Nighmare Asylum-Book One of the Mad Mad World Series

The Great Below-Part 4

"Though my soul may fall in darkness,

It will rise in perfect light,

I have loved the stars too fondly,

To be fearful of the night." -Sarah Williams

::

I was drifting on a wave of warm, sea-glass colored water. Nothing hurt, I was completely at peace. For the first time in forever, I didn't feel like I was going to come apart at the seams if I moved. I didn't know who I was, where I was and I honestly didn't care.

"Reesh?"

Who?

"Richard. Wake up."

Is that my name? Where am I?

"Come on sweetie, wake up for me."

I know that voice.Something to do with a flower?

"Richard Zven Kruspe, if you do not open your eyes this second, I am going to pry your eyes open and duct tape them open. I know you can hear me."

Lilly! I know who she is and yes that's my name but . . . shit. I know where I am.

I cracked my eyes open and found myself looking into Lilly's very blue eyes. She looked annoyed at me but when I smiled up at her, she laughed softly and said, "Hey."

"Hey yourself. I take it we're still guests of the good doctor?" I replied, my voice a hoarse croak. I wrangled myself up into a sitting position and the second I was up, Lilly hugged me as hard as she could. I hugged her back, never so happy to see another person in my whole life, even if I'd only known her a short time. She smelled so wonderful; a mix of spices, something floral and citrus along with an undercurrent of ascent that I knew but couldn't put my finger on. Her hair was damp,combed back from her face and was almost black from the moisture. She handed me a bottle of water and I drank half of it down in one swallow. I had to force myself not to drink it all at once; the water was cold and I was dry as a bone. Experience told me that if I gulped the entire bottle down at once, it would come back up again just as fast.

"Unfortunately yes,we're still here. How are you feeling?" Lilly asked.

"Sore. Been worse. You doing okay? How long was I out?"

"I'm all right. I didn't want to leave you alone but I really needed to clean up before I died of my own stink. You've been out a couple hours,three at the most. He panicked when you stopped breathing, so you might have a bite mark on your lip where I was giving you mouth to mouth," Lilly said. Sure enough, I touched my lower lip and felt the slightly ragged edges of a bite mark.

"I stopped breathing?"I said, then a deep, sharp ache over my sternum demanded my attention. Looking down I saw a bruise that was as big as both of my hands held side by side. Poking at it made me hiss; Lilly swatted my fingers away and said "Stop that. It'll hurt worse if you keep poking at it."

"What the fuck did you do to me?" I stammered. "What did you hit me with? A sledgehammer?"

"I punched you in the chest when your heart stopped beating. It was the only thing I could think of and King Asshole wasn't being any help. He was standing in a corner screaming about losing a valuable test subject, so I thought 'what would it hurt?' Obviously, it worked."

"Christ on a rock! I've been punched in the chest by Till when he was having hysterics and it didn't leave that kind of mark!" I snapped.

"Don't get pissy with me, Richard. I had a really good punch before Neal shot me up with his virus. I expect I could punch out a raging bull out now if I needed to," Lilly growled. I pulled away from her, suddenly afraid.Lilly had said when the virus began its work on her that her hearing,night vision and sense of smell had improved; it wouldn't surprise me if making her stronger wasn't part of what the virus could do.As I sat there wondering if I should run or sit as still as I possibly could so as not to irritate her further, the light in the cell seemed to get brighter and I thought I could hear and smell the mice creeping through the ventilation shaft overhead.