“And you never said anything?” Her voice rang with bitterness.
“Look Trisha, I'm sorry. I know it was selfish of me, but I wanted to save it,” I said softly. “Now I realize you need it more than I do, so you can have it, okay?”
Trisha nodded, and she wouldn't even thank me, so I just turned and headed for the front door.
“Olivia,” she called after me, and I spun around. “How often does that guest visit?”
The greed in her gaze was so obvious, that it almost left me disgusted.
“He doesn't,” I replied quietly. “He stopped coming a while ago.”
Her face dropped with my answer, then she turned and paid me no further attention. Shaking my head, I walked out onto the street and headed to school. That day, I went straight to work after my last class, and by the time my shift ended, I was exhausted.
But when I passed the front door to my home, I stopped so suddenly I was almost thrown off balance. My parents and May sat at the table, eating Chinese takeout. Father was pale and quiet, but Trisha was in a good mood, and she gestured toward the untouched package of food that waited for me. I couldn't remember the last time we had shared a meal together like a family. Settling the debt resulted in something positive after all. For that experience alone, I didn't regret giving them the money. Despite the exhaustion, I joined them with pleasure and enjoyed the warm food in my stomach. Very soon, my eyes grew heavy and a powerful fatigue ruled my body, so I excused myself from the table, and went to sleep. When I reached my room, I almost collapsed on the bed. Everything blurred before my eyes, and as the blackness appeared, I hallucinated a dark, menacing figure of a man, reaching toward me from the darkness.
CHAPTER NINE
The Past (5 years prior)
I woke up all alone in a room I had never seen before.
The fluorescent lights from the ceiling blinded my vision, and I covered my face with my hands until my eyes adjusted to the blazing brightness. Slowly, I sat up, taking in my surroundings. The white walls were spinning around me, and it was difficult to focus. There were no windows. Save for the bed I lay in, the small table beside it and the metal closet in the corner, the room was empty, and looked very sterile and cold. How on earth did I end up here? The last memory I had was of falling asleep in my room and dreaming about the shadows that moved about in the darkness.
The sound of a key turning in the lock grabbed my attention, and I looked toward the door with restless anticipation. A tall, blond-haired man in a white coat entered the room, locking the door behind him. Then, he stomped to the metal closet without sparing me a glance while I stared at him dumbly, still trying to control the dizziness. Suddenly, my mind worked, and this strange scenario all made sense. This man was a doctor, and I must be in a hospital. That explained the lack of furniture, those sharp lights and this strange gown I only now realized I was wearing. But how did I end up here and—more importantly—why?
The doctor fetched something out of the closet, and when he stepped closer, I saw he had a pen and a clipboard with some papers.
“What is your name, girl?” His tone was matter-of-fact.
“Sir, I don't understand—”
“Your name?” he repeated in an icy cold voice.
“Please, listen to me,” I said quietly. “I don't know how—”
“Just answer the goddamn question.”
I gawked, at a loss for words. Frightening awareness filled my entire being. Something was very, very wrong.
“Tell me your fucking name!” the doctor yelled, and got into my face.
“Olivia...Olivia W-Walters,” I choked out, obeying the demand.
The man calmly wrote down what I assumed was my name, as I turned into a quivering mess before his very eyes. He looked like a doctor, but doctors weren't supposed to be so insensitive and intimidating with their patients. In a matter of seconds, my mind went haywire, bombarded with dozens of questions. Who was this man? What was this place? Why was I here? Why couldn't I remember anything?
“Age?” The look in the mysterious man’s cold blue eyes told me it would be in my best interest to reply without delay.