Hardboiled: Not Your Average Detective Story (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 5) (21 page)

“Do you know what this means, Lillim?” Bernard said, reaching out to touch me lightly on the shoulder. At first he hadn’t done that, but when he realized I didn’t react violently to being touched, he’d started patting me on the shoulder from time to time.

“Yes,” I replied, and my heart felt like it was going to burst. Today was the day I was getting transferred to the yellow room. I could have books, and movies, and talk to someone who wasn’t Doctor Emile or Bernard. It made me so happy, I felt like I was going to burst.

“Well then, I won’t keep you waiting, let’s go speak with Doctor Emile, and if he says it is okay, then you can go to the yellow hall.” He reached down, took my hand, and squeezed. I glanced at our hands as he let go and moved to get my wheel chair. When he had it ready, I slid into the seat, practically bursting with excitement. The yellow room also meant one other thing, less monitoring. Since I’d been playing it cool, eating my vegetables, and taking my vitamins, I hadn’t wanted to try regaining my powers for fear they’d give me even more medication.

Doctor Emile looked up from his brown recliner when Bernard wheeled me into the room. I never really liked this room. It was mostly bare except for a book case on the far wall that held volumes of old kids’ books from the fifties and sixties. It looked heavy. I was pretty sure it was anchored to the wall so some enterprising patient couldn’t topple the thing without serious effort. Other than that, the only objects in the room were Dr. Emile’s recliner, a small table to his left and an ugly orange couch that always felt damp when I sat on it.

Bernard squeezed my shoulder and whispered, “good luck,” before exiting the room. I stood and moved to the little orange couch and sat down. It was hard because my arm was in a sling. I wasn’t sure why. No one had told me. It had to be because I’d been shot, but if that was the case, why was it just a sling? And besides, wouldn’t it be obvious I was telling the truth about Lang if I had a bullet hole in my arm?

“How are you today, Lillim? Is your arm still bothering you?” he asked, sitting forward so his chair straightened and put his hands on his knees.

“No, it feels a lot better, though I still don’t remember how it happened,” I lied because I knew exactly how it had happened. I’d been shot… right?

“You fell when we were taking you out of the transport bus. The nurses tell me that in a few days you won’t even need the sling anymore.”

When I didn’t say anything, he sighed and shook his head. “So, while it concerns me that you don’t seem to recall the last several years, you seem like you’re getting better. I just have a few more questions before I can transfer you to the yellow ward. Is that okay?”

“Yes,” I said, smiling sweetly at him.

He sat back, and I caught my reflection in his glasses. My black hair was greasy and unkempt, draping down over my head like dead spaghetti. The sight of it made my breath catch in my throat. Didn’t I have lavender hair? I reached up and touched my hair. The oily feel of it made me cringe as I tried to look at it, but it was too short for me to actually see it.

“Is there a problem?” Dr. Emile asked, looking me up and down, concern filling his dark eyes.

“No, sir,” I replied, dropping my hand to my lap because I didn’t have a place to put it.

“Okay, Lillim. Can you tell me about the Dioscuri?” he asked, glancing down at the yellow notepad in his hand.

“Isn’t that some kind of Greek Mythology thing?” I asked instead of telling him the truth. The Dioscuri was a supernatural fighting force that killed monsters on Earth.

“It is the group of supernatural monster hunters you claimed to belong to just a few weeks ago,” he said, staring at me so hard I wondered if he was trying to bore into my brain.

“I don’t recall…” I said trailing off.

“Okay.” He shrugged at me and smiled genially. “Who is Warthor Ein?”

“He was this guy I met in a video game a while back. He was the strongest on our server, and he was basically invincible.”

“Are you sure he isn’t your teacher from the Dioscuri?” Dr. Emile thumbed through his notes. “You said he helped you kill a dragon about a year ago.”

“In a video game, yeah. We fought a giant dragon in a
video
game.” I smirked and shook my head. “Dragons aren’t real, sir.”

“Is that so?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “How about Orcs? Can you tell me about Grollshanks?”

“Grollshanks is from the same game,” I replied, glancing up at the ceiling for a second.

“What’s the name of the game, Lillim?”

“The Chronicles,” I replied. “You play as a hero trying to stop monsters from taking over the Earth. It was a Korean game so not very many people in America played it.”

“Is that so?” he asked. “I feel like you might not be telling me the whole truth.”

“I am,” I said, swallowing hard. This was not going as planned. If Dr. Emile didn’t believe me, I’d have to wait another week before he’d even think about letting me into the yellow ward.

“Okay.” He smiled and shook his head. “I’m not trying to alarm you, Lillim. I’ve already decided to release you to the yellow ward. I just want to be
sure
you’re actually getting better.” He said a little more, but I wasn’t listening really. I knew what he was thinking. I can’t alarm this fragile girl, or she’ll slip off the little edge of the world she’s clinging to so tenuously.

I let out a breath of relief and almost bolted to my feet. “You mean I can go to yellow?” I asked, and a stupid amount of relief flooded into me.

“Yes, of course. You’ve been very good.”

“Thank you.” I smiled at him, beaming from ear to ear. “I’ve tried my best.”

“I know you have, Lillim. If you keep it up, we may even let you have at home visits with your parents.”

“My parents?” I asked, a bout of confusion welling up in me. “My dad knows I’m here?”

Dr. Emile squinted at me like he was trying to read something in my face. “Of course. Who do you think signed you into St. Simon & Simon? Don’t you remember?”

“Not really.” I shook my head. If my dad knew I was here, why hadn’t he gotten me out of here? And why did he keep saying parents, plural? Wasn’t my mother dead?

“Lillim, what are your parents’ names?” he asked, sitting forward in his chair.

“Sabastin and Diana Callina. Though my mom liked to go by her maiden name.”

“Well, you do seem to remember their names,” he replied, and I wanted to ask him about my mom, only I was worried that would make him think I was crazier. Surely, I was just reading too much into his words, right?

He was about to say more when there was a knock at the door. Dr. Emile looked up at it, startled. “Come in?”

The door opened to reveal Nurse Lana. She smiled at him, but not at me. Evidently when I’d kicked her, I’d broken her bottom rib, and she was still a little bent about it.

“Dr. Emile, um… Lillim’s parents are here, and they would like to see her. Is that possible?”

Wait, my parents were here? What did she mean by that? How could my parents be here? I bit my lip. She must have misspoke. She must mean my dad was here. If he was here, then surely he’d take me out of here, right?

“Okay…” Dr. Emile mumbled, glancing from me to his notes and back to the nurse in a swivel that made me think of a bobble head doll. “That should be fine. Afterward, would you take her to the yellow room?”

I squealed. I couldn’t help it. I was going to the yellow room. Even if for some strange reason my dad wasn’t busting me out of here. I was really sure I’d be able to escape.

“Okay,” Nurse Lana said, but what I heard in her voice was “are you sure that’s wise?”

“She’s been very good, the last couple of weeks. Wouldn’t you agree?” Dr. Emile said, standing to his full six foot plus height.

I got up and moved toward the wheelchair when Nurse Lana scowled at me. “I think you’re well enough to walk, right, Lillim?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

“Sure,” I replied and followed her out of the room, my nerves on edges. How could my parents be here to visit me? That didn’t make sense for so many reasons. I trudged after the bustling nurse, eyes on the floor as my stomach sloshed, and my skin began to crawl. Something was wrong, only I didn’t know what.

The nurse stopped in front of the door and smiled at me for the first time ever. Well, that’s not quite true, she’d smiled at me lots of times, but this was the first time it seemed to reach her eyes. “I know you’re nervous, honey. You haven’t been able to see your mom and dad for a while, but it’ll be okay. They love you very much.”

She swung the door open before I could respond to reveal a small room with a little stainless steel table in the middle that looked like it was bolted to the floor. Sitting there were my parents, smiling at me. Both of them.

My heart fell to my toes as my mother, Diana Cortez, clad in a black pantsuit with a navy blue blouse stood and walked over to me, bending down to wrap me up in her arms. She crushed me against her body, the smell of her perfume, like yellow daffodils, filled my nose. Tears sprang to my eyes, clouding my vision as I hugged her back.

“Mom!” I cried, burying my face in her shoulder. “Mom, I missed you so much!” I blubbered, clinging to her.

“Gee, I feel like chopped liver,” my dad said, smiling at me from behind her. He was wearing a brown leather bomber jacket over an untucked black and white checkered shirt that fell over the front of his jeans. He still had his scars, but they weren’t like I’d remembered them being. Instead, they reminded me of someone who might have had really bad acne as a child.

“Sorry,” I tried to say but I wasn’t sure it was audible through my crying.

“Quiet, Sabastin,” My mother said, voice slightly annoyed. “Don’t spoil my moment.” She stood up, gripping my hand tightly and bringing me over to a grungy grey couch that sat against the far wall.

“So how are things?” she asked, her voice strangely neutral. It was almost like she was gearing herself up, trying to make the situation seem like it was normal. Which of course, it wasn’t. How normal is it to visit your daughter in an insane asylum? Then again, I had been pretty sure she was dead, but here she was…

“I can’t believe you’re alive,” I said, and she stopped, just stopped, her spine straightening like steel.

“I don’t understand why you keep thinking I died.” She glanced at my father, shooting him a look that I was pretty sure meant, “I thought the doctors said she was getting better?”

Chapter 21

Like all things good, my parents’ visit eventually came to an end. As I was ushered out of the room, and toward the yellow ward, I wasn’t sure if I was crazy or not. I mean, I knew, just knew, that my mother was dead. But right now, I sort of hoped that maybe I
was
crazy and she was, really and truly, alive again.

“How was your visit, Lillim?” Nurse Lana asked as she walked me toward the yellow room. Her tone was strangely neutral as though she didn’t want to upset me if it hadn’t gone well. But it had gone well. It had gone so well that, for a moment, I was really sure it was all real. We had played Scrabble. I didn’t even have one memory of ever playing a board game with my parents, and we had played Scrabble.

I knew eventually I was going to wake up from this dream and realize that the best moment I had ever had was made up. The thought made a chill run down my spine.

“It was great,” I said, my voice catching in my throat as a traitorous tear rolled down my eye.

“Then why are you crying?” she asked, voice surprisingly comforting.

“Because I thought my mom died, and then I saw her. I think I really might be crazy,” I sniffed. “And if I’m not crazy, well then…” I cut myself off with a snort and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “Then she’s dead…”

“Honey, your mom is fine.” She smiled at me with a look that told me she thought I was crazy, but felt bad about it. I’d gone from being the object of scorn to the object of pity. I wasn’t sure it was an improvement. “Are you ready to see all your friends?” she asked as we stopped before a large yellow door with a little window in the middle. It was so bright yellow that it almost hurt my eyes to look at it.

“I’m okay,” I said, steeling myself.

“If you’re not, I can show your new room in the yellow ward. You could be by yourself if you need a moment.”

“I’m good,” I said, smirking. “Did you move all my things?” I added before I could stop myself. It was my attempt at a joke because I had no things. Nurse Lana’s face tightened into a mask as she nodded once at me and pressed her thumb to a little pad by the door. There was a click as the light flashed green. She pushed the door open.

The room wasn’t as big as I’d expected. Sure, it was big enough to fit about a hundred people or so, but for some reason I’d been imagining a football field sized room. All around, kids within a few years of my age were playing games or reading. There were even a few tucked off in a corner watching a giant blue puppet on a television suspended from the wall.

“Everyone, this is Lillim. I know she has been gone a while, and to some of you she is a new face, but please try to make her feel welcome,” Nurse Lana said, before turning and exiting back through the door. It clicked shut behind me as a couple people looked up at me. Most, however, ignored me and the announcement.

“Hi,” I said feebly, waving with my good arm.

“Hello,” no one replied as the rest of them went back to what they were doing. I swallowed, unsure of what to do and decided to put on my big girl pants. I threw a little steel in my spine as I walked toward four familiar-looking kids surrounding a foosball table, their bodies hunched over the game in concentration.

“So, uh, how do you play?” I asked, trying to peer over the blond guy’s shoulder, but he was so big I could barely see past him. The girl across from him looked up at me, and my heart felt like it exploded in my chest.

Kishi Al Akeer, the girl who had gone with me into Fairy, stared back at me, her emerald eyes sparkling. “Lillim, they let you out of crazy jail!” she squealed just as the ball sailed past her defender into the goal. “Finally! These losers are so boooooring.”