“That’s not what I was trying to do. I didn’t do anything wrong,” I protested again but it was weak this time as she nodded at an orderly who clamped his hand on my arm and started to drag me to the door.
“Nurse Drew ...” Drake tried to step in, but two orderlies put themselves between us, blocking him from coming after me.
“Monty!” I screamed as they dragged me down the hall, kicking and screaming the whole way. “Help me. I can’t let him touch me again. Monty!”
“Stop this or we will sedate you!” Nurse Drew thundered, stopping so abruptly we almost ran right into her. I glanced past her to the shadow figures looming behind her.
“Fuck you, there’s no way you don’t know what that monster does to us. How do you sleep at night?” If I had liked her before, it was obviously misguided. She was heartless. And from the way her eyes shadowed and she turned with a huff, she fucking knew every bit of vile bullshit he put people through.
Coldhearted bitch.
My fight waned as we went into the elevator, their fingers digging into my skin and likely leaving bruises. The less I fought, the less it hurt, but the idea of just allowing them to take me to him wasn’t even a fucking option.
When they finally dragged me off the elevator and into his office, I expected everyone to leave but Nurse Drew stuck by me.
Each step we took was followed by shadow figures, the dark beings filling the halls and closing in around us the more my panic rose. I screamed out for Monty or anyone who would listen, anything to not have to do this.
My name being screamed from the hall cut through the internal freakout, and I glanced over to see Monty slamming blue fire at the doorway as if an invisible barrier stood there. Suddenly it made sense why he never came before.He couldn’t.The moment he saw I made the connection he stopped, standing there looming just out of reach.
The idea that this place was untouchable for him, that I was truly alone, unprotected, terrified the fuck out of me.
At this point, I was shoved in front of Vane, who looked less than amused by my behavior.
“She’s having a bad day,” Nurse Drew announced dryly when the doctor didn’t acknowledge our entrance. Vane turned around to face me, and I almost gasped at the difference in his appearance. His once handsome face was so pale it looked like he had black eyes. Despite that, his veins looked wrong, as if someone had mixed ink with his blood, darkening them significantly. Any emotion he’d pretended to have the first time was gone, he was a void of a human now, and I questioned if he was even that.
Drake seemed so sure that Vane wasn’t a demon. But he was wrong, he had to be, Vane had to be one of them.
“Harlow!” Vane’s bellowed words had me startling out of my head. I realized he must have been talking to me and I hadn’t heard a word.
“How did you get on the roof? That door is locked,” he demanded. His voice shook with barely suppressed anger and I knew no matter what I said I’d be punished.
“I didn’t go up to the roof,” I insisted as if he’d ever hear me out. “I woke up there.”
“Don’t lie to me.” His lips formed a thin line as he stared me down. I went to give Nurse Drew a frantic look only to find she was gone. My chest tightened with fear, and it took everything in me to turn back to the enemy. He noticed the change in me and a cold smile curled his lips.
“I’m not,” I said slowly, as if he simply wasn’t understanding me. “That’s what happened.”
He tapped away at his computer for a moment before turning his screen to the side so we could both see. I watched a security cam in the hallway of the third floor show me leaving my room. My eyes weren’t closed, but I looked off. Something about this wasn’t right. He hit a key and the camera shifted to a view of the stairwell. Again, I walked right up the stairs, like I was on a fucking mission. I tugged once on the door, then twice, with no luck. Then I froze for a few seconds and it swung open.
“I don’t remember any of this.” It was impossible to argue against hard evidence, yet it changed nothing, this was like watching a stranger. I had no flashes of memory, nothing from the night other than going right to bed.
“It doesn’t matter if you do. You broke protocol, and one more incident like this will land you on our high-security floor. And judging from the scene you caused in the lunchroom today, I’d say that’s the worst-case scenario for you.”
“What the fuck, do you just watch me?” I said with a horrified gasp. My filter was gone in light of this news. My skin felt like it was crawling, and I wanted to run from the room and save myself. Yet we both knew who held the power here, and it wasn’t me.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have cameras in the patients’ rooms, but otherwise, yes. Every single moment of every single day, just know that my eyes are on you, Harlow.”
“Why? That’s fucking creepy, even for a monster like you,” I said. He simply laughed and waved me out. Because I highly doubted he was just watching other patients like this. Why did I get the extra attention?
“If one more incident like this happens, you know the outcome.” It was a thinly veiled threat, and I didn’t bother to argue this time as I stood and ran from the room. My feet barely left the threshold to the hallway when I was surrounded by shadows. My stomach flipped as if I were on a rollercoaster and my scream of shock was cut off before it even left my lips.
As suddenly as I was surrounded, it all faded and I was standing in an empty patient room with Monty frantically pacing. I’d seen him pop in and out of existence, but this time, he’d taken me along for the ride.
“Did he touch you?” We never talked again after he found me with Drake. I also hadn’t realized how little I called for him now that I’d found friends and settled in here. He seemed to be feeling the effects, his words intense as he checked me over for marks.
“I’m fine, no,” I reassured him, but I could feel the distance between us. And I hated it.
But the moment I fully took in my monster, I couldn’t shake Drake’s words. He said Monty wasn’t a hallucination, and I needed to hear Monty admit it himself.