Ink Me Insane (Book One)

Nine

Rene stumbled over her own feet trying to make it down the hall. She just needed to get to the cafeteria. She needed to see Cassie's sweet face and bubble gum hair. She needed to see Danny and hear him make some stupid joke. She needed her friends to stand against the world with her or risk crumbling away all alone. Rene felt the hum of static coursing over her skin before she heard the scream. It started loud and blood curdling like a horror film, but slowly tapered off as nerves were fried from the surge. Rene shuttered and put her hands over her ears. She squeezed her eyes shut wishing it all away. It wasn't happening. Someone was not being erased. And of course the biggest lie, she wouldn't be next. Rene fell through the door of the cafeteria walking blind and deaf to the world. She didn't open her eyes until she could feel the bright, searing lights.

Rene blinked slowly taking in the scene of the cafeteria. She was later than normal which luckily meant that Danny and Cassie were already at their usual table in the back. She glanced behind her to check that her guards weren't still flanking her but they were already wandering off to gab with their coworkers probably about the gossip of the latest breakdowns by patients. Rene was too numb to get upset about it in that moment though. Skipping the food line, she zombie-walked towards her friends barely able to get her feet moving more than a shuffle. She collapsed onto the bench and buried her face in her hands. "Rene?" Cassie's quiet voice penetrated her ears. She was speaking softly and cautiously like approaching a caged or scared animal that could snap and attack. Perhaps she was.

Rene brought her green eyes up. She had no doubt they were brighter than normal from the flood of unshed tears that prickled within. She was teetering on the edge again. "Hey, why the sad eyes Rene? Couldn't have been that bad with Miss Rachel could it?" Cassie gave her a sad, sweet smile.

"Yeah, come on Rene. Don't let that witch get to you. After all, isn't the whole point of the game to keep that from happening?" Danny laughed but stopped abruptly when realizing Rene still wasn't smiling. "I'm just joking Rene."

Rene just shook her head, "You don't understand Danny. I'm done with the game, with Miss Rachel. You win, she wins. The point is I lose."

"That's not right. Your the queen of the game. How could you lose?" His face was full of concern. It had always been their inside joke the game, a way to cope and be in control, but Rene giving up that wasn't okay. 

"I'm serious Danny. If I haven't lost already, I will soon. Miss Rachel said I need to shape up or I get a one way ticket to electric central." Rene sighed looking away from them both. She wouldn't be weak, not in front of them.

"The end of the road." Danny whispered softly, horror frozen on his face.

"No, no, no, no...no." Cassie exclaimed. Her head was waving back and forth rapidly in disbelief while the rest of her tiny body shook. "I won't let them take you. They'll have to go through me first." She suddenly reached out and wrapped Rene in a death grip hug.

Rene patted Cassie's pink head awkwardly unsure what else to do. There really wasn't much they could do and all three of them knew it. "But why? Why now?" Danny murmured staring down at his plate and pushing his food around helplessly.

Rene gave Cassie a gentle shove so to extract her. "Because of this," Rene glanced around cautiously before craning her head and lifting her hair to show the inked vines. Cassie gasped. Rene sighed releasing her hair to cascade around her face, a curtain to block her from the world.  "Look they don't know about it yet, but I had to come up with some story to keep them off my back. Unfortunately, Miss Rachel has decided that if I can't prove this story true. I'm done." Her voice had ended in a whisper causing all three to pull there heads close together.

They were a tight circle blocking out the voices and pain of the asylum. Their own voices would be barely audible to each other let alone other tables or guards. They knew each other well enough to be able to at least get the gist of what the others were saying through tone and lip reading if necessary. No one was willing to risk raising their voice for clarification. It was too dangerous to let slip the truth to the world beyond their group. They knew they had each others' backs but everyone else was an enemy spy waiting to convict. "What exactly did you tell her to make her threaten the chair." Danny's voice hissed urgently.