Wings | ✓

5. a pill

"happy birthday, ava!" the nurses cooed, eyes shining as they stood at the foot of my bed with a small cake balanced carefully in one of their hands. greg stood by the door, a small smile on his face. i was grinning like a maniac, glancing excitedly at the small pile of gifts and back to the cake.

i haven't had cake in such a long time!

"make a wish," greg said, before beckoning the nurse holding the cake to come closer to me. i clasped my hands together and said my silent wish in my head, then opened my eyes and blew out the single candle.

"you're finally sixteen," greg laughed, reaching over to ruffle my hair gently. even though the nurses and greg looked so happy, there was a sad glint in their eyes. he once told me it was because they felt sad that i had to spend my childhood locked in this little room.

"gifts!" i giggled, pointing at the pile of neatly wrapped presents the nurses held in their hands. they passed me the gifts, and i opened them happily.

i squealed loudly when i unwrapped the first gift. it was another pack of glow-in-the-dark stars! the other three gifts were pretty neat too, i got two story books and a pretty pink hairbrush. i kept them all on my bedside table.

unfortunately, the nurses and greg could stay for long. they waited until all the gifts were unwrapped and my cake was devoured, then one of the nurses passed me another plastic baggie filled with medicine, and they bid their goodbyes.

when the door closed behind them and the room was filled with silence, i eyed the baggie skeptically. it looked identical to the other baggies i've been given. gingerly, i opened it and dug out the two familiar white pills and swallowed them quickly.

i didn't think that there would be a purple pill in the little baggie, and moved to shove the bag under the bed when i noticed a tiny pill, smaller than any other pill, peeked out from under all the medication. it was so small, it looked like a little ball bearing from the ballpoint pens greg liked to use. i swallowed thickly.

how did the voice in my dream know?

i sighed, the questions running through my mind, but no answers came to me. this was the first time in eight years that something so strange is happening.

but why? what changed?

my conditioned worsened. that's all that changed. and then the dreams kept occurring, after they tried to increase the dosage of the medication i was taking, and the voice won't go away.

what was going on?

i didn't have to dwell too long on my frustration, because soon my eyelids began to droop, tired from the melatonin that i had taken, and i gratefully succumbed to sleep, drowning out all the strange questions in my head.