Page 66 of Eternal

I walk to the reception desk, eyeing the clock on the wall behind it. I’m not supposed to meet with Dr. Parish for another fifteen minutes, and he’s never running early.

Still, I check in on the kiosk and opt to receive a text when it’s time for my appointment. Then I make my way down the hall to the minimum-security ward I used to call home.

Not everyone here is being held against their will. Only those on the fifth floor are actually locked behind a door that requires a code to go in and out. When I first got here, that was me. They kept me in a room with a mattress and a sheet. There were no beams or bars on the windows because they couldn’t risk me making a noose of my sheet and using them to end it.

It took me two weeks to make it to this floor because, at that point, I no longer had the will to fight their attempts to cure me. Much less escape.

Moving down the long hall, I pass the room that used to be mine. I glance across the hall and see Benny Walters still there, rocking back and forth, staring out the window. Sometimes, I used to join him, wondering what he saw out the window that was so interesting he couldn’t take his eyes off it. It took a couple of weeks to realize it was nothing—and that was the point.

It was quiet.

It was peaceful.

I walk a few doors down and find it open. Glancing inside, I see Alex sitting on the bed, writing in a notebook. Patience said he was writing again, so it’s good to see that’s true.

From appearances alone, an outsider wouldn’t think anything of Alex if they walked past. He’s well cared for at Montgomery, with his own private suite. The Lancasters have more money than the Pierces, and they use it to ensure their son gets everything he needs.

On one side of his suite is a bed and a tall dresser. Across from it is a couch with an elliptical and weights. The far wall is lined with windows, and a long-cushioned bench runs the length of it.

If it weren’t for the Montgomery Psychiatric Ward logo on his white T-shirt and gray sweats, he could almost be mistaken for a visitor.

Walking into the room, I know he hears me. I’m not quiet. But he doesn’t look up or say anything. At school, the rumors are that he hasn’t spoken in two years. Ever since his botched Sigma Sin initiation. I don’t know if that’s true or if he’s just selective in who he talks to now, but I’ve never heard him say anything.

He doesn’t look up at me as I walk deeper into the room, and my heart hurts thinking about how much he’s changed from the kid I remember growing up with.

Patience’s older brother was always extremely outgoing. He was everyone’s friend and one of the few basketball players who was actually nice to people who didn’t run in his social circle. He was even kind to outcasts like me.

If we crossed paths in the hallway, he’d smile. And when I dropped a stack of books in the rain, he stopped to help me pick them up, hiding them under his sweatshirt so they wouldn’t get ruined, even as he was soaked through.

I don’t know what happened in his initiation, but he’s a different person now. Sometimes, I think it’s because his soul was too good for Sigma Sin. The devil rejected it, and now he’s here, paying the price for that torment.

“Hey, Alex.” I sit on the couch across from him, but he doesn’t look up.

When his door is open, I come in here to wait for my appointments because it’s better than the waiting room, and Patience says he likes company.

Since Alex doesn’t seem to mind, it’s become my routine. After all, he was there for me once. It’s only right that I am there for him. I’ll always owe Alex for saving my life.

Little did I know that in a couple of years, we’d trade places, and he would be the one here.

“It’s good to see you writing again.” I glance around the room. “I’ve been painting a lot. Keeping busy. I got into Paris.”

His pencil pauses for a second before he goes back to whatever he’s writing.

“You’re probably wondering why I’m here if things are going so great, right?” I laugh, even if neither of us is amused. “I guess that’s how it works when you’re clinically depressed. Just because I’m pushing through doesn’t mean I’ve escaped the demons in my head.”

I tap my foot on the ground, looking out the window.

“Maybe you’ve got it figured out, staying in here. Patience told me your parents gave you the option to leave, but you didn’t. I didn’t get it when she told me, but now… it’s sohardsometimes.” I comb my fingers through my hair.

I glance at Alex, and he’s still writing. The fan overhead breezes through his golden-brown hair, tossing it around on his forehead. When he was younger, it used to be blond like his sister’s, but over the years, it darkened.

Time changes us.

He reaches up to brush it back, showing off the scarred skin on the back of his hand and forearm. Rippled memories of what Sigma Sin did to him.

“Teal.” Patience’s voice comes from the doorway, surprising me.

I jump up and find Patience and Mila watching me.