Connie wiped the remaining tears slowly sliding down her cheek with the back of her hand.
"You OK?" Amethyst asked. The two sat in the middle of the hallway, around them people passed by without a second glance, nothing out of place in Cold River.
"Yeah, just everything that's happened catching up," she said.
Amethyst stood up and stretched. "Come on, its almost time for lunch!"
Connie stood up and trailed after the shorter girl. She couldn't place the feeling, but it was telling her that Amethyst seemed like she was hiding something behind her smile and cheery attitude.
They passed by a room filled with sobbing. Stopping, Connie looked in to see the woman from earlier, Pearl was struggling against the straps holding her down. Going in, Connie saw that her wrists and feet were bleeding from the severe chafing and her struggles.
"Let me out!" she wailed. The side of her face was black and purple, from her left cheek up to her eye was swollen. "I want Rose! Bring her to meeeee!"
"Are you OK? Connie asked. Pearl froze, she stared at Connie with her good eye bulging out of her head. "Do you need a nurse?"
Pearl smiled, but; it wasn't in happiness. It was a detached, almost maniacal.
"Pretty girl, nice girl can you remove these straps?" she asked. Pearl began nodding her head. "Of course you will, you're a nice girl. Nice girls help people!"
A hand snapping onto Connie's wrist caused her to jump. She pulled away and turned to see Amethyst.
"Trust me, you don't wanna do that," she said. "She's almost as bad as Garnet. Come on."
As Connie was being led away, Pearl began to shriek.
"Who's Rose?" Connie asked.
Amethyst didn't break stride or look back. "She's dead," she said.
"What happened?" Amethyst rubbed the back of her head.
"Its… complicated. Hold on, I gotta use the bathroom," she said, quickly ducking into a restroom they passed.
Connie leaned against the wall and began to count the floor tiles. After several minutes she began to feel uneasy, like someone was watching her. Looking down the hall, something quickly ducked out of sight. Stepping out further into the middle of the hall, Connie tried to see who or what it was to no effect.
Turning around she jumped back at the closeness of the little blonde boy from earlier. He had standing almost close enough for her to feel his breath on the back of her neck.
She took a deep breath. "You really scared me there for a second. you're Onion, right?" she remembered the other little boy calling him that. He didn't answer, he only kept staring blankly at her unblinkingly. He held out a hand, she looked down to see it was holding a hot cup of coffee. "For me? Thank you, but I don't-"
He tossed it in her face.
She screamed, she stumbled back and furiously rubbed at her burning face. Her eyes burned, she rubbed them vigorously, trying to get the scalding liquid out. Something slammed into her back, Connie felt her head bounce off the floor from the sudden impact.
A weight in the middle of her back kept her on the floor, when two tiny hands grabbed both sides of her head she realized that it was Onion. Before she could process all that was happening her face was driven into the floor. A dazed feeling came over her as a buzzing filled her ears. She opened her eyes as he lifted her head up and drove it back down.
She felt her face erupt in white hot pain as a loud crack filled her ears. Again and again she found her head slammed repeatedly into the unforgiving floor. Each time she felt more and more disoriented and sick. Darkness began to fill her vision as her eyes slowly began to swell shut. Everything felt far off to her, like she was floating in a dark pool of water and sinking faster and faster with each second.
A distant yell floated to her ears, and the pressure on her head was gone. Weakly, Connie somehow was able to roll herself onto her back. She couldn't feel her nose, and little pieces of something were filling her mouth. Just before her eyes completely shut she could make out the vague form of Amethyst struggling with Onion.
She was trapped in a dream, at least, she thought it was a dream. In one vision Amethyst was holding her and screaming, one of her hands soaked in blood. In another Dr. Trager was yelling something in words she couldn't understand. That one faded and was replaced by her mother furiously shaking nurse Holly Blue.
These and other things went past her as she lay dreaming. One stuck out to her more than the others. She was back in the room she shared with Lapis Lazuli, moonlight was streaming through the window. She laid unable to move, heavy footsteps began to filled the air like sounds of thunder. Jasper's naked form slid out of the shadows, moonlight bathed her muscular body, her massive breasts resembled twin moons, her nipples were long and big.
Connie watched as Jasper moved back into the shadows towards Lapis' bed. In the darkness the squeaking of bed springs sounded loud to her ears.
"Stop it!" a voice whispered, barely heard. The bed springs squeaked again. "No!"
"You like it, you runt!" another, harder voice replied. "Why fight, you always give in."
A wet slapping sound began to softly fill the air. A strange smell followed after it. In the darkness Connie could hear the two voice mix together.
"Please- OH!"
"That's my girl," the voice mumbled. "Come to mama."
Connie felt herself grow lightheaded again.
"Yes- oh yes!" she couldn't tell which voice it was anymore. The two became intertwined together to form something altogether different. "More-More-MORRRRE!"
Connie awoke to find Amethyst sitting beside her bed. The short woman hopped up when she realized Connie was awake.
"Hey! Thank God you're awake," she said, gently pulling Connie into a hug. "I was worried there for a second!"
"What- what happened?" Connie's voice was hoarse and her throat hurt. Her head felt huge, and her face was numb.
Amethyst looked away. "Well… Onion beat your head against the floor," she said. "He broke your nose…. And some of your teeth."
She noticed Amethyst hand was wrapped up in thick layers of gauze.
"What happened to your hand?"
Amethyst looked down at her wrapped hand. "This? Onion bit two of my fingers off," she said. "They sowed them back on really fast, was kinda weird watching them do it without feeling it."
Connie tried to sit up, but a sudden wave of nausea made her fall back on her pillow.
"You should probably not sit up, or move," Amethyst said. "They think you have a concussion."
Without realizing it, Connie drifted back to sleep.
Amethyst smiled sadly, and gently ruffled Connie's hair.
She looked over at Lapis, the blue-haired girl was in the same position she always was. After leaving Connie's room Amethyst walked slowly down the hall. She looked down at the cracked floor outside the bathroom, and balled her good hand into a fist.
Amethyst looked quickly down both sides of the hall and ducked into the room. Onion; was strapped down tight, he couldn't move a muscle. She stood over him, he stared blankly up at the ceiling. She began to grind her teeth.
She spotted a pillow laying discarded on the floor. Looking back at Onion, she saw his head was resting on the mattress. She bent down and picked the pillow up. It felt heavy in her hand. A nauseous feeling began to grow in her stomach as she held the pillow up above Onion's face.
"Go to hell," she whispered.
She pressed the pillow down over his face and leaned over, putting her full weight onto her arm. Onion only clenched his hand open and shut several times. After several minutes Amethyst threw the pillow across the room and took off running.
She entered the bathroom and slammed the door shut. She knelt down and stared at her reflection in the water. Her face looked tired and sick. She clenched her eyes shut before jamming her finger down her throat. She threw up until all that came out was a sick yellow bile.
She fell over onto the floor and began to cry.
Connie felt a weight being placed on her chest, her eyes shot open, expecting to see Onion coming to finish her off. But; it was a stuffed pink lion.
"Lion likes you!" a cheery voice said. She glanced over to see the other boy from hr first day at Cold River. "He's never this affectionate!"
"Who are you?" she asked, trying to stay awake.
"I'm Steven, you're Connie right?" he asked. "Sadie told me you got hurt playing with Onion last Monday."
"He tried to kill me," she said. Whatever medicine they gave her was making it hard to stay focused. She kept almost nodding off, and staying awake made her face feel numb.
Steven laughed. "Onion wouldn't do that," he replied. "He just plays too rough that's all, oh! Let me go get him, I bet he'll want to see you!"
Before the words he said made their way to Connie's sleep deprived brain, Steven grabbed his lion and ran off.
"Good morning!" Connie reluctantly opened her eyes to see Holly Blue carrying a tray holding a pitcher of water and several pill bottle. "Good to see your awake today Connie, you gave us quite a scare."
Holly Blue sat the tray down before pouring a cup of water. Carefully she pulled Connie up to a sitting position.
"You won't have to worry about Onion anymore sweetie," she said, carefully gathering several pills from each bottle. "Dr. Trager ordered a frontal lobotomy."
"Really?" she asked.
Holly Blue nodded. "This wasn't the first time Onion…. Played too rough," she said, trying to find the right words. "Here you go, some painkillers and an anti-inflammatory."
The pills went down easier than Connie expected. She drank a whole cup of water and then another. She hadn't realized how thirsty she was.
"Good, i'll leave the water here in case you feel thirsty," Holly Blue said. "Dr. Trager is bringing in an orthodontist to have a look at your teeth in a few days."
Connie drifted off to sleep.
Her dreams were filled with the dead-eyed Onion chasing her down an endless hallway.
END CHAPTER 2