Guarded Light

The Hospital ~ Chapter 6

We entered the south entrance, with Peoria already there, talking to the nurse. "Come on, I just want to bring someone in with me, it's not a big deal." The nurse shook her head, "I'm sorry miss, but unless they are already here, then they cannot go with you." I walk behind Peoria, "Right on time." She whispered. "You called?" The nurse turns to me, then back to Peoria, "Is this the student you were trying to bring with you?" She nodded, "This is Deia." I wave "Hello." "Is that your full name or is it shortened?" I grunt a little, I haven't heard my full name since Dyn yelled at me for breaking a window when I heard he was leaving, too. "My full name is Deïanira"

Peoria leaned over. "Are you guys into Greek mythology?" "No. My father just got drunk when I was born, so he made my name Deïanira. It helps that my family is from Greece." "Ah, I should have remembered that story." The nurse handed me a visitor sticker. "You are free to go." We turn to leave. "Oi, you haven't forgotten me have you?" She snaps her head in Luka's direction, then growls. "You brought him?!" I smiled and looked away as she stared at me. "Damn you." She turned back to enter him in when he looked at her really cocky, visitor pass in hand. "Tada. I'm a regular." She glares at him. "Annnd back to the mission." She turns her head to face me, to find I had left. "I take over for you, boss." he laughed.

"So, where are we going?" He scouted out a nearby map, "I don't think I've ever entered this way before." He kneels and stares at the map for a good while. I debated whistling, but figured I'd disrupt the peace here. "You lost down there?" "No, I just forgot how convoluted this place is. I'm trying to find the fast route through." I lean against the wall and take out my phone. I check my cats, well, fake cats. That fat cat ate all my food, but there is this really cute with yellow and blue eyes sleeping in a bed of pancakes. 'Using syrup voids warranty' There's also a cat sleeping in a kotatsu with an orange on its head.

I want to do this in real life. But what if that fat one shows up... "Got a path." "Oh right, the path. The path made by you. The path chosen specially by you. Your path." He hits his head with his palm, I grin. "Deia. Lets just go." "On your-" "I get it! I took a long time. I memorized my path so I wouldn't have to make it if I ever enter this way again." He got up, "Onward! On the-" "Yellow brick road?" "Can it, Princess!" He grabs my ponytail. "Ow, ow oww OW!" "MARCH!"

I'm screaming down the hallway for him to let go, but he put on a pair of headphones and marched. "LET GO OF MY HAIR!" He looks back at me, "So. The path. To dawn or to twilight?" "Which will make you let go of my hair?" He shrugged. "Whichever one is true to you." And dark again. Odd, I can't tell if it's just how he is, or if it's because we're going to see them. I'm getting over it by making as many references as I can, but this might be the way he does things. He pulls my hair tighter. "Heigh ho!" He's getting better at snapping back, I think. I feel another bunch of hair come out."OW." "Suck it up, buttercup." I try to reach back a release his grip before I'm out of hair. He yanks my hair once more. "I wouldn't do that, poppet." I screamed on the inside. "Would you stop with the nicknames? I don't even care if you call me Deïanira, its better than puppet." He risked his tongue.

"No, no, no, I called you poppet, not puppet. Like the flower." "And why are you still doing this?" At this moment, he stops, lets go of my hair, and turns around. He never stopped being dark since we came here, he just acted to pop back to mess with me. He laughs and looks at the hair he ripped out of my head. "You stopped me." A little harder, he laughs once more. "Who would..." I figured it out. He was doing the same thing that Ryuu did to him. I surprised him because I kept trying to stop him. Why here though? Why in a hospital, with dying people would he show me that? "Letsa go." He didn't drag me this time, which make my pounding head happy.

Only after a few minutes of realizing that my head is not on fire, I look at Luka. Headphones on playing a familiar tune, check. Staring forward, check. I can't tell if he's dark. For all I know, he's not there at all. Only focusing on what he has to, so that his mind can wander alone. He takes a sharp turn to the right, then a left and stops. "Hello, miss." When I catch up, I see him talking to a nurse. She nods, and opens the doors to the left of her station. "Thank you." He walks to the door. "Well, aren't you coming?" And as he walks in the doors close.

I walk to the nurse. "Hello." She's tapping on a keyboard, "Miss?" She keeps tapping away. "Miss." She finishes the line and looks up,"Hello, what may I help you with?" Uh, had not thought that one through. "What room is this?" She had started tapping again. "Unit 23." Her focus on her computer, but listening faintly. "No, I meant what room is it? What does it do?" She stopped, looks at me in disgust. "If you don't know, you aren't permitted inside." Dang it. I said it wrong. "Is there a patient by the name of Dyntos Ronou?" She tapped into her computer. "Yes." "Status?" She moved her hand to the mouse and scrolled down. "Comatose." "May I go and check the patient?" "No." She was stern. "Miss, that patient would be my brother. I have not seen him in three years. May I please see him." "You shoulda just said that sooner!" She put a thick accent on the 'shoulda' "No." A message came through an intercom on her desk. "Just let her in." "Ack!" She jumped out of her chair. She mumbled. "I left it on again.." Louder she says, "Of course, sir!" She rushes to push the button by the intercom. The doors open once again. "Thank you!" I rush into the door.

"Finally." Luka's sitting in a chair by the door. "She wouldn't listen." "Or she was doing that on purpose." I punched his arm. "Seriously?" He took out a walkie-talkie "You have to stop letting me do this, Joker." The nurse's voice came through, "Roger that, sir!" He puts the walkie-talkie away. "Old friend of my sisters. She works as an intern at this hospital. She just types the names of everyone who comes in here." With that, he gets up.

"What is this place?" "Long term care unit. Unit number 23 of this hospital. It's not really part of the hospital, but the higher-ups like to include it." He starts to point out patients. "They only keep our 'special' comatose patients here until they are twenty-one. We still have to follow some rules here, and one of them is not to kill any patient under twenty-one unless they are able to sign a consent form. Since these guys aren't waking up anytime, they wait. Oh, that one's been in a car accident. Poor guy..."

He keeps rattling of different patients as I look around. It seems nicer than what I was expecting. Considering how these people might wake up, they get a nicer room. "Here we are." We arrive at a silver door. Luka gestures for me to open it. I reach for the handle. It creaks, but opens. The room here is about as cold as its atmosphere. "Welcome to Lost."

I see almost thirty patients in beds made of metal. Every patient looks the same. Each a harsh expression, with their arms at their sides. The only difference I see is their hair and their outfits. Some have buns, pigtails and the like. Some have haphazardly cut hair. Lines where the hair has kept growing compared to the dye they used. It seemed like they were all wearing what they wore when they came here.

"Not what you were expecting, huh?" I had realized that I'd gasped, "...No, not at all." I hear the door at the other end creak and open. "There you guys are!" A man with an IPad came walking in. Peoria was on the screen. "How long will you stay in the protection room?" She stared outside of the camera. A faint 'okay' was heard before she turned back. "I'll see you in school the day after tomorrow." "Woohoo!" "You can call me if you need me, but I gotta go, bye!" She waved and tapped her IPad. The call ended. The man waved and left.

Luka turned to me, "Are you ready?" "I have a strict, 'No deals with the Devil' policy." "Whenever you're ready." I took a few breaths. "Rules are meant to be broken." "Good. To your left." He pointed, and there he was. Lying in the bed, his hair had flattened. Every few seconds, he took a breath. He faintly smells of home. Of paint and caramel. Of late nights and feathers. That scar on his face was from when I cut him with my nail to stop papa. His shoulders burned from when he started a fire in the shed by the house. I took his hand, still rough and hard. I grasped his hand, and I fell. Sent to my knees, I cried, imagining his grasp, what he'd hold me in whenever I was bullied for being smart.

"You're perfect, don't let them break you down." He said in his voice, like papa's. He held me in his grasp when he left, "I'll see you again." I cried into his shoulder. "Hey... Don't let me break you down." "But, you're leaving! You're leaving me like Papa left us!" "But I'll come back." The only tear I ever saw from him fell that day, as he turned his back and shut our netted door.

"Dyn..." I gasped for air during my tears. "You never came back.." I couldn't speak. He was gone. "Goodbye, Dyn." I held his hand as I got up, still crying. I let go. Luka puts his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry." It was all he said. I turned in to cry, but he backed up. I should have guessed that would have happened. He was still dark. "How about we get out of here?" I nod as he leads me back out the way we came.