Trapped

Chapter 8

    Excruciating pain. Darkness. I open my eyes and there he is. The brunette boy from my reoccurring dream. No, not the boy. Not this time. This man standing before me wasn't the boy from before. At first glance this man could be that boy, but looking deeper into his features, he is very different. This man is taller and his dark hair is beginning to gray. His eyes are what get me. They aren't a vibrant green, but a brilliant blue. They put the boy's eyes to shame. His stare is cold, but caring. Longing. He's looking into me, not at me. He knows me.

    "Lilian," he whispers with a husky voice that sparks the vaguest familiarity. Do I know him? But I can't answer the question because as soon as the sensation of knowing came, it went. He's just a stranger.

    My vision is blurry as I look down at the table I am restrained on by leather cuffs around my wrists and ankles that make me look and feel like a mental patient. I glance around and notice that the rest of the room looks just the same. Psychiatric ward? The walls are padded and there are trays upon trays of needles and medical looking objects. Shelves contain various liquids in many different types of containers. Mason jars, test tubes, Tupperware bowls. It looks like the person that stocks those shelves uses any container they can find to put the substances in.

    I redirect my attention to the man even though I can just barely see him in the dim light. "Lilian," he says again in the same voice as before and again I get the same sense of familiarity and once again it goes just as quickly as it had appeared, making me think I hadn't felt it at all. I try to speak, but no words will exit my mouth. It's as if I am not capable of speaking. Or screaming. What's wrong with me? Again I try to say something, anything to the man and again no sound will leave my lips. This time I try to scream as loud as my tiny body can manage and a small whisper of a sound escapes my throat. That's good. That means that I'm not completely mute.

    I let my hopes get too high because when I turn toward the dark silhouette of the man, he is holding a syringe and smiling menacingly. Any caring, longing emotion that I saw on his face before was gone, replaced by what could only be a killer. A murderer. He starts to walk toward me with the long needle and I continue to try to scream, but only silence fills the room. He's next to me in an instant and the last thing I see before he sticks my arm with the sharp object is the beautiful, green eyed boy. Then everything goes black.

***

    "No!" I scream and I feel strong arms wrap around my forearms. I open my eyes wide to see Erik. He's holding my arms tightly and I try to yank free, but I can't pull out of his grasp. The more I struggle, the tighter his grip gets and I eventually stop resisting and relax onto the hard hospital bed. He relaxes his grip, but doesn't let go and sits down in a chair to my left. "Erik" is all I say and he drops his hands.

    "What did you dream about?" I can't tell him my dreams came back. Not yet anyway. Not with the potential for a different brother to hear. They'll send me to another therapist or the same one. Either way I can't let that happen.

    "Nothing." I look down at my now free hands.

    "It sounded like something. People don't just scream "no" in their sleep for nothing." He's right. I have to tell him. I hear footsteps in the hallway and quickly whisper "later" to him and he nods his head. Erik is my safety net when it comes to secrets and I thank the Lord every day that I have him.

    When Cam walks in, he's got a mouthful of Jell-O and is holding his spoon to his lips. He stops and stares at us questioningly. I guess we don't look as nonchalant as I thought we did.

    "You're awake." He states the obvious and sits to my right. I suddenly feel too low to the ground and begin the push through the pain into a sitting position. Cam and Erik both place a hand on my shoulders in unison and I immediately lie back down. The smell of bleach burns my nose and the pristine white walls are so bright they make me want to squeeze my eyes shut. There is a counter a few feet in front of me with a sink and cabinets installed above it. To my right a large window takes up almost half the wall and clearly shows that it is bright and sunny and I'm stuck in a hard hospital bed for who knows how long.