Colors

Nine

I woke to the sound of screaming. My eyes opened and I sat up. Grace was screaming in her sleep. Alec was shaking her and almost yelling her name. Minutes later she gasped and jumped up. Grace was wheezing and started crying. Alec sat on her bed and wrapped her in his arms.
"I'm sorry..." Grace said.
"For what?" Alec asked.
"For waking you guys," Grace said quietly.
"Shhh...it's okay," Alec said soothingly.

I looked over at Felix. He was staring at the wall. He had a blank, unreadable expression on his face. I cleared my throat and he shook his head. Felix rubbed his eyes and then looked over at me.
"You alright?" Felix asked.
"Yeah...you?" I replied sleepily.
"...I guess," Felix said.

I nodded and laid back down. Instead of facing the wall, i faced Felix. He did the same and smiled at me. My stomach flipped. I smiled back. There was something comforting about Felix. He was easy to talk to. With his sandy blond hair, brown eyes, and tan skin.

A knock on the door made me wake. It slowly opened and Coleman's face peered in. He turned on the light and knocked on the door again. Everyone else woke up and glared at Coleman. Well we did, Grace didn't look at anyone.
"Morning...today you will be checked out together. As a group. Considering you all hear or see dead people. Or if your Adeline...you get the joy of both. Get dressed and I'll be back in five minutes," Coleman said.

He shut the door and we all got dressed. I pulled a brush through my hair and then grabbed my picture of Ben from under the pillow. I looked at his face and then quickly put it back in the pillow case. As if on cue, Coleman walked in right after the picture was hidden. Coleman grinned when he saw us.
"Come with me," Coleman said to us.

We all got up. Felix walked out first, then me, and then Alec and Grace. Coleman led us through hallways and then stopped in front of a grey door. He opened it and we walked inside. Inside the door were four blue chairs, a table, and a cart. Coleman told us to sit and we did. I sat in between Grace and Felix. Grace was tapping her foot anxiously.
"Grace...you wanna put that there foot down?" Felix teased.
Grace set her foot down and glared at Felix.
"Are you happy now?" Grace asked sarcastically.
"Thank you," Felix grinned.

The door behind us opened and a woman walked in. It was Dr. Harmon. She smiled at me. Dr. Harmon sat down behind the table and cart. She opened the doors and pulled out several boxes. Dr. Harmon set them down on the table. Then she started to check each box. She would look in one, rummage around, and then move on to the next one. I looked down at my hands. What's going to happen today?
"Okay...first we're going to do some diagnosing. I'm going to ask questions and if what your experiencing falls under the categories, raise your hand...got it?" Dr. Harmon asked.
"And what if you ask us all these questions and one of us hasn't experienced them?" I asked.
"Then we'll go from there...so let's begin. You hear things no one else does,"
Grace, Felix, and I.
"You see people."
Grace and I.
"You can see and hear people."
Just me.
"The things you see scare you."
Grace and I.
"The things you hear scare you."
Grace, Felix, and I.

This went on for about 20 minutes. Alec never raised his hand once. The entire time nothing applied to him. Which means he's different from us.
"Alec, I want you to pick up your chair and move over to this side, next to me," Dr. Harmon said, looking back from Alec to Grace.

Alec grabbed his chair and walked to the other side. He set his chair down and looked at Grace. She was watching him and Dr. Harmon. Dr. Harmon looked back and forth from Grace and Alec. She raised her eyebrows and then nodded.
"You two...your together aren't you?" Dr. Harmon smiled.
"...uh...yeah," Alec said, he was still watching Grace.
Grace looked down at her hands and her cheeks flushed.

"Okay well the first test we're doing is endurance. I'm going to inject you with a type of...drug. You will fall unconscious and endure your deepest fear. Even if you don't know what your worst fear is, you will in a few hours. Let's begin, Felix, your up," Dr. Harmon explained.
Felix groaned and got up. She injected him, he sat back down. Then she injected me. I winced at the pinch of the needle. Slowly, I made my way back to my seat. Surprisingly, I was ripped away from reality and fell unconscious.