Catching Fire

by T. N. King

  “Code Red!” the voice yelled as all the machines went off.

  Ellie felt herself going down that dark hole again. At least, I’ll go out laughing at the world. Fuck you world, who the hell needs ya!

  CHAPTER TEN

  His eyes popped open. Morgan laid very still gazing up at a stark white ceiling. Where am I? He blew out a breath and remembered. “Ellie!” He tried to sit up and found he wasn’t going anywhere at all. He peered down and saw he was strapped to a table. What the fuck?

  He looked around and saw it was one of those sterile hospital rooms. They’d strapped him down? “FUCK!” He struggled against the bonds.

  It was no use. He released a frustrated breath. How long had he been out? Where was Ellie? He needed to be with her and if he’d been a stronger man, he wouldn’t have lost it like that. Dammit. It was just that he loved her more than anything, and to see her like that…It had been too much. He wasn’t used to giving a fuck about anyone. He’d never really felt so deeply for any person ever in his life, not even his own mother.

  He remembered someone tased him. Of course, he’d known it was that, as he’d been tazed before by Chance and his man. He might just be getting used to it by now.

  “HEY!” he yelled. Someone had to come. He needed to know what happened to Ellie. Did they really think he was insane? Deranged? He now remembered lifting that poor nurse in the air and the look on her face. “Shit!” Morgan let out a breath of resignation, as yes he had probably looked deranged. Well, he was most likely still in the same hospital as Ellie and someone here could give him some information, maybe?

  “HELLOO?” he shouted again. He still had rights, dammit. No matter how crazy he’d acted. They couldn’t just keep him locked up and strapped down. Chance! Where was he? He wouldn’t have stood by and let this happen!

  The door opened.

  Morgan fought to see the person from his disadvantaged point of being flat on a damn table.

  The man strolled forward and stood in front of him, with a clipboard in his hands. “Hello, Mr. Hunt. How are we today?”

  Morgan scowled at the little shit. A 5 foot nothing, glasses, white coat wearing, nerdy fool. “WE? Who the hell is we?” He gazed around. “I’m the only guy here.”

  The man smirked as if you could even tell it was a smirk since he had no lips to speak of. “I’m here to check on you.”

  Morgan took a deep breath. He knew he needed to behave and talk sensibly to this twit in order to get the hell out of here and back to Ellie. “Where am I?”

  “Marsden Asylum,” the man answered in a flat tone.

  “Asylum?” Morgan exclaimed in disbelief. “Like a nut house?”

  The man rolled his eyes. “Oh, we do not call it that. It is just a place to help people get better.”

  “Well I’m fucking fine, so unstrap me.”

  The man tsked and shook his head. “You have been committed to us for your own safety and the safety of others.”

  Morgan blinked his eyes in confusion. “Committed?”

  The man nodded and peered down at his clipboard.

  “For what?”

  The man shook his head and didn’t look up from the board. “In a 24 hour period, you have been arrested for aggravated assault, kidnapping and resisting arrest. Then after being released by the police, it had only been an hour when you were again, aggressive assaulting a nurse and two security guards at Whitmore hospital.”

  Morgan’s mouth popped open. He’d never thought of it that way. Yeah, that did sound bad. “But that isn’t what happened. Plus, I never attacked those security guards.”

  The man sighed. “We have it on tape. After they tazed you and then you got up.” He raised a thin brow again. “Certainly to their surprise I am guessing and tackled them both. You pummeled one and kicked the other. Then you punched your friend…Umm, let me find his name.”

  “Chance? I punched Chance?” Morgan felt more than shocked as he didn’t remember any of this, though who knew what the hell was happening when they get tazed like that. He seemed to get some kind of adrenaline rush from it instead of the expected result of subduing him.

  “Then all of the rest is here in your file.”

  Morgan clenched his fists. “This is bullshit! Fuck my file. That arrest was false and erroneous. A mistake! Then as to the guards, they attacked me from behind and with a taser blast no less!”

  “I’m not the one who judges these things, Mr. Hunt.” He finally looked up at him. “I’m here to assess your competence.”

  “M-my what?” Morgan was stunned beyond measure. “I am competent in many things and one of those things would be to beat your sorry pale ass into fucking oblivion!” he shouted.

  The doctor stared at him, then wrote some things on the clipboard.

  Shit! I blew it again with my temper, now he is writing that I’m hostile and violent. Great! So much for behaving. “Well, who the hell committed me?”

  The doctor shrugged. “That is not something I am allowed to address with you.”

  “Well, get some higher level asswipe in here that is over your tiny pointed head and have them tell me.”

  The doctor stared at him for a long moment, seemingly ignoring his insults. “Have you had any violent outbursts where you have destroyed property, Mr. Hunt?”

  Morgan again blinked his eyes like he couldn’t believe this retard had even asked such a question. Then he remembered the hotel suite. Yes, he’d trashed the hell out of that property, but that was for a good reason. Rage. Lots of bottled up rage and intense desperation. It wasn’t like he’d made a lifetime habit of it.

  “I see.” The man nodded as if he’d read the pause as a yes. “How recently was this destructive event?”

  “D-destructive event?” Morgan repeated.

  “Yes, within months or days?”

  Morgan took a deep breath. 5 weeks ago. Man, this wasn’t looking good for him at all.

  “I see, so recently.” The twit wrote some more down. Then he looked up at Morgan again. “Has there been an incident where you thought of or tried to commit suicide?”

  Again, Morgan blinked. He was about to open his mouth and deny this categorically. He’d never—Fuck. When he’d been drunk at his Lake Placid house and Chance had to fish him out of the swimming pool. DAMMIT!

  “Mmm, so recently for that as well,” the pale nerdy doctor concluded.

  “It wasn’t like that. Really it wasn’t. Things and events happened that…” His voice fell away. No, he wasn’t going to tell this fool a goddamn thing! “Let me out of these restraints now and I won’t hurt you.”

  The man raised a thin barely there brow at him. “Then I read here that you had assaulted a man in Philadelphia, nearly killing him at a seedy motel there.”

  Morgan gaped at him. The lowlife bum who’d broken into Ellie’s room to rape her! Yes, he’d hoped he’d killed him, not just nearly.

  “Hmm, so this is also true. Even you can see a pattern of behavior with this, correct?”

  Morgan wondered how this man had events in a file that were unknown to many and most. Chance didn’t do this, did he? No. he wouldn’t. He huffed angrily as he planned to get down to the bottom of this when they released him. Someone was going to pay for this fucked up shit. “I have rights. Do you even know who I am?”

  The doctor stared at him. “Yes, I of all people know almost all there is to know about you.”

  Morgan pulled his head back. “What the hell does that mean?”

  The doctor pursed his lips. “We have your entire history.”

  Morgan’s mouth popped open. “W-what?”

  “Yes, we have…” the man halted. “That has no bearing here. You are here to get better. You need help and we are the best at that.”

  “WE?” Morgan asked again. “Why do you keep saying we?” There wasn’t another soul around that he could see.

  The doctor tilted his head at him and raised his pointy chin to motion across the room.

  Morgan fel
t confused, as he knew they were alone. He then attempted to follow pointy head’s motion and spotted the glass wall. “People are watching me?” he asked in disbelief.

  “Yes. There is a full staff here committed to your wellbeing. We are here to help you through this break you are having.”

  Morgan swung his stunned gaze back to the smug twit. “Break?”

  The man let out a sigh. “Yes, your break from reality.”

  “F-from…” Morgan was flabbergasted. “Someone committed me to an asylum for the insane and has told you I’m having a break from reality?”

  The man didn’t answer as he nodded toward the glass wall and spoke, “I recommend Zyprexa. Then after several weeks, we can change it to a less virulent drug.”

  Morgan sucked in a breath. “Several… NO!” What would happen to Ellie if he were trapped in here for several weeks?

  The doctor ignored him and turned away.

  “Wait a damn minute! You can’t just truss up a person and then drug them without their consent!”

  The doctor did turn and gave him a sympathetic look. “Mr. Hunt, your family has decided that this is the course of action to take. They are worried about you.”

  “My family?” Morgan exclaimed as his stomach suddenly felt tied up in knots. “WHO? My father? Oh, no. He would never allow a scandal like this!”

  The doctor turned away and punched in a code on the panel, he waited a second for the door to slide open. He went out without a comment.

  Morgan stared after him as he heard 3 locks engage on the door. “Well, fuck me!” He had no answers to this. His father and certainly his mother would have never done this. They would have felt too ashamed if word ever got out. No, it could hurt the company, the shares. So again—who would have done this?

  The door opened and someone stepped in.

  Morgan had trouble seeing who it was until they stepped closer.

  “Hello Morgan.”

  His eyes widened. “YOU!”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Ellie,” someone whispered.

  Gasping, she turned her head on the pillow.

  “Ellie, it’s me.”

  “Chance?” she asked.

  Someone grabbed her hand. “Yes, it’s Chance.”

  “W-where is…?”

  He sighed. “I don’t know where he is.”

  Ellie paused. “You lost Morgan?”

  “Yes.”

  “But how?”

  “Well, he saw you here in the bed and really, I apologize for saying this, but you were a mess. Then the nurse took him out to the hall.”

  Ellie tried to speak again then swallowed heavily. Her throat was so dry.

  “Here.”

  A straw tapped her lips and she took a sip of water. She coughed a bit. “What—happened?”

  “Well, he sorta…well, he flipped out.”

  “What?”

  “I guess after seeing you bandaged up, and all the tubes, the cuts and bruises, he flipped his shit. You’ve got to understand, he’s never…” Chance’s voice faded away.

  “Never?” she gulped out.

  “He has never cared about anyone like he does you. At least since, I’ve known him and that would be most of his life. So he grabbed the nurse and hefted her into the air asking what was wrong with you. Why weren’t they helping you and then two security guards came. Well, they tased our boy.”

  Ellie gasped. “Oh, god! Is he okay?”

  Chance squeezed her hand. “He got back up and took them both down.” He chuckled. “Seems tazing doesn’t affect Morgan like it does other people. Gave me a jaw buster too, when I tried to make him stop.”

  Tears gathered in her eyes. “So, they arrested him?”

  “I thought so, but our lawyer can’t find him in the system.”

  “Can’t…” Ellie tried to sit up. “He’s just gone?” Her voice rose in panic. “But I thought he had me moved here, they said—?”

  “I had you moved, pretending to be your fiancé, Morgan Hunt.”

  “W-why? I don’t understand.”

  “The hospital was on alert because of him and I admit, after he disappeared, I got scared that someone was in this that we can’t trust and I know Morgan would want you safe. Plus, truth be told, the scandal. The press was already there, after he went berserk.”

  “Oh.” She managed to actually sit up. “Yes, scandal seems to follow us around. But berserk? Really, Chance. Morgan is always so in charge and calm. I don’t understand?”

  Another chuckle. “Apparently, when it comes to you and your welfare, he is NOT calm and in charge, Ellie.”

  “So you have no idea where he went? What happened to him after that?”

  “While the cops were questioning me, someone took him out of here.”

  “Someone? But how could they do that?”

  “I don’t know but I have my guys on it. They can’t hide him forever.”

  “They? Who is they?”

  “Again, I don’t know.”

  “Chance?”

  “Yes, Ellie.”

  “Did you send that guy to run me off the road?”

  Silence.

  “Chance?”

  “Of course I didn’t. I would never want you hurt. I sent him to trail you to keep you safe.”

  “How did you know I was by myself?”

  “Umm… Well, Morgan—”

  “Miss White?” a woman called. “Oh, Mr. Hunt I wasn’t aware that you were in here.”

  “Umm, yes. I just had to see her,” Chance replied.

  “Well, we are ready to remove her bandages, so I suppose you will want to stay in support of her.”

  Silence.

  “I mean we don’t know if—”

  “Oh, yes. Of course.” Chance squeezed Ellie’s hand. “I am staying until she is better.”

  Ellie felt confused. “Bandages?”

  “Yes, Miss White. We need to unwrap them and see if there was more damage to your eyes than the previous doctors thought.”

  Ellie bit at her lip. “So, this is when I find out if I’m blind?”

  “Yes, although we do not want you to immediately open your eyes. It needs to be done in low light.”

  “O-okay,” Ellie replied.

  “Don’t worry babe, I’ll be right here, okay?” Chance squeezed her hand.

  Ellie trembled. She wanted Morgan here. Chance was a good friend to him, but not him. She nodded.

  Chance let go of her hand.

  “Hello Miss White,” a new voice spoke. “I’m Dr. Christen. I will be removing the bandages, but you must wait for me to say you can open your eyes, all right?”

  Nodding again, she clasped her hands together.

  “It will be okay Ellie,” Chance spoke from somewhere in the room.

  She felt the man’s hands on the gauze around her head.

  “Keep your eyes shut until I say so.” He then unwrapped the gauze from her head. Next, he pulled the padding at her eyelids. “Now remember, keep your eyes closed.” He removed the pads.

  Ellie had her hands clasped tightly together. This was torture. Not knowing. But if she were blind, she didn’t want to know.

  Someone grabbed her hands. “It’s me, Ellie. I’m here.”

  It was Chance again. Her body shook. Morgan, where are you?

  “Now don’t tear up. Try hard, Miss White. I see you are getting agitated.”

  She gulped down her onslaught of tears and squeezed Chance’s hand. Then she heard shuffling and walking.

  “Okay, now open your eyes.”

  Ellie took a deep breath and kept her eyes shut. She was so afraid.

  “Come on it’s okay,” the doctor urged.

  Ellie opened them.

  Nothing.

  “Okay, tell us what you see.”

  She blinked.

  Again…nothing.

  “OH…GOD!” she cried.

  Marsden Asylum…

  Morgan glared up at her.

  “I am so sorry this
has happened,” Daphne said in a soft voice.

  “No, you aren’t but you will be,” he seethed.

  Her eyes rounded. “But you need help Morgan.”

  “No, you are the one who will need help. Because when I get out of here…” He glared at her.

  She pulled her head back. “Your family asked me to do this.”

  He narrowed his gaze at her. “You are a liar. Always have been and it seems, you always will be.”

  She looked angry. “Believe what you want. Apparently, they all agree here that what you believe may not be good for you.”

  “Oh, I will. And this is what I believe.” He lowered his voice. “Come closer, because you will want to hear this.”

  Looking suspicious but curious, she cautiously stepped closer.

  “You’d better have them lobotomize me, because when I get out of here, I am going to utterly destroy you.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “I mean it, Daphne. You are going to have a war unlike you have ever seen. Ellie is hurt, blind and alone right now and I already hold you directly responsible. You need to tell them to let me go and now. If you keep me here another fucking minute, you will pay for the rest of your shitty, rich entitled life.”

  Gasping, she stepped back.

  “Tell them, now Miss Yearwood. You’re smart enough to know and in fact, I bet you do know. That once you have crossed Morgan Hunt, you forfeit the right to fairness. I will obliterate your entire life, even at the cost of my fortune.”

  Gulping, she seemed to be breathing heavily. “I-if I get them to—let you loose?” Her hands shook as if she just realized the mistake she’d made.

  “I’ll leave here and you can go your merry way.”

  Still looking afraid and not at all like the Daphne he always knew, she stepped back while almost stumbling in her 5 inch heels and tapped on the door.

  “NOW, Daphne,” he repeated.

  The door opened and she nearly ran out of the room.

  Dammit. I still want to wring her neck. How in the fuck did she think this was a good idea on any sane level?

  Morgan waited for several minutes. Ellie I hope you’re okay. I hope you don’t feel abandoned. He felt his eyes tear up. If she’s alone and suffering, and if she is blind permanently, I think I will kill Daphne. I may go to prison if caught, but it would fucking be worth it.