11.1 more hours until Redrum would be welcomed with open arms. It was not Nancy who confirmed that; she was never specific when it came to time as even looking at a normal clock or schedule would leave her scratching her head and paper boat hat. Natalia, with her confidence and aplomb, reported that. Soon after Nancy calmed down after her daytime delirium, Natalia reassured her that the new feline member of the Culzu family they were expecting to have will be brought to home by the dad who's luckily a freelancer. Nancy never saw or remembered her father having such an occupation, but once she went to check her blue paper boat hat for anything of that sort or along those lines, she was convinced once she saw the line "Dad works as a freelancer" being documented.

Despite the uplifting news, Nancy could not stop kicking herself for what she witnessed in that datum delirium. She could not put the images of Omniya having two scalpels pierced through her torso past herself. To her, it felt like she has buyer's remorse, but to Natalia, it felt like scammer's remorse. When Nancy would rummage through her red paper boat hats and catch any foolproof note that alludes to this daunting feeling, Natalia would say, "There is no need to feel guilty. I assure you it was just your ill-stricken mind playing mind games on you."

Nancy gave in to her sister's advice in the end. Anyway, she could not find anything that would shed light on this so-called irrational regret for hurting Omniya. But still, she felt like she should not be downplaying it.

Nancy was curled up on her bed, looking more neurotic than ever. Her fingers twitched as her hands were moving in fluid thrusts in pronation and supination, clawing and throwing with her fingers flicking, and wrist motions. It was all as if she was playing an imaginary piano. Her body is rigid yet her fingers are malleable. She wears a stone faced expression, yet her glassy eyes tell a traumatic story. Her breaths through her nostrils came out in quivering plumes. She promised herself to rehearse for the piano recital, but now she lost all fortitude to do anything. Just Nancy being timorous and twiddling her thumb until a hopefully peaceful sleep- er, twiddling her fingers in the air.

Natalia was reading a news report on a scroll while sitting on the egg chair. She would steal glances of Nancy as she blew her curtain bangs away from her eyes. She then looked down at her watch. Time was ticking, and the countdown until Redrum's arrival was winding down.

11.1 turned to 11, then 10.1, and finally 9.1...

How slow time flapped when you'd be as still as a statue. The alarm sounding from Natalia's electrical watch signaled bedtime. She got up from the egg chair and walked towards the door to make her way to the bathroom with the scroll rolled in her hand. Once she closed the door shut behind her, Nancy flinched and instantly took off her red paper boat hat. She pulled out a hidden white paper boat hat that was tucked into the internal dimensions of the red one. She retrieved the pen from the nightstand and set the unfolded piece of paper onto her lap. She started scrawling, the pace of the pen matching the pace of the blinking of her eyes.

In the meantime, Natalia made her way to the bathroom and ran into the father who was just stepping out of it. He ousted some of the strong detergent air from his lungs as he held the brim of the hat, his face suffused with a green shade as his fedora collided with the upper wedge of the doorframe. His triangular eyes landed on Natalia and he cleared his throat before speaking while raising his shoulders, "The door's too compressed. If I am the one being assigned to open the truth serum in here, then the door should at least be higher a notch. Anymore and I'll get sick from having my hat hit that board and having to bend down every darn time."

"You use your federal privileges to get your hands on it, hide it in your hat, open it in here, and Pamela laces the food with it. End of discussion." With that being said, Natalia prodded the father's torso out of the way with the scroll brusquely and nosed into the bathroom.

Despite his daughter's unnecessary rudeness, the father simply dusted off the part where the scroll jabbed him and looked over his shoulder at the closed door. Silence ringed a bit as he chewed his upper lip with the grey sweepers of his face flopping over it. His gruff voice broke it as he spoke lowly, "Hey, what about that cat-"

"You also bring that with you tomorrow." Natalia's voice from inside the bathroom was not only bleached because the almost soundproof door was shut, but also due to the sounds of the faucet opening and letting water cascade down the sink...or possibly the scroll.

The father let out a faint chortle, "Nono, don't interrupt me. I meant the sedation to tone down the thingy. It's got a weird name ya picked out, hold on-"

"Catalytic Memoralium? That will be arranged soon. Very soon." Natalia stressed on the 'soon' as her dulcet voice shaped these words, the cessation of the water from the faucet making her words clear despite the Doppler effect. Once they reached the father's ears, he nodded and smiled in appeasement and then turned on his black cap toe to scurry down the staircase.

♮♮♮♮♮♮♮♮♮▬ι═ﺤ ♮♮♮♮♮♮♮♮♮

The quietness of the night ushered through and around the island as everyone was asleep in their beds, couches, or inside their tents outside their shelters even. All but the girl on the lower bed of the dark bunk bed with the creases of her forehead accentuating as a sheen of sweat covered it. It was not because of the same reason that got Harlem sweating. It was because she was scared. Scared of what she was about to do. It was nerve wracking, but if she had to prevail over her condition and patch up the scars caused by it, then she had to bite the bullet.

Nancy fiddled her fingers that were hovering above her chest. She could feel her heart doing somersaults. Her eyes were forcibly wide open. She couldn't afford sleeping. Not just yet. 

Nancy's turned her head so that her cheek was resting on the cold pillow that was supporting her heavy head. Her eyes were glued to her red paper boat hat on the nightstand as she contemplated. Her nights were robbed of sleep because of the bombardment of hallucinations every night. Nancy was wrong about the meds doing nothing; they exacerbated her condition and brought to her more painful and unnerving hallucinations and visions. 

The bed creaked as the sound of the blanket from above could be heard rumpling. Nancy instantly closed her eyes, but not tightly squeezed shut. To the extent where a person would be convinced that she was in a deep sleep and was just nuzzling her cheek on the pillow...but would it work on Natalia?

Natalia climbed down the ladder bit by bit. Even with her eyes closed, Nancy could feel her younger sister's sharp eyes rake over her figure then wander to the paper boat hat on the nightstand. She nears it and grabs the paper boat hat while outstretching her arm, afraid to rattle Nancy and stir her awake. Not even a thread of a hair should be felt by Nancy. The dried floor scrunched under each footstep as Natalia tiptoed towards the door. A click of the door was heard, opened and closed, and silence took over once more. Nancy raised her brows as she remembered and her initial plan clicked.

Natalia had been frequently leaving the room every night while keeping one of Nancy's red paper boat hats with her. Nancy discovered that thanks to one of her sleepless nights in which she noticed a silhouette through her half lidded eyes that were laced with her usual hallucinations. Not only was Natalia leaving the room, but she was also leaving the condonumieum. 

Nancy concluded that her sister was unmistakably using it for selfish reasons; for her job. Yes, her job as a journalist. Natalia never cared about Nancy's mental health and what she would write in the paper boat hats in a personal level to begin with. Nancy deduced that Natalia had been interested in showing her colleagues the paper boat hats in the newsroom for personal gain. It was no surprise that these journalists and reporters gather around in the newsroom to share forsaken news and information. Natalia wanted to partake in these conclaves and spread the news of an insane twenty two year old amnesiac girl who writes her deepest and most distressing occurrences on silly paper boat hats. Nancy could imagine Natalia holding her chin high and brandishing the red paper boat hat as if it was a rare husk that was pulled out of an innocent elephant. This sent a shiver down her spine.

Nancy even concluded that the pills were just a way to erase any suspicion that strikes in Nancy's head. They did do something after all. They would just numb her brain and make her naive to Natalia's intentions like a slobbery child. 

Nancy took a whiff from the air and got to her feet. She looked over to the nightstand and, as expected, the paper boat hat was not there. Nimbly, she walked out of the room with nothing but her loose pajamas and stained socks on. She felt like she was walking on a tightrope. Every step she took felt like the rope would shake from time to time. Yet she continued as she was now descending the stairs, careful not to wake up anyone while letting both her hands glide through the railing.

At the foot of the staircase, Nancy's breath was caught in her throat as a knot of figures in poultices, amongst them standing Omniya with the same two scalpels through her torso, whispering among each other. They casted reproachful glances at Nancy, who did not fail to notice and leaned against the railing for support as she felt weak at her knees. 

The insides of her turning was an unmistakable feeling and very real to Nancy, but she knew that what made her insides do so was not real.

Nancy heaved her chest and continues wending her way through. They stared at her as if they wanted to weed her out. Nancy felt like the tables were turned on her; as if she was the delusion appearing before everyone's eyes. They were all rubbernecking, one even chortling while smoking a hookah on the loveseat and spoke in an ethereal voice, "Airhead! Doesn't even know that sneaking out in Kuril Islands is not child's play."

Nancy's nerves were fraying as her steps got heavier. She opened the door and skulked out of the room to the elevator. She finally set foot outside the condo, her thoughts and breaths muddled alike, and scoured the staircase quickly.

The cold air hit Nancy's face, making it go through a static white noise as a hundred ice pecks pricked it. She walked while keeping her head low and her hair flopping over her face to a voice so no attention is attracted to her- which, honestly, would do the opposite if it weren't for the super empty neighborhood. 

Nancy looked around as she maundered through the street caked in puddles. She turned the corner and was about to put another foot to drag her forward through the drag of the wintry wind when it stopped midair; there Natalia was, her back to Nancy, holding a closed umbrella while appearing to be adjusting it while facing another girl. Nancy rubbed her eyes. This girl was not part of her ailing. She was very much real, and she was very much talking to Natalia. She had black curly bangs, a bandana with a bow sticking up from the side of her head, and baggy mechanical overalls with a long width belt. From afar, Nancy could see her speak exuberantly while continuously drawing in the air what looked like...a cat?

Nancy was out of earshot, so she could only pick up their voices as she hid behind a caravan with her eyes downcast. Natalia's voice came out in hushes and tushes with what Nancy could pick up a nuance of urgency and impatience, whereas the other girl would giggle from time to time as her booming voice rang out, but not clear enough to form eligible words. Soon enough, the talking abated and came to an end. Slowly but surely, footsteps were echoing and getting closer and closer to where Nancy was standing.

Nancy felt fear bubble up. She couldn't move. Everything dawned on her, and she sighed regretfully while closing her eyes. "What will I tell Natalia? Hey, I've been following you the moment you stepped out of the room? Because I'm nosy? And  suspicious that you were taking advantage of my naivety? Gosh...she is just preparing a surprise for me about the cat with that girl. She needs the information that's all over my paper boat hats after all, even if it meant the distressing events. Maybe she just wanted to come up with something to nullify these events with that girl. And that bolstered umbrella...definitely so that my paper boat hats don't get wet whenever it buckets down. Gosh, I'm a bad sister. I even put stashed white paper boat hat underneath just to throw her off her scent. Shouldn't have done that."

Nancy opened her eyes and saw Natalia coming through the sliver of the visible part of the foggy window. Without forethought, Nancy slouched down while sprinting back to the condo while grinding her teeth, not minding the excruciating feeling of the friction between her thighs as she thrusted herself upstairs in a cumbersome way. At the moment, she was worried to not get caught. She had already been caught in the fog of her mind as it yet again played mind games on her and gaslit her into thinking that her life was a lie all along. Like a typical main character of a sappy edgy teen drama. Nancy huffed as she plonked herself to her bed. 

"Wronging my sister for a silly fake reason I was tricked to believe by my brain is selfish of me. Just when will I ever stop thinking these things? Maybe if I just close my eyes and sleep."  Nancy's thought process concluded as she let the binds of her face close.