Leave Me Alone

He was always there, waiting for her to make her move. It didn't matter where she went, he always followed.

Leave Me Alone

 

She made her way down the hall slowly, glancing in every direction, looking for him. He was always watching her, she just knew it. The iron doors couldn’t protect her, neither could the bars on every window. He still got in. Somehow he’d gotten in. The wrought iron gate had done nothing, not even the doctors could protect her. She knew he’d been hiding out as one of them, he’d even come to see her a few times. She’d managed to scare him off with screams, once even throwing the chair she sat on at him.

            But it didn’t matter. He still came back. he always came back. At home he’d just been a neighbor, seeming innocent. Her husband didn’t believe her when she tried to tell him that he was everywhere. She’d seen him in the grocery store, pretending to be a cashier. He had been at the pool posing as a life guard, at her child’s school disguised as a server in the lunch room. And always next door.

            She thought coming here would save her. That the triple layer brick walls would be enough. That the wired, two layered safety glass would keep him at bay. But it would never be enough. The only way to shake him was to kill him. And today she was going to accomplish just that. She had stashed her pills for months in a little cup under her bed. She could catch him unaware, jump him and force them down his throat. It had to be enough to kill him, it just had to be.

            She caught him behind a door, watching her. But there were too many others around for her to make her move. He could pretend to be a patient all he wanted, but it didn’t fool her. She cracked a cruel smile, half hissing at the figure behind the glass. His eyes widened and he ducked under the window. Good, he was scared of her. He knew she wasn’t fooled anymore.

            She wandered past portraits of the doctors leering at her from the walls. She swore she saw the eyes move in one. He must have been behind it, had to have carved holes in the wall. She picked up the pace, hurrying to make it to her destination without anyone seeing the little cup clutched in her hands. She wished she had pockets, but none of the institute’s clothing had them.

            The doctor’s office was right where it had always been. The door was propped open, awaiting her arrival. She peaked around the corner and let out a soft yelp. He was there, he’d done something to her doctor, taken his place. She walked in slowly, never taking her eyes off of him.

            “How are you today Mrs. Ostler, feeling any better?” he cocked his head to the side slightly, sneering at her. It was always that sneer.

            “I’m not falling for this again, what do you want from me?” she hissed, staying where she was halfway through the door. “Why won’t you leave me alone?”

            He sighed at her, it was a cruel, hostile sound coming from him. “I am trying to help you.” His voice was cocky, full of hate. “Trying to help you get better.”

            “I’m not sick!” she screamed it at him, launching herself across the room. He didn’t have time to react before her body slammed against his. She sat on his lap, wrenching his head back by his hair. The cup was easily turned over into his mouth and she held his nose, giving him no option but to choke down the mass of medication. When she knew the cup was empty she climbed onto the desk, staring down at him. “You’re the sick one, you have always been the sick one.” She sneered. “And now you’ll finally leave me alone and I can go home.”

            He coughed and hacked as he gulped down air, thumbing a button on his phone. It only took a few moments for security to appear in the doorway. They grappled with her, one painfully pushing a needle into her side. She screamed and hollered a few minutes, then fell limp against them.

*   *   *

The doctor glanced at the clock. She was late, as always. Most likely jumping at everyone she passed, convinced they were some stalker that didn’t exist. He tapped his pencil on his desk and got up to crack the door. It would make it easier for her to get in if she didn’t have to knock and begin panicking as she waited. Another ten minutes passed before he finally saw her form slip into the doorway.

            “How are you today Mrs. Ostler?” the conversation always started the same. Some days she saw him as the doctor that was helping her. By the look on her face he was her stalker in this moment. It didn’t deter him from speaking, but there was something off about her glance. She was up to something, but what he couldn’t tell. Most likely a long speech about how she was on to him. It was always the same speech, but she really never remembered giving it in the past.

            It was too late by the time he noticed her brace herself against the floor. And then he saw the cup of pills. He pushed back in his chair slightly but it wasn’t far enough back. Her thin frame didn’t weight much, but it still knocked the wind out of him when she connected with his chest. He tried to gasp to get something into his lungs, but the small cup was already against his lips.

            The pills were too large to fit down his windpipe, a fact that saved his life. He gulped them down and the second she was off of him he gagged and hacked. He would have been concerned, had the pills been real. Her plan was very well thought out, and something that would have killed him within a few hours. But all he’d down was ingest a cup full of sugar pounded into capsules. He gasped, calling for security to keep the allusion that she’d ended his life.

            The guards had her sedated in seconds. “Shall we take her into solitary sir?” The larger of the two questioned. He was a gruff blonde man who was here as community service after his prison sentence let up.

            The doctor gulped in a few more breathes and shook his hand at the man. “No no, that would cause the delusions to cease. We want her right where she is. Pay off a few more patients to keep their eyes on her. I want her scared that she didn’t succeed and her stalker is still after her.” He grabbed the glass of water on his desk, downing it within seconds as the guards dragged the woman off.

            She would awake in her cell. He knew one of the guards would stand with his face in her window just long enough to spark the fear. The patients that would be given extra food would stalk her down the halls and duck behind doors. The Fregoli delusions she suffered from would stay alive and well as long as she was within the institute walls. And there was nothing anyone could do about it.