Page 88 of Stalked By Shadows
It took almost seven hours to gain my release from the hospital. They wanted to keep me another night but I refused, needing away from the hospital and to wrap myself in my little family for a bit. Lukas watched me eat, then dozed in the chair beside my bed while we waited for the doctor to appear. He jolted awake every few minutes or so like he was afraid he’d open his eyes and I’d be gone. Micah stayed curled up beside me on the bed, fingers stroking my arm, head resting on the pillow beside mine. The nurse didn’t protest.
I had to suffer through a potassium drip which made me feel like my arm was on fire. The doctor appeared with a handful of test results, a frown about my malnourishment, and a list of vitamin deficiencies. I’d lost weight again. Weight I didn’t have to lose. He didn’t want to release me, but I didn’t think making me eat was a reason to add to big hospital bills, and I knew the VA wouldn’t pay for an extended stay.
Apparently I’d been in the hospital four days after walking into the ER on my own and collapsing. Unconscious for two days before I’d given them my name so they could try to find out who I was and where I belonged as there had been no ID on me. I didn’t ask where my ID or phone went because the comments from the doctor about my unknown identity and rough shape made Lukas’s expression tense. They had contacted the police, who did a missing persons search, finding my profile, and Lukas’s contact information.
The police even stopped by to ask a handful of questions I couldn’t answer. How did I get there? Where had I been? How did I get in such bad shape? Had someone been holding me captive? I felt like a broken record with a playlist of “I don’t know,” and “I don’t remember,” on repeat.
By the time I was allowed out of the hospital it was after eight at night and I think we were all exhausted. We stumbled to Lukas’s car and Micah got behind the wheel. Lukas curled up in the backseat next to me, wrapping himself half around me like we often did as kids when we’d been hurt or sad. I sighed softly at having him close. Not many understood our connection as twins, but it had always been that way, a comfort thing. Growing up we were never alone and that bugged me. Once I’d enlisted, I realized that loneliness could have different meanings. Having Lukas back with me now, made me feel safe. That was all that mattered right at that moment.
“I’m taking us to a hotel for the night,” Micah said as he steered us out of the hospital parking garage. “We’ll head home in the morning once we’ve all had some rest.”
Lukas grunted.
“Any chance we can stop at a drug store for basic stuff?” I asked. “Like clean underwear and something to shave with?” They’d given me basic scrubs in the hospital, but I wanted to feel like me and not some escaped psych patient.
“I brought stuff,” Micah said. “It’s in the trunk. Would have brought it up to your room, but…” He hadn’t wanted to leave me to go get it, I deduced from what he left out. I thought about that as we drove and the city passed us by. He wasn’t taking us to the nearest hotel. In fact, he took us out of downtown and to the edge of the city. Lukas fell asleep, only to jerk awake twice more before Micah pulled us into the lot of a tiny Quality Inn. He turned back and looked us over. “I need to go in and get us a room.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
“Don’t leave the car.”
“Hadn’t planned to,” I promised. Was he afraid I’d disappear again? I had plenty of healthy fears about that happening to him too. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Our eyes met and he nodded, then got out to make his way to the front desk. At least I could see him through the big glass entry door. I ran my hands through Lukas’s hair. He was a mess. Thinner than I’d last seen him, scruffy, and unkempt. I’d have to call Mom and Dad too. Would it be the circus Micah’s disappearance had been? I hoped no one treated Micah or Lukas as badly as they’d treated Tim.
I sighed and closed my eyes, half falling asleep because the opening of the trunk woke me. I glanced back to find Micah pulling bags out of the back. He rolled them around the side of the car and tugged my door open. “Can you get him to come inside? We’re around the corner from the desk.”
“Sure,” I said, and dragged Lukas, half-conscious out of the car and into the hotel. I was barely upright myself, though having eaten a couple times I didn’t feel quite so dizzy. At least the room was close. We leaned on each other and while he didn’t open his eyes, he moved along with me.
The room was uninspiring. Two giant beds, a good-sized bathroom, and the standard dresser/tv set up. We were on the first floor, and the large window overlooked the outdoor pool, but Micah shut the drapes and closed out the night sky and pool lights. I helped Lukas to the bed furthest from the window, yanked off his shoes and pulled the blanket over him.
“Don’t go anywhere,” he grumbled at me.
“I’m not,” I promised him. “Gonna shower, I think.”
He glared at me a moment, like he was searching for a lie. Finally he nodded and closed his eyes. He was out in seconds.
Micah locked the door, then dug through one of the bags to hand me a small dragon-shaped bag.
“This is cool,” I said. “Did you make this?”
“Of course.”
When I unzipped it, I found my toothbrush, paste, my electric razor set, a comb, and a small tube of the hair stuff Micah had given me.
“Are you hungry?” Micah asked. “I can order food while you shower.”
A shower sounded like heaven right that minute. And pizza. I was pretty sure I could eat a whole damn pizza. “Starving. Any chance a pizza place is close?” I remembered then that he couldn’t eat cheese. “Or maybe something you can eat too?”
“Pizza is fine,” Micah said. “What do you want on it?”
“Pepperoni and pineapple. Yes, I know I’m a heathen, but sweet and salty does it for me.”
Micah’s lips curved up into a smile and he opened his phone to order pizza. I found my way into the bathroom to clean up. It was the first time I had really looked at myself. I looked like a homeless man. Grizzled, emaciated with bags under my eyes, and so much gnarled, dark hair that I didn’t know how Lukas or Micah had recognized me at all.
Trimming the beard came first because it itched and added weight to my face that I wasn’t used to. The initial cut wasn’t very neat and I left a huge ball of hair in the trash. The razor took care of the rest, trimming it to a respectable length. I even clipped on the extra side bits to remove some of the overgrowth on my sideburns. A barber could clean it up better, but at least I looked half like me. I couldn’t do much about the ratted mess of my hair. So I stepped into the shower.
The spray of the water hurt, even turning down the pressure or changing the temperature made my skin ache. Too much sensation, I think, like I hadn’t been a real living, breathing person for a while and I’d forgotten how to feel. I had to turn the water off to scrub my hair because it was too much to stand under the spray. After three full lathers and rinses, my hair finally washed clean. I hoped there were no bugs or anything.