Cancer...
Cancer was not really sure what happened next after she was sentenced. But she's certain that she's not going to die. Not yet.
The next day after her trial, she aboard a ship. Escorted by four guards, they traveled for days. Cancer was not allowed to get off the deck, but she was accommodated with a beautiful room. Provided by Judge Ascot.
It was not appropriate, but Cancer felt a bit of excitement when she finally saw the deck of the seaport, and the breath-taking beauty of the island. The guards made her wait on deck until every civilian went out of the ship. Cancer felt the higher temperature of the foreign place touched her skin when the wind blows. She roamed around her gaze to the seaport as she wait. Most locals have tanned skin, black hair and speaking a language she couldn't understand. Some people have fair skin and tall built, speaking a language she already heard in Spain.
Most woman she see wears a long skirt, covering themselves from waist to toe. They wore layered top and they carry a hand fan. The locals call it Baro't Saya. Men wears a clothing with very detailed embroideries and a neat slacks, paired with their shiny shoes. It is called Barong.
As they walk, a local smiled at Cancer. "Magandang umaga!" The local greeted, but Cancer just looked at him, not understanding a word he said.
The guards traveled with Cancer in a carriage. As Cancer looks around the new place, she saw more daily activities of the locals. After a few hours of traveling by land, they aboard another ship. A smaller one than the one they traveled by to leave Great Britain.
Cancer is admiring the view when the ship once gain, reached the seaport. They used five horses and took the way no one else did. A few minutes of riding the horse, in the middle of the grassy nowhere, the guards stopped. "Hey, criminal!" One of them called.
Cancer stopped her horse and looked at him. Her eyes widened when he pushed her off the horse. She groaned when she felt searing pain on her left arm. "This is the farthest we can go. Follow the path, and you'll get where you need to be."
"What makes you think I'll willingly go into my jail alone?" Cancer asked the guard as she glared at him.
The guards laughed at her threat. "There is only one way to get out of this track, Criminal. And if you decided to go back," the guard motioned his finger across his neck, mimicking a weapon slitting his throat. The guards burst out in laughter again when one of them spanked the horse. And they galloped away.
But the horse didn't runaway. Instead it walked nearer her. Cancer sighed and tried to stand up. "Thank you," she whispered to the horse and mounted her.
Cancer has no idea where she's going, and the new weather is making her head fuzzy. The guards did not even bother to give her a bottle of water. "Oh, no." She muttered to herself when she saw an old oak tree in the middle of the road, splitting the path in two different ways.
She looked around for signs to help, but the only things she can see is tall grass, sea and the big sun. Nothing more. Cancer pulled the rains of the horse when she started galloping to the left.
"Are you sure that's the right way?" Cancer asked the horse, and she agreed. "How come you're so sure?" Cancer added.
On the way, the horse told Cancer stories about the kids she took to the Big House in the end of the path. She said to Cancer that unlike her, they don't talk to her. Well, nobody talks to horses like Cancer does. But she can assure her that they're odd. "Odd? In what way?" Cancer asked the horse.
But the horse didn't want to answer her question, leaving Cancer very curious. Cancer thinks that there is no one else who can be more odd than herself. She talks to animals, for God's sake! And they talk back, just like another person she knew on this planet.
Cancer chuckled when the horse asked her why she's here. "They say that I'm ill after I told them the truth," she answered. The horse neighs that made Cancer ask, ''what?"
"Really?" Cancer asked again when the horse told her that those are the same reasons she heard from the travelers she served who took the same path. It must be that horrible to speak the truth.
And as the horse said, she delivered Cancer to a Big House in the end of the path. If it suited the word big. It was not as big as a mansion. It is big as a school Cancer saw the past years, even bigger, and it looks like one too. It was a big building made of rocks and dark marbles. It's gates opened when the horse delivered Cancer in front of it.
"Reform Institute," Cancer read the sign beside the tall gate. She jumped when the horse galloped away without a word. "Thank you!" She shouted as the horse grew smaller until Cancer can't see her anymore.
It looks like nobody's home at the moment, so Cancer decided to announce herself before coming in.
An empty counter welcomed her in the lobby, and it looks more old fashion than the fat lady's. She rang the bell on the top of it and waited. The counter have a pile of folders on top, a whistle and bells hanging on the walls. It was labeled and have strings. Cancer wondered if she pulled one bell, will it ring all over the place?
Cancer already saw what she can see, but no one showed up to fetch her. Or give her chains, or throw her to a cell. "What kind of prison is this?" She whispered to herself.
She looked at her left, in a dark hallway, one room on the far end of the hallway opened it's door. Cancer smiled when she saw light coming from there. Finally! Someone who can make fire.
Cancer entered the hallway. When she reached the middle of the hallway, she heard the most startling scream she ever heard. It came from one of the rooms on the hallway. She stopped when she saw someone staring at her from the window of the door. A boy, probably on his mid 20s, wearing a white shirt and slacks. He screamed too high you'll think it came from a poor girl. Cancer backed off because of fear with this disturbing man. She fell on the floor when she accidentally opened a door with her body.
She looked around inside the room she opened. Her eyes widened when Cancer saw a woman with messed up hair, gazing out of the window, tapping it with her fingers. Cancer tensed when the woman looked at her way with her bloodshot eyes, dark circles underneath them. A scream escaped Cancer's lips when the woman leaped out from her bed like a monkey, running towards her. Cancer stand up and pulled the door shut and locked it from the outside. She stared in horror at the woman whose pounding the door, trying to get to her.
Cancer heard a maniac laugh from somewhere, but she didn't bothered to look where it came from. She run to the door as fast as she can. Cancer didn't care about what's inside that room. It feels like the most comforting place than the lobby or in the middle of the hallway. She entered the room and locked the door as she catch her breath. Cancer jumped when she heard someone speak.
"Oh, it's you." The gentleman from the court said, wearing a poet shirt and a magnifying glass on his left eye. He give Cancer a crooked smile. "My name is Dr. Maudlin Masters. Cancer, I presume?"
Cancer stayed silent, still traumatized with her experience earlier. Dr. Masters' forehead crumpled when he noticed her pale face and abnormal breathing. "I run this whole institute. Are you tired because of your travel? You want a grape?"
Dr. Masters' eyes narrowed when Cancer gave no response. He heard her talk before. She's completely functional, then what's the problem?
"T-The—" Cancer cleared her throat when she found her voice. "—The people in the hallway. They're not used to new people?" She asked.
The doctor's face brighten up. "Oh! THAT." He laughed. "That is nothing, they're fine. If that's what you want to know. They are my patients who is already, deep beneath my reach, I put them there for the visitors." Dr. Masters said.
"The visitors?" Cancer asked in confusion. Based on what she knows, visitors should be pleased. That out there is far from pleasing.
"Yes! So they will never visit again!" Said Dr. Masters in glee. "Please, do take a seat and let's get this over." He offered Cancer a seat.
"Am I going to end up like—err—them?" Cancer asked. She doesn't want to be like them. No one does.
"Crazy? HA!" Dr. Masters smirked. "No. I'm here to help."
"What should I do?" Cancer asked. Dr. Masters placed his hands together and put it in front of his lips. "You should try to stay. Though I think that will be the hardest thing you'll do here." He answered.
Cancer didn't say a word. Dr. Masters pulled a string on his side, and a small bell ring from somewhere. A few moments later, the door opened, revealing a familiar looking boy to Cancer.
"You?!" Both of them asked in unison.
He still have his hair neat in a brush up. His clothes looks far different on what it used to be when Cancer first saw him. He is now wearing a white long sleeves tucked up to his elbows and a brown leather vest. His brown eyes are surprised and he still carries his book from the garden. It's that boy—An.
"You know each other?" Dr. Masters asked.
"No," said An.
Dr. Masters eyed him sarcastically. "Well then, escort Lady Cancer to the muses and then take her to her ward. Make sure that she'll meet everyone." The doctor ordered. An opened the door for Cancer. Cancer stand up from her seat but before she could go, Dr. Masters called.
"Before you go, let me ask. How do you view insanity, Lady Cancer?" He asked.
Cancer was confused. No one ever asked her that question before. "I don't know," Cancer shrugged. "Maybe a lot of people is confused between being different and being insane." She answered.
And without a word, she went out of the room and shut the door herself. She had enough of disturbing people in a day. She hoped that the boy accompanying her won't be as weird as the doctor back in the dark hallway.