WHY SHE DROWNED GOT FEATURED ON RADISH, THIS IS SO COOL.

CHAPTERS 3-6 ARE POSTED FOR FREE ON THE APP IF YOU WANT TO GO & READ AHEAD!

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SHE WAS STARING MELODRAMATICALLY out the window of the hospital when her first visitor came by her room. She didn't bother to turn around (didn't bother to do anything). She heard the clicking of expensive heels walk up a couple feet from her wheelchair, and noticed when it came to a halt.

Still, she stared out at the evening clouds.

"Clair," said her visitor.

Clair smirked, because her name had been said so peculiar, candid—refreshing after hearing so often it tinged with empathy.

"Clair," said her visitor again, more aggressively.

"Yes?"

The nurse in the room who'd busily been cleaning up the night stand paused, eyes widening when she sees her patient return the greeting. While not a resident, the nurse had been one of the few people who interacted with the charge directly, and not once had she gotten any response. Not one to interfere, she hurriedly made an excuse to the visitor and exited the room.

Clair turned, and came face-to-face with a woman in an opulent suit and pinned greying-black hair. She counted the wrinkles on the woman's face, four at a time. "Clair, my name is Margaret."

Clair blinked at her.

Biting a sigh, Margaret continued. "My husband, Ruji, is your uncle."

Clair blinked again, but slowly this time.

"Please don't sit their like a statue," finally snapped the woman, brushing down her blazer. "I have many things to do and sitting around a child is certainly not to be fit into my schedule. Get a grip. Death happens, however unfortunate. If anything, you need to learn that the world is quite insensitive when it comes down to this sort of thing. Me? I'm worse than the world."

"I—"

"You will be thrown into a new society," Margaret coldly, turning her head to survey the room for any listening ears, "and that means the first thing you'll learn is to not interrupt me. It's rude. Another is I'm your guardian right now and that means obeying me. I don't know what bullshit teenagers pull these days but you can't with me. I won't allow it."

Guardian? Clair thought, her smirk having fallen off her face after Margaret had started speaking. This sharp woman?

Standing up, Margaret stared at Clair with a type of intensity that made Clair's chest burn with anxiety. "I'm not a charity, so don't act like a charity-case. Frankly, if by-law you hadn't been my responsibility I couldn't care less. Just don't cause too much trouble. My tolerance rate for troubled teens, you'll find, is as non-existent as the idea of mental illnesses."

Margaret continued with a snort. "If you can't put yourself back together or breakdown at simple things, clearly you need an asylum. Got that?"

Not waiting for a response, Margaret turned on her heel.

Clair numbly watched the black dressed woman stride out the door. She dug her nails into her palm until she couldn't feel the blood rushing to her fists, holding her breath so it wouldn't come out unevenly, feeling her heart begin to palpitate roughly. She almost stopped breathing when the nurse returned, a timid smile on her face.

"How was it, darling?" A yellow smile alit the other woman's face, staring at the girl until her lips turned downward. "Darling?"

Clair ignored her, instead opening her bloodied palms towards her. She exhaled until her breaths were like the clouds outside her window.

This sharp woman will take me in, Clair thought, and she will cut me until I am nothing but her puppet, dependent on her strings to keep me together.

Clair rubbed her palms against her thighs. Just another bloody puppet; strings so tightly attached, just strained to snap.

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