Changing

Chapter 24

(Dr. Niki's P.O.V.) 

I stood frozen, staring at the spot where Taylor had been laying seconds ago.

      The wintry black shiny briefcase was still in my hand; the cold seeping into my thigh.

      What had just happened?

      I tried to remember just what could have made them come; those people in the white coats who didn’t look like police at all.

      But all I could think about was Taylor’s face when she called me a liar. So much grief and pain rolled into the words--but the worst was the burning hate. And it really felt like it was burning me, from the inside out.

      “But I never called them!” I yelled out in grief, the walls throwing my words back at me.

      I wouldn’t! Not after I knew what those scientists had done to her and that poor troubled girl…Bonnie.

      Bonnie! When she came in! All those people saw her!

      “Ohmygosh!”

      I didn’t know what to do, but I knew someone who might.

      I ran down the hall into my office. The clinic was strangely silent. Almost as if the animals knew what had happened.

      I dropped the briefcase when I realized that it was still in my hand.

      It hit the floor with a low thunk, but still too loud in the quiet. I shuddered at the noise. Then I picked up the phone on my desk and dilled the familiar number.

      Ring, Ring…Ring, Ring

      “Come on! Pick up the phone! Pick up the phone”

      My nails tapped against the wood of the desk, sporadically.

      “Hello?”

      “Oh Alex! Thank God you answered the phone!” I sighed in relief.

      “Niki? What! Is anything wrong?!” his voice came fast and tense, “are you okay?!”

      “I’m fine, but Taylor, Bonnie…they took them Alex!” my voice broke. .

      “Wait…do you mean those girls from the sign?”

      “Yes! It was awful Alex!” I tried to clear my throat, keep it together Niki! “The signs are a lie Alex. Those people did horrible things to those girls! And now…now…I don’t even want to think about what they are going to do to them…”

      There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, so long that for a second I thought he disconnected.

      “Alex?”

      “How do you know that these girls weren’t lying to you?” there was an odd note in his voice that I couldn’t place.

      “Because I saw them! Those men who came to take the girls from here, they weren’t cops Alex!” I swallowed back my tears that were threatening to spill over, “when the girl Taylor woke up--”

      “You were never even supposed to listen to them! Now they’ve got your head filled with lies!” there was anger in his voice, but I could tell that it wasn’t real, he just made his voice that way to hide his real feelings. But I couldn’t tell what those feelings were, maybe guilt…but what did he have to feel guilty about?

      “Just listen to me for a second okay!” huff, “when she saw me come into the room…you should have seen her Alex…I’ve never seen anyone so afraid.”

      “She was afraid of you?” disbelief colored his tone.

      “No not me, the coat I was wearing…the coat those cops were wearing!”

      “The cops were wearing coats? What like your white one?”

      I didn’t understand his attitude, “Look, I’m not making this up!” I yelled at him exasperated. “The only reason I called was because I thought you would help me, but if you keep acting like a dope, than forget it! I’ll just do this on my own.”

      “And what exactly do you plan to do?” he said in his sarcastic voice.

      UGHHHH! I screamed into the phone, past words.

      I heard him sigh, “wait don’t hang up…”

      I wanted to, and ignore his calls for weeks, maybe even months, but something in his voice kept me there. I waited trying to calm down.

      “It…it was me who called them.”

      “What!”

      “I know you Niki! I knew you wouldn’t call them! But I hoped that you would, because you promised me…

      “I wasn’t going to call but when Christina came in running like ghosts were after her…I panicked. How was I supposed to know that the signs were wrong?”

      I couldn’t take this. Some part of my mind heard the truth in his words. The real worry, but the rest was overrun by my anger, at both him and me.

      I slammed the phone shut.