by R. J. Lloyd
She’s real. She’s actually real.
Ten
Eva
Her eyes fluttered open briefly, the fog of the drug trying desperately to drag her back into sleep. But she fought it long enough to recognize she was in the back seat of a car.
She attempted to lift her head, but the world started spinning. Her hands went to her head, trying in vain to settle the dizziness, but it was no use. She rested back on the seat, vaguely aware of voices around her yet unable to make out any of their words.
She tried to open her eyes again, but everything was blurry. She felt as if she was fighting a strong current in her mind, a current that was going to win and drag her back under at any moment.
Just before she succumbed to the darkness again, Ian flashed through her mind. Him, walking into the station, looking around the room, looking for her. She tried to visualize the restaurant from their dreams, clinging to its memory as much as she could as she went back under.
Eva felt the familiarity of the chair from their usual spot. She looked around, but everything was unclear. She tried rubbing her eyes, but it didn’t help. Everything around her looked like the atmosphere from a chilly, humid morning.
An unsettling feeling was suffocating her. She couldn’t quite grasp what was going on, only bits and pieces as things slowly came together.
She searched the room for Ian, calling out to him. “Ian! Are you here? Please be here!”
He didn’t respond.
She tried again. “Ian!”
He wasn’t there.
Defeat trailed her words. “Please be here.”
She was alone.
Eva curled up on the floor in the corner next to the window that lined the front of the restaurant. Her arms were wrapped around her knees, and she rested her head on them, sobbing.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she heard his voice.
“Eva? Are you okay?’ He knelt down in front of her and put his hands on hers.
She looked up, surprised. “Ian?”
“Oh my God, Eva. I saw you. You were there. You were actually there! Then I saw them take you away.” He talked fast. “I saw him carry you out. Michelle came back and found me. She told me it was your father and some guys from a psychiatric facility. But she doesn’t know where they’re taking you. She didn’t know your father was going to do that. We figured maybe you could help if I could reach you in a dream. Where are you? Where are they taking you?”
“Michelle?” She was confused. Her words were slurring from the fog in her head. “You know Michelle? My father? Facility? What’s going on?”
“Yes. Michelle told me what happened.” He tried to catch her gaze.
She attempted to focus. “Are you with her? Does she believe now?”
“She’s in the room next to mine. We need you to tell me where you are.” He gripped her hands firmly.
She looked around, trying to find her last memories. “I don’t know. The last I thing I remember, I was in the back of a car.”
“Could you see anything?” He sounded frantic.
“Ian, I don’t feel well.” She started falling over.
He caught her, slipping onto the floor behind her and propping her up. “What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
“I don’t know. It’s so foggy in here, and I’m so dizzy.” She let all her weight fall on him. “I don’t feel well.”
“They must have you drugged.” He grumbled. “I’m here. I won’t leave you. When you wake up, find out everything you can about where they’ve taken you. I will take sleep meds if I have to, but I’ll sleep at three in the afternoon and then eleven every night until we figure this out. I’ll come find you. Michelle and I will come find you.”
She closed her eyes. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“Me neither,” he mumbled.
Just before she faded, she pulled his arms around her, a quirk of a smile tugged the corner of her lips up. “You’re real. Thank you for being real.”
Her eyes fluttered open again. This time, she fought against the sunlight coming in through a set of blinds. The sheet draped over her smelled of a hospital, and the realization she was no longer in her own clothes but in a patient gown came over her, causing the start of a panic attack.
She spun her legs over the side of the bed and sat up, pain searing through her head. She caught herself on the edge before toppling over, and slowly sat back up.
Looking around, she saw the room was nicely furnished with a dresser, a couple of chairs and a small desk and chair. Hers was the only bed in the room, so she knew there weren’t to be any roommates. That was both a relief and a scary prospect at the same time. And there was one window on the far wall.
Slowly, she steadied herself and made her way over to it, parting the blinds to look out. Letting her eyes adjust, which was painful, she searched for anything that might give her a clue as to where she was. But nothing did. She saw brick buildings, a courtyard full of people dressed as she was who were escorted by nurses, and trees… lots of trees that surrounded the structures as far as she could see.
Eva jumped at the knock on her door. A man in a white coat entered the room. “Eva, it is good to see you are up. Your breakfast will be here shortly. Please, have a seat on the bed so I can look you over.”
“Am I sick? Was I in an accident? Why am I in a hospital? What hospital am I in?” She fired off question after question, bile rising up in her throat.
He chuckled and waved a hand. “In due time, young lady. For now, let me ask the questions.” He shined a light in her eyes and made some notes on his tablet. “All right. Let us start with how you are feeling.”
“You want to know how I am feeling?” She scoffed.
His reply was plain. “Yes.”
She shook her head. “Well, I’m feeling angry and scared. And before you ask, I feel this way because I’m being held against my will and not informed of why I am in some hospital. And I’m not thinking it’s one with an emergency room by the looks of all those patients in the courtyard.”
“Oh, but we do have an emergency room, my dear. It’s quite the efficient one, too. Do you think you are going to be in need of it, Eva? Are you thinking about hurting yourself?”
He made more notes.
“No!” she yelled. “I’m thinking I don’t need to be here. Now, tell me where I am!”
“So, you’re not thinking about hurting yourself?” he repeated his question.
“No! Why would I do that?” she replied. “Where am I?”
“Are you thinking about hurting anyone else?” His demeanor stayed calm.
“I wasn’t, but if you continue to hold me against my will, I will have every right to do so.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Now tell me where the hell I am.”
“I have been instructed to not tell you this.”
He looked at his tablet, busily typing away.
Her eyebrows pulled in. “By whom?”
He looked up. “My superiors. I am under the understanding that it is not safe. Now, can we please go back to our assessment?”
She started pacing. “Assessment? So, this is a mental ward, isn’t it?”
“Mhmm…” the doctor replied to Eva with one of those not really saying anything, avoid the truth replies. His tone was one that told her he was attempting to keep the situation calm, obviously worried she might get aggressive.
Eva took advantage of his disconnect and glanced at his tablet to see if there was any information she could use to assess where she was, seeing:
Mid-State Community Health – East Ward
She repeated the name in her mind over and over, trying to be sure she memorized it. She wasn’t sure how many Mid-State facilities there were, but she knew it was at least a start.
“Eva? Are you all right?”
The doctor turned in his chair to face her.
She had zoned out, looking through the window. “What is your name, doctor?”
&
nbsp; He cleared his throat. “I think we are done for today. I will see you tomorrow morning.”
“What do I do the rest of the day? More assessments?” she snapped.
“No, dear. You will be brought a few games to occupy your time. We will have more information tomorrow.” He opened the door to leave.
She whipped around. “What? I can’t even socialize?”
He grinned. “Oh, you don’t want to socialize with the likes of what’s in this wing. They’re unsafe. If you need, it is possible I can arrange an escort out. But let’s get a few things settled first.”
He slammed the door shut behind him, leaving her feeling like she was the next victim in a horror movie. A chill ran across every inch of her as she stood, staring at the closed door. For a moment, panic raked through her, a gripping urge to find any way out of that place. Then she calmed, and all she wanted to do was fill her time until the afternoon and hope they would let her sleep.
A minute later, two men in white scrubs came into the room. The first one held out a pair of leather restraints. “We are authorized to get you to lunch, then back to your room by whatever means necessary. Are we going to need these?”
“No. I’d much rather go home, but if I can’t, I’d really like to get something to eat and then just get back here,” she replied meekly, the exhaustion of the encounters blanketing her. “Especially if the residents here are as scary as that doctor claims. Are you sure I can’t just eat in here?”
“Not this meal.” The first man took her by the arm and motioned toward the door. The second escort followed closely behind as they snaked down the halls.
Eva walked along, compliant.
Eleven
Ian
Two o’clock came around, and Ian started to worry he would be too restless to fall asleep. Michelle had attempted to keep him company, but as she told about how she instigated the ambush in New York City and how she admitted she was well aware of Eva’s father’s tendency to be cruel and controlling, his anger wasn’t helping his ability to get drowsy in the middle of the afternoon.
He’d walked to a nearby drug store, picked up some sleeping pills and some stuff to make hot tea, then returned to his room. Ian downed one of the pills and curled up with the tea and a book, hoping the combined effects would work.
His thoughts kept entangling with his fears as it became increasingly more difficult to not become stressed and worried about Eva’s situation. He could feel the effects of his body fighting the medication. The struggle between part of him wanting to retreat into a dream state and the other wanting responding to the stress by staying awake and being ready to act raged inside him.
He glanced at his watch and saw it was ten minutes past three o’clock. He wasn’t sure if Eva was able to get to sleep, but he definitely didn’t want to miss any chance to find out where she was.
Ian tilted his head back, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He let his mind drift to memories of their dreams together and pictured himself sitting in their restaurant. With the lull of the good memories aiding the medication, it wasn’t long before the tension fell off his shoulders, and he felt himself drift off.
The restaurant was empty. There was an eerie calm over the place, and it only added to the tightness in his chest as he sat alone. Turning his chair so his back was to the far wall and he overlooked the room, Ian ignored his leg’s consistent bouncing.
“Hey you.”
He whipped around, standing as he did, relieved to see her. “Thank God. Have you been here long?” He pulled her in for an embrace.
She let out a deep breath, one he practically squeezed out of her. “I don’t know. I’m stuck in some room, so I’m trying to sleep as much as I can when they’re not asking me a million ignorant questions. I haven’t wanted to miss seeing you.”
He pushed her back by her shoulders, keeping ahold of her but needing to see her face. “Are you all right? Where are they keeping you?”
“It’s some mental facility. I think it’s called Mid-State Community Health – East Ward. I saw that when one of the doctors tried to assess me.” She pulled his hand to her chest. “I don’t like it, though. Something isn’t right. They won’t give me any details; said they aren’t allowed to and that it’s dangerous for them to. They also won’t let me into the common areas, at least not alone. Apparently, I’m in some ward that’s for dangerous people. At least that’s what I’m told. Ian… I’m scared.”
“Something isn’t right about this. You are an adult. I don’t know how they’re keeping you against your will.” Ian’s tone was full of anger.
“I think my father is behind this,” she admitted. “I have a vague memory of him before those guys drugged me.”
“Michelle said he orchestrated this, and she didn’t know he’d go this far,” Ian explained. “She told him about her concern for you and how she was going to follow you to New York to make sure you were safe. She said he just showed up at the airport.”
Eva bowed her head. “My father is a scary man. I grew up respecting and obeying him. But as an adult, I can see how he’s let his money and his work rule him. That, and he has some secrets. You can tell, you know? I don’t know what he does exactly or what he’s hiding, but he gets more and more distant and cold as the years go by.”
“But why would he do this to you?” Ian asked.
Eva’s posture dropped. “I don’t know.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Mid-State Community Health.”
“East Ward.”
“I’ll look it up when I wake. If I have to check out a hundred Mid-State Community Health places, I will. Michelle and I will set out as soon as I wake up.” He kissed her forehead. “If you sleep overnight and find any other information, leave me a message. I don’t know if it will work, but it’s worth a try. I’ll check on the host’s stand by the door when I come back here, if you’re not waiting for me.”
“Leave a message? Like write something down? Do you think it will work?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. But if it does, then it’s another thing we have to help us. If not, it was worth the try.”
“Shit.” She sighed as the pull to reality set in. Eva threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hastily. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he replied. “I’ll find you.”
She said something as she faded away, but he couldn’t hear it. The look of fear in her eyes infuriated him.
Her expression left him feeling helpless.
Ian sat back in the chair and stared out the front window. Reminding himself time was flexible in dreams, he tried to stay calm as the sun rounded the skyline and went down. When it came back up, he started pacing the room.
Pacing turned to pinching himself, closing his eyes tight and willing himself awake. He even tried to drop a metal pot on his foot, hoping some pain would jolt him awake. But nothing shook his sleep status. And while he knew time was warped there, he hadn’t expected it would draw out to a three day stretch of just him, alone, scared he had been asleep that long from the meds.
Thoroughly freaked out, he prepared himself to start moving the moment he woke to try to center himself. When he finally started feeling the pull of waking life, those three dream days later, he quickly repeated the name of the place she told him one last time. “Mid-State Community Health – East Ward.”
The moment he felt his eyes prying open, he bolted out of the bed. Ian had stayed fully dressed, having had a feeling that he would want to rush, once awake. That left throwing the few things he’d left unpacked into his bag. He scribbled the name of the facility on the pad of paper from the desk and threw it in his pocket on his way out the door.
Banging on the wood, he knocked loudly on Michelle’s door. “We need to go.”
There was movement inside the hotel room. “One minute.”
“Now, Michelle,” he demanded. “I’m leaving. If you want to come with me, you need to come now.”
She opened the door a
crack. “It’s one in the morning.”
“Yes. Perfect for driving… no traffic.” He adjusted his bag on his shoulder. “Are you coming?”
“Just tell me where you’re going. I’ll meet you there,” she said.
He eyed her. “Good bye, Michelle.”
She called after him as he walked down the hall. “Wait! Just give me a couple hours!”
He spun around. “Just a word of warning… Don’t get in my way.”
“What do you mean?” She pulled her sweater around her tighter.
He pointed in her direction. “You. You got her into this mess, now you want to take your sweet ass time getting around to go find her. I don’t know you. And as of now, I don’t trust you. I don’t know what this is all about, but it stops now.”
“You have no clue what you’re going to face. Just give me a little bit. I’ll come with you,” she pleaded.
He shook his head. “Good bye, Michelle.”
As he turned to leave, she sneered, “Fuck you, Ian. That’s my best friend. I would never do anything to hurt her.” Seeing him continue walking, she went back into her room and slammed the door.
“But you’re not doing much to help, either,” he mumbled.
He kept walking to the elevators, replaying her words over and over. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something felt even more off about the situation and more ominous.
Ian pulled out his cell phone and called Kyle.
“You all right?”
“I’m not sure,” Ian admitted. “I need you to Google something. Look up Mid-State Community Health for me.”
“Are you checking yourself in somewhere?” Kyle’s sounded concerned.
Ian replied, “No. I just need to know where it is and what it’s like.”
“Why?” Kyle asked. “Wait. Never mind. I’m learning not to ask that with you lately.”
Ian waited a few minutes, flagging down a cab and asking to be taken to a car rental company that was still open. Finally, anxiety got the best of him. “Anything?”