Lonely Monsters

thirty-four

I had been napping, lying partial on my side and on my stomach. Every time I had went anything deeper, I felt the tempting warmth of darkness that tried to coax me back into a sweet dream. I would feel my heart speed up and be awake fully in a second, palms sweaty and mouth dry. This time around, someone was standing near the wall farthest from me.

The position my arms had been, this would be the first time they were bound in front of me.

"Hi." he said, offering me a grin. "I brought some take out because I heard you don't like the cafeteria stuff."

"I'm not really hungry." I yawned, then rolled over so my back was facing him. I ended up looking at the semi-reflective wall that was next to my meager cot. My face was warped and looked grumpy.

"I didn't know what you liked so I got one of their party platters, which is great because there's a bunch of stuff I haven't even tried yet." He put the black plastic bag on the table, then began pulling out plastic containers. I smelled soy sauce, fish, and something else that I tasted on the roof of my mouth. I swallowed and my stomach turned.

I hadn't fed in.... days. And who was to say any of this was safe? That even after they feed me, they wouldn't end up just leaving me to starve so they could get me to say whatever they wanted?

I sat up in my bed, turning to face him and tell him off-- when he opened the containers and I smelled kimchi and sweet bulgogi, and I tasted everything before it was even in my mouth.

"I also have some fruit in case you're one of those 'vegetarian' vegetarians," he held up a circular plastic container. "Do you want to sit with me and have lunch?"

"I really don't know how to much to trust you or your organization," I said, pulling myself up from the bedding to walk over to the table. I settled into the seat, and immediately, the links between the cuffs connected to my chair between my legs.

"....Those safety protocols are a doozy." He frowned, setting the table for us. I tried to straighten up, but the chains were annoyingly too short. The man walked around the table and knelt next to me. He had a hand on his chin, inspecting them.

"Wow Hale really went the extra mile with these." he reached out, running a finger along the left cuff. A few links were added, but not to many. Just enough for me to sit up straight, comfortably, not put my hands on the table or use them to grasp any sort of cutlery.

"So what's this?" I turned to look at him as he frowned at my binds. "Good Cop and Slightly Better Cop?"

When he was close I could taste ozone on my tongue, and felt static on my skin. It shifted the hair on my arms, moving slightly when he moved.

"Being cordial usually gets us some results." he stood up, "Camden Neoma."

It must have been a course of habit because he held his hand out to me to shake. I gave a tight lipped awkward smile, and wiggled my hands in my lap.

"Right... And you're Meela Amana. We've corrected the paper work, and filled in a bunch of stuff from your human resources." Camden leaned on the table, and picked up a container. He unwrapped a pair of chopsticks and picked up a rolled piece of food. "Gimbap?"

"Lemme guess, I be a good girl and--" The seaweed wrapped roll of rice, egg and meat was put in my mouth. I coughed a bit, but didn't spit it out.

"Everyone's freaking out because you aren't eating, so you're not healing, but at the same time you aren't showing any stressors of turning into a ghoul." Camden picked up of kimchi pickled daikon, and munched on that. "So you've got some competency, and someone has you well taken care of enough to not want to attack our agents when they come in and ask if you want to eat or do progress reports."