Chapter 11:

"Mr Castillo, you're back! How was the physical?" Mrs Henderson asks enthusiastically whilst rising to her feet.

Caleb simply stares at her, not uttering a single word, making everyone in the room feel a little uncomfortable and awkward.

He looks different today. He had dark circles under his eyes like he hadn't slept in days and looked a hell of lot paler than usual.

His gaze moves from Mrs Henderson to Lexi who is sat on his side of the desk, narrowing his eyes at her. "Well, I won't stay long, I just need you to sign our weekly report." Mrs Henderson, interupts their little stare off, handing the report to Caleb along with a pen.

After signing it, she quickly gathers her things, and bids farewell to the two of them. "Well, it was great meeting you Lexi. Good luck with your assignment. I'm sure Mr Castillo here is doing everything he can to make it easier for you." She smiles up at him, in obvious humour.

He definitely isn't making it easy for her.

"And I'll see you next week Mr Castillo. Goodbye." And with that she leaves.

Lexi looks back from the door to Caleb who has, what seems to be, an everlasting scowl on his face. Clearly, he's not happy to see her.

And Lexi thought they were making some sort of progress...

"Hi." She mutters, shyly whilst looking up at him from her place at his desk.

"You're in my seat." Caleb says, not greeting the young woman back.

Not feeling as intimidated by his harshness towards her, Lexi challenges him and stays put, leaning back further into the chair and crossing her arms in the childlike manner that Caleb teases her about.

He raises an eyebrow at her and mirrors her, folding his arms too, the everlasting scowl still engraved on his face. "If you don't move, I'm not answering any of your questions for the next 5 months."

She narrows her eyes at him. "You wouldn't."

"Try me, love." He enunciates slowly, a hint of a smirk playing at his lips, Lexi being too distracted to notice.

Sighing in exasperation, Lexi stands and walks around the table, taking a seat in her usual place and gets her things out. She lets out a huff every few seconds making Caleb roll his eyes.

He takes in her appearance today and takes note of the fact that she looks different. Instead of wearing her usual jeans and sneakers, she wears a simply burgundy shift dress and flat pumps. Her hair is in a neat ponytail instead of a messy bun that Caleb is pretty sure she usually makes no effort in perfecting, ever.

Caleb finds himself wanting to know what she does usually wear. What she does on a daily basis. Who she spends her time with and what she enjoys doing.

"So..." Lexi drags the word, awkwardly getting something out of her bag. "...I got you some chocolate. Do you like chocolate?"

Once Caleb is sat down at his place at the desk, he glares at her again. "Why do you keep bringing me things? Do you think it'll get me to spill my heart and soul to you?" He snaps in a bitter tone.

Lexi's irritant at his sudden bitterness towards her. "No." She snaps back, not even slightly intimidated by his demeanour. "Just thought you could do with some. What do they even feed you here anyway, must be worse than the cafeteria on campus." She hisses in a tone of disgust.

"I didn't know you cared." He simply states, not affected by her tone towards him.

"I don't." She snaps, dropping the packet of white chocolate on the table in front of him and continuing with the task of filling out today's session form.

She sighs as she does so, annoyed by how quickly they got back to biting each other's heads off. They were doing so well yesterday.

"Were you on medication for any type of illness in your childhood?" She asks in monotone, not slightly interested by the question. She doesn't want to know about these boring details. She wants to know what the hell happened to him to make him this way. But unfortunately, this was a question she had to answer for the project.

"No."

"Do you have any family history of schizophrenia or depression?" She asks In a slight peak of interest, but she doesn't show it.

He scoffs at first then letting out a unamused laugh which questions his sanity. "You already asked this question last time." He simply smirks at her.

"What's so funny?" Lexi asks, confused and slightly uncomfortable.

"You asked 3 questions there, and I haven't even asked you one yet. I thought we had a deal."

She sits back in her chair and challenges his to a stare off. "Ask your damn questions."

He smirks, leaning in closer to her over the table. "You're quite the feisty one Alexa. Anyone would think you're the one admitted here, not me."

When her mouth is agape and she's lost for words, he leans back in his chair again and asks his questions. "What's your favourite color?"

She frowns. "That's the question you want to ask me? Of all the things you could ask, that's what you want to know?"

"Well that or..." He trails off, rubbing his chin with a hand in mock contemplation. "...when did you lose your virginity?" He asks whilst smiling a sinister grin.

Lexi's eyes widen. She couldn't believe that he had just asked such a private question. He doesn't even know her. You can't just go around asking people you don't know when they lost their virginity.

"Fourteen? Seventeen? Or maybe you haven't even lost it yet. If that's the case I'd be happy to-"

"Blue! It's blue." She blurts out, looking down at her notepad, trying to hide the fact that her cheeks are turning in a shade darker than red.

"Great. And no, there's no family history of mental illnesses. I have already told you this." He answers, annoyed but pleased at the same time at his ability to make her feel more uncomfortable than necessary.

She quickly jots down his answer. "How was your physical check up?"

He face pulls into a slight frown for no longer than a millisecond before quickly switching to that god awful grin.

"Oh, it was great. I enjoy having people poke and prod at me, whilst being completely nude." He says, nonchalantly sitting back in his chair and stretching his leg out.

Lexi tries not to notice how his sweatpant clad leg brushes against her bare one, having chosen to wear a dress today. She regrets it only a little.

She also tries to hide the fact that she's blushing viciously at everything that comes out of Caleb's mouth, especially when he's talking about himself being...naked.

Caleb laughs at her innocence. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you have little to no experience in that department."

Snapping her head back up to him and giving him a glare, Lexi tries not to look as offended as she is. "What department?" She yells.

"Come on Alexa." He whispers, looking around as if there were people around them. "D-don't make me s-say it." He stutters in mock shyness.

This fired Lexi right up. How dare he not only mock her voice but assume that she's had no experience in...sex. "I've done it with plenty of guys thank you very much! Not that it's any of your business anyway. Pervert."

Caleb raises his eyebrows at her in surprise instead of anger. Slowly but surely, Lexi's warming up to Caleb and she's no longer scared of him.

Caleb stands abruptly. Moving around the table and with little effort, he pulls the side of her chair so it's half facing him. Ducking down, he doesn't even realise she's shivering slightly in her seat.

He does though, realise that her bottom lip is close to bursting due to the harshness of her biting it. "Did you just call me a pervert?"

Although she's slightly scared by his proximity, Lexi is more irritated by Caleb's constant need to invade personal space to get a point across.

So she takes it upon herself to fight back this time, instead of hiding away like a little mouse. Rising to her feet, although not have a height advantage, she backs away a few steps and glares.

"Well that is what I just said. Maybe you're the one with disabilities Mr Castil- Caleb." She corrects herself. "Hearing impairment comes with old age, or so I heard."

Caleb is stuck, frozen in his place by her chair, unsure of how to go by this situation. It's been a long time since someone rebelled against him and he doesn't know if it pisses him off, or amuses him a little.

"I'm not old." He states. "I'm 26."

"I know." She growls. When he opens his mouth to say something, Caleb is cut off by Lexi. "Oh and there's a little down thing called personal space that people don't like being invaded. Could you maybe have a conversation like a normal person at a normal distance, rather than inching closer to me to intimidate me and prove a point. Thanks." She says it all in a mouthful and very confidently.

Caleb is both surprised and annoyed. Not knowing how else to react, he furrows his eyebrows in slight confusion and awkwardly sits himself back in his chair.

Slightly pleased with herself, Lexi sits back down on her chair and grins a little which causes Caleb to look at her with his signature glare. So she clears her throat and wipes the grin off her face before looking back down at her file.

"I need to know your drug history. It seems you have had a bit of a problem with it over the years. You're still suffering side affects, correct?"

Caleb narrows his eyes at her. "You're not scared of me anymore." He notes. "Why is that?"

"You didn't answer my question." Lexi retorts, knowing full well it was his turn to ask a question anyway.

"It's my turn."

She sighs in exasperation. This was exhausting for her and Lexi doesn't know if she can keep doing this for 5 whole months. "I was never scared of you." She mutters, busying herself with filling out forms.

"I beg to differ, love. You were a stuttering, quivering mess when you first came here. What changed?"

Deep down, Caleb knew what changed. His scars made her pity him. "Just..." She starts, not knowing what to say.

Because it's true. Lexi is no longer sacred of him like she was when they first met. "...You're not all that bad."

Caleb scoffs. "Not all that bad? You know what I'm capable of, Alexa. I've killed four innocent people." He says in a sinister tone that sends shivers through Lexi's body.

Somehow, she always manages to forget that rather large detail about him. He has murdered several innocent people and Lexi doesn't even know why. Clearly, there's something clinically wrong with him, but that doesn't justify his acts. Especially to Lexi, who's parents were also brutally murdered.

Lexi shouldn't care about why he did what he did and she shouldn't feel sorry for him just because of a few measly scars on his body.

"You know so little about me and yet you're no longer scared of me." He continues.

Lexi takes time to scan his face as he speaks. He shows no sign of emotion and maintains a straight face throughout. She leans a little closer so her elbows and forearms lean on the table that separates the two. "Do you want me to be scared of you?"

"You should be." Is all he says and Lexi notes that he didn't answer her question. Yet again.

Clearing her throat and changing the subject, she sits back in her chair and repeats her earlier question. "What is your drug history?"

He grins at her. "I've tried them all, love. Cannabis, Cocaine, Ecstasy, Heroin, you name it."

Lexi's eyes widen slightly at them mention of all the drugs he has taken. "Right, for how long?"

"Since the age of fourteen." Caleb shrugs.

Lexi head snaps up. "Fourteen!?" She questions in surprise but mostly anger.

Caleb smirks at her outburst and simply nods. It was almost as if she cared for him.

"How could you possibly start taking class A drugs at the age of fourteen? Where would you even find such substances?! I didn't even know what drugs were at fourteen!" She scolds him.

Caleb shrugs again as if it's no big deal. "A few drug lords lived around my area and sold them to me."

Lexi's mouth agapes as if she's lost for words.

"Relax, Alexa. I didn't start taking Heroin until very recently." He says.

"Oh well that makes it perfectly okay then doesn't it?" He scoffs sarcastically, still shocked at the unbelievable news

She narrows her eyes at him and glares. Lexi doesn't say anything for a few minutes, processing what she had just heard and the only question she could think of is "Why would you even want to take drugs at such a young age?" She whispers the question but she's absolutely sure that he heard.

Caleb doesn't say anything for a while, growing breathless all of a sudden. "It's my turn." He says.

Lexi scoffs. "You're impossible!" She yells before pulling her things back in her bag, not paying enough attention to Caleb to realise that he's sweating excessively. "I'm leaving."

Lexi shoves everything in her bag, including the chocolate she had got him. If he wasn't going to eat it, then Lexi wasn't going to let a perfectly good bar of chocolate go to waste. She throws the strap of her bag over her shoulder and pushes her chair back in, turning to leave.

Caleb's breathing gets quicker and he clenches his fists as if he's in unbearable pain. Lexi is just about to open the door to Caleb's room and leave when she hears a very loud thud coming from behind her.

She cant process her thoughts when she turns to find Caleb laying unconscious on the floor with excessive blood trickling down his nose and sweat covering his body.

• • • • •

Word count: 2430

A/N: I owe you guys a huge apology for not updating in forever. But exams are over now and I am all yours!

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