MADMAN'S ARMS

50

Brandon's eyes turned black and every expression on his face inversed into something even more limp and deplorable than before. His face turned pale white as his eyes glanced up with tears.

Slowly he started shaking his head as a tiny string of saliva dripped from his hanging lips, and I had to bite my inner cheeks harshly as I watched the killer in front of me get torn apart with misery.

The air was damp in the basement cellar which made it harder for me to breathe in the already breath-taking situation, and my hands were shaking along with the torturing moment.

"It's the last thing to do, Brandon," I trembled out with the weakest of sniffle. There was really not much more I could say, they had made their decision with him and I could not do else than agree it was the last option of treatment.

He had been granted so many chances before my assignment here, but now he managed to ruin even the one with me despite our time of finding glorious closeness and his positive development in treatment.

"No, Beverly! Please, no no no no! I don't want to! I thought you understood, please!"

Brandon's mumbling try of appeal made my body shiver and once again I had to look away from him. Now I was the one shaking my head as I tried to handle my eyes currently being filled up with a very familiar fluid of salt and water.

"I'm sorry,"

I watched how Frank approached Brandon and lifted his weak, thin body in a rough move. He flipped the iron cuffs tightly around his delicate wrists behind his back and I could hear as he grunted out with discomfort and weakness.

"Let's go, Barlowe," Said Frank with his dark voice as he began to walk behind Brandon with his hand gripped by his left arm.

Brandon walked with slow, pendulous steps through the dark corridor and I could see how his legs wanted to fold and give up along with the rest of his feeble body.

I kept my distance from them all the way up to the treatment room, but still, I could hear Brandon's sobbing very clearly as he dragged in the snot caused by the chilly air and the tears running from his eyes. The last thing I wanted was to witness this, but maybe it was for my own best.

If I stayed during the treatment, it could might help me with moving on and actually realize this was for real and that this place was no playground for either the nurses or the patients, we all were here for a reason, either to treat or to be treated.

Ms. Schwartz stood outside the medical room and waited to greet us as we reached the defile corridor.

My skin deployed goosebumps as I saw her and realized how close we were to the moment when they would force Brandon to lay down and let five hundred volts of electricity run through his brain.

My cheeks burned while the rest of my body was freezing cold as we approached the black-dressed woman with the white apron tied around her waist. Her strict face looked terrifying even though she smiled while looking at Brandon.

I couldn't understand how she could manage to smile as she looked at the torn-down, helpless young man in front of her. Even if he was a monster and guilty of the most brutal murderers, he was still... human.

Ms. Schwartz opened door number 13 up and the four of us stepped inside the small room and met with two specialist doctors dressed in brown attires.

My heart was nearly beating out of my chest and I feared that the other people in the room could hear its pounding in the torturing silence.

I swallowed hard as an attempt of calming my hyperactive brain but I realized as quickly that it was all for nothing. There was nothing that could calm me down from this situation. It was terrifying and miserable as it was.

The room was as chilly as the corridor and I crossed my arms in an attempt to comfort myself. There was really nothing in this situation that could make me comfortable but my body tried every remedy by instinct to cure the pain I was in.

I stood in the dark corner as I watched the doctors lay Brandon down aggressively on the bunk and strapped his hands on each side of the bed. I could see the panic in his eyes from my distance and by the disturbing scene, I tried my best not to look at him even if it was extremely hard.

The bright blue light from the vivid lamp standing on the right side of the bed was making me nauseous. It was the only light in the room which made the rest of it feel dark and grey.

It appeared like Brandon was in the spotlight in front of every one of us in here, soon to watch him getting tortured.

Ms. Schwartz grabbed a syringe from the tablet placed right beside the bed and once again I witnessed the horror in Brandon's eyes as she slowly moved the needle towards the vein in the bend of his arm.

His eyes were big and filled with tears and I could tell how afraid he was of the needle that was just about to be forced into his vein to let the drugs flow into his bloodstream and pump inside of his body in pace with his heartbeat to make him heavily medicated and even more out of control.

I tried my best not to let any tears out but the violent and forceful situation made me sick to my stomach, and the fact that it was Brandon laying on the bunk in front of me didn't make the situation any easier for me.

As I held my breath in the corner of the room and watched how Brandon slowly tensed out with the medication, I noticed him turning his head in my direction to search for my attention. His eyelids were now hanging halfway down over his eyes and I could tell that the drugs already affected him.

The lump in my throat got heavier as my eyes met with his and the curiosity inside of me just couldn't manage to look away from him.

"Beverly,"

Brandon's voice was strangled and my name left his mouth in a whisper.

I took a few steps forward to answer his call but I remained silent. I just looked at him and waited for something else to come out of his dry mouth.

"You are so beautiful,"

As my heart skipped a beat I took a step back from Brandon again and looked at Ms. Schwartz with worried eyes. Her strict, wrinkled face met with mine and she nodded her head.

I immediately understood that it was her way of asking if I was ready for the treatment and even though the answer probably never would have been yes, I carefully nodded my head back at her and took another step away from the bed carrying the tied-up, now almost unconscious man.

Even though I had never felt such strong emotions as I did with Brandon, I was disgusted by his words.

I already decided that I would never forgive him for what he did, yet I was now aware that he only manipulated me to fall for him. All along it was just empty words coming from him.

Nothing about this was my fault, and among all the chaos that was already present, he thought it was a good idea to spit out something that dumb in front of two other treaters and not least also in front of my chief.

It all was just another proof of how sick he was.