Chapter Sixteen

It was nine o’clock that evening when Tracy walked down to the cafeteria looking for something to drink. There, she found Laura talking to someone on the telephone. When Laura turned and noticed Tracy’s entrance, “Look, I gotta go,” she said and then hung up the phone.

Tracy could easily detect her strange behavior. An unnerving feeling crept through her body. She was talking to someone about me, she thought.

Tracy sat down at one of the empty tables and opened a can of soda and Bolan entered the cafeteria and quickly sat down next to her.

“Hi,” she said and he nodded.

“How are you feeling this evening, Tracy?” he asked and she shrugged.

“Fine I guess.” Tracy answered and spied Laura listening. “But why don’t you tell me? I mean, you’re supposed to be the smart-ass doctors who tell us whether we’re fucked in the head. Right?” she commented and noticed a glimpse of Laura almost laughing out loud.

“Do you always have this negative attitude towards doctors?” Bolan asked.

Tracy smiled. “No. Only to the ones who falsely accuse me of being,” her tone sounded as if she were trying out for the part of a defense attorney, and this was why Bolan cut her off before she could say more.

“I haven’t accused you of anything, yet,” he said, with emphasis on his final word.

Tracy sighed. At least I’ve made my point. “Bolan, why are you here?” she finally asked.

He smiled and sat back in the chair in which he sat. “I’m moving you to a different stage in the research. I’m going to connect you to a dream measuring machine. I do believe you. I believe that you see a monster – a monster that could very well be real. I’m going to study your dreams specifically,” he explained.

Laura looked at Bolan with a confused expression on her face. She did not trust a word he was saying, nor did Tracy.

That night, Tracy decided on not falling asleep. Instead she wrote a long entry in her diary.

When the next morning arrived, Tracy walked down to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee. There, she met Steve and Laura. “Did you hear about the new admission?” Steve asked as Tracy entered the room.

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Tracy shook her head. “No. Who is it?” she responded, then thought of something. “Did you guys discuss my admission, too?”

“Hey, we gotta keep busy somehow.” Steve smiled. “And, no. We don’t know who it is, either.”

After she drank her coffee, Tracy walked back up to her room and was shocked to find that all of her belongings were gone. She looked around – half expecting to find her belongings, and half expecting not to.

That was when Bolan entered the room. “All of your things have been moved,” he began.

Tracy grinned. “No shit. But where?”

His answer was that same old smile he had often used as he exited the room.

She followed him through the corridor, and several feet later, a young orderly walked up to Bolan. “Where should I put the new kid?” he asked.

“Put him in that one.” Bolan answered, gesturing to Tracy's old room.

“But, what about her?” asked the orderly, looking at Tracy.

Again, that fake smile. “She’s been transferred,” was Bolan’s only answer and he led Tracy through the corridor.

As they turned a corner, Tracy looked back in the direction of her old room. There, she saw someone that she thought she knew.

Tracy and Bolan walked up a long flight of stairs until it came to a single room. It looked very much like the room she was abruptly kicked out of. The only main difference was that this room had many computers throughout and one next to the head of the bed.

Tracy looked at the frightening computer. “What’s that?” she asked.

Bolan grinned and turned to look at her. “Oh, that’s the dream measuring computer I told you about. Trust me – it’s completely harmless,” he explained and she almost laughed.

“It’s completely harmless,” she repeated, then, “That is, until I start dreaming.” Tracy said behind frightened eyes.

Bolan didn’t know what she meant. He couldn’t begin to know what he was about to face – a terror beyond his imagination.

Later that afternoon, Tracy decided on paying a visit to Laura but when she approached her door, she noticed that it was partially closed. As she walked over to it she heard voices within – almost arguing. She recognized the voices as Laura and Bolan.

It was Bolan who sounded more agitated than his patient. “You are under my roof and therefore you will abide by my rules. You are being fed for free – you should be happy to be living here.”

“Happy?” Laura repeated behind sarcasm. “Happy that I can’t leave? You’ve locked me up here, damnit. I’m a fucking prisoner!”

“Watch your tone with me. You’re lucky that your father and I are friends. Otherwise, who knows where you’d be right now.”

“I just need to see Mom for one day. I haven’t seen her in…at least a year,” she sounded as if she were pleading by this point.

“I’m sorry, Laura. I can’t allow that. If I were to let you leave, I know you’d never come back. The answer is no.”

At that Laura let out a loud yell of anger and that was when Tracy sprinted down the corridor, as far from the room as she could get without being noticed.