It's been three days and you can bet your ass I haven't left this goddamn room. Ricky pried me out for about twenty minutes yesterday to go get lunch but that's about it. Even then, I only agreed to it because Balz came and sat in the room while we were gone. I was terrified to leave Kuza alone. He did fine for those twenty minutes I was away but that could've been just luck.

They've taken him off the vent because he can breathe on his own now. He's still not talking. The doctors told us he should eventually but they refuse to give us an actual timeline. His recovery could take six months to a year, provided he doesn't relapse. Because he can't talk, I still have no idea if he remembers me. For all I know he could think I'm just someone taking care of him.

My head popped up when I heard heels walking towards the door. Ryan-Ashley stopped in the doorway, sighing when she saw he was asleep. She softly said, "Ryan's running physicals on everyone today. It's your turn. It only takes about an hour. I'll stay here while you go."

"Why'd he suddenly decide to finally do them?" I asked as I stood up.

"Last night, Angelo couldn't sleep. So, he got up and went to the kitchen to get some tea. Then Chris woke up screaming. It woke up the rest of us. It took Ange two hours to get him to calm down and go back to sleep. I guess Ryan took it as some kind of... I don't know, but he suddenly was adamant that he get those tests done."

"I know why." I replied, "Please, do not leave this room. Even for a second. You can't let him be alone."

"I understand." She responded and sat down where I just was.

I released a trapped breath, "Thank you. I'll try to get back as soon as I can. Is Ryan in his lab?"

"Yep." She said.

Gee, this'll be so much fun. Could you hear the sarcasm in my voice? See, Ryan-Ashley might simply call it a physical but I know better than that. Ryan's going to push out limits. That's what his intent was when he originally began plans to do these tests. A lot of shit got in the way though. Eventually, the exact thing that got in our way became the reasons we had to get it done.

This thing had never touched Chris before. I knew the second Ryan-Ashley told me what happened, he had one of those horrific nightmares. It waits until you're alone to attack you. It's pissed it can't get to Kuza, so it has to move on to a different victim. That, or it plans to destroy all of us like it did him. It's crossed Kuza's name off it's list and I guess Chris is in it's crosshairs now.

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As I walked into the lab, I found myself instantly having to dodge a ninja star flying my way. I watched it hit the wall behind me, then looked forward at Ryan, "What the fuck?!"

"Testing your alertness." He replied blandly.

I glared at him like the fucking mad man he was, "And what if I wasn't that alert today and it sliced through my neck?"

"Well, it didn't. So, we don't have to worry about that."

"And people call me the psychopath." I muttered, earning a laugh from the others. I'm so used to seeing Angelo clung to Chris that to see the opposite was somewhat unsettling. It gave gravity to this situation. I walked over to where the two of them were leaned against the wall. "Ryan-Ashley told me what happened. Let me guess; Your nightmare was either about you ending up dead or finding Angelo dead?"

His voice was so docile compared to how he normally is. "How do you know that?"

"If Mike was left alone when he was sleeping, he would have nightmares that he died, or that I was killed, or that he killed me. I had two nightmares myself. One where I committed suicide, and another where I found Mike dead. They only ever happen when you're... alone..." I trailed off, turning back around, "Ryan?"

"Yeah?" He asked, continuing to write down things on his clipboard.

"...The day you got shot, where did you go that morning?"

For a moment he stopped writing. He froze, which is his tell. Ryan continued on, replying, "I didn't go anywhere."

I walked back up to him, setting my hand on his clipboard to force him to look up from it. "Yes, you did, because this demon only attacks people when they're alone. That's why it took you so long to wake me up. You weren't there when it started but you walked in on it. The real question is, where did you run off to that morning?"

Ryan yanked his clipboard back from me and gave me a dirty look. "I went in the hall to call Reese because I didn't want to wake you... That's all."

I ran my tongue along the inside of my cheek, "Uh-huh."

Yeah, right. If that was all why the Hell would he lie about it in the first place? He's got a secret he's keeping from us. I don't know what it is but I'm going to find out. One way or another. I don't like being lied to or having secrets kept from me. Maybe that's arrogant of me but I need to know what goes on around me. Ryan and I will discuss this when we have privacy. For now, I'll play along with his little game.

"So, what exactly do you need from me?" I asked.

"For today, just a basic physical. I'll be focusing more on actually trying to break you tomorrow."

"It's a good thing your only patients are psychopaths because your delivery is fucking awful."

Ryan sighed, "Just get on the scale."

Oh, c'mon! That's even worse than the ninja star. Please, throw more weapons at me. I don't want to get on the scale and face reality. This won't be fun. I try to be healthy but I'm not good about sticking to it. I'm a glutton. I can't help it. It was a fucking digital scale too so I had to see the number, which makes it way worse.

"Your weight is too low." He muttered.

I let my shame dissipate for a moment, "Excuse me?"

"Despite what gender you present yourself as, your sex is still male, and it's unhealthy for a six foot man to weigh below 160. You're at 154." He replied.

"Give him a break, Ry. He's been under a lot of stress recently." Angelo said.

"Yeah, I had to practically drag him out of that room yesterday to get him to go eat lunch with me." Ricky spoke as he came down the stairs. He wrapped his arm around my waist as he approached me, "I know you don't want to leave Mike alone but you have a life of your own. You need to get out and get some fresh air and exercise."

Ryan patted the metal table beside him, "Sit down."

I jumped up on it, replying to Ricky, "The last time I decided to take a break, he nearly died."

My sentence barely managed to get out of my mouth before Ryan shoved a thermometer in. I glared at him as I readjusted it to be under my tongue. He's not a nice doctor. Truthfully he's actually a scientist but he has medical training.

"I've got a conference in Japan to go to next week. It would only be a few days you'd be away. Just consider it." Ricky said.

The thermometer beeped and I took it out of my mouth to finally speak, "I don't know. I have to think about it."

He kissed the side of my head, "Take all the time you need. I have to get back to work. I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Holy shit," Ryan muttered, "You shouldn't be alive at this temperature."

"Maybe it's broken?" Ange suggested.

"It worked fine for the rest of us." Chris replied.

I snatched it back from Ryan, since I doubt he was going to show me. He didn't like me being fussy but it's whatever. He can deal. It said I was sixty-two degrees. That's colder than the room we stood in. That couldn't be possible, could it? Most humans range around ninety degrees.

Ryan threw the thermometer in a bin full of things that needed to be sterilized. He grabbed a stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff. If my temperature is that low, my heart rate should be too. After a few minutes of silence, he pulled the stethoscope from his ears with a sigh.

"Your blood pressure is 90 over 60, which is insanely low, but your heart is going unreasonably fast. It doesn't make sense. It shouldn't be possible for someone to have a high heart rate and low blood pressure." He frantically spoke.

"Are you sure you didn't get something wrong?" I asked.

"Everyone else came out with results that were... They weren't normal, but they weren't this abnormal. I know it's not my equipment, Dev... You shouldn't be breathing with these kinds of stats. I'm supposed to believe in the science I know but there is nothing like this in textbooks. At least, not on humans."

"Are you saying I need to be shipped off to Area 51 or what?"

Ryan hit his hand against the table, startling all of us. "I don't know! Alright? I... I don't know."

Silence fell over the room. He's not a person that loses his temper. To see him actually get angry showed me how frustrated he was. I don't believe that in 2000 years nothing else like this has ever happened. Maybe those records aren't open to the public but if anyone has them, it would be the FBI. I've been a major pain in Ryan's ass lately. I know that, and I think I know how I'm going to make it up to him.

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A/N: Incase you don't follow me on Twitter, which I don't blame you bc I tweet a lot of useless shit, I've decided to go back on an update schedule. 3AM is going to stay spontaneous bc it'll be rather short anyways. Also, The Black River will be added to the schedule as soon as it's released on Wednesday.

Mon & Wed - Sanity
Tues & Thurs - The Black River
Fri - Crow.

Another important thing! Some of you may know that ghosts_kitten and I will be doing a Ghorror DDlg story together in the future. I've decided to use Friday's character again bc I love her so damn much. She'll have to connections to the The Rain universe and she'll be a new character. The real question is, who should be her Daddy? Please comment to let me know :)