Fighting Darkness

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Paige, sweetheart?" Mrs. Lavann's voice trickles in my ears, the elderly women with gentle green eyes and white floating hair. "You have to look at me?" The window over looks Manhattan's rainy ugly grey sky. My reflection stands out permanent on the window. Brown hair that's cut Just underneath my breasts, long and tangled, ragged and ugly. Cold brown eyes, stare back at me; bags enclose under them. Skinny, pale, lifeless and ugly.

The sad grey colored walls scream the pain of what these everyone here goes through. The rehabilitation center had rubbed off on me. Giving me the sad feeling if giving up, wanting to go back to my imagination, because that's where I feel safe. That's where I lived my days.

"Why?" Dry, cracking voice screeches on the window bouncing back, echoing the room.

"Tell me more about Nathan and Derek, what did they do?"

"They fought a lot." I smile at the thought. "Derek hit me, and he killed Nathan, when I was in Maine." I can't continue, my throat closes; Mrs. Lavann hands me two brightly colored pills along with a plastic cup of water. "Swallow." The whole time I've been in here she only asks me question. "Where's Nathan?"

"Why did he say this?"

"Derek?"

"What's his last name?"

---

"Paige." Instead of the window seal, the brown leather couch engulfs me in a warm embrace. My hand runs over the fabric, soft but rough, like Nathan's face when he didn't shave.

My eyes meet hers, and I know I'm about to cry when I see her concern expression. Wet liquid flows to my mouth, filling it with a salty taste. "I want Nathan." I scream. This is usual, I do this all the time, it's just lucky for me she stopped pressing that little red button right beside her, letting to large men sedate me.

"Paige, Nathan, Derek, and all of them, t-their not real.." He voice trails off not knowing where to go. I nod my furiously. You can't tell someone after two years that their friends aren't real. "You're lying." My gaze never goes to her, and if it does, they would send daggers, killing her over and over and over again. The tan manicured hand lies on top of mine. Cold meets warmth. The feeling of "love."

"Honey, this is why you're here. Nathan, isn't real." Anger can smoke out of my ears, she's lying. "Derek, never abused you." Flaming inside me. "You never lived in Maine, you live in Manhattan." Until you want to blow. "No one is real. That's why you're here at the Manhattan Mental Health Center."

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! You don't know because you weren't there!"

Her green eyes are replaced with terror, as she reaches for the little red button. I'm inches from her face, but my hands are scratching her arms, until their taken and put behind my back. "No, you're a lying bitch!" A sharp pain meets my upper-arm; Nathan hands me a bouquet of white roses, while Derek is hold Sapphires hand and smiling at me. "Hi, guys." I whisper, waving my right hand at them. Nathan holds cups my face I'm his hands. "I'm sorry, Paige, I'm sorry I couldn't keep you here." He kisses my forehead, tender lips I longed for. "But now it's time for you to let go. We," he hold out his hand, directing to Derek, and Sapphire, "will be here," his slender index finger touches my head, "but I'll be here." Now to my heart. Once again, his lips are to my head, my cheek, and my lips, moving in sync; he move to the others, taking Sapphire's hand and walking away.

A soft object is placed underneath me, while two figures stand in my doorway, one that looks like an older version of me, tears streaming down her olive skin face, and a tall man with a balding head, holding her close. I turn my face to the brightly colored blue wall. A smile dances onto my face; my hand goes up to the wall tracing mine and Nathan's name. "Bye, guys." I whisper, letting my eyes close, and my body go stiff.