You'll Never Know

Part 5: Chapter 3

"He's still there."

Dawn squints and leans her head in as if she misheard. The nurse continues. "He was a testee here that didn't have much mind power left. With yours combined, he'd be able to function again. So, here you are. Win-Win situation."

"But where is he." She repeats.

"He's probably not conscious right now, but he's in your head." The nurse explains. "He's like a roommate."

Dawn plops her face in her hands. Murmured sentences are exchanged around her before a hand settles on her shoulder. She jumps, looking up to see her mother beside her.

"I know it's weird, but this is the only way you would've been able to live. Really this is fortunate-"

"I could come up with a million better ideas than this!" Dawn cuts her off.

"Maybe you should take her home, let this settle in." The nurse whispers to the mother.

"I'm not in shock, I'm pissed!" She barks.

Dawn is nonetheless taken home and thrown in bed. The nurse insisted she was still in shock rather than she was actually unhappy with the new setup. Dawn lays there, wrapped up in the soft pink bedsheets and comforter.

She grumps herself to sleep soon enough. Yet she doesn't stay in bed throughout the entire nap. Campbell blinks awake minutes after the girl is asleep to find himself in an entirely new mess to solve.

Confused and startled, he scans over the room. Pastels, photographs, too many pillows, a few books . . . it's not a bad room, it's just not his.

He sits up. So that really did happen back there. He was taken in for whatever freak experiment that woman set him up for.

Slightly hesitant, he looks under the covers. He's . . . not horribly disfigured. That's good. He curls his toes testingly. He's not a cripple, either. Very good. He looks around once more, still confused what happened. If nothing happened to him, where is he right now?

He slides out of the bed and snoops around the room to try and find the answer to the question. He snatches up one of the photographs from the nearby dresser and squints. It's the burn victim from before.

He's in her room, for some reason. He thinks hard. Why would he be in here, why would he be in here...

Suddenly, the bedroom door cracks open and the mother from the testee wing pokes her head in. "Oh, you already finished your nap. . . are you hungry?"

Campbell looks to her, carefully setting the photograph down. "Yeah um . . . um, who're you?"

She chuckles. "Yeah, yeah, I know I never cook. But today's been a long day, you ought to have some sort of reward for pulling through."

Campbell furrows his brows, even more confused. "O . . . kay."

She smiles, "See you in a few minutes, Dawn." She says and closes the door.

Campbell frowns and glances back at the photographs. So . . . she thinks he's her? But he's clearly not, he even checked.

"This is frickin' weird." He mumbles to himself. Yet something answers anyways.

"You're telling me."

Campbell flinches and turns back to the door. Nobody is there and it is still tightly shut. His eyes skip over the room. Nobody is still there. Whoever is speaking is in his head.

"Guess you have no idea what they did to me."

"No . . ?" He responds. "Dawn, right?"

"Yes. I pretty much died, but they didn't want me to. So they put me in you."

Campbell cringes. Some chick is in his head? Frick no! He grimaces and replies, "Well could you not?"

"Look, I hate this as much as you do. I mean, I'm gross and hairy now."

"I am not that awful."

"You need a razor so bad."

"Would you -" He takes a deep breath to calm down, not finishing the sentence. "You need to get out, this is my head." He starts going for the door.

"Don't you dare leave, my mother is going through enough. She doesn't need a runaway on top of this."

"What're you going to do about it?" He huffs and pulls the door open.

"I guess I'm going to have to take everything."

Campbell rolls his eyes and keeps walking down the halls. "Yeah huh." He murmurs in disbelief. He's almost to the front door when his feet skid and stop. He frowns. "What're you doing?"

"I told you, don't leave."

Campbell tries to move his feet forward, but they've gone numb to his will. Instead they turn around and drag him back towards the bedroom. He begins to realize maybe Dawn has more control than he'd like.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't take those!" He tries grabbing at his legs to stop them from moving.

"Let go."

"No!" When he bends down and grips, something forces his head forward. Before he can stop himself, he bites his own hands. He flinches back. "Ow!"

"I told you, let go."

"Hey! Darcy, whatever your name is, stop!" He wants to yell it, but his mouth won't move. A shudder of alarm goes through him. The next thing that comes out of his mouth aren't his own words, but Dawn's.

"We're going to learn to cope together, now get back in the r-" She starts, but Campbell uses his still able hands to muffle her. She bites down hard, enough to get Campbell to jerk his hands back.

"Get back in that freaking room or those hands won't last another day." She snaps.