The Birdcage

Sketching

"I don't think it's Doctor Montgomery." Nyx said, sitting with her friends during art therapy. Jayson had actually turned up for once- or possibly had snuck in, Nyx wasn't sure if he was actually in their session or not. The clock was ticking by incredibly slow- she was starving and dinner couldn't come soon enough.

"What? Why?" Jayson asked in a low hiss, leaning over from where he was hidden behind his easel beside her.

"I couldn't find anything to suggest he was a demon or involved with one- and a lot to suggest to the contrary." Nyx thought about what she'd discovered when exploring his desk- perhaps very much on the contrary.

"If he was, I doubt he'd broadcast it." Jayson insisted. "It'd be hidden. Disguised."

"I don't think it's him." She shrugged, picking up a paintbrush to draw a few experimental strokes of orange a across her page. "Unless we're being haunted by the ghost of his dead wife, which I doubt."

"He was married?" Ronnie exclaimed, perhaps a little to loud as she earned a glare from the supervisor in their general direction. "I never pegged him for the type." She added, correcting herself to a whisper. "He's a bit... harsh."

"So if it's not him, what do we do now?" Perry asked, making a show of taking a piece of charcoal from Ronnie, so it looked like they were actually participating and not just talking amongst themselves.

"We don't know it's not him." Jayson said.

"We've no evidence it is." Nyx snapped.

"So what do we do now?" Perry asked. "We're back to square one."

"Not quite." Said Nyx, tapping the handle of her paintbrush introspectively against the side of her face. "We go off what we have. I think we need to try getting into solitary again."

Jayson's voice rose with frustration. "Why on earth would we-!"

He was cut off by the supervisor briskly coming towards them. "Do I need to separate you all?"

"... No."

"Hush."

As the supervisor glided away, Nyx took up a piece of charcoal and doodled a few lines on her paper- then sat back, looking at her work with a frown. Sketched in dark graphite and mixed paint, a pair of familiar, feminine, golden eyes looked out at her from the page.

Talk about haunted indeed.