hemlocks

4

A few days had gone by and Aiden was playing a game of blackjack with some random girl in his unit. Her name was Lucy, and she seemed to be sane.

For the most part.

"Hmm.. I'll take a hit." She said, watching Aiden take out a card from the deck and hand it face-down to her. "Damn it!" She groaned, throwing her cards to the floor. "Bust?" Aiden asked, like he didn't know the answer. "This game is stupid!" She screamed, shoving the tokens of 'money' towards him.

Patients here got daily grades on their behavior and improvement, and received tokens as gratitude from the nurses. With said tokens they could ask the nurse for a special treat or reward (as long as it wasnt dangerous/unruly) in return. They were made of laminated paper that was thick and hard to give a papercut, yet they were used in betting games where they couldn't bid real money.

"You cheated didn't you?!" Lucy growled, smacking the deck of cards over.

"You took a hit, I stood, there's no cheating in that," Aiden sighed. Lucy stood up and stormed off, making Aiden roll his eyes out of irritation.

In the far corner of the lounge, someone was watching him closely; snickering at the small action he made.

A nurse hurried after Lucy to calm her down before she went bat shit crazy.

"Game of Spades, anyone?" Aiden asked, sighing out of boredom.

"I'll play," A man said, standing up from the corner of the room. He had an eerie grin, making Aiden feel somewhat unsettled.

The patients surrounding them all turned to look at the man with confusion and uneasiness.
"Sure..." Aiden nodded, picking up the cards and making sure there were 52 in the deck.

He'd never seen this person before, but he assumed that was the pair of eyes he felt watching him 24/7 over the past few days.

"How many points?" Aide asked, dealing him a few cards.

"200 is fine." The man said, his unnerving grin never leaving his face.

What did this guy remind him of? Aiden couldn't put his finger on it.

"My name is Erix. Pleased to meet you," He nodded.

Aiden gave a short smile back, "Aiden. Same here," He said. Aiden set the jokers aside and began dealing the cards.

Erix seemed to be in his 20's, having short golden blonde hair and deep ocean blue eyes. He had dimples and somewhat pointed canines.

Aiden was the polar opposite.

He had deep brown-almost-black shaggy hair that was an overgrown mullet near his shoulders, and onyx chocolate eyes. Instead of pretty dimples he had horrible eye bags and puffy eyes from the lack of sleep he'd been getting.

Aiden finished dealing the cards, looking at his hand. He organized his hand and watched Erix do the same.

"Ready?"

Erix nodded.

"I'll go first." Aiden offered, placing a 6.

The two went back and forth, each taking cards from one another and placing others down.

"Break spades" Aiden said. He was losing, but he wasn't playing for the tokens anymore.

This guy was genuinely fun to play with, and he liked going against him.

"8+2 is 10, meaning i'm at 200." Erix chuckled, taking the tokens Aiden handed over. "Good game." Aiden smiled.

Seeing the same unwavering smirk on Erix's face didn't make him feel nervous anymore. He'd gotten used to it.

"Agreed."

The man's smooth, deep voice finally made Aiden rememberer who he reminded him of

The Cheshire cat, from Alice in wonderland.

"We can play blackjack..?"

"Not today... free time is almost over before we have group therapy." Erix didn't take his eyes off of Aiden's.

"How come I've never seen you before? How long have you been here?" Aiden had more questions than answers.

"I've been here for about a month or two. The hospital nurses don't really pay attention to me much. I never engage in socializing and stay in the dark." Erix's big, wide grin was still somewhat weird to see- yet it wasn't as unnerving as before.

"Okay, that makes sense." Aiden nodded. "We can play tomorrow, right? You're fun to play against- plus i think i'll beat you in blackjack rather than spades." Aiden laughed.

"I doubt it, but I would love to see you try." He chuckled.

Aiden scoffed, "Sure,"