Wednesday's Week

A Distraction of Woe

We were packed into a long white bus with the word's "Miss Mott's Girls" painted pink on the side in insufferably frilly lettering. I counted the girls to be 15. Two of them sat in a row, once again tallest to shortest. Laurel shoved me in the first row against the glass and sat next to me. The bus driver was a different farm hand. He was much older and stayed very silent. Miss Mott sat in the passenger side. She had a mirror propped on the dash so she could see each and every girl.

"How about a song," Miss Mott spoke cheerily.

I glared, "I'd rather die."

The girls began to sing. It was a very high pitched tune about raising a family. How different. Laurel nudged me, "Sing."

"My voice is too dry from the color," I bit back at her. She didn't care. "I also don't think I've learned this at Nevermore. You probably learned it in whatever orphanage you were sent off to."

Laurel's eyes grew wide. "I was not sent off to an orphanage like some unwanted outcast. My parents died and no living relatives-"

"Wanted you?" I interrupted. I was getting under her skin.

"None of them were fit to take me!" She grabbed the side of the pleather chair. "But I don't have time for that. I can have a family once you are all gone."

"Yours is dead." I reminded her.

She looked on with a blank stare. "Garett would understand me having to bond with a monster. Dad said you have to do anything it takes."

"And they are dead," I pointed out again.

Laurel tilted her head, "If I can raise Crackstone and Weems can be a ghost, I can have my family again."

But she couldn't. Weems was raised immediately after her death. It's a time sensitive issue. And Crackstone was cursed, making him unique. And the dead have to want to come back. Her mother had taken her own life. Her family hated outcasts. Why would they come back to a world of them?

After two hours of listening to my own stomach grumble, the bus brought me to a facility truly in the middle of no where. It looked like a prison. High fences with bob wire. A tall grey tower with a big light sweeping the whole yard back and forth. It was all gray.

The bus pulled up to the gate's booth. The security guard spoke with Miss Mott for a moment before the gate opened up and they drove on through. "This is a terrible idea." I mentioned. First off, who was letting young girls dance in front of criminally insane monsters and men? And second how was my dancing going to sneak Tyler out of there.

"Can't you leave me here instead of at the farm," I mumbled at the stone wall. The color was going to make me pass out. When I stood up, I could keep the skirt off my legs, but it was tight against my chest and sleeves. My arms burned.

We walked through metal detectors. And a long hallway and what seemed like a hundred halls. The carpet on the ground was gray. There were no pictures or decor. The guards were heavily armed.

Miss Mott's lead us into a large room. There were tables set up with chess and drawing supplies. A big mirror that was most likely a window took the whole east walls.

The people in the room all wore white jumpsuits. One woman rocked back and forth with a ridiculously long beaded necklace looping through her fingers. A man stepped into the room. He had a doctor's coat on.

"Hello my name is Doctor Yoiu. We are so grateful for your participation. We believe rewarding well behaved members will lead to good behavior. I'm sure your dancing will be lively and entertaining." He pointed to the guards. "You will be safe at all times. Only the best behaved get to be in the room."

Miss Mott's smiled and began moving the girls into their spots. I was stationed at the back, having no earlier preparation for this. The other door opened and a few more walked in. I scanned their faces. I guess Tyler was not well behaved.

The girls twirled and moved about to the classic music. I swayed in the background, just trying to stay upright. Laurel hovered about me as if she was going to snatch me up. I wasn't seeing the genius of her plan. But she was the master of playing the long game.

We did two whole dances. My knees buckled and I pressed my leg against the wall to keep me from falling over. The pain swirled about me. Just before the third song ended, the room exploded.

I was flung to the ground as the wall crumbled. Another bomb sounded from outside. "Your mastermind plan was to blow everything up?" I asked as Laurel began to drag me from the room. Sirens blared inside the facility. She pulled me down a hallway in the chaos. Laurel opened a door that wasn't locked and shoved us in.

"Change into this!" She pulled a white jumpsuit from the supply closet. She had bagged herself a doctor's coat. I was going too slow for her and she ripped the back of the dress. I was grateful for the yellow to leave. My whole stomach looked bruised. It climbed up my arms like a bad apple.

Laurel zipped up the suit. "Let's go find Tyler." She pulled a pet pass from the pocket of the doctor's jacket and opened the door.

We hurried around like everyone else. We blended in well. Laurel had a map of the place. How she got it, I don't know. But she moved away from the bombs and farther into the maze. We went down a flight of stairs into a basement. The hallways was white with cells across the whole thing. They had thick glass walls so you could see into each one. The first woman was in a straight jacket.

The next was a Gorgon, but their snakes were cut off. They looked like a ghost of a person, laid across the ground as if waiting for death to take them. We moved down the line. Each one more gruesome and sad then the next. I'd have loved to interview them but that wasn't really on Laurel's to- do list.

"You went from Pedophile and murderer to a terrorist," I spoke. "How are you getting your family back again?" I was starting to feel slightly better with no color. My whole body still ached.

We came to the last cell. I stopped before the glass wall. He was sitting in the center of the room. His curly hair was a bit longer and he was facing the other way.

"You've come for me, master?" He asked.