Mind Games.

chapter 38: consciousness.

(Alice's P.O.V.:)

I couldn't feel my body. It felt like I was floating. Floating above the clouds, in a dreamland where the troubles and worries of normal people melt away, and there's nothing but peace and quiet.
At least, that's what I felt like. But my reality was far less appealing. In my reality, there was no escape. In my reality, tubes were linked to me through my arms and legs. In my reality, I could hear my heart-rate monitor a few feet away, beep...beep...beep...
I took a deep breath in, then opened my eyes. My vision was blurry at first, then, I could make out a figure sitting beside me in the bed.
The window had no light behind it, so I knew it was dark out. How late, couldn't tell you. I let my vision clear so I could fully evaluate my situation. After five minutes, I could see that I was in a hospital room, as I had already deduced. When I turned my head, I saw someone I wasn't exactly expecting.
But, nevertheless, the sight of him brought me a sense of security.
Mr. Marsh sat in the chair besides me, staring at the magazine that was played out on his lap. His expression was involved, like he was thinking hard about something. His left hand rested under his chin, where he was stroking his slight stubble.
I didn't make any noise at first. I just wanted to have a few more moments of peace, because I knew that whatever put me in the hospital was going to stir something up with Kendall, and my life was going to be a little more complicated. When I decided that I was ready, I coughed and then sighed like I had just woke up.
"Ugh...w-where am I?" I asked, sitting up a little. At the sound of my voice, Mr. Marsh immediately set the magazine aside and turned to me. He set a hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me back.
"No no, Alice, just relax."
"Mr. Marsh? What happened?" I asked him. Maybe he knows what happened to me. All I remembered was being in a small, dark space, and everything going black.
He smiled gently and folded his hands on the bedsheet.
"You had a heart attack, Alice." He stated in a small voice. I stared at him in disbelief. How can that be?
"What?"
"It's nothing to worry about, the doctors say you'll be fine." He reassured me. I scooted up in the bed, but then I felt a draft. Then, I realized that I was wearing a gown with the back missing. This is like being half naked...in front of Mr. Marsh!!!
I made an embarrassed noise, and he frowned.
"Are you alright?"
"I-I, um..."I trailed off and looked behind me. When he realized what I was embarrassed about, he smiled gently and said,
"Would you like me you find you a robe to wear instead of a backless gown?" It wasn't the question, but the calm way he said it, that made me blush harder than ever. He waited for me to nod. Then, he went off to find me one. I took a minute to let the news sink in. A heart attack? Why? Just then, a doctor came in. He was about 50-55 with balding brown hair and a clipboard. He smiled when he saw that I was awake and stood next to my bed.
"Hello, Alice. How are you feeling today?"
"A little weird," I replied, rubbing my eyes. He chuckled a little and looked down at his clipboard.
"Well, my dear, cardiac arrest will do that to you. But don't worry, after checking your physical condition, we deduced that you had simply too much stress and your heart couldn't take it." My heart couldn't take it?
"I...I guess I just don't understand." I said, unable to find other words. He nodded and flipped a page over on the clipboard.
"We are going to prescribe you some ridilin pills, although you can only take half of one pill. But as long as you try to be less stressful for the next few weeks, you should make a full recovery." He explained, smiling at me in a patronizing way. I smiled back and nodded.
"Ok, doctor. I'll try."
"Good. I need to go now, take it easy, Alice."
"Doctor!" I said, stopping him by the door. He stopped and looked back.
"Yes?"
"When can I leave?" I questioned. He smiled and checked his clipboard.
"If everything checks out, tomorrow night." He smiled one more time and left the room. I coughed and then sat back. What happened...
Mr. Marsh walked in with a completely white robe and handed it to me.
"It's the only one I could find." He smiled, then sat down in the chair. I sighed and sat up, slipping the robe onto my arms. I tried standing up to go to the bathroom, but my right breast decided to stab me, and I fell back on the bed.
"Oww...."
"Alice, are you ok?" Mr. Marsh asked. He got up from his chair and sat next to me on the bed, setting a hand on my shoulder. I nodded and took a few deep breaths.
"I-I'm ok. I just need to get to the bathroom..."
"Here, I'll help you-"
"N-no, I can do it." I interrupted. He looked up at me and smiled.
"It's alright, Alice. I won't look at you." I felt goosebumps crawling up my arm. He put my left arm around his shoulder and helped me walk to the bathroom, not touching or looking behind me. When we reached the door, I went inside backwards so he didn't see anything.
"I'll knock when I'm ready to come out." I told him.
"Ok," he nodded and walked back to the chair. I shut the door and closed my eyes. Ok, glad that's over.
I wabbled over to the sink and leaned against it, slipping the robe the rest of the way on. After it was tied, I looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was messy, but since I didn't have a brush, I just set it all on one side and sighed. I wheeled the IV with me to the door and leaned on the wall next to it. Then, I knocked it and said,
"I'm done now." A few seconds passed before the door opened and Mr. Marsh appeared.
"Ok, c'mon." He set my arm over his shoulder again, but this time, he put an arm around my waist. His hand rested just above my right buttock. Goosebumps ran through me, and I shivered a little.
The second I sat on the bed, I heard a warm, familiar voice say,
"Alice!" I smiled at Clark as he came the rest of the way into the room. He bent down and wrapped his arms around me. I hugged back, happy to see him. When we pulled away, he turned to Mr. Marsh and stuck out his hand.
"Hi, my name is Clark, I'm a family friend of Alice's." Mr. Marsh smiled and stood up, taking his hand and shaking it.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Alice's psychology professor, Mr. Marsh."
"Pleasure to meet you, too. Well, I think I can handle it from here." He said, still smiling politely. Mr. Marsh nodded, then sat down next to me.
"If you need to talk about anything, anything at all, I'm here for you, ok?" I nodded and wrapped my arms around him.
"Thanks." I said as he hugged me back. Then, he got up and left. I sighed and looked at Clark.
"What's up?" He smiled and said,
"Not much, but I need to ask you about Connor." He sat down and folded his hands in his lap. I frowned and thought, what could he possibly want to ask?
"Yeah, what about him?" I questioned, crossing my arms. He bit his lip and looked at me.
"Is he the reason why you had a heart attack?" He stared at me for an answer. How could he physically have done that?
"The are a lot of factors that led up to that, Clark. Connor couldn't have physically done that." I explained to him. He nodded and coughed into his fist.
"Alright, then."
"Why did you ask?" I inquired. He clasped his hands together and looked down.
"Oh, Kendall's been questioning him since yesterday using the red room method." When Clark said, 'red room method,'' I froze. What....
"Tell me he isn't still there!?" I said in a worried voice. Connor may be my enemy, but I wouldn't wish the red room method onto anyone.
Clark sighed and nodded.
"I'm afraid so."
"We have to go get him now." I said, reaching to the arm where my IV was. He shook his head and pushed my arm back.
"The doctor says-"
"I don't care, Clark. We have to get him out, now. Then, I'll come back to the hospital." I pulled the tape away from my IV and ripped it out in one quick motion. Then, I put pressure on the little spot with my robe, and we started down the hallway. We made it to the elevator without running into any nurses and started down to the parking lot.
Clark had to carry me to the car because I couldn't walk very fast, then we started off to a helicopter that Clark had called. It was waiting on top of a business skyscraper next to highway 48. People gave us funny looks when they saw Clark and I heading to the roof while I was clad in a white robe, but we ignored them and reached the helicopter.
After an hour and a half flight over to the FBI's headquarters, we landed on the building and I hopped out. Clark flashed his ID at the security guard and we both headed down to Kendall's office. Clark had to carry me down the stairs, but we made it to his door. I twisted the knob and hobbled inside.
Kendall had been reading a stack of papers on his table, but he looked up surprised to see me.
"Alice, what the hell are you doing here? You should be-"
"You need to release Connor, now, Kendall." I interrupted him, leaning on the table to look down at him. He stared back at me, an almost ammused look planted on his face.
"Why?"
"Because he didn't do anything!" I exclaimed. But my chest protested and started stabbing me again. I winced in pain and slowly sat down at the chair beside him. He leaned forward and said,
"It was completely irresponsible of you to be hospitalized right now." I looked up at him with a shocked expression.
"Excuse me?"
"You could have died! And then all our plans would've gone straight down the drain-"
"I am a human being, Kendall! What part of that do you have trouble understanding!?!" I said. He sat back and steepled his fingers.
"I realize that you're human, Alice. I also realize that you are our most prized asset. I'll release Connor, but you need to recover." He nodded to his guards to escort us out. They grabbed my arms, but I shook them off.
"I want to see him." I stated. Kendall stared at me for a while and said,
"He isn't a pretty sight anymore."
"I don't care, Kendall. I want to bring him home." I yelled. He smiled slightly and nodded to his guards.
"Go ahead." They nodded and helped me walk, Clark trailing behind.
They brought us outside and took us a few blocks away from the building.
"Well bring him here." They told us, then they left.
The red room was painted red so they wouldn't have to repaint it all the time. It used to be known as the torture chamber of Washington. Many people had been taken there for questioning. Al Capone's main body guard, Joseph Stalin's second man. And bin Laden, to name a few.
We waited patiently in the car for them to return with Connor. Then, we spotted a black car making its way back to us. When they pulled up, Oliver and Terence stepped out, helping Connor walk to our car. He had a black bag over his head. I stared anxiously at them.
The car that dropped them off sped off, and they hopped into the back of our suburban. Terence and Oliver set him in the very back, then helped me get back next to him. After everyone was in, Clark started driving to another building where a helicopter was waiting to take us back to Princeton.
Connor coughed from inside his bag and leaned his head against my shoulder. I looked up to Terence, who said to me,
"You can take the bag off when we land the helicopter." He turned back to face the front of the car.
I bit my lip and leaned my head next to what I assumed was his ear.
"Connor?" I whispered. He groaned in pain. I whispered again, "Connor, can you hear me?"
"Alice?" He said, his voice choky. I nodded.
Even though he was freaking annoying, and he enjoyed watching me suffer, I felt incredibly sorry for him. So I did what seemed like the human thing to do.
I slipped my hand underneath his bruised and slightly bloody hand. He winced at the contact, but then let me wrap my fingers around his. He sniffled a little.
"I...I thought you were d-dead..." He sniffled into my shoulder. I used my other hand to stroke the top of his head.
"Shh, Shh, it's alright, Connor. It's alright..." The car stopped and we all hopped out.
We landed in New Jersey at 3:05a.m. Terence and Oliver helped Connor out while Clark helped me. On the way over, I explained everything that I remembered before the incident. I now realized that Connor had pulled the prank, but Clark learned from the paramedics that he had given me CPR, which in turn gave me the best chance of survival. He saved me, is how I saw it.
I also explained everything with Pedro, except for the part about my video. Clark assured me that they would take care of it.
Terence and Oliver set Connor on a campus bench, then they said goodbye to me and walked back to the helicopter. By now, Connor had a vague idea of what was happening, but only vague. Clark sighed and handed me a bottle of pills. I looked at him and frowned.
"What are these?"
"Ridilin, doctors orders. I'll see you later, ok?" I nodded and gave him a hug.
"Tell Jean I said hi."
"I will, take it easy." He smiled, then went back to the helicopter. I waited until it was gone to turn to Connor. He was sitting patiently on the bench. His hands were bound with duct tape, so he couldn't remove the bag. I unwrapped the tape and then took of the hood. Two words;
Holy shit.
His eyes were swollen and purple, turning black. They slit his left cheek in a way that would leave a lasting scar. His hand was disfigured, along with his right foot. He looked glad to see me.
"What happened to me, Alice?" He asked me, then, he fell forward slightly. I used my arm to stop him from hitting the ground.
"I'll explain later, but we need to get you to the campus doctor, c'mon."

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Hope you liked it, enjoy the next one, bye! C:.