Page 32 of Love Sick
A wrinkled corpse is propped in bed like a living, breathing being. A blanket covers its legs. I don’t know what gender it once was, but I think it was a man. His yellowed eyes almost appear glass-like, staring a hole straight through me.
His mouth is slightly ajar, as if the last words he ever uttered were ones of pain.
“Luna!” Dutch whispers with urgency. “Please, go. At the end of one of the tunnels there is a ladder which brings you outside the fences of Parkfields. Free yourself.”
But I can’t.
“Who is t-that?”
“Luna—”
“Tell me!”
The clicky clack of heels along the linoleum only gets louder and louder, but I don’t care. I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on.
“It’s Alanna’s fiancé…who was Misha’s dad. His name was Jonathan.”
“Misha’s father,” I say, shaking my head because this means…
The faceless corpse soon morphs into a person, a person I once knew. Memories flash so quickly before my eyes, my stomach rolls and I want to be sick. But I push past the nausea to remember the man who I once loved.
I use that term lightly because I didn’t know what love was. I was just a child when I fell head over heels for Jonathan Stand. He was the epitome of a bad boy who had the gift of bullshitting anyone who would listen—me included.
He was tall, older, and handsome. If I had my time over, would I have declined the offer of him giving me a ride home? The answer is no because I will never regret Misha; the only good thing to ever come from Jonathan.
Memory after memory assaults me and it feels like now that it’s started, it won’t stop. It’s come full circle and I realize none of this was a coincidence. We’re here because Dr. Norton is a fucking psycho.
“Does she have something to do with Misha’s death?”
The despair on Dutch’s face says it all.
“I’m going to fuckingkillher.”
“Luna, no!”
But Dutch’s warning falls on deaf ears because there is no way I am letting this bitch live.
I jump down from the bed and desperately scour the room for a place to hide to catch Alanna unawares. I have the scalpel in hand, ready to end this once and for all.
“I can’t help you if something happens.”
“What’s going to happen is that I plan on jamming this scalpel into Alanna’s throat,” I counter, anger surging through me.
There is no way she’s getting away with what she did to Misha.
“Please, we have to be smart. We finally have the upper hand. If this place is connected to the hospital, not only do we have Alanna to deal with, but the others she has working with her too. You manage to overpower her. What then? We go on the run again?
“She has too much power. She will just manipulate the situation. She has in the past. She has the ability to make everyone believe they’re the crazy one.
“Please, go. I can’t protect you now. But when I can, that’s when we go. I can’t walk…because she broke my fucking knee.”
I am torn with what to do and time isn’t on our side. “What if she kills you?”
“She won’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
However, he doesn’t need to reply; the look on his face says it all.