The Centre - a Home for Aiden (bxb+/poly)

4. Confusion

❄️ A I D E N ❄️

Real freakin' smart, Aiden! I paced back and forth in the small confines of the muted cool-toned room that I've currently locked myself into. Getting yourself caught?! Such an amateur move!

My arms where currently flailing all over the place as I continuously chided myself.

I've been here for four days now, incapacitated for a full day and night; the other two days and nights I have been pretending to be bedridden.

I know at one point someone was staying in the chair in this room while I slept, but that stopped by the second night.

Damn, I really messed up this time! Going out in the daytime to gather intel while the house is occupied with an undetermined amount of boys, was the stupidest idea yet.

That freakin' adorable red-headed guy did not buy my obviously fake excuse I threw at him! Now, who knows what's going to happen to me for trespassing, the worst place to be caught, while I was prying through personal and confidential, medical information. Punishable by law!

When I gave Wren the notepad with Fox's name on it and he just seemed confused by it, my spirits died right then and there.

He repeatedly asked me what I meant! Why I wrote "Fox", he didn't ask why I wrote the "name" Fox. After that, I didn't want to talk to him anymore. I didn't want him near me anymore. If I couldn't get the information from him that I needed, then I had to just cut ties and not risk the chance of getting attached to anyone in this house. Because Wren would be very easy to get attached to.

I should've just stuck to recon missions during the night-time, like I've been doing for the past two nights.

I've been able to search all but one room upstairs. The one at the far end of the hall has been locked both nights. Even though most of the other rooms all looked occupied, there hasn't been a single person sleeping within the beds that inhabit them. I can only assume that the 'would be' occupants are being held against their will in the basement, attic or some other location in this enormous mansion.

When I originally searched the bedrooms that looked like they should be lived-in, I couldn't find any names! However, I did see these beautiful and mesmerizing paintings signed by a 'Zane' in every one of them.

One room even had a wall covered floor-to-ceiling in paintings of baby animals all signed by this Zane artist.

An even weirder observation was that over each bed in each "occupied" room, there was an enormous painting of a specific animal.

This institution must be animal themed? The meaning behind it was completely lost on me. I've never seen anything like it. Although it was bizarrely intriguing, it most definitely didn't help me in determining if Fox was here or not!

The only names I know here are Vance, the director, Wren, the pretty blonde boy who makes amazing smoothies and wears his emotions on his sleeve. I can kind of remember the name Connor, but I can only slightly make out his voice in the back of my head from the first day.

There has been no communication with or talk about Fox. That's why I went out today when I thought it would be safe. I desperately needed to get in the director's office to check the patient files. I needed to verify that Fox was a patient here, or this whole ops mission I've got going on is futile, I may as well leave and never look back if he's not even here.

I knew the residents were outside, I could hear them, even though I couldn't see them. So I quietly left the room and tip-toed to the door that had a nameplate screwed on it with the word "Director" printed in bold letters.