Chapter 0179 Hannah


    The sleek gray facade of the youth center stood stark against the bright blue sky, its barred windows almost looking like big, empty eyes staring at nothing. Ishuddered as I looked up at it.


    "Is this really what our local youth center looks like?" I murmured, ncing over at Sophia, the head counselor from my eating disorder awareness group-and my partner in the campaign. "I had no idea." Sophia grimaced as she looked up at the cold, uninviting building, and gave me a terse nod." Unfortunately, yes. I''ve been trying to direct parents away from sending their kids here for years... It''s not a friendly ce."


    I pressed my lips into a thin line and began striding up the stone steps. I would have to mention this to Noah, this ce needed an upgrade. Greenery, murals, anything to make it look more like a ce for rehabilitation for minors and less like a prison.


    Honestly, the fact that I hadn''t ever noticed this ce before now made me sick to my stomach. Too long I had spent ignoring my pack, instead focusing on my own ego and turmoil. Even if I was going to return to my rightful pack soon, I couldn''t leave Nightcrest with ces like this still scattered around.


    Although, I hadn''t talked to Noah in several days now and I was afraid to ever since ourst little tryst. Maybe I''d try to go through Scott instead, have him ry the message for me,


    But Noah was notorious for ignoring Scott, and I knew that despite everything, he''d be more likely to listen to me directly.


    Still, the thought made me shudder.


    Sophia and I stepped into the building nked by camera crew members and campaign staff, and were greeted by a tall nurse in pink scrubs.


    "Wee, Luna Hannah," the nurse said with a polite dip of her head. "Wee to Nightcrest Youth Center. Right this way."


    We followed the nurse through thebyrinthine hallways to the eating disorder ward, and soon, we were pushing through a set of heavy metal doors into themunal space. A nurse behind a nurse''s station eyed us over her sses, but said nothing as we entered. "This here is our eating disorder ward''smunal room," the nurse in pink exined, gesturing to the surrounding chairs, stic-covered sofas, and folding tables. There was a small television in the corner with a few teenagers sitting around it, and patients were scattered at tables ying various board games and doing other activities.


    One thing stood out to me: theplete and utterck of color. It was like someone threw up gray and beige all over the damn ce. And even though there was amunal kitchen off to the side, there was absolutely nothing appetizing about it.


    "This is it?" I asked, turning to face the nurse in pink. The cameras zoomed toward us, Emily directing them to get the perfect shots for the documentary.


    The nurse in pink nched slightly. "Yes," she said. "This is it."


    +


    I frowned as I looked around at the drab interior. For a so-called ''youth ward, it looked like something out of a horror movie.


    "Hm. What''s funding like?" I asked.


    The nurse nched again. "Sparse," she admitted with a wry chuckle. "We try to do what we can for the kids, but unfortunately..." She gestured at the board game table, where all of the games appeared so worn you could barely even read the text on the cards. "I''ll speak to my husband and see what we can do." I turned then to take in the patients themselves-all teenagers, mostly female. A few especially young ones, which really broke my heart. Some of them were deathly skinny, some were morbidly obese, but many lookedpletely ''normal".


    I exchanged a nce with Sophia and felt her pain. We both knew howmon it was for people with eating disorders to look just like everyone else. That was what made them so deadly.


    "Luna Hannah?" The soft sound of a girl''s voice caused me to turn, and there was a slight young girl sitting at a nearby table, wringing her hands nervously. She had various pieces of construction paper in front of her and at least a dozen paper cranes spread out on the table.


    "Did you make these?" I asked softly, crouching down to her level.


    The girl nodded excitedly and handed one to me. "They keep my hands busy," she said. "It helps when I get anxious.*Belonging to N?velDrama.Org.


    "Hmm..." I paused, turning the tiny paper crane this way and that in my hands. "Do you think you could teach me? I could use something like this to keep my hands busy, too." The girl beamed widely.


    I spent the afternoon with the kids-making paper cranes, ying board games, having tea, just chatting. The kids seemed lonely, and I genuinely felt for them; they needed the care that this ce provided, of course, but they missed their friends, their families, their ssmates


    GET IT NOW


    me othe