“Adelaide, love!” He calls out. “I know you're out here!” His accent rings out in the air and echoes on the wind. It's the same orderly who carried me off the bus when I arrived at Oakhill. “I will find you, love! It's only a matter of time!”
I'm glad he thinks so. I know different. But still, I take precautions to ensure he doesn't spot me in the tree I'm perched in. I wait until the crickets hit a crescendo before twisting around to the opposite side of the tree trunk. Then I place my back flat against the unruly bark and wince when I feel the ridges poke my skin. I'm still wearing my hospital gown and mentally curse at myself for forgetting the bag that Aurora packed. Hunching forward, I position myself in between a fork in the branches, propping my legs up on each fat limb.
Even though Aurora and I planned this escape together she planned everything out more than I did. She thought of all the things we'd need. Clothing. Shoes. Food. Money. All I did was map out our route and locate the one window in the entire asylum that didn't have bars on it. Uneasiness and hurt sweeps through my stomach when I think of me being out here, free, while Aurora is back at Oakhill probably being electrocuted.
After the fire she started is put out of course.
But she wanted this for me. She said it. She told me to run. I have to keep telling myself that. I have to keep telling myself that she wouldn't have told me to run if she wanted me to stay behind, right? Reassuringly I keep thinking of that moment over and over again, where Aurora was shouting at me and pleading with her eyes. It's the only way I can continue on this journey without guilt devouring me and using my bones as a tooth-pick.
“Bollocks,” says the orderly below as he lets out a frustrated sigh. I glance over my shoulder and watch him as he stares out into the darkness. “Those bloody bastards have me out here chasing a God damn, loon.” He pivots on his heel. “They can kiss my arse.”
My eyes follow him as he wanders down the well-beaten forest path back in the direction of the asylum and I sigh with relief when he disappears from my view all-together. I slide down the trunk of the tree and position myself in between one of the thick branches. My feet dangle in between the opening and I look up as a forceful gust of wind tosses around the wiry branches littered with small leaves.
This reminds me of Damien.
It reminds me of the days we spent lying under the willow tree in my back yard. The wind would blow and tousle the branches, while the white buds on the tips would look like tiny pieces of cotton against the backdrop of the powdery blue sky. I closed my eyes as the coolness sent an enticing shiver up my spine and moaned when warmth replaced that shiver with a burning desire when Damien's hand climbed up my inner thigh. “I love the way the wind feels on my skin,” I told him.
He leaned in close and the heat from his lips scorched my lower earlobe. “Just the wind?” he asked, a teasing tone to his voice.
I clamped my fingers around his wrist and smiled. “And you too, silly.” He beamed. Then our tongues became tangled and our minds became hazy.
Pain. A deep stabbing pain throbs in my heart and I have to clutch my chest to keep the pain from spreading. I don't know why I like to torture myself with those beautiful memories. I gasp out and hunch over as tears rain down my cheeks and dampen the bark on the tree branch. In the future, I know that I'll be able to revisit those memories and smile. I'll be able to remember that Damien and I loved each other hopelessly and lived in our own little world, even if only for a short time. But right now, even after months, the wound inside my heart hasn't fully healed.
It's still fresh.
Still too raw.
I avert my attention to the empty path to keep myself from thinking about the boy I loved. The boy who I only see when I'm high off my meds and hallucinating. I push the image of him that's flashing through my head into the part of my mind that belongs to him. I restart my brain, centering it around the task at hand.
My escape.
Chapter Four
~Before~
Damien always used to watch me sleep. I don't know how, but I'd always be able to tell.
This is how I know there's someone watching me now.
Bravely I lift my right eyelid, peeking at a pair of wide brown eyes through the slit. Just below the eyes is a small, sloped nose, freckles trailing down from the bridge to the tip. Opening both eyes, I sit up as the girl who was watching me stumbles backward into her own cot.
“Hello,” I say and tilt my head to the side. “I'm Adelaide.”
The girl takes a seat on her cot. “Aurora.” Her voice is meek and squeaky. Like a mouse. Aurora scoots to the farthest edge of her cot and pulls her knees to her chest. What's wrong with this girl?
She seems terrified.
Of me.
“You must be my new roommate,” she says, a nervous quiver vibrates in her vocal chords.
I look around the small room, with bland tan colored walls, and take inventory in how there is double of everything. “I guess I am.”
I can't remember them bringing me in here, but they probably did it after they gave me a shot of some kind of mind erasing drug. Because if they brought me in here without shooting me up with a drug I'd remember it.
“So what's wrong with you?” my new roommate inquires.
I laugh at that. “Lots of things.” I hang my feet over the side of my cot. “What's wrong with you?”