Vanished || l.h. au

seventeen

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, anesthesia is a drug. Too much of it in your system can result in an overdose. Unless the person who is keeping you under is keeping a close eye on you to regulate when you’re waning off of the drug and acting on the precise moment to inject you again before your mind starts to wake up.”

Luke blinked at me, eyes wide and sort of in… awe?

“How do you know all of this?” He asked, his voice surprised.

I shrugged my shoulders, picking up my spoon again so I could finally resume eating my cereal which was sadly probably soggy by now.

“When I get bored I google things.”

Luke stared down at his hands, and I could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he processed all the information. I knew it was a lot to take in, but now that Luke has more insight on what we’re dealing with since he woke up, maybe, just maybe, we could get closer to solving his case and finding Luke. Well his actual physical body.

“So you said this person had to be analyzing me, waiting for the precise moment to reinject me with the anesthesia?”

I nodded my head, taking another bite of my cereal.

“That makes sense then.” he said, his eyes looking away from me as if he was trying to focus on something else. My eyebrows scrunched together, and I pursed my lips.

“What makes sense?”

He flicked his gaze to me, leaning forward as he kept steady eye contact with me.

“Remember that day at the diner, the day this all happened?” he asked. I looked at him in disbelief.

“Luke, how could you think I would forget that day? It’s when everything turned to straight up hell.”

“Well the old guy, the one we were running away from and I told you was bad news?” I nodded my head, pressing for him to continue. “I know him.”

I let out a breath of air, just about done with Luke. I wasn’t clueless to everything. “Well I figured when you told me he was bad news, Luke.” I rolled my eyes at him.

He shook his head, cradling it in his hands as he looked down for a brief moment before looking back up at me. “No, no I mean I know him. I’ve known him since I was a little boy.” He told me.

Now that was news.

“You kind of failed to mention that tiny detail, babe.” I told him sarcastically. Not that I could do much with that information but it was still something. “So who is he?”

“He’s a doctor like my dad. They used to work on the same floor and everything. My dad had known him long before I was born, too. But he’s always been a little off according to my dad. He would never let me near the guy, telling me he was mentally unstable.”

“So why would they allow him to be a doctor?” I asked in shock. I definitely wouldn’t want this doctor operating on me and I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one if everyone else knew the same as me.

Luke shrugged his shoulders. “He may be mentally unstable but he’s a hell of a good doctor; steady hand and everything. I guess the hospital was willing to overlook all his mental issues if it meant having a good doctor. Besides this is a small town, Beth, many of our doctors just go to Tulsa or Oklahoma City to work.”

I had to agree, it made sense no matter how wrong it really was.

I got up from my stool, bringing the cereal bowl with me to the kitchen sink and placing it down, filling it up with some water so that the leftover Cheerios wouldn’t harden and stick to the walls of the bowl. That would be just fantastic to try and scrub with a sponge later.