Beautiful Nightmares (The Asylum Trilogy) by Lauren Hammond Page B

today. We’ll resume tomorrow.” His voice is thick with the worst kind of emotion—pain—and I can tell he’s starting to realize I’m an egg that can’t be cracked.
     
    I stand before him, wanting to offer an olive branch. Maybe tell him, I’ll try harder. But he slouches his shoulders with a sigh and I decide against saying anything. Instead, I slip out into the quiet hall and out of Elijah’s view.
     
    I close the door behind me and listen for the click to make sure it’s closed then I hear him. “You just don’t get it do you?”
     
    Damien.
     
    My head snaps to the left. “Get what?”
     
    He’s not real. He’s not real. He’s not real.
     
    I know this. I know he’s a hallucination, a side effect of the barbiturates. But there’s also a portion of me that wonders why I’m still seeing him then because I stopped taking my meds weeks ago.
     
    He’s perched against the plaster wall, arms folded across his chest, foot propped against the lower part of the wall. His radiant blue, blue eyes stare back at me in a direct way. “Get that all these treatments are useless and failing for a reason.”
     
    I snort and brush past him, walking down the hall. “And what would that reason be?”
     
    Damien is at my side in a second and shrugs. “You don’t love him.”
     
    I shake my head. “You don’t know that.” I had to love him enough at one point to marry him and have a child with him. But I’m not going to say that to Damien.
     
    “Neither do you.”
     
    “Well maybe I will one day,” I bark back. I happen to have a little bit of faith in Elijah’s determination to get me to remember. Elijah seems to think so.”
     
    “Elijah seems to think so,” Damien says in a mocking tone.
     
    Out of nowhere Aurora scampers down the hall and sidles up next to me. Her head snaps to the left and she scowls at Damien. “Leave her alone.”
     
    Damien puffs out his chest and takes a step toward Aurora. “I’m tired of you telling me what to do.”
     
    They’ve been like this a lot lately. I’m always wondering why they’re fighting over me. Neither one of them ever seems to want to tell me and I hate feeling clueless. Finally I scream out in frustration, throw my hand in the air and face them both. “What is going on with you two?” I ball my hands into fists and place them on my hips. “You’re always bickering about something that has to do with me and I want to know what the hell it is! I’m tired of being left in the dark about it!”
     
    Both Aurora and Damien exchange awkward glances. I give them both an awkward glance. Now the whole situation in general is awkward and I’m stuck in the middle. “Well come on,” I urge them with lifted brows. “Somebody spit it out.”
     
    Again, neither one of them says a word.
     
    I stomp my foot. It’s childish, I know but I just want some damn answers.
     
    Damien cocks his head to the side, his blue eyes gleaming. “You really don’t know do you?” His voice goes up a level.
     
    I don’t think I’ve ever been so confused. “No,” I say. “I don’t.”
     
    “Listen Addy,” Aurora says in a soothing voice.
     
    “Oh, cut the crap,” Damien snaps, jutting his arm out and shoving Aurora to the side. He points to himself then to Aurora. “We’re dead.” My mouth falls open because nothing he says is making sense. I know Damien died. But Aurora? Dr.Watson? Marjorie?
     
    “So wait…” I try to find more words, but can’t. I clear my throat. “Does that mean?”
     
    “Yeah,” Damien says, in a matter of fact tone. “So are you.”

 
     
    Chapter Eighteen
     
    ~After~
     
     
    I’m blinded by darkness.
     
    I’m careful not to make any sudden movements in fear that I might know something over and make loud noises that would make the night-shift orderly come running. So I move forward, on my tip-toes and put my arms out to feel for any object that might cross my path.
     
    I’ve been in this office more times