She knows…..

The valley gave….

How could it….

I will take….

The pain shot through my eyes when I tried to open them. The pain was so intense. I thought I heard someone, but I couldn’t be sure, just a mumble here and there. I thought it was Lucas, but how could that be? The pain flashed again as I tried to open my eyes….back into the blackness.

“She couldn’t possibly know, it’s not possible.” A pause. “Yes, I gave her the full strength. No. No. No. I gave her the full strength. No, I will make sure of it, we will meet up later. She is stirring.” A beep, then the clap of a cell phone shutting.

My head felt heavy, very heavy, almost like it was tied down. It hurt to move my eyes, behind the closed lids. My arms felt like lead weights, my legs were tingling, like they were asleep. All I could do was lay there, and try to be as still as possible. I heard a shuffle of footsteps, and a swish of cotton on cotton as the owner of the voice moved away. I heard a door open, then close, and the rattle of a key in the lock. I took a deep breath, and this made my head spin and my stomach churn. How long had I been out? What the hell happened? I was talking to Lucas, and then there was nothing but blackness. I searched back through all that had happened. I remember him coming through the door of my cabin in the mountains. Then I remember looking up at him from the floor, then blackness. I feel like I am missing something.

After lying still for a while, and taking slow deep breaths, I was able to open my eyes a sliver. It was dark in the room, not my room, though. I saw a glint of silver to my left, as a very small amount of light came from somewhere behind my head. It hurt to try and turn my head, wincing, I tried anyways. I opened my eyes a little more, and saw an IV pole with an IV bag of milky white fluid attached to it. Okay, so maybe I was in a hospital, but why would they lock me in? I tried to move my arms, and felt a resistance. I moved my head to try and see what that resistance might be. It looks as though my arms are tied to the bed rails. I was covered with a white sheet from my chest down with my arms strapped to the bedrails on top of the sheet. I could see a little clearer as my eyes let in what little light they could from the source behind my head. I couldn’t see anything past the bed I was in.

There was a rattle of a key again, and the door swished open. I heard the sound of cotton on cotton again, and the sound of soft shoes on tile. Then the voice spoke again. “Ahhhhh, you are awake, I was worried there for a second. I thought I might have given you too much. I hope the pain isn’t too bad, that formula can cause intense pain on the wake up. The paralysis will wear off shortly. Don’t try to speak either, your vocal cords were paralyzed as well. Hang in there kid! You will be through this in no time.”

At that, he left again. I felt a dizzy sensation, and my body began to relax, and my eyes closed shut again, seemingly against my will. Damnit, he gave me something in that damned IV. I tried to fight it, but it won in the end. I closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

I walked along a sidewalk with daisies on either side of it. Lucas was there with me. He was holding my hand, and telling me all the things we were going to do together. I tried to tell him how excited I was, but I couldn’t seem to communicate to him. He walked faster and faster, then he started running, and ran faster and faster away from me. I couldn’t reach for him, my arms were strapped to my body, my mouth gagged, and my feet tied together. He ran from me, like I was some sort of monster.

My eyes shot open. I was in a white room, on a padded floor, nothing but white cotton pants and a white cotton t shirt on. There was a chair in the middle of the room. In that chair sat Lucas. He looked at me, then began to speak.

“Ms. Rayburn, so glad you could join me. I am Dr. Wilkinson. Do you know where you are?” He looked at me with those blue eyes. Smiled nonchalantly. Then I told him what he wanted to hear. I had played this game before.

“Dr. Wilkinson, I am in the psychiatric hospital in Bayview. I have been here since I killed my husband in the fire. I told the authorities that I killed him, because he was lying to me about his work. I hate it when people lie to me. So, I tied him to the bed, and covered him in gasoline, and lit him up with his own lighter. The flames were beautiful that night. Prettiest I have ever seen. They brought me here, and have been doing experiments on me to determine what went wrong and why I snapped. They don’t believe me that the dreams told me to do it. It was always in the dreams. I had to kill him. If I didn’t, he would have made it all the way. Then what?”

“Ms. Rayburn, I know that you know that isn’t true. That this is the game you enjoy playing. Now, tell me the real truth.”

The blackness over came me again……

(to be continued)