"It will not happen again. Just make sure you take your meds next time."

Natalia was consoling the traumatized girl who was soiling in her bed from how profuse her sweating was. It's not like her mollifying would affect Nancy anyway. She was too disturbed to move.

Just after Nancy's vision went pitch black, she jolted upright while panting. The turmoil that stemmed from that encounter with a bloody girl entity was excruciating to say the least. It pained her to even get her feet off the bed. All Nancy could do was stare off the distance while her sister was trying to console her like an injured clumsy child or a heartbroken teenager, but the repercussions of that were way worse than that of a scraped knee or a heartbreak. She was helplessly paralyzed.

As of now, Natalia was half comforting her half lecturing her while sitting on the edge of the bed. The pep talk Natalia gave Nancy was partially because she had not taken medications before she could sleep. In fact, she had not been taking any medications ever since they moved. It was one day sure, but even one day could be detrimental to her brittle mind.

Nancy pursed her lips and looked at Natalia in the eye, saying sullenly, "Meds this, meds that! These meds are just a placebo, Natalia."

Natalia tilted her head to the side, "What made you think that?"

Nancy gestured to her whole frame as if stressing on how the meds did not affect her, "Take a good look at me. Nothing happened! To add insult to injury, I became even more forgetful."

"Speaking of which, did you forget to check your paper boat hat for the reminder you wrote down to take your meds?" Natalia knew that it was imprudent and unwise to ask such a question since it would further worry the girl and the answer was obvious. Nevertheless, she wanted to see something for herself.

As if it was a cue, Nancy reached for the green paper boat hat placed on the nightstand and spread it out. Her lower lip began to protrude as her dried out eyes scanned the paper. It turned out that she indeed forgot to write down a reminder to take the medications as per usual.

Natalia placed her hands on her hips and peered at the contents of the paper boat from afar. Her eyes narrowed to slits. Nancy was too carried away with writing on it. In the meantime, Nancy had finally mustered up the strength to get her lower body to trespass the bed. She let her feet twiddle as she stared at Natalia with a pouty expression and pleading eyes, "Let's not make a fuss over it. It will be the first and last time I don't write anything as important as taking meds on my green paper boat hat."

Natalia hummed as she sized Nancy up. Nancy cowered an iota under her gaze; her gaze was icy and was exuding heavy inspection. She stood up and smiled encouragingly at Nancy, lending her a hand to help her get up, "You are right. Let us go downstairs. Mom prepared breakfast ahead of time. You must be starving."

Nancy chuckled breathlessly as she seemed to be conceding to the fact that she was indeed starving. She folded the paper to its initial boat form and put it on. Although she wanted an extra shuteye after the restless night, she decided that it would be best not to in case she were to hallucinate in the breaking of dawn of all times.

"What time is it now?" Nancy asked innocently.

"Twelve to a quarter." Natalia said as she still had her hand extended to her older sister.

Nancy blinked. "Is that...twelve fifteen?"

Natalia scoffed and shook her outstretched hand. "Eleven forty five, Nancy."

Nancy smiled sheepishly and extended her own hand as she adjusted the paper boat hat with  the other. Regardless of how the time should be expressed as whether twelve to a quarter or eleven forty five, she knew that she woke up very late. She wondered if the food got cold by now.

The moment Nancy took Natalia's hand, the younger girl dragged the older girl out of the room and down the stairs. Nancy teetered behind Natalia, breaking another sweat. The only problem that gave her the ick as she followed Natalia downstairs for their first breakfast in the condo was that her palate became dilapidated after that awful hallucination. It was not normal for her hallucinations or anything of that sort to ramshackle her appetite or craving for food. Why was that? She did not know and did not bother to dig deep to know why.

Natalia pulled a chair for Nancy who smiled appreciatively in return and sat down. Her father was currently scarfing down the food in front of him, making him the only one who did not pay attention to Nancy's appearance after a very long time. The mom was gazing at Nancy with a typical worried look of a mom who had not seen her child for a while. Nathan was observing Nancy in a probing and curious manner while nibbling on bread. If concerned looks could kill, Nancy would be dead by now.

Natalia cleared her throat as she sat beside the father. He stopped and looked up confusedly, sheepish that he was unable to notice Nancy's presence. In general, the father was naive and could not read the room well. He cleared his own congested throat and interlaced his hands, "Nancy, why the long face?"

Yet another faux pas. Natalia sighed and said in a clipped tone, "Nancy hallucinated, dad, about something more gruesome."

Nancy avoided everyone's gaze as she started eating her own dish in morsels. Her heart wrenched so bad that she felt the urge to clutch her chest. "They don't need to know, Natalia..." she thought with a grave expression. On the face of it, Natalia was just trying to clear the confusion. She did not blame her father for being so lost. It is not everyday that she looks distraught and ill at ease during breakfast. Even so, she did not want to even talk about it. She wanted to keep it water under the bridge. Natalia just had to take the bucket and harvest it back.

Nathan let out a series of tsks as he dipped the toast in marmalade, "Ay yai yai, there is no recovery from that. Surely, yea?"

Nancy's expression darkened. Natalia let out a furious tsk of her own as she gave Nathan an elbow in the ribs. Nathan pouted as he turned to Natalia and mumbled while rubbing his stomach, "Ow, what gives..?"

Nancy finished the dish and did not miss a beat to rise from her seat with an uncomfortable look on her face, say "I am full", and scurry away. She walked stiffly to the telephone that was in the end of the corridor in a beeline. It wasn't only because she was annoyed by the uncomfortable atmosphere in the table. It was also because she remembered that she had to call her fiancé and instinctively walked to the telephone to hit him up. And anyway, she was not enjoying breakfast and only ate for the sake of nutrition. 

After she was out of the dining room, Natalia pointed at Nathan in an accusing way, "You were about to give ourselves away with that. It was uncalled for and out of character." She pointed a finger upwards and said matter-of-factly, "I even elbowed you, and you are supposed to know the drill."

Nathan scoffed and exaggeratedly tilted his head at her, "I botched it up, really? Look at mister fancy hat! He was the one who started. He was the one who didn't know the drill."

The dad blinked rapidly and wiped off the crumbs remaining around his mustache. He shrugged his shoulders, "I couldn't help but-"

Natalia interrupted with a click of her tongue and leaned forward as she stared the dad down. It was his turn to get berated. She spat, "There is no such thing as I couldn't help but! You have to refrain from doing anything insensitive when Nancy is in bad spirits."

Natalia's tone was undermining dread. She heaved a sigh as she looked back at her plate. The dad just made his mouth a thin line as he got up from his seat while tucking in the napkin he was using in his ruffle front shirt. The mom picked up the dishes assiduously in order to not make any noise. Nathan was scratching his scalp while munching on the toast.

In the meantime, Nancy was spinning the dialer on the telephone as she bent over. Harlem was a man who was hard to get on the horn, so she didn't have her hopes high. However, a smile that took down every negativity on its way arrived at her mouth. She cheerfully and sweetly said, "Hi, Harlem. Right off the bat; I moved to the condo and need some help with setting the piano up. Care to come over?"