Page 158 of Lost in the Dark
Maybe it is.
I really do need to stop calling the thing anit. The presence was overly dominating—overly masculine.
A laugh echoes in my mind, and my head twitches.Was that me?Why would that be funny, anyway?
After a few moments of listening to the sound of the air conditioning, I decide to stand up and go to the connecting restroom to clean off the remnants of the dream.Though, if it was really a dream, why is there evidence of….
Knock! Knock knock!
“Benji, dinner is going to be served in an hour. You can’t sleep the day away without eating.” Orderly Snake’s voice is muffled behind my closed door.
Dinner…
After washing up with a wet rag, I drag myself out of my room and wade through the sea of the lost. Cheryl is ahead of the crowd, her hair strewn every which way, as if she, herself, just woke up. The truth is, this is the way Cheryl always looks. The voice tells her that messing with her hair will mess with the natural order of life.
We gather our food and sit silently among the others. Owen from down the hall has his head down in his soup while Anthony from five rooms down is staring intently at the newcomer sitting caddy-corner from him.
The newcomer eats quietly, lifting his spoon in perfect timing—every seven seconds.
Fascinating.
I hear a growl behind me and I quickly turn, only to find nothing. Narrowing my eyes, I scan the table, but none of the residents here look my way.
“I’m getting as bad as ‘ol Wilson,” I grumble under my breath, taking another spoonful of soup.
“Stay on your side,” a voice hisses from another table.
“You were the one who touched me.”
The next instant, heads are getting slammed on tables and bowls of soup are being thrown into the air. I continue to eat my meal, watching it all unfold before me. It’s the best entertainment we’ve had in a while. Orderlies rush and tackle a few of the residents to the ground while those around them begin to inch away toward the walls of the room. Only a few are left sitting, the newcomer one of them. He has his hands behind his head, leaning back like this is just another day, when I know for a fact he hasn’t been here long enough to make that assumption.
Curious.
Something claws inside of my head and my eyes burn. Groaning, I rub at them to make the sensation go away. When I look up again, I see the newcomer staring right at me with that piercing, dark gaze.
I give him my signature smile, trying to ward him off, when a sharp pain hits my cheek. Jerking my head left and right, I find nothing. I stare ahead once more, and the stranger’s eyes focus on mine.
It annoys me that he finds me just as curious as I find him.
“¡Ábrase!—get out!” I bark. Something boils inside of me, and it makes me want to take my tray and slam it on his head just to wipe out that look on his face. I haven’t felt this volatile in a while, and that alone makes me pissed.
“Why should I?” His deep voice rattles something inside and it only serves to make me more agitated.
The energy of the room has already gone sour, and our entertainment is short-lived, since a good handful of the residents have been ‘escorted’ out. This conversation needs to end,now.
“Best you find yourself some other entertainment; this is as much as you’re going to get from me.” I narrow my eyes at the way he smiles.What has him so jovial, hmm?
“Seems I’m already getting entertained. A littlelagniappewhile I sit here.”
His nonchalant tone and the way he stares at me as if I’m a specimen has my hand moving before my mind can tell me what’s happening. Suddenly, the tray flies in the air and I’m being tackled to the ground.
Growling, I bare my teeth at the uniformed men and bite the air. They hold onto me tightly as they drag me away from the room, and my eyes zero in on the newcomer who still sits with his hands behind his head.
What the hell doeslagniappemean, anyway?
Iskipped the rest of the day, refusing to associate with that crazy lot outside of my room. They can claw at each other all they want. Dinner was enough to drain what energy I had. Lying on my bed, I stare at the ceiling and think about the past.
Who am I kidding?