Tales of the Travellers

3

My arm was swollen now, from my hand to my elbow was tender to the touch. This drug was a higher dose, even I could tell. The pain that went to my skin was almost agonising. I don't know if the walls of this place allowed you to hear each other's screams.

They had placed me in my room when they were done with the injections because it was apparently bedtime.

But how could they expect me to sleep?

My arm was throbbing with the beat of my heart and it kept me alert and awake out of discomfort and lingering pain. I bit down on the inside of my cheeks and stared at the dark ceiling.

I wanted to go home...

But there wasn't a home for me...

I wanted my Mum...

But she didn't want me, did she?

I hugged my knees with my good arm and tried not to cry. "Somewhere... out there... beneath the pale moonlight. S-Someone's t-thinking... of me... and loving me tonight..." I softly sang.

Eventually, I managed a coma like sleep.

*

I was outside again, the groundsmen still had some chalk left over so I was allowed to draw with that again. But I didn't really draw anything, I started to, but I got tired and my head hit the ground more than once due to a drowsy spell.

I heard someone stand in front of me. I lifted my head and saw Hailey standing before me.

"Hey Goldie," she greeted as she sat down next to me.

I blushed at her presence next to me, but it went ten times more when she started messing with my hair. "Umm... h-hi," I greeted, I didn't know how red I could get, but the more her delicate hands did that to my hair the redder I felt I was becoming.

"What are you drawing?" she asked leaning over next to me.

I shrugged, "A weird circle..." I replied with a yawn and kind of plonked myself on the ground again.

She raised an eye brow, "Where's your imagination?" she asked.

I lifted my head. "Probably asleep," I confessed.

She smiled as she grabbed the chalk that was in my hand and added onto the odd circle I had scribbled into the concrete. "What I see is... a cat with long whiskers." She added pointy ears and whiskers to the circle. "And I see... a rounded diamond," she was drawing another circle and attempting to make it look like a diamond.

I rested my head on my arm as I watched her. "I just see a circle..." I confessed when she drew another circle to make something out of.

"I thought you were a bit more creative than that," she informed poking my head with the chalk.

I tilted my head. "What's 'creative'?"

"It's like... umm... well... creative is basically making things up and being good at it," she explained, although she didn't sound too sure in her words. "Kind of like how people who write books can make dozens or artists can paint pictures," she informed pretending there was an easel before her and the chalk was her paint brush. I sighed loudly and closed my eyes again. "You seemed livelier yesterday."

"Livelier?"

She let off an exasperated noise, "Jeez, read a dictionary or something!" She folded her arms, "From now to yesterday you seem like a whole different person based on first impressions."

"What do you mean?"

"If I had met you for the very first time today, I'd think you were a lifeless druggy," she explained.