NUMB

Day Thirty - Jet

I manage to sneak into the dorms after my midday shift ends at six. I take the stairs, not wanting to have to swipe my card in the elevator and have it logged that I went to the Three's dorms for no apparent reason. I make it up without any issues, except when I get there I realize I have no idea which room is Elyse's. All the doors look exactly the same. They'd blend into the walls if it wasn't for the palm scanners next to them and the slight recess around the edge that marks where the doors slide into when they open. They don't even have numbers or anything distinguishing them from one another.

I'm about to start going door to door until I find the right one when a door about halfway down the hall from where I am opens. Edie steps out of it and freezes in her tracks. Her posture relaxes when she recognizes me though.

"Jet," she says.

"Hey." I meet her by the door. Edie is such a small person. She looks up at me without lifting her chin, her giant eyes made even bigger by the gesture. "I didn't even think about asking which room was yours, but it looks like that wouldn't have helped. You don't even have room numbers? How do you remember which one is yours?"

"We've been in the same room for a while, so it's easy to remember. Also you can just count the doors to find yours. We have the sixth door in, so..." She goes to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, only to have most of it slip back around her face a few seconds later. "Did you want to see her? She's sleeping right now."

"Oh," I scratch at the back of my neck, rub my fingers against the knob of my spine there. "Um, I could come back later? I just got off shift so I'll probably head home soon, but I could come back tomorrow? I've got the early shift though so I don't know what time I'd be able to get up here."

Edie smiles at me. A little uptick in the corners of her mouth, it's very child-like. "You can wait in the room for her to wake up, if you want to. She probably won't sleep for very long. She never does."

I force myself to hold back an immediate response. It would look kind of desperate if I just blurted out, "Yes, please!" the second after she suggested it. So I count to five in my head and then lift a shoulder, "Sure. I could wait."

Edie's eyes flash with something, like she knows what I just did, but holds her palm on the pad until it opens the door. "There's a chair by the window you can use."

"Thanks," I say. The tips of my ears are burning and I hope she doesn't notice it as I walk past her into the room. The door shuts behind me and I glance around. The space is pretty small. The window sits between two beds that are separated by only about five feet of space, the chair sitting underneath it where Edie said it would be. Everything is either white or grey and it gives the room kind of a cell vibe instead of a bedroom.

Elyse is asleep in the bed on the right side of the room, her blanket pulled up to her shoulders and her hair fanned out on the pillow beneath her head. I reach down and shut my walkie off before taking a seat on the chair. I finally get to see the view that Elyse has of my post on the wall. It's easy to see the people standing there, I even recognize one of the guys standing in the alcove. I make sure to position myself far enough away that they hopefully won't be able to see me sitting in here.

There are so many things running around in my head that it's hard to focus on a single thought. I still don't have a solid plan of what we're going to do here. I just know that we have to do something. Since I started, things have escalated so much and it's starting to gnaw at me on the inside that I feel like we haven't done a single thing here. Seth is working hard in town, but when he doesn't respond to me or keep my updated it makes me edgy. I need to know what is going on to know what my next move should be.

The thought of Elyse possibly being sick and her winding up losing it makes my stomach churn. Then the fact that it makes my stomach churn kinda makes me nervous. Because I should be worried about all the kids in this place, but I'm finding myself focused on Elyse and I know I need to be thinking big picture, but I'm just thinking, "I need to help this girl". I sigh and lean back in the chair, cross my arms over my chest, stare back out the window again.