Chapter 21: Crazy

Chapter 21: Crazy

We pulled into the parking lot of the Randon Medical Clinic. It was a nicer name than Randon Insane Asylum even though that's exactly what it was.

"So.... What are we doing here?" Anton asked.

"Don't ask so many questions," Mila answered for me.

I nodded my thanks to her. "I just need to visit my mom. It has been a long time since I have seen here. I won't be long."

"You're leaving us in here?" He asked.

I stepped out of the car. "Why don't you guys go get lunch and pick me up on the way back. Just grab me a burger or something."

"Will do," Mila answered.

I watched the orange car drive away. Why was it that the car worked so perfectly for her?

I turned towards the entrance. I could do this. All I needed was some blood, that shouldn't be so hard. I had no idea how I was going to get it. I was going to need help. I went straight to the bathroom after I entered.

I waited for the one woman in the bathroom to leave. I leaned on my hands while I looked into the mirror. "Remi," I whispered.

The lights flickered and dimmed.

"We really need to stop meeting like this," came his deep gravelly voice from behind me. In the mirror I could see his dark form. The red ember flew about his shoulder.

"Do you recommend some other place I can meet you?"

He shrugged. "What do you want?"

"How do I get my mother's blood?"

"That's for you to figure out. I'm just the information guy." The red ember flickered and buzzed at his shoulder.

"You're not much help."

"There's not much I can do. I'm bound by a lot of rules."

"Whose rules?"

His mouth grew tight.

"Fine, don't answer. I'll figure it out."

I washed my hands. The lights brightened around me as he left. I had to figure this out. I didn't have any paperwork to request a blood sample. I doubted they would buy the genetic sample for biology class.

I left the bathroom shaking my hands dry. As I approached the front desk, a tired looking man sat at the counter tapping at his keyboard.

"Can I help you?" He asked in a bored tone without looking up.

"I'm here to see Isabell Hatfield."

He paused his work. "And you are?"

"Her daughter."

He eyed me suspiciously. "ID?"

I dug through my heavy tote bag then handed him my driver's license. He studied it closely by flipping it back and forth a few times, checking to see if it was real. "You may wait in the visiting room."

"Can I have a private visit?"

"No, we don't do that anymore for legal reasons. Go to the visiting room. She will be out shortly."

I held his gaze for a few moments before I turned away. Talk about someone with trust issues. What did he think I was going to do? Stab her? I chuckled to myself as I followed the signs. Unfortunately, that may be exactly what I'd have to do.

I had always hated this place. It haunted me in my dreams. A part of me felt like I had always been here. I used to visit Mom on her birthday every year, but I hadn't since I left home. Even then it was hard to come. I hated seeing her like that. She was so incoherent. It was almost like she wasn't in there anymore. But occasionally she would come to and the things she said never made sense. Darkness, shadows, spirits. Now, I was thinking maybe she wasn't crazy after all.

Come to think of it, she was the one who always pushed me into learning math and science. She used to make me sit at the kitchen table and study for hours. She didn't care about the other subjects, but I always had to be the top of my class in math. I was two years ahead in school in that subject. When I was in middle school, I had to walk to the high school to take classes with the high schoolers. When I was in high school, I was enrolled in online college math which I took from the library computers. Then she went away. I still continued though. It was the only thing I had left of her before she went completely mad.

I sat in the visiting area. There were several tables with two chairs each. A couch and TV sat to one side with a man visiting an elderly woman. They sat in silence as they watched a rerun of a crime show. There were so many, I couldn't tell which one it was. I was surprised they even let them watch that here. Wouldn't all that blood upset some patients?

Blood. My mind shot back to the task. How was I going to get her blood?

The door opened. Two orderlies escorted my mother through the door. She looked unlike how I remembered her. So unlike my dream, if it even was a dream. Her black hair was frizzy. Her eyes were sunken and vacant. She looked more like a prisoner than a patient. Her body was thin and her skin pale. The orderlies led her by the shoulders to my table then pushed her gently into the seat across from me.

I gave them a pointed look as they stood over her. After a moment, they stepped back and gave us some room.

"Mom, how are you?" I asked.

Her eyes looked through me.

"Mom?"

Very slowly and awkwardly she leaned forward and put her arms on table. She wiggled her index finger at me encouraging me forward. I leaned forward. She beckoned with both index fingers now and slid her hands towards me. I set my hands on the table then reached towards her. Her hands were cold. They held none of the strength she used to have. Her hands rested over the long sleeves of my shirt just over my wrists.

"Mom?"

"I am fine," she said simply. Her voice was as thin as her frail form. "How is college?"

"I couldn't afford it. I dropped out last semester."

Her eyes closed briefly as if she was in pain. "Have you been keeping up with your studies?"

"What's the point? I wasn't the top of my class in college, how will I ever land a job let alone make it into the PhD program? Let's face it, I wasn't meant to do this. Why did you push so hard? I should have just been a farmer like dad. But it's too late. I burned those bridges, because you made me." Everything came out in such a rush. I couldn't stop all the pain, hurt, and disappointment. I had bottled it up for so long inside, it just came pouring out.

"Kira... you can do better." She didn't elaborate. She squeezed my wrists tighter.

"What am I supposed to do? I can barely make rent and food. I'm paying down these outrageous loans and I can't land a job with half a degree. I'm just... stuck."

She shook her head slowly.

"Don't be disappointed. That doesn't help me."

Warmth spread to my wrists. I looked down. Beneath her hands, my blue shirt was stained red with blood. All my problems and bitching seemed pointless now asmy mind came back to the task at hand. I looked up. How did even she know? Was she really there in my dream? She told me to find the blood and now she was giving it to me.

"For the darkness?" I whispered.

She nodded ever so slightly. I brought my hands away quickly before anyone saw and hid them in my lap. Blood pooled on the table beneath her wrists.

"Not again," the orderly said as he stepped forward. "Visiting time is over. You can't keep doing this to yourself."

I stood as they started taking my mother away. "Doing what? What does she keep doing?"

The other orderly looked over his shoulder at me. "She's been on suicide watch for a while now. I'm sorry, you'd better go. It seems you only make her worse."

I watched them drag my mother from the room. The last thing I saw of her was her once luxurious hair now matted and frizzed as it disappeared out the door.