Breathe

Breathe

"- on will be needing more of the P-23 for her lum-"

" -get on that when the director actually pays f-"

"-ke sure that she doesn't take too lon-"

"-possibly too much already done to her, the S-43 w-"

"-lready had a break this morning! Honestly, did y-"

Fade

Move

The door rolled open, hospital gown swishing, the smooth hiss of oiled hinges squeaking as the door slid home behind me. I turned, glancing either way down the white-light hallway, doors shut all the way down. The fluorescent lighting pulsed, clashing terribly with the shuttered skylights, and I really had to question who designed the hallway to prevent easy sunlight entry. I leaned casually back, rap-tap-tapping my foot against the floor in a sort of forced relaxation. The nurses continued walking and gossiping, making their way down, as my impatience grew. Finally, the noon inspection passed, and I began walking opposite the direction the nurses had gone.

Two doors down to the right, 30 minutes until the doctor's are off break

This was the second floor (or so the Head Nurse had told me) and that meant that there should be a window roughly two doors down and one floor above my room. I paused before the door, waiting a breath. It would take about 2 minutes for someone to move up the stairs with my supposedly injured leg, so I had to lose the extra time I'd bought to escape the Janitor's post-lunch vigil below. But my practice and study had finally paid off, and this should be the right time to just slip out.

Having decided I waited long enough, I turned my back to the door, hands behind me clicking the latch and letting myself in. No one passed, and I sighed as I passed fully though and blocked off my vision with the pasty blue paint. I turned after shutting it fully, and came face to maw with the unamused expression of the head nurse.

The door clicked shut, and I refused to let my heartbeat change my expression.

"Ms. Limetart, how are you this morning."

Her cavernous eye sockets stared me down. "Ms. Lisehart is fine this morning, thank you, and how are you?"

"Quite well, quite well", I blinked. "Shame the weather doesn't match, so I suppose I'll be goi-" I turned to beat a hasty retreat, but the crone moved faster.

She moved aside. The sun was shining brilliantly into the room.

"Ah, well, the mood in my heart is that of a cloudy overcast," I continued turning and gave her my best smile.

"Of course, of course. First floor rooms tend to be that way, no windows due to security concerns you see. Perhaps, you should stand in the sun to feel better."

She eyed me as I slowly shuffled sideways, narrowing her eyes as I tried my hardest to sweat quietly.

"And speaking of security, why is one of my dear patients out of his bed so early?"

I slid slowly around to her left, trying to get around her. She took a single step and cut me off.

I was beginning to feel distinctly attacked.

"Well, you know. Only so long you can sit in a bed until it tires you out. I thought I should get some air."

One of her forehead wrinkles moved, I think. Might have twitched. Or maybe it was the botox withdrawal, I was confident that I had not hallucinated her weeping over the packaging.

Either way, I was confident in assuming it was an expression of her pity, and pressed onward. "Can't be helped, after all, plain white walls and a blank tv take their toll."

"You have a remote."

"I can't read."

"Then turn off CC."

"The letterboxing gives me a headache without words to fill the gaps."

Another twitch, I felt confident that I was close to winning the crone to my side. Time to play on her latent motherly instincts buried...deep. Deep, very deep, somewhere inside her. Maybe. I began sliding to the side again, and this time I managed to slip around her, and into the room proper, where some random patient looked like he was in pain.

I pointed to him. "Look at this poor sod, I heard he was lonely, so I came to visit."

She raised a craggy brow. "My, how uncharacteristically kind of you to do so, when most of you floormates claim they can't even get you to share crackers."

"I am a kind man," I say haughtily, "Very kind. But the curse of such kindness, alas, is that so many leeches exist to take advantage of it. One must be wary of such creatures."

"You don't even eat those biscuits, surely sharing them is of no consequence?"

I shook my head sadly. "Of course not, how else will they appreciate what they have?"

She gestured at the young man in the bed. "Oh? And what of this man?"

I looked around quickly, spotting literally nothing of value.

"Doesn't look like he's got anything to appreciate. I mean, I'm here to offer him something to appreciate."

I immediately walked over, and sat beside him.

"Who-"

I prooffered my hand. "Hello, I've heard a great deal about you."

He blinked. "But no one's ever come to speak to m-"

"They say you have the potential to be a great friend," I continued smoothly, "and I'd love to also be your friend!"

"I've never had a friend..."

I clapped. "First time for everything, lovely to meet you at last!"

He smiled slightly, a tremulous thing. It did my heart good to see such a thing, leaving aside the horrible drool stains at the corners and that sleep stuff in his eyes. He clearly wasn't expecting visitors.

A heavy hand laid itself on my shoulder, and I felt her grip my soul in a vice. I desperately hoped that the cushion I was sitting on was absorbent, and pretended not to notice.

"Now, I'm very glad you two have decided to get along, it's wonderful. Really it is, but my dear patient here really should be running along no-"

"W-wait", he stuttered, eyes wide open.

I tried not to let the victory show in my expression, even as it felt like she was trying to tear my shoulder off. I had a distinct feeling that she was trying to put me back in the ER, where I couldn't escape.

"He's the first visitor I-I've had..." the young man continued. "Please, could you..."

Time to capitalize.

"He's right you know. I mean," I waved a magnanimous hand, "look at this poor, lonely bastard."

His head snapped to me so fast it cut off the rest of my sentence. "How did you know about my father's de-"

"Anyway," I turned to the nurse, lips twitching madly. "You should go. I'm making friends here, you know?"

She resigned herself to defeat with the sound of mortared bricks being laid, all clashing and wet snaps.

I knew she had a soft spot for me.

As soon as she reluctantly left the room, I waited for thirty seconds in dead silence, before creeping to the door.

I placed my ear against it. Silence. 10 seconds later, nothing had changed.

Safe

I threw the kid a jaunty salute, and slid it open, coming face to face with nightmares reborn.

"Ah, hello Ms. Limetart, what are you doing?"

"Ms. Lisehart would like to know the same thing. I thought you were making friends with the boy."

The breeze picked up.

"Airflow," I said mechanically.

"What?"

"There's no airflow in the room, none at all, the wind is completely still." My mind raced. "By opening the door and window we can get a decent breeze."

"Denied."

I shrugged. "Well, then,"

I slammed the door shut and turned slowly back to the boy.

"Why-"

"Third time I've tried to escape." I muttered. "She catches me every time. Last time, she even burned my clothes so I wouldn't be able to leave without looking like a nudist."

He blinked. "Is that even legal?"

I shrugged. "Doesn't really matter."

He cocked his head, and I smirked proudly in response.

"She thought shame would restrain me, but sucks to suck, I've spent so much time walking around like this that I'm already a nudist!"

Having said as much, I turned and opened the door, only a crack this time. Nothing. I peeked my head out, checking the left and right. I spotted what I was looking for at last, all the way down the hallway, then turned and sprinted for the window.

"W-Where are you going?!" the boy, he really was a boy, called.

"The door." I responded.

"The door is the other way though."

"Not this one. This one only opens for another minute thirty."

That threw him for a loop, and there was blessed silence as I managed to jimmy the slide open, and hooked a leg over the sill.

"W-what happens in a minute thirty?"

"Janitor comes by," came the voice from through the window I had fully begun lowering myself from. "To clean the room and grab a tab of your painkillers."

His eyes widened. "That's for all day! Why?!"

"They go for a good price on the corner."

A pillow went soaring by the windowsill.

"W-Where are they?!"

"I grabbed the rest while you distracted the matron."

"Is-is that why you're leaving?"

He sounded teary, so I tossed him another salute before I dropped. "Nope. It's cause I can't pay the bills. Later nerd."

"B-but wait!"

A loud crash, and a scream of pain echoed from the open window.

"Ms. Lisehart plants rosebushes below the window..." the boy whispered sadly to himself.