The Cure Solo Finished

STATS. sta 8; eva 7; str 4; wis 7; arc 6; acc 8x───────────────────────────────────

────────────────────x❝I was good. I was really good.❞x────────────────────

Dad threw the bomb at breakfast.

"We're going to go back to the hospital, M." He said, hanging out the call he had been in for the last ten minutes.

The spoon with my cereal froze halfway, a few inches away from my mouth. What?

Alys, who had been petting our new family member (Neko) at the sofa, also lifted up her gaze. We stood in silence for what felt like years. And just when Alys was about to speak, I opened my mouth.

"Why do you keep answering calls from strangers?"

He shrugged.

"Hope. I still believe that one of those calls will be from America, telling me my brother is finally dead."

My eyes widened.

"Dad!"

"John!" We both said at the same time. Dad just laughed.

"What? He must be saying the same shit about me right now."

Another moment of silence. I pushed my cereal away. Suddenly, I wasn't hungry anymore.

"... Why?"

"Why do I hate him or —"

"Why the Hospital again?"

Neko purred in Alys' lap. That's the only thing you could hear in the whole house.

"... They've been on my back for months, M. C'mon, it'll be just a few hours and-"

I stood up abruptly. So abruptly that the chair fell. Neko jumped away from Alys' and ran next to me.

"We both know it won't be a few hours, they'll get into my head, they-"

Alys stood up, and dad took a step forward.

"M, I swear, I'll take you to the West End when it's all done, I'll-"

"NO! No, you won't! It's not done, it's not over, not with them, never with them!"

It was one of the very few times I yelled that way. Alys tried to reach out to me.

"Mikaela..."

Neko hissed at her and she took a step back. I stared at her, my eyes tearing up from rage and guilt and...

"No, you don't know, you don't have any idea, you were not there!"

"Mikaela!"

It's the first time my dad says my name like that. I froze again.

"Get dressed. We're out in twenty."

I pouted. A knot by throat. Tears were falling from my cheeks already. I couldn't breathe.

"Dad-"

"Get. Dressed."

Twenty minutes later, we were in the car.

I don't remember a lot of things from my childhood. The therapists said that my memories 'unlocked' when I first got into school. I know it's not like that.

My first ever memory comes from when I was a kid. Toddler, maybe. Perhaps three or four years old. There were exactly three doctors in front of me, pointing at me with a bright white light.

And I remember feeling something in my head.

The second memory is a hospital. This one, precisely. Just the ceiling. The bright, shining lights passing by told me that maybe I was being carried by someone. And in a hurry.

Now, when dad parks the car in the lot of the place, I feel that sensation of dying again.

The smell. The lights. The sound.

I hated hospitals. I hated this hospital.

But maybe dad was right. Just do what they want, and they'll leave me alone easily. Be tame. Be gentle. Be nice.

Be what they want.

The waiting room of the fifth floor. A place I knew by heart. The tic-toc of the clock. The chirp of the surgeon's door. That specific light that kept buzzing.

Everything.

I hugged my knees, watching people walk by. Alys and my dad were whispering something, two seats away from me. I barely heard them. I didn't want to hear them.

He was probably telling her what was about to happen. Preparing her.

"Hendricks."

My gaze lifted up and...

Yup, just what I thought. The same old man I hadn't seen in seven years. He nodded, and we followed him to his office.

At first, he talked with my dad. Alys decided to go buy some snacks. Smart one. I understand now why she is a lawyer.

Routine questions. Address, phone number, family... It went on for, like, an hour.

Then the hard ones. They had to update the archives. Dad told him about mom. About Alys. About the schools. The school.

We were home as usual that night.

I just locked in my room and fell asleep almost instantly. And tried so hard not to dream.

But I did. I dreamt about mom. About the way dad and her used to fight because of me. Of how many things we missed from each other. Her, for her... Situation, and me for the hospital.

It was the same thing next day. This time, it was a different room. It was a woman now. And my dad wouldn't be able to come with me now.

So it was my turn.

"Blood type."

"Favorite subject at school" (I had to choose a muggle one. Chemistry, cause it was the closer to potions.)

"Do you still play the piano?"

"Do you still like theater?"

"I see we're past the talking stage. You're very well-spoken. That's progress."

After hours, I looked up to the mirror behind the doctor. I knew it was not a mirror. Behind it, the other doctors, and probably even my dad, were watching and monitoring me with their machines.

The next day, they did more tests. Rey Complex Figure, D-KEFS and more. It lasted three days. Every night, I went back home and locked myself in my room.

Even Alys was worried.

My curtains were always closed. There were letters on my desk, probably from my friends, but I wasn't even able to pick them up.

Then I had to spend a night at the hospital to control my brain activity at night. I was still a prodigy.

Then another. And another, and another, and another, and another...

I don't even know how many time passed. Didn't care who wrote what. I had already read different essays, solved math equations, done chemical formulas that give headaches to senior students.

Saints, I even learned American Sign Language in a day. I just wanted it all to be over.

"So, what have you done?"

I finally reacted. What was it, day twenty? Week three?

"Excuse me?"

The doctor sighed, then took out a portfolio. From there, he started taking out pictures.

"Ethan, your age. He's about to graduate from college."

He slid a picture towards me. Then another.

"Tessa, age eight. Will give a cello concerto in two weeks. Jessica, ten. Giving a master class in bakery."

She leaned over to me.

"What have you done?"

I'm a witch, I wanted to say. I have casted spells. I have been at duels. I have done more than they have done.

"Mikaela?"

I shook my head, slowly.

"Sorry." I whispered.

And kept saying it while she talked about my potential. Of how I was wasting it. Of how great my future would be if I was still in the program.

I kept apologizing when I stumbled back against the wall and slid down, hugging my knees. I kept saying even when a siren sounded and my chest was too small. I kept saying it when I felt like I couldn't breathe. When I felt like I was dying. When I thought I'd die a failure.

When I passed out.

And when I woke up again, at the hospital, hours later, and they told me I had an attack.

And even in bed, they kept doing questions, sticking cables to my head.

I wanted to go home.

August was ending when my dad said enough was enough. He took me home and got to an agreement with the doctors, with help of the bast lawyer on earth, Alys.

A day in the hospital each year. Just a day, and in his watch. That was all.

I didn't care. They explained it to me when I was on my bed, curtains closed, letters over my desk, and food untouched.

I wanted to be alone. I hated this.

I hated me. Why can't I be enough? Why can't I be normal, even in my condition?

Why was I so hard to deal with?

So I fell asleep again using Neko as a pillow.

At least he stayed. At least he loved me, even at my lowest. At least he didn't look at me and thought I was a failure.

I hated being the way I was. Being a prodigy. Being awkward. Being me.

But the show must go on. The sun has to keep shining.

And I had to be okay.

──────xABILITIES. 's grace; Evasive Maneuvers; ability three; ability four; ability five; ability six; ability seven