Sanity comes in a Pill

CHAPTER TWO: me and you

I wake up to a loud banging on my door. I look at my watch; its 7:30am. This is unusable, normally no one come till 9:00am and they never knock this frantically. I get out of bed, groggy from lack of sleep. The door opens before I can even toss on some clothes. As a result, Liam is met with the sight of me in my underwear. Which by the way is metallic pink (cause why not). I feel my face turning beat red. It is not like Liam hasn’t seen me in my underwear before, he’s my doctor after all, but I just wasn’t prepared for this.

Liam gawks at me for a moment and is then promptly knocked over as a bunch of other people enter the room. Now I’m really uncomfortable. I bend down to help Liam up. “What’s all this about?” I ask my underwear glittering in the light from the open door like a homing beacon. I really wish I had decided to sleep in pants last night. Liam dusts himself off and looks me in the eye “The new resident is going to be here soon and I think we might need your help.”

I am taken back, this is crazy. I’ve never once in my five years of living here been asked to help out with a new resident, partially due to the fact most people are scared of me. “Seriously?!” I ask. “Yes, we don’t know what else to do,” says a female to Liam’s left. “Were going to be keeping them in your section for the time being also,” says someone else. In my section?! No one has ever entered my section before. I look over at Liam, I can tell he’s nervous. He’s never nervous about anything. “Alight,” I decide, “I will help you guys out.” Everyone looks relived, which makes me start to worry. Who is this person? “Get dressed then wait for them in the dark room,” Liam tells me. I nod to him as everyone leaves the room. He still looks nervous.

I get dressed quickly then shove my dresser to the right. Behind it is an enforced concrete door. This door leads to the dark room. The dark room is a large space that my room and five others are connected to (mine is the only one that leads to the common room). It has lights, but it’s always empty and has a closed off feeling to it. I spent my first year there confined to the dark room and one of the other rooms till my sanity could be proved. I hated it in there, being alone most of the day. My parents are usually too busy at work to come see me regularly. Only Liam and a few other workers occasionally would come see me during the day. That is probably part of the reason I feel so attracted to Liam.

I enter the dark room and the lights automatically turn on. Everything looks the same as I remember it; chest height grey walls, glass the rest of the way to the celling, two sad looking grey picnic tables to the right and five doors similar to the one I just exited to the left, plus a gender neutral washroom and a door (exit point) across from me blended into the wall. Blah. There is one thing that is different then I remember though and that is the large amount of people on the other side of the wall staring at me. Every staff member has to be here! I spot Liam near the front talking to another doctor and continuously glancing my way.

I jump when the door in the wall starts to creak open without warning. My body tenses up, I prepare for the worst. Why else would they need me? I think to myself. I’m utterly surprised for what happens next. Out of the door marches a group of four military people, dressed in camo, guns out and ready. If this wasn’t surprising enough in the center of this group I catch a glimpse of a small figure.

The closest solider chucks an object at me. I catch it and find out it’s a pair of keys. The whole group then promptly leaves the room. I am left staring at what appears to be a human. I say ‘appears’ because there’s so many shackles on him (I think it’s a dude) it is hard to tell. They cover his chest, waist, wrists, ankles, elbows, knees and neck. An excessive amount I believe looking at him. He is shorter then me (top of his head reaches my shoulders) and supper skinny with overly pale skin that has a sickly green shine to it. He looks up at me, his shaggy black hair parting to reveal large sleep deprived brown eyes.

I feel a shiver down my spine. His look is of someone in extreme misery. I have seen that very same face stare back at me in the mirror before. I feel the urge to get away as far as possible, but I also don’t want to leave this person here. I take a deep breath and start unlocking the chains. They land one by one with a loud THUD on the ground. I undo the neck shackle last. When it falls to the floor, I gasp in shock. I am so shocked I almost fall to my knees. Underneath the shackle on the base of the left side of his neck are two oozing infected punctures, identical to the ones on my own neck. Now I understand why they wanted me to handle this. They wanted me to handle this because the person standing in front of me is also a vampire.

This is bad, really bad. It takes me a few minutes to realize he’s crumpled to the floor. I snap out of my trance when he throws up on my shoes. It smells of infection and rot. I’m doing everything I can to not throw up myself. I notice the staff stay where they are and continue to watch. Thanks for all the help guys, I think sarcastically. Well I guess I am on my own here. I take a deep breath and crouch down on the floor. The person moves his head to look up at me again. He opens his mouth; I’m relieved when it is not more puke that comes out. “Sorry,” he croaks, “I’m not feeling too well.” That is obvious. I offer him a hand, “no problem man,” I say even though it is a big problem. He accepts my out stretched hand, it’s really cold. I manage to somehow not flinch. I pull him up. Apparently I do it a little too quick cause he trips and falls into me. He grabs my biceps and I end up with puke on my shirt. Now it’s his turn to tense up. I am worried he’s going to collapse again so I guide him over to one of the picnic tables.

He sits down and leans against the hard table taking ragged slow breaths. I take a seat next to him and he immediately leans against me. This is awkward. I do not know what I’m supposed to do. No one has told me anything. I guess I should at least find out who this person is to start, I decide. “Ummmm…hi, who are you?” I manage. He makes a noise that almost sounds like laughter. “I was just wondering the same thing about you,” he says. “I’m Caleb,” I reply. “Jared,” he coughs.

That name sounds familiar I realize. Where have I heard it before? Then it hits me; I heard the name Jared on the news two days ago. It was around 5pm I think, Liam was over doing a regular checkup, Bebe was over as well (she begged me to let her in and eventually I gave in). She was bored waiting for me to finish up with Liam, so she turned on my television. It was on a Canadian news station. The reporter was just finishing a story about a series of stabbings in a small costal town called Mayfloud, where 7 people were critically injured. The image of the top suspect flashed on the screen; a dark haired, brown-eyed 17 year old teen named Jared Maxwell. I’m guessing now those stabbings weren’t really stabbings. “

Why are you still here?” I don’t reply to Jared’s slurred question; Instead I look up at the glass wall. Liam is standing there holding up a piece of paper, it says: Get him in the room three doors down from yours and lock the door so we can talk. Finally, some answers! Jared is barely conscience right now so at least it will be easy to get him there. I assess the situation and decide it will be easiest to ‘baby carry’ him to his room (looking back ‘princess carry’ is much easier). I carefully lift him up and wrap his feet around me. He is so frail I can feel the frantic beat of his heart through his chest. It feels strange to have someone so close to me, for a moment it feels like were one person.

When I reach the door to the room, I kick off my ruined shoes and my feet thank me. Never using those shoes again. Thinking of my disgusting shoes, I realize I cannot leave Jared in these soiled clothes, because even though I do not want to change him it would be just gross (and rude) to not clean him up. I lean Jared up against the wire frame single bed in the room. He weakly blinks at me not attempting to help me out at all. Jared’s room is small, containing only a bed, a nightstand, and a small sink that has a towel rod plus a red towel hanging beside it. Why they chose red for everything here is beyond me. I start to open the draws in the nightstand. The first one contains resident clothing, but the second one is empty. I look at what Jared is wearing now; a black long sleeve shirt, jeans and a pair of black basketball shoes. The shirt is completely destroyed, but luckily for me I don’t need to do the awkward deed of removing his pants.

First, I grab the towel and wet it in the sink. I then use it to wipe off his face, doing my best not to heave from the smell being so up in my face. Tossing the towel in the sink, I slowly start to peal Jared’s shirt off. At this point, he is completely out of it which I’m very grateful for. It doesn’t take me long to notice the cuts. They randomly cover his whole body including arms. I notice some bite marks mixed in with them too. I wonder where he got them from, but it also makes me feel uneasy looking at them. I’m kind of ashamed for thinking this when he didn’t give me permission to see it, but the though briefly crosses my mind that his slight skeletal frame is kind of attractive even with all the cuts.

I put the shirt in the sink with the towel and turn on the tap hoping that will clean them a bit or at least get rid of some of the stench. I take a red t-shirt out of the nightstand and pull it over Jared’s head. The shirt is a bit, but looking at him I’m pretty sure he could care less at this point how his clothes fit. Once I’m done, I pick him up once again and gently lay him on the narrow bed. I watch him for a few minutes. It is unreal to be near someone like me, no matter how small our similarities are. Part of me is relieved I’m not ‘alone’ now, but another part of me feels a deep sadness knowing what ever is in store for Jared can’t be good based on what I’ve seen so far. I also still feel a deep resentment about this huge responsibility forced on to me.

Finally, I leave the room making sure to set the pad lock when I am out. I find it hard to believe Jared is going to do anything in his current state though. I don’t bother putting my shoes back on. When I’m out, Liam enters the dark room followed by the owner of the facility, Dalas Kay. Dalas Kay is a short, business man with a level personality. I am very gratefully to him for giving me the opportunity to be here, but his serious personality gets on my nerves sometimes. I am also shocked about what’s happened and a little pissed right now that no one gave me a heads up. I just want to go to my room and be left alone and far away from Jared. Of course, that is not an option in this situation. The three of us sit at the picnic table that Jared and I vacated moments before. Dalas Kay starts talking first. “I’m sorry we had you bring you in on this. I know this must be upsetting for you, but we had no other choice. Jared has been charged the death penalty from the government for his crimes and so we couldn’t take the time to figure out a plan beforehand or it might have been too late to save him. He can’t control himself and no one else is strong enough to do so except you.” I didn’t have any problem controlling him just now, but okay. “So, you want me to be his baby sitter?” I’m kind of annoyed, I didn’t agree to taking care of this lost little vampire for the rest of my life and I tares me up that I feel the responsibility to do so. Dalas Kay leans back a bit as if I am about to bite him and I realize I unknowably bared my fangs. Liam leans over and puts his hand on my forearm. “Please Caleb,” he begs me. Man, this isn’t fair using tactics that play with my emotions. “

Fine,” I grumble and look away, trying to hide my now flushed face. “We’ll tell you everything you need to do as we figure them out,” Liam says. He hands me a file containing Jared’s case info to look over. “If you have any questions I’ll be around,” He reminds me. Liam and Dalas Kay get up to leave. I have so many questions, but I don’t want to ask them in front of the audience staring at us from behind the glass. Dalas shakes my hand (somewhat hesitantly I note) and thanks me for agreeing to do this. As they leave Liam turns to look at me and says “One more thing Caleb.” I nod for him to continue, “Keep your door to the common room locked during the night, we wouldn’t want him getting out and you’re such a heavy sleeper it could happen.” Was that him low key flirting I wonder. If I think of it that way (low chance of it being true) I’m not even insulted. Liam goes through the door and I hear the padlock click in to place. Yay I can’t escape that way. Now that all the commotion is over the puke smell has returned to my nostrils. I defiantly need a shower. I have my own private bathroom, so luckily I manage to remember Jared dose not and I unlock his door before I leave the dark room.

Back in my room, I rip off all my puke covered clothing, which is everything by the way and toss it down the laundry shoot located at the end of my bed in the wall. I look at my clock, its only 9:00am. I am so exhausted from staying up all night with Liam and then having to deal with Jared. I decide to lock both my doors just in case Jared really is insane like Dalas said. After I’m finished I finally take a well-deserved shower with plenty of soap. I let the warm water clear my mind as it flows over my body. I do not want to leave its calming confinement and enter the insane world my life has been forced into. However, I have to, this is my responsibility and I have to do at least the bare minimum.

******

I sit in my bed topless (cause it is my room) with my towel draped over my head. Jared’s file sits open on my lap. I am trying to make sense of the limited info given. It only contains three pages; the first one is Jared’s basic info, name, age, address etc. plus the police mug shots of him. The second is the incident report. Possibly the most important document in this folder. It reads:

Monday night around 10am Jared Maxwell was at his two story home in Mayfloud, Nova Scotia, with his parents John and Cathren Maxwell [Jared’s older brother Jackson, age 23, was away at Korekey University in Ontario during the whole incident]. His parents report that their son was sleeping in his room when they heard him scream. They rushed to his room and found him withering on the floor. They attempted to restrain him, but he lashed out and ‘stabbed them’ multiple times. Then got up and ran out of the house. Both John and Cathren were rushed to hospital with life threatening wounds. Five more towns people were attacked by Jared, all suffering from similar injuries. Jared was caught by military personal on Tuesday at 11:30, 10km from west in the neighboring town of Rodworst behind the local convince store Lucky Star. He was found coughing up blood and violently scratching his body. When apprehended Jared passed out giving the military no trouble. No other injuries or medical conditions related to the incident have been reported at this time. The weapon in question has not yet been found. All victims are still in critical condition, but will recover.

This is really not good. Based on Jared’s info he seems to be more like a traditional out for blood vampire who can’t control themselves when hungry, then like me. Unlike him I have control of my cravings most of the time, even when I first changed. Also, I’ve only bit some one bad once so far and it was a traumatizing experience that I never want to have to go through again. The things about the puking and scratching worry me a lot. I am really not sure what to do about them and I really hope that wasn’t left over blood he puked on my shoes. The last page is a chart of supposed vampire sightings throughout the years. It seems activity spikes every five years. Very interesting, I should look into it more. After I finish reading the ‘light novel’, I chuck it under my bed. Lack of sleep catches up to me shortly after and I pass out.

I am dreaming that I’m running from someone. There getting closer and closer! Then they have me! I look up at my own face. I’m grinning evilly and there is blood dripping down my face. I try to get away, but the other me’s grip is too strong. I scream as I open my mouth as I bite into my neck, blood gushing everywhere. It burns, like the flesh is burning away. The pain stops as quick as it started and I hear a quiet voice in my ear; “Sorry, you’re next.” I jolt up in bed and my legs get tangled in the sheets causing me to fall on to the floor. “Ow,” I say rubbing my head.

I hear a knock on my ‘common room’ door. I quickly untangle myself and throw on a shirt not wanting another incident like this morning. When I open the door I’m surprised to see its Bebe. “You missed our morning run. I was worried,” she tells me. Now normally I would think she’s just being sarcastic, but looking at her standing in my door way I can tell she is sincere. She even looks worried. Its freaking weird! I allow her to enter. “Its been a crazy day,” I explain. “I heard about the new resident,” Bebe says quietly as she picks up my forgotten wet towel and chucks it in the laundry shoot for me. Wow news travels fast around here. I sit down on my bed, “yah, I’m in way over my head.” She hesitates (a rare thing for her to do) a moment then joins me on my bed. This rocks the bed her way drastically, but I manage to keep my balance. She wraps an arm around me to help me stay upright. We sit in silence for a bit. Eventually I break the silence. “He is not like me Bebe, I don’t know how I’m supposed to help him, but if I don’t help I know this will haunt me for the rest of my life.” Bebe wraps her other arm around me in a hug. I don’t tell her about me dream or the fact I’m scared what happened to Jared will also happen to me. It feels nice having someone here to support me, even if they can never understand. I also know Liam won’t be here tonight to help me out at all. He is probably stuck in a room with the rest of the doctors trying to figure things out. “I’ll always be here to help you,” she tells me.

Bebe suggests she sleeps over. “It will be just like when we were younger,” she smiles. I don’t want to be alone right now so I agree right away. Good thing there are no cameras in my room. Even so this is a very risky thing for us to do. The camera systems are a bit abnormal here considering it’s a government facility. The only place you will find cameras are at major outside exits, offices, shops in the common room (not the actual room it’s self because it is too large) and quarantine areas such as the dark room. The only time there will be a camera watching a specific person or in a bedroom is if the person is deemed ‘high risk’. All new residents are considered ‘high risk’ for at least the first 6 months. I was glad when I was finally free of being watched twenty-four seven. It makes everyday activities extremely awkward. I suspect there is one in Jared’s room and that it won’t be leaving his side anytime soon. Well unless he comes into my room that is since my privacy would trumps his ‘high risk’ in that case. I know that’s not safe, but if I ever find a boyfriend I don’t want some crazy person entering my room by mistake and filming my relationship for everyone to see.

Just a side note I’m not 100% open about being homosexual. It still feels private to me in a way even though my parents and I have known about it for 10 years now. I don’t hide it, but I don’t advertise it to the world either.

Anyways, not being on the ‘high risk’ list does not mean I don’t have restrictions. Because I am a vampire when I get overly excited it increases the chance of me making errors, meaning no s****l interactions aloud. So if they caught Bebe in here with me in the middle of the night with no proof of what we were doing we would both be in big trouble.

I should probably go check on Jared, but I’m tired again. Bebe can somehow sense this shift in my mood and moves towards the wall a bit. I lie down and almost instantly fall asleep. Bebe stretches out beside me, her legs hanging over the end of the bed. I can feel the heat radiating off her body. My brain says go towards it, so I do. I know I might have nightmares again if I fall asleep, but I have someone to protect me so I know I will be okay.