Thunder and Storm

The White Room

SALLY

I winced as Dr Reynolds cleaned my bloody nose with an alcohol-scented wipe and held the ice pack tighter over my temple.

"Nothing seems broken so you should be fine." He said as he discarded the bloody wipes in a trashcan and turned to me with a warm smile on his face. He looked better than when I'd seen him earlier. His grey hair was combed back and a new pair of glasses sat on his nose.

I tried to give him an answering smile in return and winced at the pain that exploded on the left side of my face. I took off the ice pack and placed it on my cheek. I had a bump on my forehead, my left cheek was swollen and I had a cut on my bottom lip, my ribs hurt but thankfully nothing was broken there. All thanks to Petra and her new set of friends. She had slammed my head on the table and had given me a good beating before the guards came to my rescue.

Major Kowalski had done me the favor of taking off my cuffs at Dr. Reynolds’s behest. Apparently, he hadn't needed to cuff me, the power dampener was restraint enough for me not to hurt anyone. He had just been being mean on purpose. I hope he'd gotten what he wanted now.

"You said you'd come back but you left me in the hands of that guard and look what he did to me.” I showed him my branded wrist which now had a bandage covering it.

Dr Reynolds sighed and took off his glasses. "I'm sorry about that. It had to be done, there was nothing I could do. I'm just the doctor here, Kowalski is the one who runs the place."

Great. This day just keeps getting better and better. I've only spent a few hours in here and it has been hell so far. Tears smarted my eyes and I lowered the ice pack from my face.

"I want to go home." Tears trickled down my cheeks as I stared at Dr Reynolds. "My parents must be worried sick about me. Please, this place is a nightmare."

He had a grim expression on his face as he wore his glasses back. "There is no home anymore, Sally. You're better off in here than out there."

He looked sombre as he poured out some pills from a bottle into a cup. He moved to the sink and turned on the tap, fetching water into another cup. He walked back to me and handed both cups to me.

"These should help you with the pain." I took them from him and swallowed the drugs, washing them down with water.

"Lay back. Your ribs are tender, I need to wrap them up."

I did as instructed and he unzipped my jumpsuit. I was in too much pain to prevent him from seeing me naked. Thankfully, he didn't comment on my nakedness. I was already mortified enough he had to see me but I guess as a doctor he's seen a lot of naked bodies.

The hospital room was different from the others. This one was painted green and had a file cabinet by the wall close to where the bed was placed. There was a desk with a lot of files on it and a chair in the room, some chemicals were on the counter where he'd gotten water from. On the wall beside the cabinet was a color chart with numbers on it. The green color was at the bottom followed by yellow then blue, orange and finally red. Each colour had a number beside it. It was the colour chart Margo had been explaining to me earlier. This must be Dr Reynolds' office.

Dr Reynolds applied some ointment on my ribs and wrapped my stomach up in bandages. "You should feel better after getting some sleep," he said as he zipped back my jumpsuit. "Let me take you to your room."

He helped me off the bed and I followed him out of the office. Just like Major Kowalski earlier, he also had a key card. He swiped it at the monitor placed before the elevator and the doors slid open.

We stepped in and the doors slid close. He pressed the button to take us to our destination and I glanced at the keypads in the elevator. There were just four buttons there, one was the upper level, the next was mid-level, lower level and then basement. We were in the mid-level heading down to the lower level where I'm guessing the sleeping quarters were.

We got off the elevator and he led me down a long winding hallway with rooms on each side. He got to the end of the hall where a single door faced the rest of the hall separate from all the others. He swiped his key card at the door and a beep sounded. He opened the door and I followed him in.

This room was different from the one I woke up in. The walls were white but had some kind of special tiles with little dots on them like bubble wrap. There was no ventilation in the room, no windows or even an air vent but the room was cool. A single bed was placed on a bedpost in the middle of the room.

"What is this place?" I asked.

It was like a void, a white void that seemed endless.

"It's a special room designed for people of your level of power. The walls prevent anything from going in or out of the room. Nothing works in here, not your collar or your powers."

The collar on my neck shut down as soon as the words left his mouth but I couldn't feel anything. This was a cage. "I can't stay here," I said. I turned just in time to see him step out the door.

I panicked and ran to stop the door from closing. "No, please I'm terrified of closed spaces."

The door melded with the walls immediately it closed and I screamed, falling to the floor. "Please, don't leave me here,” I cried but he didn't come back.

My breathing quickened as panic bloomed in my chest. "Please," I screamed.

I looked around the room wildly, my heart beating erratically in my chest. I panted as I tried to force air into my lungs but the room was falling short of oxygen. My mom used to sing to me whenever I had panic attacks like this and would play with my hair but my mom wasn't here to calm me down.

I pulled my legs up to my chest and rocked myself. Mom always said to try to focus on something else whenever I had panic attacks. I started to sing.

Mr Frog brought the suitors to the floor

King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O

With the sword and a pistol he showed all four

King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O