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"Who were you talking to over there?"
I shrugged as Cara led me down the brightly lit hallway. "Another patient."
She gave me an unamused look. "I could see that. Do you know his name?"
"I've heard the guards call him Subject 963."
She raised an eyebrow. "But you didn't ask his name?"
I shook my head. "Nope."
"Why did you go talk to him?"
I shrugged again. "I wanted to play with the dominoes on the table he was at."
"Did your mom play a lot of tile games with you?”
"My mother didn't really like playing tile games with me."
"Why is that?"
I was silent as we entered the art room, collecting my colored pencils and paper
"Vincent?"
I sat at my table in the far corner of the room. "She didn't like it when I told her things the tiles said to me."
Cara sat across from me with a curious look. "Dominoes don't talk, Vincent. Just like trees don't talk."
I sighed as I began sketching. "That's what you keep telling me."
"Because it's true. You'll have to accept that eventually."
I glared down at my paper without responding. I could feel Cara's concerned look, but I ignored her so I could focus on my picture. We sat silently for several minutes, the only sound the scratching of pencil on paper.
"What are you drawing today?"
I examined the image my hand was creating. "I think it's the dragon that lives behind my house."
She furrowed her brow. "You only think it's the dragon?"
"Yeah, I don't always know what the picture my brain is making me put on the paper is going to be. Sometimes it makes scary things."
She moved to the chair next to me so she could see the picture right side up. "What kind of scary things?"
I raised my shoulder. "Sometimes I draw the ogre that lives in the house."
"An ogre lives in your house, but your parents haven't noticed?"
I shook my head. "My mother can't see him. He comes inside at night. I hear him roaring at her sometimes."
She frowned down at me. "Vincent, I think the ogre might just be your father."
"No, he just follows my father around and makes him angry. My father can't see the ogre either. No one else can see the ogre besides me." I blindly picked up a new pencil, using the deep purple to color the dragon's body.
Before she could say anything else, her cell phone began ringing. She looked at the screen and her eyes went wide. "I'll be back in a minute, Vincent." She rushed out of the room, leaving me alone with my drawing.
"You shouldn't talk about the ogre, little one. It scares people."
I sighed when the half-finished dragon on the page spoke to me. "Drawings aren't supposed to talk."
The sketched face smiled at me. "Is that what they're telling you here?"
I nodded as I drew trees without leaves. "They say you're not real...that none of it is real. The medicine makes it hard to not agree."
The kind smile faded from the dragon's face. "The medicine is poisoning your mind, little one. You know we're real."
I used a green pencil to draw fire on the bare trees. "I don't know that anymore. I'm so confused." I glanced at the door as Cara came back in still on the phone.
"Okay, okay, take a breath and stay put." She hung up without saying goodbye and tried to hide worry with a smile. "I have to bring you back to your room, Vincent."
"Who were you talking to?"
"Just a friend. You can finish your drawing in your room. Bring the pencils you want. We can return them when I come back, okay?"
I rolled my chosen pencils in my paper before Cara rushed me back to my room. "Is everything okay, Cara?"
Her smile still didn't hide the deep worry in her eyes. "Hopefully. I should be back before dinner. Stay in here until I come to get you." She pet my hair lightly before quickly leaving.
I laid my drawing and pencils down on my desk, actually looking at what my hand had created for the first time. I frowned at the green flames. "Her friend isn't okay, is he?"
The dragon shook her head. "No."
"I hope she can help him in time."