Beyond The Walls (NOW ON AMAZON!!!)

Terror

"No, it's still spring," a little voice replied.

That wasn't Summer's voice.

Hadley's mind was a swirling storm of power, rage, fear, hope and horror! She couldn't control it! She grabbed at her temples, pressing hard with the palm of her hands, hoping it would somehow make it stop! But it didn't. It was like she was back with Mrs. Smith and Ruq had crashed into her mind again, except this was ten times worse and Ruq wasn't here. Hadley fought through the thick smog and did the one thing she knew to do with emotions. She reached for the darkness inside her. The one that had swallowed every feeling she'd had from childhood. She reached for it and tried to dump the storm of emotions into the abyss.

She found nothing.

There was no darkness!

She felt every emotion. All of it. All at once!

After a few moments of contending with the chaos within her, Hadley barely holding on to her sanity, the storm passed, and she could finally open her eyes.

She took in the space around her, trying to control her raggedy breath. The room's lighting was a deep red, but she could make out shapes and forms. It was the clinical room she had woken up in before. At about twenty feet long and ten feet wide, it was a sizeable room with nothing but the hospital bed she lay in, a chair, an infusion pump, a medical monitor, an IV pole and a few other medical items. There was someone on the bed with her. She knew him, even in the disorienting wake of the dream fading away and the contents of her mind churning like soil in a compost tumbler.

"Drew?" Hadley's voice rasped painfully past her dry throat.

The little boy sniffled and rubbed at his eyes.

"I didn't mean to kick it off," he whimpered, pointing to Hadley's right. "But I can't put it back."

Hadley looked at what he was pointing at. It was the IV tubing that had been connected to her, now dangling, and leaking clear liquid onto the shiny floor.

The boy had inadvertently released her from her sedative prison.

"Can you put it back, Hadley?" Drew whispered, still upset. "She won't be happy if she finds it like that."

"Who?"

"The woman with one eye," Drew shrugged sadly. "She gets angry a lot, screams, and hits the walls. I don't want her to be angry at me."

"Drew, where are we?" Hadley asked. Her throat still hurt, and thirst ravaged her, but she didn't dare search for a drink after the last time she'd woken up here.

"She'll be back soon," Drew said, looking warily at the door. "Hadley, can you put the needle back so I can leave? I don't want her to find me here."

"She doesn't know you're here?" Hadley could barely speak through her sandpapery, dry throat. She began to get off the bed.

"No." Drew said, shaking his head and nervously wringing his hands as he watched Hadley. "Don't."

Hadley looked at the IV tape that still held the needle in her vein. She carefully pulled it out. The wound left behind would bleed, but she'd deal with that later. She flexed her arm. It felt stiff, but the feeling quickly dissipated. It was an odd sensation, but one she wasn't complaining about. Whatever sedative the woman had been using must have been terribly weak to be wearing off this fast, but again, she wasn't complaining. Hadley swung her feet to the side of the bed and let them gently touch the cold floor.

"Are the others close, Drew?" Hadley asked. Her throat was much better, though the thirst persisted.

"The others?" Drew wondered. "There are no others. Just me, you, Brownie, and the lady with one eye."