I Made a Promise

Chapter 3

~Skylar's POV~
It's been 3 weeks since the kidnapping and 2 weeks since Cameron's death.
I've been in the psych unit for about a week now. And it's been hard. I feel like my mental health has just been up and down in the last week. For the past 2 days, I didn't eat or leave the room. I didn't even say anything when Dr. Charles or Dr. Reese came up to check on me.

One thing I have been doing is just drawing.
Dr. Reese told me a good way to calm down and to keep my mind off things is to draw. They gave me some paper and crayons and that's all I've been doing.

It was 9am and I was just sitting on my gurney with that swivel table over it, drawing.
I still have the memories of Cam and I in that cage in the warehouse fresh in my mind. I still remember Cam and I huddled up together on that cold floor.

Thinking about all this just doesn't let me eat. I had my breakfast on the other side of the table, just here, untouched.

I heard a knock at my door.
I looked up and saw that Dr. Charles was there.
I nodded my head for him to come in.

"Hey, Skylar... you don't have to speak, but just nod or shake your head. Ok?" He asked me.
I nodded my head.
"Alright, so how are you doing today? Feeling a little better than yesterday I hope?" He asked.

I gave me a slight smile and nodded my head.
"That's good, that's good... I see you haven't eaten breakfast again today? Do we.. maybe wanna try eating just a little bit?" He asked me.

I shook my head.
"Not today.. sorry..." I quietly said.
"No, that's totally ok. But I will have someone come in and give you some IV nutrition again." He told me.

I nodded my head.
"What's that your drawing there?" He asked me.
I showed him my drawing. It was a sunflower.
"That's a beautiful flower. Do you like them? Do they have any special meaning?" He asked.

Just then, Dr. Archer came in.
"Oh, I can come back at a later time if you need me to." He said.
"No, it's ok. How about we continue this conversation in a bit ok?" Dr. Charles asked me.
"Ok..." I said.

Dr. Charles left the room and Dr. Archer came over to me.
"Ok Skylar, how are we doing today?" He asked me.
Hooking me up to some monitors to check my vitals.

"Ok I guess.." I said.
"Alright, well I'm gonna take a listen to your lungs ok?" He asked me, getting his stethoscope ready.
I nodded my head.

"Ok, take some deep breaths for me." He told me.
I did as I was told.
He checked everything else.
"Bruises seem to be healing nicely... but... I am seeing a decrease in your weight... and we both know that you're very skinny regardless." He told me.

I looked at my body. I didn't think I was loosing weight.
"Have you been eating or at least getting some type of nutrition in your body?" He asked me. "Because this isn't healthy." He continued.

Before I could answer, Dr. Charles came in.
"Dr. Archer? Can we talk for a quick minute?" Dr. Charles asked him.
He left the room and now I was alone again.

I looked at my body again, I could tell what Dr. Archer was saying. I have gotten skinnier. You could see my ribs more than you could before. And before I was already very skinny because I have a fast metabolism.

I could hear their conversation.
"... you can't be making comments that like to her or any other patient here...." I heard a part of what Dr. Charles was saying.
"...Dan I'm just doing a patient evaluation. I have to tell her what's going on.." I heard part of what Dr. Archer said.

"... you just tell her the good things and leave the negative parts to yourself and write it in her folder for us to check..." I heard another part of the conversation.
Then I could see from the little window from my door that Dr. Archer left and then Dr. Reese came over to Dr. Charles.

I couldn't hear their conversation.
Mostly because I was zoned out, staring at my body and the untouched breakfast on the table.
I looked at my drawing of the sunflower.

"I'm already breaking the promise..." I whispered to myself and buried my face in my hands.
Then almost immediately as I started crying, Dr. Reese came in.
"Hey, Skylar, everything ok?" She asked me and sat down next to the gurney.

I looked at her and didn't know what to say.
"I don't know..." I sniffled.
"Listen, Dr. Archer was being extremely unprofessional and very incentive. Don't take what he said to heart." She told me.
I looked at her and nodded.

She looked at my food.
"Do you want to try and eat breakfast or no?" She asked me.
I shook my head.
"Ok, I'll have a nurse come in here to give you some IV nutrition again." She said, grabbing my plate of food.

She looked at the drawing I was doing.
"I like that sunflower. Do they have any meaning or symbol or do you just like them?" She asked me.
I looked away from my drawing and up at her.
I took a deep breath before I spoke.

"Yea.. they were mine and Cameron's favorite flower. And.. when I saw him, he told me this will be our symbol." I said.
"That's very special." She smiled.
I nodded my head.
"But... wait ... what do you mean by, you saw him?" She asked me.

I looked up at her, not knowing how to answer this.
"I saw Cameron... I'm not sure if it was real or just a dream, but I want to believe it was real, and he told me to live my life to the fullest and to promise him that I will try and find a purpose in life. And he told me that our symbol will be sunflowers." I explained.

She looked taken aback from that.
"That's amazing that you saw him. It's a good memory to keep. So sunflowers are your favorite." She smiled. Then she left.

Just then, Dr. Marcel came in.
"Hey Skylar, I'm just here to give you some IV food. Do you have a preference on which arm you want me to insert the IV?" He asked.
I thought for a moment and held out my left arm.

"Alright, that's good, so that way it won't interfere with your amazing drawing abilities." He smiled at me.
I chuckled under my breath.

Once I was done with my drawing, I looked at it.
I love it. I know I'm going to keep this forever.

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻