Page 10 of Starve
But Sam just shakes her head. “Look, don’t take anything she says seriously. She’s had a hard time. I’m not saying you should be mean to her—please don’t do that either—just you know. Nod and ask if she needs anything. Get an orderly if you think youneed to. She’s not going to give you anything that makes sense.” Sam gets up, surprising me as she rubs over her wrists. “You’ll be fine. I know the rumors about this place, but you don’t have anything to worry about. Seventy-two hours isn’t the worst thing ever.”
“Right,” I agree dryly. “There are definitely worse things. Like being stabbed, or getting hit by a car.” Sam snorts at my words, and shakes her head, though there’s a small grin on her lips.
“Just show up for therapy and don’t act like you need to stay longer than you’re in for. Then you can go home and forget any of this ever happened.” She studies me for a few seconds longer, looking down at my bandaged palm. “I’m two rooms down to the right,” she adds. “So, if you need anything, just come find me. I don’t have my own room, though, so maybe don’t come in yelling.”
“I don’t really yell, so you’re safe on that end. Unless I’m being murdered by the ghosts here.” I can’t help the sarcastic tone of my words, and they make Sam snort as she leaves, without giving me another word.
It’s…strange.
But then again, everything here is.
I sit for another few minutes before the stillness becomes too much, but when I get up, it’s to head back for the window where I stood before. I look through the thick panes of glass, pressing my nose against the chilly surface, and once more look for any sign of movement outside.
Unsurprisingly, I’m met with absolutely nothing. Leaning away, I sigh against the glass, fogging it up and reinforcing thehiI wrote there on the glass. It brings me some stupid, childish pleasure, but I don’t push that away.
Right now, I sort of need it.
It’s my stomach clenching and twisting, reminding me that it’s about to eat itself in displeasure, that finally makes me push away from the window. I could nap, I think to myself, but I don’t end up stopping at the bed I refuse to callmine.
Before I can really think about it, I’m out in the hallway. It’s mostly quiet, with only two women at the end of it standing near a window, talking in muffled voices. They don’t look up at me, and I curl my toes against the hardwood floor under me, pressing my fingers against my bandaged palm.
“It’s never going to heal if you don’t let it,” I breathe softly to myself, shifting from one foot to the other. I automatically move to put my hair up, only to remember belatedly that my elastics were summarily confiscated back at the hospital. I doubt I’ll even be allowed to use a shoelace, or part of one, since I could obviously strangle myself with it. Even if it won’t fit around my throat, since an elastic wouldn’t either.
I groan as I walk down the side of the hallway I hadn’t come in by, running my fingers through my slightly tangled, limp blonde hair. I want to shower, but I’ve seen the bathroom. Nothing in me wants to shower in an open room, with only a half curtain for privacy, within the time limit of precisely six minutes set by the orderlies.
I’ll just be gross and grimy for the next seventy-two hours, and gladly at that.
Instead of following any set path, I follow the line of windows down a few different hallways, keeping an eye out for STAFF ONLY signs. Even inadvertently, I don’t want to end up breaking any rules over the next three days, though I don’t know what the consequences for doing so would entail. Another sigh leaves me, and I can’t help feeling like I’m slouching as my stomach clenches, once again?—
Movement outside of a window, in the trees beyond, catches my gaze and makes me stop. But this time, it doesn’t disappear.A blur of something larger than a dog moves through the trees in graceful, almost jerky movements. I follow it, picking up into a fast walk to watch through the thick glass. It’s impossible to tell what it is, though it certainly doesn’t look like an elk.
Curiosity wins out over caution as I follow the outer halls, nearly having to run to keep up with the figure outside. Distantly I hear the sound of arguing, but I ignore it. I can’t help the way I’m fixated, on the way Ineed to knowwhat’s running in the woods outside.
Surely, ghosts don’t run through the trees.
“—I saidstop?—”
“You don’t get to tell me to stop. You don’t get to?—”
“You think this will fix anything? Do you really, honestly think?—”
I turn the corner just as the voices filter into my head and the words start to make sense. But I’m too late to stop or even slow down, and too late to do anything when I veer into the small stairwell where two men are squared off against one another.
All I have time for is to recognize the surprised face of the man I saw earlier, before I crash into whoever he’s arguing with, nearly knocking both of us over.
The man I haven’t seen before saves me from falling down the stairs, gripping my forearms in his hands with remarkable reflexes. “Oh, hello,” the man greets, a wolfish grin on his lips. “And what do we have here?”
Chapter 5
The man holdingmy arms in his firm grip is attractive, which perhaps shouldn’t be the first thing I notice. But of course, it is. His dark hair is brown, rather than black like the other man I saw earlier in the hallway, who now is scowling and nearly seething with frustration. But my savior’s dark, nearly black eyes seem to glitter brighter at his obvious discomfort. His grip tightens to the point of being painful, and I can’t help the soft breath that leaves me.
“Let her go.” The other man steps between us and gives him a shove, forcing him to release his hold on me. Not that he seems to mind. Instead, he grins and lifts his hands in clear surrender while looking barely apologetic. Just…amused.
“I’m sorry,” he says with a small laugh, looking at me instead of his companion. “I wasn’t expecting you to run into me. You’re new here.” It’s not a question, and it throws me a little off guard.
“Yeah, umm…” My eyes go to the window instead, where I search in vain for the movement I saw before. “Did you see something outside?” I can’t help my curiosity, and my desire to figure out what in the world is running through the woods outside.
“Didyou?”the smiling man is quick to challenge. He links his hands behind his back, head tilting to the side in a strange way that makes me give him a second glance. “I’m sorry I’m being so weird. I’ll be honest with you; they changed my meds a few days ago and I’m feeling really off.”
