Dirty Secrets

Part 37

Thursday morning, when Lyla approached the hospital, she had every expectation that Packer would be waiting for her stationed in his usual spot on the walkway wearing his flirtatious grin. Instead, she found him in the lobby, standing at the atrium's floor-to-ceiling window wall. 

"Hey," he said flatly, then turned his attention back to the tinted glass.

"You checking in?"

"Uh, yeah." 

During their walk down the hallway, Packer was uncharacteristically solemn. No cheerfully quirky attitude nor non-stop barrage of disarming remarks.

"So," said Lyla, hoping to spark conversation. "Another day in paradise."

He nodded then, after a pause, said, "Hey. You don't have a boyfriend or anything, right?"

"What?"

"I mean when I asked you before you didn't really say. And then you let me kiss you, so..."

"No. I don't have a boyfriend."

They signed in at the desk and handed over their phones to the security officer. 

"'Kay. Later," Packer said and trotted down the hallway toward Bo and Chip.

Lyla's fellow patients' mental and behavioral issues flashed like bright LED signs. Natalie had serious anger issues, AJ was severely depressed, and as far as Lyla could tell, Maisie was being treated for a variety of conditions. The girls made no attempt to conceal their symptoms but, not Packer. 

Why was he even admitted? Maybe he's bipolar. 

"Hold up," said the security officer, turning the sign-in sheet in his direction and squinting at her signature. "Lyla Perry?"

"Yeah." She walked back to the security desk and read the name on his ID tag. "Charles."

"Doctor Haden wants you." He lifted the phone receiver to his ear and dialed.

Is she gonna be up my butt about that stupid med? Why is she fighting me on this?

"Send her up?" Charles asked. "Got it." He hung up the phone then signaled Lyla to follow.

Natalie and AJ shuffled to the security desk. AJ forced a wedge of Egg McMuffin into her mouth, then tossed her balled-up McDonald's bag into the trash container.

"Sign in and wait here," Charles said to the girls. "Be back in a sec. And don't get no food on my desk.

With her cheeks bulging, AJ nodded. Natalie's eyes never left her phone.

Charles led Lyla to the elevator, swiped his key card, then pressed the call button. The elevator doors parted revealing the dull gray metal interior, which reeked of disinfectant. He gestured for her to enter, leaned in, and pressed 3. When the doors closed, the elevator lurched before making its ascent. In the confined space, the concentrated cleaning vapors burned her sinus membranes. She clamped her nose shut.

Slowest. Elevator. Ever. 

The car wobbled up the elevator shaft, the pulley system moaning, finally climbing past the second floor.

I don't care what she says, I'm not taking that freakin' pill. I'm just not.

With a shudder, the elevator announced its arrival on the third floor. It paused as though it were deciding whether or not to open its doors. When the 3rd-floor button illuminated, the doors slid apart.

Standing in the hallway, the creepy janitor leaned on his mop, his dull, sunken eyes fixed on Lyla.

Her breath hitched in her throat, her hand plastered to the rail.

A menacing grin carved its way across his gray face, the odor of decay infiltrating the elevator car.

Lyla slammed her palm against the second and first-floor buttons. The elevator didn't budge.

He took a small step forward, now just outside the elevator. "Ouroboros," he said quietly. "Infinity. Forever."

Her bravery withered, her mouth dropped open.

He curled his upper lip and in a gravelly voice growled, "Don't be such a stuck-up bitch. Wear the ring." He side-stepped, disappearing from view. 

A vivid memory flooded Lyla's mind. Last spring, she remembered watching an injured sparrow desperately wedging itself into a narrow crack in her backyard garden wall to escape the neighbor's cat. The look in the eyes of that broken fledgling conveyed the horror, the desperation that now consumed her. Her heart pounded with the realization that a predator was silently waiting just outside the only exit, waiting patiently, so very patiently to pounce when she emerged. 

The elevator car quivered when the motor above her hummed. The doors began to close but a hand slapped the rubber bumpers to stop them. Reflexively, Lyla lurched into the corner, fists clenched tightly just below her chin. 

A figure blocked the exit, taking Lyla a moment to register Dr. Haden and not the custodian.

"Lyla," she said in her soothing therapeutic voice. "Come on out of there."

Lyla lowered her fists, cleared her throat, and offered a weak smile as she exited.

"Are you feeling alright?" Dr. Haden asked studying her with penetrating eyes.

"It made some scary noises and then the doors wouldn't open."

The doctor glanced at the elevator when the doors slid closed.

Lyla rubbed her nose. "That cleaning smell. God." She winced.

A quick glance down the corridor confirmed that her tormentor had disappeared. As they started off toward Dr. Haden's office, a wriggling brown centipede caught Lyla's notice as it scurried across the tile floor into the elevator.

"Do you need to take a moment?" The doctor placed her hand on Lyla's arm.

Lyla shook her head "no." 

Say nothing. Play the game.