Forty-Five

“Good thing you came in when you did,” I said, walking down the hall to the break area.

“What do you mean?” Darc said, cigarette already in hand.

“Its good you woke me up.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t wake you up.” Kevvvvvinnnn…

“You didn’t, huh?”

“Nope, wasn’t me. Must’ve been somebody else.” Darc said, as he closed his hands around his cigarette. Two seconds later he pulled them away and it was lit, without any sign of a lighter, of course. I just shook my head, wondering what the hell was going on. I truly didn’t know what life was anymore. It was like I’d been sucked into the Twilight Zone.

“C’mon, Kev, let’s go discuss things.” Darc led us over to a bench.

“What are we going to talk about?” I was truly suspicious of anything and anybody by now. What I was experiencing was just way too weird. Who knew what was going to happen? Who knew when the next strange random occurrence might happen? Who knew if anything was going to happen to me? Who knew?

I do.

So you know, huh?

Darc and I sat down.

Of course I do.


How’d you get so knowledgable all of the sudden?

What do you mean all of the sudden? I’ve been in here more times than I can count. This wisdom definitely didn’t happen spontaneously.

So are you going to break it down for me or does another falling object have to kill me first?


Dude, relax. No falling object is going to kill you.

How would you know that?

Because they never do.

What?

Its fear, man. Its just fear.

I just stared blankly ahead, considering what he had just “said”.

Open your eyes. Has anything really happened to you since you’ve gotten here?

My hands got cut.

Yeah, but you did that to yourself.

I’ve been put in the Quiet Room a few times.

Once again, brought on by your own retarded actions.

He had a point. Every single bad thing that had happened to me while I had been in this place had been brought on by my own stupid mistakes. I honestly couldn’t pick out something bad that had happened that wasn’t of my own doing. Except…

What about that huge piece of plaster in there? The one that almost crushed me?

Good point. Why don’t we go investigate that plaster for a minute.

We got up and walked through the TV room and the hall, smiling at everybody as we passed. We got to my room, stopped at the doorway, and looked inside.

There was no plaster…..and no hole in the ceiling.