Ok, this is a much shorter chapter (about half of the two previous ones), so hopefully it won’t be as boring as the rest. XD

Chapter Four
The Rooms Next Door

The next few days passed by uneventful, but they were certainly dragging on. Nothing more had happened between Anya and I, but every now and then I caught her glancing my way, a mysterious smile on her face. I also noticed that she kept the picture under her pillow, instead of in the drawer like she had with the notepad and pen.

In the past couple days, I had drawn more pictures of her, but she hadn’t seen any of them. My plan was to fill the notepad with drawings, and give it her when I was finished. I was sure she’d enjoy it.

Every day I was being given medications that I had no idea what they were for. Sometimes Anya got more than I did, though I wasn’t entirely sure why.

It was on the sixth day that I was there that things started getting really weird. At first I thought I was imagining it. It was a small buzzing sound coming from the wall behind my dresser. At least, I thought it was buzzing. That’s the only way I could describe it. I eyed Anya, but she merely shrugged; she didn’t hear it.

Throughout the day, all sorts of weird noises started making an appearance. Sometimes it sounded as if things were being thrown against the wall. Sometimes it sounded like heavy machinery was being operated.

Then came the screams.

I nearly had a heart attack the first time. It was during lunch, and I had just begun eating my mashed potatoes (I still refused to eat the turkey). It was somewhat muffled but I heard it all the same. It was clearly a woman’s scream, for it was too high pitched to be a man’s, no matter how girly he tried to be. It lasted about five seconds and then was suddenly cut off.

Anya seemed awfully calm through the whole thing. I suddenly felt like being as far away from the wall as I could be. I decided to take refuge in the tub.

Anya burst out laughing at this. She then walked over and stood over the tub, looking down at me, a mocking look on her face. “Not scared, are you?”

I shook my head. “Necessary precautions,” I replied.

She laughed again, and promptly proceeded in joining me.

We sat facing each other, Anya with the biggest smile on her face. Then I realized how incredibly stupid I was being, and laughed as well. Eventually the laughter subsided. “We really shouldn’t be laughing you know,” Anya said, the smile almost fading from her face. “It’s not a funny matter, what’s going on over there.”

I was puzzled. Did that mean she actually knew what was going on? “What do you mean?” I asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

“You don’t know what goes on over there do you? Or what those rooms are for?”

I shook my head. “No idea whatsoever.”

She frowned, the smile completely faded from her face. “This isn’t exactly a good time…”

“When is then?” I asked, cutting her off. “We’re stuck here for forever, so why not now?”

She shrugged. “I suppose because I just don’t feel like telling. I found out the hard way, and almost had to suffer through it myself. Thank god I didn’t. It probably would’ve killed me.”

I reached for her hand and found it trembling. Her eyes glistened in the dim light, and I could tell she was trying extremely hard not to just burst into tears. “It’s ok, you don’t have to tell me.”

“No, no, I’m fine,” she said with a slight sniff. “You should know what goes on the other sides of these walls, so you can avoid it if at all possible. But... can it wait until tonight? When I’m sure we won’t get interrupted?”

I nodded. “What do we do until then? It’s only lunch time.”

“Well what do you want to do?”

“Well...”

“...Yeah?”

“Well we’ll get caught.”

“Doing...?”

“Wait until they come by to pick up our lunch things, then I’ll tell you.”

“Ok.”

I hated waiting, but I knew the second I told her, or something happened, someone would walk in, and then it would all be over. So I decided just to wait. At this moment, waiting was the best thing to do.

I realized then that I was still sitting in the tub, and it was becoming uncomfortable with both Anya and me in it. I threw an apologizing look Anya’s way and climbed out. Anya was close behind me.

In truth, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. But it made for an interesting game to play with her in the meantime.

It seemed forever until someone came around and picked up their lunch trays. When they did, I still hadn’t thought of anything to do. Just when the nurse left the room, an idea popped into my head.

“So what are we going to do, Aidan?” Anya asked.

“I want to draw you.”

“Ok… but you’ve done that already.”

“But this time I want you to pose for me so I can get it just right instead of from the picture in my head.”

“Oh, alright then.”

I pulled out the notepad and pen and turned to a fresh page. “Just ummm… lie on your bed or something.”

“Hey, I have an idea,” she said. “How about this?” She went a kneeled in the tub, her head resting on it sideways. “Just a little reminder of the whole thing,” she said with a smile.

I laughed. “Ok, just don’t move.”

She put on a mock solemn look, as still as a statue. “Does this work for you, Mr. Artist?”

I nodded. “Yes it does... my beautiful model,” I added as an afterthought.

She laughed. She thought I was returning the joke, but I had meant what I said. I didn’t tell her this though.

I started with the tub, which was the easy part. I drew each line carefully, not wanting to mess anything up. Then I began drawing her.

The whole time I was drawing, she didn’t move. Other than the inanimate objects I had drawn before, she was the best model. It amazed me that she didn’t fidget at all, not even once. When I wasn’t thinking about what line I was drawing, I was thinking about how beautiful she looked like this. Her raven colored hair hung slightly in her face and spilled over her shoulder in gentle waves. Her bright green eyes didn’t look at me, but off into the distance, giving her a dream-like quality.

After twenty minutes of drawing her, I asked, “Break?”

She nodded and I put the pad down. “You’re doing great,” I commended her. “I’ve never had anybody sit still that long.”

She smiled. “I’ve had experience. Sometimes it’s just necessary not to move.”

“Well I’d say you definitely have a talent for it.”

“Can I see the picture?”

I shook my head. “Not until it’s done.”

She stuck her bottom lip out, her arms folded over her chest. “No fair.”

I shrugged. “Life’s not fair.”

“You’re telling me.”

Five minutes later,“Ready to finish this thing?”

She didn’t say a word, but instead returned to her original position. I was amazed; it was almost the same image as before. Even her hair was in almost the exact same place.

I finished the drawing out and signed my name in tiny print down at the bottom of the page. Then I showed it to Anya.

“It’s pretty. Looks way better than I actually do.”

“Nah, the real thing is better.”

“You flatter me. Can I keep it?”

“No…”

She frowned. “Why not?”

“Because…” I debated telling her what I was doing. I finally decided there would be no harm in telling her. “I’m working on a collection for you, alright? It’s not finished yet. I’ll let you have the whole notebook when I’m done.”

“Ooh, ok. Well can I see the rest of it then? Or do I have to wait for that, too?”

“You have to wait for that, too. Good things are worth waiting for, right?”

She nodded, but I could tell she was anxious to see the rest of the drawings. She obviously thought I was a fairly decent artist.

She went back over to her bed and stretched out on it, her head resting on her arms, staring up at the ceiling. I wondered vaguely what she could possibly find to look at on the ceiling. Although I supposed if you traced the designs with your eyes, it provided something for you to do instead of losing your mind over not having anything better to do.

It seemed to take forever for nightfall. I thought it would never come. When it finally did, I was afraid that Anya had forgotten that she was going to explain all this to me. She hadn’t.

“So you really want to know what goes on?”

“Yes”.

She sighed. “Ok. The rooms in the other hall aren’t really rooms at all. Well, they are, but not like these. They are operation rooms, as they call them. Scary things happen back there.”

“My previous room mate (so to speak) went there and never came back. I only assume she died. Judging by the screams I heard that day, if she wasn’t dead, she deserved to be.”

“My room mate before her was a little boy who couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old. He actually came back. He told me that there had been some sort of machine that sent ‘little shocks’ through his head. From what I could gather from the nurse that day, it was called electroshock therapy, and was supposed to help with whatever mental illness the boy supposedly had. He died eventually. There was one day when he just went into these sorts of convulsions, and they wouldn’t stop. When they finally sent someone around to check on us, he was already dead.”

“On one of our play days…”

“What’s a play day?” I asked, cutting her off.

“It’s where we go out and play for the day. It usually involves going out into the halls and bouncing balls back and forth or such.”

“Oh, ok. Continue.”

“Anyway, on one of our play days, I was talking to one of the adults from across the hall that told me about the surgery that was performed in there. His roommate had had some sort of surgery where they had to remove part of his brain or something. He said his roommate was never the same again. After that I didn’t talk to him, but I haven’t heard of any new arrivals either, so I assume he didn’t die but… you never know.

“Who knows what else goes on over there? I’m assuming there’s more but I don’t know. It seems to me like that many people can’t go through that every single day (which happens sometimes, sometimes there’ll be screams all day long), but maybe it could happen.”

I was silent for a moment after she finished her story. Finally, I asked, “Have you ever been over there?”

She shook her head. “No, thank god. I almost did once, but they decided I didn’t really need it.” She shuddered. “ I don’t know what would’ve happened if they had actually gone through with it. It scared me to death, thinking about it later, that I could’ve been like that girl… or that boy with the convulsions. That could’ve been me…”

She trailed off, tears starting to form in her eyes. I went over and sat next to her, pulling her close. I rocked her back and forth, somewhat like a child, whispering in her ear vague promises that everything would be all right. She just sobbed quietly into my shoulder.

I somewhat regretted having her tell me the whole story. I should have just gone on without knowing. But I suppose it was better to know. Now I knew not to do anything incredibly stupid that would land me in that position.

After a while, Anya’s sobs became sniffles, which then morphed into silent tears falling. Eventually, she stopped crying all together. She sat up and looked at me, her eyes still glistening slightly.

“Don’t make me tell that ever again… please…”

I hugged her. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

A/N: Thanks for reading and putting up with this. :) Thanks once again to Ryder24 for reviewing. Next chapter might be posted sometime later today, dunno yet.

Remember to be kind to this poor writer and review. She appreciates it. XD