Chapter 11

“Nadia?”

She was turned towards me, but her eyes were unfocussed. It was more that she was staring into me, rather than at my face. Often, when pausing at the occasional reflections you found in a place where mirrors were absent, I could sympathise with her. I didn’t particularly like looking at me either. I mentally punched myself. Such frivolity, even only in my mind, was wrong when someone was… doing whatever she was doing.

“Nadia, are you OK?”

She nodded, but her head moved slowly, the up and down movement taking three times as long as it should. I moved closer to peer into her eyes. She seemed… absent.

“Nadia, what’s wrong?”

“N o t h I n g. W h yyyy?”

“You’re acting strange. Like going slower.”

“I’ m n o t. D o n’t be silly. Are you making fun of me?”

I moved away and frowned.

“What just happened?”

“I don’t get you. Nothing happened. We’re just here talking.”

“Yes, but you started talking really slowly. Moving too.”

“Are you taking the piss? I did no such thing.”

She crossed her arms and I could tell she was angry, but I pushed the matter.

“I’m telling you, Nadia, you were speaking in slow motion.”

“I wasn’t,” she insisted. “I was talking just like I am now. If you’re just going to make fun of everything I’ve told you, we’ll end this here. I won’t bother you again.”

“Nadia, I wouldn’t do that. You know me better than that.”

“You don’t think…”

Her hand went to her mouth as shocked recognition, of what I didn’t know, widened her eyes.

“Nadia?”

She put her hand on my arm and then stood.

“I have to go,” she said.

“What? What’s wrong?”

But she was gone. There were few places one could go in the asylum, and none meant you were alone, unless it was either in your cell at night or in Room 101.

Nadia chose the latter. I saw her walk up to Jason, one of the orderlies, and say something. He shook his head and she slapped him. I started to rise from my seat, but it was too late. Jason had her in an arm lock and was marching her away.

I swore under my breath, but there was nothing I could do except wait.

What had just happened? She’d accused me of making fun, but was she doing it instead? Though I doubted her story of a mischievous Time playing with our lives, she’d been so convincing. She had no such reservations, that was clear.

Perhaps she’d had what Jeremy liked to call a ‘brain fart‘. A blip in her mind that made her stutter. Except it wasn’t a stutter. She’d decelerated. The brakes had been put on and her words and movements had slowed as a result. Whatever it was, she’d realised something. I wouldn’t be able to find out what that was for a day or two, until she was released back into the general population.

Three days, it seemed, was the sentence for striking an orderly. Three worrying days during which I revisited both her story and our chat. Time as a being was absurd. Time was something we’d made up to be able to divide the day so events could be placed in it in a meaningful way. It was a line we’d divvied up into bite sized segments and one we all travelled at the same speed. The sense of days dragging or speeding by was purely a mental illusion based on what we were doing at that moment. Waiting for someone. Enjoying something.

Time flies when you’re having fun. It was the reason most days felt about three weeks long in the asylum. It had nothing to do with a roguish entity messing up our days. It was because it could be so boring!

When Nadia returned to the fold, she looked anxious. Her eyes darting around the room, not settling anywhere. One hand was shaking and the other was clenching and unclenching repeatedly. Kay, another orderly and one who wasn’t close to being as bad as many of the others, which didn’t necessarily mean she was good, led her in. I saw her mouth moving quickly, so assumed she was talking, but Kay wasn’t responding. Perhaps she was talking to herself, under her breath.

I waited to see if she would come over to me rather than approaching her directly. Give her the chance to acclimatise to being back with us. Room 101 had the effect of separating you from yourself. The drugs they gave made you feel disjointed and it could take a little time – the normal sort – to feel your usual self. She didn’t come to speak to me immediately, though she did glance in my direction many times. Instead, she flitted about the room, saying a few words here and there to the other residents. They all seemed confused, shaking their heads as she left them to move to the next person.

Finally, she came to me and I saw the reason for the confusion.

“HeySin.Sorryfortheotherday.Ididn’tmeantorunoutonyou.AfterwhathappenedIrealisedwhatwashappeninganddidn’twantittohappenagain.”

It took a moment for her stream of words, spoken without spaces or breaths, to register. Nadia was twitching, as if little electrical shocks were being administered to her by an unseen hand. Her head was moving in tiny jerks and her eyes were unable to stay on mine. I reached out and took her hand. She let me, but I found it difficult to keep hold. The invisible shocks were jolting her hand in mine.

“Slow down, Nadia. Easy does it.”

“Ican’tSin.Itwon’tletme.I’mtryingbutit’snotworking.”

“What won’t let you? What did they give you in there?”

“Nothing.Theygavemenothing.Nothingtheyhaven’tbeforeanyway.”

Take a second. Figure it out. Got it.

“What’s wrong then? Let me help you.”

“Time,” she said. It was one word and sounded as if it had been launched from her mouth in its urgency to be freed.

“Time?”

She was still talking about that. Time and its machinations.

“Time,” she repeated. “TImehasnoticed.”

“Noticed what? Time doesn’t work like that. It can’t affect us.”

She smiled, a fleeting stretch of her mouth that was gone as quickly as it appeared.

“OhSin.Ifonlythatweretrue.”

I sighed and smiled back. Something was obviously affecting her and if she thought it was her nemesis, I wasn’t going to argue. I’d let her work through her problem however I could. However she needed me to.

“Ignore me. I don’t know what I’m talking about. Tell me how I can help.”

“Youcan’t.Notreally.TimeknowsItoldyou.ItknowsIcansee.”

“You can see? In the bag?”

She jerked her head in a nod.

“Yes.Itsstealingmywhispers.”

Stealing her whispers. A crazy thought made me wonder. What if she was right? What if Time really was…

No! Nadia was dragging me into her fantasy. It was one thing to allow her her beliefs, but another to fall for them myself. I needed to take a step back or I wouldn’t be able to aid her.

The other day, she’d slowed and now she had flipped the opposite way. I noticed something else about her. Had she not slept in the past three days? Had they deprived her of rest and water? She looked tired. No, more than that. Haggard. Her eyes were red rimmed. Her skin had lost much of its glow. Her lips had thinned.

Why hadn’t I noticed when she sat down? I was a fairly observant person, so should have seen the difference in her. Perhaps it was because I knew what Room 101 could do to a person. I’d suffered its effects personally on multiple occasions. Perhaps it was because she was so agitated and that took my attention.

But then I saw it. A single strand of her thick dark brown hair. As I watched, it paled. Its colour seemed to leech back up into her scalp. Within a few seconds, it was grey.

“What’swrong?”

I shook my head.

“Nothing. I’m just concerned about you. There must be something I can do to help.”

“No.Youcan’tfightTIme.”

I wanted to tell her Time had nothing to do with this, but held back. Why did I hesitate? To spare her feelings? To give me time to think? Because another hair’s colour was changing? No, not one. Four? Six? A dozen?

What the hell?

“Nadia?”

Her distress amplified from a tremor to a shudder to her whole body shaking violently. I looked down from her hair to her face and gasped. Her eyes, a bright green only moments before, were now a milky white. Lines drew themselves across her face. Her lips were almost completely absent, thinning to slivers lining her mouth. Glancing back up, I was shocked to see her hair was completely grey and even that was fading. I reached up to stroke her hair and a section came away as I touched it.

Someone screamed. Someone else followed suit. I saw, to the side of me, a figure dropped to the floor in a faint. I looked over. Genevieve had Wey bending down to help her.

Back to Nadia.

Oh Nadia!

“Nadia!”

Hands grabbed me and pulled me away. I couldn’t resist them. I released Nadia’s hand.

It fell to her lap, landing in the bed of hair that had been on her head. The skin on its back was covered in dark brown spots and tightened to cling to her knuckles. Her cheeks were sunken.

Kay put her arms around Nadia gently. I could see tears appearing in the orderly’s eyes and felt my own pricking to come out.

Nadia’s mouth opened.

“S i n.”

“Nadia.”

My voice choked as I said her name. As I saw the last remnant of colour drain from her face. As I saw her last, weak breath drift from her mouth.

Her body slumped in Kay’s arms and she only just stopped her from falling. No one was holding me and I dropped to my knees. I could still feel her hand in mine.

And still can.

It’s been a month since her death. A month of both short and long days, with more of the latter. A month since something impossible happened. Since Nadia Episilion lost all the years she had left in moments. In seconds.

In whispers.

Her passing was officially attributed to a rare genetic disorder I’m sure she wasn’t suffering from. What disease can make you age so swiftly? What can suddenly grey your hair? Leach the colour from every part of you?

None.

There’s only one thing that affects a person so, though never in such an instant. Never until now.

Time.

When your day is lasting much longer than you’d wish or feels like it’s been snatched away in a heartbeat, think of Nadia. Think of Time.

Think of the whispers.

This is the second part of the chapter inspired by AnimalSaga394 and her brilliant starter. I enjoy thinking about the nature of the universe (hence Sin/Singularity) so this story was really cool for me to work on.

If you’d like to send me a starter sentence, as random as you like, throw me a DM and Sin and I will get our heads together!