I Want To Paint Your Lips

Chapter 6

"What tha fuck happened ‘ere?” Daithi’s thick accent floated to Bryce and Evan. Neither responded to the Irishman and he huffed, storming the last few metres to where they stood in the doorway. He was just about to growl at them for leaving the door open and triggering the alarm until his eyes caught on the red mess within the room. “Shit…” he cursed, and grabbed Bryce and Evan by the shoulder. “Step back, you can’t go near him. When Tyler gets here, he and I can grab him and shackle him back up until the proper security gets he-”

Evan didn’t even glance in his friend’s direction as he lifted his hand off and walked tenderly through the doorway. “Delirious?” he spoke softly, crouching down with his bag and looking at the schizophrenic from the same level. He tried not to look at the corpse between them. “You did not have your pills this morning, did you?”

He slowly shook his head. “She… she looked at me like I was filthy,” he murmured with a shaking voice. “I lied to her and she believed me… She… she took off my collar… They told me to do it, they said that it was right.” The words tumbled from his slack jaw. Evan waited patiently. “She sat in your chair, Evan.” His voice hardened. “She sat in your chair with your clipboard and tried to do yourjob. She deserved this. She smudged my face and called you stupid. She deserved this, Evan. I did what was right, Evan. Didn’t I? Did I do something good, Evan?”

The man fell back onto his butt, legs resting outstretched in the pool of blood. He stared blankly at the younger man, waiting for some kind of response. Some kind of confirmation, congratulation. His eyes were glazed and unfocused, completely lost in his head. Not having his pills was dangerous.

That was clearer to everyone now.

“Delirious you have to take your medication now,” Evan told him calmly pulling out three bottles from the bag hanging on his shoulder. Delirious flinched. “They’re talking to you, aren’t they?” He nodded, jaw still slack. “They’re telling you not to take the medication?” Nod. “You cannot listen to the voices, Del. They tell you to kill me, don’t they? You don’t want to do that, do you?” He shook his head, blinking again and looking at Evan.

Don’t listen to him Delirious!

Don’t take the pills!

He wants to get rid of us!

The caretaker stood calmly and walked very slowly around the body to the other side of Delirious.

Kill him, Delirious! He doesn’t understand!

“I’m going to sit here, okay? Then you’re going to take the three pills I give you. Two for your schizophrenia and one to fight the side effects, alright?” Each statement he said, Evan waited for his confirmation. He waited to watch if he were following what was being said. He made sure Delirious was on the same page as himself. He held out the three pills and hummed softly to the delirious man, trying to add some sort of background noise. Without looking back, he spoke to Bryce, “Play some busy music softly for me.” In five seconds, an old song filled the room, soft enough to not be paid attention but loud enough to fill the space of silence. Delirious watched him, still looking like a sad child. “Swallow them one at a time, got it?” Nod. Open mouth. One dropped in, swallow. Two dropped in, swallow. Three dropped in, swallow. “That’s it Del, can you stand up?”

A tear fell from the schizophrenic’s eye. “I want… to hug you,” he whispered, voice breaking into a sob. “Can you take the jacket off so I can hug you, Evan? I want to protect you from them. They want to hurt you, I can’t let them hurt you.” Evan stood and hooked his hands under Delirious’ arms, pulling him slowly to his feet. The man sobbed loudly. “I’m not allowed to hug you, am I?”