"If you undo them," Mrs. Roundchild threatened, "we'll have to restrain your arms again."

Doctor Scanlon took my pulse and then checked a chart dangling from the end of the bed. While he did so, Mrs. Roundchild tightened the straps securely.

"Let's remain with this current pharmaceutical protocol," he told Mrs. Roundchild.

"Very good, Doctor," she said. She looked as though she were going to salute as well.

He turned back to me.

"I'm going to let you rest now, but Mrs. Roundchild will keep a close eye on your condition. If there are any dramatic changes, she'll inform me immediately and I'll be here as soon as I can," he promised.

"Does Doctor Southerby at least know what's happened to me?" I asked softly. He didn't like the question and hardened his mouth, turning his eyes to granite as well.

"Doctor Southerby knows you are now under my direct care. He has no concerns," he replied sharply. "Just so you'll know," he added after a moment, "Doctor Southerby interned under me. He thinks of me as his mentor. Do you know what that means, mentor?"

"Yes," I said. "You were his teacher."

"More than that. Doctor Scanlon was his idol," Mrs. Roundchild corrected. "And rightly so," she finished. Doctor Scanlon smiled at her and the two of them left my room.

I gazed down at my food, my appetite still gone, Nevertheless, I nibbled on some of the cold meat loaf, drank some juice, and lay back. A little over an hour later, Clare returned for the tray.

"I'm sorry I got you into trouble," I said.

"I got myself into trouble," she replied, took the tray and left without a word.

Fifteen minutes later, I had to use the bedpan. I pushed the buzzer for it to be taken away, but no one appeared for more than a half hour. Finally, Mrs. Roundchild came with Clare right behind her.

"Empty that," she told her, nodding at the bedpan. Then she handed me a cup with two pills in it, and gave me a glass of water, "Your medication," she said firmly.

"Will it make me tired? I'm still so weak and tired from before," I complained.

"Your medication," she repeated, holding it out. "Doctor Scanlon wouldn't prescribe it if it wasn't necessary, Laura. I'm sorry to have to be so firm with you, but it's an awesome responsibility to care for people who can't care for themselves."

I plucked the pills out of the cup and put them in my mouth while she hovered over me, watching me swallow the water and the pills. She nodded.

"Good," she said. Clare returned the bedpan to the table and they left me.

Never did I feel more alone. Strapped down, in a barren room with no one to talk to, nothing to look at, not even anything to read, I did truly feel more like a criminal than a patient. It was as if I were being punished, not helped. I listened hard, but the sounds that I heard from the corridor were few and

meaningless. There were no voices and little movement. If they were so understaffed, why wasn't there more going on?

I had to close my eyes. The pills are working, I thought. They're making my eyelids heavy again. In moments I was asleep, and soon after, I was dreaming. Wonderful, familiar faces began to reappear, rising out of the darkness. My mother was smiling at me and my father was looking at me with love in his eyes. A little hand reached for me. It was May and she was afraid. My brother stepped up beside her. His name seemed to be closer, my tongue struggling to form it.

"Come home, Laura," he said. "Please, come home." "Laura," my mother called. "Laura, come home." "We need you back here, Laura," my father said. May was signing and crying.

I struggled, twisted, and pulled against the straps in my sleep so violently, that I woke myself in the middle of the night. My skin burned where I had chaffed my waist and my legs. I groaned and cried out. The door to my room was nearly closed completely, so that most of the dim light from the corridor was gone. I was alone in the dark.

I closed my eyes again, drifting off. This time I immediately felt a wave of cold ocean water wash over me. I gasped. There was a hand reaching up and the top of a head emerging from the water. I struggled to get a grip on that hand and then . . I really felt something in my hand and my eyes snapped open.

"Shh," I heard, and turned to see Lawrence kneeling by the bed.

"Lawrence? What are you doing here?"

"Don't talk too loud," he said. "I snuck up to see you. We heard what happened to you and I tried to get information all day, but no one knew or would say a thing. Mary Beth and Lulu send their love."

"How did you get up here?"

I sat up until the strap cut into my waist.

Tags: V.C. Andrews Logan Horror
Source: readsnovelonline.net