How to escape your imagination

Chapter 9

 My eyes open, and I clutch at my chest, looking around what seems to be a hospital room.  There's a young girl sitting in the corner regarding me with genuine interest.  When she sees that I'm awake, she rushes over to the side of the bed and hesitantly brushes the hair away from my forehead.  "Who are you?"  I demand harshly, and she steps away from the bed looking down at my with confusion.  "I'm Nancy...we talked yesterday?"  She sits back down once more.  "Are you alright?"  I nod quickly.  "Why am I in a hospital?"  I ask, exhausted.  Nancy frowns, and pulls up my shirt to reveal the mess of my ribs.  "I found you."  She says, wincing at the purple, blue concoction on my pale skin.  "On the grass in the park by my house."  I sit up, ripping the tubes that are feeding into my arm.  "Um, maybe you shouldn't do that."  She says, an unsure tone in her voice.  "I have to go, but uh, thanks for helping me."  I swing my feet over the side of the bed and look back at Nancy.  "Clothes?"  I ask.  She snaps back out of her daze and pulls my clothes down off of a hook on the door.  "By the way," she says.  "This isn't a hospital."  I narrow my eyes, looking around the room once more.  I finally notice the wooden plank floor, and dresser in the room.  Clothes are strewn on the floor and I look back up at Nancy with a grin.  "Then there's no need for me to plan an escape."  Nancy smiles.  "Unfortunately, there is."  She shrugs her shoulders.  "My mom doesn't know you're here."  I groan a little too loudly but still jump off of the bed and look out the window.  "Why do you have all this IV crap in your bedroom?" 

 Nancy laughs.  "That's a fair point."  

She rolls the tube between her small fingers.  

"I'm training to be a nurse." 

 I smile slightly.  "Sounds fun."  

Nancy shrugs.  "Not always, but yeah it can be enjoyable to help people."  She looks back up at me with almond coloured eyes.  "It humbles me." 

I turn away from the window. I love sincerity about this girl. She seems like someone who would understand my situation.  I'm about to tell her about it when the door bursts open and a teenage boy, maybe 14 or 15, comes running in.  "Nancy, mom wants to know when you're coming—" the boy cuts off to stare at me with harsh brown eyes.  "Who's this guy?"  He says addressing me to Nancy like I wasn't there.  "He's...a friend of mine."  She says hesitantly.  The boy snorts.  "Yeah right, he's probably one of that asshole Steve's friends."  Nancy shakes her head.  "No he isn't Mike—". Mike just laughs once more.  "You're probably just tryna get back at him for being a—" Nancy cuts him off with a harsh shove out the door.  Mike turns around with a sarcastic smirk.  "You know mom said no more dating those guys, or she'd not let you go to that Halloween party at Joyce's."  Nancy glared at him with hatred.  I've never seen hatred quite like what was on her face.  "You wouldn't."  Mike grinned.  "Oh but I would, you see, I don't really care that you're lying, but if you would like to go with that story about him being you're friend then—". He trailed off, indicating the fact that he would sabotage her.  Nancy put her head into her hands.  "Fine."  Her voice was muffled.  "If I tell you who he is, will you shut up and leave us alone?"  Mike nods eagerly, quickly glancing over to me.  "I found him in the park."  Mike gasped awkwardly.  "Wait so you're saying you brought a random man into our house?"  He gawked at me.  "What if he's a pedophile?"  Well this is awkward.  "Um, hi, right here."  I say waving slightly.  Mike ignores me.  Nancy shoves him out the door.  "If you tell mom I'll end you."  Mike pushes back.  "Why can't I stay?"  He protests.  Nancy tugs at her hair in annoyance.  "Fine you can stay, but I swear, if you tell her...". Mike waves his hands at her, assuring her that he wouldn't snitch.  "So, what's your name?"  Nancy turns, her eyes asking the same question.  "Jonathan."  I reply.  Mike smirks.  "Hey Nancy, that's your boyfriends name."  Nancy smacks him in the arm impatiently.  "He's not my boyfriend you moron."  She can't hide a smile.  "He's just a nice person."  Mike interrupts her moment with an obnoxious laugh.  The two keeps talking but nothing could be heard, for the voice has returned to my head once more.  How nice, you've found a friend.  The voice is cool and collected.  "What is it that you want?"  I see Nancy turn to look at me, a weirded out look on her face.  I'm aware of her lips moving, but I can't hear what she's saying.  What I want, is for you to do the objective.  The voice laughs humourlessly.  It's not that difficult.  Clearly what is difficult, is saving Simon.  "You didn't need to kill him."  I say growing tired of running in circles.  "Maybe you're too daft to understand this, but it's kind of hard to do the objective when you kill it."  Nancy looks over to Mike who shrugs.  Oh, Jonathan.  Maybe you were just so in love with him that you couldn't care less about getting out, you just wanted to be with him.  Lucky for you, I was nice enough to not kill you right there for trying to punch me.  I'm simply trying to teach you some useful life lessons.  The voice laughs.  I know you already understand who I am.  I don't care.  You were never really my type anyways.  It gave me a sense of relief to tilt that platform.  I feel rage bubble to the surface and I let out a frustrated noise.  "Just, tell me what the objective is."  The voice laughs once more, a laugh filled with nothing but sarcasm, and bad motives.  You are so impatient.  Fine, whatever.  I grew impatient of watching your pointless attempts at getting that boy to love you.  I knew it would never happen for you.  I begin to reply with a snide comment when he interrupts me once more to answer my question.  Your objective in this movie is to find and kill and a demogorgan.  I narrow my eyes which makes Nancy run over to me and start shaking my shoulders.  I ignore her.  "What's a demogorgan?"  I ask, but it's no use.  The voice is already gone.  I snap back into reality and look at a concerned Nancy.  "Are you alright?"  She asks, her brow furrowed.  I nod quickly.  "Yeah yeah why wouldn't I be?"  She squints her eyes.  "Because you were talking to yourself."  I have no reply to this besides shrugging my shoulders.  The silence is awkward for at least 2 minutes before Mike finally says, "Ok, so he isn't a pedophile, but he's gotta be on something..."