No Way To Escape | Novel

CHAPTER 13: THOUGHTS

'Steady, steady Mr. Hall. Be still, it won't hurt', said Dr. Haywell, my orthopaedic doctor. He was removing my plaster. He was trying to console me the way he had when he had plastered my arm. The only difference is that I was more worried and afraid about my arm during the plastering process and now the tension was a little less.

'Thank you, doc', I said as he successfully freed me of my tribulation.

'Oh, that's my duty Mr. Hall and now you are completely free to use your hand. For the fees you may have a chat with my secretary Lucy'

'Yeah, sure sir'

Bidding Dr. Haywell a goodbye, I went out of his chamber, met Lucy and after paying off the fees to her, I came out of the Central Dispensary building. Then I boarded the bus to get back home.

I got seated at the seat against the second last window. The journey was going to be long. It was a 16 miles journey. I was feeling glad at the feeling of getting my hand free again after three months but there also was a fear which had made a place somewhere at some corner of my heart. A lot of things had happened in these three months, not with me but with Larry. I had shifted in to Larry's last month to take better care of him. His mental condition had worsened emphatically. According to him, his nightmares were getting more and more real and terrifying. I could see him hallucinating a lot. Last month, I saw him talking to himself when I suddenly entered his room to give him soup. When I asked him who was he talking with, he said that it was his friend. He had also developed a habit of sleepwalking. A couple of weeks back, he had tried to hit me with a vase in his sleep when I was working on my laptop. It missed and when the vase fell on the Lino flooring, its breaking sound made Larry to come back to his senses. He looked stupefied. He had moved into depression furthermore in these months. He had lost his smile. I don't remember when I last saw him laugh.

Ahh! I can recall! -- It was at the party at Fred's, the night when he had visited the ominous mansion.

I leaned more towards the window and my vision got fixed on a small child who was holding the hands of his mother and eating a chocolate. That somehow got me to smile as it made me remember of my mother who was back there at Kyland. I would always hold her hands like that whenever she took me to the local supermarket. I used to clasp her hands more tightly on crowdy streets.

I miss you mom

Coming back to Larry, the previous night was really tormenting. Some time around midnight, I heard some noise coming from Larry's room. I ran to his room and saw Larry lying there on the ground. He was looking horrific and violent. He was breaking stuffs of his room one by one. When I reached out to him and tried to stop him, he shoved me away and that was not at all gentle. I fell down which was nothing less than a crash. I stood up and tried to have control over him but now he tried to harm me. He was growling like a wolf. He punched me on my face and then kicked me hard on my tummy. I jerked back, then retracing my steps, I got hold of Larry by his long hair. He looked ferocious. It seemed as if he was possessed by someone. He snarled at my face and screamed in my ears, grasping my neck. As a counter, I gave him a hefty blow on his face, which made him collapse on the ground.

I had not experienced any nightmares since that night. But the nightmares of Larry were giving me butterflies in the stomach. They were becoming worse day by day. Every time he slept, he would wake up agonizingly after his dream filled with anguish. In every dream he would die a painful death. His agonies were making me frightened now. Now, the mental stress had started to take a toll on Larry's body too. He had gone considerably thin in the last three months though his appetite had not decreased a bit. He remained sick most of the time and had been taking a lot of medicines, only in vain. One day I saw him whining at himself and crying--