Chapter Text
A blur of laughter, her skirts swinging as she twirled to music. Red lipstick and Victory curls in the mirror. News from the war on the radio. Black clothed misery as a casket was lowered into the ground. A brand new Army Nurse uniform. The steady thrum of constant work. Getting to know the girls who worked with her. Their transport flying over the front, late at night. A flash, then… nothing.
She tries to go back, to see the face she was talking to in the rain, tries to hear the sound of a man calling out her name. Nothing. Already the memories are slipping out of her fingers. It’s that feeling when you’re just falling asleep, as you lose yourself in the oblivion.
Only now there are voices, clearer than the ones before. There is a smell of antiseptic and bleach. Cold metal against her skin. A pinch at her wrist, then cold flowing into her arm. Her eyelashes flutter open.
It is cold, so cold, and unbearably bright.
A voice is speaking some other language.
She doesn’t bother trying to listen.
There is a din in her ears, a relentless humming. The echo of a soft voice fading against the shouts of wherever she is.
Wherever she is.
Where is she.
Why-
Who is the girl
Who is she
Who is she
Who am i where am i what happened-
A hand on her arm. It’s large and the grip is firm. She doesn’t bother pull away. It is the only human contact she has felt in-
what happened who am i where am i what happened
“Stop.”
A voice, a man’s, this time one she can understand. She doesn’t know yet to be chilled by his words.
“Welcome to the Red Room.”