Re-Read: Chapter Forty- Horrified

"Get away; you're monsters! Torturers!"

At the sound of voices, Wanda slows her pace and moves forward as quietly as she can. Though the words are clear, she has a hard time putting names to voices, but continues to listen intently.

"...why do we keep doing this?"

"Doc didn't want o. It was Jared's idea this time."

"I thought he was the biggest opponent to this business." 

"He's more...motivated now."

Wanda pushes herself as close to the wall as she can as the group passes by her, no one taking notice of her there. Waiting until their footsteps faded, Wanda continues creeping forward before breaking into a jog. Catching a hint of daylight, Wanda knows she is close to the hospital and carefully moves forward. As she gets closer and closer, she hears Doc's sobs and Jeb's words of comfort. There is also a strange smell, "not quite metallic, but not quite anything else, either" permeating the air that is familiar to Wanda, but not one she can easily place. Fear suddenly halts her movements, but Melanie points out that the worst they can do is make them leave and with that, Wanda rounds the corner to the hospital. No one notices her standing there, but she sees Doc sobbing on the floor with Jeb patting his back. Jared and Kyle are also there, placing a stretcher next to one of the cots. The cots are not empty, but hold something hidden beneath green blankets. Doc's table is set a the head of the cots, holding scalpels and antiquated medical tools, but it is not the tools that hold Wanda's attention.

"Brighter than these were the other silver things. Shimmering segments of silver stretched in twisted, tortured pieces across the table...tiny silver strands plucked and naked and scattered...splatters of silver liquid smeared on the table, the blankets, the walls..."

Everyone notices Wanda now that her screams cut through the room's silence. Wanda hears the others asking questions: "What's wrong?" and "What did she see?"To this last question, someone responds, "Nothing- nothing. The bodies were covered!"While the green blankets may have covered some of the bodies, the humans had left the others, those more familiar to Wanda exposed. On the table, they had left the bodies of souls, including a baby, "ripped into grotesque shreds."Wanda falls into a fit as the men try to hold her down and screams for the "torturers" to let her go. Jared tries to calm her down, but after what she saw, she even hurls the word "monster" at him. Doc slaps Wanda, trying to bring her around and it is at that moment Ian arrives at the hospital.

As Ian demands to know what is going on, the smell of the room, of the silver blood, causes Wanda to pass out. She is not out for long and when she comes to, Wanda easily works out that she is in Ian's arms as he takes her away from the hospital and overhears his conversation with Jared.

"...thought she'd have guessed what we were up to. Looks like I was wrong."

"You think that's what happened? That she was scared because Doc was trying to take the other souls out? That she was afraid for herself?"

"You don't?"

"How can you be so blind? Can't you imagine what that must have looked like to her in there?"

"I know we had the bodies covered before-"

"The wrong bodies, Jared."

Though Ian comes to her defense, Wanda can hear no more of what she witnessed in the hospital. Wanda tells Ian to put her down, but he continues to carry her to her room. She tells him a few more times, but when he does not listen, she shoves against his chest and kicks her legs free, causing Ian to loosen his grip on her. Wanda takes off running and does not stop, though she hears Ian and Jared fighting in the hesitance. Dashing through the big cavern, she does not care where her path takes her, as long as she is alone. Wanda moves through the first empty tunnel she can find, which happens to be the eastern tunnel. Running to the farthest end of the tunnel, Wanda finds herself in the game room, continuing until she is ankle deep in the spring. Curling into a ball, Wanda settles herself and dismisses Melanie when she tries to explain what they saw. Melanie goes without a fight and Wanda realizes how weak she has become over their months of friendliness.

With no one around, Wanda is left alone with the memories of what she witnessed, but not the means to mourn here. She settles on the way of the Bats, who mourned in silence. Wanda wants to cry, but deeming that "the human way," she locks her lips and holds the pain inside. It takes a few hours, but the others finally stumble upon her hiding place. Her silence continues even though the others rattle off question after question. When Jared arrives, he sends the others away and waits until they are gone to address her.

"Okay, Wanda, it's just you and me. Look I guess that mud have been pretty...bad. We never wanted you to see that. I'm sorry."

Wanda cannot comp rend this, since as someone mentioned earlier this was Jared's idea. He continues to talk to her, though she offers nothing as a response. Ian soon arrives at the cave, once again mincing words with Jared. Ian demands to know where she is and warns Jared to not get in his way again. When Ian claims he was not party to what happened in the hospital, Jared is quick to remind him that he was involved before and that after what Wanda saw, she considers them monsters and wants no comfort from them. Ian is not deterred, taking the light from Jared and moving towards Wanda. At the sound of his footsteps, she holds herself tighter and fears he might touch her. With a sigh, Ian sits on a neighboring stone, not too close, and turns off the light. Wanda waits for Ian to speak, but he leaves her to her silence.

"Finally, I stopped waiting and retiring to my mourning. Ian did not interrupt. I sat in the blackness of the big hole in the ground and grieved for lost souls with a human at my side."

From Stephenie Meyer's playlist: "Don't Stay"- Linkin Park (page 413-414)

"Just Like You"- Three Days Grave (page 415)