Page 35 of Sour
Dream’s smile fell. “Everything?”
I nodded.
“Every last dirty little detail, cottontail. Spill their secrets.”
KOVEN
“Dream?” The white-haired woman kept her back to me as she sat on her bed. She was humming, seemingly lost in one of her infamous rabbit holes. “I was looking for you earlier. One of the nurses mentioned last seeing you with Ziggy, but wasn’t sure where you two ran off to. Dream?” She didn’t respond, just kept her back to me. “Is everything okay?” I walked around to find her sitting on her bed, legs crossed as her white hair lay freely along her entire upper half. She was brushing her hair, smiling down at the most disturbing thing I’d ever seen. “Dream…what the fuck isthat?” I pointed to what looked like a shriveled up rabbit made of?—
No…it couldn’t be.
“Is that…skin?”
Dream giggled and booped the rabbit’s nose. “It is. Happy made it for me.” She blushed, and for the first time ever, she had some color to her cheeks. “Said I was a special friend.”
“Dream, Happy doesn’t have friends. He uses people.”
She shrugged. “Don’t we all?”
What the fuck is going on with her?
“Dream, hey. Dream. Dream.” She giggled some more. “Whose skin is that, huh? Who?”
The door to our shared room swung open as the same male nurse from before stepped inside. “Ms. Carter?” I looked back at him. “Dr. Sabel would like to see you.”
“Now?” He nodded. I looked back at Dream, tangled in her own insanity. “I’ll be right back, Dream, okay? Just…stay away from Ziggy. I don’t want him to hurt you.”
Dream’s smile fell. “Happy is my friend. He would never hurt me. He gave me Schmoocums, and so I returned the favor. With my own gift.”
A favor? Gift? What?—
“Ms. Carter.” The nurse snapped. I had no choice but to follow him.
Where the fuck is that prick, BJ?
As I stepped away from Dream, I looked back one last time, an odd feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. “I’ll be back soon, Dream.”
She laughed to herself and played with the rabbit. “No, you won’t. Isn’t that right, Schmoocums?”
What the hell?
The male nurse stopped me just outside the bedroom door and pulled out a set of handcuffs. “Arms.”
“Excuse me?” The nurse grabbed my wrists and immediately put the cuffs on me. “What the fuck are you doing?” I tried to pull my arms away, but he just tightened the cuffs more, hurting me. “Ow! Hey! What the hell is going on?”
The nurse then yanked my arm and began to pull me alongside him. “Let’s go.”
My body whipped away from him. “I’m not going anywhere with you, not until you tell me what the fuck is going on! Where are you taking me? Why the hell am I in handcuffs, and where the fuck is BJ?”
The male nurse glared at me. “I have my orders. And my orders are to bring you to Dr. Sabel, cuffed, and not waste any time. So shut the fuck up and let me do my damn job.” The man grabbed my arm and pulled me as we walked down the hall. We moved in silence, passing Dr. Sabel’s office.
“Wait.” I tried to stop, but the nurse kept pulling me farther down the hall. “Wait! That’s her office. Why are we still walking? Where are we going?” He didn’t answer.
I felt uneasy about the whole thing. I’d never met with Eydie anywhere outside her office. So why was I being led deeper and deeper into the asylum? And where the fuck was BJ? I might have hated the nurse, but at least I knew what I was getting with him.
The blonde-haired nurse continued to lead me farther into Wellard Asylum, traveling deeper and deeper into the heart of the old gothic building. We passed countless patients and staff members, weaving through the other wings. It was like stepping back in time, the years regressing with each inch we traveled. Soon, it felt as though we had entered an entirely different century, one with minimal technology and maximum torture.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
