115 On Time

One's breathing shivered and another's eyes flew open. The silence was disrupted. 

Vixen opened his eyes, a sense of shock running through his body when he saw Regan sleeping beside him. Then the memories of half an hour ago flooded into his mind. 

His hand ran through his hair and he let out a quiet steady sigh. 

"This idiot…" Vixen muttered to himself as his eyes turned back to Regan. She was still deeply asleep. 

She turned to her side, her back facing Vixen and he immediately turned her back. She let out a groan and a shaky breath before returning to quiet breaths of air. 

Vixen felt the need to hit her. Just a bit. His hands raised up and were ready to strike her softly when she let out another groan and a sleepy smile appeared on her face. Vixen's arm paused and he put it down. She looked peaceful, he didn't want to hurt that.

Vixen groaned and softly flicked her forehead. The urge to hit her wasn't subdued entirely. 

"First you act like everything is ok but your mind was caving in on you the entire time, then you act as if you're strong and then end up breaking down," Vixen could spot the new marks on her wrist. She never fully stopped cutting herself. 

He reached for the small table beside her bed and pulled open the first drawer open. There were some sanity products and simple things she needed on a daily basis. He closed that drawer and moved to the next one. It was relatively empty, just three books laid in the drawer.

'She likes books?' Vixen thought to himself, as he pulled out the book and opened it. It was a collection of multiple books. 'Short stories…' he thought to himself. He opened to the first page when he realized it wasn't a book. It was multiple sheets of paper ripped out actual books and stapled together into a book.

He knew some of the titles. 'The Shell collector,' 'The Landlady', and 'Stone Animals.'

They were some of his favorite stories, 'Stone Animals,' being his go-to. The rest he couldn't remember but was sure had seen before. 'I'll check the library later,' Vixen thought to himself. 'A fellow reader huh… I guess she had time in-between making all of those games.' He chuckled, placing the book back. It was a fun fact, but wasn't what he was looking for.

Down to the last and final drawer, he pulled it open and his fist clenched when he saw its contents. It was the wardrobe he was looking for but he had found worse. There lying coldly in the drawer were plastic forks, a resource it looked like she had been keeping and growing for weeks. There were almost 10. Beside them was the First Aid kit. 

He looked down at the wounds on her wrist. Not once had he seen a band-aid on her wrist, the cuts were either hidden or in sight but still covered up slightly. She never tried to help them. She let them bleed until they stopped then did it again.

'Why keep the kit if you can't even use it? Why are you always trying to delude yourself into thinking you're ok. You can't even save yourself. How pat-' Vixen stopped his train of thought and pulled out the band-aid. 'Stupid. You should have just asked for help.'

Vixen took out the contents of the First-Aid kit, taking out a band-aid, a cotton ball, and some rubbing alcohol. Gently, he flipped over her hand and dabbed the rubbing alcohol on the cotton ball, gently rubbing the alcohol to her wrist. Regan trembled, her face twisting in pain in her sleep. 

Vixen's hand immediately stopped when she flinched again. He looked at her hand. It was gripping her bed sheets tightly. He had let go of her hand when he was getting the First-Aid kit, now it laid on her bed, expressing the pain she felt even while she slept. 

Vixen stared at her hand for a moment. He put down the cotton ball and intertwined his left hand's fingers with hers. The moment he held her hand, she tightly grabbed his, holding on to him tightly. 

Vixen withheld a chuckle. "What a baby."

He continued to clean her wounds. Every one second, she would grip his finger like a pulse, on and off on and off. Then when he was done with the first side, he placed a band-aid on it. Then he pulled flipped over her other hand and disinfected her wrist before placing another band-aid on it.

Finally, he placed the cotton ball down and patted her hand. He was done. Regan's expression tightened one more time and she gripped his hand before her expression settled. 

Vixen smiled, pushing the locks of hair that had fallen on her face behind her ears. She looked pretty when she was sleeping. It was much better than when she was awake and complaining and rambling about every single thing. He flicked her forehead one last time, this time harder than the last. 

He hated the fact that had trusted him without even knowing who he was and the thought that she might do it again in the future but without him there to save her. He hated the fact that she still cut her hand, hated the fact that she acted strong when she was still hurt, and hated the fact that she didn't try to reach out yet. After thinking for a bit, he flicked her again. He hated the fact that his angelic sleeping face showed none of the troubles she suffered.

"This girl is going to get me fired… if they find out what she did to herself under my watch and the person I handed her to.." He looked down at her, "it won't just end and a few minutes of yelling, my name tag will be taken away and wiped off the employee list. I'll be put in these cells myself."

He let out a troubled sigh and looked up at the wall. 10: 43 am. 'Just in time,' he thought to himself.

Quickly, he packed up the First-Aid kit and threw the slightly bloody cotton ball in there. Then he opened the drawer and placed the kit back inside. He was about to close the drawer when the cold plastic forks lying in the drawer looked up at him and smiled. He picked up one plastic fork and stared at it for a second. 

CRACK

He snapped off the tips and broke the fork in half with his hand. He placed it back in the drawer and picked up the next fork, snapping it's tips and breaking it in half. Like that he went fork after fork, breaking them all and making sure they were truly useless. 

He finished half a minute later and lifted up one broken fork to his wrist and cut. He got a cut on his wrist. 

He threw the forks back into the cabinet and sighed. "They need to be thrown away."

He looked up at the clock again. It was 10:44. 6 minutes left before Antonin's appearance. 'What am I going to do in the meantime?' he thought to himself, turning to Regan. 'What should we do?'

Regan stared back at him with a silent face, her expression showing no answer, not even acknowledging the question in itself. She was still asleep.

"Will he get here on time?" Vixen thought to himself. He knew what time Regan woke up. It was nearing that time. 

Antonin needed to be in the room by 10:50 and asleep or pretend to be asleep by 11:10 am. She woke up at 11:30, 30 minutes before Vixen would have usually arrived for lunch. If she woke up to him beside her, the facade would be finished. Just a bit more touches to the scene and she would be fooled. Antonin needed to get here in time for the thing to work. 

Vixen looked up at the clock. 10:46 am. 4 minutes were left before Antonin needed to make it there. 'He should arrive with 2 to spare,' Vixen thought to himself. It was an expectation he kept for himself. If only he had told Antonin this. 

10:47

Vixen let out a shaky sigh, his hands still interlocked with Regan. He questioned if she was going to be ok from then on. There was no doubt in his mind that he needed to leave but there were many that doubted she would be ok. He wanted to complete his service and get out of this hell as quickly as possible. Nothing was going to stop him from that- He brushed another strand that fell loose behind her ears- even her.

10:48 am.

CLACK