"Leave it," Sera said in a flat tone.
The woman was getting irritated by the lack of reaction.
She wanted to see fear in her eyes, to see her begging, but all she got was a cold, blank stare.
Still, she didn't give up.
"What if I don't? What will you do? Who will help you? Even your family abandoned you."
Sera froze.
'Got you.' The woman smirked.
Just when she was going to insult further, she saw the hair tie tucked neatly in Sera's hair.
"Well, well, who gave this to you?"
Before Seraphina could react, the woman yanked it free.
Sera's long hair fell loose.
"Why don't I keep this to myse–"
Her sentence was cut off shortly.
Seraphina grabbed her wrist and stared at her; her eyes were the coldest the woman had ever seen.
"Give it back."
Her nails dug deep into the woman's skin.
"I… won't," the woman hissed through the pain.
But there was a tremor in her voice now.
Because Seraphina wasn't expressionless anymore.
Her face was twisted with an emotion none of them had ever seen on her—raw, desperate anger.
By this time, even the other two women were nervous.
They didn't know why, but looking at Seraphina's face, they couldn't help but back away.
You could even call the first woman brave since she didn't back down.
Sera snapped.
"GIVE.IT.BACK.TO.ME!"
She shouted, her voice echoing through the entire hallway.
Her voice was filled with anger and madness.
The woman flinched violently, losing her grip.
The hair tie slipped from her fingers.
Seraphina grabbed it from the floor, clutching it to her chest with trembling fingers.
"What is happening here!?"
The guard from earlier came running at the sound.
He stopped when he saw the scene.
Seraphina on the floor, clutching the hair tie against her chest with a trembling hand—her gaze fixed on it as if it were something sacred.
The three women stood a few steps away, fear written plainly across their faces.
The first woman looked humiliated—shaken that she'd been intimidated by someone so frail.
The guard interrogated them.
Seraphina said nothing and stared at the hair tie, holding it tightly.
The first woman said that Sera was the one who started the fight and stole her hair tie.
The guard, suspicious, asked the other two women.
They nodded quickly, stammering out the same lie.
When he mentioned checking the CCTV, the women got scared.
The third woman told the truth due to fear of extra medications.
He then shooed them away and sent Seraphina to her room.
If it had been any other staff, they wouldn't have cared about it.
But the guard was new to this job, so he felt sympathetic towards Seraphina and helped her.
***
After entering her room, Seraphina sat on the bed staring intently at the gift given by the unknown boy.
All day, she just sat in her room alone, quiet, sometimes mumbling to herself, thinking about her son.
When night fell, the facility's loudspeaker echoed its usual announcement, and the gates shut with a heavy metallic clang.
The lights dimmed out one by one.
She lay down on the thin, hard bed.
It was hard and uncomfortable for a person with high standards, but she had grown accustomed to it.
She closed her eyes.
"Goodnight, Aiden." She whispered.
Talking to him—imagining him—was the only thing that kept her sane.
***
"Goodnight, Mom," Lucian mumbled in his sleep, unaware.
It had been his habit as a child.
***
In her mind, a small boy with bright eyes smiled up at her.
"Goodnight, Mom."
Her lips curved into a faint smile as she wrapped her arms around the illusion, holding him close.
And with that fragile, imagined warmth, she drifted into sleep.