#withdrawl

Dollie seemed to be doing a lot better, and Jane has finally taken Dollie off whatever drugs she was on. Dollie’s sick again.

She isn’t coughing up blood anymore, and she doesn’t have a fever anymore. But she’s always shaking and sweating, and she’s been vomiting.

Kit yelled at Jane again. “Withdrawal can kill people, you know! If you’re going to respond to illness with drugs that strong you can at the very least take her off them slowly!”

“Consider it a part of her punishment. That means less pain for you.” Jane said.

Jane hasn’t taken Dollie to the basement, yet. She’s probably going to wait until Dollie’s actually better to hurt her more.

It’s not a relief. It just means more anticipation. You know Jane could start hurting Kit or Dollie at any moment.

She could also start hurting you at any moment, but that’s slightly less likely. Kit convinced her to hurt them instead, earlier. You hope that still applies.

—

Dollie struggles to go on full walks, lately, so the three of you just sit outside in the sun when you can.

Jane has put Dollie back in charge of her chores, making it clear that she’ll be punished if she accepts help. That solves that mystery, then.

It’s painful to watch her try to do her chores while she’s still sick, but she does it without complaint. Not that she can complain…

Whenever she gets a chance, she sits outside with you and Kit. The sun and fresh air seem to help a little, though that also might just be the fact that when’s she’s outside she’s usually resting and when she’s inside she’s usually working. Her chores take a lot longer when she can’t stop shaking and has to run to the bathroom to throw up every hour.

Her tremors are less severe, right now, and her breathing is more even. She should be allowed to stay outside all the time, if it makes her feel better.

Actually, she should be in a hospital, or anywhere where she could safely go off the drugs Jane gave her. She should have trained professionals taking care of her, not two clueless friends and the person who hurt her in the first place. But she can’t have that, so you just do the best you can. You read to her and hug her and try to reassure her.

Kit helps by reminding Jane that Dollie could die. They do it often, and though Jane always rolls her eyes, it seems to help, because Jane gives her permission to eat and drink and sleep more often.

Dollie rests on your shoulder, shaking, shaking, shaking. Sweat soaks into your shirt. You squeeze her hand.

Seemingly out of nowhere, she starts wheezing. Hives break out on her skin, and her face swells. She’s choking, she’s choking!

“JANE!” Kit screams. Jane appears instantly, first next to Kit, then next to Dollie after she realizes what’s going on. She sticks something into Dollie’s thigh, and her breathing starts to even out. The hives and swelling recede.

“You’re drugging her again? That’s what caused this whole thing in the first place!” Kit scowls.

“Adrenaline is how you treat anaphylaxis, idiot. That was an allergic reaction. You’re normally not this stupid, Kitty.” Jane runs her fingers through Dollie’s hair. “Probably a bee sting. Poor Puppy, I’ll bet your skin already felt like it was crawling. Didn’t even notice… I think you should stay inside for a while.”

Dollie leans into Jane’s touch.

“Come on, get up. Have you done all your chores today? Besides dinner.”

Dollie slowly gets to her feet and nods.

“Good girl. Go rest on the couch for a bit. Sometimes one shot of adrenaline isn’t enough, so I’ll have to keep an eye on you for a bit. I’ll fix dinner.”

Jane always has someone else make the meals. Her deciding to make it herself can’t mean anything good.

—

Jane didn’t even try to hide that she fucked with the food. There’s a bottle with a bold label reading “TOXIC” still sitting on the counter. The mac ‘n cheese she made smells and looks wrong.

“I’m not hungry.” You say, heading to your room.

“I don’t care!” Jane appears in front of you. “You’re not eating anything else until you eat this. You can try to hold out, and end up eating it when it’s going bad, or you can eat it now. Those are your choices. Pick your poison!”

“We didn’t do anything.”

“You need a reminder of who’s in charge. Eat. You too, Puppy.”

Dollie gets up off the couch and sits at her place at the table. She eats without hesitation.

You sigh. Better to get it over with. It’s another obedience test, and eating something gross is better than some of the other things she could have you do.

“You’d think you’d be better at cooking with thousands of years of practice…” Kit mutters.

“I think I did much better than you could’ve done, working with poison. Eat, Kitty.”

You force the food down your throat as fast as possible, trying to avoid tasting it. That’s probably not a good strategy with something you know is poison, but you don’t have the willpower to eat it slowly.

—

The three of you are very sick all night. Jane graciously provided buckets for you to vomit into. Besides the stomach pain, you feel weak and dizzy, and there’s no one to help because the others are sick too. You all deal with the same thing all alone. Except Dollie. It’s probably worse for her, with the poison on top of the withdrawal. You can’t imagine it being worse. This is the worst pain you’ve ever been in.

You didn’t even do anything. She couldn’t be bored, she has a future punishment for Dollie to look forward to.

She might be mad at Kit. They’ve been very openly snarky to her. But wouldn’t she just make that against the rules, if she wanted them to stop?

You don’t understand how Jane thinks, and you don’t think you ever will.

A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else!