In White Robes

Chapter 6 - Yellow Eyes

The glass at my back began vibrating with each slam that Avery dealt. He was banging against it with fiery passion, screaming for Tabby to stop, screaming for him to put the knife down. And I was pressed against doom. Cornered, trapped a second time but this time would mean death.

Being stuck in a place like this, in the facility--it did things to one's mind. It turned many of the subjects hostile. Made many of us consider suicide.

We could beat against our chains, hack away at our restraints, but to no avail. Forever we were meant to be contained here in the cold realm that was this building. The white walls were our only friends. The doors mocked us.

There would be no escape.

I assumed this is what happened to Tabby. He had been here for too long and lacked freedom for too long and slowly his mind sunk into insanity. Feeding his state of mind was the luxury of having a weapon. His knife was not yet stained with the blood of a fellow subject or of the Concealed. It was clean, untouched, almost completely spotless.

But would it remain that way, now that I was his chosen target?

"Put it down!" Avery was yelling at the top of his lungs, and even with his voice filling the room, I was starting to lose it. The sound of him slipped from my head; I could hear and see nothing more than Tabby's blood-red eyes and his silver blade.

"I was hoping I wouldn't be put in with someone like you," Tabby spoke to me, his voice deeper than before, his eyes focused on mine. "People don't seem to understand that what I'm doing is helping you. All of you." He looked away from me for a split second and scanned the rigid edge of his knife. It reflected his eyes. "You know there's no way out. So why wait and see what they do with you, if you can just end it all on your own?"

He faced me again, only a few inches away from me and I was paralyzed.

"I wish I was weak enough to end my own life," he continued, "but I'm not. And I never will be. The least I can do with my blade is free you. Don't you want to be free?"

At this moment, I thought about that. I thought about what freedom really meant. I thought about the value of life if it was merely a life bound in shackles. Maybe death really was the answer. Maybe it was the freedom I'd been looking for.

And then I thought about Avery. His fur, the color of chocolate. His eyes, a beautifully bright hazel hue. I imagined him taking my hand in his, guiding me away from this prison cell. He would lead me free from my chains, lead me away from the Concealed and the facility and the man in black.

And when we were free, he would kiss me. He would hold me tight to his body as I'm feeling his warmth and smelling his fur and tasting his lips for the very first time. He would be my savior. My angel.

Just before I could say anything more to Tabby, the door came open. Strangely I would have been relieved if it were one of the Concealed. They would have seen him and detained him, maybe even killed him for having a knife. I knew some of their rules. They had little mercy for us.

But it was not one of them. This new person was not wearing the white robes of the Concealed, not wearing a mask like them either. He was presenting himself, black fur that grayed at the tips covering his body, a pair of square glasses on his face. When I saw his deep-yellow eyes, I couldn't help but think that he looked all too similar to me.

And that scared me.