Unchained

Chapter Fourteen

82921014

82921014

82921014

82921014

82921014

82921014

What was that? What was it doing there? 8291014... What... What was that?

I stared at it, staring at the door, staring at the numbers, wondering. What was this? Why was it here? What was it from? How did it get here? What did it mean?

And most importantly...

Why did it seem so familiar to me?

"Avaley!" a voice cried behind me and my thoughts erupted. David. I had just seen him grab a paper towel without using his hands. Like he had the Force or something.

But... That's impossible, right?

I couldn't bring myself to look away from the door. 82921014. What did that mean? What did it have to do with me? Was it so important or something?

I turned around, but decided to head down another hallway. I could go out the exit by the gym.

I started to run, but I stopped and stared into the office, because the computer of one of the secretaries had something on it that...

82921014

I gasped. What...? That couldn't be a coincidence, now could it? 

I looked back at the door. Sure enough, 82921014 was still there.

I started to panic now. I wanted to run but where? What if I kept seeing 82921014 again? Was I going crazy or something? Why did this number keep appearing? Was I imagining this? Or was it my vivid eyes, like how they started to see through things again?

I didn't even notice I was on my knees, pounding the floor in agony when David ran up to me. "Avaley! Avaley, are you all right?" he asked, kneeling down next to me as I scream and writhed. What was going on, what was going on...

Then, it felt like someone had just slapped me. My head begun to spin faster and faster and I looked up and...

I could see through things again.

I could see through my hands and I could see through closed classroom doors and I could see through the walls and look outside...

"No, no, no, no, no, no..." I cried out loud, staring through my hands. What was going on?!

David reached over and took my hands, holding them in his. "Avaley, it's all right," he said softly and I turned and looked at him, ready to see the insides of his brain...

But I didn't. Instead, I stared at his handsome complexity, and I didn't at all see through his skin.

Had that strange vision gone away...? I looked back down at my hands, and yes, I could see through them. But when I looked back up at David, he was as normal as normal gets (besides from what I saw him do in the bathroom, though).

"What is going on here?" someone asked and I saw one of the office ladies walking towards us. I screamed - because I saw straight through her as well. But when I looked back at David... I couldn't see through him.

"What's going on?" I whispered. David let go of my hands, standing up and walking towards the lady.

"Ma'am, sorry, she's just having a bit of distress - " David started but the lady looked straight at me.

"What is wrong with her?" she said loudly. "Is she crazy or something?"

In anger, I turned and roared at her, "YOU SHUT UP!" my mind was racing. WHAT WAS GOING ON. HOW COME I KEPT SEEING 82921014. HOW COME I WAS SEEING THROUGH THINGS NOW. HOW COME I COULDN'T SEE THROUGH DAVID. WHAT HAD DAVID DONE IN THE BATHROOM. WHERE WAS RYKER. HOW COME I KNOCKED DOWN THAT POLE. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH ME?!

I screamed louder, and before I knew it, I took off running towards the front doors.

I was so mad and angry and confused and frustrated and scared and terrified that I didn't even bother to push on the handles. And instead, I broke right through it.

The door exploded into pieces as I rammed my head into it, and then I expected it to hurt but it didn't. In fact, I didn't even feel anything. And I kept running. As fast as I could. I had to get out of that place. I ran and ran and ran and ran, trying to cry out what was going on, blinking away the weird vision in front of me. 

I ran and ran and ran until I realized I was nearly downtown, towards where my mom worked. As in the hospital.

"How did I get here so fast?" I asked myself out loud. It felt like I'd been running only ten minutes, but could a human being run almost twenty miles in ten minutes?

And not even feel the least bit tired?

I ignored that, blinked a couple of times, catching my breath, letting the calmness come in, the frustration go away...

And then the vision disappeared. I could see normally now.

I let out a breath and looked around. I needed to find a place to calm down. A place to rest, to gather myself, and figure out what exactly was going on.

I started to walk, down the busy streets of downtown, and when I stopped at a crosswalk to cross the street, I looked up, and sure enough, on a billboard, one that was advertising the hospital my mom worked at, it read underneth the name: 82921014

And that's how I found myself standing in front of the hospital. 

I stared at it, wondering if I should go in. What if I saw my mom? That would be weird. I'd be in so much trouble. But... that sign... those signs, 82921014, didn't that mean I had to go here? If I was going to get to the bottom of all of this, 82921014 should be the first place to go.

So I went into the doors of the hospital.

Immediately, I walked straight to the front desk, where a woman of about 40 with curly red hair was scribbling words on a paper, talking rapidly on a phone.

"Okay, and you said room number 627? All right, ma'am, but if you want to visit you have to..." she looked up at me and then immediately said, "82921014, right?"

"Um, yes?" I replied instantly.

She nodded. "All right. Second floor." and then she handed me a key. A key.

I stared at it, and looked back at her, asking, "Excuse me, but what is this for?" but she was already blabbering on the phone again.

So I went to the second floor.

When I reached the front desk of the second floor, I found myself walking to the woman behind it. And strangely...

It was the same woman from the first floor! Around 40, red hair and talking on a phone!

I stared at her and she looked up at me and said, "Third floor, hon," and pointed to the key I was clutching.

I wordlessly nodded.

And went to the third floor.

When I got up there, no one was up there because that floor was being remodeled. I almost couldn't open the door to get in, but then I realized I had the key in my hands! So... I decided to use the key, hoping it would work. If it didn't, then this was one big joke...

The door opened.

And standing on the other side of the door, waiting for me, was David.