20 Days Gone

4

Day 4:

I stared intently with a hollow look on my face as Lydia hummed a catchy tune to a song that probably only existed in her head. Typing away on the keys of her laptop without even looking at them, a frown forming on her face. The idea that she transformed from gleeful to frustrated in just the span of several hours piqued my curiosity.

There was this aura surrounding her, synonymous with frustration and a tinge of... of sorrow. This aura started to consume the room, me included. Today's spirit wasn't the same as yesterday's, radiating joy and optimism yesterday and draining them all today. It was a little disturbing, seeing her this way.

Drowning a little more in the dark aura, my mouth started to work without my consent, widening my eyes for a moment. "Anything happen last night, Lydia? I like to believe that a hospital's a place for healing, but there seems to be a little problem today. I'm not an attention seeker but... Hello? Earth to Lydia?"

These first words of my morning, which happened to be in the afternoon, seemed to have no effect on her, and her diverted attention. Her frown just looked worse and worse, seeming to be untouchable by my seemingly offensive words.

"Today's afternoon isn't good, Ryan. Usually I burst out energy here and there but," she put her hands on her forehead, leaning forward closer to her laptop. "Something's wrong. Something's very wrong, I can't even wrap my head around it."

"Lauren's unending pessimism?"

I saw a little smile crease on her face for just a split second, staring again at her laptop. This was the face of disappointment, sadness and fear together. "No, no, no, something worse."

"One of your patients disappeared."

A wide-eyed look at me affirmed it all. Her eyes averted from the negative text in her laptop straight to mine. It seemed to her that I had known one of her secrets. A thin voice, she questioned.

"How did you know?"

"I've been your patient twice already." I sat a little more upright on the hospital bed, hands reaching out for a bottle of water. "Your emotions are always there when you give your exceptional advice, as if you've been through everything we patients have."

"It seems that I'm not the only person analysing the levels of my patient here, huh?" Lydia shrugged and started to turn away from her laptop and to me instead. "How's your writing going?"

"Well, erm, pretty good," I started scratching my head, which apparently was the wrong move. A slight headache started to form. Tolerable, but still a headache. "I've literally snapped and let down my guard and wrote everything in my head and heart, which I didn't actually plan on doing."

"Interesting." She turned to the notebook on the drawer beside me, and grinned an evil grin. "Hmm. Very very interesting."

"Who went missing?" I asked, voice half-laced with concern.

Not you, not you, something inside the mess in my head started to speak. Not you, please not you.

"Do you remember Cody? You both met during your final session at the time." I shook my head. I didn't remember.

In fact, I think I'd been thinking that I was forgetting some things. Important things, ever since that dehydration incident. As if the gears in my brain just decided to pop out.

"Candy Cody," Lydia hinted.

"Oh, her?" I inquired in return, some flashes of memories and moments here and there. "The girl who was obsessed with candy?"

"Yes, Ryan, that's Cody," she sarcastically quipped. "She apparently ran away directly after reaching home, claiming to be looking for something. Candies, I wouldn't know. The point is that she's missing," she softly spoke, her hands once again on her forehead.