Finally a week went by and Gary was reluctantly set free. "Now don't go starting anymore trouble young man or else you'll never get out of this place alive" threatened a large, thin nurse. Gary wanted to punch in the nurse's glasses, but held back. He could be a good boy—for a little while.
In the main commons area Alice had been waiting patiently for his arrival. "Gary!" she squealed as she skipped over to him and threw her arms around his neck. He was shocked that he was hugging her back, rather than normally shoving her off him. "See, I told you!" she beamed as she let go of him and smiled up at him.
"yeah, I know. Thanks, by the way" he said, fidgeting a bit.
"Oh it's no problem!" she giggled. "Mr. Henry owed me a favor anyways."
"So, are you gonna tell me why you're in here?" he asked again, smirking as he sat down on the couch that they had met on. She sat on her hands, smiling flirtatiously. She shook her head quickly.
"Not yet!" Gary rolled his eyes.
"Why not?" he whined.
"Because. Oh! Come with me! I need to show you something!" she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him off the couch.
"Where are we going?" he asked, laughing a bit.
"You'll see! It's a surprise!" she beamed.
Alice pulled Gary towards his actual room, but walked past it into another room. Alice let go of his hand and entered the room as she searched for something. Gary stepped in and took a look around. It was dark, but he realized that was because there was red fabric all over the room—covering the walls and the window. There were pictures tacked up to the fabric with bobby pins. Some were drawings and paintings while others were photographs and magazine clippings. The mirror above her sink had a window frame painted on it and candles were placed everywhere.
"Is this your room?" he questioned as he looked closer at a painting that was next to him.
"Yes, this is my bedroom. Isn't it lovely?" she smiled. "Ah! Here it is!" she exclaimed as she pulled out a medium sized canvas and handed it to Gary.
"What's this?" he asked, looking over it. It was a painting of two people, sitting on a couch. Alice smiled.
"This—" she said, pointing to one of the figures, "is you and this is me!" she said, pointing to the other figure. Suddenly gary could see the resemblance and realized that this was their first meeting.
"You painted this for me?" he asked, a little shocked. She nodded her head. "Wow, thanks Alice. I liked it a lot. Thanks." They both smiled.
Alice insisted on Gary hanging the picture as soon as possible so they went next door to his room and Alice gave Gary a hammer and a nail and he went at it. Beating the crap out of something that can't defend itself always seemed to make Gary feel better.
Alice sat on Gary's bed, looking out the window. The sun was almost complete with it's setting for the day which meant that soon lights would be out and the doors would be locked. Eventually she looked over and saw Gary had finished putting up the picture.
"It looks nice there" she said, smiling. Gary thought it brought a bit of a homey touch to the barren room.
"LIGHTS OUT!" called one of the nurses as people began to shuffle into their rooms. "Hey you! Back to your room little miss!" said the nurse as he saw Alice in Gary's room. She waved goodbye as she walked out and went back to her room.