"Aren't you hungry?" I said looking at Lara. She was sitting across from me at the table, sporting her usual attire. It was Monday morning and we were having breakfast. Well, I was having breakfast, Lara hadn't touched any food.
"Not really." She smiled. "I'll eat something later, I don't feel so well."
"So? You should still eat. I feel like someone replaced my brain with a strawberry, and I'm still eating." I scoffed. Lara laughed, but didn't reply, and just sat there. She had already prepared breakfast before I came downstairs. I woke up feeling even woozier than I did when I went to sleep. It felt like everything was a blur. It was as if everything in the world continued on with whatever it was doing, and I was stuck somewhere in another dimension. I couldn't even remember getting dressed this morning, and that was not more than 10 minutes ago.
"Well." Lara said. "You don't really look fine. Is something wrong? Or perhaps bothering you?"
"Is… Is something bothering me?" I asked, nearly offended that she had the audacity to even ask that question. "Well, let's see. Just last week we were involved in a car crash because several lunatics decided it was a good idea to shoot at us. This resulted in us having to go to the hospital, where this Mitsuo figure said I was the only person who can recover a magic stone which could, pretty much, come straight from a b-rated science fiction movie. Afterwards, while you miraculously recovered within a day without any noticeable wounds, I was completely out for a week, God knows why. During that period, by the way, I swear there were at least a dozen times, in between the gazillion dreams and nightmares I had, where several people were standing over me, discussing something extremely urgent, judging by the way they talked. Then I wake up, feeling as if someone had been prodding my brain for weeks, and you act as if nothing is up! 'Let's go with the people who shot at us.' You casually say, because why the fuck not, right? Afterwards, we decide, you know what? Let's just leave the hospital straight away after waking up, without telling any nurse or doctor, because that is the brightest thing we can do, right? And you ask what's bothering me?" I felt my cheeks getting red while I was ranting.
"Sam, you had a blow to the head, perhaps tha-..."
"Than why am I not in the hospital?!" I yelled. "Everything is so fucking out of place, Lara. Everything. I don't even fucking know what's going on. It's so vague."
"I… I-I...What do you want me to say, Sam?" Lara shifted on her chair, uneasily.
"And then there's that Livia girl. Who the hell is that? Why is she here in London?" I said, ignoring Lara. "She suddenly came in my room, waited until you came in and then said you'd talk to her in private, and then left. Why the f...What the fuck is that about?!" I threw my hands in the air.
"Why do you care so much? We're just hanging out." Lara asked as she crossed her arms.
"It's...I don't know. It's just weird, okay?" I stammered. "I mean, she is weird. Not… you. Not that I have a reason to believe you're weird for… you know. Holy shit, never mind, I can't even talk anymore." I put my head on the table, defeated.
"It's okay, Sam. Just tell me what you think, you can tell me anything, you know that." Lara tried to sooth me by touching my arm.
"Okay, Lara." I said a little bit too aggressively, as I lifted my head up again. "Do you like Livia, as in like like her? I mean, she-...I got to be honest with you, she seems off to me. She seems weird, and kind of mean. She's-..."
"Yes."
"...Yes, what? She is weird? Then why hang ou-..."
"Yes, I like her." Lara said. She looked afraid.
"Oh…" Is all I could muster. My breathing increased and I felt the goosebumps form on my arms. I really didn't know what to say. I mean, it was kind of obvious that she did, but I still didn't quite believe up until now.
"Is that bad?" She pouted just a little bit. She looked genuinely afraid and sad. Oh my God, why is she so super adorable? I felt like I should hit myself for being so selfish.
"No, Lara… No. No, of course it's not." I used all my remaining energy to muster up a smile for her.
"It's nothing serious, by the way." Lara quickly said. "I mean, we're hanging out and that's it, so, you know."
"It's fine, honey. Don't worry about it." I said in the most friendly way I could. "Look, I need to… I want to go for a walk, is that okay? I want to go outside for a bit, maybe it'll help calm my mind down."
"Sure, sweetie." Lara suddenly smiled, as if she forgot we even had an intense conversation about 3.5 milliseconds ago. "I'll clean up."
The birds outside were singing, but the sound was dulled out. The sun was shining, but it still felt dark. Everything was dulled out. My vision, my hearing, the way I felt, everything was hazy. My muscles ached, in a weird way. They were tired, and felt heavy. Even my breathing was off, I could distinctly hear myself breathing in a non consistent pattern. For a moment, while I was walking outside, I convinced myself I was dreaming. However, when I could feel me pinching myself, I knew that wasn't true. This wasn't a dream. This was reality. I could feel everything, albeit dulled out. A couple walked past me. They were laughing and talking, but I couldn't make out about what. Nor did I really care. I felt my eyelids starting to get heavy again. Maybe I could sit down somewhere? Where was I, anyway? When I looked around, I noticed a bench under a tree in the grassfield I was walking by. I dragged myself to it and plopped down. I really needed to gather my thoughts and make some sense out of this, because this is not good. There was just too much going on in my head.
I sat down on the bench and let my head hang over the back. I looked up at the tree I was under and could vaguely make out some birds in a nest. The birds were still singing, without a worry in the world. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on just the birds chirping. I loved listening to birds. It was super cliché, but oh-so-peaceful. Closing my eyes helped. It closed off one stream of information my brain wasn't able to handle. Now I could focus on just the sound and the small breeze that touched my face and bare arms. It was a cool feeling in the warm sun. Suddenly that breeze changed into a hand that slightly stroked my arms. I was startled at first, but then realised it was Lara, I was certain of it. I didn't even need to open my eyes for it. I felt it by the way she touched me. I was so happy that she did. She kept stroking my bare arm, and she started using her hand palm, too. Her touch felt absolutely divine. It felt like I had needed her touch for years, and now, finally, I could experience it. Her hand went all the way up to my shoulder, and then back to my hand. It went on for a while, and I didn't move at all. I just enjoyed the moment, I enjoyed her touch, and tried to think of nothing else. There was no fear. It was as if she was stroking all my worries away, so I didn't have anymore worrying to do. It was as if she was telling me she would never leave my side, so I wouldn't have to worry that she might. Then, slowly, I felt her lips touch my skin as she kissed my cheek. I felt my entire body fill up with warmth. My underbelly tingled and I let out an obvious sigh. We've kissed each other on the cheeks before, but this was different. This was sensual. My breathing increased as I felt her lips stroke my cheek. Her hand moved from my arm and she placed it under my top. My stomach tightened as she used her fingernails to slowly stroke it and I felt my cheeks get flustered. I let out a moan when her mouth moved to my earlobe and bit it ever so slightly. She then placed her mouth right next to my ear.
"Do you want me to touch you?" She whispered erotic, in her beautiful accent. The warm air coming from her mouth into my ear send a shiver down my entire body.
"Yes." I moaned as if I never wanted anything more than this to happen right here and now. I wanted her to touch me everywhere. I wanted her to do me. To ravage me, right there and then.
"Say it." She whispered before she sucked on my earlobe.
"Oh my God, Lara… Y-yes, please. Please touch me." I groaned. I felt her hand move over my ribs, as she used her other hand to place her fingers just under my belt, touching the fabric of my underwear. I just let it come over me. I wanted this. I needed this. Her sucking on my earlobe, and her hands on my body made me more aroused than I had ever been in my life. "Lara, I want you so bad." I moaned.
"Are you okay, dear?" I quickly opened my eyes because that was not Lara's voice. I looked to my right and saw an elderly man looking at me. He looked at me as if he had seen a ghost, while he quietly held his lunch bag in front of him. I wanted to give Lara a slap as to why on fucking earth she would do this with someone right next to us, but she wasn't there. It was just me, she was nowhere to be seen. I looked down and realised I had my own hands on my body. One inside my pants, and with the other one I was groping my own breast.
"Jesus fucking Ch-... Oh my fucking God, I am so s-..." I stammered in horror as I violently removed my hands from my body which nearly made me fell off the bench. "Sir, I...Jesus, I truly am so sorry." I kept apologizing. "I'm… I'm sick… or something." I stood up from the bench. "Please, don't call the police." I said as I quickly ran away. I ran and ran, and I kept running. I didn't even know where to. I just had to get out of there. What just happened? How is that even possible? What was happening to me? Never in my life have I experienced something so bizarre. And that's coming from me. It felt so real. The realization that something was really wrong with me send a shiver down my spine as I kept running.
Apparently, at some point, I was running in the right direction, because I suddenly recognized the street the Manor was on. I looked around me surprised, how the hell did I get here so fast? I slowed down to a walking pace and looked at the guard next to the gate. He frowned at me as I stopped walking and looked at him as if I was completely in awe to find him there.
"Ma'am?" The guard said as he closed the gate behind me. "Is everything okay?"
"Y-yes." I said as I quickly walked through. I thought back to a few minutes ago to try and remember how I even got here, but it was as if my brain just denied that information. As if it was tired of trying to make sense of the situation; it didn't make sense, anyway. I think my brain had given up at that point. I started to feel dizzy, too. Luckily, I managed to make my way inside without falling over. I wanted to look for Lara, but decided against it and just made my way to my bedroom. I just wanted to sleep. It was as if the world was running at 200% and my brain didn't know what to do anymore.
"Hey." Lara startled me as she caught up to me just before I entered my room. "I made you some food."
"Jesus, Lara. Sneaking much?" I turned around to face her. She was smiling happily. "I just ate like two hours ago. I'm not really hungry."
"Well, you should really eat. " She "said, completely ignoring my near heart attack.
"But I'm not hungry."
"Please? I made it for you." Lara tilted her head.
"Geez, fine. I'll just take a quick nap and I'll have something to eat after, okay?" I said annoyed.
"I'll bring it to your room then." Lara said, still smiling. "Did you have a nice walk?"
"Yeah... " I thought back about my… vision, I guess you could call it, and immediately got embarrassed again. "Just fine. I was actually on my way to bed, I'm really tired." I turned around and went in. Immediately I saw my bag, and my backpack, obviously packed and ready to go.
"I packed your bags for you." Lara said a little too enthusiastic as she was standing in my door opening.
"W-what.. for?" I said without turning around.
"You know, for the Amazon." She stepped inside and walked towards the bag placed on my bed. "I've packed all the essentials, really. In the travel bag there's all the needed clothes." She then grabbed the backpack. "And in here is the stuff you need easy access to, like sunscreen, sunglasses and stuff like that."
"What?" Was, again, all I could say.
"What do you mean what?" Lara looked genuinely surprised, as if it was completely normal she made the decision to go to the Amazon for both of us.
"Since when are we going to the Amazon?" I slowly walked inside. I caught myself being weary for Lara, like I had to be careful around here now.
"What do you mean? We talked about it last night, right? You agreed on going, since it was the best thing to do and everything?" Lara tilted her head.
"I-I...I honestly don't remember." I really didn't remember. The last few days were a haze, I couldn't even remember what happened ten minutes ago. I sat down on the bed staring at the wall. "Wait, so when? When are we going?" I asked, surprising myself that I just sort of agreed.
"Tomorrow." Lara said, as she walked out. "Take your nap, I'll wake you in an hour. Then you can eat something" She said standing in the door opening. Then she left and closed the door behind her. I took a few moments to ponder over what just happened, though I soon realised my mind no longer tried to make sense of anything that was happening. I fell back on my bed, and fell asleep soon after.
"You need help, Sam. Okay? Why don't you just understand that?!" Lara yelled from across the kitchen table.
"Get help for what?!" I yelled, doing my best to top her decibel output. "There's nothing wrong with me!"
"Look, Sam." Lara said, a lot more calmly. "I am not your enemy, alright? I am your friend, and I'm just looking out for you." She walked around the kitchen table towards me. "Seriously, please get some help." She wanted to hug me, but I turned away.
"I never asked for your help. I don't need it!" I started walking out, trying to ignore further pleading from Lara. However, just before I could leave the kitchen area I suddenly felt all the blood drain from my head. Everything started spinning around me and I almost tumbled over. I quickly turned around, making eye contact with Lara. Before another second passed, Lara knew exactly what was going on. She leaped forward without a single moment of hesitation. Her reflexes were comparable to a freaking jaguar or something. The last thing I saw before falling over was Lara stretching out her arms. Somehow she succeeded, because just before I hit the floor her arms grabbed me and put me on the kitchen floor softly. Only then did I notice I was hyperventilating. I looked at Lara who sitting besides me on her knees.
"Easy, Sam." She said softly. "It's okay, it'll pass." She gently stroked my cheek. "It's just another panic attack, it'll go away." She reached down and hugged me. It helped. It helped a lot.
"Your hugs… They always help…" I said hoarsely.
"Then please know you can always hug me." She whispered in my ear just before I passed out.
I violently sat up straight in my bed, my eyes wide open and with a shiver down my spine. It was as if my mind had finally reset itself. All the haziness had gone away and I could think clearly. My heart was beating in my throat. It was as if I had just awoken from a nightmare. But I didn't have a nightmare. Not that I could recall anyway. I quickly looked for my phone, which I found on my nightstand. 3 AM. Next to the phone was the food Lara had prepared me, a salad with some fruit. There was a note next to it and I picked it up. Eat up! xoxo, it read. My heart started beating even faster, as I held the note in my hand. I quickly got up. Realising I still had all my clothes on, I ran out my room. Lara her room was two doors to the right. I ran up to it and started knocking violently.
"Lara!" I yelled as I kept knocking. When there was no answer, I yelled for her a couple more times. I opened the door and stepped inside her room. Lara wasn't there. I almost started hyperventilating when I realised her room looked untouched for days.
"I tried waking you." Lara said, as she was suddenly standing behind me in the door opening. Her sudden presence made my neck hairs stand up straight.
"Fuck, Lara." I said harshly as I turned around. I could only see the outline of her body in the moonlight which was shining through the windows, as I hadn't bothered turning on the light. It gave her an eerily vibe. I walked up to her and held the note in front of her. "xoxo?" I asked looking her directly in her eyes.
"What?"
"You never write xoxo. That's something I do, not you!" I threw the note at her, but it fluttered to the side.
"I don't know know what you're talking about, Sam."
"Lara, who wrote that note?" I squinted my eyes.
"I did." She was getting visibly nervous.
"Fuck you. Give me a hug."
"W-what? Sam, what's wrong with you?"
"Give. Me. A. Fucking. Hug." I opened my arms wide. Lara just stood there, still in the door opening. Her eyes met mine, probably trying to make sense of what was happening. "C'mon, do you remember what you said during that panic attack I had a few months back?"
"I-I...I" Lara stuttered.
"That I could always hug you!" My yelling was getting louder and louder. "And one of the things I love about you is that always keep your word. So, here!" I opened my arms even wider. "Hug me! NOW!" There was now fear in Lara her eyes. She didn't know how to react to this.
"I-I can't." She finally said, looking down at the floor.
"You couldn't hug me in the hospital. You can't hug me now. Why is that?" I asked as I lowered my arms.
"My ribs…And-"
"The truth! Why can't you hug me?!" I took a step closer to her. Suddenly, Lara relaxed and her eyes calmed down. As if a huge weight was lifted from her shoulders.
"Okay." She said softly.
"Okay, what?"
"The hospital."
"What about it?" I asked.
"You should go there."
"What am I going to find there?" I asked slowly.
"The truth." Lara said determined. I started to feel the panic getting the upper hand again.
"Why would I find out the truth in the hospital? Can you not tell me what's going on?"
"You wouldn't believe me. I need to show you." Lara said. "Let's go." She turned around and walked away.
"You'll have to drive fast." Lara said as she got stepped in on the passengers side. It was completely dark outside, but since it was summer, it wasn't cold.
"What do you mean?" I asked as I sat behind the wheel. The sound of the engine coming to life somehow made me more nervous.
"They'll be following you."
"They being Mitsuo's men?" I asked anxiously.
"Yes." Lara said, as if it was nothing. I suddenly got a horrible flashback to our car crash. I turned left on the dark empty road and immediately noticed the Range Rover behind us. Shit, I thought to myself. "If they realise you're going to the hospital, they'll try and stop you." Lara said nonchalantly. It was scary at how content Lara was with the situation. I felt like I was in a movie or something. It was hard to pinpoint what exactly was wrong with Lara. All I knew was that, normally, she was a lot more.. lively. I looked at the road in front of us, which was only slightly illuminated by the LED headlights of the car.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because they don't want you to find out the truth." She looked in the rear view mirror, and I copied her. "Seriously, step on it." She said. I put my foot on the pedal and immediately released it again as the car propelled forward so fast it startled me. I sometimes forgot how powerful this car was. Adjusting to the power of the engine, I stepped on it again, this time with a little bit more care, and sped off. The fact that the Range Rover's headlights continued to shine brightly in my rear view mirror confirmed that they were indeed following. The suburban houses whizzed by on the left and right. It was a quiet neighbourhood and I almost felt bad by roaring by so quickly and loudly. Almost, not entirely, because I noticed the Range Rover behind us was getting closer. Apparently, they figured out I wasn't just driving around in the middle of the night. I took a sharp, yet careful, left turn and was amazed by how smoothly the car handled it. I never drove fast or aggressively. I wouldn't dare, I wasn't that good of a driver. I took a right turn, this time shaper and faster, and stepped on the gas the moment I came out of the corner. Then I did the same with another left turn, and another right turn. I was getting the hang of it, and managed to make turns quicker and quicker. Though, even after 5 minutes of driving through the streets, a quick glance in the rear view mirror proved the Range Rover was still behind us.
"Take the freeway." Lara said, still staring in front of her, like we weren't being chased. Again. "You can lose them there. A jeep doesn't go as fast as this car." She continued. I got nervous when I thought about the speeds I'd have to go to lose them. Still, if I wanted to reach the hospital without them on our tail, I'd have to go for it. Luckily, I still knew where I was, so I turned left making my way towards the freeway.
It didn't take long to get to there. There were only a handful of other motorists on the road. I floored it and the front of the car lifted up slightly as we sped forward. Within seconds I was reaching speeds I had never before in my life, whilst behind the wheel. We flew by the other cars on the road. With my sweaty hands I gripped the leather wheel as tight as I could, as I felt my heart beating in my throat. Adrenaline was soaring through my veins. The wind roared past the car almost as loud as the engine itself. The Range Rover did its best to keep up, but was no match for the Audi RS6. With a couple of minutes of driving at death defying speeds, I managed to lose them as I saw their headlights getting dimmer in the rear view mirror. When I no longer saw them behind us, I hastily took the first exit of the freeway and started making my way back to the hospital, this time avoiding the freeway.
"Holy hell." I said out of breath as I felt my heart calm down again. "That was… insane."
"Good job." Lara said as she smiled at me.
"Damn, Lara, how can you be so indifferent about all this?" I asked as I waited in front of a traffic light. "I must have gone a thousand miles an hour."
"It's nothing." She said. She turned her head to look out the window.
"What's wrong?" I asked worried.
"Let's just get to the hospital. Also, light's green." She said as she pointed towards the traffic light. I stepped on the gas again. When the adrenaline died down, I again realised how odd the situation was. How Lara was just pointing us to the hospital, not willing to just tell me what's going on. And then there was that undeniable feeling in my gut that something was wrong with Lara. That Lara wasn't… herself. It was so odd. I had hoped that, now that my haziness was gone, I'd be able to make sense of the situation, but everything had become even weirder because of it. My mind was questioning everything, but somehow I still just went with it. Here I was, sitting in the car in the middle of the night, going to the hospital for God knows why, after I just lost some lunatics who shot at us just last week. I sighed. I decided to just go to the hospital, find out what Lara was talking about and then go to sleep. Fuck the Amazon, I wasn't going to the Amazon. At least, not until I fully understood what was going on. I could never go there without the full support of Lara.
I noticed there were only a few other cars parked, as I pulled in the parking lot of the hospital. I parked close to the only lamppost that illuminated the lot, so I wouldn't drive into any other car. I turned off the engine and turned to Lara.
"So." I said. "Here we are. What are we doing here?" Lara just looked at me with a sad expression on her face, but didn't answer. "Lara… Please, tell me, what are we doing here?"
"I think you know what we're doing here." She said. The interior lights of the car dimmed, and now her face was only visible because the moon was still shining bright tonight.
"No, I don't." I gave her a look. "Do we go inside?" Lara looked at me for a few more seconds, and then stepped outside. I promptly followed her towards the entrance. "Wait." I said as I caught up. "Seriously, Lara, you're being so weird and mysterious. What's going on?" She didn't answer. I felt goosebumps form on my skin as the situation got increasingly weird. Next to that, I still had that feeling in my gut that something was horribly wrong. The automatic doors opened and we stepped inside. Lara walked forward, straight past the woman at the reception desk, without saying a thing, and I followed her. There's always a distinct smell in the hospital that you would recognize everywhere. The smell of sickness and death. It always weirded me out. I looked down at the synthetic floor as I listened to my shoes tapping on them. When I looked up again, Lara was gone. I stopped and looked around me, frowning. Now I realised how empty the hospital looked. The lights, those weird ones they have at the hospital, shined throughout the entire empty hallway. It was quiet too, like dead quiet.
"L-Lara…?" I whispered. I slowly continued my walk as I kept looking around me. How the hell did she do that? I saw a right turn about 50 feet down the hallway. I figured she might have increased her pace and just made a turn there. I quickly ran to it, and made the turn. Suddenly I was in a waiting area with about 20 chairs, all of them empty. To the left was another woman behind a counter.
"Can I help you?" The woman behind the counter said. She was an older lady.
"Uh… I was just looking for my friend actually. I lost her."
"Oh, dear." The woman said. "What's her name?"
"Lara Croft." I said, and the woman immediately began typing away on her computer. "But that's beside the point, she's not hospitalized. We were just visiting and-..."
"Sorry, dear, there's no record of any Lara Croft here." She said.
"No, I know. I said we were just visiting and-...wait, what? No record? She was in here just last week." The woman suddenly had my full attention.
"No, she really wasn't. Or else it'd come up in the system, dear."
"W-what…? No, seriously, she was here just last week. Were you on shift last week? There was a car crash on the A13 outbound of London? I was involved too, my name is Samantha Nishimaru. In the car with me was Lara Croft, and she was taken care off here, as well."
"Look." The woman said as she turned her monitor towards me. I looked at her screen and saw Lara's name in the search field. Below, it said no results. She turned the monitor away again. "Honestly, if she was in here, I'd be able to find her name. We are required by law to keep the names of any person who comes in here, needing treatment." The woman looked at me concerned.
"It's… That's just not possible." I said, as I started to feel lightheaded. "You made a mistake. Honestly, she was here, I can guarantee you."
"Dear, she wasn't here, I can s-..."
"No!" I yelled. "You're wrong! She was here, there's no question about it! You just forgot to fill in her name or something!"
"Okay, okay." The woman said as she waved with her hand up and down, signaling for me to calm down. "Let me call up the doctor who was on shift during that accident, and he can tell you whether or not he saw another girl coming in. Is that okay?"
"Fine, do that." I said as I took a seat on one of the empty chairs. The woman picked up her phone. I couldn't hear what she was saying, I was too busy trying to figure out what was going on. How on Earth was this possible? The feeling in my gut was getting increasingly present. I felt a drop of sweat form on my forehead. I waited for a couple of minutes when a doctor came walking in. He was a young doctor, probably in his early 30's. He was tall and had dark short hair. He was quite handsome.
"Miss Nishimura?" He asked as he reached out his hand. I nodded, got up and shook his hand. "I'm Dr. Clarkson. I was the one who treated you. Sarah here said you had some questions?"
"Lara Croft." I said, getting straight to the point. "She was with me, right? I mean, I wasn't the only girl that came in after that crash."
"Actually, you were. You were the only survivor, and you made it out pretty good, all things considered."
"You're wrong. Lara was with me!" I was getting increasingly annoyed. The doctor gave me a look.
"Listen." He quickly glanced at Sarah behind the counter. "Perhaps we should discuss some things in my office. Will you come with me, please.?"
"Fine."
"Follow me then." Clarkson said. I followed him. "How're you feeling after the crash?" He asked.
"Fucking weirded out." I said without looking at him.
"I'm sorry?" He said. "What do you mean?"
"Too long of a story. I just want to find out what happened to my friend."
"If you feeling anything out of the ordinary, you should tell me." Clarkson said as he held the door open to his office. I stepped inside. It was quite a simple office. A bookcase to the left, his desk in front of me. On the right wall there were a few pictures, presumably of his family.
"I'll be fine." I said.
"Please." He said as he pointed towards the chair in front of his desk. "Take a seat." He took seat behind his desk himself. "Would you like to drink anything?"
"Please, just get on with it." I snarled at him.
"Fine, fine. You know, I have to say the whole procedure was a bit weird for me. When you came in, I mean."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, when you came in you had only suffered a blow to the head. Besides the several bruises and scratches, that is. We checked, and you only had a minor concussion, which meant you could go home the next day, after a night of observation."
"But I was here for a week?" I frowned.
"Exactly. When I came to check up on you, there were several men standing in your room. They were very persistent about keeping you here for longer."
"And you just let them?"
"They said you had no place to go, and no family to go to. They said they were looking for a place for you, and they'd only need a week. So, I told the nurses that you'd be here for a week, for observation. Thought I'd go a good deed. Only, those guys kept coming over, every single day. They closed the blinds so we couldn't see what they were doing in there. Whenever I wanted to walk in your room, there was this guy stopping me. Saying you guys were having a personal conversation or something."
"Mitsuo." I whispered.
"What?" Clarkson looked at me weird.
"Nothing. Continue, please."
"Well, that was it, really. It was just a strange ordeal. And when the week was over, you were suddenly gone. I figured you guys had find a place for you to stay." He leaned back in his chair. Nothing was making sense anymore. What did these guys do to me an entire week long? I shivered at the thought. I remembered several times during the time I was out, I could hear people standing over me, but no way I could hear what they were talking about.
"Okay, I'll make sense of this later. Now, about Lara. You have to tell me what happened to her." I said. A sad expression came over his face. An expression that changed to surprised when someone else stepped in his office.
"What are y-..."
"Shut the fuck up." The person said behind me. I recognized that accent from anywhere. I quickly turned around. It was Livia. She was wearing jean shorts, a white tee and, in absolute contrast, large boots. I looked at her dumbfounded. What the hell was she doing here? Was she following me? I was about to get annoyed at her when she pulled a gun from her belt and pointed it at the doctor. There was an attachment on the barrel, which was probably a silencer.
"W-w-wow. What are you doing?!" He put his hands in front of him, as if that would stop a bullet. I looked at Livia again. The adrenaline was going through my veins with a hundred miles per hour again. She wasn't really going to do anything, right? Just threaten him? But why would she threaten him? What the hell is going on?
"Told you not to say anything." Livia said determined. Then she pulled the trigger and the bullet penetrated the forehead of the doctor. He made a sound as the light when out of his eyes, and his body collapsed backwards into his chair. It was absolutely surreal. This man, who has had years and years of medical training, a life, a family and many more years left in him about 30 seconds ago, was ended abruptly. His entire life taken away by pulling a single trigger. I wanted to yell but no sound came out my throat. Livia pointed the gun at me.
"P-pl… please don't kill me." I begged.
"Stand up." She said. I quickly did exactly that. There was a huge grin on her face, like she was getting off on the situation. She slowly walked towards me, with the gun still pointed at me.
"Sam, Sam, Sam…" She said as she slowly shook her head. She was definitely getting off on the situation. I felt the cold metal press against my forehead as put the gun to my head. My adrenaline glands were working overtime.
"Please, Livia, don't shoot me, please." A tear ran over my face.
"You know." She said as she reached out and stroked my face with her free hand. "You're really pretty." Her grin only seemed to get wider by the second. She moved the gun to my right temple and leaned in to kiss me on the lips. I immediately pulled back in horror, which put an annoyed expression on her face. "Look at him." She gestured towards the dead doctor.
"No… I don't wa-..." I sobbed.
"LOOK at him!" She screeched. I turned away, crying, facing the doctor. She stood behind me. "Do you want your brains splattered over the wall just like his?"
"N-no…"
"Good." She said as she turned me around again. "Then kiss me." Her grin had resurfaced. She then leaned in for a kiss and I just closed my eyes. When I didn't open my mouth she pressed the barrel harder in my temple. Her tongue slid in my mouth. I felt she was a violent kisser as her tongue wrestled mine. Tears were running down my face, still. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she pulled back.
"You're fucking insane, you lunatic." I wiped my mouth in disgust. She could only grin back.
"You know, if we had a little more time, I'd love to do some things to you." She winked at me. "Unfortunately, we don't." She said, suddenly dead serious. She pulled out a syringe from her left boot. Before I realised what she was going, she had already stuck it in my arm. I looked at her frightened.
"What the hell is that?!"
"Don't worry." She said as she casually threw the syringe away. "It'll just make you sleep." Within seconds I felt my knees get weak, and I fell to the ground on my knees and hands. There was a dulled out sound in my ears as I felt myself fall over. Livia stood above, holding a phone to her ear. "Let's get going." She said.
Finally, I closed my eyes.