Chapter 1 - Escape

ESCAPE
Waking up is hard to do when you're on drugs. Everything was too bright. Too...white. I had to keep my eyes half-way shut so they could get used to the lighting gradually and less painfully. I felt like hell. My arm ached. Scratch that, my whole body ached, but my arm was weird. Oh. That's why. I had at least five IVs in my right arm. That didn't matter at the moment. I had to figure out where I was. A nurse walked in the room while I was immersed in my thoughts. She smiled warmly and gave me more drugs. I suddenly felt really warm and giddy. I smiled back at her. But she didn't see me as she walked away.
I sat back against the headboard, feeling too happy despite the situation I was in. Damn drugs. Resist.
A professional-looking woman stepped into the room. She smiled plastically. Nice nose job. I laughed, but she assumed it was just because of the IVs.
"Hello. My name is Kristen Reed. And I just need to ask you a few questions to see how you're doing."
"With what?"
"With..." She hesitated. "Life." Then she smiled again.
"Okay..."
"Now, what is your name?"
"Primus." How did I remember that? I don't know how I knew that, since the IVs and drugs were numbing me.
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
*Everything suddenly flashed back to me. I was ten, and my parents were at the grocery store. I had known about the fact that you're not supposed to talk to strangers, but I thought my neighbor was my friend since he had been here since the day of my birth. He'd always talk to me over the fence that separated our yards, and my parents had always trusted him. I was playing with our dog, Frankie, and he always caught the ball and brought it back. But this time, I had accidentally thrown it over the fence into our neighbor's yard (and for some reason I had never known his name).
"Hey, is this yours?" the man asked.
I stood on the chair by the fence and peeked over the top of the fence.
"I'm sorry, Mister," I had said.
"It's okay. Hey, are your parents gone or something?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I can be like your babysitter. And you can come over and watch TV at my house."
"Really?"
"Well, sure!"
He helped me climb over the fence and took me into his house. There were other people there, all dressed in black.
"We're just having a party," Mister said.
Then one of them grabbed my hair and dragged me to the front of the house. I tried to scream, but his other hand covered my tiny mouth. I writhed and thrashed at them all, but I was just a kid then. I was weak and feeble. Then I ended up here, in the Center.*
"Hello? Are you alright, Primus?"
I blinked.
"No."
Then I hit her in the head with a huge walking stick I had found in the bathroom. I'm getting out of here today.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment