Tomorrow

Chapter Six: Moonstruck

Chapter Six

            I stare at the door for what must have been seconds but felt like hours, my mind racing. Why was Andrea back? Why is she here? Could she be planning to hurt my parents?

            Could she be planning to hurt me or Nick?

            A hand touches my shoulder and I jump. "Are you okay, sweetheart? A nurse asks as I recoil. I wrap my arms around my thin waist and contemplate telling her about Andrea. The lady stares at me sweetly, smiling a little and taking a step closer. "Hello? Do you need me to call someone?" she asks.

            "Yeah, I-" What if she's in on it too? The thought causes me to stop in my tracks. Anyone in this hospital could be in on Andrea's plan, whatever it is. And that fact scared me more than anything. I bite my lower lip and force a smile. "I was just thinking."

            "We have someone you could see if you're having problems dealing with the loss of your loved ones," she says matter-of-factly.

            "I haven't lost anyone," I say defensively, my blood heating.

            "Oh, I know, they're physically here, but mentally, they're gone. And the faster you accept that, the better."

            My heart skips a beat, and then picks back up, struggling against the immense weight in my chest. My face must show a lot because the lady's face turns kind and she purses her lips as if disapproving the unfairness of my situation. It seemed genuine. But more than anything, I wanted to slam her into that wall and beat the living hell out of her. "I'm already seeing someone," I force out through clenched lips and shut eyes.

            "Well, I'm glad to hear that," she says, turning on her heel and walking away, writing something on her clipboard.

            Everything in here becomes too much. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling too bright, the gray concrete walls too suppressing. The clink and clatter of the metal bars over the patients' doors seem menacing and the stains on the floor start looking like dried blood. I make my way out, as fast as I can without raising suspicion. You never know. In this place, they can sense crazy like a canine can smell dead  people.

            Once I'm outside, it's all I can do to bend over and throw up in a trash bin on the corner of the building. My vomit feels like it turns to icicles the moment it leaves my mouth, and the tears on my face freeze and make my face feel tight. Pretty soon there's nothing left in my stomach and all I'm doing is standing there, doubled-over a gross city trash can, heaving as my body tries to overcome the shock of what I've realized. My parents need to be taken out of there. They're not safe.

            But will they ever be, really? Andrea's back, and for a reason. She won't stop until she's completed her purpose. And what could I do to stop her? I can't go to the authorities. They'd laugh at me, look at my record and see that I'm mentally unstable and then they'd send me to the same loony bin my parents are in, where I'd be at Andrea's disposal.

            That means I'm not safe either. I will never be. She's not stuck in there, and any little thing I do, she could tell Dr. Chen and he'd be forced to put me into the mental hospital, where Andrea could drug and abuse me as much as she wants. I wipe my mouth and stare at the trash before me.

            That's why she told you to say that to your mom, says a little voice in my head. She wanted you to look angry and hateful at a helpless mental patient. There's cameras in the rooms. I don't know if they have audio, but the security guards can certainly see what's going on. That both calms and uneases me. Andrea can't be abusing my mom. Unless the security guards were in on it too.