Springwater Asylum ✓

9. CONFRONTATION

Eva was almost done cleaning the glass case which protected all of Ross' prized possessions, many of which were Nazi memorabilia. Her gaze landed upon the well-kept, golden award service medal.

The haunting symbol of the swastika had gripped onto the woman's attention, goosebumps spreading across her body in fear of the man she was in the room with being a proud Neo-Nazi. Her now tiresome eyes followed the along the small strips engraved on the wings of the Black Eagle, growing tired by just looking at the bird.

She was surprised she hadn't taken notice of the glass case before, considering the fact that – besides the courtyard and her bedroom – his office was where she would spend most of her time.

"Are you done yet?" Ross called out, his tone indicating he'd just wanted to either be relieved of all the stress, or be left alone.

"Yeah, just finished." Eva replied, plastering on a fake grin as she look over to him. "Cute stuff in there." She gestured to the case with the multipurpose surface cleaner. "Is it authentic?" The woman walked over to the small supply closet in his office, placing down the bottle of cleaner along with the cloth before closing it and turning around to face him.

"Of course it's real," He set down his pen, running a swift hand through his dirty blonde hair. "It was expensive too, some of it was brought down from my family."

Eva bit down on her tongue, in order to avoid saying anything aggressively rude to a man who'd not only have her thrown down the chute like a pile of dirty laundry, but held ownership over both her freedom and the keys to the houseboat.

"That's nice – the Nazi party always interested me." She spoke, reverting her gaze back to the case. "So does that mean you're...a Neo Nazi?"

His brows knitted together, looking over at her with a puzzled facial expression.

"I wouldn't label myself as a Neo Nazi per say, just a fan of the party."

"Right." Eva nodded, discreetly rolling her eyes at the obvious lie.

It seemed that Ross had a feeling about the information she was trying to extract from him, but she wasn't going to give up just yet.

"I just thought...all your test patients are African Americans, so," She shrugged.

"If you're trying to imply that I'm a racist – trust me, I'm far from it. I've studied and worked with other people of color, including blacks." His voice sounded desperate and defensive, perhaps to get away from the girl and her bombardment of questions.

Their conversation took an abrupt end when Nurse Grace walked inside, making her way over to the doctor. She leaned down towards his ear, whispering something which caused the man to sit upright. His facial expression translated concern, but more so for himself and not whoever the nurse had sent the message about.

"It's too late for him, just throw him down the chute." Ross responded, wavering his hand while his attention was focused on the papers in front of him.

Nurse Grace obliged, giving him a nod as she made her way out.

"What was that about?" Eva inquired, starting to pace around the room in a state of unconcern.

"It doesn't concern you."

"Seemed like it concerned you." She turned around, leaning against his bookshelf. "You should really start opening up more, maybe this whole therapy thing shouldn't be one sided." Eva sauntered her way over to the back of her brown, leather chair, gently resting her hands on his shoulder blades.

She leaned in closer, planting soft kisses along his ear, to which Ross stopped scribbling down notes. Eva's mouth curled into a smile, running her fingers through his blonde hair, allowing her lips to go down further.

"Is this going to let you tell me what Nurse Gra-"

Eva's hand was gripped by Ross, who'd immediately stood up at the realization of what she was trying to do. His eyes glared into hers, squeezing her delicate hand in his. The man's body evidently showed anger, shaking at the thought of almost falling for her trick.

Meanwhile, Eva mentally slapped herself, disappointed in being dumb enough to not take further action before asking about the topic of his brief talk with Nurse Grace. Had it not been for the 'damsel in distress' act – Eva would've fought Ross off of her, but she needed to gain his trust even more, and it surely wouldn't come with disobedience.

"When I say you don't need to know, you don't need to know." He spoke through gritted teeth. "Don't think now that I've started giving you privileges, I'm going to fall for your dumb tricks."

Eva looked back at him, her brows turned upwards and her mouth whimpering at the ends, trying her best to get her hand out of his grip. She'd felt the small bones in her hand beginning to gather, slowly starting to ache.

"R-Ross, let go. Please." She whimpered, gulping at the thought of having a broken hand, especially the dominant one.

He continued to hold onto her hand for a little bit longer, not releasing until he'd heard a few cracks, watching Eva's eyes draw tears at the painful sensation.

She tried to move around her fingers, gasping as she failed to do so. Eva watched him sit back down on his work chair, acting as if nothing had happened. From what she could see, his posture became less tense.

"You'll find out during dinner anyway." Ross said, going back to writing down notes.

It was moments like these that confused Eva sometimes. He'd be so aggressive with her for one second, and in the next, he'd be requesting the sous chefs to gather the fresh bodies from the laundry room in order to prepare Eva's favored dishes.

The emotional aspect of their fling was confusing, even to her, even to the girl who had everyone figured out and almost wrapped around her fingers.