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Section 1
### Chapter 1: Chapter 1
A mysterious young man is found unconscious outside a hospital in a small town in the Deep South. Because of how he was found, and his refusal to talk to the medical personnel, he gets moved to the psychiatric section of the hospital to be held for at least 72 hours of observation. Dr. Emily Richardson is a rising star in the field of psychiatry and has been offered several jobs in New York and LA. Though she has not decided which offer she will take, she has put in her letter of resignation. When Emily comes to work on Monday she is assigned the new arrival who will most likely be her last patient before she leaves for greener pastures. The patient has become the talk of the hospital, mostly because he is a stranger where everyone knows everyone, but also because he is far from your stereotypical psych patient. Dr. Richardson has a hard time with her stubborn patient at first, but when he decides to open up to her she finds herself in a world that is very hard to believe. The charming and charismatic young man may very well be delusional and in need of long term care, but what if... The doctor will be tested at every turn and will have to be careful
Complete Chapters 59 Rating 4.8 ( 26 reviews ) Age Rating 16+ {"language":"en","storyId":223836,"genres":[{"name":"Fantasy","path":"/genres/fantasy"},{"name":"Thriller","path":"/genres/thriller"}],"authorName":"jjh371","authorPath":"/jjh371","status":"complete","lastUpdatedAt":1528472562,"chaptersCount":59,"rating":4.8076923076923075,"reviewsCount":26,"ageRating":"16+"} Chapter 1 The pick-up truck was old, rusted, and probably held together by the paint. The shocks may as well have been made of rubber bands as they did nothing to lessen the bouncing and shaking of the vehicle as it traveled down the desolate two-track path in the middle of nowhere.
The ruts in the mud looked to be a result of nature, but they weren’t. They were just the first line of deterrent to keep strangers away from the little rundown country shack. He regretted making them so deep, now that he was in a hurry, and any faster the truck may fall apart right there on the path.
He bought the old truck from a farmer in the previous state he had passed through. He gave him twenty crisp one hundred dollar bills, which was far more than it was worth, but the last thing he wanted was to waste time haggling. He was in a hurry to be sure, but more importantly he had to be careful. Modern vehicles were too easy to track.
He convinced the farmer to leave his license plate on the truck, promising to mail it back to him when he moved his daughter into her college dorm. The story was a lie of course, except for the part about mailing back the plate. He would do that, because he said he would. He had no problem lying, as he had to do it all of his life, but if he gave his word, he would do what he said.
It was still midday when he arrived at the serpentine driveway that led to the cabin. It was small at first glance, and more than run-down and plain looking from the exterior, but the inside was a different story altogether.
He barely had the truck in park before he was inside. He had two large duffel bags with him that he threw on the ground as soon as he breached the doorway.
“Just as we feared?” She asked, knowing the answer before he even answered.
“How much time do we have?” She said.
“Weeks at best. That may be overly optimistic.”
“We knew when we got the information that it wouldn’t stay secret for long.” She said.
“We need to expedite things. Even so, this has to be done right. I don’t want to make the same mistake.”
Though she knew there was nothing else to be done, the guilt still crept into her bones.
“Yes. The arrangements have been made, and time is of the essence.”
“I had everything ready, just in case” She said as she pulled out her own duffel from under the couch. A very nice couch.
“One of these is for you as well.” He said as he set down one of his bags next to hers. “May be of use.”
She nodded then scrambled gathering the other few things she needed.
She had everything packed within a minute, leaving only the goodbye. She hated those.
She looked at him as though it may be the last time. Things have become so bad over the last several years that you never knew. One of these times their luck was going to run out and they knew it. No matter how good or how careful you were some things were out of your control. They had experienced more than their share of out of control .
Before she could walk out he grabbed her and gave her a tight hug.
She was a rare and special person.
There was a small garage door that was on the opposite side of the cabin that appeared to be part of the exterior wall until it was opened. She threw the bags in the back, hit the automatic garage door, and started the engine.
The engine of the new Range Rover came to life as she pulled out onto the same grown over two-track. She set it for harsh terrain and took off, taking zero care and caution for the truck or her own comfort. Time was against them, which was usually never the case.
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### Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Though it had been slow her co-workers assured her that things would pick up. You never know what could come through that door she had heard a thousand times.
It was an early Sunday morning when she made her way along the long winding sidewalk that led to the employee entrance of hospital. It was close to public E.R. entrance, but slightly obscured by some strategically place bushes.
As she approached the building she saw something unusual and out of place. At first it looked like a pile of clothes, and it wasn’t until she got closer that she could tell it was a person. The body of a young man was lying in an unnatural heap just off the sidewalk, about twenty feet from the entrance door. He was unconscious and she wasn’t even sure if he was alive.
Liz’s training kicked in and she laid him flat on his back, checking the ABC’s of first aid. Only after she found that he was breathing and had the faintest signs of a pulse did she sprint into action. She ran inside the hospital, grabbed a Tech Assistant, and the security guard to help her get the man inside. They wheeled a gurney outside to load him on. Even with the three of them it was a challenge to get him on the bed. Though this young man was not fat, he was unnaturally heavy. Once on the gurney they got him into the nearest empty emergency room pod.
The E.R. doctor arrived and took over. Liz’s heart raced with excitement as she assisted the doctor in getting the young man off the gurney and into the bed. His breathing was shallow, and his vitals were far from normal as Liz heard the doctor call them out.
Liz was quickly pushed aside by the more experienced nurses as they began to work on him, along with the doctor. She stood in the doorway of his room staring at the young man far longer than she should have, but she had never seen anything so…
“Liz!” The doctor yelled, breaking the trance-like state she was in. “Go outside and see if you can find a wallet or any clue that may help determine his condition, or who he is.”
The young man had nothing in his pockets that identified him, not even a cell phone. Liz ran back to the spot she found him and started checking the area. She found three things in the grass where she found him, placed them into a plastic bag, and raced back inside.
After Liz told the doctor what she had found he gave the unconscious young man a shot of Naloxone. Within seconds of the injection he came out of his comatose state, albeit slower than the doctor thought was normal. He did not appear to be fully cognizant and wasn’t able to answer any questions. He was muttering something they could not fully make out before he fell back into slumber. The patient’s condition and behavior were not the norm, but he was stable for the moment.
Speculation ran wild and it seemed attempted suicide was the common consensus and a somewhat halfhearted attempt at that. If you really wanted to die wouldn’t you go somewhere secluded and out of the way, rather than the doorstep of the hospital. Some would say that this was clear cry for help.
That evening as the mysterious stranger slept, Liz went back to his room to check on him. She knew he would be going to the east wing soon and she couldn’t help but wonder why. Why had he come here? Why did he do what he did? The more she stared at him the more she wanted to know.
In a town this size, where everyone knows just about everyone, this was fodder for gossip. Word would spread fast about this young stranger, as everything about him seemed mysterious. The fact that he had no identification, no car keys, and no cell phone, just added to the suspicious nature of it all. In today’s world anyone under forty without a cell phone glued to their hand is odd.
Several employees of the hospital made their way to his room just to see if they recognized him, or may have seen him before. This, along with a few other things, only fueled the gossip.
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