BONUS
FINNIC
Beacon Asylum smells like bleach and shitty cafeteria food.
It doesn’t matter where you are in this place either. The smell clings to everything.
By now, mostly everyone has already disappeared back toward their rooms after dinner, leaving the common area damn near empty except for the low noise of the TV in the corner and nurses walking back and forth behind the station.
Chloe’s sitting across from me at one of the metal tables near the windows with her chin resting in her hand while she stares at the chess board between us with her eyes narrowed.
“You’re cheatin’,” she mutters finally.
I let out a quiet laugh and lean back in the chair a little. “You literally watched me move the damn piece.”
“Yeah,” she says suspiciously. “Too smoothly.”
I snort underneath my breath before taking another sip of water from the styrofoam cup beside me. “Sounds like somebody’s getting pissy ‘cause she’s losing.”
“I’m not losing,” she argues immediately while narrowing her eyes again at the board. “I’m strategically waiting.”
“That sounds like an excuse.” I retort.
“It’s literally chess terminology.” She argues.
“It absolutely isn’t.”
A laugh slips outta her as she rolls her eyes.
The overhead lights cast this pale glow over everything while Chloe dramatically moves one of her pieces across the board like she just outsmarted the entire fucking world.
“There,” she says proudly while leaning back in her chair. “Now you’re screwed.”
I glance down at the board before slowly raising a brow at her.
“You just sacrificed your queen.”
Her whole expression drops immediately. “What?”
I point toward the board. “You literally handed her over to me.”
Chloe stares at the pieces for another second before groaning loud as hell and dropping her forehead against the table. “Oh my God.”
I start laughing so hard my chest hurts. “You are so damn bad at this.”
She lifts her head just enough to glare at me. “I hate you.”
“No you don’t.” I shake my head.
“Little bit.” She says with a sly smile on her face.
Before I can reply, footsteps sound behind us.
“Medication time,” Carlo says flatly from behind us.
I glance up while he walks over holding the usual small white paper cups in one hand.
Dude looks rough tonight. He’s got dark circles under his eyes and his hair is slightly messy.
His blue scrubs are a bit wrinkled like he’s already been here for twelve hours, but he just came in an hour ago.
The second he gets to our table, he gives Chloe a small smile. “Ladies first.”
She rolls her eyes dramatically while taking the tiny cup from him. “Such a gentleman.”
Carlo shrugs one shoulder slightly.
I take mine next while Chloe tosses her pills into her mouth before washing them down with the water already beside her.
I do the same, and the pills taste bitter as hell going down.
“Happy?” Chloe asks right after while sticking her tongue out slightly like a kid.
Carlo lets out a quiet laugh. “Thrilled.”
I tilt my head back a little so he can see I swallowed mine too.
“Good,” he says quietly. Then he turns and heads back toward the nurses station without another word.
I go back to watching Chloe completely butcher this chess game. I’m pretty sure I hear her mutter a few curse words underneath her breath while trying to figure out her next move.
But then I catch movement from the corner of my eye.
Carlo glances around quick like he’s checking to make sure nobody’s paying attention before reaching into his scrub pocket.
My brows furrow immediately when he pulls out a handful of pills.
Not one or two either.
A whole damn handful.
Not even a few seconds later, he shoves all of them into his mouth and swallows them dry like he’s already done it a hundred times before.
What the fuck.
Carlo leans one hand against the nurses station like nothing even happened before finally lifting his head again.
He immediately catches me staring at him and automatically glares at me.
Though neither one of us looks away from each other.
He doesn’t even seem to really care that I caught him stealing pills straight from the hospital supply.
Instead, his eyes slowly drift toward Chloe sitting beside me and the entire look on his face changes.
Chloe doesn’t seem to realize what’s going on because she’s still too busy trying to unfuck the chess board.
But I notice it.
I don’t know who the hell he is exactly, but I don’t like the way he looks at her.
There’s something weird about it.
It’s unsettling to say the least.
It’s as if he’s staring at something he wants, but knows he shouldn’t touch.
She’s a patient here, and he’s the nurse responsible for her care. The way he looks at her feels off no matter how I try to spin it in my head.
Just one more fucked up thing added onto the pile in this place.
Like Everleigh hadn’t already ruined enough of my life by sticking me in Beacon to begin with.
Now apparently I gotta worry about protecting Chloe from this fucking creeper too.
I glance back toward the board, mostly just trying to stop thinking about Carlo and the way he looked at her.
“You’re thinking too hard,” I mutter.
Chloe narrows her eyes at one of the pieces. “I’m trying to recover from emotional damage.”
“You sacrificed your queen.”
“Quit bringing that shit up,” she mutters, irritation slipping into her tone.
A quiet laugh slips out of me before I lean forward slightly in my chair and move one of my pieces across the board. “Check.”
Her jaw drops immediately. “Oh, fuck you.”
I grin a little despite myself while she points accusingly at the board.
While Chloe sits there glaring at the chess board in defeat, I glance back toward the nurses station again.
Carlo’s gone by the time I look back towards it.
But something tells me that won’t be the last time I catch him staring at her like that.
From this point on, I’ll be paying a lot closer attention to him.