not even noticing the newcomer that had entered, her mind too busy bouncing all over the place. A sigh escaped her lips, taking the time to crack her neck even though she was constantly told not to. It felt good, how could it be bad if it caused pain only when she didn't do it? When the voice behind her spoke she gasped, her body jolting upright as she turned around, relaxing the second she saw it was a man. An unfamiliar one. Obviously, she wasn't ignorant enough to assume that men couldn't hurt her either, but she had no experience with it so she was immediately more trusting of them.

She looked him up and down, examining him and listening as he spoke, rambling about how he was new. It was cute and entertaining how flustered he seemed, but it wasn't hard to blame him. You never know who you could talk to safely in place like this, where one word could send someone over the edge. "I was hoping you knew how things worked 'round here?" He murmured, his voice nervous and doused in a Southern accent. Atha was still busy admiring him as she formulated an answer in her head. He was so tall, and his skin was such a pretty, perfect bronze color. She finally turned her eyes up, to look into his, her eyes wide with the remaining innocence she desperately clung to. "Do.. You mean in this room.. Or everywhere?" Atha croaked, not having used her voice all morning her throat was completely dry and made her sound diseased. She cleared her throat and nodded as he announced himself as Ray Smith, shaking his hand and blushing at the gentle contact, that was something she never received anymore. "I'm Atha Nielsen." She replied, her voice back to it's normal pitch, although she was still shaky from the idea of anyone even approaching her. "And before you ask. No.. It's not short for anything.."

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.

Ray let his eyes wander to the tabletop, studying what appeared to be random lines and shapes and intents all piled together. Only after a few moments of studying it did he come to realize that they were all illustrations and, of course, not just ay illustrations. Girls with limbs missing, pones with eyes gouged out, and countless other images. He looked back quickly at the girl who looked far too sweet and friendly to have drawn such things.

"Are they...are those yours?" he asked carefully, his brow furrowing slightly. "They're...they're nice. My wife used to draw a bit." He laughed softly. "She was never really any good at it, though..." The girl had looked away though, by then, her eyes slowly moving up and down him. For a moment, he felt a bit violated but realized that most of the others in the room were doing the same thing. Some seemed to be admiring him, creating dirty images in their minds, while some of the men and even a woman or two seemed to be sizing him up. Ray hurriedly looked back at the girl to see she was looking back up at him now, meeting his stormy green eyes with bright, innocent eyes.

"Do...you mean in this room...or everywhere?" she asked. Her voice was soft and sweet, very much so like Eliza's had been. At the same time, though, it was groggy and obviously hadn't been used much. He wondered why...but, then, glancing back at the illustrations he was assuming she'd had a part in, he realized that must have been...intimidating to some. Raymond rubbed the back of his neck slowly with the hand he wasn't holding out for the girl to shake.

"Uh...well...gee, I guess everywhere really," he said. "They put me up in some sort of cell by myself for a while and they just sort of let me out." Ray sighed. The girl lightly took his hand, shaking it slowly as a blush crossed her cheeks. God, he thought. If she's blushing lightly, I must look like a God damned tomato. "I'm Atha Nielsen. And before you ask, no, it's not short for anything." Rayond nodded in response, smiling subtly at Atha.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you," he said. "Atha, hm? Haven't heard that name before...then again, everyone where I lived had some sort of Biblical name...except for me, I guess." He laughed weakly at his comment. Slowly, the man let go of Atha's hand and looked over toward the food. God...he was starving. "...I'll be back," he murmured, walking toward the eggs and toast. Some plates with food already on them sat on the counter. As he looked down at the amount of food on the plate, he frowned. Only that much? It wasn't really anything compared to what he usually ate. He wanted to speak up and ask for more, but none of the nuns or cooks seemed at all interested in the going-ons of the mess-hall. Sighing, Ray picked up a plate and walked back to Atha's table, sitting down at it.

"So, um, what can you tell me about this place...?" he asked curiously, eating the food on his plate quickly due to his hunger. "Anything I should know about?"

oops

-

Atha smiled slightly at how embarrassed he was, giggling as he stared at her illustrations in awe and shock. "Yeah.. Those are all mine." She explained, nodding politely as he excused himself to get food. She turned back to her drawing, her largest one so far about as large as her forearm. This one was a dragon, its mouth full of the flesh of another animal. She hissed in pain, her nail tearing from the friction of constantly digging into the wood. It always happened but she still never stopped. Besides, it was her only real way of getting her feelings out when she wasn't talking to Dr. Thredson. She whimpered as the skin under the nail began to bleed. Atha sucked on her finger, biting the nails off tediously, ignoring the pain it caused her teeth once she got to the thumb on her first hand. She sighed, examining her fresh cut nails as she finished. "Guess I'll have to finish later.." She whispered sadly.

When Ray walked back over Atha smiled up at him. "So, um, what can you tell me about this place...? Anything I should know about?" He murmured nervously, his voice muffled by the food he scarfed down greedily. Atha thought for while, what could she say that applied generally without her being biased? "It's.. Terrible here." She began. Wow good job, what a step outside of the box. She snarled internally. "Um.. Well, I can tell you about certain patients." She said, starting to think fluently. "My roommate is Drusilla. She's.. Scary, to put it simply." Atha whispered nervously, making sure she wasn't around. "She talks in a really confusing way.. And she likes to tie up these dolls she has and act like she's hurting them.. But when she's not doing that she's ok, I guess." She mumbled uneasily. "There's also Annete, she's the only one around here that's close to a friend, but she has other people inside her, and I can't really tell how many there are or who they are.. She's nice when she's herself."

Atha fidgeted, adjusting her position so she was sitting up straight. "More people.." She whispered to herself, trying to think. "Uh.. There's one girl Frances, she only likes girls and she likes to flirt with all of them. She's scary.. I don't really know her that well, I try and stay away as much as possible.. Another girl is Audrey, she likes drawing and painting like me, she's sad a lot and doesn't eat much." By now the young blonde had started to calm down from talking about Drusilla. "Oh! Alistair has other people in him too, and he draws." She chirped suddenly, just now remembering. "There's also Claudia, she can be happy or sad in a matter of seconds, then there's Jasper, he's been here as long at her and they're both 25." She explained smoothly, feeling the need to throw out the unnecessary fact. "Jasper forgets things because he got beat up. Ummm..." Atha hummed aimlessly, "Sebastian thinks he's somewhere else sometimes, he talks to people that aren't there even though he thinks nobody can hear him."

Suddenly Atha became extremely nervous, glancing around as she tapped her foot anxiously. "There's uh.. One other.." She whispered, "H-His name's Graham." Atha stammered fearfully, memories of Her flooding back to the girl's mind. He acted exactly like her, and looked like her too. It was like they were siblings or even a male counterpart. "He's mean and scary, he lies a lot.." Tears now started to well up in her wide, bright, blue eyes as she shook with fear. "He acts sweet and cute if someone on staff is around, but then he gets mean again.." She squeaked, tears overflowing as she hung her head.

Her mind snapped Atha back to where she was. Frantically wiping her eyes, she looked up again. "And.. There's me." She murmured. "I have uh.. P-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." She whispered shamefully, looking away. "Because a girl treated me bad... And Graham is almost an exact copy of her.."

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.

[font=tahoma][size=100]Raymond ate his food hurriedly, seeing as how the food he had always gotten in solitary was always either cold or stale from sitting around until the nurses could bring it up to him. Sure, it wasn't the best food he'd had but it certainly tasted edible. And, at this point, that's all he cared for. Besides, Eliza was never the best cook when she was still alive. He could certainly live with this cooking for now. In the mean time, Atha had begun to speak and he began to regret asking her.

"It's...terrible here," was her first sentence Oh, great, he thought, his brow furrowed slightly as he listened to her go on and on, describing the patients. The Drusilla one sounded absolutely bonkers which frightened him. And, then, there was Annette who had "people inside of her"? At first, he started to think of cannibalism but he realized the girl meant personalities. She continued on the list: a homosexual, a depressed painter, and another one with multiple personalities who liked to draw. Damn it, did everyone here express themselves through art? He'd never really had time for hobbies like that as a boy. The closest thing he had was tinkering, but that wasn't really that artistic in his mind.

By the time she'd reached Graham, he'd finished his breakfast and pushed the plate away while he wiped the corners of his mouth with his fingers. Graham- whoever he was- seemed horrible. He sure hoped he wouldn't be anywhere near him any time soon. She finished with herself and Ray nodded again. "I'm...sorry to hear that," he said softly. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck slowly with his hand.

"I'm...not exactly sure why or if I should be in here," he said, deciding he might as well tell her about himself after she'd told him about herself. His fingers tapped lightly against the table, his nerves beginning to get the best of him. Damn, he needed a cigarette...

"They...they say I killed my wife and my boy," he murmured. "I know I didn't though. I swear I didn't...I saw them one minute and then, the next, the cops were in my house and Eliza and Parker were on the floor dead and..." He trailed off as another figure began to approach them. Ray watched him closely, following him as he set down his tray and looked to Atha.

"Atha's crying again, it must be a day that ends in -y." Ray's brow furrowed lightly. Who was this? He tried to run through the names Atha had given him and ended up, through elimination, with Graham. He narrowed his eyes slightly at the man, taking what Atha had said as the Gospel truth-- he was obviously not to be trusted. Graham shot him a smile that could rival the Cheshire Cat's grin and Ray swallowed quickly. God damn it, even the way this man was looking at him made him uncomfortable. The dark haired male held out a hand to Raymond for him to shake. Even though he didn't really want to, Ray reluctantly took the man's hand and shook it slowly.

"Gray..." he repeated, as if testing the name on his tongue. "Uh...no, I'm not suicidal. Never have been." Roommate? he thought, his eyes widening slightly in disbelief. He laughed lightly, looking aside. "Heh...yeah, it must be a little...surprising ton wake up to a dead person. He tapped his foot lightly on the ground. "Well, I'm Raymond. I prefer Ray." He retracted his hand quickly from Gray and held it at his side. "So...you and Atha...know each other?" He noticed then that Atha was still crying. Ray looked worriedly at her. "You alright...?" he asked.

Atha froze as she heard Graham's sickly sweet voice call out beside her. She didn't look up, only ignoring his remark as she attempted to stop her horrified shaking. Tears ran down her cheek uncontrollably, her eyes bloodshot as she tried to be subtle and unnoticed as she shuffled over, away from Graham. She tried her best to ignore the two, looking around the cafeteria for some distraction. She saw Annette, but it was easy to tell she wasn't herself right now, and she didn't want to get involved with whoever she was right now. He eyes continued to wander, seeing nobody that caught her eye until she saw Kal. She begged and pleaded mentally that he would come over and get Graham away from her, he was the only one who treated the patients like humans, and he could tell that Atha only got worse with this monster around her.

Atha's attention was reluctantly brought back to the two around her as Ray asked the dumbest question possible. "You alright...?" He asked. She could tell by his furrowed brow and his frown that he was genuine, but the question still bothered her. What an idiotic thing to ask. Did she look alright? Would she be alright if she was sobbing helplessly? She ignored the things she wanted to say though, and went submissive with Graham around. "Fine.." She murmured weakly.

His whistling tapered off as he casually glanced up to spot a table of patients, one of which was new and unknown by Kal, and another that was unmistakably crying out for help....On that face, luridly illuminated by the ever flickering and dull cafeteria lights, only the expression of painful sorrow was stamped. Atha was hurting...again.

The newer patient verbalized something Kal couldn't hear, and Atha's lips parted to form a response but her true voice must have died in her throat because there was no way that monosyllabic reply was telling them what they couldn't see. That she was in need of some major rescuing, to be whisked away from her problems.

Kal, being the megalith of righteous candor, the very portmanteau of Superman that he was, rested his mop against the wall, strolled over to the group, and interjected himself in the table's conversation. "Excuse me...Hey! How are we all doing today?" He asked in his usual cheerful voice, knowing the question, redundant as it was, would break the ice.

Graham kept up the smiling facade as he retracted his hand from Raymond, who preferred Ray and turned his attention back to his breakfast. It wasn’t an appetizing prospect but he knew that if he refused food he’d only get into trouble and have his privileges restricted. While Gray might be a psychopath he wasn’t stupid, he’d rather be able to smoke a cigarette and take a walk on the grounds than to be stuck inside, too weak to protest when they stuck him in an ice bath. So with that thought he mustered his way through at least half of his breakfast before noticing the arrival of the orderly he knew as Kal.

“You can’t imagine, mate. All blue and stiff, eyes rolled back in their head.” Gray cheerfully described as he pretended to hang himself, his tongue bulging from his mouth. Straightening himself back up he finally glanced up at the orderly and tilted his head curiously at the towering man. Gray figured that the sight of Atha crying was the reason they were afforded such a visit and he absently sent her a poisonous gaze. She acted as if they were in elementary school and he’d stolen her lunch money, well he had news for her. This was an asylum where everyone was as mad as hatters, Atha being no exception. He supposed he’d have to remind her of it sometime soon.

“We’re splendid aren't we? Breakfast…delicious. Sun is shining, what more could a person want?”Graham replied insincerely as he poked at the remains of his runny eggs and rolled his dark eyes at the man intruding upon his breakfast. “Besides a square, got one, friend?” He asked, his preternaturally creepy grin returning though he was genuinely excited about the prospect of having a cigarette.

Kal frowned, worry marring his usually comely features, a pure fraternal concern rising up in his chest. His prescence hadn't brought Atha's anxious glances to a jarring halt liked he'd hoped it would, if anything, her nervousness only seemed to continue to build, even though the situtation seemed somewhat normal. Everything about her appearance screamed for help. She had a defeated look of absolute exhaustion, teeth tearing at the raw chapped skin on her lip until it bled, shoulders rounded. Her very face cracked, lines of deep melancholy and fear showing through the splintered fissures as she mouthed one word. Please.

Graham Klein was another story entirely. His demeanor seemed cheery enough, almost coaxing Kal into a false sense of comfort, but there was something metallic behind his smile, something sharp in his brown eyes, something...predatory. But when he rolled those eyes dramatically, Kal could see the remains of someone in there, like a jagged reflection in the shards of a cracked mirror. That illusion was quickly dispelled, however, when this warped version of Graham opened his mouth. “Besides a square, got one, friend?”

Kalvin walked over nonchalantly to Atha's side, alighting a firm large hand onto her frail shoulder, bleeding warmth into the thin cotton that she was sporting. "Sorry man, I don't smoke. I just came here to retrieve Atha. One of the doctors needs her. I'll be sure to ask around for some though, if I get a hold of any, I'll be sure to bring them to you directly." He replied with sincerity. He didn't know the situtaion in it's entirety, his intuitions could have been completely misplaced....So for now, he'd treat Graham with all the kindness he always gave anyone he'd only just met, and do his very best to help out someone who was in need, even if it was only a need for smoke.

"I am afraid I haven't been fortunate enough to meet you all yet, I'm Kal. I'm an orderly here, obviously." He chuckled as he used his free hand to gesture to his attire. "You must be...Graham and...uh Raymond? Am I right?" He asked, pausing for a reply. Kal was the sort to make sure to find out everyone's name, make them feel welcomed, to remember that your cousin's grandmother's birthday was next weekend...it was just his nature to be a people person. He genuinely cared about those sorts of things. "Come on Atha, Doctor's waiting. It was a pleasure to meet you all." He smiled warmly, the voltage in his usual grin bringing light into the dreary room. He hoped he was doing what was best for Atha by removing her from the situtaion, distracting her from the crumbling wall of confidence that was being sucked into the black hole in her gut.