Untouched, Un-pure

2

When Casey woke up, she was startled to find that the door had been left open by someone. She slowly stood and walked through the door to investigate.

"Hello?"

No answer.

"Hedwig? Patricia?" she paused, "Dennis..." she whispered as the night before came flooding back to her. She traced where his hand had been on her cheek. She quickly snapped out of it and looked around the room, seeing a rail of clothes. She ran her hand over them all until she got to Dennis' shirt. She turned on her heel and saw a computer. She rushed to it and saw folders with names. 

Jade. Barry. Patricia. Kevin. Hedwig. Hedwig! 

She clicked the file as fast as she could. She had to know how he was doing. 

Overwhelming guilt washed over her when she saw Hedwig crying.

"Um... hey. I'm Hedwig and I did something really horrible. I made Casey upset. She was crying and she wouldn't wake up and it was all my fault. I'm so worried about if she's okay or not but Mr Dennis says I shouldn't see her until tomorrow. I just feel bad... she was so nice to me," he sniffed, "I'm sorry," he clicked off the camera. Casey had never felt guilt like this. He blamed himself. 

She watched some of the other logs too. 

She looked at the screen and thought. Should she watch Dennis' video?

She couldn't contain her curiosity... besides, he would never know. She clicked on Dennis' file.

"Hedwig has given me the light... because Casey has had a panic attack. This raises many questions for me and Patricia. Maybe she isn't as unpure as we thought. Regardless, I find myself attracted to her. I want to protect her, for some strange reason. The reassurance that I'm doing this to protect Kevin is the only thing stopping me from feeling... from getting attached to her. I can feel it happening." he laughed, "I think I'm going soft. I even gave her my watch after I put her into bed. Hedwig's devastated but he'll come round." He looked sharply to the side as he heard his phone beep, "it's time," he stood and opened the door to Casey's room and clicked the video to a stop. It took Casey a minute to process that Dennis had opened the door... on purpose? She remembered that he said he'd left her his watch. She went back into her room and brought it back to the computer with her. She also brought the book and a crayon- writing down a name from the screen on each page. As she put the book back under her bed she realised she put the watch by the computer. She picked it up and sat in the chair, admiring it. She kissed it, smiling before holding it close to her chest. Nobody had ever shown her a gesture like that before. She looked at it again, running her finger round it's outline. She stood, not drawing her attention from it at any point, and went back into her room and shut the door. 

As Dennis watched through the keyhole of the locked door that Casey didn't even seem to notice, stunned. She didn't try to escape. She didn't try to get help through the computer. She just observed. She checked on Hedwig. She checked on him. And that was all. She really was different. What he had said in the clip was true- he did feel himself becoming more and more attracted to her every day.

It suddenly dawned on Casey that she had been put through a test. A test of her loyalty. And she had passed. 

When she looked again at the watch she realised it also had the date. She had officially been 18 for almost 3 weeks. Which meant that she had been there for almost two months. Two months, and she didn't miss her old life for a second. The only thing she would have liked would be the option to go for a walk. She missed walking through the woods. Like hunting without the weapons. Her very own nature documentary, live before her eyes. But she couldn't complain. She had everything she needed and people that seemed to almost... care about her.