Hidden Under Perfection

Chapter 21: Claire

I slowly wake up and when I do the only thing I can hear is a low ringing noise in both ears. A throbbing headache builds behind my eyes and I squeeze them shit against the light. My brain feels fuzzy, almost like I have been drugged. I slowly peel my eyes open and at first everything is out of focus then everything slowly becomes more clear.

I am surrounded my concrete walls on three sides and glass walls on the other. Through the glass wall I see a slouched over figure with blond hair, her hands are pulled away from her body and are attached to chains on the wall behind her. My wrists begin to sting and I try to bring them in front of me but the are chained against the bed. I twist my body around to get a better look and I see that the skin around the metal cuff is red and raw. Panic rises in my chest and I struggle against my bindings. I stop rattling my chains and tilt my head to the outermost wall, I thought that I heard a noise. At first I can't hear anything but then I make out a faint scraping noise. A door opens somewhere and then a minute later that door closes. Another door is opened and then closed and I start to think that I was actually drugged. I look at myself in the reflection from the glass, my wig is gone and there is a scrape on my cheek. One of my contacts has fallen out and I have one green eye and one brown one.

The last thing I remember was turning on the main computer in The Clandestine's server room, then everything went dark. I turn to look at the blond woman again, she is bent over and her arms are stretched painfully behind her, the skin around her hands is bruised and bleeding. Her head hangs against her chest. The door to her cell opens and a man in an all black suit puts a tray of food on her lap and unlocks one of her hands. She immediatly starts scooping the food into her mouth like a crazed animal. I rattle my chains and the guard looks over at me through the glass, and I finally get a good look at him. His features are blocked by the glare in the glass but I can make out the symbol on his vest all the same. It is a rock outlined by a ring, the symbol for The Clandestine.

My heart beats against my ribs and I realize that I am still in the building somewhere, but these rooms weren't on the floor plan. We got caught, they knew we were coming this whole time. We never had a chance at exposing them, they were always one step ahead. But the question is, why would they let it get this far? Why wouldn't they have taken us when we came back inside city walls? that is what confuses me. I look back up at the man staring at me through the glass, he glares at me and I turn away and hang my head against my chest, afraid. I hear the door to her cell click shut and then footsteps retreat down the hall.

The blond lady in the cell next to me looks at me through the glass and I raise my gaze to hers. Her face breaks into a smile but then quickly falls into a frown, her eyes filling with tears. Then I recognize her, she is my mom. I struggle against my chains to get closer to the glass, she can't here me but I mouth, "Mom?"

She nods frantically and I start crying, tears streaming down my face. She is alive, my mom is alive. I thought I was never going to see her again, but here she is. Alive. I take a closer look at her and I see that she isn't in as good of shape as I thought. There are wrinkles coming from the sides of her eyes from five years in this place. Underneath her green eyes are deep purple bags, and her face is gaunt and skull like. She looks like she could break at a single touch, but she won't because she has survived six years here, she is stronger than she looks. I now understand why her face fell when she recognized me, she was happy to see her baby, but she was sad that she was seeing me here, in this place. I mouth, "we'll get you our of here."

She shakes her head but then I hear footsteps on the other side of my door. We quiet, and dread fills my heart. I hear the someone unlock the door and a guard comes in, he has blond hair and he doesn't say a word as he unlocks my chains. He brings my arms infront of me and ushers me out of the room. As I am walking. Down the hallway, one of the gaurds opens one of the other cell doors. In the doorway, Lynn stands chained against the back wall. My heart falls, they caught all of us. I focus on the ground as we walk, most of the hope gone. The gaurd stops walking and I almost run into him. I look up and see the hallway split into two, girls and boys. He indicates to the girls' side and commands, "go, shower."

I start walking and he sits down in the chair between each room. I keep walking with my hands chained in front of me, to the left there are showers and to the right there are lockers. I go up to the one with my name on it, my real name. I look at it and there is no lock but it opens, inside of it, there is a key, a set of white clothes and a towel. I take the key and try and fit it into the lock on the cuffs, I bend my wrists until I can finally possition them so that the key slips into the lock. The moment that the cuffs unlock my skin stings and the metal falls to the ground. I stretch my arms all the way to the side, I don't think anything has felt this good. I reach into the locker and grab the clothes and towel. Once I take a step back, I read all of the other names on the lockers. There is Nora Willis, my mom, and Lynn Carillo. The other lockers are blank, that is something at least, they haven't caught any other women. I take my towel and clothes into one of the shower stalls. It is one of the old fashioned showers, where you have to turn the nob to get the temperature you want. I turn it to hot and then shut the stall door. everywhere I look I try to find some way to escape, but there are no windows, external doors, or vent shafts.

I strip off my black clothes and step into the shower. The water is warm against my skin, it is a little cold so I turn the nob to the lasst hot setting, but nothing changes. My mood gets even worse as I stand under the room temperature water. As the water rushes over my head, chills form on my stomach. I try to shower as quickly as I can, when I step out of the shower the air is cold against my wet skin and goosbumps prickle my skin everywhere. I quickly dry off and then get dressed in the white clothes and as soon as I put on the whole outfit, I see that these are medical scrubs. I wrap my hair in the towel, and walk out of the stall. I come face to face with Lynn. She stares at me in shock, then drops her towel and fresh clothes and runs and gives me a hug, her hands already free. I rest my head on her shoulder and my eyes fill with tears, relieved that she is okay. She pulls back and looks me over, she sighs when she sees that the only thing wrong is my wrists. I have the urge to tell her that my mom is alive so I do, and I don't hold back the emotions. "My mom is alive."

She looks at me shocked, "What?"

"My mom is alive, she is in the cell adjacent to mine. She has been here for six years, she is alive."

"Oh, thats great! You must be so relieved." Her face breaks into a shining smile.

"It is, but it also isn't. Her being here means that she is alive but that she has been suffering for the last five years."

"Oh, yeah. Right."

"yeah, I have to go back outside soon or else the guard will get suspicious."

"Right, go ahead. One more thing, Doran is really worried about you. He is in the cell next to mine, I can see him through the glass between our cells."

"Can you say hi to him for me, tell him that I am okay. Tell him to look for John."

"Okay, good luck Claire."

"You too Lynn." I turn and walk out of the bathroom, I don't have my cuffs on but that isn't a problem for the guard. When I walk out he puts on another pair of cuffs and leads me back to my room. When we get there I don't put up a fight as he chains me to the bed, this time with my hands in front of me. I sit there staring at the ceiling and looking at my mother.

My heart simultaneously fills with love and breaks every time that her eyes meet mine. I don't want her to suffer any longer, so while I am sad that I was captured, that doesn't matter if it means that she doesn't have to suffer. The same guard as before comes in carrying a tray of food, if you could call it that, and my stomach growls. He puts the food down and detaches the cuffs from the chains on the wall. I sniff the white mush before eating it, it smells like nothing so I take a bite, it tastes like nothing. I try to swallow the mush but it is too dry and gets stuck in my throat. I reach for the water and take a few sips, there is a metallic after taste. The water is drugged. I eat as much mush as I can before I gag and I don't take another sip of the water, knowing that if I eat more than the drug's effect won't be as strong. When I finish the plate he takes away the tray and leaves, leaving my cuffed hands unattached from the chains hanging from the wall.

I lay back on the hard, lumpy matress and I close myeyes. The effects of the drugged water make my head fuzzy and when I open myeyes it takes a lot of effort to pry open my eyelids. I stare at the ceilingfor a little longer before I let the effects of the drugs take over and I fallinto a deep drug induced sleep.