93 Ant-no-need

The person who replied had an unfamiliar gaze. An unfamiliar smile, voice, build, and demeanor. Maybe because he wasn't Vixen. 

Regan flinched and crawled backward, pushing herself against the couch. Her hand trembled slightly, "who are you?"

"Who am I? A server….?" The man cocked his head and pointed to his name tag, "Names Antonin by the way."

Regan's hand searched under her couch for her second fork. "Why are you here?" she felt a slight wave of relief when she felt the fork and wrapped her hand around it. Her eyes skirted to the clock, 'where's Vixen? It's 8:00 already,' she turned to the man who stood in front of her door patiently, 'he should be here by now. He's never late.'

"Um… to serve you? Haha…?" The man answered hesitantly. He looked down at the name card on his cart and opened it, re-reading the name on it, "maybe I got the wrong person."

He looked up at Regan, eyeing her, "Are you, Regan Duran?"

Regan's hold on her fork tightened, "why would you know that?" 

The man's eyes drifted to Regan's hidden hands and he took a step backward, "oh.. Haha I guess you weren't notified before the change."

"Huh?" Regan eased a bit, considering whether to accept that or not before tensing up again, "change? What change? What happened?"

The man gave a friendly smile and bent down, tossing the card to Regan. "Read this before you decide to kill me, please. I got this from the previous server, Vixen, for some reason he offered to give me a raise in exchange for me taking up you as a patient. That's why I'm here haha… to serve you now."

"What?" Regan muttered, her eyes drifting to the card on the ground. She peered up at the man and growled, "don't move."

"Ah.. ok," The man nodded, folding his hands behind his back. 'What in the world… no wonder Vixen left like that.'

Regan quickly grabbed the notecard from the floor while displaying the fork to make sure he knew his place. She immediately read over the paper, her heart dropping to the ground at the words.

'Hello, Antonin Mart, sorry for intruding but I have a job for you. In room 207 is patient Regan Duran, I request from you that you look over her in my place,' Regan read, blinking furiously from confusion, 'Of course this is more than your normal load so I will be giving you a raise of whatever amount you prefer as long as it is reasonable and your actions prove you deserve it. Excuse her for her nonsense behavior, she's rough around the edges… and inside too. When I will be taking this duty back up is unknown and if she threatens you upon sight, show her this. That's it for now. Goodbye, signed, Vixen Cloud.'

"Anyways, is that enough for you?" Antonin sighed, nodding towards the cart, "I've been standing here for a while now, so can I...like get to my job please?"

Regan glanced at Antonin and then turned back to the card, too shocked to care what he did next.

"I'll take that as a yes," Antonin shrugged. He pulled his cart to the table and started setting it.

Regan flinched when she realized the order was wrong. He placed down her utensils first then her drink and plates following. She looked up at him, pure confusion in her eyes. There was no ruffling of his hair, no cold demeanor when Antonin's eyes met with hers, and his scent...was so off. She inched away from him. There was a disruption in her stream.

"Sorry if my movements are a bit abrupt… since you didn't even know I was coming and all," Antonin apologized with a cheeky smile, "I don't know why Vixen didn't warn you ahead of time, I apologize on his behalf too." 

Antonin stole a glance at Regan when she didn't reply. 'A bit weird…' he thought to himself. He finished setting the table and sat down on the opposite side of the table.

"I know we got off to a rocky start haha… but I hope we can get familiar with each other," Antonin smiled, nervously touching the back of his neck as he stretched out his hand to shake Regan's.

Regan's hand twitched as soon as he reached out for a handshake. She hesitated for a moment before shaking his hand. 

"Hehe, nice to meet you," Antonin grinned, shaking her hand vigorously. 

Regan plainly nodded and turned back to the card, her mind still trying to comprehend what was going on as the differences in her surroundings messed with her mind. 

Antonin observed Regan, her sudden change in behavior a bit amusing to him. "Are you the shy type? I didn't know those existed in this place haha! Last time I saw one of you guys was-"

Antonin's words weren't making it through Regan's head. Like little leaves landing on the surface of her stream, it gave a little ripple before fading away. Her hand trembled. What was she supposed to make of this? What about her plan? Not only had he refused, she hadn't even gotten the chance to act it out. 'Where did he go?' Regan asked herself, her hold on the card tightening, 'did he finally run away? See the evil in me and decide he didn't want to deal with it? Decided that I wasn't worth being his idol anymore?'

She leaned back against her couch, craning her neck backward and resting her head on the couch's seat. 'Why now? Why would he decide to leave now? Just when I decided I didn't want to drown anymore when I decided to see the light again... when I decided to stop being pathetic…. He... leaves?' 

She raised her arm, putting the card in front of her face, and re-read the message, unable to believe it. 'What the fuck is going on?'

'How dare he...fill my mind with negative thoughts of myself, make me want to get better and then disappear... What am I supposed to do with that? Who's being fucking pathetic then?' Regan thought to herself. 

"You've been quiet for a while now and haven't even touched your meal yet," Antonin sighed, concern slowly rising, "are you ok? Did I do something wrong? I can-"

Regan snapped her head back to facing Antonin and placed her card down. "You talk too much."

"Ah…" Antonin muttered. 'Geez… rude much?' he thought to himself. "Anyways, for you today there's spaghetti with a side of a salad. They wanted you to eat healthy while being in here, like seriously? Now they're tryna keep us alive when we're already slowly rotting away here. Keeping us alive to- oh… I'm saying too much again."

"It's good you stopped yourself before continuing," Regan sighed. She rolled her eyes when Antonin immediately had something to say after.

She was used to the quietness there was when she was with Vixen. It wasn't stifling like she could stay there and not say anything but not feel the pressure of speaking. Now she had to deal with constant chattering. She didn't like breaking out of her schedule and this went with everything that she hated. If she ever wanted to die, this was the best time to do it.

"...Also, the new clothes for this week are here, it's on the cart," Antonin nodded towards the cart, a sour look on his face. 

Regan simply nodded and stood up from her seat, walking over to the cart and picked up the outfit from the cart. 'Even the shirt feels different,' Regan thought to herself. She knew it didn't, that it was the same as before but her balance was tipped over. Things that seemed to always change stayed the same and things that never changed started to change. She hated it. 

In the background, Antonin continued to chatter away but Regan ignored it. She touched the edges of her shirt and started to pull it over her head. 'Never would I have thought I would want silence. Never would I have thought the silence that drowned me in thoughts would be preferred over constant chittering,' Regan sighed, tossing her shirt off to the side on her couch. 'And that fucker… I swear- if I ever see him… we'll see how long he can keep up those words he liked to call me." She made a mental note as she pulled off her pants.

"Anyways, I see why Vixen would serve you," Antonin nodded, turning to Regan, "You remind me o- OMG WHAT ARE YOU GOING?!!!"

Regan turned back to him, her shirt in her hand, her undergarments showing, "what?"

Antonin immediately covered his eyes and turned away from Regan. "Y-you aren't w-wearing clothes…"

"Ah… ok? I am though?" Regan muttered, looking down at her body. It had been a while since she actually looked at her body. Unfortunately for her, she didn't look like she was trying to starve herself, in fact, she looked fit. Lost enough weight to be in better shape than when she entered the asylum but not enough to look thin. It was weird because she knew she was purposefully trying to starve herself. She thought back on the months before and why she couldn't be in worse shape. Then it hit her. "Ah… that bastard. No wonder he stayed that long whenever he served and no wonder they were fat-filled foods too."