Normal

Chapter 6

Chapter 6.

I wake up the next morning to the lights being turned on. “Five thirty” says the same young man who brought the water bottle from the night before.

I look at him through my groggily sight and nod, with his help I remove the medical stickers and sign out. “Where do you get a job like this?” I ask him. I feel comfortable around him because of his young age, even with his hard face. 

He looks unsure of whether to answer me, but says “Well, I’m studying genetics at Berkley. It was a chance opportunity, really.” He finishes with the wires and gestures me out the door. I walk out and into the hallway. “Have a nice day,” he says.

I look back at him, walking the opposite way and return the courtesy. Before heading to the Café I stop in the bunk room to change clothes. When I’m done I walk in to find everyone else already eating.

I can feel a tension in the room that must have lapped over from lunch the previous day, not to mention the dinner that I missed. Thinking of dinner sets my stomach off and I grip it with one hand.

No one looks up when I enter so I walk up to the food and get myself a big plate of eggs. I pour ketchup onto it and go sit at the end of our usual table next to Willa. We exchange a smile and eat in silence.

I know I should apologize to Alexia and Figgie for being rude the day before, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

People slowly make their way out and to activity until I’m sitting alone with only Brian in the room, who happens to be sitting all the way across it. He’s looking down at the empty white plate in front of himself. His light blue shirt and plaid red button up shirt clash in a bad way.

“Hey” he says, pushing the thought into my head.

“Hey, what?” I answer back, none to politely.

I don’t look at him until he says “I’m leaving today. Will you come with me?”

I look up at him, surprised. “You know I don’t know what to believe,” I tell him, fiddling with my cold metal fork.

“Believe me,” his light blue eyes are pleading with me. I want to go with him, and maybe it could be better, but my dream from the night before haunts me. This facility is in rural California, outside of it is desert for miles around.

 Dirt, sand, and more dirt. I’m not sure if I’ll be run over by a car, but the thought of dying scares me.

“I want to, really, I do. But it’s safe here. Here, right here, is where I feel safest. I wouldn’t have that out in the real world. Before I came here I was always worries about my parents finding out. Or someone else finding out and locking me away. Scorning me because I’m a freak of nature.”

“But you’re locked away in here. This is the prison you fear. Where you never wanted to be.” He pulls at his already standing on edge hair, frustrated.

“Then why are you even here? If you think it’s such a prison, why did you come here in the first place?” I ask him, I’d never really asked before and while we were on the subject I wanted to know.

“Because when I first came here I thought I deserved prison. I was a danger to people around me. A security problem. Actually, a lot of the guys thought so as well. You know Ash? Asher? He killed a man. The company paid his bail and brought him here. Want to know how he did it? He sucked the air out of the area where his professor’s head was. Asphyxiated him.”

“How did you know that? Poke around in his head a little? Looking for some dark secrets to share about people?” I ask grumpily. I’m surprised at my self for saying something like that. I know that Brian rarely ever uses what he calls his “gift” on people.