Chapter 14
(Samantha's Point of View)
"How are you feeling today, Samantha?"
My eyes opened to see the same doctor from yesterday looking at me.
"Fine, I suppose."
The doctor smiled coyly as she stood up from the ground beside me.
"Since you are on the highest dose of medication there is here, we are going to run a few tests today."
I looked her in the eyes and just couldn't bear to fight. I didn't have enough strength. I nodded my approval and she walked away happily to find my nurse.
I looked down at my ever growing stomach. Erik's child was inside of me. This was supposed to be the best time of my life, but here I sat, 8 months pregnant, inside an insane asylum because no one but Jennifer believed me. But now, Jennifer sat in her own room, completely drugged as well. She wouldn't remember a thing. But I still did.
The music still flowed through my veins and my mind. His violin that soothed me to sleep when I couldn't, his voice that sang to me of his love, and his arms that wrapped around me when I needed comfort.
The walls began to disappear in my mind and there he stood, holding his violin and playing it for me.
"May I have this dance?" he asked me.
I stood up and looked to see myself dressed in a beautiful gown. As he took my hand in his, he began to ballroom dance with me around my room.
"Erik, please...why is this happening to me?"
"Shhh...my sweet love, it will all be over soon."
He looked in my eyes and smiled brightly.
"My love, my life, my forever." he said as he kissed me gently on my lips.
No sooner had he done that, did the reverie fade away. My room turned back to the cold metal it was and I stood there, alone, and in chains. As my doctor walked in, my nurse placed me on the table. My tests were about to start.
As I got onto the table, the violin still played in my mind. I closed my eyes and rested my head on the steel table as they poked and prodded me with needles and IV's. Once they had finished, my dreams began to become scattered.
"I feel funny." I whispered.
The doctor took my hand in hers.
"It will be alright, I promise."
The violin still raged on, but now it was fading away.
"Don't go, Erik..." I whispered.
The doctor turned around suddenly and stared at me.
"You can still see him?" she asked.
I looked her in the eyes for the second time today, and simply nodded my head.
"But that is impossible, she is on the highest dose of medicine!" said the nurse.
"I have never had this happen before." said the doctor, "Get the tests right away."
Suddenly, men and woman flowed into my small room. Tubes and machines began to get hooked up to my body as I screamed for them to stop, but they only worked harder. My head began to pound out of control. My thoughts began spinning until I thought I was going to fall off the table.
"Erik!" I screamed out with my last breath and for the first time since everything, the pain stopped. I felt his arms around me once again, like they always had been, but as I opened my eyes, I saw myself lying on the table below me.
I turned to Erik and looked at him.
"What happened?"
He held my face in his hand and simply said,
"You weren't meant for this earth. You died."
I looked down at myself again, and watched as the doctors slowly began to realize that I had died.
"But how?"
"They overdosed your medicine." he replied.
"Jennifer..." I whispered.
He looked at me with a smile.
"She will be just fine. She is coming soon too."
Suddenly, Erik took me to her room. My tears welled up as I saw my baby cousin lying alone on a cold hard table.
"Erik..." she whispered..."Please, help me..."
Suddenly, the doctors came into her room. Flustered, they began to run tests on her as they strapped her to the table. Despite her screaming, they proceeded until finally her last breath was uttered and her spirit joined Erik and I.
"Jennifer!" I screamed as I hugged her tightly.
"I thought I would never see you again!" she cried.
Erik watched us with a smile but then said, "Come, it is time."
Our hands laced with his and suddenly, we were walking down the hall of the asylum. Heads turned and mouths opened wide as we made out way to where our bodies lied. As we looked over what used to be me, the doctors stood stiff.
"Samantha and Jennifer weren't crazy. I truly do exist. I, Erik, am a spirit just as they are now. If only you had as much faith as children do, then you would have understood. Believing is a part of the mysteries of life. Children have so much faith...perhaps if you only listened to them, things could have turned out differently."
The doctors looked at each other, then at Erik, Jennifer, and I.
"They weren't meant for this world, so now it is time they go home." Erik said, "But before, just remember to believe in your dreams. You have everything you need, if you just believe. Listen to your heart. Your dreams are calling to you. Anything is possible if you believe it is."
As we began to walk down the hallway again, the doctors gathered behind us. As the patients cried out to us, Erik held out his hand and suddenly, their spirits joined us.
"They believe, more than any of you could, because their hearts are pure and childlike."
As every patient gathered with us, Erik turned around to the doctors for the last time.
"Never shut the heart of imagination. Dreams come true, only if you let them."
And almost like a dream, we disappeared into a Neverland all our own.
