Institution Log 2 - log book part the second
The nurses shushed the few remaining patient's to their rooms and checked to see that they were all interned. Silence fell, and rose. One of the many cycles within the Institution. The doors clicked unlocked at the usual time, when the sun rises. They will click closed at the same time that night.
It's the time in-between that they have trouble scheduling.
Hassan always got up first. It was best he avoided everyone since it was so tempting to eat them. Plus they were dreadfully unintelligent. It annoyed him. He dragged his clawed feet over the floor and went to get his breakfast.
Bleah. Yesterday was weird. Amber reluctantly woke up, but decided she'd take her time getting ready. She wasn't eager to face the group after yesterday evening. Heaving herself to her feet, she stared at her reflection in her polished silver mirror. It had been several months since she even tried to get hair dye from any of the nurses, but then it had been a while since there was anyone in the institution in front of whom she would care about her appearance. Alex seemed decent enough, though...
Megan heard Hassan walk past and shivered. She had learned early on that he got up early. It was best she avoided him; the way he looked at everyone creeped her out. Besides, she rationalized, looking down at her notebook, it gave her more time to herself. Her stomach grumbled, but Megan ignored it. A lot of people were probably hungry; they had started curfew right at dinner.
Alex stretched and heard several bones pop, then jumped out of bed. A few seconds later, he plopped back in. The only good part of this place was the fact that he got to sleep in. The floors were
freezing.
Lainey hadn't slept all night. Instead she paced around her room, stuffed bear hooked in her arm. "It's morning already," she said to herself with almost a sort of indifference. Her door creaked as she opened it, and she gingerly stepped out still in her furry slippers.
Lucas woke up slowly, he hadn't slept well the previous night. Through the whole time when he should have been sleeping Lucas had been thinking about his proclaimation the other night. He wondered if anyone else would actually go through with his plan.
Maybe the Institution isn't all that bad. Perhaps the reason why we never hear from the others is because they simply assimilated into society and forgot about this place. Lucas donned his morning robe and absentmindedly headed to the cafeteria, flipping his favorite poker chip through his fingers. His mind was wrapped around any weak points in the Institution or how even to escape, if that was even possible. So concentrated was he that when Lucas got his breakfast he hadn't noticed that he sat down right next to Hassan.
Lucas' room was closer to the cafeteria than Lainey's, so Lainey got there just a few steps after him. She wanted to talk to him, but seeing how he sat down next to Hassan, she automatically placed herself half a table away after retrieving her breakfast.
Lily knocks on Amber's door, then invites herself into the room. "Hello!" she calls as she steps in. "I'm bored. What are you doing?"
Ea Khold, already dressed and made-up, gingerly opened her door. She hated the squeaky sound her door hinges made, and had learned that if she opened the door slowly enough, she could stop it squeaking. As she opened the door, there was a breif moment where someone passing could see inside...the walls were made of metal plating, and instead of a bed there was a vertical, cylindrical glass tank filled with a light blue fluid. Aside from the tank, her room contained a desk covered in papers and a large wardrobe where she kept the rest of her belongings. Yawning, she walked down the hall to the cafeteria, hoping to see Sarah there.
Zander always slept through breakfast, the lazy bum.
Hassan watched Lucas get closer and closer, confused as to what the hell the idiot was thinking. Then Lucas sat next to him. Hassan had a hard time believing it was a mistake, he was, after all, over 6 feet tall, making lots of snorting noises and part lizard monster. It was hard not to notice him. Hassan sneered at Lucas, and waited for him to either to state his purpose for sitting next to him or realize his mistake and run away.
Ea passed by Zanders door, then stopped, looked back, then took two steps back so that she was in front of it. A slight grin in her eyes, she pressed her ear against the door, and listened. Quiet, slow breathing. He was still asleep. On a sudden inspiration, Ea raised her hands and rapped on the door with both hands, making a loud "tappy tappy tappy" sort of knock, then bolted down the hall to the cafeteria.
Lucas came out of his thoughts when he continued to hear snarls to the immediate right of him. He slowly looked up and saw that Hassan was not two feet from him. All thoughts of the escaped ironically escaped his mind while thoughts of imminent pain came crashing forward. Lucas had a nervous laugh as he couldn't believe what he had got himself into. Laughing the kind of laugh when something is so sad all you can do is laugh, Lucas ever so slightly moved his chair so he could rush out in a moments notice and said, "Hassan, good morning."
Hassan narrowed his eyes. He
was just an idiot. Having reached the conclusion, he went back to eating.
Zander flailed in his bed, getting tangled in the blankets and then sat up, half lidded looking around. His mind took a moment to thaw and he stumbled up, boxers only and opened the door to look out. No one. He blinked slowly a few time down the hall.
Alex also looked down the hall. Seeing Zander standing in his own doorway, Alex pulled back in really quickly, then cursed himself for being so jumpy. He breathed out once, fast, then walked out towards the communal bathroom down the hall. He
really had to pee. Plus the fact that he was starving.
Kelly walked into the common room, her walk brisk as usual, even this early, a sheet of paper in one hand. She walked up to the bulletin board and stuck the message on using just a little glue-no metal. She looked back as Alex entered the room and left, leaving another nurse on duty. She had other matters to attend to.
Ea came running in just as Kelly was sticking the paper up, so she jogged over to have a looksie.
Lucas, anxious to have an excuse to get away from Hassan without looking scared, saw Ea run past the hallway, got up and went to check out what was the commotion. He got into the hallway, looked both ways and happened to see Zander only in his boxers looking out into the hall.
...ok, kinda strange, but ok. He assumed Ea went into the common room so followed her there. By the time he caught up with her she was already at the piece of paper. "Hey Ea, whats up? Why with all the running?"
Alex walked over and read over the Egyptian girl's shoulder. "They're doing testing early this month?" he asked aloud. "What's that about?" He skimmed the rest of the paper, which just said they would have a visiting scientist during testing and of course, the patients would be on their best behavior.
"Huh. That's weird." Ea said simply...thoug
h in actuality the announcement unsettled her a bit. She turned, not bothering to answer Lucas, and started walking back to her room...and on the way she saw Zander, looking confused. "Hey Zander, you looking for me?" she said pseudo-sweetly. She enjoyed messing with him. As she passed, she pressed her palm hard against his bare chest, pushing him back.
"Ugh. Avoiding life," replied Amber to Lily's question. "Lucas probably didn't mean any harm, but... that was creepy." Amber rubbed her bare arms and looked at her feet. She felt exposed, even though she was wearing a tank top and flannel pajama pants. "What were you trying to do to him, anyway?"
Megan walked in, rubbing her arms. She passed the paper and glanced at it, a worried look creasing her face for just a moment as she glanced at her bare feet. She disappeared into the cafeteria and emerged a minute later with apple slices, slowly chewing them as she scanned a small bookshelf in the corner for any new books they might have put out last night.
Zander just kinda listened, the announcement not striking him as all too amazing and was about to turn back in when Ea spoke and pushed him. Immediately his eyes widened with fear and he slid into the hallway, immodest as usual and screamed after Ea, "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING! WASH YOUR HANDS NOW!" He then looked down at where his bare feet were making contact on the floor and he turned around to look at the others. "NO ONE STEP HERE." The screaming, was of course, unnecessary, but ever since his mishap a few months ago, he was overly careful that no one got hurt by him.
"Last night, you mean?" Lily replies. "He liked it. He was practically begging me for more." She's entirely sincere, as Lucas' reaction to her shocks had been positive, if anything. "If you have a problem with the mind-reading thing, you should talk to him about it. Ask him to not do it to you, or at least not share all of your thoughts with the class like that."
Amber nodded. "You're probably right about asking him. But still, now it's out there and everyone thinks I'm a freak." Unless they remember the same kinds of things, she thought to herself. Still in her pajamas, Amber walked toward the doorway where Lily was standing. "Guess I could use some food, though. You ready for breakfast?"
Megan looked up in alarm after looking at her bare feet, just in time to see the door at the far end of the hallway open.
A few nurses walked into the hallway, their hands covered with thick gloves. They smiled at Zander and gestured for him to get back into his room and dress, then took out a small vile and some thick-looking clothes. As they poured the vile on the floor and began scrubbing, the liquid began to smoke, eating at the tile. One of the other nurses, a larger, burly guy, grabbed Ea by the shoulders-roughly-and took her from the hallway, guiding her into the bathroom to wash her hands. He was handed a bottle of unidentified liquid from one of the nurses scrubbing. The nurses on the floor sat up, assessed the work they had done, then sprinkled white powder on the floor. The acid bubbled and hissed and eventually settled down, so they could spray the floor with water and wash it clean. They performed a brief test on the floor and determined it poison-free. "Zander, remember to wear your body suit at all times," they scolded through the door, then left.
Lily shrugs, never having been one to care much about what other people think of her. She links arms with Amber and heads toward the cafeteria, but stops at the slightly crowded part of the hallway. She spies the nurses with their heavy duty equipment. "Zander again," she determines. The smell of acid makes her smile, but it doesn't look like anyone has touched it, so she quickly loses interest.
"'Ey! I didn't mean to!" Zander yelled back. He didn't see why he should wear his suit in his room, it was all contaminated and everyone knew not to go it there anyway.
Aw man, not again, Lucas thought to himself. He never was a big fan of testing. Before he could say anything Zander started to flip out. Already wearing shoes and careful not to get near to Ea's hands, Lucas wasn't overly too concerned with Zander's skin on the floor. He watched the cleaning crew clean up as he thought to himself. Man, it seems like everyday there is new drama in this place. Yesterday it was Sarah and today its Zander.
The same burly nurse walks from the bathroom with Ea, whose hands are painfully red now. He tosses the bottle of heavy-duty cleaner to a nurse. "You remember what I told you," he said, his voice harsh and leaving no room for argument. One of the nurses stripped off her gloves, putting them into a bag for later disposal, then took her leave of the other two to go on patrolling duty throughout the facility. She joined up with the nurse in the common room as the other nurses left.
Megan looked at the nurses and quickly looked back at her books. She's been good, right? The testing wouldn't... Her stomach twisted with worry. It had been a while since she had lost time. Would...? Megan picked out a book that she knew she hadn't read in a while, a good big one, and went to go hide behind it on one of the couches.
Alex rolled a shoulder at the situation as he jogged into and out of the cafeteria, steering clear of Hassan. The guy creeped him out, even though Alex was obviously in less danger than the others. He balanced a bowl of cereal on his head as he entered the common room, bored, even with Zander's drama down the corridor. Alex leisurely kicked the table lightly and plopped onto an unoccupied couch, staring at Megan to see if she would notice.
The entire time Lainey kept to herself in the cafeteria, finishing up her breakfast. From the lack of sleep and a full stomach combined, she was feeling a heavy food coma coming on. Sticking herself close to the wall in avoidance of everyone and everything going on in the corridor. She walked past the sheet of paper and stopped about one yard past. Jogging back, she looked up at the piece of paper, brows furrowed. "Visiting scientist...?"
Ea rolled her eyes as the man let her go. "Pssht, whatever." she said under her breath. She had mischeif on her mind now. With that thought, she finished making her way to her room, and slammed the door behind her.
Madison entered the room, click-clacking as usual. Today, her hair swished gracefully behind her in a pony tail. Also, she had decided to go with a mint green nurse's uniform, an unusual choice. She approached Megan and Alex cheerfully. "Good morning everyone!" She perched herself delicately on the arm of the couch Alex was sitting in. "And look what I have here, for the growing boy!" She pulled out a napkin with two pieces of bacon wrapped inside. "Left over from my breakfast. You don't mind, do you?" She smiled sweetly at Alex.
"Oh, sweet!" Alex exclaimed. He hadn't had time to pick up a slower breakfast if he was to avoid Hassan. He snagged the bacon and stuffed it in his mouth with a muffled 'thank you,' his cereal totally abandoned for the time being. When he finally swallowed, he took her in visually. "Woah. Is it hot nurse day or what?" He playfully leered at the two nurses still in the room, one of whom rolled their eyes while the other laughed it off.
"Alex, watch your tongue!" Madison reprimanded, ruffling his hair. "Otherwise you're going to get a sponge bath...and not the cool kind. The kind with Jared." She giggled.
Alex made an interesting sound at that. "Wow, mood-killer for certain," he commented, grimacing. "I dunno if the bacon actually made up for that." He swung his feet off the couch and picked up his cereal, digging into it with renewed vigor. "So for serious, why the nurse's uniform? Looks good."
Megan looked up at Madison, smiled briefly at the two, and looked back at her book. Alex frowned, then started to get up to go bother her; his grip accidentally slipped on his cereal bowl. Before the contents could go very far to the ground, a panicked Megan stuck out her hand and they stopped in midair, floating in bits and drops above the bowl. Alex scooped it all up and when Megan caught that the nurses were looking at her she turned gravity back on. Her face coloring dramatically, she stuck her head back in the book, fervently and silently praying.
Amber slipped away from Lily to check the new post on the bulletin board-- and grimaced. "Lily, check this out..."
Lily scans the bulletin. "Shit," she summarizes her feelings on the document in one word. "Probably about Sarah. Five bucks says we don't see her again." She'd be more concerned for the impending loss of another fellow patient if she'd liked the girl. But Sarah was freaky in a way the word "freaky" didn't quite prepare you for. Lily turns back to Amber. "We should eat a big breakfast. The tests will probably be longer than usual, and they might make us skip a meal or something."
"Ah, for serious?" Alex complained from behind the two, on whom he had been eavesdropping. "I'm coming with. This," he said, motioning to his cereal and posthumously thinking of his bacon, "just ain't gonna cut it." He reached out over the table with his leg and poked Megan with his foot. "Come along. You haven't eaten at all yet."
Megan glared at him, glanced fervently at the nurses, then got up, setting her book down on the table. Her movements were slightly quicker, more bird-like, an indicator she was nervous.
"Yeah, I'm a little surprised they let her out of her room at all," Amber said, referring to Sarah. "I get the feeling she could cause a lot more damage if she wanted to. Also, meal-skipping equals lose... and I smell bacon." Amber smiled at Alex as she walked away from the bulletin board, toward the cafeteria. She acknowledged everyone in in the common room with a brief smile, but looked concerned at Megan's jumpiness.
Ea Khold cracked open her door and peeked out. She was usually much more active when Sarah was away, because it made her anxious. Deciding that she was clear, she jogged down to Zanders door and banged on it again, but this time she didn't run. She had a smug grin on her face.
Lily serves herself a big plate of food, and finds a seat. She looks at the people around her, and determines that Alex will probably make the best conversation. "Alex, what were you doing, you know, before you came here?" She's mildly interested in his answer for the information it may contain of the outside world, but she's mostly hoping for some normal interaction before being locked up for testing for an undetermined amount of time.
Amber grabbed her own food and plastic fork, and sat near Lily and Alex. She was careful not to get too near.
Lucas noticed everyone was heading towards the cafeteria. He couldn't wait to get out of here, basically no one here thought well of him, Lucas thought to himself. If only I was outside of this prison, where my worth actually means something. Lucas got up and went to the cafeteria, just for the sake that no one else was here. As he walked towards the exit of the common room he glanced at the piece of paper. All he had to read was the word testing. Lucas groaned, testing always brought out the worst in him. He entered the cafeteria and got a second helping of breakfast, every once in a while throwing up a small piece of bacon or any other food that wasn't mush from his hand and caught it in his mouth. He sat down not to close to the the group that was already in conversation and sighed. Can't wait to get out of here.
"Going to college," Alex said, sitting next to the group. "I was set to graduate this spring." He dug in hungrily, as usual.
Megan shuffled to them, only a few things on her plate. She still wasn't very hungry, and she certainly didn't look talkative. She sat on the other side of Lily, away from Alex, who seemed to have a penchant for annoying her.
Oh yey. Now everyone was here. Hassan gave a loud annoyed snort, picked up his tray, dumped it and walked off.
Zander snapped opened his door, his suit half way over his shoulder. He was ready to dash out, expecting them to run off like before, and had to pull himself back so he didn't run into Ea. "Oh..." he said, sliding his suit the rest of the way and zipping it up his neck. "So you're the one."
"Wish I'd gotten to go to college," Amber said glumly. "I checked in right after high school and had no idea how long I'd be stuck here... bleh. Megan, you feeling okay?"
"Oh, college." Madison said nostalgically, resting her cheek in her hand. She had followed the group to the Cafeteria. "Those were some fun times! It wasn't like the colleges you see in movies, being a nursing school and all, but it was still fun!" Madison clapped happily, "What were you going to be, Alex?"
Ea laughed, the mischievous glint still in her eyes. "Yeah, I'm the one. You look funny when you're confused and in your boxers." she laughed.
Zander looked down at her hands and his eyes went wide. "How...?" he said, trailing off.
It was at that point that Ea's mischievous glint became a mischievous action. She grabbed Zander's chin and forced a kiss on him, one with tongue and all. She was well aware of the surveillance cameras watching them.
"Yeah," Megan answered to Amber quietly. She went back to eating.
"College is okay," Alex said, taking Megan's 'yeah' at face-value. "I was a business major. Going to... I have no idea. Do something useful in society." He looked at Amber. "You should totally go once you check-out." He gave a quirky grin, one side of his mouth rising up a bit higher than the other and touching the scar running across his face. "Hey, you should go to mine. It's pretty awesome. At least, the professors are laid-back. I was even a good student by their standards."
"I didn't know being a brown-noser got you that good of marks!" teased Madison. "But Business sounds nice. You could really do something with that...like own a shop." She stared off into space for a moment, seeming to recall something before swatting it away with the wave of a porcelain hand.
"Yeah," Alex agreed. "I was into sports, so if they get rid of my... blood problem, I could go into commercial extreme sports or run a sporting store."
The nurses at the end of the hall got a message on their walkie-talkies and walked from the common room down the hallway, in time to meet two security guards with heavy gloves from the hallway at the end. One of the nurses deftly took out an electrical gadget, similar in shape to a tazer, and approached Ea.
Any and all color left Zander's face and he was just frozen in horror at first and then he pulled back, looking like he might faint, thinking that he had accidentally killed another woman.
Ea grinned as she allowed Zander to pull back, and she licked her lips. "Mmm. Tasty." she said. Then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and she looked down at the device they held, and she started stepping back. "WHOOOAAA, guys, c'mon. It was just a bit of fun. I'm not hurt, he's not hurt, and I'll go right to the nurse to get cleaned up." she protested, stepping back slowly.
The nurse just looked grim as one of the security guards grabbed Ea to prevent her from moving away; the nurse pressed it against Ea's skin. With a shockingly loud sound, Ea involuntarily dropped to the ground, suddenly immobilized. "This is for the safety of all of the patients here," she said to Ea, who was supposedly still able to hear her. "Plus, we can't have you struggling during the sterilization process." The two guards picked her up as a third nurse rushed to the scene and connected something strange to the back of Ea's neck. The two security guards picked Ea up and took her to an empty room.
The nurse who had immobilized Ea turned to Zander. "If you are alright, I suggest you continue on your day," the nurse said, her tone cold and clipped.
Kelly came in through security and walked towards the room, looking angry and carrying some more heavy-duty cleaners. "And Ea's not coming back out for a while, so you might as well leave," she snapped at Zander, looking like she wanted to kick the door in where they had taken Ea but restraining herself to knock and be let in.
Shaken and absolutely confused, Zander nodded and numbly walked passed her towards the caf.
With the loud sound in the hallway, Lucas' mind drifted from nothingness back into reality. He pushed his chair back and got up, carrying the food with him in a cocky manner. He looked down the hallway lazily, not with to much interest until he briefly saw the guards carrying away a unconscious Ea. "What is wrong with her?" Lucas asked the remaining nurse in not such a warm tone, knowing that he would get brushed off anyway.
"Wrong with who?" Madison inquired, picking her head up from her palm. She rose from her seat and came up alongside Lucas. "Is that who I think it is?" Madison watched a very stirred Zander enter the cafeteria. "Is everything alright, Zander?"
"Safety precaution," the nurse said. "Nothing to see here."
"Yeah, I uh," Zander let out some nervous laughter. "Ok, I suppose! So, what's for breakfast?" it was really a rhetorical question, considering the food was all out for him to see.
Alex quirked an eyebrow at Zander's odd behavior. "Dude, relax," he said. "It's just bacon. You Jewish or something?"
Lucas continued to be present out in the hall. Leaning against the wall, still eyeing the nurse Lucas replied, "well now there isn't anything to see." Lucas didn't really have any qualms with the nurse, but still stared at her and ate his food loudly as possible to peeve her.
The nurse, a younger woman closer to Kelly's age than the head, older nurse, rolled her eyes then made careful eye contact with the boy. Why eat in the hallway when you have friends back in the cafeteria? she thought, knowing full well he could hear her. Oh... that's right. She turned on her heel and left down another hallway, her shoes clacking along briskly.
"Zander? Can I help you get something to eat?" Madison gently touched his covered arm.
He snapped back from her at first, bad memories making him forgetful of his surroundings and his body suit. He blinked and, still a little out of it he looked over at the food and said, "I'm fine. Don't worry about it." He forced a smile that was utterly pathetic compared to the usual looks he gave Madison and he began collecting his breakfast.
Madison raised her eyebrows and rejoined her usual group. "Something's not quite right with him. He hasn't even tried to make a pass at me." She glanced over at Zander quickly. "Something big happened."
"Yo! Zander!" Alex called out. "Why'd you make eye contact with Mad--" Megan reached over and punched Alex in the shoulder. "What?" he complained, rubbing where she hit him. Megan just rolled her eyes and dumped her remaining food on his plate as she briefly leaned over Lily.
Zander looked over at his name being called, but was too distracted to even care what was happening. "I'm going to go eat in my room," he said shortly and walked off to do so.
Lily raises an eyebrow as Zander leaves. She didn't think he and Ea were that close, and he wasn't usually bothered by patients being sent away. But at the same time, Lily didn't know Zander very well either. "Another one bites the dust," she mutters as she shoves more cereal into her mouth.
Lucas gave a small laugh and a smile that would convince most people, but inside himself Lucas found the nurse's words stung him a bit more than he care to mention. That smile slowly came back to reveal a stern face. His grip on the breakfast plate tightened as his knuckles would become more white than pink. How he wished he could do some real damage, wish he could use his gift in more practical ways. Lucas was about to throw the plate right at the doorway where the nurse exited, but then Zander entered from the cafeteria. Lucas let out a sigh, controlling his poker face once more and silently berating himself for revealing to much even though no one was there. Lucas, with his eyes closed, leaning against the wall again remarked to Zander as he passed, “A hell of a day, huh?”
A scream cuts through the air, even though it is obviously muffled. It doesn't even sound like it came from inside the patient's ward, instead from way past the high-security area. It was cut off at its peak. The sound still lingered.
Alex jumped in his chair. "What the hell?" was all he could think of to say.
Lily looks up. "That was weird..." She looks around for a nurse to maybe come in and explain the scream. They would at least have to make something up about it, to keep the other patients under control.
Lucas' eyes opened wide when he first heard the scream. He anxiously looked around, intent on trying to discern where it came from. After the scream suddenly stopped, he walked back into the cafeteria, looking at everyone's face to make sure he wasn't the only one to hear it.
There was a pause and the intercom clicked on. "Please continue your activities," a soothing female voice said over the loudspeaker. "There is nothing to be concerned about. Everything is under control."
The intercom clicked off and Megan lifted an eyebrow, fidgeting with her hands as she stared at her bowl.
"Dude, does this happen often?" Alex asked Lily.
"No..." she says, slightly worried. "Maybe it's a new patient, and they're being difficult?"
"Yeah, sure, and we've always been at war with Oceania, right? Creeeepy..." Amber shivered and shrunk back in her chair.
"It's true..." Madison sighed, "Sometimes it's like this when we get a new patient that's a little unstable." She rose from her seat back to the hallway to catch a glimpse of the new patient...or a nurse who could give her information.
A nurse walked into the common room, looking around briefly and spying Madison through the doors to the cafeteria. She sees the questioning look on her face and shakes her head. She can't say anything yet.
Lainey was in her room when she heard the scream. Clutching her doll, she sat against the wall, watching her shaking body in the mirror/ When that particular scream got cut off, she heard echoes. Not just one; there were multiple screams, voices that formed an orchestra of fear and pain. "No...s-stop!" It was a memory. When the voices finally receded, all Lainey could do was cry.
The same soothing voice clicked on over the intercom. "Testing will start in 10 minutes," the voice said. "Please be in your rooms and ready in... 10 minutes." The intercom clicked off.
Alex stood up and rotated his head so that his neck cracked. "Aiight," he said, picking up his tray, now-empty. "Might as well go chill there until it's time."
Megan just stared at her own tray, feeling as though she was rooted to the spot.
Lainey, upon hearing that announcement, gingerly peeked her head out the door. Her eyes were still moist from crying.
"Well, good luck in testing, everyone!" Madison said, coming in to see her friends off. "And let's hope that none of you have been naughty!" She poked Alex's nose with her index finger, as an adult would do to a small child.
Lily snorts at Madison's demeaning gesture to Alex. She looks at Megan, and says in a low voice, "Don't worry. They haven't taken you away yet..." In her own mind, the "yet" isn't very comforting to think about, since she's in the same boat as the girl she's trying to reassure.
Megan gave out a dry laugh. "About a year ago, you were gone for nearly three weeks. I told you it was a week because that's all I could remember, too," she said. "They take everyone away at some point, Lily." Megan just got up and slid off the bench, not bothering to pick up her tray as she headed off to her room. It had been more than just that one time. On average, every person lost time at least once a year. It was like an annual checkup, but one that chilled her to her very core.
"I'm only naughty if you like it that way, babe," Alex replied to Madison playfully, missing Megan's exchange with Lily. His tray clattered on top of the rest as he walked out of the cafeteria to his room. On the way, he passed Lainey, and stopped upon seeing her face. "What's up, kid?" he asked, not unkindly.
Lily blinks at this new information. Honestly, it's not too surprising, as she'd done that same thing to Megan before. A shiver goes up her spine, but she knows that not going to her room now would be even worse than dealing with the check up. She sighs and heads to her room.
Lucas watches as each person enters their own room. The thought of testing again this soon does not bode well for anyone. He looked around at those who were leaving and remaining for a few more minutes, wondering if this would be the last time he would see any of them again. Lucas then shrugged off the notion, seeing how they didn't really take to him too kindly. He walked over to where his room was in the hallway, but instead of going inside Lucas sat down, leaning against the wall; waiting for nurses to herd him into one of the private testing rooms.
Lainey took in Alex's arm, not tightly, and looked up at him with fearful eyes. Her pupils were flashing with shadows. "I-I'm scared. I don't want to stay here anymore." She paused for a second as Lucas went by. "People die," she muttered.
Alex knelt beside her, taking her hands in his. "You're not going to die," he said, firmly, to comfort her. "I wouldn't let that happen. Alright?" He paused, hesitating. What she said bothered him. People died here? He mentally shook it off, at least for now. "You okay now? Now that I'm protecting you." He winked at her boldly in an effort to reassure her.
"Three minutes to testing. Please be in your rooms now. Three minutes," the intercom said.
Three more minutes, Lucas thought to himself. Three more minutes... Lucas took a deep sigh, looked over to where Lainey and Alex were talking, and hearing how Alex would save Lainey. Lucas sighed again, clearing his mind, trying not to think about what was going to happen in three minutes. This really is a prison. All of the so called patients are scared for just a usual check up. We're not patients, we're prisoners. He heard the intercom telling all of the patients to enter their rooms, and Lucas felt that it was directed mostly at himself. He had been planning on staying outside his door until the doctors and nurses forced him into his room or into testing, but then remembered the screams that he heard not to long ago. It wasn't that Lucas was afraid of pain, he wasn't a coward, but why invite pain when there's still other options. Lucas took one last look at the compassion Alex had for Lainey, envying what he saw, and quietly entered his room not wanting to disturb the two.
"T-Thanks," Lainey sniffed. Her brown eyes flashed for a moment, and a hoarse whisper, barely audible, escaped her lips, "You don't understand. Death..." Then she blinked, and she sniffed again. "You best go back to your room now...I don't want you to get in trouble." It was hard for her to say that has she gave him a little push towards his door; she didn't want to be alone.
Alex blinked, almost mimicking Lainey. He hadn't quite heard what she said, but it had sounded rather ominous. He ruffled her hair good-naturedly. "If you need anything, just..." Alex trailed off, cursing himself in his head. "Scream. Alrightgottagoseeyouinabit." He skipped off to his room and once again flung himself onto his bed, admiring how he was creating a dent in the wall right where his bed kept slamming against the wall. He was a nice guy up until the point he was a clumsy idiot.
"One minute."
[#Megan]
[#Lucas]
[#Lainey]
[#Lily]
[#Alex]
[#Hassan]
[#Zander]
[#Madison]
[#Amber]
Megan sat in her room. A nurse came in and quietly began taking her blood sample. Megan smiled briefly at the nurse, who she knew. She was glad she didn't get Jared today. The nurse also took her blood pressure and then left. Megan grew a little cold. She hadn't bothered to write down what Megan's blood pressure was.
A doctor entered. Behind him stood a new guy, a slight, younger scientist with slightly gelled hair and thick glasses. "Hello, Megan," the doctor said, the scientist staring at her. "How are you today?"
"Fine, Dr. Reinhart," she murmured, looking at her feet.
"Megan, as you can see, we have a visiting scientist. Dr. Thao is his name, and he's interested in what we're doing here," Dr. Reinhart said.
"Hello, Dr. Thao," Megan mumbled again.
"He was interested in a display of your powers," Dr. Reinhart mentioned. "Out of everybody, he was most interested in the physics of your specialty. Do you mind?" He held up his clipboard.
Megan hesitated, then raised her hand. It was shaking just slightly as she focused on the clipboard. The doctor let go of it-but it did not fall.
"Amazing," Dr. Thao murmured. It was the first thing Megan had heard him say. "Do you think she...?"
"It is one of the things this Institute attempts to figure out," Dr. Reinhart said. "Of course, we also wish for our patients to lead normal lives--but the knowledge we can gain from their transition into normality would be a great asset to humanity."
Megan felt chilled at those words. Her hand clenched and the clipboard fell to the ground.
Dr. Reinhart knelt to pick it up. "Ah, well, Megan, that will be all for now," he said, gesturing for Dr. Thao to follow him from Megan's room.
There was a few minutes pause and Megan could hear just the faintest suggestion of conversation outside her door. There was brief silence, then a nurse came back into her room. "Dr. Reinhart wants you to try a new medicine," the nurse said, not making eye contact with Megan. "Do you mind?"
Megan froze. The nurse waited in the uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before taking it as a yes, taking out a syringe filled with a strange, pink substance and prepping Megan's arm.
Megan could only stare at the wall as the nurse put the needle in and pressed the plunger down, not even bothering to ask Megan to relax. The needle was withdrawn and the nurse stepped back, staring at the girl, just waiting...
Lucas was resting on his bed, his thoughts going a million places at once. He was just waiting to hear the knock on the door...
A nurse knocked lightly and walked in. He didn't even pause to say hello before he was taking Lucas' blood pressure and prepping his arm for a blood sample.
"Well good afternoon to you as well," Lucas said sarcastically. He got bored of this whole check up as soon as it started. To try to make it all interesting, Lucas looked deeply into the nurses eyes, trying to hear the nurse's next thoughts.
But the nurse was, of course, not making eye contact with Lucas. Not only was he focused on what he was doing, he wasn't that stupid. He finished up, slapped a bandaid unnecessarily onto the needle mark, took Lucas' heart rate, and left.
A doctor entered. He was, obviously, wearing mirrored shades. Behind him stood a new scientist. The new guy could not wear any shades, as he already wore thick glasses. However, he had been warned about Lucas' condition and was nervously staring at Lucas' bellybutton. "Hello, Lucas," the doctor said. "How are you today?"
"Same old, same old," Lucas replied though not moving his eyes from the new scientists. What the hell is this guy looking at, I know I have a pretty nice body but to stare like that. Lucas could barely hear what the usual doctor was telling him, most of his thoughts were concentrated on the new scientist. If Lucas was to get any information out of anybody, it would be this guy who foolishly didn't sport any dark glasses. "Is there a problem?" Lucas said, not cold heartedly but certainly not with warmth to the new scientist, indicating at his constant gaze towards his stomach. "I mean, I know I have that affect one many girls, but for a dude..." Lucas had to hide a snicker, the rebellious side of him was starting to come out but he remembered what happened to Ea so he let go of his pride for a little bit, only a little bit.
The new scientist grimaced, shifting his gaze to Lucas' pillow, and the doctor's eyebrow arched as he frowned. "Be civil," the doctor said. "Now, please answer my question. Have you been getting any sort of flashes of people's thoughts while not making eye-contact?"
Lucas let out a small laugh, and ended up saying, "alright alright." Even through all of this Lucas' eyes did not change spots, still looking at the scientists eye lids. If only just a little up and to the right, I'll have ya, just a little bit more... "None that I can remember." Lucas paused, and sincerely asked, "am I good to leave this place? I mean I haven't had any of those flashes for about a year now."
"We're really worried about your powers devolving again," the doctor said. "In this controlled environment, it would be difficult to measure if you would become overwhelmed in your surroundings... Versus, say, a city." He looked down at his chart. "We'd like to monitor your progress on a few medications. Just give it time, Lucas." The doctor glanced at the scientist, then back at Lucas, giving the guy a large smile. "So, as you can see, we have a visitor. Would you care to demonstrate your powers on the guy?" Instead of bidding the scientist to look up, he waved forward a security guard, who glared at Lucas. "Please, tell us what Mr. White is thinking."
The guard continued to glare at Lucas. 2 + 2 = 4, was his primary thought. Of course, there were other ones, floating under the surface. I can't believe that's what they told me to think out in the hallway, was one. Stupidest thing ever, was another, much like the first. This freak of a scientist shouldn't be staring at the people here like that. It's creepier than they are, was another. Is he going to choose one for a pet, or what? It's like they're presenting everybody to him. That was the last thought before his thoughts went into a cycle form, still presenting '2+2=4' as the main thought.
Lucas sighed in disappointment, he so desperately wanted to hear what the new scientist was thinking about. Even though it wasn't what Lucas wanted, to read any mind willingly was always interesting. Lucas' eyes trailed off from the scientist towards the guard. As soon his eyes connected with Lucas', Lucas' heart skipped a beat after what the few things he just heard. Lucas' eyes widen just for a second, but then returned his facial features back to normal. What is he talking about? Having one of us as pets? Though Lucas appeared calm, his mind suddenly was thinking a million thoughts at once. Lucas cleared his throat and replied, "Apparently Mr. White has mastered the art of simple addition." He said this to the whole audience but his eyes never left Mr. White's; Lucas was desperate to hear any other thoughts like before.
Mr. White, however, broke eye contact just as the new scientist's gaze was drawn to Lucas, his brow furrowing.
Just as the security guards' gaze left Lucas' eyes, Lucas naturally turned to the only one who was looking directly at him. Lucas dared to hope that after what he just heard from Mr. White, that he could confirm or deny the guards' thoughts. Lucas' eyes then had direct contact with the scientists...
It came more as a memory than a concrete thought, somewhat like a vision to Lucas. A cabinet with the files of all the patients, new and old. A few bloodstains on some files. Lucas' popped up, his name, age, along with a photograph of Lucas in a robe that Lucas wouldn't remember having been taken. Some other folders pulled out, Megan's, Lainey's. Hassan's.
There was suddenly a room, light blue walls cast in darkness with a long, raised chair in the middle of the room, a spotlight upon it. Restraints were cast upon it. Along one wall, a plethora of science-based objects rested: beakers, syringes, gloves, knives...
A brief flash of a man, for the most part in shadow, a smile almost too wide on his face. A shock of white hair at his temples and the rest a dark, peppered color. A lot of his face was obscured due to a hazy memory, but the scientist's emotions in this memory were mostly... fear.
Then the scientist broke eye contact and stared at the floor, frowning. "Amazing," he said, almost unaware that Lucas might have read his mind. "He really can read minds." The guard shuddered, almost imperceptibly.
Lucas could hardly believe what he was seeing in the vision. When was that picture taken place, the one with me in a robe, I never remembered that. What was that elevated chair, with the knives and syringes next to it? And who in the hell was that smiling old guy? If Lucas thought that his mind was thinking very fast before when he made eye contact with the guards, that was nothing compared to the questions he was asking himself now. "Wait!" Lucas said desperately, looking at the scientists. He realized now that it would be most unwise to ask him any of the questions Lucas was asking himself. To cover up his statement out-loud, he quickly said, "...what is your name?" Lucas couldn't control his heart, as it was beating very fast and couldn't loosen his eyes back to a casual glance rather than widen just at the thought of those memories.
The scientist turned, as the doctor and him had been walking out the door. "Dr. Thao," he said, his glasses glinting in the light as he stared carefully at Lucas' collarbone, then the two left, the door clicking behind them.
Lainey withdrew back into her room with half a smile on her lips. She liked Alex, he was nice. She plopped down on her bed, hugging her doll close, and watched the door. Only a moment later, it opened to reveal a silhouette of a nurse. A twitch, and the a look of aloofness washed over her face. "Hi," she said softly.
The nurse, an older lady, just nodded, taking out her usual items: stethoscope, needle, et cetera. She started by gently taking Lainey's blood pressure, and began to prep her arm for the needle. "If you're good, this won't hurt at all," the nurse said, her mouth almost forming a smile before it disappeared in an air of unconcern.
"And what if I'm bad?" Lainey inquired indifferently. It was more a statement directed at the space behind the nurse rather than at her.
"Then you don't get the candy I brought with me for any good little girls I meet," the nurse replied, swabbing the bend of her arm with alcohol. Without waiting for a reply, she slid the thin needle in, taking Lainey's blood sample in just a few seconds, leaving a cotton swab there and putting tape over it. "All done, in any case," she said, going to the other arm and putting on the blood pressure device.
"I'll be good then," Lainey replied decidedly, perking up a little. "Thank you." She hated the needle, but the blood pressure device gave her arm an odd tingly sensation. "Is there gonna be anything different about this testing? With the scientists and all?"
"More demonstration than usual," the nurse said, writing down the results after staring at the device. "Just showing a new guy how we operate." She took out a light and took a quick peek into Lainey's eyes, then took her heartrate and finished writing down the results. She tucked her clipboard back into her nurses back and drew out of her pocket a lollipop and a few small hard candies. "Now, be good for the visiting scientist, can you do that for me?" she asked, showing Lainey that she was putting the candies in a bowl by the girl's bed--"For later," she clarified.
"Mhm..." Lainey contemplated for a second. "Sure, I can." She shifted a bit in her seat. A glimmer in her eyes, a change, and No. 17 giggled. She'll listen to just about anyone as long as they have sweets for her. Cake in particular.
The doctor entered a few minutes after the nurse left. "Hello, Lainey," he said. "How are we today?"
"Good, I guess. Just a bit lonely," Lainey sighed melodramatically. "When do you think I can leave? I want to go back... home."
"Sorry, darling," the doctor said, his voice sympathetic. A visiting scientist hurried into the room, closing the door behind him and furrowing his brow at the girl presented. "You're just going to have to wait a bit longer."
"How old is she, again?" the scientist asked, abruptly.
"Please tell the man your age, Lainey," the doctor said, smiling at her slightly. "If you could, all of them?"
Lainey looked confused, and gave a light shrug. "I'm six," she held up her left hand so her palm was facing the doctor, and a thumb from her right. The doctor seemed nice.
"Thank you, Lainey," the doctor said. The visiting scientist looked surprised, eyeing the 13-year-old. "Have you been feeling well?"
She started to nod, but stopped with a sudden jolt that was. "No," she spat. "Because YOU, yes, you doctors are incompetent imbeciles. Useless. You don't save lives. If you think you do, you are ignorant." She jumped out of her seat, standing as straight as she could (not that it made a difference in her height); she pointed a finger at the scientist and hissed. "USELESS," the girl in front of them screamed. She was no longer six or thirteen, a voice under her own reflected that a a person much older, not to mention bitter.
"Lainey, please calm down," the doctor said. The scientist had switched over to his own leveled gaze, but was still obviously deeply disturbed. "You need to take a deep breathe and sit down for me, alright?"
"As a matter of fact, you are murderers!" The last three words she said with so much force and deliberation that her beautifully combed hair were falling out of place. The doctors could see that her pupils were no longer a medium brown, but a deep reddish brown that burned with heat and... regret. Lainey, seemingly in another... dimension of her own, wanted the old women who now has her body to stop screaming; her throat was bound to hurt later.
The doctor regarded her coldly. "That is harsh," he said. "If you cannot settle down with your foundationless accusations, we will leave right now. And I," he added, eyes narrowing slightly, "will have to come back later."
The threat did not faze her one bit. After all, nothing they do now will harm her. She spat on the floor but said nothing else.
"I see," Dr. Reinhart said. His mouth was a thin line and he almost seemed angry. "I shall check back later when your are more willing to discuss this." He turned on his heel and stormed from the room, Dr. Thao scrambling to follow, the door slamming shut behind them both.
"Schizophrenia," Dr. Reinhart announced to Dr. Thao, once outside and out of Lainey's earshot. "With maybe a touch of psychic ability. We shall continue with her medication and see if the symptoms abate." Dr. Thao nervously nodded.
Lily lies on her bed, snapping her fingers and making sparks for funsies. It's a good way to warm up her power anyways. She sits up straighter when the nurse walks in, and winces at the sight of the needle. As much as she enjoys other people's pain, she does not look forward to her own.
The nurse straightened out Lily's arm and took the girl's blood professionally. She knew exactly how to do it, as well; she had been taking Lily's blood for years now. "And how are you today?" she asked, her words warm but her tone cold and distant.
"Normal," Lily replies. She smiles at the irony of this answer. It was one of her more amusing jokes, but this nurse has heard it enough times now to not care. "Who are the new guys?" she asks, more to make conversation than anything. She's of course referring to the visiting scientists for today's testing.
The nurse gave a half-hearted shrug, taking Lily's blood pressure and jotting down the results. "They're just visiting now, but if they like what they see, they'll use their grant money on this place for a bit. The higher-up's are never ones for turning away free money."
Figures, Lily thinks. More people who think if they throw enough money at us, we'll just go away. She yawns and looks at the nurse. "Hey, how's that kitten you got?" she asks, remembering a previous conversation with this nurse.
"Finally getting along with the kids," the nurse said. "Sorry I couldn't bring that magazine I promised. I tried to sneak it in and it got confiscated." She gave a dry laugh. "Apparently, the Rolling Stones is too much for you poor souls. At least they give you something like the news on the television." She clucked her tongue, taking Lily's heartrate and shining a light into Lily's eyes to check reaction time.
"That sucks," Lily says. She'd been looking forward to that magazine, but it wasn't the first time she was disappointed at a failed smuggling. "Thanks for trying."
"Yeah, well, what can you do," the nurse said, writing down the results. "They've upped the personal security a lot more nowadays, too. It's all the fault of those damn rolling bl-... That's all," she said abruptly, clicking her notebook closed. "Dr. Reinhart will be in here in a moment." She nodded at Lily, smiling very briefly in her usual professional matter, and left the room, the door clicking behind her.
Dr. Reinhart entered almost a moment later. "Hello, Lily," he said. "How are you today?"
"Normal," Lily repeats the joke. She's less enthusiastic this time, wondering why the nurse cut herself off so abruptly.
"That's good to hear," Dr. Reinhart said, a scientist entering the room behind him. The new guy stared at her through thick glasses, almost too intently, but obviously making eye contact. "This is Dr. Thao. I hope you don't mind his shadowing me." The doctor didn't wait for a response before flipping to Lily's page. "So, Lily, there hasn't been much progress with the tests this month, so there aren't many questions for me to ask," he said. "Obviously, the new medication isn't acting as much of an insulator for your powers. But, have there been any sort of new side-effects? Headaches, nausea, anything for me to worry about?"
"The pills taste nasty," Lily admits. "Otherwise no complaints. I heard we might be getting some more money," a sweet smile creeps to her face. "Does that mean we can finally get some newer movies for the play room?"
"Sorry, Lily," Dr. Reinhart said. "Can't say we won't but I don't have that much control over the finances." The visiting scientist arched an eyebrow at both her boldness and the doctor's calm response. "Hey, Lily, would you mind demonstrating something for Dr. Thao?" He held up a voltmeter connected to a resistor, with two metal ends.
Lily gives the thing a lil zap. The charge is large enough for the men to know it came from her, but not the biggest she can give. She usually demonstrates something small for the doctors, hoping they will eventually think she is safe enough to let go. Also, they never let her demonstrate on people, so the whole process is kind of boring.
The voltmeter jumps up as Lily zapped it. "Fascinating," the scientist said. "Is this--"
"I think I'll be able to answer your questions later," Dr. Reinhart said. He turned to Lily. "Thank you for your time. See you in a month if nothing happens." He escorted the scientist from the room, closing the door behind him.
But the door didn't close all the way. The latch stuck and it popped open just enough for Lily to hear:
"Is that the largest amount of electricity she can use?" the scientist asked, his voice hushed.
"No," the doctor said. "We have determined she is capable of much more. Her capacity, over time, seems to be increasing, instead of decreasing."
"Fascinating," the scientist repeated, their voices getting lower as they walked down the hallway to the next room, eventually fading from hearing.
Alex let out a breath and stared at his ceiling. It was his first testing. He didn't have to take off any clothes, did he? He shuddered a bit, grimacing.
Jared enters the room with a tray of medical supplies. It is hard to miss the giant glass needle meant for taking Alex's blood. Jared grins as he takes Alex's arm firmly and begins preparing for the blood sample. "This will hurt," he says.
"No shit," Alex confirmed, forcing himself to relax. A second later, he decided Jared was enjoying this way too much. "If I cry, will you hold me?" Alex said, giving the nurse a dangerous smile.
Jared misses Alex's vein the first time. And second. "Sorry," he says insincerely, dabbing a clotting assistant chemical onto the fresh blood. "Your veins are smaller than most people's." This isn't true. He takes the sample and puts the needle carefully back on the tray. Then he begins taking the blood pressure and doing other basic check up things. He doesn't bother to ask Alex how he's doing.
Alex narrowed his eyes, immediately seeing how the others thought the guy was a jackass. However, he gave no impression of being hurt. Being sliced up like a vegetable in the garbage disposal does that to a person. Alex decided that his old plan of trying to make smalltalk would fall through anyway and just decided to be quiet through the rest of this.
Jared's grinning mouth turns into a grim line as he doesn't get the reaction he wants from the boy. He finishes up the checkup quickly, writing down the results on his clipboard. "The doctor will be here in a second with a visiting scientist. You are to be on your best behavior."
"No fucking duh, smartass," Alex muttered, just in time for the doctor to walk in.
"Alex, abstain from such language," Dr. Reinhart said. "Thank you, Jared." He nodded for the nurse to leave.
Jared smirks as he leaves, glad that the boy got in trouble. It's kind of a juvenile pleasure, but he enjoys it anyways.
The doctor holds open the door for both Jared as he's leaving and the new scientist to enter. "My name is Dr. Reinhart, Alex," the doctor said, closing the door and then holding out a hand for Alex to shake. "This is Dr. Thao, a visiting scientist."
"'ello," Alex said, nodding at Dr. Thao, whose gaze flicked to the wound on Alex's arm.
"I just wanted to let you know that we appreciate you being here and are working to make sure your problem is no longer a threat to your health," Dr. Reinhart began. "Is there anything you wanted to ask?"
Alex rolled a shoulder. "Any word from my family?" Alex asked.
"Not much that I know of, besides their signatures on your forms," Dr. Reinhart said. "But we'll keep trying. Oh, and Alex, we were thinking of starting you on a new type of medication. A sort of basic thing, to counteract the acidity in your blood. You mind getting the initial dose intravenously? It would be a great help until we can figure out a way to put it into a pill."
Alex shrugged again. "Fo'sho, doc," Alex said. "Anything to get me out of this place faster. You'll have to use this arm, though," Alex said, motioning to the crook of the Jared-ed arm. "This one's shot."
"Excellent," Dr. Reinhart said. He had a bag with him and clicked it open, taking out another large needle with some light pink solution. "Now, since this is going directly into your bloodstream, it might cause a few seconds of wooziness," Dr. Reinhart warned.
"Whatevs," Alex said. Reinhart swabbed his arm with alcohol and injected the liquid in, of course not missing the vein. Alex scrunched up his eyes against the pain and found he couldn't open them again. He could hear the blood rushing to his ears and a vague, distant voice of the doctor.
What seemed like ages later, he was shaken awake. "Alex? Can you hear me?" Dr. Reinhart asked.
"Murphlugish," Alex was able to slur.
"I am so very sorry," Dr. Reinhart apologized. "I had no idea it would be this severe. Are you alright?" Alex nodded. "You'll be better in a bit," the doctor added, sliding some papers into his briefcase. Alex narrowed his eyes, still trying to think. Papers? Were those out before? "Please tell us if you get a bad reaction to the drugs we give you." Alex nodded again and the doctor checked his reaction briefly before leaving.
Hassan sat in his room that was more of a nest than anything, waiting in a darkened corner.
A burly nurse walked in, with another one at his back. "I'm going to take your blood pressure, then a sample of blood," he said, more of a statement than words of warning, although intended as the latter. "Also going to do a few physical procedures."
Hassan growled but it was more out of annoyance than anger. "I don't see the point..." he inhaled with a snort. "You've obviously been unable to do anything with my blood the last few years. Any confidence I might have had for you people has totally crumbled." Snort. "You might as well dissect me, as opposed to this pointless prodding." Despite his objections he did cooperate to a degree. Though he would have loved tearing out the throats of everyone here, and dying in a rain of bullets as a result, he found that to be a pretty pathetic way to end his life.
"We do what we can, sir," the nurse said, the same old vague reply to the same statement. He took the guy's blood and blood pressure. He shined a light into Hassan's eyes, a little weirded out by how different they looked, jotted down a few things, and left.
A doctor walked into the room. He had the usual two bodyguards, but a short, younger scientist with thick glasses also accompanied him. "Hello, Hassan," the doctor said. "How are you today?"
He looked up at them blankly through the shadows cast around his eyes. His only response was a sneer.
"I see," the doctor said. The scientist, however, almost flinched. "So, Hassan, did the medication work on controlling your cravings? We have a new one that might cut down your usual violent temperament."
"I am not interested..." he hissed.
"Ah," the doctor said. "But did the other medication work? Otherwise we're switching over."
"I do not want any more medicine," he growled.
"Interesting," the doctor said, writing a few things down. "I apologize, but unless you don't want to get any better, we're going to have to try a new weekly medicine." He glanced up at the man. "I'd suggest you try it."
Hassan lurched at them and snarled, but more to frighten than attack. "Better? I did not ask for this... I don't want your help! If that's even what you are doing..."
The doctor looked at Hassan steadily. He was obviously more confident in the abilities of his guards than the visiting scientist, who flinched further and backed up a step. "Sir, we can only help you as far as you let us," he said. "This is obviously a new science, and it might take time. We've helped you thus far, you cannot deny it. You don't have to trust us completely, but it would be nice if we had a bit more cooperation." Nobody in the room but Hassan could probably hear the warning tone under his voice.
Hassan growled. "I'm not interested in your help..."
The doctor closed his folder with a loud snap that echoed throughout the room. The visiting scientist jumped. "I see," he said. "Well, it can't be helped." He turned and left, guards and scientists following behind, the door closing behind them.
Out in the hallway, the scientist turned to the doctor. "Are you sure just agreeing with him is the best solution?" he sniped.
"There are ways of making patients take medicine, Dr. Thao," the doctor said. "I didn't just... close the case." He looked down at his clipboard to note something down. "We'll talk with him later. Hassan is one of our most improved subjects, but also one of our most dangerous. Provoking him with you in the room would not have been wise. Now, onto our next case..."
Zander was eating in his room. He couldn't help thinking about Ea, why she hadn't died and how he could let another woman slip him a kiss again. If she had died, Zander wouldn't have been able to take it. It wasn't that he liked her or anything, she kinda annoyed him at times, it was if he had caused another death... He was still pale.
A younger nurse walked in, still pulling on gloves. His feet were covered in what looked to be small fishing boots, and he wore a surgical mask. "Alright, lemme take your blood and the worst will be over," he said, his eyes crinkling up in what might have been a smile.
Zander would have hit on him in a flash, but he just smiled weakly and held out his arm. "Hey," he said. "Do you know anything about what happened this morning?"
The nurse shook his head as he prepped Zander's arm. "I heard Ea was teasing you, but you shouldn't pay attention to her," he said. "She's a little cold-hearted." The nurse snorted behind his mask, finding something amusing at that statement, then slipped a thin needle into Zander's arm, taking a quick blood sample. He put the vial into a bag, and the needle into another, taking out what looked to be a disposable blood-pressure device.
"Yeah, but, is she alive?" Zander asked.
"Yeah, of course," the nurse said, writing down the results and putting everything into another bag. "She just got contaminated with your poison." He paused as he took out a light. "Y'know, I shouldn't tell you this, but she's mechanical. That's why she didn't react to your poison. But she's also a bitch, so don't try anything." He checked Zander's eyes.
Nothing but relief was shown in them. As much as Zander wanted to screw someone, having not killed them was more important. His face lit up immediately. Instant recovery.
"Alright, that should be good," the nurse said. "The visiting scientist isn't coming in, but Dr. Reinhart should be around in a few. Have a good day." He dumped the remaining things into another bag and wheeled the whole car outside to a waiting entourage of nurses.
Several minutes later, Dr. Reinhart entered, wearing the same gear as the nurse. "Hello, Zander," he said. "I'm sorry you couldn't meet Dr. Thao, our visiting scientist, but we don't have the equipment on hand or the time for him to be able to enter here." Dr. Reinhart's voice lowered just a pitch. "And how are you today?"
"Better," he said with a grin, leaning back. "And you, Doc?"
"Good," the doctor replied, both as a statement of his own health and a confirmation of Zander's. "Mind answering a few questions? For instance, would you mind starting a round of medication? We think it might help, but only time will tell."
"Hey, Doc, I'll do anything to get better. Drug me up," said Zander.
"Alright," the doctor said, grinning under his mask. "That's what we like to hear. You'll get the pills as soon as tomorrow. Just be sure to let us know if any unwanted side effects occur, such as nausea or whatever. I'll see you in a month if nothing happens." He nodded and left.
The door remained open, and Zander to see the visiting scientist. "I wish I could have a demonstration of this one," the scientist mourned. "Poisons are of special interest to me."
"We have pictures of incidents," the doctor replied vaguely as nurses removed his protective clothing. One closed the door on Zander, cutting off the rest of the conversation.
Zander's brow knotted. Pictures? When had they gotten pictures? He felt a little unsettled and crossed his arms.
Madison sat on her bed gingerly with her hands folded neatly in her lap. She was careful to keep the bed linens from wrinkling. She waited patiently, listening to the ticking of the clock. The more compliant you were, the less traumatic the test...she knew that.
The nurse came in, one Madison knew well. "How are ya?" she asked, setting down her kit and taking out a blood-pressure device, taking Madison's blood pressure as she waited.
"Oh, I'm doing quite ducky, dear." Madison smiled sweetly and nodded her head. She held her arm out for the nurse, accommodating her needs as a nurse. "And how are you today? The weather looks too nice outside to be having anything less than a good day."
"Oh, I'm fine," the nurse said, finishing with the blood pressure and prepping Madison's arm for the blood sample. "It's nice out, but they've got us working extra hours--the testing and all." She quickly takes the blood sample neatly and cleanly... All the nurses around here seem to know exactly how to do it. "Just a few more things and I'll be running along," the nurse said, checking Madison's heartbeat and looking in her eyes with a light.
"Oh, that's terrible about the extra hours..." Madison's brows scrunched together, "I hope they're paying you well enough!" She offered her arm out when the nurse needed to take the blood sample. "I do hope these tests won't take so long! I'd hate for you guys to spend so much time on such things!"
"It's mostly a tour for a new scientist," the nurse said, shrugging as she jots down the results. "Nothing special. Just some guy shadowing Dr. Reinhart as he makes his rounds."
As if on cue, Dr. Reinhart walked into the room. "Ah, hello, Nurse Jaye," he said. "And hello, Madison. How are you?" The nurse nodded a goodbye to Madison and slid through the door past the entering scientist.
"Hello Dr. Reinhart!" Madison said cheerily, raising from her seat on the bed. "I'm doing quite well, thank you! And yourself?" She noted the new face, "And who might this person be?"
"This is Dr. Thao, our visiting scientist," Dr. Reinhart mentioned. "Just act like he's invisible. So, tell me... what has been your reaction to the pills we gave you last month? Did they work at all in suppressing your... empathy?" he asked.
"Well, I've never been good at ignoring someone, but I'll give it my best shot!" Madison's nose scrunched a little with her smile, then her face melted in one of seriousness. "Honestly? The pills toned it done a little, but I'm still able to pick up impressions." She folded her hands in her lap, and lowered her eyes to watch her thumbs twiddle. "It's really not all that bad..."
"Yes, we know, Madison," the doctor said. "But you do wish to rejoin society as a fully functioning individual without any of your... inhibitions, correct?" He flipped a page on his clipboard and looked at the chart, continuing without waiting for an answer. "We shall start you on a stronger dosage plus a new ingredient immediately. Please inform a nurse if any unfortunate side effects generate."
"A higher dosage?" The concern was apparent in Madison's soft voice. "What... sort of side effects are there usually?" Her brows pushed together and she swallowed a lump in her throat. Madison didn't dare mention that she was actually rather fond of her skill...
"The usual that can come with introducing a foreign substance into your system," Dr. Reinhart said, disinterest in his voice, like he had said this a thousand times before. "Nausea, diarrhea... Of course, we would discontinue immediately if any such symptoms arose and pursue an alternate course." He looked at his chart, checking his schedule. "If, however, you develop other side effects due to your... uniqueness, please also inform us of those and we will be sure to address the issue." He looked up at her. "Any more questions?"
And why is all this necessary? was the question that ran through Madison's mind. Instead, she lowered her head. "No more questions."
"Well, thank you for another pleasant visit," Dr. Reinhart said, closing his chart. "See you again in a month." He nodded to her and left, Dr. Thao close behind.
"The pleasure's...all mine..." Madison said as the door closed behind the two doctors. She rose from her bed, wringing her hands. Pausing a moment, Madison's eyes wandered over to the window...signs of real life...Madison shook her head, dismissing the thought. She smoothed her skirt and walked over to the door. Her hand closed around the knob...another moment...and with effort, she began to put a smile back on her face. She was ready to see the other inmates, her feet led her to the "Play Room."
Amber sat on her bed, flipping distractedly through an old issue of a fashion magazine. She didn't really see the photos; her mind was on the unexpected round of testing. A visiting doctor could mean new medical advances... maybe a cure and a ticket out of the institution. But after three years, Amber was wishing more than hoping. At least Alex seemed like someone she could be friends with.
A nurse came in to perform the usual procedure blood pressure, heart rate, and looking in the eyes; all, however, with plastic instruments, meaning taking a blood sample at this point in time was advised against. At least they knew Alex could take the pain of a huge needle. The nurse nodded to Amber and left the room, picking up her cellphone from a tray outside as she left. Just as she was turning the corner, Dr. Reinhart came to set his own things on the tray, followed by a scientist, who had to be reminded.
"Hello, Amber," Dr. Reinhart said. "How are you today?"
"Fine. Arm's better, too." Amber was more interested in the visiting doctor she'd heard about, and waited anxiously for Dr. Reinhart to address that.
"This is Dr. Thao," Dr. Reinhart said, as if reading her mind. "He's a visiting scientist. Just act like he isn't even there." He looked at his chart. "Well, we looked at the iron levels in your last blood sample, and it's actually surprisingly low... Almost anemic. Have you been feeling weak or light-headed lately?" he asked.
"No..." Amber thought back over the last few days. "No, definitely not." She'd gone to bed early the night before, but that was to avoid dealing with everything.
"Interesting," Dr. Reinhart said. "Well, other than that, we have made very little progress on your... condition. We are developing something that could negate the magnetic field around you, but until then..." Dr. Reinhart just smiled. "We are going to have to say goodbye, until the next checkup." He nodded at her dismissively and left, Dr. Thao following close behind.
The doors to the rooms clicked open as they all automatically unlocked. The testing was complete.
Lily comes out of her room, rubbing the spot on her arm where the blood had been drawn. She heads down the hall, banging on doors and calling out, "Party in the game room!" as she passes by.
Lucas heard the banging sound on his door and the slightly diminished bangings on the next doors. He slowly got out of his room, he facial features were a mix of shock and confusion. He was thinking about his testing and the mind encounters of the guard and Dr. Thao. Questions kept nagging at him and like with everything that happens at the Institution, Lucas had no answers for them. He absentmindedly followed Lily into the play room, wondering if he should tell anyone of what happened.
Alex stumbled from his room, still very groggy. He shook his head and started to follow Lily and Lucas to the playroom in more or less a straight line.
Madison was already in the play room, sitting on a chair. She looked up when the others began to make their way to the room, a smile plastered on her face.
"Nngh," Alex said, quite intelligibly on his part, as he entered the room. He flopped onto a couch next to Madison's chair, staring at the wall intently as he tried to get over the ordeal of walking from his own room.
"By the looks of it, honey," Madison began, patting Alex's leg, "You took an extra long fall into the rabbit hole." She scooted the chair even closer towards him.
"I didn't fall down a hole, it's just... Wait, was that a literary reference?" Alex asked, confused as he tried to think. "Shit woman. I don't speak 'English major.'"
Madison laughed gently, "I guess that was one doozy of a testing, wasn't it?"
Alex leaned his head back, knocking it lightly against the back of the couch. "It's like there's a party in my head and everybody's throwing up," he said. "Hopefully the next testing won't be this gnarly. They said they were giving me a dose of a drug, and since it was intravenously, the side effects were harsher. When I take the pill it'll be better."
"Let's hope so..." A flash of seriousness darkened Madison's face before returning back to the familiar smile. "I mean, it usually is better."
Lainey head was throbbing by the time the banging in the hallway subsided. These testings rarely made things better. Sometimes, but rarely. In fact, she didn't mind the others, as long as they don't take her body when she doesn't want them to; at least they would talk to her.
Hassan didn't leave his nest. He had eaten, and now, like most animals, he planned to rest until he needed to perform some other life function. He truly wished the kid with the escape plan wasn't such a moron. He doubted anyone wanted out as much as he did.
Zander picked up the tray he brought into his room and carried it back to deposit in the kitchen. His brows were knotted with concern, but out of all of them, he was the only one who seemed in better spirits after the testing.
Lucas sat down on the couch in the play room, his expression was totally vacant. Is he going to choose one for a pet, or what? It's like they're presenting everybody to him... Lucas kept thinking those line of words. On one hand Lucas to be reffered to as a pet would be something Lucas hated but one the other it probably would mean that he would finally get out of here. Lucas sighed, he had a lot of thinking to do.
"Good," Alex said, sighing in a similar fashion to Lucas. "Excellent. Will look forward to it." He stretched. "How'd it go for you, Maddy?" he asked, the couch seeming to help his grogginess.
"Oh...not bad..." Madison said, aloof to her own feelings. That was all she could say...regardless of how she answered during testings, she knew she wasn't getting out of this place anyway. "Reassuring, I guess." reassuring to those thoughts... she finished. "But the atmosphere here leaves something to be desired...let me see if I can wrangle up some access to the television or...something." Already, she was picking up snippets of peoples' memories from the testings.
Lily looks around as everyone enters the play room. She chooses a board game that she hasn't played in a while, one that Megan was always up for. "Has Megan come out of her room yet?" she asks generally to everyone there.
Alex looked around. "I don't think so," he replied. "Isn't she usually a recluse anyway?" He frowned, blinking away a bit of sleepiness.
Lily frowns at this reply. "She's just shy," she says. Lily and Megan are not close, per say, but the two have been at the Institution the longest, and so Lily feels somewhat attached to the girl. She brings the board game out anyways, looking around for someone else to play with.
Lucas looks up and breaks out of his memory trance. His gaze settles on Lily and the board game she's bringing out. Man, what age are we? Six?, Lucas thought to himself. But then the memory of the nurse out in the hall came to him. Oh wait...you don't have any friends. Lucas pushed that memory back with a wall of anger. Though it was true that Lucas didn't have any friends, he was getting tired oh not associating with anyone else. His pride swelled as he thought to ask to join in on the board game. Eventually his pride over came and said, "A little old to be playing board games, huh." Lucas put back on the mask that he always wore here though he had always told himself he didn't need to take it off. It was a confusing time for Lucas.
"Yeah, whatever, dude," Alex said. "You're just jealous that you don't have the mad skillz at... What game is that?" he asked, jumping up and seating himself next to Lily.
"Clue," Lily smiles as Alex is clearly ready to join the game. "It's a really old murder mystery type game. You have to figure out who committed the murder, what weapon they used to do it, and in what room." She picks up the red game piece for herself. "I like to play Miss Scarlet."
"Sweet," Alex said, his last board game having been 'Candyland' many, many years ago. He snatched the green piece. "Who's this?" he asked.
"Mister Green," Lily replies in a 'no duh' tone.
Amber walked out of her room and into the playroom. "Ooh, Clue! Can I play?" Nothing especially interesting happened to her during testing, so she hoped the others had similar experiences.
Zander dropped of his plates and glanced over at the playroom. His need for constant human company was like a magnet pulling him in, even though he really didn't give a shit. He stared, squinty eyed, wondering if he should join his fellow freaks.
"Zander!!" Amber saw him watching through the door. "Come play. You can be Colonel Mustard... 'cause you're kinda... spicy." Facepalm. Amber thought to herself. Zander wasn't the type to let a slip-up like that go unexploited.
Like Hell could Zander pass up an invitation to anything. Playroom it is. He slid over and picked up the yellow piece. "Spicy? What, have you been licking me in my sleep? Not that I mind..." he said with a wink, swinging a leg over a chair and scooting under the table.
Lily giggles. Zander is funny, and kinda cute, except for the part where people die when they touch him. "Hey Zander, how did your testing go?"
"Huh," Alex said at the spicy comment. "Kinky. Is Mister Green hot?" he asked Lily.
Lily considers the question. "Well, I mean, there's only a cartoon picture of them... I guess he's better looking than Mustard or Professor Plum." She points to the fading picture of Mister Green on the front of the box.
He looked, and grimaced. "Ech," he said, spying the rest of the cast. "Guess he's better than the rest of'em." He leaned back and cracked his fingers. "Mister The Green it is. How do we do this shit?"
"Nice," said Zander responding to Lily's question. "They're gonna test out some new drugs that might cure me."
"Awesome, dude," Alex said. "Same here. They already had a bit worked out that they used on me." He held out his arm, then noticed that his bandage was bleeding through just a bit. "Ooooh shit," Alex said, jumping up and holding his arm away from his side. "Um, be right back... shit shit shit," he emphasized, running from the playroom to get the base-coated bandages in his room.
Amber grimaced at Alex as he ran out. "Hope he's alright." She placed her white marker at its starting place and sighed as she looked through the game's "weapons". Crude drawings on scraps of paper had replaced the metal miniatures, and the only original left was the plastic rope.
"Hey Amber," Lily greets the girl who has now joined their game. "Did you happen to see Megan on your way here? Has she left her room yet?"
"No," Amber shook her head. "Her door was closed when I walked by. How did your testing go?" She pawed through the clue papers looking for a few blank ones they could use... this was an old game.
In his room, Alex took off his old bandage and dabbed away the excess blood with a napkin, which began to sizzle. He threw it into his glass wastebin, taped on another bit of base-covered cloth to it, and rewrapped his arm with powdered bandages. He made it like they said... Tight, but he could slip a finger under it. He grimaced slightly at the time it took and hopped from his room. On the way back, he tapped on Megan's doorway. Hearing no answer, he shrugged and pushed his way in without asking.
The room was empty. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and shrugged a bit, going back to the playroom.
"Hey, Megan wasn't in her room," he mentioned casually.
Lucas came out of his daydreaming when he heard Alex announcing the disappearance of Megan. Are they taking us out one by one? Lucas looked around the playroom to everyone in attendance. Despair was starting to creep into Lucas' mind. He started to think how soon it would be until someone else would simply vanish as though they never existed. Lucas opened up his mouth as if to say something but then close it. It just occurred to him that they had video cameras and microphones all about the Institution, where could they possibly even talk about a plan to escape. Lucas shook his head, not wanting to think that it could very well be himself that is the next to vanish. He walked out of the playroom and into the cafeteria. Lucas clenched his jaw, determined not to let despair defeat him. As he was getting food Lucas' mind started to process thoughts once more, trying to find anything that would help in the attempt to escape.
Always the optimist, "The bathroom?" Zander suggested.
"Boring," Lily replies to the question. "They always make me zap that dumb metal thingy. It doesn't do anything." She bites her lower lip, concern coming to her face. Megan had been here for seven years now... it was about time they took her away. The thought sends a shiver up her spine, but she doesn't voice it.
"Yeah, probably," Alex responded to Zander's suggestion, equally as optimistic. "I'm not about to find out, in any case." He leaned back and cracked a few fingers. "She can come join us later." He eyed the game, not sure how to start.
"Hey, Alex-- pick a card from my hand," Amber said as she held a fan of cards out toward Alex, facedown. "And don't look at it!"
Alex snagged a card from her hand and slapped it onto the table, face-down. "Uno!" he declared.
The lights in the building suddenly flickered and dimmed, leaving the room in darkness. No window was around to capture even the slightest rays of the sunset occurring outside.
After two seconds, there was a popping sound and the room was once again bathed in light from the fluorescent bulbs.
At the light turning back on Zander blinked dramatically and then rubbed his eyes, then he paused, realizing he had just dirtied his gloves.
"I didn't do it," Lily says, almost instinctually.
Alex also rubbed his eyes, glancing apprehensively at the lights. "Um... does this happen often?" he asked.
Madison's heels click clacked briefly in the hallway before she popped her head into the play room. "I'm sure it's nothing big...just a little glitch, that's all." She beamed as her body followed the rest of the way into the room. She had forgotten her earlier pretense to leave the room by getting a radio.
"Hey, can you guys hold on a second? I need to change my gloves," said Zander standing up to go to his room.
"Looks like a blackout to me," Alex said. The weather outside his room had been getting a little stormy. "Hurry back, Zander. I wanna Clue all up in this joint."
"Hahah, alright. Moving on... pick one each from these piles, too." Amber held two more sets of cards for Alex. "I hope there's thunder," she said with a smile.
"Me, too," Alex replied, grinning at her and drawing a few more cards. "Gotta love thunderstorms." He finished the stack just as Kelly walked in. Alex looked up and saw the look on her face. "Oh, come on nurse. Let us finish this game."
"Just giving you advance warning," Kelly said, leaning against the doorframe. "Hour 'til curfew. So I'd hurry up the game."
Amber stuck the three cards Alex chose into the game's envelope, and placed it in the center of the board. "Who goes first?"
Lucas was in the cafeteria when the lights when out. He nearly choked on his food when the whole room fell into pitch black darkness. Lucas grabbed the table for support, not really knowing what to expect next. "What the hell is going on here?" The lights flickered back on again and Lucas found himself breathing faster than normal. After a second had gone by Lucas pulled himself to his feet and jogged to the hallway, shouting to anyone if the same thing happened throughout the whole Institution.
Zander was walking from the play room to his bed room when he passed Lucas and said, "It's ok, sport," and gave him a half hearted smile and continued on. He opened his door, slipped on some sterile gloves and walked back out. He paused in front of the bathroom, and, since it had been the subject of recent conversation, he knocked on the door and called, "Hey! Meg!"
There was no reply.
"I don't volunteer myself, since I would call Yahtzee and invariably win," Alex replied to Amber's question. He rolled his neck and looked at Lily expectedly.
Lily lets out a small laugh. "There's only one dice, smart one," she teases. "And usually we roll to see who goes first. Highest number wins." She picks up the die and drops it on the board, four spots facing up at the group.
Alex rolls his own die and rolls it: a 2. He grimaced and passed the die to Amber.
Lainey's room was so dim anyway that barely noticed the blackout. It was rather dark outside, too. Taking her blanket with her, she peeked out the room. Hearing lots of voices in the playroom, she figured that most people were already out from testing. She started to make her way to the others when she noticed that a door was ajar. It was Megan's room; Alex probably left it open previously. "Megan?" She lightly pushed the door wider with one finger. "...Megan?" Lainey walks in, and looked around. She's never seen her room before; there were a lot of books.
Zander blinked and walked back into the playroom. "Hey hey! I thought I told you to wait!"
"Whoa, we're waiting," Alex said, snatching the die from Amber and tossing it to Zander. "Don't PMS on us, dude. Roll for your turn. Highest goes first." As an afterthought, he added, "Why were you gone so long anyway?"
Amber faked a look of annoyance at Alex, but then sat back and waited for the die. She crossed her arms.
"It's hard putting on skin tight gloves without touching the outside, fyi," said Zander sitting down.
Alex thought for a second. "Yeah, okay, I'll allow that," he said. He noticed Amber's look and grinned at her, settling down.
Ry sat up for the first time since the unexpected testing. He hadn't bothered to sit up for the nurse or doctors either. The blackout was weird and unexpected too. "That's never happened before," he said softly to himself. Maybe he should go see what is going on in the game room. He would not have to socialize long, it was almost curfew. He was feeling overly dramatic and homesick. He decided to check out what the other inmates were doing. "Put on a good face." He set his feet on the floor and walked to the corner where his shirt and socks were laying and put them on. Ry went to his door and flung the door open to the hall. He winced, the door had made a louder thud than he had expected.
Lainey jumped at the sound of the Ry's door hitting the wall and dropped the book she had picked up in Megan's room. Feeling more of less guilty about intruding on someone's private quarters, she hurriedly replaced the book and exited the room. Seeing Ry a few doors down, she blushed, a bit embarrassed.
Lucas looked up at the sound of the crashing door against the wall. Oh good, Ry is awake. What kind of name is that, Ry? Of all the people in the Institution Ry was Lucas' least favorite. "Hey Zach, long time no see." Lucas always called Ry by his real name,'Zach,' just because Lucas liked to piss him off. The only real reason Lucas did this was because they are both womanizers, and seeing how Lucas was here for a year and Ry only for a month...
"Aiight, gimme that," Alex said, snatching the die back from Zander and rolling it for the guy. "Oooh... a one. Bad luck, dude." He then tossed it back to Amber.
"Hey guys. It's Ry, dude. Zach is my cousin. K, Skywalker?" Ry walked over to the small group playing a board game, more or less ignoring Skywalker. Ry snorted at the thought. He'll have to use that one again. "What are you playing?"
"Clue," Alex said. "Wanna get one?" He laughed and held up a hand for a high-five. "See what I did there? Come on, anyone." He lowered it slowly. "Okay, yeah, it was lame."
Lily supresses a laugh. She secretly likes lame jokes. She blinks at Ry, not remembering him. "Um, have we met? I'm Lily," she holds out a hand to shake.
Ry glanced momentairily at the guy... what was his name? Adam? Whatever, he thought. Ry looked back at Lily and took her hand in his, turning it as he did. "My fair flower, what darkness has haunted my dreams as I hath not the light of your beautiful face to chase it thence." Ry laid a light kiss on her knuckles. He lifted his face to give her his sweetest smile. Maybe it wasn't so bad here after all.
Alex couldn't hold in a snort, which soon turned into suppressed laughter that had him holding his sides and making subdued noises into his hands. "Fair flower!" he finally chortled, sending him into more muffled fits.
Lily raises her eyebrows. This is not something she's used to. It probably won't last long... the guys that try to flirt with her here tend to lose interest pretty quickly. She doesn't know why. "Um... is that Shakespeare or something?" she asks.
Zander first glared at Alex for the bad roll, then shook his hands in the air like he was strangling him when Alex looked away. Then he froze mid mime choke, distracted by Ry waltzing in. THEN, his shoulder's dropped and his face twisted with Weird-outed-ness of his 400 years out of date flirting technique, and then just sort of silently hiss laughed to himself. Being a professional screwer of everything, he couldn't help being charmed by the child-like amateur.
Lucas walked to the doorway of the playroom just to catch Ry's flirtation to Lily. He looked to both Alex and Zander and shared a laugh. Lucas walks up behind Ry and puts an arm around his shoulder with a sarcastic grin on his face. "Oh my very young apprentice," Lucas said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "you have much to learn. As you can see by your powers of observation Lily is not 800 years old and would probably be more confused than turned on." Lucas slapped Ry's back and headed to the nearby couch, having a good laugh.
"So what's your name, Romeo?" Alex asked, patting a seat next to him. He liked the guy. Anybody who made him laugh that much couldn't be bad.
Lily glares at Lucas, Zander, and Alex. She was intrigued by the attention, and the different way of going about it that Ry had taken. She stands. "I think I'm done with this game now. I'm going to get ready for bed." She begins to leave, but something occurs to her, and she turns back suddenly. She goes to Ry, places her hands on either side of his face, and kisses him, sending a tiny static shock to his lips with hers. Upon releasing him, she turns to Lucas and says snidely, "Shows what you know." Then she leaves, pleased with herself.
Alex just grinned back at the retreating Lily. This whole even was highly entertaining, but... "Dude! One of our players left!" Alex complained. He glanced up at the clock on the wall. "Not that it matters much anyway. Shit, it's like twenty 'til curfew."
"Where's Megan?" Lainey encounters Lily upon closing the door to Megan's room. She thought maybe Megan will lend her some books.
As Lily left, Zander whistled the coo-coo noise in response to her craziness and leaned back lazily, not caring if the game started or not.
"Whoa... she's quite... stimulating... in more than one way." Ry lightly touched his lips with his hand. "That kinda hurt. I think I liked it though." Ry watched as Lily walked back to her room. Another girl was in the hallway taking to Lily. "Hmmm...." He looked back at his fellow inmates when he heard the guy in scuba suit make a coo-coo noise. "Hahaha, guess I'm in. My name is Ry, by the way." He held his hand out for Scuba and Smiley to take.
"I thought she was still in her room... or maybe the bathroom," Lily responds. "I haven't seen her since testing." There is an obvious tension hanging in the air as she says the last word.
"Alex," Alex said, gripping Ry's hand in a firm handshake as he introduced himself. "How long you been here?" The game lay forgotten on the table.
Zander waited for his turn and shook his hand with a flirtatious bounce of his brow, just to test him to see how easy it'd be to tease the kid.
Madison approached the group, leaning in over their heads silently. She lingered a moment before speaking. "I hate to break it to you...but curfew's just about here, darlings."
"Five more minutes!" Alex whined playfully.
"Oh, Alex, honey..." Madison leaned in closer, face to face with Alex, "You know it's not up to me." She played along, pouting her lips afterwards. "If it were, I'd let you guys play for as long as you'd like."
Alex gave her his best puppy-dog eyes then broke it off with a sigh, pulling away from Madison first with a giant stretch. "Fine, then," he said, jumping up. "Might as well go get ready--by which I mean grab some dinner to take back." He held up a hand to the others. "Yo! See y'all's later!" Alex added as he jumped from the playroom.
After going into the cafeteria for a quick plateful of food and dropped it off at his room. He frowned for a moment and walked back out, again going to Megan's room. Girl should be out of the bathroom by now, right? He pushed open the door, which hadn't been fully closed, and was greeted with a dark room. He walked in, oddly subdued, and in an attempt to lift his spirits, he snagged a book that had been resting on the nightstand, taking it back with him to his room.
Lainey didn't know what to say to Lily, "Oh..." She hoped Megan comes back. "Curfew time, huh. I guess I'll see you later..."
"Yeah..." Lily says half-heartedly. She spies Alex coming out of Megan's room over Lainey's shoulder. Weird. She doesn't want to worry the little girl, so she moves passed her as though she were headed for her own room. She follows Alex to his. She taps on the door, and without waiting for an answer, she slowly opens it. "Alex?"
"Huh?" Alex replied, in the middle of tugging on his pajama shirt, the book he had swiped from Megan's room lying mostly forgotten on his dresser. He felt really self-conscious all of a sudden, as Lily saw his bare chest, which was even more marred than his face and arms. "What's up?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head, still wearing his jeans.
"I saw you take a book from Megan's room..." she says, nodding toward the book on his dresser. She pauses, waiting for him to give an explanation.
"Er, yeah," Alex said, now feeling really awkward. He wasn't too sure why he had taken the book; he had just gone into Megan's room and saw she wasn't there, and something just compelled him to take a book. He hadn't known her that long, but she was always reading the damn things. "She isn't coming back, is she," Alex finally said, his voice flat. It was a rhetorical question, as they both knew the answer, but he still kind of wanted to hear someone say something about it.
Lily bites her lower lip. She considers her words carefully, but eventually decides to just shake her head. "That looks like her notebook," she says, now entering his room and going to the book. "She wrote in this one. She usually couldn't write in the other books because they were owned by the Institution. But this one she was always writing in." She touches the cover carefully, as though it were fragile.
Alex looked at it with a lot more interest now. "So it's like her diary?" he asked, inching closer to it. He couldn't help but feel a bit of morbid curiosity. He knew it was wrong, he just wanted to read it.
Lily looks at him, the same though going through her head. She tilts her head, the unspoken question Should we? in her eyes.
"Fuck yes," Alex said, snatching the book under her fingertips and opening it to the first page. He saw that she labeled her entries by date and his eyes widened. "Sh-shit... She's been writing in this for... Years." Seven years, he thought. He sat on the floor, leaning up against the bed, and began to visually peruse.
"These are all... quotes," Alex said. "Like, from the books she reads." He furrowed his eyebrow. "Just small quotes, like she was keeping track of the days that passed. And... I haven't heard of any of these books." He held up the journal open for Lily to see.
Lily scans a few entries. Her eyes widen. "Um... these aren't... some of this actually happened. Here."
Alex shifted on the floor and looked at where she was indicating, a few days later. He raised an eyebrow at the sudden, one-page excerpt from a story, and noticed that the main character could shoot lightening from her fingertips, and was interned at a hospital. Although the girl was named 'Raven,' her attitude was all Lily. He finished reading and noted the book. "From Inside the Steel Doors, huh?" he muttered. "So this is a sort of pseudo-diary. Weird... but kinda cool." He was much more interested, in any case. "You really shocked up a nurse so bad they made you wear rubber gloves for testing?"
"She was asking for it," Lily replies, unwilling to explain the incident further. She looks over his shoulder, reading along. "Megan was really paranoid about things," Lily remembers. "That might be why she tried to disguise her diary as a book or something."
Alex nodded, looking at the short quotes. "Yeah, this is pretty... Wait." He stopped cold, his finger hovering over a specific page. He saw it was a while after she had first gone into the Asylum, but... "Look here. This... isn't a story."
I have lost time. There are two weeks missing from my journal. And now I can see blades and masked faces whenever I close my eyes. It is all I dream about. What happened during those three weeks? And why does the image of one man pop up more than usual? I can never see all of his face, but he has a smile that seems too wide and I feel horror whenever I think of it. What exactly has happened?
The others have disappeared at times, as well. Where are they taking us? I thought I just didn't see them, that they had just holed up in their room, but... What is this place doing to us?
Alex glanced back up at Lily to see her reaction.
Lily's eyes have begun to gloss over, but she's fighting the urge to cry. She sees Alex's questioning look, and remembers that he hasn't been here long enough to know. "It's true. We lose time here. I came back from extended testing yesterday, and Megan told me it'd been about a month. You don't remember what happens, or why they -" at this point, she can't hold back the tears, and she covers her face in her hands.
Back in the common room, Amber was a little bummed that the game of Clue ended before it began. She watched Alex and Lily leave, and turned to introduce herself to the new guy, apparently named Ry. "Hey, I'm Amber. Guess we'll talk more tomorrow?"
"Yes," Kelly said from the doorway, physically ushering the people still remaining from the room towards their separate rooms. "Because you guys are almost late." Kelly made sure each patient was secure in a room, patrolled the halls once, and then headed for the door out.
Alex jumped at the sudden onset of tears, freaking out a little. "A-a-are you okay?" he stammered, jumping up to put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "I-I mean..." Oh shit, he thought, looking at the door.
Just then, the locks clicked. It was officially curfew. Alex sputtered, suddenly trapped in the same room as a crying girl. It was like his worst nightmare ever.
Jeez, they are strict around here, Ry thought. He didn't even have time tease Scuba back or even introduce himself to the girl called Amber before being unshered into his room and the doors securely locked behind him. On his way to his room he thought he heard some one crying. It was coming from Alex's room but it sounded too much like a girl.
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