Out of Control - Chapter 4

I opened my eyes, blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights. My head throbbed, and for a second, I couldn’t remember where I was or how I’d gotten there. It wasn’t until I tried to turn my head that I found I couldn’t and realized there was some kind of board to either side, kind of strapped across my forehead.

It took another minute, and being on the edge of panic, for my brain to catch up and realize I had to be in the hospital. It smelled like a hospital, anyway, and there was noise off somewhere not too far away, but muffled so I couldn’t really make it out. It wasn’t loud, exactly, but wasn’t quite either, although the muffled part might be the board holding my head in place.

I was trying to remember what happened. Why I was there. I lifted up my arms, seeing one had an IV attached, and that there was a bandage on my right forearm.

I was just starting to panic again, this time worried about how bad I was really hurt, when there was the rustle of what sounded like a curtain, some squeaking shoes, and then a face appeared above me.

“Oh! You’re up.”

“Where am I? What’s going on?” I asked, finding my throat dry and raspy.

“You’re at Briarfield General,” she said, moving out of my line of sight and doing something just next to the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got hit by a truck. My head is killing me and I’m a little freaked out.”

“I’m not surprised,” she said. “Your blood alcohol level was quite high when you were brought in. There’s no reason to be freaked out, however. The doctor’s already been in to see you, but we wanted to wait until you were conscious so he could talk to you again. But other than a little dehydration, some minor burns and bumps and bruises, you look okay.”

“Then why is this thing around my head?” I asked.

“Ohh, right,” she said, and started to loosen the strap that was holding my head down. “You were thrashing around quite a lot when you first came in. We’d been worried that it was a seizure, but the doctor ruled that out, and it looked more like reactions to a nightmare than anything else. Still, we wanted to take a precaution, just to keep you from hurting yourself.”

She finished unlatching whatever was holding my head down and pulled the boards off. My neck was a little stiff but didn’t hurt terribly. I gently turned so I could look around and saw I wasn’t in a room, but a curtained off area. The nurse had turned, holding the board things and started to walk out through the curtains.

“Wait, can you at least tell me what happened?”

“The doctor will explain all of that when he comes in to talk to you,” she said, and walked out.

That left me just kind of sitting there with time to think. It was starting to come back to me. The challenge from the frat, the physics department, and the explosion. That part was the fuzziest. I could remember a sound and being hit by what felt like a wave that lifted me off the ground, and then I remembered lights. So many lights, like I was caught in the middle of a hundred fireworks all going off at once.

I was interrupted in my thoughts when a middle-aged man in a white coat came through the curtain. “Kyle Morgan? I’m Dr. Patel. How are you feeling?”

“Confused. And my head’s pounding.”

He nodded, pulling up a chair. “That’s to be expected. You were unconscious for almost an hour. Based on our initial assessment, you have a concussion and some minor burns, but overall, you’re quite lucky.”

“The nurse said the burns weren’t bad?” I glanced at my bandaged arm.

“She’s correct. They were surface-level burns not much worse than a bad sunburn, but we wrapped it up just to help it heal and avoid infection. It should heal up fine with no scarring and you should be able to pull off the bandages in a few days. Now, can you tell me what you remember from last night?”

“Not much. I was at a fraternity event, but it’s all pretty hazy.”

I was not about to admit I remembered breaking into the physics lab.

The doctor made a note on his tablet. “That’s not uncommon with concussions or with heavy drinking, but even more when the two are combined. You might remember some of the things in a few days, or it might end up just being a full blackout. Don’t worry, like I said, that isn’t uncommon with the level of alcohol in your system, and I think that is more likely the culprit than any kind of serious damage to your brain directly, since we would expect other symptoms in that case. That being said, if you experience dizziness, confusion, or muddled thinking over the next few days, I want you to come back here or make an appointment with your regular physician.”

“So does that mean I can leave?”

Now that I knew I was not injured, the thing I was most worried about was how much trouble I was in. I had been in a school building that had blown up. There was no way I was not going to get in serious trouble from that, and I do not think my parents would survive me getting kicked out of school before it even started.

“Not quite yet. We’d like to keep you for a few more hours of observation, but I don’t think you’ll need to stay overnight. However,” he paused, looking slightly uncomfortable, “there are some police officers who’ve asked to speak with you.”

My stomach dropped. “Police? Why?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know, but they’ve been waiting since you were brought in, and they don’t look like they’re going anywhere.”

“Shit,” I muttered, then quickly added, “Sorry.”

The doctor gave me a sympathetic smile. “It’s alright. Would you like a few minutes before I send them in?”

I nodded, trying to quell the panic rising in my chest.

“I will start the discharge process. Try to rest until then.”

He walked out of the curtain, and I looked around for an escape, as if there was any way I was just going to unhook myself and run out the side without anyone seeing me. Before I could even really finish that thought, the curtain rustled again, and a campus police officer stepped in.

“Kyle Morgan?” he asked, sitting in the chair the doctor had just vacated. “I’m Officer Daniels. Mind if I ask you a few questions about last night?”

“Uhh, sure.”

“Can you walk me through what happened?”

“It’s kind of fuzzy. The doctor said memory loss wasn’t uncommon in this kind of head injury,” I bluffed.

“I see,” he said, and I could tell he didn’t buy it. “We have video footage of you going around the building. Can you tell me why you were there?”

Cameras. Shit. I hadn’t even thought of that. Of course, they had cameras, which meant they probably had some inside. But if he had that, why wasn’t he asking me directly? Was he trying to trip me up in a lie?

“I remember heading out from the frat where I was pledging and heading back to my dorm. Was I inside the building? No one will tell me what happened.”

“You were found in the basement of the building, where some of the physics department machinery was destroyed. You don’t know how you got inside and into a secured area of the building?”

“I don’t. I don’t even remember going in there.”

“The video showed you with another person. Can you tell us who that was?”

“I was with someone else?”

Playing dumb was my only real option here. I figured if I just kept asking him questions for every question he asked me, maybe he’d think I knew nothing and would give up. Although the fact that they found me inside was a problem. Could I get kicked out of college for trespassing?

“Yes. Was that a student? Did he go into the building with you?”

“I... I honestly don’t remember leaving the frat with anyone, but I can’t really remember it all that clearly,” I said, and then something occurred to me.

If they had cameras inside, why did he just talk about this one shot of me going around the building? Did they not have cameras inside the building?

“Could you check the cameras inside the building? If you could show me a picture of him, maybe I could tell you who it was.”

“What fraternity were you coming from?”

He straight-up ignored my question. Did that mean he just didn’t want to answer, or were there really no cameras?

“Alpha Sigma.”

Officer Daniels closed his notebook. “Alright, Mr. Morgan. I appreciate your cooperation. We’ll be looking into your story further. For now, you’re not under arrest, but I need you to stay where we can reach you. Understood?”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll be on campus.”

“Good. We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions.” He stood up. “Try to stay out of trouble, Mr. Morgan.”

It took almost thirty minutes for the discharge nurse to show up and another twenty to get my discharge paperwork all filled out. Thankfully, I was still on my parents’ insurance, but I did not want to think about what this would cost.

It was almost three AM when I finished filling out the paperwork, including a thing that said I acknowledge I was responsible for the costs, so I didn’t want to call them in the middle of the night just to give them bad news. I’d have to do it the next day. Part of me was pretty sure they wouldn’t freak out too bad, but another part of me worried Dad might tell me to get my ass home.

All in all, a terrible way to start my college career.

Worse, my cell phone was completely dead, so I couldn’t even call them if I wanted to. I also couldn’t call Brandon to find out what happened and where he went. I assumed he was back in his dorm, but if the police were watching me, they would notice me make a beeline for his dorm, and I wasn’t sure getting one of my pledge brothers implicated was going to do my joining them any good.

I walked out of the hospital and tried to get my bearings. We were not on campus, and my phone didn’t work, so I couldn’t call a rideshare. My only saving grace was that I’d walked through town from the bus depot the day I got here, so I kind of knew which direction I was heading. If it was daytime, I could have probably seen the top of the bell tower, but it was a little too dark to see it tonight.

I’d just gotten my bearings and started toward the direction I thought the dorms were in when a voice stopped me in my tracks. “Mr. Morgan!”

I turned to see a woman I didn’t recognize marching towards me, looking just about as furious as anyone I’d ever seen. She was shorter than me, with dark hair cut in a severe style that matched her expression.

Uh, do I know you?”

“I’m Professor Finch, head of the Physics Department,” she snapped. “What were you doing in my lab tonight?”

“Your lab? I don’t…” I started to say, deciding my best bet was playing dumb.

“Don’t even try that,” she cut me off. “The police saw you entering the physics building. What were you doing there?”

Either that was partially a lie or the cop had lied to me. I was hoping she was the one lying. My head hadn’t stopped hurting yet, but I’d told the discharge nurse that it had been fine. But it had started getting worse once I’d started walking out of the building. By now, it was like someone was trying to smash my head open from the inside.

“Look, Professor, I really don’t remember much about tonight,” I said, rubbing a temple hard.

“Convenient,” she scoffed. “Do you have any idea of the damage you’ve caused? Years of research, potentially ruined!”

“I’m sorry, I just... I need to get back to my dorm. I’m not feeling great.”

“Not feeling great? You think you can avoid responsibility for this just by saying you’re not feeling great? I presume you’d like it if we just swept this all under the rug and you got out of trouble scot-free, right?”

“I mean, if you could forget about this, that would be great.”

I don’t know what happened, but as I was talking, my headache suddenly slacked off. It wasn’t completely gone, but it was way better than it had been seconds beforehand.

I would have been more focused on that if it wasn’t for the other thing that happened. Professor Finch blinked, her expression shifting from anger to something I couldn’t quite read. Without another word, she turned and walked away.

I watched her go, completely perplexed. She’d been ready to breathe fire just minutes before, and I wasn’t sure anything I’d said was going to convince her to give it up. I just shook my head.

I’d had enough for one night.