Mallory's Melody

Chapter 60

WARD 49 WAS THE ROOM they'd kept Jason in, and it was, for some odd reason, a very difficult one to find. She strolled through the excruciatingly long hallway, stopping at each door to read the number inscribed on them. There was Ward 32, 56, 86, 56, all but the one that most mattered to her.

The plump receptionist at the front desk had told her, 49, that she would find Jason at Ward 49, and Mallory had believed her entirely, but now, she felt an animalistic desire to kill her. She'd obviously been tricked. If unsuccessfully walking through a hallway that spilt into eternity for an hour plus was no proof of that, then nothing was.

Mallory stopped midway, not because she was tired and needed a break, but because her legs had surrendered. She slid down the wall and curled herself into a ball, fighting the urge to cry, to rip her hospital gown to shreds and run through the hallway naked. She'd felt mad ever since Cole passed away, a madness that continually knocked on the door of her mind to be let in, that she wanted to let in. But the prospect of seeing Jason had given her the strength to resist letting it in. She might've lost Cole, and her dreams to be a Starlight star, but if she could still have just a glimpse, a teeny-weeny glimpse of Jason Trevor, she would have enough strength to not lose herself to the winds of delirium.

"I don't know what's with you, Mallory Trent, but I'm afraid I'd have to file for your transfer to the psychiatric department." The creepy doctor stood tall by her, a clipboard eternally wedged in his armpit. "I thought I made it clear when I said you needed to rest? I've never met a person so stubborn. Don't let me be forced to resort to more stringent measures. I could sedate—"

"You know he's the reason why I'm alive?" Mallory asked, looking at her feet, much deeper in thought than she could ever be in the most bottomless ocean. "I wanted to kill myself. I had no incentive to live again. My father had just died."

The doctor seemed dumbfounded for a while, then, "Well, I'm very sorry for your loss, but—"

"And then he was stupid enough to go into the fire to save me," Mallory cut in. "But now, I don't even know why he tried. I'm not worth saving, doctor. Why can't they realise that? Everyone that's dead died because of me. I'm at fault. If they weren't so bent on trying to get me out of my own self-conjured hell, Cole would be here, William would be here—" she paused"—God, Jason would be here."

The doctor bent to her level. "That must be very hard for you, Mal."

"And you know how to make it better— I mean, that's your job, right? Making people better? You'll take me to him. That's the least you can doctor, let me see him. Because If I don't...."

"If you don't?" the doctor said testily.

Mallory finally looked up at him, his face a blur through the haze of tears. "I don't know what might happen to me. I feel like I'm at the precipice of madness, at that sharpest point, ready to just tip right over. I mean you know how it must feel, right?"

The doctor stared at her with a blank expression.

"No, actually. But I suppose grief does that to people."

More tears dropped to her laps. "Take. Me. To. Him."

The doctor sighed. "I'm afraid I can't do that—"

Mallory pulled out the surgical knife she'd stolen from her room and aimed it at him. Forcing her back, the doctor screamed with alarm, for help, but Mallory just continued to cry, to demand that she see him. She could see, feel herself becoming someone else, a nefariousness, a lack of compassion masking her true character. And she wanted to stop attacking him, but the desire to cut him to pieces was too strong.

She was not herself.

"Oh, my God!" The security guards pulled her off the doctor. She waved the knife at them, fighting back, but one of the guards knocked her to the ground and yanked it out of her arm.

The doctor scurried away from her, alarm written on his face. "Take her away. To the psychiatric ward. She's mad. She tried to attack me. She—"

"Let her come with me," a voice said.

Mallory saw Ava through her peripheral vision. Pushing the security guards off, she helped Mallory off the floor. "Thank you," Mallory whispered to her.

"What are you doing ma'am?" the traumatised doctor asked. "This girl is mad. She must be subdued. She—"

"She just wants to see her friend," Ava cut in. "You should be compassionate enough to understand that."

"Compassionate to the girl who almost ripped my spleen out from my body?" the doctor laughed. "Plus, it's not following protocol, and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want to see him."

Mallory's face contorted. "What does he mean?"

"Nothing," Ava quickly inputted.

The doctor shot her a cynical smile. "Your boyfriend's dying, Mallory. He's dying..."