Dollhouse ➳ five sauce a.u.

thirty-six

The girl turned and happened to look over at me. I knew her somehow. I just can't remember how. She had a puzzled look on her face now, and walked over to me.

"Ashton?" She asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"

"W-what did you call me?" I asked her.

"Ashton, that's your name." She replied, before turning to look over at the nurse standing behind her. "Can you let him and I talk in private for a bit?"

The nurses both agreed without protests, and took us both to the room with the couches and tables in it. We sat down at a table, sitting across from each other, and the nurses left the room. They didn't really need to be with us at the moment anyway, since the wall separating this room from the main desk room is basically just windows. You can see into the room and out of it.

When the girl- Kaylee- called me by my name, it all clicked and I remembered everything again.

"What's going on? Why are you here?" She asked me.

"Calum is alive." I mumbled, making her seem more confused. "Brent, he kept me hostage in a house all alone for days, maybe it was a week. He must be C. He tied me up. Calum came once or twice. He must be alive."

"You must be insane," She replied, not believing a word I just said. When she noticed I was being serious she said, "Oh, you're being serious?"

"Did Brent ever talk to you?" I asked Kaylee.

She shook her head. "Not once."

"He seemed to have wanted Calum dead. Maybe, like you, he was framed too." I suggested. "I need to get out of here."

****

I sat in the room I was in this morning for about an hour, when I looked up to see somebody standing in the doorway.

"I thought you were dead," Said Michael. He had his arms crossed over his chest. Michael walked in and tossed me some clothes.

"How did you find out I was here?" I asked.

"Kaylee called me. She said you were here." He answered. "I have some news. Brent is dead."

"How's my mum doing? Is she okay?"

"She's upset, obviously. But she doesn't know why he killed himself. We do. He left us a note."

"What'd it say?"

"It has a bunch of C references." Michael explained. "We talked with Alex already. Just like everyone else, he's been worried sick about you."

"I saw Calum." I announced. "Brent took me to this house and tied me up. He had a gun. I thought he was going to kill me, but he left me there for days. Calum came once or twice."

"You've been gone for nearly a week." He told me. "Are you sure that was really Calum?"

"I'm positive."

"H-how was he? Is he hurt?" Michael asked.

"He seems fine, just scared. He told me that Brent was dead." I answered. "He wants to come home, but he thinks people back home don't want him back."

"I don't blame him for thinking that. I mean, so many people hated him." He said. "Well get dressed so we can go back home."

"They're going to let you just take me home?" I questioned, surprised.

"I guess so. All it took was for them to talk on the phone with your mom." Michael answered, before walking out of the room so I could get changed.

****

When I walked into my house, my mum was in the kitchen, cooking my favorite food, spaghetti. I was surprised. I thought'd she'd still be pretty upset about Brent...

She hugged me tightly, and started to cry a bit.

"I thought you were gone," She cried into my shoulder as we hugged. "I was so scared."

"I'm okay now," I told her and she wiped her eyes with her sleeve, before getting out three plates from the cupboard.

"The police want to talk to you tomorrow about the whole thing." She announced. "You can talk to me about it when you're ready.

I didn't know how I was supposed to tell her what happened, let alone the police. How do I explain why Brent took me to that house and tied me up? I'm not going to have a conversation with anyone about C.

My mum called for Lauren to come downstairs for dinner. Lauren hugged me before we sat down to eat. About two minutes after we all sat down to eat, my phone started ringing. It was an unknown number so I didn't answer my phone. Then they kept calling me, and my mum said I should just answer it to get them to stop calling, so I did.

"Hello?" I said.

"Ash- somebody, C, l-left me a package at my f-front door." Alex exclaimed, stuttering a lot. He sounded scared. I quickly excuse myself from dinner and walked outside to the front porch.

"What's in it?" I asked, but there wasn't an answer. Just sobbing. "Alex? Are you okay, babe?"

He didn't answer again. The call ended.

//

A/N: So, what do you think C sent Alex, and why do you think the call suddenly ended?