Riddle Middle Two

Chapter 14: The Escape

Phred (1st person)

Right after Zack and Phil were thrown inside, I was taken outside by the same humanoid. "Um... What's going on?" I asked. "I just need to test something..." he said. I was taken to another white room. It had a raised part of the floor that was big enough for me to lay on. He brought me to it and strapped me onto it with a black rope. "What are you gonna do to me?" I asked. "This'll probably hurt..." he said. He got a scalpel, then he lifted my shirt a bit. "What are you doing?" I asked, slightly alarmed. He pushed the scalpel into my stomach. I couldn't suppress a small whimper. It wasn't that bad, I guess, but then he started cutting across the stomach.

I don't know why he didn't give me anesthesia or at least numb me at all. He made a cut a few inches wide. He got an odd, flat syringe and inserted it into my cut. It fit perfectly. He injected a purple liquid into me. It burned. I winced. "Shh, it's okay..." he said. He pulled out the syringe, the he but some cream on me that immediately sealed my wound. A few seconds later, I felt sick to my stomach. "Ugh..." I said. "I'm assuming you have a stomachache," he said. "Yeah... What did you do to me?" I asked. "That's unimportant, now, swallow this," he said. He unstrapped me from the table thing, then he handed me a pill. I swallowed it, and the pain went away almost immediately. "Is it better?" He asked. "Uh, yeah, how did you do that?" I asked. "Well, you see, I... Oh, sorry, I think it's almost over..." he said. "Over? What's almost over?" I asked. My vision blurred a bit, then my eyes uncontrollably closed.

Phil (1st person)

I woke up back at my house. Again. I guess that dream had ended. A few seconds after waking up, my alarm went off. It was summer, so there was no reason for my alarm to be set in the first place. I'm guessing it was my brothers. It was five in the morning. I'd lost track of time, and I wasn't sure when I'd gone to bed the night before. I checked the date on my phone, and I was relieved to find that only a night had passed. I decided to go to Lila's room to see if she'd had a similar dream. Before I got there, she darted out and ran to the bathroom down the hallway. I was glad she was up at least, so I didn't have to wake her or wait until she got up.

She came back a few minutes later, looking pale and tired. "Lila?" I asked. "Phil!" She said, clearly startled. "Hi," I said. "What do you want?" She asked. "Are you okay? Why'd you-" she cut me off. "I'm fine, okay!" She said, raising her voice a bit. "I-" she went into her room and slammed the door. She was clearly hiding something. I stalled in my room for a few hours, until around seven, then I went back outside. Lila was heading downstairs. She always tends to get up early, even on weekends. I followed her, trying to stay unnoticed. I waited on the stairs and watched her. She went to the kitchen. She sorted through all of our food. After a few minutes, she said, "I know you're there, Phil. What do you want?"

"What?! How did you even- never mind. Why won't you talk to me? Don't you trust me?" I asked. "Yeah, says the person who snuck into my room and looked through my diary while I wasn't there," she said. I had done that, but at least I had an okay reason to. "I'm sorry, okay? I know I shouldn't have done that, but what do you want me to do now?" I asked. After a moment of silence, she glanced over her shoulder at me. "Why are you awake? I'm used to having the mornings to myself," she said. "I had one of those dreams with the humanoids again," I said. It occurred to me that they must have some name other than 'humanoids'. Surely they're a separate species or something. "Really? I had one of those too, but I don't remember everything from it," she said.

"Why don't you ever tell me anything?" I asked, slightly annoyed. She didn't respond. "Why'd you run to the bathroom so fast?" I asked. "...I just, um... I just didn't feel great," she said. "In what way?" I asked. "Why are you acting like this has never happened before?" She asked. "...I don't understand," I said. "Remember, on the day I went back to school?" She said. "Oh, are you saying you threw up?" I asked. "No, I just felt nauseous, so I went to the bathroom," she said. "Oh. Why were you nauseous? When did it start?" I asked. "I don't know why, but it started right after I woke up," she said. "Ah. When'd you wake up?" I asked. "I don't know, but I was sleeping on and off last night. I'd have the dream, then wake up, then fall asleep and have the dream again," she said. "Okay, so what exactly happened in your dream?" I asked.

"I... I don't know, it's too early for this..." she said. That didn't make any sense, considering she'd been completely fine a few seconds ago. "What? I... Whatever, I'll just ask you later," I said. "You don't have to," she said. I didn't understand why she'd started acting like this all of the sudden. I went back to my room, since she seemed to want to be alone, which I understood. Upon returning to my room, I found that my phone was dinging every two seconds. I normally would've guessed it was Zack sending memes to our group chat, despite it being seven in the morning, but I assumed it was different this time. Sure enough, all of my friends were talking about the dream. We seemed to have all had the same ones. I joined in the conversation for awhile, and the topic soon turned away from our dream. I have two group chats; one with just Smiley, Phred, and Zack, and one with the rest of my friends, including Lauren and Pico.

Eventually, we wrapped up our conversation and I went back to Lila's room. She wasn't in her room. I looked all around the house for her. All of my brothers were there, but no Lila. I went to my mom. "Hey, mom, have you seen Lila anywhere?" I asked. "Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm pretty sure she went to one of your friend's house. Pico's, I think," she said. "Oh, alright. Can I go look for her?" I asked. "Yeah, go ahead," she said. "Alright," I said. I hugged her, then I left to find Lila. I went to Pico's house, which is tall and narrow. It's height makes it stand out from the rest of the other houses on our street. Honestly, his house is sort of like him, though I'd never mention it to Pico.

I rang the doorbell, but no one answered, so I texted him. He came to the door a while later. "Hey Phil. What's up?" He asked. "Where's Lila? Is she okay?" I asked. "Well, um... Yeah, she's okay now," he said. "Did something happen?" I asked. "She stayed in the bathroom for a while, but she just came out a few minutes ago, and she seems fine," he said. "How long was she in there?" I asked. "Around a half hour," he said. "That's not good. Did she tell you what happened?" I asked. "Nope," he said. "Why did she come here?" I asked. He shrugged. "Oh, uh... Do you know about her... um..." I said. "What?" He asked. "...Condition?.." I said. "Condition? What do you mean?" He asked. "She has anxiety," I said. "Oh, well that makes sense," he said, not sounding very surprised at all.

"Oh, uh, you can come inside if you want," he said. I came inside, and he took me to his room. Lila was sitting on his bed. "Why's Phil here?" She asked, not sounding happy in the slightest. "I came all the way over here to check on you," I said. "Um... Don't you have a phone?" She asked. "I... If someone was wrong, there's no way you'd tell me," I said. "Hmph," she said. "Has she been like this the whole time?" I asked, looking up at Pico. "Eh," he said. I looked back to Lila. "What happened?" I asked. "I... Did Pico tell you anything?" She asked. Pico avoided eye contact. "He just said you stayed in the bathroom for a while," I said. "Hm," Lila said. "Why are you being like this?" I asked. She looked at me with an expression that made me want to throw her out of the window. "Okay, did you throw up?" I asked.

"No," she said. "Then what happened?" I asked. "I'm just gonna go downstairs real quick..." Pico said, slowly leaving and heading down the hallway. "So?" I asked. "...Can we talk about this later? The whole reason I left was to get away from you, but you just followed me," she said. "I... Fine..." I said. I left and went back home. I went to straight to my room and waited for Lila to get back. When she arrived, I pretended I wasn't there and waited for her to go in her room. Once she did, I came out and knocked on her door. "Can I come in?" I asked. "Phil? Yeah, sure," she said. She was sitting on her bed, like she'd been expecting me. I went over and sat next to her. She hugged me. That was weird. She never hugs me. "...Um... Is everything alright?" I asked.

"Phil, I'm sorry... I don't know what came over me," she said. "I... It's fine, Lila," I said, hugging her back. We just sat there, on her bed, hugging for a few minutes. "Okay..." I said, pulling away from her. "...What's going on with you?" I asked. She shrugged. "At Pico's house, I'm not quite sure. I just went into the bathroom to... Get some space, I guess," she said. "Well, why we're you being suck a jerk?" I asked. She shrugged. "Okay, well, whatever. You feel better now, right?" I asked. "Yeah," she said. "I guess that's all that really matters," I said.