Fairly Bear

Five – Hearing Voices

Tessa

She had been feeling strange since she’d woken up three days before. At first, she’d thought it was because the guy was there the whole time; was he placed in charge to guard her so she didn’t try to escape again? If so, was he not supposed to be relieved at some point? He made her immensely uncomfortable and it was in so many different ways.

She had been getting waves of intense sense overload; sounds seemed too loud, lights seemed too bright, followed by headaches. She thought it might be that she was still detoxing from the drugs, not that she knew what that entailed considering she’d never been a party animal. Alcohol and drugs were never on her list of things to try; she much preferred staying at home, in her room.

Looking back now, she considered it was partly due to the fights she had to have with her father and brother to even go out in the first place. It was like they didn’t trust her, but now that she knew what they did for a living, she could see them having enemies or worrying that someone had done to her what they did to others. The reasons were obvious now, that she looked back at things.

Ironically, it happened to her anyway and she guessed it had nothing to do with her family. But here she was, detoxing from drugs forced on her with a guard sitting in the room and trying not to stare at her like she could tell his future. It was uncomfortable. He was so intense, handsome, but intense.

She was relieved when there was a semblance of normalcy when they suddenly decided to have a junk food picnic with her. The giant quiet guy was still quiet, but his looming presence seemed less intimidating with the two other almost normal people there. She said almost normal, because they all seemed freakishly good looking. What was in this drinking water and why wasn’t it working on her?

After their picnic, the funny guy made excuses and left. The good-looking doctor had to return to her duties after she handed her some clothes and told her to take a shower and they’d be around to bandage her wounds afterward. The big guy made a move to pick her up and carry her, but she nixed that idea quickly…and then felt guilty because he looked so sad about it. What was going on with him?

Tessa stepped into the bathroom and glanced around the room, this had to be some classy hospital. The bathroom was both big and very fancy, including expensive-looking toiletries. It smelled amazing, not intense with perfumes, but natural and herby and she loved it. There were no labels on the containers, so she made a mental note to ask about the brand so she could get it for herself.

Especially now that the slightest perfume coming from one of the nurses seemed to give her a headache. She hoped whatever these symptoms were they would soon pass so she could get back to living a normal life…well, the normal life they allowed her in this witness protection program.

It had to be that; why else would she not be allowed to go home and live normally? Maybe they were waiting for the trial to make sure they were safe. They had said they weren’t sure they’d caught everyone, but did these criminals really intend to return to capture every last one of their victims? From what they had said, there seemed to be a lot of them.

She opened the water and undressed, finding a large soft towel waiting for her with a packaged bamboo toothbrush and also natural looking toothpaste. This place was really big on natural products, it seemed.

Tessa put her hand under the running water and when the temperature seemed right, she stepped under the water. It felt so good and she almost moaned in pleasure. When was the last time she’d taken a shower and not been sprayed down with some soapy mixture that made her smell like dog shampoo?

“So good…”

Yeah, it was so good…

She wet her hair and then washed it with the lovely smelling shampoo, rinsing it off before she put some conditioner in her hair and glanced down at the dry ends, thinking that she would need to get a haircut once she knew where she was going.

Tessa took up the natural bar of soap and lathered it onto the wash cloth they had given her and breathed in the scent. It smelt like wild flowers and herbs, a hint of pine included. Was it just her imagination or was her sense of smell more acute?

“Not your imagination!”

The clear voice startled her into a screech of shock as she threw the bar and cloth, almost falling over and just steadying herself against the clear glass before the door burst open and a wide-eyed and angry-looking Ulrich stormed in.

But he froze and stared in shock at her still standing naked in the clear glassed shower. It took her a long moment to realize that he was staring at her, standing naked in the shower, in full view of him.

She reacted by releasing another screech and spinning around so her back was to him, trying to think of a way to hide herself from his view without moving from behind the glass barrier between them to reach the towel.

Suddenly, the door banged shut and she hesitantly glanced over her shoulder to find him gone and the bathroom door closed. She should remember to lock the bathroom door next time. What was he thinking barging in here like that?

“Well, you did scream like a banshee…” The female voice spoke again.

She nearly screamed again but muffled it with both her hands, glancing around her, but there was no one else in the bathroom. How was she hearing voices in her head?

“Voice; just one…”

She had to be losing her mind! Maybe this was a side effect of the drugs they had pumped into her system. What if she’d somehow created another personality from the stress?

“Schizophrenia? Or did you mean psychosis?”

“No, no…you’re not real…” She chanted quietly to herself while she hesitantly bent over to retrieve the soap and cloth.

“I’m offended! I’m very real and you’re a very rude human!”

“I am a human; you’re not real…or I might be locked up in the psych ward…I don’t want to be locked up again…” She whispered under her breath, while she started scrubbing her body.

“I get it, but do you think I like being locked up?”

“I don’t know who you are or what you want – “

“Oh, yeah…sorry! My bad! I’m Orsa; your bear…”

“My bear? You mean, like I’ve created a bear to protect myself?”

“No, you didn’t create me…I was chosen for you.”

“By who?”

She felt the odd feeling as if someone was shuffling through her thoughts and she shook her head, trying to rid herself of the feeling. A moment later, it stopped.

“Oh, I see….you have no clue what’s going on, you poor thing!”

“I don’t know what you want, but I need you to get out of my head…”

“I can’t; I’m you…well, part of you, like an arm or a leg.”

“Neither of which decided to grow of their own accord; get out.”

“If you insist…”

Tessa was horrified to feel something push her out of the controlling seat in her brain and start to push forward. She groaned in horror and pain as she felt her body begin to attempt to break apart.

The thought terrified her and she shoved herself back into control with so much force that she nearly fell over in the shower, only just bracing her with her hands against the tiled wall. She was gasping for breath, fighting whatever was happening to her and trying to shove it all into a box she created in her mind.

“No! You will not lock me up!” The voice growled angrily in her head and fought her with a strength that was both impressive and scary.

“You will not make me a prisoner in my own body.”

“Neither will you. I am part of you now; deal with it. We share or I will tear you apart from the inside!”

“You can’t do that.” She muttered, trying to sound more sure of herself than she truly felt, but even she could hear the doubt in her voice and she could almost feel the other voice smirk with amusement. She had very nearly done that a moment ago.

“I was not trying to tear you apart a moment ago. You told me to get out, so I tried to shift.”

“What do you mean you tried to shift? It felt like you were trying to kill me.”

“You won’t die! At least, I don’t think so…I don’t think there’s ever been a lab-created shifter before…”

“What are you talking about?”

“The doctor is waiting for you outside. You might want to hurry up before that gorgeous hunk of bear storms in here again…”

“What are you talking about? How do you know?”

“Shut up and listen for a moment.”

Obediently, she was quiet for a moment, just listening while she stood under the spray to rinse off. Sure enough; she heard her voice. She couldn’t hear what she was saying, but she heard her. Was that even possible?

“Thank you, Orsa, for bringing these awesome senses and teaching me how to use them!” The voice in her head answered sarcastically.

“You’re such a diva…” She muttered to herself while she rinsed the conditioner out of her hair and then closed the water, reaching for the towel to dry herself off.

“To avoid people thinking you’re insane, you can just think your answers, you know. I am privy to your innermost thoughts…oohhh, this one’s a good one. You got laid a week after running away? Girl! Once you suck less at sharing; we’ll get along great! You could try some of those things you learned from your very…three partners on that hunk waiting outside…”

Tessa winced and concentrated her thoughts. “Don’t get any ideas, he drugged me before; I’m not sure how yet, but he did.”

“He’s your mate; he didn’t drug you!”

‘I’m not Australian and I don’t know him well enough to call him a mate, even if I was.’ She retorted in her mind, while she dressed in the clothes and quickly brushed her teeth.

“You and I need to have a talk when you don’t have people waiting for you. Chop-chop, I can see we’ll be great friends with Miranda, once you get your head out of your ass.”

“I do not have my head in my ass!”

“You’re right, it’s halfway up your small intestine already…” Orsa retorted when she pushed the door open, which kept her from reacting when she noticed that Miranda and Ulrich were waiting for her.

He had a look about him that made her worry that he was into cannibalism and she might be his next meal, but that could be because he saw her naked not long ago and he might actually be into voyeurism.