She's My Sleeping Pill

“Do you like it?” Stefan questioned in whisper even though he knew the answer to his question. And Cayenne’s response was to be expected.

“Of course, I like all surprises coming from you but how did you bring me here? I didn’t notice anything at all. I even slept all the way here.”

Stefan placed his chin on her shoulder and nipped her skin for little kisses before he explained everything to her. It turned out that he prepared everything two weeks ago when Cayenne was busy worrying about so many things. While she was occupied with other things to even think for herself, he decided to book a place where she can relax and spend more time with him. If possible, he wanted to monopolize her time to be spent only with him but he knew it’s impossible.

On the first day of their vacation, Stefan and Cayenne spent their time inside their hotel room. They played different games and cuddled, watched movies and cuddled, tried different kinds of foods and made love to burn fats. They just lazed around in each other’s arm.

On the second day, they finally left their love nest and explored the place. Cayenne didn’t ask her husband where they’re at but now that she got the chance to look around the place and observe, her eyes widened in surprise. Her mouth was gaping, wanting to say something but she didn’t know where to start.

Seeing her silly expression, Stefan tugged her hand which he had been holding this whole time and smiled at her. “Why are you just standing there?” he asked. “Don’t you like the place? I thought you wanted to come here one day. So, I arranged things to make it happen.”

.....

“How?” she looked confused and surprised at the same time because she never mentioned this place to Stefan. She didn’t write this place anywhere in her diary that she hid at the bottom part of her closet either. “I never said anything about this place.”

“I had a chat with Luiz and Kyle three weeks ago. I don’t know how the topics of our conversation changed but we eventually got to the point where we talked about the dream places we wanted to be when we were young. They shared theirs and I shared mine. Then, I asked things about you. Luiz recalled that you wanted to visit this place one day.”

“Well, I have heard so many things about Philippines and last time, we visited Palawan and I love the place so much. However, it wasn’t the top place that I really want to visit. I’ve always wanted to visit Cebu because of its diverse culture and history. And, it just so-happen that Plantation Bay is in Cebu.”

“Don’t worry. We have ample time to explore the island. We can visit their tourist spots during our stay here.”

“Really? How long are we staying here?”

“One week. We’ll have to prepare for New Year once we get back and we need to visit my brother and your mom as well.”

Cayenne hopped happily beside her husband when she learned of his plan. There was no limit to how much he spoils his wife.

On the third day, while Cayenne and Stefan woke up early to start their day and prepare to explore Cebu Island, Elia was also preparing for her first meeting with Cayenne’s relative. Her schedule was switched in order to cater the demand at work while others left to spend holidays with their families.

“Remember, you are only tasked to administer their drugs. You are not allowed to talk to them and you are not allowed to stay longer than five minutes.” The supervisor reminded Elia and she was listening patiently with a lot of question marks popping in her head. She wanted to ask some questions but she felt that something bad will happen to her if she pays too much attention about the patients.

“I understood.”

With heavy footsteps and tension hanging on her shoulders, she made her way to the east wing of the hospital. At the entrance, she was checked twice to make sure that she wasn’t bringing anything unnecessary with her. Thankfully, she clipped the picture to her inner shirt which prompted the guards to miss it. She got into the elevator first and pressed the button to 9th floor.

Upon reaching the floor, she was asked to surrender her ID badge for verification and once it was confirmed that she was scheduled to work there, they gave her the ID and opened the heavy metal door to another room. This time, instead of white bed and white curtains that you can see in hospitals, what greeted Elia’s eyes was a spectrum of colors. The room didn’t look like a hospital room at all. It was like a hotel room.

“Hello?’ Elia called out but there was no response from her supposed patients. She looked around the place and found a woman in the mini-kitchen, sitting on the floor with her eyes staring into space in front of her. “Hi. I’m Elia. I’ll be taking care of you for the meantime.” She stated without getting any response. She placed the tray on the table and prepared the syringe which she needed to inject to her patient.

When she looked at the woman closely, she found out that she didn’t resemble Cayenne that much. Keeping her straight face, she opened the cap of the syringe and held the woman’s arm who didn’t resist at all. But to her surprise, the woman looked at Elia with helpless gaze and tears hanging her lashes.

“Wh-what happened? Why are you crying?” she questioned and scrambled to her feet. She had no idea what went wrong that made the woman cry. She pulled some tissue paper and handed it to the woman who only stared at it. Left with no choice, Elia wiped the woman’s face. “Are you hurt somewhere?”

“I’m not crazy.” The woman said and sobbed. “Why do you keep injecting me those drugs? I am not crazy! I am not! Why are you doing this to me and my husband?”

“Alright. I won’t.”

The woman was stunned and her tears instantly stopped as if time ceased to move. She was really dumbstruck with what Elia said. “You are not joking?”

“Act like you are angry at me. Pull me closer and slip your hand inside my shirt. You’ll see a picture there. I want you to confirm something to me.”

Elia wasn’t sure if she was doing the right thing or not. She wasn’t sure if she was really helping the Cayenne’s relative or compromising their health. But, she already took the step. She can’t retreat now.

Elia had no idea that her every move was being watched through the CCTV cameras but that didn’t mean her patients had no idea as well. Taking her knowledge of the camera’s blind spots, Cayenne’s auntie pounced on Elia and slipped her hand inside Elia’s shirt with twisted expression on her face.

Elia feigned her struggles and with their perfect act, they managed to outwit the guards. When they rushed over to help Elia, the woman already took the picture from her.

They pulled Elia away from the patient and while they apprehended the restless patient, Elia took this chance to grab the syringe and inject it to the patient’s arm. No one noticed the anomaly she did except for the patient who felt nothing and played along with her act.

As for the man, Elia didn’t have any problem with him since he was still asleep. She just pretended to inject something in him when there’s nothing.

‘Tomorrow, I’ll know if I’m doing this right or not. Oh! God forbid me from making a mistake. This is life I’m talking about.’

And with that, Elia left the hospital room after the harsh scolding she received from the head guard. She had memorized the face of the patients. Now, she can only hope that Nurse Chin would be able to find someone who’s good at facial composite drawing.