Chapter 4

Two hours had gone by since I met up with Lindsey again and went over how she got caught. Apparently, she was hiding in an abandoned building and when she went out for supplies, they tranquilized her and dragged her. Although not a very happy place, I couldn't be happier knowing that she is with me. Lindsey and I sat in the commons area of the third floor talking about how she got here, and I explained the horror of knowing that my father is the warden and the anxiety of knowing that my mother is here. We get to the topic of how we are getting out of here when Ali come strolling up and sits beside me.

"So, what are we talking about?" She said as she puts her head on the table.

"Just catching up," I reply with a smirk.

We joked for a bit before Lindsey was taken away for some test and stuff. I then hung out in my room where Justin is on the bed reading a book. I sat down on my bed and looked up at him and said, "So how are you doing up here?"

He looked up at me with a bit of a glare, "Not as comfortable bed but so much quieter up here. Oh, I forgot to thank you for landing me here." He said with a sarcastic quip.

"How many times do I have to say I'm sor..." is all I got out before he cut me off" I was fine where I was at, and you came along and changed that and landed me with the unstables."

"You think this has been easy for me either," I returned feeling angry at the whole situation.

"Of course, it's been easy for you. You get to see your girlfriend, why you wouldn't be happy," he said, showing that he is just as angry.

"She isn't my girlfriend; we are just friends," I said rolling my eyes at his comment.

"Whatever," he said, putting his nose back in his book.

I got up and left the room knowing that he just needs space. Getting moved up from the first floor to the third had been rough. I also needed space to calm down and breathe because I couldn't let my anger get out of control because I didn't know if the higher floors are just offices or for even crazier people. I didn't want to find out. I found Cameron roaming around with one of his marionette dolls, walking it down the hall. I waved to him and as he looked up. He waved back and made the doll wave back. That moment with the doll waving at me made me realize that we are still people and we don't deserve this kind of treatment, and instead of breathing and letting my anger go, this place popped back in my head and made it worse. I tried and tried to get my anger to go away, but it only seemed to just get worse and worse as I go over being dragged to this place, finding out that Lindsey was here too, the argument with Justin, and most importantly finding out that my father knew I was in here and he did nothing to stop it. With all this anger I didn't know what to do with, I just kept feeling the fury fall into my body and the struggle between fire and ice trying to come out of my body.

I am going through this struggle and my body made the decision of fire. My body started smoking, and I was still trying to calm down. The fight against myself was unbreakable. Figuring the whole situation, I was in I didn't think about how it could get any worse, and in that moment, the strangest thing came over me–a wave of calm. I began to think that I was about to lose because it is always calm before the storm when a ray of light engulfed me, and I saw a woman standing in front of me in a white dress that flowed so elegantly to the ground. It almost looked like it was floating. I got to looking at the woman and wondering why she is here and how I got so calm. She opened her eyes and spoke.

"Eric, I know you're angry, but what is the point in taking it out on all of these nice people who are in the same situation as you."

I look down at her because she was a bit shorter than me. "I'm not angry at these people. It is this whole situation, and it got me to a point of no return in my anger."

"I know that you know how to be calm, and I know you want to be calm but letting the anger consume you is a personal problem you have to fight on your own." She said gently pressing her hand to my face.

When she put her hand on my face, I knew exactly who she was. I don't know why I didn't see it before. Maybe it was the light or the fact that she doesn't wear dresses. I felt the wave of calm wash back over me and closed my eyes. As I sat there in a gentle bliss, I opened my eyes and looked back into hers and said" I know that I will win this battle and not only over my anger, but I'll fight for you to... Mom."