The Moon, chapter 16: Free

The next few days went by in a blurry haze of hospital lights and heart monitor beeps. They put Susie on, in her opinion, a bit too much pain killing medicine. Most of which, she couldn't even remember the names of. They were all those unpronounceable scientific names, the kind she never liked, and didn't understand anyone who did. She didn't think she could remember the names even if she made an effort to. She just let them give her whatever would take the pain away.

Sometimes she saw a tall white figure standing by her bed wearing a purple dress, and though it spoke to her, she was never able to respond. Doctors' voices came and went, some recognizable, some less so. A purple figure stood by her bed along with the white one, speaking indecipherably about the “outside world”. The purple one would often sob on Susie's body, apologizing for something. Maybe if she had known the mental pain these drugs would put her through, she could have bared with the physical pain.

Sometimes, though rarely, her vision and cognizance would return to her. Unfortunately, this seemed to always be at the hospital's most docile hours, where not a visitor nor doctor would come to visit her until the painkillers got reintroduced into her blood stream. Susie didn't have a watch, and there were no windows or clocks on the wall, so time as a concept began to slowly slip away from her the longer she stayed in the hospital. It could've been days, weeks, or months since she had been outside, and she had just forgotten about it. It was impossible to tell.

Wasn't she supposed to be in a different town by now...?

“Susie? Susie, I'm gonna need you to wake up.”
The soft, dreamy feeling of sleep being stripped away incredibly fast, Susie sat up in her bed. Oddly enough, this didn't hurt at all. Whatever they were doing to her, it must have worked. There, standing about as uninterested as ever, was the bear monster she had come to know as her doctor. And that was about all she knew about him.
“Hey. We're gonna keep you here for today, but tonight we're gonna send you home with Toriel, okay?”
“Toriel? Why her?”
“Well, the last person to have you as a guest in their home feels quite a bit responsible for what happened to you. She feels it was her fault. I tried to tell her otherwise, but some people are a bit stuck in their heads. Hard to get them out sometimes, it is. Besides, I think you should stay away from high places for a while anyway.”

Hazel felt guilty? Why? It was completely out of her control. Maybe she thought she could've done something if she had known? Although, she doesn't know about any of the stuff with Alphys... maybe she thought if she had stayed up she could've stopped Susie from falling... shit, she would need to talk to her as soon as she got out of here.

“Anyway, your body is in a better shape than it was, though I wouldn't say it's fully healed quite yet. Take it easy, will ya?”
“Yeah. Did I ever get sent off to that hospital in the city?”
“No.”
“... Care to explain why?”
“We... haven't been able to contact anyone outside the area. No one here can get a signal, all the land lines are cut... even the internet has stopped working.”
“The hell? Why?”
“No one has a clue. And with the road closed-”
“Why the hell is that road closed, anyway? It's been like that for weeks but I can't remember ever hearing why.”
“... I don't know. I just... I don't know...”
The doctor looked incredibly distant in the moment he said those words. Almost like the thought of it depressed him. This look on his face vanished as fast as it came, and he returned to the boring monotony of his regular demeanor.
“See you in about six hours. We got your clothes washed and stitched up too while you were here, though you'll wanna get something else whenever you get the chance. You'll look a bit... homeless, is all I'm saying.”

He calmly exited the room, closing the door gently behind him. Susie wondered if she knew about her housing situation, and if that last comment was just an incredibly unprofessional insult. She also wondered if she should stop taking everything so personally. She decided the correct answer was “yes”. The next few hours went by about as fast as six hours could. That is, painfully slowly. There wasn't much she could, or was allowed to do besides lay and stare at the ceiling. The air in here was stale, and smelt of dirty bandages. She hated this, she wanted to be anywhere but here, but here is where she would stay for a tortuous six hours.

Though all things come to an end, and thus did Susie's time in the hospital. The doctor came in one last time, handing her the only clothes she bothered to ever wear, and telling her to leave whenever she wanted. Even she had to admit they did a nice job of patching her clothes up. Though she did like the look of the ripped jeans, it would feel nice to be fully protected from the cold. The white and blue shirt she was wearing had a huge row of stitches down the back of it now. Luckily, she had taken her coat off at Hazel's. It was probably still there, too. Another thing to do when she would eventually meet up with her.

Once fully dressed, she walked outside the room to see Toriel in the waiting area. She stood up with a worried look on her face when she saw Susie, and walked over to greet her.
“Susie... I'm glad you're alright.”
“I'm fine, yeah. No need to look so worried.”
“Well from what I heard it was a pretty serious injury! Not everyone falls from a five story building and lives!”
“Not everyone is a tall dragon girl, either.”
She says “tall” as if she isn't still a little shorter than Toriel. Susie mustered up as convincing of a smile as she could, and put her hand on Toriel's shoulder.
“Seriously, miss Dreemur, I'm fine.”
“Please, call me Toriel. I would think we're acquainted with each other well enough to be on a first name bases, considering I'm letting you stay in my home. I've also prepared some clothes for you to try on, once we get there.”
“... Thanks mi-, err, Toriel. I really can't thank you enough.”
“Oh, no worries dear. We all have rough spots in our life.”
The receptionist called Toriel over.
“Excuse me, Toriel Dreemur? If you'd come here, we'd like you to sign some things.”
“Oh, of course. Susie, you can wait out by the car if you'd like.”
“Sure thing.”

Susie, turned away from Toriel, thinking about how nice of a person she is to let her stay with her. Susie slowly opened the door that lead outside, and stopped herself from gasping. There was nothing. Nothing but darkness. An endless void in all directions but the one from whence she came. A peering, empty plane of nothingness. Susie stood there in the doorway, wide eyed as she listened to any sound at all that could be coming from the void, and having nothing greet her ears but a deafening silence.

“Something wrong, Susie?”
Susie could've snapped her neck from turning her head back any quicker. Toriel returned her glance with a concerned, motherly look. Susie turned back to look out the door, and saw the snowy, cold sidewalk and street she expected to see the first time. Susie took a deep breath.
“Y-Yeah. Meet ya outside.”
Was all she could stutter out before walking out of the hospital and shutting the door behind her.

“I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy.”

She repeated those words in her head on the way to the car, and she wished more than anything else that she could believe herself.