Nothing Is as It Seems

Three

Parker nervously waited outside of his new boss's office. He was early, he was supposed to be there at 9, and it was 8:30. But he had been too anxious to wait any longer, so he headed up to the tenth floor as quickly as he could.

Today was his first day working for Nathan Porter, he was assisting him with a new patient. Apparently this new patient, 116, as Parker was told, was some sort of big deal. The most dangerous patient the Containment Facility for Unusual Beings has had in twenty years.

And Parker was in charge of making sure it didn't escape. The newest employee, tasked with assisting with the most dangerous being.

Parker was glad he had been so early, because at around 8:45, his boss walked out of his office with a clipboard.

"Oh, you're early-!" He said with mild surprise, smiling slightly.

"Oh- uh- yeah, sorry-" Parker stammered, unsure why he was apologizing.

"Nono, don't be sorry. I was just about to go find you. Are you ready to meet the patient?" His boss asked.

"Um... Not really, sir," Parker let out a nervous laugh.

"You can call me Nathan, you can pretend I'm not your boss if it makes this less nerve-wracking for you," his boss–Nathan–said with a grin. "And you don't need to worry about it, the patient is securely contained."

Parker nodded, fidgeting with his finger. "Right."

"And all you need to do is record tapes and keep an eye on it. You never even need to come into contact with it."

Parker nodded again. "Right... I think I got this."

Nathan grinned widely. "You sure do. We're headed to floor nine, it's in room 248."

Parker took a shaky breath, following after his boss.

They made it down to the room easily, but once Parker stood in front of the door, he could feel the immense amounts of electricity that flooded the room, coming from the being. He took another breath. I got this.

Nathan opened the door and they both stepped inside quickly, Parker fast to close the door behind them. The room was situated differently from the other rooms Parker had seen while touring the place. Instead of a hospital-like room, the room was split into two, separated by a clear wall. Probably plexi-glass, or perhaps something stronger.

On the side of the wall that Parker and Nathan were, was a table with various medical-looking tools and paper.

On the other side was the being. It was sitting in the far left corner, hugging its knees to its chest, its head down on its arms. Guilt stabbed through Parker suddenly as he looked at the being. It looked so sad. It probably was, having to be stuck behind a wall all the time.

Nathan gestured to the back wall on their side. "You can have a seat against the wall, just make sure to take notes when I need you to."

Parker nodded, grabbing a stack of paper and a pencil, sitting against the back wall.

Nathan knocked gently at the plexi-glass wall. "Hey, wake up bud."

116 lifted its head, almost making Parker gasp. Its eyes were all black, its irises bright red but missing pupils entirely. It had short, completely blue hair with bangs that fell across its face, with two small black horns sticking out of its hair. It had an identification collar around its neck, hiding the scar that went from one side of its throat to the other.

It stood up hesitantly, two black battish wings spreading out from its back for a moment before tucking back against its back as it walked to the glass wall.