Chapter Fourteen Aria

Chapter Fourteen

Aria

I awoke the next morning, blinking through the perplexity of what had happened last night. Wondering if I’d had a true interaction with Valeen or if the trauma had made me start imagining things.

One thing I knew was that I was unendingly thankful for the day.

Thankful I had another to live, even though I felt the sharp sting of devastation that Pax had never shown.

It was hard, not knowing whether he was okay. Where he was. What had happened after I’d been awakened two nights ago.

It didn’t help that Ellis had been distraught when I asked for Pax.

But the only thing I could do was press on.

Today had been much like yesterday.

Structured.

Breakfast, recess, then art therapy.

The only difference was that today my mother had come to visit. She’d cried the entire time. Again and again, she’d told me she wished it didn’t have to be this way.

I’d told her I wished it didn’t, either.

I’d hugged her fiercely before I whispered goodbye, sorrow splitting me in two at the thought that it might be the last time I would see her.

Dr. Perry had picked around in the recesses of my mind for more information. Asking for details hidden in my drawings, as if all my secrets were concealed in the brushstrokes of my hand.

I’d cried openly when she informed me that they would be transferring me to the adult facilities tomorrow.

I would be held involuntarily, deemed a suicide risk.

I’d considered telling her of the man who’d sneaked into my room, my fear that he’d been sent to kill me, but I knew she would think it only a ploy.

A manipulation.

The only good thing to come of this was that Jenny would be discharged tomorrow.

She was happy and seemed well.

For a time, her demons were purged, and I prayed it would afford her time enough to build a new foundation. For her to fortify her spirit against the attacks, the war few knew was waged on their hearts and minds.

By evening, the hope of this morning had bled away, replaced by a suffocating despondency.

“What’s up with you tonight? Are you sad I’m leaving tomorrow?” Jenny gave me one of her overaffected pouts that were completely genuine from where she sat beside me at the long table as we ate dinner. “Tell me you’re going to miss me.”

“I am absolutely going to miss you,” I admitted. So much that the words cracked in my throat.

“What are you going to do without me?” She jostled her shoulder into mine, going for a tease as she tried to keep the emotion at bay. Torn between this friendship we’d found and her thrill that she was getting out of this place.

“Eat all your Snack Packs, I guess.” I forced a giant grin.

She cracked up.

It sounded like music.

“I’ll tell the kitchen they have your name on them. Deal?” She squeezed my hand.

“Deal,” I returned.

She tugged on my hand a little, her voice thickening. “I really hope we can keep in touch after this.”

“I do, too.” My words were soggy, unable to shake the melancholy that sank into my bones.

So heavy I wanted to weep.

I forced myself to take a few bites to appease the counselors observing the room, but I was barely able to swallow around the bile that kept rising in my throat.

Sickness grew, and a foreboding filled the space.

An omen that hung in the air.

It was then that I felt it—the corruption beating against me.

In me.

Through me.

The breath wheezed from my lungs in a bout of panic, and a shiver raced across my flesh and tumbled down my spine.

Freezing cold and smothering at the same time.

As if its presence had sucked the oxygen from the room.

Jenny chattered on, as if time hadn’t sped up and brought me closer to my end, immune to the obliterating wickedness that curled through the cafeteria.

Penetrating.

Bounding.

Infesting.

Gathering my courage, I turned to look over my shoulder.

Evil glared back.

It was the same man who’d been in my room two nights ago. Wearing blue scrubs, his frame squatty and thick, his dusty-blond hair sheared close to his head.

For a moment, we were locked, my gaze held prisoner by the man who was plotting my demise.

He finally jerked himself free of the bloodlust and forced himself to turn back to his work. He shook out a garbage liner and replaced it in the bin. He tied off the full trash bag he’d removed and slung it over his shoulder.

“Hello? What are you looking at?”

Jenny waved a hand in my face, and I whipped back around. “Nothing.”

“Nothing? You’ve been in some kind of trance for, like, the last five minutes.”

Her attention jumped around the cafeteria. Dawning bloomed in her features when she saw the monster who was already heading back through the swinging door that led to the kitchen.

“That guy’s a creep, am I right?” She exaggerated a shiver.

I didn’t need to exaggerate mine.

For a second, I considered telling her. But what was she going to do? There wasn’t anything anyone could do.

Ellis’s words echoed in my ear: Believe in yourself, brave girl.

But how could I stop this?

Not when the Ghorl controlling that man’s mind had already decided for me.

“Yeah, seems like it.” I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, when it was everything.

We finished dinner, then returned to our room.

Jill came again, smiling and chatting like we were friends as she changed my bandage, thrilled to see it was continuing to heal.

“You two have a good night,” Jill whispered, then hesitated at the door. “I guess I won’t see either of you again, will I?”

Jenny groaned her excitement. “That’s right; I’m getting out of here!”

“I wish you the absolute best, Jenny,” Jill told her.

Then she looked at me in what I thought might be an apology. In an understanding that no one had ever watched me with before. Like she was on the verge of awareness. “And I wish you peace as you move on from here, Aria. Be careful, and take care of yourself.”

The ball in my throat made it difficult to speak. “I’ll try.”

I’ll try.

She flicked out the light.

Tonight, I didn’t close my eyes.

I didn’t snuggle down into the uncomfortable bed.

I refused the drooping of my lids, the lure of sleep whispering somewhere at the back of my mind, my soul drenched and aching for the purpose lingering on the other side.

I just waited.

The whole time, I let my spirit call out to Pax.

I whispered that I loved him. I let my spirit cover him with the hope I held for him. Basked him in the truth that the selfish side of me wished we’d met under different circumstances.

Where he wasn’t only a figment of my mind.

Because what if that’s all that this was?

What if I had slipped into insanity years ago?

Except I knew better.

I knew this was brutally real when, in the middle of the night, the door creaked open, and a sliver of light crested into the small room.

The same rubber soles squeaked on the linoleum floor, muted as he approached my bed.

It was so very real as I was covered by the foulness of his breath and the stench of his presence.

A wave of terror rushed through my body.

A torrent.

And I had little of that strength that Ellis had talked about.

But it was a speck.

A battle cry that erupted from the depths.

My only chance when they’d left me without defense.

I opened my mouth to scream.

Only a meaty palm flew out to cover it, cutting off the sound before it reached the air.

“Shh, don’t make a sound, pretty girl,” he wheezed. “There’s no need to fight it. He told me you were mine.”

The words dripped with wickedness.

And with it, a single tear slipped down my cheek.