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“Confused. What happened?”
He went to the bed and sat next to her on the edge. “You don’t remember?”
She sat up and rubbed her temples. “Why does my head feel so fuzzy?”
“I gave you a sleeping pill. You were so upset. You don’t remember what happened in the living room before dinner?”
A vague memory came to her. Something about birds flying around. The knot in her stomach grew. “I had another hallucination, didn’t I?”
He nodded. “You thought the birds on the wallpaper were real. Dr. Porter wants you to see a neurologist. His office is going to call me back today with some names. Hopefully we can get you in very soon.”
“What am I supposed to do in the meantime?”
“This is why I had that alarm put on your door. I don’t think it’s good for you to be alone. He did say that the steroid increase could take a little while to do the trick. But we can’t take any chances while we wait.”
She felt a roiling in her stomach as the bile rushed to her throat. “I’m going to throw up,” she said, pushing Whit aside and standing on unsteady feet. He put out an arm to help her, but she shook it away and walked by herself as quickly as her swollen feet would take her to the bathroom, where she lifted the lid of the toilet and vomited her guts out. Two hallucinations in only a few days? What was next? How was she supposed to go on when she wasn’t even safe from herself? Stumbling over to the sink, she splashed water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror.
“This is no life,” she said to the swollen woman staring back.
She returned to the bedroom and fell onto the mattress. “I don’t care if you have to call every neurologist in a hundred-mile radius. I want to be seen as soon as possible. I can’t do this anymore.”
Whit gently pushed the damp hair from her forehead. “It’s going to be all right. I’m taking the day off. Getting you seen right away is my top priority.”
She stared up at the ceiling, fear gnawing at her.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she heard Athena say. She was standing in the doorway holding something.
“What is it?” Sloane said.
“I picked up your iron supplements,” Athena said, coming into the room. “They’re best taken on an empty stomach, so I wanted to give them to you before breakfast.” She handed her the pills and a glass of water. Sloane hesitated a moment. She wanted to make sure they were really iron supplements but needed an excuse to explain why she felt the need to look them up.
“You know, the pharmacy made a mistake once and gave me the wrong medicine, so now I always check.”
“These aren’t prescription. See?” Athena showed her the bottle with the name Proferrin on it.
Sloane shrugged. “There can also be manufacturing mistakes. I like to check everything on Drugs.com,” she said, and picked up her phone. There was no way she was taking Athena’s word for it that these were iron pills. She saw a look pass between Whit andAthena but continued anyway to a search bar and typed inProferrin,then clicked images. It was a green pill, just like the ones in her hand. They were both staring at her with skepticism. She swallowed the pills while Athena stood over her, watching.
Whit patted Sloane’s shoulder. “Good. Athena is going to spend the day with you.”
“Yes, I’m so sorry that you had another hallucination. We’re not going to leave you alone,” Athena said, taking the glass from Sloane.
Sloane wanted to spit at her. She couldn’t stand the look of intense watchfulness on Athena’s face.
Whit stood. “I almost forgot, I have something for you.”
“Another present. Aren’t you the lucky one?” Athena said.
Could she sound any more insincere? Sloane thought, feeling waves of impatience. “Athena. Would you mind giving us some privacy? My husband will let you know when he’s leaving, and you can come back and babysit me then.”
Athena gave her a curt nod and withdrew from the room.
Whit returned with a crystal vase filled with white roses. “I thought these would cheer you up.”
“Thank you,” she said woodenly. What good were flowers when she was losing her mind?
“It must have been nice to see Emmy, even though it was a short visit.”
“It was wonderful.” She cleared her throat. “Listen. I don’t want Emmy to know about these hallucinations. Until we know exactly what’s going on, there’s no need to worry her.”