Overdose

17. Yvonne Mcreary

"Yvonne, you need to leave the room." Lilith threw my covers off me. I groaned and reached to pull them back on, but she threw them onto her side of the room.

"No. I want to stay in here." I shielded my eyes from the light. "Unless the room is on fire, I'm not leaving."

"Yvonne." For a moment, I was wondering why Lilith's voice was suddenly deeper, but then I realized it was another person. I peeked and saw Evan standing there.

"What do you want?" I asked, closing my eyes again. Lilith sat on my bed and patted my leg.

"We need to talk about the escape plan." Lilith said. Normally, that would have had me jumping around like Grandpa Joe from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but this time I just wasn't feeling it.

"Why bother? We're not getting out of here anyway. Evan was right, there's no point in even trying. We're just gonna stay here until we die. Which I hope happens soon."

"Don't talk like that!" Lilith exclaimed, getting up. "You can't just give up now. We can do this. I've talked to Heath-"
"Who?"

"And he really wants to talk to you. He can help you."

"What? Is he a therapist?"
"Yvonne!"

"Fine! God, I'll talk to him."

"Thank you." She sighed. "I care about you, and I know this place is terrible and trust me, none of us want to be here. But we are. And if we just accept that, then we're never going to leave. I'm getting Heath." She turned and walked out of the room. Lilith was one of the people that the staff didn't treat as a prisoner. She was able to roam from our room to the rec room and the bathrooms, but she wasn't able to bypass the doors that needed key cards.

Evan walked over and sat on Lilith's bed. He played with his hands for a moment. I didn't know if it was because he didn't know what to say or he had nothing to say. After a long minute, he spoke up.

"How are you?"

"Depressed." I said bluntly. There was no reason to sugarcoat it. "I don't understand how Lilith manages to stay so upbeat."

"Maybe Lilith has accepted her life here. She's been here much longer than Damion and I have."

I never really stopped to think about Lilith before that moment. I felt ashamed. Lilith spent so much time fretting over me, making sure I was OK, but I never asked her how she was feeling. Not just day-to-day, but how she felt about being in this Facility for so long. She didn't know who her dad was. She had Doctor Evelyn, but as she's told me before, "Dr. Evelyn was a good guardian, but she wasn't my mom." People like Lilith aren't cherished enough, and are taken for granted. I should know, because I took her for granted while I was in The Facility.

"How do you manage it?"

"Pardon?"
"Being so...OK with it? It's like you don't even care anymore."

I didn't really think he was OK with it. I don't even think he cared. If anything, Evan was emotionless. Just a blank slate, or canvas. And I feared Xander was trying to be the one painting the picture.

"Sometimes you just have to give up. There's no point in being sad or angry. No one here cares about us."

"Dr. Evelyn offered to help us." Evan looked at me, as if I just uttered the name of the Devil.

"I don't trust anybody on the staff."

"But you're part of staff."

"Did I stutter?" Wow. How can someone so emotionless and monotone still have sarcasm?