It had been two months since Connor Walsh had arrived at Auxilius, but the only two people he could trust in the entire clinic were Dr. Engel, his therapist, and Owen Sabi, an eighteen year-old volunteer worker. Even though no one said it around him, it was clear that Connor was a "special case," not that he really minded.
For starters, he had on red scrubs, which meant he was on the third floor, where not a lot of people stayed, and he had only one nurse, while others had different ones every other day. And, best of all, he didn't have to attend Group Therapy, something that was currently taking place right now. Instead, he would be with Owen, doing whatever he wanted.
"Sorry I took so long. The newbie disappeared, and it was hectic downstairs for a while. I just barely got away by saying it was time for our Partner Therapy."
Speak of the devil.
Connor looked up and saw Owen leaning against the door, head tilted back for support. He breathed unevenly, as if he had run.
"Do you mind if I get something to drink first?" he asked. "I'll get you something, too."
Connor pretended to think about it, although he had mentally answered Owen's question way before he finished asking it. "I suppose, if you'll buy me something good. Like grape soda, or something."
Owen rolled his eyes. "Soda; too rich for my paycheck. I meant something free, like water, but if you want to be expensive. There's a vending machine for that downstairs. Let's go."
"Water's for babies." Grinning, Connor stood and followed Owen out the door. If it were any other time, he would have said no, as the first and second floors had the most people, but all the patients would be at Group Therapy, in the lobby, and his red scrubs told nurses not to go near him.
As they neared the stairs, Connor groaned, not wanting to have to walk down two flights of stairs. "Can we take the elevator?"
"No. Dr. Engel will be mad if he finds out I'm letting you use the elevators. You know it's off-limits for patients. Besides, it's only two flights. Consider it a work out."
"Well, he'll be mad if he finds out I'm abusing the privilege I have, and the two flights feel like two hundred. And I don't need to work out. I'm healthy. Besides, what would you do if I was walking the stairs but I collapsed because of the fatigue?"
"You just said you're healthy," Owen deadpanned. "We're taking the stairs."
Connor opened his mouth again, trying to think of a decent comeback, when Owen opened the doors leading to the stairway and pushed him through the doorway.
As they made their way down the stairs, Owen dug through the pockets of his scrubs, frowning.
"Damn, I don't have my wallet." He turned to Connor with a sly look on his face. "You know, I'm not that thirsty anymore. This is a sign from the heavens that I shouldn't buy you anything."
Connor put on his own sly face. "No, it means you need to work out more. Now go back upstairs or downstairs and get your wallet while I wait for you here."
The smirk on Owen's face turned into a frown. "I can't do that. You know you have to have a chaperone at all times."
Connor waved his hand carelessly, although a small nervous feeling grew in his chest. "Trust me, I can be on my own for five minutes. Everyone's at GT and the nurses know to avoid me. I'll be fine," he half-lied when Owen still looked skeptical. "Now go." To prove he was serious, Connor pushed Owen back towards the stairs as he himself walked through the doors of the First Floor.
Luckily, there seemed to be no one near by. Even more luckily, the vending machine was just up front. He walked towards it quickly, trying to kill the growing pang of paranoia in his chest when he heard a can fizzling.
He took a step back, his shoes squeaking against the marble floor and hand thumping the wall next to him. It was probably just a nurse, but he wasn't going to take any chances. He was just about to turn back quietly and leave, when a female's face popped into view. There was a small frown on her face as she glanced down at him.
However, that frown turned into a smirk. Her wavy brown hair turned blonde and straight. She grew taller as she stepped closer towards him.
It was her!
Panicking, Connor turned around to run away. However, in his hurry, he ended tripping over his own feet and face-planted. He flipped back forward to face her, crawling back on his hands quickly.
"G-get away from me!" Connor begged. "Don't touch me! Please." He looked down at her feet and saw blood. His blood. "Please."
"Connor, what are you -- Are you the newbie who disappeared?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Connor saw Owen appear from the doors. He looked confused, staring at Connor and the girl back and forth.
"Owen," Connor managed to make out. "Owen, it's her; she found me. How did she find me?" He looked up to one of the few people he trusted in the world with pleading eyes. "Call Dr. Engel. Call security. Get her out of here!"
Connor watched Owen shout for a nurse before turning his attention onto him.
"Connor." Owen bent down, clapping both his hands on Connor's shoulder blades. "It's not her. This is someone else."
Connor breathed heavily. "W-what?"
"It's -- not -- her." Owen's gaze was hard as he glanced into Connor's eyes. "She's not going to hurt you. I think she's the newbie I told you disappeared."
"Really?" As Connor looked past Owen to face the girl, she seemed to change back. Her blonde locks turned brown, and the look of pleasure on her face turned into one of panic. Even the blood on the floor turned out to be orange soda. However, Connor and Owen's attention was on the heavily shaking girl.
"Um, Liv Marshall?" Owen said tentatively as he began walking towards her slowly. "Are you alr--"
He was cut off when the girl suddenly squatted, clapped her hands against her ears, and let out the loudest scream Connor had ever heard. Both he and Owen clapped their own hands over their ears, although Connor could still hear a faint screaming. He began moving away from the girl again, but for a different reason than before.
Nurses and staff members immediately began running into the hallway, the majority of them female. Thankfully, they all ignored Connor and headed straight for the screaming girl, although Connor's fingers still clenched at his ears. In the blink of an eye, a tranquilizer appeared in one of the nurse's hands and was inserted into the girl's right arm.
The effects were instantaneous. The girl finally stopped screaming and lied unconscious in the nurse's arms.
"She's supposed to be a Green, Level Two," the nurse holding her said to the nurses around her. "Get her in the Green, but keep her on Level One for a while. We'll have to see what happened."
The nurses around her nodded and began moving. Owen also stepped forward, but Connor shot his hand out to grab Owen's arm. His fingers dug into Owen's skin as the numerous females moved around merely a few feet away from him.
"I -- Help --" It was difficult for Connor to get the words out of his mouth, but Owen seemed to understand.
"Come on, let's get you out of here." Owen gently pried Connor's hand from his forearm -- with much effort -- and stepped in front of him to block his view. "Stand up, now." He forcefully pulled Connor to his feet, a feat that should have been impossible considering their height differences. However, Connor had lost a lot of weight while at Auxilius, while Owen had done the opposite.
Owen began tugging Connor away from the group, but Connor couldn't withdraw his gaze from the crowd in front of him. Young adults walked back and forth, minding their own business, acknowledging Connor only by raising an eyebrow at him. The scene looked familiar to him. . . .
A broad hand on his shoulder made Connor jump forward. He turned around quickly, eyes wide open in fright, when he saw Dr. Engel with his hands up in a surrendering position.
"I heard a scream, and the nurses here told me about what happened," he said to Connor, face apologetic for the scare he gave him. "I was wondering if you wanted to talk about it, since we both have a free period."
Connor hesitated. He was relieved that it was Dr. Engel whom Connor was speaking to at the moment, but he didn't know if he wanted to spend a whole hour talking to him. Their appointment for the day wasn't until three hours later.
"You should go," Owen supplied from the side. "You looked shaken up when I found you. It might be good to talk about it. Especially with Dr. Engel."
"Speaking of talking with Dr. Engel . . ." said doctor slowly turned his attention onto the volunteer nurse. "Why was he out on Level One? Alone?"
Connor sighed as Owen tried to come up with a plausible excuse.
"I'll talk with you," Connor said to save Owen, as the scenario was mainly his fault.
Dr. Engel smiled, turning his attention away from a relieved Owen. "Let's go to my office, then."
Although Connor acted like he was only following because he was forced to, he was kind of glad that Dr. Engel had showed up. It had been a while since he had thought about her.
"So, tell me what happened."
Connor sat in the seat across from Dr. Engel like he did three times a week.
"I was with Owen, going to get a soda from Level One," Connor began, when he realized that this could get Owen in trouble. He looked up in alarm at Dr. Engel, but he only raised an eyebrow, motioning for him to continue.
"Owen had left his wallet so I was alone on Level One," Connor continued. "I thought it would be alright, since it was Group Therapy and the nurses wouldn't bother me. But then the girl, I think Owen said her name was Liz --"
"Liv?" Dr. Engel interrupted. "Liv Marshall?"
Connor frowned. "Um, I think so," he said slowly. "She has brown hair and is a little shorter than me?"
Dr. Engel nodded, tapping his pencil against his open notebook.
"But when I first saw her, she reminded me of someone else." Connor noticed Dr. Engel's pen begin to move. "She looked like her. Eliza."
* * * * *
That night, Connor lied in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Dr. Engel had told him to take the sleeping pills, but Connor didn't feel like taking them, as he didn't want to risk dealing with the side effects there sometimes were.
Who was Liv Marshall? What was it about her that made Connor think of Eliza?
"Come on, I can't be the only one who wants this."
Connor twisted around on his bed as he felt Eliza's hot breath on his ear. He remembered the way she had laughed. The way she had pretended to care. The way she had grabbed him with her cold hands and . . .
"No!" Connor sat up, breathing heavily. He reached for the pills, realizing why Dr. Engel wanted him to swallow them. However, in his haste, he knocked over the cup of water. The cup didn't break, as it was made of plastic, but the water in it dripped to the ground. As it spread, the clear liquid turned into a crimson red.
Head spinning, Connor slammed his hand over the bell as fast as he could. His eyes remained glued to the puddle on the ground, and refused to look away even when two staff members entered the room.
"What is -- Oh, you need another cup of water?"
Even when the nurse who had spoken had left and the other began dabbing at the puddle with a rag, Connor unconsciously continued ringing the bell. As he did so, he felt a gentle arm on his hand. He pulled back roughly, drawing in his arms close to his torso.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
As the nurse looked down at him with a concerned expression, Connor couldn't help but feel exposed. He wrapped the blankets around him in an effort to cover himself, but it had the opposite effect. He only remembered the breeze he had felt ripple across his entire body three months ago.
The nurses began whispering, glancing over at Connor every once in a while. For a second, the adults turned into teenagers who had found something new to gossip about. Their concerned expressions turned into one of cruel mockery, and the room turned into a school hallway.
". . . Level One?" Connor heard one of them say, clearing the flashback from his mind.
"Level One?" Connor repeated in a whisper. Him? Level One was for the people who got worse instead of better. They were strapped down at night, and there was a surveillance camera installed in the rooms. The patients there couldn't go anywhere without an adult staff member and weren't allowed to leave their rooms, even for meals. He was going in there?
"Connor, can you stand on your own?" The nurse moved forward to gently pull Connor out of the bed.
"I'm going to Level One?" Connor asked, too dumbfounded to resist.
The nurse smiled gently. "Just for tonight," he said. "What happened today must have had a great effect on you. It'll only be for one night."
Connor was going to resist but knew that it would be hopeless. If anything, he would also be tranquilized and be forced into a room.
His eyes narrowed. This was all her fault. If she hadn't been there, he wouldn't have had the flashback. He wouldn't be feeling this way right now. He wouldn't be on his way to Level One.
As they walked, they passed a window. It was only for a moment, but Connor could see their reflection. He was in the center, arms held down by two people at his sides, like he was being arrested. Like she should've been arrested.
"Step up."
The nurse's sudden command made Connor realize that he was standing in front of the open doors leading to Level One. Connor obliged, and as he walked through the rooms, he could see some of the people in there.
The first three, Connor didn't know. Two of them were girls while the other was a guy, but all three sat up in their beds, glaring through the window facing Connor.
The fourth one, however, was different from the rest. She was sleeping on the bed, and Connor didn't have to search for her identification on the door to figure out who she was.
Liv Marshall.
The entire time Connor took crossing her room, he kept his steely gaze on her. She pretended to be innocent, trying to play the victim, but she was nothing but a sneak. Everyone probably thought she was normal, but she was even worse than Connor. She was probably in here for compulsive lying disorder, like Eliza should've been.
"Now, remember, this is only for tonight," the nurse said as he and the other one released him. "We won't strap you in, but there will be someone outside of your door all night."
Connor nodded, not replying, as he went over to sit on the bed. He didn't belong there, but the nurses wouldn't believe him. Either that, or they would pretend like they didn't believe him, so life would be easier for them. Just like his good-for-nothing parents.
Another nurse entered, holding a tray with pills and a cup of water. He set them down on the table next to Connor's bed. He counted out three pills into one palm and handed them to Connor with the cup of water in his other hand.
This time, Connor took the pills without hesitation. He swallowed them as soon as they entered his mouth, not wanting something that happened previously to happen again. He went underneath the covers and waited for the nurses to leave before he closed his eyes.
Not long after, they all left, turning the lights off as they did so. As soon as the door closed behind him, Connor closed his eyes, relaxing. He just wanted the day to end as quickly as possible.