Trapped in Our Hell

Chapter 13:

"I can't believe this!!" Dr. William yelled in his office. He cleared his desk with his arm. Pens, documents, a stapler, some tape, and his name plate all made a thud on the floor. "How has no one found them in the weeks they have been gone? Are you all idiots?!"

Tom and Timothy flinched at the ringing slam Dr. William made on his now cleared desk. Neither knew what to say so they did not speak thinking that would be the safest bet. Dr. William looked at the two men under his employment with utter displeasure. He had been livid when Timothy shared the story of how the pair had been able to leave the hospital without being noticed by a guard or one of them. He paid them to watch over the place so something like this did not happen. Now for at least 3 weeks the patients that escaped were outside and could harm someone. In the doctor's mind the worst thing that could happen is Jason coming back to finish his revenge.

The police had shown up when the three of them had come back from the forest. They made some statements and the police promised to do a search to find the two. Which was apparently pointless because not even trained professionals have a clue were the two are. This was taking a lot longer than the doctor thought it would and he was nearing the end of his control.

"First you don't keep watch over the cameras to noticed a little girl, who by the way is only freaking 17 years old, leave her room. Second, you don't notice how the said girl climbs up to the 6th level. Nor do you realize that she frees a demon possessed patient who will murder anyone! Third, once you realize they escape you both couldn't have gone straight after them to stop the escape. Now we have murder, blood thirsty, cold hearted possessed guy and a hallucinated innocent minded girl out there. Do you know what could happen? There will be blood spilt and it will all come back to us. People will think we can't handle our positions. We...i will be ruined!" Dr. William ranted with his volume increasing towards the end. His face was red and sweat formed on his brow. Timothy had never seen Dr. William this furious before. Tom felt uneasy by the hostility the doctor was showing.

The phone on the edge of Dr. Williams desk made a beeping sound that made the two men jump in their chairs. Dr. William pressed a button and barked out at Samuel, a younger employee that was covering the front office for the day. Samuels voice calmly spoke as if the doctor had not just shouted through the line. "Sorry to interrupt sir. However Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are here. They wish to speak with you."

The room was silent. If a pen dropped then the sound would come off as an explosion in contrast. Tom and Timothy felt guilt crawling in their stomachs. All three men knew why Lusie's parents were here and they all did not want to have to talk about this with them. Dr. William cursed the police for informing the parents of Lusie escaping. No doubt they were going to demand things from him and blame him for not doing his job right. He did not need to hear it when he already knew how much trouble he was in.

"Sir?" Samuel's voice broke through Dr. Williams thoughts.

"Send them in." He sighed.

The phone clicked as Samuel ended the line. Dr. William sat down trying to tidy up his area while the other two collected the documents that were scattered around the floor. This took a while since Dr. Williams kept an average medium stack of files on his desk daily. Most of them were of patients he would be working on during the day. Some were patients that get checked in. There were others that were filled with experiments he was collecting research for.

Once the room was back to how it should be the three men waited for the parents. Timothy was fidgeting in his seat anxious to be anywhere but here. Tom was gritting his teeth imagining how this would play out and seeing the parents expressions. Dr. William stared at his door all too prepared for their reactions and was calculating responds to each reaction they may have. They all knew the parents would be angry, upset, and devastated. Those were common reaction but how they would express those emotions is what made all three men dread the knock at the door. The air was filled with that emotion and the parents could feel it.

Mr. Johnson held the door open for his wife. They came as soon as the police left their home. His wife almost fainted when the head officer demanded a search of their grounds with the reason of their daughter escaping the hospital. Mr. Johnson was beyond enraged with the doctor. He was determined to get answers.

Mrs. Johnson walked into the intense heavy room. She took a turn looking each of the three men in the eyes. She was worried for her daughter. Both of Lusie's parents never imagined their daughter running away nor with someone that was in the hospital who was extremely dangerous. At least that's what the police hinted to them.

Lusie's parents stood in front of the trio. Mr. Johnson broke the silence in his stern voice. "You were supposed to help her and keep her safe. How is letting my daughter escape with some other patient doing that?"

"It's not. I apologize that this has happened. I don't know how they escaped. My staff and I are trying everything we can to find them both." Dr. William kept his voice level. He bit the inside of his mouth to keep his cool in front of them. No need to flip out and have these two sue him if they weren't already going to.

"Too late Doctor William. We will not accept your apology until my daughter is safe and sound in my arms. Who did she escape with? How have you not found them yet?" Mrs. Johnson could feel her tears trying to fall. Her voice was shaky with such worried that the men in the room could feel their chests ache for her pain.

It took awhile for the doctor to respond but the parents waited as if they had all day. In fact the doctor was sure that they would if he did not give them any answers. In the end he could not trust his emotions to stay collected and ended up looking at Tom to take over. Tom felt his stomach drop when the doctor turned to him.

"She escaped with one of our most ill patients. His name is Jason. We can not give out anymore information for patient confidentiality. They escaped during a rain storm and when we went in search of them as soon as we noticed they left the water had washed away almost all the footprints. The next couple of days the police came by taking dogs and men around the forest. They caught a trail but they lost it when it lead them to a river bank. They could not find any trail around the bank or on the opposite side. We can only assume they somehow left the forest and are in town." Tom tried to state facts with as little detail about the danger Jason was. He did not want to worry the mother more than she was but tried to focus more on finding them. He could feel the father's gaze drilling a hole straight through him.

"Our daughter is not the type to just leave unless it felt safer away from the place or person." Mr. Johnson threw the statement down knowing full well that it felt more like a question to the type of treatment his daughter had received. This whole situation made the parents question what their daughter was running from. Were the treatments painful? Was it the employees?

There was no point in staying in this room when the answer would only come from their daughter. The only thing they got were objections and excuses. Mr. Johnson escorted his wife out of the hospital even with the objections from the doctor. Mrs. Johnson's worry for Lusie increased after the confrontation from the staff. She just hoped that where her daughter is that she was safe. Mr. Johnson would make sure when he would see Lusie that he would get her out of this hospital. They wished they knew where she was but all they could do was hope she was alright and taking care of herself.

Mr. Johnson started to look into lawsuits and what they could possibly do for Lusie to bring her home that night. The parents did not go to sleep for several days wishing their daughter would knock on their door in the middle of the night for shelter. Though Mr. Johnson knew the consequences if Lusie and Jason came by and they helped them. The less severe action would be jail time for 3 months while the extreme would be 30 years of jail time.

Mr. Johnson ran his hand through his locks of hair. He sat at his daughter's desk with her painting notebook open. The blue lamp at the corner of her desk shined light onto the notebook. He couldn't seem to get the memory of the last conversation he had with her in this room. His chest aches with worry and regret. He has made many mistakes in his life and even when he thought it was the best to help his daughter he messed up.

His little girl that used to always follow him around the house and tried to go to work with him everyday while she was in elementary was running away. The girl who would scream daddy when she heard him enter the house with the loud creaking front door. The blue eyes that twinkled when she finished one of her paintings. His sweet innocent girl that yes had been given abilities that she didn't know how to control or live with completely but had a giant heart. No matter how many times he and his wife unconsciously were distant to her did not change Lusie's amount of love for them.

Mr. Johnson covered his eyes with his left hand. His elbow was on the desk controlling his arm. He felt so worried and in this time of memories overflowing he realized just how much his actions of concern could seem distant to his daughter. Had she felt alone in this room? Did she hide up here painting to conceal how much her ability took over?

Of course they had figured out that her ability had not gone away. Lusie had shown the same signs she had when she was little. However they probably did not know how much the abilities affected her. They had been so focused on what to do to help her instead of being there to support her. Lusie's angry words filled his mind. "Did you and mom every think about me? I'm the one that has had to live with seeing ghosts and hearing them. I'm the one they don't leave alone every minute of everyday."

Reliving memories Mr. Johnson realized no they did not think about her. Sure they were concerned and worrying about the abilities. However they did not think about what Lusie was going through with them. They had seen a problem but it was not a problem of Lusie. It was a problem of how they lacked the courage of finding out how to help their daughter not become afraid of her gift. It also seemed more of a concern on how not to have the people in their lives find out about the strange abilities she had. Mr. Jackson felt sick to his stomach about the choices he made and why they made them.

A warm gentle hand rested on his right shoulder. Mrs. Johnson looked down at her husband. She had tears running down her cheeks as well as her husband. They both had many regrets they wished to have the opportunity to fix when their daughter came back. "She'll come back. Our daughter is strong even when she has to hold her own." Mrs. Johnson whispered through her emotion thick throat.

Mr. Johnson reached out his hand to cover hers. He did not say anything because he did not trust his voice. However she knew him well enough to tell he was hoping she was right. She hoped so as well. Please Lusie, she thought to herself, come home safely.