Chapter 16:

Neither of them are quite sure how it happened, but Lexi managed to shift in her sleep so that she is no longer on the bed but sleeping directly on top of Caleb, pressed up against his bare chest and drooling more than what is deemed acceptable.

It's the howling of the wind outside that wakes Caleb up in a jolt, startled slightly by the weight on top of him. He isn't surprised, it was almost winter.

He's confused for a millisecond before he realises the events of last night. He curses himself when he realises that he had basically spilled all of his secrets to someone he knew so little.

He isn't sure exactly what time it is, but it's still dark outside which Caleb takes as a good thing. He'd be able to wake Alexa up before the doctors came for his next torture session. He wouldn't want anything to happen to Alexa because of him.

He still doesn't have a clue why they're torturing him. He starts to wonder if they do it to all of the patients. He comes to the conclusion that he is probably the only one. They simply wouldn't get away with doing it to that many people.

But why are they doing it to Caleb? It could just be because he's a terrible person who's done horrific things- he basically deserved it. But Caleb starts to wonder if there's more to it than that.

He wants to get out of here to escape the continuous torment that he's been suffering for a few weeks now. He's just glad he's been able to keep it from Alexa for a while since she only found out yesterday. She wants answers and Caleb's not sure he can give them to her seeing as he doesn't know what's going on here himself. All he knows is that he needs to find a way to get out of here and he needs to do it quickly.

Alexa drools some more onto Caleb's chest and Caleb looks down at her, gritting his teeth and clenching his jaw in slight anger at her position, directly atop him. He realises that his arm tightly wrapped around the length of her whole waist and immediately snaps it back so it's laying on his side instead of touching her.

Glaring down at her, he makes no effort to refrain from startling her as he calls her name, directly beside her ear. "Alexa."

She stirs in her sleep, furrowing her eyebrows, mumbling something incoherent and nuzzling deeper into his chest. "Alexa!" He tries louder.

She jumps a little at the harshness of his voice and looks up at him, thick sleep evident in her eyes but still narrowed to a prominent glare. "What?!" She hisses.

"Get. Off. Me." Caleb seethes, the nostrils of his sharp nose flaring.

Alexa seems to have only just realised the intimate position they're in because it's at that exact moment she gasps loudly and practically flies off of Caleb's body. In attempt I'm doing so though, she falls to the hard marble floor on her ass, groaning loudly at the impact.

"Shut. The fuck. Up." Caleb scowls at her for being so damn loud whilst wiping the drool off his chest in disgust. This causes Lexi to glare up at him from her potion on the floor with her arms crossed.

"That was your fault!" Lexi whisper yells at him, still on the floor. Her ass hurts so much, she thinks she might start to cry.

Caleb sits up on the very uncomfortable hospital bed and stretches his arms and neck. Lexi on the other hand, didn't even notice how uncomfortable the bed was seeing as Caleb was her bed for the past 4 or so hours. That's how long they fell asleep for. "Maybe if you weren't laying on top of me and literally drooling all over me, I wouldn't have had to yell to get you to wake up."

"Oh please. I was asleep. I cannot be held accountable for the things I do in my sleep. It's not like I wanted to sleep on you. You're so uncomfortable anyway, what with your rock hard abs. Stop working out so much." She hisses in anger.

That was a total lie. Sleeping on Caleb was the most comfortable thing she had slept on in a while. Much better than her dorm room mattresses for sure.

Caleb's mouth twitches slightly at her comment but decides to let it slide. "Are you going to sit there until morning?" He asks, swinging his legs over so they touch the floor.

Lexi crosses her arms again. "Yes."

Caleb stares at her stupidity. "You need to leave."

She glares right back. "No."

"Alexa." He calls threateningly.

"Caleb." She retorts back.

He sighs in exasperation. "You need to go before they come back here." His tone softens slightly.

Lexi frowns at him, uncrossing her arms and plays with her necklace. "But..." She pauses and looks down at her pendent. "...they're going to torture you again." She whispers.

"Exactly. And you can't be here when they do. They can't know that you know about them. They can't know about your...involvement with me." He says cautiously.

Lexi snaps her head back up and raises an eyebrow. "Involvement?"

"Leave, Alexa."

She crosses her arms in defiance again from her position on the floor. Her ass is hurting less now and she contemplates standing up. But that would make it seem as if she was actually going to listen to Caleb. "No."

He glares at her for five whole seconds before standing up and walking two paces towards her. Without warning, he bends down to lift her off the ground with his large hands hooking under her arms, baby style.

She glares harder at him but that instantly converts to an agape mouth when he pushes her against the nearest wall, trapping her within the space between his warm chest and the cold wall.

She seriously contemplates looking behind his shoulder and around the room for a shirt because honestly, she's getting tired of having to communicate with his bare chest 80% of the time. She hates that he had a height advantage as well, she can't intimidate him like he does to her from all the way down there.

So she puts on the angriest facial expression that she can muster up whilst craning her neck in order to appear taller and look at him. "This isn't a game Alexa." He says before Lexi has a chance of saying anything.

"What do you think is going to happen hmm? You think If they find out that you know anything, they'll just see you out and send you flowers?" He asks sarcastically.

"Well m-" she starts but is cut off by a glare. This clearly is not the time to be joking.

"No, Alexa. They will not hesitate to do the same to you. In fact, they'll do worse than torture you, trust me. And when they do, I won't be able to protect you. No one can save you." He explains in complete seriousness.

She looks him dead in the eyes and expresses her words to him with an equal amount of emotion. "I never said it was a game. But clearly you think it is, otherwise you would've told me the full story of what's going on here. And I don't need your protection Caleb. I'm very much capable of protecting myself. I'm not the helpless and naive little girl that you think I am. I'm grown and I can handle myself. What I can't handle is not knowing what the hell is going on here and not being able to do anything about it."

He presses his lips to a thin line and closes his eyes. This girl was so damn frustrating. "If I knew what was going on here Alexa, I would've told you already."

Lexi doesn't respond and they both stand there in silence, Lexi with her back pressed lightly against the wall not at all scared by the proximity of the two and Caleb with both palms pressed against the wall beside her head.

She remembers the last time the two of them were in an position similar to this. When Lexi had been absolutely terrified of this man standing before her, so terrified that she was close to peeing herself. That wasn't the case may more but Lexi thinks that maybe it'd be a good idea if it was.

Nothing has changed. His impressive sob story doesn't change the fact that he is messed up. He's still a horrible person that has done unimaginable things. It should be instinctual for her to hate him. She wants to be afraid of him like she should and she wants to hate him like she should. She just can't bring herself to. Especially not after last night.

For the first time in her life, Lexi is torn between her head and her heart. And it's becoming very clear which one is taking the lead.

Moments of silence pass by and neither of the make the move to leave. "I understand now." Lexi breaks the silence. "What you told me yesterday, that's the reason you're here. That's the reason you're like this. That's why you've done the things you've done." She's saying the words but Lexi doesn't know if she's accusing him or questioning him.

"Are you making excuses for me?" He asks in an accusatory tone. "I don't need your sympathy or your pity, I've told you this before. I've killed 5 people Alexa. What makes you think you have the right to defend me?"

Lexi looked up at him with desperate eyes. "You know the first one doesn't count." The need to convince him that it was his fault was too strong. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault.

"That makes the other four okay?" He asks. It was meant to be rhetorical but Lexi made an observation. She narrows her eyes at him and frowns.

"No. When we first met, you had no remorse for those women that you killed. And now you feel bad and you know you did wrong. What changed?" She asked, attempting to cross her arms, then realising that Caleb was too close for her to do so. So she just lets them hang be her side awkwardly.

He scoffs at her. "Nothing changed. I never said I was sorry for killing them." He seethes down at her.

Something in his eyes made it clear to Lexi that he had no guilt or remorse for killing them, like they deserved it or something. It was that precise crazed look that terrified Lexi at times and made her remember that he wasn't just some moody but sweet guy who just happened to be locked up at Riverfield. It makes her remember that he is indeed a psychopathic serial killer who is dangerous and is locked up for fair reason.

Lexi doesn't say anything, slightly shocked by his words. Who was she kidding? Thinking she could get him to feel some type of guilt. He wouldn't change . He couldn't change. So she just nods.

Caleb seems to notice her change in posture and steps back to give her space. "You need to leave." He repeats.

Lexi nods again and walks over to the table where she placed her bag, reaching for it and securing it around her shoulder. "Why did you keep a picture of your mother if you hated her so much?" She asks just before she was about to leave, admiring his tattoo as his back was turned to her.

Caleb turns to face her and looks down at Lexi's hand where she's holding the picture he gave her earlier that night. "So I don't forget what she looks like." He simply says.

And it seems odd really. Why would you want to keep a picture of your dead mother whom you hated? Why would you need to remember what she'd looked like? And why would you hang it up in the wall of your room of the place that had you trapped when it was pretty much her fault that he was in there anyway?

She decided not to question it, gently placing the picture in her bag and headed for the door again before stopping in her tracks a few feet away from it. "Can I come back here tomorrow night?" She asks.

She doesn't want to admit it, but the fondness she felt towards Caleb was growing day by day and the more she got to know him, the more she realises that she may not completely hate him. In fact, she may actually like him.

"You can't come here again Alexa." Caleb replies in monotone to her hopeful gaze. Her face drops into a look of disappointment but she tries her best to hide it.

Instead, she opts for annoying and asks "Why not?"

"Because it's not safe. Not for you. Not anymore." He explains.

"It's not safe for you either. They're literally abusing you. And what you're just going to sit there and take it? You won't do a single thing about it?" Lexi asks, annoyed that Caleb isn't freaking out about this whole situation like she is. It's like he's hiding something. Something more than his past. Something about this place.

"I'm going to let them do what they need to do until I can figure out a way to get out of this mess. That plan doesn't involve you." Caleb snaps, dismissing her.

Lexi frowns as she thinks for a second. "So that's it then, we're done? I don't get to finish my assignment and I never get to see you again?" She asks, even more annoyed that she's going to fail her degree.

He shrugs. "I couldn't care less about your assignment. As for seeing me, I didn't think you wanted to." Caleb simply says. Inwardly, he's touched that she may want to see him again. But he hides it well when his demeanour comes out nonchalant.

Lexi scowls. "I don't. Thank you very much for being a waste of time and potentially ruining the rest of my college life. I can't wait to leave here so you're out of my life for good. In fact, I'll be leaving right about now. Have a nice life, rotting away in here. Goodbye." She snaps angrily before taking one last good look into Caleb's green eyes and storming off, out of the operating room.

Caleb simply sighs and stares at the door longingly, definitely not wishing she would come back. Okay maybe only a little.

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Word count: 2460