I sat outside Andreas’ room yet again, leaned on my hand and listening to Danny talking to her.

“What’s up with that Lin kid?” Andreas questioned then, making me jump.

“You’ve met Lin already?” Danny bit. I could hear the aggravation in his tone.

“Yes, he greeted me when I woke up. All he told me is that he’s a doctor and that’s as far as it got. And, well, that he shouldn’t be as tall as he is.” Danny sighed and tapped his pen on his clipboard, thinking, I assumed.

“Lin’s kinda… complicated. We don’t know where he came from. Jacob brought him here like he brought you here from an abandoned pharmacy. He was sick, but there in front of me, standing and breathing as though he was just a scared teenager. He was...eighteen, I think, and we estimated he had been undead for about four years beforehand. He had given in to his demise for some reason, but we never thought to ask because he got better very fast. He took to Jacob and told us his real name. Kaleb Reed.” He paused and clicked the back of his pen. “Honestly, we never even asked if he had friends or family to speak of. Lin’s kind of quiet when it comes to all of that stuff, too. But, I’m sure he’d tell me if I asked him anything.”

“Did he look the same back then?”

“His hair was shorter, and he was rail thin from lack of eating. He had a lot of drugs in his system, but when we checked his brain, it was completely intact.”

I thought about it all and considered why I hadn’t been open to everyone about who I was. I never talked about Synthia, Lindsey, or any of the other people I’ve met in my life. When I came here, it was like I just didn’t want to tell anyone anything about my life before, which wasn’t the case. If they had asked, I would’ve brought it up. Maybe that’s why I didn’t. Because no one asked me.

Later that day, I was eating dinner when Danny entered with a bit of anger in his movements.

“Kaleb Reed, how dare you interfere with my work?” he barked, dropping his heavy hands in front of me. “I told you that she’s an unstable being and you just walts in there--” He stopped, noticing I wasn’t really listening to him yell. I was thinking about if he trusted me like I trusted him. If he really believed I’d spill all my thoughts and memories on the spot. Or, did he think I didn’t trust him and thought I’d turn on him? “Lin, are you okay?” We made eye contact, revealing his worried expression.

“Do you think it’s a bad thing that I didn’t tell you and Jacob everything about myself?” I mumbled, dropping my eyes back onto my food. He sighed and sat down, pushing his hair out of his face.

“We don’t pry. I’ve known Jacob for so long that we just know everything about each other, so I guess we just never thought to really talk to you about your past.” He leaned on his hand and ran his eyes along me. “Jacob was there when I got weird, so we’ve just always been close, which is no excuse. We’re close, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, I think so. Or, I guess so. Jacob and I are.”

“Would you tell me whatever I wanted to know?” I thought about it. Would I? Could I? I started tearing up at the mere thought of having to explain everything to them. He reached for my face and held it in his hand, wiping my tears with his thumb. “I’m sure you’ve been through a lot, Lin. You can tell us anything you want to when you’re ready.”

“Yeah, okay.” He stood back up and kissed my cheek gently before leaving me to finish my dinner.