Raiders Of The Lost Island Consignment Shop – Part 35

If you’ve not been keeping up, here’s where to go…

Jessamine Diane has succeeded in infiltrating the Bloom Institute of Wellness, but is rather surprised to see someone who isn’t supposed to be there…

‘Hold on a moment – what the plumbobs is Kim Kent doing here?’

‘Come to that, how can she be here?’

‘Mmmm, she seems to know exactly where she’s going too – so I’m betting it’s nothing to do with that Gordon Freeman bloke they found earlier after the Arendelle Princesses and Olaf had… ugh, don’t even want to think about that! ‘

‘As I suspected: Kim Kent, Piper Hipp, Liam O’Dourke and Lia Sims in Twinbrook can mean only one thing – and I’ll bet Kent sneaked here right after Zhivan, the Doctor and Clara left, with Liam doing everything to delay them getting here in order to give her enough time to hide anything they would rather not let the Doctor or the Mayor of Twinbrook find out about! Let’s guess, you can’t use a teleportation pad to travel from your home to here because the LLAMA network and the high magical index in Twinbrook makes them too dangerous to use.’

‘Well Miss Sneaky, two can play at that game… but first, I’ll let you have a little head start – wouldn’t want you to notice I was around, would I?’

‘Back you come empty, but not before I heard you stop three floors downwards from pressing my ear to the lift door ! Unmarked secret floors – and I thought the Tapuwhais’ secrets handling was pathetic. Let’s see what goes on in this hospital and research facility after everyone’s supposed to have gone home for the night…’

‘No button for the big secret floor, eh? Kent and her chums have special gold keys I suppose, eh? Never been a lock yet I couldn’t pick in under a minute… ah, that’s better – secret floor here I come!’

A minute later…

‘This is it?’

‘An unmanned reception area? Not even a guard on duty awaiting the business end of my wand? Strange.’

‘If there was nothing here, they wouldn’t still go to all the trouble of keeping it out of bounds except by a special elevator key.’

‘Let’s take a look around.’

‘Hrrumph, yes, very tasteful I’m sure.’

‘Hold on, who on earth’s that? A patient? This far down? With CCTV outside? Okay Jess, let’s go for tactful, polite, but inquiring – and get ready to grab the wand and blast them if they turn violent…’

♫ ‘Mmmm, mmmm-mmmm, mmmm-mmmm, mmmm-mmmm, mm-mm, mmm-mmm-mmm, mm…’ ♪

‘Who the FUCK are you?’

 

At least she got the enquiring part right!

‘Uhhhhh, me? I’m Tom. Tom cat. I have a beautiful set of whiskers, don’t you think? Or am I Mrs Quack Quack? Good evening, afternoon and morning. It’s hard to know what it is down here, don’t you think? I hope it’s supper soon. Or did we have that already.’

‘Oh boy, you’re a bloody Taffer, aren’t you?’

‘Er, no, Jewish. At least I think I am. What’s a Taffer?’

‘Come off it! Mrs Quack Quack? Considering the way they go on about that bloody duck Palmer all the time, bit of a giveaway you’re a Taffer. That sounded nothing like the Crash Test Dummies song you were trying to sing there, just to let you know.’

‘Um, I’m not a Taffer. Or maybe I am and don’t know it. It does get very confusing at times. I was humming Eine Kleine Nachtmuzik, actually. I’ve never heard of Crash Test Dummies. Are they jazz? I prefer the Lane Sisters to jazz.’

‘Erm, no they’re… oh, never mind! Who are you and why are you down here all by yourself anyway?’

‘Why? Are you a doctor? You’re not dressed like one. Are you another patient? Or are you another tester?’

‘I’ll tell you who I am once you’ve told me who you are. Deal?’

‘Okay, sounds fair. I’m Annelies. Annelies Marie Frank, and I’m fifteen. Or am I seventeen? I have trouble remembering.’

‘You have trouble remembering? All you do is count back from this year to when you were born.’

‘Yes, but I can’t remember if I was born in 1929 or if it was in 283AC?’

‘Ye wot? Hey, wait a plumbobbing minute here – hit rewind! Anne-lies Frank? Jewish? You’re telling me you’re Anne Frank?’

‘Yes. Why, did the doctors and the important people ask you to come and talk to me? It is nicer being here than that awful prison cell, but it does get boring and lonely sometimes. I suppose their medicines are helping me get better too, but they make me feel drowsy all the time, and I still keep having these horrid dreams. Do you know anything about what dreams mean. They tell me it’s all because of my breakdown, but that I’ll get better if I let them help me.’

‘You really have no idea who you are? Anne Frank? The Anne Frank? You don’t even look like her!’

‘How do you know?’

‘Know? Know? She’s famous? World bloody famous!’

‘Famous? Me? That’s amazing! That’s wonderful! That’s… er… strange? What am I famous for? It wasn’t anything wrong, was it? I hope it’s not for playing the piano, I hate playing the wretched piano. Is it for ice skating or acting?’

‘Mainly for… er, maybe I shouldn’t be telling you any of this yet. Let’s get straight once and for all that you are who you say you are. Take the test – do you have siblings?’

‘Yes, a sister… no, wait a minute a brother… um… I’m not sure.’

‘Okay, before you came here, where did you live?’

‘I… er…. oh dear. That’s what gets me so confused. Some days I’m sure I was living in an attic of an old warehouse, because I had to hide from someone, but I needed to get away before they caught me. But there’s other days I think I was living in a castle, but I had to get away to find a raven.’

‘Really? Tell me, these drugs they’re giving you, they’re not ritalin at would-floor-a-charging–mûmak strength by any chance?’

‘Oh dear, you think I’m crazy too? That’s what Richard Plantagenet thinks. He’s worse than Mr Nitwit was, at least I don’t have to sleep in the same cell as him though…’

‘Richard Plantagenet? Do you mean Richard III, King of England, and the only other person as good at playing hide and seek as you?’

‘Yes? At least, that’s what he calls himself, and he does dress funny. We share neighbouring cells. He gets upset very easily, mainly because he doesn’t like being locked up.’

‘You don’t say? Somehow that doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. So who is your other neighbour? The Count of Monte Cristo?’

‘No, some old guy called Albert Einstein. He’s very sweet, but a bit forgetful.’

‘Right. And this prison, by any chance were the walls padded?’

‘No!’

‘Just checking…’

‘Look I know I’m mixed up a bit, but I’m telling you the truth the best I can!’

‘Uhhhh, I’m sorry but it’s just I’m really having trouble grasping all this. Ah, of course, why didn’t I ask you this in the first place? Your diary!’

‘My diary? How did you know I had a diary? They haven’t been copying anything from it for other medics to read, have they? They promised me they wouldn’t! Please tell me they didn’t!’

‘[mutters] Boy is this going to be an awkward moment in the pending tray for later! [Louder] Oh, no, no, just part of the test, nothing to worry about… ***cough!*** Erm, what colour is it?’

‘White and red gingham patterned!’

‘Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Did you have any pets?’

‘Yes! My cat Moortje… oh I miss her so much!’

‘Good, great, I’m starting to believe you… now, what’s all this about a prison you were in?’

‘Oh it was horrible and old, and they kept us locked up most of the time. The water for washing was always cold, and it seems so deserted. It’s funny you should ask me what those children were also asking me about an hour ago.’

‘Children?’

‘Yes, one had a funny hat with a flower, one never used personal pronouns, and one seemed really scary – although she did give me my favourite hot chocolate when the one with the hat asked her to.’

‘And you drank it without question? Seriously?’

‘Oh yes, it was very nice! We talked for a while – actually I talked and talked and talked. Oh dear, I think I must have bored them and that’s why they went away. I’ve no idea why I keep acting like this – quack quack quack like Mrs Quack Quack – I think it’s the loneliness of being in here…’

‘Yeah, or more likely the toé that little toerag Vera Blake doped your hot chocolate with! I’m starting to think there’s a perfectly rational explanation for your weird memories and weirder dreams.’

‘Do you know, I can’t remember much about what it was like at the prison too well anymore. Isn’t it strange how forgetful you can become about somewhere you spent so much time inside not that long ago? Maybe that’s just because I’m crazy?’

‘Annelies, I don’t think you’re the one that’s crazy – it’s the people that did this to you that are insane – criminally so. Look, stay here for a moment, I need to check something out – I promise I’ll be back in a few minutes.’

‘Oh, you’re not going to leave me, are you? Please don’t leave me in here alone, I’m SO bored!’

‘A few minutes – that’s all. But if anyone else comes along, don’t tell them about me!’

Jessamine Diane – watching out for Kim Kent – quickly and quietly went back round to the reception desk:

‘Okay, let’s get into this… that’s handy, the administrator must have been in a rush to get home, they’ve forgot to log off and simply switched off the monitor and pulled the internet cable out of the back! Ah, an unrestricted admin folder – and what’s this, an electronic press kit? Okay, let’s have a look what this says regarding what’s going on around here…’

‘Project Olympus? Hmmmm, so the Simgurus weren’t trying to resurrect the old Lazarus project here after all. Seems I was wrong. Okay, let’s see what they’re up around here inbetween trying to stop all those nutters getting hold of the Winterbottom Cypher, at least it can’t be any worse than resurrecting the dead…’

Jessamine Diane discovered she was wrong…

…very wrong…

…and meanwhile outside, the night sky began to open…

‘***Gigglesnort!*** What is a little rain? Let it fall…’

‘… for a harder rain than that the Sims world has ever known will fall tonight on Moonlight Falls.’

‘You – my Dark Mistress’ mighty army. You know now what to do, what you were created for…’

‘…No weak pity… not for any living creature… KILL THEM ALL!‘

PART THIRTY SIX TO FOLLOW!