Chapter 7

She took the deepest breath she could before opening the notorious red door to the room of the infamous patient, V-03. Her chest was drumming loudly in nervousness as the door opened. She suddenly recalled everything Mrs. Dapit told her earlier when she went to her office to make her employment at the hospital official. 

Mrs. Dapit said all the scary things possible that might happen to her in this place. The grumpy woman obviously was not excited to see her come back. She had to hear all those horrible things that happened to the previous caretakers. Mrs. Dapit had no doubt she would end up like them. Dead or missing a body part. Wow. What a way to cheer her up and boost her morale on her first day?

But it was not just the strictness of her supervisor and the violent nature of the patient V-03 that worried her. Mrs. Dapit also gave her a very short pencil-cut white skirt and a fitted white polo to wear as her uniform. How is she going to clean with this? The noxious old lady really wanted to make it harder for her to work here. 

The other employees, especially men, kept staring at her crudely as she walked past them. It was very uncomfortable and insulting, but she would not give up. She could put up with it for the sake of her mother. She could not afford to lose this job.

She is not sure what to expect today, but she will prove to Mrs. Dapit that she is wrong about her. She is tougher than she looks, and she will make Amanda proud. Anyway, what choice does she have? She shut her eyes and relaxed her mind, and then she entered the room.

She took another deep breath then looked where V-03 squeezed himself. Just like last time, he was quietly sitting in the left corner of the room, watching her every move with his raven-black eyes. She pulled down her short skirt that rose with each step while she raised one of her eyebrows. She remembered how he looked at her thighs last time.

"Ahem!"

She forced a smile. "Hi! How are you?" 

She blithely greeted him when she reached the middle of the room. She tried to look as friendly and as harmless as possible to gain his trust. But V-03 did not have any reaction. 

"You remember me, right?"

She still did not get any response. But that was fine. As long as she showed that she was not a threat, she could do her job peacefully without worrying about V-03. She then pointed to the small kitchen. 

"Uhm, I'll cook first, okay?" 

He still did not respond. He was just silently observing.

So Creepy...

She sighed, then she turned his back on him. She has decided not to pay too much attention to him. She only needed to focus on her tasks anyway. 

She starts cooking. Feeding V-03 is the first on the 'To-Do list' given to her earlier by Mrs. Dapit, together with the uniform she is wearing now, employee ID, and keys to her locker.

The instruction was to cook him a chicken rice soup. There is a recipe included in the list, so it was easy for her to prepare it. After she finished cooking it, she carried it to a table in a corner.

"How can I give this to him? There are no instructions about it." She kept talking to herself. "I can't just hand it over to him. He might grab me. I also can't just leave it on the floor. It looks like he has no intention of moving from that corner." 

She bit her lower lip while staring hard at the chained boy. What should I do?

She snapped her fingers when an idea came. She took the floor mop from the drawer and placed the food on the floor. Using the tip of the mop handle, she slowly pushed the bowl of soup across the yellow line.

"Yes!" she punched the air as she successfully placed the food in front of him. "All right! Eat it! Promise, it's delicious!" 

He looked at the food for only two seconds and then looked at her again. She waited for him to pick up the bowl, but he completely ignored it. 

"Come on. Eat now. Don't be shy," she insisted. But not a word came out from his mouth, nor was there any kind of reaction. He was back on staring at her.

Her smile turned into a pout, then her forehead furrowed. 

Why won't he eat it? Did I do something wrong while cooking it?

She looked at the recipe again. She may have forgotten to put an ingredient or overlooked a step or something. But after re-reading it several times, she became assured she had done everything written in it. So why? 

She became more anxious when she remembered one of Mrs. Dapit's instructions. Mrs. Dapit said that she could not move to the next task unless she finished the first ones on the list. And she could not go home until she finished everything.

She almost crumpled the paper she was holding. She could not afford to work overtime today. She had to finish all the tasks at the right time tonight because she had to go to school early tomorrow. She needed to find a way to make him eat it.

Her eyes were pleading when she looked at him. She realized she needed to get closer to him. What if she begged him? Could she talk it out with him, a clinically insane person? Would he listen? But ever since she stepped here in this room, he had not spoken a word nor moved an inch.

She clung tightly to the floor mop she was holding to draw courage. I hope it works!

"What's the matter? Aren't you hungry? You haven't eaten yet, have you? I'm sure you're hungry so don't be shy."

V-03 did not bat an eye and continued to stare at her. She smiled as sweetly as she could and pointed at the bowl of chicken rice soup in front of him. 

"Go on, you can eat that. It's delicious, I promise! I cooked it very well for you." 

She received no response from him again. She bit her lips in frustration while still trying to hold the smile on her face. 

"What are you waiting for? Go ahead and eat that so you can regain your strength. I know it's tiring to drag those chains attached to you all day." 

She kept insisting, but everything she said just seemed to come out of his other ear. She tried begging him a few more times, but it was as if she was talking to the air. She already said everything she could think of to convince him, but nothing seemed to work. Her patience was about to run out. 

She returned the floor mop to the cabinet then took heavy steps back in front of V-03. Her smile completely faded while she deepened her breath, gathering all drops of patience she had left.

"V-03, eat that." Her every word became emphatic from being sweet and gentle. "I'm telling you to eat it for your own good," she said in a firm voice, but still no response from him. She bit her lower lip again. 

"Why won't you eat it?! I still have a lot to do, V-03. And I can't go home without finishing all my tasks! I can't stay here too long! Eat that!"  

She was almost shouting at him, but it did not change anything. Patience! Patience! Patience! she kept repeating in her mind. She raised her head a bit higher and then took a deep breath. She also tried her best to put her smile back on and look calm. 

"If you don't eat that now, your next meal will be tomorrow. Do you want to starve tonight?" 

She tried to sound as friendly as possible even though the corners of her lips were twitching in annoyance. But again, no response. 

"Aargh! I don't know what I'm going to do with you anymore!" 

Lesley defeatedly fell and sat on the floor. She bowed her head and squeezed her eyes in frustration.

Will I go through this every day? What a headache!

She grumbled while massaging her temples. "V-03, please eat it. I'm going to review for my exams tomorrow. Why are you making this so hard? Gosh... and we are still only at task one." 

"Feed me."

"Feed you? Don't you know how to eat by you—"

Her eyes widened in surprise upon hearing a voice other than hers. She immediately looked up to find who had said that. Her breathing stopped when she saw V-03 kneeling in front of her. 

He was holding the bowl of soup just a step away from her. She stared blankly at his face for a few seconds while her eyes blinked before her brain finally processed what had happened.

Her heart almost jumped out of her chest. She shrieked in terror and swiftly ran away until her back leaned against the wall. She immediately looked at the yellow line. Thankfully, he had not crossed it yet, and his chains are still intact. She felt relieved for a second.

"Oh my God! You scared me! I thought you got free!" she bawled at him while gasping for breath. Her right hand was holding her chest, which almost exploded. "Wait, did you just talk?"

Her panic slowly turned into curiosity and confusion. "Yo-you talked!" She held her breath as she remembered what he had said. "You said you wanted me to feed you?!"

V-03 nodded. She almost dropped her jaw on the floor.

"No way! What if you hurt me?!"

He put the bowl of chicken rice soup on the floor a few inches closer to the yellow line. And then he sat down and stared at her again.

She quickly turned her eyes away from his gaze. Mrs. Dapit warned her dozens of times not to look straight into his eyes. She still found it hard to believe that he could hypnotize people, but it would not hurt her to be extra careful.

"I'm not going to do it!" she exclaimed.

She slowly walked towards the round glass table at the corner and sat down on the chair. She glanced at V-03 for a second and then immediately looked away again. 

"I know what's on your mind, V-03. The moment I get near to you, you'll hurt me." 

There was a slight tremor in her voice. She still had not recovered from the panic earlier. The most dangerous patient in this asylum almost had her.

"You can't fool me. I've heard a lot of bad things about you, and I have no intention of adding myself to your list of victims."

She glanced at him again to check his reaction, but he still had that annoying poker face. He persistently ignored his food and continued to sit near the yellow line while staring at her like a lifeless doll. Well then, she will be tenacious too. She would not give in to his request. 

But who will win in this waiting game? What will prevail? His growling stomach or her limited time?