Impure

Nineteen

Chris

I wake up to my door being opened. Guards step in, and behind them is a doctor.

"Hello Chris. You seem to be a repeat offender according to your fingerprints and DNA. You escaped Shady Pines in Louisiana, is that right?"

I nod.

"Well you won't be escaping Saint Mary's."

"We'll see about that," I say.

"Yes well, I just came to introduce myself. My name is Doctor Blais. I run this place. If you have any requests, you bring them to me."

"Requests?"

"Yes. You are a patient here after all, albeit against your will. You may request things such as books or specific meals. Here at Saint Mary's, we care about your wellbeing."

"You're just going to run cruel tests on me. That's not care, that's mistreatment."

"Tomato, tomahto. You say cruel, I say it's for the greater good."

"Asshole," I spit at him. "You can't hold me here. I will always find a way out."

"Okay," Blais says. "If you want to believe that I won't stop you. Now, come with us, for the greater good."

The guards converge on me and I'm dragged out of bed.

"Time to run some tests," Blais says, before a needle is injected right into my neck, making the world go black.

I open my eyes to a nurse tending my wounds. I've been brunt all over my body, and her thoughts are kind.

I'm sorry I ever took this job. Poor people being harmed daily just because they've got abilities the government doesn't understand.

A sympathetic adult? Check.

Pain all over my body? Also check.

"I see you're awake, son," she says.

She's gently bathing me, and it feels good on my burns.

"Wish I wasn't," I reply. "Hey, if you hate this job then why do you do it?"

She pauses her ministrations. "Well looks like someone read my mind. They'll be giving you pills to counteract that soon."

She answers my question via her mind. I stay because I try to help our patients in any way I can. I know that may not seem like much but there it is.

"What's your name?" I ask, wincing when she gets to a particularly sore spot on my leg.

"You can call me Miranda," she says.

I realize I'm in nothing but my boxer briefs and I'm immediately aware of my vulnerability at the hands of this woman. She could hurt me, if she wanted to, but she doesn't want to and for that I'm thankful.

"You're the head nurse right?"

She nods. "Yeah, for this whole floor. Why?"

"My friends, they're all here too. Katrina, Ashley, John, and Allyson. I want to know how they are." I tell her.

"Well you're my first patient, and then I'm to tend to Allyson, then Katrina, then John, and then Ashley. And then I have the rest of my patients to tend to," she says. "You all had been tested on yesterday, one after another. The same tests, the lot of you."

And I'm sorry for that, she says to my mind. You must be like a family.

"They are my family," I tell her. "Please, take care of them."

"Of course," she says. "It's my job to take care of my patients. I take it seriously."

She finishes up washing my wounds, and says, "Your clothes are by the foot of the bed," before heading out to tend to Allie.

I can only hope that with time, Miranda can help us escape.