Thieves (Camren)

Chapter 2

(Trigger warning: mention of self harm)

The door slammed shut behind Lauren, and the sound made her whole body flinch. She had looked up from her feet for the first time since she came here and her surroundings immediately made her feel uncomfortable. She observed the room further and the colorlessness made her feel sick. The walls were a clean white, while the tiles were a dark grey. The bright lights hurt Lauren's eyes when she looked at them directly, and moreover, the air was sticky. Everything in there was rather modest and there were only a few things that stood out, such as a camera in the left corner across from the door Lauren had come in through and a huge mirror with another door next to it, so Lauren assumed there was a room behind it. She slowly approached the object and her breath got caught in her lungs when she started to make out her appearance. She couldn't recognize the person in the reflection as she barely looked like herself anymore. Before she could get close enough to see all the marks the last nights of agony left on her, the door next to the mirror opened and Lauren reflexively jumped a little backwards.

A young woman with a stern look on her face came inside and quietly closed the door behind her before she went to the desk that stood in the middle of the room. While Lauren couldn't stop staring, the doctor hadn't acknowledged here presence yet. She was rather interested in the records she laid down in front of her, which gave Lauren some time to perceive her physical aspects. She looked like she was still in her twenties, with a tan skin and pretty face. The upper half of her brown hair was pulled up in a bun while the rest fell down her shoulders, showing her natural curls. Looking at her gave Lauren a weird feeling but she excused this with thinking that she was just intimidated by the woman's beauty, which was everything but average, whereas Lauren looked like a burnout, just waiting for her next doses.

Suddenly, the doctor looked up and their eyes met for the first time. She had expressive and dark eyes, which intimidated Lauren even more. "Please, take a seat, Miss Jauregui," The woman said with a raspy voice, pointing  at a chair in front of her desk with the direction of her gaze. The look on her face told Lauren that it actually wasn't a kind request, but a demand she had to follow. She obeyed as she was told and nervously sat down, starting to play with her hands again without knowing what would come next.

The doctor let Lauren suffer for another minute before she spoke again. "Don't be scared of me. I'm here to make sure you're okay," She tried to make Lauren feel better, without success, and the following words just made everything worse. "I'm Dr. Cabello. I'll be your doctor in charge while you stay here, do you know what that means exactly?" She asked and waited until Lauren shook her head before she continued. "Everything you do will be under my name. If you do something good you'll receive praise, if you do something bad then, well, let's hope you'll never find out. Now you may ask yourself how this is better than prison but the answer to this question is easy. You'll get more freedom at daylight and instead of your CV saying that you've been in prison for 5 years, you can write that you worked for your country," She explained to Lauren.

There were so many questions Lauren had in mind but the doctor didn't give her any time to voice them out loud. "I know, no one gave you detailed explanation about this study and your contract wasn't the most expressive one either, but I'll answer all your doubts and give you the information you need. First, however, my co-worker will run some tests on you, so that we can make sure you're really suited for this. I don't want to give you any unnecessary information for the case that we, my company and I, won't be useful for you in any kind of way."

The doctor jotted down something on a piece of paper before she packed the records together and got up, motioning with a simple gesture for Lauren to do the same. Lauren didn't realize that she had been locked in the room until the other woman went to the exit and put her hand against a touchpad, which Lauren hadn't paid attention to before. After the computer scanned the doctor's hand, the lock made a little clicking sound and she pushed the door, holding it open for a moment so that Lauren could follow her. "Don't take the locked door personally," She said when she let the door shut and it made the same clicking noise again. "This facility is divided into different sectors and each of them has a different level of safety. This is the sector for everything medical related, therefore the highest level of safety is needed here,"